Some thoughts on Phil Robertson's firing

I don't watch television, apart from football when my husband is home.  I don't have cable, and I have never enjoyed reality tv either, so when I saw headlines about Phil Robertson's "abrasive" comments about homosexuality, I didn't pay them much mind.  Conservative Christians are regularly being lambasted for their opinions in the casual press, and the poorly argued, one sided words of an highly opinionated Yahoo! blogger/journalist aren't exactly the spoonful of sugar in my day.  I figured Mr. Robertson is a nationally famous multimillionaire with lots of guns and a big beard.  He can take care of himself. 

But now I see that the Mr. Robertson has been suspended from the taping of his family show, Duck Dynasty, in direct reference to his statements, and a lot of my friends on facebook are up in arms.  They are calling foul on freedom of speech, on religious freedom, on social equality, and oddly enough, on the religious right for not throwing around as much social pull as the homosexual agenda.  And before we raise a stink up to the heavens, I'd like to raise a few thoughts on the subject.

1.  A & E, the hosting network, is not the government.  The first amendment protects our right to free speech from government interference, not corporate interference or social interference.  If A & E doesn't want to take a risk with an outspoken Christian personality, they don't have to.  And if they want to risk alienating the millions of viewers who liked Duck Dynasty for its distinctly Christian personality, they may.  It's their business.  They make those decisions.  They might lose quite a bit by this decision, but it was their decision to make. 

2.  This move isn't going to hurt the Robertson family much.  They have a very successful business, and thanks to their tv show, they have a high profile in society and will continue to have a high profile in conservative circles.  Shoot, maybe this will free up enough time for him to get involved in politics.  Wouldn't you love to see someone like that speaking his mind on the Senate floor, or better yet, working on the budget committee?

But the real point is that this is not a Hobby Lobby situation.  This move by A & E is not going to destroy their lives and income.  It just takes them out of the public limelight, and given what limelight can do to people, that's a mixed consequence.  If we are going to cry out for justice, then lets focus our energies where lives and livelihoods are really at stake. 

3.  Yes, it does hurt to have good role models removed from television, but why are we looking to television for our role models anyway.  I read an article a while back that asked Christians to consider which parts of our secular culture we have baptised into our Christian way of life.  With that in mind, do we really want to encourage our children and each other to look to the world of media to figure out how we're supposed to live? 

      They're going to see it anyway, you might say.  They don't have to.  We none of us need to watch television.  It's not something that essential for spiritual development and not necessarily healthy for other types of development.  It's entertainment, and therefore a dispensible commodity.  And we don't need to be fully immersed in entertainment in order to be discerning about the parts we do partake of.  We just need to know what we believe, and we need to realized that we don't need to have what everyone else has or do what everyone else does. 

    But someone might have come to Christ through that show, you say.  Entirely possible.  I'm sure many have, just I am sure that Tim Tebow's short NFL career gave a lot of people something to think about in terms of a relationship to God, a righteous life, and a stand against abortion.  However, we also need to recognise that a godly life is no guarantee of earthly fame or career satisfaction.  And God uses many, many ways to bring people to Himself, including the way that his people represent Him when they are under fire.  For instance, there are biblical injunctions against grumbling in the desert spaces.  This is something we should keep in mind. 

4.  Why do we expect fair treatment?  We were warned at the beginning that the world would hate us just as it hated Christ because he exposed its sinful deeds.  The entertainment industry is the world.  The homosexual agenda is the world.  The American government is the world.  They may each in their place be interspersed with Christian persons and personalities, but they are the world, and we shouldn't expect them to advocate our values. 

Christianity has been the modicum of normality in this country for a long time, and before that, the terms Europe and Christendom were almost synonymous.  So when we see social control slipping away from us, we begin to think that something has gone devastatingly wrong.  I'm not so sure.  For one thing, Christendom has never been purely Christian.  There has always been the tendency to baptise some elements of the popular culture into Christian practice and to compromise in the name of practicality. 

So we need to ask ourselves, is our expectation of "fair treatment" based on worldly assumptions?  If it is, then we have some adjustments to make.  If now, we find that the church is exerting less control over society in general, perhaps we also find that the church is finding a purer expression of itself.  And being relegated to a status of freakdom might be good for us.  Now people think they know what we have to say.  If we were as odd to the average American as a woman in a hijab or hippie draped out in beads or an Amish man with his suspenders and beard because we live out what we profess, might that not be a good thing?

Our opponents may make a dogged effort to silence and sideline us, but they cannot destroy us.  As we raise a hullabaloo because the network canceled our favorite programming, let's remember that this is really a 0.2 on the Richter Scale of persecution.  Mr. Robertson was set up.  They knew how he would answer the question. It's nonsensical. It's not fair. It could be a stepping stone to making life a lot harder for a lot of people.  But it's not North Korea.  Let's remember three things to help us keep this in perspective. 

1)The church has been through this before, and much of our body goes through much worse on a daily basis now.  This is straight Daniel in the lion's den type of stuff, people.  And that should encourage us because . . . 

2) God got them out of those situations.  A lot of prophets died under Jezebel, but God provided people like Obadiah and Jehu to make sure the remnant was faithful, and those martyrs all got honorable mentions in Hebrews 11.  I'm sure it was terrifying watching the worship of God melt away in favor of Baal, but it wasn't permanent.  I'm sure Daniel was upset with the decree that he could only pray to the king, but he didn't imagine that God would take less care of him because of it.  So. . .

3)  If we really want to follow the example of the saints of old, we should do less complaining and more encouraging.  If you feel the need to write to A&E and respectfully say, "I really liked that show.  I wish you hadn't canceled it," do so.  Or better yet, send some encouragement to the Robertson family.  I don't follow their show, so I don't know how to contact them, but I'm sure they'd appreciate some kinds words.    Maybe try their business website.  Post something encouraging on your facebook or twitter accounts. 

The important thing to remember at moments like this is that the world judges our Lord as it sees us.  Our response to trouble says as much about our faith as it does about the situation we are in.  We need to "boast in the hope of the glory of God.  Not only so, but we aslo glory in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character, and character, hope.  And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us."  (TNIV) 

The A. family Christmas letter

Greetings to all our family and friends.  Merry Christmas and many blessings in the New Year. 

It's that time when we all dig deep into our memories to relive the blessings and trials of the past year and review our hopes of things to come.  Reflection teaches us gratitude and perseverance.  I didn't really feel like writing this letter/blog until I began reading the letters coming in from the friends and family who have our new address and thought about how much life can change in a year. 

Our year started out with the laying to rest of Seth's mom, who passed away right about this time last year.  She was an outstanding woman, and we miss her, but she would be disappointed in us if we didn't continue to live wholeheartedly. 

Seth moved from the first line response to second line response and training in his job.  He repairs the machines that Intel uses to lay the blueprints on microchips.  Ask him about it sometime.  It's a fascinating process.  His promotion means that for the first time in his life, he is working a Monday through Friday, 9 to 5 (or in his case 7 to 4) schedule for the first time in his life.  It also means that for the first time in our marriage, I have had my husband from Christmas to Christmas with no deployments, training, or duty days.  Go ahead.  Ask me how that feels.  Actually, I'm not sure how to process that. 

When he's home, Seth enjoys putting our house in order, cheering on his beloved Broncos, and experimenting with meat and cocktail recipes. 

I am keeping busy, as of course everyone does.  The role of stay-at-home mom treats me well.  I've maintained my teaching certificate and have made a couple of sputtering attempts to start a tutoring business.  I haven't given up, and in the meantime I tutor people online through a company called Brainfuse.    I've dabbled a little in the domestic arts like quilting and trying out new recipes, but mostly my life seems to be just keeping things rolling right now.  I'm a little restless, but I'm pretty sure that's my fault.  I've been meeting with my pastor to help sort out the complications of being a civilian wife.  I really need to get back to work on my many novels.  Wouldn't it be a blessing if I actually published something before I died.

In July we experienced two big blessings.  The first was that after about a year of looking, we found a house that suits our needs in our price range.  It was a short sale with plenty of work that needed to be done.  The house is sound, but in the process of moving in, we had to clear out 3 tons of garbage, scrub furiously, and paint.  Seth refinished the floors himself.  Never again, he says.  The second blessing was with us only for a few weeks.  In July we discovered that I was pregnant, which was an answer to prayer.  In August, I had a miscarriage, and baby Blessed as we called him/her became another anchor in the world beyond to draw us home.  I learned that losing a child is a common sorrow, and I learned to appreciate my fellow women a lot more.  And we learned to keep hoping after disappointment, which is something everyone needs to really learn at some point. 

Boogaloo finished her year at preschool with glowing reviews and flying colors.  After an energy filled summer, she started kindergarten.  She loves almost everything about school, from the bus ride to the teachers to "my kids", as she calls her classmates.  She started school in one class under a Ms. M., a teacher she adored, and then in October, she had to transition to school in our new hometown.  She managed it a lot better than I had expected, and now she adores her new teacher, Mrs. C., and her student teacher.  The school is providing her with limited speech assistance, but all her grownups agree that she is a joy to have in class and does very well on her own.  She has a few friends in her class, and she can tell me their names.  I'm foreseeing an actual birthday party with kid guests when she turns six, and I'm thrilled.    

When Boogaloo is at home, she spends her time memorizing Calvin and Hobbes  cartoons and reenacting them with her stuffed animals.  She still loves bears, dinosaurs, and Dora the Explorer,  and she has decided her favorite color is yellow.  Really bright yellow.  In many ways, I think she's a lot like me. 

That's where we stand at the close of this year.  We are excited to see what God will lead us through in the coming year.  Each year is a new lesson in faith.    What will we learn this time around?

Much love from the A. family.

Jennifer

House pictures: inside

I've been delaying posting pictures of our new house because it isn't finished yet.  We have done so much, and we still have so much to do. But we have a few rooms nearly complete, and I just can't resist showing off our blessing.  It's a really nice house.  However, the weather lately has not been nice, so I'm only posting pictures of the inside.  The outside can wait until spring. 

 

This is our diningroom.  It's the perfect size for our table, and it has the important added feature of hardwood under the table area.  We looked at so many houses with carpet in the diningroom, and I just had to shake my head.  Apparently those designers didn't have kids.

 

 Making gingerbread houses for the first time.  The wall behind Boogaloo is slated for a flowering cherry tree.  We've asked Seth's sister, who is a graphic arts major, to paint us a few murals. 

 Hey, that's me.  The Boo takes pretty good pictures, doesn't she?

 This is the the rough housing room, otherwise known as the Cedar Room.  (Don't ask.)  SEth has done it up in Broncos colors, and we're going to put foam tiles on the floor in lieu of carpet.  Then in a couple of years, we're hoping to get a projector, and we'll watch football on the wall you can't see from this angle, which is painted white. 

 

 

This is Seth and my room.  Sorry.  The angle is bad.  It really is a lot bigger than it looks.  When we're finished painting, we'll have a winter woods sort of theme going on. 

 This is Boogaloo's room.  We let her pick the color, and she loves it.  She's got more closet space than she'll ever use and quite a bit of floor space too, though she somehow manages to use all of that. 

 Our livingroom is huge.  We've actually divided into several sections.  This is the book section. 

 This is the general entertainment section. 

 And here is a glimpse of the computer/music/business section.  Notice the nice shiny floors.  My husband did that. 

 Our nice big utility room, with more storage than I know what to do with (at the moment). 

 And our kitchen, which also has a lot of storage and counterspace.  Somehow I've managed to fill all of it, but it wasn't easy. 

That's pretty much the inside of our house.  We like it.  It suits us.  If you're ever in the neighborhood, stop by and we'll give you a tour.