Distrust!

Newspaper Boxes (photo by David Resseguie)

It seems like there is a lot of distrust in America these days. In my conversations, I have been surprised at how much distrust there is. There is a lot of distrust on both sides of the political divide, and I believe distrust is tearing the country apart. From my perspective, there are a lot of reasons to trust societal authorities, the government, police, journalists, etc. So my default mode is to trust, not distrust, the authorities. This post is about why I trust, and not distrust, societal authorities even though they all have their problems.

I believe behind much of this distrust is today’s Postmodern culture. The culture makes us suspicious of the facts because we recognize that there is always a bias (no matter how small) in how the facts are presented. Unfortunately, we have a tendency to believe only the stories that we want to agree with. We are not properly discerning the facts and are falling prey to the spin that promotes our preferred perspective on how things are. There is no self correction, because we, as autonomous individuals, make ourselves out to be the only authority. We alone can discern the truth. All other authorities are suspect, spinning the facts to put their perspective out front. (And today’s culture also allows us to spin the facts the way we want.)

Is it true that the government, police, journalists, churches, etc. put a spin on the facts? Yes, everyone has a bias. That includes you and me, but I believe that American society has built in safeguards to hold people accountable for falsehoods. It does not always work but in general I believe we can trust the societal authorities. There is no need for the institutional disrespect we see today. Yes, we need to hold people and institutions accountable, and there may be biases that need to be dealt with, but in general I believe we should trust our societal institutions.

Let us first take a look at journalists. Their job is to report the news. I believe conspiracy theories are due to not trusting the journalists and the news sources. A journalist would win a Pulitzer Prize if they could prove one of the conspiracy theories to be true. It is that motivation and competition that keeps the journalists honest. So whether the conspiracy theory is one of the 9/11 conspiracy theories or the “Stop the Steal” conspiracy theory or a different conspiracy theory, the likelihood that the theory is true is very unlikely. The “what if” possibilities in the conspiracy theories are not evidence of facts. You may want it to be true but it does not make it so. I believe it is the distrust of societal institutions and the journalists reporting that allows these conspiracy theories to flourish. Journalists and the institutions supplying them with information are not perfect, but in America the journalists do a pretty good job. There are biases of varying degrees, but you need to discern those biases. I find the Reuters news service to be pretty unbiased.

(Yes, many of you believe the “Stop the Steal” story, but why were almost all the lawsuits dismissed and why did the Attorney General William Barr say “To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election” if the “Stop the Steal” story is true? Maybe you want it to be true, but I believe it is not.)

Many people distrust the police. Some would want to ban police departments, or cut the funding for the police way back. I believe that the vast majority of police officers are good and honest. There are few bad apples that need to be removed, and some department policies need to be reworked so that accountability can be enforced, but in general the American police are in good shape. What happens if there are no police? We have an example from Seattle, WA, June 2020, where for 23 days protestors occupied a few blocks in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle. The police vacated the area, leaving their precinct station. The protestors started with high hopes. It was to be a police-free, self-governing utopia. Seattle’s mayor Jenny Durkan said the zone could herald a “summer of love”. Unfortunately, it turned out not to be an utopia, and after 23 days and two deaths later, Seattle’s mayor called in the police to end this utopian experiment. The problem as I see it is that we all are sinners and we need the police to enforce some boundaries (i.e. laws) for our good. The police are a necessary part of society. We need them but we also must hold them accountable.

There is a lot of distrust of the government, whether it be federal, state or local. Again, like the police, I believe the vast majority of them are good honest officials, and worthy of our trust, even if we disagree with their policies. Again there are just a few that are “bad apples”. We need to find and remove those. Those who distrust the government, many times say that the deep state or civil servants are hindering government change. Both Trump and Obama supporters have been concerned about deep state interference. My take is the federal government is a huge organization and I see making change to be like trying to quickly turn a massive oil tanker. It will take time.

And today, churches tend to be ignored more than being distrusted. However the sexual abuse scandals have affected the trust in churches. Again I believe the vast majority of clergy and church workers are good and honest, but churches are human institutions, and all humans are sinful so it is no surprise that scandals also are found in churches. And yet we can put our trust in God. He is the trustworthy one, a solid rock that can not be moved, and his love is amazing!

These societal institutions are not perfect, but in America I believe they are worthy of our trust. They do need to be held accountable for their failings. In America, one should default to trusting the authorities. That is where I stand. As a Christian, I take comfort that God has all this in his control. Bad things may happen because of our sin but in the end God will fix all the brokenness.

The Newest Social Contagion

Have you ever noticed how an idea, attitude, or behavior will sweep over a group (or society) changing it? It may be a good change or a bad change. That is what is known as a social or behavioral contagion. It behaves like an infection. People will see some behavior, think it to be cool, and then adopt that behavior or attitude. It is not necessarily rational. It is similar to peer pressure. It used to be that smoking was a social contagion.

A brand new survey was released by Gallup makes me think that a new social contagion has swept across the country. The survey counted the number of LGBTQ people there were. In the youngest generation of adults, Gen Z (ages 18-23), the percentage of LGBTQ people was 16%. That is about 1 in every 6 Gen Z persons. It was 9% for the Millennial Generation (ages 24-40). And then it drops to 4% for Gen X, 2% for Baby Boomers, and 1% for those older.

Most of the LGBTQ people (55%) consider themselves to be bisexual. Of the Gen Z LGBTQ people, 72% of them consider to be bisexual, and 54% of LGBTQ Millennials are bisexual. (The percentage then drops off for the older generations.) Women are more likely to consider themselves to be LGBTQ than men, and LGBTQ women are more likely to be bisexual than LGBTQ men.

What can we say about this bisexual trend? Well many of the young actresses that were on the Disney Channel are now LGBTQ. (In this article I count 10 actresses.) Those ladies by their celebrity status promote the LGBTQ lifestyle, making it a cool thing. So I wonder if many of these bisexuals are really bi-curious (heterosexuals curious about same-sex sexual experiences, or vice versa). They also could just be avoiding the label of transphobic (having a prejudice against transsexual or transgender people). I also wonder what is the influence of internet porn on their choices and lifestyle. As you can tell I am having a hard time accepting this LGBTQ social contagion. Maybe it really is a cool thing to be in today’s society, but I am concerned. I can not dismiss it for the LGBTQ community is a powerful force in society today.

I am concerned for the LGBTQ people because I believe their lifestyle is not healthy, They tend to have many sexual partners. (That can be true of heterosexuals too.) There are about 50 STDs (Sexually Transmitted Diseases) and they all can be found in the LGBTQ community. LGBTQ people also have high murder rate. Lesbians have a higher rate of physical violence and sucide than a heterosexual females. Gay men also have a higher sucide rate. Gay men tend to have a median life span that is about 20 years (maybe 30 years) less than an average heterosexual. It is similar for lesbians. Though HIV plays a role in the reduced lifespan, it is not the defining factor. It is a sad situation and one needs to be concerned about it.

And now the LGBTQ community is seeking special protected status in Congress with the Equality Act. It is, for the most part, the “Civil Rights Act” for LGBTQ people. (The act also would affect the abortion debate.) I agree that every person needs to be treated with dignity and respect, but I doubt they need special protection since gay men and lesbian women are making “significantly more” money than their straight counterparts. The Equality Act would create a host of major legal changes that would cause a lot of problems for religious schools, religious organizations, women’s shelters, women’s sports, sex-specific facilities, and many more. So I do not think that this act is needed since many of them are financially doing very well, and the LGBTQ community is already a powerful force in society today. This social contagion has already swept the country. I do not think it has been a change for the better.

More information on the Equality Act from a conservative Christian perspective can be found here.

PS The Equality Act (H.R. 5) has passed the House and is on its way to the Senate. You can contact your senators and let them know how you feel about this bill.

American Third Parties

American Flag Photo by Lisa Setrini-Espinosa

America has an ingrained two party system. Third parties (or minor parties) seldom make a difference in presidential elections. The largest third party is the Libertarian Party with a membership of about 0.65 million. Compared to the Democratic Party (47 million) and the Republican Party (35 million), the Libertarian Party is small potatoes. Its presidential candidate did take 1.77% of the presidential vote in 2020. Yet it is big compared to the next largest party, the Green Party, which has a membership of 0.25 million and took 0.255% of the presidential vote.

I think it makes sense that the Libertarian Party is the largest third party. Right now the guiding concept for many Americans is individual rights. And that is what defines the Libertarian Party. The Libertarian Party ideology is to let the individual (or corporation) do what they want without any government interference. They want a small government that leaves the individual (or corporation) alone. They are more like the Democrats with liberal social policies, and more like the Republicans with the economic and business policies.

The last third party to take a significant portion of the presidential vote was the Reform Party. In 1992, Ross Perot took 19% of the presidential vote, and in 1996 he took 8% of the vote. Since then no third party has taken 5% of the vote or more. Ross Perot was a character, a maverick, and he had money. I think those two things set him apart to allow him to be noticed by the voting public. It may be that character and money is what the next third party presidential candidate needs to have to collect a significant percentage of the vote.

So what good are third parties? I think they tell the two major parties what people are thinking. If the third party gets a significant percentage of the vote, the Democrats and Republicans need to take a look and see what was the reason behind the third party receiving a significant number of votes and then adjust their policies to reflect the needs of the people.

I am an Independent. I am not a member of any party. There are some ideas I like from the Democrats and some ideas I like from the Republicans. I am a social conservative which means on those issues I lean Republican. I believe in a good social safety net so on those issues I lean Democratic. I am also a fiscal conservative. Neither party has been good at attempting to balance the budget. The Republicans have been good at talking the talk but poor at walking the walk. Actually I think Democrats may be better at paying for what they spend. I took a survey which told me how much of a Democrat or Republican I am. I pretty much ended up in the center, neither left nor right. (The questions asked by these surveys are always frustrating because it is never as black and white as the question indicates. The “center” ranking was correct, I think, but the characteristics of the group I was placed in seemed wrong for me.)

This last election I took a closer look at several third parties. I found one that for the most part fit my political beliefs. I don’t fully agree with the party platform but it seems to come the closest to what I believe politically. So for the 2020 presidential election I voted for Brian Carroll of the American Solidarity Party. The platform espouses the political ideology called Christian democracy. I would place it as center-right for social issues and center-left for economic and environmental issues.

So did I throw away my vote on someone who will never be elected? No, I instead made a statement of what I want both parties and the new administration to consider. Living in Colorado, I knew that the state was clearly going Democratic for president, so the Electoral College votes were set. If I was living in one of the purple swing states, I would have considered that my vote could have made a difference in the outcome, and I may have voted for one of the two major party candidates. So if you are not in a purple swing state in 2024 and you feel that the two major parties don’t fit with what your political beliefs are, I would check out the third party platforms and choose a third party that best fits your political beliefs. Here are the platforms of the four third parties that “The Gospel Coalition” covered this last fall.

PS Yes, posting this post might have been better before the election instead of after the election. I have been thinking about this post for 6 months now. It is just that I was not ready to write the post until now.