Rex M Rogers - Discerning What Is Best

Discerning What Is Best
With Dr Rex Rogers

Two New eBooks at Amazon Kindle!

Details: Written by Rex M. Rogers; Published: 23 June 2020

America is now well into a “Celebration of Irrationality.”

As I’ve noted earlier, America has lost its moral center. For a few decades now, we’ve discarded the Judeo-Christian values, drawn from the Bible, that guided American culture from its formative colonial period. We tossed aside the values that helped to develop—for all America’s fits and faults and sins—the freest, most prosperous, most aspirational country in history. Our forebears created and bequeathed to us a country, based upon a public morality defined objectively by God, or natural law as some described it, providing citizens with ordered liberty, rule of law, and a fabulous Bill of Rights, a country capable of endless opportunity and growth.

But since the late 1960s, my adult lifetime actually, Americans began rejecting the timeless verities the Founders entrusted to us, replacing these precious ideals with nothing other than moral relativism, which is the very definition of “nothing.”

Now, we have almost nothing left. There’s no longer any “there there,” no philosophic glue holding our culture together. The rationale and values undergirding E pluribus unum, making unum possible, are disappearing, so pluribus is unleashed, undisciplined, and undefined—hence our growing inability to appreciate our heritage or even to define American identity.

If there’s no God or at least no objective, outside-ourselves standard, nothing that provides meaning and direction, nothing that makes order out of chaos, nothing that defines “good” and “evil,” then how do we decide what is right or wrong?

Do we even care what is right and wrong? Surely, we do not when it comes to abortion-on-demand. No longer is abortion to be “safe, legal, rare” but “unlimited.” In abortion there is no right/wrong calculus, just convenience, preference, or a personal situational ethic determined by “might makes right,” which is to say the Mother is mightier than the baby, so she gets to decide what is “right”…for her.

We’ve offloaded not only morality but the inconvenient truth of reason and rationality. In fact, we now culturally believe there is no “truth” other than what we subjectively want to believe. Don’t tell me about truth. I will be my own church, my own religion, my own god, and I will decide what is truth. We live now in a post-truth culture. And if indeed there really is no truth, who cares?

We do what is right in our own eyes, the laws of nature be hanged. Surely, this is the case with respect to “gender fluidity,” a term itself that makes no biological or historical sense, that is patently irrational yet is now one of the new sacred norms of Woke Culture. Laws of nature be hanged. We’ve developed 58 and counting (on Facebook) gender identities. In the UK, Facebook apparently needs 71 gender categories. No matter; we’ll determine our own “sexual orientation” and pursue whatever one we might devise. And this is limitless because no one is allowed or can say, “This is it”—and don’t forget the catch-all category, “Other,” added to cover the new gender identity developed tomorrow. No, we have LGBTQQIAAP or LGBTQ++, the pluses indicating an ad infinitum sexual proclivity run amok.

The US Supreme Court case Bostock vs Clayton County (2020), defined biological sex as understood in the 1964 Civil Rights laws as including sexual orientation and gender identity, and in so doing, unleashed a new wave of social disruption upon American culture. This case will result in confusion, chaos, and more lawsuits. And while Justice Neil Gorsuch’s majority opinion attempted to dampen fears of a clash with religious convictions and liberty, history suggests he is naïve and wrong, for this case has set in motion a collision course between the newly reinforced, legally protected categories, sexual orientation and gender identity, and religious liberty.

If we’ve thrown off moral guidance, reason and rationality defined by God, or even nature, in favor of a brave new world of our own making, then how do we live? There’s no meaning, and since no human being can actually function in this manner—we are after all, not Zombies…at least I don’t think so—we must fill the vacuum with something. Historically, the something that enters the hole in our heart is, inevitably, angst > disillusionment > despair > hopelessness > hate. It is nihilism come alive.

Human beings were created by God to be rational, reasoning, and relational, with God and with others. Nihilism leaves human beings alone, bereft, and adrift. They have no recourse but to hate everything around them including themselves.

Nihilistic behavior is visible in American culture. The Left, where nihilism flourishes (not Liberals, the Left, there’s a difference) is currently on a rampage exercising intolerance in the name of tolerance, silencing in the name of expression, mobocracy in the name of democracy, defaming, defacing, and destruction in the name of respect, violence in the name of peace. Tear down while virtue signaling and shaming anyone who dares to question your aberrant actions.

Meanwhile, irrationally, police departments are attacked and “defunded” as somehow the only source of racial animus in society, a claim that cannot be demonstrated with data. Yes, there is police brutality. Yes, there should be police practice reform. But No, police are not the number one or most threatening force destroying Black culture or taking Black lives—abortion is, along with the broken family, and so are a list of other cultural pathologies.

Mobs—now only ostensibly connected with any real pursuance of racial justice—are presently more influential in some cities than elected leaders. These mobs are using the language of race, civil rights, justice, but they are using the tools of racism, violence, and injustice. Naked force, a kind of newly constituted gang, is ruling what happens in streets and neighborhoods and if you’re a citizen nearby, get out of the way.

Nationwide vandalization of historic monuments have moved way past concerns for racial justice. The latter can’t explain defacement or destruction of Matthias Baldwin’s, an abolitionist, statue in Philadelphia, or the defacement of the 54^th Massachusetts Regiment in Boston, an all-Black group of Civil War Union soldiers, or the toppling of General and President U.S. Grant’s statue in California, the man who helped defeat the Confederacy.

Meanwhile, elected political leaders charged with the safety and security of their state, district, or city, incredibly, order police departments to stand down and not protect citizens from larcenous vandals. Why have politicians on both sides of the aisle, who just a couple of months ago willingly dictated unconstitutional behavior restrictions to American citizens to preserve public health, suddenly become so feckless in the face of lawlessness?

Remember, history teaches us mob rule is but a half-step away from tyranny. This is, to say the least, enormously concerning for the future of American democracy.

American culture is off its rails, celebrating irrationality. The question now, is it too late to change? Are we a bridge too far?

For Christians, there is still and always hope, for we know the Lord and we know the end of his-story. We do not, however, work with guarantees regarding American culture, nor its future, and America’s future is imperiled.

Irrationality is the very definition of crisis.

*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: 15 June 2020

America has lost its moral center, what sociologist of religion Peter L. Berger once called its “sacred canopy.” This is the culture’s understanding of public morality, once defined in the United States by a Judeo-Christian consensus. It’s what gives the culture purpose, direction, meaning, and hope.

As Judeo-Christian values are jettisoned one after another, nothing other than a rejection of absolutes is being put in their place, or in other words, nothing substantive or objective at all. No moorings. No port in the storm. No guiding light and certainly no metanarrative that defines the culture.

This has been happening since at least the rise of the counterculture revolution in the 1960s. “Make love, not war.” “Sex, drugs, and rock and roll.” “Don’t trust anyone over 30.” While some of the changes since the 1960s have been good, like the rise and effective adoption of the Civil Rights Movement, other aspects of the cultural march to “Everyone doing what’s right in their own eyes” has been anything but good.

Add to the counterculture the rise of Postmodernity with its penchant for “freedom from” rather than “freedom to” across the spectrum of the academy and culture, wholly embraced by America’s opinion elites, and you have a recipe for moral relativism run amok.

Sexual freedom inevitably meant more pregnancies, and for women to be truly “in control of their own bodies,” well, then one must have abortion, which was legalized in Roe vs Wade (1973), to be followed inexorably by the spate of abortion-on-demand bills passing state legislatures in the last couple of years. The drug culture has kept expanding until now we have problems not only with illegal, super-charged narcotics like heroine, methamphetamine or crystal meth, and crack cocaine but problems with prescription drugs like opioids as well. Gay Rights plowed the field for what now is LGBTQ+ and a never-ending redefinition of humanity as long as it rejects “the binary” and thus continues to emphasize invented privacy rights at the expense of social order. Meanwhile, divorce and fatherless homes, sexual abuse and violence take a toll on each generation. To make an understatement, women struggle with sexual harassment and minorities with racism.

With this loss of center our sense of purpose, our ability to agree on right/wrong are gone, as is increasingly our national identity as a people, which we’re watching as centrifugal forces now vie to spin American culture into chaos. There’s no “unum” in E Pluribus Unum.

One of the heartening things in the wake of the tragic police killing of George Floyd May 25, 2020, is the peaceful protests we’ve seen in support of rightful change. One of the disheartening things we’ve seen in the wake of this tipping point is the lawlessness, anarchy, vandalism, violence, larceny, and general demands of a new “woke” culture that self-righteously seeks to silence or shame all who might disagree. Sadly, the latter in its vicious steam-rolling approach has almost overwhelmed the former.

This disintegration of order and democratic process has been painful to watch. And there’s not much hope of a brighter tomorrow because the many voices do not agree on even the most basic values. We have no sense of a unity to which we can aspire. It’s all now about power, a zero-sum calculus to gore the other side’s ox.

This is not an easy piece to write. It feels hopeless, and yet I am not hopeless because I believe in our Sovereign God. I believe in the timeless verities upon which this country was founded, and I believe for all our fits and faults we still offer much that our children and the world need. But our beacon at the moment is severely obscured.

God grant that we rediscover the importance of centering moral values before centrifugal forces pull us apart.

Details: Written by Rex M. Rogers; Published: 11 June 2020

In modern terms, the Old Testament Prophet Jonah would be called a racist.

He hated the people of Nineveh, so he refused to follow God’s command to preach to them and ran from God.

Jonah took a ship at sea, a violent storm came, so the sailors tossed Jonah, and he was swallowed by a huge fish.

For 72 hours, Jonah cried to God from that fish, then the fish spit Jonah out on dry land.

Finally, Jonah preached to wicked Nineveh, they responded to God’s grace.

Jonah then, unbelievably, became angry at God for being merciful.

You see, Jonah would have been happier to “Nuke the Ninevites.”

But the story ends with God saying, “Should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh?”

This is our task today.

To have concern for all the great cities of people, no matter their race or heritage,

“To act justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God.”

Details: Written by Rex M. Rogers; Published: 11 June 2020

All historic and important figures, including those remembered in sculpture and statues, were imperfect sinful human beings.

—King David, the shepherd-poet-king and man after God’s own heart, was a murderer and an adulterer.

—The great Reformer Martin Luther wrote horrible anti-Semitic pieces, yet he blessed the world with his considerable work and legacy.

—Thomas Jefferson, maybe the most brilliant President whose Declaration of Independence is a gift to the world, omitted Native Americans, owned slaves, and lived secretly with a Black slave mistress.

—Abraham Lincoln, perhaps the greatest President, preserved the Union and freed the slaves, but earlier in life made a number of racist statements.

—The great Civil Rights and non-violence leader Martin Luther King, Jr was a serial adulterer, as was JFK.

So who is without sin? None.

If perfection or purity is our standard, we will honor no one but Jesus.

I’m not sure I can answer when it is reasonable to honor someone other than to say it’s our stewardship to figure it out by making judgments based upon our spiritual discernment (Phil 1:9-11). And given Christian liberty, (Romans 14), we may make different decisions. And in the public venue, it's a matter of lawful democratic process, e.g., to determine what Confederate statue to remove or not to remove.

As I said, no one is perfect, so while I cut my teeth on Rock n Roll, The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Supremes, Sonny n Cher, and many others, there’s a lot about these artists’ lives and character that leaves much to be desired (the case in my life too) and that I could not possibly endorse.

Same for movies: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Halle Berry are fun to watch, but they aren’t innocents.

Raise the cultural bar: same for the great masters—Michelangelo, Da Vinci had weird stuff in their lives, but their art is unsurpassed. So it goes.

It’s the dilemma of human nature, created in the image of God and capable of incredibly noble acts, but sinful hearts capable of ignoble acts of the worst kind too. The crime boss who loves his daughter, the war hero who is a thief, the serial killer who helps take down a drug ring… Same for religious, political, military leaders, some who do great things but one and all who fall short.

There’s something else, repentance and forgiveness. King David wasn’t the man after God’s heart because he lived a perfect life but because he repented, exalted God, and God forgave him. This is what’s missing in some current social movements aimed at making all things right—no room for forgiveness, just outrage; no mercy, just judgment.

I believe we should live justly and seek justice, but I’m also glad God grants me mercy not the judgment I deserve.

Details: Written by Rex M. Rogers; Published: 09 June 2020

I grew up in a Christian home, in best sense of the term, with parents who were believers and took me to our fundamentalist Baptist church two or three times per week. The church, and our family, were Bible believing, fundamentalist in terms of doctrine, meaning belief in the inerrancy of Scripture, a literal Bible, and salvation through Christ alone. Thankfully, they were not the “militant” or angry kind of “Fundamentalists” I met later.

I have enjoyed the enormous blessing of growing up in that Christian home, of attending if not being taken to church whether or not I wanted to go, of experiencing a Christian higher education, and of a career working largely within and around Christian nonprofit organizations. All were formative.

In college, I began to think of myself as “Evangelical,” maintaining fundamentalist doctrine but more “culture-engaging,” which fit well with my interests in the social sciences and later Ph.D. in political science. I’ve always encouraged Christians to get involved in social and political matters.

In college, too, I began to develop my political thought, reading Christian philosophers like Francis A. Schaeffer, and considered myself conservative, but even then, I was not quite comfortable with that label, much less a Republican label, though I voted Republican.

Later, I refined this, considering myself conservative in political thought but not “Capital C” Conservative. I affirmed conservative political and social beliefs but did not subscribe to an “Ism,” as in Conservatism. From time to time, I supported moderate political issues.

Fast forward to the 1980s and “Fundamentalist” started to mean, via Big Media, Ayatollah Khomeini and the like. This certainly was not me, for sure, nor was I comfortable with all that the Religious Right and the Moral Majority presented in those years, led by Fundamentalist pastor Jerry Falwell, Sr. Then in the 1990s and on into the early 2000s, George W Bush’s campaigns and presidency, “Evangelical” was more or less coopted by Big Media and portrayed as “Values voters” or “Family values” or just Republican. There were nuances here, of course, but all this made me uncomfortable because these new meanings and applications were not necessarily what I meant when I used the term.

During my Cornerstone University President days, 1991-2008, I gradually set aside both these labels, especially when I started writing more, e.g. for my long-term radio program “Making a Difference.” I wanted to write not as a Conservative, or much less a Republican, but as a person with a Christian worldview, simply trying to apply my Christian thinking to everyday life, including ideology and partisanship.

Fast forward again to 2015-16 and the Donald J. Trump campaign, then into his presidency, when “Evangelical” came to mean, in shorthand for some Big Media journalists, Trump supporters.

For my tastes, things got so bad that by January 2016, I declared on Facebook that I was no longer going to use the terms Republican or Evangelical to describe myself. I’d be an Independent and a Christian, conservative in both regards.

In my view, though I am still on the conservative side of the political spectrum, about as many Conservative and/or Republican leaders periodically act poorly, immorally, selfishly, etc. as do Liberal and/or Democrat leaders. While I was never comfortable with ideological or partisan labels, I am even more so now, so I’ve stuck with the Independent and Christian self-designations.

I believe in “unalienable” rights, those natural, universal human rights given to us by God, which no government either grants or ever can or should take away, as gloriously described in the Declaration of Independence:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

I support religious liberty for all, and I embrace and am grateful for the First Amendment:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

I believe in free, pluralistic, democratic republican government, limited government, and government of, by, and for the people, rule of law and justice, private property, and free enterprise. I’m glad for the United States of America’s history as a “Great Experiment” in democratic government, the “First New Nation.”

I am prolife from conception to death, or anti abortion-on-demand at any stage of pregnancy, and including so-called "born-alive" babies who survive abortions.

I consider myself pro-immigrant and want a reformed legal process by which “illegals” or “aliens” or “undocumenteds” can become citizens, especially DACA kids. I’m glad for the United States of America’s history as “a nation of immigrants.”

I am patriotic, of course about my home country, but more than this, about its ideals regarding human freedom and government as codified in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution and its Amendments.

I do not confuse my Christian faith with nationalism. I do not think the USA is perfect, or better always than other countries, just admirable in its ideals if not always our history or our actions. Like all else in our lives, our country and our patriotism must be critiqued by our Christian worldview.

So, I am more interested in being a good Christian citizen than being a Conservative or Republican or Independent or any other similar designation.

I am more interested in being a good Christian than being a good Evangelical or similar designation.

I’ve not covered the waterfront here. Not possible, and perhaps I’ve forgotten something, but these are some basics.

I am most interested in “But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,” (1 Peter 3:15).

Details: Written by Rex M. Rogers; Published: 08 June 2020

The blame-game is in full swing.

In the wake of the tragic and unnecessary death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers May 25, 2020, the country has been thrown into a period of social unrest, peaceful protests and decidedly non-peaceful riots including looting, arson, larceny, vandalism, and destruction.

The issues are racial injustice and police brutality. So, who’s at fault for what's now called “systemic racism”?

I don’t have an easy answer, and this isn’t about trying to trivialize or distract from these issues. Clearly, there are patterns of wrongdoing, including specifically police who’ve killed without provocation or needlessly, yet not been held accountable by criminal justice systems, this despite many reforms. This must change.

My point here is to note the blame-game. Who created this racial injustice?

Democrats blame Republicans. Republicans blame Democrats. Left blames Right, and vice versa. Conservatives, who may be different from the Right, blame Liberals, and Liberals, who may be different from the Left, blame Conservatives. Some blame not just bad cops or rogue police officers but all police officers, or at least police departments in general, hence movements to “Defund Police.” Some blame religion or the Church. One argument laid the blame for centuries of racism at the doorstep of Evangelical theology.

Blame and recriminations are an all-too-human response to crisis. Point the finger at someone else. It began in the Garden of Eden when Adam said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it” (Gen. 3:12). So, it’s expected.

But blame doesn’t get us anywhere. In fact, until we work through the blame-game period we aren’t going to listen to others, try to discern truth from fiction, or debate, much less forgive, change, and make progress.

It will likely be a while yet because feelings are so raw, and people are angry. They want to vent, some peacefully and productively and sadly some violently and destructively.

What we need is honest evaluation of facts, listening, and a moral discussion of what’s right and the right way to introduce meaningful reforms.

One thing we know. Jesus said, ““Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone,” (John 8:7).