February 21, 2022

Culture War: Suggested Readings      

Each week, I recommend readings on the culture war from around the Internet for Christians living amid an increasingly hostile culture.

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. Despite the raging culture war, by standing firmly on the Word of God, we can resist evil and shine as lights, offering hope to a darkened world.

The Left’s Orwellian Newspeak: The Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Delusion [culture war in action]

George Orwell’s 1984 totalitarian superstate created “Newspeak” to eliminate language that encouraged people to think about ideas contrary to those being promulgated by the ruling class. Today the progressive left is forcing its version of “Newspeak” on our culture.

Well, the left has been engaging in their own kind of “Newspeak” by trying to eliminate words like “meritocracy” and “win,” “fail,” “superiority,” “earned,” and “liberty.” The left wants to supplant these American concepts with a new form of tyranny: “equity,” “diversity,” and “inclusion.”

You will hear these three words uttered almost anywhere you go today. You hear left-wing media pundits and talking heads bloviate endlessly about these ideas on television. You hear major national and international corporations put out slogans like, “we are seeking to strengthen our business through equity, diversity, and inclusion.” You see references to these three buzzwords incorporated into almost every syllabus, curriculum, in the mission statement of almost every college and university now, and you hear radicals scream endlessly about it through bullhorns on streets corners.

Take Control of Your Tech Before Metaverse Hits [a new level of the culture war]

Technology, computers, smartphones, and the Internet are part of our daily lives. Like so many things, we can use technology for our benefit, or we can misuse it for less than noble purposes. While technology can make us more productive, if we allow it, technology can dehumanize us.

In this article from the Discovery Institute, Andrew McDiarmid warns us of a emerging slippery slope seeking to replace reality with virtual reality.

Facebook’s recent name change to Meta has ushered in the Age of the Metaverse. Big Tech’s focus is shifting to a new frontier, the untamed wilds of the virtual world. Or is it worlds?

Before someone dares you to slip on a VR headset to get your first taste of the metaverse, get one thing straight — who is the boss of your tech? By tech, I mean all the gadgets you’ve amassed in the last decade or more: your computer, your smart TV, your phone, your tablet, your fitness doodad, your Bluetooth trackers, your video doorbell.

And by boss, I mean who will call the shots in the relationship, who will push the power button when it’s time, who will decide where your personal data belongs? Big Tech? Your gadgets? A hidden algorithm? Or you?

The Ignored Pandemic: 360 Million Christians Persecuted Worldwide [not culture war but real war on Christianity]

The Covid-19 pandemic has everyone’s attention. Every day the news is replete with Covid-related reports. But how many reports have you seen or heard about the growing persecution of Christians?

The year 2021 “saw the worst persecution of Christians in history” — with an average of 16 Christians murdered for their faith every day. The persecution of Christians, which was already horrific, has increased by nearly 70% over the last five years, with no signs of abating.

Focus on Preparing Your Family for Persecution

I titled the first series I posted on this blog The Future of Religious Freedom in the United States in which I warned of the coming persecution of Christians, even in our nation.

While not focused only on Christians, Canada’s recent attacks on those disagreeing with the Trudeau government are setting the stage for the same in the United States.

What the Canadian government is doing is a preview of what the US government in the future will likely to do dissenters: brand them as “domestic terrorists,” use anti-terrorism laws to persecute them (including seizing bank accounts and bringing them to heel by threat of economic ruin), and passing more laws to crack down on free expression, under the guise of fighting “hate” and protecting America from would-be terrorists, or pre-terrorists.

My point is, what’s happening in Canada — the government crushing dissent under the guise of keeping Canada “safe” from haters and deplorables — is a prelude of what’s to come here. Of course we have to fight it! For example, if you have never joined a public demonstration, you need to prepare to do so. But you should also read Live Not By Lies and follow the practical advice of the dissidents who lived under Soviet communism. Here is a link to a free, downloadable study guide I wrote for the book. You — we — need to be ready for these people. If you wait until active persecution starts to get your family, your church, and your community prepared, and to get your networks in place, it may be too late.

How a Trial in Finland Could Have Worldwide Effects on Persecution

I’ve previously reported on this attack on Christianity and will continue as the story develops. What is happening in Finland can one day happen here. Pay attention.

Like the United States, Europe has been increasingly restricting political and religious speech, especially in international courts against countries seen as unfashionably conservative, such as Hungary and Poland, Price said. This case therefore comes at a crucial time as speech rights are receiving less government support than has been long standard in the West.

It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Administration! [Contributions to the culture war]

If you are old enough, you may remember the insanely hilarious 1963 movie, It’s A Mad, Mad World. Well, it seems like the sequel is here in the Biden Administration.

In my mind, that movie title [It’s A Mad, Mad World] aptly describes just about everything the current occupant of the Oval Office and his installed regime have done for over a year now, and they aren’t slowing down. Exceeding expectations for failure at every step, with every single scheme, and while facing real-world challenges that come to every president and his administration, the man and his minions have increasingly demonstrated a complete lack of understanding of cause-and-effect, logical outcomes, and the sound governance of our citizens.

An Alarming Shift in Public Opinion [Fruit of the culture war]

As our culture continues to decay, more and more people succumb to the lies about human sexuality.

A new study shows that only 43 percent of Americans between the ages of 20 and 65 disapprove of sex-change procedures for adolescents. Importantly, this survey did not ask about whether adults should have the freedom to pursue such a medical procedure. Instead, it specifically limited itself to children and teenagers. Should minors be able to take hormones or even undergo irreversible surgical procedures to alter their bodies? Most of the respondents answered either “Yes” or “I don’t know.”

Notably, the single most decisive factor in a respondent’s opinion on the permissibility of sex-change procedures in young people was religious identity and behavior. This variable proved more important than age and even more important than political affiliation. Respondents who stated that religion is more important “than anything else” registered an 80 percent disapproval of adolescent sex transitions. This is 8 percentage points higher than the metric for those who described themselves as “very conservative” and 11 percentage points higher than those who voted for Donald Trump in 2016. The religious group that registered the strongest opposition to sex change among minors? Evangelical Protestants.

Are We Living in the End Times?

I am not an alarmist. Also, I believe the biblical “end times” began with the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and that we have been in the “end times” since then. However, as noted and level-headed theologian James Emery White shows in this article, the signs of the end enumerated by Jesus (Matthew 24:5-14) are more discernable than ever.

As we speak the online world is full of false teachers, Russia is provoking the world to conflict over Ukraine, global warming is spiking severe weather events, Christians are being persecuted around the world, former self-professed Christians are fueling the rise of the nones, the last two years and all things COVID have divided Christians as never before, we’ve moved beyond gay marriage to affirming all things trans (even the affirmation of pedophilia is beginning to circulate), and for the first time the internet makes the global communication of any message possible.

I think that checks off all eight.

In truth, we don’t know the exact time, only what the world will look and feel like when the end is near. But the description of the end times sure does look and feel,

… like right now.

Porn on the Shelves

Another evidence of cultural decay is the increasing tendency of public schools to allow pornographic books on their library shelves.

Last year, parental complaints about school closures, mask regulations, and critical race theory in the classroom grabbed headlines and figured in raucous school board meetings glimpsed on the evening news. But another complaint received less attention: the presence of books in the school library that parents considered pornographic.

Forecasting the Future of Cancel Culture

Make no mistake, “cancel culture” is going to be with us for a while. This article shares the bad news.

“The problem of cancel culture is going to get worse, not better,” says Eric Kaufmann, the report’s author and a professor at Birkbeck, the University of London. Kaufmann found that “younger people are substantially more likely to support cultural socialism than older Americans,” regardless of whether they identify as conservatives or liberals, Republicans or Democrats. “As today’s college graduates enter large organizations, they will mount an increasing challenge to freedom of expression,” he concludes.

Some Additional Articles to Consider 

 

Why Nearly 40 Percent of Gen Z Identify as LGBTQ

 

Lessons From the Beijing Olympics: Americans’ Duty to Protect Religious Freedom

 

The Truth About China Beyond the Olympics

 

Chinese Pastor Blacklisted by Communist Party Warns Church: ‘Don’t Be Fooled’ by Lies of State-Sponsored Church

 

The End of the Pandemic

 

This week’s recommended book: Speaking for the Unborn: 30-Second Pro-Life Rebuttals to Pro-Choice Arguments

 

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