Author Archives: Wizard Prang

Geek. Maven. Teacher.

The Hate is swelling

“Hate” is one of the most overused, misused and abused words in our language. Triggered folks use the term “Hate Speech” to dismiss anything that they disagree with, or makes them feel bad.

  • Disagreement is not hate.
  • Speaking the truth is not hate.
  • Telling someon an unpleasant or inconvenient truth is not hate.
  • Telling someone that they are mistaken, in error, or just plain wrong is not hate

Don’t be lazy. Stop using the word “Hate”, when you actually mean something else.

No Good Deed…

Here’s a story from the Land Down Under.

Kenan Basic, a 36-year-old carpenter, stopped to help a nineteen-year-old woman by the name of Caitlyn Gray, whose car had broken down. He repaired her car, they hugged each other, and she went on her way.

She then went to the police and swore out a complaint accusing him of stalking her, asking her for sex, and groping her.

Mr Basic was then arrested and and charged with indecent assault, and jailed. He was denied bail. He was in jail for a week. He lost his job, and his wife filed for divorce.

Who is this paragon of pulchritude that Mr Basic risked his very liberty to proposition and grope? What does she look like?

When the police could not find any surveillance video or any other corroborating evidence to support her story, they became skeptical. Finally, she admitted that she had made the whole story up.

He was vindicated and released. She was found guilty of “knowingly making a false statement.

She has been jailed for nine months, five of which are mandatory before parole… but unlike him, she was immediately granted bail.

Apparently the presumption of innocence only applies if you are female.

He plans to sue. And he should.

Just Believe

Just believe that Christine Ford was raped! sexually assaulted by Brett Cavanaugh. Even though:

  • She can’t remember where it was…
  • …or when it was…
  • …or how she got there…
  • …or how she got home afterwards…
  • …and she can’t produce one single witness to corroborate her account of what happened…
  • …or answer any of the above questions.

Just believe her.

Just believe Jussie Smollet when he says that he was set upon by white supremacists wearing MAGA hats who beat him, put a “noose” around his neck and poured bleach on him. Even though:

  • No surveillance video in the area showed the crime…
  • …or the perpetrators approaching or leaving…
  • …but they found a pair of Nigerian bodybuilders…
  • …who were associates of Mr Smollet…
  • …who were paid by him (by check) for “personal training”…
  • …and were caught on video buying bleach and rope.

Just believe him.

Just believe the authorities who say that that Jeffery Epstein committed suicide. Even though:

  • He was supposedly in a “suicide-proof” cell…
  • …while on suicide watch…
  • …which had been rescinded less than a week after he last attempted suicide…
  • …with no working cameras in the cell…
  • …and a pair of sleeping guards…
  • …who subsequently falsified the records…
  • …shortly after he agreed to a plea deal where he would agree to name prominent pedophiles.

Just believe them.

Pull the other one, it’s got bells on it.

Parental Controls Done Wrong

Or: Why Nintendo is not your friend

I have a Godson. He spends his summers with Her Ladyship and I. He is thirteen, and this year he arrived with a Nintendo Switch clutched lovingly in his hands. Hand-held gaming devices like this seem to come as factory standard equipment with every teen-aged boy (the girls all seem to want an iPhone and a boyfriend… but that’s another story).

Over the first few days he was here, he spent his every waking hour either playing Fortnite on his switch, or watching other people playing Fortnite on YouTube (oh, the ads! But that’s another story), while the switch was recharging.

I did a little research and found that a parental controls app was available for the switch, so I installed and set it up. And that’s where this cautionary tale begins.

First up, the philosophy of the app is all wrong. Instead of allowing parents to allocate screen time for good behavior, the app allows the parent to grant a daily limit that is fully available at the start of the day.

The practical application of this is that if you give your little “angel” three hours a day, then left to his own devices, he will burn through those three hours by 10AM… and be in an abominably foul mood for the rest of the day as he suffers from withdrawal symptoms. And this is precisely what happened until we discovered the “Suspend Software” option.

The “Suspend Software” setting is what actually allows the app to actually stop the Switch in its tracks. The default option for this setting is “OFF”, and this is just plain wrong, as this setting means that it does not disable the switch when the time is up. This is the equivalent of a “STOP” sign but with no cops around to enforce it; most of us will not stop… and neither will he, as he blows straight through the stop sign on his way to however many hours a day he wants. And he did. One day he racked up nearly nine hours before we realized what was happening. The default setting is effectively “Parental Advisement” or “Parental Control without control“. So make sure that you familiarize yourself with the “Suspend Software” setting and turn it ON.

For me, the real problem with this app is with its design philosophy: instead of rationing time out throughout the day, the this app is designed to deliver the whole allotment up front. This is analogous to the two models for “pocket money”: allowance, or commission.

  • An allowance is given to a child irrespective of behavior, and leads to entitlement thinking.
  • A commission is given dependent on behavior, demeanor and helpfulness.

Nintendo have gone with the “Allowance” model.,

The only way to implement the “commission” model of game time is to reset the time allowance to zero every morning. If you forget, there is nothing to prevent him from taking advantageous your forgetfulness, and that’s on you.

But there is another, more serious problem here:

You cannot set the daily allowance to zero!

The lowest amount is fifteen minutes. This means that there is no effective way to use this app to “ground” a rebellious or misbehaving child.

Another issue is that the communication between the parental control app is done through WiFi. This means that if a switch is out of the range of WiFi, parental control updates cannot be pushed to the device. It is my understanding that the switch features a version of Bluetooth that is deliberately made incompatible with open standards (to prevent non-Nintendo wireless products from being used); perhaps this should be extended to the app to prevent kids from avoiding updates.

I strongly suspect that Nintendo designed this app based on a focus group comprised of fifteen children and one adult.

Here’s a list of the changes I would make:

  1. Allow the starting allotment to be set to zero.
  2. Add a big red “You’re Grounded” button, which immediately stops a switch dead in its tracks.
  3. Add buttons for “Add Time”, with 15/30/45/60 minute buttons to allocate time.
  4. Implement a “please-please-please-please-five-minutes-more” button.

Until they do these things, or something like then, I have to assume that Nintendo is not your friend.

Barking up the Wrong Tree

This one’s been a long time coming…

The title of the video says it all. “Why Ms Independent can’t find Mr. Right“. There’s the rub; Mr Right isn’t looking for Ms. Independent. He isn’t looking for “Mizz” anything. He is looking for Miss Young, kind, feminine, selfless, and slender. Let’s cut to the tape…

0:05 “Founder of I’m-sick-of-single dot com…”. But… you’re… still… single! Right out of the gate she shows how unqualified she is to give this advice. Why are single women taking advice on marriage from other single women? Come back when you’ve been married for a decade. Maybe then you will have an opinion worth listening to.

0:17 She then shows her true colors with a shout-out to “all my Independent women“. Ladies, quality men do *not* want an “independent woman”. They want a kind, caring, feminine woman who adds value to their life.

0:30 She follows it up with a rambling rant about how women wait on men, with the inference that they shouldn’t have to. Fair point. In a perfect world, women would approach men and ask for the date. I have no problem with that. But they don’t. Why not? Because they don’t want to. Why not? Because women are risk-averse, and rarely, if ever open themselves up to rejection. At risk of sounding sexist, that’s our job.

1:13 “The reason you can’t find Mister Right is not because you’re not beautiful…”. Um, yes it probably is. The sad truth is that most women are attractive enough to marry for about twelve years. Deep down, I think most women understand this, which might explain their stampede for the altar as 30 looms. After that they are attractive enough for commitment-free sex for about another twelve. After that, we’re simply not interested in you anymore, and you have to take what you can get.

1:41 The Scripture reference that she quoted (Proverbs 18:22, in case you were wondering) is disingenuous. She is cherry-picking one verse of scripture and taking it out of context. The flaw in her logic is that she is assuming that every woman is wife material; but there are many verses of scripture that debunk this: for instance  Proverbs 31: “An excellent wife who can find?” confirms that good wives are valuable and RARE. Another is Proverbs 30:20, which speaks to the deceit that so many women practice. This is laugh-out-loud funny; tell women that most men are not husband material and they will enthusiastically agree. But tell them that most of them are not wife material, and one of them will probably get angry enough to run a key down the side of your car.

2:00 “The courage to Flirt First” – Good point. But she fails to point out that the number-one reason why men no longer approach is… other women. Most of us have watched other men’s lives ruined by a vengeful female. Did you really think that #MeToo would not come with unintended consequences?

Also, if you are trying to find a man, get off your phone. I have heard men referring to a woman’s phone as her “digital boyfriend”, and we tend to assume that a “busy” woman with her head buried in her phone is probably checking for hot guys on social media. Husband-material men are not looking for that.

Oh, and “resting bitch face”, as she puts it; is a huge turn-off: if we want a woman who brings joy onto our lives, we’re not crossing the room for a woman who doesn’t know how to smile. Most women want a man who makes her laugh; most men want a woman who brings happiness and joy with her. Show us that you can.

3:00 “Larry the Lame” – aaaand here comes the name-calling. Too often we hear complaints that “Men aren’t masculine anymore”, and now she’s saying that a man who approaches without permission is “Larry the lame”? Make up your mind!

3:20 Then she goes on to say: “I don’t want you to stereotype Larry…” But… you… just… did!

3:30 “Every Larry is lame as it pertains to character” So you can tell a man’s character based solely upon him walking up to you without waiting for an invitation?

4:20: “Gary the Good Guy.. that’s the guy you should be talking to“. I call shenanigans. I used to be that guy. You left us in the friendzone in your early twenties when you went off to have fun. You ignored while you partied their way through your teens and twenties… and only started looking around for him when your looks started to fade. If you want one of these guys, you have to get him early, while you’re young. But you didn’t, did you?

4:50 “You are over online dating” So why were you there? Oh yes, fun and adventures (aka hookups) with hot guys. I rest my case.

5:05: “Half the guys online report to be more interested in more interested in being a hookup than a husband“. Only half? I’m shocked! So half the guys online dating are looking for a wife? I find that hard to believe. Color me surprised. I always assumed that online dating was a meat market. But any road up, if he wants to be a hookup rather than a husband, he does not consider you wife material, and never did, and is using you for pleasure. There is one simple way to weed them out: Don’t sleep with them! Problem solved.

5:18 “…and many of the other guys online misrepresent themselves…” And women don’t? Social media is rife with pictures of women that were taken ten years, thirty pounds and three babies ago. Or so I’m told. And don’t get me started on make-up, artful poses and filters.

Yeah, men are so deceitful.

6:10: “When I interview bachelors, I axe them What is the worst thing you have ever done to a woman you love?” This is intellectually dishonest and one-sided. It is true that running up her credit cards, impregnating another woman and physical abuse are signs of a low-quality man, but sticking with a man who did that is a sign of a low-quality woman, and she never addresses that. Oh, and while you’re at it, why not “axe” the ladies the same question? Probably because you don’t want to hear the answer. Oh, and stop saying “axe” when you mean “ask”!

7:20: “So although he knows you deserve better…” This is bunk. He knows no such thing.  “You deserve better” is something women routinely say to each other, but men universally understand that you deserve what you can get, and nothing more. Ladies, stop talking about what you (think you) deserve.

She then paints a picture of a shy, awkward woman who would rather put up with a bad, abusive manipulative man than have to start again, then ends with “you won’t be home stressed, you’ll be out with the next”.

It all goes downhill from there.

  • She talks at length about how to approach men, but fails to address how to handle the inevitable rejection that too many of these women will face when the approach men who are not interested in them, or men they “choose” who refuse to “chase”.
  • She talks about men appreciating a woman who is strong, confident and charming (“That’s a man, baby!”) and other “equality” twaddle.
  • She then teaches women to use the same “pick-up” game that women seem to universally demonize when men do it.
  • She talks about her “Bae” (who is obviously *not* her husband).

Ladies, if you are serious about finding a quality husband, here is the Wizard’s advice:

  1. Don’t wait. No, you don’t have time, and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying to you. The average woman has about twelve years of “hot” (attractive enough to marry), followed by about fifty years of “not”, so the decisions she makes during those twelve years are critical. Yes, there are exceptions; no, you’re probably not one of them. The most cursory of observation shows that too many women misuse that almost-magical power to party through their their teens and twenties with Billy Badboy and his friends, then go looking for Gordon Goodguy when she is “ready for marriage” (by an amazing coincidence, this is usually when Billy and his friends lose interest in her). This plan doesn’t work for diligent, disciplined, dutiful, quality men with options; we want your twenties, so don’t come to us at 35 and offer us bad-boy leftovers. When it comes to long-term commitment, we want to be your first choice, not your last resort.
  2. Stay Slim. Women are generally not attracted to men who are short, puny, lazy or broke. This is natural and reasonable. But women are not the ones who have deal-breakers, and top-quality men, like attractive women, can afford to be picky. Such men are generally not attracted to women who are fat, sassy, bold, brassy, bossy, busy, and selfish. For some reason, those same women with a long list of bullet-points of what constitutes “the perfect guy” find this to be unfair.
  3. Be Real. Nothing says “good men stay away” like tattoos, piercings and unnatural hair coloring. The fewer tattoos and piercings you have, the more likely you will be considered to be potential wife material. Yes, we know you don’t like it. No, we don’t care.
  4. Understand your value. These days it seems that women almost universally overestimate their attractiveness; the cute ones think that they are pretty, the pretty ones think they are gorgeous. Maybe it’s social media, broadcast media, or well-meaning friends and family. But whatever the cause, it has become so bad that “six-nine syndrome” – where a girl is above-average but thinks that she is a drop-dead-gorgeous – is a thing. The reason that this is a problem is because it fools women into pursuing men who are not really interested in them, but may choose to use them for pleasure for a while before discarding them and moving on. You have been warned.
  5. Don’t confuse casual sexual interest with marriage interest. To misquote Forrest Gump: “Marriage is like a box of chocolates; all the good ones are gone first“. And if you wait too long, all that’s left will be some half-eaten toffees and the Nougat that nobody wants. In America, the average female loses her virginity at 15. Men will get physical with promiscuous women, but will not marry them. Understand that if he sees you as promiscuous he will not marry you. Nor should he.
  6. Don’t take advice from people who are just as lost as you are. Too many single women take their advice from other single women. Seek out happily married women. Or better yet, listen to your Granny. She knows what she’s talking about.

Remember Them

Seventy-five years ago this morning, thousands of soldiers stormed the beaches of Normandy.

The story of the liberation of Europe began there. Too many other stories ended there.

It is easy to trivialize the event.

It is equally easy to consign it to the ash-heap of history.

This is probably the last major D-Day anniversary in which Veterans of that day will be present.

Most of them are in their nineties, few will survive another decade.

Remember them


Anatomy of a Train Wreck

*Warning* Along with a fountain of tears, this video contains copious foul language.

Let’s break this cryfest down, shall we?

  • 0:25 “I am nothing without my following“. Math tip: Nothing plus one hundred thousand followers on Social Media equals… nothing.
  • 0:43 “You are ruining my life because I make all of my money online” Plain English translation: “I found a nice little earner flashing my bits on Social Media for cash and prizes. But now the party is over, I had no plan and no backup. And it’s your fault
  • 0:55 “The 90%ers, the people that work 9 to 5, that is not me. I am in LA to not be like that” = I’m better than you.
  • 1:00 “I have worked soooo hard…” …shaking my bits on social media for cash and prizes.
  • 1:15 “People come after me for no reason and it hurts“. They all had a reason, you just don’t know what that reason is. Perhaps the Internet is not the place for you.
  • 1:20 “This is my life” = I have no life.
  • 2:15 “Nobody loves me. I only have three friends in the world who have not backstabbed me…yet.
  • 2:35 “I have no skills, and $20,000 in debt from college…” So what did you learn at college? Why was it not useful?
  • 3:05: “I used to work at McDonald’s before I did YouTube, Instagram, before I had 100,000 followers, before I had everything in my life, I was a loser…” So people who work at McDonald’s are losers, and people who place their value in the number of followers on Social Media have everything. Riiiight…
  • 3:09 “I have no job qualifications. I could never work a normal job. I am worthless. I bring nothing to the table. I am not work material. I will never be work material. So stop reporting me…” BOOM. There it is.


Dear Jessy,

I have no beef with you. I don’t even have an Instagram account. I am not laughing at you, but I am not about to give you sympathy either.

By your own admission, you have no value outside of flashing your bits on Social Media for fun and profit, and good luck to you if you can make a living doing that. But deep down, you must know that the youth and beauty that brings in clicks, eyeballs, and dollars only lasts for so long. The party will not last forever. It never does. And when it does, you will have about fifty years to think about it. So start making yourself useful.

The fact that you have no skills outside of Instagram is telling. But you don’t have a hater problem, and you don’t have an Instagram problem. You have a *you* problem.

Epilogue: she finally got her channel back

What about all the other folks who got banned?

Of Girls and Cars

Corvettes, Cadillacs, Classics and Clunkers – Ten ways that women are like cars.

The Italians have a proverb: “Women are the cars, men are the drivers“. Every man of consequence knows that there is much truth in this statement, but whenever a man compares women with cars, there is always some woman who gets all bent out of shape at the analogy. They usually say something like “OhMyGod! women are soooo much more important than cars!“. They may have a point; most men put more effort into buying a car than choosing a wife, but that doesn’t mean that the analogy is without merit. Any road up, I thought I would take this opportunity to contribute a few thoughts on the matter.

  1. Men are the buyers. A great man once said that women are the gatekeepers of sex, while men are the gatekeepers of commitment. Think about the new-car showroom. In the front are the bright shiny sleek and svelte sports cars (usually dressed in red), And towards the back are the the less showy, less desirable, more reliable and more affordable family cars. Personally, I have never much liked SUVs, they are large gas-guzzlers, Maybe they are the fat chicks. I suppose the comparison goes only so far. Women love to dress up and present themselves to be chosen, but when it comes to commitment, it is the men who make the purchasing decision.
  2. They are all the same…sort of: Cars come in all different shapes and sizes; they use different fuels and different technologies.  Even though cars are all different they all operate in pretty much the same way, from opening the door, starting the vehicle, steering, accelerating and braking. In the same way, women are running the same basic firmware, and are subject to the same temptations, pressures, and fears. And every one of them thinks that she is the exception.
  3. New is *far* more valuable than used. New cars command a far higher price than used ones. Beauty is mostly youth; young women can command astronomical levels of attention, affection and commitment from men far more easily than their older sistren, who often have to fight just to get noticed. This is why older women are so quick to make snarky comments about younger women; they’re jealous.
  4. The price is always negotiable. All women like to pretend that they are marriage material, but most are not; the most well-used of specimens still wants to believe that she will get to wear the white dress on the big day. A wise buyer will never pay full price for a used car.
  5. Exotic/high-maintenance or affordable/reliable? Like cars, women require a certain amount of maintenance, expense, effort and investment. The opportunity cost of a wife can easily run into six figures. Like exotic supercars, the most desirable ones are temperamental and require high-maintenance, and only the best of men can afford them.
  6. Heavy Depreciation: Female beauty depreciates heavily with age, misuse and abuse. Driving a car off the dealer lot requires a huge expenditure for something that loses a huge chunk of its value in a relatively short time. As a general rule, women have about twelve years of peak attractiveness, which explains the stampede to the altar as the big three-oh looms.
  7. Classics are rare… Like cars, some women appreciate into classics, but 99% depreciate into junkers and clunkers and end up on the scrapheap. There are, of course, exceptions — but they are rare, and statistically speaking, she’s probably not one of ’em.
  8. …but clunkers are common: These days, most are ex-rentals, well-used and oft-abused. And some have some “Junk in the trunk”. This is why quality men are encouraged to avoid single mothers like the proverbial plague (“once you have bred, you are of no use to me“), and single mothers often have to resort to shaming tactics (“it takes a real man to get with a single mom“) to get commitment that most of them do not deserve. Feminine beauty has a short shelf-life; remember: “The looks that drive men wild at sixteen are gone at thirty“.
  9. Show me the HoFax! The best cars have had one driver from new. But it is far, far easier these days for a girl to ruin herself, and then hide the evidence (see Proverbs 30: 20), and these days, it that is the rule rather then the exception. So she will never tell you how many STDs she has had, how many abortions she has had, how many men she has slept with… and even if she does, the answer will never be trust worthy, because it is in her interest to lie. Napoleon Bonaparte reputedly said “Every woman is a whore except for my mother and my daughter“, so a good rule of thumb is to treat every girl with suspicion until she has proven otherwise. Gently used might be sufficient, but be diligent and ignore the salesman’s lies. And for heaven’s sake, stay away from the ex-rental that has a history of having been driven by a different random maniac every weekend.
  10. Routine maintenance is essential. Both need to be driven hard and serviced regularly. With proper maintenance, they will hold up well and give you years of trouble-free service.

Full disclosure: I am the proud owner of a lovely little runner. Drove her off the factory floor, brand-spanking-new. I have been the only driver. Got a lot of miles on her, but they are all mine, and the upholstery is shaped to the exact contours of my bum. There are a few squeaks and rattles, but she handles well and knows all the corners. That’s what a classic looks like. I’m going to keep this one till the wheels fall off.

The Analogy Stands

Misreading Incomprehension

Someone recently bought this fascinating piece to my attention:

Commentary: ‘Be careful using the Bible’

Having read it, I am of the impression that a better title might be “I misunderstood the bible. therefore it can’t be trusted“. As is so often the case with opinion pieces, there was no provision for commentary, so I will add my commentary here…


And modern feminism pushes those aims as praiseworthy. Choose this day whom you will serve. There is absolutely nothing wrong with women working outside the home, but in a traditional marriage with children, children need their mothers most in the first few years, which means that a working woman who also wants to be a mother has some hard choices to make. For many women, the experience of holding their newborn simplifies that choice. If a woman chooses to hand her children off to someone else and go to work, good luck to her, but there are an awful lot of working mothers out there who wish that they didn’t have to.

As far as female ordination is concerned, I have seen female preachers who obviously have an anointing on them. What I object to is when women are placed in a position of authority over men. “Women are grown, men are made“; and a woman, no matter how well-meaning, cannot teach a man how to be a man. Doubly so for feminists,who want to “reconstruct” men according to their whim — which usually results in weak, “nice” feminized men, with whom that few women want to pair-bond.

In studying the Bible, it is necessary to realize that often God is cited as supporting whatever values are normative at that time in history. Those are “timely” standards — standards valued for a time — but not necessarily “timeless” standards that are applicable for all time and all circumstances.

It is true that much of the bible’s teaching is cultural. while much is sacred. The danger is that we may use our opinions and feelings — or worse, the culture — to decide which is which.

Remember that the Bible affirms Abraham having sexual relations with Hagar, Sarah’s maid, in order to produce his first son, Ishmael

The bible does no such thing. it *informed* us of the event. It also makes it clear that this was Sarah’s idea, not God’s — and her impatience resulted in the Middle East becoming the charnel-house it is today.

Remember King Solomon’s legendary 1,000 wives and concubines. Today we would call Abraham’s and Solomon’s sexual actions adultery, and not condone such actions for the behavior of others.

Once again, the learned Reverend is letting his feelings get in the way. The bible does not glorify Solomon’s myriad wives, it simply informs. Many of those marriages were political alliances — David’s first wife, Michal, was Saul’s daughter. Many others would have been gifts from other kings and chieftains. And Solomon himself owes his existence to one of the most infamous adulteries in recorded history. The bible warns repeatedly against intermarrying with foreign women. Also remember that in those days, there was a chronic man shortage – men died working or fighting, and women who lost their husbands were often left destitute. This is why a younger brother was required by law to marry his older brother’s childless widow and give her children so that she would have a future — conduct that would be considered unacceptable today.

Remember that, in ancient Israel, eating shellfish and wearing clothing of two different fabrics at the same time were called “abominations.” Walking too many paces on the Sabbath was considered sinful. And, it was permissible to make slaves of captured enemies. So much of what was considered sinful or acceptable was simply the norms or standards that were practiced by the majority of the people, but condemned today.

There were reasons for those practices. The bible calls eating pork “unclean”. Today, we call it “trichinosis”. Whatever you choose to call it, it wasn’t good for you.

Sadly, that practice has not changed. As a child, I was not allowed to have playing cards in our house. Dancing and even going to the movies were frowned upon, and drinking alcoholic beverages was not allowed. I was told that Jesus and his disciples drank only grape juice!

And millions of parents tell their children about Santa. So you were misled. How sad. And now you are returning the favor by mis-leading us?

That brings us to a question sharply dividing the Christian community in our time: How are we to think about and act toward the LGBTQ community? We know that the majority of Americans do not oppose homosexual relations, yet others believe that while every person is a child of God, homosexual behavior is a choice and is sinful, and marriage is only to be affirmed when between a man and a woman. A key question for me is: Is that position simply an expression of ancient and current cultural norms, or is that the timeless moral position, sanctioned by God?

Ah… now we get to the meat of the matter. I was wondering how long it would be before homosexuality reared its head. One of my favorite verses in the bible is “everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial”, so let’s start with that.

Likewise, most scientists and psychologists of today believe that same-gender orientation is not a matter of choice.

Science isn’t about what you “believe”, it is what you can prove. Science based on “belief” — consensus — looks a lot like religion. In related news, And psychologists are currently trying to convince us that masculinity is a disease. So I would not place much stock in what “scientists and psychologists believe”.

Let’s go a bit deeper into the issue of morality. How do we distinguish between values that are “timely” — those that are affirmed as norms by the majority of people at one time in history, but are changed or updated in another generation because of new understandings, and the values that are “timeless” and applicable in all situations and at all times in history? What is an eternal value? Here is where the Bible, taken as a whole and seen in its depths, can guide us.

What you do is read the text with an open mind. What you don’t do is go running to your feelings and feminist doctrine in search of a solution.

Why oppose slavery and segregation? Because they are hurtful. Why do the Ten Commandments forbid murder, stealing, lying, adultery and coveting? Because they are hurtful. On the other hand, what is hurtful about playing cards, dancing or having a glass of wine with a meal?

Tell that to someone who has had to live with the consequences of gambling and alcoholism. The bible also says “do not do anything that causes your brother to stumble.”. Oh, and you just proved my previous point. The difference between what is sacred and what is cultural is often obvious. The real problem comes when you run into something you don’t like, which is what we are seeing here.

If a person is born with a same-gender orientation, why must they be prohibited from having an intimate relationship with another person, forced into isolation and loneliness, just because many people unfairly oppose that? The fact that some Christians do not approve does not make such a relationship hurtful.

“Born with”? I call shenanigans. A predisposition towards homosexual behavior cannot, by definition, be biologically derived, since reproduction only happens as a result of a heterosexual coupling. A small number of people are born with hormonal imbalances that may predispose them to same-sex attraction, but they are rare, anomalous, and worthy of special treatment. What we should not be doing is allowing a tiny minority of edge-cases to forcibly steer the culture. In my opinion, the vast majority are created behaviorally.


No reasonable person believes that God hates gays. But there is no evidence that he made them. However, it must be said that there is nowhere in the bible where homosexuality is affirmed or seen as morally praiseworthy (unlike, for instance, prostitution), or is described as anything less than a sin, If you choose to live that life, that’s your choice. I am not mad with you, but you don’t answer to me.

To “love your neighbor” is to do the helpful thing and to avoid doing the hurtful thing, even when cultural conditioning makes that uncomfortable. Helping, not hurting, looks and sounds like Jesus to me.

Be careful when you put words into the mouth of Jesus, who said such feel-good gems as “God made male and female… therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife” (Matthew 19:4). The same Jesus who said “Let the dead bury their dead” and “You will always have the poor“, and ran the officially licensed traders out of t he temple with a whip. . does that sound like “fluffy hippie boyfriend Jesus” to you?

Bottom line: There is a big difference between tolerance and affirmation; telling people that God loves them is praiseworthy. Telling people that God approves of something without any supporting evidence may not be “helping” them.

Some Exclusions Apply

Got this in my email this morning:


Every “eligible” title was at least $9.99

To quote Dilbert: “Gaaaah