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Written by: Rex M. Rogers

Published: 05 July 2022

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live during what the Scripture calls “the Last Days”? Well, you may know more about this than you think.

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #33 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.

Maybe every generation facing some dark development of history thought it was facing what Scripture calls the Last Days. I don’t know because I didn’t live during those times.

I do know people honestly considered whether the End Times was upon them when the sadly named “War to End All Wars,” WWI, stagnated in the muddy trenches of Western Europe. I know, too, that more than a few people seriously believed Adolph Hitler was the Anti-Christ himself, heralding events leading to the end of the Age.

But what about now, 2022? Are we actually living in the Last Days?

I’ve noted before in this space that my 90-year-old Mother thinks we are living in the Last Days, and I’ve begun to agree with her. She knows, and I know, that the Bible warns us about setting dates, but it also gives us a heads up on the conditions human beings will experience during the Last Days.

Think of 2 Tim. 3:1-5: “There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power.”

Does that sound like the early 21^st Century? 

Or how about Romans 1, where the Apostle Paul tells us why humanity behaves the way we do in the latter days, and why we need salvation:

• suppress the truth by our wickedness,
• since creation God’s invisible qualities clearly seen, so people are without excuse, 
• thinking became futile and foolish hearts were darkened.
• claimed to be wise, but became fools, 
• sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.
• exchanged the truth about God for a lie, 
• women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. 

• filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice, gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful,
• disobey their parents,
• have no understanding, no fidelity, no love,no mercy, 
• invent ways of doing evil.

Again in 2 Tim. 3:12-13, 

• everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 
• evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse.

Luke 21:

• nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
• great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.
• when you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near. 
• nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea.
• people will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. 

So, the Last Days is not a cakewalk. Things go from bad to worse, and it feels like this has accelerated in the past few years. But again, I don’t want to suggest I have an insider knowledge of God’s timetable, nor that we are living in the Tribulation Period, which will be much worse than we’ve so far witnessed.

But still, social conditions are worsening.

Once people embrace the idea there is no God to whom we are accountable and no truth standard to live by, which American culture has done, we’re left with moral and behavioral chaos. That’s what we see today.

• Increasingly rootless, anxious, alienated, sometimes rage-filled youth, resulting in a long list of personal and social pathologies, including mass shootings, 
• not just a growing bias against but direct harassment, possibly persecution, of the Christian Church, 
• sin and moral choices are medicalized, and the resulting emotional ripple effects are labeled mental illness, 
• more pestilence, like pandemics, more wars, like Ukraine, more economic pain, including inflation, unemployment, lack of resources, supply chain problems.

Now what is the Christian response to all this genuine doom and gloom?

1. Do we withdraw and hide? Live in our own churchy cocoon?
2. Do we attack, attempting to slay the dragon, the Prince of the Power of the Air, Luther himself, and all his minions?
3. Or do we sally forth with knowledge of the Sovereign God, the Word, and what he says about the end of history, then live out our life proclaiming the Lordship of Christ in all of life?

I like option #3, know the Word, proclaim the Lordship of Christ in all of life. 

How do we do this?

1. Well, we understand and share that we don’t have all the answers, but we have the answer, so, we place our hope in Christ, not politics, not political parties, not ideology, not politicians, which means we studiously avoid what a lot of conservative Christians seem to have done in recent years.
2. We speak the truth in love, with gentleness and respect (2 Pet. 3:15). And we recognize that people around us, including family and friends, may not always want to hear the truth, and thus associate those who speak truth with something intolerant, holier than thou, or unloving.
3. We demonstrate an attitude not of despair but of optimistic realism– recognizing the reality of sin in a fallen world but acknowledging that our Sovereign God is there, and he is not silent.
4. We live not in fear but in hope – not a vain wish, like I hope my team wins this Saturday, but real hope in an event—the Parousia—already accomplished on the Cross and the empty tomb two millennia ago.

We live as unto the Lord. “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Gal. 6:9). 

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.

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2022   

*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.  

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Written by: Rex M. Rogers

Published: 01 July 2022

In the wake of the Dobbs v Jackson SCOTUS decision last Fri overturning Roe v Wade, celebrities, politicians, corporations, and sports associations have rushed to out-outrage one another.

Dick's, Target, Adobe, Airbnb, Amazon, Apple, American Express, Bank of America, CVS Health, Door Dash, Expedia, Ford, Intel, Kroger, Mastercard, Lyft, Netflix, PayPal, Nike, Salesforce, Starbucks, Tesla, Walt Disney, Wells Fargo, Yelp and many more are virtue signaling their pledge to pay for pregnant employees' out of state travel to gain abortions where they are legal. This is an H.R. and an insurance nightmare happening before your eyes.

NBA and WNBA, perhaps the most Woke of sports associations, issued a joint statement in which the word "abortion" is never mentioned, only "reproductive health care”:  “The NBA and WNBA believe that women should be able to make their own decisions concerning their health and future, and we believe that freedom must be protected. We will continue to advocate for gender and health equity, including ensuring our employees have access to reproductive health care, regardless of their location.” 

NSWL Player's Association criticized the ruling for in their view it is "a decision that effectively takes away a person's rights to make decisions about their own body," failing to mention that the unborn person gets no vote over a decision about his or her body: "The NWSL Players Association strongly condemns today's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade — a decision that effectively takes away a person's rights to make decisions about their own body, a basic human right at the core of every aspect of life." 

If you are an NBA, WNBA, NSWL player who likes this pro-life decision, your association just removed your voice, speaking for you.

The NFL, MLB, NHL have so far not released statements. 

Three cheers for the LPGA which released the kind of statement that preserves the right of its members to speak:    

“As the best female golfers in the world compete for the third major championship of the year against the backdrop of the US capital, we are concerned by the issues facing the country in the wake of yesterday's Supreme Court decision," the statement read.

"We are a diverse membership organization committed to equality and empowering women, and we encourage and support our employees and members in exercising their individual constitutional right to voice their opinions and vote, as this decision now places important women's rights in the hands of state lawmakers.”

"The LPGA is committed to this conversation and hopes we all strive for outcomes that ensure equality for all women."

“Notice the other three major professional sports leagues issued no statements about this topic. Major League Baseball, the National Football League, and the National Hockey League stayed silent. There is no reason for a professional sports league to talk about abortion. These leagues have fans on both sides of divisive political issues.”

Given the politicization tsunami that has inundated professional sports in the past three years, it is surprising indeed, but a bit encouraging, to see the NFL, MLB, NHL, LPGA exercise restraint. Their non-actions do not imply their leadership is pro-life, but at least on this occasion they are wise enough to leave room for players, coaches, supporting staff to exercise their own freedom of speech.

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2022   

*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.  

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Written by: Rex M. Rogers

Published: 29 June 2022

How are you processing the Supreme Court of the United State’s decision Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, in which the court overruled Roe v Wade? 

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #32 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. 

More than 63 million babies have been aborted in the U.S. since Roe v Wade (1973). That’s more than the total population of California and New York combined. 

The total dead in all wars in which the United States participated from the American Revolutionary War in 1775 through 2017 is 1,354,664. 63 million abortions : 1.35 million war dead.

In the U.S in year 2020, total abortions came to 930,160, and by the way, Planned Parenthood performs 40% of all abortions in the U.S. 

Despite the constant harangue of the Left and of media, a pro-life decision and approach are not a discriminatory disservice to Black Americans. In fact, abortions disproportionately harm Black Americans. “Black babies are aborted at more than three times the rate of white babies and constitute more than one-third of all abortions (38 percent)” in a Black demographic that comprises 13% of the total American population. 

63 million and counting. The numbers are simply staggering, and this is true worldwide. 

“Every year in the world there are an estimated 40-50 million abortions. This corresponds to approximately 125,000 abortions per day.” That’s about 87 babies every minute.

Meanwhile, the world’s biggest killer is heart disease, responsible for 16% of the world’s total deaths each year, or about 8.9 million deaths in 2019. 

So the most deadly disease in the world, the #1 reason for deaths worldwide, accounts for less than 9 million deaths per year, while abortion accounts for 40-50 million deaths per year globally.

As a moral issue, abortion knows no peer.

Yet in response to the Supreme Court’s ruling June 24, 2022, various Americans are going apoplectic. 

Pro-choice advocates keep listing social reasons they consider abortion essential. They talk about the marginalized, about race, poverty, the young, rural women, privilege. They say this is just political, that this push to overrule Roe is a political power grab by the Right. Those who present themselves as Christians like to point out that abortion is not specifically referenced in the Bible. 

But very few of these pro-choice proponents answer the question, is the pre-born a human life or not? Most of them do not talk about the baby at all.

They employ scare tactics, like claiming the Court is now going to reverse Obergefell, the same-sex marriage ruling. Or they say the government is “forcing” women to have children. I don’t claim to know everything about the birds and the bees, but I have trouble understanding how a prolife decision like Dobbs is “forcing” women to have children. The decision didn’t even say, No abortions. It only said there is no right to abortion written or embedded in the United States Constitution and that States should decide what to do about abortion. So abortion has not gone away.

Still, pro-choice advocates escalate fear, saying the Dobbs decision threatens “all women.” Really? “All” women? 

They use obscurantist phrases like bodily autonomy, women’s health, or reproductive health. Women’s rights has become a synonym for abortion on demand.

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow is warning about something she calls “fetal personhood,” saying, “A fetal personhood case could be their vehicle to impose a nationwide ban on abortion, on the order of the United States Supreme Court."

Corporations are now tripping over themselves to virtue signal their support of their vision of women’s health by saying they will pay for pregnant employees to travel out of state to get abortions. But these kneejerk responses may cause legal challenges later.

California wants to promote abortion tourism and be a sanctuary state for those seeking abortions. “Abortion tourism.” Can you imagine a more callous phrase?

California’s political leaders seem to believe the only way women matter is if they have the right to kill their unborn. Is this really the American dream? Even primitive cultures protected their pregnant mothers and children. 

We should recognize that the real issue is not political but the different worldviews embraced by abortion supporters, like the woman writer in Manhattan who called the high court a “refuge of conservative religious lunacy.” 

She said, “The price religion puts on the idea of children above women's lives has always been infuriating to me. I have been lucky never to have gotten pregnant, but if I had, having an abortion wouldn't be a difficult choice.”

She went on to say, “Because as of now, virtually overnight, all women in the United States, both those living in red or blue states, have become second class citizens. The decision puts every one of us in our place, treated as incubators for babies, our personal choices and freedoms considered secondary to someone’s theoretical conception of 'life.'”

Clearly, this Manhattan woman is bitter, because, oh my, as she noted, her mother hoped she’d one day have children and people sometimes ask her about her decision. Yet unlike previous generations, she has numerous birth control methods available to her. But rather than be content in her own decision not to have children, she demands the universal right for all women to be able to abort children at any or all times. Only this constitutes full womanhood.

She’s a good example of what columnist Michael Brown meant when he said, “Abortion has become a pseudo-religious rite; it was never a moral right.”

But as believing Christians, you and I know differently because God has told us so. We know that each, and every human being, male and female created he them, is made in the image of God. We know they are significant in this life and eternally valuable. They matter.

Science tells anyone willing to listen with an unbiased ear that “an unborn child within a mother has a genetic code that is completely distinct from the mother. The unborn child may also have a different blood type.” The baby is not part of the mother’s body, so the “My body, my choice” mantra makes no scientific sense.

That “birthing tissue” as one abortion advocate described babies is a living human being, loved by God and should be loved by each of us.

It bears repeating. Abortion has not gone away. If anything, the politics of this issue is going to become more intense. 

But remember, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Gal. 6:9).

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.

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2022   

*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.  

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Written by: Rex M. Rogers

Published: 27 June 2022

Patriotism is one of the strongest emotions human beings express, but it seems to come and go. What does patriotism mean in a more skeptical, jaded age? Should we express patriotism at all? And what does it mean when we do?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #31 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 grew up in the 1950s and 60s. In the wake of WWII and the Korean War, the 50s was a decade of peace, prosperity, and patriotism. It was like a national take-a-break breather in which families freely celebrated their lives and loved ones. It was “Leave It To Beaver.”

Even though the Civil Rights Movement that benefited Black citizens did not occur until the mid-1960s, yet African Americans en masse were able to in-migrate from the Deep South to the industrial opportunities of northern cities like Detroit.

I remember watching “Adventures of Superman” starring George Reeves on black and white TV – “Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Superman! Battling for Truth, Justice, and the American Way.”

It seems that we aren’t sure any more about “the American Way.” In 2011, a Superman comic featured the “Man of Steel” renouncing his American citizenship to become a citizen of the world, ostensibly so his actions wouldn’t be viewed as a tool of American policy. More recently in 2021, DC Comics announced that the “Truth, Justice, and the American Way” motto would be changed to the rather lame “Truth, Justice and a Better Tomorrow.” So much for patriotism.

The 1960s weathered the Counter-culture movement, the beginning so the sexual revolution, assassinations, and of course, Viet Nam, producing rioting in the streets. Sex, drugs, and rock n roll. Make love, not war. One huge ripple from all this was a culture that no longer trusted political authority, questioned its country’s values, and laughed at what was once called the American Dream.

Fast forward to 2022, and after a relatively brief resurgence of patriotism in the awful aftermath of 9/11, we now find an American culture less apt to express patriotism than ever before.

Yes, the national anthem is still played at sports events and yes, politicians, still acknowledge American ideals, and yes, many Americans are still deeply patriotic – as are internationals with respect to their own countries – but a profound social tension exists in the 21^st Century between those historically expressed American ideals and what people consider their incomplete fulfillment.

Some Americans hear talk about “justice for all,” or “all are created equal” and roll their eyes. They consider America a fraud, a source of systemic injustice. Their anti-American vitriol seems to believe that the U.S. has done nothing right, nor can it, that it is prima facie guilty, and worst of all, cannot be salvaged, indeed should be “reset,” which means overthrown.

Certainly, we must recognize that America now faces certain cultural acids, genuine threats to its historic defining ideals, that is, ideologies that promote moral relativism, bias against Judeo-Christian values, and an unfettered extension of the sexual revolution.

And while some have reacted to these developments with uncritical hyper-patriotism, including ill-advised and unbiblical Christian nationalists, it’s nevertheless the case that we live once again during a less patriotic age. 

One clear reason for this is that America was founded by people who not only believed in religious liberty and the existence of religious faith, 

but believed this religious understanding was essential to the foundation of a free society. In other words, we need religious faith to survive as a free culture and country. Without it, or with it in decline as we’re witnessing now, we see the logical outcomes, reduced shared values, lower sense of community, lack of vision or a sense of moral destiny, alienation, envy, and terminal unhappiness in the endless pursuit of happiness.

But I still believe not only in my Christian faith but in the timeless ideals upon which the American Experiment was founded. I believe because I’ve seen the evidence of the truth and power of these ideas, the consequences of which has been the freest and most productive society in history.

I believe America is still capable of moral ambition as an example of how to provide freedom and justice for all, of being in Lincoln’s immortal words, the “last best hope on earth.”

America’s progress toward fulfillment of its ideals has come in fits and starts, valleys and mountaintops, because we are human. This is the human experience. We are not perfect and never will be, but we strive for the glory of God and the wellbeing of our families. We remain committed to God-given liberty, to truth and justice for all, to firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right.

So, I am still patriotic. I am proud to be an American. I am still grateful for what God has done in this nation called America. I believe in our defining creed, and I want to reinforce the nation’s character for the future and my own grandchildren. 

The best way I can do this is to live a morally responsible and upstanding life as a Christian and as an American citizen. Same for you. Be patriotic.

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. 

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2022   

*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.  

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Written by: Rex M. Rogers

Published: 21 June 2022

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

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #30 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life. 

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

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

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

Other Christian colleges and universities at the time responded differently. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And it’s not just Christian institutions. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2022   

*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.