Rex M Rogers - Discerning What Is Best

Discerning What Is Best
with Dr. Rex M. Rogers

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 18 December 2020

It’s been a slow build for about 5 years now, significantly faster and more in the last few months, the number of biracial, or mixed race, or interracial couples featured in television or print product commercials. Combos vary, black husband, white wife and vice versa, sometimes mixed-race kids, certainly Latino or Hispanic and white or black, and longer standing back to the overseas wars, white man, Asian woman.

I like it. Seems like a reasonable, harmless, creative, and now realistic way to acknowledge America’s melting pot. I don’t buy the articles floating around calling this a “war on white men.” I know that exists among the fringes, but this isn’t it. I also reject the racist comments I’ve read about these commercials. Humbug. Ever notice that many (not all for sure) yelling “racist” are themselves racist?

American society is changing. Of 332M people, 13.1% black, 5.8% Asian, 18.1% Hispanic, Latino, 1.3% Native American, white 76.6%, and while white is increasing at .5%, all others are increasing 1.3% to 3.1%.

Marriage between two people of different races in America has been legal in all states since the US Supreme Court case, Loving v. Virginia (1967), held that “anti-miscegenation” laws were unconstitutional. In 2017, 17% of newlyweds and 10% of all marriages involved individuals of different ethnicity or race.

Again, no problem for me. Despite a sad and checkered history of Christian interpretation, there is nothing in Scripture that questions much less forbids interracial marriage. I’d be more concerned that during COVID-19 lockdowns, divorces have jumped 34% higher compared to 2019, and that’s for any or all races and ethnicities.

*This 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: 24 November 2020

A Thanksgiving reminder…

If you’ve about had it, turn off the chattering classes,

who “speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, (and are) only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.”

“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.”

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Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 17 November 2020

Media is laser-focused on the election.

But I am far more concerned about certain cultural trends than I am about Biden winning the presidency and what Trump will do. These trends are not partisan as such but ideological, and they threaten the existence of the USA as a free country.

1-Suppression of freedom of speech.

2-Restriction of freedom of religion in the name of tolerance.

3-Interference with freedom of peaceful assembly, even in one’s residence, in the name of public safety.

4-Promotion of sexual progressivism, in the name of tolerance, ironically for all except those with a religious, moral conscience, and at the expense of social order.

5-Rejection of objective truth and rigorous rationality in science and politics, in favor of subjective feeling even irrationality.

6-Disavowal of historic, orthodox religion, specifically Christianity, and a growing embrace of DIY religion, a pastiche of “whatever” based largely on secular nihilism.

I wish these things were warnings, what-might-happen, but they are not. They’re happening now, promoted by “cultural elites” in universities and public schools, Big Tech, government, and journalism.

Ronald Reagan was right, "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free."

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 10 November 2020

So as not to bury the lead, let me state it outright—

First Amendment freedoms in the United States are under threat from the Left via Big Social Media, on university campuses, and in “news” rooms.

For the first time, I’ve had a video “age restricted” on YouTube. I got the notice this morning. What’s weird is that the video in question is 5-years-old, and also strange is it’s harmless. I took the video standing on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, panning the city while church bells rang on Palm Sunday. It’s beautiful and I was pleased at the time to be at the right place at that hour.

That’s it. No commentary. Somehow this is deemed not suitable for all viewers?

Some have said this is just bots or YouTube algorithms going awry. Maybe.

Some say this is another example of Big Social Media acting like Big Brother, censoring willy-nilly what it finds objectionable based upon a Leftist agenda, and at times with a seemingly anti-religious point of view.

But where there’s smoke there’s fire. Just ask Prager University, a conservative nonprofit organization that’s had several hundred of its videos blocked by YouTube.

“The legal battle by the organization co-founded by commentator and talk radio host Dennis Prager began in October 2017. Prager University, known as PragerU, filed a lawsuit against Google after YouTube placed more than 100 of its videos in “restricted” mode, flagging them as “dangerous” or “derogatory,” according to a press release from PragerU.

“'Restricted’ means that families that have a filter to avoid pornography and violence cannot see that video,” Prager told a Senate subcommittee in a July hearing.”

“PragerU said in the press release that it filed the suit because Google and YouTube have restricted 10% of its video content and “maintains that the organization’s videos have been restricted, not because they are explicit, vulgar or obscene in nature, or inappropriate for children in any way, but rather because they promote conservative ideas.”

“The videos categorized as restricted cover a range of topics, including the Ten Commandments, tolerance, climate change, free speech, and fake news, and tend to be three to five minutes in length.”

Religious conservatives have also been censored by YouTube and other Big Social Media.

“Social media sites continue to find new and imaginative ways to censor, ignore, or downplay opinions and facts that dissent from their failed worldview.” Public universities, sadly, are no better, and may in fact be worse.

I don’t know why my harmless little video was age restricted, but I don’t like it and don’t like the trend.

I am far more concerned about the anti-freedom trends I see in America than I am about COVID-19, Trump vs Biden, social unrest, and certainly climate change. Lose America’s First Amendment freedoms and you lose what since 1776 has been known as the United States of America.

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 04 November 2020

SAT-7 affirms biblical doctrine and is not affiliated with any denomination.

In its broadcasts, SAT-7 emphasizes the realities and challenges Christians in the Middle East and North Africa share in common. The ministry does not denigrate or attack any other religion but presents the claims of Christ and Christianity, allowing individuals to make their own comparisons and spiritual decisions.

SAT-7 cites two documents to express the ministry’s foundational biblical understanding:

First, the Nicene Creed, one of the oldest and most widely recognized professions of Christian faith, considered perhaps the best description and definition of Christianity ever written.

The second, the Lausanne Covenant, an influential modern statement of Christian faith, including a reaffirmation of the Nicene Creed and an elaboration of fifteen biblical teachings.

SAT-7 shares the Word of God’s presentation of truth, love, hope, and history pointing to the Middle East region as the birthplace of Christianity, and witnesses to the Gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ.

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 29 October 2020

Things I pray for that may not be God’s will:

COVID-19 to end worldwide, now.
Social unrest, including in the US, to cease.
Polarization in culture to give way to productive consensus.
Authoritarian regimes to fall to democratic movements.
Religious liberty for everyone in the world.
No more wildfires, hurricanes, or other “bad weather.”
Abortion policy reversed; abortions reduced then eliminated.

That last one was the hardest one for me to write.

The point here is not me suggesting God does not care or that He blesses such travail, but that the Sovereign God is in charge, that accidents or surprises don’t happen in the divine economy, that He works His purposes in spite of and through adversity and evil.

So, I pray for His providential wisdom, His will, His mercy and grace.

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