Hey! Teacher! Leave Them Kids Alone!

Every morning when I drive home from work, I listen to the Kevin and Bean Morning Show on KROQ. A lot of the stuff they do, I find them to be pretty hilarious, though often times, it is a guilty pleasure. I really should find something better to listen to, but as much as I channel surf, I tend to land straight back to 106.7.

On Tuesday morning, one topic of discussion kept my attention: Teachers having sex with students. This is coming off the headline news where a 25 year old former beauty pagaent Spanish teacher slept with one of her 18 year old students. If she is found guilty, she can get 20 years minimum in behind bars.

I wasn't a Christian in high school. When I got to high school, I had my share of Van Halen's "Hot For Teacher" fantasies, but that's all they were. There just weren't any "hot" teachers to even fantasize about at my school. A blessing in disguise!

Well, as the morning show would have it, they asked their audience to call in and tell about their student/teacher affairs (they specifically asked for those who weren't scarred because of this experience). In general, this is what I heard: Female teachers seducing male students; male teachers seducing female students; and same sex seductions. And all the callers I heard said they were under 18 when these events happened.

My first reaction to the guy who was seduced by his teacher: I wish that could have been me (had there been a hot teacher at my school)! My second reaction: What the hell am I saying?!

It was easy to react the way I did initially. It's what I desired before I was a Christian when I was in high school. The insane thing is...my second reaction would not have come up had I not thought about my own kids. That's when it hit home.

The public schools are bad enough as it is. The violence between students is nuts, the promiscuity shocking, and the curriculum abhorrent. Now add to that the promiscuity of teachers with their students.

One caller said that if his son went through the same thing he did, he would give him a high five. Heh. What if his daughter went through it? Or what if his daughter went through it with a female teacher?

I only heard about 4 calls come into the show, but from what I have gathered from the DJs, their phone lines were lit up and it was the same way when they had done this topic before. One has to wonder how often this is happening.

I had already made my decision years ago that I would homeschool my kids. This topic of teachers having sex with students only gives me another reason why I will homeschool. And I'll never let my son see a Van Halen video...ever!

The Christian And The Movies

The SCCCS annual summer conference this year is "The Christian And The Movies". It will be on Friday night, August 4 and all day Saturday, August 5. Admission is free! For more information, click here.

What may be of particular interest for those of us who hold to the 2nd Commandment is that one of the presentations is called "The Passion of the Christ: Image, The 2nd Commandment, and the Reformed Tradition."

From The Desk Of Pastor Paul Viggiano

What drives the 6-6-6 furor?

There's another side and some interesting biblical interpretations to this so-called satanic controversy.
By The Rev. Paul Viggiano

Driving down Pacific Coast Highway, I see one billboard for the "DaVinci Code," a few blocks later another billboard with the numbers 6-6-06. It's spooky; actually kind of depressing. Here I go out of my way to ridicule Dan Brown for his bad fiction -- faction -- and then it dawns on me that there is equally bad fiction revolving around the mark of the beast.

Whether it's Hollywood's "The Omen" or Tim LaHaye's Left Behind, it's fiction, fiction, fiction! Whatever happened to reality -- especially when it comes to something as serious as the Christian faith? This end-of-the-world hysteria borders on the ridiculous.

Don't misunderstand me. The Bible clearly refers to a thing called the mark of the beast. But it has nothing to do with tattoos, subcutaneous computer chips, bar codes, credit cards, your ATM machine, the re-entry hand stamp at Disneyland, June 6, 2006, or any of the other hype seen in these movies and novels.

Christians who have been influenced by this very sensational presentation of the mark of the beast (with the best of intentions) placard their bumpers with stickers warning their potentially ill-fated friends to "Refuse the mark." This means people should not take upon their hands or foreheads the number 666 in any fashion -- doing so seals your fate in hell.

Revelation's warning is unambiguous. To take the mark of the beast upon your hand or forehead forfeits your soul. But what does it mean? How does a person actually do this?

When ATM cards first came out, the end-times prognosticators warned us that the beast was at work in these cards. Should we really worry about signing the wrong form at the bank and accidentally finding ourselves in the hands of Satan? Then they warned us about the supermarket bar codes secretly encrypted with the three sixes. If Satan can trap us through bar codes, it's probably too late for most of us. I knew a man who wouldn't let his kids get their hands stamped at Disneyland for fear that they may inadvertently receive the mark. Is that the way it works?

Most people don't know that the Bible speaks more about the mark of God than the mark of the beast. Jesus writes his name on his people and seals the servants of God on their foreheads. Moses writes about God's people binding God's law upon their hand and foreheads. Ezekiel writes of God putting his mark upon the faithful.

The biblical references to the hand and forehead allude to faith (forehead) and obedience (hand). There are two marks to consider: the mark of God and the mark of the beast. In thoughts and deeds, is God served or the beast?

So, the mark has to do with heart commitment rather than tattoos. But who is this beast?

Untold acrostics, anagrams and speculations have been played with this 666. It makes me hesitate to make any suggestions at all. Guesses have been the pope, Martin Luther, Napoleon, Hitler, Kissinger, Reagan, enough! One thing the Bible does tell us about 666 is that it is the number of a man; man was created on the sixth day.

Seven is acknowledged by Bible scholars as the number of divinity, completion and perfection. The threefold repetition of six reveals man's full scale opposition to God. It is the sin of sins -- men wanting to be God.

When the Revelation was written, the epitome of man's power was found in the dominion of the Roman Empire. Rome was considered the most powerful human government ever assembled. To serve God in Rome (taking God's mark) meant hardship and often death. To serve Rome (taking Rome's mark) meant temporary ease; but it also meant denying one's faith.

Perhaps the most blatant passage of scripture ever given as a demonstration of taking the mark of the beast is given in the gospel of John. When Pilate asked the persecutors of Jesus if he should crucify their king, their response was "We have no king but Caesar." They took the mark of man over God.

Once again the government wants to be our savior -- to educate us, feed us, clothe us, care for us. The vestiges of deity must be swept away from our culture that the government (corporate man) may assume its rightful place as the messiah of a needy people. Rome sought to instill allegiance through fear of death. Today it is fear of being neglected.

Movies are fun. But computer chips or the latest "beast" prediction are matters of small consequence. All men bear a mark. According to biblical Christianity, the deeper question is whether one bears the seal of the living God. To believe in the Lord Jesus Christ is to have his name -- his mark.