Do You Need to Rent a Mom?
Nina Keneally is the founder of Need a Mom. Her website's byline says it all: "When you need a mom . . . just not YOUR mom."
Nina will listen to your problems, make you some soup, or watch a movie with you. The mother of two grown sons and a drug and rehabilitation counselor, she will give you advice if you ask (though she stresses she is not a doctor or therapist). All for $40 an hour.
Does our culture need a mother?
Hamtramck, Michigan, is believed to be the first city in America to elect a Muslim-majority city council. As Muslim immigrants continue coming to the U.S., expect other cities to follow.
Controversy continues over the Starbucks holiday cups story. The company is no longer printing snowflakes, winter scenes, or Christmas ornaments on its holiday cups. (For more, see Nick Pitts's Starbucks Hates Jesus? The Latest Christian Bogeyman.) Now Donald Trump is suggesting that we boycott Starbucks.
The University of Missouri president and chancellor have both resigned in the face of allegations that they had done too little to combat racism on campus. Students and faculty had been protesting, but the tipping point came when members of the football team announced they would boycott team activities until the president stepped down. Now critics are wondering what changes will be demanded next. Social commentator Rod Dreher calls the university "a football team with a university attached to it."
If it seems to you that our society has lost its way, you're right. For decades, we've been taught that truth is opinion and ethics are subjective. "You have no right to force your beliefs on me," we've been told.
But now a rising number of opinions have attained the status of political correctness and can be imposed by those with the power to do so. From abortion to same-sex marriage to euthanasia, the entire life cycle is subject to legislated, unbiblical immorality. The light of truth is dimming, and we can expect the room to get darker still.
But here's the good news: God is ready to speak to anyone who is ready to listen.
1 Kings 22 tells an unusual story. Ahab, king of Israel, asks Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, to join him in battle against Syria. Jehoshaphat wisely responds, "Inquire first for the word of the Lord" (1 Kings 22:5). So Ahab gathers 400 hundred prophets, who all claim that God will give him victory (v. 6).
But Jehoshaphat knows that supportive advice is not always good advice. People will often tell you what you want to hear, especially if ingratiating themselves to you will profit them personally. So he asks, "Is there not here another prophet of the Lord of whom we may inquire?" (v. 7). Ahab turns to Micaiah, who predicts that Ahab will be killed and his forces defeated. And his word comes true.
Why? Micaiah declared: "What the Lord says to me, that I will speak" (v. 14). Will you make the same vow today?
Publication date: November 11, 2015
For more from the Denison Forum on Truth and Culture, please visit www.denisonforum.org.
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