News Weakly - 3/30/19

"Legacy of Anti-LGBTQ Behavior"
The San Antonio City Council has banned Chick-fil-A from its airport due a "legacy of anti-LGBTQ behavior." They admitted the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the Salvation Army, but argue that a company that requires no homosexual acts among its employees is not fit to serve food at their airport. (By the way, one of the groups Chick-fil-A donated to that is causing this "legacy of anti-LGBTQ behavior" comment is the Fellowship of Christian Athletes which requires a "sexual purity" policy of their employees. "The Bible is clear," they say, "in teaching on sexual sin including sex outside of marriage and homosexual acts. Neither heterosexual sex outside of marriage nor any homosexual act constitute an alternative lifestyle acceptable to God." That's okay; supporting them is not.) And now the city is making it illegal to be in business with the city for holding a biblical view.

Note that the Texas AG is investigating this because he believes that Chick-fil-A's rights have been violated.

Defining Justice
A Pittsburgh jury acquitted a white police officer in the shooting of 17-year-old Antwon Rose II, touching off protests and violence. A shot was fired through the window of the lawyer that represented the officer. "One man held a sign with the names of black men killed by police around the U.S." (Oddly enough, no one held up a sign with the lists of white men killed by the police around the U.S. In 2015, 1,388 people were killed by police. 40% were white and 23% were black.)

In this case, as in so many others, "justice" is defined as "finding guilty whomever we determine is guilty."

Like when the Mueller report indicates no apparent fault from Trump and the Democrats protest.

Hostile Environment
We are told that we must not create a "hostile work environment" by our words or actions. Talk about a hostile environment. When the Georgia Senate passed its fetal heartbeat law, they did it "amid protests and a heavy police presence." The argument goes "If it's got a heartbeat, it's alive." The counter argument goes something like, "If we want to kill it, we should be allowed to kill it," as indicated by folks like Alyssa Milano who urged Hollywood to boycott Georgia because they wanted to save lives. She pitted "bodily autonomy" against a baby's life. "This is America," you can almost hear. "We will not save lives here!" Sorry, kids, for a lot of you it really is a hostile environment. Life for our world is not very valuable. Yes, I know that the governor of Utah signed a bill banning abortions after 18 weeks. Yes, that's better than nothing. No, it's not quite "pro-life" and no, we are fairly confident the Supreme Court will shoot this one down as well. Still a hostile environment for life here in the 21st century.

Unclear on the Concept
The president of Mexico has asked Spain and the pope to apologize for the conquest of Mexico 500 years ago. He wants them to "ask forgiveness of indigenous peoples for violations of what are now known as human rights." Was what Spain and the Catholic church did back then wrong? Well, of course. Can modern Spain and the pope ask for forgiveness? Not in any meaningful way. You cannot repent of that which you did not do. You cannot be forgiven for what you did not do. And "I'm sorry for what someone did 5 centuries ago" has no real point. But they'll keep trying, won't they? Hey, I know! Let's ask El Presidente to apologize for Stalin killing millions of people. Surely he'd be willing apologize for other communists, right?

What Could Go Wrong?
It's an Internet meme. "What could possibly go wrong?" accompanied by a picture of a guy peering into the barrel of a gun or signs showing a whisky tasting event next to an axe throwing event. So Colorado legalizes recreational marijuana. What could possibly go wrong? Well, now they're reporting a spike in ER visits primarily due to consumption of edible marijuana. Go figure.

Bible Courses in Public School
There is a story out that Missouri House has passed a bill that will allow public schools to teach courses on the Bible. Now, mind you, I'm not a "separation of church and state" kind of person. It's not in the Constitution. The government cannot establish a religion, but that doesn't require a complete disconnect. Still, I'm not sure at all I like the idea of a secular entity being in the business of teaching God's Word. I don't want God out of public schools, but I don't think I want public schools dispensing God, either. So I'm ambivalent on this story.

No New Green Deal for You
In an absolutely stunning vote, the Senate voted not to proceed with the Green New Deal bill. The vote was 57 to nothing. That's right. Some Democrats voted against the bill but no one at all voted for it. Not even the senator that introduced it. A ploy by the Republicans? Yes, of course. And a no-win for the Dems. You can't vote for it, or America will see you're a socialist, and you can't vote against it because your party will look bad. "Present," was the vote of 43 Democrats. Sadly, I'm still pretty sure this kind of ploy will not wake up Americans to the insanity that the philosophy of the Democratic party has become.

Theological Drift
Azusa Pacific University is a California-based Christian university. The story reads, "Azusa Pacific University again has lifted a ban on LGBTQ relationships on campus." APU made the news some time ago with its student handbook that declared that homosexual relationships weren't allowed. It made the news because that was a change -- they were allowed before. But APU applied historical, biblical, Christian rules to their college and required sexual purity (both heterosexual and homosexual). No more. Because APU doesn't require you to be a Christian to attend, they will not require Christian standards of their students. Why? Because student complaints and supporters outweigh God's Word every time. "They are stigmatizing queer people," they complained. Given this position, there can be no rules on campus because any rule stigmatizes someone. "No way! You can't make rules against plagiarism! That would stigmatize plagiarists!" Yeah, you go with that. Erin Green, who spearheaded this change, said, "This stigmatization causes harm to our community, especially those serious about their Christian faith." Erin Green sees no conflict between "Christian faith" and activities that violate the Christian faith. APU claims to be "actively engaged in stewarding our biblical and orthodox evangelical Christian identity." They can't do it by dropping biblical and orthodox evangelical Christian values. And since Green is a graduate of APU, apparently they weren't stewarding it back then, either.

Welcome to "theological drift," where "theological drift" turns into "departure from Christianity." (See Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Oxford, etc.)

Trump Supporters Relieved
In the wake of the release of Mueller's report, the Babylon Bee put out a headline that was a bit too close to Evangelicals. The headline reads, "Evangelicals Relieved Their President Now Only Guilty Of Paying Off Porn Stars, Models." That would be funny, I guess, if it wasn't so ... pointed. "Good news! Our adulterous, lecherous, greedy, deceitful, short-tempered president isn't guilty of collusion with the Russians!" (ROm 2:24) Ouch!