gifts and coercion

[Douglas <dougwils@moscow.com>]

Dear visionaries,

Tom Hansen chides us. He said "my father and my grandfather have
preached to me that Christian people do these things without expecting
consideration in return. It is simply the way life should be." I
actually agree with this completely, as far as it goes, and would simply
want to extend the principle. "Christian people do these things
without the threat of coercion and without expecting consideration
in return. It is simply the way life should be." I am grateful that
Tom Hansen spent all that time decorating trees, donating time, etc. I
have done the same kind of thing, to the tune of countless hours. But I
wonder how he would have felt about all that donated time if the
government had told his grandfather and father that if they did not, the
government would repossess their house. I have given to kids much more
than has been forcibly taken from me "for the kids." And with
all my limitations, I have enough horse sense to know the difference
between the two.

Steve Wells apparently thinks that we Christians didn't know that breasts
were in the Bible. And that they are, in a position of high honor. And
this is precisely the point -- honor. One verse he didn't cite was
Hebrews 13:4. "Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled
. . ." A Christian honors the marriage bed, but not by setting it up
in Friendship Square. In the same way, every true Christian man honors
women, and this honor begins with the practical honor he shows to his
mother, sisters, wife, and daughters. Behind every topless woman this
last summer stood a contemptible father who had refused (for many years)
to honor his daughter the way Scripture requires. Despite the many
attempts to represent us as narrow-lipped prudish types--tiny-of-soul,
haters-of-breasts--we are actually trying to honor our women in the midst
of an ocean of surrounding leers.

Of course, you could say, given relativism, what could be wrong with a
little visual groping? And that is exactly right. But if you go this
route, don't pretend that you honor anything or anyone.