World Views

Tuesday's Elections

Frank Robinson's famous quote; "Close only counts in hand grenades and horseshoes," applies not only to baseball, but to politics as well. I take no solace in losing a close political race. Elections have consequences, if you lose you did not win, no matter how you spin it! Virginia's elections are a case in point, outside money supporting democrats abortion agenda won the day for the democrats in Virginia, plain and simple. Ronna McDaniel refused any cash support from the RNC to help them out. I don't understand this at all.

Ohio, passed an amendment to their constitution entitled, Issue One, that gave Ohioan's a constitutional right to an abortion without limitations or restrictions. An opinion piece in Crisis Magazine, a Catholic publication, Msngr, Richard C. Antall entitled his article, "We Live Among Barbarians." The barbarians are not at our gates they live and rule amongst us. He makes a cogent point.There was an old Latin saying that ius est ars boni et aequi. That means “law is the art of the good and the just.” In the case of Issue One, that has been turned on its head. Law has become the instrument of evil and injustice. Thanks to 50 years of Roe v Wade and the woman's "right to an abortion," this evil injustice is still inculcated into the very DNA of  progressives to the point where the ones who are vilified as evil are the people who take a moral stance against the killing of the unborn. 

Since the Dobbs decision in 2022 that overturned Roe, we have lost just about every major state election that the democrats have made about abortion, women's autonomy and reproductive healthcare. That is a sure victory for them. There is no reason to believe they won't use it in the presidential election. Republicans need to realize that every election matters and start pouring money into state and local elections and they must figure out how to turn the tide against the culture of death amongst us.

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.