I remain shocked at the number of young men whose father never talked to them about masculine sexuality. Last weekend I led a breakout session titled “Transforming Male Sexuality” at the Jubilee Conference in Pittsburgh for college students. Out of the 70 guys in this men’s only discussion only 3 of them raised their hands to the question, “How many of your Dads sat you down and talked to you about your sexuality?” If boys do not learn about God’s design for their sexuality from their fathers, from where will this wisdom come? Movies? Music? Peers?

Sadly, young guys are left to fend for themselves in an openly sex-crazed, gender-confused culture. While many fathers may discuss the biology of reproduction very few bravely go beyond that. Cowardice and passivity prevail as fathers watch their sons walk into the fire that is lust. They fail to offer any warnings, techniques, or tools to their vulnerable young sons as they battle the blaze.

It is disastrous for a father to flee from openly discussing with his son the realities of both the glory and brokenness of male sexuality. This is a father’s job–to draw from God’s wisdom for us as men and prepare his sons for the issues in life that await them (Prov. 5). Telling sons simply to “not sin” and “hold on until marriage” does not form them. Boys need life-long formation regarding what it means to walk the road of chastity. They need to be trained how to spiritually, emotionally, and physically love women in a way that is pleasing to God and brings joy to a wife.

Fathers, be active and brave. Walk with your sons and be honest about your own struggles, successes, and failures with sexual purity. Demonstrate to them what it means to live in absolute dependence on the Holy Spirit. This is not a one-time conversation. Fathers serve as a reservoir of wisdom for identity throughout the son’s life. There is no better person for this than a boy’s father (Deut. 6:4-6).

Sons without Godly fathers, seek out men in the church to step up and bless you by teaching you the truth. You may need to initiate and lead older men by asking them questions. The silence must end today. It’s never too late to start because the fire awaits and many have already been badly burned.

The fastest way for a preacher to get fired from a conservative Southern church today is to sanction interracial marriages from the pulpit. I could easily name men whose congregations gently let them go soon after the pastors intimated that interracial Christian marriages, especially between whites and blacks, are fully permissible and pleasing to God. These men weren’t promoting interracial marriages as necessary. They simply communicated that God smiled when seeing a white Christian and black Christian, for example, enter the covenant of marriage.

Over 40 years ago (June 12, 1967) the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Virginia statute barring whites from marrying nonwhites. Fifteen other states struck down similar bans. Factoring in all racial combinations, MSNBC reports Stanford University sociologist Michael Rosenfeld’s calculations: More than 7% of America’s 59 million married couples in 2005 were interracial, compared to less than 2% in 1970.

Christians, however, remain among those who seem most resistant to interracial marriages in America. Why is this? If it is true, with respect to being a full member in God’s family, that there is neither “Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28), why do our standards for marital unions go beyond what God sets forth for union with his own son?

I was in a black church once with a friend who made the mistake of bringing his blonde-haired girlfriend to church. Based on the looks he received, I wondered if he was wearing a sign reading, “I hate Christians.” Christian parents talk positively about “equality” until “Martha Lynn” brings “Tyrone” or “Miguel” home for Thanksgiving dinner. “Ahh, Houston we have a problem!” True beliefs are exposed behind questions like, “what about the kids?”

One of the greatest pronouncements the Church can make about the radical implications of the resurrection of Jesus for the human family is to champion our future interracial heavenly reality here and now by marrying across races and classes. Without interracial marriages Christian churches will likely remain “separate but equal” like they were in 1967. The racial reconciliation that many long for in Christianity will bear better witness to the world at the wedding altar than the weekend conference.

The Clinton campaign machine is sucking wind like a Hoover vacuum cleaner, now that Hillary’s passive-aggressive, race-oriented attacks against Obama clearly backfired. Hillary’s huge loss in Georgia, where the Democratic base is largely black, sends the Clintons a strong message: Many black Democrats don’t like you after all. Hillary does not own the so-called “black vote.”

Although Obama won several states, he still trails in pledged delegates. Obama’s strongest wins were in his home state of Illinois and Georgia, where he’ll receive a significant share of the 288 delegates in those states.

Obama also won North Dakota, Missouri, Kansas, Minnesota, Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, and Utah with 278 delegates up for grabs.

Clinton won her home state of New York and somehow managed to confuse Democrats in New Jersey and Massachusetts by winning in those states. Clinton has also duped Democrats in Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Arizona, and has won a sizable share of the 235 delegates in those states.

With very little ideological difference between Clinton and Obama it seems that Democrats cannot decide if they want a half-African as president or a woman.

The Republicans, on the other hand, are in the midst of an obvious identity crisis. Republican strategists are likely hoping that Clinton wins the Democratic nomination (which will probably happen) because a short, 71-year-old white guy doesn’t stand a chance against Obama if the Republicans choose McCain.

Conservatives understand why Dobson, Coulter, Limbaugh, and others are against McCain. Many wonder if he’s actually a conservative. “John McCain is not only bad for Republicanism, which he definitely is - he is bad for the country,” says Ann Coulter.

Additionally, it seems that America is ready for something different than a white male in the White House. Why are Republicans so incapable of producing a non-white male or female electable candidate for the office of president? Alan Keyes is totally unelectable, too quirky, and should never be encouraged to run for public office ever again. Moreover, the passing-over of J.C. Watts while he was in the House was truly scandalous.

As a result of Republican’s inability to construct a cohesive message and cultivate candidates that represent a changing America, a decisive loss should be expected in November, especially if Obama emerges as the Democrat’s choice.

In the United States, buildings account for over forty percent of energy consumption and process over fifty percent of greenhouse gases. Are churches concerned about the environmental impact of their church buildings? Have you ever heard environmental impact discussed in a building committee report? Most churches argue more about carpet color than whether or not their church building is environmentally sustainable.

The US Green Building Council has developed a wonderful system to guide churches in new construction and renovation to provide an example to the world of what environmental stewardship can look like. The system is called LEED. The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System “encourages and accelerates global adoption of sustainable green building and development practices through the creation and implementation of universally understood and accepted tools and performance criteria.”

And why should we care? Remember in the Genesis creation narrative that in his sovereign act of creating, God calls all of creation into covenant relationship with himself and calls humans to manage it? “God covenantally binds himself to creation,” says Dr. Michael Williams in the book As Far As The Curse is Found. Additionally, remember that the fall affected all of creation (Gen. 3), and all of creation needs redemption (Rom. 8-9). God has placed mankind into creation to manage it as a spiritual discipline. How a church uses its building is as much about the environment as it is its ministry usefulness.

The Cornwall Declaration reminds us that “a clean environment is a costly good; consequently, growing affluence, technological innovation, and the application of human and material capital are integral to environmental improvement.”

Undergoing a LEED-evaluation is a great voluntary first step to show the world that faithfulness to Christ includes caring for the environment in which redemption takes places. LEED gives “building owners and operators the tools they need to have an immediate and measurable impact on their buildings’ performance.” LEED promotes a “whole-building approach” to sustainability in five key areas of social development: “sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality.”

A church can be an additional blessing to its community simply by reducing the environmental impact of its building because all of life is a witness to the story of the Christ-centered cosmic redemption of creation.

I wish I was fluent in Japanese. I would have understood more of the prayers at a Tokyo house church I recently visited. I was convicted, actually. In praying for friends and the nation at large, church leaders wept (some of them praying in English, for my sake I think). It was refreshing to be around a group of Jesus followers who so loved their country, their families, and friends that tears flowed from earnest desires for the Holy Spirit to move people to follow Jesus. Only 4 percent of the population follow Jesus in Japan and, on average, career missionaries told me, it takes over 8 years (some say 10 to 15 years) of regularly hearing the gospel of redemption before a person becomes open to believing the truth of the covenant gospel story.

I don’t weep over America or my friends and family members who are not followers of Jesus. I hardly ever pray for them. I have no excuse. If I love them, like I claim to, one should think that I would desire to pray and weep for the Holy Spirit to move in a country as idolatrous as America. But I don’t. Instead of loving my country and its people I spend a lot of time throwing rocks at the big, bad “culture.”

Hurling rocks at non-Jesus followers for not living and thinking like those who are guided by Holy Spirit seems silly and is pathetically bloodsport for many of us. Sadly, for example, the rebukes in the Bible are too often directed at “America” by many Christians when, in fact, the contexts of those passages would normally apply to the church for not being redemptive salt and light in the world–which has always been the missional destiny of God’s people since Abraham.

Did Jesus spend more time rebuking religious people or those who were not followers of God? Do the prophets mostly rebuke religious people or the pagan nations who follow idols? Are the woes in the book of Revelation directed at religious people or “the culture?”

I wonder what would happen if Jesus followers in America wept and prayed over America instead of throwing rocks at non-Jesus followers for not having the convictions that only the Holy Spirit can bring? Instead of 3,500 churches dying ever year in America, maybe Christianity would actually grow in States.

The evangelical church grossly underchallenges men aged 18-29. What does the church expect of young men? Not much: Stay out of trouble, get married, and remain sexually pure. Now God has raised up an army of men to fight against a world of evil as part of His redemptive mission, and the best thing most churches have for guys is an informational Bible study, group penance in an accountability group, and once-a-week basketball.

David Murrow, author of Why Men Hate Going To Church, says the church’s focus on “relationships” — a personal relationship with Jesus and healthy relationships with others — appeals directly to the needs of women. Jesus, as the fulfiller of relationship needs, “partners with women to fulfill their deepest longing” for safety and security. Few churches model men’s values, says Murrow: “risk and reward, accomplishment, heroic sacrifice, action and adventure.” Men respond to challenge and invitations to embark on missions.

Jesus invited his disciples to “follow” Him into mission and battle for the purposes of the Kingdom. Churches ask young men to be quiet, nice, and cuddly with a hippie Jesus. Jesus did not say, “Hey guys, will you have a relationship with me?”

Men typically aren’t looking for a church with safe programs either. Men change through encounters with inspiring men, Murrow argues: “Every successful man will tell you of a father, an uncle, a teacher, a coach, or a sergeant who made the difference in his life.”

Passivity, softness, pink walls, love ballads, safety and security idols will not sustain a population of younger men. Many churches attempt to rectify this by unwisely creating separate ministries to reach “college and career” young adults or developing a special service with “cooler” music. Music ain’t the problem.

If you want to capture the hearts of men you must invite them to die by rejecting the idols of safety and comfort. Jesus invites men to follow him into mystery, uncertainty, adventure, danger, pain, suffering, warfare, and death. Jesus invites men to live in poverty, fight evil, endure attacks, and to follow inspiring men. Most churches only challenge young men to be nice, live for safety, hang out with youth, sing “You’re altogether lovely. . .altogether wonderful to me,” and stay out of trouble until they get married. As a result, young guys avoid church, stay at home to play Nintendo Wii, watch sports, plan their next female conquest, brainstorm about tattoos, and ski.

About 90 percent of boys raised in the Church abandon it by their 20th birthday according to David Murrow, author of Why Men Hate Going to Church. Many of these men will only return later under the influence of a spouse, girlfriend, or because “the kids need to see Dad at church.”

Murrow’s thesis is that the church focuses more on the needs of women and young men are jumping ship. In a video for a John Piper’s Desiring God conference, Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle says this the church is packed with “church boys” wearing “sweater vests, walking around singing love songs to Jesus.” Driscoll believes that the problem in the church today is that we have a lot of “nice, soft, chic-a-fied church boys.” Church is a turn-off to young men when they walk in and see walls painted “sea-foam green, fucia, and lemon yellow,” he says. “The whole aesthetic and the whole architecture is feminine.”

“Most churches,” says Driscoll, “are built to cater to 40-something-year-old women and their children and the guys are nowhere to be found.” A recent Barna study reported that the least likely group of people to attend church are men between the ages of 18 to 29. Murrow offers this explanation:

“Almost everything about today’s church—its teaching style, its ministries, the way people are expected to behave, even today’s popular images of Jesus—is designed to meet the needs and expectations of a largely female audience. Church is sweet and sentimental, nurturing, and nice. Women thrive in this environment. In modern parlance, women are the target audience of today’s church.”

This is most obvious in the “contemporary” music played in many churches today which are nothing more than prom songs and love ballads with “Jesus” inserted in lyrics instead of “baby” or “my darling”. Here’s are lyrics from the praise band Underoath:

Oh sweet angel of mercy
With your grace like the morning
Wrap your loving arms around me
Oh sweet angel of mercy
With your grace like the morning
Wrap your loving arms around me

Yeah, I can just see the men 18-29 years-old flocking to churches grabbing guitars to softly serenade the one from whose mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “King of kings and Lord of lords” (Rev. 19:15-16).

The National Council of Churches offers a list of principles to direct Christians in assessing candidates. This is a list that some would simply call, “interesting.” Among them are the following:

1. War is contrary to the will of God. While the use of violent force may, at times, be a necessity of last resort, Christ pronounces his blessing on the peacemakers.

2. God calls us to live in communities shaped by peace and cooperation. We reject policies that abandon large segments of our inner city and rural populations to hopelessness.

3. God created us for each other, and thus our security depends on the well-being of our global neighbors. We look for political leaders for whom a foreign policy based on cooperation and global justice is an urgent concern.

4. God calls us to be advocates for those who are most vulnerable in our society. We look for political leaders who yearn for economic justice and who will seek to reduce the growing disparity between rich and poor.

5. Each human being is created in the image of God and is of infinite worth. We look for political leaders who actively promote racial justice and equal opportunity for everyone.

6. The earth belongs to God and is intrinsically good. We look for political leaders who recognize the earth’s goodness, champion environmental justice, and uphold our responsibility to be stewards of God’s creation.

7. Christians have a biblical mandate to welcome strangers. We look for political leaders who will pursue fair immigration policies and speak out against xenophobia.

8. Those who follow Christ are called to heal the sick. We look for political leaders who will support adequate, affordable and accessible health care for all.

9. Because of the transforming power of God’s grace, all humans are called to be in right relationship with each other. We look for political leaders who seek a restorative, not retributive, approach to the criminal justice system and the individuals within it.

10. Providing enriched learning environments for all of God’s children is a moral imperative. We look for political leaders who will advocate for equal educational opportunity and abundant funding for children’s services.

Here’s the translation of these “Christian” principles: (1) Supporting the “War on Terror” in the Middle East is against Jesus’ teachings. (2) Class warfare is the best way to help the truly disadvantaged. (3) Cower to will of smaller, less complex nations. (4) Wealth is sinful and should be obliterated and redistributed by the coercive use of government regulatory force. (5) Seek equality at all costs even if it creates more injustice and inequality in the long-run. (6) Environmental justice? Does this mean put the needs of frogs over humans? Clams and kids have the same ontological value. (7) Open the borders to immigrants without any regard to the need for law and encourage enjoying the benefit of social services without any obligation to contribute to the pot. (8) Universal health care is the only “Christian” view of health care. (9) Do not keep people in jail for committing crimes. It’s not their fault. (10) Expand funding for America’s failed public education system because throwing cash on a fire will put it out.

If you could develop a list of Christian principles in an election year for Christians, what type of principles should be on the list and why?

Presidential elections typically resurrect the same tired issues. Those on the right are often limited to abortion as the primary political narrative, while many on the left continue to dream about bringing us one step closer to socialism with their talk of “taxing the rich” and “universal” this and that. But what about the environment? To whom does that issue belong? Do Christians care about the environment?

The National Council of Churches (NCC), an ecumenical amalgam of churches, may care so much about the environment that they have little concern for either the eternal souls of people living in nature or for submitting to the authority of Scripture in all areas of life. The NCC has an eco-justice commission that includes “all ministries designed to heal and defend creation, working to assure justice for all of creation and the human beings who live in it.” On the surface this sounds reasonable perhaps, but at the end of the day we are left with the proverbial questions of application and enforcement.

The NCC grounds its position in the Scriptures:

First, we read in Genesis that God beholds all creation as “very good” (Gen 1:31) and commands us to “till and tend the garden” (Gen 2:15). Humankind is called to stewardship of the commons. Second, we read in Psalms, “The Earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof” (Ps 24:1). The bounty of Creation’s gifts must serve the common good of all. Third, we have a paramount obligation to “defend the poor and the orphan; do justice to the afflicted” (Ps 82:3) and to care first for “the least of these” (Math 25:35). Care for God’s creation particularly requires protection of vulnerable life. Finally, we have an obligation, in prudence and precaution, to sustain the future well-being of all life on Earth, God’s “covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature for perpetual generations” (Gen 9:12).

In an open letter to U.S. the NCC calls for national repentance because “we have abused and exploited the Earth and people on the margins of power and privilege, altering climates, extinguishing species, and jeopardizing Earth’s capacity to sustain life as we know and love it.”

Is it just me or does the NCC need some help on environmental issues? What is our environmental responsibility as Christians, as the church?

According to a new report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project internet users are searching for themselves online. I confess, I have done this.

As users post more information about themselves on social networking sites and elsewhere, they are also conducting more online searches about themselves, according to a new study. Almost half of all U.S. Internet users (47%) have searched for information about themselves online, up from 22% in 2002, according to a report released yesterday by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

The report notes that self-searching is a natural consequence of more and more people posting personal information about themselves online. Younger users specifically are far more likely to regularly google themselves than others.

The report also categorizes four different types of users who are willing to put personal information on the internet. (1) The Confident Creatives: This group accounts for 17% of adult online users. They are mostly young adults who aren’t worried about how available their data is, but they still try to limit personal information. (2) The Concerned and Careful: Twenty-one percent of adult users worry about the personal information available about them online and take steps to limit this data. (3) The Worried by the Wayside: This group, which comprises 18% of Internet users, are anxious about the information that is available about them online but don’t do anything to limit that information. (4) The Unfazed and Inactive: Forty-three percent of online adults don’t worry about the availability of their personal information online and don’t take steps to limit that information.

I also wonder, however, if younger users google themselves for other reasons–namely to answer the question, “Do I matter?” I often will type my name into the Google search box to read what my most committed antagonists are saying about me. Other times, however, I search my name wondering if anybody else cares about, enjoys or is interested in anything I have to say. Driving many of these searches is my quest to discover if I am important, yet. Google self-searches are simply a sophisticated way of continuing the high-school popularity contest. “Ye that haveth the greatest number of hits wins!”

Why do we so desperately want to know that we matter? Why do we long to say, “Hey, do you know who you’re talking to, do you?” “Do you know who I am? “I blog, I matter!” “Is anyone listening?”

Most young men walk around totally confused about direction in life. Your average college guy doesn’t believe that his life is really going to amount to much. He’s a peon. An ant. A filthy rag. Useless. So we search on Google to see if it’s true. It may be narcissism, a low self-image, a recognition idol, or genuine curiosity. Like a social drinker we binge searching for ourselves when we want to feel important. If we then find a link or reference or two we rejoice: “Yes, I matter!”