Category Archives: News

News

Should you be worried about blue state refugees invading your red state?

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I live in a very, very red state. I love my state so much that I can’t even conceive of why I would ever want to move. But sometimes, when I’m driving around, gloating about our latest awesome law, I see a license plate that worries me. A license plate that says “Illinois” or “California” or “Oregon” or “Washington” or “New York”. It seems to be happening more and more. Should I be worried?

According to the Wall Street Journal (archived), I should not be worried.

The article begins by talking about South Carolina:

A Wall Street Journal analysis of census data found that a third of the state’s new residents between 2017 and 2021 hailed from blue states and a quarter from red ones, according to census data. The remainder came from closely divided states, including nearby Georgia and North Carolina, or are immigrants.

Yet the new arrivals are disproportionately Republican. Estimates from the nonpartisan voter file vendor L2 suggest about 57% of voters who moved to South Carolina during that time are Republicans, while about 36% are Democrats and 7% are independents. That places them roughly in line with recent statewide votes in South Carolina.

[…]The Palmetto State is a prime example of why a yearslong wave of migration to the South has largely failed to change its partisan tint. Many people who leave blue states are Republicans gravitating toward a more politically favorable new home.

And they also cover Florida:

In Florida, for instance, 48% of people who moved there between 2017 and 2021 came from blue states while 29% came from red states, Census figures show. Among those who registered to vote, 44% are Republicans, 25% are Democrats and 28% are nonpartisan, according to L2 data.

And Texas:

Texas also has a heavier flow of newcomers from blue states but a greater share who L2 data estimates are Republican.

I guess we will find out what happens when we see the election numbers in November. I am hoping that the number of people who vote Democrat goes down in every county of my state. That would mean that the right kind of people were moving here.

What I would really like my state, and other red states, to do is pass laws that chase the secular left riff raff out of the state. For example, strict laws against abortion and against LGBT indoctrination of children. Strict laws reining in labor unions, especially teacher unions. Strict laws against criminals and violent protestors. All of these laws that promote hard work and frugality will cause the wrong kind of people to leave our red states. And that will make those of us who are already here much happier.

News

Is homosexual behavior consistent with the Bible’s teachings?

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Here’s a post from Christian writer Terrell Clemmons about efforts by gay activists to redefine Christianity so that it is consistent with homosexual behavior. This particular post is focused on Matthew Vines.

She writes:

In March 2012, two years after having set out to confront homophobia in the church, Matthew presented the results of his “thousands of hours of research” in an hour-long talk titled “The Gay Debate.” The upshot of it was this: “The Bible does not condemn loving gay relationships. It never addresses the issues of same-sex orientation or loving same-sex relationships, and the few verses that some cite to support homophobia have nothing to do with LGBT people.” The video went viral (more than three quarter million views to date) and Matthew has been disseminating the content of it ever since.

In 2013, he launched “The Reformation Project,” “a Bible-based, non-profit organization … to train, connect, and empower gay Christians and their allies to reform church teaching on homosexuality from the ground up.” At the inaugural conference, paid for by a $104,000 crowd-funding campaign, fifty LGBT advocates, all professing Christians, gathered for four days in suburban Kansas City for teaching and training, At twenty-three years of age, Matthew Vines was already becoming a formidable cause célèbre.

Terrell summarizes the case he makes, and here is the part I am interested in:

Reason #1: Non-affirming views inflict pain on LGBT people. This argument is undoubtedly the most persuasive emotionally, but Matthew has produced a Scriptural case for it. Jesus, in his well-known Sermon on the Mount, warned his listeners against false prophets, likening them to wolves in sheep’s clothing. Then switching metaphors he asked, “Do people pick grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?” The obvious answer is no, and Jesus’s point was, you can recognize a good or bad tree – and a true or false prophet – by its good or bad fruit. From this, Matthew concludes that, since non-affirming beliefs on the part of some Christians cause the bad fruit of emotional pain forother Christians, the non-affirming stance must not be good.

Terrell’s response to this is spot on, and I recommend you read her post to get the full response.

She writes:

Matthew Vines in particular, and LGBTs in general, appear to be drivingly fixated on changing other people’s moral outlook. But why? Why are they distressed over the shrinking subset of Christianity that holds to the traditional ethic of sex? Note that Matthew found an affirming church in his hometown, as can most any LGBT-identifying Christian. Affirming churches abound. Gaychurch.org lists forty-four affirming denominations – denominations, not just individual churches – in North America and will help you find a congregation in your area. Why, then, given all these choices for church accommodation, are Matthew and the Reformers specifically targeting churches whose teachings differ from their own?

One gets the sense that LGBTs really, really need other people to affirm their sexual behavior. Certainly it’s human to want the approval of others, but this goes beyond an emotionally healthy desire for relational comity. Recall Matthew’s plea that non-affirming views on the part of some Christians cause emotional pain for others. He, and all like-minded LGBTs, are holding other people responsible for their emotional pain. This is the very essence of codependency.

The term came out of Alcoholics Anonymous. It originally referred to spouses of alcoholics who enabled the alcoholism to continue unchallenged, but it has since been broadened to encompass several forms of dysfunctional relationships involving pathological behaviors, low self-esteem, and poor emotional boundaries. Codependents “believe their happiness depends upon another person,” says Darlene Lancer, an attorney, family therapist, and author of Codependency for Dummies. “In a codependent relationship, both individuals are codependent,” says clinical psychologist Seth Meyers. “They try to control their partner and they aren’t comfortable on their own.”

Which leads to an even more troubling aspect of this Vinesian “Reformation.” Not only are LGBT Reformers not content to find an affirming church for themselves and peacefully coexist with everyone else, everyone else must change in order to be correct in their Christian expression.

This is the classic progression of codependency, and efforts to change everyone else become increasingly coercive. We must affirm same-sex orientation, Matthew says. If we don’t, we are “tarnishing the image of God [in gay Christians]. Instead of making gay Christians more like God … embracing a non-affirming position makes them less like God.” “[W]hen we reject the desires of gay Christians to express their sexuality within a lifelong covenant, we separate them from our covenantal God.”

Do you hear what he’s saying? LGBTs’ relationships with God are dependent on Christians approving their sexual proclivities. But he’s still not finished. “In the final analysis, then, it is not gay Christians who are sinning against God by entering into monogamous, loving relationships. It is we who are sinning against them by rejecting their intimate relationships.” In other words, non-affirming beliefs stand between LGBTs and God. Thus sayeth Matthew Vines.

The rest of her article deals with Vines’ attempt to twist Scripture to validate sexual behavior that is not permissible in Christianity.

Vines seems to want a lot of people to agree that the Bible somehow doesn’t forbid this sexual behavior so that the people who are doing it won’t feel bad about doing it. If he can just silence those who disagree and get a majority of people to agree, then the people who are doing these things will feel better.

Matthew Vines is annoyed that Bible-believing Christians expect homosexuals to work through their same-sex attractions, abstain from premarital sex, and then either remain chaste like me, or marry one person of the opposite sex and then confine his/her sexual behavior to his/her marriage. But how is that different than what is asked of me? I am single, and have opposite sex-attractions, but I am also expected to abstain from sex outside of marriage. I have two choices: either remain chaste or marry one woman for life, and confine my sexual behavior to that marriage. I’m not married, so I’ve chosen to remain chaste. If I have to exercise a little self-control to show God that what he wants from me is important to me, then I am willing to do that. I’m really at a loss to understand why so many people take sexual gratification as a given, rather than as an opportunity for self-denial and self-control. I am especially puzzled by sinful people demanding that other celebrate their sin – and using the power of the government now to compel others to celebrate their sin. Christianity is a religion where the founder prioritized self-sacrificial obedience above pleasure and fulfillment. You really have to wonder about people who miss that core element of Christianity.

My service to God is not conditional on me getting my needs met. And my needs and desires are no less strong than the needs of people who engage in sex outside the boundaries of Christian teaching. We just make different decisions about what/who comes first. For me, Jesus is first, because I have sympathy with Jesus for loving me enough to die in my place, for my sins. I am obligated to Jesus, and that means that my responsibility to meet expectations in our relationship comes above my desire to be happy and fulfilled. For Matthew, the sexual desires come first, and Scripture has to be reinterpreted in light of a desire to be happy. I just don’t see anything in the New Testament that leads me to believe that we should expect God to fulfill our desires. The message of Jesus is about self-denial, self-control and putting God the Father first – even when it results in suffering. I take that seriously. That willingness to be second and let Jesus lead me is what makes me an authentic Christian.

There is a good debate featuring Robert Gagnon and a gay activist in this post, so you can hear both sides.

News

Indiana government removes child from home for lack of trans acceptance

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How will gay marriage affect your marriage? That’s what LGBT activists said, when they were arguing for greater acceptance of LGBT causes. At work, you now have to sit through LGBT indoctrination. At school, your child is taught that your Judeo-Christian values and Bible-based theology are wrong. And at home, you’d better affirm the secular left’s religion, OR ELSE.

Here’s the story from Christian Post:

An Indiana Catholic couple whose child was removed from their home following disagreements over their son expressing a desire to identify as the opposite sex are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their case.

Parents Mary and Jeremy Cox follow the Bible’s teachings on human sexuality, ascribing to the belief that God designs humans as male and female. Because of their religious beliefs and adherence to biological reality, they could not abide using feminine pronouns to identify their son, who demanded to be called by a female name after he told his parents in 2019 that he identified as a girl.

In 2021, the Indiana Department of Child Services initiated an investigation into the parents following a report that they weren’t affirming their son’s chosen identity as a girl. The boy was eventually removed from his parents’ care and placed in a home that affirmed his self-declared gender identity.

The parents are appealing to the Supreme Court:

According to the law firm Becket, the parents have filed a petition with the Supreme Court asking the justices to hear the case, stating that “this Court should grant this petition and affirm its precedents on the right of fit parents to custody of their children.”

In the petition, the attorneys argue that if the Supreme Court does not intervene, other states might use a statute similar to Indiana’s to justify removing a child from the home if their parents adhere to biological reality and refuse to affirm their child’s self-declared gender identity.

The attorneys highlighted that the state “found the parents fit but still removed the child over an ideological dispute: a disagreement over gender identity.”

Becket is a pretty good law firm, so they have a chance. And they’d better win, or this will affect everyone in every state.

But my point about this is… what message does this send to the kinds of people who are still interested in marriage and children? We know that the secular left has given up on marriage and children. You can look at the marriage rates and rates of reproduction in blue states, and clearly see that there is a huge decline in marriage and child-bearing. The only people still having lots of kids are the religious people. So what message does this send to them?

I think that the secular left is dominated by feelings-based “don’t judge” “compassion” people. These people are narcissistic – they adopt policies based on how it makes them feel, and how it makes them look to others. They don’t care about what incentives they are creating for others, or about how children are affected. Their ambition is to destroy traditional morality in order to appease the self-centered adults, whose approval they crave. They don’t know how to lead on moral and spiritual issues – not if that leading causes other people to think they are “mean”.

So, how do conservative, religious people see a case like this? The message it sends to them is, don’t get married, don’t have children. And men especially get this message. The main reason that men get married is to gain the leadership of a home, in order to pass on their values and worldview. Take that away, and men disengage from marriage and parenting. It even happens with men who are already married. The minute that leftist wives, public school teachers  or family courts overrule a father, the father stops wasting time on leading his home, and withdraws.

I understand that people will want to blame and shame men for declining to participate in marriage and parenting. But we don’t care. If you want to reduce men to slaves who just protect and provide, but don’t lead on moral and spiritual issues, then we’ll decline your offer to marry and have children. You can blame and shame all you want, but if you allow the “don’t judge” compassion crowd in the (taxpayer-funded!) schools and courts to overrule men, then you will cause men to decline to participate in marriage and parenting. Good men have other valuable things to do, like serve God directly in ministry. We have a choice.