John Knox and Queen Mary of England

John Knox (1505- 1572) was) was a Scottish minister, theologian, and writer who was a leader of the country’s Reformation. In 1557, Knox had found himself confronted with a Queen of England, a Queen of Scotland, and a Queen-Regent in Scotland—all of them ladies immersed in Catholicism, and each in a position which, in his view, implied the duty of selecting religion for all her lieges.

Knox thought he found a mitigation in the view (held by thinkers and publicists at the time) that women should not be entrusted with such a power.

According to his view, women would not be sovereigns at all. But, in truth, this was but one branch of the general grievance of arbitrary power in that age. The Reformation took place, we must always remember, at a time when the hereditary authority of kings was greater than either before or since.

And this arbitrary power of one man became, if possible, a little more absurd when it happened to be the power of one woman-Catherine of Aragon aka Queen Mary though we’ve come to know her by her nickname–Blood Mary.

The pulpit in those days could sometimes combine the functions of free Parliament and free press. And in one of the great sermons before the assembled lords, he offended Queen Mary who was a staunch Catholic by driving right at heart of the situation: divorcing England from the Roman Catholic Church by any means possible and her marriage to Philip II of Spain. In fact when Queen Mary heard that he had preaching against her proposed marriage to Philip, Mary began scolding Knox, and then she burst into tears:

“I have borne with you; she said most truly, “in all your rigorous manner of speaking; I have sought your favour by all possible means.” ”True it is, madam,” he answered, “your Grace and I have been at divers controversies, in which I never perceived your Grace to be offended at me.” “What has this got to do with my marriage?” she asked, and “What about this commonwealth? “A subject born within the same, Madam,” Knox replied.

Knox noted that though he was not of noble birth, he had the same duty as any subject to warn of dangers to the realm. When Mary started to cry again, he said, “Madam, in God’s presence I speak: I never delighted in the weeping of any of God’s creatures; yea I can scarcely well abide the tears of my own boys whom my own hand corrects, much less can I rejoice in your Majesty’s weeping.”

He added that he would rather endure her tears, however, than remain silent and “betray my Commonwealth”. At this, Mary ordered him out of the room.

But apart from political and religious views, John Knox was a man famous for his power in prayer, so that Queen Mary of England used to say that she feared his prayers more than all the armies of Europe. And events showed that she had reason to do it. He used to be in such agony for the deliverance of his country, that he could not sleep. He had a place in his garden where he used to go to pray.

One night he and several friends were praying together, and as they prayed, Knox spoke and said that deliverance had come. He could not tell what had happened, but he felt something had taken place, for God had heard their prayers. What was it? Why, the next news they had was, that Mary was dead!

God has intervened in many instances in English history in order to ensure that the Protestant Christian position in England should continue to be maintained. There had been plot after plot in England to overthrow her protestant Queen and to reintroduce the Roman Catholic faith in the realm, and all these attempts had been encouraged by King Phillip himself, by the Pope, and by English Roman Catholic exiles operating against England from the Continent. But God in His mercy gave England the victory.

In America, the Pilgrims knew that they would face all kinds of challenges in their pilgrimage, therefore they had to rely on the Lord’s mercy and faithfulness in shaping the destiny of the nation. So they set aside special days of pouring out prayers and fasting to the Lord with great fervency and abundance of tears.

Both spiritually and politically, they “raised up the foundations of many generations” (see Isaiah 58:12).  Four centuries later, the people of the United States are still building on the foundations that the Pilgrims laid.

The same spiritual principles of prayer and fasting that we have proved in Russia, Kenya, England, America and many other nations still work in our world today.

However, we need to be reminded that the spiritual condition of the church determines the political, economic, and social condition in the nation in which that church exists. There are no solutions for a nation in critical decline outside of Christ and the Word of God.

Without faith, repentance, and a return to God in submission to His Laws in politicians and people, neither appealing “charismatic” politicians nor referendums by the people have any substance. So long as the church of Jesus Christ worldwide is from backslidden to apostate, I don’t think there are any workable answers to the road to serfdom that we are on today.

We need to declare sacred and solemn assemblies of repentance and corporate fasting in our respective nations— a time set aside for rending our hearts before the Lord.

For the Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in loving-kindness; and He revokes His sentence of evil when His conditions are met. Who knows but what He will turn, revoke our sentence of evil, and leave a blessing behind Him giving us the means with which to serve Him, even a cereal or meal offering and a drink offering for the Lord, our God (see Joel 2:13-14).

Until next time…The Lord willing.

When Silicon Valley’s 20-something techno-prodigies were awing the world with new, shiny, unveilings of iPods and then iPhones and then iPads, many of the inventors didn’t have kids. Few had teens. Now, most of them have kids, and many have teens — teenagers addicted to gadgets their parents birthed into the world years ago.

This is the story of Tony Fadell, a former Senior VP at Apple, known as the grandfather of the iPod, and a key player on the early design team for the iPhone. On the 10-year anniversary of the iPhone in an interview, he made this admission: “I wake up in cold sweats every so often thinking, what did we bring to the world?”

Fadell, a father of three, has come to see the addictive power of the iPhone, an addiction that cannot be removed. “I know what happens when I take technology away from my kids. They literally feel like you’re tearing a piece of their person away from them — they get emotional about it, very emotional. They go through withdrawal for two to three days.”

“This self-absorbing culture is starting to [really stink],” Fadell said. “Parents didn’t know what to do. They didn’t know this was a thing they needed to teach because we didn’t know for ourselves. We all kind of got absorbed in it.”

Yes — we all got absorbed — techies and teens and parents. All of us. And now we’re trying to figure out how to wisely manage our devices.

Teens, Smartphones, and Depression

Digital absorption has coincided with the fast-changing dynamics of public high school life. Last winter, I asked an assistant principal at a large Twin Cities high school (of more than 2,000 students) how her job has changed over the past two decades.

Much remains the same, she said. “But the one thing that has changed drastically in working with teenagers for over twenty years is the dependency they have now on the instant gratification and feedback from others. How many likes do I have? How many followers? And there’s a compulsion to put something online to see how many likes I can get. And if that wasn’t enough, what does it say about me?”

“There’s a really strong connection to this behavior and the increased mental health issues we’re seeing in the school,” she said. “Over the past three-to-five years I would say my job has changed the most, because we’re now dealing with so much more mental health. I don’t think it’s singularly because of technology, but I genuinely believe digital technology is a major factor. It changes everything from the way people relate with others to the way they see themselves.”

Destroying a Generation?

The cold sweats of Fadell and the eyewitness testimony of this assistant principal are captured in the haunting headline over a recent feature article published in The Atlantic, “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?”

iGen is the new label for those roughly 12-to-22-year-olds, born between 1995 and 2005. Among them, the warning signs are prevalent. “Rates of teen depression and suicide have skyrocketed since 2011,” wrote author Jean Twenge of the struggles faced by the iGen-ers. “It’s not an exaggeration to describe iGen as being on the brink of the worst mental-health crisis in decades. Much of this deterioration can be traced to their phones.

“The more time teens spend looking at screens, the more likely they are to report symptoms of depression,” and, “girls have borne the brunt of the rise in depressive symptoms among today’s teens.” Twenge cites sources that show depression is on the rise among both boys and girls. For boys, depressive symptoms rose 21% between 2012–2015. In the same span, rates among girls increased by 50%. The rates of suicide for both increased, too. Male suicides doubled; female suicides increased threefold.

From what I know about these spikes in depression, and what I have discovered about the allure of our devices, what we are addressing here are existential questions about the meaning of life and acceptance from others — massive questions, weighing heavy on a young generation. These are redemptive questions, identity questions, gospel issues.

Digital media force a teen and preteen into the 24-7 pressure cooker of peer approval. But it’s not just teens; all of us feel this addictive draw of our social media. Smartphones seem to influence us all in at least 12 potent ways.

But the question here is pretty straightforward: Given these warning signs, is it possible for a teen to resist the powers of culture and go smartphone-free through the middle school and high school years?

Smartphone-Free Teens

I asked Jaquelle Crowe, the author of the excellent book, This Changes Everything: How the Gospel Transforms the Teen Years, that question. She provides us with a rare example of an iGen teen who postponed the adoption of a smartphone until age 18. I asked her what it was like to wait so long.

Jaquelle, thanks for your time to share your experience. Studies are beginning to suggest that rates of teen depression are on the rise, and there is no single factor to get all the blame. But the pervasiveness of smartphones among iGen teens has to be considered as a significant cause. Would this connection surprise you?

Absolutely not. Smartphones contribute significantly to the 24-7 approval culture we live in. There’s no escaping it. This is something our parents don’t always understand, because when they were teenagers, that culture was largely limited to the 9–3 school day, and then they retreated to the boredom of family life.

But now there’s 24-7 social media. There’s a constant comparison and peer approval game that cannot be escaped. And it’s crippling, exhausting, and undeniably stressful. You can’t get away from the likes, the shares, the texts, the pictures. It’s like the popularity contest never ends. And it works both ways. Your smartphone gives you a front-row seat to watch the popularity contest, too.

That is a powerful dynamic, hard to escape the popularity culture on both fronts (feeding it and watching it play out). You did not get a smartphone until you were 18, but you had friends with smartphones, right?

Yes, I did, and I was well aware that most of my peers had access to something I didn’t. I could name every friend who had a phone, simply because I would see their phone. If Alison got a phone, I knew about it. If Jared got a phone, I knew about it. Not because they flaunted it or shamed me, but because it was always around. Even if we were talking together, it would buzz or ping or they’d be fidgeting with it. If there was a pause, a moment of silence, a break, they’d be on their phones, and I’d be left in the lingering awkwardness and boredom.

It definitely fed my FOMO (fear of missing out). It fed into some insecurity. Even though my friends never made me feel weird for not having a smartphone, it was an expectation, so they were surprised when they discovered I didn’t have one. There were times when I was the outlier. And not only with friends but also with my generation at large. I’d be walking through the mall or waiting in line or stopped on the sidewalk, and I would look around, fully present and disconnected — and stare at a sea of teens glued to smartphones. I was an exception, and that felt uncomfortable.

At times, I felt lonely — even if I was surrounded by people. They were constantly connected and I was isolated. I felt confined by my lack of access. At the same time, those feelings were largely emotional and visceral because I agreed theoretically with my parents — that I didn’t need a phone right then.

I applaud your parents for this foresight and conviction. Most parents, I fear, simply cave to the pressure, as their teen caves to the pressure — a domino effect of pressures, and certainly one I feel as a parent. But it’s worth giving this decision critical thought, because introducing a fully functioning smartphone is a decision that cannot easily be undone. For you, how much trust does this call for on the part of a teen, to wait? It seems like you have to trust your parents more than your peers, and that’s a main struggle of the teen years.

It calls for trust, definitely. And connected to that, a willingness to submit and obey. Ultimately, it requires a recognition that your parents are actually looking out for your best interests — emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and physically — and that they know you better than your peers do.

The thing is, deep down, most teens know that. They just push back because not owning a smartphone makes them feel ashamed.

I assume you had access to a phone of some sort?

Yes. If I was going out, I’d often borrow my mom’s flip phone for emergencies. I almost never used it.

That’s wise. As for digital media, what did you have access to before the smartphone?

I had a computer, I had email, I had access to some social media. I technically could do everything from home. But in a digital world with an expanding reach, that still somehow seemed limited.

For sure. Speaking as a 20-year-old now, what would you say to parents who are weighing the pros/cons and reading all the news and the testimonies of parents of teens, and who are coming to the conclusion that delaying the smartphone in the life of their teen would be wise? What kind of pushback should they expect to hear from their teen?

To parents, I’d say: It is worth it to have your kids wait. I’ve seen it and heard it and can attest to it since I got my own smartphone — smartphones change you. They give you overwhelming and shocking access. They zap your attention span. They are massively addictive. You can (and should!) put up safeguards, but a smartphone fundamentally changes your heart and mind. If it’s possible for teens to delay that change, I think it is a wise consideration.

Teach your teens discipline and discernment before you entrust them with the dangers of a smartphone. Of course, smartphones are not inherently evil; they have the potential for great good. But they need to be wielded well.

If you’re making your teen wait, don’t delegitimize the painful exclusion they’ll feel but use this time to prepare them to use technology wisely and faithfully. In the hands of unprepared, immature teens, smartphones can be deadly.

As for pushback that a parent is sure to hear, teens will feel left out. That might make them frustrated, confused, lonely, or hurt, and if they lash out, that’s why. They might feel like they’re separated from their friends. They might feel the pain of peer pressure. They might fear missing out. They might even have some legitimate concerns (e.g., having a phone with them when they’re out by themselves).

Parents, in the face of this pushback, be willing to explain your reasoning. When your teens ask you, “Why can’t I have a smartphone?” they really don’t want you to say, “Because I told you so.” Even if they don’t agree with it, they will likely respect your willingness to reason with them and the depth of critical thought you’ve put into this.

Share your research with them. Introduce them to other teens (in person or online) who don’t have smartphones. Instead of treating them like a child (just saying, “No” and moving on), pursue thoughtful, honest dialogue with them. Allow them to keep the conversation going, and be willing to do the hard work of communication for the greater good of your relationship.

Very good. And perhaps we can close with what you would say directly to the teens in this scenario. What should they expect to face by way of internal and peer struggle?

To the teens who take this countercultural move, you are an outlier in your generation. Obedience in life requires avoiding every clingy weight that will trip you up in the Christian life (Hebrews 12:1). I can only encourage you to hold fast. It comes down to this. Hold fast.

Jesus is better than a smartphone. You will rehearse this truth over and over in your heart.

And when you feel burdened by exclusion and isolation, don’t despair. Your identity is not in fitting in or meeting superficial expectations. It’s in Christ alone. And he gives you one task: be faithful. Right now, that looks like obeying your parents and trusting their good intentions for you — and that may mean not having a smartphone for a time.

Don’t run from this reality in shame; embrace it in faith. Your joy is not found in cultural connectivity; it’s found in union with Christ. So hold fast, and be faithful. Your reward is coming and it is far greater than any loss you will feel in this life.

Flipping through my TV channels, I stumbled upon the 2017 Congressional Black Caucus Annual Prayer Breakfast on The Word Network; the world’s largest black religious channel. This year’s theme was, “And Still I Rise”.

Folks, I thought, “Oh my gosh, these people have no shame.” This breakfast was all about exploiting black’s Christian heritage to deceive them for the purpose of furthering Leftists’ anti-Christian agenda. Every musical performance praised Jesus. Leftists despise Jesus, aggressively seeking to ban the God of Christianity from the public square.  Several of the all democrat speakers quoted the Bible to strengthen their political deceptions. The truth is quoting the Bible is as repulsive to Leftists as showing Dracula the cross.

I thought, does anyone in that hall know Obama led Leftists’ war on Christianity, making him the most anti-Christian president in U.S. history?  Do y’all know the 2017 Women’s March and Trump resisters whom you’ve praised at this breakfast seek to continue the Leftists’ war on Christianity?

The CBC Prayer Breakfast had nothing to do with Jesus or spreading His Love. Quite the opposite. It was about spreading hate for police, strengthening the Trump resistance and strengthening black’s bogus belief that they are victims in America. The breakfast was also about despicably instilling hate and fear to register new democrat voters.

Oh how I wish I could grab my fellow black Americans by their collar and slap them into reality. America is the greatest land of opportunity on this planet for all who choose to go for it. Forget the democrats/Leftists’ victim nonsense and pursue your dreams.

My 89 year old black dad was extremely active in the early civil rights movement. As a kid, I accompanied Dad to the 1963 March on Washington at which Dr Martin Luther King, Jr gave his remarkable, “I Have A Dream” speech. The modern civil rights movement has abandoned the vision of unity articulated by Dr King in his speech, “I have a dream that one day right there in Alabama little black boys and little black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.” Oh how the civil rights movement has fallen.

Though opposed by his peers, Dr King stood firm on the principle of non-violent activism. Today, democrats praise violent hate groups Antifa and Black Lives Matter. Obama honored Black Lives Matter at the White House. You have not heard a single word of criticism from the CBC against Black Lives Matter calling for the killing of cops and whites.

Dad pressured/shamed me and my four younger siblings into voting and joining the NAACP. Dad said, “A lot of folks suffered and died to give y’all the right to vote.”

As a young man in the 1970s, I joined the NAACP. Upon attending my first meeting, I thought, “What is wrong with these people?” It felt like I stepped back into 1950. The vibe was depressing. I was surrounded by long faced blacks singing, “We Shall Over Come.” I commented to Dad that the meeting felt like I walked through a time warp into days of black misery. Dad chuckled.

I was a young black man enjoying the fruits of Dad and his fellow civil rights activist’s labors. I attended the mostly white Maryland Institute College of Art on scholarships. I was the first black graphic designer employed at WJZ-TV, ABC affiliate in Baltimore. Life was good. But the folks at the NAACP meeting were sad, depressed and angry; acting as though black slavery was alive and well in America.

Watching the 2017 CBC Prayer Breakfast, I witnessed the same absurd lie that America is still a hellhole of racism for blacks. The “And Still I Rise” theme means blacks stand strong despite being persecuted daily in America.

All that hate promoted at the Congressional Black Caucus Prayer Breakfast was insidiously shrouded in Christianity. As a Christian, I found the so-called “prayer breakfast” a sad evil deception.

As a black American, in the name of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I command Leftists to, “Let my people go!”

Lloyd Marcus, The Unhyphenated American Author: “Confessions of a Black Conservative: How the Left has shattered the dreams of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Black America.” Singer/Songwriter and Conservative Activist http://LloydMarcus.com

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