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Written by: Rex M. Rogers

Published: 18 December 2025

Antisemitism is sadly alive and well and flourishing the world over, both among the Left and the Right.

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #239 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.

Antisemitism is, simply put, hating Jews. A formal definition comes from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance: “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.” 

Dec. 13, 2025, an armed individual walked into a Providence, RI, Brown University classroom of a Jewish professor “where students had gathered to review for their final exam in Principles of Economics, Brown’s most popular class and one that is dominated by freshmen. He killed two students and injured nine others.”

A day later, “December 14, 2025, a terrorist mass shooting occurred at Archer Park beside Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, in the late afternoon during a Hanukkah celebration attended by approximately one thousand people. Two gunmen shot at the crowd, killing 15 people, including a child. Police and Australian intelligence agencies declared it an Islamic State–linked terrorist incident. Numerous world leaders, news outlets and Australian authorities said the shooting was motivated by antisemitism.”

“Since the onset of the campus protests in October 2023, in the aftermath of the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, one thing has become painfully clear: we have an antisemitism crisis on campus. The past academic year witnessed more than 1,400 antisemitic incidents on campuses across the nation – an unprecedented, all-time high.”

“A whopping 39% of Jewish college students have had to hide their identities on campus while 62% said they have been directly blamed for Israel’s military action in Gaza, according to a new report obtained by The New York Post. The civil rights group StopAntisemitism issued its 2025 ‘report cards’ grading how 90 colleges addressed the spreading hatred against Jews on campuses, with 14 schools flunking the exam.” Brown University is one of the fourteen.

“This surge of antisemitism in schools stems from a decade-long politicization of the education system, infiltrating every aspect from educational philosophy to curriculum and classroom discussions. If we want to get serious about addressing antisemitism, we must understand its driving force: the new leftist dogma.

At its core is ‘critical pedagogy,’ an educational philosophy that fuels resentment, victimhood, and collectivism, while promoting hatred towards certain groups.

It indoctrinates students to view the world through a lens of power dynamics and oppression. Cloaked in euphemisms such as ‘inclusivity’ and ‘social justice,’ this ideology – like all aspects of woke education – contains a destructive mind virus.”

“Contemporary examples of antisemitism in public life, the media, schools, the workplace, and in the religious sphere could, taking into account the overall context, include, but are not limited to:

1. Calling for, aiding, or justifying the killing or harming of Jews in the name of a radical ideology or an extremist view of religion.
2. Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective — such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions.
3. Accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, or even for acts committed by non-Jews.
4. Denying the fact, scope, mechanisms (e.g. gas chambers) or intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people at the hands of National Socialist Germany and its supporters and accomplices during World War II (the Holocaust).
5. Accusing the Jews as a people, or Israel as a state, of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust.
6. Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.
7. Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.
8. Applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.
9. Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis.
10. Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.
11. Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.”

There is a sense in which antisemitism is no different than any other form of bigotry, hate, and harm directed at individuals or groups whose human characteristics differ from the hater. Racism exists in all societies. Discrimination and persecution have been directed at countless families, clans, tribes, and people groups since ancient times. Antisemitism, like all hate, is sin, and human beings are sinful people who sooner or later aim suspicion, fear, envy, or arrogance toward others different from themselves.

But in another sense, antisemitism is different from other forms of racism. Antisemitism targets Jews as a people, not just as followers of a religion. Historically, Jews have been treated as a racialized group (e.g., Nazi ideology), regardless of individual beliefs or practices. Because of this racialization, many legal systems and institutions classify antisemitism under racism or ethnic discrimination.

A Jewish person can be targeted even if they are atheist or secular. Antisemitic ideas often involve myths about bloodlines, inherent traits, or collective guilt, which go beyond religion. Antisemitism has some unique features compared to other forms of hate:

• Conspiracy theories (e.g., secret control of governments, media, or finance)
• Collective blame (holding all Jews responsible for real or imagined actions)
• Contradictory stereotypes (Jews portrayed simultaneously as weak and all-powerful)
• Persistence across very different cultures and time periods

Because of this, scholars often treat antisemitism as a specific category of hate, even when it is legally grouped under racism.

The Bible records examples of antisemitism. The Pharaoh and the Egyptians looked upon Jacob’s descendants and said, “Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land... So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves” (Exodus 1:8–14).

“The Spirit of Amalek is the oldest enemy of Israel. The Amalekites were the first people to attack Israel when they left Egypt for the Promised Land” (Ex. 17:8). The ancient Amalekites became a symbol of unprovoked hatred toward Israel (Deut. 25:17-18).

In the book of Esther, “Haman was filled with fury…So, Haman sought to destroy all the Jews, the people of Mordecai, throughout the whole kingdom” (Esther 3:5–6). This is one of the clearest biblical depictions of attempted genocide against Jews. Surrounding Nations’ evidenced hatred of Israel, a collective wish for Israel’s destruction. “They say, ‘Come, let us wipe them out as a nation; let the name of Israel be remembered no more!’” (Psalm 83:3–4).

The New Testament noted “…the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all mankind…” (1 Thess. 2:14–15). This passage has historically been misused to justify antisemitism. But theological scholarly consensus emphasizes:

• Paul himself was Jewish
• It refers to specific authorities, not all Jews
• The New Testament elsewhere condemns hatred (Romans 11).

Meanwhile, the Bible reminds us that God’s covenant with the Jews is everlasting. “I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:3). “And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant” (Gen. 17:7). “I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather them from all around, and bring them to their own land. And I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel.” (Ezek. 37:21–28).

Antisemitism contradicts the Bible and the Christian ethic of love. Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22:37-39). “Whoever despises his neighbor is a sinner” (Prov. 14:21).

Jews are our neighbors. There are more Jews living in the United States – 7.5 million – than Jews living in Israel – 7.2 million. From Stephen Spielberg, Wolf Blitzer, Jerry Seinfeld, Wonder Woman Gal Gadot, and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg to the guy at your local grocery you didn’t know was Jewish, Jews are our neighbors and U.S. citizens.

Hating and harming them hurts them, it hurts America, and it hurts those who hate and harm.

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. For more Christian commentary, see my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com, or check my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers. 

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

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2025    

*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 my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.

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Written by: Rex M. Rogers

Published: 15 December 2025

Mixing theology and politics regarding the nation of Israel now includes something called “Christian Zionism,” a perspective that is dividing Christian churches.

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #238 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.

Recently, about one thousand American evangelical leaders traveled to Israel to show their support, learn more about what’s happened on the ground, and for many of them to directly affirm something called “Christian Zionism.” This gathering has been billed as “the largest public-diplomacy mission in Israel’s history.” “The event was initiated by Christian Zionist leader Mike Evans and the Friends of Zion.”

Meanwhile, some Middle Eastern Christians have offered scathing critiques of this event, considering it shameful for what they say is an absence of contact with Palestinian believers and in the event’s propagation of what the Middle Easterners consider heretical Christian Zionism.

This event comes “after the anti-Zionist and anti-Jewish social-media platformed onslaughts by the likes of anti-Israel, anti-Jewish podcasters and political commentators Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens and Nick Fuentes, among others, all of whom avow—(oddly)—a form of Christian justification.” Tucker Carlson recently called Christian Zionism a “brain virus and heresy.”

“The support for Zionism is under a renewed attack of opposition and invalidation. One stream of vitriol, of course, stems from the ideology that Judaism and Jews have been replaced. A second flow of animosity essentially is structured on hard-core antisemitism. A third current of negativity is predicated on the neo-Marxist progressive politics of defining Zionism as ‘colonialism.’ The fourth wave has been the development of a Christian-based ‘Palestine liberation theology.’”

“People are throwing this term ‘Zionism’ and ‘Zionist’ around, sometimes as a compliment – sometimes as an insult – and don’t seem to understand what it really means.” So, let’s pause for a moment and define Zionism and Christian Zionism.

Zionism is the idea of a return to Zion, meaning Jerusalem or the Land of Israel, an idea with deep roots in Jewish religious tradition. For centuries, Jewish prayers, holidays, and rituals expressed the hope of returning to Zion—"Next year in Jerusalem" they would say during Passover and Yom Kippur liturgies. However, these expressions were spiritual or messianic hopes, not a political program. Then came Theodor Herzl (1860–1904), an Austro-Hungarian journalist, considered the father of modern political Zionism. The first Zionist Congress was held in Basel, Switzerland, 1897, where the movement formally adopted its goal of establishing “a home for the Jewish people in Palestine secured by public law.” Today, Zionism, is best understood as a spectrum encompassing a broad set of beliefs, some contradictory to the other.

Christian Zionism is a theological and political movement that supports the Jewish return to the land of Israel and the modern State of Israel, based on specific interpretations of the Bible. Evangelical supporters included, back in the day, Jerry Falwell Sr., Hal Lindsey, Tim LaHaye, Pat Robertson, and recently John Hagee, Robert Jeffress, Paula White-Cain, Mike Evans, David Jeremiah, and Michael Brown. Evangelicals who reject Christian Zionism include John Piper, N.T. Wright, and the late J.I. Packer and R.C. Sproul.

Christian Zionism involves these core biblical beliefs:

1. God’s covenant with Abraham is eternal — “I will bless those who bless you” (Genesis 12:3).
2. Israel’s modern restoration fulfills prophecy – “I will take the Israelites out of the nations… and bring them back into their own land.” (Isaiah 66:8; Ezekiel 37:21-22). “Has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew” (Rom 11:1–2).
3. Christians have a biblical mandate to support Israel — both spiritually and politically.
4. Opposition to Israel is opposition to God’s plan, while blessing Israel brings divine favor.
5. Premillennial eschatology — Israel’s rebirth is a prelude to Christ’s Second Coming.

A few Christian Zionists—but not all—support what’s called “Replacement Theology,” also known as supersessionism, the belief that Christians or the New Testament Church have replaced or superseded the Jews (ethnic Israel) as God's chosen people, and that this New Covenant in Jesus Christ renders the Old Covenant obsolete. This is a heretical doctrine that most Christian Zionists reject.

The politics of Christian Zionism gets complicated.

1. The term is often used as an insult or bludgeon or label for anyone who supports Israel in ways an opponent disagrees.
2. Israel is considered God’s chosen nation by virtue of biblical command, which translates to unconditional support (Genesis 12:3).
3. Political theology merged with populism: Israel’s defense and U.S. nationalism were portrayed as linked covenants with God.
4. Israel became not just a prophetic marker but a symbol of Christian identity and divine blessing for nations that support it, such that Israel now functions as a symbol of conservative Christian identity, patriotism, and biblical fidelity.

Criticisms of Christian Zionism can be summarized in this list:

1. Christian Zionism mixes theology and nationalism/political ideology – Critics claim Christian Zionism elevates nationalism, military power, and territory over the universal message of reconciliation in Christ.
2. Christian Zionism ignores moral/justice concerns regarding Palestinians and is accused of marginalizing or dehumanizing Palestinian Christians and Muslims, viewing them as obstacles to prophecy rather than neighbors to love.
3. Church’s prophetic voice is muted – By sacralizing Israeli military or political action, critics say Christian Zionism abandons the New Testament ethic of peacemaking.
4. Over-emphasis on land and ethnicity – critics say, divides the Church by giving theological priority to one ethnic or national group and contradicts Paul’s teaching that “in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek” (Gal 3:28).

Christian Zionists argue that “although Christian Zionists differ on certain points, (they) are united by one truth: Zionism is rooted in God’s unbreakable biblical covenants. Simply put, the Jewish people have the divine and historical right to a sovereign state in their ancestral homeland of Israel.” “Some assume we view Israel through rose-colored glasses, as if the Jewish people and their leaders are perfect. (But) that could not be further from the truth. Like the United States, Israel is imperfect. Jews and Christians alike are imperfect. Yet Christian Zionists choose to be loyal friends to Israel in a world where antisemitism continues to spread like poison.” “(Their) allegiance is not to politics or personalities but to Scripture, which we regard as God’s unchanging truth.”

For me, the term “Christian Zionism” is problematic because it can be interpreted with so many meanings, some of which I directly oppose, so while I support much that it represents, I don’t usually use the term. That said, I do not believe Christian Zionism, i.e., a belief in God’s promise of the Holy Land to the Jewish people, is ipso facto heretical, much less anti-biblical.

I believe God’s Word is immutable and that his covenants and promises in both the Old and New Testaments are permanent. So, I believe God promised the Holy Land to his chosen people, the Jews, and this promise is yet theologically and practically operable today.

I do not believe in Replacement Theology, the idea the Church supersedes or replaces the Jews in God’s plan and providence.

I think we, too, must be careful jumping from the Bible to the current news saying, “This is what God is doing.” God’s Word is complex, and it is not for us “to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.” (Deut. 29:29; Isa. 46:9–10; 55:8–9; Acts 1:7). We must also, I think, be careful equating the modern nation state of Israel directly with all God said about the Jewish people, in part because Israel is a pluralistic, democratic state that can make mistakes like any other. Israel is not above critique. Meanwhile, I believe Israel has a right to self-determination, existence, and as required, self-defense.

I certainly believe the Gospel is for all people, including Jews, Arabs, and Palestinians. I believe God loves Arabs and those called Palestinians. I do not believe Christians should denigrate, ignore, dismiss, or otherwise politically mistreat who these people are.

One tragedy of the Gaza War is the apparent ease with which some American evangelicals have dismissed or downplayed the horrible effects of war on the people, including children, in Gaza. Their suffering is as dreadful as the suffering of Jews in Israel, and among the people of Gaza are Christian believers, who have also suffered.

So, I desire a just peace, and I pray all may hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the true and ultimate source of change.

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. For more Christian commentary, see my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com, or check my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers.

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

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2025  

*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 my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.

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Written by: Rex M. Rogers

Published: 08 December 2025

Whatever your age, do you sometimes feel like culture is spinning out of control? What are the forces generating this spin, and what can restore stability?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #237 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.

Centrifugal force is an established fact of physics. It’s the outward (fictious) “force” that seems to push an object away from the center of a circular motion. It’s the idea that if something moving has no anchor, no hub, no center mooring, it will spin off from the center, moving away in any or all directions.

A car turning a corner such that passengers feel pushed to the outside of the turn. A tetherball flying outward away from the pole. Clothes in a washing machine spin cycle. People riding carnival rides feel pushed to the outside of a merry-go-round or a tilt-a-whirl.

Meanwhile, centripetal forces pull things toward the center or hub. For example, the centripetal force of gravity from the sun keeps planets in orbit. Same with the moon. Gravity holds the moon in orbit around the earth. The moon tries to move in a straight line (because of inertia). Earth’s gravity continuously bends that straight-line path into a curved one, preventing the moon from flying off into space.

During Medieval times, scholars believed religion was the essential glue, or centripetal force if you will, holding society together. They saw social order, morality, authority, and unity as rooted in divine law. Many later scholars worried that as modern secularized nation-states emerged, without religion’s unifying role, society might fall apart, i.e., lose moral coherence and fragment.

But as it turned out, secularization didn’t remove religion; it: privatized it, pluralized it, reduced its political power. Today, many scholars still argue that religion helps bind communities, just not as the sole basis of social order. Religion helps generate forms of “collective moral sentiment,” even if not overtly religious, e.g., patriotism, national celebrations, constitutions treated with symbolic reverence, social solidarities through shared values. These moral sentiments act like what scholars have called “civil religion.”

We know from the study of past empires certain centrifugal forces can tear a civilization apart. The Roman Empire unraveled over centuries due to a combination of internal weaknesses and external pressures: corruption and ineffective administration eroded trust and stability, heavy taxation and debt, barbarian invasions, decline in civic pride.

Question becomes, what can we learn from this history? Certainly, the USA is fraught with a growing list of centrifugal forces: political polarization, deep ideological divisions, increasing distrust between opposing political identities, media echo chambers, debates over immigration and street protests: free speech or lawlessness, anarchy, and planned chaos?

These centrifugal forces reduce social cohesion, make compromise harder, weaken confidence in institutions, heighten social conflict, and reduce a shared sense of belonging. The United States of America are not as “united” and our e pluribus unum maximizes “pluribus” over “unum.”

Thankfully, Americans still widely rely on several centripetal forces, for example, shared national institutions like a single Constitution and legal system, a unified military, a Federal Reserve and unified financial system, mature civil rights legal framework, a common currency, national corporations, national holidays, symbols (flag, anthem), widespread civic rituals (voting, jury duty) that reinforce a sense of belonging to a larger whole. High geographic mobility, marriages across region, religion, and ethnicity, national entertainment, sports, music, and a common language.

The growing belief on left and right that elections are unfair, rigged, subject to fraud, the focus of voter suppression, non-citizen voting, tampering, political bias, foreign influence, or other corruption is a key threat to national unity. This is a huge issue that indeed has come close and could still in the future precipitate a constitutional crisis.

What is that? It would happen if an incumbent elected official, especially the President, rejected an election outcome and refused to leave office. This is banana republic stuff, and we want no part of it in the USA, but our political polarization and overwhelming distrust has us on the brink.

America’s sense of disruption, polarization, chaos, and decline has largely occurred in my lifetime—that is, since the 1960s when Christianity began to lose its time-honored spot at the head of the table. Now, depending upon the social circumstances, like a public university, Christianity is not only not at the head of the table, but it’s not at the table at all.

Christian scholar Henry Van Til famously defined culture as “religion externalized.” In other words, a people’s religious presuppositions will work themselves out in the culture, the way of life, they develop.

“Culture is simply a worldview made evident. It is basic beliefs worked out into habits of life. It is theology translated into sociology. Culture is a very practical expression of the common faith of a community or a people or a nation.”

“What a person thinks, what he believes, what shapes his ultimate concerns, and what he holds to be true in his heart—in short, his faith or lack of it—has a direct effect on his material well-being, behavior, and outlook; on his sense of what is good, true, and beautiful; on his priorities, values, and principles. After all, ‘As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.’”

If Christianity, or what scholars like Peter Berger, Os Guinness, and others cited as America’s historic, “Judeo-Christian moral consensus,” our “sacred canopy” as they called it—when this was jettisoned we lost our glue, our reason for existence, and with it, our key centripetal force holding Western Civilization and specifically the USA together.

But there is still hope.

“In 1905, Max Weber, the renowned political economist and ‘founding father’ of modern sociology…in his classic work, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, argued…that faith brought men and nations both liberty and prosperity.”

“The great lesson of history…is ordinary people of authentic Christian faith who are ultimately the ones who best able to shape the outcome of human events or, as G.K. Chesterton said, “The most extraordinary thing in the world is an ordinary man and an ordinary woman and their ordinary children.”

Ultimately, that is our greatest hope for the future. It is simply that a new grassroots majoritarian emphasis on things that really matter–on the Gospel and its fruits–will emerge as we train up the next generation of culture-shapers.

It is that a love for hearth and home, community and culture, accountability and availability, service and substance, morality and magnanimity, responsibility and restoration will capture hearts and minds and lives. It is a hope that may be stymied, obstructed, and hampered–but ultimately it cannot fail.”

So, we as Americans, as Christians, as conservatives, or frankly however you align your beliefs, if we care about passing on to our children and grandchildren a country and culture that is a land of freedom and opportunity, then we need to stand up and speak up, sharing the truth in love, that politics cannot solve our crises. Politics might assist, but politics and political leaders cannot provide ultimate meaning or a vision for tomorrow that perpetuates a shining city on a hill.

As G.K. Chesterton noted, we need ordinary men and women who have accepted the message of the Gospel, who embody its incredible transformative power, who then live out or “externalize” their religious beliefs in their everyday life. We need people who believe in truth because God Is There and He is Not Silent, that he is Truth. We need people who are weary of politicians who mouth platitudes to get elected but then in office go along to get along, never really voting to change anything in the interest of freedom and opportunity. We need people who believe in marriage, family, an outstanding work ethic, and generosity.

We need Christian nonprofit organizations who help the Church help others in both spiritual and humanitarian need—the “truly needy,” as Ronald Reagan called them, people who life has dealt them hard knocks but people who want to contribute to the good of their families and society. We need citizens who affirm right and wrong, law and order, mercy, responsibility and accountability, blind justice.

We need people who commit, with the Holy Spirit’s enablement, to be the light of the world and the salt of the Earth. This is a centripetal force great than all others.

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. For more Christian commentary, see my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com, or check my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers.

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

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2025  

*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 my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.

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Written by: Rex M. Rogers

Published: 01 December 2025

European nations have embraced socialism long ago, but did you ever think this failed ideology would take root in the USA? 

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #236 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.

During the COVID pandemic I wrote about things I saw in American government, politics, and culture that I never thought I’d see in my own country. Perhaps I was naïve but I was certainly shocked, then discouraged and concerned at the power grab and overreach of American governors, mayors, and some federal officials. And more so, I was nonplussed by not simply the willingness or acquiescence of American citizens at these constitutional violations and attacks on liberty but the public outcry asking for these things. Apparently, even today, there are millions of Americans who now want what Christian philosopher Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer predicted: people would trade liberty for perceived security and what they wanted most of all was just “personal peace and affluence.”

Now I am seeing it all over again, this time in Americans’ foolish, ahistorical, and dangerous enthusiasm for socialism, or what current politicians like to soften calling it “Democratic socialism.” Someone once said that a jerk for Jesus is still a jerk. I’d apply that logic here. A democratic socialist is still a socialist.

Of course, I am referring first to New York City electing Zohran Mamdani as its next mayor, a man who is unapologetically a Democratic Socialist. Several other candidates who called themselves democratic socialists were also elected in Seattle, Denver, Minneapolis, New York City, Austin County Texas, Portland.

Now it’s one thing for these people to affirm their allegiance to democratic socialism, but it’s another thing to note that they attracted enough electoral support to get elected.

Now, how is this possible in a pluralistic democratic republic like the USA?

Well, for one, much of American public education has been systematically educating one if not two generations in leftist, illiberal pathology like, the USA is not to be trusted, it was founded on slavery not liberty, the US is a colonizing, settler state, capitalism is suspect if not bad, socialism is about the oppressed, free speech should be controlled, objective good, objective evil, or objective truth do not exist, nothing can really be known because everyone has their own truth.

Leftists, or specifically Democratic Socialists, “view the world not through the Judeo-Christian lens of right versus wrong, but through the lens of power.”

“Train a child to hate, and that is what he will do. Lenin understood this very well: ‘Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.’ The Left knows this. And they took over our educational system and still control it. And the seeds they have been sowing in America are now sprouting. They will be difficult to uproot.” “Two-thirds of Americans ages 18-29 (now) hold a ‘favorable view’ of (socialism).”

But “socialism is built on conceit. It is assumed that a society’s problems are a matter of poor management, and once the right people are in charge, utopia will be in reach.” “(The Socialist) agenda is almost exclusively designed to make more people dependent on government to empower themselves.”

Orwell ostensibly once said, “Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals believe them.” Socialism is one of those ideas.

“The seeds of modern leftism were planted in the French Enlightenment of the 18th century (and perhaps even a little earlier) and sprouted in the French Revolution and the guillotine. The ideology gained momentum under German rationalism, Darwinism, and especially Marxism/Leninism, and bloomed fully in the 20th century communist movements.”

“Today, (many politicians on the left are) trying to morph America into the very thing that we spent countless billions of dollars to defeat, and that so many great, wonderful American men and women gave their lives to keep from infesting our shores. The leftism we fought so mightily to destroy is now, like a horrible cancer, spreading through America—rapidly, with determination, and often violently.”

Charles Cooke, the editor of NationalReview.com, bluntly says socialism is not and never can be “democratic.”  “(He) writes that voters should not be fooled by the left’s attempt at rebranding. “‘There is no sense in which socialism can be made compatible with democracy as it is understood in the West.’

At worst, says Cooke, ‘socialism eats democracy, and is swiftly transmuted into tyranny.’

“At best, socialism ‘stamps out individual agency, places civil society into a straitjacket of uniform size, and turns representative government into a chimera.’”

Cooke notes that “6,000 years of civilization” (have taught us) “never relinquish the right to free speech, the right to free conscience, the right to freedom of religion, the right to bear arms, or the right to a jury trial. Whatever you do…don’t be seduced by socialists bearing promises. But if you are seduced, ‘get out before it’s too late. You have nothing to lose but your chains.’”

The irony of all this—think back to Orwell’s comment about stupid ideas—is that history is replete with mountains of evidence that socialism, like leftism, destroys everything it touches. Look at Venezuela, the nation with more proven oil reserves than any other in the world, yet “Venezuela’s economic catastrophe dwarfs any in the history of the U.S., Western Europe or the rest of Latin America.” 

“Under Chavez-Maduro socialism, the child mortality rate has increased 140%. Ninety percent of Venezuelans now live in poverty. This year inflation will hit an unbelievable 10 million percent.” Yes, 10 million percent.

Lenin and Stalin’s mass socialist terror in Russia killed tens of millions, as did Mao Zedong’s reign in China, Pol Pot in Cambodia.

“Economist Jeffrey Tucker (makes a) damning comment: ‘Among the most conspicuous of socialism’s failings is its capacity to generate vast shortages of things essential for life.’” 

“The subtitle of F.A. Hayek’s last work ‘The Fatal Conceit’ is ‘The Errors of Socialism.’” 

Socialism, yes Democratic Socialism, is a time bomb in a pretty package. The pretty package is all marketing and messaging, not historic reality.

The reality of socialism is known all too well for those who care to look: low growth, mass unemployment, social strife, and a general mood of pessimism, people selling heirlooms or themselves for food, the sick untreated, unburied dead in the streets, trash piling up, contaminated drinking water, rampant deforestation, and frequent oil spills.

After years of leftist socialist nationalized economic controls that brought the UK to its knees, “Margaret Thatcher walked into 10 Downing Street and proceeded to denationalize coal, steel, and utilities; bring down inflation; spur economic growth; and refuse to give into organized labor’s draconian demands. Thatcher’s message: ‘The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.’”

“Free everything — except your independence. But in the real world, nothing is free.” Socialism “destroys competition and consequently destroys innovation.”  

• “Socialism is not compatible with the Constitution.
• Socialism, the idea that millions killed for, is a mirage.
• Socialism is very good at generating vast shortages of the essential things in life.
• Socialism can never know enough to plan all our lives every day.
• Socialism tries to make all of us equal to one another.
• Socialism is very good at promising all the benefits we’ll never see.
• Socialism in Great Britain had one outstanding success—Margaret Thatcher.
• Socialism was responsible for making Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union the most polluted and degraded places on earth.
• Socialized medicine as practiced in Great Britain and Canada is bad for people’s health.
• American socialism is on the rise because of widespread social and cultural poverty in America.”

Winston Churchill said, "The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries." 

Young Americans voting for utopian socialism—this is a generation motivated by values that will destroy them and their country.

God forbid.

God grant we develop young adults who know truth and work to make it known.

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. For more Christian commentary, see my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com, or check my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers.

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

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2025    

*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 my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.

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Written by: Rex M. Rogers

Published: 24 November 2025

Artificial Intelligence, AI, is now a fact of contemporary postmodern life, so what does it offer us, what does it mean, and how should we interact with it?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #235 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.

I’ve address AI, artificial intelligence, in several earlier podcasts because it is now the most extensive and significant, potentially helpful yet potentially dangerous new technology since nuclear weapons.

AI is software that can learn, reason, understand, make decisions, or create in ways that resemble human thinking. AI doesn’t “think” like a human—but it can process information and make predictions based on patterns in data at a pace and to a near limitless extent, far out-stripping the minds of the highest IQ human beings. Machine learning algorithms allow computers to learn from data and improve their performance over time.

Deep learning involves training artificial neural networks with large amounts of data, which led to breakthroughs in image and speech recognition. AI natural language processing deals with the interactions between computers and human languages, which led to the development of virtual assistants, chatbots, and other applications.

AI is not coming. It’s here now. Auto-correct, personalized feeds, photo enhancements, GPS and navigation, commodity recommendations, fraud detection, streaming services, Siri, Alexa, security cameras, recruitment and hiring reviews, numerous academic supports, healthcare analysis, athletics analytics, generative text, audio, or video.

But AI’s enormous potential brings with it serious potential for abuse, Orwellian controls available to authoritarian governments, predictive behavioral profiling, and “Big Brother is watching you” loss of individual freedom. We now live in a mass surveillance digital world, a track-and-trace society.

Threats are also growing regarding identity protection and security in the face of Deepfake AI capability that can now generate entirely believable audio/video presentations that make people say or do things they never said or did.

AI is also being used in the production of pornography. “The FBI has documented an ‘explosion’ of sextortion schemes targeting children and teens, with these attacks linked to more than a dozen suicides.” Deepfake AI creates manipulated but realistic images and videos of real people in fake situations and are routinely used against women. “A study shows 96 percent of deepfake videos were nonconsensual pornography.” AI can take any photo and make it pornographic in seconds. This includes your photo and mine. Since the first deepfake video in 2017, the technology has only gotten better and no one is beyond reach, as for example actresses Gal Gadot, Scarlett Johansson, and Kristen Bell discovered when face swap software placed their image in pornographic films. Nonconsensual deepfake pornographic images are almost impossible to prevent.

But AI is also being used in a growing number of ways across churches, ministries, and individual Christian spiritual practice. Most of these uses are assistive tools—not replacements for pastoral care, discipleship, or Scripture—but they can support ministry, education, administration, and personal devotion.

Sermon preparation tools like pastors using AI to brainstorm sermon outlines (Logos AI, ChatGPT, Claude). Church management and administration (Planning Center, Tithe.ly). Worship planning: AI can help generate set lists based on themes. Some tools suggest transitions or Scripture readings that match the songs.

Church media teams use AI for sermon series graphics, announcement slides, or short video clips (Canva, Adobe Firefly). AI Bible study tools that help with word studies, cultural/historical context, devotionals (YouVersion, Hallow, Abide). Some ministries are using chatbots to answer questions about Christianity or guide seekers through gospel basics.

One of the most powerful applications is mission agencies using AI to translate Scripture or discipleship materials (SIL/Wycliffe AI tools). A similar application applies to dubbing or translating videos in different languages. YouTube already makes this available.

Meanwhile, Christian leaders are debating:

• Can AI be used for spiritual formation without replacing the Holy Spirit's work?
• Should AI write sermons? (Most say: AI can assist, but pastors should do the teaching themselves.)
• Concern about data privacy in ministry tools.
• Or the ongoing concern about AI deepfakes, meaning misinformation or outright falsehood or heresy.
• And importantly, whether use of AI inadvertently replaces human pastoral care with automation.

And AI may be a bit amazing at times, but it’s still just a tool, a human construction, so it’s important to remember that AI sometimes:

• misinterprets Scripture.
• combines ideas from different worldviews.
• lacks doctrinal understanding.

Leaders like Timothy Keller (before he passed not long ago), and Barna Group emphasize:

• Ethical use.
• Critical thinking.
• Human relational focus.

In 2019, “the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) spent nine months working on “Artificial Intelligence: An Evangelical Statement of Principles,” a document designed to equip the church with an ethical framework for thinking about this emergent technology.

“The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) of the Southern Baptist Convention issued the statement, Artificial Intelligence: An Evangelical Statement of Principles in April 2019. The document was published with the endorsement of sixty-five signatories.”

The Statement then lists 12 Articles or affirmations about AI based upon an Evangelical biblical worldview. Paraphrasing some points:

1. Human beings are made in the image of God and technology can never usurp this.
2. AI technology is good if used within the moral will of God, it must never be used to degrade human beings, and AI cannot fulfill humanity’s ultimate needs.
3. While technology can be created with a moral use in view, it is not a moral agent. Humans alone bear the responsibility for moral decision making.
4. AI should never be used to violate the fundamental principle of human dignity for all people. Neither should AI be used in ways that reinforce or further any ideology or agenda, seeking to subjugate human autonomy under the power of the state.
5. We deny that the pursuit of sexual pleasure is a justification for the development or use of AI, and we condemn the objectification of humans that results from employing AI for sexual purposes.
6. We deny that AI should be used by governments, corporations, or any entity to infringe upon God-given human rights.
7. We deny that AI will make us more or less human, or that AI will ever obtain a coequal level of worth, dignity, or value to image-bearers.

Since that time, at least one of the scholars involved, Jason Thacker, is calling for an additional statement. He said, “the 2019 statement of principles was designed to jumpstart conversation about AI in the Church, which is needed now more than ever.”

“A Christian philosophy of technology,” Thacker notes, “is wholly unique in that it recognizes 1) that God has given humanity certain creative gifts and the ability to use tools, and 2) and that how we use these tools forms and shapes us.

Technology then is not good or bad, nor is it neutral. Technology, specifically AI, is shaping how we view God, ourselves, and the world around us in profound and distinct ways. While we rightly debate how to mitigate the risks and promote the good of technological advances, the Church must not give into the moral panic induced by AI, nor should we passively allow others to shape the conversation in ways that are directly at odds with the Christian tradition.”

“We must remember that the Christian moral tradition recognizes that no matter how advanced our technologies become, there is nothing that can fundamentally change what it means to be made in the image of the almighty God (Gen. 1:26-28).”

AI seems to be the bold new future, but remember, God is eternal, omniscient, and omnipotent. He is “I Am,” meaning he exists in and knows the past, present, and future. He is not surprised by AI, nor should we be, but we are always to be responsible, to be God’s ambassadors on earth in the time he has placed us. In God’s providence, we live in an AI moment. How will we interact with and use it for the fulfilment of the Cultural Mandate (Gen. 1:28) and the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19-20)?

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. For more Christian commentary, see my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com, or check my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers. 

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

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2025  

*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 my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.