There's a worldview war going on right now. One radio program gives you full frontline coverage. It's Generations, and here's your host, Kevin Swanson. And welcome to Generations, my friends. This is Kevin Swanson, Executive Director for Christian Home Educators, also a pastor, but the reason I'm here, I'm a father of five. So Dave, we're in studio today with you talking about what's happening in our world and taking it from a biblical worldview so that we can raise our children in an environment where they've got a little bit of life, a little bit of truth, and a little bit of relationship in a lost and lonely world. Well, in the news today, the abomination tolerance in the U.S. reaches record marks. This according to a news article. Oh, excuse me, they didn't say abomination tolerance, they said gay tolerance. But anyway, abomination tolerance is now reaching record highs according to this new Gallup poll. Pro-homosexual rights attitudes have reached high points this year according to a new poll with more Americans expressing quote-unquote tolerance. Today, 57% of the American public believes homosexuality should be sanctioned as an acceptable alternative lifestyle. Also indicating higher tolerance, 59% of Americans believe homosexual relations should be legal. And revealing a long-term increase in pro-homosexual right attitudes, 46% believe same-sex couples should be recognized by the law as valid with the same writes as traditional marriages. For the first time in the 21st century, less than the majority of Americans say homosexual relations are morally wrong. 49 percent. The first time in American history, we have 49 percent, only 49 percent, less than the majority, saying that homosexual relations are morally wrong. At the same time, the majority of Americans say sex between a man and woman, 59 percent, divorce, 65 percent, and having a baby outside of marriage, 54 percent, All morally acceptable. Also interesting, the Gallup poll found younger Americans aged 18 to 34 years of age are much more likely. 75% say that homosexuality is a good thing and older Americans aged 55 years and older only 45%. Of course, folks, we're going to lose the homosexual marriage battle. We've said this before on this program. We are losing and will continue to lose. Why? Well, number one, the schools have already won the battle. Well folks, that's obvious. 75% of the younger generation are pro-homosexual marriage. Only 45% of the older generation are pro-homosexual marriage. Why is that? Well, the schools are doing their job. The schools are doing what schools do best. And that is indoctrinate children in an education that does not recognize the fear of God. And folks, the battle's already won in the schools. You might as well throw away your yard signs supporting your anti-homosexual marriage campaign. It doesn't do any good as long as you're sending your kids to schools and supporting schools that refuse to teach the beginning of wisdom is the fear of God. The schools have already got the children. And they're educating the children. Now 75% are supporting homosexual marriage of those under 35 years of age. Also, and we've said this before, 37% of children are born without fathers, up from 6% in 1960, and that's the number one factor contributing to the incidence of homosexuality, the absence of loving fathers. If you don't have fathers who have relationships with their boys, of course, a lot of boys are going to wind up becoming homosexuals. That's just common sense, and that's what most of the psychologists and psychiatrists that work with homosexuals tell us. is that homosexuals come from households where fathers did not really connect with their sons. And then last year, several major evangelical pastors came out of the closet. Remember this, Dave? They were playing around homosexuality. And you know, hello? Your actions are speaking louder than 20 years of sermons. Dave, when you have major pastors, these guys, and they're conservative evangelicals, these guys come out of the closet and play around with homosexuality, and what does that do? What does that do to a nation? I tell you what, it breaks the moral fiber of a nation when its leaders give in to the sin of homosexuality. Folks, the Christian church is too weak to stand anymore, to become a blubbering mass of jelly when it comes to these moral issues. You don't hear many churches preaching on Leviticus or Romans 1, which talks about the death penalty for those who engage in homosexual acts. You just don't hear that much on radio or television or anywhere else. You just don't get the moral standard, as you once did in this nation. And when the churches abandon the biblical worldview, and that ceases to be the moral compass for the nation, the guys from Sodom are going to be happy to indoctrinate the masses, and that's exactly what they're doing. Churches are abandoning ship. They're not even doing it, I guess because it's a little too controversial. You know, Dave, it's pretty hard to get around that little statement in Leviticus. If any man lies with mankind as he lies with a woman, they shall surely be put to death. I mean, they don't make an exception there. You know, except for those homosexuals who have a meaningful, committed relationship. You don't see that there. It says, if they're lying with a man as he would lie with a woman, he should be put to death. Boom! It's just that clear. That's about as clear as you can get. God finds homosexuality morally reprehensible, my friends. I know the ACLU is going to disagree with this program, along with a lot of Cabinet Republicans and Hillary Clinton and all the rest. But you know what? God acted rather violently against Sodom and Gomorrah. And from my read of it, he's still pretty powerful, i.e. made the universe and still controls it. That's big. God's big. God's really big. Are people forgetting this? that God is big and God doesn't like homosexuality. I mean, is this clear? Is this as clear as clear as day? If you read the Bible and you follow the Bible, God is big and God hates homosexuality and he's destroyed nation states for going down that road. But they don't teach that, Kevin, in the public schools. And for the last hundred years, we've removed God from the public schools. We've removed His law from the public schools. We've removed any possibility for morality. So when some people say, when a majority of people say that they don't find it immoral, it's because they can't find anything moral or immoral. The whole standard is gone. Once upon a time, we would have stoned Barney Frank. Now we elect him and send him to Congress. Once upon a time Ellen DeGeneres would have been stoned and Rosie O'Donnell and now we give them talk shows and pay them billions of dollars and make them cultural icons. What happened? What happened was the law of God was removed when God was removed and the basis for any kind of ethics is removed. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm talking about the foundations here. The foundations are destroyed. Why put a yard sign up when your schools and your churches are all fouled up? When your schools are teaching a basic ethical relativeness, and the schools are not teaching the fear of God as the beginning of wisdom and knowledge, and the churches refuse to teach the law of God. Okay, as long as that happens, why put a yard sign up and try to reverse something politically? Ladies and gentlemen, we've got some work to do. And I think Dave, ultimately, it's just bringing the law of God back and starting to live by the law of God every single day in our homes. That's really where it begins. And Dave, one more story on this, and I think this ties in directly to the story on homosexuality. There's a radio network that was not comfortable advertising a female pastor. This is the Christian Post reporter as well. just this week. A local Christian radio network in Syracuse, New York refused to advertise a citywide crusade because a female pastor is scheduled to speak at the event. Of course, everybody's up in arms on this one. The Mars Hill Network's board of directors voted last week not to promote the June 7-8 citywide crusade and conference featuring pastors Jamal Bryant and Paula White. That isn't Paul, that's Paula. Okay, so there's a distinction here. Okay, so Pastor Paula is preaching in front of 3,000 to 4,000 people down here in Syracuse, New York. This radio station said, we're not going to promote this. We're not going to promote this. And it's an all-male board. They make a big point out of that. The all-male board can't comfortably promote women in the role of pastor, said Wayne Taylor, general manager of the radio network, according to the Post Standard. The network's board accepted the literal interpretation of the Bible, in which women are prohibited from church leadership roles, such as serving as a pastor. We want to follow the scriptures as much as we can, said Board President Clayton Roberts. According to the New Testament book of Timothy, according to the post-standard, the Apostle Paul states in 1 Timothy 2.12, I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. Now, this Paula White is a popular life coach and best-selling author who was voted this year as one of the 20 most influential Christians in America. She also co-pastors the 18,000th Pastor Without Walls International Church in Tampa, Florida, with her husband, Dr. Randy White. White had preached at the 2004 Citywide Crusade, an event that is meant to provide spiritual, economic, and social balance for families and individuals. And citywide crusade founder, Bishop Robert Jones, pastor of the Apostolic Church of Jesus Christ, says he has no problem with women pastors. And he appears to be very upset with the Apostle Paul for saying those nasty things in 1 Timothy 2. Quote, he says, I don't know how you can discriminate against female pastors. You should not sit in the judgment seat to determine who God will use to deliver the word. Well, he's really upset with the Apostle Paul here, Dave. So what do you do when a guy is upset with the Apostle Paul, and yet he's still trying to preach what? What were they trying to preach? I'm trying to remember. They were trying to preach something. This woman pastor is showing up to preach something, but they're really upset with the Word of God. So what exactly are they preaching? Well, you have to agree that it would be wrong to sit in the judgment seat of what God already has judged. Yeah, what God has already said. It seems to me that maybe He's doing that. Well, my guest, ladies and gentlemen, is Pastor Paula White is not preaching from First Timothy, Chapter 2, this June in Syracuse, New York. It's just a guess. Ladies and gentlemen, we want to talk about clergy and skirts next on Generation. It's clergy and skirts. What does the Bible say about a skirted pastor? We'll be back in a moment. My name is Kevin Swanson. Folks, back on Generations, Kevin Swanson here with you, looking at the world through the eyes of a biblical worldview, and homosexuality on the rise in terms of its public acceptance, and also clergy and skirts. Huge, controversial topic today. Not a lot of folks speaking out against it, but as we talk about clergy and skirts, Dave, I think the first thing we should say is we're against transvestitism in the pulpit. You should not, you know, guys should not be dressing up in skirts in the pulpit, with maybe the exception of a Scottish fella in a kilt from time to time. But folks, the point is that the Bible is not egalitarian. I'm sorry, God is not a Marxist. He's not egalitarian. He recognizes the difference between boys and girls, men and women, and role differences. I know that's difficult for the pure economic egalitarian to say, hey, roles equal economy, and economy is the essential value of a person. Well, the Bible doesn't say a man's economic value is his essential value. I'm sorry. I know Marx said that, but we don't say it. The Bible is not egalitarian, and in 1 Timothy 2 and verse 7, we've got some gender-specific roles in public piety. Yeah, I'm sorry, but there are gender-specific roles. I mean, obviously, women have babies, men don't. That's one role difference, and there are a lot of men out there real upset about it. It's not equal opportunity, I know. You know, here in worship, God says there's going to be world differences, because God likes it that way. I'm sorry, He does. He says, I would that Andres, or men everywhere, pray with the lifting up of holy hands without wrath and without doubting. I want men doing that. And then He says, I want the women not to teach. I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over a man. And then He roots it in creation in the fall. And Dave, that's difficult. That's tough for a lot of people, because they really wanted there to be, you know, just a cultural thing here. You know? There's a new dispensation. Paul was just addressing his culture, but he doesn't root it in the culture. He roots it in creation, in the fall. Dave, I know there are a lot of people out there going, but there's got to be a way around this. We've got to find a way around this. Maybe we can find higher criticism, or lower criticism, or middle to medium well done criticism. You know, maybe we can find some way around this thing. Maybe dispensationalism. Maybe that'll help us. We want to make almost all the Bible irrelevant, if possible. And so maybe dispensationalism. Wait a minute, that comes after Acts, so we can't do that. There's a lot of people trying to squeak through this thing, theologically, Dave. But hey, the Bible says what the Bible says. Let's just step back and admit that the Bible says, establishes our ethics. And Dave, here's the real issue. The real issue is that Betty Friedan disagrees, and the women's suffrage movement of the 1880s disagrees with Paul, and Karl Marx disagrees with Paul, and all the other role and economic egalitarians disagree with Paul. And you know what? This is our source for ethics. Our culture is our source for ethics. And what they want to do is find Karl Marx and Betty Friedan and all the feminists as the ultimate folks who do establish ethical constructs for our world, and then they oppose that on the Word of God. And that's what these people are doing. Hey, their ultimate epistemological authority is not God's Word. It's Karl Marx. It's their own tradition. It's the women's suffrage movement of the 1880s. These guys will not submit to the Word of God as the absolute source for ethics. And really it's the same thing with those who deny homosexuality as an abomination of sin against God. Absolutely. It's the very same problem. They deny God's Word. You know what's really offensive to some of these people? That every one of the disciples, of Christ's disciples, were men. There wasn't a woman among them. As far as we know, not a single book of the Bible was penned by a woman. Not one. Not one. This is really offensive. You know, women have been disenfranchised here. Yeah, and Dave, you're speaking like a Marxist right now. You're quoting the Karl Marxists of the world, because what they're saying is that the economic roles that are played by men and women establish their value. But the Word of God doesn't do that. The Word doesn't say, if you've achieved this economic role, that is your value. The Word says you have a value because you're creating the image of God. And Dave, ultimately, when these Marxists establish their value by economy, ultimately what they're saying is they're just a piece of cosmic dust floating on the universe of pure chance. So one person has a few more bucks than another person. That doesn't establish any value about them. What establishes equal value is God himself. If we're just cosmic dust, we reduce ourselves to absolutely nothing. We give up all of our dignity. It's at the point where we cut off God and His Word, where we wind up with no dignity whatsoever. But if God comes to us and says, man and woman, you are of equal essence to me because you are creating the image of God. What is man that thou art mindful of, and the son of man that thou giftest him? That's the Word of God in Psalm 8. God has established us, given us, God has given us our value. Now, as you said, Dave, there is a difference between AD 50 and AD 2007, a huge difference. What's the difference? In AD 50, you had one reference to a wife of a missionary. That was Priscilla. Remember Coquilla and Priscilla? By AD 1929, 67% of missionaries in six different Protestant denominations were women. In 8050, single men were active in missions. At least, what, 40-50% of the missionaries were single men? Zero single women missionaries. Zero single women missionaries, my friends. 80-2006, 75% of the 774 single missionaries from the Southern Baptist denomination are women. Only 25% of these singles are men. Ladies and gentlemen, huge difference. Now, Dave, you know what? When it comes down to women preachers and pastors, we're not saying that women should not be on the field at all. Aquila and Priscilla, they were active together. Obviously, Priscilla would not be teaching and preaching and pastoring and be an elder in the church. That's off limits for women. But, Dave, picture Jeremiah. John the Baptist, some of these guys. Picture these guys in perms and earrings and high heels. Can you picture Jeremiah in high heels? No. It doesn't work. No. It just doesn't work. Picture the Apostle Paul. I'm not going to work. These guys were men. These guys were men. What's the difference between A.D. 50 and A.D. 2006? I'll tell you what the difference is. We've emerged out of a 200 year period where manhood has effectively disappeared. We don't live in an age of men today. We have plenty of irresponsible men, spineless men, heartless and treacherous men, men without vision, dishonorable men, passive men, men who refuse to sacrifice for their wives. We have bureaucratic men who have been taught well to stack paper and be good in their little committees. We have conservative men who will not under any circumstance risk their own lives for that which they believe. Then we have liberal men who will risk the lives of others for that which they believe. We have men who have learned to insulate themselves in relationships that demand reservoirs of wisdom, love, and courage. We have men who spend their days smoking peyote, engaging in tribal or gang warfare, and impregnating half the village. We have men who are not courageous enough to be sacrificial lovers for their wives. We have angry patriarchs. We have macho men who couldn't lead a poodle on a potty walk. But mighty men of faith? Much harder to find. Mighty men of faith with eyes of vision, heads of wisdom, backbones of courage, arms of strength, hearts of love are despised by the majority and admired by only a few. And a lot of this is because we're not building mighty men. We're not raising our boys to be mighty men. In fact, boys are disenfranchised by education. Most folks in college and law school today are women today, by a long shot. Men are not being raised as men by men. Boys aren't being raised with vision. Hey Dave, where do you learn to be a mighty man? From a feminized pastor who's been trying to keep the women happy in his church? Or from 12 years of hanging out in some classroom blocks with mostly women teachers? Where are you going to learn to be a man? Well, you're only going to learn to be a man from a man. Yeah, exactly. And what if that man never learned how to be a man? Now we've got a real problem. And ladies and gentlemen, I think we're talking about a multi-generational problem here. Dave, you know what? I stand on my dad's shoulders, and I'm learning how to be a man because my dad was a man. But I'm learning how to be more of a man. And I hope my son will be more of a man. I think we've lost over 200 years of a feminized culture and a feminized religion and a feminized churches. We've lost the concept of what it is to be a man. Dave, here's the other problem, because men are not on the mission field. The vast majority of missionaries are women, my friends. Because men are not on the mission field, men are not getting saved. Men are not preaching to men, so men aren't getting saved. So it's a catch-22 here. You see it? That's a fundamental reason why there's very little long-term success on the mission field anymore, or anywhere in the kingdom of God, including the United States of America. There isn't much household evangelism going on. Remember, if households and men aren't getting saved, you're not going to make an impact. That's the number one strategy used in the book of Acts. Get that household into the church. Get households saved. That was the strategy of the Apostles, and it's not the strategy today. Today, you're ministering to individuals, not households. You're not ministering to heads of households and fathers anymore. Everybody knows it's much easier to get little children's ministries going, but that was not Paul's goal. Paul's goal was not little kids' ministries or even getting ladies saved. It was getting those households saved by bringing the heads of households into the kingdom of God. That, my friends, was the strategy. Well, the big question today is, where are the men? What's the fundamental problem? Well, the problem is that men aren't being discipled. And so there aren't going to be very many men missionaries anywhere in America or anywhere else. We're not training our sons to be mighty men of God. And that's a problem. But I think we can turn this thing around, Dave, if we can begin to get fathers and mothers listening to this program right now to commit to raising their sons to be mighty men of God, men who accomplish great things for the kingdom of God, men of great, tremendous courage who are willing to risk their lives for the kingdom of God. men of love, men of sacrifice, men of wisdom. If they can give their young men a vision for godly manhood, I think we could make the biggest mark for the kingdom of God we have seen in the last 500 years. I truly believe that. And ladies and gentlemen, we only have a few minutes left. I want to encourage you to get our tape on training a mighty man of God as part of our Vision for Generations MP3 collection. And you can get it for $9.95 on my website. We use nine hours of talks on that collection. And one of them is Raising a Mighty Man of God. Ladies and gentlemen, this is where we're going to start seeing a turnaround for the Kingdom of God. This is where. Everything is going to happen. If we don't see a turnaround, if we don't see fatherhood come back in the modern age, if we continue to see 37% of children born without fathers, if we continue to see the demise of manhood, we are going to see a languishing of the kingdom of God and the missionary movement. Pastors, churches everywhere are going to languish and suffer because there haven't been mothers and fathers raising mighty men of God in the households, the kitchens and living rooms across this nation. Let's turn it around right now. Let's resolve to do this with our own sons. Dave, you and I need to resolve to do this too. You've got two mighty men in training right here in this room right now. We've got to commit to this. We've got to commit to it. We've got to do it God's way. We've got to bring out the book of Proverbs. We've got to steal their character. I mean, make them hard as steel from the book of Proverbs. We've got to teach them how to How to rule their emotions from the book of Psalms. We need to teach them what it means to be brave and valiant from the book of Judges. And on and on. We need to use the whole counsel of the word of God. Because men are shaped and formed like you shape and form metal. In the heat of iron, sharpening iron. And give them a vision for the battle. Show them that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers. Show them the strongholds they need to cast down in their lifetime. Give them a vision. Give them a vision and build a mighty man of God. Folks, let me recommend that CD again, Training a Mighty Man of God. Get the Vision for Generations MP3 collection at our website KevinSwanson.com. And you can hear the program anytime, anywhere in the world at KevinSwanson.com. Get more of your friends and family members tune in to us at KevinSwanson.com. This is Kevin Swanson inviting you back again next time as we lay down a vision for the next generation.