Money and morality

Venezuela has inflation that will hit 1,600% this year. This is what socialism and despotism will do to a country. Hugo Chavez is dead but the damage he did to his nation lives on. Obama and Hillary were headed in this way. America wasn’t built with socialism (where the state owns everything) but on capitalism and free enterprise.

Communism also gripped Cuba. Chavez’ hero was Fidel Castro, a failure. In Cuba, the people lost the concept of private property and personal ownership. They don’t know how to produce individual prosperity. I was there and I’ve seen it firsthand. Castro destroyed Cuba. Likewise, Chavez moved Venezuela toward socialism and economic disintegration.

I remember when Chavez stood in the United Nations and said, “Satan just stood here,” referring to America’s President Bush who had spoken there. I decided not to buy gasoline from Citgo, the company owned by Venezuela. I cut up my Citgo card and mailed it back. I vowed not to buy gasoline from Citgo.

I did the same thing with Levi’s after they tried to blackball the Boy Scouts of America in California for not hiring gay leaders. I recalled the time when a homosexual neighbor, a grown man, tried to molest me when I was still a child. I knew the Boy Scouts of America were right to not want gender confusion in their ranks. Boys and girls have it tough enough without adding gender-blender ideas into their minds.

When I was in Texas, having just bought a pair of Levi blue jeans that were strangely twisted, I took them back for a refund. I couldn’t get them to hang straight so the creases would line up. Because I deemed Levis’ to be warped, I’ve purchased only Wrangler jeans ever since. My morality affected the money of their company.

It seems strange that basic economics gets mixed into issues of morality. But it does. My study of the Bible confirms that God is a capitalist who wants families to prosper. He is also for sexual distinctions. In the Bible, the family is always described as a man and a woman plus children.

I like it that God created the heterosexual scheme of male and female sexuality. Wow! It is a wonderful gift!

I celebrate male-female sexuality as a wholesome benefit for humanity. Civilizations that depart from this standard soon disappear from being a factor in world history.

I’ve been working on my new book for Father’s Day. I hope it’ll be purchased as a gift for men. I couldn’t help but include a chapter on marriage. Just think about this … while individual choices may allow gays to have committed relationships to same sex partners, obviously, they cannot have children. Their lifestyle, to go beyond one generation, is dependent on heterosexual marriages and on adoptions to get kids. Only male-female marriages have children, right?

I celebrate marriage and uphold morality. When a man and a woman unite in holy matrimony, they enter into a covenant that God chooses to honor. I hope we can see with realistic eyes the absurdity of upholding a lifestyle that cannot reproduce. Anyone has the right to choose their path but don’t try to tell me that we should make it the norm. I am not for persecuting or mistreating gays or lesbians (I have family and friends who are among them and I love them), but I reserve the right to celebrate male and female sexuality and traditional families. This is what God called “very good.” That’s the union God blessed in the beginning. What God has blessed, let no one devalue or redefine.

— Ron Wood is a writer and minister. Contact him at wood.stone.ron@gmail. com or visit www.touchedbygrace.org. The opinions expressed are those of the author.