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Vote NO – March 7 – Oklahoma State Question 820 – Legalization of Recreational Marijuana

Posted by :admin On : February 28, 2023
0

Category: Archives, Culture Wars, Government

Oklahomans must not ignore the lessons learned from the approval of Medical Marijuana in 2018.

In 2018, sixty percent of Oklahoma voters overwhelmingly approved legalization of marijuana for medical purposes (SQ 788). Just four years later Oklahoma leads the nation with 2,300 marijuana dispensaries and is also the leading source of marijuana trafficking nationwide due to cheap land, cheap licenses, and the most lax regulations on marijuana in the country.[1]

Beth Wallis, writing in State Impact Oklahoma, call’s Oklahoma the “Wild West” when it comes to marijuana policies and regulations.

With the relatively low cost of starting a business, few regulations on facility placement, and the ease of obtaining a medical card, the Sooner State has become a prime destination for businesses looking to cash in on the Green Rush. Compared to Colorado — a state with legal medical and recreational marijuana — Oklahoma has nearly seven times the number of grow licensees.[2]

Escalation of the carnage by legalizing Recreational Marijuana

Like the 2018 legalization of medical marijuana, 2023’s State Question 820 to legalize recreational marijuana was written by individuals in the marijuana industry and presented through the petition process for a vote. Over $3 million has been spent by organizations and individuals in the marijuana industry to promote SQ820. The complete language of SQ 820 is found at the Oklahoma Secretary of State Website.[3]

Proponents of legalization of recreational marijuana point to the large amount of tax and licensing revenues projected to be generated through sales of recreational marijuana. However, these revenues are dwarfed by the massive societal costs due to loss of life, declining mental and physical health, increased criminal activity, and increased cost of public services (police, judicial system, over-burdened infrastructure and health systems, etc.).

Dumbing Down America

The Center for Disease Control has reported that marijuana is the most commonly used federally illegal drug in the United States, with an estimated 48.2 million people using it in 2019. Marijuana use may have a wide range of health effects on the body and brain. The cannabis plant contains more than 100 compounds (or cannabinoids). These compounds include tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is impairing or mind-altering, as well as other active compounds, such as cannabidiol (CBD). CBD is not impairing, meaning it does not cause a “high”.[4]

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration of the United States Department of Health and Human Service presents a frightening picture of the destruction of the mental and physical health of a growing number of Americans using marijuana:

Contrary to popular belief, marijuana is addictive. Research shows that:

• 1-in-6 people who start using the drug before the age of 18 can become addicted.
• 1-in-10 adults who use the drug can become addicted.

Over the past few decades, the amount of THC in marijuana has steadily climbed; today’s marijuana has three times the concentration of THC compared to 25 years ago. The higher the THC amount, the stronger the effects on the brain—likely contributing to increased rates of marijuana-related emergency room visits. While there is no research yet on how higher potency affects the long-term risks of marijuana use, more THC is likely to lead to higher rates of dependency and addiction.[5]

Even though the proposed law restricts usage of recreational marijuana by persons under age 21, the ease with which marijuana will be obtainable and used by minors will markedly increase if recreational marijuana usage is approved. Minors are the ones most prone to long-term mental and physical declines due to marijuana use.

Marijuana use can have negative and long-term effects:[6]

• Brain health: Marijuana can cause permanent IQ loss of as much as 8 points when people start using it at a young age. These IQ points do not come back, even after quitting marijuana.

• Mental health: Studies link marijuana use to depression, anxiety, suicide planning, and psychotic episodes. It is not known, however, if marijuana use is the cause of these conditions.

• Athletic Performance: Research shows that marijuana affects timing, movement, and coordination, which can harm athletic performance.

• Driving: People who drive under the influence of marijuana can experience dangerous effects: slower reactions, lane weaving, decreased coordination, and difficulty reacting to signals and sounds on the road.

• Baby’s health and development: Marijuana use during pregnancy may cause fetal growth restriction, premature birth, stillbirth, and problems with brain development, resulting in hyperactivity and poor cognitive function. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and other chemicals from marijuana can also be passed from a mother to her baby through breast milk, further impacting a child’s healthy development.

• Daily life: Using marijuana can affect performance and how well people do in life. Research shows that people who use marijuana are more likely to have relationship problems, worse educational outcomes, lower career achievement, and reduced life satisfaction.[6]

Oklahoma must not compound the damage already done to the citizens of Oklahoma by approving recreational marijuana. However, those promoting recreational marijuana are also encouraging a get out the vote campaign in order to pass SQ 820. The Tulsa County Election Board has reported that there has been a significant jump in new voter registrations in the last two months presumably to vote yes on the state question.[7]

Your Personal Action Plan to stop the legalization of Recreational Marijuana in Oklahoma

• Vote on Tuesday – March 7
• Get your family and friends to vote against SQ820
• Use Facebook and other social media to send this post to your contact list.
• Contact your pastor and ask him to publicly encourage congregational members present on Sunday, March 5, to vote against SQ820 on Tuesday – March 7 (Some pastors have given lengthy resentations two or three times to their congregations of the reasons to vote against SQ820.)
• Pray daily for the defeat of SQ820

Larry G. Johnson

Sources:
[1] Karen Hardin, SQ 820 Recreational marijuana vote March 7, Tulsa Beacon, February 23, 2023, 1.
[2] Beth Wallis, “Where does medical marijuana stand in the state legislature?” State Impact Oklahoma, February 17, 2022, https://stateimpact.npr.org/oklahoma/2022/02/17/where-does-medical-marijuana-stand-in-the-oklahoma-legislature/
[3] Oklahoma Secretary of State website: https://www.sos.ok.gov/gov/questions.aspx (Click in the search box 820 and then click on the number to download the document.)
[4] “Health Effects of Marijuana,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, https://www.cdc.gov/marijuana/health-effects/index.html (accessed 2-27-2023).
[5] “Learn About Marijuana Risks,” Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, https://www.samhsa.gov/marijuana (accessed 2-27-2023).
[6] Ibid.
[7] Karen Hardin, Tulsa Beacon, 1.

Pornography in Owasso Public Schools – How it happened and what is being done about it

Posted by :admin On : December 17, 2022
0

Category: Archives, Culture Wars, Education

This is the second article on pornography in the Owasso Public Schools. The first article may be found at CultureWarrior.net website: “Pornography in Owasso Public Schools – Will local churches remain silent?”[1]

Events leading up to Owasso Public Schools change in library policies that deal with pornography

The story began when a Tim Reiland opened a book his 14-year old daughter had randomly checked out from the Owasso Public Schools library. He discovered its contents were blatantly pornographic and lodged a complaint about the offending book with school officials. Reiland attended a school board meeting on October 10th and spoke at the meeting with hope that the board would establish a district policy that addressed his concerns about pornographic materials in the school’s libraries. The board did not establish a policy with regard to the presence of pornographic materials. Reiland was subsequently banned from all Owasso Public Schools’ grounds following his contact with a board member in the parking lot following the meeting. On October 17, 2022, KTUL Channel 8 aired a story about Reiland’s banishment because of his efforts to have the graphic novel removed from the school library.[2]

Reiland obtained legal counsel, and on November 1st, U.S. District Judge John F. Heil issued a temporary restraining order that prevented the Owasso school district from barring Reiland’s access to the campus. Heil wrote, “While it is true that injunctive relief is an extraordinary relief, this Court finds that the First Amendment is an extraordinary right, deserving of extraordinary relief.”[3]

The Owasso school board subsequently met on November 9th and altered Reiland’s ban so it was no longer tied to his interaction with board member Brent England. Instead, the ban was kept in place because of Reiland’s interaction in the parking lot with Art Haddaway of the Owasso Reporter. Subsequently on November 14th, Judge Heil converted the restraining order to a temporary injunction that prevented Owasso Public Schools’ efforts to ban the Reiland from attending school board meetings, dropping off and picking up his children from school, and attending parent-teacher conferences and other extracurricular activities. The judge noted that it “is clear” that Owasso’s ban was “substantially motivated as a response to Plaintiff’s criticism of the Board’s decision and his petition for a redress of grievances” which is protected under the First Amendment.[4]

On that same Monday night, November 14, 2022, the Owasso School Board unanimously approved an update of the school’s library policy and specifically addressed the presence of pornographic books and other associated materials found in the school library. A copy of this policy may be found on the Owasso Public Schools website.[5]

The OPS Board is to be commended for its changes to the School Library Book Selection Policy #1.86 [6]

1. The opening paragraph of the amended policy includes the following statements:

The library media program shall be reflective of the community standards for the population the library media center serves when acquiring an age appropriate collection of print materials, non-print materials, multimedia resources, equipment and supplies…All students shall have access to age appropriate material from any collection in the district, however parents or legal guardians shall have the right to restrict access to library materials for their student(s). [emphasis added]

2. Just as important as the additions may be, the deletions are often just as important.
The following are representative of the deletions:

• Libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view on current and historical issues. Materials should not be prescribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.

If continued, this deleted policy statement would have allowed the inclusion of materials promoting Marxism, socialism, critical race theory, and sexualization of children through the radical LGBTQ+ agenda, all of which do not reflect the “community standards for the population the library media center serves.”

• Libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment.

If continued, this deleted policy statement would have allowed OPS administrators to continue to allow pornographic materials in OPS libraries. Likewise, if a state law passed in 2021 had not prohibited teaching and promotion of critical race theory, this policy would have allowed OPS administrators to challenge those who wished to prohibit teaching and promotion of critical race theory (including library and classroom books and materials).

• Materials shall be selected in accordance with the principles established by the School Library Bill of Rights as approved by the American Association of School Libraries. The American Association of School Librarians affirms that all libraries are forums for information and ideas, and that the following basic ideals should guide their services…

The removal of this policy statement effectively replaces the selection principles of the American Association of School Librarians with selections reflective of local community standards. It is highly doubtful that the leadership of any national secondary or university-level education association or organization reflects the community standards of parents and citizens of Owasso, Oklahoma. For decades academia in America at all levels have been indoctrinated with a liberal-progressive-socialist worldview by the vast majority of American colleges and universities which stands in stark contrast to the Judeo-Christian values and worldview of most Americans.

3. The Criteria for OPS’s School Book Selection Policy #1.86 include two
commendable changes:

Paragraph 2. As school library media center resources are finite, the library media program shall be reflective of the community standards for the population the library media center serves when acquiring an age appropriate collection of print materials, non-print materials, multimedia resources, equipment and supplies… [emphasis added]

Paragraph 5. Materials are selected for validity, currency, and appropriateness of content. This includes an inspection of every graphic novel, prior to placing in the collection, for potential material involving sexually explicit content and extreme vulgarity. [emphasis added]

Significant Problem remains with OPS Policy #1.86 as amended 11-14-2022

The problem with OPS Policy #1.86 as amended resides with the person(s) charged with the Responsibility for Selection. Those responsible for book and materials selection remain unchanged. The board of education is the governing body of the school district and is legally responsible for selection of instructional materials including library books and materials. This authority is delegated to the professional personnel of the district for the selection of these books and materials. The policy states that the books and materials for the library are primarily selected by the Library Media Specialist with input from the Selection Review Committee composed of a minimum of three certified staff members which may include the Library Media Specialist, principal, counselor, and classroom teachers(s).[7]

Yet, these are the same people charged with selecting or rejecting library and classroom books and materials under the prior policy that now must select books and materials that reflect community standards (discerning, understanding, and interpreting the community’s values, moral standards, and worldview).

Although the board and professional personnel may or may not personally approve of pornographic material, nevertheless, they allowed significant amounts of pornographic materials to be available to Owasso students. One wonders how many years has this been happening. The enormity of their malfeasance becomes clear when the perniciousness of pornography is understood. Pornography is widely defined as depicting erotic behavior and intended to cause sexual excitement, and is morally reprehensible, offensive, and insidious. Pornography distorts a child’s understanding of healthy human relationships.

Establishment of a Community/Parent Oversight Committee to interact with the OPS Selection Review Committee with regard library and classroom books and materials

The policy continues to state that, “However, no stakeholder has the right to determine the reading material for students other than his/her own children.”[8] Here, stakeholder implies parents of children at OPS. However, given the reference to community standards, the stakeholders must include members of the local community at large.

The only means to insure that pornography does not creep back into the libraries of Owasso Public Schools over time is to establish an oversight committee comprised of parents and community members. Representatives of this committee would interact with the school’s Selection Review Committee. The structural and operational parameters of such oversight committee have been successfully developed and implemented in many other school districts across the nation.

• The Parent/Community Committee will review all books and materials presented to the Selection and Review Committee and make comments and recommendations.
• Although the Parent/Community committee may not always agree with the decisions of the Book Selection Committee, in some cases of significant disagreement, the Parent/Community Committee may appeal to the Superintendent and subsequently, if necessary, to the Board of Education.
• The Parent/Community Committee should be allowed to annually examine the books and materials available to students in the OPS libraries.

An election to select a representative for Owasso School Board Office No. 3 will be held on February 14, 2023. Three candidates are running to fill the position that has a five-year term of office: Vincent Donaldson, Neal Kessler (incumbent), and Kristy Moon.[9] All voters in that ward are encouraged to examine the candidates qualifications, views, and especially their position with regard to recent events surrounding the pornography in OPS libraries. Each candidate should be asked if he/she will support the establishment of a Parent/Community Book Selection Committee to have input and a degree of oversight in selection of books and materials for OPS libraries and classrooms that reflect community standards.

Larry G. Johnson

Sources:
[1] Larry G. Johnson, “Pornography in Owasso Public Schools – Will local churches remain silent,” culturewarrior.net, 11-08-2022. https://www.culturewarrior.net/2022/11/08/pornography-in-owasso-public-schools-silence-of-the-local-churches/
[2]Burt Mummolo, “Owasso parent banned from school grounds after asking for pornographic book to be removed,”
KTUL Channel 8, October 17, 2022, https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/owasso-parent-banned-from-school-grounds-after-asking-for-pornographic-book-to-be-removed/ar-AA134R0f
[3] Ray Carter, “Court prevents Owasso school from banning parent critic,” Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs,November 2, 2022, https://www.ocpathink.org/post/court-prevents-owasso-school-from-banning-parent-critic
[4] Ray Carter, “Parent reaps second court victory against Owasso schools,” Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, November 15, 2022, https://www.ocpathink.org/post/parent-reaps-second-court-victory-against-owasso-schools
[5] Owasso Board of Education Regular Meeting, November 14, 2022 at 6:30 PM – Attachment to Agenda item VII.D. Selection of Library materials Policy #1.86 (4), https://meeting.assemblemeetings.com/Public/Agenda/601?meeting=537856
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] “Tulsa County Municipal and School Board filings,” Tulsa Beacon, December 15, 2022, 1.

Pornography in Owasso Public Schools – Will local churches remain silent?

Posted by :admin On : November 8, 2022
1

Category: American Church, Archives, Culture Wars, Education

On October 17, 2022, KTUL Channel 8 aired a story about an Owasso parent’s efforts to have a graphic novel removed from the school library. The book had been randomly checked out by his 14-year-old daughter. The parent described what he found in the book.

There was children with their penises showing that were urinating in each other’s faces. There was scenes, and this is graphic, images of ejaculation. There are scenes of teen sex. There are also scenes of a child, a child being raped in the book, and all in graphic depiction.[1]

The parent stated that when he first told school officials about it, they didn’t pay him much mind until he brought copies of the pages to the assistant superintendent who then, he says, pulled the book for review. The parent stated that he was very happy with that and thanked him and sent emails thanking them.[2]

The parent then attended a school board meeting on October 10, hoping the district would establish a policy that addressed his concerns about pornographic materials in the school. Apparently other parents in attendance voiced similar concerns to the board as well. According to the parent, those wanting pornographic materials removed from the school were accused of “just trying to ban books or burn books” in spite the parents claims that they were just trying to protect their children from pornography. In spite of their efforts, the board took no action to address a policy change on what books would be allowed in the school.[3]

After the meeting the parent spoke to school board member Brent England in the parking lot about the concerns of the parents. Within three or four days after the meeting the parent received a letter from Owasso School Superintendent Margaret Coates informing him that he had “committed one or more acts” that interfered “with the peaceful activities on District property.” Specifically, the letter stated, “You are hereby directed to leave the Owasso Public Schools and all of its grounds including sports events, sports venues, and not return.” The Channel 8 news reporter asked the parent if he could pick up his kids. The parent responded that, “I cannot pick up my children without written permission from Margaret Coates. It feels very retaliatory.”[4]

Subsequently, U.S. District Judge John Heil issued a temporary injunction that prevents Owasso Public Schools’ efforts to ban the parent from attending school board meetings, dropping off and picking up his children from school, and attending parent-teacher conferences and other extracurricular activities. The judge noted that it “is clear” that Owasso’s ban was “substantially motivated as a response to Plaintiff’s criticism of the Board’s decision and his petition for a redress of grievances” which is protected under the First Amendment.[5]

Pornography in Oklahoma’s K-12 schools is widespread and deeply embedded

Owasso Public Schools is not the only school system that has been found to have pornography in its libraries and classrooms. The State Board of Education recently voted to sanction Tulsa Public Schools, Oklahoma’s second largest district, by significantly reducing its accreditation status to “accreditation with warning” for violating the provisions of House Bill 1775 passed by the Oklahoma legislature in 2021. HB 1775 prohibits the promotion or teaching of critical race theory (CRT) in Oklahoma K-12 classrooms. The recent vote to sanction Tulsa Public Schools for violation of HB 1775 occurred the same week that the Twitter account, Libs of Tik Tok, highlighted two books available to Tulsa students in the school library—“Gender Queer” and “Flamer.” The Twitter account reported that the books contain sexually explicit and pornographic content. When the sexually-explicit images from the books were posted on Facebook, the tech giant quickly shut down the post citing its graphic content.[6]

Oklahoma Senate Pro Tempore Greg Treat, called the news “appalling and nothing short of deplorable.” Further, he stated,

It is indefensible to have children exposed to images and material that is the definition of pornography. It makes no difference whether its same sex, opposing sex, or anything in between, children should never be able to view the images in a public school sanctioned library setting.[7]

State Representative Sherrie Conley, a former teacher and school administrator, warned that “materials such as these are not just in Tulsa Public schools but in other school libraries throughout the state.”[8]

Owasso is just one of many school boards across the nation that has tried to prevent parents and other critics from participating in school policy actions and decisions. Although present for years, these efforts significantly increased in 2021 with school administrators’ inclusion of critical race theory in classroom instruction. The National Association of School Boards in a letter to the Biden administration sought to label parental resistance as being equivalent to “a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes” and requested that federal law enforcement officials investigate protestors under federal anti-terrorism and hate—crimes laws. This was quickly followed by Attorney General Merrick Garland’s memorandum to the FBI to meet with state and local officials to develop “strategies for addressing threats against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff.” Many state school boards associations across the nation denounced the NSBA’s actions and announced their departure from the NSBA. However, the Oklahoma State School Boards Association has never publicly denounced NSBA’s action and has continued its affiliation with the group.[9]

Pornography is just one of several weapons used by the purveyors of the liberal-woke-Marxist agenda aimed at the overt sexualization of elementary and secondary school children throughout the nation. In addition to inclusion of pornographic materials in libraries and classrooms, this overt and well-organized sexualization process includes legitimization and promotion of the LGBTQ philosophy and lifestyle. The LGBTQ agenda for K-12 schools includes promotion and use of cross-sex hormones, surgical procedures, and puberty blockers, all based on their perceived gender identity. Parents of K-12 students must be on constant alert for these and a host of other issues that have infiltrated many public school systems such as Marxist/socialist indoctrination and criteria race theory.

How can local communities once again gain control of their local schools boards and administrators?

The first step is to elect school board members who respect and reflect the Judeo-Christian values and morals upon which the nation was founded. But when the local school boards actions or lack thereof no longer represent or reflect those values and morals, the parents and local citizenry have a powerful voice residing in almost every community. This powerful group is comprised of the local churches which means, first and foremost the pastor, followed by their staff and board of deacons, and backed by the congregations.

Unfortunately, the voice of the church in America became silent during the last half of the 20th century as most pastors and their churches have substantially ceased to speak into and influence their community beyond the walls of the church. For several decades the silence of the church has extended far beyond silence about local affairs. This is the foremost cause of the nation’s moral, social, political, and cultural turmoil and decline. It appears this failure to speak into the various spheres of American life has infiltrated into a large majority of Owasso’s churches.

“Silence in the face of evil is evil itself. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act. God will not hold us guiltless.”

Many believe the above quote originated with Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the World War II German pastor who resisted the Nazis and was martyred on the direct order of Adolf Hitler at the end of the war in 1945. Although not directly attributable to Bonhoeffer, “it so well sums up what he desperately tried to communicate to those who believed they could safely stand on the sidelines in the battle of that time.”[10]

If we are not actively living out our faith by fighting the wickedness in society and the culture of our time (in the schools, government, business, popular culture, arts, entertainment, media, and so forth), God will view our inaction (neutrality) as participation in the enemy’s wicked cause. In other words, God will not find us guiltless. Here we speak of collective and individual guilt.

Eric Metaxas in his new book, Letter to the American Church, captures the essence of how the church has become silent in the face of evil.

…those who behave as though there is really nothing to worry about, who seem to think—as such prominent pastors as Andy Stanley and others do—that we ought to assiduously avoid fighting these threats and be “apolitical” are tragically mistaken, are burying their heads in the sand and exhorting others to do the same …Do we not realize that no good ever can come of such silence and inaction, that human beings whom God loves suffer when His own people fail to express boldly what He has said and why they fail to live as He has called them to live?[11]

Such silence has led American schools to where they are today.

The very youngest of children in schools are being fed pernicious ideas on the subject of sexuality—ideas with which their young minds are quite unable to cope, and to which their own parents object. Older children are being so confused by sexual activists that they agree to have their bodies mutilated, so they can never become the men and women God has created them to be.[12]

We cannot help but wonder where are all of the leading American pastors today on the issues of sexuality and transgender craziness. Are they afraid to speak? Like lemmings, it appears that local pastors across the nation have also lost their voices and backbones as well. The question I have for Owasso pastors is this, have you regularly spoken to your congregations about these issues? God calls us to speak truth to power. John the Baptist spoke truth to Herod, and it cost him his head. Jesus spoke truth to the religious leaders of his day knowing they would bring about His crucifixion.

Plan of action for Owasso pastors

Pastors must organize, speak, and act for Owasso’s K-12 students who are unable to defend them themselves from the vicious attacks from the enemy of our souls.

1. Preach frequently and frankly to your congregations with passion fired by the Holy Spirit about the evils of pornography, the LGBTQ agenda, Marxism and socialism, and other evils facing our children in the public schools?

2. Pastors should deliver formal notifications of their churches’ opposition to any policies and practices that allow, tolerate, or encourage the presence of pornographic materials in Owasso Public Schools. This document should be signed by the pastor and every congregational member willing to do so and delivered to the Owasso School Board and Superintendent.

3. Encourage like-minded pastors willing to break their silence to come together as a group and attend an Owasso School Board with spokespersons prepared to demand changes to school’s policies and practices that would eradicate pornographic materials from K-12 classrooms and libraries, both now and in the future.

4. Using both social and print media, the Owasso ministerial alliance should publicly addressed the dangers of pornography and other philosophies and practices that promote sexualization of our children in public schools.

Removal of pornography from Owasso Pubic Schools is just one tiny skirmish in the culture wars. Fellow Christians and other defenders of the Judeo-Christian worldview are called to soldier in a much larger ongoing conflict which I described eight years ago in my book Evangelical Winter – Restoring New Testament Christianity.

Apart from the apostate church, there is also a faithful but mostly silent church in America that is content to preach the gospel and ignore the culture. Erwin Lutzer wrote, “whether in Nazi German or America, believers cannot choose to remain silent under the guise of preaching the Gospel…we must live out the implications of the cross in every area of our lives. We must be prepared to submit to the Lordship of Christ in all ‘spheres’.” Yet, as we live out the implications of the cross in every area of our lives, we must understand that the culture wars in which we soldier for Christ are not about maintaining the American dream however one may define it. Rather, the culture wars are about restoring the biblical understanding of truth in all spheres of our national life. To do so one must speak the truth in the face of lies, stand on biblical principles when others compromise, and take right actions in spite of consequences.[13]

Larry G. Johnson

Sources:
[1] Burt Mummolo, “Owasso parent banned from school grounds after asking for pornographic book to be removed,”
KTUL Channel 8, October 17, 2022, https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/owasso-parent-banned-from-school-grounds-after-asking-for-pornographic-book-to-be-removed/ar-AA134R0f
The video version of this telecast may be viewed at: https://ktul.com/news/local/owasso-parent-banned-from-school-grounds-after-asking-for-poronographic-book-to-be-removed
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ray Carter, “Court prevents Owasso school from banning parent critic,” Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs,
November 2, 2022, https://www.ocpathink.org/post/court-prevents-owasso-school-from-banning-parent-critic
[6] Ray Carter, “Concerns over racism, porn lead to Tulsa school sanction,” Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs,
July 28, 2022, https://www.ocpathink.org/post/concerns-over-racism-porn-lead-to-tulsa-school-sanction
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Eric Metaxas, Letter to the American Church, (Washington, D.C.: Salem Books, 2022), p. 51.
[11] Ibid, pp. xiii, 51.
[12] Ibid, p. 84.
[13] Larry G. Johnson, Evangelical Winter – Restoring New Testament Christianity, (Owasso, Oklahoma: Anvil House
Publishing, 2016) p. 265.

The deadly hypocrisy of Black Lives Matter

Posted by :admin On : June 19, 2020
1

Category: Culture Wars, Humanism, Marriage, Socialism, Truth

“To destroy a people, you must first sever their roots.”[1]

The above quote is from one of the twentieth century’s greatest truth tellers—Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008). Born in Russia, Solzhenitsyn studied mathematics, philosophy, literature, and history at the university level. He was thrice decorated for personal heroism as a Russian Army Officer during the fight against the Nazis in World War II. In 1945 he was arrested for criticizing Stalin in private correspondence and sentenced to an eight-year term in a labor camp. From that experience he wrote One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich which was published in 1962, the first of many books. In 1970 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. In 1974, he was stripped of his citizenship and expelled from the Soviet Union whereupon he moved to Vermont with his wife and four sons.[2]

I have taken time to briefly describe Solzhenitsyn’s background because his experiences and quiet words in defense of truth from such a man speaks far louder than the din of lies shouted by Black Lives Matter and their toadies including spineless politicians, the corrupt media, universities in name only, complicit mega-corporation billionaires, ranting Hollywood leftists, self-proclaimed “intellectuals,” and many corrupt voices/false teachers in the Church. Such lies cannot long stand against the timeless truth of which God is the author and finisher.

Regardless of their self-professed good intentions, the devil-doing of those leading and promoting Black Lives Matter is exposed by its own words on BLM’s official website[3] with regard to its beliefs and true objectives.

Black Lives Matter Beliefs and Goals

A thoughtful examination of just three of BLM’s goals gives a clear and frightening understanding of the damage that is being done in the war against the soul of American life and liberty including the culture at large and the average American family, black or white.

1. “We are self-reflexive and do the work required to dismantle cisgender privilege and uplift Black trans folk, especially Black trans women who continue to be disproportionately impacted by trans-antagonistic violence.”

BLM wishes to dismantle cisgender privilege. The term “cisgender” means “of, relating to, or being a person whose gender identity corresponds with the sex the person had or was identified as having at birth.”[4] Although the word may be unfamiliar to many, the concept that the two sexes equate to two genders is obvious to the vast majority of Americans and needs no label to explain it unless one is of the “woke” crowd.

Carla A. Pfeffer expands on Merriam Webster’s definition: “I grew up in a family with a cisgender and heterosexually identified mother and father of the same race (White) who had 2 children when they were well into their late 20s and early 30s and after they legally married with the full support of both their families.”[5]

For BLM, cisgender privilege has been transformed to be equivalent to white privilege. Such privilege cannot be eliminated without suppressing the carriers of this disease (privilege) by denigrating their belief systems. Therefore, the supposed evil that adherents to BLM ideology desire to dismantle are the dominant Judeo-Christian beliefs in the nuclear family, heterosexuality, marriage, and monogamy from which “white privilege” supposedly arises. However, the fatal flaw of BLM’s ideology regarding cisgender families is that the very nature of these beliefs is color-blind. To the contrary, the strength of cisgender families (of whatever color) rests on the universal truth of the values, beliefs, and structure of Judeo-Christian families.

2. “We foster a queer‐affirming network. When we gather, we do so with the intention of freeing ourselves from the tight grip of heteronormative thinking, or rather, the belief that all in the world are heterosexual (unless s/he or they disclose otherwise).”

Now we come to “trans” by which is meant transgender and defined as “of, relating to, or being a person whose gender identity differs from the sex the person had or was identified as having at birth.”[6] And trans does not mean just male and female but a whole alphabet of identities such as LGBTQ+. However, deny it as they might, it is one’s biological sex that determines gender, and there are just two. BLM calls this belief being in the “tight grip of heteronormative thinking.”

3. “We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and “villages” that collectively care for one another, especially our children, to the degree that mothers, parents, and children are comfortable.”

BLM wishes to disrupt (disorder, upset) the nuclear family structure by supporting (replacing) it with extended families and “villages” (also infamously promoted by Hillary Clinton). This group care for children promises to limit such care “to the degree that mothers, parents, and children (what about fathers?) are comfortable.” Tell that to parents who have unsuccessfully objected to the things taught in their child’s classroom that made them uncomfortable (e.g., transgenderism).

History reveals the fatal flaw of BLM ideology with regard to the nuclear family, marriage, monogamy, and heterosexuality.

1. Nuclear family, marriage, and monogamy

Daniel Patrick Moynihan retired from the United States Senate (Democratic Senator from New York) in 2000. Near the beginning of his career he was an assistant Secretary of Labor in Lyndon Johnson’s presidency. At the time of his retirement, the senator was asked to describe the biggest change he had seen in his forty years of government service. Articulate and intellectual, the distinguished public servant, having served both Democratic and Republican presidents, replied, “The biggest change, in my judgment, is that the family structure has come apart all over the North Atlantic world” and had occurred in “an historical instant. Something that was not imaginable forty years ago had happened.” Author of the 1965 Moynihan Report officially known as “The Negro Family: The Case for National Action”, Moynihan knew that of which he spoke.[7]

Enormously controversial at the time of its release, the report continues to be a topic of debate in the twenty-first century. The report characterized the instability of the black families in America and the importance of the family unit in providing that stability.

At the heart of the deterioration of the fabric of Negro society is the deterioration of the Negro Family. It is the fundamental source of the weakness of the Negro community at the present time…The role of the family in shaping character and ability is so pervasive as to be easily overlooked. The family is the basic social unit of American life; it is the basic socializing unit. By and large, adult conduct in society is learned as a child…the child learns a way of looking at life in his early years through which all later experience is viewed and which profoundly shapes his adult conduct.[8]

Writing shortly after Moynihan’s perceptive summation of the condition of the family structure, William Bennett noted the deep concern of Americans with regard to the family. Bennett pointed to the general instability of the American family and the contributing factors such as the decline in the status and centrality of marriage in society, substantially greater percentage of out-of-wedlock births, and the significant increase in co-habitation. With the decline of social perception and necessity of matrimony, children are less valued, more neglected, more vulnerable to non-family influences, and have less resources devoted for their care and benefit. Bennett wrote that, “Public attitudes toward marriage, sexual ethics, and child-rearing have radically altered for the worse. In Sum, the family has suffered a blow that has no historical precedent—and one that has enormous ramifications for American society.”[9]

Two decades have elapsed since Moynihan’s diagnosis of the disintegration of the family unit as the major modern affliction of the Western world and Bennett’s reporting of Americans’ purported concern for the survival of the family. It is no longer the problem of the black population. The deterioration of the family unit is pervasive and crosses all ethnic, socio-economic, and religious lines although the poor and disadvantaged bear a greater portion of the misery. Yet, there has been no public hue and cry to reverse the decline, no urgency or sense of crisis in dealing with the problem, no new series of government studies explaining the situation, and no investigative reporting or meaningful media attention regarding the most profound change in society that has had no historical precedent. Why is this so? The answer is that the solutions to reverse the decline and devastation of marriage and the family unit stand as polar opposites of the prevailing and pervasive humanistic worldview of which Black Lives Matter is the current purveyor of this cultural carnage. Its own website condemns it.

2. Heterosexuality

Heterosexual marriage is the central organizing concept in society. By contrast, homosexuality is a disorganizing concept with regard to human relationships and ultimately disorganizing in building stable, enduring societies. Heterosexual marriage orders the soul whereas sexual intimacy outside of marriage, co-habitation, divorce (apart from infidelity and willful desertion), and homosexuality (with or without benefit of a civil union) are inherently disorderly and destructive. History and human nature attest to these assertions for according to researchers, heterosexual married life as opposed to all other similar social arrangements provides greater financial security, better health and sex, and a longer and better life.[10]

Bennett called marital love that rests upon a foundation of unconditional commitment as “…safer, more enduring, and more empowering that any sentiment yet discovered or any human arrangement yet invented.” He credits these attributes to the basic heterosexual complementarity of man and woman joined together as one in marital love. The complementariness of the relationship is based on the differences, not just the physical but also the emotional and psychological. As the physical differences make sexual union possible, so too do the emotional and psychological differences of the marriage partners complement and complete each other.[11] The union becomes stronger than its parts.

In the longer term, homosexuality and same-sex marriage undermine society. The central cultural vision upon on which the nation was founded was based on biblical Christianity and its understanding of the nature of man and his origins. The truth of the Christian worldview of marriage as being between a man and woman is supported by the fact that it is a cultural universal imprinted on human nature and common to all people groups, all cultures, and all ages in history. Heterosexual marriage is the well-spring of civilization, and its centrality in the human experience is indisputable. Humans have fashioned numerous methods by which to organize their societies, but the common link to all is the family unit—a father, a mother, and children living together in bonds of committed caring.

God created heterosexual marriage as a cultural universal, and the strength and unity provided by this universal is the foundation of a strong and enduring society. Where traditional marriage is in broad disarray, as it is in most Western societies, it does not disprove the truth of the heterosexual marriage universal but rather speaks of the ravages caused by the ascending humanist worldview. Where traditional marriage declines, so do those societies decline that allow it to occur.
______

During the turmoil in America of the late 1960s and early 1970s, Russell Kirk wrote The Roots of the American Order, a book of exceptional scope and insight into the origins of America. Summarizing the words of Simone Weil, Kirk states that “…order is the path we follow, or the pattern by which we live with purpose and meaning. Above food and shelter, she continues, we must have order. The human condition is insufferable unless we perceive a harmony, an order in existence.” Kirk identified two roots of this order: the order of the soul (moral order) and the order of the republic (social order), and they are intricately linked and dependent on each other. Disorder of one leads to disorder of the other.[12]

The American order that was established by the founders was not an “ideology” nor a “thing” created for the moment. Rather, the American order is a living culture whose roots have grown over millennia and were watered by the sound principles of moral and civil social order arising from eternal truths and the revelation of God to the Hebrews and the first century Christians. America was established on these eternal truths and the revelation in which the Founders believed, and upon these pillars they built the greatest nation in the history of the world.

Kirk’s roots of order are the same roots of which Solzhenitsyn spoke in the quote given at the beginning of this article. BLM is attempting to sever those roots along with America’s cultural norms, traditions, beliefs, and even our history and that of Western civilization. Those severed roots are to be replaced with a humanistic cultural Marxist society whose citizens will be subject to machinations of an autonomous socialistic state and its evil overseers. Such a society will be devoid of the three essential elements of the good society: divine order, justice, and freedom.

Do not fool yourselves by blithely dismissing the challenge of BLM. Our present struggle is an existential war of the highest magnitude between good and evil, and the conflict is spreading around the world. What must Americans to do who love this nation and its history? For the answer we look once again to the wisdom of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in which he gives us both the diagnosis of our plight and a prescription for preserving America’s Judeo-Christian cultural heritage and its attendant freedom.

“In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it (evil) will rise up a thousand fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers . . . we are ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.”[13]

“The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie. One word of truth outweighs the world.”[14]

Larry G. Johnson
June 19, 2020

[1] “Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn,” AZQuotes, https://www.azquotes.com/author/13869-Aleksandr_Solzhenitsyn (accessed June 18, 2020).
[2] “Biography,” The Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Center, https://www.solzhenitsyncenter.org/his-life-overview/biography (accessed June 18, 2020).
[3] “What We Believe,” Black Lives Matter, https://blacklivesmatter.com/what-we-believe/ (accessed June 18, 2020).
[4] “Cisgender,” Merriam Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cisgender (accessed June 18, 2020).
[5] Ibid.
[6] “Transgender,” Merriam Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/transgender (accessed June 18, 2020).
[7] William J. Bennett, The Broken Hearth, (New York: Doubleday, 2001), pp. 2, 85.
[8] Lee Rainwater and William L. Yancey, The Moynihan Report and the Politics of Controversy, (Cambridge Massachusetts: M.I.T. Press, 1967), p. 3.
[9] Bennett, pp. 1-2.
[10] Ibid., pp. 14-188.
[11] Ibid., pp. 186-187
[12] Russell Kirk, The Roots of American Order, (Washington D. C.: Regnery-Gateway, 1991), pp. 3-5.
[13] Solzhenitsyn, AZ Quotes.
[14] Ibid.

The shame of the silent church – Passage of Oklahoma’s new marijuana law 2018

Posted by :admin On : June 29, 2018
0

Category: Archives, Christianity, Culture Wars, Evangelical Church

On Tuesday, June 26, 2018, 56%+ of Oklahoma voters approved State Question No. 788 which legalized the licensed use, sale, and growth of marijuana in Oklahoma. Although described as allowing marijuana to be used for medical purposes, it is being called the most liberal state law in the nation in legalizing marijuana and is effectively an open door for recreational marijuana usage.

According to one news report, approval by the voters occurred in spite of intense opposition from Oklahoma politicians, law enforcement officials, and churches. There was intense political opposition to the proposed law from such people as U.S. Senator James Langford and from law enforcement personnel who deal with the consequences of the drug crisis every day of the week. Although there were officials from the heads of various Oklahoma denominations including the Assemblies of God, various Baptist denominations, and the Catholic Church that spoke out against State Question 788, it is very apparent that concerted opposition to the new marijuana law did not come from the rank and file pastors and congregations within those Oklahoma churches.

The fallout from this horrible law will be enormous as families are damaged or destroyed as well as the loss of many innocent lives on the state’s highways. The substantial margin of approval of State Question No. 788 is unequivocal evidence that the great majority of evangelical pastors and congregations were silent about their opposition if not secretly supportive of the law legalizing marijuana in Oklahoma.

When did the day arrive that Christian pastors and other Christian leadership no longer stand up in the church and in the community to speak God’s truth without worrying that secular listeners (and many congregation members) may not agree with even our most basic Christian beliefs?

For decades the American Evangelical church has been silent not only in the public square but in the churches themselves about societal, moral, and political issues. The truth of this observation is confirmed by an article from Christian News in August 2014 which reported the results of a survey conducted by George Barna.

Barna’s organization asked pastors across the country about their beliefs regarding the relevancy of Scripture to societal, moral and political issues, and the content of their sermons in light of their beliefs.

“What we’re finding is that when we ask them about all the key issues of the day, [90 percent of them are] telling us, ‘Yes, the Bible speaks to every one of these issues,’” Barna explained. “Then we ask them: ‘Well, are you teaching your people what the Bible says about those issues?’ and the numbers drop…to less than 10 percent of pastors who say they will speak to it.”

Barna’s group also polled pastors about what factors they use to gauge whether or not a church is successful. “There are five factors that the vast majority of pastors turn to…Attendance, giving, number of programs, number of staff, and square footage. What I’m suggesting is [those pastors] won’t probably get involved in politics because it’s very controversial. Controversy keeps people from being in the seats, controversy keeps people from giving money, from attending programs,” Barna said.[1]

Pastor Chuck Baldwin, a radio broadcaster and former presidential candidate, wrote about the results of the Barna survey in an article titled “Odds Are that Your Pastor is Keeping the Truth from You Instead of Preaching It.” Baldwin said that Barna’s research shows that most pastors deliberately refrain from speaking on the issues of the day even when they understand that Bible plainly addresses these social, moral, and political issues.

“That 90% of America’s pastors are not addressing any of the salient issues affecting Christian people’s political or societal lives should surprise no one,” Baldwin wrote. “It has been decades since even a sizable minority of pastors have bothered to educate and inform their congregations as to the Biblical principles relating to America’s political, cultural, and societal lives.”

“Please understand this: America’s malaise is directly due to the deliberate disobedience of America’s pastors—and the willingness of the Christians in the pews to tolerate the disobedience of their pastor. Nothing more! Nothing less!” Baldwin continued. “When Paul wrote his own epitaph, it read, ‘I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.’ (II Timothy 4:7) He didn’t say, ‘I had a large congregation, we had big offerings, we had a lot of programs, I had a large staff, and we had large facilities.’”

“It is time for Christians to acknowledge that these ministers are not pastors; they are CEOs. They are not Bible teachers; they are performers. They are not shepherds; they are hirelings,” he said. “It is also time for Christians to be honest with themselves: do they want a pastor who desires to be faithful to the Scriptures, or do they want a pastor who is simply trying to be ‘successful?’”[2]

These articles were written four years ago. Given that the evangelical church continues to be powerless and weak-kneed in defending the faith in the culture, I can’t help but feel the results of a new Barna’s survey would be even worse as the morality of American culture continues to spiral downward and anti-Christian sentiment grows.

The Bible is very explicit about a Christian’s duty to warn the transgressor.

When I say to a wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn them or speak out to dissuade them from their evil ways in order to save their life, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. But if you do warn the wicked person and they do not turn from their wickedness or from their evil ways, they will die for their sin; but you will have saved yourself. [Ezekiel 3:18-19. NIV]

Donald Stamps wrote about these two verses in his commentary, “Those who fail to warn the unfaithful will themselves be accountable to God for people’s spiritual destruction.”[3]

When pastors and other church leaders are silent, they erroneously separate the gospel from the kingdom and culture, whether intentional or not. When Pastors and other church leaders remain silent, we have left the nation’s culture to be framed without the influence of a biblical pattern, and whatever area the church does not influence will soon try to destroy the church. Put in modern terms, speaking warnings to the people is not about winning but being obedient to God for the victory is His. Christians are called to the battle regardless of the outcome of the battle while on this earth.

There are no neutral places where Christianity and the world can peacefully co-exist amidst the raging culture wars. Yet, many churches seek to cultivate great reputations and be highly esteemed in the community because they erroneously believe they will be a more effective influence for Christ. But most of the time the price of this nebulous influence and esteem is compromise and accommodation. Writing six decades ago, A. W. Tozer describes the eventual outcome of this style of seeking influence and esteem in the community.

The Christian faith, based upon the New Testament, teaches the complete antithesis between the Church and the world…It is no more than a religious platitude to say that the trouble with us today is that we have tried to bridge the gulf between two opposites, the world and the Church, and have performed an illicit marriage for which there is no biblical authority. Actually, there is no real union…When the Church joins up with the world it is the true Church no longer but only a pitiful hybrid thing, an object of smiling contempt to the world and an abomination to the Lord…

Christianity is so entangled with the spirit of the world that millions never guess how radically they have missed the New Testament pattern. Compromise is everywhere. The world is whitewashed just enough to pass inspection by blind men posing as believers, and those same believers are everlastingly seeking to gain acceptance with the world. By mutual concessions men who call themselves Christians manage to get on with men who have for the things of God nothing but contempt.[4]

Without question it is easier to keep silent and avoid controversy, but there is a price to pay for being silent just as there is a price to pay when one speaks out. Silence is complicity and complicity is the path of the coward. Pastors, church boards, and other church leadership who are silent about social, moral, and political issues of the day speak volumes to people both inside and outside the church because people will think the church has nothing to say about life beyond the church doors. Jesus was never silent but stood up to the Pharisees (whom he called a brood of vipers), the government, and even his own disciples.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German theologian and martyr for the faith during World War II and was executed in April 1945 on the direct order of Adolph Hitler. Bonhoeffer knew well the cost of silence in the church when faced with evil in the public square. He called it what it was…sin.

Silence in the face of evil is itself evil, God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.[5]

We have been silent witness of evil deeds; we have been drenched by many storms; we have learnt the arts of equivocation and pretense; experience has made us suspicious of others and kept us from being truthful and open…Will our inward power of resistance be strong enough, and our honesty with ourselves remorseless enough, for us to find our way back to simplicity and straightforwardness?[6]

So where does the evangelical church in Oklahoma and across America go from here? A good place to begin would be the upcoming election season which culminates in the first week of November, and this includes the primary run-off elections to be decided over the next several weeks.

In today’s pervasive culture wars, every political race is critical from the national level down to the local community including school boards and city governments. On the national level, it appears that Christians have an opportunity to have one or two more Constitutional originalists nominated to the Supreme Court if conservatives hold the Senate. These nominees will largely decide the course of the nation over the next several decades.

The first step for church leaders is to gather and disseminate information about upcoming elections, candidates, and issues. Find out about the candidates backgrounds and beliefs, talk about the issues, and encourage people to vote their Christian values. Forget about who might be offended. Speak the truth. These actions must not be confined to just a bland one-Sunday announcement from the pulpit a week before the election. Rather, it must be a constant flow of information to the congregation and reminder of the importance of the elections. These efforts and actions should start immediately with the primary runoff elections and should start 60 to 90 days prior to the general election in November (late August or early September).

But church leaders’ efforts to educate their congregations about social, moral, and political issues of the times and to encourage them to speak and act accordingly within the culture do not end in November 2018. It must be an ongoing effort in which every church leader and congregation member become watchmen on the wall.

Larry G. Johnson

Sources:

[1] Heather Clark, “Study Reveals Most American Pastors Silent on Current Issues, Christian News, August 12, 2014. https://christiannews.net/2014/08/12/study-reveals-most-american-pastors-silent-on-current-issues-despite-biblical-beliefs (accessed June 27, 2018).
[2] Ibid.
[3] Donald Stamps, Commentary – Ezekiel 3:18-19, Fire Bible – Global Study Edition, New International Version,
Gen. Ed. Donald C. Stamps, (Springfield, Missouri: Life Publishers, 2009), p. 1397.
[4] A. W. Tozer, God’s Pursuit of Man, (Camp Hill, Pennsylvania: WingSpread Publishers, 1950, 1978), pp. 115-116.
[5] “20 Influential Quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer,” Crosswalk.com. https://www.crosswalk.com/faith/spiritual-life/inspiring-quotes/20-influential-quotes-by-dietrich-bonhoeffer.html (accessed June 29, 2018).
[6] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “Letters and Papers from Prison Quotes,” goodreads. https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1153999-widerstand-und-ergebung-briefe-und-aufzeichnungen-aus-der-haft (accessed June 29, 2018).