February 2022

Each week, I recommend readings from around the Internet for Christians engaged in the culture war.

My mission is to provide help and encouragement to live out our faith amidst the moral decline of our culture. Challenges to religious freedom, free speech, biblical morality, innocent and defenseless human life continue unabated.

But do not despair. Standing firmly on the Word of God, we can resist evil and shine as lights, offering hope to a darkened world.

Biblical Passages for Tough Times

This week I begin with encouragement from God’s Word as we absorb the news of Putin’s invasion of the Ukraine tossed on top of the continuing pandemic, and a relentless attack on godly values. As Christians, in times like these, in the midst of a culture war, we turn to the Bible.

During these deeply troubling times we are living through, with not just Covid and all that has gone with it, but now Ukraine today, and possibly Taiwan soon, Christians can be quite anxious and worried. It is not just non-Christians whose hearts can be troubled by these events.

The more our world seems to be crumbling all around us, the more we need an unchanging and eternal God that we can run to, take shelter in, and depend upon. And sometimes it is best to say as little as possible, and just let God speak through his Word.

Big Tech Threatens to Turn America into Canada Unless We Stop It

Each week it’s necessary for me to share warnings about Big Tech censorship and the increasing totalitarian machinations of the Biden Administration, key protagonists in the culture war. Here are some disturbing thoughts from the Federalist.

Last week, our Canadian neighbors mobilized their national security apparatus against working-class citizens protesting government overreach. The Biden administration is no doubt taking notes.

In fact, the contours of a similar strategy are already emerging in the United States. First, the FBI reportedly tagged parents opposed to critical race theory with a “terrorism” label under the direction of Biden’s Department of Justice. Then, the DOJ revealed plans to stand up a domestic terror unit fixated on “anti-government or anti-authority” ideologies.

Has the United States Army Declared Your Congregation an “Extremist Organization”?

Rules recently promulgated by the Army include imply that military personnel are forbidden from participating in an organization that abides by biblical sexual morality, including calling homosexuality sin. The rules label such organizations as “extremist.” That definition would include my church. What about yours?

The great question facing Christians serving in the U.S. Army (and perhaps other branches as well) is this: what are the implications of this language? “Racial, sex (including gender identity), sexual orientation, or ethnic hatred or intolerance”? What constitutes “intolerance”? What is the status of the church under these regulations?

Supreme Court to Hear Christian Web Designer’s Case

Here is another case of a Christian wanting to remain faithful to her beliefs, is accused of violating the rights of a same-sex couple.

What is the case about? Smith says her Biblical beliefs about marriage would lead her to decline any request from a same-sex couple to design a wedding website. She also wants to post a statement on her website about her beliefs. Doing those things, however, would violate a Colorado anti-discrimination law that the state attorney general argues requires businesses to serve LGBT couples. Smith’s lawyers claim the law has been weaponized against dissenting views and creates a clear violation of First Amendment free speech and religious rights. The Supreme Court plans to examine only whether a law that requires an artist to speak a particular message or stay silent violates the free speech clause of the First Amendment. The court is expected to hear arguments in the fall.

Canada’s Descent into the Abyss

We Americans need to pay careful attention to what is happening in Canada. The Biden Administration is showing similar totalitarian tendencies. Could the U.S. become Canada? Pray not!

Many have noted the obvious similarities between what happened in Germany last century and what has just happened in Canada of late (as well as places like here in Melbourne). The list that some have run with includes these points:

-Implemented health passports

-Suspended civil liberties

-Censored opposition

-Created two classes of citizens

-Forced healthy people into isolation

-Banned certain demographics from cinemas and restaurants

-Forced people to undergo unwanted medical interventions

-Used the media to control public perception

-Forced certain demographics out of their professions

Our Corrupt Regime Will Demonize the U.S. Freedom Convoy, No Matter How Peaceful

More concerns about the Biden Administration and civil liberties.

The bulk of American truckers and allies will not officially launch their journey to Washington, D.C., until March 1, but officials in the nation’s capital have already gone to extreme lengths to ensure that the Americans uniting for freedom from the tyranny that has wreaked havoc on the nation for the last two years feel anything but welcomed.

The American Freedom Convoy has pledged to keep their protests peaceful and deter bad actors, but their promises have fallen on deaf ears. No matter how peaceful the protesters are, they will be smeared by the increasingly corrupt government for being a “threat.” Already, government officials in D.C. are ramping up security and bracing for far more than what is expected from the group of truckers.

Assume Public Schools Sexually Abuse Your Kids Til Proven Otherwise

A frightening warning for parents.

Coaxing 10-year-old girls away from their parents, promising a fun and safe environment, and then forcing them to sleep in the same room as grown men is the kind of behavior you’d expect from a sexual predator. It’s child endangerment at best and traumatizing abuse at worst. Yet that’s exactly what California’s Los Alamitos Unified School District forced little girls at a school-organized science camp to do for three nights in San Bernardino, according to outraged parents.

The End of ‘Comfortable’ Christianity

A recent trial, amounting to religious persecution, in Finland is signaling that Christians in the West are no longer safe from persecution by the government.

The church is not, and never has been, a country club — though in the last century, especially in North America, it might have been confused for one. There was a time you could conduct personal business after the voters’ meeting, unofficially govern the affairs of the city from the church parking lot and use your Sunday morning bulletin to get a discount at the local buffet. Pastors could get a “clergyman’s discount” at retail stores. These were the halcyon, “good ol’ days,” when being a member of a Christian denomination was expected, normal, even American.

Those days are gone. Thanks be to God

It is time to put on the full armor of God!

¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.

¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. ¹⁸ And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. ¹⁹ Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, ²⁰ for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should. (Ephesians 6:10–20 ESV)

Let the Games Chagrin

Finally, Genocide Games from Beijing are over and didn’t watch for one second. Millions of others also shunned the games held in the top nation of human rights abuses, China.

The closing ceremonies of the 2022 Beijing Olympics couldn’t come soon enough for NBC, who just broadcasted the biggest Games flop of the modern age. With ratings in the basement and its credibility in tatters, no one is quite sure what the network got for its $7.75 billion dollar investment — except very expensive heartburn. When the curtain finally came down on the disaster that was the Winter Games, there were winners, to be sure. But there were, for the first time, many more losers — and the sporting world that allowed China to host was the biggest.

The Democrats Are Turning America into the New Venezuela

Read the quotes below, they tell the sorry story.

Our constitutional rights are disappearing at the combined hands of government and giant corporations. Stripping the people of their right to protect themselves is a slippery slope toward the downfall of a free country. It can rapidly turn a beautiful, resourceful, and free country into a living hell for its citizens. The radical Democrats are on a path to dismantle the United States, the way Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chavez have destroyed Venezuela in a matter of a decade.

For years, and with intensive pressure by the Obama Administration, the Democrats in the United States have also encouraged Americans to give up their firearms, while the politicians become better protected by armed guards themselves, paid for by the taxpayers. The very same people who tell you to hand over your firearms and ammunition are those who spend your tax dollars for their personal protection. It’s funny how that works.

The Democrats are sly. They snake their way into your life piece by piece and infiltrate all aspects of American life. They encourage you, bribe you with money. If you give up your guns out of your own volition, you are the only one to be blamed. You know that, right? You took the bait, and now they got you under control because you have no firearms to protect yourself and your family if ever there’s a need.

And in socialist regimes, there will be a need.

It sounds like Venezuela’s just a little further down the path Democrat-run cities across America are on, doesn’t it?

 

Some Additional Articles to Consider 

 

Pronoun Wars? The ‘Usual Suspects’ Quoted by the Press Skewed Baptism-Gate Coverage

 

Our Plastic World—And Plastic Selves

 

The Blissful and Trivial Life: How Entertainment Deprives a Soul

 

Arizona House Votes for Bill Declaring Churches Essential, Even During Emergencies Like COVID

 

War on Religious Freedom: We Must Stand Up for Finnish Christians Facing Trial for Their Faith

 

 

This week’s recommended book: The Criminalization of Christianity

 

 

May you have a blessed, productive, and peaceful week.