Rex M Rogers - Discerning What Is Best

Discerning What Is Best
With Dr Rex Rogers

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Details: Written by Rex M. Rogers; Published: 07 February 2023

Have you ever been afraid? How should Christians respond in the face of fear?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #67 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 have never been afraid, you probably have not yet lived long enough.

Being afraid is not necessarily weakness or inability to take action. It is an emotion God built into us to help protect us, like responding with Fear, Fight, or Flight.

While not all of us have felt afraid due to outside influences, like riots, wars, hurricanes, or famine, if we’re old enough, we’ve probably felt concern morphed into fear at the announcement of a loved one’s serious illness or disease.

The reason we experience threats to our well-being that elicits fear is that we live in a fallen world. Since the Garden of Eden, the perfect Creation has labored under the impact of human sin and degradation and what’s called the Fall and the Curse. When Adam and Eve sinned, the fell from grace. They no longer were perfect as God had created them, but they became dead in their sins, and every human being since has been born in sin, is dead in our sin, and remains so until we accept Christ’s sacrificial death, burial, and resurrection – we are forgiven and redeemed. This is the Good News of the Gospel.

Yet still we live in a sin-cursed fallen world wherein the consequences of sin remain. These consequences include so-called “acts of God,” those weather events like tsunamis and volcanoes and earthquakes over which humanity has no control, and also the frailty of our bodies. Because of the curse, it is required of all human beings that once they die (Heb 9:27). So, living in a fallen world, our bodies age, decline, are subject to injury, contract illnesses or life-threatening disease. In the face of all this and more, we can be afraid.

But the Psalmist reminded us, “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise—in God I trust and am not afraid" (Ps. 56:3-4).

“I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears” (Ps 34:4).

In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul said, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:6-7).

Can you even imagine what that phrase, “transcends all understanding,” even means? No, we cannot, because that’s the point, the peace God offers us in the face of anxiety is beyond our comprehension.

Back to the Psalmist David. I sometimes think David would fit right into the social media age in which we live because he understood how to express his feelings and was not bashful about letting it all hang out when he was afraid, or whatever other emotion that plagued him. He told God everything.

But then David did not stay there. He did not seek to “know himself” or “trust his feelings” or “follow his heart” because he knew they were already an anxiety-filled mess. No, he looked outside himself.David looked to the Sovereign Lord of the Universe. After David had listed his fears, and talked about the “agony in his bones” or “drowning,” “crying in his bed,” then David rehearsed God’s character and promises:

God “delivered from fear,” he said. If I am downcast, God is my hope. When David’s heart was faint, he said God is his rock, his fortress, never shaken.

I don’t think this recipe for deliverance from fear or anxiety is a one-time pill, good for what ails you forevermore. No, rehearsing God’s character, his past works, his promises, this we must do over and over again, each time fear threatens to overwhelm us.

We pray, we talk to God. He promises to hear and answer our prayers.

David said of the Lord: “Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations.The Lord is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does” (Ps 145:13).

I’ve been afraid a few times in my life. As I grow older, I’ve experienced other fears, sometimes for those I love, not for me. If God allows me to live, I anticipate I will experience fears again.

But praise be to God, he will never leave me or forsake me.

The lyrics of the hymn, “Because He Lives,” captures the biblical truth:

“Because He lives, I can face tomorrow,
Because He lives, all fear is gone;
Because I know He holds the future,
And life is worth the living just because He lives.”

It is a great comfort to know that our Heavenly Father is always there watching over us.

“The Lord will keep you from all harm—he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore” (Ps 121:7-8).

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: 30 January 2023

When you listen to the news, most of it negative, have you ever wondered what’s causing all this chaos?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #66 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.

How does decline in Christian influence upon culture, in numbers of believers, in theological or worldview understanding of Christian teachings, of a Judeo-Christian moral consensus work itself out in everyday life?

How does this decline evidence itself in culture in ways beyond declining church attendance or increasing biblical illiteracy?

Depending upon the memory of who’s doing the analysis, the dates vary, but there’s general agreement that a dramatic shift in American culture has been taking place for some time. It’s a shift from a culture widely based upon a Judeo-Christian consensus about what public morality and mores should be to one based upon a largely de-Christianized or post-Christian understanding of life.

How does this shift manifest itself?

If an increasing number of Americans do not believe in the Sovereign God of the Bible and his moral will expressed in the Word of truth – I did not say, do not believe in God, just they do not believe in God as he reveals himself in his Word – If an increasing number do not embrace a Creator God, do not understand responsibility and accountability, and believe they create their own truth, these values will most assuredly result in different choices and a different way of of life than what used to be considered good, optimistic and uplifting, right and righteous, humble, and productive.

Today, we are experiencing increases in every form of human problem, especially emotional, e.g., traumatized youth, anxious or anxiety-ridden celebrities, psychological issues, for example increase rage and mass shooters, and a laundry list of what’s now called mental illness.

These developments are not happening because 21^st Century residents are less intelligent or less educated than their forebears. These developments are occurring because human beings have rejected or are rejecting patterns of life God said would allow the human race to flourish.

Ignoring God and moral absolutes results not just in an increase in “Nones” – the people who check surveys saying they have “no religious affiliation” = but an increase in every form of social pathology.

What we are witnessing in America in recent years is not just a blip, some political anomaly, but the consequence of ongoing value choices in which, as a culture, we embrace death instead of life, despair rather than hope, selfish aggrandizement in place of selflessness.

This shift toward a non-Christian worldview also helps explain rapid increases in these categories of behavior:

Gambling viewed as harmless entertainment.
Pornography, like prostitution, now considered a victimless crime.
Debt accepted as almost an entitlement, because in contemporary outlook, debt does not matter.
Promotion of self-actualization as the highest good in life. Only what please me matters, an idea carried with grave effect into familial, marital, and sexual relationships.
The idea that mental illness, often vaguely defined, and not human choices and certainly not sin, is the source of human problems.
The Hollywood idea that marriage is socially unnecessary.
Maybe even the wholesale embrace of the idea climate change is the greatest existential threat to human existence.
The sad Sodom and Gomorrah confusion now vested in attitudes toward human sexuality, so-called sexual “orientation,” and abortion on demand.
Woke philosophy, or should I say nonsense, that in a very short time has infected virtually every part of American culture.
The constant renewal of racism wherein everything is reduced to discrimination, hate, prejudice, and victimhood.

All of these viewpoints are rooted in non-Christian assumptions about God, humanity, life, and culture. The more we pursue our newfound irrational and unbiblical values, the less free, less humane, and less prosperous our culture becomes. We are losing, nay we are jettisoning, the blessing of American commitment to life and liberty.

Where once Emma Lazarus’s poem at the base of the Statue of Liberty was a beacon of hope to the world –

“Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

– now, for many, it sounds like a false promise. Not because America does not still teem with opportunities, but because political ideology has twisted our outlook on immigrants, once a source of strength and new ideas, now viewed as votes to keep politicians in power.

Immigrants given open borders across which to traffic children, hustle fentanyl and other narcotics, only reinforces America’s opioid crisis.

Immigrants as human beings in want deserve better than to be used by both political parties. They deserve to be invited to participate in a legal process of naturalization, vetted such that the criminals among them are held out, and assisted so they can find a place to put down roots where they can pursue the American dream.

Add to this the sexualization of children that is now so widespread and growing, so heinous, that even listing what is occurring can make you sick.

How can a culture allow this? It does so because we’ve become convinced that for sex anything goes, that anything short of licentiousness is somehow an affront to freedom and well-being. We are a culture that is upside down.

So, for Christians who still have faith in the Sovereign God of the universe, who still believe and attempt to obey the principles of the Word of God, the task is now a tall order in a pluralistic, secularized culture running amok.

But God is not mocked. He is not gone or absent. He has not forgotten us. Our assignment is not simply to believe the truth but to live it.

This is our moment to shine Christ’s light in this dark world. It is our moment to share the ultimate tipping point, the Good News that faith in Christ can transform anyone into a New Creation.

That’s a message of hope for addicts, convicts, the sexually confused, those trapped in unforgiveness or followers of false ideas, religions, or isms that offer no way out. Becoming a New Creation in Christ is there for all, from the Thief on the Cross to the drug-controlled, psychotic killer in the world’s worst prison. If they are still breathing, there is no one beyond the reach of the Holy Spirit of God.

And Christians know this. We have the message of reconciliation. What a mission. What a Great Commission. All in all, it’s a great time to be alive.

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

Details: Written by Rex M. Rogers; Published: 23 January 2023

Is back-breaking debt what’s going to bring the world to its knees in the End Times?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #65 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 WWII, some of our forebears thought Hitler was the Antichrist and that he’d bring about the end of the world as we knew it. Given the level of evil he and the Nazis instituted in a roughly twenty-year reign of terror, I can’t say that I blame anyone for thinking this way.

During the Cold War with the USSR in the 1950s and 60s, we thought the end of the world might someday come from what we then called “thermo-nuclear war.”

I remember the same concerns when I was in graduate school during the late 70s, early 80s, studying for degrees in political science. We talked about nuclear arms, MAD or Mutually Assured Destruction, ICBMs, intercontinental ballistic missiles, and a few other scenarios involving “nukes.”

Interestingly, whether intellectuals speculated end of the world scenarios sourced in international geo-politics, vast armies, space age weaponry like “Star Wars,” or whether theologians drew them from biblical prophecy, most of us, as I recall, didn’t think about debt.

Yet national debt, deficit spending, and unbalanced budgets are now among the greatest threats to future wellbeing in the West, if not the world.

Today, the United States is $31.5 Trillion in debt. I cannot comprehend this, and no offense, I’m guessing you can’t either.

In 2011, I wrote a similar piece like this on debt. The total national debt figure I used just twelve years ago was $15T, less than one-half what it is now. If you want to scare yourself, go to usdebtclock.org and look at the digital displays moving faster than you can count the dollars aloud.

America has the largest national debt in the world. With a population of over 333 million, that means a debt burden of $94,219 per citizen and equates to a US federal debt to gross domestic product or GDP ratio of 121.5%, according to USdebtclock.org. Think of the GDP as sort of the asset or positive side of the ledger, whereas debt, what’s owed, is the negative side. Clearly, at 121.5% we’re upside down. We owe more than we could presently pay.

Using 2022 statistics, other nations in the world are in a similar quandary. Japan has the highest public debt to GDP ratio of 288.31% and a national debt of $15.2T.

Italy carries $3.8T in national debt, against its GDP of 176.81%, followed by France's 130.64% ratio and debt of $3.7T. The United Kingdom debt load is $3.4T, giving it a ratio of 103.61%. Germany is similar with $3.4 trillion in debt, but the country's ratio is much lower at 76.46%. Canada and Russia also are all in debt with poor GDP ratios.

Now that’s a lot of statistics, but the bottom line, pun intended, is that

“the world is in debt. A record amount of debt. Three hundred trillion dollars, to be exact…That number is about 349% of global gross domestic product, and the equivalent of $37,500 of debt for every single person in the world.”

“There is no easy way out of a global debt crisis…Avoiding a crisis will require unpopular actions and a “great reset” of policymaker mindset. That may mean more cautious lending, curbing overconsumption and restructuring projects or entities that don’t make a profit.”

For the US, “the possibility of reaching the self-imposed cap on how much money the US government can borrow currently looms large…Congress can avoid the partial government shutdowns, potential cash flow shortfalls and even the possibility of default by simply raising the ceiling as it has in the past.”

But should the ceiling be raised, as it has so many times before?

Even the economic powerhouse China is looking at major trouble on the horizon. China “carries roughly a third of the debt load as the U.S. at $10.8T, with a public debt to GDP ratio of 61.94%.”However, because China’s government attempted to play God and control birthrates, forcing a one-child policy on Chinese families for the past sixty years, China now faces a huge demographic crisis with more people dying than are born.

In 2015, the Chinese Communist leadership admitted their mistake in the one-child policy and has since been allowing all married couples to have two children. “Total births in China have now fallen for six straight years, and the United Nations’ middle-of-the-road projections find that by the end of the century, the country’s total population will have fallen below 800 million people, a level it hasn’t been since the late 1960s. Unlike then, when the median Chinese was in their highly productive early 20s, that smaller China will be far older.”

This nation of 1.4 billion people shrinking to 800 million represents a drop in economic power that is unimaginable.

Finally, we’re coming to understand that demographics and economics go hand in hand, that government sterilization policies in China, that abortion on demand in the West, not only reduces population growth but reduces economic potential and prosperity.

Interesting isn’t it, that in the book of Genesis 1:27-28, it is recorded, “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.”

God’s will is for parents to procreate and produce children, and he blessed population growth.

In 1798, an English cleric, Robert Malthus, “saw population growth as inevitable whenever conditions improved, thereby precluding real progress towards a utopian society…His philosophy gave birth to Malthusianism, the idea “that population growth is potentially exponential while the growth of the food supply or other resources is linear, which eventually reduces living standards to the point of triggering a population die off. This event (is) called a Malthusian catastrophe.”

Some birth control advocates and radical environmentalists have drawn from Malthus, considering humanity the problem that needs reduced or, oddly, eliminated.

Yet we see now that population growth and economic well-being go together, as God said, “be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth.”

And then there’s debt.

It could be that in God’s providence what finally gets the world’s attention is the need to pay the piper.

Debt can only so long be ignored. Look now at what’s happening in Iran. It may be rampant inflation and a broken economy, not simply political protests, that produces regime change.

The root of the debt problem worldwide, though, is not lack of resources or ingenuity. It is a problem of moral philosophy. The root of the debt problem is humanity’s unwillingness to live within our means, to not mortgage our children’s or our country’s future.

The Scripture tells us we are accountable to God for how we manage our assets, the time, talent, and treasure God gives us. Irresponsible debt is not part of this picture. The Bible says, "The wicked borrow and do not repay, but the righteous give generously," (Ps 37:21). Repaying our debts honors God and is the morally right thing to do.

Debt enslaves us. “The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender,” (Prov 22:7). Given our rapidly expanding national debt, the U.S. is in bad shape.

But Doomsday Debt is not a given, and we should not give up hope. The problem can be fixed. We are blessed with resources, opportunity, ingenuity, and as long as Jesus’ tarries his coming, time.

Question is, can we redevelop the moral vision to do right and do well?

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

Details: Written by Rex M. Rogers; Published: 16 January 2023

Has it dawned on you that 21^st Century American culture is not unlike the Roman culture of the 1^st Century Church, dominated by idolatrous pseudoreligion and pagan ideas antithetical to Christianity?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #64 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 are those who describe American religion today as a combination of beliefs they label Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. And certainly, a case can be made for this. Moralistic therapeutic deism is a made-up worldview with which many Americans operate, whether consciously or not.

Its primary beliefs include:

God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other.
The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about yourself.
God is not really involved in our lives except when God is needed to resolve a problem.
Good people go to heaven when they die.

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.”

Overlapping Moralistic Therapeutic Deism are a set of radical leftist ideas called Woke philosophy. This is an “Ism” rooted in Marxist thought. It focuses on oppression and victimhood, class, race, and gender conflict. It rejects Judeo-Christian beliefs and values, especially moral absolutes and teachings regarding sexuality and the family, and it seeks to erase everything about America’s past because America is considered bad or even evil.

Woke philosophy, also known as Social Justice Ideology or Critical Race Theory – Yes, I know these terms are used distinctively and have their own definitions, but the overlap is so extensive as to blur the lines between these false ideas. In practice, the terms are used interchangeably.

I called Woke philosophy a pseudoreligion because its proponents, and they are now legion, look not to traditional religion but promote Wokeism as the overarching narrative or worldview that explains all of life. They place their blind faith in Woke assumptions and theories and argue these views must be adopted in civic society. Further, they believe everyone who disagrees is not simply wrong but intolerant bigots, people whose ideas or voice must be “cancelled.”

For example, University of Southern California Social Work department just announced it will remove the word “field” from its academic administrative vocabulary, that is, it will convert its Office of Field Education to the Office of Practicum Education because the word “field” somehow has racist connotations—“going into the field” or doing “field work.” Apparently, the university is concerned this word will trigger certain ethnic students and make it impossible for them to function on the campus.

Odd thing is, back on Grandpa Rogers’ farm in Ohio I earned my first dollar going into the field and doing field work. None of us considered it racist.

The computer sciences at many universities are ditching terms like "master" and "slave" for similar reasons. And in some housing designs and architecture there will no longer be a “master bedroom,” which apparently smacks of patriarchy and racism.

Standford University is encouraging students and faculty—I said encouraging but this is administration policy—not to call themselves American. According to the Stanford University Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative, (this is a mouthful in itself – think about it. This committee is going to eliminate harmful language, something no culture has done since Adam and Eve). Anyway, according to this committee “the term ‘American’ often refers to people from the United States only, thereby insinuating that the US is the most important country in the Americas (which is actually made up of 42 countries)."

So, a term that’s been used since the 1500s on maps, was used in the Declaration of Independence July 1776, was declared official by the Continental Congress in September 1776, and is today the actual name of the United States of America is suddenly no longer acceptable on this learned campus.

Professors and staff members who disagree with these mandates, particularly if they dare to push back, are in danger of losing their positions. The same is true for university, government, military, and increasingly corporate policies that require employees to use whatever gender pronouns any staff member, student, or customer wishes to use. Refuse, and you will attract investigation; you may lose your job.

Wokeism argues a person’s identity cannot be separated from the group, usually race or ethnicity. There is no individuality, an idea that is antithetical to Christianity. In Wokeism, the only sin is the sin of the oppressor. Victims get a free pass. In Wokeism, what matters is power.

Wokeism promotes: Pol correctness and a psychological triggering category called micro-aggressions, LGBTQ sexuality including drag queens, the idea sex is not binary but something socially or individually constructed called gender, sex education, or rather, sexualizing of children via explicit curricula in public schools, the politicization and racialization of sports, anti-racism via critical race theory, which in practice reinforces racism with concepts like white supremacy, defunding the police, officials telling police to stand down, prosecutors not prosecuting crimes, looting, or arson, abortion on demand, a concept called “equity,” which means equality of results or outcomes based not on merit but race or gender and perceived oppression, rejects science, reason, history, and biology, and even attempts to curtail or silence freedom of speech because opinions different from the Woke holy list are forbidden.

This means Wokeism is inherently authoritarian; if individuals are lost into the group, and contrary ideas are verboten, the only way to accomplish this is through the coercive power of the state.

Wokeism also advocates for so-called inclusive religion—again a racial/ethnic categorization—and works to suppress religious liberty in favor of its secular left utopian vision.

Wokeism is nauseating in its drive to defeat the traditional and moral in favor of the irrational. Those who embrace these ideas are cultish in their worldview.

This is the pseudoreligion that motivated the people a few months ago who demanded decades or even century-old public statues be torn down if somehow the statue violated their new sensibilities.

This is the pseudoreligion that compels people to sanitize public life and discourse of anything that is remotely Judeo-Christian in character, including holidays, public prayers, even the Pledge of Allegiance.

The pseudoreligion of Woke philosophy, alongside Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, is now the dominant and demanding legalistic false religion of American culture.

Christianity still has a seat at the table but not the head of the table and in many cases is muzzled. This trend will continue.

Politics offers no effective solutions to our cultural problems because what we face today are spiritual problems.

In his book, Strange New World, Carl Trueman makes this powerful observation on how we should then live in the face of a dominant pseudoreligion:

“The Psalms present a view of the Christian life that is marked by joy but that also knows sorrow and loss. They set the struggles of the present in the context of God’s great actions in times past and promises for the future.”

“By setting forth a grand picture of God and the promise of future rest, they help us to keep perspective—theological and emotional—on the events of the present.”

Trueman’s point is that the psalmist, the shepherd king David, faced all manner of threatening circumstances during his life. He shared them all with the Lord, but he didn’t stop there.

David then rehearsed the past works of God in creation and God’s promises of future presence in our lives.

David found hope and peace and strength to fight the good fight, by acknowledging God walked beside and before him.

So should we.

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

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

Have you noticed the seemingly unstoppable force of transgender ideology in the past few years? And have you wondered if people, the culture even, would ever say, Now, wait a minute?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #63 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.

Transgenderism, or trans ideology, is the belief that human sexuality is not biologically determined, is not what’s now called “binary” meaning only two options, male or female, but is rather something that is psychologically determined, and that sexuality is socially constructed and a matter of individual decision.

This rather astounding anti-science, ahistorical, anti-common sense, anti-biblical, irrational view has rapidly reached a level of majority acceptance in the American population.

With the 2015 Supreme Court of the United States decision in Obergefell vs. Hodges, allowing for the legal existence of same-sex marriage, sexual liberation activists immediately shifted their focus to transgenderism.

While much groundwork and other social developments took place earlier, in just the past eight years since that court case, trans ideology has come to dominate American public education from kindergarten to graduate school.

Trans people and ideas are now commonly presented in television media and even more extensively online. And the idea of being trans, that a boy can “identify as,” meaning become a girl, and a girl can transition to become a boy is now considered by trans activists, many within the American public, and at a few points of law to be a civil right.

Now, to disagree or in some way to be perceived as an obstacle to trans individuals pursuing their trans lifestyle is to be considered not simply intolerant and a bigot but also a legal impediment, perhaps someone guilty of hate speech, which of course means you could find yourself in a lawsuit.

The speed and outright steamroller with which trans ideology conquered American culture has been both amazing and disheartening to watch.

Aren’t there any cultural elites moral enough, brave enough, reasonable enough to stand up against this? Is there no one to point out the dangers and degradation? Do people really believe what trans activists are saying and demanding?

We’ve been treated to a long list of not only school curriculum being given over to devilish sexual ideas but also to public displays, like Drag Queen Story hours at local libraries where elementary school children are invited.

Why would the American Library Association support this kind of perverted nonsense, for children no less?

In Grand Rapids, Michigan, a Drag Queen Brunch with lewd videos featured on the event’s website is now being promoted.

“Drag queen depravity…celebrates that which is shameful and normalizes that which is perverse. And it does so in the most exaggerated, even overtly demonic form, with Drag Queens wearing Satanic horns while reading to tiny little children.”

“The Michigan Department of Education has adopted a radical gender theory program that promotes gender ‘fluidity’ beginning in elementary school and encourages teachers to facilitate the sexual transition of minors without parental consent.”

Trans workers are now suing for healthcare benefits, and there’s more: medical professionals, as well as others, are saying men can give birth, men are competing as women in women’s sports, physicians and children’s hospitals are surgically removing healthy body parts to create the appearance of the other sex.

California has become a “sanctuary” state for transgender children and their families. California “passed legislation that protects parents and their children from legal ramifications for pursuing cross-sex medical treatments, while also blocking California courts from enforcing out-of-state court orders revoking custody for parents who allowed their children to get illegal sex changes.”

“California’s Department of Education urges kindergarten teachers to dispel gender stereotypes, laying groundwork ‘for acceptance, inclusiveness, and an anti-bullying environment,’ because ‘some children in kindergarten or even younger have identified as transgender.’”

An “Ohio school district tells teachers not to notify parents about students’ name and pronoun changes.”

Prison systems, meaning states, meaning taxpayers, are bearing increased costs, risks, and legal challenges because of transgender activism and confusion.

Social media is a major contributor to gender confusion.

“Placating the mob has led to the rise in dangerous euphemisms like "gender-affirming care," a phrase that means the exact opposite of what it claims. In today's world, "gender-affirming therapy" means telling a girl she can be transformed into a boy, but "conversion therapy" means telling a girl she's a girl. The corruption of reality has led to the rise of a pseudoscientific cult that performs irreparable mutilation on kids, with puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones and life-altering surgeries.”

But at long last there is some pushback.

Oklahoma has banned “gender-affirming care” for those under 26 years old, arguing a person’s brain is not fully formed until that age.

The Ohio Board of Education voted against President Biden’s expanded LGBTQ+ Title IX protections.

In an article entitled “They Paused Puberty, But Is There a Cost?” the New York Timesfinally admitted “gender affirming care” is dangerous.

Scientific evidence trumps what the woke media wants us to believe.

“America’s war on truth, science, and children has rendered America increasingly an outlier in the Western world. (But thankfully,) more and more European countries are rejecting the perverse” sexually aberrant views of leading American hospitals, universities, and news media.

“Swiss citizens ‘are entered into the civil registry as male or female, with no other option.’ The Swiss Federal Council declared, ‘The binary gender model is still strongly anchored in Swiss society.’

Sweden…has also broken with America on the transgender issue.

Sweden’s National Board of Health and Welfare ended the practice of prescribing puberty blockers for minors under age 18; and…mastectomies will only be offered in the rarest of circumstances.”

England is now backtracking on its activist transgender-friendly laws and culture, in part because the costs, financially and emotionally, are becoming too great to ignore.

Even a trans psychologist who helps teens transition says it’s now ‘gone too far’.”

To protect children, re-establish educational priorities in schools, and to restore common sense, the state of Florida and Governor Ron DeSantis are beginning to wage war on transgender activism. In various laws, so has Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Montana, Mississippi, North and South Dakota, Oklahoma, and Tennessee.

By the way, the media does not typically note that these laws protect girls and women but rather describes them as “anti-trans” laws, trying to win the battle of vocabulary by making these states and lawmakers into haters.

“On the social scale, a major con is the allegation that an individual can change his or her gender. ‘Society has accepted a destructive lie that you can create your own reality and define your own identity,’ says author Ben Shapiro.

‘Transgender isn’t real,’ says women’s advocate and author Kara Dansky. ‘It was simply made up. Words like gender identity don’t have any meaning. Every single human being is either a male person or a female person.’”

“According to a new Trafalgar Group/Convention of States Action poll, 78.7 percent of Americans oppose sex changes, puberty blockers, and transgender-related medical procedures for kids. An overwhelming amount of voters believe minors should have to wait until they are at least 18 to make the life-changing decision about their bodies.”

Sex reassignment surgery does not work. A boy or man cannot ever become a girl or woman, or vice versa, no matter what ideas and ideology are embraced, no matter what meds are taken, no matter what irreversible mutilating surgeries are endured.

To argue that sex is not determined at biological birth is to argue against the God who created us in his image, male and female created he them, who created every human being for a purpose, and who loves us one and all, including those who struggle emotionally.

While it is true that gender dysphoria exists, that individuals emotionally struggle with their sense of themselves, and it is Christian to say we should care for and care about these people, still, this does not change reality. Trans transitioning simply trades out one set of problems for far more.

So, it is heartening to see some pushback, some practical acknowledgement the world God created and what’s best for human beings.

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

Details: Written by Rex M. Rogers; Published: 09 January 2023

Have you wondered what socialist ideas can do to a society? I’ve met two men in my life who were born and spent their youth in Cuba, then had harrowing immigration stories about how their parents got them to America. What a difference this family sacrifice made upon their lives.

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #62 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.

Ever think much about Cuba? My guess is that if you have thought of Cuba, it was through the lens of Castro and Communism, or similar negative images. And that’s the sad point. Cuba is a story of what might have been.

Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean, about the size of the state of Virginia. Actually, there are 4,000 smaller islands plus the larger island. The islands feature powdery white sand beaches and a turquoise-colored ocean. The main island is mostly grassy plains but also features beautiful mountains.

“Cuba was once known as the “Pearl of the Antilles” as it was the Spanish empire’s most-important source of raw sugar during the 18th century… Cuba is famous for its birdwatching, with over 350 different varieties of birds, two dozen of which are endemic...” And, of course, famous for its cigars.

Cuba is an incredibly beautiful environment, average temperature per year in the 70s and 80s. It’s another Florida – except for one critical difference.

Florida is free, democratic, and operates with a free enterprise capitalist economy. Cuba, since 1959, has been governed as a socialist country following Marxist-Leninist ideology.

“Those who crowded the streets of Havana in 1959, hoping that the fall of (Sergeant Fulgencio) Batista’s crony capitalism would usher in a period of human progress, have been sadly disappointed. Anyone interested in what prevents economic and human progress can learn many lessons from Cuba’s stagnation. Cuba joined the long list of countries where central planning and state ownership have turned out to be a detour on the route to progress and prosperity.”

“The government in Cuba is a self-described socialist-Marxist regime, as proclaimed by Fidel Castro himself. It is a murderous, perennial abuser of human rights…

(And note that) the American embargo does not prevent the world’s 195-plus other countries from trading with Cuba. For example, Canada and Spain have for decades prolifically traded with Cuba. The American embargo has never prevented food and medicines from reaching Cuba...What is shocking to me (in the face of this evidence) is how some Americans and one dominant U.S. political party actively advocate for socialism.”

“All these measures and actions of the government were accompanied by a demonization of capitalism, private enterprise and money making. Business enterprises, as well as money, were considered evil…Two years after the beginning of the revolution the economy entered into a major down spiral.

Massive unemployment developed; inflation became out of control; all commercial and industrial production was paralyzed. The country rapidly followed this socialist phase with a Marxist-Leninist period with rationing of most products, militarization of society, alliance with the Soviet Union, conflict with the United States and the migration of more than 2 million Cubans. The economy never recovered. The middle and upper classes were destroyed, and the workers joined the ranks of the unemployed, underemployed or of the state, working for miserable wages.”

I mentioned my Cuban-American friends. One man noted that his father was a successful businessperson, a beachfront property owner, a man who later lost everything. His father saw it coming and with heavy heart made an incredible sacrifice for the good of his son, putting him on a boat to America, knowing he’d likely never see him again. The freedom, well-being, family, and faith my friend enjoys today would literally not have been possible without the irreversible gut-wrenching decision of his father.

Look at Florida and imagine what Cuba could have been. A free and democratic Cuba with a free enterprise economy would today be one of the wealthier nations in the world. Think of the resorts and villas in the Caribbean—celebrity and vacation homes in Jamaica, The Bahamas, Antigua and Barbuda, US Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands, Turks and Caicos, St. Barts, not to mention scores of privately held island getaways. But for socialist control and decimation, Cuba could be enjoying the same investment, the same prosperity.

Instead, Cuba’s experience is one of food rationing, fuel shortages, electricity blackouts, severe energy shortages, including gasoline and diesel, other petroleum derivatives, decreased use of automobiles, and an overall shrinking economy that introduced hardships and misery to the declining middle class and the poor.

All of this was made decidedly worse during the so-called Special Period, “an extended period of economic crisis in Cuba that began in 1991primarily due to the dissolution of the Soviet Union.”

“People were forced to live without many goods and services that had been available since the beginning of the 20th century.” The period lasted to about 2000 when Venezuela emerged as a new trading partner.

“Cuba has a very sad history. It traded a regular dictatorship for a communist dictatorship six decades ago, and the results have been predictably awful. Oppression, persecution, rationing, spying, deprivation, and suffering are facts of life.”

Socialism, the false ideology that markets the supposed genius of government leaders is nothing more than a masquerade for coercion, tyranny, and theft – what’s yours is mine.

Many debate whether the United States is today a socialist economy and country. “More recently Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and a handful of other politicians have breathed new life into the label, injecting a radical alternate vision for the U.S. economy into the mainstream political debate.”

“Many think of socialism as no private property whatsoever, complete equality and the government controlling everything. That's communism - socialism is government control of only certain industries such as healthcare, education, or energy. In a socialist country, people privately own most things, but the government owns some other things. While communism promotes complete equality, socialism works to curb inequality with higher taxes on the wealthy.“

In America, the odd thing about socialism is that it seems to have the nine lives of a cat, never seeming to go away even though its historical record is one of abject suffering, misery, and failure, and in some cases evil.

The reason is that socialism is a litany of wrong ideas, values, and corruption. Governments that control capital are a half step from controlling people. Since socialism depends upon government, the ideology usually leads to authoritarianism. See North Korea and Venezuela.

Socialism destroys competition, and with it, incentive, accountability, and a fair determination of value. Socialism creates large bureaucracies that soon operate for their own concerns, emphasizing means over ends.

“Force, and all of the negative consequences that it inspires, is inherent to a system that is so much at odds with individual values and human nature. This, probably more than anything else, is what explains the atrocities associated with socialism in the 20th century.” The bottom line is, socialism does not work, and Cuba is exhibit #A in the Western Hemisphere.

Cuba is a story of what might have been. God grant that the US remains a story of what ought to be.

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