Rex M Rogers - Discerning What Is Best

Discerning What Is Best
with Dr. Rex M. Rogers

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 04 March 2024

Do you realize the rate of growth of the world’s population is declining, that there are not as many babies as their used to be, and, oh yes, why does this matter?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #136 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.

Today, countries in the European Union, Canada, the U.S. – Japan and China too – are experiencing a birth rate below what is needed for natural population replacement. For example, the U.S. fertility rate, is 1.78 – the average number of children born to a woman over her reproductive lifetime – while the needed replacement rate is 2.08. If nothing changed in this trend, in a matter of decades the U.S. population would shrink out of existence.

For some perspective, consider that “the global population grew only very slowly up to 1700 – only 0.04% per year. In the many millennia up to that point in history very high mortality of children counteracted high fertility. Once health improved, and mortality declined things changed quickly.” In the past two centuries, world population has increased 7-fold.

Another way of grasping the numbers is to realize that “in 1800, there were one billion people. Today there are more than 8 billion.”

Population scholars predict world population will “reach a peak of around 10.4 billion people during the 2080s.”

Meanwhile, while 10.4 billion sounds astronomical, “the global population is (actually) growing at its slowest rate since 1950, having fallen to less than one per cent in 2020. Fertility…has fallen markedly in recent decades for many countries:

today, two-thirds of the global population lives in a country or area where lifetime fertility is below 2.1 births per woman, roughly the level required for zero growth in the long run, for a population with low mortality.

In 61 countries or areas, the population is expected to decrease by at least one per cent over the next three decades, as a result of sustained low levels of fertility and, in some cases, elevated rates of emigration.”

“More than half of the projected increase in the global population up to 2050 will be concentrated in (just) eight countries (most in sub-Saharan Africa): the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Nigeria, the United Republic of Tanzania, (then) India, Pakistan, and the Philippines.”

Meanwhile, “the world should expect to see far more grey hairs by 2050: by then, it is expected that the number of persons aged 65 years or over worldwide will be more than twice the number of children under the age of five.”

“Europe is the continent with the oldest population. This is creating problems for healthcare and pensions.”

To alter this scenario, Finland is now paying families $10,970 per child. Other European countries are also trying to reverse the continent’s falling birthrate. Greece is offering cash incentives of $2,235 per birth. “Hungary’s Prime Minister…has described fertility clinics as a strategic priority for his country…All young families in Hungary are offered a loan, but that loan will be written off if they have a third child. While a woman who has four children will be permanently exempt from paying income tax.”

Migration (was at one time considered an answer to depopulation, but) has also proved to be a source of political tension in some countries.”

Now the question becomes, why is this happening? Why are people all over the world, except in a few Sub-Saharan and Far Eastern countries, having fewer children, so much fewer the populations of their countries are declining?

Why, after centuries of slow growth, then two centuries of astounding growth, are families across the globe having fewer children?

A few proximate causes come to mind:

Greater availability of birth control, the pill, various contraceptives, chemical, IUD, and other means,
Abortion on demand
Disease
Famine
War

While these variables may act as proximate causes of depopulation, none of these variables are really global. Most are regional if not local occurrences.

So why are most countries of the world declining in population? Well, they are having fewer births than deaths.

OK, but why? Well, they have access to birth control, etc. Yes, but these are a means to an end.

Why are people choosing to have fewer children? What is the ultimate cause of people from disparate cultures having fewer children? Have they forgotten how to make babies?

No, the root cause for family’s choosing to have fewer children is that they now look upon children, family, responsibility, sacrifice, and the idea of progeny much different than they did in the past.

Family was once a given in virtually everyone’s experience. Family was considered a key ingredient not only to a person’s healthy coming of age, but also as an essential building block to the maintenance and flourishing of a free society.

One basis for the well-being of given families, and a primary reason that families were considered indispensable for strong and healthy societies, is because religion—certainly Christianity—blessed and provided values necessary for family function, meaning, and efficacy.

Not so anymore.

Now, in post-Christian culture in America, and postmodern culture worldwide,

two-parent families are often treated as one option among many,
nuclear families are not regarded as critical to children’s balanced upbringing,
children are themselves considered a luxury, a nuisance, an economic burden, obstacles to adults’ self-fulfillment.
and children, i.e., population growth, are viewed as a threat to controlling climate change.

For example, “climate doomsday cult member claims it is immoral and selfish to have children due to the amount of "carbon" they will emit over their lifetimes…Every single child in an industrial country like ours is around 500 tons of carbon over their lifetime. That's the equivalent of 1000 years.”

Postmodern couples worldwide are choosing to have fewer children because they:

hold religious views that diminish the idea of children or family,
look upon children as commodities or consumer choices rather than gifts from God,
value self-fulfillment, i.e., personal sexual liberation, professional advance, income, and travel more than they value children,
believe mass and social media proclamations about how dangerous it is to have children in the face of climate change,
have adopted pessimistic, fearful worldviews re the future – and perhaps understandably so, given these worldviews are rooted in non-Christian, unbiblical, ahistorical, and inaccurate understandings of life,

Meanwhile, population reduction is promoted by globalist elites, who by the way, also promote culture of death ideas like euthanasia, now being referred to by the acronym MAID or “Medical Assistance In Dying,” a philosophy and policy for which Canada is out in front of the U.S.

At genesis of the earth, time, and humanity, God created human beings, male and female, commanded them to be fruitful and multiply, and then reinforced the idea of family and children in other passages throughout the Scripture.

This does not mean that couples who choose not to have children or to have fewer children, for a variety of reasons including circumstances, health, and more, are somehow ipso facto out of the will of God or in some way second class citizens in God’s eyes. The commandments in Genesis 1 were made for all humanity and its wellbeing, not as a detailed plan for every person (Gen 1:27-28).

But the principle remains: children are an heritage of the Lord (Ps 127:3-5). Societies that try to play God as the Chinese did with their one-child policy, now reversed, will find they are not very good at being God.

Children, youth, young adults are needed not only to perpetuate humanity but to provide energy, innovativeness, work and productivity, strength and protection, care for children and the elderly, optimism, and hope. Children are a blessing.

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 or https://twitter.com/RexMRogers.

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 28 February 2024

Have you heard of Christian nationalism and wondered what it really means?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #135 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.

“The idea of a Christian America means different things to different people. Pollsters have found a wide circle of Americans who hold general God-and-country sentiments. But within that is a smaller…group who also check other boxes in surveys – such as that the U.S. Constitution was inspired by God and that the federal government should declare the U.S. a Christian nation, advocate Christian values or stop enforcing the separation of church and state.”

This perspective has come to be called Christian nationalism.

“Christian nationalism attempts to fuse the standards of Christianity with the ideals of nationalism. This movement is founded on the belief that God has bestowed a unique privilege and responsibility upon a particular country to represent Christ. Therefore, Christian nationalists consider it their duty to promote and defend the tenets of the Christian faith at all costs and in every public arena.”

“American Christian nationalism has been a constant theme throughout our nation’s history, beginning with the Puritans. The movement saw a modern resurgence during the Cold War era when many evangelical leaders characterized America as God’s chosen victor against the Soviet communists. The idea of America being “God’s elect” grew over time and has been perpetuated by those who feel a moral obligation to preserve that chosen status—through governmental, social, and political activism.”

I remember attending a God and Country rally in Canton, Ohio, probably in the late 1960s. The speaker was a noted Christian leader who had morphed his presentation from evangelism to “America, love it or leave it.” The large gymnasium where the event was held was draped in more red, white, and blue bunting and flags than I had at that point ever seen. When the man spoke, communism was his biggest boogieman and he did what I later came to understand as “wrap the Bible in the flag,” meaning he interpreted verses in terms of American patriotism. I’ve always been glad for that one experience with this, though I don’t condone the man’s approach.

It’s one thing to say the beginning and underpinning of the USA was heavily if not thoroughly Judeo-Christian in philosophy and principle. It is another thing entirely to claim the USA was or should be a “Christian nation” as such.

It is one thing to believe and point to historical evidence that God has indeed blessed the USA with seemingly unique opportunities – what’s called “American exceptionalism” – and it is another thing to claim that the USA was “chosen” by God or given a special mandate no other nation has been granted.

It’s one thing to say America has or should honor the Sovereign God of the Bible and another thing to assert that God always and exclusively honors America.

Christian nationalism typically argues the US is a Christian nation, it is chosen with a special mandate, and God honors America.

Now, “history provides ample support that Christian (beliefs have) played a vital role in our country’s origin story. The Constitution of the United States was written with a clear Judeo-Christian worldview and designed to govern its citizens with laws inspired by biblical standards, while allowing freedom of religious expression. The Declaration of Independence mentions God four times, directly connecting each reference to New Testament ideals. One need only review the political speeches of our Founding Fathers, filled with biblical quotes and references, to realize that our nation bears a distinctly Christian heritage.”

“While history proves America’s Judeo-Christian roots, it does not suggest that our Founders sanctioned the establishment of a Christian nation. The second clause of the First Amendment expressly prohibits Congress from adopting any form of a national religion: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the exercise thereof.”

“The Rev. Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, said he doesn’t identify as a Christian nationalist, but does believe America was founded as a Christian nation.”

“’I’m not claiming that all of our founders were Christians,’...‘Some were deists, some were atheists, but the majority were Christians. I’m also not saying that non-Christians shouldn’t have the same rights as Christians in our country.’ But… ‘there’s a case to be made that the Judeo-Christian faith was the foundation for our laws and many of our principles.’”

Pastor Jeffress’s comments are sophisticated and properly nuanced. But there are others, many who claim faith in Christ, who are not nuanced and instead seem aggressive and at times belligerent.

That said, we have to be careful with this term “Christian nationalism.”

“Christian Nationalism” has become a junk box into which everyone piles his own conceptions. But it’s not monolithic. Three dominant perspectives on Christian Nationalism have arisen over the past several years. Some equate Christian Nationalism with rioting at the U.S. Capitol on January 6. Others say it’s any attempt to enforce God’s law in a country. Others claim it’s advocating for Christian values on issues such as abortion.”

“For some, (like Pastor Jeffress) Christian Nationalism simply means that Christianity has influenced and should continue to influence the nation.

They argue America was founded on transcendent Christian principles. The Declaration of Independence affirms “all men are created equal” and “are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Such a principle is worthy of Christian advocacy alongside a biblical view of issues like marriage, sexuality, and abortion. Our nation would be improved by affirming the goodness of natural law principles.

In the best sense, this form of Christian Nationalism doesn’t attempt to dominate the political process or to make the nation completely Christian but seeks instead to bring change by persuasion. Rather than trying to overthrow the government, adherents advocate their cause by supporting laws, electing candidates, podcasting, writing, and developing think tanks. They won’t force their opinions, but they also won’t back down from arguing for them.”

“Religion will always have a place in politics…The best form of Christian Nationalism advocates for Christian principles just like secular nationalism advocates for secular principles.”

But some “Christian nationalists want to define America as a Christian nation and they want the government to promote a specific cultural template as the official culture of the country. Some have advocated for an amendment to the Constitution to recognize America’s Christian heritage, others to reinstitute prayer in public schools. Some work to enshrine a Christian nationalist interpretation of American history in school curricula, including that America has a special relationship with God or has been “chosen” by him to carry out a special mission on earth. Others advocate for immigration restrictions specifically to prevent a change to American religious and ethnic demographics or a change to American culture. Some want to empower the government to take stronger action to circumscribe immoral behavior.”

Those who politically oppose Christian moral values, have seized upon the label Christian nationalism, painting Christian believers, conservatives, Trump supporters, Republicans in general, and anyone else who opposes leftist, progressive views, as, pejoratively, “extremist,” or “racist,” and in fact equating Christian values, Christian nationalism, extremism, racism, and white supremacy.

“In the wake of the January 6 attack on the Capitol, the term "Christian nationalism" has become synonymous with white Christian identity politics, a belief system that asserts itself as an integral part of American identity overall.”

So, the term Christian nationalism is at minimum problematic and at some juncture unbiblical.

Christian nationalism in its most developed state as a political philosophy does not align with Scripture because it:

1. Ties the Lord Jesus Christ to a political agenda.

2. Contends there is but one – the – political program for believers.

3. Waters down the truth by equating political goals with the Gospel.

4. Uncritically aligns the Scripture with the USA as a nation state, meaning the US can do no wrong.

5. Wraps the Bible in the US flag.

As noted earlier, there is one positive that should not be forgotten: “all together, this history has left America with a civil religion, (a public Judeo-Christian moral consensus that makes e Pluribus Unum possible) something profoundly helpful for social cohesion but not always good for theological orthodoxy.”

It is this civil religion that is today fracturing at the foundations.

Christians can and should engage in politics. They should apply their faith to political issues. But believers should always remember, it is the Word of God that stands above and critiques partisan politics, culture, and country, not the other way around.

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

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 26 February 2024

Have you stopped to consider that what’s been called “climate change” involves a great deal more than the weather, that indeed it involves liberty and democracy?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #134 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.

“We’re constantly told the world will plunge into an existential climate cataclysm if average planetary temperatures rise another few tenths of a degree, due to using fossil fuels for reliable, affordable energy, raw materials for over 6,000 vital products, and lifting billions out of poverty, disease and early death.

Yet, “in the real world, climate has changed numerous times, often dramatically, sometimes catastrophically, and always naturally. Multiple ice ages and interglacial periods, Roman and Medieval warm periods, a Little Ice Age, major floods, droughts and dust bowls all actually happened – long before fossil fuels.”

What we need to understand is that “climate change is the Left's religion. The messaging is as heavy-handed as catechism in a religious school.”

Climate change proponents are becoming increasingly alarmist.

Speaking on a panel at the WEF's annual Davos summit, John Kerry's daughter, Vanessa Kerry, attempted to paint the "climate crisis" as a "health crisis," going on to express concern that the UN Agenda 2030 sustainable development goals are "losing progress." She said, "2023 was an apocalyptic year in terms of extreme weather events... That is about to get worse."

Fanatical globalist, socialist, and climate alarmists are now advancing their climate change religion with concepts like “any means necessary” or “Nothing off limits. They are openly calling for vast changes and control of agriculture, elimination of use of fossil fuels, and in a real case of “jumping the shark,” for the hysterical, systematic reduction of the world’s population.

Climate Change activists are now showing their true philosophic colors, i.e., Leftist activists are anti-freedom attacking democracies, anti-human claiming human population must be reduced, and anti-farmers blaming farms and cows for their fantasies. This is their inconvenient truth.

For example, a “climate doomsday cult member claims it is immoral and selfish to have children due to the amount of "carbon" they will emit over their lifetimes…
Every single child in an industrial country like ours is around 500 tons of carbon over their lifetime. That's the equivalent of 1000 years of electricity for a household. So each child has an impact."

“Lobbying for more climate regulation is to enhance the power of the authoritarian state, not protect the environment. The radical Left has the world obsessing over whether we have 10, 20 or 50 years before the eve of destruction. The hysteria gives the government the excuse it needs for more controls over the energy we use, the products we purchase, the homes we live in, the food we eat, and since the pandemic when we can leave our homes.”

“Climate change is one of those issues and it’s an agenda being driven by the left to limit our freedoms, control our choices, and implement the largest redistribution of wealth the world has ever seen. The Biden Administration is constantly working to drive the agenda, whether it’s going after gas stoves and everyday home appliances, forcing the car industry to produce unreliable and unaffordable electric vehicles, or sending billions of tax dollars overseas to comply with worthless -- yet expensive -- globalist climate pacts.”

Of course, climate does indeed change, but there is no climate crisis.

“The problem here is unmitigated scaremongering…A new survey shows that 60% of all people in rich countries now believe it's likely or very likely that unmitigated climate change will lead to the end of mankind."

But let’s think about climate for a moment in more objective, that is to say biblically Christian terms:

The world’s climate has changed repeatedly throughout known history.
Human beings cannot control the climate.
Scripture tells us, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it,the world, and all who live in it” Ps 24:1.

Following the flood, the Lord said to Noah, “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease” Gen. 8:21-22.

So, if the Sovereign God is in charge, what should we think about life on planet earth?

The shepherd psalmist told us:

“Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging” Ps. 46:2-3.

Globalist elite, climate change advocates are now spouting a constant, louder, and more hysterical message regarding ostensible climate change.

Population decrease, or slow down. or at least stabilization is their new culture-of-death goal, this despite the fact that Western Europe, Canada, and the United States—even China and Japan—are now behind the replacement rate for maintaining a healthy population.

Here are some ways in which climate change alarmists propose to achieve population stabilization or reduction:

Advocates stress the importance of ensuring universal access to voluntary family planning services, what they call Reproductive Health Services, including contraception and reproductive health education.
Climate change advocates often support policies and programs aimed at increasing educational opportunities for girls and women—OK, but they really want to promote having fewer children.
Addressing poverty and improving living standards can also contribute to lower birth rates, promoting smaller family sizes.
Advocates emphasize the importance of shifting towards more sustainable consumption patterns, including reducing meat consumption (eating bugs?), minimizing waste, and embracing renewable energy sources.

In the politics of our time, the clarion call of globalism echoes with increasing fervor, wielding climate change as its chosen banner. Yet, globalist notions regarding climate change pose a threat not only to national sovereignty but to individual liberties and economic prosperity. Globalism seeks to erode the sovereignty of nations under the guise of environmental stewardship.

While climate change may exist at some level and should be considered, it is not the climate crisis globalist elites claim. It does not require globalist agendas, which entail sweeping policy measures that would empower supranational entities at the expense of democratic governance. Such measures threaten the very fabric of our constitutional order and undermine the principles of self-determination upon which ours and other Western societies are built.

The specter of globalist climate policies looms large over the economic landscape, promising draconian regulations and onerous taxes that would stifle innovation and entrepreneurship. By shackling industry with burdensome restrictions, these proposals jeopardize the livelihoods of millions and impede the engine of economic growth that has propelled human progress for centuries, especially more recently in capitalist Western societies.

But most troubling of all is the encroachment upon individual liberties that accompanies the ascent of globalist climate agendas. Under the guise of combating climate change, proponents of globalism seek to impose restrictions on personal behavior, curtail freedom of speech, and expand the reach of government into every facet of our lives. In this brave new world envisioned by globalist ideologues, the rights of the individual are sacrificed on the altar of collective salvation.

It is imperative that we resist the allure of globalist ideas about climate change and instead reaffirm our commitment to national sovereignty, individual liberty, and free-market principles.

By rejecting the false promises of globalism and embracing a vision of environmental stewardship grounded in local autonomy and individual responsibility, we can forge a path forward that preserves both the health of our planet and the vitality of our democratic institutions. In the final analysis, the threat posed by globalist ideas about climate change is not merely a matter of environmental policy but a question of fundamental values and principles.

We must stand firm in defense of national sovereignty, liberty, and prosperity, lest we succumb to the seductive, siren song of globalism and sacrifice the very foundations of our civilization upon the altar of a false sense of security.

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

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 25 February 2024

Deep Thoughts

1. When you hear, “Trust the science” or “the science is settled” is this truth or propaganda?

2. How is it science must be trusted re climate change or vaccines but must be ignored re biological sex?

3. Does it make sense that globalist elites, who wish to control climate change, ostensibly preserving the world for future generations, are now calling for the reduction of the world’s population in order to advance climate goals?

4. And why would globalists call for reduction in populations in EU countries or the U.S. or Canada or even China and Japan wherein every country’s birth replacement rate is insufficient to maintain a healthy population?

5. Is peace at any price desirable, or morally defensible? Are you sure?

6. Is peace simply the cessation of violence?

7. Is it true that violence always breeds more violence, or is violence sometimes the only remedy to stopping violence?

8. If trans women are really women why do they keep calling themselves trans women?

9. What matters more in the crucible of life, one’s immutable biological sex or one’s pronouns du jour?

10. If the USA is the objectionable heritage, culture, and country that progressive, leftist social justice ideologues say that it is, why do thousands of illegal immigrants-undocumenteds-migrants want to live in America?

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 19 February 2024

Ever wonder why, in the face of evil, pain, and suffering that God does not return now? Why does he seemingly delay the Rapture and Resurrection, and hence his later Second Coming?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #133 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 recently wrote a blog for the ministry with which I serve, SAT-7 USA, called “Living in the Worst of Times.” The title is borrowed from Charles Dickens’s introduction to his 1859 novel, A Tale of Two Cities, in which he famously wrote:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.”

Dickens tells us about a time of chaos, conflicts, and despair, as well as some happiness and progress, but mostly contrast and futility, two steps forward, three steps back.

If you were to think about our current time you could draw your own conclusion. Is this the best of times, or is it the worst of times?

I confess that several social developments have occurred in the past few years that I never expected, and not only that, which surprised, maybe shocked, even discouraged me.

It does not take rocket-science intellect to note things like US government overreach in response to the pandemic, i.e., the willingness of political leaders and bureaucrats to take unconstitutional actions, and the willingness of much of the public to accept it.

In 2020, following the tragic death of George Floyd at the hands of police officers in Minneapolis, a summer of lawlessness broke out in cities across the country. Then came the nonsensical “defund the police” movement.

Maybe this was predictable, but what discouraged me was the “soft on crime” approach of governors, mayors, and district attorneys, because supposedly the looters deserved to steal and destroy because they were poor or minorities or because discrimination exists.

This refusal to enforce the law continues in California, Portland, Chicago, New York, and many other cities, even as police are at times told to stand down.

More recently we’ve witnessed the President of the US intentionally refuse to enforce the law and therefore has allowed millions of illegal migrants to flow across the southern border, unvetted and unknown. Yes, some are indeed actual asylum-seeking families. But many others are not refugees, but like in Europe, fake refugees, mostly younger men of military age seeking handouts – which again amazingly, so-called sanctuary cities are providing, supported by American taxpayers: cell phones, cash, food vouchers, free rooms, free healthcare.

More mind bending is the President recently saying he’s done everything he can do to stem the tide, forgive me, an outright lie that any attorney can demonstrate. It’s willful dereliction of duty and degradation of American society in the interest of perceived political power.

Last example, and this one really did shock me: Even though I spent my early years in higher education, and even though I have followed the philosophic and moral freefall in public universities and the neo-Marxist ideology promoted in those universities, I still was caught off-guard by the widespread antisemitism, pro-Hamas rallies, and blatant hatred of Jews expressed by American university students in the streets and on campuses – and they had the audacity to yell their antisemitic attitudes not just at a people group half a world away but at fellow students, professors, and others who are Americans, but also Jewish. It’s still happening.

One additional amazing thing is how many of these students or others in the street have no idea what they are protesting or why. Some do, of course, but many are clueless, simply following the maddening crowd.

This made me think of two Scripture passages that detail city riots protesting the Apostle Paul’s ministry:

In Acts 19, “the assembly was in confusion: Some were shouting one thing, some another. Most of the people did not even know why they were there” Acts 19:32.

Then again in Acts 21, “Some in the crowd shouted one thing and some another, and since the commander could not get at the truth because of the uproar, he ordered that Paul be taken into the barracks” Acts 21:34.

Nearly 3,000 years ago, King Solomon summarized this human issue in a principle, saying, “What has been, will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun” Ecc. 1:9.

This kind of mass hysteria has been evident in cities across the globe. Some say they are protesting for human rights, some because the US or Israel are supposedly “colonialist” or “settler” states – and these people, in particular, don’t know their history.

It’s not unlike the “person in the street” interviews you’ve seen wherein young adults cannot name the country the US fought to win its independence, or whether the North or South won the Civil War, or who is the current Vice President, or even that Hamas radicals butchered innocent Israelis of all ages, and perpetrated even worse, graphic and gross crimes against humanity that I’ll spare you from listing here.

Despite the fact that some Hamas terrorists wore GoPro cameras filming their atrocities, video now released to the public, some protesters deny 10/7 ever happened.

These protesters try to stop traffic on major highways, attempt to shut down LAX, or block vehicle tunnels, risking their lives perhaps in some instances, and certainly not engaging in legal peaceful assembly, yet many don’t know why they are there.

Is this mass hysteria as I mentioned? Maybe. Is this the product of indoctrination, i.e., certainly not critical thinking and not liberal learning, but more like the misled Muslim men we see chanting in the streets not only in Tehran but now in Berlin or London or Paris?

During Jesus’ earthly ministry, he witnessed something like this. In Matthew 9, it says, “Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” Matt. 9:35-36.

Americans, or if you wish Westerners in general, despite the vast religious, educational, and political blessings of Western civilization, are today harassed and helpless. We’ve created our own “worst of times.”

Our culture is looking for answers everywhere except in the old, over-sized Bible that nearly every American family maintained during the 1800s and much of the 1900s.

Our culture has been on a 60-year bender rejecting or redefining the religious and philosophic roots that made it possible for Western civilization and specifically the United States to flourish in the first place.

“In God We Trust”? No. God is dead, or at least inconsequential until it’s time to hope “the man upstairs” decides we’ve done enough good things to get into heaven.

Sin is medicalized, redefined as disease, or maybe described in media as “He struggled with his demons,” but either way, set aside is any need to own our moral choices, to take responsibility, and then to seek help outside ourselves in the person of God himself. No, we are told to “trust your heart” and “seek your own truth.”

We’re told to blame the environment, our upbringing, our race or ethnicity or our biological sex – these are the source of our problems, not us and not our heart. The solution is psychology and therapist, not theology and pastor, much less the love and accountability of a nuclear family.

In our contempt for truth, we embrace mendacity, not moral right and wrong.

Crime has decreased only because we now define certain formerly illegal acts as acceptable. Police are turned into social workers. As my friend says, “We’re told to follow the science, political science that is.”

It is not a stretch, not an exaggeration, to describe our culture as “harassed and helpless,” and it will remain hopeless if we continue to jettison Judeo-Christian values, the Church, and most importantly the Gospel of Christ.

So, with all that, why doesn’t Jesus return now?

2 Peter gives us the answer:

“But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” 2 Peter 3:8-9.

God created freedom of religion, freedom of choice. God waits, allowing more helpless and harassed to hear the Word of Truth and come to Christ.

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

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 05 February 2024

How many times have you entered personal information online in order to purchase an item that does not have anything to do with the information you shared? Are we really safe in the emerging brave new world of digital existence?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #131 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.

We now live in a mass surveillance digital world. Likely, there is not a week goes by that you and I are not recorded somehow someway in what we view, read, purchase online, perhaps were we go.Maybe not a day goes by that we are not under a camera when we are out on our daily routine.

When we spend time online, we leave a digital footprint, the collection of all our online actions and data traces. When this is accessed by corporations to ascertain our interests or inclinations, we then can be subject to online advertising, political propaganda, and more. And if we can be targeted for marketing, what’s to stop governments from targeting us for control?

The pandemic was a chlorine shock to the pool, energizing government’s interest in tracking citizens, including discussions over whether to create a new system of digital vaccine “passports.”

Today, a track-and-trace society has begun rapidly developing on at least five levels:

Mass surveillance with CCTV cameras now located in public spaces in virtually every American city, making possible along with computers, a mass surveillance society.
Geo-location technologycapable of tracking where we are if not what we are doing at any given moment.
Biometric technology, including fingerprints, facial recognition, iris recognition and retina scans, and voice recognition, hand or palm geometry, vein recognition, and behavioral biometrics like someone’s walking gait.
Digital identificationbecoming the fundamental means of commerce and communication, methods and tools used to establish and confirm an individual's identity in cyberspace, especially “PII,” Personally Identifiable Information, which refers to any data that can be used to identify a specific individual.
Digital banking and digital currency, including CBDC, which “stands for central bank digital currency, a digital form of legal tender currency that is issued by a country’s central bank. Like other forms ofdigital currency, such as cryptocurrency, a CBDC is only available in electronic form.”

Mass Surveillance

CCTV cameras, display devices, and data networks are, well, “everywhere.”

“Video surveillance systems are used in public and private sectors, such as schools, homes or public spaces for crime prevention purposes.”

“The average city has 11 surveillance cameras per 1,000 people. The most-watched city, Atlanta, has over 124 cameras per 1,000 people…New York City had the highest number of cameras in total: 70,882.” Only cities in China operate with more cameras per capita than Atlanta.

“Crime rates aren’t reduced by having more cameras in place. In fact, the city that is arguably the most watched of all (DC), has seen violent crime skyrocket recently.”

“In the past decade, the capabilities of surveillance cameras have been transformed by fundamental shifts in how digital data is gathered, analyzed, shared and stored…Deep learning and AI are becoming more prevalent, as cameras are able to more accurately gather data and make predictions based on integrated analytical software manufacturers have developed. While the shift to a ‘smart home’ environment is also playing its role, as consumers have easier access than ever to easy-to-install wireless devices and doorbell cameras.”

But of course, the images and data recorded can be accessed, depending upon security systems, by a wide variety of actors for the purpose of crime, not crime prevention.

Geo-Tracking

Geo-tracking is also increasingly more sophisticated and intrusive. Beginning with users turning on the location signal on their phones or their social media apps, combined with GPS technology, it’s possible now to track almost anyone. This is increasingly used in non-military, non-law enforcement scenarios. Have you heard of people tracking Elon Musk or Taylor Swift’s private jets?

Biometric Systems

“We are building near-perfect facial recognition technology and other identifiers, from the human gait to breath to iris. Biometric databases are being set up in such a way that these individual identifiers are centralized, insecure, and opaque. Then there is the capacity for geo-location of identifiers—that is, the tracking of digital “you”—in real time. A constant feed of insecure data from the Internet of Things may well connect you (and your identity) to other identities and nodes on the network without your consent.”

“Ultimately, social credit systems, such as those that are currently being developed in China, will be based on digital ID, thereby enabling or disabling our full and free participation in society.”

Digital Identification

Have you seen the commercial featuring a couple of happy 20-somethings paying for their retail purchase by holding their hand over a palm-reader device?

Amazon One’s palm-scanning payment system was “first introduced in 2020. Amazon’s biometric payment technology works by creating a unique palm print for each customer, which Amazon associates with a credit card the customer inserts in the sign-up kiosk upon initial setup, or with a card the customer has configured online in advance…These palm print images are encrypted and stored in a secure area in the AWS cloud, built for Amazon One, with restricted employee access...”

It began rolling out in Whole Foods stores in the United States since 2021, to pay for her groceries.

“Amazon has argued that palm reading is a more private form of biometrics because you can’t determine someone’s identity just by looking at their palm images. However, the company isn’t just storing palm images — it’s creating a customer database that matches palm images with other information.”

“Amazon said a customer’s palm data is not shared with third parties and is kept safe within Amazon’s Web Services cloud.” But who believes this?

Arguable Benefits of DI:

More security and stronger privacy, banking, health records, travel including digital vaccine passports, insurance, criminal justice, proof of identity for displaced refugees.

Possible Threats of DI:

Dangers to personal and economic privacy and human rights like freedom of speech and expression, geolocation and freedom of movement; facial recognition; residents and businesses are being encouraged to share private security cameras with police but others also have access; public or even home surveillance cameras are increasingly available via websites on the internet; growth of digital authoritarianism, “the use of digital tools to surveil, repress, and manipulate domestic and foreign populations” is on the rise globally – this can be foreign governments like China or it can be Big Tech companies like Google, Meta, or others who see ways to use surveillance data to maximize their profits.

Will Digital Identification Data Really Be Safe?

Safety, security, and privacy are touted as key advantages of digital identification. Yet think of the corporations that have experienced catastrophic data breaches in the hundreds of millions of accounts in just the past few years: Equifax, Marriott, Target, Capitol One, SolarWinds, Yahoo, Facebook, J.P. Morgan Chase, Home Depot, and many more. “The Aadhaar program, India’s national digital ID framework—the world’s largest—was recently shown to be compromised.”

If these giant corporations and governments cannot guarantee secure data, why should we believe any organization or government tomorrow can do so?

“Governments around the world have been investing heavily in digital identification systems, often with biometric components. The rapid proliferation of such systems is driven by a new development consensus, packaged and promoted by key global actors like the World Bank, (and globalists like the World Economic Forum) but also by governments, foundations, vendors and consulting firms.”

“We can make another choice. In the design and deployment of Digital ID systems, we must advocate for the principles of data minimization, decentralization, consent, and limited access that reinforce our fundamental rights.”

Mass surveillance and digital identification may not be ipso facto evil or threatening, but they certainly can be. Be aware.

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

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