Rex M Rogers - Discerning What Is Best

Discerning What Is Best
with Dr. Rex M. Rogers

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 21 October 2020

SAT-7 is non-partisan and nonpolitical.

SAT-7 is not a political organization, does not promote any political policy, party, figure, or ideology, and refrains from political associations.

The ministry focuses upon sharing the Gospel and Christian teaching with all people, including children, in the Middle East and North Africa.

Yet, SAT-7 recognizes that the Word of God speaks to social issues, so the ministry applies a Christian worldview and biblical values to issues like peace, religious freedom, and biblical human rights for women, children and all individuals. SAT-7 rejects religious conflict and promotes justice, education, social and economic development.

Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He is the Light of the world that transcends all borders, tribes, religions, and ideologies.

This, not politics, is SAT-7’s message of reconciliation and hope.

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Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 21 October 2020

Jeffrey Toobin, New Yorker staff writer and CNN legal analyst, has been suspended by the New Yorker while it investigates his behavior and given time off by CNN to deal with a “personal issue.” He exposed himself—allegedly engaging in a sex act—on a Zoom call with colleagues. His excuse was he thought he’d muted the video and that no one could see him—nothing about why he thought having his pants down during a work Zoom call was necessary or appropriate, mute video or not. Toobin got his own hashtag, #MeToobin.

Since Toobin is a well-known liberal star conservatives have gloated online about his downfall. But this is nothing new. When conservative star Bill O’Reilly fell from the limelight due to sexual harassment claims, liberals and the Left gloated.

Rose McGowan, the actress who helped launch the #MeToo movement, slammed liberals who rushed to Toobin’s defense. Toobin joins media figures Roger Ailes, Charlie Rose, Matt Lauer, Mark Halperin on the list of do-badders. And if you branch out to entertainment, there’s Bill Cosby or chef Mario Bartali, then of course the new measure of lowest of the low, Harvey Weinstein.

The same happens in politics. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Dennis Hastert, Republicans, and John Edwards and Al Franken, Democrats, come to mind. Then there are the big names: Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, all accused of sexual misconduct before or during office. And by the way, the same happens in religion and the Church.

The point here is not sexual misconduct, though this is wrong, nor is it that men have done this before and will do it again, not that this excuses anyone.

The point is: whether you are on the Right or the Left, Republican or Democrat, both sides of the ideological spectrum and partisan aisle have and will again sometime soon find themselves in a scandal related to sexual misbehavior.

Neither the Right or the Left, Republican or Democrat have any room to gloat.

If your political opposite is publicly suffering now due to sexual malfeasance, just wait a bit and your team will be in the wrong limelight soon enough.

Christians are reminded:

“Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing. Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God” (Psalm 146:3-5).

Worldwide culture with all its segments, Far East or Middle East or West, is becoming ever darkened by sin.

Sexual misconduct and perversion among society’s elite will get worse (Romans 1). This is just one manifestation of Satan’s influence as “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work” (Ephesians 2:2).

But no nation-state, no politician, no political party platform or ideological manifesto has ever been able or will ever be able to resolve the spiritual challenges facing humanity.

Only Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, the Light of the World (John 14:6; 8:12). And he has given to Christians the honor of being ambassadors:

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors” (2 Corinthians 5:17-20).

There is no place for gloating, only grace.

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 19 October 2020

1-Why did Al Michaels and Chris Collinsworth have to wear masks on Sun, NBC football coverage while Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, on Mon, Fox did not?

2-Why were 20,000+ fans allowed in the stadium for Alabama vs Georgia in Tuscaloosa Sat night, nearly 25,000 fans Mon for Cowboys and Cardinals in Dallas, about 6,000 for Steelers and Browns in Pittsburgh Sun, while in Buffalo tonight for Bills and Chiefs no fans were permitted in the stands?

3-How do so few, ie., No, fans cheer and boo so loudly?

4-What health logic requires officials and coaches to wear masks but allows 45 players on each team to play or stand on the sidelines without masks?

5-What health logic requires officials and coaches to wear masks but allows 45 players on each team to play or stand on the sidelines without masks?

6-Early on, we were told to trust WHO and CDC, and now we’re still being told by politicians we must continue to trust the scientists while extending lockdowns or other restrictions in some states, like no fans at games, yet WHO now says lockdowns were dangerous to health and CDC tells us this virus has a 95-99% survival rate, and this is for people who actually catch the virus?

***People’s willingness, even seeming eagerness at times, to embrace or ignore the innumerable contradictions of this coronavirus experience continues to baffle me.

Details: 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.

Details: 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.

Details: 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.

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