Marsha West -- Acquired Self-centered Syndrome

ACQUIRED SELF-CENTERED SYNDROME

By Marsha West

March 16, 2007

NewsWithViews.com

Acquired Self-centered Syndrome (ASS) is not a new "disorder" it's been plaguing humanity ever since Eve bit into the forbidden fruit. Eve ate the fruit because, well, she wanted to be like God. In a "pride goeth before the fall moment" Lucifer boasted, "I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High" (Isaiah 14:14). God promptly booted him out of heaven on his hinny. Adam followed Eve's lead and ate of the forbidden fruit. They both received a rude awakening. The First Couple was driven from their garden retreat forthwith.

Disobedience has consequences.

With Adam and Eve's rebellion came the personal pronoun "me." It's all about me, my felt needs, my desires � I, me, my. "Love yourself." "Embrace yourself." "Take care of yourself." "You're worth it!"

Jesus Christ never told his followers to love themselves; what He said was, "Love your neighbor as yourself." This may come as a big shock to some Christians, but Jesus never talked about getting your felt needs met. He says, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." Pretty straight forward, I'd say.

Which brings me to Hollywood and their latest attempt to drive their secular progressive worldview down the throats of the public. The atmosphere in TV and movies reveres self, smut and sexual immorality. A perfect example of this took place on ABC's daytime soap, All My Children. AMC is doing a storyline about a transgendered male, hence six transgendered individuals will appear on several special episodes. One of the transgendered cast members is Jennifer Finney Boylan. Jenny, who was born James Boylan, took on a female persona in 2000 while in his early forties � in spite of the fact that he had a wife and two young sons.

Jenny remains married and lives in Waterville, Maine with "her" wife Deedie (who has been reduced to "partner") and their two sons, now 12 and 10. Jenny is a Professor of Creative Writing at Colby College and a successful novelist.

Jenny and Deedie's relationship, now sexless, is a work in progress. Jenny tittered, "There's not a good word for what we are. We're certainly not husband and wife. We're not a lesbian couple. We are co-parents, we're friends and we are lovers in many senses of that word." "She" asserts that they're two "pretty average people thrown into remarkable circumstances and we're just making it up as we go along, trying to do the best we can."

Was going through a sex change the best he�oops� "she" could do for "her" sons? According to Jenny, the boys are taking the change in stride. Early on they took to calling the new female persona in their lives Maddy, which is a combination of Mommy and Daddy, and it stuck. The boys had no idea where their Dad went. All they knew is that Maddy had taken his place. Perhaps "Maddy" is short for mad at Daddy. [Read]

Fathers are supposed to embody selflessness. Fathers are supposed to be a role model for his kids. Fathers are supposed to be tough. Take for example heavyweight boxing champion James Braddock. In the movie, The Cinderella Man, Jim Braddock struggled to win fights so that he could put food on the table for his wife and three young children.

"Jim Braddock, whose single-minded devotion to family and dignity became just as famous as his tricky feints and killer left hook."

Braddock had a run of bad luck and was forced to retire from boxing.

"Just as America itself is sliding into the most frightening hard economic times the nation has ever known. Facing imminent poverty, Jim wants only to do right by the woman who has always been his source of strength-his feisty wife Mae. .... At first, he takes a string of dead-end dock jobs that only seem to leave him poorer. But soon, the tightly-wedded couple are drowning in debt and emotionally devastated to see their children shivering in an unheated apartment amid the dead of a Jersey winter." [Read]

Listen to producer Ron Howard's reason for making the film,

"The story of Jim Braddock is a tale that reminds us of just how remarkable human endurance and the power of love can be. Cinderella Man is a true American story about what it's like to cope in the moment, facing life's daily hardships, and to continue to passionately strive toward a goal-even a simple one like putting food on the table-no matter what the outcome turns out to be. It's that kind of story, that kind of cinematic journey that has always intrigued me as a filmmaker."

Sometimes Hollywood gets it right!

Now juxtapose James Boylan's life with James Braddock's. Narcissistic to the core, Boylan exhibits a love of self, not family, whereas Braddock exhibits a love of family, not self.

Sadly, self-centeredness drives people to extremes. "It's all about me! Right?! My wants. My desires. My loves," says Charley Adams. "Recognition of me. Exultation of me. It's probably not quite that blatant, but how many of us spend our time bemoaning how things aren't going our way? How much time and money is spent on self-help? How much focus is on improving ourselves through exercise, education, etc? Is there any time left for others? Is there any hope of a life of service? Not when others and service are secondary to the building and improving of one's self!" [Read]

The professional propagandists in the "gay" rights movement are reaching our children through the media and TV programs like All My Children and their message is clear. "To thyself be true" � and to heck with everyone else. Hollywood encourages people to do what's best for "me" no matter who gets hurt in the process. Which explains why millions of people have ASD.

In 2000 James Boylan had a choice to make. Without going into the psychological aspect of his identity disorder, which he says he wrestled with his entire life, the point I'm making is that Boylan made the decision to change his sex without regard for the well-being of his wife or the children he fathered. Yes, fathered! DNA dictates a person's sex. Jenny Boylan is not the mother of the boys. Moreover Jenny will never be their mother. Only Deedie has that privilege.

You know SP's are winning the culture war when people won't acknowledge that all children deserve both a father and a mother. Even people of faith won't speak up for fear of being labeled intolerant. Because of political correctness gone amuck the Boylan boys have been short changed in the father department. Not only did dear old dad make a disastrous decision in 2000, he decided to go public with it, to the humiliation of his wife, who was not so keen on letting the world know about something that personal. On "her" first visit to the Oprah Winfrey Show (OWS) Jenny discussed the details of "her" gender shift, as "she" prefers to call it.

It's fine to feel compassion for Jennifer Tinney Boylan but do not lose site of the fact that Jenny is still married to Deedie! You ask, "Why would 'she' go on OWS?" Because Oprah's show is the place to "celebrate" behaviors that society does not fully accept.

Radical homosexual groups like the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) is also committed to helping Jenny and other "trans people" educate the public of their plight. GLAAD exists solely to normalize deviant behavior. Liberal groups like GLAAD are well funded by the Left and their goal is to undermine the institution of marriage.

Noted Bible teacher, John Piper, makes this observation about the future of marriage,

"The fact that we live in a society that can even conceive of-let alone defend-two men or two women entering a relationship and with wild inconceivability calling it marriage, shows that the collapse of our culture into debauchery and barbarism and anarchy is probably not far away."

Society has lost its moral compass and our children have paid a big price. Divorce is rampant, even in the Church. The excuse Christian's give is, "God wants me to be happy." Wrong. God wants kids to be happy! He wants adults to be responsible. And in the case of Christians, His desire is for them to be obedient.

There's plenty of proof that fatherless marriages damage kids. Social experimentation damages kids. Selfish adults damage kids! Jesus said this to grownups; "It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. So watch yourselves" (Luke 17:2).

What is needed to protect the next generation are healthy marriages and healthy families. Listen to what David Blankenhorn of the American Family Institute, who's an admitted liberal Democrat, says about marriage and children,

"The main reason marriage is considered good for society is that committed relationships help settle individuals into stable homes and families. Marriage does this by establishing collective rules of conduct that strengthen obligations to a spouse and often to children."

Blankenhorn makes this dire prediction on the fate of marriage,

"We're either going to go in the direction of viewing marriage as a purely private relationship between two people that's defined by those people, or we're going to try to strengthen and maintain marriage as our society's most pro-child institution." [Read]

Getting back to the Boylan's so-called marriage. Jenny admits that there's not even a good word for what they are. I've got one. Mockery.

Is a marriage like the Boylan's good for society? More importantly, is it good for their children?

Recommended Reading:

1, Under what conditions may Christians divorce and remarry? By Christianaswers.net

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Marsha West is the Founder and Editor of the E-Mail Brigade News Report, an online news report for conservative people of faith. Marsha is a freelance writer specializing in Christian worldview. She is a regular contributor to NewsWithViews.com, Alainsnewsletter.com, CapitolHillCoffeeHouse.com, plus her commentaries appear in MichNews.com and bibleteacher.org.

Marsha is also designer and webmaster of a Christian apologetics website, On Solid Rock Resources. She is currently writing a series of children's books for homeschoolers. Marsha and her husband reside in historic Jacksonville Oregon.

E-mail:�EMbrigade@aol.com

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