Treasure In Clay Jars

Over the past few months, a few conservative TV and radio hosts have been lamenting the increase instances of child sexual predators being given lenient jail sentences or no jail time altogether by many judges throughout the country. Two-fold is their justifiable disgust, in that a) many in the judicial system seem to give more deference to the so-called “mental illness” of the vultures who prey on innocent children and b) the fact that there is so little outrage about this subject by the vast majority of those in the press, the electronic media, politicians or the general public. I believe the cause of this seeming indifference to exposing and cracking down hard on child sexual abusers is the fact that this problem is and has been the dirty little secret that infects a significant portion of families throughout the United States. Many all-American families contain both victims and victimizers of child sexual abuse. Typically the victims are so traumatized by their abuse that they are

Today is the first day of spring, and like clockwork the violent weather of thunderstorms and tornadoes has begun primarily in the plain states with the usual devastating consequences for those in the paths of these weather systems. I happen to be watching the Weather Channel this evening, and there was video footage of a woman, whose roof was ripped off by a tornado last week, and whose remaining house was being imperiled by a snowstorm this week. Among the comments of another man similarly affected was the fact that “…mother nature sure can be violent”. Cut away then to the Weather Channel anchor whose comment, introducing the next story about a drastic change in the weather pattern in the southeast, was that “mother nature is at it again…” I just have one question: who is mother nature? It is an extremely common phrase that is used by millions throughout the United States to allude to the ubiquitous and oftentimes overpowering presence of the weather over the daily affairs of people

An interesting development taking place recently is the creation of an all-Catholic community in southwest Florida being funded extensively by Thomas Monaghan, founder of the Domino's Pizza chain. Mr. Monaghan is apparently a devout Catholic who rejects the more liberal tenets of the Catholic Church since the Vatican 2 Council of the 1960s. Actor Mel Gibson is another adherent to this view of Catholicism. That Mr. Monaghan is attempting to do this, particularly through his own funds in collaboration with others is very understandable, when you consider the day to day existence that is becoming more and more an all out assault against Biblical principles within modern society. To be sure, there will be many Catholics who will welcome the opportunity to live largely insulated from the secular world within this community. There may be doubts about whether this approach is biblically based particularly if it results in the reduced ability to co-mingle with unbelievers such that the li