Message from Bishop David Anderson  Bishop and MaryAnne Anderson Dearly Beloved in Christ, Last week I wrote in part about the gay and lesbian backlash against Chick-fil-A restaurants after its president voiced his support for traditional marriage (i.e. one man-one woman for life). I mentioned that many were planning on showing their support on August 1 for Dan Cathy, president of Chick-fil-A, and his free speech and freedom of religion rights to speak of his belief on the subject. According to many reports, lines at most Chick-fil-As were very long and some of the franchisees ran out of chicken or other supplies. Some people were there to support the traditional marriage stand of Dan Cathy, others were there because they wanted to support the right of free speech or the right to freedom of religion, and others were there because they felt it was wrong to punish a business for the stance of one of its owners. All in all a powerful statement was made. It has become commonplace for the militant homosexual activists and their supporters to label as hate speech any disagreement with their push for full normalization and legal status of everything they advocate. If you stop short of full agreement with them you are hateful, your speech is hate speech, and you have no right to be heard. If you have a job or business, that, too, should be punished so you lose your job and livelihood. The true goal is to silence anyone and everyone who does not fully approve of sex between men or sex between women, with or without marriage. This becomes a real problem on several levels. One level is that it denies individuals of their freedom of speech and freedom of religion. On another level, it denies everyone the platform for open and respectful civil discourse on subjects of interest and importance to the common life of the community. Todd Starnes has written an interesting opinion piece on this subject.

In a perfect world, which admittedly we seldom approach, every child would grow up being nurtured by both a loving father and a loving mother in an intact, stable family. Little boys need to experience the femininity of their mother as well as other women in the family, and very much need to experience healthy masculinity from their father and other men in their life. Having both is the best scenario for a boy to learn how to be a good and responsible husband to his future wife, faithful to her and supportive of the family they raise together. The same can be said for a little girl. She needs to see healthy femininity modeled  by her mother as well as other women in her family, and healthy masculinity modeled by her father and other men in her family. Having both is the best scenario for her as well to learn how to be a good and responsible wife to her future husband, faithful to him and supportive of the family that they raise together. If only all children could experience this ideal! When a single parent raises her or his child or children alone, it is simply harder, and there is less modeling available. To those parents who have had to fill both sets of shoes, or who are doing it now, may God come alongside you and assist you in every way, because it isn't easy.... Read the rest of Bishop Anderson's article here.