Everyone including gays believes that marriage and family are under attack and are being changed in more than definition. We all know that. We have read all the statistics to prove it. But really, now many families now fit the definition of polyamorous? Are we taking 10%? No. Are we talking 5%? No. My best guess is that we are talking something well to the right of the decimal point. Yet the media continues to parade images that make us think that these are significant minorities and therefore close to or close to becoming mainstream.
The latest example of this is ABC's Nightline. Watch it if you want.
It chronicles a polyamorous family raising a young son. The more we see things like this, the more we believe that lie that these are common. And that is exactly the danger. The media has taken great pains to include gays in ways that mask the very small minority GLABT people are in comparison to the whole of American society. Why there are those who believe there are as many GLABT folks out there in the American population as there are Black or Hispanic in the American ethnic mix. GLABT make up well below 10% of the population -- some would argue no more than 5% -- yet their voice and their presence in the media belies that small number. Here a news show gives significant coverage to what is an anomaly, an oddity, or miniscule minority among American families. Yet, the very showing of this story gives it a presence and credibility larger than life. Just because you can find someone doing it, does not make it normal and does not portend the future shape of the American family. Lets be honest here. That is all I ask.
I agree with you. I don't think showing one family means there is an epedemic of this sort.
ReplyDeleteHollywood Babylon. The majority is being deceived into thinking it is the minority. How many other "trends" in our society were first heavily promoted by the media.
ReplyDeletePedophilia has been a serious problem in Holleywood for decades:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/06/idUS190813291320111206
According to Corey Feldman, parents don't report molesters because they do not want the flow of checks to stop:
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/corey-feldman-pedophilia-problem-child-actors-contributed-demise/t/story?id=14256781
It is safe to say that the values promoted by Hollywood and by the mainstream media are in direct opposition to traditional Christian values. Why do they hate Christians so much. Why are they so eager to corrupt our children.
Regards,
Cafeteria Lutheran
Yes, Pastor you are quite right. A helpful book for working through the difficulties of statistical manipulation is: Charles Seife's book 'Proofiness The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception.' I recommend it.
ReplyDeleteThis isn't even mathematical deception. This is deception by anecdote and anomaly.
ReplyDeleteLook at how absurdly successful media and public schools have been at selling our kids the gay agenda. If the media didn't talk about gays constantly, no one would talk about gays at all. 99% of folks aren't gay and aren't interested in it. The 1% that are gay are isolated in a sea of the 99% who never even think about it.
I liken it to hand craft shows. I am not interested in going to craft shows. Neither do I want to constantly hear about them. Nor do they need to be promoted in public policy or to my kids at school, yada yada. Nor should we abuse folks who like craft shows or sell hand crafts. It is just a non issue.
Gays have always been out there, just like other abnormal variations. We shouldn't abuse them. Nor should we obsess over them. Nor should we liken their abnormal behavior to normal behavior. It isn't normal and shouldn't be rewarded or promoted.
Good point. Most people are tired of having homosexuality pushed in their faces. It builds resentment. What happened to the powerful voices of the Evangelicals that kept these perverts in check.
ReplyDeleteWhy do public schools and public universities spend so much time and taxpayer money advocating the gay agenda. Are there federal grants that are funding them. What does this have to do with learning how to read, write, and how to do Math?
What is the LCMS doing to ensure that its (younger) members choose to reject homosexuality and strive to embrace the traditional family. How are young people supposed to respond when confronted with immoral values being pushed on them as "normal." In addition to catechesis, perhaps a required unit on marriage, relationships, and the family is in order.
Regards,
Cafeteria Lutheran
"As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be when the Son of Man returns."
ReplyDeleteSeems to me that is where we are at in the world today.
Come, Lord Jesus!
While I get your point about the media pointing to the most extreme as normal, those who struggle with homosexuality I do not think are to the right of the decimal point. While unscientific, among my friend family acquaintances, I calculate the number at about 3%. A couple of them are by choice, celibate, four of them have been in long term partnerships (15 years or more) without children and one is a single parent. One is the "flamboyant" parade type. I guess my point is not so much what the percentage is, but to recognize that a significant portion of the population does have to struggle with the reality of homosexuality.
ReplyDeleteAnd to express a bit more, I view it kind of like I do my big gut that show I struggle with sins related to healthy eating. Yet, on the news the other day, I heard of a woman with the intentional goal of gaining weight to set a record for a woman at 1,000 pounds. She is a mother and consumes 12,000 calories a day. While a sin is a sin, I guess struggling and failing against sinful behavior and all out accepting it as good are two different things. I see similar struggles with people and homosexuality. Many struggle against it and sometimes succumb to it but are much different than those who embrace it as good.
ReplyDeleteJust to bolster the argument that this family is a statistical anomoly, this is the third network I've seen them on in the last couple of years. I'm pretty sure I've seen them on the Discovery Channel and the Learning Channel, if I'm not mistaken. Are they the official spokesfamily for polyammory? If this were a reasonably common family structure, how come ABC didn't (or perhaps can't) provide another family as a comparison or to contrast with? I know of other polyammerous or communal families, but I'd have to agree that their numbers ar definately to the right of the decimal point.
ReplyDeleteEric Ramer
I do understand that Lutheran pastors teach that a sin is a sin is a sin, and we are all worthy of damnation regardless of the sin. God supposedly does not have a slide rule system ranking some sins to be worse than others. Yet I wonder if Sodom would have been spared if all of the people in it were not homosexual.
ReplyDelete