Worldview

Discerning What Is Best
with Dr. Rex M. Rogers

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 27 April 2026

Ever notice how public officials justify their decisions, the rationale they use that may or may not be true or make sense?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #259 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.

Many times, I have witnessed people, who say they are Christians, change their views on a subject based not on their biblical theological understanding but upon their relationships. And I’m talking about profound moral questions, not just the best weather to catch trout or their choice of hamburgers over fettuccini.

Years ago, when gay rights first became a public topic, I remember reading a prominent Grand Rapids newspaper columnist, someone I read regularly. He was speaking positively about a gay rights event scheduled in a New England city. This surprised me because I knew this man, knew his Christian faith, and thought I knew, up till then, his belief that homosexuality was an immoral choice contrary to the teachings of Scripture. Suddenly he “comes out,” so to speak, affirming what back then we called the Gay Rights Movement and, to the point, the moral acceptability of the gay and lesbian lifestyle.

But I kept reading his column. About three-fourths of the way through the text he mentions that his daughter is now living as a lesbian. Oh, now I get it. He changed his view on this sexuality issue not because his theology led him to do so but because he loved his daughter.

Along about that time, again several years ago, a particular Senator from Ohio and his wife, who had previously positioned themselves morally and politically as not affirming or supporting same-sex sexuality, rather precipitously spoke to media saying they had changed their view and that now they wished to affirm and support the Gay Rights movement, that “love is love,” and that they no longer believed same-sex attraction and expression were wrong.

What caused them to suddenly change a long-standing, publicly expressed view? Well, later in the press conference they begin talking about how their young adult son had recently revealed to them that he was gay and that they wished to support their son.

So, I don’t know these people’s religious convictions, but I do know they developed their position on what we now call LGBTQ+ based on the fact they love their son.

In 1992 toward the end of George H. W. Bush’s presidency, his wife, Barbara Pierce Bush, spoke to the Republican National Convention, using the phrase "However you define family, that's what we mean by family values.” At the time, this was widely interpreted as a peek inside hers or the family’s views, open to Gay Rights in a manner that had not been made public until then.

In September 2013, former President George H. W. and his wife made headlines when they served as official witnesses at the same-sex wedding of friends in Kennebunk, Maine. Later, while George W. Bush opposed same-sex marriage during his presidency, other family members, including his wife Laura and their daughter Barbara, have publicly expressed support for marriage equality.

Al Gore famously switched from a longtime prolife to a prochoice position during his run for the presidency. Earlier in his life and career, Gore and his then-wife Tipper claimed to be “born again” Christians who affirmed biblically conservative theology. Somewhere this changed, for later in his career, including after he became a global spokesman for climate change, because of “his writings about the spiritual roots of the world's environmental problems in his book, Earth in the Balance, he was accused of New Age pantheism.

In 2004, candidate Barack Obama stated that marriage was between a man and a woman, but then in 2012 during his presidency he publicly reversed his stance to support same-sex marriage.

Now again, I do not know what these people’s theological beliefs were during their public lives or later, but it is interesting to note how changes on this moral issue are made apparently based upon relationships or politics.

Let’s pause here for some reflection. I am not saying a political leader, or anyone for that matter, should never change his or her mind. Presidential candidate John Kerry made what was called “flip-flopping” an art form. Everyone changes his or her mind along the way, and sometimes it’s a good thing, like Abraham Lincoln starting out moderately opposed to slavery and eventually becoming the president who signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863.

Donald Trump's views on abortion have moved from a self-described "very pro-choice" stance in 1999 to becoming a vocal opponent of abortion rights during his campaigns and subsequent presidency.

So, this is not about changing minds. This is about the rationale people cite for changing their minds and the number of times I have personally read or witnessed individuals who changed their views on deeply moral topics, not because they developed a new understanding of biblical theology, but because they love a relative or friend.

Years ago, in my other life as a university president, I’ve related before about a group called “Soul Force” who visted Christian college campuses and sought to take over chapels and classes to promote their pro-LGBTQ point of view.

When this group came to Cornerstone University, they did get on campus and into chapel, but I dismissed the students. We also prohibited the group from entering certain facilities. We did not attack or demean them. I simply said, “No thank you,” and got reported in the press that way.

After this couple of days were over and the group had moved on, the president’s office began receiving mail. I am not exaggerating or misleading – 95% of the mail agreed with our position of not engaging with this group’s views or their methods on LGBTQ. Among the 5% who disagreed, I noticed an interesting pattern. Almost every one of those letters and notes eventually referenced a daughter, a son, an uncle, a friend who had begun to live the gay lifestyle. In other words, the people did not like the position I took opposed to Soul Force’s intentions and message because the people writing knew someone personally who they cared about and who now had embraced a same-sex sexuality.

I understand this inclination. I understand and I am not making fun of or taking potshots at these folks who genuinely care about someone and thus they have adopted an issue position that they think affirms or protects the other person.

Perhaps there are times when this decision-making approach is defensible?

Soldiers or commanders have sometimes disobeyed or softened orders when they believed strict compliance would harm civilians with whom they had personal contact. Humanitarian workers in conflict zones describe decisions as being driven sometimes by individual relationships with local families or children, even when those decisions conflict with official policy or neutrality rules. White Americans who participated in the U.S. Civil Rights movement were at times initially motivated less by ideology and more by personal relationships—neighbors, colleagues, or friends who were Black and experiencing injustice. Their involvement often began with “I know this person; what’s happening to them is wrong.” What about people changing their views on criminal justice after a sibling or friend is incarcerated?

Philosophers sometimes describe this as “particularist” moral reasoning or ethics grounded in care and relationships rather than universal rules.

But from a Christian perspective, this creates a conundrum we really need to think carefully about. Otherwise, we can end up making decisions that feel good but are not morally or spiritually correct, defensible, or wise.

Many Christians would say moral truth is grounded in God’s revealed will (Scripture), not shifting emotions. Feelings and relationships can be good but fallible, because humans are “fallen” or prone to bias. So, when there’s a conflict, the believer is called to align with biblical teaching rather than personal preference.

Most Christian thinkers would reject the idea that decisions are made without feelings or relationships. Instead, they’d say feelings are not the final authority. But feelings are part of being human and part of moral perception. The goal is not to eliminate them, but to discern them in light of Scripture.

In Christian moral reasoning, the ideal isn’t Bible vs. relationships as two competing forces. It’s more: “How do I remain faithful to God’s truth while loving people the way God commands—even when that is emotionally difficult?”

My illustrations regarding this decisional debate cited several family sexual orientation incidents, but the dilemma can be applied to any and everything. Point though, is not sexual orientation but whether and how we know and then apply our understanding of biblical theology. That’s what matters.

Certainly, we live in a time when biblical doctrine exercises less influence on citizen behavior and the body politic. But word to the wise: “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:17).

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. For more Christian commentary, see my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com, or check my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers.

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 my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 18 December 2023

Are we living today what philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre observed, “If there is no God, then everything is permitted”?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #123 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.

Sociologists of religion, and other scholars of civilization, used to talk about a “Judeo-Christian consensus.” The phrase referred to a shared, broadly agreed-upon set of values about morality and civic virtue, based upon the theological understandings of Judaism and Christianity.

The scholars believed this Judeo-Christian consensus helped form the foundation upon which Western Civilization, then the United States of America, were built. This foundation made E Pluribus Unum possible.

Many earlier and conservative scholars said America’s founding was unique, giving rise to a perspective called “American exceptionalism,” a concept addressed in the 1830s by French social critic Alexis de Tocqueville in his seminal work, Democracy in America. While no doubt some individuals took this view to an extreme of arrogance, triumphalism, or manifest destiny, most citizens simply viewed it as a recognition that America’s founding was different, coalescing around values and a political system creating opportunities for life, liberty, enterprise, and well-being like no other country in history.

The late political scientist Seymour Martin Lipset argued, “this ideology, which Lipset called Americanism…is based on liberty, egalitarianism, individualism, republicanism, democracy, and laissez-faire economics.

The idea of an exceptional society has a long history traced to the ideas espoused by the Founding Fathers of the United States during the American Revolution. This uniqueness or exceptionalism did not just happen. “America’s uniqueness is based in the Christian consensus of the Founding Fathers, who penned documents guaranteeing religious and personal freedom for all. This nation was not founded by atheists, secularizers, or monarchists who thought the elite educated class should rule over the common people.

America’s founding was based more on biblical principles than any other nation’s on Earth—and that’s the main reason this country has been more blessed by God than any other nation in history. No other nation has enjoyed freedom of religion, freedom of electoral choice, and freedom of vocational pursuits for a longer period of time than the United States.”

But things are changing, and indeed have been changing for some time.

Since at least the 1960s, what’s been happening, first gradually, now rapidly, is an intentional rejection of Judeo-Christian values of morality and society, followed by a replacement of these traditional values, first by secularism, then by radical so-called “progressive,” Marxist values based on irreligion if not atheism, along with an idolatry of race, sex, class, diversity, equity, and inclusion, victimhood, and statism.

This means that the culture and society in which many of us as older adults grew up, is no more. What we are experiencing now, the culture in which we live, is fundamentally different from the culture in which we came of age.

Judeo-Christian values once were enshrined in our cultural mores, defining criminal justice, meritocracy, education, commercial enterprise, and freedom.

The late Francis A. Schaeffer called them, “borrowed Christian values.” These values were the glue that helped hold Western culture together.

Christian values helped define American vision, purpose, and meaning. Christian ideas about the future, about progress, and about social change helped Americans craft a forward-thinking, optimistic, can-do, confidence that encouraged innovation, risk-taking, investment, and work ethic. This is why America became one of the most productive engines of abundance the world has ever seen.

As these values have been lost—or I should say, tossed aside, openness to false ideas and values increased, because, like nature, the heart abhors a vacuum. Human hearts cannot exist without something to worship and give purpose.

In this vacuum, this moral collapse resulting from the dechristianization of postmodern society, individuals increasingly embraced a godless, Marxist ideology that appeals to the sinful nature.

As Judeo-Christian values were rejected, so was the idea of objective truth, the understanding that regardless of what any given person concludes, there is real truth, real facts, in a real world. Now, we hear about the oxymoron “alternative facts,” or “your truth and my truth,” which is to say no standard of truth at all.

We heard this recently when Harvard University President Claudine Gay apologized for her widely condemned congressional testimony on campus antisemitism, in which she said, "I failed to convey what is my truth."

“My truth”? This from the president of a university whose 387-year-old motto is Veritas, which is Latin for Truth. Harvard originally adopted the Latin phrase, “Veritas Christo et Ecclesiae,” as its motto in 1692, which means “Truth for Christ and the Church.” But this was reduced to just “Veritas” in 1836. Discovering truth these days is an exercise in, “Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?”

Judeo-Christian values are being replaced by a godless sense of no responsibility and no accountability, and Judeo-Christian values are being replaced by fear, distrust, dishonesty, lack of confidence, loss of patriotism, then the inevitable disillusionment, despair, alienation, anomie, hopelessness, and nihilism.

The practical outgrowth of this shift in values is extensive.

Education from kindergarten to grad school has become a vast wasteland where teaching and learning are dumbed down and activism is the new holy grail.

As parents have “parented” less, or as parents have rejected traditional values for their brave new world values, or as the family unit itself has come under attack as something unnecessary or limiting, and as children have increasingly come of age spending more than one third to one-half of their day on screens, mental illness and anxiety have soared among youth, as has sexual promiscuity.

Political leaders promote the killing of the nation’s progeny as a matter of women’s healthcare and a human right. Think of that, a human right to kill other humans. This is perversity.

Political leaders promote the physical mutilation of children in the name of sexual liberation. And oh, by the way, no need to inform their parents. This is not freedom but enslavement to debauchery and a lifetime of drugs and regret.

Educators, medical professionals, celebrities, journalists, and of course political sycophants, claim men can menstruate, breast feed, and have children. These are supposedly sophisticated individuals, but if so, it is sophisticated ignorance. This is “the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness” (Rom. 1:18). It is the result of the rejection of timeless values, the rejection of virtue.

City streets and retail stores are now fair game to “smash and grab” gangs, thugs, and thieves who know they will not be prosecuted and who have such little fear, they no longer wear masks and look directly into security cameras.

America is no longer a “kinder, gentler nation” and is instead an everyone for themselves “do what’s right in your own eyes” nation.

In business, making an excellent product has been replaced with a decline in quality in almost every industry. And the old aphorism, “the business of America is business,” has been replaced by the business of America is advocacy.

Since the internet became functional, every form of evil has increased, led by pornography and gambling.

Historian Mark Lewis reminds us, what Edmund Burke said, “But what is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint...Men are qualified for liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites.”

Further, James Madison said, “To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people is a chimerical [fanciful] idea.”

“According to Madison (and all our Founders), virtue (goodness, self-control, godly morality, responsible behavior, unselfishness) is absolutely essential to true liberty.”

Today in America, people are denying the existence of virtue, in the name of freedom. But instead of freedom, we’re getting lawlessness, licentiousness, and chaos, none of which sound much like freedom.

Yes, there is a direct link between rejecting God, truth, morality, and virtue, and the breakdown of American culture. It’s not good out there, and it’s going to get worse.

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: 25 September 2023

We’ve heard about so-called “Woke” policies, but what we need is not more people woke; we need more people awake.

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #111 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.

For some time now, reaching back before COVID, I have become increasingly concerned with the direction the United States and American culture have taken.

As I’ve noted before in other podcasts, if you are of a certain age, you could be forgiven if you say you don’t recognize your own country. Things have changed that much, and most of it for the worse.

As a believer trusting the sovereignty of God, these changes do not frighten me, but then again, I do not like them, and I believe these changes are a child of not simply wrong ideas but evil intent.

Another thing that bothers me is that I really don’t think that most people, i.e., the average person, however you want to define that phrase, is aware of how significantly and rapidly things have changed and are changing. I don’t state this observation in an arrogant way, meaning I know something no one else knows.

I don’t mean to imply that others are not smart, though they may be uninformed, just as I am uninformed about a host of things that do not happen to interest me or about which I haven’t heard. But still, I believe many hard-working, decent Americans, whatever their faith, may not be aware of the extensiveness of social change taking place and the threat it introduces.

To illustrate, let’s talk for a few minutes about politics and ideology.

When I write these podcasts, as I did long ago in blogs or writing content for a radio program that I voiced for Cornerstone University’s radio station WCSG, called “Making a Difference,” I try not to be intentionally partisan. I don’t want to write like another party hack, someone who thinks his or her political party and its leaders can do no wrong. Because for one, this is one of our problems today.

Too many if not most media outlets and most journalists if they can be called that anymore are simply partisan advocates. They do not seek truth, only political advantage, leverage, and like-minded listenership.

I don’t want to write more partisan drivel. I want to try to think critically, and I want to attempt to apply a Christian worldview to issues and events, which means I have to be free to critique not just the Democrats but also the Republicans, and Independents along with everyone else.

But things have changed markedly in just the few years since year 2000, and especially since COVID.

For one, the Democrat Party is now virtually entirely controlled by its most liberal or some would say, radical, wing.

Almost nothing leading Democrat politicians say or do, including especially President Joe Biden and VP Kamala Harris, and their Administration, presents anything but socialist policies enhancing big government and undermining personal property and free enterprise, then promoting immoral sexual libertinism, fear-mongering intended to increase their political power, climate change voodoo, authoritarian ideas dismissing freedom of speech, the press, or even religion, a promotion of irrational egalitarianism and victimhood, soft-on-crime lawlessness, globalist anti-Americanism, warped science, and abortion on demand as a civil right.

Well, you say, thank God for the Republican Party and its political leaders. Maybe, but mostly they are not much better. Not anymore.

Republicans, the supposedly fiscally conservative party, have participated in increasing the National Debt to its current level of $33 Trillion, run scared of end-of-the-world climate change lobbies, are just as susceptible as others to fear-mongering, ever-increasing taxes, immoral sexual practices, and a wishy-washiness on southern border security, and more.

Both party’s leaders have engaged in intentional prevarication, a fancy word for lying. Both party’s leading candidates for President in 2024 come with a long list of character flaws; neither is a paragon of virtue.

Worse than all this, I think most people do not realize America is no longer a two-party system, Democrat and Republican. No, now there is a group called Progressives, an inaccurate euphemism for The Left or Leftists or Leftism, an ideology wholly different from traditional conservatism or classical liberalism, an ideology promoting views that FDR, JFK, and Martin Luther King, Jr would not recognize.

Progressives lodge mostly in the Democrat Party, but they have plenty of allies within the Republican Party, especially among younger voices.

I’d rather call Progressives what they are – Socialist Leftists – but this is awkward wording, so I’ll stick with Progressives.

Progressives are not the same as Liberals. I’ve talked about this before in a podcasts called “Not Liberal But Left, That’s the Threat,” and “What the Left Believes.”

Progressives “hold that it is possible to improve human societies through political action.”Progressives are leftist, radical, secularist, socialist, Marxist, anti-American ideologues who are pushing an unrelenting attack on America’s history, culture, and core values. They are anti-Judeo-Christianity and its moral code, anti-meritocracy, pro-political correctness, anti-education in terms of critical thinking and objective truth while promoting indoctrination of their political narrative focusing upon what they call social justice.

Progressives have made climate change a religion and work to persecute anyone who disagrees with their views. Many of them would love China’s new social credit system that tracks how citizens behave and records demerits on their record for officials to reference later.

Progressives are anti-family, primarily because they are godless libertines who want the world to become non-binary and androgynous.

Let me repeat, Progressives or Leftists are not the same as Liberals. They embrace ideas and values – radical leftist ideologies – old fashioned Liberals would never have understood, not the least of which is anti-patriotism and anti-Americanism. Progressives are operating like a political party, but they are not organized as such and are therefore virtually unaccountable.

Progressives are masterful in making their message the prevailing acceptable narrative. “Progressives ask: ‘What is unfair?’ ‘What am I owed?’ ‘What has offended me today?’ ‘What must my country do for me?” They are not working in America’s best interest but in the service of a divisive, demoralizing, destructive political destination they market as an utopian heaven on earth.

Progressives promote racist “diversity seminars” in the name of, you guessed it, anti-racism. Their god is not equality before the law or equal opportunity, but DEI, diversity, equity, inclusion, words, and initiatives used to bludgeon institutions into obeisance to woke rules, beginning with public schools and universities and working out to entertainment, sports, corporations, and government.

Progressives, or the Left, and the millions now in their thrall, are a perfect example of what the Apostle Paul talked about in 2 Thess. 2:9-12, “The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.”

People are operating today under what the Bible calls a powerful or strong delusion. As the Apostle Peter said, people “deliberately forget” or in other Bible versions, are “willingly ignorant” (2 Pet. 3:5).

Deliberately, willingly believing a lie rather than the truth. There could not be a more apt description of American culture today.

Erwin Lutzer observed that “secular progressivism is a passion to profane what is sacred. Anything that dismantles Christian influence and enhances the Left’s power is progressive. It seeks to deconstruct American laws and systems to replace them with socialism and tyranny.”

What I fear is not Progressives. What I fear is that many Christians and the average American are asleep. We do not need to be “woke,” but we certainly need to be awake. We must recognize that the battle has long-since been joined, that Leftist Progressives have all but taken over American culture.

Every day, ideas and values contrary to American Judeo-Christian foundational values that allowed this country to grow and flourish, are being systematically taught in American public education, kindergarten through graduate school.

Every day, youth are taught not to sacrifice, work hard, delay gratification, control impulses, act with integrity and moral restraint, but rather to make demands about what they consider theirs by right.

Every day, Leftist Progressive values are integrated in television programming, including cartoons, and every day, these anti-biblical values are being repeatedly messaged in commercials.

The Left, so-called Progressives, are more in control, more influential, more threatening than Liberalism, Democrats or Republicans.

We need people to wake up, reject the woke, and recognize Leftist Progressives for what they are, the enemy within.

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: 06 September 2023

Have you noticed that American culture seems to be drifting away from its founding Judeo-Christian values? Does this mean America is secularizing? Does it matter?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #107 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.

When I was in grad school in the late 70s-early 80s, one of the issues we talked about was “secularization,” the “historical process in which religion declines in social and cultural significance. As a result of secularization the role of religion in modern societies becomes restricted. In secularized societies faith lacks cultural authority, and religious organizations have little social power.”

OK, fair enough. Many examples can be cited. But the mistake much of the scholarship made back then was to assume that people would move from religion to irreligion, from religion to religionlesness, that somehow human beings could and would reach a point of development in which faith in God and religious practices were no longer necessary to life. Those scholars envisioned a world without religion.

But it didn’t happen. While traditional religion has become publicly less important in the West, including in the United States, worldwide, religion is as great an influence, if not more so, than ever.

One of the problems with those secularization studies is that they were written with a bias. Many academics were themselves religiously non-practicing. They often came from religious homes but tossed this aside in college. So, they expected to find others doing the same, because for them this was the rational, reasonable, scientific thing to do.

But let’s offer a counter thesis: There are no religionless human beings. Since Adam and Eve, no individuals have ever existed who are not at their core a religious being.

By “religious” I do not mean adherents of traditional or institutional religion. Bureaucracies.

By religious, I mean one possesses an innate God consciousness, a moral capacity to reason about right and wrong, a desire to know who we are, what is our purpose, and what is our destiny, and with this to consider the existential questions, Is there a God? Does he know me? What is the source of evil or sin? What happens when I die?

I believe God instilled all this in human beings when he said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground. So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Gen. 1:26-27).

Now many people claim to be religionless. But even atheists position themselves as not believing in what? God. They form a presupposition about the Almighty, which is an inherently religious action.

The Collins English Dictionary defines religionless as, “people lacking religious beliefs. Lacking or devoid of religion.” But this is colloquial not philosophical definition. No one is wholly lacking in religious beliefs.

Merriam-Webster gets closer, defining religionless as, “atheistical, lacking religious emotions, principles, or practices.”

OK, people who do not act religious. They exist, but they are still religious because to live in the world, every human being must make assumptions about God, humanity, life and being, purpose, truth, morality. It is impossible to live without making these judgments, whether consciously or subconsciously, and these assumptions determine one’s values and choices.

So, yes, there are many examples of people acting out in a manner that suggests they are without religious understanding. But still, as our thesis posits, at their core, they are religious.

In America today we are experiencing a downward trend in those who say they are religious and an upward trend in those who say, “No Religion,” now 30% of the population, a figure that has nearly doubled in the past 15 years. These are “people who self-describe as atheists, agnostics or ‘nothing in particular’ when asked about their religious identity” – the so-called “Nones.”

Now we could just write this social development off as, live and let live. It’s a free country. What someone else believes really doesn’t matter all that much to me, right?

But is this the case?

When a person rejects traditional religious understanding, which in the United States is Judeo-Christian principles, what he or she is doing is replacing one set of assumptions with another set of assumptions. These folks may be Nones in terms of engagement with institutional religion or Judeo-Christian outlooks on life,

but they are not Nones in terms of religious ideas. Remember our thesis – there are no religionless human beings.

So as Americans jettison Judeo-Christian religious affiliation a new religious persuasion, not secularism per se, is replacing it, and with this new persuasion, new values.

Christian social researcher George Barna calls the new DIY religious persuasion Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, a mouthful for sure, but it simply means belief in a God, no moral absolutes, doing the best you can, being nice meaning inclusive, and focusing upon your well-being.

Again, why does another person’s religious assumptions matter to you or me?

Well, because when a lot of people adopt views different from, even contrary to Judeo-Christian principles, then they act on their values, they create a chaotic culture. That’s what we are seeing today.

In contemporary culture, if you just watch social developments and read or watch social and legacy media, you’ll find incessant messaging arguing the following values define life:

Personal happiness is the end all, be all of life.

Such a culture embraces and promotes abortion on demand, prenuptial agreements and easy divorce that diminish marriage and family, and affluence as the measure of wellbeing, all of which are evident in programs like “Real Housewives” of name-the-city.

Sexual fulfillment is the greatest source of happiness.

Such a culture embraces sexual libertinism, equates lust with love, allows or promotes child sexual abuse in the form of transgenderism, even embraces perversion-as-normality, like “50 Shades of Grey.”

Socially determined gender, not biological sex, defines human reality.

Such a culture celebrates men identifying as women and cheating in sports, allows them access to women’s locker rooms and prisons (guess what assaults result from this) and parades twisted men or women as examples of bravery or achievement, like Bud Light tried to do putting a man trans woman on their beer cans, only to experience “Go Woke, Go Broke.”

Racial determinism means offenses based upon race are now found in virtually every experience of daily life.

Such a culture embraces so-called “anti-racism,” a philosophy tragically racist in values, attitudes, and impact. We see this in the activities of charlatan groups like Black Lives Matter and the Critical Race Theory taught in schools.

Truth is a matter of preference.

Such a culture allows gender, race, and ideology to trump truth. Consequently, laws are unenforceable, and order is at risk, organized looters steal at will in major cities, and criminal perpetrators go unprosecuted. Utterly irrational ideas are promoted, like defund the police, no prosecution for social statement crimes, which we see in how youthful looters and even those wielding weapons are ignored in Chicago.

Mental health is the definition of well-being.

Such cultures are built upon churches that have reduced the gospel to psychological conversations about wellness, self-care, safety, and affirmation. Sin, judgment, guilt, hell, forgiveness, repentance, and salvation are unwelcome topics, because people want to be told: I’m okay, you’re okay, we’re all okay.

Our non-Christian neighbors are not secular. They are not religionless. They may think of themselves as Nones, but in their pursuit of happiness, they are following a false DIY religious worldview.

So, yes, if our neighbors embrace a surrogate, idolatrous religion, there will be, and there already has been, consequences for American culture. What someone else believes really does matter.

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: 17 July 2023

Have you stopped to think about what worldview motivates you? Is it a secular, religious, Christian, or some other philosophy of life?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #97 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.

I was privileged to grow up in what we call a “Christian home,” in the best sense of the term. It means my parents were believers, serious about their Christian faith, introduced me to the Word of God and salvation by faith in Christ, took me to church every time the doors were open, and invested in my spiritual upbringing.

At church, in Sunday School, summer Daily Vacation Bible School, youth groups, and of course the services, I learned more about the Bible and its teachings, and I learned biblical stories and memorized verses.

So, no question I was hugely blessed with what might be called a Christian upbringing, including most importantly me making a personal commitment to faith in Christ when I was six years old, and later make the decision to be baptized. In other words, I owned the Christian faith as my own.

I learned that one should rightly divide the Word of Truth or as other Bible versions say, “correctly handles the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15).

I wasn’t really encouraged to stop at memorizing verses, though a lot of churches did this, intentionally or otherwise, and thus people learned to do what we called “proof texting,” the idea that you learn a verse for a given topic and that’s it. You don’t learn much else about the Word or God’s purposes and sometimes you end up not being able to handle the more complex issues that now face us in our culture. Os Guinness called it being unprepared with “a Sunday School level faith for a university level society.”

Back in my other life as a university president, I used to talk about Christian college students who would show up on campus – good kids who knew the Lord—kids who could quote verses and tell Bible stories but many of whom could not tell you what Daniel and the Lions’ Den, for example, meant for them or us today. In other words, they knew biblical data, content, but they did not really understand how to apply it.

They did not understand theology. I called this lack of ability to go from content to application the “Christian missing link.”

One of the reasons some of these students arrived with a lot of Bible knowledge but little ability to think critically and apply it in the world around them, or even in their personal lives, is that their theologically conservative churches had offered them a form of Pietism and little more.

Pietism, especially when coupled with what’s been called Fundamentalism, emphasized the personal spiritual life over and above or separate from any real concern for the public expression of the Christian faith and living in the culture in which they live. In other words, in the vocabulary of John 17, pietistic, fundamentalist churches and adherents did a good job of being “not of the world,” but they tended to forget the other prepositional phrases in that chapter, being “in the world,” or the command to go “into the world.” By the same token, theologically liberal churches and adherents have historically done a fair job of being “in the world” while seeming to forget what it means to be “not of the world.”

I was exposed to some of this in a solid, Bible-believing, good Fundamentalist church as a kid we learned to “Don’t smoke and chew or go with girls who do.” We learned a lot of biblical teaching but did not always learn “Why” or how to connect it with other teachings in Scripture or how to apply it. I’m not biting the hand that fed me. I learned well in this home church and owe it a great deal spiritually. I’m just being honest about what I did not learn as well, and perhaps this was my doing, not the church.

When I got to Christian college, I heard the terms “Christian theistic world life view” as we called it then, what later became better known as a Christian worldview or a biblical worldview.

A worldview is a way of looking at our place in the world. Simply put, it is a philosophy of life. Whether they realize it, or whether they can identify it, everyone possesses a worldview. Our worldview is the foundation and guide for every decision we make.

Our worldview helps us answer life’s existential questions: Who is God? What is truth and moral absolutes? Who is man and what is human nature? What is man’s purpose? What is good and evil? What is sin and morality? What is time and history? What happens when we die? Is God there, and does he care? Does he know me? How can I be loved, forgiven, redeemed? What hope can I have?

Not everyone, in fact most people, can even name their worldview, and most people do not think consistently in alignment with every precept of a given worldview, including Christians.

A Christian worldview is simply a Christian philosophy of life. Theologically, it involves Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration.

What we need to do, what we are commanded by God to do, what Scripture in John 17 meant when it said we are to be in the world but not of the world and go into the world, is develop and live out a consistent, God-honoring Christian philosophy of life. We are to “think Christianly.”

In James Avery White’s book A Mind for God, Os Guinness is quoted, saying, “Thinking Christianly is thinking by Christians about anything and everything in a consistently Christian way – in a manner that is shaped, directed, and restrained by the truth of God’s Word and God’s Spirit.”

Christians are to walk as Jesus did. In 1 John 2:6, John said, “Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.” Or as the late Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer put it, we need to answer the biblical question from Ezekiel, “How should we then live?”

Now how do we answer this question?

Well, as Christians, we go to the Word of God, because,

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 2 Tim. 3:16-17

“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” 2 Pet. 1:3

We seek to integrate our faith and life by drawing on the principles of Scripture in order to proclaim the Lordship of Christ in all of life.

1 Cor. 10:31 says, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”

We must work to understand biblical teaching and theology so that we can discern – that’s the point of this podcast, “Discerning what is best” as drawn from Phil. 1:9-10 – and we work to understand biblical teaching and theology so that we can avoid error as we’re commanded in Col. 2:8:

If we do not Know the Truth, we cannot Speak the Truth. Therefore, Bible study, knowledge is imperative, especially in a post-Christian culture.

“See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.”

And also Rom. 12:2: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

For we know that God said to “keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.” Josh. 1:8

We must speak because not to speak yields to the Devil by default.

And when we speak, i.e., define truth, we recognize that we will inevitably alienate.

Culture no longer aligns with or reinforces Christian life. The movement to stop “unacceptable views” now worldwide and popular.

We remember that Jesus never withdrew from sinners, but neither did he ever stop proclaiming the truth.

He ate with tax collectors, spoke with prostitutes. Jesus was “full of grace and truth.” Jn 1:14. He never compromised truth to avoid alienating people or to attract converts.

We are to walk as Jesus did.

We believe the window to speak truth is closing. Yet God said, “As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.” Jn 9:4

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Gal 6:9

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: 27 March 2023

Was there a time in your life when you were more hopeful than you are now? Has the world gone so awry that hope no longer seems possible or reasonable? Is hope hopelessly dead?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #77 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.

At the end of “Gond with the Wind,” after years of tragic Civil War, the starring character Scarlett O’Hara, devastated and seemingly defeated by the degradations of the war, said, “Tara. Home. I'll go home…After all, tomorrow is another day."

In “Annie,” Orphan Annie sang, “The sun will come out Tomorrow. Bet your bottom dollar That tomorrow There'll be sun! Just thinking about Tomorrow Clears away the cobwebs, And the sorrow 'Til there's none! Tomorrow! Tomorrow! I love ya Tomorrow! You're always a day away”

In “Cast Away,” Tom Hanks-as-Chuck Noland, rescued after four years on the deserted island and in the process losing the one he considered the love of his life, wraps the film saying, “And I know what I have to do now. I gotta keep breathing. Because tomorrow the sun will rise. Who knows what the tide could bring?”

All these fictional cinematic characters expressed hope, something that made these films powerful, but something that now seems part of a lost past.

Today’s movies, with a few exceptions, are usually not hopeful; they’re dark, deadly, and hopeless.

There was a time, on both sides of the aisle, when being upbeat in politics was considered admirable. Democrat Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey was known as the "Happy Warrior." Republican President Ronald Reagan, the "Gipper," was widely recognized by friend and foe alike for his sunny, forever optimistic persona.

Now, it seems many Democrat and Republican politicians, activists, journalists, academicians, and beaucoup other pundits on social media, are terminally angry, perpetually offended, lacking in humility, at times fearful, or so convinced their view is correct that yours does not deserve hearing. And oh by the way, they’re nasty.

I don't think Humphrey or Reagan were clueless Pollyannas. I think they operated with a different worldview than most of the "elites" we endure today. Maybe I sound like an old guy, but I miss the forward-thinking energy you can hear in these statements by political leaders—

--FDR regarding the Depression and later World War II: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

--JFK on landing a person on the moon: "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard."

--MLK Jr on his vision America would realize its founding principles: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

--George H. W. Bush on his lifelong belief in the American people: "I have spoken of a thousand points of light, of all the community organizations that are spread like stars throughout the nation, doing good."

Like Humphrey and Reagan, these men weren’t silly utopians. They were men who expressed hope based upon their personal values and confidence in America’s transcendent ideals.

People place their hope in many things: themselves, their “inner strength,” other people—who alwaysfail and falter, talent—drive—wealth—education—beauty—success, false gods. But none of these things can ultimately provide hope in the face of hopelessness.

Hope, particularly hope in the future, must come from something outside ourselves, outside our experience. That’s what happened to the colonial era English political philosopher Thomas Hobbes who looked at nature and concluded life is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” Pretty dark view, and his solution wasn’t much better, a government of absolute power.

Non-Christian worldviews do not provide hope, or if they attempt to do so, they don’t know how to deal with the reality of evil. Sin, living in a fallen world, how do we escape our own sinfulness? We are indeed hopeless…until and unless we place our faith in the Creator God who provided a way out, who provided forgiveness and reconciliation and therefore hope. Christianity resolves the question of good and evil and gives people reason for optimism.

So, when you choose hope based upon the omnipotent Sovereign God, you are not irrational, emotional, or even mystical. Rather, you are rational, reasoning, and reasonable because you are opting for fact over fiction.

Our culture’s pell-mell rush during my lifetime to abandon Judeo-Christian values in favor of the latest humanistic, ideological “Ism” is what’s brought us to this point: elites with no optimism, no real hope.

The only way to get hope and optimism back is to embrace what God told us long ago: “But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint” (Isaiah 40:31).

Christian hope is not like any other kind of hope. Christian hope is not a vain wish for what might be. Christian hope is a trust in what will be. Christian hope is based upon Christ's completed work, so our hope may be confident...not anxious, not arrogant, but confident.

This is very important. We're told by some people that the future is a matter of chance, fate, or luck. Some of these people think God doesn't exist, and some believe God can't do much even if He does exist. People who think like this end up in one of two extremes: hedonism or nihilism.

People faced with a pessimistic, hopeless future seek relief in substance abuse or some other emotional tranquilizer.

Hollywood celebrities—the ones who’ve lived life in full-on self-aggrandizement—who then get all that they’re after—fame and adulation, fortune and excess, libertine but vapid sex, banal success, materialistic things, finally discover what they wanted leaves them empty.

Remember Peggy Lee’s song in 1969? “If that’s all there is my friends, then let’s keep dancing. Let’s break out the booze and have a ball. If that’s all there is.”

Does this help you understand why celebrities who “have it all” end their lives by their own hand, or they become victims of accidental overdose?

Christian hope is authentic, genuine, and balanced. It's never pessimistic, because Christians know the Creator and Savior.

We know the beginning and the end of the human story, and we know it's all in God's sovereign care. Christian hope is realistically optimistic. We acknowledge the presence of sin in the world—and in our own hearts, but we do not crash in an emotional death spiral, because we know the Lord, the author of hope.

"Hope springs eternal in the human breast." For the Christian--hope really is eternal.

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.