It is time to teach your sons to man up. I’m not talking about making them macho, just responsible, contributors to society. The manly man focus introduced through Wild at Heart by John Eldridge, in my opinion, has done almost as much damage to Christian young men as Purity Culture has done to young women. The difference is there may also be a link to Christian Nationilism resulting from the Eldridge work.

Poor, delicate, little snowflakes. America, we have created a generation of helpless children that might look like adults, but lack the basic skills necessary to survive without mommy and daddy hovering over and protecting them. I recently listened for a second time to a podcast by Dr. Jeff Iorg, President of Gateway Seminary in Ontario, California that he called, “Man Card.”

Iorg encouraged parents, specifically Christians, to focus to making their children, especially their sons, responsible adults no matter how difficult it may be for all concerned.​ He lamented the ‘prolonged adolescence’ resulting from overprotective parents.

To make his point he described a new course offered by the University of California at Berkeley. Before continuing, consider this. California, along with a number of other states, allows 16 year-olds to register or pre-register to vote. And yet, college-aged young adults, at least in California, apparently need a class to know how to function in the grown-up world.

The course, Psychology 198, was called ‘Adulting.’ A grade of pass/no pass was awarded. (Apparently failure is not a part of the Berkeley adulting world). Perhaps that is why it filled up so quickly. Seems sort of like a trophy for participation, but that’s what many have come to expect.

Regardless, the course description used these words to describe the need for it. “The school system does not require a class for students to learn how to live in the real world and function as an adult. We often enter college unprepared to take care of ourselves.” Wow! Old enough to vote, buy a car, obtain a credit card and register to be drafted into military service, but unable to take care of themselves?

Is it any wonder politicians who resemble indulgent parents appeal to that demographic. It may also be why some parents must obtain a court order to remove adult children from the family home? I concur with UC Berkeley about schools not creating responsible adults.

Even more, I concur with Dr. Iorg that schools never had that responsibility. Parents do! It is time parents quit coddling their children, especially their sons. Learning to navigate the ‘real world’ should begin in elementary school not college or graduate school. 

I am outraged! If you are not outraged over the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner, Ahmaud Arbery and other minority group members killed by police or vigilantes you have no heart. If you do not demand police accountability when investigation into their actions warrants, you have no soul. If you condemn every police officer or the thousands who peacefully protest because of the criminal acts of a few, you have no brain.

It is a mistake to attempt to solve complex problems with simple solutions or use tragedy for political gain. Yet there is no shortage of folks trying to do just that. When it comes to interactions between black Americans and police, too often the encounters that end in tragedy begin with unlawful behavior. Yet, that fact is often omitted in demands to abolish or defund the police.

The evidence does not support claims that biased police are systematically killing black Americans. But statistics do show minorities ar disproportionally killed by police. In a July 3, 2020 USA Today opinion piece, Heather MacDonald, asserted, “The African American community tends to be policed more heavily because that is where people are disproportionally hurt by violent street crime. . .  In New York City in 2018, 73% of shooting victims were Black, though Black residents comprise only 24% of the city’s population.”

According to the National Institute of Justice report by Anthony A. Braga and Rod K. Brunson, published in 2015, “resulting from a history of exclusion from important economic and social opportunities, residents of disadvantaged urban neighborhoods are primarily minorities and often black. Research has long documented that most violence occurs within racial groups and that black Americans, often victimized by black offenders, experience disproportionately high levels of violent crime.”

Sadly, bad black people are killing each other along with innocent black people. The most egregious example is Chicago, which epitomizes the failure of politics to resolve social problems. We are only six months into the year and there have already been 329 people killed, up 34% over last year. People demand changes in laws when what is needed is changes of hearts. Politics are not the answer. The Democrates claim to be the party of the black voter. Chicago is led by black Democrats. It has a black mayor, black police chief and 40 percent black aldermen. The last Republican mayor left office in 1931 and there are currently no Republicans among the city’s 50 aldermen.

The hypocracy is not confined to Democrats. How can Republicans denounce China for human rights violations while justifying perpetrating violence against peaceful protestors to afford our president a photo-op in front of a church? As outraged as I am by how George Floyd died, I am equally outraged by the state funeral spectacle played and replayed on the evening news.

Mr. Floyd is a dead black man who should not have died, but his death certainly did not warrant the sort of coverage suitable for the likes of Elijah Cummings, Damon Keith, Edith Irby Jones or Toni Morrison, to name only a few. Nor should what happened justify emasculating a police force and ceding a police station, along with several city blocks, to a leaderless mob like we witnessed in Seattle.

Where are the voices of outrage over black on black violence? Where are the voices of outrage over rogue police officers like those who took Floyd’s life? Where are the voices of outrage opposing abortion, but not the supporting women forced to carry babies they cannot afford to feed? Where are the voices of ourage demanding men of all races, who father children out of wedlock, accept responsibility for raising them, or at least, supporting them and instilling sound moral values in them?

Where were the protestors when the government was removing children from parents whose only crime was wanting a better or safer life for them? We all stand guilty. Conservatives demand individual accountability for sin while progressives write laws intended to correct our society’s sins. Nothing really changes. It is all talk, ill-conceived over-reaction, acceptance of moral failure and/or lack of personal accountability. Jesus is the answer, but both sides are yelling so loudly that no one can hear what the Prince of Peace has to say.

We can all take three lessons from the Seattle Seahawks. As a Seattle Seahawks fan I admit experiencing a twinge of deja vu during the last minute of the last game of the 2019 regular season. Being denied a score from within arms length of the prize with Beast Mode on the sidelines should have been a no-brainer. After all we had seen that movie before in Super Bowl 49 against New England. But, as it turned out expecting a different result would have been as unwise as betting on an instant replay and hoping for a different outcome. We lost the game by a matter of inches.

 I am not a coach and didn’t play football well, so it would be presumptuous for me to criticize the coaches or players. But I know the 12’s have been excited and entertained every time they took the field. And it still isn’t over. We are fortunate to have them in our house. (I just wish we were playing our next two games there.) We’ll have to wait to see how it turns out in the future. In the meantime, I think there are three faith lessons we can take away from the Seahawks.

The first is there are four quarters in a game. No player knows for certain that they will play them all. But they can’t wait until the final fifteen minutes and expect everything to turn out ok. They need to know the playbook, take the field in shape and give it their best effort on every down. In life, too many of us wait until the final quarter to get serious about Jesus. Unlike pro football, it doesn’t matter when we start. We may never be a star player but we are always in the game and will always be on the winning team.

The second is playing to your strength. The guys on the sideline and practically everyone wearing blue and green in the stands anticipated Wilson would feed the Beast. You could just sense redemption in the air. Lynch was brought back for just that scenario. He has a reputation for getting stronger the more carries he has and had averaged more yards per carry than the Hawks needed to win. Instead, they bet on Wilson’s passing. As they did against the Patriots, they relied on him, alone. 

Under pressure, he unsuccessfully threw four passes at a crowded end zone. Three missed the mark. The fourth was caught but spotted inches short of the goal line. With no more downs there were no do-overs. It’s the same in life. We can’t make it on our own. If we try, we will fall short of the prize with no second opportunity. Jesus must be both lord and savior in our lives. In exchange he provides us with the power to win, even though we may face setbacks along the way. Trusting anything or anyone else is not playing to our strength. It is playing to lose.

The third is situational awareness. Delay of game cost the team five yards. Stopping short of the goal cost them the game. Where are you? Is your faith in Jesus head faith or heart faith? Do you just know about Jesus or do you know and trust him with every facet of your life? If it is head faith only, you are going to miss the mark by about 18 inches, the distance between your head and heart. How do you measure up? The clock is ticking. Run or pass?