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- Written by: Rex M. Rogers
Solomon said, “There is nothing new under the sun.” Longer I live, the more I comprehend this.
People keep asking, What is happening to our country? It’s like the end of the world as we knew it.
Perhaps the world is “ending” as we’ve known it, but if you apply Solomon’s point, what we’re now experiencing is nothing new.
Yes, we’re becoming a more pagan culture. But Job, the Israelites, the Apostles during the Roman Empire, Augustine and the Early Church, the Reformers during the Dark Ages, all lived in pagan societies.
So the paganizing culture emerging in America is more a norm of history than an exception. Why is this good, or can be?
—Under duress, Christian faith is more sharply delineated.
—God uses adversity to grow, strengthen, bless, and encourage the Church.
—Light shines brighter in darkness.
This is our moment. “Let us not become weary in doing good.”
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2021
*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
Our culture says:
-a baby is not a baby if the mother does not want it,
-there’s your truth and my truth but not objective truth,
-debt is inconsequential,
-a girl can be a boy, or a boy can be a girl,
-race determines all things,
-religious conviction is just an excuse for irrational bigotry,
-education is not about independence but indoctrination,
-patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels,
-equity-sameness of results-supersedes equality of opportunity,
-criminal felons are “justice-involved persons,"
-parolees are “persons under supervision,”
-pedophiles are “minor-attracted persons,”
-fear is the new normal of forever pandemics,
-ideologies should replace religion,
-we're a nation not of individuals but groups, oppressors vs. victims.
But hey, I don’t believe any of this.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2021
*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.
Modern-Day False Prophets
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- Written by: Rex M. Rogers
Last week’s presentation.
Idea is:
1) Modern-day false prophets are not just preachers but celebrities, intellectuals/professors, politicians, media personalities, activists, online influencers.
2) Greatest existential threat to America is not external, ie., China or international radicalism, but internal, ie., moral relativism, which these false prophets “preach.”
Modern-Day False Prophets from First Baptist Middleville on Vimeo.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2021 *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
For many years, social research has repeatedly revealed that the influence of God, the Church, biblical theology and Christian values upon culture and everyday life are precipitously declining. i.e., limited impact.
At least two generations have now come of age with an invented conception of God as a nice old guy not involved in our lives, an assumption right/wrong is what we decide it is, and a humanistic belief our feelings, self-actualization, and happiness are what's most important in life.
The practical impact of this is that when something bad happens, and if one lives long enough, it always eventually does (even just stress or discouragement or disappointment, let alone catastrophic illness or tragedy or loss), a huge percentage of Americans have nothing to fall back on. No backstop, no unwavering foundation, no belief in Providence, no solace, and for the most seriously affected, no hope. They face their trials and fears alone.
So how do they handle problems and pain? Many don't. They drown in some form of dysfunction, some turning to alcohol, drugs, etc., bringing short-term relief and longterm enslavement. This affects them and everyone around them. It affects culture.
So, caring about the influence of God and a Christian worldview upon culture is not just a churchy thing, nor just a culture war issue, but a recognition that Christian beliefs and values directly affect our capacity to weather the perfect storms of life. These beliefs and values tell us of an omniscient and omnipotent God who is there and not surprised, who cares, who never leaves us or forsakes us, even in the valley of the shadow of death.
Trusting in God and his definition of reality grants us the prospect of freedom from fear and despair. Think of this the next time you read of a celebrity, or family or friend, hitting a wall and falling apart. Think of this the next time you hit the wall, which is real, but so is God.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2021
*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
I understand that I do not understand:
--How this country seems to have fallen off a cliff called common sense and rationality in just 12 months.
--How anyone can argue with a straight face that abortion is about “women’s healthcare” and that boys/men “identifying” as girls/women and playing girls/women’s sports does no harm to girls/women.
--Why people trash American ideals when their freedom, opportunity, education, general well-being provided by these ideals enables them to do what they’re doing.
--How what once was considered sexual exploitation of women is now featured on the Grammy Awards and defended as “women exploring the power of their bodies.”
--How hating “whiteness” is somehow “anti-racist” rather than just another form of racism.
--Why people seemingly fear the coronavirus above all other threats, including now when the initial goals for prevention, cure, flattening the curve, etc. are being met.
--Why disagreement is now so often equated ipso facto with offensiveness, i.e., if I disagree with your view somehow this means I disrespect you?
--Who died and made Big Tech King of the world.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2021
*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.
The Unlimited Woke Commandments
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- Written by: Rex M. Rogers
Thou Shalt Not:
1-Enjoy wearing clothes or eating food developed by another culture because you’ll be guilty of cultural appropriation.
2-Oppose abortion, because if you do you really don’t care about women’s health.
3-Question any “settled science” re climate change or coronavirus orthodoxy because you will be spreading misinformation.
4-Express your ideas in public forums, i.e., freedom of speech, for you might use a microaggression and make someone uncomfortable, so you will be canceled.
5-Express moral convictions regarding LGBTQ+ because this makes you a bigot.
6-Be patriotic, for this is white supremacy.
7-Consider it straightforward that men who identify as women should not participate in women’s sports, for this is discriminatory, at least toward women but apparently women don’t matter.
8-Argue critical race theory, intersectionality, and “anti-racism” are actually racist, directly counter to the tenets of Martin Luther King, Jr’s Civil Rights Movement, and you’ll be dismissed as someone caught in your own white fragility.
9-Favor border security and question the wisdom of open borders, because this makes you racist.
10-Own a gun, for this demonstrates you clearly don’t care about gun violence.
11-Disagree with, criticize, or even question another person’s behavior or attitudes because then you will be a hater.
12-Identify as an Evangelical, for this means you are a racist deplorable who endorsed everything former Pres Trump said or did, even if you didn’t vote for him.
13-Support law enforcement, for this means you are supremacist and racist.
14-Expect teachers to teach for this is common sense, something no longer endorsed by teachers’ unions.
15-Point out that every cell in the female body possesses XX chromosomes and every cell in the male body is comprised of XY chromosomes and no gender fluidity or sex change efforts will ever change this, which means that you are a hater who does not care about people struggling with gender dysphoria.
16-Note the threat to religious liberty written into the proposed Equality Act, for this makes you intolerant and prejudiced.
17-Point out the wildly anti-family, anti-Christianity, anti-American and racist values of the organization Black Lives Matter because this means ispso facto you support racism, bigotry, and discrimination.
18-Eat meat or other animal products because this is offensive to the animals.
19-Speak about virtually anything for fear of political correctness missteps.
20-Be assertive or express middle class bourgeois values for this is too much whiteness.
21-Expect media news programs to present developments without partisan or ideological messaging, encouraging citizens to decide for themselves, because this demonstrates you are hopelessly naïve.
22-Say you believe the U.S.A. was founded upon principles of liberty in 1776 not slavery in 1619, or say you believe American culture should be “color blind,” for you are demonstrating your white privilege.
23-Refer to your favorite animal as a pet for this is supremacist language.
24-Oppose the idea college debts should be forgiven because this destroys accountability and disillusions those who paid their debts, for this demonstrates you are privileged and insensitive.
25-Note the smug moral superiority of cancel culture and you’ll be considered a retrograde fly-over person.
26-Ask about a political appointee’s credentials, who is being celebrated for little more than his or her demography, and you’ll be noted as sexist or racist.
Woke-ism is about power created through victimhood. It can only perpetuate itself by continually identifying oppressors and newly perceived affronts, starting with language. Indeed, controlling the definition of words or inventing new vocabularies is one way to control the debate.
So, to demonstrate their bonafides, the newly woke or woke activists now continuously and endlessly seek out new social activities about which to be offended. Celebrities and corporations in utter fear of being labeled “racist” or some other epithet suggesting they are not “with it,” rush to virtue signal their level of “offended-ness” and their newly declared woke status. In their rush to ride the wave, public institutions of learning embrace new “anti-racist” curricula and policies that condemn them to states of paralysis where everyone informs on everyone else or they just try to keep their head down, both approaches stifling education.
And the list of what’s not allowed or what’s racist or sexist or intolerant or “hateful” grows by the minute. The list here is simply an illustrative not an exhaustive list. But does any of this really help anyone?
Meanwhile, legitimate, needed discussions about racism, male-female relationships, gender issues, environmental concerns, election integrity, immigration policy go wanting.
Is this the kind of country re really want?
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2021
*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.