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Written by Rex M. Rogers

Published: 19 October 2020

For years, I’ve found the phrase, “willingly are ignorant of,” 2 Peter 3:5, in the old King James Version of the Bible (the version with which I and virtually everyone in the English speaking world since 1611 grew up) to be useful in a variety of contexts. 

In other versions, the phrase is variously translated: “deliberately forget” NIV, “escapes their notice” NASB, “willfully forget” ASV, NKJV, “purposely ignore” GNT, “deliberately ignore” RSV, “deliberately overlook” ESV. 

They all mean essentially the same thing: people intentionally choose to believe falsehood. 

I’ve always preferred the old KJV wording, “willingly are ignorant of,” maybe because it is the vocabulary I learned as a kid, or maybe because “willingly ignorant” seems to me to summarize much of what I hear, see, and read in American politics today. 

I won’t provide examples. It would spoil your fun.  

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020    

*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.    

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Written by Rex M. Rogers

Published: 16 October 2020

SAT-7 employs satellite television and social media to broadcast hope in Arabic, Farsi, and Turkish in the Middle East and North Africa. SAT-7 affirms a “culturally sensitive” approach to ministry.

Cultural sensitivity means SAT-7 shares Christian teaching with viewers from diverse cultural, ethnic, political, and religious backgrounds, in a manner that demonstrates understanding, respect, and love. 

SAT-7 does not broadcast from other regions using non-Middle Eastern faces or languages. It is based among the people it is serving. SAT-7 produces programming in the Middle East by Middle Easterners for Middle Easterners. 

Culturally sensitive ministry broadcasts in a way that enables the peoples of the Middle East and North Africa to hear, understand, and grasp the essentials of the Christian faith for themselves.

SAT-7 is culturally sensitive, building relational bridges, speaking the truth in love.

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020

*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.

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Written by Rex M. Rogers

Published: 15 October 2020

1--I like it, whether or not I agree, when politicians speak truth as they understand it based upon their principles, especially when what they say seems to undermine their preferred outcome, i.e., is not to their advantage. Like Walter Cronkite said, "And that's the way it is."

2--I dislike it, in fact they lose me, when politicians make statements that can easily be debunked with even the most cursory review of evidence, which they nevertheless argue because the "narrative" is to their advantage. Like Stephen Colbert said, "Truthiness - It used to be, everyone was entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts. But that's not the case anymore. Facts matter not at all."

3--I'm a staunch proponent of the First Amendment, i.e., freedom of speech, so I consider Big Tech/Social Media and Big Media's increasing censorship of information and points of view they believe is "misinformation" or "dangerous" and does not align with their version of the "publicly acceptable narrative" (e.g., earlier, views re the pandemic, now partisan politics) fundamentally un-American, Orwellian, and a serious threat to free democratic society. I say this re all points of view on the ideological spectrum.

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020    

*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.    

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Written by Rex M. Rogers

Published: 14 October 2020

A few years ago, we visited the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. A different year we visited The World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem. Neither visit was fun, but I recommend the experiences for everyone. The history and perspective they provide are priceless.

I noted how the US museum set up displays such that the most gruesome pictures or artifacts illustrating the horrific results of the Nazi’s genocide of Jewish people could not be seen by simply walking past the display. An adult could only view these worst examples of cruelty by choosing to walk near the display, look over the upraised boxed edges, then look down at the display. This architectural precaution was implemented to protect children and to allow for the fact some adults simply did not want to engage the gore and ghastly images and objects of the Holocaust, even though they wanted to tour the museum and learn about this history. 

I’ve also noted that articles about the holocaust, particularly those discussing the conditions Allied troops found in Nazi prison camps in 1945, are often prefaced with what today we might call a trigger warning, a note saying horrid information is included herein. This brings me to my point.

I think abortion, which is by definition the killing of an unborn human baby in the womb, is for most people a distant, abstract, at times even sanitized concept. It’s a legal idea or a political cause or a court case, not an actual physical and emotional human experience.

People of course know abortion happens. They understand it as one option now available for dealing with an unplanned and unwanted pregnancy. Many people consider it a woman’s civil right if she so chooses. Yet the vast majority of Americans do not actually interact with the back end of the operation. They do not see blood and human body parts, they do not see the actions taken by doctors a la abortionists, they do not usually even read about this, though sources are available, they do not have any direct personal experience with this thing called abortion.

Americans don’t “see abortions,” we don’t understand this ugliness any more than the Allies really understood the Holocaust until the camps were finally breached, the gas chambers and furnaces were opened, thousands of bodies lay before them stacked haphazardly like cordwood or tossed into pits, and thousands of emaciated survivors were liberated who testified of their experiences. 

I recognize that some pro-life groups make the physical images of this surgical procedure available to those who wish to view them. These images are gut-wrenching. I confess that when I’ve seen tents at county fairs sponsored by pro-life groups I did not want to see the images any more than others might. Sickening is not a strong enough term. Most people have never “seen an abortion.”

But here again is my point. Americans don’t “see abortions” like we’ve seen the Holocaust, so it is easier to not really feel this issue at an emotional level or to not grasp the barbarity of this “final solution.”

I understand that some within the American Church have not always demonstrated or may not yet be demonstrating appropriate empathy for the women involved, and in fact at times has been judgmental toward the women rather than seeking to help them. I understand that some Christians may not be as informed or engaged with myriad reasons women end up in an abortion clinic. To this I say, let’s do more. 

But I don’t see why demonstrating Christian love for the women involved is an either/or, a versus, toward the pro-life cause to end abortion. Why can’t we, why shouldn’t we, do both?

Abortion is an American holocaust, and I say this with utter respect for the meaning and history of the Jewish Holocaust. The human tragedy of the Jewish Holocaust came to an end. The human tragedy of the unborn baby holocaust must come to an end as well.

Abortion was foisted upon the American public by Roe vs Wade (1973) and it may yet be codified into law via legislation in the US Congress. God forbid this would ever happen and pray for the day abortion can be stopped forever. 

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020    

*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.    

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Written by Rex M. Rogers

Published: 13 October 2020

Abortion continues to be America’s greatest shame and embarrassment. 

Yes, slavery left an indelible stain that affects the country yet today, but a war in the 1860s in which hundreds of thousands died and a Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s ended this tragedy. Abortion marches on.

Since 1973, more than 61 million babies have been aborted in the United States.

What logic leads a politician like Gov. Tony Evers, WI, to say that President Trump stating, Doctors in the state of Wisconsin are executing babies "is just blasphemy” and that this is “a horrific statement”? This was a reaction to the governor saying he would veto a born-alive bill or what pro-life proponents called life-saving legislation. 

Gov. Ralph Northam said born-alive babies should be “kept comfortable” till their fate is determined by doctors and the mother.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer called abortion “life sustaining” for women. 

Meanwhile, abortion remains America’s worst injustice, racism, and sin. 

“Nearly 2,400 every day. Ninety-eight babies every hour. About one baby every twelve seconds. Innocent human beings are dismembered, poisoned, crushed, harvested for organs, put in trash cans, and disposed of in the name of ‘women’s rights’ and ‘the right to choose.’ This happens day after day, week after week, and the church largely remains silent. The most forgotten, marginalized human beings today are the preborn.”

Evangelicals, Mainline Protestants, Catholics

And ostensible Christian commitment doesn’t seem to make much impact: “According to Pew Research, one third of evangelical protestants, sixty percent of mainline protestants, and forty eight percent of Catholics believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases.”

“One in three women were attending church at least once a month (if not more) at the time they had their first abortion. Around 75% of women indicate churches had no real influence in their decision to end their baby’s life, and most of them expect the reaction to be one of judgment if it is ever found out they obtained an abortion. Only four in ten women believe churches are a safe place to talk about having had an abortion.”

There is a “complete ignorance as to what Scripture teaches:

‘According to data from the Barna Research Group, 60 percent of Americans can't name even five of the Ten Commandments...According to 82 percent of Americans, ‘God helps those who help themselves,’ is a Bible verse.’”

“Though people hear Scripture on Sunday and may read some of it during the week, a solid understanding of a biblical worldview and how Scriptural principles are applied to cultural issues is strikingly absent. Due to this lack of Biblical knowledge, we are surrounded by people who claim to know Jesus and yet do not understand His teachings. They have no idea how to properly apply a biblical worldview.”

Meanwhile, in the run-up to the 2020 Presidential election, a group called Pro-Life Evangelicals for Biden is arguing that somehow, a Christian ethic of life demands Americans vote for a Presidential and Vice Presidential candidate who are as radically pro-abortion as any candidates have ever been. They claim that “Poverty, lack of accessible health care services, smoking, racism and climate change are all pro-life issues…Faithful evangelical civic engagement and witness must champion a biblically balanced agenda. Therefore we oppose ‘one issue’ political thinking because it lacks biblical balance.”

“These “pro-life” evangelicals are voting for the party that has supported these barbaric procedures for years. Indeed, they are calling on other Christians to vote for the party that opposes the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which would guarantee medical care for a baby that survives abortion.”

I find the Pro-Life Evangelicals for Biden rationale incredible, which is to say lacking both evidence and persuasive authenticity, not to mention consistency with Scripture.

Why we should consider one-issue voting suspect is not explained, other than they say it lacks biblical balance. As to what “biblical balance” means, if it allows for supporting a radical abortion candidate, I am at a loss to say. 

One or Single-Issue Voting

There is nothing in Scripture or the U.S. Constitution that indicates one should not or cannot be a single-issue voter. Actually, one-issue or single-issue voting “can in some cases be morally justifiable and even required. Single-issue voting can in some cases be an appropriate expression of the politics of principle.” 

Throw-Away Voting

While some may argue this “throws away one’s vote,” I’d argue there is no such thing. As long as people vote their conscience in a free society there is no throw-away vote. The vote matters, even a single-issue one, because it records the voter’s view. It lodges his or her disposition on the single-issue or the candidate at hand. This is morally defensible and a privilege.

Life and Death

Abortion is literally a life and death issue. More than two thousand individuals are ushered into eternity every day in the United States, simply because they were an “unwanted pregnancy” and thus inconvenient for the mother. This represents a far greater toll on human life than any that emerged from the calamity of slavery or destruction of the Native American population in the 19^th Century. I don’t mean these other sins don’t matter. Quite the opposite. I mean, like those examples of genocide, the infanticide of abortion is murder and a horrible culture of death.

I understand when some friends or associates indicate they cannot vote for President Donald Trump, that they have profound problems with his persona and behavior, or perhaps some of his policies. They are free to make this decision. What I cannot understand is some of these friends or associates, Christians, saying they will cast their vote for Joe Biden. While I could list many issue concerns, the abortion stance of the former Vice President and this running mate are non-starters for me. If you cannot vote for Trump, OK; write in someone else.

Call this single-issue thinking if you want, but it’s a moral issue, a life and death issue. How can anyone claiming to be Christian, including self-identified evangelicals, support a candidate affirming abortion on demand and saying he would make Roe vs Wade the law of the land?

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020    

*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.