Nastia Liukin and her father

Liukin brings home the gold her father nearly had

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By Alyssa Roenigk
ESPN The Magazine

BEIJING -- After arriving at the athlete's village in Beijing, Nastia Liukin realized she needed some cash. So after settling into the room she would share with teammate Shawn Johnson for the next 10 days, Liukin walked to the village ATM. But before she had a chance to fill her wallet with yuan, she was halted by her own image. "The machine had a Visa ad with my picture on it," Liukin said, her words flying excitedly from her mouth faster than her spins on floor. "And next to it, in Chinese symbols, was the word, 'Destiny.' I stopped and thought hard when I saw that." Destiny is difficult to ignore here in Beijing. The word is plastered around the Olympic venues, incorporated into T-shirt designs, posters and press releases. It is mentioned more often than hard work, long hours in the gym or mental tenacity. But Friday, it was impossible to ignore the kismet surrounding Liukin's gold-medal win in the all-around. Exactly 20 years ago, her father and coach, Valeri Liukin, finished less than one-tenth of a point behind his Russian teammate Demitri Artemev in the individual all-around competition, the gold slipping from his neck as he swung his arms to balance himself after an imperfect landing from the high bar. Although he still leads his daughter in the overall medal count (Valeri has two gold and two silver medals from those 1988 Games), when it comes to the all-around gold, he must settle for simply being the father of the best gymnast in the world. "He was so close to winning that all-around gold medal," Nastia said moments after her medal ceremony. "I hope I made up for that. I hope he is as proud of this as I am."

Liukin has spent much of the year leading up to the Games in the shadow of teammate Johnson, the current overall world champion. Liukin had beaten Johnson only once since the 2007 World Championships, at the American Cup in March, when Johnson fell attempting a new vault, the Yurchenko 2½.

	Valeri Liukin came oh-so close to an Olympic all-around gold medal. On Friday, his daughter gave him one.

Friday, there was no fall. There were no bobbles. Both gymnasts were virtually flawless. But with a combination of high start values, beautiful lines and a grace that seemed to appeal to the Olympic judges, Liukin stepped out from behind that 4-foot-9 shadow. "I believe they did, yes," Valeri said, when asked if he believed the judges appreciated his daughter's style more so than the powerful, less artistic routines of Johnson. Friday was the first time that belief was reflected in the scores, as Johnson finished both the team qualifier and team final with the highest overall score in the competition. "It wasn't easy for Nastia to be second, but I never believed Nastia was No. 2," Valeri said after the event. "Some judges maybe like Shawn, but Nastia's level of gymnastics is high. We calculate our course and come to the conclusion she is not second. She just makes mistakes." Liukin and Johnson both started the day with clean vaults, Johnson earning the highest score of the competition on the apparatus. But it was the second rotation, the uneven bars, that has been the deciding factor of these Olympics. In the team final, the Chinese women created a deficit on bars that the Americans would have had a hard time topping even without the falls. With a start value of 7.7 (the highest on bars in the world), Liukin needed only to land her routine cleanly to score in the high 16s, which she did, earning a 16.65 on Thursday, the second-highest score of the day. She did not, however, match the 16.9 she received in the team final. "They got her on her landing," Valeri said. But on the next rotation, the balance beam, Johnson was expected to pull into the lead. When her start value is higher than that of her competitors, and when she lands solid, she pulls some of the highest beam scores in the world. Her score was only second-best Friday. Again, it was Liukin with the highest score, a 16.125, which was a full .075 ahead of Johnson's 16.050. After the third rotation, Liukin took the lead, with Johnson sitting in third behind Yang Yilin of China. Just like the team finals, it all came down to the floor exercise. Johnson is the reigning world champion in the event and was last to compete. But as Liukin walked to the floor in her sparkling pink leotard, the American fans in the crowd could feel they were about to watch something special. "This morning, when I woke up, I knew there wasn't anything else that could make me better," Liukin said. "I just had to give it my all and hope it was enough."

Her floor routine was spectacular. The 18-year-old's usually stoic expression melted away with each landed tumbling pass. On her final pass, Liukin landed, raised her arms and smiled, something she rarely -- if ever -- does while performing. It was hard not to smile along with her. As she walked off the floor, Liukin walked to her teammate and slapped hands. For a moment, they looked into each other's eyes, a moment of silent acknowledgement of the long road both women had taken to get to this point.

"When I saw her score come up, I knew I couldn't score six-tenths higher," Johnson said, her chin shaking as she spoke to the media. "So going into floor, I didn't care about score or placement anymore. I just wanted to finish my Olympic experience as best I could." Just like her teammate, Johnson finished the competition with a flawless routine, then walked to her teammate and gave her a hug. "Nastia has been around a long time and has a lot of experience and she deserves the gold," Johnson said. "I was meant to have the silver."

Liukin is only the third American woman to win the all-around; Carly Patterson (2004) and Mary Lou Retton (1984) are the others. But perhaps this is not Johnson's final chance at individual gold. After the meet, both gymnasts retracted earlier comments that this Olympics would mark the end of their careers. "Now she is thinking to keep going," Valeri said of his daughter. Then, during the news conference, Johnson said she'd changed her mind, too. "A month ago, I would have said I was done," Johnson said. "But after being here, I would give anything to feel this way again."

Alyssa Roenigk is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine.

'Tweens watching "R" movies...

Many tweens watching 'R' films despite restriction
By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY
Researchers know what your tween saw last summer: savage beatings, severed heads, murder, rape and torture.
In a study released Monday in the journal Pediatrics, researchers from Dartmouth Medical School estimate more than 2.5 million children ages 10 to 14 watch the typical violent, R-rated movie.

A few movies, such as Blade, Hollow Man and Bride of Chucky, claim what researchers say are huge child audiences — as many as 7.8 million, including an estimated 1 million 10-year-olds.
"Ten isn't far away from believing in Santa Claus," says researcher Keilah Worth.
Previous studies have found violent media can increase aggression and desensitize to real violence, and many violent films are marketed during kids' TV shows.
Worth and colleagues asked 6,522 children if they had seen movies from a list of 534 released in the past few years. Researchers plucked 40 R-rated movies with "the most extreme examples of graphic violence" and found that, on average, 12.5% of kids had seen each movie.
The study didn't ask whether children saw them in theaters, on video, on cable TV or on the Internet, but more than one in three said parents let them watch R-rated movies "sometimes" or "all the time." Even among kids who said their parents never let them watch such movies, 22.6% had seen at least one.
Children with TVs in their bedroom saw more violent movies, and African-American boys were much more likely to have seen them. More than 80% said they had seen Blade, Training Day and the horror spoof Scary Movie.
Theaters admit children under 17 to R-rated movies with an adult. Researchers say ratings must warn explicitly that violent movies "should not be seen by young adolescents." And they say pediatricians should teach parents about the risks.
Gerard Jones, author of Killing Monsters: Why Children Need Fantasy, Superheroes and Make-Believe Violence, says it's not surprising kids see such movies. "As nasty as the movies are, they are a classic, vital part of teen culture," he says, by allowing kids to bond as they scream in terror.
But he sees the wisdom in modifying ratings to add "something between an R and an NC-17 rating" and says intensely violent movies "are not for someone under 14."

To learn more, purchase, "Congratulations, You've Got Tweens!" By: Dr. Paul Pettit (Kregel Publications)

Pro-life prize

Awards Totaling Up to $600K to Honor Pro-Life Heroes

A pro-life foundation announced that it plans to give away up to $600,000 in awards to leaders and groups that have significantly advanced the culture of life. Up to six individuals or groups will be recognized with the "Norinne A. and Raymond E. Ruddy Memorial Pro-Life Prize."

Thu, Jul. 10, 2008

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A pro-life foundation announced on Tuesday that it plans to give away up to $600,000 in awards to leaders and groups that have significantly advanced the culture of life.

The Gerald Health Foundation said it will recognize up to six individuals or groups with the "Norinne A. and Raymond E. Ruddy Memorial Pro-Life Prize," created to honor the parents of pro-life philanthropist Raymond B. Ruddy.

"Our primary objective is to reward those who are preserving the culture of life through their charitable enterprises or through advocacy programs that defend and preserve the sanctity of human life," says attorney Cathy Ruse, executive director of Life Prize.

Ruse, who serves as a senior fellow of legal studies for Family Research Council, said the foundation hopes the prizes will also inspire young people to join the pro-life movement.

While executive director of Students for Life of America Kristan Hawkins noted the already "incredible momentum" going into the younger pro-life movement, she believes the prizes will "transform that momentum into inspiration for today’s teenagers, college students and young professionals."

More than 100 pro-life leaders received nomination packets this week. They have until August 15 to submit their choice of candidates. Nominees will be evaluated by their advances in public advocacy, scientific research, outreach and public disclosure activities, legal action or other noteworthy achievements, according to the foundation.

Life Prizes winners will be announced in October and officially receive their awards during a ceremony in Washington, D.C., held in conjunction with Students for Life of America’s annual conference in January 2009.

The initiative has received the blessings of many pro-life figures including Dr. Jack Willke, president of Life Issues Institute and former president of National Right to Life Committee, who says he's thrilled for the new program.

“The Life Prizes program will elevate the pro-life commitment in remembering the significant victories we have achieved and demonstrates that there are many fruits to be harvested by the next generation in carrying the pro-life torch and taking the movement to a new level," he stated.

Lawrence Jones
Christian Post Reporter

Are "faith-based fathers" more effective?

Study: Christianity makes men better husbands, fathers

- OneNewsNow - 6/30/2008 8:30:00 AM

VIRGINIA - In a research brief this month, Bradford Wilcox, a sociology professor at the University of Virginia, analyzed three national studies in order to discover if "there is any evidence that religion is playing a role in encouraging a strong family orientation among contemporary American men?" His research led him to conclude that men who regularly attend Christian services are engaged in happier and stronger marriages and are more involved in the lives of their children than men who do not.

"Seventy percent of husbands who attend church regularly report they are 'very happy' in their marriages, compared to 59 percent of husbands who rarely or never attend church," explained Wilcox, who also said that the studies indicated that wives experienced more marital happiness when their husbands attended regular religious services. This is likely one significant reason why the studies showed that married couples who attended regular Christian services were approximately 35 percent less likely to divorce then those couples who did not.

Wilcox's research also looked at the effect religion has on the relationships between fathers and their children. Fathers who attended regular Christian services spent an average of two more hours a week engaged in youth-activities with their children than fathers who did not attend regular services. Christian fathers also spent more one-on-one time with their children and were 65 percent more likely to hug and praise their children.

The studies also found that children born inside of wedlock had much more "involved, affectionate, and consistent relationships" with their fathers. This is an important statistic given Wilcox's findings that church-attending men are more likely to have children inside of wedlock then non-church-going men.

Wilcox concluded his research brief by strongly advocating the positive effects that religion has on husbands and fathers: "This brief provides an array of evidence indicating that religion is an answer to the male problematic - that is, the tendency of fathers to become detached, emotionally or physically, from their children and the mothers of their children. I find that fathers who are religious, and who have partners who are religious, are - on average - more likely to be happily married, to be engaged and affectionate parents, and to get and stay married to the mothers of their children."

The research report comes from The Center for Marriage and Families, which is based at the Institute for American Values, and was commissioned by the National Fatherhood Initiative under a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice.

New book on "father wounds"

Imperfect Fathers, Wounded Children: How to Heal from 'Father Wounds'

Contact: WinePress Publishing Group

ENUMCLAW, Wash., June 17 /Christian Newswire/ -- Most of us have bickered with our "significant other" over something that's not our loved one's fault. The argument was likely triggered by something that happened in our past.

The behavior of our parents—particularly our fathers—leaves a lasting imprint on our lives, claims clinical psychologist Kathy Rodriguez, author of "Healing the Father Wound." In order to grow spiritually, she says, "We must address our emotional woundedness and the imprint our fathers have left upon our lives, for better or for worse."

Rodriguez asserts that many people are unable to receive God's love because their earthly fathers have wounded them or have been absent altogether. The results of "fatherlessness" are evident, particularly among the teen population, says Rodriguez: sky-high dropout and teen pregnancy rates, kids killing their peers or themselves in mass school shootings, and kids hurling themselves through cyberspace to escape reality.

Consider the staggering statistics about fatherlessness that Paul Lewis presents in "Five Key Habits of Smart Dads:"

- Fatherless daughters are 92 percent more likely to fail in their own marriages.

- Seventy percent of all young men incarcerated in the U.S. come from fatherless homes.

- Principals across the nation report aggressive, acting out behavior, especially from boys who come from single-parent homes.

"Approximately 94 percent of us come from some type of dysfunctional family background," says Rodriguez. "When we work off of these distorted parental images and our own woundedness, we often find it difficult to accept God's parenting."

Her goal is to help people recover the ability to be parented by their Heavenly Father. "'Healing the Father Wound' is an integrated approach to healing emotional woundedness in Christians who have less-than-perfect childhoods," says Rodriguez. "The book provides a systematic healing process for individuals and small groups to address their emotional woundedness and welcome Father God home to their hearts."

Rodriguez helps her readers identify four types of inadequate fathering and the legacy each produces, understand how a "father wound" impacts significant intimate relationships, recognize the characteristics of a good dad, and learn how to re-parent and forgive.

Christians are broken people like everyone else, adds Rodriguez. "Jesus helps us put the pieces of the image of God back together so we can live as God intended—as His kids."

Father's Day 2008

“And as to the Cares, they are chiefly what attend the bringing up of Children; and I would ask any Man who has experienced it, if they are not the most delightful Cares in the World.” —Benjamin Franklin

You can’t outsource fatherhood!

By Mark Alexander

“It is the duty of parents to maintain their children decently, and according to their circumstances; to protect them according to the dictates of prudence; and to educate them according to the suggestions of a judicious and zealous regard for their usefulness, their respectability and happiness.” —James Wilson (1791)

Just after the turn of the millennium, I was reviewing family social data from 1950-2000. Looking at historical trends pertaining to economics, crime and incarcerations, drug abuse, education, physical and emotional health, premarital sex, pregnancy out of wedlock, child abuse and generational patterns of divorce, I was not surprised to find that there was one grid that highly correlated with all the others.

Of course, I’m referring to the corollary between fathers in the home and the welfare of their children. Turns out that children greatly benefit from the love, affirmation, discipline and protection of both their mother and father—preferably under the same roof.

Indeed, social data since 2000 continues to confirm that correlation.

Father’s Day has been observed for a century, and its inspiration, Mother’s Day, has been celebrated in one form or another since the 16th century. But perhaps these should be combined into a “Children’s Day,” because as any devoted parent can attest, there is no greater responsibility or privilege than parenting, and no greater reward than the blessing of children.

The good news is that there is a resurgence of men who are honoring their wives and children as responsible husbands and fathers. Unfortunately, many men still abdicate their responsibility as fathers.

Marriage is the foundation for the family, which in turn, serves as the foundation for society. In 295 BC, Mencius wrote, “The root of the kingdom is in the state. The root of the state is in the family. The root of the family is in the person of its head.”

Broken marriages lead to broken families, which lead to broken societies. The most successful fathering is rooted in a healthy marriage. Thus, to be good fathers, we must first be good husbands.

Marital infidelity and the consequences for children were a concern for our Founders: John Adams wrote in his diary on 2 June 1778, “The foundation of national morality must be laid in private families... How is it possible that Children can have any just Sense of the sacred Obligations of Morality or Religion if, from their earliest Infancy, they learn their Mothers live in habitual Infidelity to their fathers, and their fathers in as constant Infidelity to their Mothers?”

One of my mentors, Dr. Jim Lee, director of Living Free ministries, writes that the Christian marriage paradigm is built on a foundation of five principles: “First, God is the creator of the marriage relationship; second, heterosexuality is God’s pattern for marriage; third, monogamy is God’s design for marriage; fourth, God’s plan for marriage is for physical and spiritual unity; and fifth, marriage was designed to be permanent.”

When this paradigm is broken, the exemplar for children is broken, and the consequences are staggering. One of the greatest affronts to the Body of Christ, then, is also the most common injury to the family of man—marital infidelity and divorce.

Divorce, which typically results in the absence of fathers from their headship role within the family, is the single most significant common denominator among all categories of social and cultural entropy.

However, more than 50 percent of children born to married parents will suffer through their parents’ divorce by age 18.

Currently, almost 60 percent of black children, 32 percent of Hispanic children and 21 percent of white children are living in single-parent homes. And the consequences?

Consider these sobering statistics from the Centers for Disease Control, Department of Justice, Department of Health and Human Services and the Bureau of the Census: Children who live apart from their fathers will account for 40 percent of incarcerated adults, 63 percent of teen suicides, 70 percent of juveniles in state-operated institutions, 71 percent of high-school dropouts, 75 percent of children in chemical-abuse centers, 80 percent of rapists, 85 percent of youths in prison, 85 percent of children who exhibit behavioral disorders, and 90 percent of homeless and runaway children.

About eight percent of children in married-couple homes live at or below poverty level, while almost 40 percent of children in homes without fathers live below poverty level. The latter group risks a much higher incidence of serious child abuse or neglect.

Notably, the most common and severe wounds inflicted upon children are not necessarily physical. Children internalize emotional abuse and rejection—particularly rejection by their family of origin—parental separation or divorce, or dissociation from a chemically dependent or emotionally disabled parent.

Internalization occurs when children, in defiance of adult logic, believe they are somehow responsible for the harm that came to them, whether it was circumstantial, accidental or intended. In the case of divorce, children often believe they must have caused parental dissolution, or were deserving of it.

This internalized rejection often manifests in a condition known as Arrested Emotional Development (AED)—emotional development impeded during childhood and resulting in emotional disabilities carried into adulthood.

It is no small irony that divorced parents were, in all likelihood, themselves the child-victims of generational patterns of familial dissociation and dissolution. Daughters bear a particularly difficult burden in the absence of fathers. A broken father-daughter trust bond can disable the formation of a trust bond with a husband in later life.

Indeed, the sins of our fathers are visited upon generations that follow.

There is also a sobering financial component to all this: Beyond the private-sector costs associated with absentee fathers is a taxpayer assessment of well over $100 billion annually for social-welfare services to families without fathers.

On this Father’s Day, then, may we not only count the blessings of fatherhood, but also commit to honoring those attendant obligations every day. May we also examine the job we are doing as husbands first, and then as fathers.

Additional information about fatherhood can be obtained from Focus on the Family, the National Center for Fathering, the National Fatherhood Initiative and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

If you are interested in community-based marriage and parenting initiatives, the gold standard is the template designed by First Things First under the expert guidance of my friend, Julie Baumgardner.

(Editor’s Note: To all those fathers who have been forcibly separated from their children, this call for fathers to honor their obligations, starting with marriage, does not discount the fact that there are many women who live in constant infidelity to their husbands, and women who subordinate the needs of their marriage and family life to their own desires—careers, social relationships and activities, substance abuse, media immersion, etc. Predictably, the vast majority of those women are, themselves, the victims of marital dissolution, or dissociation from a chemically dependent or emotionally disabled father.)

Quote of the week

“Maturity does not come with age, but with the accepting of responsibility for one’s actions. The lack of effective, functioning fathers is the root cause of America’s social, economic and spiritual crises.” —Dr. Edwin Cole

Congratulations, Jenna Bush...

Co-ed dorm rooms, a bad idea ! !

(AP) -- Erik Youngdahl and Michelle Garcia share a dorm room at Connecticut's Wesleyan University. But they say there's no funny business going on. Really. They mean it.
Erik Youngdahl and Michelle Garcia surf the internet in their room at Wesleyan University.

They have set up their beds side-by-side like Lucy and Ricky in "I Love Lucy" and avert their eyes when one of them is changing clothes.
"People are shocked to hear that it's happening and even that it's possible," said Youngdahl, a 20-year-old sophomore. But "once you actually live in it, it doesn't actually turn into a big deal."
In the prim 1950s, college dorms were off-limits to members of the opposite sex. Then came the 1970s, when male and female students started crossing paths in coed dormitories. Now, to the astonishment of some baby boomer parents, a growing number of colleges are going even further: coed rooms.
At least two dozen schools, including Brown University, the University of Pennsylvania, Oberlin College, Clark University and the California Institute of Technology, allow some or all students to share a room with anyone they choose, including someone of the opposite sex. This spring, as students sign up for next year's room, more schools are following suit, including Stanford University.
As shocking as it sounds to some parents, some students and schools say it's not about sex.
Instead, they say the demand is mostly from heterosexual students who want to live with close friends who happen to be of the opposite sex. Some gay students who feel more comfortable rooming with someone of the opposite sex are also taking advantage of the option.
"It ultimately comes down to finding someone that you feel is compatible with you," said Jeffrey Chang, a junior at Clark in Worcester, Massachusetts, who co-founded the National Student Genderblind Campaign, a group that is pushing for gender-neutral housing. "Students aren't doing this to make a point. They're not doing this to upset their parents. It's really for practical reasons."
Couples do sometimes room together, an arrangement known at some schools as "roomcest." Brown explicitly discourages couples from living together on campus, be they gay or straight. But the University of California, Riverside has never had a problem with a roommate couple breaking up midyear, said James C. Smith, assistant director for residence life.
Most schools introduced the couples option in the past three or four years. So far, relatively few students are taking part. At the University of Pennsylvania, which began offering coed rooms in 2005, about 120 out of 10,400 students took advantage of the option this year.
At UC Riverside, which has approximately 6,000 students in campus housing, about 50 have roommates of the opposite sex. The school has had the option since 2005.
Garcia and Youngdahl live in a house for students with an interest in Russian studies. They said they were already friendly and didn't think they would be compatible with some of the other people in the house.
"I had just roomed with a boy. I was under the impression at the time that girls were a little bit neater and more quiet," Youngdahl said. "As it turns out, I don't see much of a difference from one sex to the other."
Garcia, 19, admitted: "I'm incredibly messy."
Parents aren't necessarily thrilled with boy-girl housing.
Debbie Feldman's 20-year-old daughter, Samantha, is a sophomore at Oberlin in Ohio and plans to room with her platonic friend Grey Castro, a straight guy, next year. Feldman said she was shocked when her daughter told her.
"When you have a male and female sharing such close quarters, I think it's somewhat delusional to think there won't be sexual tension," 52-year-old Feldman said. "Maybe this generation feels more comfortable walking around in their underwear. I'm not sure that's a good thing."
Still, Feldman said her daughter is partly in college to learn life lessons, and it's her decision. Samantha said she assured her mom that she thinks of Castro as a brother.
"I'm really close to him, and I consider him one of my really good friends," she said. "I really trust him. That trust makes it work."

Got purpose?

Rick Warren (REMEMBER HE WROTE "PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE")

You will enjoy the new insights that Rick Warren has, with his wife now struggling with cancer and him having accumulated incredible "wealth" from the book sales. This is an incredible interview with Rick Warren, "Purpose Driven Life " author and pastor of Saddleback Church in California.

In the interview by Paul Bradshaw, Rick said:

People ask me, What is the purpose of life? And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were not made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven.

One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body-- but not the end of me.

I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity.

We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense.

Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one.

The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort.

God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy.

We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.

This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer.

I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore.

Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life.

No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on.

And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for.

You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems.
If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness,"which is my problem, my issues, my pain." But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.

We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her.

It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people.

You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life.

Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy.

It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before. I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease.

So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72

First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases.
Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church.

Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation.

Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free.

We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity?

Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)?

When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better. God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He's more interested in what I am than what I do.
That's why we're called human beings, not human doings.

Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.
Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.

Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD.
Painful moments, TRUST GOD.
Every moment, THANK GOD.

Expelled

Expelled from 'Expelled'
Exclusive: Jill Stanek sees 'Big Bang' coming from the left April 18

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Posted: April 10, 2008
1:00 am Eastern
FROM: World Net Daily

By Jill Stanek

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On April 18, "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed," will boast the largest U.S. opening of any documentary film ever.

Scheduled for release in 1,000 theatres, "Expelled" will be hotter than "Farenheit 9/11," which debuted on 868 screens, and much more convenient to see than "An Inconvenient Truth," which I was surprised to find opened on only four screens nationwide despite all the hype, peaking at 587 before its appeal melted.

What's "Expelled" about? Synopsizes CNS News:

"Expelled" calls attention to the plight of highly credentialed scholars who have been forced out of prestigious academic positions because they proposed Intelligent Design as a possible alternative to Charles Darwin's 150-year-old theories about the origins of life.

Instead of entertaining a debate on the merits of competing theories, the scientific establishment has moved to suppress the ID movement in a "systematic and ruthless" way at odds with America's founding principles, the film asserts.

Liberals have been going ape about "Expelled" for months as it has been screened around the country.

On March 20, two Darwinian defenders, who accepted payment to talk like buffoons on the film, tried to bust into a private screening in Minnesota.

"PZ" Myers, a University of Minnesota biology professor and proprietor of the popular atheist blog Pharyngula, was quickly expelled, much as he condones expelling professors who deviate from the monkey line, as he wrote on The Panda's Thumb blog:

The only appropriate responses [to Intelligent Design proponents] should involve some form of righteous fury, much butt-kicking, and the public firing and humiliation of some teachers, many school board members, and vast numbers of sleazy far-right politicians." ~ Comment #35130, PZ Myers, June 14, 2005

Richard Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist at Oxford who wrote the book "The God Delusion," gained entry only by foregoing his evolved surname for the formal, Clinton.

Myers then disrupted an "Expelled" conference call with reporters the next day.

These uncivilized spectacles caused a liberal mass meltdown. According to an "Expelled" press release, the "Expelled" controversy held the No. 1 slot in the blogosphere all day March 24, as registered by Nielson's BlogPulse, and garnered over 800 Technorati results.

If we are seeing this meltdown on the left even before "Expelled" officially opens, expect a Big Bang on April 18.

"This is not a scientific battle; this is a worldview battle," "Expelled" producer Mark Mathis told me. Mathis has encountered unbridled hostility from the scientific establishment, i.e., avowed Darwinists, at previews.

"Expelled" connects atheism and Darwinism with no missing link, one of the film's two major flashpoints.

Darwinism is a specific evolutionary theory that excludes everything but material processes in the design of all life forms. No Intelligent Design allowed.

"What's driving it is Darwinism is a foundational principle – scientific validation of secularism, atheism, liberalism – and that it strikes at the core of who they are," said Mathis.

"Secondarily, these scientists are the high priests of the biggest question ever asked. They have all the authority, knowledge, power, funding," continued Mathis. "This is ground they own exclusively. They look down their elitist noses at the unwashed ignorant religious masses and scoff. That's why they respond with such extreme hostility. They are very concerned that if this monolith cracks, then the whole thing could crash."

Indeed, "Expelled" is already making a difference. Last month, Ben Stein, star of "Expelled," screened it for Florida legislators as they prepared to present a bill guaranteeing academic freedom in their schools. It looks ready to pass.

Last week, Stein screened "Expelled" to Missouri lawmakers followed by a press conference promoting three academic freedom bills germinating there.

Not only is Darwinism foundational to atheism, it is foundational to eugenics, the other reason for the left's apoplexy against "Expelled," according to Mathis. They cannot tolerate the connection "Expelled" draws between Darwinism and Adolf Hitler.

Or Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood.

"Planned Parenthood is a direct outgrowth of Darwinism," said Mathis. "Sanger was an open proponent of eugenics, and Darwinism is an idea that naturally leads to eugenics, which they are denying," said Mathis. "But they are compatible."

That Hitler and Nazism drew from Darwinism is irrefutable. "Hitler said genocide of Jews was doing good, cleansing the world of 'useless eaters' and strengthening formation of an 'Aryan' race of super-humans," said Mathis.

One complaint Darwinist scientists interviewed for "Expelled" have not lodged is that the filmmakers applied Michael Moore cut-and-paste editing to make them look bad. The film includes many of their long, uninterrupted thoughts.

That's also part of their problem.

Kansas University Jayhawks

SAN ANTONIO -- The shot that saved a season took just a moment -- a Shining Moment, you could say.

Mario Chalmers' tying shot was the biggest Final Four basket in 21 years.

The hug lasted for minutes.

After hitting the biggest Final Four jumper since Keith Smart's in 1987, Mario Chalmers summoned his mother, Almarie, down from the Alamodome stands to courtside. The unflappable Kansas Jayhawk wrapped both arms around her, laid his head on her shoulder and bawled like a baby.

She pumped her left arm. He wouldn't let go.

"We did it, Mom," Chalmers said between sobs.

"A dream come true," Almarie said later, her own eyes glistening. "A prayer answered. We've been waiting on this moment since he was 2."

This moment -- this Shining Moment -- was almost preordained four years earlier, when Mario went to the Final Four in this same building with his dad, current Kansas director of basketball operations Ronnie Chalmers. They watched Connecticut beat Georgia Tech for the title, and Ronnie remembers one spectacular play from that game when he jumped to his feet but Mario remained in his chair.

"What's wrong?" Ronnie asked his son.

"I'm thinking," Mario said.

"What are you thinking about?"

"One day," Mario said, "I'm going to be out there winning the national championship."

That goal guided the Chalmers family from Alaska to Kansas three years ago. It guided them to this game and ultimately to this moment -- this Shining Moment -- that rescued Kansas from near-certain defeat and gave the 2008 NCAA tournament its signature.

Chalmers' shot capped the Jayhawks' steely nine-point comeback in the final 2:12 of regulation on their way to a 75-68 overtime triumph. It was the blow that broke an excellent Tigers squad -- a Tigers squad that turned the school's first championship into a stunning championship choke.

"You have a lead like that," coach John Calipari said, "you're supposed to win the game."

The emotional whiplash that followed Chalmers' 3-pointer with 2.1 seconds remaining will be felt for years on both campuses. Memphis will always love a team that finished 38-2 -- but always wince at the way it unraveled at the very end. And giddy Kansas now has another name to add to its list of all-time heroes: Clyde Lovellette, Wilt Chamberlain, Danny Manning …

Mario Chalmers.

I thought it was going in when it left my hands.

--Mario Chalmers

On the 20th anniversary of Danny and the Miracles' winning Kansas' last championship, give a Rock Chalk salute to Miracle Mario.

"It will probably be the biggest shot in Kansas history," coach Bill Self said.

The kid scored 18 on the night, earning Most Outstanding Player honors. But the replay that will live forever in Lawrence will focus on a single shot. For years to come, kids all over Kansas will go into the driveway or the backyard or the gym and pretend to be Mario Chalmers swishing that jumper.

With 10.8 seconds left, Self diagrammed the play. It called for the potential tying shot to be in Chalmers' calm hands -- a pass from penetrating Sherron Collins for a 3.

Of course Chalmers was the choice: He has home-state ice water in his veins. He's been good in the clutch his entire career.

"In YMCA and AAU and high school, he was always the go-to guy," Ronnie Chalmers said.

For the go-to guy's shot to matter, though, Kansas needed at least one more in a nightmarish series of missed free throws from Memphis.

Awful foul shooting was the endlessly discussed weakness of these Tigers, but they had made it a moot point in three straight rampaging NCAA tournament victories over Michigan State, Texas and UCLA. Now, with the title right there for the taking, star junior Chris Douglas-Roberts missed three straight, leaving the door open for Kansas.

Then, with 10.8 seconds on the clock, sensational freshman Derrick Rose stood on the line with Memphis up two, trying to ice it. His first shot hit the rim and fell off. He made the second, but the one miss gave Kansas its opportunity to tie.

Collins dribbled upcourt and veered to his right -- almost losing the ball as Memphis players hacked at him, trying to foul and prevent a 3 from being hoisted. Collins' strength probably prevented a whistle, though, and he shoved a pass to Chalmers as he came curling off the wing.

The ball came up into Chalmers' chest. He took one rushed dribble to his left and elevated. Rose jumped with him, arm outstretched. Chalmers arched the shot over Rose's fingers and into the tension-drenched Texas air.

"I thought it was going in when it left my hands," Chalmers said.

Teammate Brandon Rush, who was directly underneath the basket, concurred.

Kansas' first title in 20 years was as dramatic as it gets.

"I could see it splash right in there," Rush said. "Pretty cool."

Blessed with a good sight line in the stands behind the play, Almarie Chalmers knew, too.

"I saw it going straight in," she said. "When it hit the bottom of the net, I breathed."

Everyone else screamed. Kansas fans in ecstasy. Memphis fans in agony.

The Tigers had nothing left in overtime. No momentum. No Joey Dorsey, who had fouled out. No legs for tired Douglas-Roberts and cramping Rose. Kansas scored the first six in OT to take command of a game it had come amazingly close to losing.

Earlier in the second half, as the game began slipping away from the Jayhawks, Self was telling his players, "You've got to believe." But the situation was dire enough that when Memphis' Robert Dozier went to the foul line with 2:12 left and the Tigers up seven, Ronnie Chalmers reached into his pocket for some divine guidance.

On a piece of paper, he'd written two verses from Psalms: 46:10 and 46:1. He pulled them out and read them to himself.

"Be still, and know that I am God," reads 46:10.

"God is a refuge and strength. A very present help in trouble," reads 46:1.

"We were in trouble at that time," Ronnie said.

Ya think?

The trouble deepened when Dozier swished both free throws. The lead was 60-51 as the clocked slipped inside two minutes. This was desperate.

But Chalmers and Collins -- two guards who had taken some very bad shots as Memphis asserted itself -- rode to the rescue.

Chalmers passed to Darrell Arthur for a jump shot that made it 60-53. Then, after a timeout, Collins made the two plays that really made it a ballgame -- he stole the ball from Antonio Anderson and, after a couple of quick passes, got it back in the corner for a 3-pointer.

Until then, Kansas was 1-for-9 from 3-point range. Collins swished it.

After a pair of Douglas-Roberts free throws, Chalmers made a pair of his own. That set the stage for Memphis' foul-line debacle, which was augmented by a bad decision to attack the basket with 20 seconds left instead of pulling the ball out and killing clock while clinging to a two-point lead.

But all the Memphis foibles down the stretch could have been survived if Chalmers hadn't hit the shot of a lifetime.

"First, I'm happy for Mario," Ronnie Chalmers said. "Then I'm happy for Coach Self -- he was long overdue for this. Then I'm happy for the team.

"It's great for a parent to see their son's dream come true. … You've got to think about it every day the rest of your life. This is the moment."

One Shining Moment.

Pat Forde is a senior writer for ESPN.com.

Top 100 Children's books

The following list was compiled from an online survey of educators in 2007. Can you spot any favorites in this list? One of the best fathering practices is to read to your children.

1.Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
2. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
3. The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
4. Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss
5. Good Night Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
6. I Love You Forever by Robert N. Munsch
7. Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
8. Oh! The Places You Will Go by Dr. Seuss
9. The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton
10. The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg
11. Skippyjon Jones by Judy Schachner
12. Thank You Mr. Falker by Patricia Polacco
13. The Cat In The Hat by Dr. Seuss
14. The Lorax by Dr. Seuss
15. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo
16. The Mitten by Jan Brett
17. Crunching Carrots, Not Candy by Judy Slack
18. Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willlems
19. Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
20. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
21. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
22. Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman
23. Corduroy by Don Freeman
24. Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes
25. Stellaluna by Janell Cannon
26. Tacky the Penquin by Helen Lester
27. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
28. The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
29. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr.
30. Click Clack Moo: Cows That Type Doreen Cronin
31. Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
32. Horton Hatches the Egg by Dr. Seuss
33. Junie B. Jones by Barbara Park
34. Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder
35. Make Way For Ducklings by Robert McCloskey
36. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
37. Piggie Pie by Margie Palatini
38. The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper
39. The Monster at the End of this Book by Jon Stone
40. The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
41. A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon
42. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett
43. From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
44. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
45. Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
46. Officer Buckle and Gloria by Peggy Rathmann
47. Olivia by Ian Falconer
48. The BFG by Roald Dahl
49. The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn
50. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
51. The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss
52. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
53. Tikki Tikki Tembo by Arlene Mosel
54. A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
55. Bark, George by Jules Feiffer
56. Bunnicula by James Howe
57. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
58. Charlie the Caterpillar by Dom DeLuise
59. Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes
60. Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary
61. Frederick by Leo Lionni
62. Frindle by Andrew Clements
63. Frog and Toad by Arnold Lobel
64. Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney
65. Harris and Me by Gary Paulsen
66. Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion
67. Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss
68. How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
69. I Love You, Stinky Face by Lisa McCourt
70. Is Your Mama A Llama? by Deborah Guarino
71. Jan Brett’s books
72. Knots on a Counting Rope by Bill Martin Jr.
73. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
74. Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton
75. Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney
76. My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett
77. My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss
78. My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
79. No David! by David Shannon
80. One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss
81. Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
82. Stephanie's Ponytail by Robert Munsch
83. Swimmy by Leo Lionni
84. The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes
85. The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Warner
86. The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper
87. The Empty Pot by Demi
88. The Five Chinese Brothers by Claire Huchet Bishop
89. The Giver by Lois Lowr
90. The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle
91. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
92. The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown
93. The Last Holiday Concert by Andrew Clements
94. The Napping House by Audrey Wood
95. The Quiltmaker's Gift by Jeff Brumbeau
96. The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
97. The Story About Ping by Marjorie Flack
98. The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka
99. Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
100. The Wide-Mouthed Frog: A Pop-Up Book by Keith Faulkner

Benefits of Marriage

BENEFITS OF MARRIAGE
• Married people live longer than unmarried or divorced people. Nonmarried women
have 50% higher mortality rates than married women and nonmarried men have a 250%
higher rate than married men. (Waite & Gallagher, 2000)
• Married people are happier than single, widowed, or cohabiting people. About 40%
of married people report being very happy with their lives, whereas only 18% of divorced people, 15% of separated people, and only 22% of widowed and 22% of cohabiting
people report being very happy. (Waite & Gallagher, 2000)
• Married people have more sex and a better quality sexual relationship than do
single, divorced or cohabiting individuals. (Waite & Gallagher, 2000)
• Married people are more successful in their careers, earn more, and have more
wealth than single, divorced or cohabiting individuals. (Waite & Gallagher, 2000;
Antonovics & Town, 2004)
• Children from homes where the parents are married tend to be more academically
successful, more emotionally stable, and more often assume leadership roles. (Waite
& Gallagher, 2000; Manning & Lamb, 2003)
• Adolescents living with their biological parents are less likely to have sexual
intercourse. (Pearson, Frisco, 2006; Sieving, Eisenberg, Pettingell, & Skay, 2006)
• Two-parent households protect children from the negative effects of poverty. In the
U.S., nearly 60% of the children from single-parent households live in poverty, as
compared to only 11% of children from two-parent families. (U.S. Bureau of the Census,
2006)
SOURCE: Marriage & Family Facts 2007
Life Innovations, Inc.
www.prepare-enrich.com

9 Top Caffeine Fixes

The topics on this blog can be a bit heavy at times, so I thought I would lighten things up a bit. -Paul

9 Top Caffeine Fixes

Source: Yahoo News

Talk about happy trends. More and more yum-ola foods that used to be considered bad news are turning out to be good for you. First it was wine. Then olive oil. Chocolate. Guacamole. And now coffee. (Hey, can ice cream be far behind?!)

What restored coffee's reputation? Caffeine. After years of being viewed with suspicion, caffeine has pulled a scientific switcheroo. Besides helping students pull all-nighters and weekend warriors jumpstart their jump shots, there's now evidence that it defends against diabetes, Parkinson's, asthma symptoms, post-workout soreness, and even hunger pangs. Cool.

It's not totally benign, of course - is anything? So the experts advise limiting yourself to about 250 mg a day (the average cup of joe has about 100 mg) to avoid jitters and a possible boost in blood pressure. But few labels list caffeine content, so stick this on the fridge. It covers the caffeine sources generating the most buzz, plus some timeless favorites. We checked the calories too, BTW, but most are pretty harmless.

DIET COKE Everybody's default diet drink
THE CAFFEINE FIX 45 mg
THE CALORIES 0
THE OTHER STUFF A lot of flavorings and colorings,
not much else-call it caffeine lite

WATER JOE For the purist: plain H2O with a jolt
THE CAFFEINE FIX 60 mg 16.9-ounce bottle
THE CALORIES 0
THE OTHER STUFF Artesian water and caffeine—that's it.
No additives, no carbonation

RED BULL The energy drink that started it all
THE CAFFEINE FIX 80 mg per 8-ounce can
THE CALORIES 110
THE OTHER STUFF Has taurine, a "detox," amino acid;
B vitamins; loads of sugar—so beware
the crash after the rush

TAB ENERGY A revved-up version of old Tab cola
THE CAFFEINE FIX 95 mg per 10.5-ounce can
THE CALORIES 5
THE OTHER STUFF Sweet and pink, it's spiked with ginseng
and guarana, a mild caffeine-like stimulant

ENVIGA Controversial new green tea drink
THE CAFFEINE FIX 100 mg per 12-ounce can
THE CALORIES 5
THE OTHER STUFF Laced with 200 mg of calcium and
green tea antioxidants but in trouble for
claiming that it makes the body burn up
extra calories

ROCKET
CHOCOLATES Candy with more zip than a cup of joe
THE CAFFEINE FIX 150 mg per piece
THE CALORIES 70
THE OTHER STUFF Comes in trendy flavors like mocha latte;
individually wrapped so you can stash in
a pocket—but can you eat just one?

FUSION ENERGY 7/Eleven's new-ish "functional" brew
THE CAFFEINE FIX 250 mg per 12-ounce cup
THE CALORIES 0
THE OTHER STUFF Freshly-ground coffee brewed with an
alertness-boosting blend of ginseng,
guarana, and yerba mate

STARBUCKS Coffee, just coffee
THE CAFFEINE FIX 280 or so per 12-ounce cup
THE CALORIES 0
THE OTHER STUFF Starbucks coffee averages twice the
caffeine of a regular 8-ounce cup of java,
but the hit can vary wildly-in one study,
by 200 mg on different days

SPIKE SHOOTER Heavy-hitter energy drink
THE CAFFEINE FIX 300 mg per 8.4-ounce can
THE CALORIES 0
THE OTHER STUFF Spiked with tyrosine, yohimbine, and
a huge dose of vitamin B12; label warns
you not to drink more than 1 a day

What's going on at the movies?

A Cultural Shift in Movies
By: Rick Santorum
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Publication Date: January 3, 2008

I begin this new year with greater hope for our culture. That is saying something, given our pop culture's violence, gratuitous coarseness, hyper-commercialism, and obsession with sex and celebrity. I can sympathize with parents who are increasingly tempted to gather their children and retreat to the catacombs. But don't head down there just yet. This last year saw something that we should take heart in.

No, it wasn't the American public's stout rejection of a slew of anti-American "war on terror" movies such as Redacted and Rendition. The most encouraging news was quieter and more life-affirming.

If art is a reflection of our culture, our culture - and particularly our youth culture - is awaking to the reality of life in the womb. You hear it in Nick Cannon's autobiographical single "Can I live?" You see it in the stunning episode of the television show House where Dr. Gregory House's finger is grasped by a baby in the womb during intrauterine surgery. The recognition of the life in the womb is going mainstream.

But the biggest shift came at the movies. In a nation with one of the world's most wide-open abortion regimes, U.S. audiences flocked to see five motion pictures with life-affirming texts or subtexts: Knocked up, Waitress, Bella, August Rush and Juno.

In these movies, abortion was urged on women facing an unplanned pregnancy, and rejected. Ultrasound images awakened characters and audiences to the humanity of the unborn. Having a baby, even in the most challenging circumstances, became the compelling "choice." Adoption was held up as a positive alternative to abortion. And, unlike the news media's portrayal of pro-lifers, protesters outside abortion clinics were authentically depicted as warm and concerned. This stood in contrast to the indifference of the staff within.

These movies came from four different companies (Waitress and Juno are Fox Searchlight movies) and right out of our pop culture. Given the degraded state of that culture, this sometimes comes at a price when it comes to a movie's language, humor, and the treatment of sexual relations. Bella is a gentle celebration of family and adoption amid an unplanned pregnancy. August Rush is a PG-rated look at the gut-wrenching consequences of an out-of-wedlock affair. But Knocked Up, Waitress and Juno are most certainly hip-deep in today's bawdy mainstream culture.

Any movie titled Knocked Up is not going to win awards for decorum, and this one doesn't disappoint. Its pro-life, pro-marriage message - Alison (Katherine Heigl) decides she wants to have the baby after she becomes pregnant during a one-night stand - comes wrapped in X-rated language, sex jokes and drug abuse.

In Waitress, abused Jenna (Keri Russell) decides to have a baby instead of an abortion while having an adulterous affair with her doctor.

As for Juno, for all its tenderness and antiabortion, pro-adoption themes, it's pretty edgy. But it's exactly these movies' connection to the pop culture that makes them so heartening.

They are meeting audiences where they live, and, through good storytelling, smart - if often raw - dialogue, and compelling character development, are presenting themes we rarely associate with much of our popular culture. And audiences and critics are largely saying "two thumbs up."

The best thing about all of these movies is, they are not "pro-life" message movies. They are, instead, chronicles from the children of our divorce- and abortion-oriented culture. There is lived experience, emotional understanding, hard-earned authenticity at the heart of these scripts. And pain.

One of the most poignant recurring themes may be the message to baby-boom parents from their own children. The characters most often urging abortion on the expectant mother were aging boomers, and they are not attractive moments. In August Rush, Lyla's father tells her that her baby was killed in an auto accident and gives the child to an orphanage - to protect her career. After career-bound Alison becomes pregnant in Knocked Up, it's her mother who urges her to have an abortion - she can always have "a real baby" later on.

Alison doesn't take her mother's advice. She decides to have her baby after seeing the unborn child's heart beat on a monitor. What ultimately triumphs in Knocked Up and these other movies is the simple reality of human life.

On the way to an abortion, Juno Ellen Page stops and talks to a nerdy but caring pro-life schoolmate who is protesting there. As Juno continues into the clinic, the girl calls out, "Your baby has fingernails!"

Your baby has fingernails: It's enough to stop Juno from going ahead with an abortion.

Yes, the ultrasound - and now Hollywood - see that unborn baby whose eyes, spinal cord, nervous system, liver and stomach are developing within the first month, whose heart begins beating at 18 days. That unborn child who can make a tiny fist, hiccup, wake and sleep at three months.

It may be a small thing in our vast pop culture. But what a blessing small things can be.

Watch D.O.G.S?

Dads ditch offices for quality time

National program debuting in Maryland invites fathers to volunteer, visit their children at school

Students of Bellows Springs Elementary and their fathers gather for pizza night to kick off the WATCH D.O.G.S., or Dads of Great Students, program. Motivational speaker Dan Jenkins (foreground) gave a presentation to the 200 fathers, uncles, grandfathers and other men in attendance. (Sun photo by Kenneth K. Lam / January 23, 2008)

By Karen Nitkin

January 27, 2008

Mark Moran works in Washington and doesn't get home to Howard County until 7:30 p.m. most days. Because of his schedule, he rarely volunteers in the classroom or goes to events at Bellows Spring Elementary School, where his son, Josh, is in third grade.

But on Wednesday, Moran worked from home instead of commuting to his office so that he could take part in a program for fathers called Watch D.O.G.S. (Dads of Great Students), a national program making its Maryland debut at Bellows Spring in Ellicott City.

Moran and nearly 200 other Bellows Spring fathers, uncles, grandfathers and other men filled rows of fold-out seats in the school cafeteria, munching on pizza and cookies while learning about the program, designed to increase fathers' involvement in schools. Children were invited, too. After watching a video promoting the benefits of Watch D.O.G.S., the kids went to the gym to learn about fire safety, while the men heard more details about how they could get involved.

• 

A cornerstone of the program is encouraging men to volunteer at school, both to improve school safety and to provide male role models

"My wife showed me the brochure and she said, 'Here's a great opportunity for you to go as a dad,'" said Moran, who added that he plans to sign up for volunteer time. His company allows a paid community service day, he said, and he thinks being in his son's school will qualify.

"Josh loves when I come to school for something," he said. "I think it's great they're doing it here."

Laurie Lerman, the PTA president, said her goal was to get 20 men to attend the event. Nearly 200 came.

"We never expected something like this, but it doesn't surprise me," Ed Cosentino, the school's assistant principal said to the audience.

He said team leaders and other school officials were overwhelmingly in favor of the idea. "Our goal and Laurie's vision is to institutionalize it and make it part of our normal day," he said.

Joseph Thweatt attended the event with his twin 5-year-old daughters, Lindsay and Nia, who are in kindergarten.

"I think it's great," he said. "When they sent the information home, I said, This is something I'll definitely do.'"

Lerman heard about the program through a friend, Jodi Westrope, who had moved from the Bellows Spring school district to West Virginia. The program was started by the National Center for Fathering, initiated by parent Jim Moore in response to a 1998 middle-school shooting in Jonesboro, Ark.

The first Watch D.O.G.S. program was in Springdale, Ark. Now, the program is in more than 500 schools in 25 states. Westrope and Dan Jenkins, who both attended the Bellows Spring kick-off, started the program in a Martinsville, W.Va., elementary and middle school. When Westrope saw the positive response in her home town, she began promoting the program to Lerman.

"She had been telling me about the program," said Lerman. "We didn't know something like this existed."

Lerman said fathers bring "a unique set of skills" to the school. For example, they are more likely than mothers to help out with recess games, she said.

"The idea is we have at least one Watch D.O.G.S. [member] in the building every day," Lerman said.

The volunteers wear Watch D.O.G.S. T-shirts, and are promised time in their child's class.

"Please know that when you are here, you will not be doing clerical work," Amy Colman, the Gifted and Talented Resource specialist told the audience. "You will be with the children."

As the program grows, a Donuts and Dads morning event probably will be added, as well as an end-of-year celebration, Lerman said.

Andy Echague, father of kindergartner Christian, 6, volunteered at the school for the first time when he helped hand out pizza slices before the presentation. At the end of the evening, he was leaning over his pizza table, filling out a registration form so he could volunteer in the Watch D.O.G.S. program. He said he hopes to visit the school four or five times before the end of the academic year.

"I just thought it was a neat program," he said.
For more info: http://www.fathers.com/watchdogs

I Am A MAN

2008 cry: 'I want to be a man'

By Wendi C. Thomas
Sunday, January 20, 2008

I am a MAN.

Humbling and awesome, it was the slogan of the Memphis black sanitation workers fighting in 1968 for better working conditions and pay and the benefits enjoyed by their white counter- parts.

The simple, red-lettered signs include a detail often overlooked: The "AM" was underlined -- a present tense manhood. They were due respect and dignity. Now.

Fast forward nearly four decades to Monday, the federal holiday for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., killed in Memphis after he'd come to the aid of the striking men.

On Monday, "I AM A MAN" will get an update that speaks to the struggle's shift: from undoing what white institutions did to black people to undoing what black people, particularly black men, often do to each other.

"I want to be a man."

It's the mantra of Memphis Cares, a budding mentorship movement in Memphis, and reflects a desire for a future state of being. The addition of just three words to the iconic slogan of garbage men declares that manhood doesn't result simply from sufficient passage of time.

"To be a man means to be responsible," says Kareem Ali, 30, who in August led the local effort of the Million Father March, which encouraged dads to take their children to the first day of school. "His job as a man is to maintain his family, to provide them, to be a leader and a guide for his community."

But it's a message not heard by many black boys who, absent a father or father-figure, are susceptible to the lure of drugs, crime and self-destructive living.

Ali, the father of an 11-month-old son and a member of the Memphis Cares steering committee, remembers a talk he had at a local middle school with a roomful of about 100 black boys. He asked how many of them lived with their father -- and only three did.

"For those who have a passion for these children, it compels the mind and spirit to want to get up and do something and be a servant to these boys.

"That's why I love the phrase -- I want to be a man, I need a mentor -- that's a cry for children."

Ali has enlisted dozens of children and adults to participate in the annual march Downtown on Monday that honors King. When the march ends at the National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis Cares will make its formal debut at 9:30 a.m.

Memphis Cares is the local outgrowth of a national mentoring crusade led by Susan L. Taylor, formerly of Essence magazine, who will be at the museum Monday.

In the next year, organizers will recruit 3,000 black women and 3,000 black men to mentor black children. (That said, white people who want to mentor will not be turned away.)

Ali, who speaks with the zeal of a preacher, finds hope in the prophecy in the last speech King delivered, at Mason Temple on April 3, 1968. "I've seen the promised land," King said the night before he was assassinated. "I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!"

Biblical scholars will note that the Israelites' entry into the promised land was delayed in part because of the people's fear of the giants in the land.

Forty years after King was killed, Ali asserts that black America is "worse off because we have not gotten together as a community to solve our own problems and our own issues.

"Our giants today are drugs, black-on-black crime, AIDS ... black male incarceration," Ali says. "Those are the giants that we've got to fight today. And if we don't destroy those giants now, within the next 10 years, (there) may not be a promised land for us."

Contact: Wendi C. Thomas at 529-5896 or e-mail thomasw@commercialappeal.com.

Hiking 4 Fathers

Blended Family Dad Hiking Across America on Behalf of Fathers

A south Georgia blended family father of many has a plan to promote the valuable impact fathers make to the family, community and nation. The 49-year-old veteran long distance hiker will use his experience hiking the famed 2,172-mile Appalachian Trail as the basis for a new series of inspirational books called, "My Fathers Voice." This book series is geared toward encouraging fatherless children with the stories and father's advice gathered during his upcoming six-month "Hike4Fathers."

Brunswick, GA (PRWEB) January 10, 2008 -- William Bateman, a Christian blended family father of many, is preparing to hike the historic Appalachian National Scenic Trail on June 1, 2008. A veteran long distance hiker, Bateman embarks on his six-month journey at Baxter State Park in central Maine. He will continue hiking south bound through 14 eastern U.S. states until he reaches the end of the trail at Amicalola Falls, Georgia -- a distance of 2,172 miles.

William Bateman, who goes by the trail name "Spanky", hiked more than 1,000 miles of the A.T. in 2002 on behalf of Florida's foster children. That effort was a learning curve for Bateman and cemented his desire to repeat his efforts in 2008, albeit, a different reason.

"When I first hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2002, I quickly discovered there was more to hiking the A.T. than beautiful vistas and small towns." Mr. Bateman continues, "I was deeply moved by the many strangers I talked to along the way, who shared with me their strikingly sad recollections growing up without ever hearing their father's voice. Their stories gave me the inspiration for a unique series of books that could be a kind of solace for that hurting soul."

Bateman's plan is simple, yet profound in scope. He will use his journey hiking along the A.T. as a means for interviewing people of all ages and all walks of life, journaling each person's recollections of sage advice passed down from a father figure from their own past -- and compiling those same responses into a book form for fatherless children called, "My Father's Voice."

"I meet so many young people today, who sadly miss never having a deep relationship with their own fathers, for whatever reasons." He goes on to explain, "There are many reasons why a dad does not or can not invest in his own family. Untimely Death. Separation and Divorce. Incarceration. Misplaced career priorities. The reasons for a fatherless family are many but the common denominator always seems to be one thing." When pressed to share what that was, Mr. Bateman replied, "Each person needed their father's voice at a critical point in their lives ... and their father was not there."

William and his wife Elaine, have mentored numerous young adults over the last 13 years; watching them develop in faith and responsibility toward raising their own families, investing in their local communities and serving their country. A number of their "kids" have served with the United States Armed Forces in Afghanistan and Iraq and as Christian missionaries to Costa Rica, south Florida, Ireland, Uganda and western Montana.

Bateman thoughtfully added his own sage fathering tip; "Fathers show sons how to become husbands, daughters how to be wives and children how to be parents."

William Bateman has previously appeared as a featured guest on National Public Radio, numerous Christian radio stations, the International Univision Television and Telemundo Television Networks and Faithwriter's Magazine. He is available for single, single-again, stepfamily, family and men's conferences. Bateman also is seeking financial sponsorship of his "Hike4Fathers" effort to promote the role fathers contribute to their families, communities and nation.

Contact:
Elaine Bateman
Hike4Fathers Coordinator
P.O. Box 131
139 Altama Connector
Brunswick, GA 31525
912-267-0000

Teen Suicide

Teen Suicide
Teen suicide has risen 300 percent in the last three decades. Know how to recognize the signs that a teen in your church is troubled--and the best way to help them.
By Linda S. Mintle, Ph.D.

Did you know suicide is now the third leading cause of death among people age 13 to 24? According to a recent survey of high school students, teens (60 percent) often think about killing themselves, and some (9 percent) say they have made an attempt at least once. In the last three decades, teen suicide has risen 300 percent. In light of such dramatic numbers, it is imperative that parents as well as those in ministry who work with young people know the signs signaling a troubled teen.

Depression is behind suicide. Signs of teen depression include but are not limited to: sleeping more than usual; not sleeping well and feeling tired; appetite changes; restlessness; and isolation from friends and family.

Following are some steps parents can take to prevent teens from becoming a statistic. Church leaders who work with youth should be aware of these as well.

Talk with your teen about his suicidal feelings. Talking about suicide does not cause someone to do it. Ask if he has a plan. If he does, he is more at risk.

Don't promise to keep suicidal feelings a secret. Make it clear people must be told so help can be given.

Communicate there is a way out of whatever he faces. Options need to be presented. The lie of hopelessness must be confronted.

Don't lecture. Teens will talk if you listen. Make yourself available.

Reassure him that he is not a burden. Assure him you want to hear what he is thinking and will take it seriously.

Remove any means for self-harm. If there are guns, pills, knives or ropes available for harm, get rid of them.

Identify the lie that is telling him to self-destruct, and ask God to reveal the truth to him. Speak the Word of God into his life. Pray and intercede.

Teach him the Word of God. Scripture is a powerful weapon against any attack. Fill your teen so full of the Word that he recognizes the truth. The truth will set him free. Begin at an early age.

Tell your teen he is loved unconditionally. Communicate there is nothing he can do to make you stop loving him.

Spend time with your teen. The single best prevention against any teen risk behavior is a meaningful relationship with a parent. Know your teen. Be involved.

Be direct. Problems aren't solved by death. Instead people are hurt. Discuss how those alive suffer.

Give hope. God will never leave or forsake that teen. Ask God to reveal His truth whenever the lie of self-destruction appears.

Get professional help. Suicidal teens suffer from depression. They may need intervention from people trained to work with depression and/or suicide issues.

There are many sources of help. Check your local mental health agencies, and ask for Christian therapists trained to treat teen depression and suicide.

Youth leaders should be involved as prayer partners. If you need help related to this issue and don't know where to begin, contact your family physician or community services.

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Linda S. Mintle, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical social worker and author of the new "Breaking Free" book series (www.charismahouse.com), from which this article was adapted.