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THE FALSE FOUNDATIONS IN THE KINSEY REPORT
Almost 50 years ago, Alfred Kinsey, a quiet Midwestern Zoology professor, published the 1st of 2 volumes that would shake American culture to its foundations. His 1948 book, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male - like its 1953 sequel, Sexual Behavior in the Human Female - claimed to report the findings of a massive survey of American sexual behavior.
And what findings they were! In dry, scientific language, Kinsey declared that many traditionally forbidden sexual activities were commonplace: About 1/2 of all married men and one in 4 married women had had extramarital sex; 69% of men had been with prostitutes; 10 % of men had been homosexual for at 3 years; 40 to 50% of boys raised on farms had had sexual contact with animals.
What’s more, Kinsey claimed many of these practices could be beneficial. Premarital sex helped women "adjust" to marriage. Boys may develop "affectional relations" with their animal sexual partners.
The public - then sexually conservative by today’s standards - might not have accepted such information from just anyone. But Kinsey was a scientist and, impressed by the wonders of modern technology, Americans had grown to respect science deeply. And because Kinsey’s was a scientific study, says historian John D’Emilio of the University of N. Carolina at Greensboro, "The press had permission to write about the subject in a way it wouldn’t have before."
American culture shifted under the impact. The old sexual rules, supposedly hypocritical, began weakening. "If you discover that the desires you’ve been repressing are being acted out by millions," says historian Paul Robinson of Stanford University, "you are less inclined to repress them." Newsweek characterized that effect as "If it’s OK with Kinsey, it’s OK with me."
Today, in good measure because of Alfred Kinsey, we live in a different world. But were the things he said true?
In December 1995, nearly 50 years after Kinsey’s 1st report, the Indiana institute that Kinsey founded to carry on his work acknowledged that certain data had been misrepresented. Kinsey had written that 9 observers - some technically trained" - had found that children as young as 5 months were capable of multiple orgasm and, when "uninhibited," were "aggressive in seeking" sex. The truth, the Kinsey Institute now said, was that those data were supplied by a single observer - a pedophile who claimed to have sex with 317 boys....
In fact, many of Kinsey’ findings were based on flawed methods. And some are outright false. Nevertheless, prominent scholars who know this continue to promote Kinsey’s work....
When Kinsey took a sexual history, he was far more likely to "find" sexual activity than were his own colleagues - reporting 2 to 3 times as much premarital intercourse and 4 times as much homosexuality as they did. Says historian James Reed of Rutgers University, "Kinsey was a man who very much wanted to find sexual activity."
Even more troubling was Kinsey’s collection of child pornography. According to a 1981 letter from Kinsey colleague Paul Gebhard to researcher Judith Reisman, Kinsey obtained photos and film of children engaged in sexual acts from adults who had had sex with them. Kinsey never notified law enforcement of the existence of any of these pedophiles.
Kinsey claimed to be a neutral scientist who had no agenda. He wrote in his 1st volume that he aimed for "scientific fact completely divorced from questions of moral value and social custom." His claim was false. "Kinsey had views, and they’re in his books," says sociologist John Gagnon, a former president of the International Academy of Sex Research, who joined the institute after its founder’s death in 1956. Kinsey believed that sex was a simple, biological reaction to stimuli with no moral, spiritual or psychological dimension. Only "inhibitions" imposed by society, he claimed prevented everyone from enjoying equally a variety of "outlets."
"It is not so difficult," Kinsey wrote in his 2nd report, "to explain why a human animal does a particular thing sexually. It is more difficult to explain why each and every individual is not involved in every type of sexual activity." In his declared opinion, there was no moral difference between one sexual outlet and any other.
It is not surprising, then, that the Kinsey Reports contain graphic description of young children under prolonged sexual stimulation by a pedophile including the children’s screams and struggles to get away. Yet Kinsey concluded that the children "derive definite pleasure from the situation."
The survey respondents on whom Kinsey based his conclusions were grossly unrepresentative of the general population. About 75% of his male respondents volunteered to take part, for instance. Using Kinsey’s data, psychologist Lewis M. Terman of Stanford University reported that such volunteers are anywhere from 2 to 4 times more active sexually than nonvolunteers.
Kinsey’s sample also included prison inmates. Pomeroy wrote that by 1946, the team had taken sexual histories from 1400 convicted sex offenders. Kinsey never revealed how many he included in his total sample of 5300 males; he did acknowledge that his 1st volume included "several thousand" male prostitutes.
THE FALSE FOUNDATIONS IN THE KINSEY REPORT by Rachel Wildavsky in R.Digest 4/97 p. 59 ff.
What Happened To Sunday School? New Barna Group research has identified several significant changes affecting children’s programs: (1) A declining percentage of pastors viewing Sunday School as their top priority. (2) Fewer churches offering Sunday School for children under age 6 or for junior high or high schoolers. (3) More customization of curriculum by churches. (4) Fewer churches offering VBS. (5) A decline in midweek programming for children. Yet, every weekend more than 300,000 churches offer some type of systematic religious instruction in a classroom setting attended by nearly 45 million adults and 22 million youth and children. “The changes facing Sunday School seem to be more about the form—not the function—of Sunday School,” says Barna VP David Kinnaman. It seems churches are moving toward a ‘label-less’ future, e.g. summertime programs, but not necessarily VBS, and Christian education, but not necessarily Sunday School. The most significant part of the changing landscape, however, is the new identity being carved out by Buster pastors and those relatively new in ministry. Although many Buster pastors currently deploy Sunday School programs, they seem open to new methods and approaches and less driven by tradition or program loyalty. Many Buster pastors possess a means-to-an-end perspective about Sunday School and VBS, which suggests the churches they lead, will be more apt to adopt innovations in spiritual training. (Barna Online 7/11/05)
Almost every culture has a New Year’s celebration. The ancient Romans celebrated the new year with the birth of Janus, the two faced god who could look back into the past and forward into the future. They exchanged gifts, not because they were overjoyed with each other, but as a method of bribery so that your friends would forgive you for the stuff that you had done wrong that past year. Chinese New Year is typically celebrated with fireworks to scare off evil spirits from years past, so that you can start your New Year with a fresh start. Judaism celebrates Rosh Hashannah, the “head of the year,” and then looks for forgiveness on Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, one week into that New Year.
And Christianity? Well, we haven’t had much to say about the New Year except for the fact that we decided that the Gregorian calendar was the way to go and that January 1st would be our New Year. We have no special mythic beliefs that are strictly Christian, that all Christians celebrate.
But we do have a New Year. It’s just that it doesn’t necessarily happen on January 1st every year. It happens in our lives daily, and yet at the same time we’re looking for it to happen in our lives in one grand celebration of Jesus’ return and the beginning of a year that will end all years – shuffling us into eternity.
The Most Popular Methods Of Evangelizing, according to a new Barna study, are praying for others’ salvation (43%), living in such a way as to encourage questions about their faith (40% engaged in “lifestyle evangelism”) and interactive conversations about moral and life issues that hopefully lead to spiritual conclusions (38%). Less common approaches included bringing non-Christians to church services (27%), challenging a non-believers’ behavior on biblical grounds and suggesting alternatives (27%), bringing non-believers to evangelistic events (24%) and handing out evangelistic ...
For example, did you know that according to a recent Barna survey of those who become Christians, 43% do so before the age of 13? Almost half do so before they become teenagers. This has huge implications on who we should focus upon and evangelize. Not only that but out of those who became Christians before 13, half of those were led to the Lord by their parents and another 20% were led to the Lord by some friend or relative. Only 7% accepted Jesus in response to a minister’s prompting. God is doing a new thing (as He always does) and we need to join Him in that work instead of trying to manage Him through methods that He blessed in the past.
THE EMBLEM OF SUFFERING AND SHAME
Crucifixion was a form of execution that the Romans had learned from the Persians. The Persians had developed a method of crucifying victims by impaling them on a pole. Later cultures developed different methods of crucifixion, And Rome employed several of them. By the time of Christ, crucifixion had become the favorite method of execution throughout the Roman Empire. Also by the time of Christ, Rome had already crucified more than 30,000 victims in and around Jerusalem. So crosses with dead or dying men hanging on them were a common site around Jerusalem And a constant reminder of Roman brutality. It was an emblem of suffering and shame.
Learning Methods: The Rubik's Cube
How many of you remember the Rubik's Cube? Invented in 1974 by Emô Rubik, a Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture, this pivoting mechanism became the best selling toy of all times for Ideal Toys in 1980. The object to solve the twisting and turning puzzle, as you may remember, was to get all tiles of the same of six colors on a given side of the cube. This of course had to be completed from one of 519 quintillion possible starting situations. It has been conquered by a many a people and the current world record for the shortest time span to solve the puzzle is held by Erik Akkersdijk in 2008. He set a best time of 7.08 seconds at the most recent Czech Open this year [Wikipedia, "Rubik's Cube"].
Anyway, let me get to the idea I want to share with you about this device and the solving of the puzzle. It is said that to learn how to decipher the cube and to continue to do it quickly, that several factors come into play. It is a learned method. We are told by the free online encyclopedia, Wikipedia ["Learning"] that one has to:
1. Always remember -- directions help one solve the patterns of solving the Rubik's cube.
2. Practicing the move repeatedly and for extended time helps with "muscle memory" and therefore speed.
3. Thinking critically about moves helps find shortcuts, which in turn helps to speed up future attempts.
4. The Rubik's cube's six colors help anchor solving it within the head.
5. Occasionally revisiting the cube helps prevent negative learning or loss of skill.
When it comes to the idea of "learning" in this step of our spiritual metamorphosis we have to keep in mind that reading the directions (directives, principles) of God's Word helps us to solve all those patterns of confusion in life. The continuing to practice what we have learned from God's Word and to follow its teachings repeatedly for an extended time helps our "spiritual memory" and therefore our ability to overcome more quickly our setbacks of life. Then if we begin to be more critical about our spiritual thought processes we will discover that God always makes a way when there seems to be no way and that he will work in ways we cannot even see.
Also, the Bible's 68 books help us to secure an anchor in life's storms that will enable us to learn problem solving in our thoughts through the power of prayer. And we cannot forget the fact that revisiting God's Word and asking God's Holy Spirit to show us new directives and principles to live by will lessen our chances to become influenced by negativism or the chance to loose faith in the one that has promised: "I am with you always, even to the end of the age." [Matthew 28:20b].
We are living in a time in which millions of people are exploring alternatives to traditional Western Medicine. An “holistic health explosion,” it has been called. We realize, of course, that traditional Western Medicine is very valuable and, for most of us, when we get sick, it is the first place we turn to. It is a gift from God, and we thank God for the dedicated persons who serve their fellow human beings through the practice of traditional Western Medicine.
But, today, millions and millions of people are exploring a growing list of alternative healing methods: Bio Feedback, Autogenics Training, Kenesiology, Acupuncture, Guided Imagery, Bio Energetics, Reflexology, Stress Management, Gestalt Therapy, Therapeutic Touch, Homeopathy, Naturopathy, Macrobiotics (and that’s just a partial list.).
Many people are finding help in some o...
CHRIST AND THE LAW OF COMPOUND PROBABILITY
In the book, Science Speaks, Professor Peter Stoner used "the Law of Compound Probability," to assess some of the prophecies relating to Christ. Simply stated, this law is used to calculate the odds against a "chance" fulfillment of such predictions when compounded by a specific set of conditions, requirements, or qualifications. His findings were carefully evaluated by the American Scientific Affiliation, and were found to be sound and convincing. By this method, he was able to show evidence that would rule out coincidence, chance or human manipulation in the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy.
Stoner started by calculating the probability of one individual who could precisely fulfill only eight prophecies relating to Christ. He computed the odds at 1 in 10 (17th power), the same as 1 followed by 17 zeros. This is the equivalent of covering the entire state of Texas 2 feet deep in silver dollars, specially marking one of them, and instructing a blindfolded man to pick the right silver dollar on the first try!
Dr. Stoner then computed the odds of one individual that could fulfill just 48 prophecies relating to Christ. He calculated the odds at 1 X 10 (to the 157th power) — or 1 followed by 157 zeros. This figure is astronomical and beyond human comprehension, but Christ fulfilled over 300 distinct prophecies, written by different men of different professions (from a shepherd to a King) living at different times, over a time period of 1400 years, in three different languages from 2 continents! Oh Boy, the harmony of the Scriptures when it comes to pointing to the COMING SAVIOR and its eventual fulfillment (I Coming) is jaw-dropping!
Death Row Facts
• As of December 31, 1999, the death penalty was authorized by 38 states and the Federal Government.
• There are five methods of execution in the United States: lethal injection, electrocution, lethal gas, hanging, and firing squad.
• 3,581 offenders were under sentence of death in the United States as of December 31, 2001.
• Texas, California, and Florida have the largest death row populations.
• Texas leads the nation in the number of executions since death penalty was reinstated in 1976.
• As of July 14th, 2005 there are 412 people on death row in the State of Texas.
• 9 being females and 403 being males.
• Since 1982 to the present day Texas has executed 345 people.
• Harris County leads the State of Texas by sentencing more people to death than any other county in Texas with 280 people being placed on death row.
• As of today there are 9 people still waiting for their death to be carried out in the State of Texas this year barring a stay from the Governor they will die before 2005 ends.
• Since 1982, 507 people placed on death row in Texas have had their sentences reduced or commuted life. (Life with Jesus)
