Rex M Rogers - Discerning What Is Best

Discerning What Is Best
With Dr Rex Rogers

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Details: Written by Rex M. Rogers; Published: 21 June 2022

In a secularizing culture, can Christian colleges and universities thrive? Can they even survive?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #30 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.

During April 2007, just before my time as president at Cornerstone University concluded, the campus was visited by an uninvited group of gay and lesbian students, along with other supporters, who called themselves Soulforce.

Big money backers had recruited them and organized a national bus tour of Christian colleges and universities. Their intent, they said, was to protest and bring awareness to what was then called the Gay Rights movement. They lined the campus boundaries for a time, then spread out across campus walking into classrooms demanding access and dialogue. Clearly, the Soulforce students had been trained, and tried to force their way onto private property in the hopes of getting arrested and creating photo ops.

The next morning the group first disrupted, then basically tried to take over chapel. While I spoke with several Soulforce individuals, I had told their leaders the day before, “No thank you,” regarding their demand to enter our classrooms, and I got quoted that way in the local press. At the chapel, I walked to the front and dismissed everyone.

Other Christian colleges and universities at the time responded differently.

Some invited the group for discussions, some treated them to refreshments, others like us said, No thank you. In my role as president, I never criticized or demeaned the students, though I thought their moral views and their methods were wrong, and I also thought they were being used by sophisticated national gay politicos and donors.

In the aftermath, I received about 150 cards and letters, the most I’d ever received referencing any controversy. Some 98% supported our respectful “No thank you” approach. Of the about 2% who criticized my approach, I found it amazing that, almost invariably, somewhere in the missive they mentioned a family member who had come out and who they loved, hence their point of view.

LGBTQ+ is an issue—almost like no other—that seems to lead people to develop or even change their moral understanding or even their theology, not because they believe they hold a new insight to biblical interpretation, but because they love a family member or friend.

Looking back, this all seems rather tame, because Christian schools are now in serious trouble, or at least they are under considerable and mounting pressure.

Harvard University was the original Christian institution of higher learning in the new world, founded in 1636, but it long ago left its Christian moorings.

The same can be said for most of the colleges and universities east and many west of the Mississippi River, most of which were launched by religious organizations.

Now, among nearly 4,000 post-secondary institutions of higher learning functioning in the U.S., only about 140 present themselves as avowedly Christian and maintain membership in the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, along with perhaps 9 others that have chosen to withdraw from the CCCU.

These are the colleges and universities now facing genuine threats to their survival. Why?

National drop in college age students, some estimates at 15%, due to abortion, changing attitudes toward higher education, higher costs, and more.

With the college age student pool declining year by year, competition becomes fiercer, costs of recruitment increases, and students place greater premiums upon perceived institutional prestige. None of this helps generally smaller, private Christian colleges and universities.

Decline in families with a Christian worldview who want a Christian education for their youth.

In 2020, Christian researcher George Barna found just 6% of American adults possess biblical worldview. And only 43% of them believe in absolute moral truth.

Among 18- to 29-year-olds, a mere 2% possess a biblical worldview. If you look at several other demographic subgroups, the percentage of individuals who deny the existence of absolute moral truth is much higher: LGBTQ adults (73%), political liberals (67%), Hispanics (65%), Blacks (63%), Democrats (63%), people under age 50 (62%).

If that is not enough, there’s more to this perfect storm.

American culture—especially education—has embraced ideologies promoting moral relativism, critical race theory and woke philosophies, and the sexual revolution, including same-sex marriage, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

While race politics, emphasizing diversity, equity, and inclusion, have created controversies for Christian colleges and universities, LGBTQ+ politics is the real point of the spear.

LGBTQ+ students, alumni, and associated activist organizations now have Christian colleges and universities in their crosshairs. They claim that Christian institution’s faith statements discriminate against them when such statements maintain biblical views considering homosexual behavior a sin and define marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

LGBTQ+ students at Christian colleges and universities are increasing in number, forming campus organizations, becoming more open about their sexuality,

and pressuring the boards and administrations of Christian institutions to change their doctrinal statements, student lifestyle policies, and personnel employment policies, in their vocabulary, “accepting and affirming,” LGBTQ+ individuals.

In the CCCU, “Two member schools went on record to permit same-sex "marriage" couples on faculty and staff – Goshen College and Eastern Mennonite University,” which caused other schools in the CCCU to resign from the association.”

"Azusa Pacific University specifically removed language that barred LGBTQ relationships as part of a standing ban on pre-marital sex" from its student handbook, according to media reports.”

Protesting students at Seattle Pacific University recently handed a rainbow flag to the President as they marched across the platform to receive their diploma. This took place as students staged a sit-in in university facilities demanding the Board reverse its decision to maintain a commitment to biblical views of human sexuality.

The Christian Reformed Church recently affirmed its understanding of the Scripture and its creeds and doctrinal statements to mean a prohibition of homosexual activity and other sexual behavior outside the bonds of monogamous heterosexual marriage. Students at Calvin College and some personnel reacted with disappointment, suggesting the CRC’s and the school’s policies are homophobic and discriminatory.

In 2020, the Supreme Court of the United States held in Bostock v Clayton County that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects employees against discrimination because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. This means conservative religious institutions may be subject to legal challenge if they cannot show that they are entitled to a ministerial exception under the law.

“Thirty-three LGBTQ students are suing the Department of Education in a class-action lawsuit. The students allege that they faced discrimination at 25 federally funded Christian colleges and universities in 18 states,” including Liberty University. “The ultimate goal of the lawsuit is to strike down Title IX’s religious exemption.”

In 2021, Fresno Pacific University administration denied LGBTQ+ students the ability to form their own Pride club on campus. Students filed a formal Western Association of Schools and Colleges accreditation complaint against the school and called for a formal investigation to take place.

Regional and state accrediting agencies, without whose accreditation schools cannot offer recognized degrees, are putting increasing pressure upon Christian institutions to align their policies with LGBTQ orthodoxy, what is now considered the only acceptable narrative, embracing all expressions of sexual orientation.

“The Human Rights Campaign, America's largest and most powerful LGBT lobby organization, is pushing Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to target Christian educational institutions, demanding that the Biden Administration strip colleges that adhere to rules and positions opposing homosexuality of their accreditation.” This activist group is pressuring President Biden to advance a proposal to eliminate nondiscrimination exemptions for religious colleges if the institutions support biblical definitions of marriage or fail to offer "scientific curriculum requirements."

In other words, LGBTQ+ demands, increasing cast by activists and the courts as civil rights issues, are now going head-to-head with First Amendment religious freedom guarantees.

And it’s not just Christian institutions.

A NY County Supreme Court judge recently handed down a ruling saying Yeshiva University, despite its Jewish religious convictions, must recognize an LGBTQ Pride club on campus.

So, it appears some Christian colleges or universities are changing, some would say capitulating, their moral views in an effort to survive, fearing possible loss of accreditation, tax-exempt status, and access to federal funds. Others are thus far standing firm.

No one knows where this is going. But it is certain the next five years are going to make or break some Christian colleges and universities.

What we are watching here is the frontlines of the now intensifying “Second American civil war,” a worldview war pitting an ascendant non-biblical worldview vs the Judeo-Christian values upon which this country was founded. It’s a battle for America’s soul and its future.

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.

*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 connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.

Details: Written by Rex M. Rogers; Published: 14 June 2022

With all the recent concern about guns in the wake of another gut-wrenching mass shooting, have you ever wondered whether there is a Christian position regarding guns, gun laws, or gun control?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #29 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.

Guns are part of the American experience. Indeed, we’ve been described as a gun culture.

"Americans made up 4 percent of the world's population (in 2018) but owned about 46 percent of the entire global stock of 857 million civilian firearms. U.S civilians own 393 million guns. American civilians own more guns "than those held by civilians in the other top 25 countries combined."

In my experience, I find people relate to these facts in widely divergent manners.

A lot, it seems to me, depends upon whether a person has grown up in a family that owned or used guns for sport or hunting, whether the person then has actually been around guns, and whether they understand much about them. People whose background has not included guns, again in my experience, often can’t comprehend why anyone would want a gun, much less use it. So it may be easier for them to embrace a no-gun or gun control perspective.

Now I know this is a generalization, but I’m suggesting this hypothesis holds water. I’m notsuggesting, though, that people who adopt a no-gun or some manner of gun control perspective are prima facie “wrong.” The judgment of right and wrong is something I’ll come back to later.

In the wake of mass shootings, especially ones involving children, the public understandably wants to do something, do anything that will stop this nightmare and make it such that a mass shooting will never happen again. As I said, understandable. No one wants shootings and the injury or death of innocents. But how to “fix” the problem is more complex than any easy or obvious solution available, including perhaps reducing access to guns.

I’ve read commentary and discussed guns and gun control with Christians who support gun laws restricting access. Many argue their recommendations are “the Christian thing to do.” In other words, they say their position is the Christian position.

They say, for example, if Christians believe in life, are pro-life if you will, then how can they not embrace policies restricting access to guns?

If Christians are non-violent, and believe God abhors violence, shouldn’t they embrace policies that restrict if not eliminate access to guns?

If Christians are peaceful, even pacifist, aren’t they compelled to promote policies restricting access to guns?

If Christians want to maintain a credible public testimony in a time when conservative Christianity is increasingly blamed for adherents’ commitment to blind patriotism, isn’t gun control one way we can demonstrate we’re relevant?

If Christians are about loving our neighbor, even our enemies, how can they make statements like “I have a God-given right to own guns”?

Then I have read, and I’ve enjoyed more than a few discussions with Christians who do not support more gun control.

They say, for example, Yes, Christians are pro-life, and in dangerous situations it is often a gun that saves lives.

Think about the two-year call to “Defund the Police.” OK, that’s a point of view. But it’s ironic, is it not, that when a situation arises where children are under direct threat from a ruthless gunman, what do people want to happen? They want police, officers with guns, to go in and stop the deranged killer. I’m not sure how you defund the police and demean the police, then in threat circumstances want police with guns to do more.

So, that said, some Christians argue that properly used guns are a means to peace and non-violence.

As to arguing it’s a “God-given right to own guns,” I’m not sure what Bible these folks are reading.

In fact, the Word of God says nothing about guns, gun laws, or gun control. It talks about weapons, war, murder, self-defense, but not guns.

This alone should not lead us to think God’s Word offers no guidance for our questions.

Scripture reminds us in 2 Peter 1:3, “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life.”
In Philippians 1:9-10, the foundation for this podcast, the Apostle Paul said, “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight,so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.”
And finally, in Romans 14, again the Apostle Paul reminds us God has given to us Christian liberty, that we “should be fully convinced in their own mind” what is right and righteous before God.

There are “Dos and Don’ts” in Scripture that we ignore at our own peril, but not that many do this or don’t do that. The rest God leaves to our discernment and our decision making.

The Bible never outlaws guns, nor does it condemn a person for carrying a weapon. In fact, in several passages, the Bible supports self-defense (Neh. 4:15-23; Ezek. 33:1-9; Lk 22:35-38).

So, debates about guns and gun control are more philosophic and political than moral.

But as I said, because God did not speak directly to guns or gun control does not mean we cannot discern and develop our moral perspective on the issue.

Think about this: the Word of God never condemned human slavery, does not speak to hard drugs or narcotics, offers no 11^th Commandment proscribing gambling, but do any of us believe these are worthy activities? No. We have developed our perspective based upon other principles found in Scripture.

We can do the same with guns and gun control. We can honor others’ Christian liberty, recognizing each person can embrace, even passionately, their own convictions about guns and gun control, as long as we don’t violate the other person’s liberty by arguing our view is the only moral view.

What did God say?

God made it clear in Scripture that human beings are made in his image, eternally valuable.
He said murder is always wrong.
God said we are to be good stewards, accountable to him for our behavior, including regarding life, work, safety.
He said the problems in this world are not our toys and our tools but our sinful hearts.
God is not violent and hateful, why do we patronize or purchase increasingly violent movies and video games?

You see, this only scratches the surface of scriptural principles that can be brought to bear on whether and why we buy guns, how we use them, and how as a society we might curtail access to certain kinds of guns.

My point in all this is not to take a position For or Against some form of gun control, much less guns, though I’ve hinted they’re not the only source of our social struggle.

My point is to say that we should develop our perspectives based upon good information and make our arguments on the merits of our ideas, not simply on emotion.

And my point is to say God has given us wide latitude – Christian liberty – to discern what is best when we develop our guns and gun control views…and he expects us to respect those whose views differ from our own.

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

Details: Written by Rex M. Rogers; Published: 07 June 2022

Have you seen rainbow flags in windows, on lawns, or on bumper stickers, especially during June? It’s Pride Month, which raises some interesting questions for Christians.

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #28 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.

It’s June, so we’re seeing rainbow flags everywhere we look, and Gay Pride events including parades in large cities are scheduled throughout the country.

The rainbow flag was created by Gilbert Baker, a San Francisco activist, and the flag was first flown as a symbol of LGBTQ+ pride at the 1978 San Francisco Gay Freedom Day.

Initially, Pride Month began as Gay Pride Day, held on the last Sunday in June.

As the number of events proliferated the recognitions morphed into Pride Month. In 1999, President Bill Clinton declared June as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month.

In 2012, then President Barack Obama changed his lifelong position and said he believed same-sex couples should be able to marry. In 2015, the United States Supreme Court, ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges, that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples. Also in 2015, Bruce Jenner, 1976 Olympic decathlon gold medalist, said, “Call me, Caitlyn,” and went public on the cover of “Vanity Fair,” with his transition to declaring himself a woman.

With these unprecedented events, the sexual revolution launched in the 60s captured American culture, same-sex issues became de rigueur and almost boring old news, and transgenderism became the next frontier advancing sexual liberation.

Pride Month is now gone culturally mainstream. Professional sports teams and corporations trumpet their support of all things LGBTQ+ seemingly without regard for the fact there is another moral point of view.

The reasons are easy to identify:

Embraced the morally relativistic paradigm of our day.
Want to virtue signal that they are on board, in part to avoid litigation.
Believe their support of Pride Month helps them sell their product.

LGBTQ+ individuals are now visible in every subsection of society, including religion.

In my lifetime, homosexuality has become a point of divisiveness in the Church. The turning point for the debate gets back to something called hermeneutics, how one interprets the Bible. Many individuals no longer acknowledge the authority or divine character of the Bible, so they do not look to it for moral direction.

Others believe God’s Word may be found in the Bible but do not believe the Bible is trustworthy in all its propositions. This perspective leads them to conclude that verses referencing homosexuality are culturally dated and thus not morally applicable in today’s more sophisticated environment. In this approach, experience trumps revelation.

Finally, Christians who adopt a different hermeneutic, those who believe the Bible is God’s inspired Word, therefore also believe that the Bible’s propositions are as morally applicable now as the day they were written. This is my view.

If you believe the Bible is God’s moral will for all times, countries, and cultures, then you’ll embrace these beliefs about human sexuality:

God defines one’s sex, biologically, at birth as either male or a female (Gen. 1:27); consequently, gender is not fluid.
Sexuality is a gift of God that is often perverted to sinful ends (Gen. 2:24; 1 Thess. 4:3-8),
Sexual expression is a moral choice (1 Cor. 6:18-20),
Godly or moral sexual expression is assigned to the boundaries and bonds of monogamous heterosexual marriage (1 Cor. 7:2-5).
Sexual immorality, whether homosexual or heterosexual, is sin and therefore indistinguishable morally in the eyes of God (Heb. 13:4).

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.

By the way, it’s a good reminder to note that far more Christians, as well as the public, struggle with heterosexual immorality than homosexual immorality.

If we could count noses, heterosexual immorality—adultery, affairs—would be the bigger sin in the Christian Church. So, focusing upon homosexuality as worse than heterosexual immorality is socially naïve and morally indefensible.

Ofttimes, it is the nuance of our message that’s important, disagreeing with a moral choice while loving and reaching out to a person. Christ most famously did this in his interaction with the Samaritan Woman at the well (Jn. 4:4-30). He did not condone or endorse her checkered moral history, but he did not reject her either. In fact, he simply spoke the truth with love.

Pride Month is not a time for Christian condemnation or condescension. It’s a time for Christian communication of God’s message of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18-20).

Think about these practical ways to live our Christian worldview during Pride Month:

Christians should never be the ones creating environments in which people want to or must hide in closets.

Teaching biblical doctrines of sin, or specifically not condoning same-sex relationships, is not necessarily homophobia, insensitive, or intolerant. Such teaching could be presented in unloving, condemning ways but need not be. God defines sin but always offers love, forgiveness, redemption, and hope.

There is no biblical or logical justification for bigotry, hatred, gay bashing, bullying, or violence toward LGBTQ+ individuals. Such acts are expressions of fear, not love nor faith.

Christians should support LGBTQ+ people in their basic civil liberties and civil rights as Americans.

Christians should recognize that no sin, other than the ultimate and final rejection of Christ, is an unpardonable sin or an unalterable condition. In my view, LGBTQ+ persons are not defined by their sexual orientation or behavior. The Spirit of God always offers and can enable another Way.

Christians should understand that speaking the truth, which we must do in love, does not necessarily mean this truth will be well received or that we will be appreciated for our faith and our values. But how can we be loving if we do not speak?

Christians can and should be openly friendly toward LGBTQ+ persons. Remember, “They won’t care what you know until they know that you care.” It’s simply “love your neighbor as yourself.”

Well, we’ll see you again soon. For more Christian commentary, be sure to subscribe to this podcast, Discerning What Is Best, or 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.

Details: Written by Rex M. Rogers; Published: 03 June 2022

Have your heard American politics described as Left and Right? Or perhaps Liberal and Conservative, but now there is this new designation, Left or Progressive? What does all this mean?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #27 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.

American culture and therefore politics is divided. Actually, more than divided, it is polarized. We don’t just disagree. We disagree vehemently, sad to say, often hatefully.

This polarization has affected every corner of our culture, including education, entertainment, sports, and religion. On every issue, people line up on one of two sides, what is called the Right or what is called the Left.

The Right is generally considered synonymous with Conservative, and maybe Republican, but not all Republicans are Conservative and not all Conservatives are Republican.

The Right tends to believe in God and country, the existence of absolute truth, personal initiative and responsibility, individual liberty and freedom of religion and speech, national identity and patriotism, capitalism or free enterprise along with equal opportunity, the traditional family, and justice based upon objective and equal law and order.

There was a time not long ago when we typically did not say, Left, but said Liberal.

Interestingly, now forgotten, those who embraced a Liberal point of view were not that different from those who embraced the Right or a Conservative point of view. Sure, Liberal and Conservative differed on the extent of government involvement, but Liberals then and, actually now, tend to believe in God and country, the idea of truth, liberty and freedom of religion and speech, national identity and patriotism, the traditional family, even free enterprise and certainly blind justice based upon identifiable principles of law and order.

Sound familiar? Both Conservatives and Liberals acknowledged America had made terrible mistakes in its past, for no country comprised of sinful people is perfect. But both also celebrated the historical fact that America had made sacrifices and progress toward realizing its founding ideals, that it was the home of the brave and the land of the free.

Then along about the time of the 1960s things began to change. Something called the Left, and more recently Progressives, began to emerge with a set of beliefs diametrically opposed to what the Right or Conservatives believe.

And though media still often uses the terms Liberal and Left interchangeably, this is misleading at best and does not recognize the profoundly different values promoted by the Left, not the least of which is rejection of their own country.

The Left now represents a set of beliefs sharply distinguishable from Liberals and certainly of Conservatives or the Right.

Think of the comedian Bill Maher, a self-avowed Liberal in the classical sense, an atheist or at least agnostic, a brilliant mind and talent capable of hilarious observations and comebacks. He is a Liberal, a late-night talk show host you’d think would embrace the Left and its so-called progressive ideas. But he does not. In fact, he has repeatedly and incisively skewered the illogic, arrogance, and utter lack of realism of the Left, labeling them a threat to liberalism and a free society. He thinks the Left is, well, Nuts, and he’s a Liberal.

What’s ironic if maybe sad is that the best critic of the Left is not someone on the Right but a Liberal, Bill Maher. His monologues on the Left’s excesses are a call to sanity, something the Left with its pell-mell rush to embrace of Woke philosophy does not understand.

The Left tends to eat its own if anyone dares to question basic ideas. This is what cancel culture is about.

J.K. Rowling, the incredibly successful British author of the Harry Potter books, is and always has been a Liberal, clearly and unapologetically. But now she has been systematically vilified, disinvited from a celebration of one of her own movies, criticized by the young actors her books help to make rich and famous, and in general, cancelled. Except she is so wealthy, smart, and therefore powerful, she can push back.

What was J.K. Rowling’s grave offense? She believes in biology. She thinks men are men and women are women, and she argues transgender ideology is a threat to girls and women. Interestingly, she’s not opposed to LGB, nor does she moralize on any of this, she just thinks science is real and gender is not fluid. That’s it.

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.

So, what does the Left believe?

Secular – no creed or Scripture, hostile to religion, no God, generally supports secularizationand total separation of church and state.
Since God did not create human beings in his image, we are socially constructed, either through some social determinism as if we are animals, or through a humanist belief we can make ourselves anything we want to be.
Reject the moral categories of Judeo-Christianity and believe truth is not identified or received but created.
The Left’s compass is guided by power, race, and class.
Since there is no Sovereign God there is no personal sin, so our problems are not moral but social and economics explains most behaviors.
Human beings define their own existence based upon their feelings, subjective, so we end up with rollercoaster emotions and a mentality of endless victimhood.
The Left’s view of humanity promotes a sense of entitlement and a lack of gratitude, hence we are forever unhappy.
The source of improvement is inside us, thus we need to know ourselves and to “dialogue” with others because through dialogue, not debate that implies disagreement or antithesis, but discussion that always must end in a synthesis of ideas, for no idea is wrong or bad.
The Left affirms a strong centrist government and distrusts freedom of speech.
The Left tends to reject national identity and patriotism, then proclaims we are world citizens, typically anti-American, anti-Israel, and anti-Western Civilization, which for the Left’s is an euphemisms for White Supremacy.
Sexual liberation including LGBTQ+, new socially defined gender identity, so biology is irrelevant.
The Left promotes fear and hysteria, anxiety, hence safetyism, for all this increases its power.

From a Christian worldview point of view, the Left is wrong in its pre-theoretical assumptions top to bottom. Once any philosophy rejects God and truth, there’s nothing left but power, which is the Left’s stock in trade.

Sadly, Leftist ideas have hugely and maybe surreptitiously influenced Christian churches and Christian nonprofit organizations in both Europe and the United States, meaning these churches and organizations offer a message little different from the culture around them. Of worse, are often presenting a view contrary to the Word of God as one that advances it.

The Left’s views are morally unsustainable. No human beings can live long and certainly not in a healthy or joyful manner based upon Leftist unbiblical philosophy.

The results of Leftism include: ennui, loss of sense of purpose and creativity or intellectual curiosity and excitement, declining industrial innovation, loss of hope including a desire to marry or have children, fear rather than risk-taking, division, disillusionment, anxiety, despair, a culture of death, an existentialism that gives way to secular nihilism, and…hopelessness.

The Left is now promoting social justice ideology in schools, entertainment, business, and churches. This ideology rejects transcendent biblical morality in favor of an arbitrary, ever-changing “do what’s right in our own eyes” ethic that is sexually licentious and racially divisive. While this is done in the name of advancing what the Left calls the oppressed, what really happens is it creates power for a new set of Leftist oppressors who do not believe in God, grace, or forgiveness.

The Left is godless, irrational, and seductive.

There is no room for Christian compromise with the Left.

Our task in this moment is both great and strategic. Believers must learn to articulate biblical theology. We must learn how to apply our faith in a rapidly changing world, and we must stand for truth in the face of error.

Details: Written by Rex M. Rogers; Published: 30 May 2022

Have you been thinking about the children lost at Uvalde? How can such senseless violence occur?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #26 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.

Robb Elementary School, Uvalde, TX.

Columbine high school (CO), Red Lake high school (MN), West Nickel Mines Amish school (PA), Sandy Hook elementary (CT), Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school (FL), Santa Fe high school (TX).

This somber list records the deadliest school shootings in the United States. It is horrendous. And worse, this list does not even include university shootings or innumerable other gun violence events in which injuries occurred but fewer or no fatalities.

Killing is always gut-wrenching, the killing of innocent children even more so.

Uvalde strikes us like Sandy Hook or West Nickel Mines. Children 6–10 years old. Who could do this? Who can understand this?

When it happens, we wonder how our Christian faith speaks to these kinds of events? What understanding does it provide?

In part, I believe we are living in the last days. I believe that as Jesus tarries his coming, we will witness an ever-greater impact of sin in this fallen world. In the last days, the Scripture tells us there will be (Rom 1, 2 Tim 3, 2 Peter 3, Jude 1):

• people who suppress the truth in their wickedness • terrible times • brutality • evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived • scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires • every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, depravity, envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice • people who invent ways of doing evil • people who are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless • false teachers who introduce destructive heresies.

Things are indeed waxing worse and worse, and mass shootings are now a part of our lived experience.

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.

Life is cheap in these last days in multiple and various ways, e.g., abortion, death-dealing wars including what’s happening with Russia and the Ukraine, random killings, systematic criminal killings like those occurring every weekend in Chicago, school shootings, church shootings, mall shootings.

What makes a young man want to kill children? Is he mentally ill as media often claim? Perhaps he is. I’m not negating the potential of some psychological programs to help troubled young men, if they can be identified and if they will seek help.

But perhaps more often he is not mentally ill. I find it difficult to accept the diagnosis “mental illness” when this shooter and so many others leave evidence that in days or even weeks running up to the event, they scoped out the location, purchased weaponry and ammo, planned what to wear and when to enter the facility, and sometimes planned to die in the process.

This kind of preparation speaks to intelligent if warped intention to me, not mental illness. In most of these cases, the issue at bottom is not psychological or social but moral. The shooter is simply given over to sin. The root of this sin could be his own heart, the individuals around him, the absence of individuals around him, particularly no father in his life, or a declining, morally decrepit American culture. Or it is all the above.

Whatever the source, sin works out as an uncontrollable rage making the young man not only to want to die (mass shooters are often suicidal) but to take as many people with him when he goes as he can.

Rage, an evil emotion-then-behavior rooted in twisted feelings of rejection, inadequacy, loneliness, alienation, and a hopelessness that leads him to believe the lie that the only way his life can have meaning is to end it by seeking revenge upon others in some sensational fashion. The shooter is ready to die and ready to kill in order to create some resentful, bitter, “I’ll-show-you,” meaning to his life.

This kind of evil can develop in the lone gunman or radical terrorists. It is Satan’s fake triumph, conquering the soul of a person created in the image of God who comes to believe God is not there or does not care and all that’s left is nihilism.

So, the primary challenge in the U.S. today is this: though we are “religious” with functioning dominant religions, yet our culture and millions within it are disconnected from profound spiritual moorings. We’ve rejected moral parameters in the mistaken belief our fate is in our own hands, or rather in our own feelings. We think we are social creatures of our own making. We control our own destiny.

Except this doesn’t work, and ironically, it is the disillusioned young gunman who discovers this create-yourself approach to life is found wanting, when what he sees around him and within him offers no hope.

We live in a fallen world where sin is real, and the Devil is the Prince of the power of the air. So evil events will happen. This is not fatalism. It is realism.

We do not know why God allows tragic events like Uvalde. We do know that he knows why and is engaged day by day. This, too, is realism, the truth.

This is where our Christian belief and our testimony should speak to the moment. We know the God of the Bible is present, loves, and provides a path to healing and hope. So, our response to heinous events in which innocent children are gunned down in the U.S. should be multi-layered:

1. Weep with those who weep. Mourn with those who mourn. Pray for the families involved. This means more than bland comments like “our thoughts and prayers are with you.”

2. We don’t blame God, and we help others understand that in the face of evil our God is still sovereign, holy, and just. We must speak and live out this truth in love.

4. We do not live in fear but trust the Lord with our own safety. We know, “The Lord will keep you from all harm—he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore,” (Ps 121:7-8).

The best remedy for hopelessness is hope. Christians of all people should understand this.

Our culture, many troubled souls living near us, and these confused and damaged young men need God’s message of reconciliation, of love, of hope. And it is our time, our moment as believers to share this message.

“Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,” (1 Pet 3:15).

Details: Written by Rex M. Rogers; Published: 24 May 2022

The ancient Greek philosophers famously said, “Know thyself,” even inscribed the phrase on the temple walls to their idol gods, and perhaps this is good advice as far as it goes. But in knowing ourselves, what do we learn, and can we really trust ourselves?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #25 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.

Many years ago, when we lived near New York City where I served as a Christian college administrator, we attended our daughter’s Eighth Grade graduation ceremony. It was a nice outdoor affair conducted with the usual academic pomp and circumstance, complete with commencement speaker and individual diplomas. It was a nice experience for our daughter and her friends.

While I know it is rare indeed to remember anything a commencement speaker says, I’ve never forgotten this speaker’s presentation. This was back in the day when self-esteem was the huge educational if not cultural fad of the moment. Everyone was into raising their self-esteem and books were pouring off the shelves, especially those aimed at women or children.

This speaker, no doubt with good intentions, used the words self, self-esteem, self-awareness, self-acceptance, self-care, even self-actualization at least twenty times in her mercifully brief speech. It was overwhelming. Basically, her message to the graduates was, you owe it to yourself to take care of yourself and the best way to do this is to look inside yourself and pursue whatever your authentic self wishes to do or be.

It all sounded like a wonderful experience of freedom and self-fulfillment.

This exaltation of the self has not gone away in American or Western culture. The self-esteem movement ran hot for some time, eventually resulting in among other things, trophies for every player, effusive praise in the face of error or lack of learning, feel-good affirmations for any and all behavior, thus a generation of children growing up (but not maturing) with a sense of entitlement, little in the way of expectation, a limited work ethic, no vision for themselves, an inability to deal with loss they were never asked to experience, and a sense of meaninglessness.

Some have blamed this movement for the so-called “snowflakes” entering higher education today, students so emotionally fragile that mere unpleasant words trigger their ability to function normally, hence, the arrival of “safe spaces” and politically correct lists of vocabulary allowed in the classroom. And sadly if ironically, for all this attention to the self, young people today are unhappy.

Add to this the ubiquitous Internet: Every day, online influencers essentially say the same thing in thousands of Instagram posts, TikTok videos, and websites promoting products that ostensibly improve the self.

Celebrities model this message as they post daily logs of their lives built around their appearance—beauty and fashion—materialistic excess, jet set lifestyles, opulent homes, non-stop parties, sensuality, and promiscuity.

Whatever they desire, they do, because, well, they are the beautiful people whose lives are a model for us all. No one says it, but the message is, hedonism is healthy.

Self-actualization, indeed, self-aggrandizement, is the ultimate path to the good life, to utopia, to heaven on earth.

Now I understand that some individuals, perhaps because they have been badly mistreated by parents or others, suffer from a serious lack of personal confidence, i.e., self-esteem. I understand this condition, particularly when resulting from emotional or psychological damage, is a very difficult challenge to overcome. I am not minimizing those peoples’ pain or otherwise ignoring their hurt. We should care about them. There is a biblical understanding and a Christian way to encourage and help these people.

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.

What I am saying is that while personal confidence and self-esteem rightly understood are wonderful blessings, promoting a philosophy rooted in humanism – self-esteem or specifically the self, as the answer to all our life problems, does not work.

We hear bland statements like, “Just believe in yourself,” or “Practice self-love,” or “One of the deepest ways to increase confidence is to connect to your inner power.”

Or how about, “The more you believe in yourself, the more you could trust yourself. The more you trust yourself, the less you compare yourself to others.”
― Roy T. Bennett.

“Spirituality is not adopting more beliefs and assumptions but uncovering the best in you.” ― Amit Ray, Beautify Your Breath – Beautify Your Life.

“No one knows your truth but you. If you're secure in yourself, no one and no(thing) can touch you.” ― Brittany Burgunder.

The problem with all these comments that in essence say, Trust yourself, is that yourself is inherently untrustworthy. That’s right, you the self, and me the self, are untrustworthy.

The time in which we live is often called Postmodernity, and the dominant philosophy of our day is called Postmodernism. “Postmodernism views human beings as autonomous, self-determining agents…Gone is any notion of a transcendent, objective moral law, or even the natural laws of modernity. Reality is now subjective, the product of human minds.”

“Because postmodernism sees all reality as subjective, we no longer have a basis for human rights. Life and liberty have been replaced by a new overarching human right: ‘The right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.’” But this autonomous self, little gods, leads to social chaos. (Scott David Allen. Why Social Justice Is Not Biblical Justice.)

On the other hand, a Judeo-Christian worldview sees our times and our place in it differently, which is to say, accurately. While we as human beings are made in the image of God and as such are blessed with eternal value, significance, and meaning, while made in the image of God we are blessed with a right and righteous sense that God loves each and every one of us. We as individual selves are somebody. We can and should, therefore, possess a humble self-esteem based upon this knowledge.

But because of the Fall, because of sin, each human being is born in sin and possesses a sinful, depraved heart.

Jer. 17:9 reminds us, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”

Rom. 3:10 says, “As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one.”

Rom. 3:23 states, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

And there is a remedy,

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).

In the book of Ephesians, the Apostle Paul speaks directly to the issue:

“You were taught with regard to the former way of life to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires, to be made new in the attitude of your minds, and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4:22-24).

The Word of God describes humanity as we are – created in God’s image and uniquely, ultimately valuable, that is, We all matter. But we are also members of a sinful, fallen human race, capable of great evil and in need of redemption provided through Christ.

The point is, if we simply look inside ourselves, we find a sinful heart. We find someone untrustworthy. We find attitudes and values that do not conform to what God wants for us, which is to say what is best for us.

So, if we really want to improve ourselves, to change the self, we need to look not inside but outside ourselves to gain perspective, to know who we are, and to discover what may be done to bless our lives.

The self cannot fix or save itself. Let me say that again, the self cannot fix or save itself.

Pursuing the self’s natural desires leads us into hopeless hedonism, a toxic brew of shiny objects that only leads us on the broad path of destruction.

Meanwhile, God has not left us adrift. So, don’t trust yourself.

Rather,

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart

And lean not on your own understanding;

In all your ways acknowledge him,

And he will make your paths straight” (Prov. 3:5-6).

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