Rediscovering Hope and Optimism
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- Written by: Rex M. Rogers
There was a time, on both sides of the aisle, when being upbeat in politics was considered admirable. VP Hubert H. Humphrey was known as the "Happy Warrior." Pres Ronald Reagan, the "Gipper," was widely recognized for his sunny, forever optimistic persona.
Now, it seems many Dem/Repub pols, activists, journalists, academicians--and beaucoup peeps on (anti)social media--are terminally angry, perpetually offended, lack humility, at times fearful, so convinced their view is correct yours does not deserve hearing, and 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--
--FDR re the Depression and later the War, "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
--JFK, "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, "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."
--GHWBush, "I have spoken of a thousand points of light, of all the community organizations that are spread like stars throughout the nation, doing good."
While not every American is Christian, the nation has been thoroughly influenced by Christian thought from before its founding, and optimism is a uniquely Christian attitude. Hope, particularly in the future, must come from faith in the Sovereign God.
Other worldviews do not provide hope, or if they attempt to do so, they don’t know how to deal with the reality of evil. Christianity resolves the question of good and evil and gives people reason for optimism.
Our culture’s pell-mell rush during my lifetime to abandon Christian values in favor of the latest Ism is what’s brought us to this point: elites with no optimism, no real hope.
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).
© 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
When culture rejects the idea of objective truth all that’s left is irrationality.
American culture is now not just embracing but celebrating irrationality. What else explains abortion-on-demand all the way through even post-birth, gender fluidity, freedom of speech only if we agree, rejection of evidentiary rule of law in favor of rule by feelings?
Our irrationality is rooted in our embrace of moral relativism, which is now the basis of American culture’s worldview. This is perhaps most obvious in matters of human sexuality.
Doing what’s right in your own eyes sexually, that is, with public approval, cannot happen as long as religion, specifically biblical Christianity, is influential in people’s hearts and minds. So sexual progressivism in all its forms has become the point of the spear pushing total rejection of Judeo-Christian values as the historic basis of American public morality and culture. This push is organized, aggressive, and in the name of tolerance the most intolerant silence-opposing-views movement at work today.
This moral chaos shows up in, among other things:
- Abortion
- Huge percentage of homes with no father in the home, i.e. kids growing up without male parental influence
- LGBTQ+, same sex marriage
- Debt complacency- Living not just beyond our means; living beyond our children’s means
- Dividing walls of hostility between groups: gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, language, culture
- Loss of civility, morality, optimism replaced by a coarse and obscene culture, hysterical politics
Francis A. Schaeffer’s phrase “true truth” foresaw our current “your truth vs my truth,” subjectivism and relativism, “truthiness,” feelings-the-measure-of-all-things, and the mess we have now with “fake news” and “alternative facts.”
Along with the phrase “celebrating irrationality” to describe our culture I’ve used the phrase “sophisticated ignorance,” like Athens in Acts 17. The superstition and D.I.Y. religion is evident in rejection of moral absolutes and the idea of objective truth, then an embrace of chance, feelings, and subjectivity over reason, and an inclination toward new forms of paganism.
If you think abortion is “life-sustaining” as does the governor of Michigan, so it is. If a baby in the womb or even born alive is not wanted, it’s not a human baby.
“War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.” Celebration of irrationality.
Irrationality is now a way of life for more and more people.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020
*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 people who ask, "What's happening in America?" The answer in part is that American social cohesion, once grounded upon a Judeo-Christian value consensus, is breaking down – No, is no more.
What's now happening daily is a titanic cultural tug-o-war of diametrically opposed worldviews. One is Christian, at least its roots, and the other is not secular per se but humanistic, morally relativistic pan-everything-ism. We are witnessing a battle of worldviews for America's soul.
Christianity once sat at the head of the table in American culture, metaphorically speaking. Now it isn't even at the table, at least not among cultural elites in academia, media, entertainment, sports, and increasingly in politics. Check out this article in West Michigan Christian News.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020
*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
Great Lies seducing American culture:
- God and religion are irrelevant in the public space.
- Truth, if it exists at all, is determined not by the Creator, Scripture, natural law, unalienable rights but by gender, skin color, sexual orientation, or the latest identity du jour.
- Abortion is women’s health.
- Abortion on demand is acceptable late trimester, and even after-birth or “born alive” a mother and doctor in some states can choose whether the baby lives.
- Sex and/or gender are a complex spectrum.
- Cancel culture is legitimate, even if the “offense” happened decades ago, and even to getting people fired or ruining reputations.
- Suppressing free speech and debate are justifiable in the name of social justice.
- Questioning the “prevailing acceptable woke narrative” is “violence” and prima facie racist.
- Disregard for the rule of law, violent rioting, looting, arson, and destruction of property are justifiable in the name of social justice.
- Race matters above all else and “racial harmony” is racist.
- Antifa is anti-fascist.
- Black Lives Matter the organization is simply about assuring black lives matter.
- Moral opposition to some behavior or action makes one ipso facto a “hater.” Thus, disagreeing with Islam = Islamophobia; with homosexuality = homophobia, with same-sex marriage = bigotry; with taking a knee to the National Anthem = racism; with “All-white-people-are-racist” = white fragility and evidence of “privilege.”
- The USA was founded not upon religious liberty but white supremacy and slavery.
“The devil…does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies,” (John 8:44). “And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light,” (2 Corinthians 11:14).
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020
*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
A democratic republic cannot survive without aspirational, consensus ideals, comity, law and order, and social cohesion. What we've seen in America in the last few months, 1) in the throes of virus, 2) in the turbulence of unrest, is not simply infliction but insurgence.
Peaceful protest toward desired social change is a productive thing, a blessing of a free society. Mobocracy, enabled by elected officials, toward the boogieman du jour is a destructive thing, a scourge of a free society.
The cold coup d'etat some have attempted is dangerous in the extreme--to life, liberty, justice, truth, patriotism--something that can become hot with a flashpoint at any time.
What makes the USA is not beautiful topography but time-tested political ideals as enshrined in a constitutional system that has worked, however imperfectly at times, for more than 200 years.
No matter who is elected Nov 3, many will not simply be unhappy but inconsolable. This is the kind of flashpoint that concerns me. I don't want to live in a banana republic.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020
*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
Woke culture produces bullies, people so self-righteously engaged with their holy list of issues that anyone disagreeing with them must be silenced. Welcome to America’s Brave New World.
“Woke” is shorthand for the slang “stay woke,” meaning to be aware of an issue, particularly so-called social justice issues. Wokeism is a new, sort of “religious” orthodoxy sweeping America.
Wokeism requires absolute adherence to its demands. And if you don’t agree, you’ll be publicly humiliated or defamed, professionally ruined, or otherwise dismissed, typically via social media attacks. For example, University of British Columbia Board Chairman had to resign after simply liking Trump Tweets. The Church will be next.
The woke culture or wokeism finds almost everything offensive, which means it wants to cancel seemingly everything. The cancel culture is a subset of Wokeism.
Wokeism uses bullying tactics, which in the name of tolerance and anti-racism are ultimately intolerant and often racist.
Like bullies everywhere, no amount of agreement, acquiescence, apologies, or groveling satisfies them, i.e. they “can’t get no satisfaction” because they really don’t want it. They want to quash anyone who does not salute their definition of the prevailing narrative, and they can’t win arguments on the merits so, again, silencing is their tool.
In wokeism, there is no forgiveness, only guilt the woke assign, and since they perceive themselves or those they purportedly represent as victims, everyone else is inherently and permanently guilty.
By now perhaps it goes without saying that wokeism is anti-American, meaning the point of view concludes that anything American is by definition racist and thus deplorable. Cue the ritual shaming, and also cultish kowtowing by political elites.
Ben Weingarten recently noted, “the National Museum of African American History & Culture has a section of its website entitled, ‘Talking About Race.’ One infographic there illustrates that values such as self-reliance, hard work and future orientation, institutions such as the nuclear family and a justice system based on English common law that enshrines private property rights, and practices such as using proper English and being polite are aspects of "white dominant culture"—a culture "where nonwhite persons are seen as inferior or abnormal." Only after facing a backlash did the museum decide to pull down the infographic. But the site's ‘Talking About Race’ section remains, replete with similar materials, including, for example, an embedded video entitled, ‘Deconstructing White Privilege with Dr. Robin DiAngelo.’"
“According to the museum, some key identifying characteristics of ‘whiteness’…include possessing a ‘master and control nature,’ ‘aggressiveness and extroversion,’ ‘heavy value on ownership of goods, space, property,’ a taste in ‘steak and potatoes; ‘bland is best,' and ‘no tolerance for deviation from single god concept,’ so be sure to watch out for these signs when interacting with others to steer clear of white people.”
I’m not sure what logic brings one to a point that you could say, with a straight face, that a taste for steak and potatoes is somehow racial. But this is the level of racist absurdity to which some have gotten in their wokeness. And, of course, this is pretty mundane. To argue that a belief in a “single god concept” is somehow “White” is much more metaphysically and spiritually dangerous to the individual who buys into this satanic idea.
“Woke” culture focuses on social justice, anarchist, or leftist issues: microaggressions, police actions against Blacks, LGBTQ rights, poverty among Blacks, Native Americans, Latinos, attacks against Muslims or suspicion against them by associating them with terrorists, environmentalism.
For the record, I have no problem with genuine concerns for racial justice and equal opportunity, nor with social justice per se as it can be defined based upon a Christian worldview. My problem is with the underlying Marxism, associated critical race theory, and leftist philosophy represented in wokeism that wants to tear down the American system for the sake of historically demonstrated failed and dangerous ideas that undermine freedom and justice for all.
“Like wokeism, we are all a product of a world in the grip of a crisis of meaning. As a culture, we do not know where we’re going, or why we’re here, or what we’re supposed to be doing… Left unchecked, wokeism will bring us further into tribal division and the sense of disconnection that drives the meaning crisis.”
A democratic republic cannot survive without law and order, comity, social cohesion, and ideals. Wokeism stands against all of this, promoting disorder, disunity, social insurrection, and narrowly conceived anti-democratic values.
Problem is, the woke bullies are nihilistically angry. They can’t get no satisfaction and with their values they never will.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020
*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.