Holidays

Discerning What Is Best
With Dr Rex Rogers

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Details: Written by Rex M. Rogers; Published: 07 May 2011

Mother’s Day is soon upon us. It comes but once a year. But Mothers, blessedly good ones and unfortunately not-so-good ones as well, stay with us every day for the rest of our lives, whether or not we always recognize the influence.

There’s the obvious: our DNA and some measure of our looks and stature and all else physical. There’re the subtle but far-reaching influences: our personalities, attitudes, likes and dislikes and preferences, tastes in food and clothes and music, and maybe the sound and style of our laugh, generally a combination of the physical and the experiential. There are often the most profound influences: our values, faith, and worldview, i.e., our philosophy of life.

As I said, Mothers good and not-so-good make an impact upon us. Mine was, and is, without question or fear of exaggeration the former, a good Mother in every sense of the term. She introduced me to the world (birth) and later introduced me to Christ (rebirth). She yet walks the earth and influences me, if from afar. Here are a few ways she imprinted my life:

--I don’t eat with my free arm lying across the table. I can’t, though I’ve tried at times, but each time I can hear her say, “Don’t lay on the table when you eat. Sit up.” So I do.

--I read and when appropriate try to lead. I don’t know that she necessarily gave me the taste for reading. I think I came by that some other way. But she did repeatedly say to me, “Readers make leaders,” thus generally affirming my inclination to spend hours with my nose in a book.

--I try to stay faithful to “right doctrine” in terms of historic orthodox Christianity. In fact, I used to joke with the university Board where I served as a longtime president that the Board didn’t ever need to worry about me leading the school in a wrong direction theologically, because if I did I’d have to answer to my Mother first.

--I learned, and have tried to live out, appreciation for the day God’s given us. This stems from my Mother regularly reciting “This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it,” from the King James Version, of course, because that’s the version we all used in that day.

--I don’t mind putting on “dress up” clothes. My Mother wanted us to dress well when we went to church or town, so we did. I got used to it then, so it was easy later to adopt professional standards appropriate to my positions. Meanwhile, I’ve met a lot of men who apparently never learned and can’t seem to grasp why it might be worthwhile for them to dress well when the occasion calls for it. And worse, when they do, they complain about it throughout the evening. I would likely have done this too but was groomed otherwise.

There are many more things my Mother taught me. Some more important, perhaps, than these few illustrations listed here. But the moral of the story is that I have a good reason to celebrate Mother’s Day because I was and am blessed with a good Mother. This is something I had nothing to do with crafting, an outright blessing from God. So, praise the Lord and thanks to a good Mom.

*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Rex or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com or follow him at www.twitter.com/RexMRogers.

Details: Written by Rex M. Rogers; Published: 07 January 2011

January 6 is the traditional date of celebration in the west of the Epiphany. Sometimes it’s called Three King’s Day. Epiphany has generally been regarded as the end of Advent or what some celebrate as the Twelve Days of Christmas, December 25 to January 6.

Epiphany means “manifestation.” It recognizes the coming of God in human form, the babe in the manger, as celebrated by the Three Kings from the East who worshiped the babe they knew was the Christ. They presented him with gifts of gold and frankincence and myrrh as a way of celebrating Jesus’ position as Savior, Lord, and King.

I grew up in a church tradition that did not celebrate Advent or Epiphany, much less the Twelve Days of Christmas. Not that this was a bad thing. I enjoyed a series of wonderful Christmas seasons as a child, teenager, and young adult. It’s just that my church experience didn’t focus on these forms of remembering the First Coming of Jesus.

In recent years, I’ve enjoyed learning more about these traditions as a way of learning more about the Christian faith. What I like best is that Advent gets us thinking earlier, before Christmas, about the reason for the season, while the Twelve Days of Christmas leading to Epiphany allows us to stretch the season longer.

Epiphany is particularly enjoyable for me because I’ve always loved the Christmas carol, “We Three Kings of Orient Are.” I used to sing it to the kids when they went to bed in the days leading up to Christmas. In fact, we used to sing it pretty much year round lying on the floor or the bed in the dark—elongating the “Oh-h-h-Oh” at the top of our lungs—You had to be there.

The conservative Church and increasingly ahistorical Christians need to rediscover and resurrect more worthy old traditions. They can enrich our knowledge, our experience, and our worship. Learning about Advent, the Twelve Days of Christmas, and the Epiphany have enriched mine.

Details: Written by Rex M. Rogers; Published: 03 January 2011

Wouldn’t it be great to simply leave behind in 2010 a few troublesome situations, challenges, and maybe even some people?

Of course, what and who I’d leave behind may not be what or who others would leave behind, so it’s possible I might end up on someone’s “Sayonara,” “Arrivederci,” “See You Later Alligator” list. But that’s the risk of it all and in the end it’s just “good clean fun.”

The one and only other time I made a list like this, to my recollection, was “Things I Wish I Could Leave Behind In 2006.” Back then, I longed to be liberated from, among other things, the Iraq War, World Poker Tour, E.D. commercials, and poor cell phone etiquette. Pretty esoteric list.

So here’s my list in no particular order of things I’d like to leave behind in 2010:

Home Foreclosures. Even if you’ve been spared others have not. Whatever their source wouldn’t it be great to leave home foreclosures behind forever? No more nightly news coverage of some poor family moving into the street.

Faulty Communications Systems—on jets and in drive-throughs. We can send people to the moon, but we can’t develop speaker systems that actually work. Either they squeak, don’t work, are way too high volume, are way too low volume, or in multiple other ways mangle the person’s speech on the other end of the line.

Poachers. Illegal greedy hunters who, despite global attempts to stop them, still deplete the population of some of the world’s most interesting endangered species, like rhinoceroses, elephants, crocodiles, gorillas, and more.

Politicians Who Cheat On Their Spouses (Wives). I’m tired of these stories.

$100+ Airline Ticket Change Fees. No way it costs airlines well over one hundred dollars to change a ticket. It’s price gouging. Same for exorbitant baggage fees.

“Wonderful Christmas Time.” Paul McCartney’s secular Christmas carol that mindlessly and unmusically repeats “Simply having a wonderful Christmas time” ranks as an all time worst Christmas song.

Postal Stamps With $Designations. The U.S. Postal Service has developed a wonderful innovation called a “Forever” stamp. It features no monetary value. Whatever you paid for it, whenever you use it, the U.S. Postal Service will honor the stamp. Why don’t we do this with all stamps? Or at least do this with all stamps at the primary letter mailing cost of the moment? Right now, $.44. This means that when stamp costs go up, a sign is posted and you pay the new rate for the new “Forever” stamp. But you get to use it when you get around to using it. No more 1, 2, 3, 4, cent stamps purchased for use with old stamps.

“Reality” Television like “Jersey Shore,” “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” and “Real Housewives of…” Mind-numbing junior high banter on sex, hooking up, clothes, sex, alcohol, sex, clubbing, sex, and more sex. Worst for me in all this is “Dad” Bruce Jenner, 1976 Olympic gold medalist decathlete, who married Kris Kardashian, became a father to this clan and now appears on the show as basically, a wimp. It’s a sad fall from Mount Olympus.

Facial Piercings and Tattoos. If people must decorate themselves would they consider doing it on some body part other than their face? I’ve yet to understand how facial markings improve a person’s appearance.

“Sexting.” Using text messages to send salacious pictures and content would be passé and past. Consequently, Bret Favre social media rumors would ride off into the sunset with him—assuming he actually retires from professional football.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Need I say more?

Advanced Imaging Technology. Airport scanners that turn travelers into naked images should be sent back to the lab from whence they came. Someday we’re going to hear how the radiation was bad for us after all, or we’re going to see a celebrity’s altogether on the Internet. I still maintain there are better ways to assure security in air travel.

Enhanced Body Pat Downs. These wondrous new methods for assuring traveling security are worse than AIT scanners. Don’t tell me safety requires we make an elderly lady stand up from a wheelchair so she can either be assisted into a machine that dehumanizes her or be subjected to an even more humiliating body rub by a stranger touching private places, and all this in front of God and everybody. Enhanced body pat downs are dumb, wrong, unnecessary, inconsistent, and ultimately, minimally effective.

America’s War in Afghanistan. It’s time to get out. Political leaders cannot articulate consistently why we’re there or what we’re trying to accomplish. And Osama bin Laden has long since left that particular building, or cave, or countryside.

Teen Paranormal Romance. The Twilight Series is tame, I know, by the rest of today’s tween and teen romance standards and certainly the standards of so-called adult literature. But we’d be better off without any of it, including HBO’s “True Blood,” blood and gore “romance,” erotic horror, and similar twisted stories about forbidden love with violent creatures.

*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Dr. Rogers or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com or follow Dr. Rogers at www.twitter.com/RexMRogers.

Details: Written by Rex M. Rogers; Published: 01 January 2011

I enjoy making a few New Year's resolutions, though in 34 years in higher education I tended to set more goals at the beginning of academic years in the late summer. But resolutions or new goals either one are a good thing, I think, because they’re forward looking.

New Year’s resolutions, like the New Year in general, are a sign one is hopeful and open to a future different from the present. You know, “Hope springs eternal.”

A year ago in January I wrote about New Year’s resolutions. It’s interesting to later read what one has written to see if it’s stood the test of time, or to see if you even still agree with yourself.

In any event, Happy New Year, and may your resolutions be good ones soon realized in 2011.

Details: Written by Rex M. Rogers; Published: 31 December 2010

New Year’s Resolutions are fun if not always fruitful. Here are a few resolutions better left unmade:

--I resolve to eat with wild abandon.

--I plan to pay more taxes cheerfully.

--I’ll watch every episode of each new “reality” TV program in 2011.

--I’ll invest all my savings with Bernie Madoff.

--I hereby give up Starbucks in favor of McDonald’s coffee.

--I resolve to fund my retirement plan buying lottery tickets.

--I’ll hold my breath until Conan O’Brien is actually funny.

--I’ll ask Lindsay Lohan for advice.

--I will send money to the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, and MoveOn.org.

--I’ll read every “Teen Paranormal Romance” book in Barnes and Noble.

--I resolve to enroll in the Charlie Sheen school-for-how-to-live-responsibly.

--I’m going to write books about Amish celebrities.

--I’ll support ethanol subsidies.

--I resolve to believe everything Tiger Woods says.

--I’ll watch more bowling on TV.

--I resolve to eat more sugar, salt, and flour.

--I will join the ranks of those who never exercise.

--I expect to visit all the world’s toxic waste dumps.

--I will listen to all of Vice President Joe Biden’s speeches in one marathon weekend.

--I’ll believe in the Detroit Lions.

--I resolve to keep making resolutions.

Details: Written by Rex M. Rogers; Published: 28 December 2010

Part of me has never liked what happens during the 52^nd week of the year. It’s a great time, the holiday season, family and friends, time off, bowl games, special worship services, gift giving. What’s not to like? Nothing. I like and appreciate all of this.

What I don’t like is the huge transition in “tone,” especially on television, that takes place after Christmas leading to New Year’s Eve. Christmas carols disappear from radio stations, stores, and inexplicably, church services. People shift gears from the season of peace to the season of parties. Of a sudden, life is no longer about the spirit of giving, about peace on earth goodwill toward men. It’s about the spirit of hammering oneself into oblivion. It’s about partying all night, going gonzo, and living life to excess.

I don’t think I exaggerate. Simply watch the New Year’s Eve television programs. What are they about?

I get weary of the barrage of media content suggesting drinking is the greatest and grandest thing I can do with my time ringing in the New Year. I’m not against all drinking. I don’t attack the idea or people who take a drink. I do take umbrage with the idea that drinking to excess, drunkenness, or hard partying is somehow a good, wise, or even enjoyable activity.

Excessive drinking isn’t the only thing to which we’re treated in this week’s shift to a secular worldview. We also get even more let it loose sexuality than usual. That’s so obvious I’ll leave it at that.

Because others go secular, of course, doesn’t mean we have to do so. And we don’t. Our time, like many others, is spent with family and friends, enjoying them and all God has bestowed. It’s a good week…if you turn off the TV.