News Weakly - 7/20/19

The Latest in Gender Fashion
You've heard, I'm sure, about the problem of gender dysphoria. "I know I was born a girl, but I think I'm a boy!" That sort of thing. You know the rising mania of the loudest voices in society about "You've got to respect their perceived gender" meaning you've got to let that bearded guy into the girls' locker room if he thinks he's a girl. People have been sued or fired for failing to use the "right pronoun." So here's the latest gender fashion. The "right pronoun" is the singular "they." As if "I am the gender I feel like regardless of ... you know ... science" makes sense, now "they" is not only singular, but the correct pronoun for a singular person. Now, I don't know. Perhaps "they" would have been the right pronoun for the Garasene demoniac (Luke 8:30), but I'm pretty sure that those from this whole "gender fluidity" world wouldn't appreciate that reference.

Speaking of Gender
In Orwell's 1984 the government understood if you can control the language you can control the masses. Limit their choices of words and you can control their thinking. Berkeley has decided to try the experiment. They have banned gender-specific words from city code. No more "manhole covers," "firemen," or "manmade devices." They included a list of "non-gender replacements." No more "sisters" (now "siblings") or "sportsmen" (now "hunters" because, apparently, the only sport for a "sportsman" is hunting) or "men or women." (On that last, in an effort to eliminate gender they make it "a specific gender.") Neither will there be "policewomen," "sororities," or "heirs." (Wait ... "heirs" is gender-specific??)

Free speech? No. Better communication? No. Driving an agenda? Well, obviously. (Hey, Berkeley, just a note here. "Man" can mean "male gender" or "mankind" without any reference to gender.) Control the language; control the masses. And, Berkeley, please be aware that being inclusive of an extreme minority by excluding the vast majority is not actually inclusive.

The New Face of Abortion?
El Salvador, they tell us, has really strict abortion laws. So women are upset that a 21-year-old woman is being tried for murder because of an abortion. At least, that's what the headline reads. The story is a little ... different. The young woman was having abdominal pains, so she went to the outhouse (poor rural community) and, as it turns out, delivered a baby into the septic tank. She didn't know she was pregnant (from a rape). She passed out and her mother found her and took her to the hospital. Neither woman knew that a baby was involved. (The baby was 32 weeks old.)

Now, there are several things going on here. She didn't know she was pregnant after 32 weeks. The prosecutor doesn't know if the baby died in utero or after the delivery. (The former would make it a miscarriage.) The event may have been a technical "abortion," but the story indicates it was a spontaneous abortion, not an intentional one. Apparently the government has sentenced her to a 30-year prison sentence for a miscarriage. None of this approaches either "a woman's reproductive rights" or voluntary abortion questions. It's a bad situation (assuming the woman is telling the truth), but this is not an abortion question. However, the "anti-life" folks will make it so.

Just Wondering Out Loud
You may or may not be up on the whole Scarlett Johansson problem of late. Johansson was cast as the main character in a Japanese manga movie, Ghost in the Shell, and was accused of "whitewashing" the part. Then she was slated to play the part of a transgender character in another movie but dropped out from the backlash. She defended herself saying, "I should be allowed to play any person, tree, or animal." And, of course, the fight continues. So, I'm just wondering. If a person of color was cast to play a white part or a transgender was cast in a cisgender part or a homosexual person was cast in a heterosexual part, would anyone care? No, I thought not. This isn't about what's right, is it.

Mixed Messages
This week the House voted that they didn't like Trump's tweet about "go back home" and, in the same week, voted not to impeach the president. That last vote was 332 to 95 not to impeach. It feels like mixed messages to me.

Educating Kids
A new bill in Ohio aims at bringing the "humanity of the unborn child" to the public school cirriculum. This will never do. Teaching our kids the truth is a nasty way to promote an anti-abortion agenda. The ACLU says it is a "slanted message regarding reproductive rights." So true! I never! Teaching kids science. Rotten politicians. (Hint: It is true that children in the womb are human beings. Even pro-abortion people know it. The common terminology is "unborn child, isn't it?) Just proves (again) that the American Civil Liberties Union is only interested in civil liberties for select Americans, not all.

In Passing
I would like to mention, only in passing, that the House this week approved legislation to raise the minimum wage to $15/hour by 2025. The Congressional Budget Office projected that this would lift 1.3 million people out of poverty and cost 1.3 million jobs. Like Bernie Sanders and his $40 trillion plan to eliminate private insurance and bring medicare for all ("This will cause some pain," he said assured us, but he's eager to increase taxes to get it done), I'm not entirely clear why they think this is a good idea. I mention it only in passing because it's abundantly obvious it'll never get passed the Senate.

On a Positive Note
Fifty years ago -- July 20, 1969 -- the Apollo 11 crew landed on the moon. Fifty years ago the first Communion was celebrated on the moon. Didn't know that? I didn't.

It turns out that Buzz Aldrin was a devout Christian, an ordained elder in the Presbyterian church. He wanted to express that "God was revealing Himself there, too." Soon after the landing, Aldrin made his preparations, then radioed a brief message. He read John 15:5 (silently -- NASA asked him not to read it out loud after Madalyln Murray O'Hair sued after the reading of Scripture on Apollo 8) and took the wafer and the wine. Aldrin said later that he "sensed especially strongly my unity with our church back home, and with the church everywhere."

Aldrin, at 89 years old, and his church still celebrate that event every year.