{"id":4567,"date":"2013-09-05T07:42:25","date_gmt":"2013-09-05T07:42:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/?p=4567"},"modified":"2016-01-07T09:14:10","modified_gmt":"2016-01-07T09:14:10","slug":"taking-a-stand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/50plus\/taking-a-stand\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking a Stand"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Do you find it easier or harder to take a stand as you become older? Should we become more accommodating, more understanding or more bold in our faith?<\/p>\n<p>I was a member of an industry-networking group. The demographic of the group was 50-plus, male and all were professional and some very highly respected in their particular areas of expertise. The group met for splendid lunches in cozy surroundings, lubricated with good wines and spirits. I enjoyed their company very much and was sad to leave. Who wouldn\u2019t be?<\/p>\n<p>My departure was prompted by the gratuitous email circulation of pornographic images. Oh, for electronic modesty covers! I was surprised that they were surprised at my polite request to stop circulating erotic images among the members or at least to me.<\/p>\n<p>Naturally, the courage to take a stand was faith based. They knew I was a Christian but my faith wouldn\u2019t have been persuasive for them, so I protested that my company had a policy on such images. Then, when it was suggested that I use my home email I replied that not only did I not want these images on my work computer I also did not want them on my home PC; especially where my wife and children sharing the same desktop would be exposed to these degrading images arriving in my Inbox.<\/p>\n<p>The silent majority was just that: silent. At one end of the spectrum some openly mocked my concern and at the other end, some told me privately they respected my position. But when good men are silent, evil triumphs. I don\u2019t regret the stand but I miss the lunches! Maybe I should have hated the sin but loved the sinners more?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">&#8220;Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers&#8221; Psalm 1:1<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div class=\"linkwithin_hook\" id=\"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/50plus\/taking-a-stand\/\"><\/div><script>\n<!-- \/\/LinkWithinCodeStart\nvar linkwithin_site_id = 897245;\nvar linkwithin_div_class = \"linkwithin_hook\";\n\/\/LinkWithinCodeEnd -->\n<\/script>\n<script src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/widget.js\"><\/script>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.linkwithin.com\/pixel.png?w=750\" alt=\"Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...\" style=\"border: 0\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Do you find it easier or harder to take a stand as you become older? Should we become more accommodating, more understanding or more bold in our faith? I was a member of an industry-networking group. The demographic of the group was 50-plus, male and all were professional and some very highly respected in their [&hellip;]<\/p>\n<script>\n<!-- \/\/LinkWithinCodeStart\nvar linkwithin_site_id = 897245;\nvar linkwithin_div_class = \"linkwithin_hook\";\n\/\/LinkWithinCodeEnd -->\n<\/script>\n<script src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/widget.js\"><\/script>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/pixel.png\" alt=\"Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...\" style=\"border: 0\" \/><\/a>","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":5895,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[319],"tags":[323,25,439,437],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/CVM-50plus-blog-640x360.jpg?fit=640%2C360&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7PoLK-1bF","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7013,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/thoughts-from-the-cvm-team\/stand-up-step-out-and-saddle-up\/","url_meta":{"origin":4567,"position":0},"title":"Stand Up, Step Out and Saddle Up","date":"31 May 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I came across this quote from John Wayne the other day and it really got me thinking. \u201cCourage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway!\u201d For some of us the thought of evangelising to our mates or work colleagues can scare us to death. What will they think\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Team CVM&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/stand-up.jpg?fit=565%2C350&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8749,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/thoughts-from-the-cvm-team\/courageous\/","url_meta":{"origin":4567,"position":1},"title":"COURAGEOUS","date":"26 February 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"For me I love nothing better than settling down to watch a movie to relax, there are so many wonderful movies, and yes, I know there are many not so good. As a man, we do tend to like the more action type of movies, war movies, dramatic battles scenes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Team CVM&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/sport-climber-1428917-638x380.jpg?fit=638%2C381&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2540,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/50plus\/standing-firm\/","url_meta":{"origin":4567,"position":2},"title":"Standing Firm","date":"17 May 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"What should our response be when we come under fire spiritually? The Bible is clear, we are simply to \u2018Stand Firm\u2019. For many of us the reaction is to retaliate. But the Bible teaches us that retaliation is not what God wants. Jesus who was so tempted did not retaliate,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;50 Plus&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/CVM-50plus-blog-640x360.jpg?fit=640%2C360&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1978,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/50plus\/what-it-says-on-the-tin\/","url_meta":{"origin":4567,"position":3},"title":"What it says on the tin","date":"8 December 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The winner of the Yorkie Bar prize for naming the CVM '50 plus group' was Keith Harper from the Netherlands ... he wisely suggested that we keep it as it is - 50 Plus - \"it does exactly what it says on the tin\" Our thanks to Roger Leitch, Mike\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;50 Plus&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/CVM-50plus-blog-640x360.jpg?fit=640%2C360&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2520,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/50plus\/my-ultimate-spiritual-goal-is\/","url_meta":{"origin":4567,"position":4},"title":"My ultimate spiritual goal is &#8230; ?","date":"3 May 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"As we live in a world where Twitter has restricted information to 140 characters, we thought it would be interesting to apply this format to a list of 'Ultimate Spiritual Goals' We would like to make an anonymous list of these 'tweets' to show the variety of our goals in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;50 Plus&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/CVM-50plus-blog-640x360.jpg?fit=640%2C360&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3782,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/50plus\/standing-alongside-our-brothers\/","url_meta":{"origin":4567,"position":5},"title":"Standing Alongside Our Brothers","date":"18 April 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 It is often easy to stand alongside our brothers at a football match, or at the bar, or on a healthy hike. These are good \u201cblokey\u201d things to do. They feed our sense of worth, appeal to our desire to be seen to be \u201cmanly\u201d \u2013 and they are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;50 Plus&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/CVM-50plus-blog-640x360.jpg?fit=640%2C360&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4567"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4567"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6661,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4567\/revisions\/6661"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}