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Beth Cavete
@BethCavete
I write about leaving deception to discern the true Gospel from false. Sheep-loving wolf-hater. Cleansing, not deconstruction. Wife/mom/Bibliophile.
Joined March 2013
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No greater joy, my friends.
No greater joy. 3 Jn 1:4
(My valentines, a little late)
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
@forestvanslyke There are lots of ways to reject people who don’t measure up to our preferences without aborting them.
And now you see yourself as you are, the IDEA of who you thought you were in shreds around you
Then you aren’t at the end, but the beginning. This is where the Gospel finds us, and it’s the only place the real thing happens. Where we finally see the King and Savior and give Him rule over our hearts through broken repentance, needing blood for atonement like Abel, rather than the shiny offerings of Cain’s beautiful cornucopia of talk and appearances of goodness.
None of us are good. Until the Good King takes over in our inner person.
Walking with the Lord over decades means loss to the left and right of people you thought were brothers and sisters, like the ones this pastor is describing.
“Christianity” from the outside in isn’t Christianity at all.
Jesus Christ reigning over the inner Kingdom of the heart is the only real thing that ever was or will be. But you can’t always tell from the outside.
It’s why the Scripture tells us over and over that He tests our hearts, but we rarely hear that taught.
He is seeking hearts that are truly His, and just as with any other sort of love, without suffering there is just no way to know who is genuine.
These folks who aborted their DS baby didn’t actually Love the child they won’t suffer for. They love themselves. Their marriage probably won’t survive the revelation of who they are.
Similarly, we don’t love a Savior for whom we won’t suffer. Tests not only will come, they must. It’s a promise of God.
One thing…if you’ve been tested and failed…
Some of the anger I saw from pro-lifers responding to my tweets was essentially, "how dare you insinuate that pro-life people would abort a child with Down Syndrome!"
Guys, I've been in the care of souls business for 18 years now. And when you're in the care of souls business, something you see often is people who have been lifelong, devout Christians completely bail on the faith the SECOND holding to it requires them to suffer.
People who have spent decades faithfully coming to worship will leave forever the second their kids come out to them and tell them they have to choose between holding to the Bible and having a relationship with their kids. People who have always upheld what the church teaches about cohabitation immediately reject it the second their kids start shacking up.
People who lament the evils of divorce will get divorced the second they think they can come out of the situation better off, and they will give you every rationalization for why the words of Jesus don't apply to them. Ask your pastors about this. Dudes will leave their congregations, go to another down the street to another congregation with their mistress on their arm and act like nothing happened, utterly convinced that God supports them in doing so.
People who have thanked you for preaching against the idolatrous nature of youth sports that keeps kids out of church on Sundays will immediately embrace the idol when their kids have the opportunity to join a travel team. And so on.
And yes, when people who have boldly and faithfully stood against the evils of abortion find themselves carrying an unwanted child? They will often employ the very same vile rationalizations that they have condemned fifty trillion times before.
Do people who identify as pro-life have fewer abortion than pro-choicers? Of course. But with love and respect, you are absolutely clueless if you think that a notable percentage of women having abortion weren't pro-life identifying ladies until the moment their desire for abortion overpowered their faith and convinctions.
And, more to the point, if you are offended by this assertion because you know would never in a million billion years ever do this, you are clueless to the power of the sinful nature that lurks within you. If you think you would stand where they fell because you are more pious, more devout, more devoted, etc...well, pride comes before destruction.
@HansFiene “Christianity” from the outside in isn’t Christianity at all.
Jesus Christ reigning over the inner Kingdom of the heart is the only real thing that ever was or will be.
Exactly
As I've pondered this over the last few days, I keep thinking about something Clay Jones wrote. In his book, "Why Does God Allow Evil?", Jones points out that when we think of genocide, we think of demented psychopaths running around on murderous rampages. In reality, genocide is mostly committed by normal everyday people including moms, dads, and sweet grandmas who bake cookies for the bake sale.
Jones writes: "It has been fascinating to me that absolutely every genocide researcher I have ever read (and I’ve read a lot of them) and absolutely every genocide victim I’ve ever read—to a person—concludes that genocide is what the average person does...
Professor and Holocaust survivor Fred E. Katz sums up exactly what kind of person participated in the Holocaust. He wrote that 'only a tiny proportion' of the 'massive killings are attributable to the actions of those people we call criminals, or crazy people, or socially alienated people, or even, people we identify as evil people.' Rather, they were actually 'carried out by plain folk in the population—ordinary people, like you and me.'
Katz asks, Who carried out the plans of the 'Hitlers and Stalins'?
His conclusion: 'Ordinary people, like you and me.'
Then he asks, 'Who provides the intelligence, the brain power, the orderly thinking to translate crazy philosophies into a practical course of action?
Ordinary people, like you and me.'
Finally, 'Who provides the quiet sustained effort, the plain hard work it takes to carry out huge programs of murderous action?
Ordinary people, like you and me.'"
One of the reasons the post below is so chilling and horrifically evil is because it is so casual, ordinary, and "nice."
May God have mercy on us.
Realizing the earth isn’t flat or that we orbit the sun isn’t a realization about one thing; it’s a realization about thinking wrongly about everything
Beginning our thought processes with human or female autonomy rather than intrinsic human worth is one of those devastating presuppositions that lead to endless errors, not just one.
That’s why most won’t ask the questions you’re asking. Pulling the thread unravels the worldview, and realizing one’s thinking is aligned with nazism or genocided for instance, not by reactionaries but by reason, for most, is too costly.
This was a devastating story to see. Every life is precious. No child should receive the death penalty for having a disability. This is why we need to ban abortion. Rest in peace, sweet baby.
@bebookled Are you a fully false teacher or just mean?
@bebookled I can’t imagine much more unbiblical advice
Single ladies, seek first the kingdom and its righteousness
Not domestic duties or husbands
And let the rest be added by God Almighty
@CrankyFed But have you tried putting, "Looking for a lovely gardener I can support through weeding. You harvest, I will cook" in your profile??? 😍
"While nature only allows the few most healthy and resistant out of a large number of living organisms to survive in the struggle for life, people restrict the number of births and then try to keep alive what has been born, without consideration of its real value and its inner merit. Humaneness is therefore only the slave of weakness and thereby in truth the most cruel destroyer of human existence." -- Adolf Hitler, 1928
@DanBurmawy Brother, you proclaim the name of Jesus. If you're His, you have His Spirit alive within you. You need to know that you know what you would do in this man's place.
The New York Times reported (LINK below) that some prenatal genetic screenings are wrong nearly 80% of the time.
Not 8%. Nearly 80%.
Yet, families are handed these results in fear-filled moments and told to make life-or-death decisions about their children.
From Pew: Non-invasive genetic prenatal tests for 5 rare genetic conditions can return false positives 80% to 93% of the time. (LINK also below)
When I was pregnant with our second child, her test for Down syndrome was positive. My husband and I discussed it for about 2 minutes. We are Catholic so there was no consideration to abort her. We just knew our lives would change. We bought books, spoke to parents of Down syndrome children, and prayed.
When she was born, she did not have Down syndrome, to our surprise. The test was wrong. Tests are often wrong, we later learned. In fact, 10% of positive NIPT results for Down syndrome are false positives.
Our daughter just finished her second year of law school and has thrived. She is my best friend and I don't know how I could be whole without her.
By brother suffers from Cerebral Palsey. He just turned 50 but is really about 12, mentally. We love him so.
They are both gifts.
Everyone has to make their own decision, and only God can judge, but taking a life purposefully with the rationale that they may not be perfect makes no sense to me, but that's just me.
Admittedly, your post gave me great pause. Oh what you may have missed out on no matter the outcome because you were worried about health issues.
What happens if your next child has the same prenatal diagnosis?
#Downsyndrome
#Trisomy21
@iratusmater Me: Sorry my house smells like wet dog. I have a…wet dog.
I have been there (taken to rudimentary hospital due to reaction) on a distant island. So scary!!! Thank God you are ok!!!!
P.s. if it’s not a one off, and strange immune reactions are something that you find increasing, that was my story for years, but finally found help this last year. If you are dealing with anything like that, pls feel free to reach out ❤️🩹
This is Todd “Let’s Roll” Beamer, who died heroically while trying to retake United Flight 93 from Al Qaeda terrorists on 9/11. His final resting place, is in Cranbury, NJ — where he was living with his wife and children before his murder. Cranbury is located in NJ-12, where the new Democratic nominee for Congress is Adam Hamawy.
Hamawy was a close associate and translator to Omar Abdel-Rahman, aka the ‘Blind Sheikh,’ an arch terrorist convicted of masterminding multiple plots against targets in NYC — including the World Trade Center. Hamawy testified at Adbel-Rahman’s trial, as a defense witness.
It has also been reported that Hamawy traveled to Bosnia to volunteer at an organization that was later unmasked as an Al Qaeda front group.
One of Hamawy’s loudest and most high-profile supporters and endorsers has openly declared that America deserved the 9/11 attacks.
Hamawy is now the prohibitive frontrunner to represent Todd Beamer’s district in the United States Congress.
This is the exact right question to ask next. Just not first.
But let me start by answering it. Short answer is, we can’t, on our own. We aren’t born equipped to obey God or parents. We are born “equipped” to be ruled by our own impulses. Being otherwise will take massive, sacrificial intervention: training. Training is the outworking of merciful love: from God to us and from us to our children.
It is active, attentive, intentional pursuit of development of an eternal soul. It’s the most important work in the universe. And if you’ll note, it’s almost completely absent from all these conversations.
Instead, the dialogue revolves around “punishment,” with underlying presumptions of fault, penalty, and condemnation.
The instinctive (normal) reaction to those threats applied to children is defensiveness! Someone lobbed “You must condemn babies to hell,” at me.
But this is all an entirely wrong discussion when it comes to Christian parenting.
It’s a complete distraction from the actual matter at hand, or as I have said starts with the wrong question.
Let me use an analogy: should American children know how to read? (I will presume a yes). Say I stand up to bring awareness to rampant illiteracy among kids, would your presumption be that I despise, mistreat, and condemn illiterate kids, or that I care about them? Would you guess my efforts sought to condemn 3-6year olds, or to confront those (adults) who are ACTUALLY responsible for that “Should?”
Now say I am a loud advocate against illiteracy, but every time I try to speak up, I get shouted down by people who say I am “blaming kids,” “damaging and abusing them,” and “punishing kids for something that they can’t help.” They yell, “KIDS CANT READ!” And what if they keep it up , til the whole crowd is inflamed.What kind of an abuser punishes innocent little ones for what they cannot do? They tell sad stories of kids who are forced to sit in their chair and learn A is for Apple when hungry, and how they cry, about one whose eyes hurt , about another who had a splinter in her behind and no one knew for 3 hours, about dyslexia. And before long, everyone is working on programs to have “readers” follow these children around for life, to make all road signs into pictographs, etc. Literacy advocates became villains and everyone has forgotten the simplest possible point: kids can be trained to read, tho sometimes it’s hard. Love DEMANDS that kids be trained to read. The ONLY loving thing to do is train children to read. Whether the child picks it up in no time, it takes many years. Whether the child is fascinated or cannot sit still, hates it, and makes it a massive challenge for the teacher.
But all that is forgotten. The CHILD and what they actually need is lost in confusion that forgot what is ACTUALLY loving and necessary (training). Everyone is concerned with not damaging a notion of identity due to the a) implication of inadequacy that the illiterate child is not good enough and b) the “damage” that will be done by what it will take to train them. They ask what the child can do, not what they should do
Which makes perfect sense. Unless what humans “can do” (serve and please self) is actually wrong. Which is why my first question must be first. What does God say children must do? He says they must obey their parents. Even if the training is tough.
Maybe this analogy seems ridiculous but what if you had never met a child who could read? What if instead you had only heard horror stories of failure? What would you need to give you the COURAGE to say, no, I will train to child to read, as people shouted at you how cruel you were?
You would need to know that you know: children SHOULD read, though they can’t. The commands given to children are ACTUALLY commands to me, the parent. Training them to do what they can’t yet IS my job, and I MUST do it.
With respect, Marissa Franks Burton is devastatingly wrong.
It’s true that child development is not evil
Differentiation and individuation is not evil
Self-expression is not evil
But DISOBEDIENCE and DISHONOR ARE evil.
And disobedience/dishonor is the entirety of our inclinations from birth toward the Living God. So much so, that we are born with no burden of acknowledgment even of the existence of His will, much less submission to it. Disregard is the default.
We are born in the gross darkness of not knowing who He IS, that He IS, and that He IS to be obeyed. Whether our nature is sweet and compliant, or forceful and fiery, THIS is the darkness.
The little stage for this timeless metaphysical battle is set to play out in the relationship between child and parent, with this fundamental question at its heart: Am I my own master?
The progressive answer is the natural human one: Yes. I am that I am. I live unto my will and Love lets me do so.
The abuser’s domineering answer is also: Yes. You (child) are that I am. You live unto my will, and my self-love is love.
The True answer, and the only one that delivers both parent and child from their evil self-willed inclinations, is NO. We are obedient servants of the Living God, who is Love.
Those who do not know this cannot understand the Gospel or parenting, and that is because at the center of their understanding is Self, not God.
The pitiable state of children is the pitiable state of all humans: to know only self and not God, and to be inclined to the dictates of their own wills as god. Breaking in on this ultimate dark and universal deception IS NEVER EASIER THAN IN THE EARLY YEARS THROUGH GODLY PARENTING. Is it easy? No. Ofc not. But it is the easiest possible, humanly speaking; note that all who enter the kingdom must have faith like a child.
Obedience is not a matter of doctrine, or knowledge, a deception exhibited by some of the loudest “Christians” on this app every day. It is a matter of the orientation of the heart, and THAT is what is shaped most readily in those early years, when two things must be experienced together:
1) I am not my own master
2) the will of my master (my parent for now, God for eternity) is entirely love & goodness for me
Those who do not know this and try to teach, either the Gospel or parenting, are trying to map the solar system with earth at the center, and so their well-meaning equations and navigations are fatally erroneous.
This anthropomorphism is the fundamental gospel-corruption I find in all progressivism.
The heart of this debate and its weighty and devastating outcomes on either side
(abuse or indulgence, both are evil)
Is a GOSPEL matter, effectively ignored by instead having a tennis match with the other side of the false dichotomy.
Pharisees v Sadducees. Legalism or authoritarianism v progressivism. Right v left. An endless antagonism that is actually a devilish collaboration for condemnation. It sits undelivered, observing the other’s chains, & worshipping one’s own ideas.
The problem here is so much deeper than the method of delivery of discipline: it is the fundamental question of God’s character. Is curbing self-will Loving or Hating? What is discipline for? Whose will does it accomplish? Answer those questions according to truth and the method of delivery ceases to be a calculated distraction and instead becomes what it should be: a question with a varying answer depending on the wisdom needed for that child in that moment. What is the right tool for the job?
This is everywhere & so irresponsible. Tell parents their 1YO is evil & they need use "the rod" & you give them a recipe for abuse.
It's functional narcissistic parenting-children exist to give parents' rest, to be arrows, to be testimonies-so opposite from Jesus led by serving.
@RevKimWChafee Very true, the ways to damage a child are endless. But the one the Scripture warns most urgently against is withholding correction from them. Prov 13:23-24
An observation from multicultural experience:
The notion that corporal punishment is fundamentally detrimental to human dignity and familial trust
Is pretty much a white/western thing.
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