Cancel Culture

 

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

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.

Do not be afraid. Stand on the Word of God. Resist evil and shine as lights, offering hope to a darkened world.

An Initial Comment

The first article I’m recommending reports on a man, thinking (or pretending) he is a woman. While this claim is becoming more common, this case is pernicious. Watching her / him become a champion in NCAA swimming, Women’s Division, we are witnessing the end of fair competition in women’s sports. The NCAA, caving into the cancel culture and political correctness, should be ashamed.

Knowing this, why would a young woman today make the commitment of time and energy to strive for athletic excellence if some pretender like Lia Thomas is going to be your completion?

How long before a team of former males claiming to be women claims the NCAA’s women’s basketball championship?

Lia Thomas Wins NCAA Championship Swimming Title

Lia Thomas became the first transgender person to win an NCAA Division 1 swimming championship, destroying the competition to win the 500-yard freestyle event by nearly two seconds.

Through Nancy Hogshead-Makar, a lawyer who won three Olympic gold medals in swimming in the 1980s, more than a dozen members of Penn’s team sent an anonymous letter to the university and the Ivy League last month to complain that Thomas had “an unfair advantage over competition in the women’s category.” They cited her rapid ascension in the rankings, from high-quality conference swimmer to national title contender, and asserted that her victories and potential to break women’s records were “feats she could never have done as a male athlete.”

Swim Parents: ‘Inclusion’ For Lia Thomas Tramples Inclusion for Our Daughters

This is an article written by parents of accomplished competitive swimmers. It expresses their concerns regarding the NCAA’s politically correct decision to allow transgender women (i.e. men who think they are women) to compete against biological women.

All three of our swimmers are perplexed with the swimming and collegiate leaders who are enabling Thomas to compete against and dominate women in the swimming pool. The youngest, who still has three years of collegiate eligibility, faces the real prospect of someday having to face a transgender athlete in the pool that she could never, ever have a chance of beating.

Our son is frustrated as well because his college times are very similar to those of Thomas when Thomas swam for the University of Pennsylvania’s men’s team. And like all good brothers, he feels the desire to protect his sisters from what is coming. It makes you wonder: Do the men who run the NCAA and USA Swimming have sisters or daughters?

Yes, the Senate Should Investigate Jackson’s Leniency to Sex Predators

Joe Biden’s Supreme Court nominee is qualified, according to Biden, because she is a woman, black, and pro-abortion.

However, her record implies another qualification. She is soft on prosecuting sex predators.

But research released this week by Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, calls into question Judge Jackson’s judicial philosophy concerning sex predators, particularly sentencing for child sex predators.

Beginning with a paper she authored while a student at Harvard Law School, Judge Jackson appears to have a track record of both advocacy and sentencing decisions demonstrating extreme leniency toward child sex predators. Perhaps more concerningly, her record also demonstrates an attempt to normalize a radical sexual ideology of adults being attracted to minors – categorizing it not as flatly criminal, but simply as misunderstood.

Biden Administration Handicapped Domestic Energy Production on First Day in Office, Memos Reveal

Oh My! How can this be?

I thought Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine is causing rising gas prices.

But, as Paul Harvey said, “here is the rest of the story.”

Contrary to President Biden’s recent claims that his administration is pulling out all the stops to alleviate America’s inflation woes, since its early days it has fostered a policy environment that is hostile to domestic energy production, fueling price hikes at the gas pump long before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to memos obtained by National Review.

On the day Biden took office, his Department of the Interior issued a memo suspending the authority of local Bureau of Land Management offices to approve leases, drilling permits, and mining operations plans that would support America’s oil supply, Republican senator Dan Sullivan of Alaska explained on the House floor Monday night. Sixty days later, a second memo was sent out by political appointee Laura Daniel Davis extending the suspension of local authorities indefinitely and making the fate of all future leasing and drilling permits contingent on her personally rubber-stamping them.

He assured Americans last week, “It’s simply not true that my administration or policies are holding back domestic energy production. That’s simply not true.”

But these memos, obtained by National Review, appear to show that the Biden administration intentionally handicapped the domestic oil industry from day one as part of its mission to transition the U.S. to a green economy. Now that gas prices and inflation are reaching record heights, Biden has pinned a large chunk of responsibility on Russian president Vladimir Putin, whose attack on Ukraine has created tumult in energy markets, given that much of the West, particularly Europe, is dependent on Russia for oil.

POLL: American Voters Oppose Cancel Culture, Support Religious Freedom

While our cultural elites are active participants in the “cancel culture” most Americans support religious freedom, and that means freedom from cancel culture.

The vast majority of American voters support the right to public religious expression and oppose cancel culture, a poll released Tuesday by Summit Ministries found.

Of the voters surveyed, 79% stated that they supported the rights of people who “adhere to the values found in the Bible” to publicly express their religious beliefs, according to the poll. Meanwhile, 12% of voters stated that they did not support the right and 9% said they were “unsure.”

Additionally, the poll found that 77% of voters stated “‘canceling’ or blacklisting someone for their opinions or beliefs” is “harmful to American society.” At the same time, 13% of voters answered that they thought canceling someone is “helpful,” while 10% said they were “unsure.”

But while most Americans believe cancel culture is wrong and harmful, many feared being canceled by losing their jobs if their employers knew their true opinions.

The poll also found that 31% of voters are “concerned” voicing their opinions could cost them their jobs, while 63% were either “not very concerned” or “not concerned at all.” An additional 6% stated they were “unsure.”

Yet a stunning one-third of voters fear losing their jobs for expressing their beliefs. This is a dramatic revelation,” Myers continued. “Freedom cannot thrive if a large number of people live in fear of losing their livelihoods for having a viewpoint. Corporate and political leaders must take these concerns seriously.”

I recently saw an email from someone in a “faith-based” (i.e., Christian) corporate office.The signature block included: “my preferred pronouns are….”

If someone employed by that company questioned why this was necessary, would they be “canceled?”

Justice Clarence Thomas Slams Court Packing and Cancel Culture

Given that packing the Supreme Court with left-leaning justices is not off the table for the Biden administration. If Justice Thomas is concerned, we also should be concerned.

Over the weekend, Justice Clarence Thomas slammed liberals’ efforts to pack the Supreme Court with left-wing judges and cancel culture that eliminates people simply because of their views and beliefs.

“You can cavalierly talk about packing or stacking the court. You can cavalierly talk about doing this or doing that. At some point the institution is going to be compromised,” Thomas said at the event.

Thomas, the most senior justice on the nine-member court, said he often worries about the long-term repercussions of trends such as “cancel culture” and a lack of civil debate.

Should Christians Engage in ‘Cancel Culture’?

Clearly, the answer is no. This article explains why.

Cancel culture entails culturally blocking people from continuing to have a prominent public platform or career. Typically, it follows a pattern: a public figure does/says something offensive, the public releases a backlash and calls to cancel the person. Via boycotts or disciplinary action against the person, the person is then punished for their actions. Public shaming online is an initial part of cancellation.

Cancel culture results in the Fundamental Attribution Error, occurring when we associate goodness with our own behavior, and poor behavior with others. This forgets mercy and does not accurately reflect the Christian call to seek and imitate the mercy of our Father. Cancel culture does not accept apologies. It allows for the dismissal of one’s own sinfulness, and it forgets our future.

Idaho HB 675: Transgenderism Is Child Mutilation!

Besides Florida and Texas, Idaho wants to protect children from the radical transgender movement. Bravo for Idaho’s leaders!

In the early months of 2022, several states have seen movement on legislation that never should have been drafted, but in a totally depraved, fallen world, it has become necessary that we specifically legislate to protect children from being groomed for sexual abuse and worse, experimented on via clinical and surgical means. Last week, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis drew the rage of the left with the passage of Florida’s anti-grooming bill, which was derided as “Don’t Say Gay.” Meanwhile, viral clips circulated of feminist landwhales discussing child masturbation at summer sex camps in Kentucky and Pete Buttigieg’s butt buddy having children recite a gay national anthem on a Netflix documentary. Such degeneracy makes these laws all the more necessary to legislate.

Recently, the Idaho House of Delegates passed HB 675 which would amend Idaho’s already existing law on female genital mutilation to be more inclusive so that it protects all children. The word “female” is dropped from the statute and the statute is updated to criminalize the following: [W]hoever knowingly engages in any of the following practices upon a child that circumcise, excise, infibulate, or mutilate the reproductive organs and parts of a child, for the purpose of attempting to change or affirm the child’s perception of the child’s sex if that perception is inconsistent with the child’s biological sex, shall be guilty of a felony.

It’s Noun or Never: Teacher Fights for Job in Trans Name Fight

Here is another article on the transgender movement’s push to co-opt our children, and through them, their teachers. And this is a matter of religious liberty.

This teacher may lose her job because she stands firmly on the biblical teaching that a biological boy is a boy, and a biological girl is a girl, regardless of what they want to claim.

Making this even more upsetting is that it is happening deep in America’s heartland. Please pray for Ms. Ricard as her faith is under attack by cancel culture.

Can three letters cost you your job? They can if they’re “s-h-e.” That’s the unbelievable drama playing out for the latest time in Kansas’s Fort Riley Middle School. When math teacher Pamela Ricard refused to use a boy’s name for a female student, the Geary County School District gave her a choice: embrace the lie or lose your job.

What’s especially interesting about this case is that the student never came to Ricard to tell her about her preferences — nor did the school have a policy ordering staff to honor them. This only came up because Ricard called her “miss” to get the girl’s attention in class — only to have another student email her and say that the girl now used “he/him” pronouns and a different first name. In an effort to walk that fine line, Ricard decided to call the girl by her legal last name, which infuriated the student who had emailed her. In a note left on Ricard’s desk, the classmate accused her of being “transphobic.”

Wisconsin Teachers Instructed to Hide Students’ Gender Identities from Parents

Finally, here is another blatant attack from the radical left on parental rights and our children.

Teachers at a school district in Wisconsin are being instructed to hide their students’ changing gender identities from parents on the grounds that “parents are not entitled to know,” and that it is “knowledge that must be earned,” according to leaked training documents.

The instruction was part of several recent staff development sessions for teachers in the Eau Claire Area School District in central Wisconsin that focused on safe spaces, gender identity, microaggressions, and oppression. According to one of the trainers, parents who disagree with their kids about gender identity issues are guilty of a form of “abuse.” The trainers also encouraged the teachers to be activists: “to vote, to demonstrate, to protest.”

Critics of the training sessions called the instruction “blatant disregard for the parents and guardians of our community’s children,” and they said it sends the message that schools are in control of children, not parents and families.

Additional Culture War Related Reading

 

The Passage of the FAIR Act Is a Blow to Religious Freedom

 

Spy Gate 101: A Primer on the Russia Collusion Hoax to Down Trump

 

‘Hell Has Open Borders’: Church Apologizes After Sign Sparks Community Outrage

If the people incensed about this knew what the Bible teaches, they would have gotten the point.

GOP Fury at Big Tech, Dems After NYT Admits Hunter Biden Laptop Is Real

 

[U.S. Attorney General] Merrick Garland Has Turned the Department of Justice Into a Left-Wing Blog

 

What Is Wisdom? A Biblical Definition of Wisdom.

 

An Open Rebellion in the Roman Catholic Church

 

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