Red Lobster and Olive Garden support the B word

Recently we specifically targeted Darden Restaurants – Red Lobster and Olive Garden – because of their frequent sponsorship of shows such as “Don’t Trust the B—- in Apt. 23” and “GCB.”  After withdrawing for one week, Red Lobster was back on this week’s episode of “Don’t Trust the B—- in Apt. 23.”  Also returning was regular sponsor PepsiCo – this time advertising their Sierra Mist and Gatorade products.  Additional repeat offenders include Old Navy, Mazda, Honda, and AT&T.

 

These corporations need to hear from you!

Take Action! Click here to send a message to all the advertisers empowering this offensive show.

Remember not that many years ago when most men had a gentlemanly regard for women?  Men would be careful of their language around women, treat them with respect, and actually even refer to them as ladies.  A far cry from where we are today as a society.

Now we have the “B” word – which, of course, is a highly derogatory reference to women – becoming especially widely used on network television.  And not only within shows, but also in titles as ABC arrogantly does with the “B” word referenced in the title of “Don’t Trust the B—- in Apt. 23” and also in “GCB.”

As a writer for the LA Times opined:  “What does it mean that … the word “b–ch” is suddenly everyone’s go-to joke?” This same writer also stated:  “The vast majority of writers, directors and television executives — in other words, those writing and approving the use of the word — are still men.”

 

And while women may no longer be treated as ladies by network television, the female characters are also not acting like them.  This week’s episode of “Don’t Trust the B—- in Apt. 23” depicts the female lead characters going on drinking binges, using “un-lady-like” references to male genitalia, and making claims of having sex with 300 men.

The show’s creator, who is openly gay herself, stated:  “I think (gay women) would really like the women behaving badly thing — doing something at first that doesn’t seem great and certainly not typical.  Just doing something different and not just the stereotypical way things are seen.”

And the actress who plays the lead character, Chloe, describes the part this way:  “My character is so free.  She’s not defined by one sexuality at all so that’s a fun thing to play with. My character has no ties to anything. She doesn’t like to be categorized and she’s totally free and I think that comes out in many story-lines, not just about her sexuality. …”

 

While this actress may think its “so free” to throw out any standards of morality, shows such as “Don’t Trust the B—- in Apt. 23” that normalize not only the “B” word, but also the illicit behavior depicted, don’t empower women, but only degrade them – and the rest of our culture at the same time.

 

 

Take Action! Click here to send a message to all the advertisers empowering this offensive show.

http://www.americandecency.org/archives/red-lobster-and-olive-garden-support-the-b-word/#more-6642

Redemption

Charles Colson died the other day at 80, a respected and even revered evangelist in the mold of Billy Graham.

By the time of his death, he may have been the country’s leading prison reformer, too, working to change men rather than just punish them.

The worldwide mission he founded and directed — Prison Fellowship — continues to inspire.

He set out to make prisons penitentiaries in the true sense–a place for penitence. And rebirth.

That was Charles Colson.

There was also a Charles Colson in an earlier life. That Charles Colson had died and been born again circa 1974-76, when he would enter prison and leave it a new man.

Chuck Colson arrived at the minimum-security federal prison on the grounds of Maxwell Air Base in Montgomery, Ala., via the White House, where he had been not just a member but a leader of the Nixon administration and gang. He’d been convicted, as Richard Nixon should have been, of obstruction of justice.

No doubt about it, Chuck Colson could obstruct with the best of them, or rather the worst. That connoisseur-in-chief of dirty tricks, Richard Mountebank Nixon himself, gave him the highest recommendation in his presidential memoirs:

Mr. Colson, the former president wrote, was his “political point man” for “imaginative dirty tricks.” Arriving at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue an ambitious young lawyer, he was determined to show that his tricks were the dirtiest of all, and he did not disappoint his boss.

Whether he was leaking confidential FBI files or compiling Mr. Nixon’s infamous enemies’ list, Chuck Colson soon became a favorite of that president’s. “When I complained to Colson,” Richard Nixon recalled, “something would be done. I was rarely disappointed.”

In the best break of his life — and the lives of so many whose lives he helped redeem — Chuck Colson would be found out, indicted, convicted and sentenced to one-to-three for obstruction. It was while awaiting sentencing that a friend slipped him a copy of C.S. Lewis’ “Mere Christianity,” which he credited with opening his eyes. He would serve seven months of his sentence and leave proclaiming the Gospel.

When he announced the usual prison conversion, and his plans to start a prison ministry, the reaction among us usual skeptics, aka newspapermen, was that it was all a front, a way to get out of the joint and make a good thing of having gone bad.

But day by day and eventually year by year and decade after decade, Charles Colson proved us wrong.

The only force Colson’s ministry employed was soul force, and it proved enough, more than enough. It seems the Spirit exercises a compulsion of its own.

Each of us may seek redemption in our own way. So does each national culture. Consider the life of John Profumo, namesake of the Profumo Affair in England. As secretary for war in a Conservative cabinet back in the early 1960s, John Profumo’s name made the screaming headlines on the front page of every London tabloid morning after morning. For he had done the unthinkable for an English gentleman:

No, not engage in a torrid affair with a notorious prostitute who’d shared her favors with, among others, a naval attache/spy at the Soviet embassy. No, his offense was much more serious: He’d lied about it to Parliament.

Not done, you know. Bad form. Or at least it used to be when there was still an England.

John Profumo was forced to resign in disgrace. Disgraced most of all in his own eyes. He resolved to spend the rest of his life doing penance, helping the poor in anonymity. And he did.

. .

John Profumo began his new and better life as a drudge, washing dishes and cleaning toilets, at Toynbee Hall in London’s East End, a refuge for the down and out. He could identify. Eventually, he was persuaded to put down his mop and take charge of the place, but only reluctantly.

By the time he died not too long ago at 91, after devoting some 40 years of his life to good works on the quiet, John Profumo had been made a CBE, commander of the Order of the British Empire. He’d been forgiven by all except possibly himself. A gentleman after all, he’d found redemption the English way, by doing the honorable thing.

. .

I used to think only the English knew how to do these things. Charles Colson proved that disgraced American politicians can find their way to redemption, too, just differently. Even in the eyes of those of us who raise an eyebrow whenever a politician is described as an evangelist, and whose first reaction is to think of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker.

Charles Colson did it his way, the American Way. He made Prison Fellowship a big business, raising funds, creating franchises, holding rallies, spreading the Word worldwide. Call it the late 20th-century, all-American version of the New Testament’s great commission. Only behind bars, where Christians have landed before.

What the Christian brings to the world is a realistic response to man’s real condition: fallen. Broken. In need of healing. Charles Colson was just responding to the brokenness of the world, beginning with his own. And he believed others would follow. They did.

You know, there may be something to this Christianity thing after all.

Paul Greenberg

Pulitzer Prize-winning Paul Greenberg, one of the most respected and honored commentators in America, is the editorial page editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

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http://townhall.com/columnists/paulgreenberg/2012/05/03/redemption/page/full/

Comcast Boasts ‘Diversity,’ on and off Camera

The new frontier just keeps arriving. New York magazine reports NBC programming chief Robert Greenblatt has given the go-ahead for a new sitcom called “The New Normal.” NBC’s new normal is about two gay men who start a family using a surrogate. Greenblatt is apparently so enamored with the concept that he’s strongly considering having the 20th Century Fox TV-produced sitcom launch by August, following NBC’s broadcast of the summer Olympics.

The show comes from Ryan Murphy, the gay creator of “Glee,” “American Horror Story,” and “Nip/Tuck.” This is only part of a growing Comcast/NBC Universal campaign promoting homosexuality.

In April, gays were delighted that NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” made history by adding their first lesbian featured player to the cast, Kate McKinnon. She came over from the Logo network’s “Big Gay Sketch Show,” where she played memorable characters such as Fitzwilliam, the self-loathing boy who longed for a “magical, enchanted vagina.”

Ah, the new normal. The annual honors of the Point Foundation were held on April 16. The foundation aims to provide “financial support, mentoring, leadership training, and hope to meritorious students who are marginalized due to sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.” They gave their Inspiration Award to Focus Features — owned, like NBC, by Comcast — for “championing respect and inclusion of the LGBT community.”

At that event, the foundation announced that NBC Universal Diversity and Inclusion and the employee-affinity group Out at NBC Universal have created a scholarship with Point Foundation for an LGBT scholar pursuing a career in film, television, or broadcast/digital journalism. This is cozy, since Chris Baker, NBC Universal vice president for information technology, also serves on the Point Foundation’s Board of Regents.

From May 4 to 6, Comcast and NBC Universal are also the top “platinum sponsors” of the Pink and Purple Weekend thrown by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in Washington, D.C.

The event includes some Pink and Purple Recognition Awards. They will honor filmmaker Dee Rees for her lesbian coming-of-age film “Pariah” — from Comcast’s Focus Features. They’re also recognizing Latino activists and PR operatives Ingrid Duran and Catherine Pino, who through their firm, D&P Creative Strategies, have also been … lobbyists for Comcast. Back scratch, back scratch.

Comcast is once again a major backer of the “Equality Forum” in their hometown of Philadelphia from May 3 to 6, billed as the world’s largest “LGBT summit.” Attendees can start the party with a welcome party hosted by the group “Out at NBC Universal.” The Forum’s website urges attendees to “Kick off Equality Forum with NBC 10 and NBC Universal.” Raffle prizes include tickets for “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” and local prizes from NBC 10.

Their International Equality Dinner on May 5 will have MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts as the master of ceremonies and honors NBC Universal with its International Business Leadership Award. As part of that familiar pattern, Craig Robinson, NBCU executive vice president and chief diversity officer, will appear to receive the back-scratching donor honor.

The schedule of events over the weekend includes a “National Religious Colloquy” with a special emphasis on reforming the Roman Catholic Church. Other libertine-left panels have such titles as “Federal Efforts to Achieve Safer Schools,” “Claiming Queer Space In a Blue Collar Town,” “The Pink Revolution: Bringing Change from Within,” and “Expanding Us: The Experience of TransMen in Butch Communities.” There’s also one in keeping with NBC’s newest sitcom — “Baby Making in the 21st Century: Assisted Reproduction Options.”

In a corporate declaration of “Our Commitment to LGBT Communities,” Comcast boasts that “we’ve been a longtime supporter of Equality Forum’s annual conference and initiatives.” They also proclaim they are “proud supporters of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and their annual Media Awards around the country.” Last fall, when President Obama spoke to the annual gala of the Human Rights Campaign, Comcast was listed as a gold sponsor, and NBC Universal was a silver sponsor.

In March of 2011, Comcast created a Joint External Diversity Advisory Council not only to achieve “diversity” in hiring and contracting but also through programming and “philanthropy and community investment.” The council meets twice a year, a collage of four, nine-member Diversity Advisory Councils representing the interests of blacks, Hispanics, Asian-Americans, and women. The joint council also has members representing veterans, Native Americans, people with disabilities, and the LGBT advocates. Mark Segal, publisher of the Philadelphia Gay News and an alternate delegate to this year’s Democratic convention, is their representative.

Try being a Christian heterosexual working at this place. Tolerance, my foot.

Brent Bozell

Founder and President of the Media Research Center, Brent Bozell runs the largest media watchdog organization in America. TOWNHALL DAILY: Be the first to read Brent Bozell’s column. Sign up today and receive Townhall.com daily lineup delivered each morning to your inbox.

http://townhall.com/columnists/brentbozell/2012/05/04/comcast_boasts_diversity_on_and_off_camera/page/full/

Wake Him Up!

“Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Hebrews 4:16

Elouise worked the cash register in the food court at Chicago’s Moody Bible Institute. She was, by far and away, one of my favorite people. I liked a lot of things about Elouise: her happy smile, helpful spirit, and love for everyone. But what I liked best was her down-home, streetwise wisdom that came out in some of the most memorable quips. I could give you a bunch of them, but here’s one that just might be a good word for you.

One morning, as I reached into my pocket to pull out the cash for my breakfast, I asked Elouise how she was doing, to which she replied, “Not all that great.”

“Really?” I asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Well,” she quipped, “I had to wake Him up this morning!”

I wasn’t quite getting where she was going with that, so I asked, “What do you mean? Wake who up?”

“Don’t you know your Bible?” she teasingly said with an obvious sense of joy at stumping the Moody president. To save me any further embarrassment, she went on to say, “When the disciples thought they were going to die in the storm at sea, they had to wake up Jesus so He would help them. I had to wake Him up this morning,” she said, “’cause I needed His help!”

See why she’s one of my favorite people?

What she didn’t say, though, was that it seems like Jesus was the last resort for those panicked disciples. Luke tells us that it wasn’t until the boat was nearly swamped, and it was clear that they were in great danger, that someone had the brilliant idea to wake up Jesus.

If we’re honest with ourselves, we are usually pretty slow as well to wake Him up. Well, actually, we don’t need to wake Him up since the God who watches over us neither slumbers nor sleeps (Psalm 121:3)! In reality, we’re the ones who need to wake up. We need to wake up to the truth that we are not as capable as we think we are to deal with life’s challenges; that our wisdom and instincts are flawed; that trying to manage life by the seat of our pants usually gets us into a heap of trouble.

So, thankfully, the writer to the Hebrews assures us that we can come to Jesus with what the text literally says is “unstaggering confidence”—confidence that He understands our plight and is ready to help us in our time of need. And, in case you’re wondering how He will help you in your time of need, think about His grace that will help you endure, His mercy, His power to overcome, His wisdom to show you the way. And don’t forget His calming presence and His peace that passes understanding in the midst of life’s storms. They are all available for the asking!

So, next time you are overwhelmed with life and don’t know what to do, take a little advice from my friend Elouise: wake Him up! And don’t wait until He is your last resort. You’ll get exhausted and disheartened if you try to bail out your boat all by yourself!

Which reminds me of a wonderful old song that we used to sing in church when I was a boy. It goes, “I need thee, Oh, I need thee! Every hour I need thee! Oh, bless me now my Savior, I come to thee.” You’ll need Him sometime—probably today—so make that the theme song of your life.

YOUR JOURNEY…

• Would you say that Jesus is your first option when life gets in your face? Or is He your last resort?
• What specific steps can you take toward being aware of God’s presence and desire to step in and help you?
• At least once today, plan to intentionally call on God. Ask for His wisdom to know what to do and His grace to do it in a way that would be pleasing to Him. Make it a daily, lifelong habit!

http://getmorestrength.org/daily/wake-him-up/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GetMoreStrength+%28Strength+For+The+Journey%29

Vicarious Intercession

Vicarious Intercession.

God’s Unchanging Word

“Your word, LORD, is eternal;    it stands firm in the heavens.”—Psalm 119:89

When a young Bedouin shepherd followed his errant goat into a cave in the hill country around the Dead Sea, he did more than recover his lost goat — he unearthed a treasure that would substantiate the accuracy of the Hebrew Bible, or what Christians call the Old Testament.

The Dead Sea Scrolls, which were discovered in 1947, are a collection of more than 900 pieces of parchment upon which manuscripts from every book of the Hebrew Bible, except for Esther, were recorded and preserved. The most complete of these scrolls is the entire book of Isaiah.

Until this discovery, the Hebrew Bible in use today was translated from what is called the Masoretic Text. The Masoretes were Jewish scholars who between 500 and 950 CE gave the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament, the form that we are most familiar with today. With the discovery of the scrolls, scholars now had in their hands manuscripts that predated the Masoretic Text by one thousand years!

For many years, the present day Hebrew Bible had been criticized for being corrupted over time and not well preserved. Now here was the opportunity to see how well the Dead Sea documents would match up with the Masoretic Text.

The book of Isaiah was used as the test. After years of careful study, the results were nothing less than amazing:  scholars found that the two texts were practically identical. Most variants were minor spelling differences, and none affected the meaning of the text.

Hebrew scholar Millar Burrows wrote, “It is a matter of wonder that through something like one thousand years the text underwent so little alteration. As I said in my first article on the scroll, ‘Herein lies its chief importance, supporting the fidelity of the Masoretic tradition’.”

While that certainly is a remarkable discovery for biblical scholars, it also is significant for us — devoted readers and students of God’s word. It means as the psalm writer affirmed thousands of years before the Dead Sea scrolls were even written, that God’s word “is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens.”

We can come to the Bible assured of God’s promises, assured of what the patriarchs and the prophets recorded is true today as it was then. As the prophet Isaiah wrote, “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever” (Isaiah 40:8).

While all else may fail around us — relationships sour, economies flounder, health declines— God’s word endures. Let that comfort us today in whatever situation we may face.

http://www.holylandmoments.org/devotionals/gods-unchanging-word-2

“He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.” Romans 4:20, 21

This, then, was Abraham‘s faith. It was a firm credence in the promise of God made to him, and yet a faith that lived under opposition, hoping against hope, and being fully persuaded that what God had promised he would perform. Our faith, then, if it be genuine, must resemble that of Abraham. It must anchor in the truth of God as made life and spirit to our soul. It must meet with every opposition from without and within; from sin, Satan, and the world; from nature and flesh and reason all combined against it. But in spite of all, it must hope against hope, and be fully persuaded that what God has promised he is able to perform; and thus by perseverance and patient waiting obtain the victory. Take another example, that of Moses: his faith was of this nature. “By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh‘s daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season” (Heb. 11:24, 25). The peculiar character of the faith of Moses was this, that though he was highly exalted and might have enjoyed all the treasures and pleasures of Egypt, yet he deliberately preferred to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy all that wealth could offer or carnal pleasure present; “having respect to the recompence of the reward.”

http://devotionals.ochristian.com/j-c-philpot-daily-portions.shtml

The Reality of Communion with Christ

The Reality of Communion with Christ.

Tozer Devotional-”I am with You Always”

“I am with You Always”

It is hardly possible to overstress the importance of unceasing inward prayer on the part of the one who would live the God-conscious life. Prayer at stated times is good and right; we will never outgrow the need of it while we remain on earth. But this kind of prayer must be supported and perfected by the habit of constant, unspoken prayer. But someone may question whether in a world like this it is possible to think of God constantly. Would it not be too great a burden to try to keep God constantly in the focus of our minds while carrying on our normal activities in this noisy and highly complex civilization? Francois Malaval had the answer to this: “The wings of the dove do not weigh it down,” he said. “They carry and support it. And so the thought of God is never a burden; it is a gentle breeze which bears us up, a hand which supports us and raises us, a light which guides us, and a spirit which vivifies us though we do not feel its working.” We all know how the presence of someone we deeply love lifts our spirits and suffuses us with a radiant sense of peace and well-being. So the one who loves God supremely is lifted into rapture by His conscious Presence. “Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord” (John 20:20). If only we would stop lamenting and look up. God is here. Christ is risen. The Spirit has been poured out from on high. All this we know as theological truth. It remains for us to turn it into joyous spiritual experience. And how is this accomplished? There is no new technique; if it is new it is false. The old, old method still works. Conscious fellowship with Christ is by faith, love and obedience. And the humblest believer need not be without these.

http://www.cmalliance.org/devotions/tozer

Who Would Want to Be God’s Sheep? by Mark D Roberts

Ezekiel 34:17-31

You are my flock, the flock of my pasture. You are human, and I am your God. This is what the LORD God says.

Ezekiel 34:31

The final verse of Ezekiel 34 adds an unexpected comment. It begins by reiterating the metaphor of God as Israel‘s shepherd: “You are my flock, the flock of my pasture” (34:31). But then it adds, unexpectedly, “You are human, and I am your God.” The original Hebrew of this verse includes the word adam, which means “human” or “humankind.” It’s as if Ezekiel wants us to know that we are not actually sheep, but human beings who are like sheep.

Over the years, I have heard people object to the shepherd-sheep metaphor as insulting. “Sheep are really stupid,” they claim. “Who would want to be God’s sheep?” My answer is an enthusiastic: “I would!” Yes, I suppose that in some ways I’m not as dull as a sheep. But, with all of my superior intelligence, I can actually get into a lot more trouble than a sheep. And I can cause a lot more trouble for others.

I’m not insulted by the fact that God pictures himself as my good shepherd. In fact, I’m greatly relieved. I spend so much of my life in charge of things. I always feel responsible, even for that which is really not my business. In much of my life, I’m expected to be the one who solves problems and comes up with answers. Mostly, I’m honored to play this role. But, every now and then, the responsibility placed on me is a heavy burden. Moreover, I am all too aware of how much I do not know, how easily I can mess things up. So the fact that, in relationship with God, I can be a dense sheep is really rather reassuring to me. How glad I am that I have an all-wise, all-good, all-loving shepherd who is looking out for me!

In fact, when I have gone through difficult times in my life, I have found great comfort in the timeless words of Psalm 23: “The LORD is my shepherd. I lack nothing. He lets me rest in grassy meadows; he leads me to restful waters; he keeps me alive. He guides me in proper paths for the sake of his good name. Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no danger because you are with me. Your rod and your staff–they protect me. You set a table for me right in front of my enemies. You bathe my head in oil; my cup is so full it spills over! Yes, goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the LORD’s house as long as I live.” Amen and amen!

http://www.thehighcalling.org/reflection/who-would-want-be-gods-sheep?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheHighCallingDailyReflections+%28Daily+Reflection+%26+Prayer%29