Wednesday, June 9, 2021
This Is Why Adultery Is Harmful
A man who commits adultery lacks judgment; whoever does so destroys himself. Proverbs 6:32
When I asked the Episcopal Bishop of Liberia what was the greatest problem facing families in his country, he immediately responded: “Unfaithfulness in marriage, in at least 90% of our homes.” The bishop gave me a straightforward answer untainted with excuses or justification. He could well have said, “You know, we really can’t help what’s happening here ‑‑ it’s our culture!” Or he could have told me, “Our problems here are the result of the media and the role models which have been imported. The rest of the world is destroying us here!”
He faced the issue head on as he acknowledged that unfaithfulness in marriage was destroying the family unit. No group of people, however, has a corner on the “scarlet sin” of adultery, as writer Nathaniel Hawthorne described it years ago. It’s the problem of every race, culture, and group of people in the world. From the mansions of the great to the humble cottages of the poor, unfaithfulness in marriage destroys relationships and condemns our homes to destruction.
Is it any wonder that the writer of Proverbs, probably King Solomon, who learned a lot about women and relationships the hard way, wrote, “Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned? Can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being scorched? So, is he who sleeps with another man’s wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished. A man who commits adultery lacks judgment …” (Proverbs 6:27‑32). He destroys himself, says Solomon, and he destroys his family at the same time.
How destructive is adultery today? The fallout from affairs is not as much fun as the fling,” said Sandra Leiblum, when director of the Center for Sexual and Relational Health at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in Piscataway, N.J. “When affairs come to light, the damage to the relationship is quite substantial. It can take months and even years to lessen the toxic effect of disbelief, anger, hurt and betrayal and even then it’s not totally gone. And once you satisfy the itch, it recurs,” Lieblum said.
According to the Associated Press Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, only 31% of marriages last after an affair has been discovered or admitted.[1] No matter how free or progressive we think we may be, sharing a spouse with another is more than most people can handle.
Interested in knowing how God views adultery? “You shall not commit adultery,” He wrote as the seventh commandment. He hates it. Infidelity alters both human relationships and the relationship between the adulterer and God Himself. “But you say, ‘Why does he not?’ [accept my worship] Because the LORD was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant” (Malachi 2:14 ESV). God “places the lonely in families,” Psalm 68:6 explains. He wanted much more for us than to just leave our neighbor’s spouse alone! He made us. He knows human nature far better than we do ourselves, and He knows adultery destroys people and destroys families, the safe place He designed for people to flourish.
With a changing culture and society, our moral values have changed, but God’s view of adultery has never changed. If you’re tempted, if your coworker seems so much more understanding or exciting than your spouse, if you’re in a marriage that has gone stale–get help. Remember, it destroys relationships.
Resource reading: Proverbs 6:20-35.
[1] “Infidelity Statistics.” Statistics Brain. September 7, 2016. Accessed April 18, 2017. http://www.statisticbrain.com/infidelity-statistics/.
https://www.guidelines.org/devotional/this-is-why-adultery-is-harmful/
Vietnam to postpone SEA Games until next year, says state media
HANOI -- Vietnam plans to postpone this year's Southeast Asian Games, state media said Wednesday, as the country grapples with a new virus outbreak.
The regional Olympics are due to be held in Hanoi and 11 other locations -- some of them at the epicentre of the fresh Covid-19 wave -- from November 21 to December 2.
But Vietnam reportedly wants to move the 31st SEA Games to next year.
"The Vietnam Olympics Committee, the host for 31st SEA Games , has sent a letter to countries informing them of its proposal to postpone 31st SEA Games to July 2022 due to the complicated situation of the Covid-19 pandemic," according to Phap Luat Online.
The SEA Games Council, based in Bangkok, will meet Wednesday to make a decision, it added.
The Vietnam Olympics Committee confirmed to AFP that a meeting would take place Wednesday.
Virus cases have more than tripled in Vietnam since April to over 9,000. Although the number is low in comparison to most of its Southeast Asian neighbours, Vietnam's vaccination rate per capita is the lowest in the region and among the lowest in Asia, according to an AFP tally.
SEA Games events are due to take place in some of the worst affected provinces including Bac Ninh and Bac Giang, in the country's northeast.
One badminton venue in Bac Giang has been turned into a field hospital.
Vietnam previously hosted the multisports competition in 2003. It has allocated a budget of around $69 million for the Games.
The SEA Games are expected to attract nearly 20,000 participants, including about 7,000 athletes, from 11 countries, according to state media.
As well as Olympic disciplines, sports are likely to include billiards and snooker, bodybuilding, chess, bowling and kurash, an ancient form of Uzbek wrestling.
Golf: Rory McIlroy commits to return to Irish Open
Four-time major champion Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland has committed to play in the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open in July, along with three fellow golfing stars of the Emerald Isle -- Shane Lowry, Padraig Harrington and Graeme McDowell.
"I am really excited to get back and play the Irish Open," McIlroy told the BBC.
"I have so many incredible memories of this event down the years, not least my victory in 2016, and I think it is going to be a pretty special week this July with the fans returning. I'm really excited to play in front of them again."
McIlroy won the Irish Open in 2016 and served as the event's host from 2015-18, but hasn't played it since 2018.
In 2019 he upset some in his native land by skipping the Irish Open because it was one week before the Open Championship, and he wanted a week's rest to prepare for the major.
He committed to return to the event in 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic paused all sports and forced golf tours to reshuffle their calendars. The Irish Open was moved to late September, and McIlroy backed out after playing a partial season entirely in North America.
This year's Irish Open takes place July 1-4 -- two weeks before the Open Championship -- at Mount Juliet Hotel & Golf Course in County Kilkenny.
With McIlroy (No. 10 in the Official World Golf Ranking), Ireland's Lowry (No. 40) and Harrington (No. 148), and McDowell of Northern Ireland (No. 154), the event secured the four highest-ranked golfers from the two nations.
https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/06/09/21/golf-rory-mcilroy-commits-to-return-to-irish-open
Amid postponement talk, SEA Games must go on, says PH Olympic body head
Manolo Pedralvez
Together with several other participating nations, the Philippines will decline the plan by Vietnam to postpone the 31st Southeast Asian Games opening in Hanoi in November during the SEA Games Federation Council virtual meeting on Wednesday.
“Together with the other SEA Games countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and others we have agreed to disagree with the Vietnamese proposal to postpone the SEA Games” Philippine Olympic Committee president and Tagaytay Rep. Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino announced Tuesday during the POC general assembly meeting.
“This will be our united stand during our meeting (of the SEA Games Federation) tomorrow,” Tolentino told the members of the local Olympic body who were present at the East Ocean Restaurant in Paranaque as well those who attended the affair online.
“Wala pong official announcement regarding the postponement of the SEA Games,” the POC chief stressed after several news reports outside the country said that that Vietnam was keen on delaying the SEA Games set November 21 to December 2 in Hanoi arising from the spike of COVID-19 cases there.
Quoting an unidentified source, T. Vignesh of the Malaysian news website thevibes.com reported Monday that the “SEA Games in Hanoi is off.”
“They (the Vietnamese SEAG organizers) have written to all the NOCs about the postponement and on June 9, they will have a virtual meeting to elaborate more on the matter,” the anonymous source told the writer.
“A new date has not been decided yet, but I believe that it will be updated at the meeting,” the source added.
The report bared that Vietnam wanted to reschedule the hosting of the regional meet it was staging for the second time after 18 years to March 2022.
The planned postponement of the SEA Games was also reported last Monday on its website by the widely circulated and well respected Singapore Straits Times.
“The 31st SEA Games, which is scheduled to take place from Nov 21 through Dec 2 in Hanoi, looks set to be postponed due to the rising COVID-19 cases in Vietnam and Southeast Asia,” said the report filed by Sazali Abdul Aziz.
Ahead of the SEAG Federation virtual meeting, Tolentino bared that the Vietnam SEAG Organizing Committee sent a survey form to all the 11 SEA members with the lone question on “whether you want to postpone the SEA Games or not.” The two boxes that were to be ticked were “Agree” or “Disagree,” he said.
The reply to the survey was to be submitted before the meeting, according to Tolentino, who played a key role in the highly successful staging of the 30th SEA Games in the Philippines two years ago.
The event featured a staggering 56 sports and 530 events, the biggest number yet in both categories, and drew nearly 10,000 athletes and officials.
Filipino campaigners capitalized on the hometown edge to the hilt, garnering 149 gold, 117 silver and 121 bronze medals on the way to capturing the overall championship.
“Ang ibig pong sabihin natin ay hindi po kami papayag na ma-postpone ang SEA Games (What it means is that we will not agree to the postponement of the SEA Games),” Tolentino said after his consultations with other regional sports officials.
In taking a common stand, the POC honcho cited several reasons why rescheduling the Games was ill-advised.
“One of them is the fact that the budget for the training and participation for the SEA Games has already been set. Mahirap pong baguhin iyon (This cannot be changed),” noted Tolentino.
Without elaborating, he acknowledged the fact that the country’s build-up and participation in the biennial meet was funded by the Philippine Sport Commission, which allots and approves the budgets for these international competitions.
Tolentino said that postponing the SEA Games would be demoralizing for the national athletes from the 11 competing countries “who have already sacrificed their time and effort to compete in Hanoi,”
He likewise mentioned that there were other huge international competitions in 2022 such as the Asian Games, Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games, Winter Olympic Games and the Commonwealth Games, which would make it nearly impossible to insert the SEA Games into the busy schedule.
“Singapore and Malaysia consider the Commonwealth Games to be bigger than the SEA Games while Cambodia is against the postponement since they have already begun preparing for the hosting of the event in 2023,” Tolentino pointed out.
Nuggets star big man Nikola Jokic named NBA MVP
Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic won the 2020-21 NBA Most Valuable Player award, The Athletic reported Tuesday.
Jokic started all 72 games for the Nuggets and averaged 26.4 points, 10.8 rebounds and 8.3 assists per contest -- all setting or matching career highs. The Serbian shot 56.6 percent from the floor, including 38.8 percent from 3-point range, and made 86.8 percent of his free throws.
Denver finished third in the Western Conference at 47-25 and began its Western Conference semifinal series against the Phoenix Suns on Monday with a 122-105 loss. The Nuggets eliminated the Portland Trail Blazers in the first round in six games.
Jokic is averaging 31.4 points and 10.3 rebounds through seven postseason contests. He is the first Denver player to win the NBA MVP award.
Perhaps the biggest indicator of Jokic's MVP status was how the Nuggets fared when star guard Jamal Murray went down for the season with an ACL tear on April 12. With Jokic carrying the team, the Nuggets finished 13-5 down the stretch to secure the No. 3 seed.
The other MVP finalists are Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid and Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry. Official voting results have not yet been released by the NBA.
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