STATES ARE RE-OPENING

There is a divide in the US that is genuinely confusing. One side seems to think unless you require an action and/or require the government to pay for it, you are not actually for the thing happening. The other side just seems to leave people to liberty and freedom. State re-openings are exposing that divide.

WOKE-ISM IS CONDESCENDING

When I see people, I see a human, made in the image of God with talents, skills, abilities, and potential. Woke-ists seem to see only helpless victims that must be rescued by the Woke. It's weird and condescending.

THAT GOAT GUY FROM JANUARY 6TH

CBS interviewed that insane QAnon-goat-dressed guy from the events of January 6th. It was.... interesting? Let's listen to it together.

POVERTY OF THE SOUL

Matt Chandler recently preached the concept of having everything we want and absolutely nothing that we need. It was profound. I'll play the audio.

JOHN MACARTHUR ATTACKS RELIGIOUS LIBERTY

Dr. John MacArthur recently preached against the concept of religious liberty. I have a few responses.

WOKE-ISM DESTROYS EVERYTHING

Remember the Co-Exist stickers? Remember the argument in favor of being a pluralistic society? For the Woke, those days are over. The Woke will have its way, power, and dominance -- whatever it must do.

 It's small, annoying things (stories from the Bachelor, Mr. Potato Head, and Oreo tweets). It's more concerning things (CocaCola's employee training, a letter from Congress-people to AT&T, Amazon banning certain books). Woke-ism is a small group of Americans, but it's the dominant philosophy right now without even using government to enforce its beliefs.

We can get angry at the Woke, or we can see behind the flesh and blood of this philosophy, and respond Biblically.

SMITH COLLEGE AND A CLAIM OF RACISM.

This New York Times story has a ton of important themes in it: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/24/us/smith-college-race.html

I'll break all of those down.

CALIFORNIA SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER IS OBNOXIOUS

We get to hear a School Board Member near San Diego be the walking embodiment of the Woke Religion. It isn't pretty.

SCHOOLS SHOULD RE-OPEN

We now have data on how much damage we're doing to kids who have lost of year of in-person instruction. Let's get them back to school.

On This Episode

A Church in Nashville alleges that the Bible is not the inerrant, infallible, Word of God. I'll respond with the fact and why Biblical authority is essentially vital to the Church. It's also essential for functional living.

Western cultures have adopted the practice of no longer seeing individual human beings. We see people as their ethnicity, income group, religion, and sex. This is POISONING our culture and damaging people. Let's be people that actually see the human being in front us -- and not their culturally-imposed "categories."

A conservative icon died recently. Some folks on the Left were elated. This celebration of death pulls back the current on the real conflict in which we find ourselves. Also, as with all celebrity deaths, these are opportunities to focus on our own mortality. 

A lot of less-than-informed thinking has been floating around on the topic. I'll explain.

On this Episode:

THE CHURCH CALENDAR IS AN OPPORTUNITY

Ash Wednesday is upon us. The weeks of Lent are coming up. We have an opportunity now to set our minds toward Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Resurrection Sunday. Practicing and recognizing the church calendar is an incredible tool to live distinctly -- no matter where the Christian lives on this planet.

DAVE RAMSEY CONTROVERSY ON STUDENT LOANS AND STIMULUS

People didn't like it, but Dave Ramsey was right. More important than his financial points was this: you are responsible for you. God entrusts us all with some resources. Under his authority, we are responsible for what we do and don't do with our lives. We must be a people who don't wait for the government -- or anyone else -- to live our lives FOR us.

RE-THINKING TAYLOR SWIFT LYRICS

I'm a huge Taylor Swift fan. As she has re-released her "Fearless" album, I'm realizing how much she creates a world of hopeless girls, needing rescue from men and placing responsibility on men to be knights in shining armor. Is this healthy? More importantly, is it Biblical? It's a hard one for me, and I still don't know where I stand.

A LOT MORE!

On this Episode:

I've been thinking lately about how much we allow life to happen TO us instead of TACKLING life. How would life and the world be different if we lived on purpose?

Senator Mitt Romney has a tax code idea that would offer parents close to $70,000 over 18 years for each child in the household. We're country that is very literally dying from a birth rate now lower than 2.0. Is social engineering of this sort -- even if it's good idea -- a government function? My opinion might surprise you.

I'm a free-speech purist, so I detest cancel culture. There are a couple prominent people being canceled right now, though (like Morgan Wallen) that I think is deserved. I try to reconcile those positions.

On This Episode:

ROBINHOOD/GAMESTOP/HEDGE FUNDS/REDDIT

This has been an incredibly intriguing and sort of confusing story. So, let's take some time to understand it first. Then, I have some analysis and Christian worldview to bring to it. Truly, this is one of my favorite stories in a long time, and it's a lot of fun to learn about and discuss.

THE TALE OF ROBIN OF LOCKSLEY

This investment story made me realize that many people misunderstand the classic Robinhood story. It's not a "take from the rich, and give to the poor story." The antagonists are PRINCE John and SHERRIFF of Nottingham. The conflict in the classic story is unjust taxation, government largesse, and the Sherriff's enforcement of those taxes and policies. Robinhood didn't STEAL from the rich. He returned to the people what their government took from them.

LISTENER QUESTIONS

-A Baylor professor got in some trouble for a tweet. What can we learn?

-Should the military still be on the streets of DC?

On this Episode:

CHRISTIAN AMERICANS FEELING EXILED

I have been feeling like an exile in a foreign country for a long time now. I'm slightly frustrated that it took political happenings to make a lot of other believers feel this way, but I'm also just grateful for the company. The country is getting both more secular and more pagan at the same time. For Christians, maybe we were made for this exact moment.

FOCUSING ON ONE ISSUE AT A TIME

The new administration sent an immigration bill to Congress that BOTH reforms the immigration AND deals with the millions of people here illegally. Combining the two makes the bill needlessly divisive and less likely to succeed.

They also attached an absurd minimum wage increase to the Covid-19 relief bill. Again, why can't we just do one thing at a time?

MINIMUM WAGE

I run through the long but interesting history of this terrible idea and tell you why there should be no federal minimum wage increase.

IMMIGRATION

We go to Scripture to surmise what should be both the Christian heart and the legal ethic toward the immigrant and human migration.

A COUPLE INAUGURATION THOUGHTS

I will admit I didn't watch the Inauguration (I never do). I have to also admit that I see the hypocrisy in people who have spent a decades or so saying the United States is a wasteland of every form of bigotry and should be hated.... now CELEBRATING the country. It was just weird. 

On this Episode:

CULTURAL ROTTENESS

I recently saw a secular college professor bemoan that Biblical illiteracy in her students makes it more challenging to teach the Great Books and great writers of history.  The Bible birthed and undergirded the Enlightenment and Western Civilization. Our Biblical illiteracy is the core of cultural rottenness. So what do we do?

COVID LOCKDOWNS

Out of nowhere, governors like Andrew Cuomo and publications like Newsweek are saying lockdowns don't work and that we can't stay shutdown. I wonder what brought them to my side of that debate.

SANCTITY OF LIFE SUNDAY

It's never comfortable, but this month is the Roe vs. Wade anniversary. So, it's worth spending some time on one our greatest national sins.

DISAFFECTED VOTERS

There are now a significant amount of voters -- mostly rural -- who feel forgotten by the entire culture and now their government. How do we re-engage these folks into the process?

LISTENER QUESTIONS

Listeners submit questions on "baby bonds," the Inauguration, and what I've gotten wrong in my fiscal philosophy.

On this Episode:

It was a significant week in politics for the US. I'll look back on it, call good "good" and evil "evil," and shed light on the numerous hypocrisies exposed.

After that, listeners submitted insightful questions. I'll finish with a look forward after the surprising Georgia run-off results.