{"id":18776,"date":"2015-05-04T12:22:21","date_gmt":"2015-05-04T10:22:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=18776"},"modified":"2015-05-04T12:22:21","modified_gmt":"2015-05-04T10:22:21","slug":"redefining-marriage-will-lead-to-fall-of-western-civilization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=18776","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Redefining marriage will lead to fall of Western civilization&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Dr. James Dobson, who founded the highly influential groups Focus on the Family and Family Research Council and now runs Family Talk Radio, is warning that if the U.S. Supreme Court redefines marriage as analysts predict, the ruling will presage the \u201cfall of Western civilization.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI do not recall a time when the institutions of marriage and the family have faced such peril, or when the forces arrayed against them were more formidable or determined,\u201d he writes in a letter distributed to his hundreds of thousands of supporters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBarring a miracle, the family that has existed since antiquity will likely crumble, presaging the fall of Western civilization itself. This is a time for concerted prayer, divine wisdom and greater courage than we have ever been called upon to exercise,\u201d he writes.<\/p>\n<p>The author has frequently has tangled with the Obama administration.<\/p>\n<p>At one point he warned America is heading toward \u201cdepravity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He also, amid his lawsuit against the administration over Obamacare\u2019s abortion requirements, told the president he would refuse to obey any law that required him to participate in the killing of an unborn child.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI believe in the rule of law, and it has been my practice since I was in college to respect and honor those in authority over us. It is my desire to do so now. However, this assault on the sanctity of human life takes me where I cannot go,\u201d he wrote in an open letter to the president.<\/p>\n<p>WND also reported that when Dobson spoke to the National Day of Prayer in Washington, hundreds stood and cheered him.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Hurtling\u2019 toward Gomorrah<\/p>\n<p>His newest comments were written for distribution to constituents of the organization he founded after leaving Focus on the Family in 2003, Family Talk, which features the daily radio show \u201cFamily Talk with Dr. James Dobson.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe \u2026 are not simply \u2018slouching toward Gomorrah,\u2019 as Judge Robert Bork warned in his best-selling book; we are hurtling toward it,\u201d he writes. \u201cThe old earthen dam that has held and protected the reservoir of Judeo-Christian values since the days of our Founding Fathers has given way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If the Supreme Court redefines marriage, he says, \u201can avalanche of court cases will be filed on related issues that can\u2019t even be imagined today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Religious liberty \u201cwill be assaulted from every side.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can be certain that conservative churches will be dragged into court by the hundreds,\u201d Dobson writes. \u201cTheir leaders will be required to hire people who don\u2019t share the beliefs of their denominations and constituents. Pastors may have to officiate at same-sex marriages, and they could be prohibited from preaching certain passage of Scripture. \u2026 Prison is also a possibility.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He says Christian businesses and ministries, as already has happened to florists and bakers, will be forced to serve at same-sex ceremonies, and Christian colleges \u201cmay be unable to teach scriptural views of marriage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A foreshadowing can be seen in Obama\u2019s recent demand for laws that prevent parents from seeking professional therapy if their children are dealing with a sexual identity crisis. Already law in a couple of states, Obama\u2019s plan would require counselors to accept homosexuality in all such cases.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat business does this man have telling parents how to help their confused and disoriented kids even after they have been abused and exploited sexually? This is outrageous!\u201d Dobson says.<\/p>\n<p>Also, anyone with a state license soon could be coerced into adopting the state definition of morality.<\/p>\n<p>Textbooks would be rewritten, and public schools soon would teach children \u201cgay and lesbian concepts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>All of which, he writes, defies the facts of marriage.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe institution of the family is one of the Creator\u2019s most marvelous and enduring gifts to humankind. It was revealed to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and then described succinctly in Genesis 2:24, where we read, \u2018For this cause, a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and they shall be one flesh.\u2019 With those 20 words, God announced the ordination of male-female marriage, long before He established the two other great human institutions, the church and the government,\u201d he writes.<\/p>\n<p>Every civilization has held to that understanding of marriage until now.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGod help us if we throw the divine plan for humankind on the ash heap of history,\u201d he said. \u201cDown one path are millions of strong and vibrant families with their children growing up in the fear and admonition of the Lord. Down the other path is a nation drifting away from its spiritual roots in a culture that will teach a dangerous ideology to today\u2019s younger generation and those yet to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dr. James Dobson, who founded the highly influential groups Focus on the Family and Family Research Council and now runs Family Talk Radio, is warning that if the U.S. Supreme Court redefines marriage as analysts predict, the ruling will presage the \u201cfall of Western civilization.\u201d \u201cI do not recall a time when the institutions of &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=18776\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;&#8216;Redefining marriage will lead to fall of Western civilization&#8217;&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2961,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,10],"tags":[11614,2828,3495,121,11467,11613,4941],"class_list":["post-18776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-united-states","tag-families","tag-gays","tag-homosexuality","tag-marriage","tag-same-sex-unions","tag-scripture","tag-western-civilization"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2961"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18776"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18777,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18776\/revisions\/18777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}