Generation gap blamed for Army leader loss

WASHINGTON - A surprisingly candid new Army study concludes that captains are leaving the service in droves mainly because of a generation gap between baby boomer generals and Generation X junior officers. But it also blames President Clinton's scandals, among other things, for undercutting younger officers' respect for authority.

[Prov 28:15 Like a roaring lion and a rushing bear Is a wicked ruler over a poor people.]

The Army has grown alarmed in recent months because so many captains are leaving that it fears it might have trouble filling leadership positions within a few years. In 1989, just as the Cold War was ending, 6.7 percent of Army captains left voluntarily. In 1999, the number climbed to 10.6 percent, a 58 percent increase.

An internal Army forecast that hasn't been released predicts the departure rate will climb this year to about 13 percent.

…The report concludes that the heart of the problem is that "today's senior officers do not understand today's junior officers or their perspectives."

…Growing up in two-career families in which divorce became widespread, with 40 percent of their cohorts spending at least some time in a single-parent home, "Xers became the ultimate latchkey children," [report author Lt Col Leonard] Wong said.

[1 Tim 5:14 Therefore, I want younger widows to get married, bear children, keep house]

[Prov 31:27 She looks well to the ways of her household]

[Titus 2:4-5 that [older women] may encourage the young women to ...love their children, to [be] workers at home]

As adults and officers, they tend to be skeptical of authority and less inclined to sacrifice time with families to succeed at work. …"They have been let down by too many authority figures, ranging from their overworked parents to their commander in chief," Wong wrote.

[Prov 29:12 If a ruler pays attention to falsehood, All his ministers become wicked.]

--Thomas E. Ricks, THE WASHINGTON POST (article carried in the Tacoma News Tribune, Sunday, November 19, 2000, pg A11)

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(response to the above article)

Dear Paul,

[AF Col] Erik [name deleted] says that today's AF officers spend next to NO time at the O-Club because they have little time for anything outside of work and what little time they can squeeze out for their family. He says that they have loaded him with about 2 full time jobs and then take away some of his supporting officers to fill them in elsewhere. It is frustrating in the extreme -- people are stressed out as if it were war time or something. Clinton has all these extra actions around the globe and then there is this desire to change the social standards.

For instance, a young woman recruit gets pregnant and the AF picks up the tab for her kid's birth, day care, babysitting etc. (with no dad around.) And she's just a young girl and so she wants to have a little "fun" at the local bar or party so she doesn't care for the kid properly and Erik has to spend hour after hour after hour reading her the riot act and getting on her case for not doing her job and her not caring for the kid.

And all of these Article 15's [administrative disciplinary action] or whatever have to be done with a lawyer's care to make sure you don't come down too hard on the girl. And Erik is supposed to be directing a couple hundred other people at the same time!!!!

Love in Jesus,

Hugh

*WOMEN, ATTITUDES & OPINIONS OF


Egyptologist Barbara S. Lesko: “Egyptian women were certainly not hesitant to appear in public, whether as merchants in the public market place or on the picket line supporting their husbands in the first recorded labor strike in history.

Indeed, when we take the trouble to examine Egyptian records, our understanding of the social condition of the ancient Egyptian women is a far cry from the "human misery" imagined by the classicist Edith Hamilton. The woman of ancient Greece was indeed in a pitiable plight, cloistered at home with her distaff while the men of her society filled the markets, theaters, stadia, and the law-courts. Nor were Greek husbands and wives found together at social events like private dinner parties; but the Egyptian couple went everywhere together, sharing life's trials and delights as respected and equal citizens in their secular and religious communities, enjoying equality under the law as well. Surely this was one of the glories of ancient Egypt.” (Barbara Lesko, “The Remarkable Women of Ancient Egypt (Berkeley: BC Scribe Publ, 1978) p30-31)

EGYPT: "Should a woman's husband be convicted of a crime, both she and any children of the marriage had to share his punishment, which usually meant that they became slaves." ("The Mythology of Sex," Sarah Dening, MacMillan Co, NY, NY, pg 63)

EGYPT: "The ancient Egyptian civilization supported one of the most humane societies of all time, a society based on the family unit and the institution of legal marriage which was considered to have been ordained and sanctified by Osiris and Isis who were, according to legend, Egypt's first king and queen. Egyptian women enjoyed a degree of freedom and independence which would have been envied by their counterparts in other civilizations of the Middle East, in Classical Greece or even in Medieval Europe. The rights of an Egyptian woman to own and inherit property were better than those of married women in Victorian England."

("People of the Pharaohs," Hilary Wilson, Michael O'Mara Books Ltd, London, UK, p 52)

EGYPT: "I planted the whole land with trees and greenery allowing people to sit in the shade. I caused every woman of Egypt to go with head held high to any place she desired for no stranger nor any traveller upon the road would molest her. I kept alive the whole land, whether foreigners, commonfolk or citizens, all people both male and female." (Ramesses III, cited in "People of the Pharaohs," Hilary Wilson, Michael O'Mara Books Ltd, London, UK, p 53)

EGYPT: "A wife's role in society as the manager of the household and mother of the heirs to the family property was highly valued and respected... Family life was idealized in the literary compositions known as Wisdom Texts which ahve survived from several periods...(In) a text known as the Wisdom of Ptah-hotep...A man was advised that it was his duty to take a wife and that he should provide her with every comfort: 'When you prosper and establish your household, love your wife dearly. Feed her well, clothe her in style and provide precious oinments for her body. Keep her happy as long as you live...Thus will you make her stay in your house.'" ("People of the Pharaohs," Hilary Wilson, Michael O'Mara Books Ltd, London, UK, p 54-5)

EGYPT: "The woman retained ownership of any property she brought into the marriage and kept her rights of inheritance to her parents' estate. She was also entitled to a one-thrid share in any property acquired during the marriage. This was her inheritance should she outlive her husband. The remaining two-thirds would be shared equally between all children, boys and girls alike, after any special bequests had been made." ("People of the Pharaohs," Hilary Wilson, Michael O'Mara Books Ltd, London, UK, p 56)

BABYLONIAN: The reenactment of the annual rebirth of vegetation and the hope for abundant fertility of cattle and wives dates back at least as far as the time of the Canaanites, who worshiped Baal and his consort Astarte on the tops of hills. Temple prostitutes in Babylonia perpetuated similar rites by engaging in sexual intercourse with priests and rulers of city-states. Select women were expected to spend the night in a room at the top of a tower in Babylon, satisfying the sexual desires of the god Marduk (or his earthly counterpart). According to Herodotus, a Greek traveler and writer, every woman was required to go to the temple of Ishtar in Babylon at least once in her lifetime and engage in sexual intercourse with a stranger. This was regarded as a re­ligious act, a sacrifice to the god or a fertility offering. (John T Bristow, “What Paul Really Said About Women,” Harper, San Francisco, p51)

GREEK DEMOSTHENES: "We have courtesans for our pleasures, prostitutes for daily physical use, wives to bring up legitimate children and to be faithful stewards in household matters." (--Demosthenes, Adv. Neaeram, 122).

GREEK PLUTARCH: "If therefore any private person, swayed by the unruly motions of his incontinency, happen at any time to make a trip with a kind she-friend or his wife's chamber­maid, it becomes not the wife presently to lower and take pep­per in the nose, but rather to believe that it was his respect to her which made him unwilling she should behold the follies of inebriety and foul intemperance." --Plutarch, “Conjudal Precepts”, Plutarch’s Essays and Miscellanies, Vol 2, AH Clough and Wm W Goodwin, Ed, (NY: Colonial, 1905) as cited by John T Bristow, “What Paul Really Said About Women,” Harper, San Francisco, p51-52

GREEK PLATO: "Plato counted a state 'disorganized' 'where slaves are disobedient to their masters, and wives are on equality with their husbands.'"

--International Standard Bible Encylopaedia, 1996, under "Husbands"

GREEK: "The female always provides the material, the male that which fashions it, for this is the power we say they each possess, and this is what it is for them to be male and female...While the body is from the female, it is the soul that is from the male." --Aristotle ("The Mythology of Sex," Sarah Dening, MacMillan Co, NY, NY, pg 16)

GREEK: Plato counted a state "disorganized" "where slaves are disobedient to their masters, and wives are on equality with their husbands."

"Is there a human being," asks Socrates, "with whom you talk less than with your wife?"

(from International Standard Bible Encylopaedia, Electronic Database Copyright (C) 1996 by Biblesoft, under "Husbands")

GREEK SOCRATES: "Is there a human being with whom you talk less than with your wife?

----International Standard Bible Encylopaedia, 1996, under "Husbands"

GREEK STRABO: "It is not possible for a philosopher to influence a group of women by using reason, nor to exhort them to piety and faith: for this, he needs to use superstition too."

--Strabo, c. 4 BC, cited by Robin Lane Foxe, Pagans and Christians, p.311.

Another class of sacred prostitutes were little more than slaves owned by the temples. The Greek geographer Stabo of Amasia in Pontus, living in the first century before Christ, wrote that the temple of Aphrodite possessed more than one thousand slave prostitutes, both male and female, who were dedicated to the goddess and provided great wealth for the city. That lure for sailors, he added, is the basis for the proverb, "not for every man is the voyage into Corinth." (John T Bristow, “What Paul Really Said About Women,” Harper, San Francisco, p51-52

THE RABBI’S: "Talk not much with womankind. They said this of a man's own wife; how much more of his fellow's wife! Hence the Sages have said: He that talks much with wom­ankind brings evil upon himself and neglects the study of the Law and at last will inherit Gehenna." --Mishnah, Aboth 1:5

THE RABBI’S: "It would be better to see the Torah [the laws of God in scripture] burnt than to hear its words upon the lips of women," insisted one rabbi. Another averred that "teaching a girl [the Law and Talmud, etc] is the same as starting her on the road to depravity." Still another taught, "If any man gives his daughter a knowledge of the Law it is as though he taught her lechery." --Sotah 3.4

PHILO: “There is in the soul a male and female element just as there is in fam­ilies, the male corresponding to the men, the female to the women. The male soul assigns itself to God alone as the Father and Maker of the Universe and the Cause of all things. The female clings to all that is born and perishes; it stretches out its faculties like a hand to catch blindly at what comes in- its way, and gives the clasp of friendship to the world of created things with all its numberless changes and trans­mutations, instead of to the divine order, the immutable, the blessed, the thrice happy.” --Philo, The Special Laws, 3.178

PHILO (JEW) ON GENESIS 2: “In us mind corresponds to man, the senses to woman; and pleasure encounters and holds parley with the senses first, and through them cheats with her quackeries the sovereign mind itself. . . . In a word we must never lose sight of the fact that Pleasure, being a courtesan and a wanton, eagerly desires to meet with a lover, and searches for panders, by whose means she shall get one on her hook. It is the senses that act as panders for her and procure the lover. When she has ensnared these she easily brings the Mind under her control.” Philo, On the Creation, 165-66

ROMAN CELSUS: "But whenever they [Christians] get hold of children in private and some stupid women with them, they let out some astounding statements. . ."

--Celsus, ca. 170 AD, cited by Robert Wilken, The Christians as the Romans Saw Them, Yale Univ Press, 1984, p. 97.

ROMAN CELSUS: "But who say this [the miracles of Jesus]? A hysterical female, as you say, and perhaps some other one of those who were deluded by the same sorcery..."

--Celsus, ca. 170 AD, cited by Robert Wilken, The Christians as the Romans Saw Them, Yale Univ Press, 1984, p. 111.

EARLY CHRISTIAN:

TERTULLIAN: "Woman . . . do you not know that you are (each) an Eve? The sentence of God on this sex of yours lives in this age: the guilt must of necessity live too. You are the devil's gateway: you are the unsealer of that (forbidden) tree: you are the first deserter of the divine law: you are she who persuaded him whom the devil was not valiant enough to attack. You destroyed so easily God's image in man. On account of your desert-that is, death-even the Son of God had to die." --Tertullian, “On the Apparel of Women, Trans. S. Thelwall, Ante-Nicene Fathers (Grand Rapida: Eerdmans, 1982, 1.1.

ST AUGUSTINE: (Marriage is) “…a covenant with death." -Augustine, Confessions, trans. Edward B Pusey (NY: Random House, 1949), bk 6

HINDU: "The widow is more inauspicious than all other inauspicious things. At the sight of a widow, no success can be had in any undertaking; excepting one's mother, all widows are void of auspiciousness. A wise man should avoid even her blessings like the poison of a snake." (Skanda Purana, an early Hindu text). "Hindu Widows," pg A1/A10, The News Tribune, Tacoma, WA, 3-29-98.

In Hindu society, women are supported by their in-law family, often as slaves and prostitutes to them. The widow is left without anything normally, thus the ancient custom of suttee, immolation upon the husband's funeral pyre (outlawed 1829 but continues).

HINDU: "I dreamed of (remarriage), but I was told that society would not permit it, that if I did it anyway, I would be an outcast. but I was only a child (widow at 14) then. Later I came to understand that if I remarried, the honor of my family would be lost, that it is our Hindu custom to have only one husband and that if he died, it was only because I had bad karma (an evil prior life resulting in this life's suffering). And if I had bad karma, what was the point of remarrying?" "Hindu Widows," pg A1/A10, The News Tribune, Tacoma, WA, 3-29-98.

HINDU: "The Kama Sutra [Hindu sacred text] did not limit itself purely to matters sexual. As her principla aim in life the Hindu wife was expected to please her husband, and the book lists the numrous talents, both personal and domestic, which she must acquire to this end. These range from the more traditional occupations of singing, dancing and sewing to swordfighting and the study of magic and sorcery." ("The Mythology of Sex," Sarah Dening, MacMillan Co, NY, NY, pg 112-3)

AFRICAN: "Female circumcision was and remains a practice in many parts of Africa. This involves cutting off the clitoris and sometimes removing part of the labia minora, the aim being both to make the young girl 'clean' or 'a woman' and to ensure maximum sexual pleasure for the man she will marry." ("The Mythology of Sex," Sarah Dening, MacMillan Co, NY, NY, pg 22-23] (This procedure is done with a razor blade normally).

NATIVE AMERICAN: "Eighteenth-century explorers reported [of Canadian Indian tribes] that it was customary for a man to acquire a wife by exhibiting skill in wrestling. ...It was considered quite normal for a man who was a good enough wrestler to take another's wife, the woman being given no choice except to submit." ("The Mythology of Sex," Sarah Dening, MacMillan Co, NY, NY, pg 34)

INUIT: "One of the better-known Eskimo customs was that of wife-lending, whereby a man would offer his wife for a night to a total stranger and sometimes to a friend or arelative for longer periods. ...Another widespread custom was that of two brothers sharing one wife. Often a younger brother would simply move in with an older married one." ("The Mythology of Sex," Sarah Dening, MacMillan Co, NY, NY, pg 35]

NATIVE SO. AMERICAN: " A Yanomamo [South American Indian tribe] woman is expected to respond to her husband's needs even before he has told her what he wants. If she is slow to prepare a meal, he has the right to beat her. It is not unusual for a man to inflict serious injuries on his wife, using a machete or an axe, or deliberately burning her. The women accept this treatment and some even see frequent beatings as a mark of their husband's affections." ("The Mythology of Sex," Sarah Dening, MacMillan Co, NY, NY, pg 38)

"It must be recognized that in Jesus' day almost any association with a woman outside one's immediate family was frowned upon. The Babylonian Talmud has a story of the Galilean Rabbi Yose being scolded for merely asking a woman the way to Lydda: 'You stupid Galilean, have the Sages not commanded "do not engage in a lengthy conversation with a woman!"" ('Erubin 93; cited in "Jesus: the Evidence," p.94, Ian Wilson, Harper & Row, 1988)

"Yet had someone wholly invented the resurrection story one might have expected them to do so more convincingly than, for instance, representing women as the prime witnesses, when women's testimony carried a particularly low weight in Jewish law." ("Jesus: the Evidence," p.139, Ian Wilson, Harper & Row, 1988)

"You...say that we talk nonsense among women and boys, among maidens and old women, and scoff at us for not being with you." (Origen, Contra Celsum 3.55, cf. Tatian Oratio 33; cited by Stephen Benko, "Pagan Rome and the Early Christians," BT Batsford Ltd, London, 1984, p 161)

"Consider the following illustration... The only way to have chicken pox is to catch the virus that causes it. Once you are infected, you will break out in an itchy, bumpy rash... You cannot give yourself chicken pox by making yourself break out (say, by eating something to which you are allergic). If you do have the virus, you had better also have the bumps on your skin if you expect anyone to believe that you have the disease. Thus, once you have salvation through the 'virus' of faith, you should break out into the 'rash' of good works. Good works cannot 'infect' you with salvation, but once you have the 'disease,' you should show the 'symptoms' of a righteous life." (Winfried Corduan, No Doubt About It, Broadman & Holman, 1997, p246-247)

30-100 AD CLEMENT OF ROME: "[We] are not justified by ourselves. Nor by our own wisdom, understanding, godliness, or works done in holiness of heart. But by that faith through which Almighty God has justified all men since the beginning." (Clement of Rome Corinthians chap. 32)

69-156 AD POLYCARP: "Many desire to enter into this joy, knowing that 'by grace you are saved, not of works,' but by the will of God through Jesus Christ [Eph. 2:8]." (Polycarp Philippians chap. 1)

125 AD BARNABAS: "To this end the Lord delivered up His flesh to corruption, that we might be sanctified through the remission of sins, which is effected by His blood." (Barnabas Letter chap 5)

110-165AD JUSTIN MARTYR: "Our suffering and crucified Christ was not cursed by the law. Rather, he made it manifest that He alone would save those who do not depart from His faith.... As the blood of the passover saved those who were in Egypt, so also the blood of Christ will deliver from death those who have believed." (Justin Trypho chap. 111)

185-255 AD ORIGEN: "One of the doctrines included in the teaching of the Church is that there is a just judgment of God. This fact incites those who believe it to live virtuously and to shun sin. They acknowledge that the things worthy of praise and blame are within our own power. ... It is our responsibility to live righteously. God asks this of us, not as though it were dependent on Him, nor on any other, or upon fate (as some think), but as being dependent on us. The prophet Micah demonstrated this when he said, 'It has been announced to you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To do justice and to love mercy' [Mic. 6:8]. Moses also said, 'I have set before you the way of life, and the way of death. Choose what is good and walk in it' [Deut. 30: 15]. ... "Notice how Paul also speaks to us with the understanding that we have freedom of the will and that we ourselves are the cause of our own ruin or our salvation. He says, 'Do you show contempt for the riches of His goodness, patience, and longsuffering, not realizing that God's goodness leads you towards repentance? But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are treasuring up wrath against yourself for the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. God will render to each one according to his works. To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are contentious and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be anger, wrath and tribulation.' [Rom. 2:4­8]. ... "But certain statements in the Old and New Testaments might lead to the opposite conclusion: That it does not depend on us to keep the commandments and be saved. Or to transgress them and to be lost. So let's examine them one by one. ... "First, the statements concerning Pharaoh have troubled many. God declared several times, 'I will harden Pharaoh's heart' [Exod. 4:21]. Of course, if Pharaoh was hardened by God and sinned as a result of being hardened, he was not the cause of his own sin. So he did not possess free will. ... "Along with this passage, let's also look at the passage in Paul: 'But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall the thing formed say to Him who formed it, 'Why have you made me like this?' Does the potter not have power over the clay-from the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?' [Rom. 9:20,21]. ... "Since we consider God to be both good and just, let's see how the good and just God could harden the heart of Pharaoh. Perhaps by an illustration used by the apostle in the Epistle to the Hebrews, we can show that, by the same operation, God can show mercy to one man while he hardens another, although not intending to harden. 'The ground,' he says, 'drinks in the rain that falls upon it and produces crops for the farmer, being blessed by God. But the ground that produces thorns and briers is worthless, and is in danger of being cursed. Its end is to be burned' [Heb. 6:7,8]. ... "It may seem strange for Him who produces rain to say, 'I produced both the fruit and the thorns from the earth.' Yet, although strange, it is true. If the rain had not fallen, there would have been neither fruit nor thorns. The blessing of the rain, therefore, fell even on the unproductive land. But since it was neglected and uncultivated, it produced thorns and thistles. In the same way, the wonderful acts of God are like the rain. The differing results are like the cultivated and the neglected land. ... "The acts of God are also like the sun, which could say, 'I both soften and harden.' Although these two actions are opposite, the sun would not speak falsely, because the same heat both softens wax and hardens mud. Similarly, on the one hand, the miracles performed through Moses hardened Pharaoh because of his own wickedness. But they softened the mixed Egyptian multitude, who left Egypt with the Hebrews. ... "Let's look at another passage: 'So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him that runs, but of God who shows mercy' [Rom. 9:16]. Paul is not denying that something also has to be done by human means. But he gratefully refers the benefit to God, who brings it to completion. The mere human desire is insufficient to attain the end. The mere running does not in itself enable athletes to gain the prize. Nor does it enable Christians to obtain the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Those things are only accomplished with the assistance of God. ... "As if speaking about farming, Paul says, 'I planted, Apollos watered, and God made it grow. So then neither is he who plants anything, nor he that waters, but God, who made it grow' [1 Cor. 3:6,7]. Now we could not correctly say that the growing of crops is the work of the farmer alone. Nor of the one who irrigates. It is ultimately the work of God. Likewise, it is not as though we ourselves play no role in our spiritual growth to perfection. Yet, it is not completed by us, for God produces the greater part of it. So also with our salvation. What God does is infinitely greater than what we do." (Origen First Things bk. 3. chap 1. Paraphrased and abridged)

190 AD CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: "It follows that there is one unchangeable gift of salvation given by one God, through one Lord, benefiting in many ways." (Clement Miscellanies bk. 6, chap. 13)

190 AD CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: "Abraham was not justified by works, but by faith [Rom. 4:3]. Therefore, even if they do good works now, it is of no advantage to them after death, if they do not have faith." (Clement Miscellanies bk. 1, chap. 7)

Even John D. Rockefeller, in all his massive wealth, once spoke of his life and trying to survive through economic depressions. He said, "...We came through it. You know how often I had not an unbroken night's sleep, worrying about how it was all coming out. All the fortune I have made has not served to compensate for the anxiety of that period. Work by day and worry by night, week in and week out, month after month." -(Facts from "Legends, Lies & Cherished Myths of American History," Richard Shenkman, 1988, Wm. Morrow & Co., NY)

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