World Views

Reaping What We have Sown

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"You will recognize them by their fruits."  (Matthew 7:16) ESV

A seismic shock occurred when a Budweiser commercial hit the air depicting a 'sexy' Dylan Mulvaney, a transexual 'woman', in a bubble bath swilling down a Bud-Lite. As it turned out, this Bud was not for you! Corporate took a beating on sales as people boycotted Anheuser-Busch. The company lost $1.4 billion in sales revenue forcing layoffs and losing their long coveted market position as the number one selling beer in America to Modelo Especial. Morally repugnant? I think so, but what is the difference between Mulvaney's commercial and Sidney Sweeney's sexually provocative commercials for jeans and sports betting apps, other than she is a real woman and Dylan is not? Sex sells, just not trans sex? Many commercials previously, have had weird androgynous people running around like in a Bad Bunny concert, so bizarre that it was hard to tell what exactly was being advertised. People seemed to be relieved that we were going back to depicting 'normal' sexually titillating commercials. The sexual revolution has become so mainstream that sexually explicit programming is not shocking anymore, it's expected. Commercials and programs depict same sex couples, salacious ED advertisements and sports betting, which are played during prime time programming slots. I find these commercials to be as morally repugnant as the other, but where is the blow back that Anheuser-Busch experienced? I hear crickets, as a society are we are ok with this? Your children and grandchildren are watching and are innocently being indoctrinated into the sexual revolution. ALL ABOARD!! The 'Crazy Train' is leaving the station and the next stop is Abaddon.

Speaking of Abaddon,'The Cornell 7' sex scandal has made national news notoriety. Arising from a two year old alleged gang rape case that resurfaced after the alleged victim, 'Jane Doe,' filed a civil lawsuit against seven Cornell University, Chi Phi fraternity brothers. The schools internal Title IX inquest resulted in an expulsion, a suspension and one person had to write an essay. The Tompkins County DA did not pursue criminal charges.The blowback on the University, the Campus Police, the local DA and PD has been Jacobean in nature. To further muddy the waters, New York's Governor, Kathy Hochul and Attorney General, Letitia James, inserted themselves into the mix, by re-opening the criminal investigation of the case.(in my opinion warranted, but...) Both of whom have prejudiced themselves against the defendants through previous statements made before their widely aired press conference. Hochul and James are on the ballot for re-election in November, which is less than 30 days away.(A political motive?) Stupid, is what stupid does. The allegations made by 'Jane Doe' and the leaked text messages between all involved, as well as public statements made by both sides make for a boiling cauldron of stew that is confusing, contradictory and morally repugnant. The finger pointing towards who is to blame is rich and believe me there is plenty of it to go around.

Taking a step back, who is to blame,? How did this happen on a prestigious Ivy League campus? Is it the school's libertarian approach to students sexual conduct which includes advice on everything sexual, including fetishes, bondage, sex toys, abortion, birth control and STD tests on demand? Is it New York's sexual assault law that considers consent to be legitimate, when given under the influence of drugs or alcohol? The Federal Government's Title IX's Kangaroo Court laws? A cover up by Campus Police? 'Fraternity culture' on campus? 

Here is my take.The seven men and the woman, were bad actors before they ever set foot on campus. To be clear, I am in no way justifying what happened to 'Jane Doe' as her fault; she certainly did not deserve the violence she suffered. The answer is that as a society we have kicked Christianity out of the public square and with it the moral formation and structures that teach and uphold the importance of good character development and virtues.These folks clearly lacked good character, virtuous behavior and moral boundaries. It must be foreign to them that there is, right and wrong, good and evil, absolute truth, and that there is a creator God who is revealed to us through his creation and his written word, the Bible. I can't explain their behavior any other way. From a faith perspective, it is a God-given task for parents to teach our children about right and wrong, restraint and self- control, diligence and discipline, sympathy and justice, loyalty and hard work. If we fail in this task the repercussions can be enormous for the child and more broadly for society itself. Hopefully, we surround our kids with other adults who are Godly influencers such as pastors, the church, teachers, coaches, all of whom can have positive contributions to our children's moral formation. The need for virtue is great in our society because we depend upon citizens who govern themselves and their passions and who lead decent, law-abiding, God fearing lives. Like it or not, Christianity is the cornerstone of our society, if we abandon it, we will see more behaviors like the Cornell sex scandal and worse. We are reaping the rotten fruits of the sexual revolution, a Godless, morally depraved, virtueless society and it's ugly

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.

Thoughts On Tragedy

This morning while having my coffee I turned on the news and was greeted with another tragedy. Three students were killed and dozens wounded on the MSU, Lansing, Michigan campus last night. Wounded students were rushed to a nearby Trauma Center for treatment. I tuned in just as a press conference from the hospital was taking place, and the head doctor of the emergency trauma  center was speaking, overcome with emotion from treating these young people's grevious  wounds, he couldn't hold back his tears. What bolstered him, he relayed to the reporters, during the chaos were the many text messages from colleagues. "On my way," they dropped everything to respond, helping to save lives. It was the medical community that rallied around to help and the community at large that provided the information to law  enforcement to apprehend the perpetrator. Needless to say, our hearts and prayers go out to the victims, their families and friends, that have to endure the aftermath of such senseless and evil violence.

We are not strangers to this type of violence in our own community. The shootings at the Squirrel Hill Synagogue come to mind as does the shooting rampage of Richard Baumhammer that started here in Mt. Lebanon. We can never forget September 11th. whose tragedy touched even members of our own congregation at Beverly Heights. In each case a similar community response happened. After the 9-11 tragedy, national and international response was overwhelming.  Tragedy happens and people come together to help. America is always at the forefront with monetary help, relief supplies and boots on the ground, when natural disasters occur around the world. It's in our DNA as Americans. 

Why does it take a tragedy involving multiple deaths, for a community to come together? These events are "sensationalized" by media coverage and with social media platforms we learn of it as it is happening or shortly thereafter. What about the everyday tragedies that aren't  deemed newsworthy? I'm talking about children and senior citizens going hungry, homelessness, battered women, widows needing help, elderly abandoned in nursing homes, this list could go on and on. Every day we are witnesses to these tragedies taking place under our very noses but we tend to ignore them.  Where is the national and local outrage over the drive by shootings of children and young men and women in Chicago? We report the statistics and cluck our tongues only to forget about it, as it is so commonplace.

Perhaps we should do some soul searching of ourselves,  in our churches, as well as the community leaders we elect. Think of the impact we could have if we harnessed that same "DNA" into coming together as a community to help those in need around us. The Church needs to take the lead in doing so. One congregation can't come the aid of every tragedy but perhaps we can pick one or two that we are gifted to handle and some other churches pitch in looking to care in other ways. There are lots of churches we could network with, to get things done for the betterment of our communities and for the love of our fellow neighbors. Mt. Lebanon High School use to require community service hours for graduation. Elderly and handicapped residents could send in requests for help with  raking leaves, lawn mowing , snow removal, etc. and post requests on a bulletin board for the kids to take and get the hours they needed to meet their requirements. What a wonderful way to introduce young people to community service. Sadly this is no longer being done in our community and our senior citizens and handicapped are worse off for it. There are plenty of opportunities to love our neighbors, we need just to open our eyes to find them. "If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, 'Love your neighbor as yourself,' you are doing well." (James 2:8)  Let us do well together.