- Written by Rich Lusk
- Category: Men & Women
- Hits: 458
Some questions spurred by recent cultural events:
- Written by Rich Lusk
- Category: Men & Women
- Hits: 358
I posted this brief review on Facebook last September, but it really belongs here as well.
Katy Faust's book Them Before Us should be high on everyone’s reading list. I have followed Faust’s outstanding work for several years on various social media platforms and this book represents the distillation of much of her research. It is a defense of children’s rights. For too long, our culture has lived “us before them” - putting adult desires above children’s needs (especially adult sexual desires above children's needs). The result has been the wreckage we see all around us - abortion, no fault divorce, fatherlessness, intentional single motherhood, the pain children experience from surrogacy and placement in same-sex households, etc. Virtually all our social ills can be traced back to our rejection of God’s design for family life. This book makes the case that marriage matters - it’s the only proper context for sex, and the original “safe space” for children. It makes the case that biology matters - men and women are different in complementary ways, and there are deep reasons why God designed for children to ordinarily have both a mom and dad who are permanently and exclusively committed to each other. Children need paternal, masculine love and maternal, feminine love poured into their lives. A child has a right to the man and woman who created him, and the man and woman who create a child have obligations to that child. There is no substitute for the God-ordained natural family. Faust shows that legitimate concerns from both the left and right ends of the political spectrum could be met with a renewed emphasis on the vulnerability of children and the importance of marriage/family.
- Written by Rich Lusk
- Category: Men & Women
- Hits: 460
This is an email I wrote in October 2011. I came across it as I was going through some old files and realized it might be useful to make it public. I am turning it into a blog post here because the issues I was responding to are still very relevant. I have removed personal references, but otherwise, the email is essentially what I wrote at the time. This email was written in response to someone who was criticizing my preaching on male/female sexual issues. The critic of my sermons was moving in an egalitarian direction. I was preaching through 1 Corinthians at the time, so obviously a lot of my sermons in this time frame addressed marriage, sex, gender roles, tc. The sermons in question were preached in July and August of 2011 and can be found on the TPC website sermon page.
- Written by Rich Lusk
- Category: Men & Women
- Hits: 916
If there is one thing I have learned, it is that there is a Chesterton quote for every occasion. But Chesterton's wit and wisdom especially come through when he is addressing home and family life. A collection of his essays entitled Brave New Family is a very jovial look at family life and a storehouse of insight. His praise for home, especially as the domain of the woman, is unequaled. His expose of the folly of anti-biblical family patterns is winsome and compelling. Time and time again, he uncovered the foolishness of feminist and egalitarian practices, though in his day they were only in their infancy. His wit was disarming and engaging, even when he carving an ideological opponent up. Here we will look at some of his gems, with a few comments along the way.
- Written by Rich Lusk
- Category: Men & Women
- Hits: 603
Plucking and Cutting:
An Examination of Matthew 5:27-32
Rich Lusk
This is an old article article, being republished for the blog.
While sex happens in private, it has public implications and so biblical law has quite a bit to say about it. We cannot keep God’s law out of our bedrooms. But neither can we keep God’s law out of our hearts. And so the Scripture also has quite a bit to say about sexual desire, most famously in Matthew 5:27-32.