Rex M Rogers - Discerning What Is Best

Discerning What Is Best
with Dr. Rex M. Rogers

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 25 June 2011

Drinking too much has been around as long as, well, “drinking.” This is particularly true for young people under the legal drinking age of 21 years.

But there’s a new development afoot that’s causing more concern than too much beer on the weekend ever did. It’s called extreme drinking, which is sometimes assumed synonymous with binge drinking and sometimes presented as another notch beyond that. Extreme drinking is increasing rapidly and dangerously among high school and college age students.

Extreme drinking is often built upon drinks like Jungle Juice, a mixture of hard liquor, fruit juices, and, sometimes, high caffeine energy drinks. It makes adolescents drunk quicker and cheaper, which is part of its youthful appeal.

Researchers have demonstrated that teens don’t drink like adults, which means they don’t drink a glass over a meal or social drink at a party. Instead, 90% of all teen drinking is binge drinking. Four beers for women and five for men consumed within an hour is the standard definition of binge drinking, a both-gender issue.

Caffeine in alcoholic drinks apparently makes them more dangerous because the caffeine can keep a person awake and drinking long after the drinker might typically have fallen asleep. And hard liquor is being used more often than beer in drinking games like beer pong.

The problem with underage extreme drinking: more injuries, more fatalities, more sexual aggression by the drinker or sexual abuse of the drinker, and a 40-60% higher likelihood the underage drinker, beginning early, will become an alcoholic in later years.

I don’t consider drinking a sin, as some of my conservative Christian friends do. But I don’t drink as a matter of choice, as more and more of my Christian friends are doing—in fact, I’d say the number that don’t drink has dropped precipitously and rapidly in the past thirty years. But that’s another subject.

Binge or extreme drinking is something else again. The attraction is anyone’s guess, though youth who participate talk about getting drunk without having to taste the drink—an odd thought to me—and about their perception of fun, which they indicate can’t happen without senses-deadening, ear-splitting noise and getting hammered. Psychologists talk about a sense of belonging for which people search during youth or a sense of alienation from the world with its concomitant desire for escape, even if for just a few hours.

I think recent increases in extreme drinking are not about kids just being kids or young ones sowing wild oats. This is a danger sign and a warning. For all their lack of innocence, youth today are still naïve about the long-term consequences of what in 2008 candidate Barack Obama called “youthful indiscretions.”

Youth have always been youth, meaning they get into trouble experimenting their way to adulthood. But the trouble they can get into today is exponentially more dangerous than it used to be. Indiscretions used to give youth hangovers and from time to time a pregnancy. Now indiscretions can leave youth with lifetime addictions or serious maladies like STDs. Or worse still, indiscretions can kill them outright. Extreme drinking brings all these probabilities with it.

Drinking education programs in schools can help but aren’t the real answer. We need something more powerful and we have it.

For all their presumed and postured rebellion against adults, youth still largely take their cues from adults. It seems youth want adult supervision, that’s part of the "belonging," even when they reject it. Until youth see adults sharing different attitudes about alcohol use and abuse and until adults use alcohol more wisely, I don’t think much will change in youth drinking patterns. So what the kids need are grownups in the group, adults who are mature in attitudes and behaviors.

It’s a tough world out there. Time for grownups to grow up, take charge, model good behavior, and don’t be afraid to set boundaries, stay engaged, and tough love kids into adulthood, especially in terms of alcohol abuse. The risks and rewards are high. Not doing this could mean youth never see adulthood. Adults getting involved with kids in terms of extreme drinking can mean kids live long and prosper.

*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Rex or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com or follow him at www.twitter.com/RexMRogers.

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 24 June 2011

International airlines, in my experience, continue to outdo airlines based in America in customer relations—and services.

I don’t mean you can’t find nice or professional American airline flight attendants or agents. Of course you can. What I mean is that overall, international lines work harder at the little things to make flying more pleasant, or at least make it less onerous.

Here are a few examples:

--International airlines serve better and more food, hands down, especially Air France.

--International airlines offer more choices of free newspapers.

--International airline staff, in my experience, less often invoke the trump word “security” to keep you from doing something they don’t want to deal with—like using a nearby restroom where no one is waiting as opposed to the restroom in your section where six are waiting.

This happened to me today on Delta. I’m a Platinum mileage traveler, was sitting 10 feet from a restroom between sections and the flight attendant jumped me with “Sir, where is your seat?” Never mind no one was waiting there while several waited for the “appropriate” restroom. She still said I couldn’t use the restroom in front of me: why? Because of “security.” Did you get that? If I'd used this restroom it would have constituted a security risk. Right.

--International airlines suffer these things too--but American airlines in particular charge exorbitant bag fees, set up innumerable disqualifiers to discourage people from redeeming earned miles, and present mileage clubs that really don’t offer much in the first place.

--The kicker for me was a 4.5-hour delay in Memphis last Saturday with Delta. OK, it happens. But for this one—no explanation, no apology, no amenities, nothing. Later this week I received an email apology and feedback form. Maybe I’ll send them this blog.

One last thing that doesn’t matter much in the scheme of things but it’s interesting. International airline staff members are better dressed, actually, often dressed-up with sport jackets, ties, and a polished attitude to go with it.

I think American airlines could learn a few things from their international peers.

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 24 June 2011

I’ve been learning about eBooks. Not what they are or how to read them, that’s easy. But how to create and market them.

An eBook, if you happen not to know, is an “electronic book,” i.e., a manuscript, whether previously published in print or whether ever scheduled to be print published, that is put into a read-only file and posted online. eBooks can be made available for free or for fee.

eBooks have taken the publishing world by storm. No, make that by tsunami. Amazon.com introduced the Kindle in 2007, a portable eBook reading tablet similar to Barnes & Noble’s Nook (2009) and Apple’s iPad (2010). Barnes & Noble is selling three times as many eBooks as print books and since introducing the Apple, iPads have captured 22% of the eBook market.

Recently, Amazon announced: “By July 2010, Kindle book sales had surpassed hardcover book sales, and six months later, Kindle books overtook paperback books to become the most popular format on Amazon.com. Today, less than four years after introducing Kindle books, Amazon.com customers are now purchasing more Kindle books than all print books - hardcover and paperback - combined.” This is a pretty amazing change in consumer behavior, a genuine phenomenon.

I’ve been learning how to turn a manuscript into eBook format so I can place more of my writing online and so we can tap into this materials distribution method with SAT-7 USA. What I’ve learned is that it’s not difficult, but like anything worthwhile there’s a time investment and a learning curve required. I’ve given it enough to know that new eBook software is available—that’s what formats the text and makes those cool turn-the-page-on-the-screen eBook functions. And through one of my sons I found a gentleman who does this for a living, so I can talk to him, send my material, pay him an appropriate though modest amount, and get my eBook set up more quickly and more professionally than I could do it myself.

I’ve learned that each book, including each eBook even if it’s simply the electronic version in toto of a printed book, must have it’s own title and a unique ISBN. The ISBN or international standard book number is governed and recorded in the United States by the Library of Congress. They outsource the task, currently to Bowker, and you go to this website, set up an account, and purchase an ISBN for $25 or so. Or you can order ISBNs in blocks of ten or higher if you’re a publisher. Once you receive a new ISBN, you register it on the same site together with the title of your book and, Voila, you have an eBook.

If you haven’t seen an eBook function, ask a friend to give you a demo with an ereader like the ones listed above. Then I encourage you to take the plunge and buy your first eBook for your laptop or for the new ereader you acquire. If the growing number of Kindles, Nooks, and iPads I see on planes is any indication they’ll soon be everywhere.

And oh by the way, you can get my eBooks when they’re released ever so soon. Watch this space.

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 21 June 2011

Unless Congress acts to raise the debt ceiling by August 2, the U.S. could default on its bills for the first time in history. The debt ceiling is an oddly named term meaning the amount the US can borrow to pay its bills.

This is not a conspiracy theory. It’s not doom and gloom and howl at the moon film noir. It’s not Dooms Day. This isn’t “Repent, For the End Is Near,” though a case might be made for this point of view. This is real economics, real politics, and real morality all in one.

The United States holds a $14.4 Trillion debt, which climbs by the moment. In fact, if I wrote the number to the last dollar it would be out of date before I finished this paragraph, let alone posted text or checked my website tomorrow morning for comments. It increases, meaning deepens, at mind-boggling speed.

The U.S. Treasury borrows $4 Billion, that’s with a B, per day to pay American debts. This in a country with the world’s largest economy yielding an annual GDP of $14.7 Trillion (2010). Yet we’re also enduring a 9.1% unemployment rate.

Since 1981, the national debt has gone from $1 Trillion to $14.4 Trillion, most under Republican Presidents. The debt ceiling has been raised 78 times in the past fifty years, 10 times since 2001. Almost one-half of American public debt is held by China and Japan. The US pays $225 Billion per year in interest.

To say that the US economy, perhaps even culture or country, is in trouble understates the problem. There’s nothing about America’s economics or its political culture that suggests we cannot experience the violence recently witnessed in Greece in response to so-called “austerity measures” and resulting lower standards of living—all traceable to Greece’s own profligate spending, economic denial, live for today culture.

The issue at hand is not simply the need for Congress to act to raise the debt ceiling by August 2 so the country will not default on its bill payments. That comes first, but the real issue is whether congressional leaders and the President can work together, which is to say can Republicans and Democrats work together, to identify the hard decisions and solutions to bring the country’s budget into line, reduce the national debt, and reinvest in our children’s future. To date no political party has risen to the task.

The Republicans do poorly or do irrationally. The Democrats do nothing at all. President Barack Obama’s record on the budget deficit and national debt is simply to add to both—through extending the Bush tax cuts, tiptoeing around Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, fighting not two, as Bush did, but three foreign wars, and offering Stimulus bailouts that put the country ever more deeply in arrears—all while talking about “bumps” in the road.

Neither party is impressive, nor are its leaders. So we keep going deeper in debt. Meanwhile, we put up with the likes of Rep. Anthony Weiner.

Don’t let partisan pundits fool you. Neither side of the aisle is in league with the Devil. Neither party has God on its side. Don’t believe politicians or pundits who opine there is no solution.

Economics may be the dismal science, but it’s not rocket science. There are solutions to the national debt crisis.

The question remains: do we have leaders with enough creativity and courage to identify solutions, help the American public understand them, and resolve to see them through to enactment and outcome? Canada did in the 1990s. But at the moment, I have my doubts we have leaders who can rise to the level of statesmanship required.

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 20 June 2011

Rob Bell’s Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, And The Fate Of Every Person Who Ever Lived has taken the Christian community, if not the general public, by storm. It’s become a bestseller in the process. It’s also become a highly controversial book provoking considerable backlash from opponents and impassioned affirmations from proponents. These reactions have been immediate and continuing. Some reactions have been based on reasoned consideration, some pretty much on emotion, but reaction nonetheless. And controversy sells books.

Commentary based upon in-depth study from people schooled in relevant disciplines usually takes more time to develop. This is one thing that makes Michael E. Wittmer’s Christ Alone interesting. Reports indicate he and his publisher wrote and produced the book, respectively, in less than two months, yet Wittmer, a seminary professor with an earned doctorate in theology, gave Bell’s book and viewpoints the careful, thorough, theologically astute evaluation they deserve.

The core of the controversy generated around Love Wins deals with whether there is indeed a real hell, whether the Scripture teaches people who reject Jesus Christ will one day be eternally punished in hell, and whether a God who loves can allow such a thing to happen, thus perhaps giving people who need it an after-death chance at salvation. In the end, Bell seems to suggest no one can be consigned to hell by a God whose “love wins” over all forces, including an individual’s rejection.

While Bell argues otherwise, rejecting or even re-envisioning the idea of hell, asserting the existence of post-mortem salvation, and claiming everyone, universally, ultimately goes to heaven are ideas on the edge if not out of the mainstream of historic orthodox Christianity. Hence the noisy reactions.

Wittmer approaches the matter with a Christian’s fellowship, avoiding denigrating Bell as a person, and a scholar’s care, evaluating Bell’s theological arguments with Scripture. He does both well.

The crux of Wittmer’s critique is that Bell does the following in his book:

--frequently omits without comment consideration of multiple important passages of Scripture dealing with topics the book addresses, including salvation or the “lake of fire";

--constructs a weak, one dimensional, humanized view of God that does not align with the Sovereign God of the Bible;

--offers hope he cannot substantiate scripturally, or as Wittmer says, “Our hopes are only as strong as the reasons we have for holding them”;

--argues for post-mortem, that is after-death, second chances to accept salvation, yet provides no scriptural justification for this view;

--presents a view of heaven more in common with Purgatory than with Scripture’s description of a New Heaven and a New Earth;

--contends all men and women are saved or at least will be saved, a view called universalism, and does not seem to grasp the depth of human depravity and sin described in the Bible and evident in the world, or recognize that if this view is true, it effectively eliminates a need for redemption and Jesus’ sacrificial death, burial, and resurrection;

--presents hell as not much more than our worst days and worst issues here on earth, a place people may stay for only a time and experience purging, none of which aligns with Scripture’s description of hell as an eternal place of judgment, suffering, and separation from God;

--opens the door to other religious views and interpretations, particularly as apply to salvation, that do not comport with Scripture;

--changes the meaning of the Gospel creating as Wittmer puts it, a “tale of limitless happy endings” wherein “nothing is ever really at stake.” In this approach, Wittmer says the Gospel is “the tepid news that you don’t really need saving, that you’ve never been lost except in your imagination, and that God already accepts you just the way you are.”

Wittmer graciously and effectively demonstrates why Rob Bells’s Love Wins should not be considered an expression of historic orthodox Christianity or of latter day evangelicalism. By so doing Wittmer has done a service to the Christian community, offering theological and philosophical perspective on what Bell shares, thus helping people develop their own understanding of the worthiness of Bell’s writing.

Bell is entitled to his doctrinal views. It is, after all, a free country. But the popularity, good feeling, creative communication, and contemporary nature of his views do not make them correct in terms of what the Bible says.

While Bell’s earlier books were quirky, interesting, and thought-provoking considerations of tradition and culture, Love Wins jettisons what the New Testament books of 1, 2 Timothy and Titus call “sound doctrine.” Bell is no longer tossing aside traditions that may no longer be justifiable. He’s tossing aside biblical teaching he finds uncomfortable or doesn’t believe fits his view of what he wants to be true. Love Wins is therefore not simply controversial but careless and confusing. Consequently, the book should not be trusted as a guide to what the Bible teaches.

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 18 June 2011

America has been at war for nearly ten years and two presidential administrations. Responding to 9/11, the U.S. initiated military operations in Afghanistan October 7, 2001. Thus far, the War in Afghanistan has cost 1,623 American lives, with over 10,000 wounded.

Not quite two years later, March 20, 2003, the Bush Administration decided to go after “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq, to later take down dictator Saddam Hussein, and later still to defend freedom and re-establish stability in the region. The weapons of mass destruction proved not to exist, Saddam is gone, freedom is tenuous, and stability is a non-starter. To date, 4,462 Americans have lost their lives in the Iraq War and more than 33,072 have been wounded.

On March 19, 2011, with NATO the Obama Administration launched “Operation Odyssey Dawn” air strikes over Libya. Ostensibly no American casualties have yet occurred in Libya, but it depends upon how you count.

The cost thus far of these wars is about $424,820,059,200 in Afghanistan, $783,721,570,100 in Iraq, and $608 million so far in Libya. The costs are increasing so fast a dollar estimate is incorrect as soon as it's printed.

You’d be forgiven for asking, “All this for what?” Today in Washington, D.C., as well as amongst the Republican aspirants to the presidency, no political leader can give you a clear answer, just politics-speak. None of the worn out arguments any longer hold water.

President Barack Obama won office in part because he voted against the Iraq War and in part because he promised to bring troops home from Iraq and draw them down in Afghanistan. He hasn’t delivered, and then he started his own military action in Libya, defended by liberals who had verbally assaulted President George W. Bush for doing the same thing in Iraq.

Obama Got Osama May 2, 2011, the Al Qaeda terrorist we’ve been chasing for a decade. He’s a goner, but we’re still fighting.

Recent CBS and “USA Today” surveys respectively indicated 51% and 59% of Americans believe it is time to end the War Without End. I agree.

It’s time to bring American troops home safe, sound, and soon. Not soon, now.

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