News Weakly - 12/03/2016

Confusion
Many are terrified that President-elect Trump will be a cruel leader, deporting immigrants and Muslims right and left stealing from the poor to enrich the rich. Then we hear that Fidel Castro has died. The response? Colin Kaepernick, known for his disdain for the "American system", praises Castro. Bernie Sanders praised him when he was alive and defended his praise after death. It seems odd that those who are deeply concerned about Trump on one hand would be praising a murderous dictator on the other. I'm confused.

Makes Sense
So, there was (continues to be?) all that furor over the Confederate flag. "Take it down!" seemingly everyone yelled because it was, after all, a symbol of slavery -- oppression of black people. Now, the last time I checked, the Confederate flag was actually the flag of the Confederate States of America. Part of the issue with this secession from the Union was slavery, but only part. They believed their free speech was limited, that the North was using the South for its own gain, that States' rights were being rejected, and more. But the flag had to go because it represented the oppression of minorities.

Stands to reason, then, that other flags would be next. Let's see ... what flag would be next? What flag could be regarded as a symbol for the mistreatment of the marginalized? Think, think, think. Oh, I know! So students at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, felt the need to demand that the school put back the U.S. flag they took down. "Jonathan Lash, president of Hampshire College, said the college had taken the flag down because students felt it was a symbol of the mistreatment of marginalized groups in the US, including people of color." That's right, the American flag. Now that is a symbol to be eliminated. In the wake of Trump's election students took down the flag and then burned it. Because a world without a hated president-elect and a world without the United States of America is a better, more loving world indeed. Makes sense.

These Things Make Me Weep
So you probably heard that a Texas elector quit because he could not do what was required and place his vote for Trump. Let's see if I understand. "I will take this job as an elector and place my vote for whomever my state says I'm supposed to vote ... as long as it's the one I want to vote for." I don't doubt that this guy won't be the last.

But that's not what gets me sad. He said in his blog that the Electoral College was corrupt. You know, that thing that has been there all along according to the Constitution. But that's not all. He declared there that his primary problem was that Donald Trump was not biblically qualified to be president. Oh, now, why did you have to go there? Why did you have to drag God's good name into this? Was Hillary biblically qualified? Bush? Clinton? Which one in the last couple of decades has met biblical qualifications? No, wait ... where do you find biblical qualifications for President of the United States? He references qualifications for king of Israel. Not the same thing. He ignores the plain Scriptures that say that God establishes all authority, just and unjust. So why drag God's name through the public mud? Sometimes it makes me weep.

Baby Murder on the Decline
According to a World Magazine story, the CDC is reporting that abortion rates are now lower than they have ever been since the government started tracking abortions (1969). That's a good thing. Still, the question is "Why?"

The National Right to Life organization chalks it up to education of the public of the humanity of the unborn child. The Family Research Council credits the "tsunami of pro-life laws". There is, of course, the increase in parental notification laws to consider, too. On the other hand, the CDC is reporting a decrease in fertility overall and that medically-induced abortions have climbed 5% between 2012 and 2013 thanks to new abortion drugs.

I, of course, am pleased that the rates of the murder of the unborn has decreased. I'm only sad that it comes apart from the genuine solution. That is, it is not due to turn to a Christian worldview or an increase of people coming to Christ. Now that would be truly good news.

Heretics in our Midst
You may or may not know who Chip and Joanna Gaines are. They are the married hosts of a show titled Fixer Upper on HGTV who are very popular. They take on clients in the Waco, TX, area to fix up homes into the home of their dreams. All well and good. Until you find out, horror of horrors, that the two of them are ... gasp ... Christians who go to a church that ... God forbid ... is opposed to same-sex marriage ... that teaches that homosexuality is a sin! Oh, the humanity!

Wait ... hang on. Isn't that like ... oh, I don't know ... straight out of the Bible? Isn't that what you find in the Christian Users Manual? Wouldn't the remarkable story be "This church denies the Bible and teaches that homosexual behavior is good"? Wouldn't the real story be "There are churches out there that deny God's Word while falsely claiming to follow God"? And, of course, that's not the case today. Which is not a commentary on Chip and Joanna Gaines, their Bible-believing church, or Christians everywhere who believe the Bible, but on our society's sad state of affairs in that such people and churches are considered odd even when they're in the center of where they ought to be. Clearly in our current culture the heretics are the ones who disagree with a particular segment of society in regards to a particular sexual sin whether or not the "heretic" in view is saying anything at all on the subject. (Cosmo wants you to know that the silence of the Gaines "speaks volumes".) And, as in days of old, heretics, even cultural ones, can be burned at the stake. Perhaps not literally, but in other ways. Ask the baker, the florist, the photographer, and the rest who have stood on biblical principle to their own peril.

There are heretics in our midst. The heretics in our midst are not these people.