World Views

The Cancel Culture In Our Midst

Cancel culture has become a common weapon in today's society. It is at work in social media, politics, our workplaces, schools and in our churches. The church in general, it seems, is not immune to any of society's ills. Instead it has become a home for them. Our calling is to be the "odd man out," not the melting pot, placating to every whim and fancy of the world. No longer the beacon on the hill, we have snuffed it out, leaving us stumbling in the darkness.

Beverly Heights, the Church I have spent the last 40 years in, has allowed a minority in the congregation to cancel our pastor, and run him and his family out of our "Red Doors" and onto Washington Road. A well orchestrated campaign starting with three individuals who recruited malcontents, ignited the rumor mill and began whispering in the ears of those willing to listen. The coup de gras was involving the local presbytery and the POA. They deluged the presbytery with pages of false accusations, half truths and reported every confrontation with the session and pastor framing it as bullying. Our pastor was accused of being a narcissist, bully, cult leader, false teacher, misogynist, alcoholic and heretic. The Presbytery bought it hook line and sinker placing feelings above facts and denied due process to Pastor Nate and the session. They manipulated minutia in the Book of Order to justify their kangaroo court actions. The Presbytery is afraid of pastors like Nate Devlin. He has integrity, is a principled man of virtue and speaks the truth unwaveringly and when given a chance, they will silence them.

One of the few presbytery meetings I went to was an ordination ceremony. The presbytery asked the candidate a few softball questions and then opened the mike for questions from the floor. My question was: "What would you do when asked to marry a couple living together out of wedlock?" The candidate was stunned by the question and after "hemming and hawing" for about 30 seconds finally blurted out he would not marry them. The kicker was, after the vote was taken, the moderator chimed in, "Oh, by the way, I would marry the couple, I think it is better if they are living together as a married couple than not married." The moderator was a pastor of a large church in the North Hills. I was shocked! I thought surely someone would have challenged her on that? I heard crickets, people were more concerned with getting to their free lunch. This is the presbytery we are being judged by and is one reason of many why we need to leave. (Nate was not at this meeting)

Once one dog in the neighborhood starts barking every dog within earshot joins in, not knowing why dog #1 was barking, but they like to hear themselves barking too. A perfect analogy for how cancellation works. It's a snowball effect and once it is large enough it just runs you over. Well congratulations folks you accomplished your goals! You have maligned the character of a good man, tortured him and his family for a year and finally run them out of the pastorate here and destroyed our church. Well done, good and faithful servants! Just remember this, the Lord will judge your actions and we know you by the poisonous fruit you bare. 

The Sticky Wicket That Abortion Has Become for the 2024 Election

The aftermath of the 2022 midterm elections has had Republican politicians scrambling to rebrand themselves and the definition of what it means to be Pro-Life. When the "red tsunami" the GOP predicted, turned out to be a red ripple that barely rocked the boat, Republicans found themselves, reeling back on their heels and staggering from the election results. They won the majority in the House by the slimmest of margins and lost the majority in the Senate. What happened? Dobbs is what happened. The Supreme Court overturned Roe and along with it with the erroneous "woman's constitutional right" to have an abortion, and returned the abortion issue back to individual states. The Democrats, however, turned a legal victory for the pro-life cause into a defeat by winning the narrative. It all began with the leak from the Supreme Court and then the left's spin machine went to work branding the right as the ones who are extreme and adroitly incited and stoked fears amongst women voters. Once again Republicans found themselves flat footed and unprepared to meet the challenge. Make no mistake about it Democrats will make this their biggest campaign issue because it's the only winning issue they have and here's why they have the edge.

Public opinion has swung to pro-choice, according to Pew, 61% say abortion should be legal in all or most cases. Interestingly 60% of Republicans say abortion should be illegal in all or most cases. By contrast 80% of Democrats say abortion should be legal in all or most cases. Views on abortion by age among adults under 30 (74%) say abortion should be legal. This is perhaps the most distressing statistic of all because we are losing the future. What is being done to turn the hearts and minds of our young to value life? If you break down by religious affiliation, 74% of white evangelicals do not support abortion but that still leaves 26% who do. Surprisingly, only 56% of Catholics are pro-life. Clearly the Church is not doing its job very well. Once our children enter the public school system from K through 12 and beyond, we are churning out uneducated, indoctrinated, secular progressives. This is what we are up against and it won't be turned around over night. We need to take a long term approach to turning this around, after all, it took 50 years to overturn Roe. Our main focus should not be winning over the hearts and minds of the 61% who are entrenched in their beliefs, but to focus on winning over future generations. (a topic for another time)

So what about the here and now? I am extremely disappointed in the capitulation of our so called pro-life candidates. A non-profit research group aligned with Mitch McConnell, One Nation, found that 71% of suburban women disagree with the Dobbs decision. Translate that to: Republicans collective geese are being roasted in the burbs, and they are reacting to it, too little, too late. Stick a fork in it, it's done and it will be served up in the 2024 election for lunch. The Republican Primary debate was very revealing on the capitulation by candidates. "Stalwart" pro-lifers, Mike Pence and Tim Scott support a 15 week ban on abortion. Did you know that 93% of all abortions occur on or before 13 weeks? This is a not a pro-life stance at all! It is a compromise with death and the left. Here's a statistic for you, Republicans, almost 100% of all abortions lead to the death of an innocent life. Trump, Mikki Haley, and DeSantis are no better. Haley is for compromise, both Trump and DeSantis are evasive, however, DeSantis has signed a six week abortion ban in Florida. Nikki Haley says we must find a consensus. Here's the kicker, 24% of Republican women now consider themselves to be pro-choice! We are playing to consolidate our own base and by capitulating on this issue we have lost the moral high ground. A sticky wicket indeed, for Republicans.

The Rule of Law Under Attack

 Romans 13:1-7 makes it clear that as Christians we are to obey the government God places over us. What if that government is corrupt or evil? The apostle Paul still recognized the Roman rule over him despite Nero's evil regime. Should we do anything less? Is there a time when we should intentionally disobey the laws of the land? We find the answer to this question in Acts 5:27-29. Forbidden by the Sanhedrin to teach in Jesus's name, Peter and the apostles willfully disobeyed. "We must obey God rather than men!," was the response they gave before the authorities. However, even in that instance Peter and John submitted to the punishment of being flogged without protest. In fact they rejoiced that they suffered for obeying God. (Acts 5:40-42)

We live in tumultuous times. As a student of history I cannot think of a more perilous time, other than the Civil War, where we have been teetering on the brink of losing our Republic. Despite what you may think about Donald Trump, his political opponents have weaponized every agency of the federal government including the court system and the "free press," against him. Take off your, "I hate Trump" blinders for a minute and look at the big picture, the resultant chaos and distrust of the  government has resulted in lawlessness. Our country has been dragged through the "Russian Collusion" hoax, three groundless impeachments, a kangaroo court of a Senate confirmation hearing  for Brett Cavanaugh, the 2020 countrywide George Floyd riots which spawned the defund the police movement and BLM. We are now reaping what we have sown. No bail laws in big cities encourage flash mob robberies, unprecedented shoplifting and  inner-city violence, police are nowhere to be found. Business owners large and small are moving out of inner cities or closing their stores. Those that remain are forced to place shelves and displays behind plexiglass barriers padlocked and chained to prevent theft. All of these seemingly disparate situations are linked to one another through the total disregard of the constitution and the rule of law. It started in the highest offices and agencies of our government and has finally trickled down to the grassroots level where it has begun to affect the average citizen. 

Here's how this happens. When the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization case reached the Supreme Court, most legal scholars predicted that Roe v Wade would likely be overturned. Someone with access to Justice Alito's drafts and communications leaked the draft of his opinion to the press in its entirety, just in time to affect an outcome of midterm elections and to cause a public outcry in order to intimidate the court. Abortion politicians used this opportunity whip the public into a frenzy over women's right to bodily autonomy, knowing full well that abortion was not made illegal or stopped, it was left up to each individual state to decide or regulate instead of the federal government. Activists illegally protested outside of the homes of conservative justices, stalking them to restaurants and basically terrorizing them. It is a federal offense and a felony to strong arm Judges while they are deciding a case. We heard crickets from the DOJ, they did nothing to arrest or curtail this until an assassin was discovered outside of Justice Cavanaugh's home. After the decision was finally announced, widespread vandalism of churches and pregnancy resource centers occurred, again, no arrests. Yet, a swat team arrived in the early hours of a Friday morning to the house of a Philadelphia father of seven. Mark Hauk was arrested in front of his family by 25-30 screaming, jack booted FBI agents, brandishing weapons pointed at the family, threatening all with deadly force and terrorizing Hauks wife and children. His crime? He shoved an abortion escort out of the way while he was accosting his twelve year old son, who was peacefully protesting across the street of an abortion clinic.

Justice is being meted out according to ideological beliefs that are compatible with the power structure running our government. "The law perverted! And the police powers of the state perverted along with it! The law, I say, not only turned from its proper purpose but made to follow an entirely contrary purpose! The law become the weapon of every kind of greed! Instead of checking crime, the law itself guilty of the evils it is supposed to punish! "  (The Law, Frederic Bastiat 1850)  Bastiat's 173 year old essay seems almost prophetic to today's time in America. If we continue on this path we will lose our Republic to lawlessness. Proverbs 22:8 says, " Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity, and the rod of his fury will fail."