Rex M Rogers - Discerning What Is Best

Discerning What Is Best
with Dr. Rex M. Rogers

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 17 June 2024

Is America really ready for a world without good fathers?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #154 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.

Fathers, or at least good fathers, are an endangered species in America.

In the book Fatherless America (1996), David Blakenhorn notes that from 1960 to the 1990s the percentage of children not living with their biological fathers increased from 17.5% to 36.3%. These figures have increased into the high 40% levels and indicate that our nation is replete with citizens raised quite differently than generations born prior to 1970, in which over 80% of children were raised by their biological fathers.

So, we could ask, are fathers still important? Much has changed in our culture in my lifetime. The radio program, 1949-1954, “Father Knows Best” became a popular television series when I was a kid, 1954-1960. The actors were the well-dress, well-spoken, upstanding at least on air Robert Young and Jane Wyatt.

I also remember “Leave It To Beaver” with Ward Cleaver and “Ossie and Harriet” in which the married couple were shown retiring for the night to twin beds.

Then something changed, big time, in the 1960s. “Research has shown that the “patriotic” and “heroic” images of working-class fathers — i.e., the men who rebuilt America after the Great Depression and World War II — have been replaced by images of immature buffoons and schemers who need constant rescuing from their competent wives.”

Now there is nothing wrong with assured, competent wives, but in contemporary terms, this usually means the husband is a bumbling father like Fred Flintstone, Archie Bunker, Al Bundy, or Homer Simpson. Indeed, gaining speed in 1970s sit coms, if a Dad was in the house, he’s an idiot, or a goofball, or superfluous. He gives bad advice or burns the house down.

In the 1980s we had “The Cosby Show,” which, despite Bill Cosby’s later moral crash and burn, featured an upper middle class urban Black family wherein the father’s, the parents’, and the grandparents’ carried weight.

In the 1990s, we got “Home Improvement” with Tim Allen, Tim the Tool Man Taylor. This was an enjoyable family sit com that my boys, who were young then, and I watched regularly. But “The Cosby Show” of the 1980s and “Home Improvement” of the 1990s contrasted how American culture had changed in just ten years. In the Huxtable household on the show, misbehaving children always got a comeuppance from some family adult. In other words, lying had consequences. In the Taylor household on the “Home Improvement” show, misbehaving children sometimes resulted in parental discipline, but usually what the kids did was laughed off. No comeuppance. He lied, Ha Ha, and the lie was joked away.

In one later series episode, Tim was out one night at a bar, playing pool, and in walks a young woman wearing revealing clothing, who then makes a play for Tim. At first, this surprise flirtation appeals to and bolsters his male ego, but eventually he backs off. He never says or does anything overtly inappropriate toward the young woman signaling her interest. When he gets home, wife Jill asks him where he has been, and he lies to his wife about where he was and who he met. This lie is never corrected in the episode, just laughed off. Why? Why did a husband feel it appropriate to lie to his wife? This I don’t know, but I do know this is what American culture was becoming in the 1990s – lies are OK if they meet our needs of the moment. Dads no longer are paragons of virtue.

Think for a moment about world class gold medalist decathlete Bruce Jenner, once called “The World’s Greatest Athlete,” a “man’s man” and a “hunk” for sure, who went through marriages until he wed Kris Kardashian and became the father of two of the five Kardashian family sisters featured on “Keeping Up With The Kardashians,” 2007-2021. In the course of this programs run, Bruce was gradually portrayed for what he had become, an unnecessary and an emasculated pretend father. Infamously, in 2015, on the cover of “Vanity Fair” magazine he was portrayed in a woman’s hairstyle wearing a woman’s white swimsuit under the title “Call Me Caitlyn.” This was his coming out party as, he claims, a woman.

That same year, 2015, in a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges, “that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution.”

This is just nine years ago, but since that time our culture has gone over a cliff.

A Father has now morphed into a woman, men can marry men, women can marry women, and soon thereafter, they began adopting children, ostensibly “fathering” these innocent children in the context of immoral relationships.

But we know fathers matter, not only because God said so but we now know from watching our own culture’s decline:

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2020:

7 million children (33%) in the United States live in fatherless homes.
Children living in fatherless homes have increased by 25% since 1960.
6% of Black children lived with their mother only in 2021.
85% of children with absent fathers get involved in crime.
70% of children in fatherless homes have dropped out of high school.
Children living in fatherless homes are 4 times more apt to live in poverty.
Girls raised in fatherless homes are 8 times more apt to become a teenage mother.
85% of all children living without a father experience behavioral disorder.
63% of Suicides Among Children and Teens Are from Fatherless Homes.
Teenagers with positive and nurturing fathers are 80% less apt to go to prison.
Children with Involved Fathers Are 40% Less Apt to Repeat a Grade in School.
75% of Minor Children Who Are Patients in Chemical Abuse Centers Came from Fatherless Homes.
70% of Runaways, Child Murderers, and Juvenile Delinquents Come from Fatherless Homes.

Children who grow up in fatherless homes are more likely to experience a variety of challenges, including:

Poverty
Crime
Educational problems
Dropping out of school
Teenage pregnancy
Incarceration as an adult

So the presence of a good father, especially a Christian father, in the home when kids are young is a crucial, divinely-appointed contribution to the protection, stability, and potential of that family.

Not everyone, as we’ve noted here, was blessed with the experience of a good father. But if that is your experience, remember that if you are a believer, you have a good Heavenly Father, one who walks beside you, is always there, always ready to hear and engage with you, one who has spoken in his Word if we but listen.

I am one who was blessed with not only a good father but good, present, and engaged grandfathers on both sides of my family. My grandfathers were Christian men, they were upstanding, and therefore they were an outstanding model for me.

My father was a quiet personality, one who led more by example than by leadership up front, though he did some of this too when he was called upon.

One small remembrance. I do not know when this took place, but I was very young, and I witnessed my Dad, finding 2-3 abandoned kittens. Now I remember men who thought it was admirable to spout their dislike of cats. And they took it to the next level, regaling us kids with tales of what they did to these innocent animals. I do not remember those incidents with respect.

But back to Dad, I do remember him picking up those kittens, speaking gently to them, petting them carefully, and then taking steps to find them a safe home. Why I remember that I do not know, but I’m glad I do for it is a good example of Dad’s quality.

What did my father/grandfather give to me?

Introduced me to faith in Christ and the Christian faith.
Loved my Mother.
Rock solid values.
Faithful in church.
Modeled incredible work ethic.
Finished well.

They are all in heaven, and now the baton has passed. It’s my turn now.

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 or https://twitter.com/RexMRogers.

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 09 June 2024

Does it feel like to you, an American citizen, that you are losing freedoms? Is the US setting aside freedoms we will not be able to restore?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #153 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.

It seems to me that America, if not the West including Europe, is losing its freedoms at an exponential rate.

The free-fall of freedom has been in the works for most of my lifetime back into the 1960s but moved to warp speed just five years ago with the advent of COVID-19. This virus, no matter what its source, though even the mainstream media now admits it began in a lab in Wuhan, China, created an opportunity for government officials to seize power with one inane mandate after another, all in the name of public safety.

Now we know, and again even many mainstream media sources acknowledge, that masks accomplished very little, that vaccines were of limited utility, and keeping children home from months of schooling is a set-back they will endure for their generation. Most of these government mandates were unilaterally handed down from on high by executive powers: governors, state health officials, school boards, mayors, and more with limited or no actual constitutional authority to do so. Edicts were issued and the American public acquiesced.

They went farther. People were pushed to stay in their homes, churches were ordered – “ordered” I said – to not open, and when finally they did open, people were expected to sit in every-other-pew or not sing hymns or function only via online streaming. You’d be forgiven if you asked, whatever happened to the First Amendment?

But all this was only a spike in the curve of government overreach and the consequent loss of personal freedoms that has been our lot in the new millennia.

During COVID, we thought we saw the threshold of the violation of basic rights, but the pandemic was only a springboard. During the summer of 2020, the horribly named “Summer of love” that actually was a summer of Black Lives Matter riots and lawlessness in the wake of George Floyd’s death while in custody, then his subsequent deification by the Left and mainstream media.

Prosecutors stopped prosecuting, police became the enemy and were in many communities “defunded” followed since by significant drops in recruitment, coupled with significant increases in early retirements by law enforcement officers who have seen the writing on the wall – public officials no longer back them up, no longer hold the criminal accountable even as they seem to believe victims have no rights at all.

“Non-prosecuting rogue prosecutors” – an oxymoronic mouthful that really does describe reality – are destroying the American legal system, minority communities, and peace and tranquility in cities across the country—and with it our freedoms. We the citizens have elected these leftist ideologues to do their jobs enforcing the law, but they have independently decided to do what they think is best, which is nothing in the face of crime and violence.

Gun control advocates argue for removing all guns from society, even as criminals continue to acquire guns and use them against law-abiding citizens. Journalistic attacks on so-called “Assault rifles” have become a red herring masquerading as intelligent discussion about crime. Meanwhile, “an assault rifle is not really a thing. It’s a look.” It’s just a symbol of a lot of heated talk surrounding guns that does not address the real issues in the streets that result in more killings, like those, every weekend in Chicago.

Educrats in public education at all levels now think they know what’s best for children and youth. Certainly, parents are not to be trusted. No, schools promote a host of morally degraded woke practices: drag queen story hours for children under 7 years of age, affirmation of all manner of gender ideology, including keeping any changes of pronouns, names, or other transitioning hidden from parents, sex education that is anything but age-appropriate taught in Kindergarten, race division and distrust supposedly to advance something called “antiracism,” teachers promoting leftist political activism that is anti-Israel and often antisemitic or blame America philosophies that destroys students’ confidence, much less patriotism, for their own homeland.

Social media has been coopted by government. No crisis is too small for government to exploit and to expand its power. Print and online media have descended into depravity, no longer focusing upon the best and highest of cultural achievements but the most debauched, not simply reporting these developments but propagandizing them, not only propagandizing them but championing them to teenagers and children. A one-time “focus on beauty and health morphed into a constant running celebration of sexual excess and abortion, with frequent criticism of men tossed in for good measure.”

Pride Month is ubiquitously visible during the month of June. It is pushed by government agencies, even the US Armed Forces, local police forces, public schools, hospitals, retail businesses, entertainers or politicians making virtue-signaling comments, and otherwise forced upon almost every American citizen. Yet Pride Month has no legal standing.

What we’ve seen, though, is people losing their jobs for expressing different views, law enforcement being further defunded for noncompliance, people being “canceled,” meaning shunned or suppressed because they chose not to fly a pride flag or put a pride sticker on equipment or helmet. To ostensibly promote the freedom and acceptance of an immoral minority of the population, the majority is losing its freedom to disagree.

All this is only a part of the tectonic philosophic shifts underway in American culture, moving rapidly from an understanding of and respect for the traditional Judeo-Christian moral consensus that made education, law and order, economic progress, and civil tranquility possible in the first place, the same morality that birthed Western Civilization, energized discovery and free enterprise, held Americans accountable to their wrongdoing in slavery, Jim Crow, and discrimination, liberated science and gave education purpose, reinforced the famed Protestant Work Ethic, these traditional, time-tested values and verities have not only been rejected, but they are also being suppressed.

In the name of doing what’s right in our own eyes, truth is rendered relative and stripped of its power. In the name of equality, something called equity, has displaced blind justice in favor of weighted, identity politics wherein there is no justice, only chaos. In the name of diversity, we often get mediocrity.

In the name of antiracism, high schools and universities going retrograde on integration to hold separate Black and White commencements. In the name of freedom, freedoms are being taken away. Perhaps George Orwell was even more prescient than we thought.

The moment you think it can’t get worse, it does. It’s like there is no bottom to this madness.

To test this conclusion, one only needs to pay attention to what’s happening in Canada. What was once a free country is now a socialist, government dominated, left-leaning society. Or you can look at what’s happening in European cities – Berlin, Brussels, Paris, London, and more – every week. Vast numbers of illegal aliens marching in the streets, destroying property, chanting about sharia law or antisemitism, demanding free goods and services on top of the ample amount they’ve already been awarded, tearing down the country’s flag and raising Hamas flags, engaging in crimes against persons, including rapes, and screaming obscenities or harassing passers-by. This in cities once known for their refinement and culture.

Now do we despair? No, for like the Apostle Paul in Athens on Areopagus, we note the culture around us: “What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. And (God) made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him.” (Acts 17:23-28).

God placed us in year 2024. He knows the challenges of our culture, the loss of freedoms, the zeitgeist of our age.

It is our privilege to know and to share that “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Cor 3:17). It is our privilege and responsibility to communicate “you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (Jn 8:32). It is our privilege to proclaim, “so if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (Jn 8:36).

There are three ways to turn this around:

Ask God to send a spiritual awakening like he did in the 19^th
Vote out of office every radical, anti-God, anti-liberty politician and fire every bureaucrat who embraces the same.
That “for freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm” (Gal. 5:1).

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

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 03 June 2024

Why, and how is it possible, that decades-old and influential American institutions are now in the process of destroying themselves?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #152 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.

Referring to institutions in the West and specifically in the United States, writer and scientist Alan Joseph Bauer recently noted, “One institution after another is destroying itself, its credibility, and its influence.”

It’s like American institutions are on a bender, rapidly adopting wrong, injurious ideas and practices based upon evil values diametrically opposed to what America has stood for since its founding.

For example, “the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to stop its offensive in Rafah. Israel will not stop its offensive in Rafah…By demanding that Israel stop fighting a critical part of its campaign to destroy Hamas, the ICJ has shown that it cannot stop Israel and is a paper tiger.”

“This empty ICJ order is one more step in the decline of the post-war major institutions that for seventy years have played outsized roles in world affairs…the FBI and DoJ have beclowned themselves to the point where nobody believes them any longer.”

“What we are witnessing is the self-destruction of major institutions, national and international. The UN, through its billion-dollar (United Nations Relief and Works Agency or) UNRWA office, was an active part of Hamas’ activities in Gaza. Their staff and facilities provided Hamas with a large part of their manpower and infrastructure.”

“The universities have made complete fools of themselves. Professors, once highly respected scholars…run interference for their demented students. Those students, after four years and hundreds of thousands of dollars spent, don’t know which river to which sea, could not find Gaza on a map, and are completely clueless as to what actually happened on 10/7.”

Given the number of public-school boards now dominated by woke ideologues, the rabid commitment of public educators to LGBTQ and specifically trans activism, declining productivity in learning, increases in school violence and safety concerns, and curricula given over to critical race theory racism, and the indisputable fact that while universities tout diversity, equity, and inclusion, there is a decided lack of conservative voices, i.e. intellectual diversity, allowed on campus, the public is losing confidence in all levels of public education.

The medical profession, once sitting atop the totem pole of respect in American culture, is increasingly seen as a vast bureaucracy given over to dependency on government funding, overpriced medical insurance, declining scientific rigor in assessing disease, and increasing politicization seen in the COVID-19 and vaccination experience, the willingness to mutilate children in the name of trans affirmation, and an unhealthy inclination to prescribe addictive drugs.

Mainstream media lie about political matters and candidates every day, so much so that media has suffered enormous drops in credibility and for some, even viability, going out of business.

Social media, though it has grown in number of users, has declined in credibility. About 59% of American adults do not trust news on social media. Too many stories, with documentation, of Big Social Media intentionally peddling disinformation about C-19, masks, vaxxes; too many stories, with documentation, demonstrating how Big Social Media intentionally shut down conservative websites and accounts – most prominently when then-named Twitter discontinued Pres. Donald Trump’s account for what they said was a “risk of further incitement to violence” – and then evidence of Big Social Media liberal bias, anti-free speech policies, and arrogance all combined to reduce the public’s trust of social media.

“Hollywood used to be the source of American entertainment. Hollywood made the movies and later TV shows that kept Americans busy and entertained. Those days are mostly behind us. Today, movie studios insist on lecturing or looking down on the audience.” The studios seem to want to virtue signal by being the studio that speaks the loudest about an alphabet of sexual proclivities. One movie after another is going woke, then going broke. This includes Disney, and this includes the video gaming industry.

The Trump trials are shredding what was left of respect for the criminal justice system. This follows the post-George Floyd riots of 2020, the so-called “Summer of love” featuring demonstrations laughably described in media coverage as “mostly peaceful” as fires raged behind the reporter, which destroyed billions of dollars of property, a significant portion belonging to minorities.

Then came the advent of what’s been called “rogue prosecutors,” which is to say, city, county, and state elected law enforcement officials who refuse to enforce the law. “Progressive” prosecutors sabotage the rule of law, raise crime rates, and ignore victims.”

“They believe the entire criminal justice system is racist. It’s absurd, but they believe it.”

The U.S. military, once considered the greatest and best in world history, is becoming a pale reflection of itself, thanks largely to Biden Administration policies emphasizing DEI over preparedness. “Today's American military has fully embraced the social imperatives of the Left and the most progressive aspects of American society. The U.S. Air Force selects officers based on a race- and sex-based quota system for officer applicants—an affirmative action program that would make the Ivy League blush.”

Over-commitment to woke social goals, including vigorous promotion of trans ideology, alongside decreasing and under-commitment to patriotism, readiness, and excellence, has translated to the US military failing to meet its annual recruiting needs. Young Americans don’t see opportunity, patriotic pride, and esprit de corps but rather division, rancor in the ranks, absence of earned stature, and dead-end.

Churches, or religion, is also suffering a decline in credibility. Many churches are shooting themselves in the foot, going woke, then, like entertainment, inevitably, going broke. These churches think the way to save the world is not by sharing the Gospel but by blowing with whatever new wind is passing.

If it’s a new idea, if it is not traditional Christianity, it must be good, so let’s jump on that bandwagon.

Climate change is one of those new winds blowing. Churches in Europe and now in the U.S. are drinking the Kool-Aid of this latest culture of death. Soon, the church offers nothing different from the world, for the church is the world.

American institutions are in decline. Actually, they are one by one committing suicide through their own, active efforts to advance ideas and values contrary to and directly undermining the historic ideals that made America strong in the first place.

Our culture now “believe(s) in an ever-evolving world where moral standards are not constant, not absolute, are to be defined by the individual (or government), where there is no God to provide a fixed, final answer for mankind’s reason for existence, for mankind’s hopes, for mankind’s guidance. We live in a world today where the zeitgeist is defined by Darwinian, Marxian, naturalistic, materialistic atheism—no God will save us, we must save ourselves. Our “god” thus becomes whatever each individual wants him (or her) to be. Everybody defines their own purpose for existence, their own carnal lifestyle, their own personal moral code.”

This all sounds so liberating, so nice to do what’s right in our own eyes with no one to whom we report or are held accountable.

It sounds like, at last, humanity has evolved to a level of self-sufficient pleasantry wherein life is one long bacchanalia.

Charles Darwin thought humanity would evolve without God. But we’re devolving. No God, no truth, no morality, no accountability equals no sense of purpose, progress, or hope – just meaninglessness, which human beings can’t endure so we strike out in anarchistic nihilism. Chaos.

Look what’s happening in American and European cities, everyday in the streets. Look what’s happening to our social institutions.

You’ve heard it said that ideas have consequences. Embrace the wrong ideas and reap negative results.

America needs a spiritual awakening, and soon.

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

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 26 May 2024

I wonder if you caught the public fooforaw involving Catholics, who like Protestants, do not all agree?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #151 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.

Catholic Church beliefs have been front and center recently, both traditional and progressive. Traditional came from Kansas City Chiefs football kicker Harrison Butker, who gave the commencement address at Benedictine College, May 11.

Butker is Catholic, the college is Catholic, he was invited to speak and got a standing ovation after his address, yet social media and the American Left has gone into meltdown mode.

Butker said, “Bad policies and poor leadership have negatively impacted major life issues. Things like abortion, IVF, surrogacy, euthanasia, as well as a growing support for degenerate cultural values in media, all stem from the pervasiveness of disorder.”

Regarding President Biden, Butker said, “Our own nation is led by a man who publicly and proudly proclaims his Catholic faith, but at the same time is delusional enough to make the Sign of the Cross during a pro-abortion rally. He has been so vocal in his support for the murder of innocent babies that I'm sure to many people it appears that you can be both Catholic and pro-choice.”

“This is an important reminder that being Catholic alone doesn't cut it. These are the sorts of things we are told in polite society to not bring up. You know, the difficult and unpleasant things. But if we are going to be men and women for this time in history, we need to stop pretending that the ‘Church of Nice’ is a winning proposition. We must always speak and act in charity, but never mistake charity for cowardice.”

Butker noted, “The world around us says that we should keep our beliefs to ourselves whenever they go against the tyranny of diversity, equity, and inclusion. We fear speaking truth, because now, unfortunately, truth is in the minority.”

While media hasn’t notice, actually, Butker spent most of his speech talking about getting our own house in order, meaning the Catholic Church, and he chided bishops and priests for their too frequent shallow and cowardly values.

Then Butker dared to say something that just a generation ago virtually every American believed, but today you say it and you are a pariah, one who must be fired, cancelled, or condemned as a misogynist. Butker said, “it cannot be overstated that all of my success is made possible because a girl I met in band class back in middle school would convert to the faith, become my wife, and embrace one of the most important titles of all: homemaker.” [Applause lasting 18 seconds]

Now this is after he acknowledged many women will pursue successful careers. He did not denigrate this. He merely praised those women who consider being a wife and homemaker a holy vocation.

Then, “to the gentlemen here today,” he said, “Part of what plagues our society is this lie that has been told to you that men are not necessary in the home or in our communities. As men, we set the tone of the culture, and when that is absent, disorder, dysfunction, and chaos set in. This absence of men in the home is what plays a large role in the violence we see all around the nation.”

“Be unapologetic in your masculinity, fighting against the cultural emasculation of men. Do hard things. Never settle for what is easy.”

Finally, Butker noted, “a life without God is not a life at all, and the cost of salvation is worth more than any career.”

In various asides in his speech, Butker disagreed with “abortion rights, Pride Month, COVID-19 lockdowns and what he called ‘the tyranny of diversity, equity and inclusion’ and he also rejected “dangerous gender ideologies.”

These are holy issues for the Left and why the reaction has been loud, over-the-top, and nasty.

But don’t miss this: Butker spewed no hate speech, leveled no insults, called no one names, evidenced no animosity…just disagreement with certain ideas and values. He simply shared his convictions, his free speech right, and still, mainstream media, from shallow celebrities to Taylor Swift fans to women TV anchors to the NFL, and even an order of nuns, people have reacted as if Butker committed heinous unpardonable sins – which is interesting in itself because most of those who are criticizing Butker probably don’t believe in sin or moral absolutes.

What they condemned, what a petition to get him fired from the Chiefs, which garnered more than 202,000 signatures, is that he dared to speak up for his conservative views. His speech has been described as dehumanizing, “sexist, homophobic, anti-trans, anti-abortion and racist.”

But ESPN NFL broadcaster, Samantha Ponder, called the petition to fire Butker “totally un-American.” She asked, “Is a Catholic espousing traditionally Catholic views to a Catholic audience really that shocking?” “Why can’t we just respectfully disagree?!”

Now I mentioned at the top of this podcast that the progressive side of the Catholic Church also made news recently. None other than Pope Francis sat down for an interview April 24, 2024 at the Vatican for “60 Minutes” with CBS’s Nora O’Donnell.

O’Donnell reference the Pope’s earlier comments about blessing same-sex couples. “She asked him how he would respond to ‘conservative bishops in the United States that oppose your new efforts to revisit teachings and traditions.’ In his reply, Pope Francis defined a conservative as the ‘suicidal attitude’ of ‘one who clings to something and does not want to see beyond that.’” To say this is a weak and biased definition of conservative is an understatement.

“O’Donnell also asked Pope Francis for his thoughts on the state of Texas’ efforts to shutter Annunciation House, a Catholic nonprofit sheltering migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. He said, ‘That is madness. Sheer madness. To close the border and leave them there, that is madness. The migrant has to be received. Thereafter you see how you are going to deal with him. Maybe you have to send him back, I don’t know, but each case ought to be considered humanely.’” Now the Pope did not say why a migrant “has to be received.” Nor did he say how many migrants are being received at Vatican City.

O’Donnell noted that global warming was among the factors driving the increase in immigration numbers (a scientifically unproven but oft-repeated political allegation). The pontiff said, “Unfortunately, we have gotten to a point of no return. It’s sad, but that’s what it is.” “Climate change at this moment is a road to death.” “He blamed wealthy countries in ‘great measure’ for the situation because of their economic strength and for having energy policies focused on fossil fuels.”

Here you must wonder. The Pope said we’re at a point of no return on the road to death. If this is true, he offered no solace, no way out. He did not mention the Sovereign God or for that matter anything from Scripture. He only made an anti-capitalist comment blaming wealthy countries, failing to acknowledge it is capitalism that has helped more people out of poverty and enabled more advances in quality of life than any other system.

Pope Francis drew accusations of heresy on social media…for his comments during the…interview about the human heart. The Pope said, “People are fundamentally good. We are all fundamentally good. Yes, there are some rogues and sinners, but the heart itself is good."

Responding to Norah O'Donnell's question regarding what gives him hope when he looks at the world, the pontiff said ‘everything,’ and then went on to list examples of people doing good things as evidence of humanity's essential goodness.”

Many criticized Pope Francis for his remarks, with some accusing him of failing to grasp the basic teaching of the Gospel. Scripture says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9).

Pope Francis offered classic theological liberalism, shared politically progressive talking points, did not point people to the Word or the Lord, and gave his audience no encouragement, means of reconciliation, or hope.

It’s a fascinating time when a professional football player shares views more consistent with Judeo-Christianity and Catholic understanding, more uplifting than the Pope of the Catholic Church.

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

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 20 May 2024

Are Christian leaders speaking into the Israel/Hamas Conflict in a manner that reflects our best understanding of a Christian worldview?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #150 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.

Since just after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas surprise attack on innocent civilian Israelis in Israel, I’ve been bothered by how some leaders, including Christians, seem to be parsing this conflict.

On 10/7, Hamas terrorists crossed into Israel and perpetrated heinous, barbarous, cruel, and sickening carnage upon Israeli civilians, killing 1,139 people, including 764 civilians and 373 Israeli security personnel. This coordinated armed coercion included murder, butchery, torture, burning, and weaponized sexual violence involving rape, mutilation, extreme brutality against women and girls. And it included kidnapping some 252 victims and holding them as hostages, some of whom have been returned, most of whom are now dead, presumed dead, or believed still in captivity. To add considerable insult and humiliation, the savage raid was videoed by Hamas killers who wore Go-Pro cameras and later in their celebration, pride, and arrogance shared the videos with the world.

Since that time, Israel’s military, called the Israeli Defense Force or IDF, invaded the Gaza Strip and have been seeking to eradicate Hamas, wiping out every operative and eventually the group itself. As of May 8, 2024, over 36,000 people (34,844 Palestinian and 1,410 Israeli) have been reported as killed in the Israel-Hamas conflict, including 97 journalists (92 Palestinian, 2 Israeli and 3 Lebanese) and over 224 humanitarian aid workers, including 179 employees of UNRWA.

Despite the gut-wrenching brutality of 10/7, it has not been Hamas but the IDF that has attracted near world-wide condemnation for what is perceived as disproportionate killing, indiscriminately killing thousands of women and children, or intentionally engaging in a military operation aimed at genocide of the Palestinian people.

Now remember, the Palestinian death toll figures have consistently been taken from the Gaza Health Ministry, controlled by Hamas, yet these figures have been reported on mainstream media as if there is no question concerning their accuracy.

Recently, the UN revised these casualty figures significantly down, then denied they had done so.

All this sets the stage for Christian leaders to make comments that I find bothersome for their shallow theology or selective presentation of facts.

1-Comments lack nuance, meaning they tend to be one-sided, which is understandable and not necessarily bad if the full story is considered. Some leaders present a certain narrative that omits questions, issues, or developments that might cause one to question their message. Mainstream Media does this every day, i.e., they don’t provide news as much as interpretative slants that fit their political view. They knowingly omit inconvenient truths.

2-From the get-go, many Christian leaders have called for “ceasefire,” which seems logical, right? No one wants to perpetuate war and killing…well, except Hamas. I’m not quibbling with Christian leaders calling for ceasefire per se, but my eyebrow goes up when I note that their demand for ceasefire:

a) is generally aimed at Israel, not Hamas,

b) is presented as the moral equivalent of a biblical mandate about loving one’s enemy, that is, the only way to show this is ceasefire,

c) is shared as a panacea, meaning an automatic cure to what ails the region.

3-Christian leaders sometimes say that if people, in this case nation-states, would “just sit down and talk with their enemies,” then peace would be established. But one problem here: Hamas states in its founding documents that it does not recognize Israel’s right to exist. Hamas hates Israel and has vowed never to cease actively attempting to destroy Israel as a nation-state.

Consider these few quotes from Hamas’ primary documents:

“Palestine symbolizes the resistance that shall continue until liberation is accomplished, until the return is fulfilled and until a fully sovereign state is established with Jerusalem as its capital.”

“Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine. Its religious, historic, and civilizational status is fundamental to the Arabs, Muslims, and the world at large. Its Islamic and Christian holy places belong exclusively to the Palestinian people and to the Arab and Islamic Ummah. Not one stone of Jerusalem can be surrendered or relinquished.”

“The establishment of ‘Israel’ is entirely illegal and contravenes the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.”

“There shall be no recognition of the legitimacy of the Zionist entity.”

“Hamas believes that no part of the land of Palestine shall be compromised or conceded, irrespective of the causes, the circumstances and the pressures and no matter how long the occupation lasts. Hamas rejects any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea. ‘

How will talks proceed when in this case at least one side does not believe the other has any right to exist?

4-Christian leaders frequently say, “Violence always leads to more violence.”

But what if violence is perpetrated by bad actors seeking to destroy others? What then is the proper response?

If a terrorist group slaughtered, raped, and brutalized Americans in a surprise invasion into our country, all the while videoing the carnage, then also kidnapped American citizens, subjecting them to sexual degradation, abuse, and murder, what would these Christian leaders want the US military to do?

Would Christian leaders really stand up and say, “Violence begets more violence”? Would they argue we should sit down for talks with the perpetrators? Where in this scenario is there room for self-defense?

Some Christian leaders, while not declaring themselves as such, sound like romanticists or idealists or pacifists, because their comments seem bereft of any understanding of evil or sinful depravity in the human heart. Their comments don’t acknowledge that one reason God created government is as a protection against the ravages of evil in the world. God gave legitimate government authority to use coercive force to preserve peace, establish justice, and insure domestic tranquility.

In fact, in shouting “Violence leads to more violence” and calling for immediate ceasefire, these leaders fail to recognize that in a fallen world, sometimes legally constituted governmental and military force must use violence as the only means available to stop violence.

Cries of “Violence always results in more violence” also suggest those who embrace this incomplete philosophy equate the absence of violence with the presence of peace and justice.

In other words, if I don’t hit back, if I don’t return fire, i.e. the absence of violence, then there is peace? Or rather, maybe what we get is not peace but appeasement toward the bad actors. What we get is kowtowing, enablement, surrender, subjugation, or enslavement wherein the evildoers are allowed to escape justice and are allowed to return another day to reap dark deeds upon the innocent.

I’m not making a case that those who respond in self-defense or as arbiters of justice, peace, and security want violence, that they want to kill. No. It is that they understand human nature, as Ronald Reagan did when he talked about “Peace through strength.”

5-Some Christian leaders are pro-Israel, and some are pro-Palestine, while showing little concern for people on the side they oppose. Among both sets of leaders there are a few who sound prejudiced or worse. Commentators in both camps make the questionable arguments mentioned above. Both are quick to summarily condemn the other side, acting as if bumper sticker theology or meme politics hold ready-made solutions. I don’t sense much subtlety in these views; they’re sure God is on their side.

We’d be better served if Christian leaders wrestled with evil, violence, peace, and justice in Christian worldview terms. This means we label bad deeds as morally unacceptable, no matter who commits them.

A Christian worldview is not idealist or pacifist, but realist, understanding both sin in a Satan-dominated fallen world and the power of the Sovereign God.

Christian worldview recognizes there is always sin on all sides of human conflict, but does not wash away accountability for evil via the currently popular “bothsideism,” an illusion of respectability for certain points of view or certain sides that’s created without evidence.

A Christian worldview hurts for the “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd,” (Matt 9:36) who suffer and die, no matter who they are. And a Christian worldview demands we work to aid them, no matter who they are.

A Christian worldview proclaims hope in the transformative power of the Gospel, in Jesus Christ whose sacrifice is for all – Israelis, Palestinians, Americans, Iranians, Jews and Arabs, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Houthis.

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

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 13 May 2024

It’s a big world out there – what kind of people are in it?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #149 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.

If we were to think about different kinds of people in the world we could approach the question in several ways.

For example, when I was born in late 1952, just 10 days before General Dwight D. “I Like Ike” Eisenhower was elected President of the United States, there were about 2.6B people in the world. Now, there are 8.1B. Despite the more than 65.5M abortions in the U.S. since 1973, U.S. population at 341.5M is more than twice the number than when I was born.

Or we could consider nations states. There are 195 recognized nations currently, meaning 195 nationalities.

How about languages? Experts estimate there are between 6,000 and 7,100+ languages in the world. These languages are spoken by approximately 7.9 billion people, about 95% of the world’s population. The remaining 5% of the population speaks a smaller number of languages, with some languages having only a few hundred speakers.

Or we could consider race. Five races are commonly cited. But Ken Ham of Authors in Genesis and the Ark Encounter notes, there is only “one blood, one race,” the human race. He cites Acts 17:26: “From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.”

Sex, of course, male and female, is another way to think of kinds of people in the world. This biological characteristic crosses all boundaries and is a feature of the human race. And sex, more than any other trait, influences the trajectory of our lives. Nothing affects us more than the fact that we are created either a man or a woman.

Another way of considering kind of people in the world is the reductionist division now promoted by the political Left. “That premise is that the world is divided between oppressors and the oppressed, and that the oppressors are always evil and their victims already virtuous.”

“The lesson pounded into young heads is that the greatest evil in world history is colonialism, that all nations that held colonies and all their citizens were oppressors, and that all residents of any colony were virtuous victims with the right to commit violence to liberate themselves from oppression.” Never mind that this simplistic equation does not fit the facts of history, that in all nations people act with mixed motives, and no people group is wholly guilty of all that is now being alleged, including the U.S.

But of all these ways of considering types of people in the world, biblically, or if you prefer theologically or spiritually, we could observe that there are but two kinds of people:

Sinners in need of grace
Sinners saved by grace

Sinners in need of grace refers to people who have not trusted in and accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior. They have not been “born again” as noted in John 3:3.

The other type of person, sinners saved by grace, is the one I wish to focus upon in this podcast. Sinners saved by grace have indeed been born again. They have understood the Scripture, “for it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” Eph 2:8-9. They have confessed their sin, Rom 10:9-10, trusted in Christ’s shed blood and in him alone, for forgiveness, reconciliation, and salvation.

We know how important “saved by grace” is because it references the blessed hope, for which we rightly praise God and sing hallelujah. It is the bridge to experiencing eternity in heaven with the Lord. I am a sinner saved by grace.

Now as I said, we rightfully get excited about the “saved by grace” part of that statement. But notice that it does not say, former sinners saved by grace or used-to-be sinners saved by grace, or sin-be-gone sinners saved by grace. So, while at the time of our salvation we receive the Holy Spirit who the Scripture says seals us unto the day of redemption (Eph. 4:30), and at the point of our salvation “therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Cor. 5:17), still, we remain sinners in a fallen world.

So, who attends the local church where my wife and I worship? A bunch of sinners.

If you ask my Good Wife what is the husband like to whom she will soon have been married for 50 years? She will say, “He’s a sinner. Do you want illustrations? I could write a book.” Now, please don’t ask her that. I’d rather she not write that book.

Though we are sinners saved by grace, we are yet sinners living in a fallen world.

What are the implications of this?

In Galatians, the Apostle Paul said, “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want” Gal. 5:14-17.

The Apostle goes on to say his means we will either be subject to, or we will subject someone else to, the following: lying, gossiping, stealing, immorality, idolatry, hatred, discord, jealousy, rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness” Gal. 5:119-21.

Now remember, this is not a list of sins aimed at us by what preachers used to call “the world,” the sinners in need of grace. There will be plenty of this in a fallen world, but this list references the kind of attitudes and behaviors that come right out of our own sinful natures. If we embrace or pursue these attitudes and behaviors, and at some point, we all do, then we do nothing but darken and destroy ourselves and those around us.

Let me share a few direct examples out of my 35 years serving in upper-level administration in Christian organizations. I am not innocent here, nor a hero, but I share one man’s account offered as an illustration.

In those 35 years, I cannot name one non-believing person who stood between me and my stated Christian goals for the Christian organization I served, but I can name many Christians who did exactly this.

In those 35 years, and remember I am talking about Christian personnel, I have been lied to, cursed, had doors slammed on me, surreptitiously attacked in the press, been the subject of mass mailed letters attacking my integrity and Christian commitment, was the object of what amounted to a coup d’état attempt by an organizational officer and a trustee, both of whom later left the organization.

Maybe worse, in my assigned executive position, I had to deal with several instances of infidelity involving Christian personnel.

You could say, “Welcome to leadership” and be correct, but that sounds flippant, and I don’t mean it that way. What I mean is that because we are sinners saved by grace, and we still sin, we cause all manner of problems for ourselves, our families, our churches, and perhaps our network of acquaintances.

Knowing we are sinners saved by grace, what should we be doing?

1) Manage our own walk with the Lord.

“Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers” 1 Tim 4:16.

2) Work as unto the Lord.

“And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” Col 3:17, 23.

3) Bare one another’s burdens and pray for one another.

“Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. (also see Matt 18) But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, for each one should carry their own load” Gal 6:1-5.

The Apostle has one last thought for us: “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.

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

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