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A Little Yeast Leavens the Whole Lump
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
Here's what happens when you have too much of a good thing! It takes just a spoonful or so of yeast to make a whole batch of bread rise up: put in too much, and you'll have a real mess on your hands. The same is true with our emotions: they serve a good purpose when kept in moderation, but when we let them rise up and spill over, watch out! Lust, anger, greed, jealousy... any or all of these can make a big mess of our lives. St. Paul describes what happens when sexual attraction is allowed to turn into lust:
"It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles, that one has his father's wife. You are puffed up, and didn't rather mourn, that he who had done this deed might be removed from among you. For I most assuredly, as being absent in body but present in spirit, have already, as though I were present, judged him who has done this thing. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, you being gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, are to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little yeast leavens the whole lump? Purge out the old yeast, that you may be a new lump, even as you are unleavened." (1 Corinthians 5:1-7a)
As I was putting together this issue of Hosken-News, my wife Cheryl was watching a home improvement TV program. They showed a beautiful brick fireplace with nice tiles laid in the floor in front of it. That's a great image of useful fire: it's a good thing when it is kept in its place, but if it jumps beyond the bricks and tiles onto the furniture or wooden floor, you've got a real problem! It's the same way with the emotion of sexual attraction: God gave us this gift for the procreation of the human race. When humans discovered how to make fire and control it, civilization took a huge leap forward. And when God revealed to Moses the principle of monogamous marriage between a man and a woman who are not blood relatives, the stability and growth of civilized human society experienced a great advance. One only has to study cultures where pornography, incest, polygamy, adultery, homosexual acts, and rape were or are allowed to see that those cultures don't advance, they soon degenerate and collapse.
"But... but... but..." - some people (most often those with "liberal" college educations) will object: the same bad stuff goes on even in so-called Christian societies. Yes, there is still a tendency to sin even among Christians. But as the above Scripture quote indicates, it is highly frowned upon even to the point of excommunication from the Church: see verse 11 of the above chapter - "But as it is, I wrote to you not to have fellowship with anyone who is called a brother who is a sexual sinner, or covetous, or an idolater, or a slanderer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner. Don't even eat with such a person." When society or churches relax those standards, things begin to fall apart. It's a gradual process that takes two or three generations (60 to 90 years), but it's happening.
When I was a child, homosexuality was a crime and child molestation was a capital offense. The "progressives," however, argued that you mustn't condemn all gays because not all of them are child molesters. There may be a grain of truth in that sand they're throwing in your eyes, but see this government statistic: Comparative Data of Childhood and Adolescence Molestation in Heterosexual and Homosexual Persons - there's a ten- to twenty-times greater probability of homosexuals molesting children compared to heteros. Not every drunk driver kills a pedestrian, but the probability is so much greater that we have laws against drunk driving - and rightly so.
That is like saying not everyone who looks at pornography is a child molester. But statistics of those in prison for child molestation show that virtually 100% of them were addicted to pornography. Here's another article on this subject: Child Molestation and Homosexuality. People will compare the numbers of molestations by gay vs. staight men and say - "Look at the statistics: gays molest fewer kids than straights!" But they ignore the fact that gays make up only 1% to 2% of the population, and yet commit 35% of child molestations. All of this indicates that when emotions and passions become misdirected and out of control, when the fire jumps out of the fireplace, we have serious social problems to deal with.
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Why do I write about these things? It's because these are the things that secularists, leftists, and "progressives" are trying to convince us are perfectly normal and acceptable today. Seventy years ago, I and other neighborhood children were molested by a homosexual neighbor and he was sent to prison. But today, with the normalizing and mainstreaming of pornography, fornication, adultery, and homosexuality, they're getting away scot-free, and their goal is to weaken the social fabric to the point of collapse. This is called "Cultural Marxism" or "the long march through the institutions" - law, education, arts, entertainment, communication, and social services. When society is stressed to the point of collapse, they can pull off their revolution and install a so-called proletarian paradise. But the twentieth century is replete with examples of how utopian socialist experiments have failed miserably, with the senseless murder of over a hundred million of their own people.
In the article 'We will have papa and mamma': Putin says no to gay 'marriage' in Russia, the Russian president displays that country's distaste for homosexuals and gay "marriage," but that man is hardly leading by example, having dumped his wife in favor of his female judo "partner." It's very easy for any of us, though, to say - "I'm not so bad, look at that person over there!" Guilt projection and blame redirection is a disinformation trick that's as old as the hills.
In 1 Cor. 6:9-11, St. Paul writes - "Or don't you know that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don't be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor extortioners, will inherit the Kingdom of God. Such were some of you, but you were washed. But you were sanctified. But you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the Spirit of our God." Opponents will say - "That Paul guy, he's just a homophobe and misogynist!"
No, Paul is not a homophobe, he is a "kharisophile." "Kharis" is the Greek word for "grace" which is God's free gift of the Holy Spirit's power to transform our lives: "Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 3:17-18). And in Philippians 3:20-21, Paul wrote - "For our citizenship is in heaven, from where we also wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; Who will change the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of His glory, according to the working by which he is able even to subject all things to Himself." This is what awaits those who respond to God's grace: not corruption and death, but liberation from lust and transformation into beings who share God's glory!
And it's not just St. Paul who spoke out on this topic: on the Day of Pentecost, St. Peter preached to a huge crowd - "'Repent, and be baptized, everyone of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For to you is the promise, and to your children, and to all who are far off, even as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.' With many other words he testified, and exhorted them, saying, 'Save yourselves from this perverted generation!'" (Acts 2:38-40). Yes, the Greek text actually uses the word "perverted." Sexual immorality and perversion were rampant in the first-century Greco-Roman Empire, including Israel. But the Holy Spirit transforms us and enables us to overcome perversion.
"Therefore I urge you, brothers [and sisters], by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service. Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God" (Romans 12:1-2). That's radical transformation!
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Christ is among us! He is and ever shall be!
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NOW, THE NEWS:
HOW THIS RUSSIAN POLITICAL PRISONER PREDICTED THE MORAL DECLINE OF THE WEST
from: LifeSite News
(12 Feb.) Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn was a renowned Russian novelist, political prisoner, historian, and philosopher. Jonathon Van Maren calls him one of the greatest authors of the 20th century. Solzhenitsyn is well-known for his work detailing his time as a political prisoner and exposing the inner workings of the Russian political machine, the Secret Police, and much more. Solzhenitsyn died in 2008, but his wisdom and experience can provide guidance to all of us as we navigate the morphing of governments around the world into bodies that increasingly resemble communism.
Pope St. John Paul II, Ronald Reagan, and Margaret Thatcher may have been the political giants who helped to take down communism, but Pearce argues that Solzhenitsyn was responsible for helping people all across the West and the Soviet Union understand the ethical and moral issues with communism.
In his youth, Solzhenitsyn was a faithful member of the Soviet Union. That changed with his arrest for "criticizing" Stalin, quite mildly, in "private" correspondence to a friend. His arrest and being sent to the Gulag Archipelago, a network of forced labor prison camps, gave him an inside look at the Soviet Union. His experiences made him one of the strongest opponents of the Soviet Union. Solzhenitsyn sees his arrest and a few other moments of suffering in his life as major points of conversion. Another big conversion experience happened during his time in the gulag when he was diagnosed with what was believed to be terminal cancer. This triggered his conversion to Russian Orthodoxy from atheism.
After being released from the gulag and its seven years of hard labor, Solzhenitsyn wrote The Gulag Archipelago and won a Nobel Peace Prize. His writings were so successful at exposing the evils of communism that they were banned in Russia and he became the target of a KGB assassination attempt. He miraculously survived being poisoned by the same toxins that the KGB used to successfully kill other dissenters and was exiled from Russia in 1974.
In this interview, Van Maren and Pearce explore how Solzhenitsyn's work and philosophy can be applied today. "We are actually living in tyrannical times. It is basically impossible now for someone who believes what humanity always believed about humanity to actually have a position in a secular university or college. They will be fired," Pearce tells Van Maren. [read more~~]
COMMENTARY: I know about assassination attempts: Anatolii Krasnov-Levitin, another Orthodox Christian and Soviet dissident whose gulag imprisonment memoirs I translated, was nearly killed in Switzerland when the KGB tried to assasinate him after they exiled him. My wife Cheryl and I were in Russia during August, 2008, when Solzhenitsyn died [and when Russia invaded Georgia]. When he was exiled from the USSR, he was received as a human rights hero in the U.S. But after he spoke at leading left-leaning U.S. universities about similar tendencies toward authoritarianism and moral decline in the West, he was dropped like a hot potato. He had returned to Russia after the dissolution of the USSR and was considered a national hero there. I still have a Russian newspaper with the headline annnouncing his death. Having visited Russian prisons, I can attest that his depiction of the horrible conditions in the gulag were and are accurate.
TAJIKISTAN: CHURCHES CONFISCATED, NO SIGN OF PROMISED KINDERGARTEN
by Mushfig Bayram: Forum 18 News Service
(21 Feb.) Sunmin Sunbogym (Full Gospel) Protestant Church's two buildings - in Konibodom and Khujand in northern Tajikistan - have both been sealed by the authorities and left empty since 2017 raids that led to the torture of church members, the jailing of their pastor, and the forcible closure of the Konibodom branch of the church. One of the churches was closed with a 2018 excuse that a kindergarten would open there - but in 2020 there is no still sign of the kindergarten.
"After the 2017 raids and arrest of Pastor Bakhrom Kholmatov, the number of worshippers in Khujand itself went down from roughly 500 people to about 100," a Tajik Protestant told Forum 18 on 19 February 2020. The fall in numbers was particularly noticeable after the buildings were confiscated. "People are afraid to go to church because of what happened."
The authorities confiscated the Khujand building in 2018, claiming that they wanted to turn it into a kindergarten. Yet in 2020 there is still no sign of the kindergarten. Officials have refused to discuss the issue. For example, Muhayyo Akmalkhojayeva, Head of Khujand's Education Department told Forum 18 on that "we asked the Education Ministry and other organs to transfer the building to us because we had a lack of kindergartens." Asked why the building is still empty and why kindergartens cannot be built on other sites, she then claimed: "I am very busy, and can only talk to you if you come to our office."
As well as ordering the building's confiscation, courts have refused to order compensation to be paid for the large financial sums the Church spent since 1995 to restore the now-confiscated building. Judges and court officials have refused to discuss their decisions or their legality.
Sunmin Sunbogym's Khujand congregation now meets in a space made from two standard 40-foot shipping containers placed on the land around its building. "Church members are praying for a new building as they feel that they meet in a cage instead of a normal building," local Protestants complained. "Also, the Church has to pay a large electricity bill to keep the temperature inside the metal containers normal in the cold winter and hot summer months" [read more~~]
COMMENTARY: Again, here are more lies and double-speak by the old-line Marxist authorities in this former Soviet republic. They like to allow believers to spend their resources on buildings, only to confiscate or demolish them after a few years. We had that happen with an office we built in Moscow, and we have seen it happen with churches in various Russian cities. Persecution under socialist governments - even those that no longer call themselves socialist but use the term "secular" - is still a very significant factor inhibiting freedom of religious expression. "Freedom to believe" is virtually meaningless unless a person is able to express his beliefs.
U.S. EASTERN CATHOLIC BISHOPS THANK POPE FOR LIFTING BAN ON MARRIED PRIESTS
from: Religious Information Service of Ukraine
(23 Feb.) Pope Francis "is a father who knows very well his daughters and sons," including those who belong to the Eastern Catholic churches, said the Armenian Catholic bishop of the United States and Canada.
Bishop Mikael A. Mouradian of the California-based Armenian Catholic Eparchy of Our Lady of Nareg was one of 15 bishops from eight Eastern Catholic churches who spent close to three hours conversing with Pope Francis Feb. 20. CNS report.
The Armenian bishop and others who spoke to Catholic News Service said they thanked Pope Francis for his decision in 2014 to lift an 85-year-old Vatican ban on ordaining married priests for the Eastern Catholic churches outside their traditional homelands where married priests are common. "I ordained my first married priest two years ago," the bishop said. "he is our first american-born vocation to the priesthood, and he's doing an amazing job."
Mouradian said the pope’s decision to lift the ban did not open any floodgates because the bishop has conditions candidates must meet: "I always request that they have at least five years of experience in matrimony" and have children; and they must have at least a master's of divinity degree. In addition, "the wife should agree that the husband will be a priest." [read more~~]
COMMENTARY: The "Eastern Catholics" include not only Armenian Catholics, but also some groups in the Middle East and in Central Europe, including the Carpatho-Rusyn people mainly in the area of southern Poland and northwestern Ukraine. They had been made subject to the pope when Catholic armies had invaded Orthodox lands. Millions of these people emigrated from there to the U.S. about 100 years ago as Eastern-rite Catholics, following the Eastern Orthodox liturgical forms but acknowledging the Roman Pope in their services. However, when a Catholic bishop in Minnesota insisted on priestly celibacy, almost half of them broke away from Rome and returned to Eastern Orthodoxy with its married priesthood. Now there is discussion of allowing married priests in the Latin-rite Roman Catholic Church, which in my view would be a huge step toward resolving the crisis of homosexuality and molestation in that church.
PAN-ORTHODOX MEETING ON 'UKRAINIAN ISSUE' TO BE HELD IN AMMAN ON FEB. 26
from: Interfax-Religion
(14 Feb.) A meeting between the heads and representatives of the Orthodox churches to discuss the situation involving the creation of the new church of Ukraine (OCU) will be held in Amman on February 26, Archpriest Igor Yakimchuk, Secretary of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations for inter-Orthodox Relations, told Interfax.
When asked who will attend this meeting, the priest said - "There is currently no full information." The Russian Orthodox Church earlier said Patriarch Kirill was ready to attend the meeting in Jordan. It was reported on Friday that Serbian Patriarch Irinej would attend and that the Romanian and Polish Orthodox Churches would send their delegates to the meeting in Jordan.
The proposal to hold a meeting of the local Churches in Amman was made by Patriarch Theophilus of Jerusalem in Moscow on November 21, 2019. While welcoming this initiative, the Russian Orthodox Church, at the same time, said that "Many efforts and more than one meeting may be needed to achieve visible results," Archpriest Nikolay Balashov, Deputy Head of the Synodal Department for External Church Relations, recently told Interfax.
The Orthodox Church of Ukraine was created in December 2018 by the Constantinople Patriarchate with support from then-administration of Ukraine. None of the local Orthodox churches except for Constantinople recognized it for many months. However, some bishops of the Greek Church and the Alexandria Patriarchate, which cares for the Orthodox communities of Africa, recognized it last fall. [read more~~]
COMMENTARY: We can hope and pray that this meeting will help bring about a just and peaceful solution to the overlapping and conflicting jurisdictions of Orthodox and Eastern-rite Catholics in Ukraine. It appears at this time, however, that the conference attendees are mainly Moscow-oriented and the outcome may well be tilted in that direction.
PORTUGAL MOVES CLOSER TO LEGAL EUTHANASIA
from: BioEdge
(23 Feb.) After its parliament approved five bills this week, Portugal will probably become the next country to legalise euthanasia and assisted suicide. The next step is for a committee to consolidate the five proposals into one bill. However, right to die is not yet done and dusted. President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, a conservative, could veto the bill. Opposition groups are also pressing for a referendum.
All five proposals agreed on the usual conditions for euthanasia - a patient must be over 18, not suffering from a mental illness, and the request can be granted only if the patient is terminally ill and suffering unbearable pain, Reuters news agency reported.
"It is a historic day. It is a big day for democracy," said the Left Bloc's leader, Catarina Martins, soon after the proposals were approved. The right-to-die lobby's win came two years after parliament rejected a bill to legalize voluntary euthanasia for terminal patients by a slim margin.
Like neighbouring Spain, traditionally Catholic Portugal has put its conservative past behind. It legalized abortions in 2007 and permitted same-sex marriage in 2010. [read more~~]
COMMENTARY: Country after country around the world are falling prey to this wave of legalizing the murder of elderly people. In the same issue of BioEdge, it reported on similar movements in Belgium and Australia. What began over fifty years ago as pain management in hospice care has gradually morphed into giving large-enough doses of painkillers to bring about the death of the patient, sometimes without the patient's informed consent: a relative, a doctor, or the state can sign the necessary forms.
WOMAN SAYS AFTER HER BABY SURVIVED ABORTION, MEDICAL STAFF GAVE HIM NO TREATMENT
from: Daily Signal
(20 Feb.) Her abortion was supposed to be "100% effective." That's what doctors told Sofia Khan when she found out her unborn son had spina bifida. "We were heartbroken," she told the U.K.'s Sun, "but we made the decision to terminate. We felt it was best for the baby, but even so, I had moments of doubt and guilt." But that doubt and guilt gave way to horror the day her procedure came—and her baby was born alive.
The lethal injection to her womb was supposed to still the baby’s heart, but hours after the procedure she panicked. She could feel her son "wiggling around" — something the midwife called "impossible." The doctors did two scans and insisted there was no heartbeat.
She was transferred to the hospital, where she started to have a strange feeling. "I felt the baby kick," she insisted to the staff. "I asked her to put the monitor on to be sure, but she said there was no need." Ten hours later, instead of giving birth to a dead baby, she heard crying.
"The midwife went into shock. She was screaming for help, [running] with the baby into the corridor. They brought him back and said: 'What do you want us to do?' and I didn't know what they meant. I held him and cuddled him and told him how much I loved him."
He lived for more than an hour, but with no effort to save his life, their baby died. A year and a half later, Khan still hasn't recovered. [read more~~]
COMMENTARY: I strongly urge you to read the whole article: click the "read more" link! It tells that statistics report 10% to 20% of late-tem abortions are botched and result in a live birth, but a nurse who has witnessed them said the percentage is probably much higher. Under-reporting unpleasant statistics such as this or undesirable side-effects of drugs most often is kept hidden by medical authorities and drug companies.
NOW, OUR VIEWS:
A New Approach to Home Care
Dear friend,
What is Home-Based Primary Care (HBPC)? "HBPC programs provide appropriate care (primary, urgent, or palliative) to high-risk, medically vulnerable patients, often suffering multiple chronic conditions, when and where they need it. This patient-centric, continuous care model delivers clinical, economic, and human benefits such as:
* facilitating timely interventions when chronic conditions worsen and preempting avoidable emergency department visits and hospitalizations
* alleviating social stressors that contribute to poor health
* comforting patients by giving them loving care and letting them know they’re not alone."
Some states, recognizing that home health care is far less expensive than nursing home care, are starting to supplement family caregivers: States take the lead on addressing family caregiver needs. "As baby boomers grow into old age, there is a growing demand for caregivers — both paid and unpaid. While legislators have largely overlooked the looming shortage, some states are stepping into the void with innovative solutions.
"In Hawaii, family caregivers who work outside the home can get up to $70 per day from the state to apply toward adult day services. Washington has a tool to assess the needs of family caregivers and refer them to the most useful resources, and in Minnesota, the 'Live Well at Home' program gives grants to local organizations to test ways to support older adults and caregivers."
Check out AARP's Family Caregiving How-To Video Series: "Special Diets", "Managing Incontinence", "Wound Care", "Mobility", and "Managing Medications" with lots of instructional materials; also the Home Alone Alliance - "a partnership of public, private, and nonprofit sector organizations coming together to change the way health care organizations and professionals interface with family caregivers.
"20 million family caregivers say they perform medical/nursing tasks. These include handling prescriptions, helping someone climb the stairs with a cane, and caring for and cleaning wounds. Family caregivers often do these tasks with no training or help from health care professionals." This is why we offer our online Social Ministries of the Church program.
An example of Supporting older adults and their caregivers in the community is Wellmed Charitable Foundation's activity centers for seniors in Texas and Florida. This will give you an idea of what might be available in your state too! Also see their page on Caregiver Support for emergency call-in help, caregiver coaching, caregiver teleconferences, a stress-busting program and more.
Just one of the many Home Health Care organizations is Home Instead Senior Care with branches all over the U.S. They also offer free monthly newsletters with tips and advice for caregivers of elderly loved ones. You can also do an Internet search for "home health care organizations in XX" (XX = your state) to find out what's available locally, or go to Home Care Association of America and click on the "Find a Provider" link.
The John A. Hartford Foundation "is dedicated to improving the care of older adults" including Age-Friendly Health Systems - "an initiative of The John A. Hartford Foundation and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in partnership with the American Hospital Association and the Catholic Health Association of the United States." They sponsor a multitude of programs all over the U.S. to advance health care for people in the "baby boom" generation who are reaching their 70s now, when health issues tend to crop up.
Here's a really helpful factsheet: Supporting the Critical Role of Family Caregivers: State Opportunities on the value and the personal toll of family caregivers, as well as examples of what some states are doing to support this vitally important role. Print it, hand it out, and share it online!
The RAISE Family Caregiving Advisory Council of the U.S. government's Administration for Community Living (ACL) consists of non-governmental and federal government members chosen for "providing recommendations to the Secretary of Health and Human Services on effective models of both family caregiving and support to family caregivers, as well as improving coordination across federal government programs."
I hope you've found this info to be helpful!
"Dr. Bob"
Robert D. Hosken, M.Min., D.Min.
Having published these "Hosken-News" e-newsletters and a previous series since the early 1970s, I continue to be appalled at the apathy of people in the West to what is going on not only in distant lands, but also right here in the U.S. where an openly socialist candidate has now taken the lead in the "progressive" (leftist) party. I've been told by close friends years ago that it couldn't happen here, that my idea of a gradual takeover of our society and political system was merely a conspiracy theory. Human nature tends toward the "normalcy bias," believing that everything will just keep on going "like normal" ...until we're shocked into our proper senses by what is staring us in the face. Is anybody awake out there?
It should not take a rocket scientist to figure out what's going on in the world: there exists a powerful movement in our social institutions of education, arts, the media, and even in many churches, to morph our society into a secularist, socialist, and relativist worldview that barely tolerates a lukewarm belief in God that you should keep out of the public square, out of polite conversation, while pornography, adultery, homosexuality, and anarchy are normalized. My ancestor Jonathan Edwards was the leader of the First Great Awakening in early U.S. history. There was a Second Great Awakening in the mid-1800s, and now it is time for another spiritual revival, a Third Great Awakening, in the U.S. before it's too late.
Please remember to pray for Christians in Secularized Countries, and for~~
Your fellow-servants,
Bob & Cheryl
p.s. The measure of a man is not how much he has accumulated for himself, but how much he has done for others.
