Two New eBooks at Amazon Kindle!
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- Written by Rex M. Rogers
Politically, I keep wondering:
1) Why must Christians, Evangelicals (for that matter any religious group), Republicans or Democrats declare absolute fidelity to a person/politician/Party no matter what? That one and only view becomes my way or the highway, with no wiggle room allowed.
2) When did critical, independent thinking become unacceptable? There is very little of either on social media.
3) Why can’t we salute good ideas/policies/behaviors while also critiquing or rejecting poor ideas/policies/behaviors, rather than assuming all-or-none positions?
4) When did your Party’s Pols become Angels and the other Party’s Pols become Demons? Seems to me there’s plenty of bad behavior to go around.
5) Isn’t it possible to support the President or other politicians, or not, without defending carte blanche their bad ideas/policies, poor behavior, or given actions?
6) Isn’t it possible even desirable for our argument to offer criticism (on the merits) of those with whom we disagree without adopting the current trend toward loathing and demeaning language? This embrace of name-calling and rancor among Christians is even more difficult to understand or justify. In fact, it is senseless. There is no justification for using insulting language to describe one’s political opponents. It’s juvenile at best.
I’ve always enjoyed discussing religion and politics, and I am privileged to have earned a Ph.D. in Political Science. But the political rancor that built in the 2000s and exploded in 2016 made it virtually impossible to discuss political perspectives-policies-politicians without dividing any group, often to the point of hard feelings. Very few people, it seems, can debate politics objectively, i.e., without getting us vs. them emotional.
Since I value friendships (and since I represent a nonprofit organization) more than politicking, I quit posting, stopped raising political or even most contemporary issues among family and friends, and even wrote an article on “The Death of Discussion.”
Since 2016, demeaning insults (on both sides of the partisan aisle) that pass for intellectual discourse have only gotten worse. My choice to “go dark” is not for everyone. I miss good debates, and I think non-discussion is bad for citizenship and democracy. But I still value those friendships and I don’t see any changes other than more ugliness in 2020.
Only in the past two weeks, in the wake of the overreach, unconstitutional, and unnecessary actions by state governors, including Michigan’s Governor Gretchen Whitmer, have I re-engaged politically on social media. I do this not for partisan interests, because I have none, but out of great concern for the preservation of American civil liberties.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.
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Should freedom of mobility, privacy, commerce, and civil liberties, including assembly and religion, be put on hold or suspended in the name of public health, security?
1-Governors issuing “orders” requiring citizens stay home.
2-Governors determine a) there’s such a thing as essential and non-essential businesses, b) actually assigning businesses to these categories.
3-Absurdity of pet, marijuana, liquor stores, and abortion clinics considered essential while churches are non-essential.
4-Mayors threatening churchgoers with fines and directing police to record the vehicle licenses of anyone attending a drive-in church service.
5-County officials mandating churches not include singing in live stream programs.
6-Some state and local police monitoring and stopping drivers to “check their papers” vis-a-vis essential activities, while other state and local police refuse to enforce governors’ similar orders.
7-Police empowered to break up gatherings of more than three people.
8-Attorneys General, Mayors encouraging people to report neighbors to authorities if they’re seen working at non-essential businesses or violating stay at home orders, with some mayors offering rewards for “snitching,” and 911 lines being flooded with non-emergency calls.
9-County officials requiring people wear government-issued pink arm-bands indicating they’re local and have been quarantined 14 days in order to shop at grocery stores.
10-Some states trying to block people entering from other states, and some states saying their residents are prohibited from leaving.
11-Smart phone data analyzed (surveilled) to determine personal movements.
12-Big social media corporations providing (and mining) personal data, even if “anonymized,” in the name of “public service” while advancing their profit interests at the expense of privacy.
13-The US Department of Justice requesting Congress give it authority to allow judges to delay trials and detain people indefinitely during "emergencies."
All of these things are happening in the United States in the name of fighting the coronavirus pandemic. Both Republicans and Democrats have participated in this overreach, unconstitutional, and unnecessary action. While a health crisis is important, it is short-term. Trading away civil liberties is a long-term, enormously significant concern.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.
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This 1:50 min video is a shout out to SAT-7's ministry partners, thanking them for their faithful and generous support.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020
This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Rex or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com Follow him at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.
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Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has issued two stay at home executive orders, March 23, 2020, and April 9, 2020, in an effort to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
“As of Saturday, Michigan had nearly 24,000 cases of COVID-19 with close to 1,400 deaths. The state has the third highest number of cases in the country, behind New York and New Jersey. However, about 78% of the confirmed cases are in the three-county Metro Detroit region and some counties have yet to see any coronavirus patients.”
No government official, including me if I were one, is omniscient, so no essential/non-essential policy can be written that’s not laced with inequities and eventual collateral damage. This has always been the problem with planned economies and why the free market should be trusted to let people determine by their buying habits what is non-essential. By the way, a business deemed non-essential by government is essential to the ones who own it or who work there.
This comment does not mean I’m against social distancing or even shelter in place. I’m only raising a serious political question about how liberty and economy work that isn’t getting much consideration other than by a few libertarians.
I also don’t think Governor Whitmer is acting in some horrible way designed to grab power or hurt religious institutions or businesses. Nor do I buy-in to conspiracy theories. I categorically reject and do not endorse attacks on her, or any person, that use insulting language and demeaning caricatures (including coming from the U.S. President). I do, however, question her and several other governors’ broad stay home executive orders that I believe are unnecessary overreach.
It’s an age-old question of liberty vs. security. What are you willing to give up in the way of freedom to be or feel secure? And who makes you secure? And who governs/limits any government that offers security in exchange for fewer liberties?
No, I don’t think the current political context amounts to some socialist plot. But I do believe I understand a bit about human nature and history, and trading of on long-term civil liberties to secure an uncertain short-term security from an illness is a dangerous game.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.
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Social media is great for relationship building but is not good at fostering critical thinking, analysis, or reasoned debate.
People post emotionally, not that this is illegitimate in itself. Emotions are genuine expressions of human feeling and as such are important. But emotions that don’t or can’t allow a focus upon the facts or science or even just another person’s point of view are ultimately not helpful.
June 2018, I wrote an article entitled, “The Death of Discussion.” This was long before the experience of the current coronavirus pandemic. I argued that “We’ve come to a point in a so-called post-truth or fake news culture (and Church?) in which polarization is so pronounced we can no longer communicate, resulting in a virtual inability to discuss, much less debate, any social-political issue without becoming defensively partisan, ideological, or upset.” This is still taking place and is now, in my view, worse than it was.
The COVID-19 crisis has pitted partisans and ideologues, Big Media coverage-qua-hype that stirs up the populace, and a long list of “experts” against one another. Social media has exploded with the same. Social media may work to alert or get out a word but is not good at encouraging adults in the room to think beyond the short-term.
I’m not saying social media is “bad” or a curse upon the land. No, in fact it gives access to people who might not otherwise have a place to express their opinion, or Yes, their feelings. What I’m saying, though, is that for good stewardship of a country or company and long-term decision-making, social media leaves a lot to be desired.
Unless you are a person with a significant following social media is limited. You post your ideas, attitudes, or feelings to basically the same audience of friends, fans, or followers day after day. Same people. If you really want to influence the body politic, post in a blog or on a website, or publish somewhere online so your content is searchable and open to the www, the “world-wide” web, not just your social media BFFs.
Social media invites off-the-cuff commentary. Nothing wrong with this per se, but it seems for many this is as far as it goes. Social media is a shoot-off-your-mouth methodology. More heat than light and, again, this approach offers little that actually informs, helps, or persuades us.
If you doubt me, post a nonpartisan comment about a current issue, maybe when the United States should attempt to reboot its economy in the wake of spring 2020 coronavirus pandemic sheltering in place orders. Then watch what happens. You’ll get emotional diatribes, ranting, partisan slants, some using insulting terms to refer to leaders on the other side, childish memes, and accusations. You won’t get much reasoned consideration. I know. I’ve tried this.
I will say that social media is a good tool to encourage connectivity with family, friends, colleagues, and new acquaintances. Various platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, or just Whatsapp can facilitate keeping in touch with others’ lives. And this is a blessing of the Information Age.
That’s where I’ll leave this. Social media works for “social.” It does not work for informed discussion, debate, or decision-making. My advice if you need the latter? Look online for another outlet.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.
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This 1:27 min video considers where people can find solace and hope in the face of a global pandemic.
In a culture that spends more time on screens than reading the Bible, where do people turn for encouragement during a public health crisis?
In the midst of a global pandemic crisis, where do people turn for encouragement, reassurance, or hope?
People once turned to God, the Church, or family, obvious choices that played a high-profile role in American society. Today, not so much.
Society is rushing pell-mell to jettison references to the existence of a majestic God who is also our Heavenly Father.
The Church, too, has experienced declining attendance for a generation or more.
Family has taken a hit. Fewer two-parent, safe homes act as a refuge from the world.
So people have no safety net, nothing but screen time and the mall, meaning social relationships are also broken.
But in my Mother’s favorite verse, God reminds us:
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4: 6-7).
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020
This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Rex or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com Follow him at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.