BROKEN BOW, G-STRINGS AND DRAG QUEENS COMING SOON TO YOUR LOCAL PIZZA PARLOR

I pay more than passing attention to what is happening in the McCurtain County, Broken Bow area.  Sheila and I like to rent a cabin and slip off for a mini vacation down there as often as we can.  And, I have been poking around a bit looking for a piece of property down there for a cabin retreat for us to use part of the year and maybe rent part of the year.  

However, I am rethinking not only our defacto get away destination but also the possibility of investing down there ..... all because of the actions of one local pizza parlor.  The most popular pizza place in the area has created quite a stir by announcing that it may start sponsoring amateur strip tease and drag queen shows.  

I live in Mid-Town Tulsa.  I drive by several SOB's every day.  I see hookers working Admiral and Eleventh. We mid-towners have had to fight street prostitution on 11th street for years.  My wife actually chased one hooker down the street after she moved off of 11th and started working the street corner in front of our house.  I see trans prostitutes working 15th occasionally.  It all saddens me greatly.  There is no joy or fun in the sex business only despair.  I don't want to see it at my getaway.

Taking personalities and personal morality out of the argument, the fact is the owners are talking about turning the local pizza joint into a part time sexually oriented business (SOB). SOB's are strictly regulated by zoning and city statute in most cities. The reason is that they are known to increase crime and reduce property values.  https://psmag.com/.../heres-really-dont-want-strip-club   A strip club in the neighborhood reduces property values by almost 15%. https://www.realtor.com/.../things-that-affect-your.../

Some argue that an occasional strip show or drag queen night does not make the pizza parlor a sexually oriented business (SOB). In the eyes of the law they are correct. The difference between an SOB and an unlicensed bikini bar under Oklahoma law is about six square inches of fabric, a miniscule g string and a set of pasties. Unless local city or county government passes stricter definitions a g string and pasties is the limit before incurring SOB regulation on advertising, zoning, etc. However, most people will see it for what it is, exploiting sexual excitement for profit ..... defacto if not dejure a sexually oriented business. 

The question the owners have to ask themselves is, will the short term profit from a few big nights by out of town people make up for the loss of local business, the loss of goodwill and trouble these performances is going to cause. And then there is the silent boycott. Let me tell you how that works. The churches in the area will not picket and they will not threaten. But, some will exercise their constitutionally protected First Amendment right to speak out from the pulpit about an event or series of events that offends their moral standards. That's what churches do. Then, the members of those churches will start staying away. They will take their family business elsewhere and stop recommending the place to their friends. It's a silent snowball. Nothing will happen quickly but in six months or a year after the buzz has worn off that local family business will still be gone and it will be incredibly hard to get back. Small town folks have long memories.  The business itself will probably be gone.  On a national scale, K-Mart never came back after the American Family Association called them out for selling porn.  And now, Target is taking big hits on their balance sheet over their transgender bathroom policy.   https://www.afa.net/.../afa-target-boycott-crashes... 


The fact that this pizza parlor is getting ready to make one incredibly stupid business move wouldn't have changed my plans alone.  If they do this they will be out of business in a year or so anyway.  After the buzz wears off and the crowd moves on they will never get back the local business that they lost by offending a big chunk of the local population.  They will probably be gone by the time I would have invested.

But, what has changed both my vacation plans and my investment plans are the reactions of  some of the locals.  One poster on Facebook said that those of us who had different opinions should be "looked into" (aka doxxed in modern terminology) because since we were homophobic (an unproven accusation) we must also be racists.  Many were openly hostile toward the socially conservative and Christians who dared voice an opinion that disagreed with theirs.  Some came flat out and said that people like me should find another vacation spot.  A poorly thought out opinion for people who depend on tourism for their daily bread.  So, sadly, I have taken that posters advice.  I deal with this kind of rancor in Tulsa all of the time.  I don't need to drive three hours to get it in the boondocks. 
  The owners of this pizza parlor let an evil genie out of the bottle.  By appealing to the baser instincts of some of their local residents they put on display for the whole world to see a dark, ugly and frankly frightening side of their otherwise beautiful little community.

  

Judge Not and Liberal Virtue Signalers

Lately, I have had a spate of virtue signalling millenials confront me with the odd notion that I cannot be a Christian because I do not subscribe to their patently un-biblical political views on issues like abortion, homosexuality, race and immigration.  Were the consequences not so deadly for their souls their pseudo virtuous breast beating would be kind of amusing because it violates the one piece of scripture that they always quote and always get wrong, Matthew 7:1 "Judge not, that ye be not judged."  And yet here they are judging my Christianity through the lens of their own progressive liberal intolerance while loudly proclaiming their tolerance.  By misquoting Matthew 7:1 they are actually committing the act that the verse condemns - hypocrisy.

So, who actually IS a Christian?  It is perfectly defined in Romans 10:9: "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." 

For the following to make sense you have to understand that the New Testament was written in Koine Greek, the common street language of the Roman Empire in the Middle East at the time the New Testament was written.

The word "confess" is the Greek word homologeo meaning to say exactly the same the same thing.  It is a legal term of agreement or contract.  The word "Lord" is the Greek word kuros which means absolute master.  It was often used in a military sense to denote a commanding officer who had life or death authority over his soldiers.  It was also used in the master slave relationship to denote the master.  You are literally agreeing to become the bond slave of Jesus Christ.   In modern terms the whole phrase could be transliterated to mean, "Publicly confess and contractually agree that Jesus Christ is the absolute master of your life in all things at all times."  

In the next phrase the word "believe" is the Greek word pisteuw which means to be convinced of and entrust or place absolute faith in.  The word "heart" is the Greek word kardia.  Over the last few decades, the term "believe in thine heart" has been mistranslated to mean some sort of emotional experience.  A little understanding of Greek culture is necessary here.  The New Testament Greek man thought the heart was the center of the intellect and soul and the stomach was the center of the emotions. A better definition would be "the soul or mind, as it is the fountain and seat of the thoughts, passions, desires, appetites, affections, purposes, endeavours."

So, to be a Christian you must "Publicly confess and contractually agree that Jesus Christ is the absolute master of your life in all things at all times and be convinced in your soul or mind, thoughts, passions, desires, appetites, affections, purposes and endeavours that God raised him from the dead."

So, if  you are truly a Christian then you must agree with God on any issue He addresses.  Homosexuality is a perfect example since it is addressed just a few chapters back in Romans 1 where homosexuality is condemned as a product of willful unbelief and disrespect:

¹⁸ For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth ^[l]in unrighteousness, ¹⁹ because that which is known about God is evident ^[m]within them; for God made it evident to them. ²⁰ For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. ²¹ For even though they knew God, they did not ^[n]honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. ²² Professing to be wise, they became fools, ²³ and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and ^[o]crawling creatures.
²⁴ Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. ²⁵ For they exchanged the truth of God for ^[p]a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed ^[q]forever. Amen.
²⁶ For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is ^[r]unnatural, ²⁷ and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing ^[s]indecent acts and receiving in ^[t]their own persons the due penalty of their error.
²⁸ And just as they did not see fit ^[u]to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, ²⁹ being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, ³⁰ slanderers, ^[v]haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, ³¹ without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; ³² and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.

After reading this passage of scripture you cannot in intellectual honesty say that homosexuality and Christianity are in any way compatible. To accommodate homosexuality you must either refuse to believe the plain meaning of the scriptures or dishonestly re-translate or re-interpret them.  And my friend, you CANNOT do that and still be Christian.