Author: Evan Lenow

Christ-follower, husband, father, ethics professor

ObamaCare, Contraception, and the War on Women

~ Evan Lenow ~ 3 Comments

What is the war on women? The phrase has been used by various political groups to characterize attitudes related to the perspective on women’s roles in the home and workplace. In recent days, the idea of a war on women has been used to describe the debate over whether or not the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a., ObamaCare) should provide all forms of FDA-approved contraceptives to women at no cost to them. The typical accusations of a war against women have been lobbed against conservatives who seek to limit the government’s role in providing contraceptives.

Now it seems that a new front of the war on women has been opened, but this time it comes from a very unlikely place–progressives attempting to justify the contraceptive mandate of ObamaCare.

A number of articles have appeared in recent days highlighting a series of ads produced by the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative and ProgressNow Colorado. These ads seek to explain why young adults, particularly young women, should sign up for insurance on the new health exchanges.

Even though there are a few different versions, the theme of these advertisements directed at women is that you need free contraceptives in order to participate in promiscuous sexual activity without regret. Without these free contraceptives, you may not be able to “enjoy” the liberation of your sexuality.

In an interview with The Denver Post, Amy Runyon-Harms, executive director of ProgressNow Colorado, attempted to justify the ads promoting promiscuous behavior. She stated, “People get upset when you portray women as independent. We think this ad is really about healthy relationships and that people are taking control of their lives with health care.”

The problem with these ads is twofold. First, they objectify women by speaking of them in exclusively sexual terms. In one of the ads, a cut-out of Ryan Gosling is portrayed as being “excited about getting to know” the real-life girl pictured in the ad. His excitement stems from the fact that she has easy access to birth control.

This perspective on women is demeaning and unbiblical. Yes, God created man and woman with a sexual nature (He told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply in Genesis 1:28). However, we are all much more than our sexuality. We are made in the image of God (Gen 1:26-27) and have value as persons in that image, not simply because we have a sexual nature.

Second, these ads promote risky sexual behavior with a false sense of security. Simply limiting the possibility of pregnancy does not make sexual activity outside of marriage safe, much less commendable. The hook-up culture of college campuses leads to a host of problems including sexually transmitted infections, pornography, emotional attachment, and potential violence. Contraceptives do not address these issues. Giving a false sense of security through free birth control pills only exacerbates the problem.

This is why God’s design for sexuality is that it should only be expressed within the context of marriage. In Hebrews 13:4 we read, “Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.” Many people may look this verse and say that the Bible is stuck in the Dark Ages. However, the reality is that God’s design for sex exclusively within marriage is the safest and most fulfilling option.

Is there a war on women? There certainly seems to be, but it is not what you may have been led to believe. The war on women is being waged by groups like ProgressNow Colorado who view women as nothing but objects of sexual desire. Instead, we need to proclaim that women find their true value in the fact that they are made in the image of God.

*I apologize for posting the content of the ads in the pictures on this blog post, but I felt it was necessary to see that they are actually real. The rest of the ads can be found at http://www.doyougotinsurance.com.

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Kurtis Lee, “Pro-Obamacare ads targeting millennials stir controversy in Colorado,” The Denver Post, November 12, 2013.

Emily Miller, “MILLER: New Obamacare ads make young women look like sluts,” The Washington Times, November 12, 2013.

Guest Post: Redeeming Halloween

~ Evan Lenow

This is a guest post from my wife, Melanie. She originally wrote this post for Biblical Woman, the blog site for the Women’s Programs at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. The post originally appeared here.

Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”  John 8:12

 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.”  Matthew 5:14

I admit it. I really do not like October 31. I do not enjoy scary.  Call me 100% wimp, but the scariest thing I have ever willingly sat through is Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video and I had nightmares for days. Therefore, Halloween is my least favorite holiday of the entire calendar year. For me, it is the sharp thorn on the beautiful rose bush named “autumn.”

However, after having our first child, I discovered the innocent, child-like aspect of Halloween.  With her first princess dress at 18 months, our oldest daughter fell in love with playing dress-up. In her mind, Halloween was a time where she could wear her princess dress outside with her princess shoes. All of her friends would join us, wearing their princess dresses too.  Don’t forget the candy! If you are polite and say “please”, people give you lots of candy. This is Halloween through a young child’s eye.

Now, that little 18 month old is almost 9 and we have had to reevaluate how our family handles a holiday that is steeped in evil, yet has the potential to be redeemed for a holy purpose.  That holy purpose is reaching people who live in the darkness and sharing with them the Light.  So how can our families participate Halloween in a way that shares the Light and shuns the dark?

Halloween, by nature, is a dark celebration. But as God’s children, we are to be the light in a dark world. My children always dress up in a way that brings light and smiles to the darkness and scariness. What could break up the darkness, but a cute little preschooler twirling in a ballet costume? Or a little boy dressed as superman ready to fight the bad guys?  Because we are representing the Light, we do not dress in any way that resembles darkness or death. Our home is decorated with the bright red, orange and yellow hues of fall.

As a side note, I do warn my children that there might be others in costumes that make them feel uncomfortable. I am vigilant to watch for scary things where I either distract my children or remove them from the situation entirely. My kids always have the option to stay behind and not approach someone who is dressed up. Aside from saying “thank you for my candy,” this is not a time to work on manners. In other words, if my kids want to run away from someone or climb into my arms, they have full freedom to do this.

As we are on mission to take light into the darkness on Halloween, a wonderful thing happens. Those who are lost and need Jesus actually come to you. This is the reason why I cannot justify sitting inside my home and hiding out the night of Halloween – There are lost parents and children out there, and they are coming to my doorstep. If I would only open my door, I can share with them the precious Light.  This is an area where I am very grateful for the mission mind of my church home.  Our church puts on a “Trunk or Treat” time every year. This is an event where church members line up their cars, raise their trunks, and distribute candy. Our church has the privilege of being surrounded by apartment complexes. Halloween is a great opportunity to reach out to the children within those apartments.  The church members have a chance to talk with them and even put Scripture on the candy that is distributed. We take our children around to receive candy as well, but my kids know the main reason we are there is not to get candy, but to minister to un-churched families who need to know about Jesus.

My goal is to develop within my children a compassion for the lost.  So, the Lenow family gets all dressed up in our happy, cute costumes, packs our candy with Scripture verses on it, and goes to our church where we will meet hundreds of children who do not know Jesus.  During this time, we pray to impact families with the ultimate Light of the World. We also have good friends who are members of our church, but instead of coming to the Trunk or Treat at the church, they stay home and welcome their neighbors on their front door step. They know their neighborhood is full of lost people, so they pray that some will come to their door where they are able to minister to them in a way they haven’t done before.

Even if your church does not do an organized outreach during Halloween, you can have a night of outreach yourself on your doorstep.  Simply entertain trick or treat-ers at your front door and take the opportunity to talk with them or add something about your church or a tract to their candy. The parents and children who come to your door expecting candy can be changed by a loving smile and a friendly attitude that gracefully begins to talk with them about a God who loves them.

My goal for Halloween is to redeem the day to mean something that can be used for God’s glory. Yes, the day has evil roots. But God can still use me and my family to spread light in a dark world. Halloween is not a holiday to be celebrated by believers, but an opportunity that is not to be missed to radiate into a dark, lost world the bright light of the Gospel.

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Once again, this is a guest post from my wife Melanie. In addition to putting up with me, she diligently works to train our four children. If that were not enough, she also leads the One Heart women’s ministry at our church, Birchman Baptist Church. She holds a Master of Arts in Biblical Counseling from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Good Reading: The Irrationality of Same-Sex Marriage

~ Evan Lenow

Public Discourse has a good article on the relationship between same-sex marriage and the irrational judicial decisions made by judges formulating those decisions. Matthew J. Franck opens with the following statement:

One of the most striking features of the campaign for same-sex marriage has been the prominence of its assault on reasoning itself. The logical relations of legal categories with one another, as those categories represent persons, their interactions, and their rights and duties, are at the heart of all legal decision-making and ideally inform legislative and administrative policymaking as well. But the impulse to redefine marriage so that it is no longer understood as the conjugal union of a man and a woman has been consistently heedless of logic and the rational relations of legal categories.

Included in his analysis is that proponents of same-sex marriage do not offer a cogent definition of marriage; that they believe traditional marriage is simply a religious institution; and that same-sex marriage should be legalized in order to avoid hurting people’s feelings.

Franck offers some insightful analysis, and the rest of the article is worth your time. You can find it here.

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Matthew J. Franck, “Same-Sex Marriage Makes Liberal Judges Irrational,” Public Discourse, October 15, 2013.

Can a Child Have More Than Two Parents? California Says “Yes”

~ Evan Lenow

Earlier this month, California governor Jerry Brown signed into law a piece of legislation that allows children to have more than two legal parents. Since that time, there has been some legal wrangling over what the practical application of the law will be and whether similar laws will be passed in other states.

The law in California came as a response to a legal case where one partner in a lesbian relationship had been impregnated by a man. Sometime after the birth of the girl, the couple got into a domestic dispute, and one of them landed in jail while the other was in the hospital. The girl ended up in foster care. Since her biological father had terminated parental rights so that the non-biological mother in the couple could legally adopt the girl, the daughter was not placed in his care—despite the fact that he was still actively involved in her life. In order to rectify this situation and others like it, California has now passed a law that legally recognizes more than two parents for custodial purposes.

This is one of the unintended consequences of the legalization of same-sex marriage. Since revisionist marriage definitions no longer make a connection to biology, gender, and procreation, children have been placed in the awkward circumstance of not knowing who their parents are. Are their biological parents really their parents? What about the non-biological-parent same-sex partner of their mom or dad?

Those who supported the law claim that it protects the best interest of the child. However, it is difficult to say that such a worthy goal is the actual outcome of the law for at least a couple of reasons.

First, this law will most likely add confusion to the mind of the child when she attempts to identify her parents. In situations like the one that inspired the law, the child was given the impression that she had two mothers and one father. Even though she did not live with her father, he was actively a part of her life. Imagine the confusion in her mind over why her father did not live in her house. Did he not love her enough to live with her? Did her mother not love her father? This situation is ripe for confusion on the part of a child.

Second, what happens when one biological parent has different hopes or aspirations for the child than her other biological parent and non-biological-parent same-sex partner? Who is given preference when that occurs? In a traditional marital relationship, the father and mother (i.e., husband and wife) work together to iron out their own differences over the goals they have for their children. In this situation, the non-resident biological parent is most likely the one left with a diminished voice in childrearing. Is this really in the best interest of the child when research proves that children fare better when reared in the married home of their biological parents?

Even though our culture was assured by proponents of same-sex marriage that it would not change the fabric of marriage and family, such assurances were empty and false. In fact legal professionals fully expect similar laws to be passed in states that have legalized same-sex marriage.

With the legalization of same-sex marriage in fourteen states, the change not only to marriage but also to the institution of the family is already well underway. However, this should not discourage us from standing for God’s design for marriage and family. As it relates to this law in particular, we should stand for God’s design for the sake of the children.

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Patrick McGreevy and Melanie Mason, “Brown signs bill to allow children more than two legal parents,” Los Angeles Times, October 4, 2013.

Jeremy Byellin, “More than two legal parents? A new California law makes it possible,” Legal Solutions Blog, October 15, 2013.

Wild Pitch: Texas Ranger Robbie Ross and the NOH8 Campaign

~ Evan Lenow ~ 8 Comments
Image credit: mikelachance816 on Flickr

The 2013 edition of the Official Baseball Rules produced by Major League Baseball defines a wild pitch as “one so high, so low, or so wide of the plate that it cannot be handled with ordinary effort by the catcher.”

Robbie Ross, a left-handed relief pitcher for the Texas Rangers and outspoken Christian on the team, threw a wild pitch the other day, but not from the mound at Rangers Ballpark. Ross’ pitch came on behalf of the NOH8 campaign. An article on the sports news site SB Nation suggested the idea that Ross’ involvement was wide of orthodox Christianity as it reported, “While it may seem an oxymoron to some for two devout Christians to showcase their religion on a campaign in support of gay equality, it made perfect sense to the Rosses.”

NOH8 is “a charitable organization whose mission is to promote marriage, gender and human equality through education, advocacy, social media, and visual protest.” The campaign uses photography to promote its message, often showing supporters with duct tape over their mouths to symbolize stopping negative speech toward homosexuality.

Ross and his wife, Brittany, were recently featured in a photo shoot for NOH8. In a subsequent interview, Ross proclaimed that he wanted to display his Christianity as part of the message. He said:

Being in sports, and being around all kinds of different people, you just want to accept everyone for who they are. My wife Brittany and I are Christians, and we believe we as Christians should love everyone and show everyone love, and if this is the best way to do it, then we want to support them.

As with many Christians who try to find biblical support for homosexuality, Ross and his wife have elevated the concept of love above God’s specific statements regarding sin. For them, love means inclusion, acceptance, and approval of all lifestyles even if they are labeled as sin in Scripture. In response to a question about biblical passages that label homosexuality a sin, Brittany Ross stated:

I just don’t think it matters if it’s a sin. We all sin, we all know that, so if we just stop focusing on sin, we can start loving each other.

The article reports that Robbie “quickly jumped in” and said:

If you went Biblically off of everything we’re doing now, during our every day, I’m sure there are one or two sins throughout our day we don’t even realize we’re committing.

There it is. In the minds of the Rosses, sin no longer matters—only love and acceptance.

As a fan of the Rangers, I really like Robbie Ross. I had been impressed by his boldness to let others know about his faith. In baseball, all pitchers miss the plate on a regular basis. It’s called a ball. However, the best pitchers don’t throw wild pitches. On this issue, Robbie Ross has more than missed the plate—he has thrown so wild that his pitch can’t be handled with ordinary effort by orthodox Christianity. This pitch requires leaving the accepted doctrines and interpretations of Scripture. It promotes the homosexual agenda in such a way that minimizes the teaching of Scripture. In baseball terms, this pitch was wild and went to the backstop, advancing a runner along the way.

After Paul discusses homosexuality in Romans 1:26–27, he continues to talk about the depravity of mankind for the rest of the chapter. He notes a number of sins that represent a depraved mind. Finally, he makes a piercing statement about those who condone such sinful behavior. In Romans 1:32, Paul writes:

And although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.

Paul tells us that sin deserves God’s punishment. Thankfully, God has provided the way of salvation through the death, burial, and resurrection of his Son. However, Christians who deny the need for repentance and salvation are like those Paul condemned in Romans 1:32. In spite of knowing what God commands, they give hearty approval to those who live in sin.

I pray that the Rosses would go back to their “pitching coach” and work on their delivery again so they can avoid throwing any more wild pitches.

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“Rule 2.00—Definitions of Terms,” Official Baseball Rules, 2013 Edition.

Cyd Zeigler, “Texas Rangers pitcher Robbie Ross and wife Brittany appear in Christian NOH8 campaign photo,” SB Nation Outsports, September 17, 2013.