Phil,
I do agree with you on this one, but don't have time for a disortation like 
yours.
    The Weekend show, though I like listening to some of it in the 
background, feels like they are bombarding you with soundbites, and lots of 
psychological theory.  And though some of what they say is correct as far as 
concepts go, there is not necessarily anything more than head knowledge, 
instead of the spirit-inspired word.
More later.
Vinny
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Phil Scovell" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, January 05, 2008 5:27 PM
Subject: Re: Attention Kathy


> Kathy,
>
> I guess I haven't been staying until the instructions of the products at 
> the
> end these days so I didn't realize that.  I have purchased things from 
> them
> many times over the years.  When my 26 year old son was a year old, he was
> having ear infections about once a month.  Sandy didn't sleep for months
> without getting up many times a night.  She was working at the hospital
> offices back then so I literally had to hold him upright against my chest 
> so
> he could sleep and he wouldn't crawl around or play all day.  The Lord led
> us to a chiropractor and he, at that time, was using an ultrasound
> treatment.  The doctor was a Christian.  My friend who took us, brought me
> home and we walked to the front door.  I unlocked the door, pushed it
> opened, and Everett started wiggling like he wanted down.  I put him down,
> he was walking, and he ran over to his toys and played all day and I never
> held him once.  During those hundreds of hours of holding him over the 
> many
> months, however, I listened to the radio, and every Focus on the Family,
> program every single day.  Sometimes twice a day because we have so many
> Christian radio stations, you can always catch the shows later if you miss
> one.  Anyhow, Focus on the Family was my life line back in those days. 
> No,
> I don't believe everything they say but, shoot, I don't even believe
> everything I say half the time and of course we all know I have never
> changed my mind because I am always right.  Any time our son started 
> acting
> like another ear infection was coming on, and all this was after dozens of
> trips to the medical doctor and dozens of bottles of liquid medications 
> and
> antibiotics, we got our son to the chiropractor right away, eventually he
> went to using a low level laser light, and our son never had to take
> medications again for ear infections.  It was amazing.  The treatments,
> normally one or two or three a week at the most, were only 4 dollars each
> and sometimes he didn't even charge us for some of the treatments.  The 
> only
> real problem I have with Focus on the Family, other than all the politics
> they have gotten tangled up in over the years, is that it seems to have
> morphed into a certain class of Christian of which I am not apart.  My 
> life
> isn't as stable or regular and even, and by the book, sort of speak, as I
> get the impression they think it should be.  Frankly, I'm not that good of 
> a
> Christian based upon how psychology is integrated into the Christian's 
> daily
> life.  I've likely told this before but years ago, I was in a church 
> called
> Amazing Grace.  It was a low level Pentecostal church, sort of speak, and
> Sandy played the drums on the worship team.  One Wednesday night, they had
> us watch a Dobson film on Sexually Transmitted Diseases.  A wonderful 
> church
> presentation, tongue in cheek, and the thing freaked me out.  By the time
> the film was over, I was reviewing my life, out of fear, that I might have 
> a
> STD and I knew that was impossible based upon my Christian life style even
> as a teenager on drugs.  I may have shot speed up my arm without using a
> clean needle or swabbing the skin with a cotton ball doused with alcohol,
> but I was afraid God would kill me if I had sex before marriage.  Not
> necessarily a bad attitude to have in my opinion but I'm just saying, this
> film almost had me convinced I was diseased and I hadn't even done 
> anything.
> They really put the pressure on in other words.  Something bothered me 
> about
> the film and the interviews with the teenagers they showed but I couldn't
> figure out what it was.  I just figured it was my old cynical attitude 
> again
> and tried not thinking about it until, that is, one day, a week or so 
> later,
> it hit me what was wrong.  They were frightening people that they might 
> get
> a disease, if the had premarital sex, and not approaching it from a
> Scriptural view.  Oh, sure, they talked about Christian values but 
> something
> was even missing from that.  After Sunday school one Sunday thereafter, 
> the
> pastor, a man in his early sixties, taught our class.  I was seated in a
> chair on the front row.  The room drained of people but my kids weren't 
> out
> of Sunday school yet and I believe Sandy had already left to get up on the
> stage with the music team.  The pastor came over and sat down next to me 
> and
> we began talking.  He had taught that Sunday on Christian values learned 
> as
> a kid so we rehashed his Sunday school lesson over again.  He mentioned 
> all
> the things he could not, was not allowed to do, on Sundays because it was
> the Lord's day.  I laughed because, although I was only about 30 years 
> old,
> I had been raised the same way.  I couldn't play with my neighbor friends 
> on
> Sunday, shoot my bee bee gun, ride my bike, or even leave my yard most of
> the time.  You had to be super sick not to go to church, too.  So, we
> compared notes about all this and my pastor said, "Phil, I don't think all
> that hurt us too much, do you?"  I laughed and said I thought it probably
> did us a lot of good and he agreed.  No, I didn't raise my children that 
> way
> but we did have restrictions related to Sunday and just Christian living 
> in
> general.  So, back to the Sexual Transmitted Disease film Dobson had back
> then.  He has another one, a newer one now, which I've seen, too, plus he
> covers this same issue about once a year on his radio show.  In fact, the
> last issue related to STD which he literally covered on his radio program
> and I heard, not once, but twice on two difference stations because I
> couldn't believe my ears, was getting STD by engaging in oral sex.  I am
> writing about this and have not finished it yet but I heard things on that
> show which deeply sadden me because the same cotton picking thing was
> missing on this 30 minute radio program that was missing from the two 
> films.
> There are probably more films by now and DVD and who knows what else.  The
> problem with the radio show was, they had a girl asking a question, a
> teenage girl, and I listened to the program twice, as I said, because I
> thought I had missed it but I didn't.  They never answered the 17 year old
> girl's freaking dad blame question.  I was yelling at the radio by the 
> time
> it was over saying, "Why won't you answer her legitimate question?"  When
> I'm finished with my article, it is sort of a rebuttal, I do answer the
> young lady's question but I also make some other points which will 
> probably
> get me excommunicated.  Anyhow, here is what was missing from the films 
> and
> from the radio show.  When my pastor said, "I don't think how we were 
> raised
> to respect God and Sunday and the church hurt us any," I agreed, as I 
> said.
> Our conversation then turned to the one element that didn't seemed to be
> preached on much any longer and that was sin.  I didn't sleep with a girl
> back during my drug days due to the lack of offers or desire even on my
> part.  I did it out of the fear of God and the fear of what sin would do 
> to
> me.  I know this sounds stupid because I was living in sin but it was the
> truth and it was how I felt.  AIDS wasn't around then either so they
> couldn't scare us with that but they did preach the truth and that
> premarital sex was sin and God hates sin.  That I knew was true so
> regardless of everything else I did and am not happy I did now, I believe
> what the Bible said and what I was taught.  Dobson's films, at least the
> first one, on STD and the like, nor his last radio show on oral sex and 
> STD
> among teens and what teens were doing in church bathrooms, on school buses
> on the way home, and even among those in the big church youth groups, was
> missing one big word called sin.  I asked my pastor, "Did you hear the 
> word
> sin one time during the film last Wednesday night?"  He was quite for a 
> long
> time as he thought.  "No," he said.  "You are right.  I didn't hear it."
> This guy was a big Focus supporting and when Promise Keepers popped up
> later, he and the church supported it big time, too.  I never did because 
> of
> what I saw and yes, I have talked to people who went and I have listened 
> to
> the live radio broadcasts when they were aired and loved every sermon and
> message I heard so don't dump on me for that.  I know the history of 
> promise
> Keepers from day one and I have written about it and it is posted on my
> website.  You won't like what you read because the organization was 
> started
> for the wrong reasons and I was there in the first meeting and saw and 
> heard
> what they said.  They don't say it now of course but I digress. 
> Regardless,
> I still praise God for all the good Focus has done all these many years 
> and
> I believe without any doubt in my heart, regardless of people I doubt are
> born again he has recently had on his radio show to push their political
> book for them, and regardless of the wrong stand they have taken on over
> abortion in recent months, that James Dobson is a man of God and his 
> single
> purpose of mind is to reach people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I 
> hope
> he doesn't die in my life time because I'll certainly miss him.  How did I
> get into all of this?
>
> Phil.
>
>
> Phil.
>