Rex M Rogers - Discerning What Is Best

Discerning What Is Best
with Dr. Rex M. Rogers

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 16 January 2023

Has it dawned on you that 21^st Century American culture is not unlike the Roman culture of the 1^st Century Church, dominated by idolatrous pseudoreligion and pagan ideas antithetical to Christianity?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #64 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.

There are those who describe American religion today as a combination of beliefs they label Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. And certainly, a case can be made for this. Moralistic therapeutic deism is a made-up worldview with which many Americans operate, whether consciously or not.

Its primary beliefs include:

God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other.
The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about yourself.
God is not really involved in our lives except when God is needed to resolve a problem.
Good people go to heaven when they die.

According to the veteran researcher George Barna, “Practitioners of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism are not anti-religion or anti-Christianity. They just are not willing to surrender themselves to authentic Christianity’s demands—or to believe that a real faith would even make such demands of them.”

Overlapping Moralistic Therapeutic Deism are a set of radical leftist ideas called Woke philosophy. This is an “Ism” rooted in Marxist thought. It focuses on oppression and victimhood, class, race, and gender conflict. It rejects Judeo-Christian beliefs and values, especially moral absolutes and teachings regarding sexuality and the family, and it seeks to erase everything about America’s past because America is considered bad or even evil.

Woke philosophy, also known as Social Justice Ideology or Critical Race Theory – Yes, I know these terms are used distinctively and have their own definitions, but the overlap is so extensive as to blur the lines between these false ideas. In practice, the terms are used interchangeably.

I called Woke philosophy a pseudoreligion because its proponents, and they are now legion, look not to traditional religion but promote Wokeism as the overarching narrative or worldview that explains all of life. They place their blind faith in Woke assumptions and theories and argue these views must be adopted in civic society. Further, they believe everyone who disagrees is not simply wrong but intolerant bigots, people whose ideas or voice must be “cancelled.”

For example, University of Southern California Social Work department just announced it will remove the word “field” from its academic administrative vocabulary, that is, it will convert its Office of Field Education to the Office of Practicum Education because the word “field” somehow has racist connotations—“going into the field” or doing “field work.” Apparently, the university is concerned this word will trigger certain ethnic students and make it impossible for them to function on the campus.

Odd thing is, back on Grandpa Rogers’ farm in Ohio I earned my first dollar going into the field and doing field work. None of us considered it racist.

The computer sciences at many universities are ditching terms like "master" and "slave" for similar reasons. And in some housing designs and architecture there will no longer be a “master bedroom,” which apparently smacks of patriarchy and racism.

Standford University is encouraging students and faculty—I said encouraging but this is administration policy—not to call themselves American. According to the Stanford University Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative, (this is a mouthful in itself – think about it. This committee is going to eliminate harmful language, something no culture has done since Adam and Eve). Anyway, according to this committee “the term ‘American’ often refers to people from the United States only, thereby insinuating that the US is the most important country in the Americas (which is actually made up of 42 countries)."

So, a term that’s been used since the 1500s on maps, was used in the Declaration of Independence July 1776, was declared official by the Continental Congress in September 1776, and is today the actual name of the United States of America is suddenly no longer acceptable on this learned campus.

Professors and staff members who disagree with these mandates, particularly if they dare to push back, are in danger of losing their positions. The same is true for university, government, military, and increasingly corporate policies that require employees to use whatever gender pronouns any staff member, student, or customer wishes to use. Refuse, and you will attract investigation; you may lose your job.

Wokeism argues a person’s identity cannot be separated from the group, usually race or ethnicity. There is no individuality, an idea that is antithetical to Christianity. In Wokeism, the only sin is the sin of the oppressor. Victims get a free pass. In Wokeism, what matters is power.

Wokeism promotes: Pol correctness and a psychological triggering category called micro-aggressions, LGBTQ sexuality including drag queens, the idea sex is not binary but something socially or individually constructed called gender, sex education, or rather, sexualizing of children via explicit curricula in public schools, the politicization and racialization of sports, anti-racism via critical race theory, which in practice reinforces racism with concepts like white supremacy, defunding the police, officials telling police to stand down, prosecutors not prosecuting crimes, looting, or arson, abortion on demand, a concept called “equity,” which means equality of results or outcomes based not on merit but race or gender and perceived oppression, rejects science, reason, history, and biology, and even attempts to curtail or silence freedom of speech because opinions different from the Woke holy list are forbidden.

This means Wokeism is inherently authoritarian; if individuals are lost into the group, and contrary ideas are verboten, the only way to accomplish this is through the coercive power of the state.

Wokeism also advocates for so-called inclusive religion—again a racial/ethnic categorization—and works to suppress religious liberty in favor of its secular left utopian vision.

Wokeism is nauseating in its drive to defeat the traditional and moral in favor of the irrational. Those who embrace these ideas are cultish in their worldview.

This is the pseudoreligion that motivated the people a few months ago who demanded decades or even century-old public statues be torn down if somehow the statue violated their new sensibilities.

This is the pseudoreligion that compels people to sanitize public life and discourse of anything that is remotely Judeo-Christian in character, including holidays, public prayers, even the Pledge of Allegiance.

The pseudoreligion of Woke philosophy, alongside Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, is now the dominant and demanding legalistic false religion of American culture.

Christianity still has a seat at the table but not the head of the table and in many cases is muzzled. This trend will continue.

Politics offers no effective solutions to our cultural problems because what we face today are spiritual problems.

In his book, Strange New World, Carl Trueman makes this powerful observation on how we should then live in the face of a dominant pseudoreligion:

“The Psalms present a view of the Christian life that is marked by joy but that also knows sorrow and loss. They set the struggles of the present in the context of God’s great actions in times past and promises for the future.”

“By setting forth a grand picture of God and the promise of future rest, they help us to keep perspective—theological and emotional—on the events of the present.”

Trueman’s point is that the psalmist, the shepherd king David, faced all manner of threatening circumstances during his life. He shared them all with the Lord, but he didn’t stop there.

David then rehearsed the past works of God in creation and God’s promises of future presence in our lives.

David found hope and peace and strength to fight the good fight, by acknowledging God walked beside and before him.

So should we.

Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends. For more Christian commentary, check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com.

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

*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 11 January 2023

Have you noticed the seemingly unstoppable force of transgender ideology in the past few years? And have you wondered if people, the culture even, would ever say, Now, wait a minute?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #63 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.

Transgenderism, or trans ideology, is the belief that human sexuality is not biologically determined, is not what’s now called “binary” meaning only two options, male or female, but is rather something that is psychologically determined, and that sexuality is socially constructed and a matter of individual decision.

This rather astounding anti-science, ahistorical, anti-common sense, anti-biblical, irrational view has rapidly reached a level of majority acceptance in the American population.

With the 2015 Supreme Court of the United States decision in Obergefell vs. Hodges, allowing for the legal existence of same-sex marriage, sexual liberation activists immediately shifted their focus to transgenderism.

While much groundwork and other social developments took place earlier, in just the past eight years since that court case, trans ideology has come to dominate American public education from kindergarten to graduate school.

Trans people and ideas are now commonly presented in television media and even more extensively online. And the idea of being trans, that a boy can “identify as,” meaning become a girl, and a girl can transition to become a boy is now considered by trans activists, many within the American public, and at a few points of law to be a civil right.

Now, to disagree or in some way to be perceived as an obstacle to trans individuals pursuing their trans lifestyle is to be considered not simply intolerant and a bigot but also a legal impediment, perhaps someone guilty of hate speech, which of course means you could find yourself in a lawsuit.

The speed and outright steamroller with which trans ideology conquered American culture has been both amazing and disheartening to watch.

Aren’t there any cultural elites moral enough, brave enough, reasonable enough to stand up against this? Is there no one to point out the dangers and degradation? Do people really believe what trans activists are saying and demanding?

We’ve been treated to a long list of not only school curriculum being given over to devilish sexual ideas but also to public displays, like Drag Queen Story hours at local libraries where elementary school children are invited.

Why would the American Library Association support this kind of perverted nonsense, for children no less?

In Grand Rapids, Michigan, a Drag Queen Brunch with lewd videos featured on the event’s website is now being promoted.

“Drag queen depravity…celebrates that which is shameful and normalizes that which is perverse. And it does so in the most exaggerated, even overtly demonic form, with Drag Queens wearing Satanic horns while reading to tiny little children.”

“The Michigan Department of Education has adopted a radical gender theory program that promotes gender ‘fluidity’ beginning in elementary school and encourages teachers to facilitate the sexual transition of minors without parental consent.”

Trans workers are now suing for healthcare benefits, and there’s more: medical professionals, as well as others, are saying men can give birth, men are competing as women in women’s sports, physicians and children’s hospitals are surgically removing healthy body parts to create the appearance of the other sex.

California has become a “sanctuary” state for transgender children and their families. California “passed legislation that protects parents and their children from legal ramifications for pursuing cross-sex medical treatments, while also blocking California courts from enforcing out-of-state court orders revoking custody for parents who allowed their children to get illegal sex changes.”

“California’s Department of Education urges kindergarten teachers to dispel gender stereotypes, laying groundwork ‘for acceptance, inclusiveness, and an anti-bullying environment,’ because ‘some children in kindergarten or even younger have identified as transgender.’”

An “Ohio school district tells teachers not to notify parents about students’ name and pronoun changes.”

Prison systems, meaning states, meaning taxpayers, are bearing increased costs, risks, and legal challenges because of transgender activism and confusion.

Social media is a major contributor to gender confusion.

“Placating the mob has led to the rise in dangerous euphemisms like "gender-affirming care," a phrase that means the exact opposite of what it claims. In today's world, "gender-affirming therapy" means telling a girl she can be transformed into a boy, but "conversion therapy" means telling a girl she's a girl. The corruption of reality has led to the rise of a pseudoscientific cult that performs irreparable mutilation on kids, with puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones and life-altering surgeries.”

But at long last there is some pushback.

Oklahoma has banned “gender-affirming care” for those under 26 years old, arguing a person’s brain is not fully formed until that age.

The Ohio Board of Education voted against President Biden’s expanded LGBTQ+ Title IX protections.

In an article entitled “They Paused Puberty, But Is There a Cost?” the New York Timesfinally admitted “gender affirming care” is dangerous.

Scientific evidence trumps what the woke media wants us to believe.

“America’s war on truth, science, and children has rendered America increasingly an outlier in the Western world. (But thankfully,) more and more European countries are rejecting the perverse” sexually aberrant views of leading American hospitals, universities, and news media.

“Swiss citizens ‘are entered into the civil registry as male or female, with no other option.’ The Swiss Federal Council declared, ‘The binary gender model is still strongly anchored in Swiss society.’

Sweden…has also broken with America on the transgender issue.

Sweden’s National Board of Health and Welfare ended the practice of prescribing puberty blockers for minors under age 18; and…mastectomies will only be offered in the rarest of circumstances.”

England is now backtracking on its activist transgender-friendly laws and culture, in part because the costs, financially and emotionally, are becoming too great to ignore.

Even a trans psychologist who helps teens transition says it’s now ‘gone too far’.”

To protect children, re-establish educational priorities in schools, and to restore common sense, the state of Florida and Governor Ron DeSantis are beginning to wage war on transgender activism. In various laws, so has Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Montana, Mississippi, North and South Dakota, Oklahoma, and Tennessee.

By the way, the media does not typically note that these laws protect girls and women but rather describes them as “anti-trans” laws, trying to win the battle of vocabulary by making these states and lawmakers into haters.

“On the social scale, a major con is the allegation that an individual can change his or her gender. ‘Society has accepted a destructive lie that you can create your own reality and define your own identity,’ says author Ben Shapiro.

‘Transgender isn’t real,’ says women’s advocate and author Kara Dansky. ‘It was simply made up. Words like gender identity don’t have any meaning. Every single human being is either a male person or a female person.’”

“According to a new Trafalgar Group/Convention of States Action poll, 78.7 percent of Americans oppose sex changes, puberty blockers, and transgender-related medical procedures for kids. An overwhelming amount of voters believe minors should have to wait until they are at least 18 to make the life-changing decision about their bodies.”

Sex reassignment surgery does not work. A boy or man cannot ever become a girl or woman, or vice versa, no matter what ideas and ideology are embraced, no matter what meds are taken, no matter what irreversible mutilating surgeries are endured.

To argue that sex is not determined at biological birth is to argue against the God who created us in his image, male and female created he them, who created every human being for a purpose, and who loves us one and all, including those who struggle emotionally.

While it is true that gender dysphoria exists, that individuals emotionally struggle with their sense of themselves, and it is Christian to say we should care for and care about these people, still, this does not change reality. Trans transitioning simply trades out one set of problems for far more.

So, it is heartening to see some pushback, some practical acknowledgement the world God created and what’s best for human beings.

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

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 09 January 2023

Have you wondered what socialist ideas can do to a society? I’ve met two men in my life who were born and spent their youth in Cuba, then had harrowing immigration stories about how their parents got them to America. What a difference this family sacrifice made upon their lives.

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #62 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.

Ever think much about Cuba? My guess is that if you have thought of Cuba, it was through the lens of Castro and Communism, or similar negative images. And that’s the sad point. Cuba is a story of what might have been.

Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean, about the size of the state of Virginia. Actually, there are 4,000 smaller islands plus the larger island. The islands feature powdery white sand beaches and a turquoise-colored ocean. The main island is mostly grassy plains but also features beautiful mountains.

“Cuba was once known as the “Pearl of the Antilles” as it was the Spanish empire’s most-important source of raw sugar during the 18th century… Cuba is famous for its birdwatching, with over 350 different varieties of birds, two dozen of which are endemic...” And, of course, famous for its cigars.

Cuba is an incredibly beautiful environment, average temperature per year in the 70s and 80s. It’s another Florida – except for one critical difference.

Florida is free, democratic, and operates with a free enterprise capitalist economy. Cuba, since 1959, has been governed as a socialist country following Marxist-Leninist ideology.

“Those who crowded the streets of Havana in 1959, hoping that the fall of (Sergeant Fulgencio) Batista’s crony capitalism would usher in a period of human progress, have been sadly disappointed. Anyone interested in what prevents economic and human progress can learn many lessons from Cuba’s stagnation. Cuba joined the long list of countries where central planning and state ownership have turned out to be a detour on the route to progress and prosperity.”

“The government in Cuba is a self-described socialist-Marxist regime, as proclaimed by Fidel Castro himself. It is a murderous, perennial abuser of human rights…

(And note that) the American embargo does not prevent the world’s 195-plus other countries from trading with Cuba. For example, Canada and Spain have for decades prolifically traded with Cuba. The American embargo has never prevented food and medicines from reaching Cuba...What is shocking to me (in the face of this evidence) is how some Americans and one dominant U.S. political party actively advocate for socialism.”

“All these measures and actions of the government were accompanied by a demonization of capitalism, private enterprise and money making. Business enterprises, as well as money, were considered evil…Two years after the beginning of the revolution the economy entered into a major down spiral.

Massive unemployment developed; inflation became out of control; all commercial and industrial production was paralyzed. The country rapidly followed this socialist phase with a Marxist-Leninist period with rationing of most products, militarization of society, alliance with the Soviet Union, conflict with the United States and the migration of more than 2 million Cubans. The economy never recovered. The middle and upper classes were destroyed, and the workers joined the ranks of the unemployed, underemployed or of the state, working for miserable wages.”

I mentioned my Cuban-American friends. One man noted that his father was a successful businessperson, a beachfront property owner, a man who later lost everything. His father saw it coming and with heavy heart made an incredible sacrifice for the good of his son, putting him on a boat to America, knowing he’d likely never see him again. The freedom, well-being, family, and faith my friend enjoys today would literally not have been possible without the irreversible gut-wrenching decision of his father.

Look at Florida and imagine what Cuba could have been. A free and democratic Cuba with a free enterprise economy would today be one of the wealthier nations in the world. Think of the resorts and villas in the Caribbean—celebrity and vacation homes in Jamaica, The Bahamas, Antigua and Barbuda, US Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands, Turks and Caicos, St. Barts, not to mention scores of privately held island getaways. But for socialist control and decimation, Cuba could be enjoying the same investment, the same prosperity.

Instead, Cuba’s experience is one of food rationing, fuel shortages, electricity blackouts, severe energy shortages, including gasoline and diesel, other petroleum derivatives, decreased use of automobiles, and an overall shrinking economy that introduced hardships and misery to the declining middle class and the poor.

All of this was made decidedly worse during the so-called Special Period, “an extended period of economic crisis in Cuba that began in 1991primarily due to the dissolution of the Soviet Union.”

“People were forced to live without many goods and services that had been available since the beginning of the 20th century.” The period lasted to about 2000 when Venezuela emerged as a new trading partner.

“Cuba has a very sad history. It traded a regular dictatorship for a communist dictatorship six decades ago, and the results have been predictably awful. Oppression, persecution, rationing, spying, deprivation, and suffering are facts of life.”

Socialism, the false ideology that markets the supposed genius of government leaders is nothing more than a masquerade for coercion, tyranny, and theft – what’s yours is mine.

Many debate whether the United States is today a socialist economy and country. “More recently Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and a handful of other politicians have breathed new life into the label, injecting a radical alternate vision for the U.S. economy into the mainstream political debate.”

“Many think of socialism as no private property whatsoever, complete equality and the government controlling everything. That's communism - socialism is government control of only certain industries such as healthcare, education, or energy. In a socialist country, people privately own most things, but the government owns some other things. While communism promotes complete equality, socialism works to curb inequality with higher taxes on the wealthy.“

In America, the odd thing about socialism is that it seems to have the nine lives of a cat, never seeming to go away even though its historical record is one of abject suffering, misery, and failure, and in some cases evil.

The reason is that socialism is a litany of wrong ideas, values, and corruption. Governments that control capital are a half step from controlling people. Since socialism depends upon government, the ideology usually leads to authoritarianism. See North Korea and Venezuela.

Socialism destroys competition, and with it, incentive, accountability, and a fair determination of value. Socialism creates large bureaucracies that soon operate for their own concerns, emphasizing means over ends.

“Force, and all of the negative consequences that it inspires, is inherent to a system that is so much at odds with individual values and human nature. This, probably more than anything else, is what explains the atrocities associated with socialism in the 20th century.” The bottom line is, socialism does not work, and Cuba is exhibit #A in the Western Hemisphere.

Cuba is a story of what might have been. God grant that the US remains a story of what ought to be.

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

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

Have you ever made New Year’s Resolutions you didn’t keep? Ever know anyone who fulfilled their resolutions? Are resolutions worth making?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #61 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.

From time to time, I’ve made New Year’s resolutions, as much for the fun of it as any real commitment or need to make them. A few I fulfilled, maybe most, but the idea of New Year’s resolutions didn’t tend to move me because I was one who set goals periodically throughout the year.

As far as I can tell there’s nothing wrong with making New Year’s Resolutions. Key is whether you really have the desire and thus the follow through to see them across the finish line.

A lot of people make resolutions about dieting, by which they mean losing weight. Just watch the commercials aired in January and you’ll know what I mean. Lots of weight-loss programs.

Funny thing is, the word “diet” means food and drink consumed or a regime of eating and drinking, habitual nourishment. In other words, whether you “go on a diet” or not, everyone is actually “dieting” because it primarily signals that you eat—and everyone eats. The word “diet” is not about losing weight, though in popular parlance “diet” has become synonymous with weight loss.

Many people make resolutions that deal with their health or their desire to improve their health. This is a good thing.

Does it surprise you to know that most common illnesses and ailments that human beings endure trace back to our lifestyle choices. While we certainly experience disease that comes upon us as a result of living in a fallen world, in other words, to no fault of our own. Still, much of what we experience is in some since self-inflicted.

Think about these health challenges, for example:

Obesity
Cardiovascular disease
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD
Type II diabetes
Stroke

Genetics may be involved in some of these, but health experts tell us the root cause of these problems are unhealthy habits we develop in our largely sedentary routines. Meanwhile, we’re told that 80% of cardiovascular disease, heart disease, and strokes are preventable.

Culturally speaking, we don’t exercise, even as much as 150 minutes per week. We eat nutritionally imbalanced meals, i.e., fast food and processed foods loaded with calories, sodium, fat, and “additives,” a scary word for sure.

The first question nurses ask me when I visit a medical facility is “Do you smoke?” Thankfully, I can say, No. Next question is, “Do you drink alcoholic beverages excessively?” Thankfully, I can say, No. The reason these questions are asked is that a Yes response introduces a long list of health-related problems directly linked to the practice of tobacco use and alcohol consumption. If you choose to smoke or drink, then you opt for self-inflicted health problems.

Of course, drug abuse, including marijuana, opioids, and prescription medications all can and generally do introduce negative health side-effects.

So, if you want to make a few New Year’s Resolutions, I suggest adding these goals to your list:

Healthy diet
Exercise
Proper sleep
Stress relief
An active social life

You should also add, if this is not a pattern in your life, regular church attendance. Researchers have repeatedly demonstrated that active participation in the spiritual and social life of a local church fellowship can help reduce stress, lower the risk of depression and suicide, result in better sleep and lower blood pressure, and provide for a more stable, happy, and even sexually satisfying marriages.

Church attendance, or rather actual spiritual engagement with the teachings of the Word of God, can result in longer life expectancy.

Learning and applying the principles God provided us in his Word is not only an act of spiritual obedience but of rational self-interest and preservation. Why do I say this? Because God created reality and told us how the natural world works. He gave us everything we need for life and godliness, meaning he told us who he is, who we are, who you are—your own sense of self, who we are as sinners, loved eternally by Creator God and in need of grace. He told us how to live in a manner that yields not only good morals and good manners but a means of flourishing.

I don’t suppose I have to remind us or need to list the social upheaval in which we now live, the chaos that surrounds us as more and more people give themselves over to false ideology. This means the culture and the individuals that create it are growing weaker and as this happens, government plays a greater and greater role in directing and controlling our lives. Meanwhile, the Church plays a lesser role.

Scripture said, “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools,” (Romans 1:21-22). I call this a celebration of irrationality.

Our culture has long-since begun to “suppress the truth by their wickedness," (Rom. 1:18) so it is now becoming irrational, unrealistic, and dysfunctional. Unfortunately, it can get worse. There's more sophisticated insanity yet to come.

So, in this kind of zeitgeist, our task is to remain faithful, to live not the lies, to not be weary in well-doing.

As the Apostle Paul reminded us, “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord,” (Rom. 8:37-39).

So, if you make New Year’s Resolutions, think about some that reinforce a lifestyle that improves your health and glorifies God, and then make a few that recognize your confidence in the Hope we have in Christ.

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

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

Have you ever noticed how the tone and tenor of television content and even interaction with locals immediately switches right after Christmas in the week prior to New Years?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #60 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.

One of the things I have always found disconcerting each year is how fast the focus or, for want of a better word, the messaging changes immediately after Christmas during the week before New Year’s Day. It’s not just noticeable; it’s dramatic.

During the run-up to Christmas there’s season’s greetings, Merry Christmas, love, babe-in-a-manger, carols, peace, hope, and general good feelings.

The next day after Christmas, when some folks inexplicably for me take down their tree and decorations, there’s a shift, especially on TV and in media. Now the messaging is louder; it’s about partying, drinking, rock bands, all-nighters, clubs, and maybe New Year’s resolutions.

Now I know this is not neat and clean, a sharp divide wherein no partying and consumer materialism took place prior to Christmas and no peace and good feelings remain for New Years. But the contrast is still evident.

I’ve always thought it was a switch from bits and pieces of a Christian worldview and the Christmas story sort of borrowed by the world for a time, because people hunger for what this story provides and want peace and good will toward men, to a kind of secular or worldly worldview that celebrates the now and the individual—each of us as “me,” prosperity over peace, and hedonism.

If this seems overstated, I encourage you to watch the late-night Christmas programs on Christmas Eve, then watch the late-night programs on New Year’s Eve. If you haven’t noticed the contrast yet, you will now.

Others can have the New Year’s riotous engagements. I much prefer the message of the angels, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests” (Luke 2:14).

In the Christmas story found in Luke 2, the Scripture tells of the Savior’s humble birth, the angels appearing to the shepherds in the field by their flocks, and the shepherds’ immediate departure to see the baby in the manger. Then Scripture notes that Mary, likely just a teenager and the mother of Jesus, along with others who heard the shepherds, being “amazed” and that Mary treasured up these things and “pondered” them in her heart.

Amazed and pondered. To me, these verbs summarize well how we should and can respond to the Christmas story today.

We can be amazed, to wonder at the striking aesthetics of Christmas decorations and celebrations, to enjoy how different people decorate their homes or how various public displays are presented. We can be amazed at church and family Christmas traditions, Christmas carols, bright colored lights, and Christmas trees. We can be amazed at the way different cultures around the world invest themselves in infinite varieties of Christmas traditions. It’s not wrong, in fact it is OK, to embrace and appreciate the beauty of Christmas and the season, to be amazed.

Then it is important for us to ponder, to think about the meaning of the Christmas story, the Christ child, his sinless life and work, the cross, and the resurrection through which God the Father shares his love with the world. We can ponder the Good News, the Gospel of salvation by grace through faith in Christ. We can ponder the startling and humbling fact that the Sovereign God loves you and me. We should do as the shepherds did, glorify and praise God for all the things that we have heard and seen in the Christmas story. With Mary, we should ponder.

I use the word “story” not to imply myth or fiction but to communicate written history or “his story.” The Christmas account is fact of history past with a far-reaching impact into eternity like no other. This, too, can cause us to be amazed and to ponder.

Charles Dickens ends his 1843 classic “A Christmas Carol,” saying of Ebenezer Scrooge, “It was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One!”

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

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 20 December 2022

Do our values determine how we think and behave, and even so, does it matter?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #59 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.

There’s an aphorism in political philosophy: “ideas have consequences.” Many attribute this to University of Chicago conservative political philosopher Richard Weaver’s book by that title in 1948. But the concept probably goes back to the Greeks.

Theologian John Piper noted how Victor Frankl, a Jewish professor of neurology and psychiatry, who was imprisoned in the Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz and Dachau during World War II, and later became world renowned for his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, in which he shared the essence of his philosophy that came to be called Logotherapy—that the most fundamental human motive is to find meaning in life. He observed in the horrors of the concentration camps that human beings can endure almost any “how” of life, if they have a “why.”

Later in life in his 90s, Frankl said, “I am absolutely convinced that the gas chambers of Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Maidanek were ultimately prepared not in some ministry or other in Berlin, but rather at the desks and in the lecture halls of nihilistic scientists and philosophers.”

What he was saying is that ideas have consequences, for good or for evil.

The Nazis demonstrated this, crafting a comprehensive empire in just a couple of decades, one that ended in destruction and death, the logical consequences of their false ideas and ideology.

God created human beings in his image as reasoning, thinking, moral agents, people who can evaluate and make choices, whether motivated by nobility or ignobility. What people believe matters.

During the World Cup, word began circulating from Iran that an Iranian professional footballer had been arrested, accused of “waging war against God,” and sentenced to death.

Whether this tragedy occurs, he is by far not the only one scheduled for execution. People who are not famous, unknown to the world, are giving their lives for liberty. They will be killed because religious authorities hold to immoral ideas, which have consequences.

John Piper pointed to the Bible’s observation, “Whatever was written in former days was written…[that] we might have hope,” (Rom 15:4). The ideas presented in the Scriptures produce the practical consequence of hope.”

Ideas in Scripture – that is to say, revealed truth, principles – are there for our benefit so that we may know how to order our lives in a fallen world to serve God and others, to be free and productive, and to flourish.

Regimes like the one in Iran embrace ideas arranged in ideologies that lead to tyranny, destruction, and death.

In the U.S., we’re awash with ideas producing negative consequences.

--Identity politics leads to oversensitivity, cancel culture, seeing racism in everything, and more.

--An assumption that all human beings are basically good, generally the victim of their circumstances and environment, and a sense that all cultures are equal or relative, leads to consequences like the belief police are bad, secure borders are unnecessary, and crime is just the poor getting what they deserve.

--If we embrace the idea sex is just a physical act and nothing more, among the consequences is a celebration of the sexual revolution in all its perverse forms including now the sexualization of children, along with the ongoing hedonism and promiscuity promoted every day by celebrities and online influencers, something that only ends in degradation of lives and families.

--If we don’t think the idea of sin is valid, the consequence is we look for psychological sources to blame for problems, wrong choices, and evil. It becomes easier to call people’s bad behavior “mental illness.” Take Kanye West, now called “Ye,” for example.

I’m not arguing there is no such thing as genuine mental illness or that we should not care about or care for people struggling with mental illness.

I’m simply observing that “mental illness” is now a media “go to” whenever some celebrity behaves badly. It’s a convenient “Get out of jail free” card.

Kanye West has a history of abominable statements, including recently making antisemitic comments. He seems to get a pass from a lot media anchors who say, well, he’s sick, he’s mentally ill, and that’s it. Few people say, Kanye is making wrong choices based upon wrong values and he needs to repent before the Lord.

Ideas have consequences.

Jesus said, “What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them,” Matt 15:11. “But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what defile a person,” Matt 15:18-20.

In another passage of Scripture, Jesus said, “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit.

People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of,” Luke 6:43-45.

What is in our heart is what matters, which is to say, our ideas, whatever the source, what we believe has consequences. These consequences emerge in how we think, behave, and the ways we approach living in this world.

In the Old Testament, we were enjoined to “Buy the truth and do not sell it—wisdom, instruction and insight as well,” (Prov. 23:23).

The late Christian philosopher Francis A. Schaeffer observed something similar. “Most people,” he said, “catch their presuppositions from their family and surrounding society, the way that a child catches the measles.

But people with understanding realize that their presuppositions should be *chosen* after a careful consideration of which worldview is true.”

If indeed ideas have consequences, and clearly, they do, then as Schaeffer reminded us, we should take care to choose carefully our presuppositions, which are our basic ideas or assumptions about life. We need to do what Solomon said in Proverbs, “Buy the truth and do not sell it.”

In the early 21^st Century, a time saturated by information and online influencers promoting every evil known to humanity, and at a time when culture has rejected the idea of moral or even scientific absolutes, it is imperative individuals, especially Christians, stay moored to truth. For our own sanity and for the well-being of society, we must critique all ideas, recognize their consequences, and stand for truth.

Ideas have consequences.

Believe and act on false ideas and you will sadly, even if enjoyably for a season, drift with the masses along the broad road to destruction.

Believe and act on truthful ideas, and you will be a beacon of light in a dark world, a testimony that there is – still – love, beauty, blessing, and hope.

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

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