History is loaded with questions about which people once debated, sometimes fought to the death, or split churches, questions we now consider silly, laughable, or looney. But before we throw a rock, it does not take much to find questions being debated or argued today that are also irrational - Can a man become pregnant? Can a woman become a man or vice versa? Need I go on? At any rate, the arcane and inane questions once debated are amusing now and perhaps also thought-provoking, worth our review. Even the Church or Christians in general have been caught up in these questions, e.g., If you are cremated, can you be resurrected? If a believer commits suicide is this a mortal sin unworthy of heaven? Was Mary conceived without original sin? For more Christian commentary check my website at www.rexmrogers.com or my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers for more podcasts and video. #DebatableQuestions #ArcaneIdeas 

Profanity is as old as humanity. We know this from reading ancient inscriptions chiseled in stone. But we also know that use of profanity is increasing in American culture, among children and youth, politicians, just about everyone. Swearing, cussing, vulgarity, obscenity have gone mainstream in both amount and intensity. In terms of civilization, this is not a good trend. In terms of e pluribus unum, this is not a good trend. In terms of education, law and order, religion, and public moral consensus, this is not a good trend. One would think Christians need not be reminded, but this is not the case. Christian believers are yielding to new "acceptable sins" too. Perhaps most troubling of all, "Oh my God" has become an all-purpose phrase for surprise, anger, startle reflex, happiness, grief, even online as OMG. For more Christian commentary, check my website at rexmrogers.com or my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers. #language #profanity #vulgarity #rude&crude #cursing 

Human slavery, and the trafficking that makes it possible across international borders, is not an ancient problem but now greater than ever. Traffickers trick young women, children, sometimes men too, into traveling internationally to get a job, only to discover when they arrive that they are enslaved, coerced into prostitution, forced labor, and held sometimes for years against their will. Virtually any real moral code recognizes the evil in this, yet it continues because there is money to be had and power to be gained. Recently, human trafficking has gone hand in hand with mass immigration, because the shear numbers involved makes it easier to smuggle children. Most countries, certainly the U.S., have sufficient laws on the books. The problem is not laws but enforcement. Catching the bad guys is difficult and dangerous. Needless to say, this is another human rights challenge of our era and it's getting worse. For more Christian commentary, see my website at www.rexmrogers.com, or check my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers for more podcasts and video. #slavery #trafficking #humanrights #prostitution

Music is part of life and for some two thousand years of the history of the Christian Church, music has been both blessed and controversial, the latter because churchgoers and leaders debated and struggled to identify "The one and only holy" music or instrumentation. Interestingly, all the while, in his Word the Bible, God never said any given type of music is "The" Christian or church music. He created us in his image with reason and imagination, then commanded us to build culture, to vest ourselves in all we do as unto the Lord, including through music. So church music may be of many and varied types and in fact honors God when it is, as long as it is done to glorify him and not the presenter. Debate about music is good in the church, part of the Cultural Mandate. Division about music is of the Devil the father of lies and deception who wants to destroy the testimony and effectiveness of the church. That all said, God clearly indicated in Scripture that we are to praise him with music. This is a milestone - my number 200 podcast. For more Christian commentary, check my website at rexmrogers.com or my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers. #music, #ChurchMusic #ChristianMusic #ChristianLiberty #Freedom

Debates over music in the church did not begin in the late 20th Century. In fact, music has been a part of church or Christian history, but the styles, modes, instrumentation, and presentation have varied considerably and often controversially throughout the history of the church. Churchgoers have always struggled with what kind of music should be incorporated in church worship, what honors God, and what does not, how music can be "presented" and not "performed," how it can be ecclesiastical and not theatrical. But God never commanded one style of music and never said no instruments. Actually, music and instruments are found throughout the the Bible. The key is for us today to consider this a wonderful blessing and Christian liberty issue, one where we can have preferences but not elevate our choices to the level of the holy. For more Christian commentary check my website www.rexmrogers.com or YouTube channel @DrRexRogers. #music, #Churchmusic #instrumentsinchurch 

Anyone who has attended church for a few years will recognize this scenario: You're part of a small group and the leader says, "How about two or three of you pray as you feel led, then I'll close." Then no one prays, and still no one prays, and the longer this goes on, the more the tension grows and the more awkward the experience. It happens regularly. Something like 77% of Americans say they are afraid to speak in public, and public prayer is one example of this. But why should we pray in public? What value is there in doing so? How can this fear or reluctance be overcome? Not praying in public is not a mortal sin but learning to pray when you have the opportunity is one blessing of the Christian faith. Ask God to help you learn to pray privately, then publicly. For more Christian commentary, see my website at www.rexmrogers.com, or check my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers for more podcasts and video. #prayer #publicprayer #prayerinScripture

What are we to think of AI and its many uses in this brave new world? Well, one thing is sure, AI is incredibly complex, changing by the minute, meaning increasing the number of options, and we need to consider the applications on a case-by-case basis. Well, that's not one thing; it's three things, which points to the mixed bag of prizes and tricks that an AI world is presenting us. Bottom line, some AI is productive and will bless the rat race, and some AI is not productive, not helpful, ultimately dangerous in terms of threats to freedom and individual choice. No, AI will never give us a super human race, never overwhelm its creators, never become sentient. But we still should exercise discernment. It always comes back to this: God gave us a brain and he expects us to use it based upon his moral will. Same with AI. Help others identify AI potholes and pitfalls and how to avoid them. Harness the blessing of this new technology for the proclamation of the Lordship of Christ throughout the earth. For more Christian commentary, check my website at www.rexmrogers.com or look into my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers for more podcasts and video. #AI #technology #progress #postmodern #Christ&Culture 

The U.S. National Debt is at this writing, over $36.6 Trillion, and climbing so fast you cannot keep up with the digital read-out at usdebtclock.org. That's over $107K per citizen. Yet most in the national leadership, Congress and the President, have for decades blithely continued to add to this debt with oft-times outrageous spending bills - witness what occurred during the. Biden Administration - for which there is no identified funding. The U.S. debt is ignored and new programs are "funded" by borrowing against the future in a classic kick-the-can-down-the-road fashion, one that dumps the problem of responsibility, potential bankruptcy and collapse, and pain onto our progeny. DOGE, the Trump-appointed Department of Government Efficiency, is now working full speed ahead on reducing this national debt by identifying "waste, fraud, and abuse" in the federal bureaucracy. Needless to say, this has created a whole new cottage industry of Chicken Littles running around claiming the sky is falling and the end of the world. But is this happening, or is the U.S. experiencing a dose of common sense rationality that, if allowed to play out, might just keep the country around for our grandchildren? For more Christian commentary, see my website at www.rexmrogers.com, or check my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers for more podcasts and video. #DOGE #Debt #Deficit #USNationalDebt #Profligacy

Joe Dallas is a counselor, an expert on human sexuality from a Christian perspective. He's written several books on this topic, but I consider the book reviewed here to be one of the most practical and helpful books I've read in the last few years. It covers topics like cancel culture, homosexuality, racism, gender identity, abortion, so you might think this is a book about politics. But it is not. This is a book about how to live in a cancel culture and interact with people whose values might be fundamentally different from ours, assuming you are a Christian believer. So this book is really about relationships, how to speak the truth in love, how to demonstrate compassion while maintaining your biblical theology. I highly recommend this book. For more Christian commentary, check my website www.rexmrogers.com, or look into my YouTube channel @DrRex Rogers for more podcasts and videos. #truth #cancelculture #truthinlove #transgenderism

The parable of the prodigal son is found in the New Testament book of Luke, chapter 15. It is "glorious" because it clearly conveys a Christian message of redemption, second chances, and hope. God is there, always, waiting and wanting us to return to him for restoration, blessedness in this life, and eternal life with him. If he or she is still living, no one, no matter their descent into debauchery, is beyond hope.

For more Christian commentary, check my website at www.rexmrogers.com or my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers for more videos and podcasts.

#Prodigal #Redemption #Hope

The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution Bill of Rights, though ratified in 1791, codify our most essential foundational ideals: freedom of religion and freedom of speech. These ideals define what this nation is about. What has been disconcerting is the increasing number of incidents in which these ideals have been stressed, attacked, even rejected. Yet they are important not only for a nation that claims to be the model of the free world but also as a means of reinforcing human dignity. For more Christian commentary, check my website at www.rexmrogers.com or my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers for more Christian perspectives and videos. #FirstAmendment #FreedomofSpeech #AmericanIdeals

Here I remember my days in public schools at a time when my fellow students and I were blessed with good teachers who taught and parents who supported them. Now we're in a much different situation, one reason President Donald J. Trump is considering closing down the U.S. Department of Education. I spent 35 years teaching and as an administrator if private schools, 7th Grade to grad school, and I loved every minute of it. Today, though education, public and private, is challenged by a host of issues that tend to focus teachers, professors, and their schools on social engineering rather than education. It's a situation that must change for the good of our country's youth and for the future well-being of America. For more Christian commentary, check my website www.rexmrogers.com or my YouTube channe @DrRexRogers. #DepartmentofEducation #DEI #accountability #academicexcellence 

Birthright citizenship, and its troublesome by-product birth tourism (internationals are gaming the system fraudulently), emerges in discussions about immigration.  President Trump has already issued an executive order seeking to suspend birthright citizenship, and this has produced reactions re what’s constitutional ala the 14th Amendment, what’s moral, what does it mean to be a citizen of the U.S.? Discussing birthright citizenship is not ipso facto anti-immigration. All of our ancestors were at some point immigrants, even Native Americans if you reach back far enough. And discussing birthright citizenship is not ipso facto anti-humanitarian, uncompassionate, much less racist. In fact, birthright citizenship is rare. Only 30 countries out of 194 offer automatic birthright citizenship. So, what should the U.S. do? For more Christian commentary, see my website at www.rexmrogers.com, or check my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers for more podcasts and videos. #citizenship #birthright #FourteenthAmendment #Immigration

DEI, "diversity, equity, and inclusion," has become something of a religion of the left in the last twenty years. Add to this that this approach to human resources has been accepted, adopted, promoted, demanded in a near tsunami in American education, corporations, and under Joe Biden, government. Problem is, this approach does not ultimately help and actually demeans the minorities and women it is intended to help, and it displaces a key American ideal, meritocracy, with inevitable mediocrity. Now under Trump 2.0 it is fast being discrarded. This is a good thing for all but of course there is significant resistance. For more Christian commentary check my website at rexmrogers.com or my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers for more podcasts and commentary. #DEI #diversityequityinclusion #discrimination #meritocracy

Millions of immigrants have been allowed by the Biden Administration to come into the United States across the southern border, unvetted, illegal in numbers and lack of process, some even flown clandestinely in night flights to cities that did not ask for them. Now the Trump 2.0 Administration is closing the borders and initiating a process of mass deportation of illegal immigrants, beginning with those convicted of crimes. This has produced reaction, some 54% of Americans agreeing this step is essential to protect America from an unsurvivable influx of people who seemingly do not want to assimilate to pursue the American Dream, but who want entitlements, are causing social fragmentation, crime, and more. Is then mass deportation of illegal immigrants morally justifiable?
#illegalImmigrants #Deportation #MassMigration #SouthernBorders 

Like many of us, I've been periodically watching reports on the Los Angeles area wildfires and thinking about them more often. Clearly these historic and horrific fires leave in their wake human tragedies too numerous to count. Peoples' lives are or will be forever changed. More than property, per se, I've been thinking about what insurance cannot replace, and these lost lives, priceless items, and more constitute the greater devastating impact for many. What is it in our lives that insurance cannot replace? To answer this, we must answer the question, what do we value? All this leads us quickly from material loss to spiritual and emotional loss, to existential questions about God and life itself. For more Christian commentary see my website at www.rexmrogers.com, or check my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers for more podcasts and videos. #wildfires #existenitalquestions #insurance #loss

Memes have become a near universal experience of contemporary life, at least for anyone who spends any time at all on any social media platform. They are print visuals, usually containing some caption that makes a humorous, poignant, insightful, political, or maybe even snarky message. The memes then "go viral" as we say, being proliferated on the World Wide Web. Nothing in Scripture suggests Christian believers should not meme, but as part of life in a fallen world, memes, like everything else, should be evaluated in terms of Scripture to assure that we are making memes that do not misrepresent, misquote, misalign, or demean Scripture. Since 2024 was a US presidential election year, political memes dominated social media, and for whatever reasons, Mr. Trump, by far, was featured in memes, good, bad, or ugly, more often that Mr. Biden or Ms. Harris, at least in terms of association with Christian themes. Some of the memes are in poor taste, some offer little more than civil religion, some, in my estimation, are sacrilegious. 
For more Christian commentary see my website at www.rexmrogers.com or check my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers for more videos and podcasts. #Memes #TrumpChristianThemes 

Some people make New Year's resolutions. While I don't make resolutions, I'm not against the practice. I do, though, have a number of hope(s), plural, for the new year, what I believe can, should, or even must happen for the USA to flourish. I'm not recommending something new as much as a rediscovery and recommitment to the ideals that made American culture strong in the first place. We've lost much, but with the right philosophy and work, much can be regained. For more Christian commentary, check my website at www.rexmrogers.com or my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers for more video and podcasts. #Christian hope #ideals #renewal #RightValues

This podcast is a review of "The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness" by Jonathan Haidt. It is a scholarly book focused upon the emergence of smartphones in 2007, coupled with the Internet and social media, that the author argues is responsible for a skyrocketing increase in adolescent mental illness in Gen Z, 2010-2015. Professor Haidt (pronounced "height") is a social psychologist at NYU. The book presents data, is thorough, balanced, careful to review competing theories, and loaded with common sense. Professor Haidt is a proponent of no smartphones before high school, cell-phone-free schools, no social media until age 16, more unsupervised play in childhood. Parents and church youth groups, along with all educational institutions would do well to heed Dr. Haidt's recommendations. #cellphone #smartphone #socialmedia #learning #addiction For more Christian commentary see my website at www.rexmrogers.com or my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers.

Christmas is celebrated worldwide via thousands of traditions that have been developed over the past two thousand years since the first Nativity in Bethlehem. Scripture does not tell us how to practice or celebrate Christmas, but it gives us room to honor God in myriad ways that fit our culture. It's interesting to study the development of such traditions, remembering that only since the mid-19th Century that we have enjoyed photography and only since early to mid-20th Century have we enjoyed audio, video, and other media technology that allows us to record, watch, listen, and enjoy. Prior to the 20th Century, people depended upon story-telling, art, etc. From these early communications forms we can learn much about Christmas traditions. Perhaps the most powerful is the Nativity or Christmas crèche. For more Christian commentary check my website at www.rexmrogers.com or my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers for more podcasts and videos. #Christmas #Nativity #tradition #crèche #Christ #Jesus #Bethelehem

The 2024 US Presidential election is in the books with Donald J. Trump the overwhelming winner. From the earliest days, I was not a Trump fan, but I gradually changed not because he's some kind of knight in shining armor but because the other side is so given to false and threatening values, so anti-American - not just patriotically but in their ideals - and so seemingly bent on leading the USA into greater socialism, authoritarianism, and decline. Trump is for sure not perfect, but neither am I. I do appreciate, though, that he follows through with most of his economic and political promises and he does indeed seem to have the good of the country at heart. So, did we dodge a bullet? Or in Christian terms, did we experience a reprieve and an opportunity based upon the sovereignty of God? I think both, and I am grateful. For more Christian commentary check my website at rexmrogers.com, or my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers. #Elections #Conservative #CommonSense

It's impossible to avoid seeing rainbows in the marketplace, not usually depictions of natural or real rainbows but symbols of the LGBTQ+ movement. While not everyone in this movement agree on all points, it is indeed a movement because so many agree on the foundational points, that is, sex or gender, sexuality, and sexual expression are all the province of individual choice, not biology, not religion, and certainly not God. This view is contrary to what is taught in the Bible and thus today biblical teaching, those who embrace it, and sometimes Christians or conservatives in general are said to have missed the door entitled "the right side of history." But the Lord has not changed, nor has his Word. Christians must not accept those views, but not accepting those views does not mean we reject, much less "hate" those who embrace them. No, we are to love and evidence the fruit of the Spirit to one and all.
For more Christian commentary, check my website at rexmrogers.com, or my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers for more podcasts and videos.
#Rainbows #Christian #LGBTQ #sexuality #freedom

Some of you, like me, may have had a mother that quoted that verse to you when you were a kid: "Be sure your sins will find you out." Either way, it is all the more relevant and certainly true in what now is a Cyber Age where we are under near constant surveillance and where we as a culture if not individually continuously post about ourselves in social media - for good and often for not so good. There is not longer private. There is only public. We are accountable, and it is easier than ever to make mistakes, commit immoral actions, or post unwisely online. And the world can read this in mere seconds.
For more Christian commentary, check my website at rexmrogers.com, or see my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers for more podcasts and video.
#Social Media #surveillance #sin #privategonepublic

Thanksgiving is a rare precious tradition that combines Christian theology and the best of Americana. It's a special time when gratitude can be expressed for family, friends, a blessed nation, and a loving Lord. In a time when angst, anomie, division, deception, social disintegration, and political rancor seems to reign supreme, we need a time of rest, relaxation, reflection, and thanksgiving all the more. May your Thanksgiving be a time of grace and peace.
For more Christian commentary, see my website at rexmrogers.com or my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers for more podcasts and video.
#Thanksgiving #GivingThanks #Gratitude #Blessing

America has called the "First New Nation," a "Great Experiment," and a Christian nation. Each of these phrases have been the source of extensive historical research. Whatever your preference, clearly biblical Christianity made an enormous impact upon not onlly the United States but Western Civilization. The USA, God be praised, is still a land where religious liberty is honored, and with it freedom of speech. It is a place where all people, including Christians, can learn to discern how their faith can contribute to lives and culture. May this struggle, this Great Experiment, continue. For more Christian commentary and videos, check my website at rexmrogers.com or my YouTube channel @DrRex Rogers. 
#America #CivilReligion #GreatExperiment #ManifestDestiny