Open Source Software and Linux

I am a fan of open source software and particularly Linux. Open source software is computer software, where the owner “grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose”. Linux or the Linux kernel is probably the most well known example of open source software. Linux is the software that makes a foundation or the kernel of an operating system. A Linux distribution, of which there are many, is what most people would consider the operating system. A Linux distribution is a full operating system, like Windows 10 or Mac OS X.

Linux was started 30 years ago by Linus Tovalds. The internet was just getting going from being a research project to what it is today. It was perfect timing for this hobby project to take off and become more than a hobby. I remember reading the initial announcement of the Linux kernel. There was immediately tremendous interest in Linux, and it quickly became a group project that programmers from all over the world were writing code for.

Soon after that, Microsoft realized Linux’s potential and a potential impact on Microsoft’s bottom line, so Microsoft began to actively discourage the use of Linux. Microsoft used fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) to discourage its use. Linux was even called a “cancer” in 2001 by then Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

Move forward 20 years and in a completely different sense Linux has spread like a cancer. I just installed the “Windows Subsystem Linux (version 2)” on my Windows 10 Home laptop. This program is a Microsoft developed and approved piece of software. I am running the Linux kernel and operating system inside Microsoft’s Windows 10 Home with Microsoft’s blessing. What happened and why is Microsoft now supporting Linux?

It turns out that using the collaborative methods of making open source software produces software better than the proprietary methods (in most cases). Using collaborative open source methods means that people from all over the world are working on improving the software and correcting any bugs in that software. There tend to be more people working on open source software than if it were proprietary software.

My experience with open source software illustrates the point in a small way. Some of the weather radar processing software that we used was very old. A friend wrote a program to easily view weather radar files. He built it on top of some other open source code. I wanted to have some editing capabilities so I added that capability. My editing code barely worked. Another friend added some stuff he wanted in it. Then someone from Europe, who no one knew, saw the code on Github and he cleaned up the code, made it faster, and he added more capabilities to the code. Now the program works great and is being used by many people. The open source code made collaboration easy and improved the software.

Microsoft learned that lesson and decided to give its users/developers what they wanted. Microsoft went into open source software in a big way. Microsoft has open sourced a lot of their software, and Microsoft bought Github, the main collaborative open source software website. (However their crown jewels, Windows and Office, remain closed source.) Microsoft has changed from 20 years ago.

Was Microsoft right to be concerned 20+ years ago? Yes, they were, but Microsoft should have embraced the change sooner, instead of fighting it for many years. Today most web servers, all the top 500 supercomputers, and all non-Apple (android) smartphones run on Linux. Linux is everywhere, and because of android phones Linux is the number one operating system kernel in the world. Only on the desktop is Linux missing a significant presence with about a 4.7% presence. (About half of that 4.7% is Chrome OS (Chromebooks) which has Linux underneath.) This is the case even though many Linux distributions (e.g. Ubuntu Linux) are as easy to use as Windows or Mac OS X. Several years ago, after our Windows XP laptop got infected twice, I put Linux on it and for the next several years Gail and I used that Linux laptop to surf the web and do our various computer tasks until we got a Windows 10 laptop. It was as easy to use as Windows and much more secure than Windows XP.

Open source software is what runs the Internet, and underneath this web page is open source software, the very popular WordPress and the operating system Linux. Even your web browser is mostly open source. (The Firefox browser is 100% open source.) Open source software has revolutionized the software industry and it is here to stay. And I think Linux is the best example of the potential of open source software.

Forgiveness versus Justice?

Is forgiveness a bad thing? Does it hinder justice? Some activists would say, “yes, forgiveness is a bad thing”. My Christian faith would say the opposite. I read a very interesting essay by Timothy Keller on the current state of forgiveness in America. In today’s individualistic culture, where Critical Race Theory and the Cancel Culture are major influences, there is very little room for forgiveness.

Back in 2015, racist Dylann Roof entered a Charleston church and shot and killed nine African-Americans. (Three others survived.) Soon after the relatives forgave Dylann Roof for the killing. Some activists opposed the forgiveness, because “The supposed moral obligation of forgiveness was seen as an instrument by which those in power maintained their position.” They consider forgiveness as giving support to the enemy. In this case, the enemy was white racism. “They argued that forgiveness is a form of ‘self-renunciation,’ giving up your perfect right to pay back to the person what they did to you.” That is true but without forgiveness there is little, if any, hope of healing and reconciliation. As Martin Luther King Jr. wrote, “He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power of love. . . .We can never say, ‘I will forgive you, but I won’t have anything further to do with you.’ Forgiveness means reconciliation, and coming together again.”

That is what the Christian Faith is all about. God forgave us so that we might be reconciled to him. It did not mean that justice was not served. Jesus paid the price for our sin. There was a cost. Justice was not forgotten. We need to forgive in a way that honors justice.

‘Since God forgives us yet in a way that honours justice, so we should also forgive in a way that honours justice. As Don Carson once wrote, “Christians are called to abandon bitterness, to be forbearing, to have a forgiving stance even where the repentance of the offending party is conspicuous by its absence; on the other hand, their God-centered passion for justice, their concern for God’s glory, ensure that the awful odium of sin is not glossed over.”’

An example of this on the national scale is the nation of Germany. After World War I, justice was served and Germany suffered the cost of making war reparations. I believe because of the heavy cost of justice Hitler rose to power and World War II happened. After World War II, Germany was a part of the Marshall Plan and received assistance in recovering from the war. That was forgiveness in action. There was a cost borne by the USA, but that is a part of the forgiveness, and today Germany is reconciled to the allies. But note there was still justice. Its leaders were tried and prosecuted for the horrible things done, and still today German school children learn of the wrongs their nation did. Forgiveness with justice happened. (Marshall Plan motivation was not about Christian love, but I believe it is still a good example of forgiveness on a national scale.)

Another example of forgiveness on a national scale happened in South Africa, where Desmond Tutu set up the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which offered amnesty and forgiveness to any person guilty of violence who came forward and publicly confessed what they had done. This allowed for reconciliation between the former white oppressors and the black majority. Civil war was avoided.

Today forgiveness is countercultural. Today’s individualistic culture “stresses looking inward to forge one’s own identity based on our desires, and then moving outward to demand that society honour our individual identity and interests.” That does not allow for the cost of “self-renunciation”, only the exaltation of oneself. The starting point of the Christian Faith is that we all are broken sinners. No one is exalted above another. No one is superior. At the same time, as Christians our identity is secure. We are children of God, and no matter what happens that is who we are. This is what makes forgiveness possible.

There are three aspects to forgiveness. We, first, need to embrace the free forgiveness that God has given us. We can forgive because we have been forgiven due to the costly sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Then we can give up the desire to get even. We forgive them inwardly, so that we do not dwell on it. It does cost us to give up what is due us. And thirdly, we seek repentance and reconciliation from the offender. The goal is to reconcile with each other.

Through the years, Christianity has changed the world for the better. Forgiveness has played a big part in that change and it will again in the future.

PS All quotes (in italics) were from the essay. The essay is insightful and is worth a read.

Is the Bible Wicked?

I have become aware that many people consider the Bible to be an evil or wicked book. There are more than just a few with that opinion. I like to believe that is because there is a lot of ignorance of the Bible behind many of those opinions, and maybe it is also in part due to our Postmodern culture where you choose what you want to believe. Part of the issue is there are some Bible passages that can sound horrible if we do not put those passages in proper context. The Bible is not a wicked book.

My awareness peaked this last January when a commenter said this on Joe Biden’s inauguration:

“Out of all the books your choose, the bible must be one of the worst examples of a text on which you swear an oauth. Can anyone think of another collection of stories that demonstrates worse morals, ethics and which lacks any basis for system of right and wrong that could be used by a just society?” (slashdot)

Because there is so much wrong with that comment, I am not going to discuss it since it would require me to spend the entire blog post on that comment. (Okay, the most obvious rebuttal is “the Ten Commandments are from the Bible”.) But that comment started quite the discussion between a variety of people, and I learned that a lot of people believe that the Bible promotes horrible morals.. I also learned that there is a website called www.evilbible.com, which uses Bible passages to show how evil God is. The website takes some misunderstood or hard to understand passages as well as some completely misinterpreted passages and puts the worst possible spin on God. This website expresses the horrible morals of God. Fortunately for us, the website has it all wrong.

Note you can put the same spin on the movie “Mary Poppins”. You think “Mary Poppins” is a sweet family friendly movie. Well with the right clips from the movie you end up with “Scary Mary”. So instead of the family friendly movie, you have a horror short. I think that is what the evil Bible website is doing.

Providentially, also in January, my adult Sunday school class started going through the book “How (Not) to Read the Bible’‘ by Dan Kimball, in which the book addresses many of these misunderstood passages and gives four helpful facts for reading the Bible. You have to admit there are some passages in the Bible that from today’s viewpoint suggest that the Bible is anti-women, anti-science, pro-violence, and pro-slavery, as well as being intolerant. These are the hard to understand passages. I will focus on the four helpful facts that will allow you to navigate these tough Scripture passages.

The Bible is a library not a book. The Bible was written over about 1500 years by many authors in three languages. There are 66 books in two volumes, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These books have several different literary styles. The Bible consists of letters, history, poetry, law, apocalyptic literature, and prophecy. So you must take those differences into account. You do not read a chapter in 1 Kings the same way you would read a Psalm.

The Bible was written for us, but not to us. Each book of the Bible was written to a particular people in a particular situation. This truth can be clearly seen in Paul’s letters. Most of the time he dealt with real problems the local Christians were having at that time, in that culture, and at that location. Things today have changed. The culture is different, and yet God’s truths are still found in those letters. We need to take into account those cultural differences to understand what is being conveyed. Many times the meaning is clear, but with some of those harder to understand passages you need to look at what the passage meant to those in that time and place and culture. Ask yourself what is the purpose of the passage? Is it dealing with a problem? Is there a cultural issue? What is the principle that the passage is trying to convey? Does your interpretation agree with the rest of Scripture? It is important to note that God works within the culture, so for an example the Old Testament laws concerning slavery does not mean God approved of slavery, rather the laws were there to lessen the bad effects of slavery and to provide some protection to those enslaved.

Never read only a Bible verse. Read the verse in context. Look at the Bible verse in context with the surrounding verses. Zoom out some more and ask yourself what is the verse in context to the Bible book. And then look at the verse in context of the overarching story of the entire Bible. Your interpretation of the verse should fit in each one of those contexts. If it does not then you are missing something. To help you with getting the context, the Bible Project has great overviews of each book of the Bible.

All the Bible points to Jesus. When we read the Bible we should always keep Jesus in mind, because Jesus is at the center of that overarching story of the Bible. His story is what is really important. There are six acts to the big story.

God created the universe and was in relationship with Adam and Eve. (Genesis 1-2)
Adam and Eve rebelled and due to disobedience the relationship was broken. (Genesis 3-11)
Redemption was initiated. (Genesis 12 – Malachi)
1. God chose Abraham/Israel to bless the nations.
2. Israel failed.
3. Israel was exiled and then restored. Hope remains.
Redemption has been provided through Jesus. (Matthew – John)
We are sent to all nations. (Acts – Revelation 21)
Restoration will be completed. (Revelation 22)

Jesus also believed that his teaching of love and forgiveness was consistent with the stories and teaching of the Old Testament. If he believed that, then one should be able to reconcile those hard to understand passages. The God of the Old Testament is the same God of the New Testament. He is not a mean evil god, rather he is loving and good as Jesus shows us. That should be our starting point when encountering these hard to understand passages.

To summarize, context is very important. For a Bible passage one needs to consider the literary context, the historical context, the cultural context, and the Biblical context with a focus on Jesus. Doing so will help you gain some understanding of these tough passages.

There are many resources available to counter the evil Bible meme and the misrepresentation of the hard to understand Bible passages. I will suggest a few resources. The book I read, “How (Not) to Read the Bible’‘ by Dan Kimball, is one good resource. The book “Is God a Moral Monster?” by Paul Copan is a more complete resource that is widely recommended. On the web, you need to be careful of the resources you use. They can and do vary a lot in quality. However, www.gotquestions.org seems to be a good resource. Another good resource is the “What Would You Say?” video series from the Colson Center. (An example from that series is “Is the Bible Sexist?”. Note the importance of context in the video.) Unfortunately you may find on the web several different answers for these hard to understand passages. So you will have to evaluate the answers, but remember it is ultimately about Jesus and what he did for us.

Connection Makers

One of my favorite passages in the Bible is 1 Peter 2:9-10. It says

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:9-10)

This passage tells me my identity. I am chosen. God has made me holy.. He has made me royalty. I am his. And my favorite description is that I am his priest.

What is a priest? In the Old Testament, they represented the people before God and they represented God before the people. They were the connection between God and us. They assisted Israel in the worship of God and they were messengers of God, teaching the people (Malachi 2:7). They were connection makers. They were from the tribe of Levi, specifically descended from the family of Aaron, but God did not consider them to be the only priests. In fact, God called all of Israel to be priests right before he gave the Ten Commandments.

Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.” (Exodus 19:5-6)

Here we see another example of how our Christian calling is not different from Israel’s calling. The 1 Peter 2:9-10 passage echoes the Exodus 19:5-6 passage. The people of Israel were called to be “a kingdom of priests”. I believe, to be “a kingdom of priests” means as Israel was to be a witness to the surrounding nations. They were to connect the surrounding peoples to God, just as we, Christians, are to do so today by proclaiming “the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light”.

Note that every descriptive term in 1 Peter 2:9-10 describes a group of people. If we step back a few verses, we see in 1 Peter 2:4-5 that we, individually, are part of a bigger structure, a spiritual house.

As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:4-5)

So Christians are to act together to be a holy priesthood. That is why we meet together. Each congregation works together to connect people with God. It is not a purely individual effort. One may individually share the faith, but eventually that person needs to be connected to other Christians as well as to God, to fully participate and grow.

So because of our identity as Christians, we have been given a special task. We are connection makers. In sharing God’s love and the Good News about Jesus, we assist in connecting people to God. Or in other words, we connect people to God because that is what priests do.

My Broken Story

Photo of crepuscular rays by Peter Hostermann

When I look back at my life I see various events that help define me. Many of the events were part of my brokenness. I can let those events define my future, or I can define my life backwards. As a child of God, I know who I am and whose I am. I know my future is determined. I will spend eternity with God. If that is the case, I should define my future in light of that eternal perspective. My life is not just a cause and effect life, defined by the past, broken as it may be, but instead I can define my life based on its outcome, eternity with God.

Let me give an example from my life. I am a strong introvert. I really did not learn to chit chat until I was in college. The church I attended during my college years was an outreach to college students. I would after church stand around, sipping punch and eating a cookie waiting for someone to come up and talk to me. Conversations were happening all around me but not with me. I was somewhat of a wallflower. After quite a long while, I decided I have had enough of this and I attempted to take part in the conversations. It worked sometimes and not so well other times. Eventually, I learned to chit chat. Still today, others tend to be better at it than me, but I can do it. Because of this broken part of my life story, today, when I see a person alone at church, I will usually approach them and try to strike up a conversation. I want them to feel welcomed and not the loneliness that I felt. God has rewritten that part of my broken story and turned it into a good thing. My life has been redefined by that eternal perspective, and not by the brokenness of the past.

How do we define our lives? We seem to define ourselves by doing. We respond to the question “Who are you?” by giving our occupation. Doing seems to define us, but should it? We might better be defined by our inner self, our “being”. It is out of our thought life flows all our doings. Unfortunately, this also includes our fears, our struggles, our broken relationships, and our selfishness. We are broken deep down inside. But as Christians, we have hope. God is for us, and he has made us his own. We can be defined by our identity as a child of God. We are not defined by our broken doings.

With the enabling help of the Holy Spirit, we can begin to repair our brokenness and turn it into a blessing. Too many times we conform to the brokenness around us, to the culture of the world. We may say we are Christian, but many times we act like we are an atheist, thinking only of temporal desires and ignoring God and his wisdom. We need to be transformed and our minds renewed.

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1-2)

That Romans passage tells us to submit ourselves to God, because of what God has done. We are not to be influenced by the broken world around us, rather we need to be transformed and renewed. This means we need to be intentional and disciplined in dealing with our inner self. We should not become distracted by the many temporal things around us, rather we need to look to our eternal relationship with God and strengthen that intimate relationship. By focusing on God, and not on the events of the past, we will find wisdom and fulfillment. (Daily reading of the Bible helps you grow in that relationship. The S.O.A.P. method is one way of many ways to study Scripture.)

A good start is to note who we are, and whose we are. That definition of “being” is important and it sets the focus. We are God’s own, his children, saved for a life of good works which he has prepared for us to do (Ephesians 2:10). We need to recognize that our story is a part of God’s big story of salvation, and he wants to use us. With the enabling help of the Holy Spirit, we can renew our minds and “take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5).

This post was inspired by Ken Boa’s book, “Rewriting Your Broken Story”.

Our Certain God in an Uncertain World

We live in an uncertain world. The pandemic came out of nowhere and changed our lives and our routines. It was a huge change and some of that change will remain for years to come. Even when things are going smoothly and our future appears certain, there is still uncertainty that causes us to worry, grumble, and complain. Not only that, we are envious and we covet, and that adds to our discontent. Things don’t always go the way we would want. We can be unhappy even in the best of times. And yet we desire to be content and satisfied. I think we can learn from our brothers and sisters in China, who are currently in a really tough situation.

I recently read an article about how China has been clamping down on Christians (and other religious groups) since new laws went into effect on 1 February 2020 (and in February 2018). The new laws basically say that all religious activity is to be overseen by the State and operated in accordance with the Chinese Communist Party policy. And the new laws specify that all religious activity within China must promote and support the Chinese Communist Party. As a Chinese Catholic priest commented: “In practice, your religion no longer matters, if you are Buddhist, or Taoist, or Muslim or Christian: the only religion allowed is faith in the Chinese Communist Party.” The official legal churches now have a lot more oversight done by unbelievers, and the unofficial house (jiating) churches will no longer be ignored. Some of the house churches were large churches that rented space. They can not rent any more and will now have to keep a low profile. I think that means returning to small groups meeting in homes again. The majority of Chinese Christians are a part of the house churches.

And yet in this article, I find that they seem to be not worried or complaining even though their situation has made a big turn for the worse. They remain firm in their faith. As you read the quotes below, note their faith that God is in control, despite the circumstances. My added comments on the quotes are found in the brackets.

“The Christian hope lies in this—we are not stronger or purer than others, but rather than believing in ourselves, we believe in Jesus, who upholds us whenever we fall, who strengthens us when our strength is drained, who loves us when we are in pain.” [They recognize that God will be there to sustain them.]

“The Devil is using this opportunity to crack down on the church, that’s for sure, but God will use it in a different way.” [They believe God will take a bad situation and ultimately turn it for good.]

“We still do a lot of active planning, but more humbly we say, ‘Lord, if you are willing: this is your time. Use it.’ . . . We don’t know what the future holds.” [They are not fatalistic. They still plan, but they ask God to guide them and use their plans.]

“But we know that everything is under his control, and he is behind everything. Whatever happens is God’s way to prepare his church. He is always preparing his church.” [They see that God is in control and they believe what happens will be for the good of the church as a whole.]

“Through uncertainty, we depend on our certain God,” he said. “God calls us to live an uncertain life, so that we can trust and rely on him.” [They don’t know what the future holds, but they trust God to be their firm foundation.]

The last quote reminds me of this passage from Isaiah: You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. (Isaiah 26:3) We can be content and need not worry, grumble, or complain. We have a firm foundation found in the loving God we trust, and that is where contentment is found.

Return to the Lord

Return to the Lord your God,
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love (Joel 2:13)

The God, we Christians worship, is one who loves us deeply and desires that we return to him. Though he loves us, he is also just and there are consequences for our wrongdoing and even our wrong thinking. That wrongdoing and wrong thinking is called sin. He wants the best for us but we are very self-centered and what we desire is many times bad for us. It is easy to see that we are broken.

God’s initial creation was good, very good, but Adam and Eve disobeyed God and broke themselves and all of creation. Ever since then God has desired to bring us back to him. He put a restoration plan into action. Beginning with Abraham and Sarah, he set out to make a people for himself that would bring blessing to all people (Genesis 12:1-3). From Abraham and Sarah came the people of Israel. They were to be “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6). They failed over and over again, but God was not stymied. His plan for restoration still moved forward.

Out of love, Jesus came into the world (John 3:16) to do what we could not do. He was the Israel that Israel could not be. He lived a perfect life. He fully loved people and God. He went to the cross to take our sin upon himself. His death was the death we deserved. He paid for our sin on the cross. And then he rose from the dead. Because he did all this, we can have a full life in him. With the Holy Spirit, we can be the people of God and bring blessing and restoration to all people. We are to be “a royal priesthood, a holy nation” (1 Peter 2:9) like Israel of old, and like Israel we still fail and fail again, but God is still at work. His restoration plan continues until when he will gather all who believe that Jesus is their Lord and Savior together with him in Heaven.

So what does this all mean to us? First, we need to recognize that we are not good. We are not even a little bit good. We are corrupt through and through. Oh, we may do “good” things but deep down inside is that self-centered selfish side of us that taints everything we do. We all are bad. And God wants perfection. Picture of a “totally white sheet of paper” as perfection. The very best we can manage is a “dark gray sheet with some black spots”. We can not by ourselves even come close, but Jesus was perfect, that “totally white sheet of paper”.

Second, we need to recognize that even though we may be a “grimy black sheet of paper”, God still loves us and desires to be in relationship with us. That is good news and that is why Jesus came so that we can become a “totally white sheet of paper”. Or in other words, we are set free and cleansed from all our sin. We can then live the good life God has in store for us, and worship and serve him in all purity.

Third, we who follow Jesus are not there yet. We need to daily turn from our sin and return to God to follow him and do what he desires. The Holy Spirit continues to be at work in us, transforming us. One day when we are united with God we will be whole, that “totally white sheet of paper”.

If you don’t have a church home consider attending a worship service at a church near you. This time of year is a most important time. It is when we especially remember that Jesus died for us and rose from the dead so that we can have a full life in him. This year, Palm Sunday, when Jesus entered Jerusalem, is March 28. Maundy Thursday, when Jesus celebrated Passover and changed it into the Lord’s Supper, is April 1. Good Friday, when Jesus died, is April 2. And Easter Sunday, when Jesus rose from the dead, is April 4. Many churches will have special worship services on these days. Do consider attending a worship service. (In Loveland, Colorado, I attend Immanuel Lutheran Church and School. You are welcome to join me and attend there. Or join us online (Youtube or Facebook), if you have Covid concerns.)

And if you want more information about the Christian Faith, feel free to contact me.

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.

Living in a Digital Babylon

I believe today we are living in a “digital Babylon”. The culture has shifted and Christianity now takes a backseat to other influences. Today the big influencer is the Internet. The younger you are, the more screen time you spend. All ages say they spend too much time online. It can be very addicting. Just as the Jews found themselves in a foreign culture when they were exiled to Babylon, so we are now exiles in a foreign culture influenced by the Internet. Christianity has become countercultural. We need to recognize that we are countercultural exiles and we should not succumb to today’s prevailing culture.

The Barna Group did a couple of studies that looked at 18-29 year olds, first in 2011 and then in 2019. They found three trends shaping culture. The first trend is “Access”. Via WiFi and other internet connections we can have access from just about anywhere at any time on about almost any topic. It is a great resource. Unfortunately the second trend is “Alienation”. The Internet is supposed to be a great connector and in many ways it is, but I believe this technology also isolates and promotes Individualism. It is you and your phone, or some other screen device. Have you looked in a restaurant to see how many people are on their phones and not talking to the person they are with. I find it kind of scary. The third trend is a distrust of “Authority”. Because of the Internet, you don’t need to rely on anyone. That independence alienates one from tradition and institutions, and in doing so it produces a distrust of institutions. Though Barna’s focus is on those 18-29 years old, I see these trends across all generations.

Barna says these trends have significantly impacted those 18-29 year olds who have grown up in the church. In 2011, 59% of those 18-29 year olds who had grown up in the church dropped out of any church involvement. By 2019 the number grew to 64%. Note these were children and teenagers who were there at worship and took part in youth activities, and now as adults they are gone. Many of them no longer identify themselves as Christian.

Only ten percent of those 18-29 year olds who went to church as kids are what Barna calls “Resilient Disciples”. They have a strong faith and they understand that they are countercultural exiles living in a digital Babylon. They attend a local church regularly and engage in other faith activities outside of the worship services.They trust firmly in the authority of the Bible, and they are committed to Jesus personally and affirm his death and resurrection. And they express a desire to live out their faith so that God is honored. Below is an infographic that gives more detail to what their resilience looks like.

What can we older church folk do? Note the importance of meaningful relationships. Be a friend to a teen or a young adult. We need to support each other in this culture, and use the Bible to keep the countercultural truth front and center. The Internet is a great resource but truth and falsehood are both easily found online, and there is nothing that tells one what is true. We are tossed to and fro by different ideas and concepts unless we have been grounded in the truth of Scripture. The Church provides that anchor of Jesus Christ to ground us, so we can find that needed support in a local church community. Let us be there for each other, especially those young in the Faith.