Lead article published in CACN, Spring, 1997<\/p>\n
Gentle readers, we ask your pardon for the great chasm of time which has separated us from our last communication (we utterly failed to produce a winter issue).\u00a0\u00a0 But we have been busy with many good deeds, not the least of which is growing the population. The month of\u00a0 May heralds the birth of our seventh daughter as well as the sixteenth birthday of our firstborn.<\/p>\n
I am seeking a worthy husband for Elli, though I have opted not to provide an image of her countenance in this advertisement. Beautiful as she is in appearance, it should be sufficient for any suitor to know that the beauty of her excellent character is the prize to be won; she has been reared under the example of her noble mother, Jayne.<\/p>\n
The suitor must possess enough wit to have mastered a trade and stored some wealth. (The actual price to be paid is negotiable depending upon the earning power of the gentleman\u2019s profession and the social security he shall provide his bride\u2019s parents in their old age.)\u00a0\u00a0 In the event that he wishes to present himself as a penurious devotee, set apart unto extraordinary\u00a0 ministry, and thus worthy of exemption from the normal pecuniary qualifications of\u00a0 a worthy husband,\u00a0 we shall suffer a sacrifice of personal comfort accept, to the greater glory of God,\u00a0 a bonafide special dowry; viz.,\u00a0 one hundred philistine foreskins.<\/p>\n
The modern equivalent of the Near East Philistine is, of course, the American abortionist. The Philistines generated great wealth through commerce, particularly papyrus.\u00a0 They were open-minded multi-culturalists, worshipping many gods among which was Moloch to whom they offered living children as sacrifices.\u00a0 The neo-Philistine is located conveniently in cities throughout the nation and is\u00a0 easily found by walking fingers through the yellow pages.<\/p>\n
Here in the west, we are more familiar with the idea of scalping heads than with the disseverment of foreskins. Nevertheless, we ought not to despise this alternative, if not more biblical, accountantship.\u00a0 Let us respect diversity and the wisdom to be found in other cultures.<\/p>\n
Actually, we are joking a little bit.<\/p>\n
On a more serious note, we want our suitors to be willing and able to secure protection for our grandchildren. The willingness to seek justice as well as mercy for one\u2019s own offspring is essential to responsible fatherhood.\u00a0 A father ought to be prepared to defend his children from attack -from without or from within the household.\u00a0 Should his wife, afflicted with amentia, determine to kill their child, he must stop her and any she has conspired with to murder.\u00a0 He must defend his own children.\u00a0 It is his duty.<\/p>\n
He must also have a particular commitment to seeking justice for his family. What if he is unable to protect his own\u00a0 but discovers the murderer of his child?\u00a0 What is his duty then?\u00a0 We want our son-in-law to be ready to judicially execute the one who kills his child, if he cannot get justice from the civil authorities.<\/p>\n
(Scholars differ as to whether the \u201ckinsman\u201d (Josh. 20) or \u201cblood avenger\u201d (Num. 35) is an immediate relative or a local tribal authority.\u00a0\u00a0 We can accept the possibility that the responsibility for seeing that a murder is prosecuted lies primarily with the local authorities rather than the immediate family.\u00a0 But in our time when authority is bantered between state and federal powers and mostly usurped by an unaccountable, centralized,\u00a0 federal authority, justice is rarely\u00a0 to be found.\u00a0 In the absence of real power in local authorities, a re-assertion of\u00a0 true principles and the practice of justice may best come from the prosecution of murder-that most profound and heinous of crimes – by the nearest of kin.\u00a0 We think it, therefore, quite patriotic to require that our son-in-law make such a pledge.)<\/p>\n
Consider again the issue. If it is the kinsman\u2019s job to see that justice is done (albeit with patience as he waits to have the evidence examined regarding the case), what is he to do if the judges refuse to properly prosecute a guilty murderer?\u00a0 Does it fall on him to mete out justice and \u201ctake the law into His own hands\u201d?\u00a0 Have not judges, who refuse to prosecute murderers and exact from them the death penalty, spurned the Law and taken up another law<\/em> into their<\/em> own hands?<\/p>\n Who is the real vigilante?<\/p>\n The last exhortation given in the older Testament before the coming of the Kingdom of God is addressed to fathers.\u00a0 May their hearts of fathers be turned toward their children.<\/p>\n Go get your dowries, gentlemen! \u00a0Make your pledges! Turn your hearts toward your own children.\u00a0 From this band of suitors we may establish the Fathers\u2019 Rights Society.\u00a0 And should there be a mere 50 of you, we can expect a rapid end to the advertised slaughter of innocents.\u00a0 There are less than 5,000 philistine butchers in the land.\u00a0 Let them return to the darkness of\u00a0 back alleys where robbery, fornication, and murder belong.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lead article published in CACN, Spring, 1997 Gentle readers, we ask your pardon for the great chasm of time which has separated us from our last communication (we utterly failed to produce a winter issue).\u00a0\u00a0 But we have been busy with many good deeds, not the least of which is growing the population. The month […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2136"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2136"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2137,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2136\/revisions\/2137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}