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Written by: Rex M. Rogers

Published: 17 March 2025

Have you ever been in debt and tried to climb out of it? It’s not for sissies.

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #196 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.

Not long ago, indeed in my lifetime, debt, especially what was called profligate living beyond one's means, was considered morally questionable or at least unwise. Families diligently attempted to avoid bad debt and to get out of debt. Amazingly, there was a time when even politicians worked to balance budgets.

Now, it seems, American culture not only tolerates but embraces debt. We think we are entitled to live our vision of the good life, or what we think society “owes” us. We want our cake and eat it too. We want, regardless of the cost to ourselves, our nation’s wellbeing, or our progeny.

We did not invent this suspect moral philosophy. It goes back to ancient civilizations. Yet as we’ve embraced the idea that one never has to pay the piper, we’ve conveniently forgotten that one of the reasons many of those ancient civilizations are “no more” is not a lack of natural resources nor absence of ingenuity, but their unwillingness to acknowledge basic economics. Many old empires crumbled under the weight of their own debt.

Interestingly, scripture never says debt is a sin, but it does strongly state that debt is dangerous: “The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender” (Prov. 22:7). Scripture also states that one is responsible for one’s debts: “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another” (Rom. 13:8). “The wicked borrow and do not repay, but the righteous give generously” (Ps 37:21).

I first spoke about debt in this podcast August 2022. At that time the U.S. National Debt had just surpassed $30 trillion for the first time ever. Now, the U.S. National Debt stands at $36.5 trillion. If you want to scare yourself, go to usdebtclock.org and look at the National Debt Clock. The debt does not really “stand.” It moves faster than you can count. In late 2025, the U.S. National Debt will reach 100% of the American GDP or Gross Domestic Product. Every day, the U.S. spends $2.6 billion in interest alone. "This amounts to over $106K per person in America."

We know what causes this debt: aging population, rising healthcare costs, higher interest rates, a tax system that does not bring in enough money to pay for what government promises citizens. But even more, its government spending wantonly on programs and initiatives offering little-to-no return on investment and not in the national interest. It is government largesse granted by both sides of the partisan aisle.

Recently, in a White House conversation with leaders of the Trump Administration, Elon Musk said, “Just the interest on the national debt now exceeds the Defense Department spending. We spend a lot on the Defense Department, but we're spending like $1 trillion on interest. If this continues, the country will go, become de facto bankrupt." What he is saying, and he is correct, is this trend is not sustainable.

“On November 12, (2024, President) Donald Trump announced…the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a newly created entity focused on reducing government expenditures, slashing regulations and enacting cost-cutting initiatives throughout the federal government.” DOGE has been working rapidly ever since, and as I write, has identified $105 billion in waste, fraud, or abuse, cutting programs and shutting down entire departments like USAID.

This kind of work—budget reduction, cost cutting, restructuring or re-engineering—is rare to the point of near-non-existent in government. Consequently, when you add political partisanship to the mix, this Trump Administration effort to put the U.S. on healthy financial footing has triggered scores of Chicken Littles running around saying, “The sky is falling.” And, it has made Elon Musk the new Hitlerian man to hate and at whom to level death threats, and a man accused of stealing, lying, and helping Trump destroy democracy.

Cal Thomas said it well: “Our problem is that too many Americans have become over-reliant on government to take care of them, while ignoring the old Puritan ethic of self-reliance. Politicians have been fine with this because it contributes to their careers and power. That attitude has contributed to our $36 trillion national debt and inflation, which the administration, with the help of Elon Musk and his DOGE squad, are trying to reduce.”

In business, there’s a job called “turnaround specialist.” This person, usually with a financial background, and usually not staying long in any one location or corporation, markets him or herself as the one who, when a company finds itself upside down and sinking fast financially, a corporate board appoints at the top with complete authority, charging the turnaround specialist with righting the corporate ship, with – hear this – saving the company. The turnaround specialist is not there to save jobs, not there to preserve traditions or honor the departed. The turnaround specialist is there to do what must be done inside the corporation to – hopefully – make it possible for the business to survive into the future.

This is not fun for the people who work there, in part because, generally speaking, 75% of an organization’s costs involve personnel, so if the turnaround specialist is going to make a dent in costs and debt, personnel jobs must be eliminated.

Years ago, when we lived near New York City and I was a newly appointed Vice President of Academic Affairs at a small college north of the city, I read about the renowned and redoubtable Macy’s department store, founded in 1858. Amazingly, this company known for its flagship store at Herald Square and for supporting the Thanksgiving Day Parade down Broadway, was on the rocks financially. Macy’s “filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on January 27, 1992, after which point its banks brought in a new management team, which shut several underperforming stores, jettisoned two-thirds of the luxury I. Magnin chain, and reduced Macy's to two divisions, Macy's East and Macy's West.”

That new management team included a “turnaround specialist.” I remember walking into our NY kitchen and saying to my wife, Sarah, “How would you like to be this guy’s wife?” People were booing, sneering, and whistling at the turnaround specialists’ spouse at the supermarket, and I believe there was even a case of slashed tires. In other words, while the specialist was very well paid, the public and many employees hated that guy. He did his job, rescued Macy’s, which thrives today, and then presumably he “got out of Dodge.”

When I served as president at Cornerstone University, we experienced a year like this in which, due to a drop in enrollment, we had to lay off several staff members. It was the hardest thing I was ever involved in as an administrative leader.

Be sure of this: it is not easy or pleasant to hear we have lost our job, and it is not easy or pleasant to inform someone they have lost their job. And unlike the turnaround specialist at a large corporation like Macy’s or DOGE in a massive U.S. government, I knew the people involved. It hurt. But to save the institution what we did had to be done. I remember the university Board saying to me later, “You’re young enough you’ll likely have to go through this again in your career.”

I thought, “Thanks a lot,” but I also discovered that four or five trustees had gone through layoffs in their company, two others had gone through this twice in their careers, and one, three times.

Recently, on a Fox news Bret Baier “Special Report” panel, panelist Jessica Tarlov challenged another panelist with “Well, how many people do you want to lay off?” She was trying to say that already, enough is enough, and the prospect of more federal employees being laid off was too great a hurt for her to imagine. She saw the exercise and she evaluated DOGE in terms of how many jobs would be saved. But this is not why DOGE exists.

Now again, it’s not easy or pleasant to lay people off. No one wants to do this, even turnaround specialists. But the goal here is not jobs, but how many dollars must be cut to reach a level of financial expenditure that gets the U.S. government budget to a sustainable level, where we know we’ve righted the ship? 

Losing a job is not fun. But it is not the end of the world. Losing a job is not capital punishment. A lot of us have experienced this somewhere along the way. And many who lose their federal jobs are being given significant severance, and they will find other jobs.

It’s much easier to spend money, to add to a budget deficit and a national debt, than it is to reduce spending and create a balanced budget and a workable national debt. Cutting will be unpleasant, but the goal is worth it.

It’s not unlike dieting. It’s easier to eat what we want and gain weight than it is to deny our desires and lose weight.

The national debt looms. It’s like a ticking time bomb just as dangerous as nukes. Do we have the moral fortitude to dismantle it for the good of our grandchildren?

Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends. For more Christian commentary, check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com. Or check my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers for more podcasts and video.

And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2025  

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Written by: Rex M. Rogers

Published: 10 March 2025

Have you found yourself in discussions with co-workers, suddenly to realize they hold values antithetical to your Christian faith, and sadly, are now rejecting not just your values but you?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #195 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.

One of the more helpful books I’ve read in the last few years is Christians in a Cancel Culture: Speaking with Truth and Grace in a Hostile World (2021) by Joe Dallas. In some ways, the title is confusing. Sure, Dallas talks about what’s come to be known as “cancel culture,” but mostly the book addresses controversial issues and how to respond to them.

So, you probably think, Oh, politics again, and of course Dallas can’t speak to social controversies without noting recent political developments. But this book is not about politics.

The author says this book was written to answer the question, “How do we stand?” when charged with homophobia, sexism, transphobia, and judgmentalism, or being unloving, anti-women, anti-gay, or anti-progress.

So, this book is not so much about politics as relationships, how to acquire, maintain, develop, encourage, and winsomely, lovingly speak into relationships with people who either represent, i.e., meaning “identify” with one of these categories, or fiercely defend the morality or rights of others representing these categories.

The author says, “gone are the days of Bible-believing Christians living an unchallenged faith, because the land we once viewed as a comfortable home is becoming foreign territory, barely recognizable to those of us who remember other times.”

One of Dallas’s greatest concerns, with which I whole-heartedly agree, is the Christian community or specifically the Church’s temptation to minimize the importance of doctrines that are critical to the faith but offensive to the world. Sometimes, humanly, our desire to get along is greater than our desire to obey. 

“Hence we cave, not only by refusing clarity when it’s called for, but by accepting the world’s counsel on which sins we may openly classify and which practitioners of sin we must openly pacify.”

But Dallas succinctly reminds us: “Truth first; niceness second.” “To preach the gospel we have to speak the truth about man’s sinful nature and his need for salvation” “To make disciples we have to instruct them in sound doctrine”

Cancel culture zealots value purity above all else; if you hold values they deem unacceptable you will be rejected with hostility, because you are a threat. 

But Christians must not do as surrounding culture, i.e., Lev 18:3, Ps 1:1, Jn 15:18, Mark 8:38. We are to love others, respect them, but never let them tell us what to believe or practice or say. They are loved but they are not the Lord. 

Cancel culture is here so we must be prepared: Ready always to give an answer 1 Pet. 3:15. Speak the truth in love Eph. 4:15. Be salt and light Matt. 5:13-16. Be wise as serpents, harmless as doves Matt. 10:16. Act as ambassadors for Christ 2 Cor. 5:20. Contend earnestly for the faith Jude 3.

Illustrations abound of family loved ones rejecting other family members, including parents because the others and parents hold the so-called “wrong” or “judgmental” views that, though based on Scripture and have always been what they believed, now are considered unacceptable. So, the prodigal rejects their own family as the enemy.

This is very difficult to handle emotionally. It can create ongoing division, hurt, and awkward family outings, and too, sadness over the prodigal’s lost opportunities to engage, be blessed, and experience an abundant Christian life.

I’ve seen this many times. A family holds biblical views of, for example, homosexuality, considering the practice immoral.Then, soon after a loved one “comes out” as gay, other family members change their views to “affirming” and “accepting.” They allow relationships to trump theology.

But, for all the pressure to accommodate, we are not to give in to cancel culture but walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise Eph 5:15-16.

However, we should be ready for the fact that “whenever truth is told, someone is inconvenienced.” And as Christians who believe the Bible, we must understand that we will experience reproach because we share Jesus’ truth. But with an eternal perspective on reproach and reward we can accept whatever comes with speaking the truth. 

This is our culture today: “Belief in the exclusivity of Jesus is viewed as discriminatory, Belief in hell is viewed as archaic, Belief in man’s sinfulness is viewed as self-loathing and judgmental, Belief in normalcy of male/female sexual union is viewed as homophobic, Belief in the immutable nature of our assigned sex is viewed as transphobic, and Belief in the value of the unborn is viewed as misogynistic.”

“Today, human feelings being hurt are interpreted as human rights being trampled.”

“Holding to truth can put you in a very lonely place.” “Family members who know better accuse you of harming them by simply continuing to be who we’ve always been.” “We can know we’re right, but that doesn’t eliminate the hurt we feel over the rejection or the anger we feel over the injustice…Fidelity to truth brings peace, but it won’t eliminate pain.”

The first five chapters of this book looks at cancel culture trends. It’s an excellent review with considerable insight and recommendations on “How to stand” in this culture.

But what I really appreciate about this book and why I said it’s about relationships, is that each of the next five chapters, examining abortion, homosexuality, race, transgenderism and Progressive Christianity, conclude with three sections: Keep In Mind, Keep It Biblical, Keep It Going.

These three sections contain statements we are likely to hear if we discuss any of these topics with people who disagree with our Christian values. For example, “Gay Christians exist and should be recognized as brothers and sisters in Christ,” or “I’ve always felt I was in the wrong body,” or “Your resistance to admitting our white privilege is evidence of white fragility,” or “Same-sex marriage is as good as straight marriage,” or “Plenty of women who’ve had abortions say they’re glad they did and that their lives took a much better course as a result” or “Telling people they are sinful is emotionally damaging to them.”

In response to these questions, and many others, Dallas provides 3-5 real-world, biblical, informed, compassionate answers. In other words, he provides us with ways to engage others who disagree, often vigorously, with our values, stating truth but stating it in a manner that does not attack, accuse, demean, or disrespect the other person made in the image of God. This is where he maximizes our chances for relationship.

Dallas is also concerned with what might be called doctrinal drift within the evangelical church. He cites Alisa Childers article listing signs your church might be heading toward Progressive Christianity: 1-lowered view of the Bible, 2-feelings emphasized over facts, 3-essential Christian doctrines open to reinterpretation, 4-historical terms redefined, 5-heart of the gospel message shifting from sin and redemption to social justice.

If your church is flirting with any of these trends, you need to engage the pastor in discussion. If he will not acknowledge these trends, defends or promotes them, and will not change, then you have a difficult choice to make. You likely need to change churches, and while this is not easy to do, it is a must if you wish to continue to know the truth and make it known.

“God is not mocked. We are still more than conquerors. The truth cannot be canceled by even the most aggressive culture. Our foundation is still the solid rock. Some of us may be silenced. But the Word will not, and He will not.” 

Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends. For more Christian commentary, check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com. Or check my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers for more podcasts and video.

And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2025     

*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/ or my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers or https://x.com/RexMRogers.

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Written by: Rex M. Rogers

Published: 03 March 2025

Have you ever been a prodigal and welcomed home, or do you know individuals now who are prodigals adrift in a fallen world?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #194 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.

In the New Testament book of Luke 15:11-32, the Word of God gives us the parable of the prodigal son. In the title of the podcast, I call it the “glorious” parable because it is a story of second chances, hope, and redemption.

For the record, parables in the Bible are simple stories, as told by Jesus in the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson, to provide information and spiritual insight in terms the public could understand. So, parables often reflected circumstances people could and did experience in everyday life. The fact that these parables or stories were not an account of an historical event does not mean the principles they taught are untrue. Quite the opposite. The story helped elaborate and illustrate the principles in a way they could be quickly grasped and applied to real world living.

In Luke 15, Jesus shared three parables, sometimes called the “Redemption Parables,” because they each illustrated the love and mercy God extended to those who seemingly were without hope. Jesus shared these three parables about loss and redemption after the Pharisees and religious leaders accused him of welcoming and eating with "sinners." The father's joy described in the parable of the prodigal son reflects divine love: the "boundless mercy of God," and "God's refusal to limit the measure of his grace.”

The first parable is about the Lost Sheep. In this parable a man leaves his flock of 99 sheep to find the one which is lost. And the Scripture says, “I tell you that even so there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance.” Lk 15:3-7

The second parable is about the Lost Coin. A woman had ten coins, lost one, lighted her lamp, swept the house, and sought diligently until she found it. When she found the coin, she called together her friends and neighbors, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost.' The Scripture says, “Even so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner repenting” Lk 15:8-10.

The third parable is about the Lost Son. This parable is about a younger brother who decides he wants his inheritance now, long before his father passes.The father grants the younger brother’s request, and the son takes his inheritance into what Scripture calls “a far country” where in due time he “squandered his property in reckless living,” (or as the Old King James presented it, “wasted his substance with riotous living”). Shortly thereafter there is a famine that adds to his woes and soon he hits rock bottom, no resources, nothing to eat, able to secure an unpleasant job feeding swine, and there his reality comes home to him. He realizes the pigs are eating better than he is and that in his father’s house back home even the servants are living well.

So, the destitute young man thinks, “I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ But while he was yet far off, his father saw him—which implies the father was watching and hoping for his son’s return—and runs to him, places a fine robe on him, calls for a “fatted calf” to be slain in celebration, declaring, ‘For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’” Luke 15:24.

The character of the forgiving father, who remains constant throughout the story, is a picture of God. In telling the story, Jesus identifies Himself with God the Father in His loving attitude toward the lost.

The glorious message of this parable is that no one is so far gone, so lost as to be beyond hope. God is faithful, forgiving, always there, waiting, ready to redeem or restore.

This applies to us all, for I do not think it is a stretch to say, “everyone has either been, or is,” a prodigal son? We know there are “none righteous, no not one,” Rom 3:10, that all are born in sin. In Psalms the psalmist says, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” Ps 51:5. In Genesis, God noted that “the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth” Gen 8:2.

We have all strayed, maybe not into debauchery or great evil, but nevertheless into sin far from God. Yet God is there, waiting, inviting, making possible our redemption, giving us hope.

God never gives up on anyone, and if you or I are not the prodigal, then likely we all know someone who is a prodigal in some manner. Our task is to emulate the Father, to pray for them, to look for their return unceasingly. Think of the faithful Mothers, Grandmothers, Uncles, Pastors, who year after year pray for the prodigals in their lives – and some live to see the prodigal come back to the Lord. We are to love them and speak the truth in love regarding their sin. This does not mean preach at them every time we meet or stand in holier-than-thou judgment. It means we commit them to the Lord who is ultimately the only one who can reach them and bring them to restoration.

One common challenge is that if you have a loved one who is living away from the Lord, likely he or she knows what you believe, even perhaps about their specific sin, like immorality or compulsive gambling or substance abuse. Generally, the prodigal does not want to hear truth or to be held accountable, so rather than react just to the truth, they react to you. You become the enemy and may be rejected. Sometimes we may need to stay faithful in openness, prayer, and support even as we pray for the Lord to perhaps send someone else into their lives who can reach them. The prodigal son in Scripture spent a period in his reckless living. For a time, he was not ready to think and behave differently. But there came a time when he hit the wall, in this case physically but finally in his understanding spiritually. Then he was ready to consider the truth.

Lest we forget, in the parable of the prodigal son, there is an older brother who surprisingly reacts negatively to the father’s celebration – slaying the “fatted calf” – upon his younger brother’s return. If prodigal sons or daughters exist today—and they do—does this older brother or sister personality exist as well? If so, how do we relate to him or her?

Certainly, the older brother persona exists. Maybe these are the judgmental or legalistic or I’m-better-than-you people in our midst. Or maybe these are just people who seem to live for the Lord on the outside while not always being faithful on the inside.

Frankly, I sometimes think of myself in this person. As it happens, there was never a time when I went completely off the deep end as a prodigal, but I certainly still engaged in sinful attitudes or behaviors, drifted along in my relationship with the Lord, and was not always faithful doing what he called me to do.

Our task with the older brother—sort of a prodigal heart—is the same as with the prodigal son who ran from God into a far country of sin and degradation. It is to pray for them, to be a testimony before them, to help them see truth and righteousness as the brother’s father did in the parable, saying, “‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’”

On another level, I happen to believe there are prodigal Christian organizations, so to speak. Sadly, we’re seeing more of this today wherein once biblically and doctrinally sound Christian ministries, even churches, are now caught up in beliefs that run counter to Scripture, things like pro-choice, or embracing a moral relativistic belief that LGBTQ+ is somehow OK with God because to think otherwise might hurt someone’s feelings, emphasizing humanitarian activity—which in themselves may be needed and good—to the exclusion or displacement of sharing the Gospel, or, for reasons hard to understand, embracing antisemitic views.

Our responsibility as ambassadors of Christ in this fallen world is to keep praying and presenting HOPE based not upon politics, partisanship, or political leaders, upon salvation in Jesus Christ.

This is the “glorious” nature of the parable of the prodigal son. As human beings, we want hope, need hope, and hope is available to us in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Never forget. As long as he or she is still breathing, no prodigal is beyond hope.

Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends. For more Christian commentary, check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com. Or check my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers for more podcasts and video. 

And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2025  

*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/ or my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers or https://x.com/RexMRogers.

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Written by: Rex M. Rogers

Published: 24 February 2025

If First Amendment freedoms are eroding in the U.S., is it an understatement to ask, should we be calling for all hands-on deck to protect these precious freedoms?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #193 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.

Since COVID – not so much the pandemic, but American governmental and official reactions to it – I’ve written a few times that I’ve begun to see things that I never thought I’d see in my own country. You see, for me the U.S.A. was, and still is, despite its sometimes-checkered history, the land of the free and the home of the brave, the nation where one was innocent until proven guilty in a system of justice for all, the country that believed in liberty, freedom of religion, speech, and opportunity.

But what I began to see was over-reaching government officials assuming unconstitutional powers, public willingness to submit to restrictions in their freedoms out of fear of a disease, and maybe worst of all, a growing support for curtailing or suppressing or silencing freedom of speech, one of the core, fundamental, most essential freedoms that, along with freedom of religion, made America what it was in the first place.

In his book, Last Call for Liberty: How America’s Genius for Freedom has Become Its Greatest Threat, Christian social critic Dr. Os Guinness noted how these trends worked themselves out in public discourse: “Political debate,” he said, “has degenerated into degrading and barbaric incivility, and wild talk of spying, leaking, impeachment, governability…even assassination and secession are in the air.” Now also along with insults and incitements, seething rage, mortal struggle for soul of the republic, chaos and conflict.

Guinness’s book was about last chances, about a threat to our freedoms and future.

Guinness noted that “Freedom of religion and conscience affirms the dignity, worth, and agency of every human person by freeing us to align ‘who we understand ourselves to be’ with ‘what we believe ultimately is’ and then to think, live, speak, and act in line with those convictions.” This Freedom is absolute to the point of belief but qualified at the point of behavior because behavior touches others. “Someone is free to believe in paganism, for example, but not to sacrifice an animal or another human being.”

“What is at stake with freedom of religion and conscience is nothing less than human dignity, human self-determination, and human responsibility.”

In this short but profound book, Os Guinnes is wrestling with the state of American culture, literally wondering aloud if the United States of America can last much longer or whether it will implode and cave in on itself. This seems like extremist perspective, but Os Guinness is no fly-by-night nutty observer. He is British in heritage, is now in his 80s, lives near Washington, DC, and has authored and edited more than 30 books, all of them noteworthy.

Eroding freedom of speech is what I mean about seeing things in my own country I never thought I’d see: teachers and professors losing their positions for refusing to follow the gender confusion ideology hoisted upon them by public education, conservative voices who raised questions about vaccines or other medical procedures regarding the pandemic being ousted from social media platforms or banned on YouTube, a U.S. president’s Twitter account being shut down because the then-owners of the platform did not agree with his political views.

Pastors have been harassed, at times arrested, in formerly free countries like Canada, the U.K., Germany, and other European nations, for speaking out against government policies. Similar incidents have already begun to happen in the U.S.

U.K. police have rousted people in their homes for posting what was considered “hateful” content on social media. “Numerous arrests have been made of people who did nothing but post their feelings or opinions on social media.”

“Western civilization appears to be on the cusp of a new Dark Age — for any government that arrests and locks up its own citizens for saying, writing, or thinking the ‘wrong’ opinions or beliefs can no longer say it stands for freedom or human rights.” Free speech is now on the defensive throughout Europe and perhaps now in North America.

February 14, 2025, United States Vice President JD Vance gave a speech at the 61st Munich Security Conference. In his speech, Vance criticized the European Union leaders for what he described as backsliding on freedom of speech and democracy. “Vance accused European leaders of using "ugly, Soviet-era words like misinformation and disinformation" in order to hide "old, entrenched interests" against alternative viewpoints that "might express a different opinion, or, God forbid, vote a different way—or even worse, win an election."

“The Vice President also heavily denounced the UK government for its "renegade" free speech laws, citing the example of Adam Smith Connor, who was jailed for breaching a "safe access zone" around an abortion clinic in Bournemouth. He also denounced Sweden's conviction of a Christian activist for burning a Quran as prosecution of religious expression, police crackdowns on anti-feminist comments in Germany, and warning letters sent by the Scottish government to people in Scotland whose homes were in safe access zones that allegedly outlawed private prayer…He argued that European leaders should embrace rather than fear public opinion, even when it challenges established positions.”

Of all the things that have concerned me in the past five or more years, among those things I never thought I’d see in my own country, the steady erosion of support for freedom of speech ranks right at the top.

Frankly, I have found it hard to relate to people who declare their dislike or disagreement with some position or point of view, followed quickly by their declarations so-called “unacceptable” speech should be silenced via loss of social media accounts, loss of jobs, or worse, some statement the other person espousing the unacceptable view should be arrested or go to jail. These people evidence no understanding of the value and precious civil liberty we call freedom of speech.

Recently, during a CBS "Face The Nation” interview host Margaret Brennan contended that Vice President JD Vance's support for free speech in his Munich presentation was reminiscent of Germany’s Nazi approach to the Holocaust. She said, Mr. Vance “was standing in a country where free speech was weaponized to conduct a genocide.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio immediately pushed back, saying, “No. I have to disagree with you. Free speech was not used to conduct a genocide. There was no free speech in Nazi Germany. There was also no opposition in Nazi Germany, they were the sole and only party that governed that country."

"The point of (the Vice President’s) speech was basically that there is an erosion in free speech and intolerance or opposing points of view within Europe…That's not an erosion of your military capabilities, that's not an erosion of your economic standing, that's an erosion of the actual values that bind us together in this transatlantic union that everybody talks about."

We now know that Big Social Media’s earlier denial during the last presidential campaign and during the Biden Administration that it was in any way squelching conservative views is indeed false. And we now know government colluded with Big Social Media during the pandemic to silence anti-vax views. We know this because the leaders of Big Social Media, like Meta Facebooks’s Mark Zuckerberg, admitted as much and declared they want to right their ship on this matter.

The United States Constitution, the First Amendment states:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

The future of freedom is ours to protect.

Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends. For more Christian commentary, check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com. Or check my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers for more podcasts and video.

And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2025  

*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/ or my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers or https://x.com/RexMRogers.

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Written by: Rex M. Rogers

Published: 17 February 2025

Is the U.S. Department of Education critical to the success of American education?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #192 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.

I remember when the federal Department of Education was created by President Jimmy Carter in 1979. Now President Donald Trump is considering dismantling the department.

“The heads of the education departments in multiple GOP-led states describe the move as a potential opportunity to get rid of red tape around funding and burdensome reporting requirements on their schools.”

“The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) recently showed students are still behind in reading and math, and that the gap between high-performing and low-performing students is widening.”

“Betsy DeVos, Trump’s secretary of Education in his first term…wrote in an op-ed for The Free Press that the department should be scrapped entirely.” She said, “Since its creation in 1979, the Department of Education has sent well more than $1 trillion to schools with the express purpose of closing the gaps between the highest and lowest performers. Today, those gaps are as wide as they have ever been, and by many measures, even wider.”

“Seven in 10 American fourth graders are not proficient readers, meaning they struggle with reading grade-level literature and comprehending informational texts. Forty percent graded out at “below basic,” meaning they struggle with basic comprehension. In math, the picture is similar: six in 10 fourth graders are behind in math. The gap between the highest and lowest performers has grown by 10 percent since 2019.”

She further noted, “The Department of Education does not run a single school. It does not employ any teachers in a single classroom. It doesn’t set academic standards or curriculum. It isn’t even the primary funder of education—quite the opposite. In most states, the federal government represents less than 10 percent of K–12 public education funding.”

So, we’re back to President Trump’s suggestion: why maintain a federal Department of Education?

Before we return to the Department, allow me to share some flashback biographical information.

I didn’t know it then, but I know now that I was enormously blessed to attend Ohio public schools, 1958-1970, graduate from small but high academic standards Cedarville College in 1974 and finally earn a doctorate in political science from the University of Cincinnati in 1982. I say “blessed” because throughout my educational experience, except for no more than five poor teachers, I attended school when teachers taught the subject matter, I was incentivized and expected to work and to achieve, and I was told by involved parents that if I got in trouble at school I’d be in trouble at home. I learned reading, arithmetic, spelling, and science. I learned problem solving critical thinking skills. I learned to express myself, writing and speaking, in a manner that was logical and cogent.

Today, there are still dedicated, hard-working, high-standards public school teachers and professors in university. I do not blame teachers for all our educational problems. But these good faculty members and academic staff are working within a massive system now governed by corrupted values and motives misaligned with what it means to be well-educated in a free and pluralistic society.

The educational landscape in which they work today is like Earth-to-Mars different from what I experienced growing up.

As I said, I experienced only a handful of teachers who should have worked somewhere else. The rest of my teachers and professors were outstanding: Mrs. Holmes in 1^st Grade and Mrs. Sigmon in 2^nd who taught me to read, the Mackley brothers, Ray and Ivan, in 4^th and 5^th Grade, one who taught me geography and one who taught me fractions. And by the way, most of my elementary school experience included starting the day with the Pledge of Allegiance and a Bible verse read to us all.

In 8^th Grade, favorite of many of my class cohort, Mr. Chuck Chippi, who taught me how to diagram sentences and speak the King’s English. He later went on to be a beloved high school administrator. Mrs. Crevey, who was short, and round as she was tall, but a tough-love taskmaster who taught me Algebra, Mrs. Burns who called me “Rexie” throughout my high school experience and taught me Latin, Mr. Farley who was a masterful lecturer and taught me to take notes as I learned American history and government. I was similarly blessed in college and university with professors dedicated to academic excellence and wanting to see it flower in me. Here and now, I thank and salute them all. I am forever grateful.

My point is that I was given a gift that has kept on giving throughout my life. I was well educated. I was taught to think.

But sadly, while I was yet in school, and certainly soon thereafter, education began focusing more on social engineering than on education.

And also – don’t miss this – the idea of getting in trouble at home if I caused problems in school, well, forget that. Now, many parents look upon teachers with suspicion, as adversaries, as someone to sue and who dare not discipline their child because, of course, he or she is angelic. Guess how the students game that system?

With this shift, teachers and administrators lost the authority to hold students accountable and thus to instill a proper work ethic and demand academic attainment.

Beginning in the 1960s, public schools became the nation’s Petri dish, the place where we experimented with our myriad, intractable social problems. Sex, drugs, and rock and roll, yes, but way more than this. Segregation/desegregation, school shootings and safety, debates about standardized testing, overcrowding, bullying, broken families and absentee fathers, technology pros and cons, self-absorbed teacher unions, jettisoning prayer and religion in general. And more recently, add woke or progressive, leftist ideological initiatives that have taken control of education from kindergarten to university: LGBTQ+ pride, gender fluidity and trans activism, pronoun mania, political correctness, critical race theory pushing DEI or diversity, equity, and inclusion, “anti-racism,” ironically, to the exclusion of many worthy educational programs.

This morass of social pathologies is rooted in something other than education as such. Schools and teachers can’t propagate values parents and society have rejected. Our school social pathologies are rooted in American society’s rejection of God and truth, the importance of two-parent families, recognition of moral parameters, work ethic, accountability, and a vision of a well-educated citizenry.

I was fortunate to be a student before these social problems dominated the school and classroom.

Today, millions of students are being ill-served by an educational bureaucracy more interested in social justice ideology than critical thinking, more interested in the politics of the adults than in the pedagogy of the students.

Just since I was a grade schooler, tens of millions of dollars have been dumped into public education, yet schools are now failing their students at all levels.

“The cost of the Department of Education is phenomenal. Since its creation, the Department of Education in the United States has spent over $1.4 trillion.

This funding, which primarily comes from taxpayer dollars, has had zero impact on test scores…Over the past 40 years, results have stayed flat or declined in most categories, which shows just how wasteful this system happens to be.”

Why should we keep pouring money into a bottomless pit and see little to no positive in return? Why should American tax dollars be earmarked to support values and philosophies, like so-called “anti-racism” or “gender inclusivity” that undermine the body politic and e Pluribus Unum? Why, if our students are falling behind other developed nations, and our national debt is now $36 trillion, should we spend $80 billion per year on educational bureaucrats and unproductive programs? If we care about our children and the nation’s future, why should we put up with the Department of Education’s left-leaning initiatives that turn out graduates who cannot read or think well, do not know American civics, are ill-prepared for college or the workplace, and who have been inundated with extensive pessimism about their own country and their future?

The bottom line is this: a) How do we create an educational system that better educates our children for the future? b) How do we disband governmental activities, even a department, no longer serving a needed function, and save the federal government billions of dollars?

The U.S. Department of Education is not a sacred entity. It is a bureaucracy that has seen its day and deserves a death with dignity. Abolishing the Department of Education will, it is my hope, increase the chances that my grandchildren attending public schools gain an education as good as the one I received. This is only possible if education is the actual focus of the activities in the schools.

Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends. For more Christian commentary, check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com. Or check my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers for more podcasts and video. 

And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2025  

*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/ or my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers or https://x.com/RexMRogers.