Personal Stuff Related to Mark Roth

So who is this Mark Roth character anyway? Well . . .

I am a friendly sort of chap who likes to read, talk and write. I try to be a wonderful, dedicated husband who dearly loves my wife Ruby. (For somebody else's perspective, click here.)

I was born on September 22, 1959 (in McMinnville, Oregon, USA) to James and Noreen Roth (who had been married some 15 months by then). Late that year yet, or else early in 1960, whenever it was that I was six weeks old, my folks and I moved to Mexico. They had been sent there as missionaries by the Mission Board of Pacific Coast Conference.

My sister Karen was born on December 3, 1964 (in Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, Mexico). Although my folks and I eventually received immigrant status, Karen was a full-blown Mexican citizen from the start! For the 1974-75 school year (my sophomore year), my folks allowed me to live in Oregon with former missionary colleagues, the Maynard Headings family. This was so I could attend Elliott Prairie Christian School near Woodburn. I returned home to Mexico the summer of '75; that fall I resumed my "career" as a correspondence student. In July of 1976, our family left the mission field to return to Oregon.

In 1977, Ruby Yoder and I graduated as the only seniors of Elliott Prairie Christian School. I don't recall ever asking her for a date as such...we just had class reunions...on a very frequent basis. Our determination not to marry too young, combined with the 70-mile geographical separation, helped us wait to marry till August 1, 1980.

We celebrated our first anniversary at the Sheraton Hotel in Guadalajara, Mexico. You see, we were stranded there...waiting for the next train to take us on to Mexico City. We were part of a three-family team from Hopewell Mennonite Church that had volunteered to serve under Bible Mennonite Fellowship in the establishment of a new mission in northwest Mexico.

God has generously blessed us with five children. LaVay was born in Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico; the others in Silverton, Oregon. Also among God's generous blessings to us are a daughter-in-law, a son-in-law, a two grandchildren.

After the 2002-2003 school year I retired from service at Elliott Prairie Christian School as principal and high school teacher. That was my twelveth year serving at this school on a day-to-day basis; I also served several years as the part-time principal. In the course of that time, I have churned out a few letters to parents, some of which just might be of interest to you:

• Alarm: Handy Pornography!
• Seeing Your Child's Worth
• Christian Citizenship

I also serve our congregation as board chairman of Hope Mennonite Missions and board secretary of Elliott Prairie Christian School.

Since 1991 I have done quite a bit of writing.

In addition to this site, I have some other Web projects that come under the umbrella of the Anabaptists Web Project:

• God's Post
• Panting Hart
• Ciervo Bramante
• Mark's Views, Perhaps
• Anabaptist Bookstore
• Rod & Staff Publishers
• Christian Light Education
• Mennonite Sewing Service

In addition to what we state in our congregation's Statement of Faith, here are some of the other things

• Jehovah and Jesus are names for the same Person.
  
• Christians should not use carnal force in human relationships, not even on the battle field.
• At the very least, homosexual behavior is sin and abhorrent before God.
  
• Christians have no business in earthly politics--voting, running for office, endorsing candidates, debating political issues, protesting, signing petitions, (in most cases, even) writing letters.
  
• Life begins at conception.
  
• Abortion is murder.
  
• Scientific fooling with the process of human conception, while fascinating, opens too many ethical-moral dilemmas in too many scenarios.
  
• Capital punishment is the State's God-given responsibility.
  
• Capital punishment is primarily intended to be punishment for the individual criminal, as well as a crime deterrent to protect society from the specific individual. Deterrence beyond that is a bonus to society.
  
• The evidence of our salvation is Godly fruit.
  
• Our peace witness is to individuals, not to the State and not to corporations.
  
• The church is failing in preserving the holy separation from the world required to maintain her friendship with the Father.
  
• Riches (ie, material possessions exceeding the needful as defined by Scripture) are deceitful and unrighteous.
  
• Divorce is always wrong; divorce and remarriage is always adultery.
  
• Women lose much of their glory when they cut their hair.
  
• Men (ie, human males) by and large are abdicating their privilege and responsibility to reflect God's character.
  
• God's glory is obscured when men abdicate their responsibility, and when women uncover their hair.
  
• God created the world and its "contents" in six solar days.

I use WordPerfect 6.0 DOS and have put together a collection of macros containing some I devised for my own use. It includes a birthday announcer, a quote generator, attribute changers for existing words, a word transposer, a date inserter, a time inserter, a bullet inserter, a fraction inserter and creator, a case changer, a passive verb marker, and a memo creator. Other macros will number lines with text, renumber existing numbered lines, convert number-marked lines to letter-marked lines, and help create matching-type questions. Also included in the ZIP file are the following to help facilitate the use of Masterful Macros: a WordPerfect keyboard, a button bar, and a macro with the other macros chained into it.

The Internet is a wonderful "place" and a super-handy medium of communication. And all the resources that are available on it!! Much of what can be found would fall in the amoral category. However, we all know that the enemy of mankind continues to introduce monstrous amounts of immoral and evil stuff. So I decided to join those in the service of the King of Kings who are striving to make available material which is moral, safe, healthful and edifying.

I certainly do not make a wholesale recommendation that God's people go on-line. And those that are on-line I encourage to faithfulness. In our home congregation, some of us modem-ites have signed the following covenant (a totally personal, non-congregational move):

I purpose before God and my Brothers to never use my modem to intentionally download or view any file (text or graphic) that is sexual, pornographic, obscene, immoral and/or lustful in nature. I also purpose to avoid newsgroups and mailing lists which disseminate similar material. By signing this covenant of Brotherhood accountability, I give my co-signing Brothers the privilege and responsibility of checking up on my faithfulness in this area.