How did American culture get to a point where a distinguished nominee to the Supreme Court of the United States could be asked the question, “Can you define ‘woman’?” and respond with a straight face, “I’m not a biologist. I’m a judge”?
Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #46 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 Garden of Eden, the Serpent lied when he said, “You will not certainly die. For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil,” (Gen. 3:5).
Later in Scripture, Jesus described the Serpent or Satan or the Devil as “a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44).
Having rejected the idea of truth and moral absolutes, American culture is now awash in lies, exactly what the father of lies wants—not lies that snuck up on us but ones our elites are promoting as the alternative facts by which we should order our lives. In a culture like this, wherein our youth are being taught outright falsehoods in the name of science, safety, diversity, inclusion, and equity, what do we expect of the future?
Thomas Sowell said, “Ours may become the first civilization destroyed, not by the power of our enemies, but by the ignorance of our teachers and the dangerous nonsense they are teaching our children.”
Consider this short list of lies:
It is a lie to say God does not exist, or if he does, he’s not involved in human history.
It is a lie that human beings can live by their own truth.
It is a lie to argue human beings are essentially good, that no evil resides within them, and that evil only comes from one’s environment.
It is a lie to believe sin is illusory or imaginary, inconsequential, or irrelevant.
It is a lie that human beings can just “follow their heart” or “trust themselves” and all will be well.
It is a lie that we can do whatever is right in our own eyes, that this is freedom, and that this life bears no consequences.
It is a lie that good works get people into heaven.
It is a lie to say that men or boys can become women or girls, and women or girls can become men or boys.
It is a lie to suggest two same-sex persons can form a moral marriage.
It is a lie to believe that human beings are sexually non-binary and represent—last count over 100—hybrid varieties of sex that are personally or socially determined.
It is a lie to live as if promiscuous, premarital, or extramarital sex can be pursued without negative consequences to soul and body.
It is a lie to argue that all that matters in sexual relationships is “consent,” and that any consenting sexual engagement is permissible and good.
It is a lie to argue that non-affirmation of LGBTQ+ lifestyle choices is intolerance, bigotry, or hate.
It is a lie to substitute the state, negating the essential character of the nuclear family.
It is a lie to say men can have babies.
It is a lie to argue pornography and prostitution are victimless crimes.
It is a lie to say patriotism is ipso facto imperialistic oppression
It is a lie to promote the idea socialism results in anything other than loss of freedom.
It is a lie to argue America began in 1619, the product of slavery and white supremacy.
It is a lie to contend that society is at bottom the history of class conflict and that only the state can bring about a utopian classless society.
It is a lie to argue that economics determines all things.
It is a lie to contend that unalienable human rights can originate in the nation-state or the United Nations, a ruler, or regime, or any source other than as described in the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.”
It is a lie to argue race, one’s skin color, determines truth.
It is a lie to believe silencing ideas that are offensive is more important than freedom of religion and freedom of speech.
It is a lie to contend that religion, specifically Christianity, is historically the primary source of wars, violence, and oppression of women and minorities.
It is a lie to believe disagreement with ideas is an attack on the person or the person’s identity who is promulgating the ideas.
It is a lie to substitute children’s rights for parental rights in the name of sexual liberation.
It is a lie to say promotion and presentation of nudity is an affirmation of “body positivity.”
It is a lie to contend that if you believe in merit, individualism, capitalism, or democracy, you are a racist.
It is a lie to promote woke philosophies of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the name of racial equity when what they produce is division, new racism, anti-freedom of religion or anti-freedom of speech, and destruction of academic standards of excellence.
It is a lie to claim that if you are a member of a perceived oppressed group, you cannot be racist.
It is a lie to deny sin in the human heart while relocating all sin or evil in systems or the environment or politics or oppressor classes.
It is a lie to say that all cultural practices are relative, that no judgment can be made about good or bad, right or wrong, even what constitutes beauty, and should judgment be offered, it is evidence of bigotry and intolerance.
It is a lie to claim that if you oppose Islam you are Islamophobic, if you oppose transgenderism you are transphobic, if you oppose same-sex marriage you are homophobic.
It is a lie to say that those who oppose abortion are extremists or that those who are prochoice are promoting women’s reproductive health or “reproductive justice.”
It is a lie to claim that calling sinners to repentance is bullying.
It is a lie to affirm lies in the name of love.
It is a lie to believe that digital activity is a substitute for parenting, that hours online are harmless, and that what kids learn online won’t hurt them.
It is a lie to believe that a borderless, globalist world without nations and citizenship is anything other than a path to loss of freedom.
It is a lie to believe that discussions simply synthesizing ideas without evaluation or judgment, leads to truth. For as Francis A. Schaeffer said, “Truth carries with it confrontation. Truth demands confrontation; loving confrontation, but confrontation nevertheless.” Truth is not bought by synthesis but by antithesis wherein truth confronts falsehood.
Cultural critic Rod Dreher asks, “Why are people so willing to believe demonstrable lies?” Then he answers his own question: “The desperation alienated people have for a story that helps them make sense of their lives and tells them what to do explains it.”
The American people no longer have a sound moral understanding, so they are adrift, increasingly anxious, willing to embrace falsehood if it gives them a feeling of security. This is enormously dangerous because it provides an opening for authoritarianism, or if you please, socialism, statism, loss of freedom.
Many American elites earn their living promoting lies. So, lies are everywhere perpetrated in American culture as the “prevailing acceptable narrative,” a viewpoint one stands against at one’s risk like never before in American history.
Yet Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the great Russian intellectual, exhorted the Russian people to “live not by lies.”
Americans it must be said are increasingly living by lies. So, it is not untimely to ask, how long can a culture last built upon lies?
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.
And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.
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