News Weakly - 3/24/2018

So Lonely
Here's a story that made it under my radar. Back in January UK Prime Minister Theresa May appointed a "Minister for Loneliness". That's right. The UK will have a department aiming to help "the millions of people across the UK who suffer from loneliness."

Odd. I mean, look, we have all this Facebook and texting and so many ways to connect. How can there be so much loneliness? Well, apparently our modern living with our modern value systems and modern technology has created a loneliness epidemic. So, using modern methods, they will figure out how to better address this problem. How could that fail?

Double Standard?
In an interview from The Guardian, a 42-year-old man gives his thoughts ... on detransitioning. When he was 19 he "transitioned from male to female." A few years ago, he "detransitioned" -- made the change back to male. He believed that "the transition had caused more problems than it solved."

What I found interesting in the story was this comment. "Detransitioning isn't as unusual as you might expect, but it is underground, for a number of reasons, and the trans community isn't happy discussing this." Why is that? The public in general and the LGBTQI crowd in particular are pounding their pulpits about the moral rightness and human value of these things -- "You need to be allowed to be free to be yourself, to live as you identify." -- but when they identify other than what is currently allowed, you have to keep quiet about it. You can say with boldness, "I believe I am not the gender I was assigned at birth," but you must not assert, "I was wrong." How is that not a double standard?

Pray for Life
On March 20, the Supreme Court started hearing the case of National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra. The case is between a pro-life pregnancy center in California and a California law that requires that licensed facilities "disseminate a notice to all clients, as specified, stating, among other things, that California has public programs that provide immediate free or low-cost access to comprehensive family planning services, prenatal care, and abortion, for eligible women." Obviously, forcing a pro-life organization to provide information about where to kill babies would be contradictory when the point of such an organization is to provide an alternative to murder. The California law, essentially, states, "You have a conscience? Too bad. You will align with ours or you will face consequences." Worse, the stated reason for the law is the concern for the number of publicly funded births. California would like to reduce the number of births they have to pay for, so if they can encourage more women to kill their babies, they believe the state will be better off.

Court is in session. Pray for life.

Values Clarification
San Francisco has banned fur sales. The sale of furs "doesn't reflect the city's values." Teacher Gregory Salcido was fired for disparaging the military in his El Rancho Unified School District (California) classroom. "His comments," the president of the Board of Education declared, "do not reflect what we stand for."

It doesn't matter what you think about the particulars. Fur or no fur? Military or not? Teachers firing or no? Not my point. My question -- my deep and abiding concern -- is that, when we make laws and fire people based on "what we stand for", who gets to determine "what we stand for"? Since God's law and God's views are no longer allowed, "what we stand for" appears to be fluid, a relative and moving target based loosely on the public opinion of the moment, subject to swift change. What happens, for instance, if they determine "Christianity does not reflect our city's values"?

That's What I Was Saying
Tennesee lawmakers have passed a bill that would require public schools to put up the "In God We Trust" motto. The bill goes before the governor for signing. The state representative, Susan Lynn, who sponsored the legislation said, "Our national motto and founding documents are the cornerstone of freedom and we should teach our children about these things."

Now, of course, who knows if the governor will sign it? Who knows if the courts will allow it? Frankly, why would anyone think it is true anymore? We are not a Christian nation. It is true, however, that our roots are deep in Christian beliefs, our rights were endowed by the Creator, and the earlier morality that once made this country great was Christian morality. They may not be successful, but it is true that a faith in God was at the bottom of this nation's founding and serves as the only basis for further success. Which is I was saying.

I just ... what??
What they tell us is that abortion is for the poor unfortunates to whom bad things have happened. But ... apparently not. In Ireland a prostitute (I'm sorry, "sex worker") made her reasoning to repeal the 8th amendment and legalize abortion known:



They said it was a hardship thing, sometimes a financial thing, something bad mostly out of their control. Apparently not. Apparently it is due to bad choices and immoral sexual behavior.