Rex M Rogers - Discerning What Is Best

Discerning What Is Best
with Dr. Rex M. Rogers

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 10 May 2022

It seems that everywhere we turn these days someone is talking about social justice. It seems like the right thing to do, but is it, and more importantly, how is social justice different from biblical justice?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #23 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.

Social justice has become a watchword for political discourse in the past few years. It sounds good, sounds like what every decent person should be concerned about.

But what activists mean by “social justice” is considerably different from what the words used to mean in everyday parlance, and more importantly, it’s now become clear that social justice is not the same as biblical justice.

The best resource on this topic that I have seen is Scott David Allen’s book, Why Social Justice is not Biblical Justice. He defines the two phrases this way:

Biblical Justice is “Conformity to God’s moral standard as revealed in the Ten Commandments and the Royal Law: ‘love your neighbor as yourself.”’

Social Justice is “Deconstructing traditional systems and structures deemed to be oppressive, and redistributing power and resources from oppressors to their victims in the pursuit of equality of outcomes.”

In other words, the moral teaching of Scripture contrasts sharply with what is passing today as a means to a just society.

Allen notes that a biblical worldview describes human beings as made in the image of God, whereas social justice ideology argues “we are children of society, fashioned by its social constructions and the power dynamics they maintain.”

This is the critical difference. Biblical justice exalts and obeys God. Social justice ideology omits him entirely and introduces a surrogate—you, me, or society. And remember what Os Guinness said, either you worship God, or you worship an idol, even if that idol is you, me, or society.

Real justice, Allen notes, is truth conforming to a fixed point of reference, a higher law. “Without the higher law, justice is arbitrary and changeable based on whoever wields power.” God, not the self, not humanity, not government, “is the moral plumb line who determines what is good and right for all peoples, for all eras.”

Social justice ideology has made enormous inroads in virtually every corner of our culture. Promoting their ostensible ideology of fairness and equity, social justice activists have taken over education, Kindergarten to graduate school, media and entertainment, corporations, and politics as a speed that boggles the mind.

Social justice ideology brings with it far more than a concern for diversity, equality, and inclusion, the oft-heard mantra. It brings a counterfeit theology, something the Apostle Paul warned us about in Col. 2:8, when he said, “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.”

And what’s more, the social justice ideology blitzkrieg, while right there in front of us, still seems to have taken a lot of Christians, churches, church leaders, and even Christian universities unawares. And while I dislike thinking this, it appears that some Christians, churches, church or mission leaders, and faculty and staff members at Christian universities have knowingly embraced what is at bottom a worldview antithetical to biblical Christianity.

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Download an episode for your friends.

Disconnected from God and his moral will, social justice ideology affirms the following:

1—The human mind, not God, is source of ultimate reality.

2—Objective truth, reason, logic, evidence are simply the tools of oppressors. One can therefore only know “truth” through victims’ “lived out experiences.”

3—Personal identity is wholly socially constructed via class, race, gender, sexual orientation, etc., and individuals do not really matter.

4—Promote division as path to power.

Oppressors vs morally innocent victims
Class vs Capitalism, Property Owners
Race-minorities vs White supremacy or “whiteness.”
Females vs Males, i.e., patriarchy.
Gender-LGBTQ+ vs Judeo-Christian morality and natural family.

5—Argue not for equality of opportunity, or even equality before the law, but for equity, a vague sense of fairness defined as “if someone has more, it’s unfair.”

6-Systematically redefine words based upon its values, then masquerades these words to the public in outright deception, terms like women’s rights, binary, inclusiveness, tolerance, empowerment, even male and female.

Depending upon the word or phrase, these words or phrases may not be “bad” as such but buttressed by redefinition in the interest of social justice, they become tools with which to deceive the public.

Social justice ideology is now a secular religion, embraced by many people on what is now called the Left, the so-called “progressive” wing of philosophy, religion, and politics. This secular worldview strives to attract converts to its false theology and false politics. To do this, the points of the spear are always one of two things:

Race,now often promoted by a subset of social justice ideology called critical race theory,
Sex, defined as LGBTQ+, and gender identity.

The Left unrelentingly propagates its views, even while its cancel culture inclination works to silence opposing points of view. The Left literally sells the public with deception:

that all racial or ethnic minorities are ipso factovictims of society, and
that any person who defines his/her sexuality as one of the ever-expanding 112 gender options, is somehow a victim of society.

Victimhood can include anything, but certainly bullying, lack of access and equity, trauma, mental illness, and more. For a public in the past 30 years that assumes every person must have unfettered path to self-actualization, this has become an easy sell.

People think they are doing good by expanding heretofore unknown justice. They feel good about themselves and often virtue signal online.

Social justice ideology sees injustice as, well, a social problem, but this is a critical mistake, for injustice is a moral problem. According to the Word of God, what human beings need as a remedy for sin is heart transformation, which is to say spiritual regeneration, salvation in Christ.

This is not a conspiracy theory. What I’ve said is not exaggeration. The social justice revolution is happening across American culture.

I am familiar with several Christian ministries already divided, weakened, and possibly lost to the Christian faith because staff members have either knowingly or unawares embraced this false worldview.

Unless we resist and unless in the providence of God, he intervenes, the American Church is in trouble and the America we thought we knew is fast disappearing.

Well, we’ll see you again soon. For more Christian commentary, be sure to subscribe to this podcast, Discerning What Is Best, or 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: 03 May 2022

Chicken Little was hit by a falling acorn one day and began yelling, “The sky is falling! The sky is falling,” thus working the entire farmyard into a turmoil. And now the Climate Change movement is telling us the world will soon end, but will it?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #22 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 loved the outdoors as long as I can remember. It’s one reason my favorite color is green.

As a kid, I reveled in spending time in the woods and in the fields on my Grandpa Rogers’s farm and elsewhere. I read every issue of the monthly “Field and Stream,” “Outdoor Life,” and “Sports Afield” magazines that arrived at our house.

In 8^th Grade, a classmate David Hammond and I won an award for our entry in the Science Fair. Our project illustrated ways to reinforce conservation.

I remember Ohio’s Cuyahoga River catching on fire in 1969, sensationally making national news. When I was a freshman in college in 1970 President Nixon launched the Environmental Protection Agency. Then in 1979, there was a partial meltdown at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania.

These early incidents stimulated the emerging environmental movement, eventually leading to global warming, then more recently, climate change. It’s a strange flipflop because in 1974, “Time” magazine’s cover proclaimed a “Coming Global Ice Age.” Not sure what happened to the Ice Age. Maybe it got melted away by global warming?

Now it seems as if we’re into an arms race to see how frightening climate alarmists can become:

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says we’ve got 12 years to correct our climate sins before the world as we know it becomes unlivable.

Former Vice President Al Gore speaks of an “inconvenient truth” at 10 years. Recently, the director of the film, “Don’t Look Up,” tweeted:

“We’ve got 6-8 years before the climate is so chaotic we [will] live in a permanent state of biblical catastrophe.”

Wow.

Consider this recent study:

“Angry, terrified, and in despair. These three words capture how many people are feeling because of climate change according to a recent… report "Mental Health and Our Changing Climate: Impacts, Inequities, and Responses." A global study…found that nearly 6 in 10 people aged 16 to 25 were very or extremely worried about the fate of the planet, nearly half of them reported climate distress or anxiety affecting their daily lives, three-quarters agreed that "the future is frightening," and over half are convinced that "humanity is doomed."

The author’s remedy for all this is that we should look for ways to “take positive action,” go biking or walking. She said, “The key is to balance hope and worry…we must remain ‘stubbornly optimistic.’

So, the answer to the end of the world due to climate change is to remain stubbornly optimistic? But based upon what? No wonder young adults are experiencing anxiety.

This kind of climate change hyperbole is an example of what some have called “climate fear porn,” an ever-ratcheting-up hysteria.

Problem is, rather than people rallying to combat the epic effects of climate change, people are wearily succumbing to “Apocalypse fatigue.” And the screeching Greta Thunberg—who I think is being used by older adults—embarrassingly makes things worse.

But I don’t think climate change, and certainly not fear, are what God had in mind for us.

As I said, I love the Creation we learn about in Genesis. Scripture says, ‘The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters,’ (Ps. 24:1-2; 1 Cor. 10:26).

I believe God gave humanity a magnificent environment in which to flourish, and in what’s called the “Cultural Mandate” of Gen. 1:26-28, God gave humanity dominion over the earth, meaning we are responsible for exercising wise stewardship, developing and caring for creation and everything in it.

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I also believe human beings have at times made bad choices that negatively affected God’s beautiful Creation. Because of the Fall (Gen. 3), even Creation is laboring under the weight of sin. God talks about this in several places in the Bible, e.g., “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time,” (Rom. 8:22; Ps. 102:25-27; Heb. 1:11-12).

You don’t have to review the whole of human history to recognize this. Just consider our American experience.

Think, for example, of the tens of millions of American Bison that were brought to near extinction in 1870-1890, or the Passenger Pigeon that numbered in the billions before being hunted without thought of conservation, the last pigeon dying in the Cincinnati Zoo in 1914.

We nearly lost the American Bald Eagle and the Timber Wolf, but these species, along with the buffalo, are an example of what can be done when proper animal husbandry is employed. All three species are thriving again.

Plowed under indigenous grasses, together with over-farming of the Prairie in the late 19^th, early 20^thCentury, were precipitating factors that, together with severe drought, resulted in the 1930s Dust Bowl eroding millions of cubic tons of topsoil.

Clearcut logging in the West denuded mountainsides and contributed to later mudslides.

Earlier, I recorded a podcast on littering. Surely this is a global example of human irresponsibility. Some 9 billion tons of litter ends up in the ocean annually, and 50% of all littered items are cigarette butts.

So, human beings can exercise a damaging impact upon the environment.

But many in the climate change movement claim that human beings are solely responsible for all current degradation to the world, so much so, that if we do not immediately cease using fossil fuels, we’re goners in the near term.

The problem with climate change activists’ claims, however, are several:

Conclusions are based on biased computer modeling, not evidence.
Climate is always changing so their thesis is untestable and unproven.
The fact that humans contribute to global warming is demonstrable, but the effect is minimal, and zero use of fossil fuels immediately does not appreciably change this condition in the next hundred years.
Climate change is far more complex than simplistic bromides calling for shutting down oil, gas, coal and other fossil fuel consumption.
Calls for dramatic transitions from fossil fuels to other forms of energy like wind or solar are enormously expensive – so claims of “climate justice” on behalf of the poor are not deliverable.
Climate activists’ passion for alternative energy oddly does not include the clean, safe source of nuclear energy.
Embedded in the climate change movement are values that run counter to ether to a Christian worldview or to traditional American values, among them,

Anti-humanity.
God is irrelevant, unless the earth is the deity.
Anti-truth or genuine science.
Anti-free enterprise or anti-capitalism.
Look to government as the source salvation and utopia.

Climate change enthusiasts demonstrate that what is going on here is a worldview battle: for many, climate change has become a secular religion.

Politicians, environmentalists, and media create a triad constantly promoting climate catastrophe. They do this because fear sells. It scares people to the point they support the triad with money and power.

Yes, climate change is happening. It’s always happening. Droughts, floods, hurricanes are not getting worse. Fires are decreasing. Even Antarctic Sea ice is not declining.

We know the earth is warming modestly, but climate change is not an existential threat.

We should remember what God told Noah after the Great Flood: “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease,” (Gen. 8:22).

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 26 April 2022

The United States fought one Civil War to end slavery, North vs South, brother against brother, a war that defined our character for decades to come. Is it possible that we’ve entered upon another civil war, this one a “cold” war that will also define our character?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #21 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.

America is at war with itself. The combatants are not Republican vs Democrat, not Liberal vs Conservative, not Black vs White, or men vs women, or rich vs poor.

The warfare in which we’re now fully engaged pits those, on the one hand, who believe the Bible is the authoritative, trustworthy Word of God, versus those, on the other hand, who reject the Word and absolute truth. Or if you want to think of it more broadly, those who affirm Judeo-Christian values vs those who reject Judeo-Christian values.

When the battle became Truth vs No truth, we entered upon a worldview civil war.

It’s literally a war for the soul of American culture, for the continuing prospects of democracy and free government, for the future of the United States of America as it is presently known, and, of course, for the hearts of individuals who choose sides.

When I reread those lines, frankly, it sounds like over-the-top exaggeration, sort of sensationalistic, shock value hyperbole.

But sadly, I really don’t think so, and a lot of notable Christian and/or conservative thinkers today are worrying aloud about exactly, the same thing.

As Dennis Prager put it, the dividing line in the US between the Left and Right, is not belief in God per se, but in one’s view of Scripture, man-made or divinely inspired.

We spend a lot of emotional and intellectual capital worrying about which political party is in power and what their leaders are going to do next. But truth be told, while politics matters, politics does not matter as much as we think, for it is downstream from our public moral consensus, if there is a consensus anymore.

And neither political party completely or effectively offers a solution. They can’t, because politics cannot resolve spiritual conflict.

A few years ago before he went to heaven, Chuck Colson said it another way: “The death of moral truth has fractured America into two warring camps, with each side’s preferences hardening into an ideology.”

Christian philosopher and social commentator, Os Guinness, later agreed, observing, “the most important battle is the ideological one in America.”

Colson noted that since there is now no such thing as truth, all principles are merely personal preferences. Everything is “socially constructed” and rational arguments no longer work.

We’re in the shape we’re in because of what G. K. Chesterton observed years back: when people stop believing in God, they don’t believe in nothing, they believe anything.

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Those who reject the authority of Scripture, embrace a set of ideas and ideals antithetical to Judeo-Christian values and, therefore, to much that America has stood for from its inception. To make matters worse, this anti-Christian, progressive, Leftist worldview, promotes views and actions that are themselves morally unsustainable. These progressive Leftist views don’t work. They do harm.

As Judeo-Christian values have been rapidly jettisoned during the pandemic years, these values have taken their place in the public’s moral universe.

But consider what progressives think, they:

Reject God and the idea of truth, with a consequence there is no real individual accountability, can be no science, and no standard for criminal justice.
Denigrate religion in general and specifically reject Judeo-Christian values, meaning there is no basis for human rights, individual freedom, freedom of speech.
Behavior, including sinful choices, is medicalized, or spiritual matters are transmuted into mental health issues.
Normalize sexual immorality – consider what’s happening recently with Disney.
Reject E Pluribus Unum and patriotism for in an idealization and idolization of race, and so-called multiculturalism. What matters is not oneness but division, for this is the progressive path to power.
Mock the traditional family, promote abortion,
Promote rights without responsibility.
Favor equality – or rather now “equity,” (a vague sense of fairness that defines fair as no differences, especially income disparity, among human beings is allowed).
Embrace politics via big government, not individual effort, and not religious faith, as the way to transform the world.

Progressives have created their own “Ten Commandments,” a secular Top Five:

There is no God, no evil, no afterlife, reward or punishment.
Human beings are self-determined by their own feelings.
Unfettered sex is whatever you want it to be with whatever consenting person you wish whenever you wish. (By the way, the idea of “consent” is going to be the next thing to go out the window. It has to be jettisoned, because it stands in the way of the Left’s demand to do whatever is right in their own eyes.)
Race is ultimate, defining everyone, and White Supremacy is the root of all injustice.
Economic equity is the end all, be all of life.

Is America really at war with itself? I think it is. We battle every day on a worldview level, but most people probably don’t even recognize it, for they get caught up the practical if secondary matters of the moment.

But none of this should cause Christians undue anxiety and certainly no loss of faith. Now that we know more about what the opposition believes and stands for, we need to be sure we know what we as Christians believe and stand for:

I--We know that the Savior, Jesus, existed before the foundation of the world. And we know that “in him all things were created; Things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible,” (Col 1:16). That “He is before all things and in him all things hold together” (Col 1.17).

II--We know the Scripture is true and trustworthy, that it is what it claims that it is, the inspired Word of God, written for all times, countries, and cultures.

III--We know that God is sovereign, that he is not surprised by anything taking place around us, that he will give us wisdom in knowing how to respond, and that he wants us to remain faithful, “in the world, but not of the world,” even as he commands us to go “into the world.”

IV--We know God will one day bring all things to account.

My 90-year-old Mother believes we are living in the last days, the end times. More and more I think she is correct, though we cannot be sure.

But in this Second American Civil War our task is clear, to: “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect” (2 Pet. 3:15).

Well, we’ll see you again soon. For more Christian commentary, be sure to subscribe to this podcast, Discerning What Is Best, or 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.

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 21 April 2022

You’ve heard of “snowflakes,” the pejorative label for young people who seem so fragile these days? But silly name-calling aside, what is it that’s causing so many young adults to express deep-seated angst, feelings evident in their music, their self-destructive behavior, and their despair, and what can we do to help them?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #20 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.

American youth are in emotional free fall. This crisis is built upon apocalyptic fears, resulting in what pundits are calling a teen mental health crisis.

Even celebrities--the young, the beautiful, the wealthy, the sometimes educated and sometimes talented—even they speak of “crippling anxieties,” a fear of tomorrow, a fear of life and living.

“From 2009 to 2021, the share of American high-school students who say they feel “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness” rose from 26 percent to 44 percent, according to a new CDC study…Almost every measure of mental health is getting worse, for every teenage demographic, and it’s happening all across the country.”

Social commentator Kristen Soltis Anderson said, “Teens are sad about the world, not only because the world contains sadness, but also because young people have 24/7 access to sites that are constantly telling them they should be depressed about it…Social media is making it ever more possible for today's youth to marinate in despair.”

American teens are told their bodies aren’t good enough and can’t possibly measure up to Instagram models…that is, unless they buy that model’s products.

Youth are told they cannot trust their parents – and this seems plausible to many because their parents are indeed untrustworthy – giving their children broken homes, lack of love or acceptance, or worse, ignoring them.

Youth are told as early as elementary school in some states that the doctors just guessed at their sex, that they cannot really know for sure they’re a boy or girl just by looking at their anatomy in the mirror, so they should question their biology and recreate their own gender identity. To say this teacher-induced confusion is child abuse is an understatement.

American youth are bombarded with compounding fears: the pandemic, personal security vis-à-vis crime and a host of both real and media-hyped crises, unstable finances including inflation, low level prospects of a job, climate change with dire predictions the world will end in 12 years, typical teenage yearnings for social approval and belonging, loneliness, feelings of inadequacy, then add international aggression like the Ukraine-Russia War…there’s no end to fear and stress in a world turned upside down.

American teens and many young adults have lost a sense of purpose and this vacuum is filled with disorientation, disillusionment, despair. Young people drown in a sea of ennui and dread, then they think there’s nothing left for them but nihilism, the idea life is meaningless.

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Youth, and many adults too, get addicted to "doomscrolling," endlessly reading Internet negativity.

All day, every day, media pound out a steady drumbeat of what they claim are intractable threats to the survival of the human race – the unlimited and unfettered doomsaying of Big Media and Big Tech social media.

“The world is overwhelming, and an inescapably negative news cycle creates an atmosphere of existential gloom, not just for teens but also for their moms and dads.”

According to a host of secular psychologists, the solution to the teen mental health crisis is to reduce screen time, encourage self-awareness, accept and affirm who you are or want to be.

The problem with these approaches is they don’t really offer recipes for change, just more pressure on the young person to somehow reach inside and change themselves, something they cannot do.

Now no question we’re living today not only in a time of cascading, layered crises. But it’s also a time when sources of protection, perspective, and promise have been ignored, rejected, or lost.

The biggest problem facing youth today is not screentime per se, though 7 hours average per day is not good for anyone.

The biggest problem facing youth today is not mental or emotional but spiritual health.

The real problem is that youth have not been given anything solid to believe in. They have no backstop, no safety net, in actuality no truth they can trust.

One huge, ignored issue is that youth and young adults are not going to church. They are not being taught the Bible. They do not know the Scripture and thus do not understand and cannot apply Christian teaching to their everyday lives. More to the point, they do not know the God who is there, the God who is not silent.

According to George Barna’s research, just 6% of American adults possess and live with what Barna carefully identifies as a truly, biblically based Christian worldview. The number of American adults holding a biblical worldview has declined by 50% over the past quarter century. Regarding the youngest adult generation, among millennials it’s 2%, and among teens even fewer understand a Christian worldview. Since most youth and young adults do not possess a biblically Christian worldview, they do not look to Scripture to help them understand reality, identity, or purpose.

Without belief in God there is nothing to give life higher meaning.

Os Guinness recently observed that society has abandoned a shared moral universe. Instead, we celebrate rebellion in the name of absolute freedom.

We offer our youth uncivilized chaos, wickedness and barbarism, the rude, the crude, and the lewd.

Youth and young adults who experience a tsunami of threatening developments, social or personal, have no fall back.

First, what youth and young adults need today is not therapy, not another surrogate comfort like promiscuity or alcohol abuse but what they need is a relationship with the Lord.

Personal salvation in Christ, the Gospel, is the greatest transformative power in history. Salvation in Christ transforms the old person into the new person. Salvation in Christ brings love, forgiveness, a washing white as snow, deliverance from the chains of sin and despair, new purpose, and that fantastic four-letter word = HOPE.

Second, youth and young people desperately need an everyday application of a Christian philosophy of life, one that enables believers to understand and trust in God’s perspective on this troubled world:

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things,” Phil. 4:6-8.

I remember a song from my youth:

“My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame
but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.”

Refrain:
“On Christ, the solid rock, I stand;
all other ground is sinking sand,
all other ground is sinking sand.

In every rough and stormy gale,
my anchor holds within the vale.
When all around my soul gives way,
he then is all my hope and stay.” [Refrain]

Young adults beset by anxiety need only come to understand there is indeed a solid rock of hope, as the Psalmist said, “Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken,” Psalm 62:6.

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 15 April 2022

If you noticed that I had a visible tattoo, would it make any difference in your opinion of me? Apparently for some it would—to the point they either acquire or avoid tattoos pretty much for the same reason—they believe tattoos change what people think about them.

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #19 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.

Tattoos are now visible in whatever direction you look. In the last decade, tattoos have gone mainstream. Nearly half of millennials report at least one tattoo. And the resurgent popularity of body art doesn’t seem to have reached its cultural peak.

Body art of some kind has apparently graced human skin since shortly after the Garden of Eden. Yet one would do well to remember that body ink in its current manifestation is a fashion fad, and, by definition, fads are here today, gone tomorrow.

Today, religious people, including Christians, get tattoos as a way of conveying their faith, including all manner of religious symbolism, crosses being the obvious favorite but also doves, angels, biblical references, and more. In some parts of the world this is an important means of identity.

This is a different world from my youth when tattoos could only be found on three kinds of individuals: 1) a few armed forces veterans sporting small arm tattoos, 2) bikers and other assorted bad guys, 3) or tattooed ladies at the carnival.

Today you can see tattoos on most of the prison population and among professional athletes, the young woman serving you an omelet, innumerable college students, and not a few young pastors. But when I was a kid, religious leaders if not adult culture in general tended to frown upon the practice of getting tattoos. So, I wonder why it’s OK now to wear tattoos when it wasn’t OK in my youth? And I wonder, how do we decide to tattoo or not to tattoo?

When Christians ask these questions the first verse cited is in the Old Testament book of Leviticus: “Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD” (19:28). Some people quote this verse as the letter of the law, thus the end of the argument. No tattoos, ever.

But this isn’t a valid interpretation. This verse commanded the Israelites to avoid certain funeral practices wherein bodies were marked in some pagan hope of attaining a good afterlife. This verse doesn’t really address present-day tattooing, and as part of the Israelite’s ceremonial law it does not directly apply to us today.

So, we look to the New Testament, only to discover it says nothing about whether a person should get a tattoo. The fact is, God didn’t give us a “black or white” yes-no answer on tattoos. He left it in the so-called “gray area” in between, so we have to figure out what to do and “be fully convinced in (our) own minds” (Romans 14:5). In other words, God gave us enough other principles in Scripture for us to be able to decide this “matter of conscience” for ourselves. This is called Christian liberty.

Since clearly God wants us to maintain a lifestyle that honors him, we should make decisions or discern what is best (Philippians 1:9-10). If we discern properly, we’ll live according to God’s command: “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).

So let’s summarize:

--God doesn’t answer all our cultural lifestyle questions and grants us Christian liberty to discern what is best.

--He expects us to choose in a manner that glorifies him.

--Tattoos are not proscribed in Scripture.

--So, each person must decide whether, why, when, how, where, what to tattoo or not to tattoo.

So, to tattoo or not to tattoo?

While we’ve discovered God didn’t give us rules, we should remember he did give us principles to help us answer this question, one of which is that not everything we can do we should do: In 1 Corinthians, it states, “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive” (10:23).

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.

So, to discern whether to tattoo or not to tattoo we should ask ourselves and perhaps our confidants these questions:

1. Do I want this body art for my entire life? (Some say 90% of people who get tattoos later regret it; 5% regret it immediately.)

2. What will this tattoo say about me, what I believe? (Like Christian body art sends a message, other symbols send different messages.)

3. Is the place and procedure I’m considering medically safe?

4. Why am I getting a tattoo? (Peer pressure? Rebellion? To look better? To look tough? Other?)

5. What will my tattoo look like in 20 or 30 years? (Have you seen 30-year-old tattoos? They ain’t pretty.)

6. Will the tattoo really look as cool or beautiful as I think, or will it look silly, cheap, sad, revolting, or worse?

7. If I get a tattoo, what might its existence prevent me from doing or experiencing later? (Job or profession? Relationship?)

8. Why shouldn’t I get a temporary rather than permanent tattoo?

Now for the record, I’m, really, not against all tattoos. They just perplex me.

The Christian perspective on tattoos might best be described as, rather than tattoo or no tattoo, tattoos are a matter of the values represented in what is portrayed and why. It gets down to making wise choices about what we place on our bodies, what it says about what we believe, and whether we seek to honor the Lord. Again, for me, it’s about Christian liberty.

Periodically, I see an understated tattoo that seems attractive, like a delicate butterfly or flower, or a tattoo that clearly means something, like a cross, or a phrase like “Never Forget,” or maybe a flag.

But mostly I see huge gaudy looking tattoos, generally worn by men but not exclusively, that I don’t understand: 5” tall grotesque creatures or snakes on a guy’s calf – Is this demonic figure how he sees the world, or himself?

Jagged barb wire on a man’s biceps – Does he feel tough or courageous with this ink on his arm?

Men, and sometimes women, getting so many tattoos the body art is no longer individually distinguishable, and the color is gone, just a run-together blue.

Handsome men – hunks they are called – like soccer start David Beckham, who now makes money as a clothing model, plastering his entire upper body – maybe more, don’t know – with multiple tattoos – Why? Does this make him cooler, more handsome?

I get why the Rock, actor Dwayne Johnson, tattooed his chest and shoulders. It fits his Samoan heritage and acting persona.

If you’re an Mixed Martial Arts fighter like Conor McGregor, maybe all those tattoos make you look more formidable?

But why would attractive models or actresses get multiple tattoos? What can ink add to their God-given beauty?

As I said, tattoos perplex me.

To hear some people tell it, tattoos are often acquired impulsively—in the early years this is part of their public braggadocio. But tattoos last a lifetime and impulsiveness isn’t a good decision-making attribute no matter who you are or who you aspire to be.

Now if you already have a tattoo and want to get rid of it, removal is now possible-if-painful and expensive. Laser and other methods are available.

I’m not suggesting a Never-Tattoo moral argument here, just wondering aloud about a fad that I don’t comprehend.

Piercings are another subject. This I truly cannot understand, for in my estimation piercings are about pain, not pleasure, beauty, or even functionality. The entire aesthetic conjures images of debasement. I believe you can make a moral argument against piercings.

But even here, I admit, there is no clear mandate one way or another in Scripture and you have to wonder where to draw the line: two or five or six piercings? What about just two pierced ears featuring earrings on posts? In the ears piercing is OK, but not in your nose, lip, tongue, or sexual body parts? I think a moral understanding of piercings can be developed, but it’s challenging.

Tattoos are an ancient and contemporary practice, so maybe the word “fad” isn’t accurate? Tattoos it appears are here to stay. But they still perplex me.

Can you imagine George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Elizabeth Taylor or Charlton Heston with tattoos? I can’t either.

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 12 April 2022

Have you ever met someone who hasn’t forgiven another person who’s been dead for 15 years? Unforgiveness is rampant in the human experience, and in the Church.

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #18 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.

Your son steals the family car and eventually calls three weeks later from three states away. Your spouse has been unfaithful. Your pastor absconds with several thousand dollars of your church’s funds. You are the focus of a slanderous attack that undermines your reputation. Your business partner finds some way to cheat you, legally, and walks away with your investment. Someone abused you in terrible ways. Your father or mother have been gone for decades, but you’re still haunted by the memory of how one or both wronged you.

The “normal” response pattern to all these circumstances might include disbelief, hurt, anger, bitterness, and maybe vengeance. Some people might even argue that such emotions are justifiable and understandable. Some claim that certain acts perpetrated against us are forever unforgiveable.

People expect a certain amount of “righteous anger.” It’s a part of our American code of individualistic ethics. Kill or be killed. Hallowed self-defense. John Wayne rides again.

But I’ve got to believe that most of us are not very good at separating “righteous anger” from unrighteous, carnal wrath. That’s why forgiveness seems like an even more unlikely response. At least with anger, righteous or otherwise, you get the satisfaction of directing your feelings toward the offender. With forgiveness you don’t even get that. You let go and walk away.

Actually, forgiveness is a rather un-human thing to do. Think about it. Forgiveness goes against the grain. If someone hurts us, why should you forgive them? What’s in it for us? Forgiveness isn’t the typically human response.

Forgiving seems too much like yielding. It smacks of injustice and weakness. It’s almost as if we’re allowing for some legitimacy in the offender’s actions. Besides, if we want to be religious about it, doesn’t the Old Testament say, “an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth”? Shouldn’t we retaliate? Can’t we all think of a couple of people whose teeth we’d like to knock out?

You see, forgiveness really is un-human. Forgiveness does not fit our human psyche. It’s not natural.

But then again, who said we should be natural? Being natural means that we’re following the nature we were born with and that, according to Scripture, is an evil nature, a heart that is deceitful and wicked (Jer. 17:9).

My wife and I did not teach any of our four children (now adults) to lie, but they all did sooner or later. We didn’t teach them to cheat, but they did that too. They did what comes natural. They sinned. I’ve done the same things and more. I’ve let the “natural man” control my heart and my response.

Yet we should not want to do what comes “natural.” We should be interested in the supernatural. We should allow the Spirit of God to work in our hearts to redeem the natural and make us useful for his service in the here and now. It’s only through submission to the Lord that we can do the “un-human” thing and forgive those who hurt us.

If forgiveness is un-human, unforgiveness is inhuman. Unforgiveness eats away at the spirit of the unforgiver and sometimes the unforgiven.

We describe torture, cruelty, and vicious violence as inhuman. We detest “man’s inhumanity to man” as evidenced in slavery, killing, genocide, or unlawful capture and detainment. Inhuman action is hurtful, destructive action.

Unforgiveness is inhuman because it hurts us, you or me. Unforgiveness binds and restricts. It chokes and destroys. It cruelly works emotional and spiritual violence on the soul.

Unforgiveness is to the spirit what disease is to the physical body. Unforgiveness debilitates, slowly and steadily. It begins to determine what we do and who we are.

Unforgiveness captures our future.

But unforgiveness has a remedy. We don’t have to live in spiritual and emotional ill health. Forgiveness is the remedy that frees us from the bondage of sin. Life, liberty and joy are ours to embrace.

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.

Our ability as Christians to forgive others is rooted entirely in the fact that God through Christ has already forgiven us. Through Christ’s shed blood we enjoy redemption, the forgiveness of sin (Col. 1:14). We are “free from” sin and “free to be” what God wants us to be.

I conclude every podcast with the powerful biblical statement, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free” (Gal. 5:1).

The fact of God’s forgiveness literally gives us a new lease on life.

Think with me about the ways that God’s forgiveness liberates us.

Forgiveness frees us from rendering vengeance.

When we forgive, we leave vengeance and justice to the Lord (Rom. 12:17-21). We don’t have to become buddies with the one who hurt us, but we don’t need to retaliate either. God will bring all things to account.

Forgiveness frees us from possibly thwarting God’s purposes.

Forgiveness frees us to acknowledge the sovereignty of God even in the hurtful things he allows to come into our lives. Esau eventually forgave Jacob for stealing his birthright, and Joseph forgave his brothers for their treachery in selling him into slavery. At the time of the offense, none of them knew that what some meant for evil, God meant for good.

Forgiveness frees us to testify to God’s love.

Jesus forgave the wicked woman at the well, he forgave the Christian-killer Saul who became the Apostle Paul, and he forgave me. When we forgive others, contrary to human nature, we are a testimony of the grace of God. People simply cannot understand it.

In October 2006, people worldwide were amazed when Amish families forgave the man who shot ten and killed five young girls in a Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania schoolhouse, then killed himself. The families then attended his burial, hugged his widow, and donated money to her and the man’s three children, victims all. How could the Amish families do this?

In December 2014, an 11-year-old Iraqi girl, Myriam, was interviewed by Essam Nagy of Christian channel SAT-7 KIDS. In the video that eventually went globally viral and was reported on news agencies in multiple languages, she says she forgave ISIS for what they did to her hometown of Qaraqosh, Iraq, driving she and her Christian family from their home, killing others, and destroying the community. How could she do this?

In February 2015, ISIS theatrically beheaded 21 Christian men on a Libyan beach. Later, one man’s brother, and a mother of two of the men and mother-in-law to another, called the Christian channel SAT-7 to express forgiveness of the ISIS men, praying for their salvation. How could these aggrieved families do this?

Forgiveness is a supreme act of spiritual maturity. It is only possible in those who have grown in Christ to a point where his grace overwhelms their (our) grudges.

4. Forgiveness frees us to be blessed by our own acts of mercy.

Ironically, showing mercy to another person is a selfless act that is ultimately in our self-interest.Solomon told us that a gracious woman retains honor and a merciful man does good to his own soul (Prov. 11:16-17). When we are merciful, longsuffering, and forgiving, we allow God’s grace to be shed on both the forgiver and the forgivee.

Forgiveness liberates. It’s like unhooking a ball and chain from around our necks. Forgiveness frees us to enjoy the Christian life as God intended.

Jesus told his disciples to forgive unto seventy times seven (Matt. 18:21-22). In other words, our capacity to forgive should know no limits. Forgiving is not an option. It is a biblical mandate. We must forgive even if the offender is 100% wrong and even if the offenses occurred repeatedly.

Unforgiveness is a rather common part of the human condition. It’s all around us. Sometimes it’s within us.

I’ve long thought that unforgiveness is the number one sin in the Christian Church, though I cannot prove this.

Forgiveness on the other hand is all too rare, which makes it special, a light in a darkened world. Forgiveness is a way for Christians to let the Son shine in.

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