News and Notes from the
World of Al Menconi

The following is the second half of a insightful article by blogger Matt Welch.  After reading my edited version, you can read his complete blog here . Fifty Shades of Grey” is symptomatic of a deeper problem, and the problem most definitely deserves our attention. I can tell you this: if my wife expressed any desire whatsoever to go see it, I would be very troubled about the state of our marriage and the condition of her soul (for the record, she hasn’t expressed any interest, and never would, and if she found the book in the house she would probably throw it into the fireplace and laugh maniacally while she danced around its burning carcass).   Many other men will feel these reservations deep down, but still accompany their wives and girlfriends to the movie theater this weekend where, like henpecked schoolboys, they will sit by while their women fantasize about being molested at the hands of a handsome billionaire. Or they will stay home and their spouses and signifi

50 Prayers for our daughters and sons  Steve Siler http://www.musicforthesoul.org/resources/somebodys-daughter http://www.MusicForTheSoul Lord I pray that our daughters and sons… 1.  …will be protected from exposure to pornography. 2.  …will learn to honor the dignity and humanity of each individual and treat everyone with kindness and respect. 3. …will develop the inner compass to reject the distorted views of human relationship they see in our pornified culture. 4. …will grow up in a culture that increasingly rejects pornography in all of its forms. 5. …will learn to look to the best interests of others in romantic relationships, treating others the way they would wish to be treated. 6.  …will become adults who see physical intimacy as something sacred. 7.  …will never use sex as a tool to manipulate or to wound. 8.  …will view sex as a gift from God. 9.  …will see sex as something to be shared, not something that is taken. 10.  …will reject voyeurism, unwilling to take something th

I get the best movie reviews from PluggedIn.com.  I know you'll appreciate their review of this wholesome  film.     Al Menconi, AlMenconi.com Old Fashioned Amber Hewson has a curious way of deciding where she's going to live next: looking at the gas gauge in her car. Every so often, when she's feeling fidgety, she'll just pack up her stuff, hit the open road and drive until the needle points at empty. That tells her when to coast into whatever anonymous burgh she's near and start the next chapter of her life. It's a pattern that's already propelled her across 14 states. This time, her destination is an archetypal everytown nestled in rural Ohio. A cursory glance at the classifieds after landing a job at a flower shop yields exactly what she's looking for: a cheap furnished apartment. Amber's prospective new residence sits atop an antique shop dubbed Old Fashioned. Before long, the store's owner, a quietly intense thirtysomething ba

FIRST-PERSON: How '50 Shades of Grey' harms women & Jesus saves them by Owen Strachan, posted Wednesday, February 11, 2015 (yesterday) Tags: 50 Shades of Grey LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP) -- We commonly hear today from a secular culture and from many voices of progressive Christianity (so-called) that the Bible is oppressive to women. Men are called to be heads of their home, goes the line, and women are called to submit, and that makes the Bible hugely problematic. Let me make four points to guide a possible response to this common objection and to "50 Shades of Grey" in particular, which opens in theaters Friday. 1) This is a sham accusation, of course. Men are called to be heads, but in the image of Christ. They're called to lay their lives down for their wives (see Ephesians 5:22-33 ). The Bible never enfranchises men treating women anything less tha