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Happy Father’s Day men. We need the Lord Jesus leading and guiding us to be that which He has called us to be – good role models for our kids and grandkids. – Love For His People ministry
Steve Martin, Founder/President Love For His People ministry in Charlotte, NC USA
Steve & Laurie Martin Family (L-R) Ben, Christen, Laurie, Steve, Hannah, Josh
Greetings Dads (and families).
Our Father, Who art in heaven, has mad us fathers in order to give Him more family, as He is the Ultimate Father. With His Only Begotten Son Jesus, Christ, Yeshua HaMashiach, He has always desired to fill the earth with more children to share in His love, peace, joy, and eternal family.
Over these past decades the family man has been much aligned, as many would seek to undermine, belittle, ridicule, dismiss, and even eliminate the role that men have been called to – to be mighty men of God, as husbands, fathers, and grandfathers.
We must stand for biblical principles. We must walk with godly character. We must be the examples and mentors to the next generation who so desperately need fathers in their lives – to give direction, encouragement, and a hope for their future.
Moms are great. May they continue to live fully for their kids.
Fathers need to be great. We need to exemplify the Father of All. For the God the Father’s heart is the one which can fill ours with His character, gifts, and courage.
Men, we need to be that manly man that our sons and daughters will look up to and to say with confidence and joy in their hearts, “That’s my Dad! He has cared for me, guided me, spoke truth into my life! I love my Dad!”
Happy Father’s Day, Dads. Be the man you and I are called to be, so our families can live in freedom, honesty, guidance, and the assurance of the hope found only in our eternal Father, the One above.
GEN. JERRY BOYKIN: In These Troubled Times, Where are the Men?
Lt. Gen. (Ret.) William G. “Jerry” Boykin serves as Family Research Council’s executive vice president
June 21, 2020 CBN News
COMMENTARY
On May 25, 2020, I watched the beginning of a great American tragedy. As the nation began to open up after the long COVID-19 lock-down a horrifying incident involving a rogue cop took the life of a 46-year-old African-American man named George Floyd. Three other officers watched and did nothing. And chaos erupted nationwide.
As I watched these events unfold, with abandoned police stations, burned-out business, frenzied rampaging, looting, vandalism, and more death, one question kept repeating itself in my mind: Where are the men?
Were they hiding behind some “cause” or misguided notion that the situation was none of their business? Were they simply going along with the crowd, with no sense of right and wrong? When did men stop providing protection, guarding defenseless victims, and taking responsibility for their communities?
I can’t help but question whether radical feminist grievances about “toxic masculinity” have caused men to stop fulfilling their God-given roles in our society. Along similar lines, as I watched that tide of angry young men shattering glass, stealing and looting, I wondered just how many of them grew up in fatherless homes.
Tragically, in today’s America, too many children are born never knowing who their father is. Others see their daddy pack up and leave while they are still young kids; they grieve for him and miss him terribly. Some fathers are in jail; others are addicted; still, others are too busy making money to be bothered with their own sons and daughters.
There are so many fatherless families and everyone is a tragedy.
As a Christian, I believe that the Bible – from Joshua to Jesus – provides a clear mandate for masculine roles and responsibilities. And thanks to my own devoted, loving father and to my military background, I’ve had exceptional opportunities both to be compliant and to command, to protect while sometimes paying the price, to be inspired and encouraged by those with whom I served.
But today too many boys have never in their lives been affirmed by men. They’ve had no man to set a proper example, to help establish values in the home, or to love and nurture them. Instead, they’re raised on the internet and by the violence of video games. If there had been more fathers who understood the importance of their role, and the power of a father’s blessing, I am convinced that could have prevented some of the tragedies we’re facing in today’s cities across America.
What could those fatherless boys have learned from a godly father about being a man?
It’s true that men and women are equal, but it is also true that they are unquestionably different. Once a young man understands that there is a uniquely God-given role for him to fulfill in his lifetime, that sacred role will likely soon become his transcendent cause.
And I believe that having a transcendent cause – including the distinct obligations and responsibilities being a man entails – will literally separate the men from the boys.
First of all, men are intended to be providers. This certainly includes financial responsibility for any others who rely on him. But it also includes the other forms of provision such as values, principles and vision, and direction. And perhaps above all else, being a provider means thinking of someone besides yourself.
Men are also meant to be instructors, mentors, and role-models to their families and their communities. A nation of “Sheep without shepherds” is another symptom of our present disorder. But real men are leaders, especially in chaotic situations. To borrow a military term, men are meant to be chaplains, offering wisdom and spiritual guidance in the home, school, office, and community.
At the same time, men are also supposed to be defenders – of course, this applies to protecting those closest to them, and those who cannot defend themselves. The Bible says, “Defend the weak and the fatherless, uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” Psalm 82:3-4 NIV
A real man will never stand by and watch while others are victimized or abused. The “bystander effect” is a sad product of our self-centered society. Worse yet is the pretense that participating in criminal activity, theft, and violence is an act of righteous defiance. NO! It is not.
Calling in the National Guard wouldn’t be necessary if men were doing their job. It’s time men take up their biblical mandate, which has been ordained by their creator. That is their mission, no matter what their color, nationality, station in life, upbringing, or education. And I believe that once men step up and carry out their God-given role, a new vision can be cast and brought forth, restoring a civil and prosperous America for all.
Lt. Gen. (Ret.) William G. “Jerry” Boykin serves as Family Research Council’s executive vice president and is the author of Man to Man: Rediscovering Masculinity in a Challenging World. He spent 36 years in the Army, serving his last four years as deputy undersecretary for intelligence in the Department of Defense.
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Weapons seized from criminal gangs are displayed before being destroyed by military personnel at a military base in Tijuana, Mexico. (REUTERS/Jorge Duenes)
Why These Men of God Are Being Hunted and Slaughtered in Mexico
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Even in a rural Mexican community that has grown accustomed to the news of brutal killings, the abduction and murder of a popular Catholic priest has triggered profound shock and outrage.
The bullet-ridden body of the Rev. Jose Lopez Guillen was found Sept. 24 on the highway outside Puruandiro in the western state of Michoacan, a region plagued by violent conflict. The 43-year-old cleric had been abducted from his home in nearby Janamuato five days earlier.
"He was an engaging personality," said Maria Solorio, a regular at Lopez's church. "He was an excellent priest and very devoted to the community. ... What happened to him was a great injustice."
Such injustices have been piling up and have prompted questions about whether the church is under attack or whether the clergy are just collateral damage in a wider wave of violence.
Lopez was kidnapped on Sept. 19, the same day authorities discovered the bodies of two slain priests in the eastern state of Veracruz; that makes at least 15 priests slain over the past four years.
The murders come at a time of strained relations between church and state in Mexico, in part because Catholic bishops recently supported mass protests against a proposal to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide.
In the wake of the killings the church has also abandoned its normal reluctance to criticize the government and has publicly accused state officials in Michoacan and Veracruz of directing a defamation campaign against the priests.
Mexico is the country with the second-largest Catholic population in the world, with nearly 100 million people, or more than 80 percent of the population, identifying as Catholic. But the country has a long history of anti-clericalism and in the past century the government officially and often violently suppressed the church.
But that dynamic changed dramatically after constitutional reforms in 1992 and the government and hierarchy enjoyed good relations for the most part.
Motives have not been established for the latest killings, but the Catholic Multimedia Center notes that violence against the clergy occurs disproportionately in states with high levels of organized crime, such as Veracruz and Michoacan.
The organization records 31 killings of priests in Mexico since 2006, the year then-President Felipe Calderon deployed troops to Michoacan in an effort to stamp out the drug cartels.
A decade on, the war across Mexico has claimed more than 150,000 lives, while Michoacan remains a hotbed of crime and civil unrest.
Pope Francis visited the state capital, Morelia, during his Mexico trip in February, in a show of solidarity with those most affected by organized crime.
The intensity of the violence in Michoacan has forced some priests into social activism, although the moves are rarely welcomed by the Catholic hierarchy.
One such priest is the Rev. Jose Luis Segura Barragan, who is among the most high-profile opponents of drug cartels in the state.
After he was appointed parish priest in the town of La Ruana in 2013, Segura voiced support for the armed self-defense groups that had sprung up in response to rampant insecurity in the region. Groups of locals soon tried to drive him out of town.
"Because I didn't leave, people fired bullets and threw rocks and fireworks at the church," he told RNS.
Segura, who finally left La Ruana four months ago, came under the media spotlight for his views. Yet for the clergy, even keeping a low profile is no guarantee of safety. In the most dangerous states in Mexico, any resistance against cartels, however minor, can become a motive for murder.
"Priests find themselves in problems when they refuse to provide a service to drug traffickers, like a baptism or Mass," Segura said.
Analysts generally agree, however, that violence against the clergy should be seen within the wider context of the drug war.
"It would be dishonest to say this is a targeted persecution of priests or the church," said the Rev. Hugo Valdemar Romero, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Mexico City. "But the fact that you are a priest does not liberate you from the risk of robbery, murder or torture."
While anti-clericalism is not blamed, the Rev. Omar Sotelo of the Catholic Multimedia Center said the role of the clergy makes them particularly vulnerable to crime. Priests as a matter of course come into contact with a great variety of people, some of whom may be criminals.
"The violence against priests often has to do with their pastoral work," Sotelo said. "These are not just common crimes."
Some critics have accused Mexican bishops of concentrating on social matters such as same-sex marriage while turning a blind eye to the politically sensitive topic of violence.
"The church is focused on sexual issues," said the Rev. Alejandro Solalinde, a priest and famous activist. "They don't organize many marches to protest injustice, government corruption and impunity."
But attempts by prosecutors to link recently murdered priests with crime and criminals seem to have convinced church officials to speak out against the government.
Surveillance footage apparently showing Lopez entering a hotel with an underage boy was leaked to a media outlet in Michoacan. It caused an uproar until a woman on social media identified the pair as her ex-husband and son, not the murdered priest.
Similarly, State Attorney General Luis Angel Bravo Contreras was criticized for claiming the two priests in Veracruz had been drinking heavily with their killers before the crimes.
Church officials have responded with a vigorous defense of the victims.
"We demand that no priest, or anyone, be slandered, especially before the investigations are concluded," the Mexican bishops' conference wrote Sept. 26, a day after Lopez's body was discovered.
"This is a common strategy," said Solalinde. "They criminalize victims in an effort to contain the public outcry."
In this Mexican context of crime, corruption and impunity, Solalinde believes violence against priests suggests they are truly living their vocation.
"This persecution is a sign that priests are defending human rights," he said.
Solalinde has himself been threatened by criminals on multiple occasions.
"If one day something happens, it happens," he said. "But I refuse to let that worry me."
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