How Does That Work?
For a long, long time environmentalists have been warning about, first, that dreaded ozone hole that we have been causing and, subsequently, the whole global climate change issue. We're doomed, I tell you, doomed. So how does that work when the news comes out that "Higher temperatures over Antarctica this year shrank the hole in the ozone layer to the smallest it's been since 1988"? Doesn't that appear to say that "global climate change" is fixing a problem? I'm not sure I can follow this.
(Note: This is not climate change denial. This is the statement that we don't know how all this stuff works and what is good or bad.)
Spike of 1
"Spike in US gun death rate for second straight year," the headline reads. We should all just stop there. We have what we need to know. Guns can kill people and people are using them to do it. Got it. Get rid of guns. Except the actual story is a little different than that. The CDC reported that in 2015 the deaths from guns was 11 per 100,000 people and now it "spiked" to 12 per 100,000 in 2016. That's down from as high as 15 per 100,000 people in the 90's. So 1 is a spike? Or is this less-than-honest reporting? In the military they have a term: "Fire for effect." Is this "reporting for effect" rather than expressing the truth?
"If we do it, it's not playing politics."
In the Obama era, any time the GOP "played hardball", threatening filibuster or obstruction or ... whatever, the president and the media was quick to call it "partisan politics". It was not "principles" or the like. It was pure politics. But now that the Democrats are threatening to shut down the government if they don't get their way on DACA, it's not partisan politics, right? Or is this just more of the long and lengthening list of double standards being paraded in front of the public?
Legally-Mandated Insanity
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that there are two genders -- male and female. It isn't some social construct; it is biology. In every other possible aspect we are not unclear. A white person is not a black person, even sort of. A tall person is not a short person. You won't find a 7'2" black basketball player trapped in a 5'4" Asian body. We know this. But gender is another question, apparently. This is unclear. New York declared 30 genders. Facebook offered 50. And Germany's top court has ordered that lawmakers must legally recognize a "third gender" from birth. They ruled that the "male or female" system ... get this ... is unconstitutional. Materialists, where is your god (Science) now?
In a similar vein, Virginia has elected the first openly transgender state legislator in history. That is, "He doesn't know what male or female is -- or, at least, what he is -- but we are pretty sure he'll be able to make reasonable decisions in the legislature. And don't call him 'him'. Wrong pronouns will get you into legal trouble."
Didn't See That Coming
A real hot button these days is Social Justice. You know, issues of poverty, social well-being, justice, that sort of thing. Well, the research is in. Apparently the #1 social justice imperative -- the thing that goes the farthest in preventing poverty and improving social welfare -- is ... wait for it ... marriage. Didn't see that coming. From better income, education, and life opportunities to decreased child poverty, improved graduation rates, and greater overall success rates, marriage appears to be the single biggest factor. The report says that marriage boosts every measure of human well-being. Now if only we could recover exactly what "marriage" means, perhaps we could make a stand for Social Justice.
Unreformed
The point of the Reformation -- what has become known as "Protestantism" -- was to return the Church to the original plan found in God's Word. You know ... those five solas and such. It was what differentiated the Roman Catholics and the Protestants ("Protestants" = those who protested the Roman Catholic position). And we were proud to do it. That is, we were. Now, some 500 years later, it seems that Protestants are more Catholic than Protestant. Pew Research Center found that less than half of Protestants believe that faith alone is sufficent to get you into heaven or that the Bible is our sole authority in matters of faith and practice. Some 52% say that faith and good deeds are needed to get into heaven (like the Catholics do) and 52% believe that the Bible, the church's official teachings, and tradition form the structure of our faith (like the Catholics do). When putting the two together -- sola scriptura and sola fide -- only 30% of Protestants believe in both. Evangelicals scored highest, but even there it was only 44%. An amazing 30% of Protestants claimed belief in purgatory.
The Reformation occurred some 500 years ago, but the move back to biblical Christianity needs to recur. Apparently often.
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