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- Written by: Rex M. Rogers
“Cancel culture” is not a myth. It’s been happening weekly for months on university campuses and in some corporations, a new kind of social authoritarianism that can’t abide ideas or even people with which it disagrees, so abandoning free speech by “silencing” is its death penalty.
The Left (not Liberalism and not Democrats or Republicans per se) is propounding a cultural revolution based on a worldview that contradicts and opposes Christianity, which means much of American history and its ideals. The build-up for this reaches back into the 1960s, but the outright cultural coup of 2020 has been unbelievably swift, solidifying earlier gains by capturing academia, media, corporations, and, sadly, many in religion who trade doctrine for “cultural relevance.”
This is not what our soldiers n sailors fought n died for in yesteryear’s wars. This is an attack on America’s most basic, defining character.
Pray those in political leadership discern between policy that reinforces liberty and justice for all versus policy that is about power and pandering the few.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2021
*This 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 connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.
Rediscovering Hope and Optimism
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- Written by: Rex M. Rogers
There was a time, on both sides of the aisle, when being upbeat in politics was considered admirable. VP Hubert H. Humphrey was known as the "Happy Warrior." Pres Ronald Reagan, the "Gipper," was widely recognized for his sunny, forever optimistic persona.
Now, it seems many Dem/Repub pols, activists, journalists, academicians--and beaucoup peeps on (anti)social media--are terminally angry, perpetually offended, lack humility, at times fearful, so convinced their view is correct yours does not deserve hearing, and nasty.
I don't think Humphrey or Reagan were clueless Pollyannas. I think they operated with a different worldview than most of the "elites" we endure today. Maybe I sound like an old guy, but I miss the forward-thinking energy you can hear in--
--FDR re the Depression and later the War, "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
--JFK, "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard."
--MLK Jr, "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
--GHWBush, "I have spoken of a thousand points of light, of all the community organizations that are spread like stars throughout the nation, doing good."
While not every American is Christian, the nation has been thoroughly influenced by Christian thought from before its founding, and optimism is a uniquely Christian attitude. Hope, particularly in the future, must come from faith in the Sovereign God.
Other worldviews do not provide hope, or if they attempt to do so, they don’t know how to deal with the reality of evil. Christianity resolves the question of good and evil and gives people reason for optimism.
Our culture’s pell-mell rush during my lifetime to abandon Christian values in favor of the latest Ism is what’s brought us to this point: elites with no optimism, no real hope.
Only way to get hope and optimism back is to embrace what God told us long ago:
“But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint” (Isaiah 40:31).
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2021
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- Written by: Rex M. Rogers
When culture rejects the idea of objective truth all that’s left is irrationality.
American culture is now not just embracing but celebrating irrationality. What else explains abortion-on-demand all the way through even post-birth, gender fluidity, freedom of speech only if we agree, rejection of evidentiary rule of law in favor of rule by feelings?
Our irrationality is rooted in our embrace of moral relativism, which is now the basis of American culture’s worldview. This is perhaps most obvious in matters of human sexuality.
Doing what’s right in your own eyes sexually, that is, with public approval, cannot happen as long as religion, specifically biblical Christianity, is influential in people’s hearts and minds. So sexual progressivism in all its forms has become the point of the spear pushing total rejection of Judeo-Christian values as the historic basis of American public morality and culture. This push is organized, aggressive, and in the name of tolerance the most intolerant silence-opposing-views movement at work today.
This moral chaos shows up in, among other things:
- Abortion
- Huge percentage of homes with no father in the home, i.e. kids growing up without male parental influence
- LGBTQ+, same sex marriage
- Debt complacency- Living not just beyond our means; living beyond our children’s means
- Dividing walls of hostility between groups: gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, language, culture
- Loss of civility, morality, optimism replaced by a coarse and obscene culture, hysterical politics
Francis A. Schaeffer’s phrase “true truth” foresaw our current “your truth vs my truth,” subjectivism and relativism, “truthiness,” feelings-the-measure-of-all-things, and the mess we have now with “fake news” and “alternative facts.”
Along with the phrase “celebrating irrationality” to describe our culture I’ve used the phrase “sophisticated ignorance,” like Athens in Acts 17. The superstition and D.I.Y. religion is evident in rejection of moral absolutes and the idea of objective truth, then an embrace of chance, feelings, and subjectivity over reason, and an inclination toward new forms of paganism.
If you think abortion is “life-sustaining” as does the governor of Michigan, so it is. If a baby in the womb or even born alive is not wanted, it’s not a human baby.
“War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.” Celebration of irrationality.
Irrationality is now a way of life for more and more people.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020
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- Written by: Rex M. Rogers
For people who ask, "What's happening in America?" The answer in part is that American social cohesion, once grounded upon a Judeo-Christian value consensus, is breaking down – No, is no more.
What's now happening daily is a titanic cultural tug-o-war of diametrically opposed worldviews. One is Christian, at least its roots, and the other is not secular per se but humanistic, morally relativistic pan-everything-ism. We are witnessing a battle of worldviews for America's soul.
Christianity once sat at the head of the table in American culture, metaphorically speaking. Now it isn't even at the table, at least not among cultural elites in academia, media, entertainment, sports, and increasingly in politics. Check out this article in West Michigan Christian News.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020
*This 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 connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.
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Great Lies seducing American culture:
- God and religion are irrelevant in the public space.
- Truth, if it exists at all, is determined not by the Creator, Scripture, natural law, unalienable rights but by gender, skin color, sexual orientation, or the latest identity du jour.
- Abortion is women’s health.
- Abortion on demand is acceptable late trimester, and even after-birth or “born alive” a mother and doctor in some states can choose whether the baby lives.
- Sex and/or gender are a complex spectrum.
- Cancel culture is legitimate, even if the “offense” happened decades ago, and even to getting people fired or ruining reputations.
- Suppressing free speech and debate are justifiable in the name of social justice.
- Questioning the “prevailing acceptable woke narrative” is “violence” and prima facie racist.
- Disregard for the rule of law, violent rioting, looting, arson, and destruction of property are justifiable in the name of social justice.
- Race matters above all else and “racial harmony” is racist.
- Antifa is anti-fascist.
- Black Lives Matter the organization is simply about assuring black lives matter.
- Moral opposition to some behavior or action makes one ipso facto a “hater.” Thus, disagreeing with Islam = Islamophobia; with homosexuality = homophobia, with same-sex marriage = bigotry; with taking a knee to the National Anthem = racism; with “All-white-people-are-racist” = white fragility and evidence of “privilege.”
- The USA was founded not upon religious liberty but white supremacy and slavery.
“The devil…does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies,” (John 8:44). “And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light,” (2 Corinthians 11:14).
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020
*This 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 connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.
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- Written by: Rex M. Rogers
A democratic republic cannot survive without aspirational, consensus ideals, comity, law and order, and social cohesion. What we've seen in America in the last few months, 1) in the throes of virus, 2) in the turbulence of unrest, is not simply infliction but insurgence.
Peaceful protest toward desired social change is a productive thing, a blessing of a free society. Mobocracy, enabled by elected officials, toward the boogieman du jour is a destructive thing, a scourge of a free society.
The cold coup d'etat some have attempted is dangerous in the extreme--to life, liberty, justice, truth, patriotism--something that can become hot with a flashpoint at any time.
What makes the USA is not beautiful topography but time-tested political ideals as enshrined in a constitutional system that has worked, however imperfectly at times, for more than 200 years.
No matter who is elected Nov 3, many will not simply be unhappy but inconsolable. This is the kind of flashpoint that concerns me. I don't want to live in a banana republic.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020
*This 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 connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.