I’m working on a book called How to Think. It is in rough draft form right now (set to release 2010), but I have to give you a sneak peak on a chapter where I attempt to expose one of the biggest frauds in our modern times. Considering late-breaking news, you’ll catch on to what it is. Enjoy.

Academic policy debate students freely use the term “status quo” as if it is a common table-talk term. It isn’t any longer, but the meaning of the term is quite fascinating. Debaters are tasked to run cases that challenge the status quo and promote a change to its policies. Negative teams are tasked with attacking the affirmative’s propositions and, essentially, defend the status quo. All in all, the activity teaches students to never presume that the way things are done currently–or what is necessarily believed to be truth–is actually the best policy.

So engrained in our media today is, what I believe, to be a huge hoax, one that millions of people (many whom are in control of our world governments) believe without one shred of doubt. It is an all-out fraud, nearly cult-like, and challengers to this status quo form of thinking are branded “deniers” of what appears so obviously clear.

Global warming is this fraud, and it resembles a religious frenzy more than a scientific theory it claims to be. Several readers of this book may frown on my choice of what to call a fraud (couldn’t I pick on Wall Street greed or the years of the Bush administration?). Please, hear me out. It usually doesn’t take me long to put a Global Warming activist on the defensive, and if these folks are serious with themselves, they typically start doubting what they have always been told was the truth.

I remember being taught in the 7th grade that the world, in fact, was cooling. Come to think of it, I was taught that glaciers were on their way to overcoming the northern hemisphere and would greatly impact my way of life. The earth was on its way to freezing over.

This wasn’t the only farce that came through disguised as educated science. I was also told that the lakes of the Upper Midwest and Canada were all acidifying due to the irresponsible pollution of industries. The claims were profound, too, making sure my small preschool brain was fearful of the harmful effects of pollution. Today, Minnesota and Canada have the best bass fishing in the world.

Every decade seems to go through their scary doom-and-gloom tactics. In the 90s, the tropical rain forests were on the course for destruction, and the entire West was to be obliterated into desert wasteland as a result. Today the jungles of Brazil are just as thick as ever. Who can forget the evils of Y2K? Be honest, some of you still have wax candles in the basement leftover from your stockpiling preparation of certain disaster. For the past several years, every flu outbreak has a predicted course of wiping out one-fifth of the world’s population. It never does.

The thinker should push against any theory, idea, or even apparent scientific finding that struts its arrogance around posing as fearmonger. This is the element consistent with all of these doom-and-gloom scenarios: fear. Fear and change, that is, usually change that involves money to invest, lives to change, and a change in power. Fear is a tool to control the masses, and it is precisely what is evident in the Global Warming movement.

Remember, these are the “scientific community” that Al Gore touts is in consensus! One of the most revealing comments about the Global Warming movement came from Al Gore when he was promoting his 2004 movie, An Inconvient Truth. In response to some who were doubting his findings in the movie, he responded, “There is no debate.”

There is no debate? You mean, there is no room for discussion or questioning or doubting? That is exactly what he meant, and most of the Global Warming advocates are taking this stance a bit further. There is concerted effort to mock those scientists who have questions Gore’s claims as “deniers” failing to honestly accept the “fact” that global warming exists. They’re made to look like crazy Chicken Little, when Chicken Little resembles these scientists more accurately.

Even when these Global Warming activists choose to debate, their reasoning is squirrelly. There is an uneasy umbrella of reasons–anything, really, that goes on in the climate–is now explained away with a simple word change. Instead of Global Warming occuring (they’re slowly admitting that such showings are infitesmal and, perhaps, non-existant), they are claiming “Climate Change.” How convenient of a position. Just a few years ago we were at most certain doom of rising ocean levels and heatstroke, but today we are faced with global cooling patterns that are just as bad.

This isn’t science.

Looks like a good book, eh? I had tried to publish this in ‘09, but time got sucked up with all sorts of other projects. I hope to wrap this up early in ‘10.

Other great reading on ClimateGate, being touted as the largest scientific cover-up in modern times. If you haven’t heard about it, it is likely because major news stations are sitting on the story. The news is incredible.

• Do Smoking Guns Cause Global Warming, Too?
• Science Is Dying
• Blue Book Report covers the story that the rest of the media doesn’t

Photo by Rick Wilking. Copyright (c) 2009 Reuters. Used with permission.

Some words come loaded with connotation. I think of deep words like Christian or love: the words themselves seldom do the meanings justice. They are better understood by observing–by showing, not telling. “Quiverfull” is one of these words.

It is no surprise that shows like TLC’s John & Kate Plus 8 and the Dugger Family Show have done so well. Viewers are allowed a glimpse into the quiverfull life, to observe the claims in action.

We finished our Reuters and CBS interviews last week. The picture above was taken by Rick Wilking who will also be doing the article on what it means to be “quiverfull” (view slideshow here) CBS plans to have a show (maybe even a few shows), the Jeubs being one of the families featured.

These two media opportunities attempt to answer the question: What does “quiverfull” mean? I suppose a show is much better than an essay, but the question still deserves a rhetorical answer. This article will attempt to explain the quiverfull idea, at least what it means for the Jeubs. Read the rest of this entry »

Michael Jackson

I can’t say we were ever big fans of Michael Jackson, even in his glory years growing up. We enjoyed Weird Al Yankavich’s renditions of “Bad” and “Beat It” more than the actual songs Jackson put out. Having him pass brings to mind what a following he had, and what a fanatical presence he had in our generation. The generation of most parents today.

We spoke at the Christian Home Educators of Colorado a week ago on two topics. The first was our regular “Cheaper by the Dozen” talk on how to be frugal and fruitful. That talk was rehearsed, interesting, fun. It was a safe talk.

The second talk was “Love in the House.” Sure, we wrote the book two years ago, but we had yet to speak in a formal public setting on the most important (in our opinion) issue facing families today: LOVE. Or the lack of it. We spoke for 60 minutes on two settings of love and how parents (especially those in the home school community) are failing to place love in the center of them: marriages and raising children.

There were some people sobbing through the talk. Like, uncontrollably sobbing. We emphasized the need (that’s NEED, not option) for married couples’ mutual submission to one another. We both spoke to parents and those children (everyone could relate) that “got under their skin.” Our talk reminded people that they had dreadful relational challenges in their lives. These are opportunities to let love in. In several situations, love is the only hope parents have.

But back to Michael Jackson, one of seven children. I haven’t been really into the media frenzy, but my daughter, Cynthia, suggested I read Rabbi Shmuley Boteach’s take (see his article here). I have enjoyed Shmuley’s writings (particularly his book Face Your Fear). Apparently he had a friendship with Michael Jackson and counseled him for several years. Shmuley quotes Michael Jackson:

“I think all my success and fame, and I have wanted it, I have wanted it because I wanted to be loved. That’s all. That’s the real truth. I wanted people to love me, truly love me, because I never really felt loved. I said I know I have an ability. Maybe if I sharpened my craft, maybe people will love me more. I just wanted to be loved…”

Michael Jackson now joins John Lennon as a deceased rock star who died singing about love yet never really knowing it. The number of critics crying foul over Jackson’s hypocrisy are stacked to the ceiling. They point at his molestation charges (not conviction), his obsession with his face, his addiction to prescription drugs. All of these things are ugly consequences of a life overwhelmed with worldly fame and fortune, but so empty of God’s love.

It would be too easy to condemn Michael Jackson for missing the mark on love, so don’t add me onto the list of stone-throwers. For a moment, hold your judgment and ask this question: “Are we singing about love?” Don’t blow this one off. LOVE IS IT, and if we’re not singing love—in all who we are and in all we do, especially in our marriages and in our families—the music we make in our lives are loud noises, just gongs and clanging cymbals (1 Corinthians 13:1).

This is heavy stuff, apparently the heavy stuff Shmuley claimed was the real problem with Michael Jackson. He had not love. Couples at CHEC shared with us their stuggles in their marriages and with their children. There were genuine tears of sorrow from several people who were met with the reality that their lives were absent of love.

We home-schoolers are real good at building up the image of our homes and flaunt about how great we are. Our kids excel far above the national average and are getting such better education than the common folk. Our talk on love was nicely placed (PTL) in one of the most popular home school conferences in the nation.

One of the more convicting parts of the talk was off-script:

“We entertain ourselves when we visit churches or their Web sites or their book stores. If love is truly the most excellent way as Scripture says, I wonder how many sermons are preached on love, or how many books on love they are selling. Most of the time there is not one. Our churches are speaking on a whole host of other things, but not on love.”

Perhaps…because of the church’s empty message of love, we are faced with a popular culture who cry out the for real thing.

The rock stars and Hollywood–twisted as their message may be–are attempting to articulate love. Churches treat love like window dressing, like feel-good fluff, expendable discussion points much less important than more meaty topics like theology, or truth, or you-fill-in-the-blank. Who is coming closer to hitting the mark?

Michael Jackson asked Shmuley the right question. He at least aimed at the right target. He did (at least at that point of his life) understand that love was “the most excellent way” (1 Corninthians 12:31), the Greatest Commandment, one where “all the laws of the prophets hang on these.”

So Wendy and I will keep preaching this message of love. It is overwhelming at times, feeling like we are mere students of love and of each other. But there are few message bearers out there that are singing of the most excellent way.

I rarely stay up till wee-hours in the morning reading a book, but I did so last night. At 1:30 a.m., I finished reading the final words in Clarence Thomas’ My Grandfather’s Son: A Memoir. This is a must-read for those of us who remember the Anita Hill Hearings and the national trial of 1991 when a conservative black man was appointed to the Supreme Court. Those of you who remember the portrayal of the He-said/She-said dispute by the media will find the behind-the-scenes final chapters irresistible page-turners.

There were a number of things that struck me about the life of Clarence Thomas that I hadn’t known. First, as the title points out, he was raised by his grandfather (his mother’s father) as his relationship with his biological father “ended at conception.” Before going to live with his grandfather, his life was as “southern black” as you can get, and his book recalls his daily chore of hauling the bucket of human waste out of the outhouse for the rest of the family. His childhood was extremely impoverished, his lifelong belongings fitting into a paper bag when he moved to his grandparent’s home. It was under his grandfather’s teaching (he and his brother called their grandfather “Daddy”) that Clarence learned the strong work ethic that made him the conservative he is today. Read the rest of this entry »

The Colorado Springs Gazette has published an article on our family and the TLC experience. You can click through and read the article–published this morning–here. It is a great article. Here are some of the good lines from it:

Read the rest of this entry »

When Wendy and I married, our family vehicle was a 1980 Chevette. It didn’t take long to grow into the 4-door sedan, then to a Toyota minivan, then to a 9-seat Suburban, and now to a 15-passenger van. Our vehicles have grown as our family has grown, but in 2004 we made the ultimate plunge: we bought a bus. Read the rest of this entry »

Tracy Chaplin, the producer of the upcoming mini-series Families by the Dozen, explained TLC as “returning to being a learning channel.” People want to learn about what it is like to be in a family like ours, to be a fly on the wall, to walk through a week with the Jeubs and observe daily occurrences that, similar to anyone, is unique with a dozen kids running around. Read the rest of this entry »

Large families face natural dilemmas, and we deal with them with innovation. We adapt – we buy larger vans, remodel to increase the number of bedrooms, carry on small businesses to make ends meet. Children are a blessing, not a burden, and God provides us with the ideas necessary to survive.

One dilemma is the birthday. Read the rest of this entry »

I suppose I wasn’t much different from a lot of 22-year-olds: If asked whether I was pro-life or pro-choice, I opted for “anti-abortion.” I had never been involved with an abortion in any way, yet I was unwilling to make a reasonable — let alone bold — statement either for or against the practice.

Still, like a lot of 22-year-olds, I had an opinion of a subject I knew little about.

That all changed when I experienced my first ultrasound. My wife Wendy was 15 weeks pregnant with our daughter, yet-to-be-named Cynthia. Read the rest of this entry »

My wife and I are about to welcome our tenth child into the world. We are the type of family that, upon entering a restaurant (on “Kids Eat Free” night), cause couples to request the booth farthest from us. Trying to find an empty pew on Sunday morning is a weekly trial. And while our 15-passenger van struggles to keep up with right-lane traffic, we have plenty of room in the far back end for friends to drop off bags of clothes.
We are a “large family” � a modern familial phenomenon that finds comfort in noisy homes, chaotic schedules and lots of little pattering feet. Or at least people assume we find comfort in those things. Read the rest of this entry »

Best known as the lead rapper in the successful multi-platinum group DC Talk, Toby McKeehan, nicknamed “tobyMac,” is also a songwriter, producer and businessman. On stage or behind the scenes he’s president of Gotee records, too�it seems everything tobyMac touches turns to gold. Commercial success aside, 37-year-old McKeehan shines brightest when he talks about his 3-and-a-half-year-old son, Truett. In fact, his first and only solo album, Momentum, features a number of snippets of his son. McKeehan spoke with Family.org about the joy his “True Blue” has brought to his life. Read the rest of this entry »

Phil Joel has enjoyed success in both his careers with Newsboys and his 2001 solo CD, Watching Over You. Five years into marriage, he and his wife, Heather, conceived their first child, Phynley, born October 15, 2000. Phil isn’t the only Newsboy to start a family, but his conviction and dedication as a father and husband is newsworthy. Read the rest of this entry »

Will McGinniss is perhaps best known as the bassist for the Christian rock group Audio Adrenaline, and his trademark healthy head of blond hair that never stops moving once Will begins to play.

While his stage life is quite contemporary, Will and his wife, Andrea, enjoy a more traditional home life. They had their first child in 1999 after four years of marriage. Will told Family.org about the joys of parenting, and he encouraged young couples to start families of their own. Read the rest of this entry »

You may have received our family picture in the mail a little late this year. We have been incredibly busy with and exciting year! Camping in the bus, horse camp, debate camp�we’re camping people. New kitten, new Chickens, trip to St. Louis, beaver dams, new businesses, church activities, and lots of double blessings. We’ve got a lot to cover in just one letter, so let me begin. Read the rest of this entry »

The Jeubs were expecting their 12th child, but low-and-behold: a bakers dozen was in their future. On October 23, 2005, the Jeubs welcomed Havilah Grace and Joshua Matthew into the world. Born almost two hours apart, here is their photo: Read the rest of this entry »