Rex M Rogers - Discerning What Is Best

Discerning What Is Best
with Dr. Rex M. Rogers

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

Have you noticed how often mental health is now referenced by celebrities, sports figures, and politicians?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #108 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.

For a while now, reaching back at least into the COVID experience, I’ve noticed that mental health seems to have taken center stage, particularly among the young. Sports figures like Olympics swimming gold medalist Michael Phelps, Japanese professional tennis player Naomi Osaka, and Olympic gymnastics star Simone Biles have all revealed struggles with what they called mental health issues.

Actor Elizabeth Olsen addressed her mental health struggles, which she only experienced when she was living in New York at age 21. "I remember I would get [panic attacks] on the hour every hour," Olsen recalled. "I used to live on 13th Street between 6th and 7th. I was crossing 6th Avenue at 14th Street, and I realized I couldn't cross the street — I stood up against the wall, and I just thought I was going to drop dead at any moment."

Singer Selena Gomez, said, “Last year, I was suffering mentally and emotionally, and I wasn't able to stay all that kept together. I wasn't able to hold a smile or to keep things normal…It felt like all of my pain and anxiety washed over me all at once and it was one of the scariest moments of my life.”

These athletes and entertainers are people in peak physical condition, in their 20s and 30s, and they live with considerable resources and access to entire entourages of support. Yet they have struggled with mental health issues.

Of course, fame and fortune are no barriers to stress, emotional traumas, depression, and tragedy. I understand that these people are just human beings like the rest of us, and in no way am I expressing disrespect or making light of them or their struggles. I recognize, too, that mental health issues are real, and that people can experience an extensive variety of mental challenges, some rooted in their own earlier choices and behaviors, some traced to sources of no fault of their own, e.g., difficult a family upbringing or physiological imbalances. Whether Nature or Nurture, we live in a fallen world and many things can contribute to mental ill-health.

While my heart goes out to anyone struggling with mental health issues, I wonder why there is a significant increase of this challenge in the US, especially among female and also wealthier adolescents: mood swings, psychological distress, eating disorders, depression, anxiety and panic attacks, suicide-related outcomes, psychosis symptoms. Some say this is happening due to loneliness or frightening current events or social media isolation or drugs. In the U.S., this phenomenon is being called a mental health crisis.

I am also concerned when I hear Christian leaders, churches, or Christian ministries talk about mental health as the primary goal of their ministries. This is a relatively new thing, religious organizations suppressing, let’s call it spiritual vocabulary, in favor of psychological vocabulary, medicalizing spiritual issues. Theology is replaced by therapy.

This watering down trend that trades theology for therapy is part of a larger DIY religioun movement in the US – described with a ten-dollar phrase, Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.

The term, Moralistic Therapeutic Deism was first introduced in the 2005 book, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers by the sociologist Christian Smith with Melinda Lundquist Denton. The authors coined the term to “describe the (religious) system as being ‘about providing therapeutic benefits to its adherent’ as opposed to being about things like ‘repentance from sin, of keeping the Sabbath, of living as a servant of a sovereign divine, of steadfastly saying one's prayers, of faithfully observing high holy days, of building character through suffering…’ and further as ‘belief in a particular kind of God: one who exists, created the world, and defines our general moral order, but not one who is particularly personally involved in one's affairs – especially affairs in which one would prefer not to have God involved.’

The authors state that ‘a significant part of Christianity in the United States is actually only tenuously Christian in any sense that is seriously connected to the actual historical Christian tradition, but has rather substantially morphed into Christianity's misbegotten stepcousin, Christian Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.”

“A church has become therapeutic if the gospel is reduced, and reducible, to the premises and vocabulary, concepts and recommendations of therapy. A therapeutic church does not speak of sin, judgment, guilt, shame, wrath, hell, repentance, punishment, suffering, crucifixion, deliverance, salvation, Satan, demons, exorcism, and so forth.

It takes most or all of these to be in need of translation or elimination: the latter, because they are outmoded or harmful to mental health; the former, because they are applicable to contemporary life but only in psychological, not spiritual, terms. A therapeutic church speaks instead, therefore, of wellness, health, toxicity, self-care, harm, safety, balance, affirmation, holding space, and being well-adjusted.”

“The question is not whether mental health is real (it is), whether medication is sometimes worth prescribing (it is), or whether therapy can be helpful (it can be). The question is whether mental health is convertible with spiritual health. The question, that is, is whether the work of therapy is synonymous with the work of the gospel; whether the task of the counselor is one and the same as that of the pastor. Answer: It is not.”

The “therapeutic church is atheist because it has lost its raison d’être: it preaches a gospel without God.”

“A therapeutic church has, in way, lost its nerve. It simply does not believe what it says it believes, what it is supposed to be preaching. It does not believe that the God revealed in Jesus Christ is the best possible news on planet earth, meant for every soul under heaven. It does not believe that the problems of people today, as at all times, have their final answer and ultimate fulfillment in the Word made flesh. Or, to the extent that it does believe this, it is scared to say so, because the folks in the pews do not want to hear that. They want to be affirmed in their identities, in their desires, in their blemishes and failures and foibles. They do not want to be judged by God. They do not want to be told they need saving by God. They do not want to learn that their plight is so dire that the God who created the universe had to die for their sins on a cross. They want to be told: I’m okay, you’re okay, we’re all okay—so long as we accept our imperfections and refuse the siren songs of guilt and shame. They want, in a word, to be heard, to be seen, and to be accepted just as they are.”

But “God is not a therapist, and his principal goal in Christ is not to ensure a high degree of mental health in the context of a larger successful venture in upper-middle class professional/family life. God, rather, is in the business of holiness.”

“Does this mean that America is becoming more secularized? Not necessarily…Christianity is either degenerating into a pathetic version of itself or, more significantly, Christianity is actively being colonized and displaced by a quite different religious faith. This radical transformation of Christian theology and Christian belief replaces the sovereignty of God with the sovereignty of the self. In this therapeutic age, human problems are reduced to pathologies in need of a treatment plan. Sin is simply excluded from the picture, and doctrines as central as the wrath and justice of God are discarded as out of step with the times and unhelpful to the project of self-actualization.”

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

“As Barna noted, ‘It seems that most of these folks want to do the right thing; they simply have been led down the wrong paths toward achieving that end.’”

The “therapeutic gospel concerns itself with people’s ‘felt needs’: for love, significance, self-esteem, self-confidence, self-assertion, pleasure, and excitement. The therapeutic gospel gives people what they want. It makes them feel better—at least temporarily. It centers around the welfare of man and temporal happiness. But…it discards the glory of God in Christ. It forfeits the narrow, difficult road that brings deep human flourishing and eternal joy…(Yet it is) the gospel of Jesus Christ brings change through repentance, faith, and transformation into the image of the Son.”

Therapy asks us to change ourselves, something we cannot do.

Theology provides a way through the Word for God to change us.

“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness” (2 Pet. 1:3).

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

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

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

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 06 September 2023

Have you noticed that American culture seems to be drifting away from its founding Judeo-Christian values? Does this mean America is secularizing? Does it matter?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #107 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.

When I was in grad school in the late 70s-early 80s, one of the issues we talked about was “secularization,” the “historical process in which religion declines in social and cultural significance. As a result of secularization the role of religion in modern societies becomes restricted. In secularized societies faith lacks cultural authority, and religious organizations have little social power.”

OK, fair enough. Many examples can be cited. But the mistake much of the scholarship made back then was to assume that people would move from religion to irreligion, from religion to religionlesness, that somehow human beings could and would reach a point of development in which faith in God and religious practices were no longer necessary to life. Those scholars envisioned a world without religion.

But it didn’t happen. While traditional religion has become publicly less important in the West, including in the United States, worldwide, religion is as great an influence, if not more so, than ever.

One of the problems with those secularization studies is that they were written with a bias. Many academics were themselves religiously non-practicing. They often came from religious homes but tossed this aside in college. So, they expected to find others doing the same, because for them this was the rational, reasonable, scientific thing to do.

But let’s offer a counter thesis: There are no religionless human beings. Since Adam and Eve, no individuals have ever existed who are not at their core a religious being.

By “religious” I do not mean adherents of traditional or institutional religion. Bureaucracies.

By religious, I mean one possesses an innate God consciousness, a moral capacity to reason about right and wrong, a desire to know who we are, what is our purpose, and what is our destiny, and with this to consider the existential questions, Is there a God? Does he know me? What is the source of evil or sin? What happens when I die?

I believe God instilled all this in human beings when he said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground. So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Gen. 1:26-27).

Now many people claim to be religionless. But even atheists position themselves as not believing in what? God. They form a presupposition about the Almighty, which is an inherently religious action.

The Collins English Dictionary defines religionless as, “people lacking religious beliefs. Lacking or devoid of religion.” But this is colloquial not philosophical definition. No one is wholly lacking in religious beliefs.

Merriam-Webster gets closer, defining religionless as, “atheistical, lacking religious emotions, principles, or practices.”

OK, people who do not act religious. They exist, but they are still religious because to live in the world, every human being must make assumptions about God, humanity, life and being, purpose, truth, morality. It is impossible to live without making these judgments, whether consciously or subconsciously, and these assumptions determine one’s values and choices.

So, yes, there are many examples of people acting out in a manner that suggests they are without religious understanding. But still, as our thesis posits, at their core, they are religious.

In America today we are experiencing a downward trend in those who say they are religious and an upward trend in those who say, “No Religion,” now 30% of the population, a figure that has nearly doubled in the past 15 years. These are “people who self-describe as atheists, agnostics or ‘nothing in particular’ when asked about their religious identity” – the so-called “Nones.”

Now we could just write this social development off as, live and let live. It’s a free country. What someone else believes really doesn’t matter all that much to me, right?

But is this the case?

When a person rejects traditional religious understanding, which in the United States is Judeo-Christian principles, what he or she is doing is replacing one set of assumptions with another set of assumptions. These folks may be Nones in terms of engagement with institutional religion or Judeo-Christian outlooks on life,

but they are not Nones in terms of religious ideas. Remember our thesis – there are no religionless human beings.

So as Americans jettison Judeo-Christian religious affiliation a new religious persuasion, not secularism per se, is replacing it, and with this new persuasion, new values.

Christian social researcher George Barna calls the new DIY religious persuasion Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, a mouthful for sure, but it simply means belief in a God, no moral absolutes, doing the best you can, being nice meaning inclusive, and focusing upon your well-being.

Again, why does another person’s religious assumptions matter to you or me?

Well, because when a lot of people adopt views different from, even contrary to Judeo-Christian principles, then they act on their values, they create a chaotic culture. That’s what we are seeing today.

In contemporary culture, if you just watch social developments and read or watch social and legacy media, you’ll find incessant messaging arguing the following values define life:

Personal happiness is the end all, be all of life.

Such a culture embraces and promotes abortion on demand, prenuptial agreements and easy divorce that diminish marriage and family, and affluence as the measure of wellbeing, all of which are evident in programs like “Real Housewives” of name-the-city.

Sexual fulfillment is the greatest source of happiness.

Such a culture embraces sexual libertinism, equates lust with love, allows or promotes child sexual abuse in the form of transgenderism, even embraces perversion-as-normality, like “50 Shades of Grey.”

Socially determined gender, not biological sex, defines human reality.

Such a culture celebrates men identifying as women and cheating in sports, allows them access to women’s locker rooms and prisons (guess what assaults result from this) and parades twisted men or women as examples of bravery or achievement, like Bud Light tried to do putting a man trans woman on their beer cans, only to experience “Go Woke, Go Broke.”

Racial determinism means offenses based upon race are now found in virtually every experience of daily life.

Such a culture embraces so-called “anti-racism,” a philosophy tragically racist in values, attitudes, and impact. We see this in the activities of charlatan groups like Black Lives Matter and the Critical Race Theory taught in schools.

Truth is a matter of preference.

Such a culture allows gender, race, and ideology to trump truth. Consequently, laws are unenforceable, and order is at risk, organized looters steal at will in major cities, and criminal perpetrators go unprosecuted. Utterly irrational ideas are promoted, like defund the police, no prosecution for social statement crimes, which we see in how youthful looters and even those wielding weapons are ignored in Chicago.

Mental health is the definition of well-being.

Such cultures are built upon churches that have reduced the gospel to psychological conversations about wellness, self-care, safety, and affirmation. Sin, judgment, guilt, hell, forgiveness, repentance, and salvation are unwelcome topics, because people want to be told: I’m okay, you’re okay, we’re all okay.

Our non-Christian neighbors are not secular. They are not religionless. They may think of themselves as Nones, but in their pursuit of happiness, they are following a false DIY religious worldview.

So, yes, if our neighbors embrace a surrogate, idolatrous religion, there will be, and there already has been, consequences for American culture. What someone else believes really does matter.

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

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 04 September 2023

Have you taken the time to sit back and think about your life? Have you taken stock on what you’ve done and why, whether these things honored the Lord, or whether they were just your version of the pursuit of happiness?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #106 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 you can indulge me this, in this podcast I’d like to share something of a personal testimony. It’s not because I think my life is all that notable. It’s not. It’s just that I am old enough now to see how God worked, to appreciate his grace and goodness, and to want to honor him even as I hope this account encourages others.

I grew up in a small, southeastern Ohio town—“3,000 friendly people,” the sign said at the village limits. I was surrounded by an extended family in which virtually everyone was a believer in Christ and who, for the most part, practiced their faith. I didn’t know it then, but I now understand that this family experience was a rare gift.

Both of my parents were dedicated Christian people and had been since before I was born. Mom was a piano and organ teacher, who has participated in church music and worship services since her teens. Dad was a factory worker and barber and a member of my home church deacon board for over forty years, leading it for much of this time.

When the church doors were open, so to speak, we were there. And when they weren’t open, Dad and Mom were still there, laboring faithfully behind the scenes—Dad fixing or preparing whatever needed attention, Mom leading music practices with others. So, it’s not a stretch to say my sister and I come from, in the best sense of the term, a “Christian home.”

In response to the witness of my parents and many others in the church, at six years of age I made a personal profession of faith in Jesus Christ as my Savior, following this with baptism some three years later.

All four of my grandparents lived nearby and all of them played a role in my upbringing. They were caring and loving, wise, optimistic, modeled incredible work ethics, and “finished well,” living consistent, admirable Christian lives till the Lord called them home. Each one made spiritual and life investments in me that I cannot possibly repay other than by attempting to live by their example and live up to their expectations.

My maternal grandfather was the lively, hilarious spiritual patriarch of the family, and to a considerable extent of many families within our community. He was also a leading deacon in our Baptist church. He and my grandmother, along with three or four other couples, had made the difficult choice years before to leave their church, which had begun drifting into theological liberalism, and to establish a new church committed to the Lord and the Word of God. I am a direct spiritual beneficiary of their courage, decisions, and diligent efforts, and so are other generations in a church that yet thrives after their passing.

In my family I learned, and I believe, that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and the Bible is God’s inerrant Word, our guide for faith and practice. As a young person I attended Sunday School, daily vacation Bible school, church camp, Jet Cadets, and Teens for Christ. You name it, I was there. I was no angel, but I did everything a kid from a Christian home and a fundamentalist church was supposed to do. Then I attended a Christian college.

Aside from a Christian family upbringing nothing marked my life more than my undergraduate experience. I loved every minute of it.

While I was in college God delivered me from a spiritual struggle. Early in my Christian life, given a strongly rationalistic mind, I wrestled with doubt—not doubt in the existence of God but doubt whether or not I was truly saved. My struggle ended with the assurances I found in 2 Timothy 2:11-13.

“Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.”

I never “disowned,” meaning rejected the Lord, I was simply “faithless,” meaning lacking or weak in faith. In my weakness, the Lord remained faithful, not disowning me.

Later, I discovered others who struggled with doubt, so as one outcome of my spiritual journey I’ve often spoken about doubt with college students and others, using Os Guinness’s work on the subject as one key supporting source.

It was also in Christian college that I found and pursued what became a wonderfully liberating understanding of the Christian faith, what we at that time called “a Christian theistic world-life view.” My growing understanding of a biblically based Christian philosophy of life gradually allowed me to set aside certain fears, undeveloped views, or limited understandings rooted in my good but sometimes legalistic church experience in favor of a still thoroughly biblical but culture-engaging, forward-thinking perspective of life.

Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer began writing his influential books just before my college years and continued for a decade or so after I graduated. His books helped me look more confidently upon the world, life, and learning, knowing the Christian faith offered “true truth,” as he called it. Through my education and via Dr. Schaeffer’s books I was intellectually set free, for I realized that one need not fear learning something that would someday undermine one’s faith. The Christian faith, I learned and internalized, was as intellectually sound as it was spiritually trustworthy. My Christian college years also provided me with an attraction to the teaching profession and Christian higher education and with a friend who would become my wife.

Years hence I was finally able to write what I consider something of a personal manifesto, a book entitled, Christian Liberty: Living for God in a Changing Culture. This book expresses my understanding of how to apply a biblically Christian worldview so one may live “in the world” while being “not of the world,” yet remembering God said to go “into the world.”

I am theologically conservative and consider myself a conservative evangelical, though I understand the definitions of these terms are moving targets and for a period, when “Evangelical” became a political label, I quit using it, simply saying I am a Christian who believes the Bible.

I’m also an optimistic realist, which I believe every Christian should be. We embrace God’s providence and know the end of the story, yet we understand the reality of sin in our lives and the impact of evil in the world. God calls us to serve him now, to contribute, to build culture for his glory, to witness to saving faith in Jesus, and to proclaim the Lordship of Christ in all of life. Our faith is eternally contemporary and transformative. All of this is one reason “proactive” is my favorite word.

Sarah and I were married in 1974 and God later blessed us with four children, now adults, and later still with their spouses and our ten grandchildren, only one of whom is a girl. Sarah is a wonderfully gracious believer who uses her gifts, especially hospitality, to bless me, our family, our friends, and many more. She has always served the Lord and has stood beside me as a partner in ministry, but now in our empty-nest years she is even more engaged in volunteer support in missions and our local church.

The Lord guided us in attaining advanced degrees, through some thirty-four years of service in Christian education, several months in consulting, and now service in missions, doing promotion and fundraising in the States. He has given me opportunities to teach, speak, write, and lead.

For as long as he gives me, my aspirations are to honor the Lord by honoring my wife and family, to serve proactively with integrity and vigor in whatever organizations or contexts he places me, and to someday finish well.

For all this Sarah and I praise God and remember our family verse chosen when we knew our first baby was on the way: “The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy” (Psalm 126:3).

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

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 28 August 2023

Does it seem to you that lawbreakers of one kind or another seem to be having a field day in America? Have you wondered whatever happened to the rule of law?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #105 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 you are a certain age, you’d be forgiven for wondering, whatever happened to accountability, law and order, and blind justice?

You might even wonder what happened to Pres. George H. W. Bush’s call for a “kinder, gentler nation.”

And remember the words of John Winthrop in the year 1630, quoting from Matthew's Gospel (5:14) in which Jesus warns, "a city on a hill cannot be hid,"

Winthrop warned his fellow Puritans that their new community would be "as a city upon a hill the eyes of all people are upon us."

Two hundred fifty years later in 1980, Candidate Ronald Reagan said, “I have quoted John Winthrop's words more than once on the campaign trail this year—for I believe that Americans in 1980 are every bit as committed to that vision of a shining city on a hill, as were those long ago settlers...These visitors to that city on the Potomac do not come as white or black, red or yellow; they are not Jews or Christians; conservatives or liberals; or Democrats or Republicans. They are Americans awed by what has gone before, proud of what for them is still… a shining city on a hill.”

Or remember the words of Katharine Lee Bates’ poem later put to music to become an iconic patriotic hymn:

“O beautiful for patriot dream, That sees beyond the years, Thine alabaster cities gleam, Undimmed by human tears! America! America! God mend thine every flaw, Confirm thy soul in self-control, Thy liberty in law!” Quite a vision that does not seem to align with what we’re experiencing today.

More recently, what we see happening in America sadly falls short of these powerful ideals.

Following the tragic killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the country was subjected to urban riots that destroyed stores and neighborhoods, resulted in billions of dollars of destruction, and wrecked the economy and livelihood of many people living and working in cities across the country. Ostensibly, these riots – some commentators refused to call them riots, using only the word protests – were a cry for racial justice. And there were a few people and instances in which legitimate peaceful protest took place. But still, the arson, looting, vandalism ruined peoples livelihoods and properties, many of the minority owned. Lawlessness in the name of justice.

America has experienced both a crime wave and a violence wave. Looters, sometimes in broad daylight, break upscale retail store windows and doors in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, then run off with millions in goods in so-called “smash and grab” endeavors, many coordinated by gangs. But perpetrators face few consequences because “there is no political will to prosecute.” The “defund the police” movement has sapped some officers’ morale. “Decriminalization of low-level offenses in some states (like California) has created opportunities for criminals to manipulate the system.” Progressive district and prosecuting attorneys, mayors, even governors announced they do not intend to prosecute and thus do not hold perpetrators accountable.

“American citizens who try to defend themselves and their property from violent looters, arsonists and criminals are immediately labeled ‘white supremacists,’ ‘vigilantes’ or worse by the media.”

American cities are declining. People and businesses are departing in droves, especially in criminal-friendly states like California. Central downtowns in cities like Portland, Los Angeles, Seattle, Sacramento, New York, Austin, Washington, DC, and several more are turning into a sad mix of the very wealthy living above and the abject, abandoned, addicted, and abused living below, similar to what can be found in cities around the world located in countries without the social welfare programs or healthcare available in the United States.

Homelessness – with multiple root causes – now plague cities with makeshift shelters, tent cities lining sidewalks, tarps covering broken-down cars, and sleeping bags tucked in storefront doorways. Some say it is drug addiction, some blame mental illness, some argue homelessness is economic, others say it is lifestyle choices, some say these homeless tent cities within cities are hotbeds of crime, abuse, and general lack of safety for the neighborhoods affected, some contend many homeless should be in mental health or drug addiction facilities, or in jail.

Whatever it is, human feces and urine, drug syringes, filthy used condoms, beer and liquor containers, and fast-food waste are evident in America’s alabaster cities.

Altercations in public schools are increasing and increasingly violent. Yes, school shooters, the lone gunman, a genuine anarchic threat to free society and our children, but there’s more, violent outbreaks among students, the product of our toxic, divisive times and dysfunctional families that give these youth no support, no hope, nothing but angst, anger, and anomie. Teachers and staff are now regularly subjected to violence in schools.

What is the source of this violence? It’s the culture – students are coming of age in a society that rejects truth, disdains authority, argues for “fairness,” a euphemism for “everything must be the same,” a constant barrage of social media, political, and social inputs demeaning the nation’s history, its values, and its aspirations, and in its place, giving youth and an increase number of adults a demanding sense of envy, alienation, and surliness.

Brawls, random brawls involving adults are becoming commonplace on airplanes and at sporting venues.

A woman swore at the flight crew and threw a bottle on a recent flight after the attendant reportedly asked the woman to take her dog off her lap.

“A Disney World visitor took their frustration due to a ride’s technical problem out on a Cast Member, sending them to the hospital.”

A man became so violent on a Paris to Detroit flight he was put in restraints.

“A Dodgers fan got knocked unconscious during a brawl outside Dodger Stadium,” after a game with the Twins.

“Two Alabamians were suspended from a Tennessee park after a brawl, arrests at softball game.”

Tourists in national parks seem to now believe they should be permitted to do whatever they want to do, including place themselves at risk in the close proximity of large wild animals like bison, grizzly bears – yes, grizzly bears, with cubs no less. Or the tourists ignore park warnings not to deviate from established walking trails or not to put their hands into incredibly high temperature natural hot springs like those found at Yellowstone. Often, when these kinds of incidents occur, other tourists or park rangers are put at risk as well, attempting to assist or protect the tourist acting out their behaviors.

Many of these pictures with animals or on the edge of cliffs featuring precipitous hundred-foot drops are motivated by people wanting selfies or taking videos to post on Tik Tok or Instagram. “Hey, look at me. I am placing myself in extreme danger. This means I am, a) uninformed, b) brave, c) not smart, possess no common sense, and think the world revolves around me.”

Another example of lawlessness in America is sponsored by the United States government, or more precisely President Joe Biden. It is the near unrestricted immigration on the nation’s southern border.“The only White House strategy seems to be: Keep the flow going, fly migrants around the country to spread out the impact, trust the media not to report on it — and pretend nothing is really happening.”Some 66% of Americans disapprove of the Biden Administration’s exceptionally lenient southern border immigration policy that allows hundreds of thousands to enter the United States without benefit of legal process.

I have always been, and I remain, pro-immigrant. The U.S. is a nation of immigrants after all. But I am pro-immigrant via legal means along with a legal process toward citizenship, not come one, come all, including child traffickers, fentanyl drug pushers, and many others with criminal records.

Lawlessness is now not simply a matter of murders and sex crimes. Lawlessness is now prevalent in how some Americans believe they can behave.

During COVID, I did not like it when conservative county sheriffs announced they would not enforce legitimate state approved laws or executive orders from the progressive governor’s office. It did not matter that I agreed with their point of view about the new law or order. What mattered is that if anyone can do what’s right in his own eyes, then we have not law and order but anarchy and chaos.

This is not a recipe, in the words of the U.S. Constitution, for a more perfect Union, establishing Justice, ensuring domestic tranquility, providing for the common defense, promoting the general welfare, and securing the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.

Lawlessness is no longer the activity of the outlaw. It is what average Americans do when they don’t get their way.

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

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 21 August 2023

Have you heard the old saw, the only constant is change? Well, it seems that’s true, for social change continues at an unprecedented pace, and this means more spiritual opportunities if we’re ready to respond.

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #104 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.

Trends have always interested me, trends in about anything really. Of course, none of us are omniscient, so predictions and prognostications are to be taken with a grain of salt at best.

Someone once said, “I am not a prophet or the son of a prophet, and I have rarely made a profit” and that’s the case for me. I’m not a prophet, the son of one, and as a guy who’s worked with nonprofit organizations all my career, I’ve not really focused on the profit-motive either.

But other experts and pundits have much to say about tomorrow’s trends. My interest here is in trends that may present new challenges and opportunities for Christian ministry.

Rapid social change is a given, and the speed with which things now change has certainly increased. People used to talk about “long-term planning,” which gave way to “strategic planning,” which gave way to “scenario planning,” “continuous planning” or “multi-year outlooks.” The idea of the latter is to create an “evergreen” or “living plan.”

Back in WWII, General Dwight Eisenhower said, “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”

Planning is not ipso facto a lack of faith, nor is it necessarily a presumption upon faith. Planning is simply an activity that attempts to use the brains God gave us, study the world in which we live, and make decisions about what might be our best options for accomplishing our goals.

Identifying trends is part of planning.

Trends are broad movements, social, economic, demographic, etc., that give us a clue about what might be happening around the corner, and since none of us can see around corners, having a clue can be helpful.

So, in terms of global Christian ministry, what trends might we be thinking about?

Some of this we’ll borrow from our friends at Missio Nexus.

Immigration– Only 3.2% of the world’s population are living in a country other than their birth country. But still, that’s 218 million people, a small number compared to billions. Many of these immigrants are coming to the United States.

I have always been “pro-immigration,” so to speak. We are a “nation of immigrants” after all. My pro-immigration attitude presupposes legal immigration, which is decidedly not what is happening on our southern borders where several million people have come across in the past three years without the benefit of legal process.

But politics is not our topic here. Mission trends are.

Immigration to the United States fits something called “diaspora ministry,” the idea that as people disperse across the globe, they are coming to our shores, our towns. We don’t have to go to them in the old-style missionary-couple-goes-to Africa way.

So, the question becomes, how will American churches react to this spiritual opportunity?

I. or Artificial Intelligence.This new form of machine learning and generative text software is rapidly increasing in applications, power, and potential. Some large Christian nonprofits are already using A.I. to help them do a kind of “triage,” wherein the A.I. tool analyzes contacts from thousands in mere seconds, then categorizes them based on needed response, including which ones need an immediate human counselor contact.

The point is not to offload spiritual responsibility to computers but to use A.I. to make possible an expanded ministry.

SAT-7, the Middle East/North Africa Christian satellite broadcasting and online ministry with which I serve is presently evaluating A.I. tools that could possibly amplify our ability to share Christian truth and the Gospel throughout that vast region.

Population Shifts. This is related to immigration and also to in-migration, the movement of peoples within their own country.

Entire towns and villages in Eastern Europe are already in massive decline. People are fleeing these places for more populated areas.

In the next fifty years, China will undergo population implosion at a rate never seen. “(This) population decline is partially a result of China’s one-child policy, which for more than 35 years limited couples to only having one child. Women caught going against the policy were often subject to forced abortions, heavy fines, and eviction.”

Because Chinese families usually wanted male offspring and took steps accordingly, now in Chinese cities there are tens of thousands of young men with no real prospects of ever finding a wife. There are simply not enough women. Not enough opportunity to form relationships and go forward.

Young men who have no ability to find companionship often ban together an do a whole lot of not so good things. It is difficult at best.

The ruling Chinese Communist Party is now trying to alter this plan, but it’s probably too late. Playing God is never a good idea.

Continued division and dysfunction in the US Church. Clearly, American culture, and the Church, is struggling, or more than struggling, is in serious trouble.

Moral relativism, sexual and gender confusion, ideological social justice with its Diversity, Equity, Inclusion distractions, pronoun craziness, “love wins” heresy, end-of-the-world climate change hysteria, even leftist nihilism have found their way into churches, denominations, Christian universities, and Christian nonprofits.

The US church is now experiencing a kind of secularization, reversing itself with the growth of the “Nones” – No Religious Preference – and the inability of the Evangelical church to pass its faith on to the sons and daughters of the current generation. If you don’t believe me, review some of George Barna’s research.

Evangelical leadership is mostly Baby Boomers, my age bracket, and they are exiting. In their place, we have few obvious leaders who can step in and take up this mantle.

The non-Western missionary movement’s largest funder is the US. What happens when this funding goes away?

Our institutions are crumbling, leaving us vulnerable and aimless. It’s this general decay of authority, along with ideological passions, that makes our public culture seem so dysfunctional . . . for the most part the West is frustrated, cynical, angry—and hysterical.

We see the disintegration of social forms and the atomization of individuals. Today, a young person is more likely to be formed within the fluid world of social media than by traditional institutions.

Those who draw upon metaphysical truths no longer wield establishment power. Media, universities, foundations, and other institutions denounce us as ‘fearful of change’ at best, and more often as ‘haters,’ ‘homophobes,’ and other moral monstrosities.

American Christians no longer live in a culture that reinforces Christian faith. We live in a postmodern, post-Christian culture that is moving daily farther and farther away from a worldview rooted in Christian values.

Christianity is growing more in the global South than in the North. Christianity is growing the fastest in Africa (2.77% growth) and Asia (1.50%).

In 1900, twice as many Christians lived in Europe than in the rest of the world combined. Today, more Christians live in Africa than any other continent. By 2050, Africa will be home to almost 1.3 billion Christians, while Latin America (686 million) and Asia (560 million) will both have more than Europe (497 million) and North America (276 million).

God is still in charge.

The Old Testament Habakkuk 2:14 says, “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”

In the Old Testament Malachi 1:1, God says, “‘My name will be great among the nations, from where the sun rises to where it sets. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to me, because my name will be great among the nations,’ says the Lord Almighty.”

God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. So, whatever happens in the future, God will be there.

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

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 15 August 2023

Does the culture in which we live seem like it promotes ideas and values foreign not only what you remember from your youth but contradictory to religion, especially Christianity?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #103 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.

There is a sense today, actually a reality, that Christians, the Christian family, the Christian church and nonprofit ministry organizations, including missions and certainly universities are under attack.

They are now experiencing direct, head-on challenges to their existence or worthiness, to their beliefs, values, and goals. And they are experiencing flanking movements, hijacking the meaning of words or promoting new anti-biblical ideologies, approaches that are just as threatening, if not more so, as the frontal assaults.

Either way, I see this asSatan’s deception, diversion, and division tactics designed to water down the Christian, i.e., biblical message to the point of ineffectiveness or to an unrecognizable version of what God spoke in his Word.

I suppose it could be said with both historic and theological accuracy that this Satanic blitzkrieg is not new. In fact, it dates to the Garden of Eden when Satan in the form of a snake said to Eve, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

And Eve said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

Now, God had not said anything about not touching the tree. Eve made this up.

The serpent Satan then said, “You will not certainly die, for God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened.” (Gen. 3:1-7).

So, there it is, in seven verses, the fall of humanity into sin. Satan comes along and deceives, diverts, and divides. He planted wrong ideas.

Eve saw the fruit was good for food – lust of the flesh. She considered the forbidden fruit pleasing – lust of the eyes. She bought Satan’s evil twist, thinking she would not die – Satan’s lie – and that the fruit would give her wisdom like God – pride of life.

So Satan has been attacking God’s purposes and people from before Creation right up to today. But today, Satan is using new tools of deception, diversion, and division.

I’ve noted before that Christians, churches and denominations, and Christian organizations are being tempted, “dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed,” as James 1 puts it, by several ideas and ideologies originating in rebellion against God.

Christians and Christian organizations are being enticed by moral relativism, affluence and materialism, secular humanism, socialism, a new climate change orthodoxy, self-aggrandizement or narcissism, sexual liberation, ideological social justice including woke ideas about race, and a host of political thought rejecting basic human freedoms, ironically in the name of tolerance, diversity, equity, and inclusion.

As I’ve said repeatedly, and will be forced to keep saying, one deceitful enticement now attracting Christian adherents is LGBTQ+ sexual orientation and gender identity ideology.

What began as an argument for personal freedom has morphed into totalitarian demands for not simply tolerance but acceptance and affirmation and promotion.

What was once a matter of adults deciding what they do and with whom in their own bedrooms has morphed into a drive to recruit children, propagandizing in school curricula, and now social, corporate, cultural, and increasingly legal efforts to silence the freedom of speech of anyone who disagrees with what they call the “prevailing acceptable narrative.”

And now, it is coming, an attack on freedom of belief and speech within the church itself, i.e., attacks on freedom of religion.

You mean here, in the USA? Yes. It’s already happening in Canada.

There is much to be sad about in the record of this explosive social phenomenon in the past twenty years. But our topic here is how these Satanic ideas are being accepted as a new orthodoxy, against which no opposition is allowed.

It’s almost like the old blasphemy laws. At one time, a person could be prosecuted or imprisoned for perceived wrong religious speech. Now, it’s perceived wrong statements that question the LGBTQ+ juggernaut that can get a person in professional if not personal trouble.

For saying they believe in man-woman marriage, or they believe biological males identifying as females should not be allowed to participate in female sports, people have lost jobs, had their reputation trashed, been called horrible names by people who supposedly don’t like “hate speech,” or been threatened physically. This has happened not just to John Q. Public and Jane Doe but even celebrities like Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling or professional athletes forced to remove tweets or grovel apologies for daring to share their point of view.

Many Christians, churches, denominations, and Christian organizations are literally changing their theology, adopting views supporting LGBTQ+ sexual orientation and gender identity values that are in direct contradistinction to these Christian groups’ presumed or traditional Christian faith beliefs. The result has been what Satan wants, buy his deception, and reap diversion from your historic biblical beliefs, life, and practice, and also reap division among the brethren, splitting families, churches, and organizations.

Christians are being enticed to medicalize or psychologize sin. I don’t mean that people do not suffer from real mental, physical, or emotional challenges, nor that medical or psychological understanding is of no value. I’m just saying that words or phrases like “mental health” are now being used for a wide swath of emotional, social, spiritual difficulties that once were the province of religious faith.

One hears Christians worrying aloud about their “mental health” and to address this perceived problem they are taking several steps, none of which involve the Word of God, the church, Christian fellowship.

Why is it that we think there is greater power to fix our problems out there somewhere when we have in our hands and hopefully our hearts access to the greatest transformative power in history, the Gospel and Christian teaching, promising we will become a New Creation?

Many Christians today are susceptible to this devilish deception. Christian social researcher George Barna calls the new, emerging American religion as “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.”

Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is a Do-It-Yourself religious mix that gives Satan what he wants – Christians “having a form of godliness but denying its power” (2 Tim 3:5).

Arizona Christian University President Len Munsil noted, “As a nation, the biblical worldview is running on fumes…People see themselves as Christians, but…they are actually living out a watered-down, counterfeit worldview that looks more like the culture around them than the biblical Christianity they profess.”

Moralistic Therapeutic Deism can be understood with 5 points, but truly biblical Christians will have a problem with all five:1. Moralistic Therapeutic Deism says “a god” exists, but biblical Christians believe in not just “a god,” but the God of the Bible, who has revealed himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit (John 5:23).\1. Moralistic Therapeutic Deism says “a god” exists, but biblical Christians believe in not just “a god,” but the God of the Bible, who has revealed himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit (John 5:23).]1. The new Deism believes God wants people to be good, nice, and fair, but biblical Christians know God commands us to obey Him. God is the One who definesgoodand nice. He calls sin “sin” and promises to judge it (Rom 1:18–32).

1. Moralistic Therapeutic Deism says “a god” exists, but biblical Christians believe in not just “a god,” but the God of the Bible, who has revealed himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit (John 5:23).

2. The new Deism believes God wants people to be good, nice, and fair, but biblical Christians know God commands us to obey Him. God is the One who definesgoodandnice. He calls sin “sin” and promises to judge it (Rom 1:18–32).

3. The central goal of life is not just to be happy and feel good about oneself but to give glory to God (Rom 11:36).

4. Unlike Moralistic Therapeutic Deism that believes God is not necessary except when there are problems, biblical Christians believe our primary goal as believers is to be constantly in tune with God (1 Thess 5:17).

5. Unlike DIY religion that thinks one just needs to be good enough to go to heaven, biblical Christians know that all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory (Rom 3:23). No one is good enough, and that is why we need Jesus, God in the flesh. (1 Pet 2:24).

In a Post-Christian culture, more than ever, Christians need to understand theology, to learn how to apply it in everyday life, and to live out our faith as unto the Lord.

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

Subcategories