GAY

The Arguments Against Gay Marriage
Marriage is an institution between one man and one woman.
Same-sex couples aren't the optimum environment in which to raise children.
Gay relationships are immoral
Marriages are for procreation and ensuring the continuation of the species
Same-sex marriage would threaten the institution of marriage.
Marriage is traditionally a heterosexual institution.
Same-sex marriage is an untried social experiment.
Same-sex marriage would start us down a "slippery slope" towards legalized incest, bestial marriage, polygamy and all kinds of other horrible consequences
Granting gays the right to marry is a "special" right.
Sodomy should be illegal and was until very recently
Gay marriage would mean forcing businesses to provide benefits to same-sex couples on the same basis as opposite-sex couples.
Gay marriage would force churches to marry gay couples when they have a moral objection to doing so.

marriage and wedo!!!!!!!!!

What does the Bible tell us about interracial marriage?
The Bible does not address the question of interracial marriage directly. Certainly Scripture is clear that the human race is one. From the creation, all are descendants of Adam, and in Christ we are family, with nothing that elevates one person over another.
Biblically, there are no moral or theological barriers to such marriages. However, couples considering marriage across racial boundaries today do not live in a perfect world. In some places, feelings for and against such unions run strong. Before marriage, interracial couples should consider the likely response to their marriage of the society around them, as well as that of their family and church community. If the response is negative, they need to ask themselves if they have a relationship that is strong enough to meet the difficulties such opposition could present.
Couples should also recognize that although opposites often attract, the more commonalities they share, the better they will be able to deal with the differences between them. In addition, life has a way of throwing many hurdles in the path of every married couple. Interracial couples may discover they have “an extra” hurdle thrown in from the beginning.
What’s most important is for the partners to go into their marriage with their eyes open to the challenges their racial differences may create and make preparation to face them together.

HEALTH

MENTAL HEALTH

The bare facts:
Mental, neurological and behavioural disorders are common to all countries and cause immense suffering. People with these disorders are often subjected to social isolation, poor quality of life and increased mortality. These disorders are the cause of staggering economic and social costs.
Hundreds of millions of people worldwide are affected by mental, behavioural, neurological and substance use disorders. For example, estimates made by WHO in 2002 showed that 154 million people globally suffer from depression and 25 million people from schizophrenia; 91 million people are affected by alcohol use disorders and 15 million by drug use disorders. A recently published WHO report shows that 50 million people suffer from epilepsy and 24 million from Alzheimer and other dementias.
In addition to the above figures, many other disorders affect the nervous system or produce neurological sequelae. Projections based on a WHO study show that worldwide in 2005, 326 million people suffer from migraine; 61 million from cerebrovascular diseases; 18 million from neuroinfections or neurological sequelae of infections. Number of people with neurological sequelae of nutritional disorders and neuropathies (352 million) and neurological sequelae secondary to injuries (170 million) also add substantially to the above burden.
About 877,000 people die by suicide every year.
One in four patients visiting a health service has at least one mental, neurological or behavioural disorder but most of these disorders are neither diagnosed nor treated.
Mental illnesses affect and are affected by chronic conditions such as cancer, heart and cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and HIV/AIDS. Untreated, they bring about unhealthy behaviour, non-compliance with prescribed medical regimens, diminished immune functioning, and poor prognosis.
Cost-effective treatments exist for most disorders and, if correctly applied, could enable most of those affected to become functioning members of society.
Barriers to effective treatment of mental illness include lack of recognition of the seriousness of mental illness and lack of understanding about the benefits of services. Policy makers, insurance companies, health and labour policies, and the public at large – all discriminate between physical and mental problems.
Most middle and low-income countries devote less than 1% of their health expenditure to mental health. Consequently mental health policies, legislation, community care facilities, and treatments for people with mental illness are not given the priority they deserve.

war

I don’t want to fight in the army, but what if there’s a draft?
Adventists are encouraged to seek conscientious objector status, or at the least, non-combatant status. That means you don’t bear arms. In some countries there are other kinds of national service you can do, such as work in hospitals. The United Nations has declared that there should always be alternatives to military service, but not all countries have complied. In many countries Adventists are given non-combatant status.
If there is a draft, you need to find out what the process is to register your objection to serving in the armed forces. Your local church organizations can help you with this process. In the United States, the National Service Organization provides help and information for Adventists who are called to military service .You must decide personally what your position is. It is important to read about the subject and understand what it involves

sex created by GOD

How can I deal with sexual temptations?

We live in a world that is preoccupied with sex. The media links sex with happiness, success, and fulfillment. Perhaps the first step in dealing with sexual temptations is to put them in perspective. A sexual relationship is a beautiful gift from God to married couples. It binds them to one another and is the means whereby they may participate with Him in the creation of another human being.
But sexuality is a big word. It includes feeling good about yourself as God’s creation, male or female. It includes understanding more about what it means to be made in the image of God (because both genders reflect who He is and what He is like). It includes celebrating diversity in the world and the experience of sharing life with people who are different than you are and whose perspectives and gifts enrich your own.
While singles may be denied a sexual relationship if they never marry, they are included in everything else God intended when He created human beings in two genders.
According to one Seventh-day Adventist therapist with expertise in this area, it can be helpful also to remember that “Sex is never an emergency. No one has ever died for lack of it.” This is not to minimize the strength of sexual temptation. Again it is a matter of perspective. When a sexual relationship is not possible at the moment, it is most productive to think in terms of all the other ways life can be filled with meaning.
It goes without saying that a person who is seeking to avoid sexual temptation would also avoid sexually stimulating reading and television viewing. When as a married person you are experiencing such temptation, there is no substitute for renewing your decision to pour all of your sexual energies into enhancing your marriage relationship and building up your marriage partner with whom your have made a covenant before God.

Sex before marriage

My boyfriend wants to have sex. I don’t want to lose him. What shall I do? Is marriage the answer to the temptation?

Every person develops a value system by which they want to live their lives. As a Christian, you have the right and the responsibility to live by the values you have chosen--values that are in keeping with the principles of Christ’s kingdom and your personal life goals.
When your boyfriend wants to have sex, tell him directly that you have decided not to have a sexual relationship with anyone until you are married. He will likely come back with many reasons why he wants you to have sex with him and why this is not a reasonable decision on your part. But remember, you have a right to decide for yourself, and no one else has the right to force to you to violate your values. Listen to him, let him know you understand his point and his feelings, but reaffirm again, “I have decided not to have a sexual relationship until I am married.”
Do not let anyone draw you into a defense of whether or not you have made a good decision. Your decision for abstinence outside of marriage is for you alone to make.
A good friend worth keeping as a potential marriage partner will respect and honor your decision. You would not want to be married to anyone who does not respect you and the values you represent. Marriage is about much more than sex. A sexual relationship with a marriage partner is wonderful. But sexual attraction alone is not a strong enough “glue” to bond two people together “for better or worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and in health” for a lifetime. You do well to learn more and more about one another and to build a friendship in the time you are together.
You may want to read Proverbs 5, which speaks of the heavy consequences of a sexual relationship outside of marriage। You may also want to think of your sexual purity in the light of Paul’s reminder in Romans 6 and again in Romans 12. The apostle calls us to live a new life in Christ. This new life, Romans makes clear, includes using our bodies in ways that honor and glorify Him.

The “Sex Age"
Archaeologists and anthropologists have labeled the many different ages in their models of the history of man, such as the “Stone Age” or the “Bronze Age.” Given its prominence in our current society, it would not be a wonder if future anthropologists were to label our culture the “Sex Age.”
We are surrounded by it. The assault on our senses and our minds is almost inescapable. Images that were once confined to magazines sold in brown paper bags to adults are now publicly and unavoidably displayed in our shopping malls in bigger-than-life advertisements for all the world to see – regardless of age. Sex is used to sell everything from potato chips to radial tires.

The resulting cultural environment is damaging in more ways than we can count. Women are objectified and must struggle against being judged according to their ability to appear as “sexy” as the airbrushed, digitally and artificially “enhanced” women they see in the media. Men, too, are harmed – virtually “programmed” by the onslaught of images to see women as mere sources of sexual pleasure, instead of equals and partners they can love and respect.

And our children suffer, as well. Marketers have figured out the monetary success of the KGOY formula – “Kids Getting Older Younger.” They have learned that there is a great deal of money to be made by selling “sexy” clothing to little children, and that the sexually enticing and revealing fashions that little girls see on TV make for popular clothes for their dolls, as well as styles that they will demand to wear for themselves.

The fact is God designed sex (cf. Genesis 1:27), and He did, indeed, create it to be a powerful force in the lives of a married couple. The sexual union not only provides for the creation of children, but also for the intense emotional bonding that He wants between a husband and wife. The Bible describes the “way of a man with a maiden” almost too wonderful for words (Proverbs 30:18-19, RSV), and in the context God intended, it truly is. When used as its Creator intended, sex is a wonderful and joyous part of married life!

But as my wife’s grandfather used to say, God didn’t design sex to be a spectator sport. And in Satan’s world – which this is (2 Corinthians 4:4, KJV) – anything powerful enough to move the human mind at its deepest levels is up for grabs as a means of manipulation for the sake of profit. For purposes of profit and illicit gratification, that wonderful facet of God’s creation has been dragged out of the intimate confines of the marital bedroom and has been increasingly put on display for all the world to see – including children.

The consequences have been – and continue to be – disastrous for the family and for society in general. Venereal diseases run rampant. Children are “sexualized” even before reaching puberty. And the concept of “sexual satisfaction” now focuses on “technique,” “experience,” and “experimentation,” instead of what God Almighty intended to be the ultimate source of “sexual satisfaction”: powerful, bonding intimacy between man and wife. Better to have an “experienced lover” in the bedroom than to experience love there. What a shame.

But a day is coming that the Bible calls the “restoration of all things” (Acts 3:21), when things will be as God intended. Like a beautiful gemstone placed in a perfectly fashioned setting of gold, sex will return to the place where its God-designed potential finds its fullest and most powerful expression: marriage.