Rex M Rogers - Discerning What Is Best

Discerning What Is Best
with Dr. Rex M. Rogers

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 08 December 2025

Whatever your age, do you sometimes feel like culture is spinning out of control? What are the forces generating this spin, and what can restore stability?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #237 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.

Centrifugal force is an established fact of physics. It’s the outward (fictious) “force” that seems to push an object away from the center of a circular motion. It’s the idea that if something moving has no anchor, no hub, no center mooring, it will spin off from the center, moving away in any or all directions.

A car turning a corner such that passengers feel pushed to the outside of the turn. A tetherball flying outward away from the pole. Clothes in a washing machine spin cycle. People riding carnival rides feel pushed to the outside of a merry-go-round or a tilt-a-whirl.

Meanwhile, centripetal forces pull things toward the center or hub. For example, the centripetal force of gravity from the sun keeps planets in orbit. Same with the moon. Gravity holds the moon in orbit around the earth. The moon tries to move in a straight line (because of inertia). Earth’s gravity continuously bends that straight-line path into a curved one, preventing the moon from flying off into space.

During Medieval times, scholars believed religion was the essential glue, or centripetal force if you will, holding society together. They saw social order, morality, authority, and unity as rooted in divine law. Many later scholars worried that as modern secularized nation-states emerged, without religion’s unifying role, society might fall apart, i.e., lose moral coherence and fragment.

But as it turned out, secularization didn’t remove religion; it: privatized it, pluralized it, reduced its political power. Today, many scholars still argue that religion helps bind communities, just not as the sole basis of social order. Religion helps generate forms of “collective moral sentiment,” even if not overtly religious, e.g., patriotism, national celebrations, constitutions treated with symbolic reverence, social solidarities through shared values. These moral sentiments act like what scholars have called “civil religion.”

We know from the study of past empires certain centrifugal forces can tear a civilization apart. The Roman Empire unraveled over centuries due to a combination of internal weaknesses and external pressures: corruption and ineffective administration eroded trust and stability, heavy taxation and debt, barbarian invasions, decline in civic pride.

Question becomes, what can we learn from this history? Certainly, the USA is fraught with a growing list of centrifugal forces: political polarization, deep ideological divisions, increasing distrust between opposing political identities, media echo chambers, debates over immigration and street protests: free speech or lawlessness, anarchy, and planned chaos?

These centrifugal forces reduce social cohesion, make compromise harder, weaken confidence in institutions, heighten social conflict, and reduce a shared sense of belonging. The United States of America are not as “united” and our e pluribus unum maximizes “pluribus” over “unum.”

Thankfully, Americans still widely rely on several centripetal forces, for example, shared national institutions like a single Constitution and legal system, a unified military, a Federal Reserve and unified financial system, mature civil rights legal framework, a common currency, national corporations, national holidays, symbols (flag, anthem), widespread civic rituals (voting, jury duty) that reinforce a sense of belonging to a larger whole. High geographic mobility, marriages across region, religion, and ethnicity, national entertainment, sports, music, and a common language.

The growing belief on left and right that elections are unfair, rigged, subject to fraud, the focus of voter suppression, non-citizen voting, tampering, political bias, foreign influence, or other corruption is a key threat to national unity. This is a huge issue that indeed has come close and could still in the future precipitate a constitutional crisis.

What is that? It would happen if an incumbent elected official, especially the President, rejected an election outcome and refused to leave office. This is banana republic stuff, and we want no part of it in the USA, but our political polarization and overwhelming distrust has us on the brink.

America’s sense of disruption, polarization, chaos, and decline has largely occurred in my lifetime—that is, since the 1960s when Christianity began to lose its time-honored spot at the head of the table. Now, depending upon the social circumstances, like a public university, Christianity is not only not at the head of the table, but it’s not at the table at all.

Christian scholar Henry Van Til famously defined culture as “religion externalized.” In other words, a people’s religious presuppositions will work themselves out in the culture, the way of life, they develop.

“Culture is simply a worldview made evident. It is basic beliefs worked out into habits of life. It is theology translated into sociology. Culture is a very practical expression of the common faith of a community or a people or a nation.”

“What a person thinks, what he believes, what shapes his ultimate concerns, and what he holds to be true in his heart—in short, his faith or lack of it—has a direct effect on his material well-being, behavior, and outlook; on his sense of what is good, true, and beautiful; on his priorities, values, and principles. After all, ‘As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.’”

If Christianity, or what scholars like Peter Berger, Os Guinness, and others cited as America’s historic, “Judeo-Christian moral consensus,” our “sacred canopy” as they called it—when this was jettisoned we lost our glue, our reason for existence, and with it, our key centripetal force holding Western Civilization and specifically the USA together.

But there is still hope.

“In 1905, Max Weber, the renowned political economist and ‘founding father’ of modern sociology…in his classic work, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, argued…that faith brought men and nations both liberty and prosperity.”

“The great lesson of history…is ordinary people of authentic Christian faith who are ultimately the ones who best able to shape the outcome of human events or, as G.K. Chesterton said, “The most extraordinary thing in the world is an ordinary man and an ordinary woman and their ordinary children.”

Ultimately, that is our greatest hope for the future. It is simply that a new grassroots majoritarian emphasis on things that really matter–on the Gospel and its fruits–will emerge as we train up the next generation of culture-shapers.

It is that a love for hearth and home, community and culture, accountability and availability, service and substance, morality and magnanimity, responsibility and restoration will capture hearts and minds and lives. It is a hope that may be stymied, obstructed, and hampered–but ultimately it cannot fail.”

So, we as Americans, as Christians, as conservatives, or frankly however you align your beliefs, if we care about passing on to our children and grandchildren a country and culture that is a land of freedom and opportunity, then we need to stand up and speak up, sharing the truth in love, that politics cannot solve our crises. Politics might assist, but politics and political leaders cannot provide ultimate meaning or a vision for tomorrow that perpetuates a shining city on a hill.

As G.K. Chesterton noted, we need ordinary men and women who have accepted the message of the Gospel, who embody its incredible transformative power, who then live out or “externalize” their religious beliefs in their everyday life. We need people who believe in truth because God Is There and He is Not Silent, that he is Truth. We need people who are weary of politicians who mouth platitudes to get elected but then in office go along to get along, never really voting to change anything in the interest of freedom and opportunity. We need people who believe in marriage, family, an outstanding work ethic, and generosity.

We need Christian nonprofit organizations who help the Church help others in both spiritual and humanitarian need—the “truly needy,” as Ronald Reagan called them, people who life has dealt them hard knocks but people who want to contribute to the good of their families and society. We need citizens who affirm right and wrong, law and order, mercy, responsibility and accountability, blind justice.

We need people who commit, with the Holy Spirit’s enablement, to be the light of the world and the salt of the Earth. This is a centripetal force great than all others.

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. For more Christian commentary, see my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com, or check my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers.

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 my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 01 December 2025

European nations have embraced socialism long ago, but did you ever think this failed ideology would take root in the USA?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #236 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 the COVID pandemic I wrote about things I saw in American government, politics, and culture that I never thought I’d see in my own country. Perhaps I was naïve but I was certainly shocked, then discouraged and concerned at the power grab and overreach of American governors, mayors, and some federal officials. And more so, I was nonplussed by not simply the willingness or acquiescence of American citizens at these constitutional violations and attacks on liberty but the public outcry asking for these things. Apparently, even today, there are millions of Americans who now want what Christian philosopher Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer predicted: people would trade liberty for perceived security and what they wanted most of all was just “personal peace and affluence.”

Now I am seeing it all over again, this time in Americans’ foolish, ahistorical, and dangerous enthusiasm for socialism, or what current politicians like to soften calling it “Democratic socialism.” Someone once said that a jerk for Jesus is still a jerk. I’d apply that logic here. A democratic socialist is still a socialist.

Of course, I am referring first to New York City electing Zohran Mamdani as its next mayor, a man who is unapologetically a Democratic Socialist. Several other candidates who called themselves democratic socialists were also elected in Seattle, Denver, Minneapolis, New York City, Austin County Texas, Portland.

Now it’s one thing for these people to affirm their allegiance to democratic socialism, but it’s another thing to note that they attracted enough electoral support to get elected.

Now, how is this possible in a pluralistic democratic republic like the USA?

Well, for one, much of American public education has been systematically educating one if not two generations in leftist, illiberal pathology like, the USA is not to be trusted, it was founded on slavery not liberty, the US is a colonizing, settler state, capitalism is suspect if not bad, socialism is about the oppressed, free speech should be controlled, objective good, objective evil, or objective truth do not exist, nothing can really be known because everyone has their own truth.

Leftists, or specifically Democratic Socialists, “view the world not through the Judeo-Christian lens of right versus wrong, but through the lens of power.”

“Train a child to hate, and that is what he will do. Lenin understood this very well: ‘Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.’ The Left knows this. And they took over our educational system and still control it. And the seeds they have been sowing in America are now sprouting. They will be difficult to uproot.” “Two-thirds of Americans ages 18-29 (now) hold a ‘favorable view’ of (socialism).”

But “socialism is built on conceit. It is assumed that a society’s problems are a matter of poor management, and once the right people are in charge, utopia will be in reach.” “(The Socialist) agenda is almost exclusively designed to make more people dependent on government to empower themselves.”

Orwell ostensibly once said, “Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals believe them.” Socialism is one of those ideas.

“The seeds of modern leftism were planted in the French Enlightenment of the 18th century (and perhaps even a little earlier) and sprouted in the French Revolution and the guillotine. The ideology gained momentum under German rationalism, Darwinism, and especially Marxism/Leninism, and bloomed fully in the 20th century communist movements.”

“Today, (many politicians on the left are) trying to morph America into the very thing that we spent countless billions of dollars to defeat, and that so many great, wonderful American men and women gave their lives to keep from infesting our shores. The leftism we fought so mightily to destroy is now, like a horrible cancer, spreading through America—rapidly, with determination, and often violently.”

Charles Cooke, the editor of NationalReview.com, bluntly says socialism is not and never can be “democratic.” “(He) writes that voters should not be fooled by the left’s attempt at rebranding. “‘There is no sense in which socialism can be made compatible with democracy as it is understood in the West.’

At worst, says Cooke, ‘socialism eats democracy, and is swiftly transmuted into tyranny.’

“At best, socialism ‘stamps out individual agency, places civil society into a straitjacket of uniform size, and turns representative government into a chimera.’”

Cooke notes that “6,000 years of civilization” (have taught us) “never relinquish the right to free speech, the right to free conscience, the right to freedom of religion, the right to bear arms, or the right to a jury trial. Whatever you do…don’t be seduced by socialists bearing promises. But if you are seduced, ‘get out before it’s too late. You have nothing to lose but your chains.’”

The irony of all this—think back to Orwell’s comment about stupid ideas—is that history is replete with mountains of evidence that socialism, like leftism, destroys everything it touches. Look at Venezuela, the nation with more proven oil reserves than any other in the world, yet “Venezuela’s economic catastrophe dwarfs any in the history of the U.S., Western Europe or the rest of Latin America.”

“Under Chavez-Maduro socialism, the child mortality rate has increased 140%. Ninety percent of Venezuelans now live in poverty. This year inflation will hit an unbelievable 10 million percent.” Yes, 10 million percent.

Lenin and Stalin’s mass socialist terror in Russia killed tens of millions, as did Mao Zedong’s reign in China, Pol Pot in Cambodia.

“Economist Jeffrey Tucker (makes a) damning comment: ‘Among the most conspicuous of socialism’s failings is its capacity to generate vast shortages of things essential for life.’”

“The subtitle of F.A. Hayek’s last work ‘The Fatal Conceit’ is ‘The Errors of Socialism.’”

Socialism, yes Democratic Socialism, is a time bomb in a pretty package. The pretty package is all marketing and messaging, not historic reality.

The reality of socialism is known all too well for those who care to look: low growth, mass unemployment, social strife, and a general mood of pessimism, people selling heirlooms or themselves for food, the sick untreated, unburied dead in the streets, trash piling up, contaminated drinking water, rampant deforestation, and frequent oil spills.

After years of leftist socialist nationalized economic controls that brought the UK to its knees, “Margaret Thatcher walked into 10 Downing Street and proceeded to denationalize coal, steel, and utilities; bring down inflation; spur economic growth; and refuse to give into organized labor’s draconian demands. Thatcher’s message: ‘The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.’”

“Free everything — except your independence. But in the real world, nothing is free.” Socialism “destroys competition and consequently destroys innovation.”

“Socialism is not compatible with the Constitution.
Socialism, the idea that millions killed for, is a mirage.
Socialism is very good at generating vast shortages of the essential things in life.
Socialism can never know enough to plan all our lives every day.
Socialism tries to make all of us equal to one another.
Socialism is very good at promising all the benefits we’ll never see.
Socialism in Great Britain had one outstanding success—Margaret Thatcher.
Socialism was responsible for making Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union the most polluted and degraded places on earth.
Socialized medicine as practiced in Great Britain and Canada is bad for people’s health.
American socialism is on the rise because of widespread social and cultural poverty in America.”

Winston Churchill said, "The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries."

Young Americans voting for utopian socialism—this is a generation motivated by values that will destroy them and their country.

God forbid.

God grant we develop young adults who know truth and work to make it known.

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

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 24 November 2025

Artificial Intelligence, AI, is now a fact of contemporary postmodern life, so what does it offer us, what does it mean, and how should we interact with it?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #235 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’ve address AI, artificial intelligence, in several earlier podcasts because it is now the most extensive and significant, potentially helpful yet potentially dangerous new technology since nuclear weapons.

AI is software that can learn, reason, understand, make decisions, or create in ways that resemble human thinking. AI doesn’t “think” like a human—but it can process information and make predictions based on patterns in data at a pace and to a near limitless extent, far out-stripping the minds of the highest IQ human beings. Machine learning algorithms allow computers to learn from data and improve their performance over time.

Deep learning involves training artificial neural networks with large amounts of data, which led to breakthroughs in image and speech recognition. AI natural language processing deals with the interactions between computers and human languages, which led to the development of virtual assistants, chatbots, and other applications.

AI is not coming. It’s here now. Auto-correct, personalized feeds, photo enhancements, GPS and navigation, commodity recommendations, fraud detection, streaming services, Siri, Alexa, security cameras, recruitment and hiring reviews, numerous academic supports, healthcare analysis, athletics analytics, generative text, audio, or video.

But AI’s enormous potential brings with it serious potential for abuse, Orwellian controls available to authoritarian governments, predictive behavioral profiling, and “Big Brother is watching you” loss of individual freedom. We now live in a mass surveillance digital world, a track-and-trace society.

Threats are also growing regarding identity protection and security in the face of Deepfake AI capability that can now generate entirely believable audio/video presentations that make people say or do things they never said or did.

AI is also being used in the production of pornography. “The FBI has documented an ‘explosion’ of sextortion schemes targeting children and teens, with these attacks linked to more than a dozen suicides.” Deepfake AI creates manipulated but realistic images and videos of real people in fake situations and are routinely used against women. “A study shows 96 percent of deepfake videos were nonconsensual pornography.” AI can take any photo and make it pornographic in seconds. This includes your photo and mine. Since the first deepfake video in 2017, the technology has only gotten better and no one is beyond reach, as for example actresses Gal Gadot, Scarlett Johansson, and Kristen Bell discovered when face swap software placed their image in pornographic films. Nonconsensual deepfake pornographic images are almost impossible to prevent.

But AI is also being used in a growing number of ways across churches, ministries, and individual Christian spiritual practice. Most of these uses are assistive tools—not replacements for pastoral care, discipleship, or Scripture—but they can support ministry, education, administration, and personal devotion.

Sermon preparation tools like pastors using AI to brainstorm sermon outlines (Logos AI, ChatGPT, Claude). Church management and administration (Planning Center, Tithe.ly). Worship planning: AI can help generate set lists based on themes. Some tools suggest transitions or Scripture readings that match the songs.

Church media teams use AI for sermon series graphics, announcement slides, or short video clips (Canva, Adobe Firefly). AI Bible study tools that help with word studies, cultural/historical context, devotionals (YouVersion, Hallow, Abide). Some ministries are using chatbots to answer questions about Christianity or guide seekers through gospel basics.

One of the most powerful applications is mission agencies using AI to translate Scripture or discipleship materials (SIL/Wycliffe AI tools). A similar application applies to dubbing or translating videos in different languages. YouTube already makes this available.

Meanwhile, Christian leaders are debating:

Can AI be used for spiritual formation without replacing the Holy Spirit's work?
Should AI write sermons? (Most say: AI can assist, but pastors should do the teaching themselves.)
Concern about data privacy in ministry tools.
Or the ongoing concern about AI deepfakes, meaning misinformation or outright falsehood or heresy.
And importantly, whether use of AI inadvertently replaces human pastoral care with automation.

And AI may be a bit amazing at times, but it’s still just a tool, a human construction, so it’s important to remember that AI sometimes:

misinterprets Scripture.
combines ideas from different worldviews.
lacks doctrinal understanding.

Leaders like Timothy Keller (before he passed not long ago), and Barna Group emphasize:

Ethical use.
Critical thinking.
Human relational focus.

In 2019, “the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) spent nine months working on “Artificial Intelligence: An Evangelical Statement of Principles,” a document designed to equip the church with an ethical framework for thinking about this emergent technology.

“The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) of the Southern Baptist Convention issued the statement, Artificial Intelligence: An Evangelical Statement of Principles in April 2019. The document was published with the endorsement of sixty-five signatories.”

The Statement then lists 12 Articles or affirmations about AI based upon an Evangelical biblical worldview. Paraphrasing some points:

Human beings are made in the image of God and technology can never usurp this.
AI technology is good if used within the moral will of God, it must never be used to degrade human beings, and AI cannot fulfill humanity’s ultimate needs.
While technology can be created with a moral use in view, it is not a moral agent. Humans alone bear the responsibility for moral decision making.
AI should never be used to violate the fundamental principle of human dignity for all people. Neither should AI be used in ways that reinforce or further any ideology or agenda, seeking to subjugate human autonomy under the power of the state.
We deny that the pursuit of sexual pleasure is a justification for the development or use of AI, and we condemn the objectification of humans that results from employing AI for sexual purposes.
We deny that AI should be used by governments, corporations, or any entity to infringe upon God-given human rights.
We deny that AI will make us more or less human, or that AI will ever obtain a coequal level of worth, dignity, or value to image-bearers.

Since that time, at least one of the scholars involved, Jason Thacker, is calling for an additional statement. He said, “the 2019 statement of principles was designed to jumpstart conversation about AI in the Church, which is needed now more than ever.”

“A Christian philosophy of technology,” Thacker notes, “is wholly unique in that it recognizes 1) that God has given humanity certain creative gifts and the ability to use tools, and 2) and that how we use these tools forms and shapes us.

Technology then is not good or bad, nor is it neutral. Technology, specifically AI, is shaping how we view God, ourselves, and the world around us in profound and distinct ways. While we rightly debate how to mitigate the risks and promote the good of technological advances, the Church must not give into the moral panic induced by AI, nor should we passively allow others to shape the conversation in ways that are directly at odds with the Christian tradition.”

“We must remember that the Christian moral tradition recognizes that no matter how advanced our technologies become, there is nothing that can fundamentally change what it means to be made in the image of the almighty God (Gen. 1:26-28).”

AI seems to be the bold new future, but remember, God is eternal, omniscient, and omnipotent. He is “I Am,” meaning he exists in and knows the past, present, and future. He is not surprised by AI, nor should we be, but we are always to be responsible, to be God’s ambassadors on earth in the time he has placed us. In God’s providence, we live in an AI moment. How will we interact with and use it for the fulfilment of the Cultural Mandate (Gen. 1:28) and the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19-20)?

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

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 17 November 2025

Western culture is, Dr. Os Guinness says, at a tipping point, or what he calls a “civilizational moment” and how respond will determine if our civilization continues or declines and falls.

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #234 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.

Contemporary culture seems bent upon embracing ideas, attitudes, values, and practices that earlier cultures considered lacking in common sense.

This goes right to worldview. You see, religion is not just another feature of culture. Religion determines our culture. Scholar Henry Van Til once said, “Culture is lived religion” or “religion externalized.” What you believe about God, life, and truth determines how you evaluate and what ideas, attitudes, values, and practices you embrace, thus how you live and create culture.

The prime reason contemporary culture pursues its pell-mell race toward decline is that the current cultural zeitgeist, or “spirit of the age,” jettisoned the idea of moral absolutes for moral relativism.

People say, there is no truth, apparently without the self-awareness to understand they are attempting to declare, what, a truth. People say, live your truth versus live the truth. There’s a big difference.

Western culture and civilization is at a tipping point, what Christian apologist and cultural commentator, Dr. Os Guinness, now in his eighties, calls a “civilizational moment,” a period when culture loses touch with its original purpose and dynamism.

“Guinness identifies the root of the issue: people don’t hold to truth because they fail to hold to the Truth—that is, Jesus Christ, from whom all truth flows.”

Dr. Guinness is the featured presence and narrator of a new film, “Truth Rising.”

The film is produced by Focus on the Family in partnership with the Colson Center. “Truth Rising examines the decline of Western civilization, addressing contemporary societal issues, and underscores the hope found in Christ, encouraging you to step into your God-given calling to be a catalyst for renewal.”

I was privileged to attend a private showing of this film at Cornerstone University where the university president, Dr. Gerson Mareno-Raino, joined Colson Center president John Stonestreet presenting the film.

The film asked whether decline in the West is inevitable. “Historian and philosopher Will Durant, author of the epic eleven-volume series The Story of Civilization, famously said, “From barbarism to civilization requires a century; from civilization to barbarism needs but a day.” Civilizations, historically speaking, do rise and fall. Our museums and history books are full of legends and artifacts from once-dominant civilizations that are now reduced to ruins. These all were, at some point, detached from the ideals, institutions, and activities that gave them life and led them to flourish. Now, they are no more.” Can Western civilization survive, or is it already in decline heading toward fall?

The film features Jack Phillips, a Denver baker who faced legal challenges due to his refusal to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple, Chloe Cole who relates that her attempt to transition from a biological female to male was a tragic mistake, also Katy Faust, the founder and president of the child-advocacy group Them Before Us talks about being targeted by ideological opponents and how she decided to stand up against them, and former Muslim Ayaan Hirsi Ali recounting her flight from Somalia and fundamentalist Islam, and how she eventually became a Christian and an outspoken advocate for women.

Today, identity politics radicalism is working to dismantle every value that made it possible for the West to flourish in the first place. Our institutional structures have been profoundly weakened in just the past fifty years. Every institution, as the film presents it, has nearly collapsed, compromised by stupidity and ideology. If you wonder what may be coming for the United States, just look at some of the countries in Europe which Somalian-now naturalized American cultural commentator Ayaan Hirsi Ali says, “look more like Mogadishu,” by which she does not mean race but lawless chaos. In the West, the gravity of the moment is severe, and it is quite literally, later than we think. Guinness believes we are faced with a choice: renewal, replacement, or decline, and for now, decline is in the lead.

Guinness notes in the film and in his recent books that the British (1688-1689) and American (1765-1783) revolutions were rooted in the Bible, understood human nature, and thus established governments based upon separation of powers and checks and balances, all to advance human freedom. But the French revolution (1789-1799) was utopian, anti-religious, anti-Christian and thus given to violence and manipulation. Contemporary Western and American culture can renew its commitment to the ideals of its founding or can continue to pursue values more akin to the unfettered licentiousness of the French Revolution. If we do the latter, we are on a slippery slope to chaos then tyranny.

The film noted that American culture and really all of Western civilization are beset by Marxism, sexual revolution of the 1960s, and Islamism. These are our greatest challenges today because none of these ideologies believe in truth, and therefore not only cannot sustain freedom but will work against it. Ayaan Hirsi Ali noted that the Marxism we deal with today is a kind of “cultural communism,” constantly propagating the narrative of oppressor vs oppressed, and white males are the ultimate monster.

One of the sad things about this is that even a cursory review of history provides overwhelming evidence that these ideologies are corrupt, they fail, they only maintain power through coercion and eventually killing. One commentator said the only way woke Marxism can make any sense is that it must decontextualize from history.

But today the West has been so badly beaten and bruised by the Marxist long march through the institutions, the so-called progressives or leftists in politics, and their sycophants in the media, that many people simply do not know history, do not know that in the West people have always mattered and that this is not true elsewhere, so the West is losing confidence in itself.

The West is weakened spiritually. So now the average citizen is terrified to tell the truth, if he or she even knows what the truth is. This is the magnitude of the crisis.

But ideas have consequences. No God, people say? Then no truth. Or, we hear, “It may be true for you but not true for me.”

No truth? Then there is no morality, science, education, law or order or justice or mercy, aesthetics=beauty or art, trust, purpose or vision or aspiration or meaning or achievement, respect for life or individual dignity, civility, freedom. There is only division, confusion, lawlessness, chaos, insecurity. Post-Truth culture – possibly a new Dark Age. This is America 2025.

But we are not defeated, or at least we should not feel that we are. Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer said, “there are no little people,” by which he meant that everyone matters, everyone is given life and the opportunity to live as unto the Lord, everyone is able to speak truth. This is our opportunity and responsibility.

Today we are experiencing a war on reason and reality. At every turn we are bombarded with messages of untruth, lies from the Father of Lies, Satan himself. We are in spiritual warfare, a spiritual desert, and people are thirsty for the truth.

We know this when we see the revivals taking place on university campuses. We know this when we read of youth who we thought were spiritually gone to a far country never to return but liked the prodigal son are now seeking spiritual authenticity. We see a spiritually bankrupt and empty culture that does not know how to deal with political violence and yet is searching for meaning.

Scripture says, “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth” (Eph. 6:13-14).

I highly recommend this film, “Truth Rising,” which is available free on YouTube. It is a somber look at reality, but it is not without hope for we are not without hope.

The film is call to action, yours and mine, at this civilizational moment in our culture.

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

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 10 November 2025

I speak often about a rapidly changing world, and we’re seeing it daily in the United States, most recently in what many of us consider a positive direction, but will this continue?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #233 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.

Some rather dramatic social and political changes have taken place in the past few months.

“Many Christians—myself included—shared a sense that in 2016 the barbarians were at the gates. Christianity was being pressured in the public square in new and alarming ways. Same-sex marriage became the law of the land in a blink, and bakers and florists who conscientiously objected to participating in those weddings went to court to guarantee that. So did nuns who didn’t want to buy birth control. The first bathroom laws and accompanying culture wars were just beginning.”

But now, there is a renewed hope.

WOKE anti-racism policies, seminars, and programs are being set aside by corporations that are now free to act with less fear of legal repercussions, free to discontinue woke initiatives that lost them money. Go woke; go broke, is not without basis in reality. Woke programs are also ending in the military.

DEI or Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs are being jettisoned by colleges and universities, in no small measure due to pressure from the Department of Education in Washington, DC, but also because the public has begun to realize these programs are based on favored ethnic, racial, or gender status rather than meritocracy.

Transgender ideology or what some have understandably called “trans insanity” is finally backpedaling and on the way out as the public is finally being heard and schools, athletic organizations like the NCAA, communities, government, the military, and corporations return to nature’s binary common sense. “The Supreme Court of the United States ruled 6-3…that the Trump administration can require transgender people to display their biological birth sex on passports…Beginning in 2021, the Biden administration's State Department allowed applicants to self-select the sex marker that matched their gender identity of X, not their biological sex.”

Government climate change mandates are on their way out as the public realizes these initiatives were more about the power and ideological interests of globalist elites than about genuine concern for the environment. Even Bill Gates, one of the loudest voices for these bogus ideas, has seen the writing on the wall and announced populations are not actually in danger, human beings are not really the source of minimal climate changes, and calling for a shift from “doomsday” views of climate change to concern for human suffering.

Now even the insufferable Greta Thunberg is getting the message. “Having gone stratospheric at the age of 15 with a simple appeal to ‘listen to the science,’ Thunberg, now 19, is being driven by a different message: Listen to the most vulnerable — and help them build the fair future they demand.’ She is shifting her focus toward social advocacy.”

America’s porous southern border, which is to say open border under the Biden Administration, has been closed, is properly policed, and is secure. “Unlawful crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal year 2025 plummeted to the lowest annual level since the early 1970s.” “Regardless of the true number of illegal immigrants, (who entered under the Biden Administration) it’s almost certainly higher than the 11–12 million number commonly cited, but not by as much as 20 million.”

“So far, ICE has successfully deported 400,000 illegal immigrations. Meanwhile, 1.6 million illegals have voluntary left the country.” For all the media flak aimed at the Trump Administration, “President Obama oversaw a total of approximately 5.3 million removals and returns during his eight years in office, with around 3.1 million being formal removals (deportations with legal consequences for reentry). His administration earned the nickname “Deporter-in-Chief” due to high deportation numbers.”

Let me say for clarity. The problem has not been legal immigration of those who truly wish to become American citizens pursuing the freedom and opportunity but mass illegal immigration of individuals who come for handouts or criminal purposes.

None of these changes, or hopefully trends, mean the issue in question has disappeared or that there are still not thousands, in some cases perhaps millions, of people who support the left-leaning social trends that had been in full force during the Biden Administration. Some schools and universities are still defiantly promoting forms of woke or DEI initiatives, in some places renaming the programs. Transgenderism still has its ideological advocates who may never change their views. Cities like Chicago or Los Angeles feature self-important mayors who order their law enforcement not to assist ICE in its lawful federal efforts to arrest and deport first the worst of illegal immigrants.

I admit that during COVID and through the end of the Biden Administration, I was more than a little concerned about the direction American culture was rapidly moving. I still wonder if some of these trends have reached a point of no return, in part because we may have lost an entire generation if not two to conscientiously taught left-leaning, anti-American values in public schools. These youth are now young adults. Their worldviews are not unchangeable but are largely formed.

“The Left's long march through our institutions has created a system where many accept progressive and socialist dogma as an inarguable fact, all because their professors told them it was so, and the media, who were indoctrinated by those same professors, keep saying the same things.”

“After (several) months of the good things…, there was hope that maybe, just maybe, some people were being converted, some hearts were being changed,

some Americans were starting to see the difference between the ‘right’ and the ‘left,’ between good and evil, starting to see cause and effect.” But the recent foolish election of Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani as Mayor of New York City, along with the election of an Attorney General in Virginia who’d earlier posted tweets wishing the death of his political opponent and harm to his children, well, this makes one pause and think, we haven’t changed much.

“The economics of Marxism, the cause and effect of immoral promiscuity, the hatred and violence of Leftism are clearly, and often, written in the pages of history. So, we have no excuse. ‘My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge,’ God wrote through the prophet Hosea some 2700 years ago. History certainly does sometimes repeat itself, or at least, often contains interesting parallels. Laws—scientific or moral—cannot be violated without (eventual) devastating consequences.

As I mentioned a moment ago, about two generations ago, we turned the education system over to the Left. And we are witnessing the results today. We taught our children Darwinian naturalism instead of divine creation, and our children were smart enough to figure out the implications of that. If the Bible isn’t true, if there were no Adam and Eve, if there was no flood of Noah (even Jesus mentioned Noah as a true, historical person); if all of those Bible tales are just legends and not ‘history’ and ‘science,’ then that means the God of Judeo-Christianity is not the ‘God’ of the universe. ‘Science’ proves it. Jesus was a fake or a liar or a lunatic.

So young people fled churches in droves and began to look for something else to believe in and live for. And there is no agreement yet on what that should be, and there never will be, for why is one human’s opinion on the universe any better than any others? Why should I believe you? I’ll create my own ‘god,’ thank you very much. And that is basically what people have done. ‘Every man does that which is right in his own eyes.’ People have created their own ‘god,’ in their own image, who will allow them to do whatever they want to do. There isn’t one God in America anymore; there are almost 350 million.”

“That kind of division and confusion can only lead to the chaos we are seeing in the country now…No, there are not 350 million gods; there is still only One.

And He has established certain moral laws which are ‘causes’ that also have ‘effects.’ Violating those moral laws will eventually lead to catastrophic results.

America is finding that out now, and will continue to do so as long as so many of her people reject those moral laws for ones, they create themselves.”

Yet there is hope for more, continued positive social change, beginning for example with the spiritual revivals we are witnessing across the country in public universities and those that are taking place in the wake of the Charlie Kirk assassination. It’s a phenomenon that means something. We’re just not yet sure what it may mean in terms of lasting impact upon the culture.

Pray these movements of the Spirit will continue. Pray God will give American leaders wisdom and a desire to please God. Pray God will extend his mercy upon the United States, not because we are more special than any other country or people, but because in God’s eyes all human beings matter and freedom of the soul and body matter.

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

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 03 November 2025

Mass shootings are rare but all too commonplace. While this sounds contradictory, it is true, so why are there more mass shootings now than say, fifty years ago?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #232 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.

Mass shootings are now a regular if periodic event in contemporary life. For some perspective, it’s interesting to note right at the top that “mass shootings make up only 1% of all gun violence in America. 60% of gun deaths are suicide and 37% are homicide — including the 1% of mass shootings.

“Suicides have long accounted for the majority of U.S. gun deaths.” The remaining 3% of gun deaths include law enforcement involved shootings, unintentional shootings, and those that were undetermined.

But mass shootings get our attention, in part for the body count and in part for the fact that much of the carnage seems aimed at innocent, unsuspecting people, so for good reason we get the idea this could happen to anybody, to us, to ours. What do we know about mass shootings?

Most definitions describe a mass shooting as an event where there are four or more people shot or killed in a 24-hour period and not involving gang violence or terrorism.

The U.S. accounts for 31% of the world’s mass shootings, despite making up only 4-5% of the global population.”
U.S. mass shooters are "overwhelmingly (98%) male”—"around 34 years old.”
55% of mass shooters are White, 21.3% Black, 9.1% Hispanic, 5.4% Asian.
Workplaces are the site of 28% of mass shootings, followed by schools at 22%., about 4.3% in places of worship.
Rifles, or as media like to repeat, “AR-15 assault rifles,” are not the primary weapon of mass shooters. (The "AR," by the way, stands for ArmaLite Rifle, not "assault rifle.")
Handguns are used in 73% with rifles used in 33% of mass shootings.

“While 73% of all mass shootings occur in developed countries, why are so many incidents reported in the US?

A now familiar list of variables includes, “the nation’s high civilian gun ownership, cultural factors like individualism and fame-seeking, sensationalized media coverage, and gaps in mental health care and law enforcement.”

“Most mass shooters target places they know well—schools, workplaces, or other familiar settings—because they have a personal connection and personal grievance. More than a third of mass shooters have histories of domestic abuse rooted in issues like anger, masculine entitlement, and a desire for control. Many mass shooters have experienced traumatic childhoods, including physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, parental drug use and incarceration, and domestic violence.”

The mass shooters are not typically transgender, but a few high profile shooters have identified as “transgender” or “gender fluid,” for example, Aberdeen, MD (2018), Perry, Iowa (2024), Highlands Ranch (2019) and Colorado Springs (2022) Colorado, Nashville (2023), Minneapolis (2025). As yet, evidence is inconclusive in part because key perpetrator characteristics are hidden from media or buried in police investigations or non-investigations.

There are a number of contributing factors. Social and cultural aspects of US culture: despair, anger, and resentment. Extremist websites and groups can provide a sense of community and belonging that many shooters lack. This sense of belonging and welcome may be more important to the shooter than any kind of ideology.

Mass shootings can be considered a form of suicide. Few mass shooters have a realistic plan, if any plan at all, for escape following a shooting.

Much of the debate about mass shootings revolves around two perspectives: human evil is the root cause vs. guns are the root cause. But it is easy to make the case that availability of guns creates opportunities for violence, but the issue is complex. For one thing, guns have always been part of American society, always available, and for a long time considered essential equipment for every household, yet mass shootings did not occur.

Research by criminologist Grant Duwe indicates that “prior to 1965, there (were) relatively few mass public shootings in the United States.”

Consider this: in the US one mass shooting occurred in the 1950s, in the 1960s six, in the 1970s thirteen, in the 1980s thirty, in the 1990s forty-two. “From 2000 to 2013, there were 53 mass public shootings in the United States.”

So, mass shootings have been surging up for the last fifty years. “Familicides are by far the most common form of mass murder, making up nearly 45% of all mass killings since 1976. Familicides most often involve a male head of the household killing his partner (i.e., spouse, ex‐spouse, fiancée), their children, relatives, or some combination of these. Felony‐related massacres are the second most common type of mass murder. These incidents typically involve a small group of young men who commit mass murder during a robbery”

So, what has changed since the 1950s, if it’s not the availability of guns?

One major and obvious change is that American culture began to jettison its engagement with religion, specifically the moral codes of Christianity like “Thou shalt not kill’ (Ex. 20). Mass murderers are not church-goers and typically do not have strong family or community relationships. They are loners.

Dennis Prager of Prager U adds that another change since the 1950s is a drop in the number of marriages. Married men are not all what they should be, but marriage does create outlets for male energy and interest. Typically, marriage, even difficult ones, mature us. Mass murderers are generally not married.

Male role models have declined—partly via absent fathers—or male role models have been systematically denigrated by entertainment and societal elites, so boys have fewer real men, mature men to emulate. Some sources claim that as many as 72% of adolescent murderers and 70% of long-term prison inmates come from fatherless homes. Another study found that 85% of youth in prison come from fatherless homes.

Running for the presidency in 2008, Senator Barack Obama said, “Children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime; nine times more likely to drop out of schools and 20 times more likely to end up in prison.” He also famously stated, "What makes you a man is not the ability to have a child—it's the courage to raise one."

Then there is another factor that may play a larger role in mass shootings than we’ve so far been able to determine. Youth are taught that America is untrustworthy, indeed it is despicable, a colonizer, an oppressor. Their country is not worth their respect and in fact is a convenient source for blaming all their problems.

So young men and women grow up without religion and without country and without meaning. They are rootless and angry for reasons they do not understand. Boys who should be becoming men remain immature and develop hateful outlets for their aggression. Girls who should be becoming women remain immature and develop online addiction, depression, and at times unhealthy relationships with men who aren’t what they should be.

Of course, not all these youth turn into mass shooters. But it only takes one young man whose circumstances are especially dire, whose grievances are peculiarly intense, whose contacts are particularly toxic, whose sense of victimhood is unusually high, and whose killer opportunities are terribly present and easy to access.

Every gun in America could somehow be eliminated, but we’d still have mass killings. Maybe not with as high of body counts, but the evil in human hearts is still there and Satan is still working to spread confusion, sickness, death, and havoc in the world.

What America needs is what we’ve always needed. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23).

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

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