Game development company fires CEO for being pro-life

Do you remember a long time ago when Mozilla, makers of the Firefox browser, fired their CEO Brendan Eich because he made a donation to support natural marriage? That kind of thing happens often in the software development industry. Google fires people who aren’t progressive enough. Well, it’s happened again, this time with Tripwire Interactive.

Story from Daily Wire:

The CEO of a video game developer based in Georgia is now out of the company after he tweeted his support for Texas’s pro-life law, which bans abortions once cardiac activity is detected in the baby.

“Proud of #USSupremeCourt affirming the Texas law banning abortion for babies with a heartbeat,” John Gibson, CEO of Tripwire Interactive, tweeted on Saturday. “As an entertainer I don’t get political often. Yet with so many vocal peers on the other side of this issue, I felt it was important to go on the record as a pro-life game developer.”

Tripwire Interactive released a statement on Monday evening saying that Gibson was out, effective immediately, because of the comments that he made.

“The comments given by John Gibson are of his own opinion, and do not reflect those of Tripwire Interactive as a company,” the company said. “His comments disregarded the values of our whole team, our partners and much of our broader community. Our leadership team at Tripwire are deeply sorry and are unified in our commitment to take swift action and to foster a more positive environment.”

If you ask the Tripwire “whole team” whether they were tolerant and inclusive and diverse, they would say “of course we are”. So, just keep in mind when people say these words, they don’t really mean it. They mean “agree with me, or I’ll fire you so that you can’t earn a living, and you starve and your family starves” in a fashion reminiscent of Josef Stalin.

Now, if you look at polls about abortion, you’ll see that about half the country thinks that abortion is morally wrong:

On Wednesday, Gallup released its annual poll on abortion trends. Megan Brenan’s write-up for Gallup highlights that a “Record-High 47% in U.S. Think Abortion Is Morally Acceptable.” However, there is much more to the poll, including results that are more favorable to the pro-life position that the media may not be willing to cover.

That headline is technically true. The plurality, 47 percent of respondents, who find abortion to be “morally acceptable” is indeed a record high. But it’s crucial to look to the results of those who find abortion to be “morally wrong.” That number is at 46 percent, which is nearly identical.

Last year’s results found that 44 percent said abortion was “morally acceptable,” while 47 percent said it was “morally wrong.”

So, this is a very mainstream point of view. And frankly science is on the side of people who think that unborn children are alive and fully human. What’s happened is that people who are rich and powerful have decided that it’s more important for selfish adults to be able to engage in reckless, irresponsible sex and then kill their children to keep the good times rolling. Being pro-abortion is nothing more than saying that you should be able to kill innocent people when you’re driving drunk.

Anyway, my point about this story is this. If you want to work in IT and have an opinion about policy or morality that is counter to the secular left, then you need to have an alias. Period.

I’m someone who is made very uncomfortable by having to toe the party line of the secular left. So I have two choices. I can either keep silent or I can find a way to speak out. I have found that having an alias is the best way to have a voice, while still keeping my job. I can’t afford to lose my job, because for me there is no safety net of family or community. So, I try to make myself as defensible as possible. I am aware of what happens if you cross the wrong person at work, or the wrong person at church, etc. And since I have no backup, I have to be very careful about allowing unstable people access to the means by which I earn my living.

Do you know the difference between virtue and sin? When a man is chaste, he doesn’t mind being made fun of or disagreed with or shunned. Chastity testifies to him that he is a good person. But if a person is having reckless, irresponsible sex and killing his or her own children, any disagreement or disapproval is extremely upsetting. Chastity is self-evidently good, and murdering children is self-evidently evil. So, that’s why the selfish adults band together and attack anyone who doesn’t celebrate their selfishness. They know it’s wrong, but they think they can fix the guilt by silencing anyone who doesn’t celebrate them. This is where fascism comes from.

Criminal charges filed against transgender woman who exposed genitals to women

This case started with some video from the women who were affected complaining to the spa employees. They said that a biological male had shown his genitals to them and to their underage girls. The spa employees said this is allowed, because Democrat. What’s very interesting about this case is the the mainstream news media immediately declared the video a hoax. But was it?

Here’s what Slate, a far-left former news source, said:

Salon Spa Hoax
Salon Spa Hoax

In my opinion, when they say “may have been… but it still” as “it was only a hoax, but it still” they are calling it a hoax. Because how could far-left sexual deviants ever be bad people? Only good things come from rejecting God and embracing crazy selfishness, right?

Well, not so much. Here’s the latest from the New York Post:

In June, a group of women complained that a person who identified as female exposed [the person’s] penis at the Wi Spa in Los Angeles. The incident led to months of sometimes violent protests, with media outlets declaring it an example of bias against the transgendered, or even that it didn’t happen. Slate said it was a “transphobic hoax.”

But on Monday, charges of indecent exposure were discreetly filed against a serial sex offender for the Wi Spa incident, following an investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department.

Sources with knowledge of the case but not authorized to speak publicly say four women and a minor girl came forward to allege that Darren Agee Merager was partially erect in the women’s section of Wi Spa. Besides being a suspect in this case, Merager is facing multiple felony charges of indecent exposure over a separate incident in Los Angeles.

Merager, who spoke exclusively to The Post, denies the allegations and says that she is actually the victim of transphobic harassment.

This is the kind of thing that Bible-based Christians want to prevent, but that feelings-based “Christians” want to allow. On the one hand, you have Bible-based Christians who believe in objective moral rules, and maintaining boundaries, even if people who are reckless and irresponsible feel bad about being judged. On the other hand, you have people who have been reckless and irresponsible in their youth, like the abortion lady I blogged about before, who blame everyone else for their bad decisions, and just want to use Christianity as a club to prevent anyone judging them. The former group votes Republican, the latter group votes Democrat.

Lately, we’ve been seeing a lot of bad behavior from the secular left. A transgender woman demanding that Asian women wax the person’s genitals. Transgender women winning Olympic medals in biological women’s events. Transgender women sexually assaulting biological women in women’s shelters that prohibit men. Not to mention the Taliban raping, murdering and sex trafficking underage girls in Afghanistan. And so on.

All these bad behaviors were opposed by the mean traditional Christians, who voted Republican. But they are all supported by the feelings and experiences Christians who were reckless and irresponsible in their youth, and just think Christianity means “compassion, tolerance, diversity, pluralism”. They vote Democrat. Because they feel good about themselves when they side with the evil people against their victims.

We need to be a bit more careful when we are voting. And don’t be swayed by feelings and experiences “Christians” who vote for “compassion” and “tolerance”. Now we know what they were really voting for, and it’s not too pretty.

Bible study: the importance of truth in religion

Bible study that hits the spot
Bible study that hits the spot

Here’s an interesting passage of the Bible. What do you all think the practical value of this passage is?

1 In the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his mind was troubled and he could not sleep.

2 So the king summoned the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers to tell him what he had dreamed. When they came in and stood before the king,

3 he said to them, “I have had a dream that troubles me and I want to know what it means.”

4 Then the astrologers answered the king, “May the king live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will interpret it.”

5 The king replied to the astrologers, “This is what I have firmly decided: If you do not tell me what my dream was and interpret it, I will have you cut into pieces and your houses turned into piles of rubble.

6 But if you tell me the dream and explain it, you will receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor. So tell me the dream and interpret it for me.”

7 Once more they replied, “Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will interpret it.”

8 Then the king answered, “I am certain that you are trying to gain time, because you realize that this is what I have firmly decided:

9 If you do not tell me the dream, there is only one penalty for you. You have conspired to tell me misleading and wicked things, hoping the situation will change. So then, tell me the dream, and I will know that you can interpret it for me.”

10 The astrologers answered the king, “There is no one on earth who can do what the king asks! No king, however great and mighty, has ever asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or astrologer.

11 What the king asks is too difficult. No one can reveal it to the king except the gods, and they do not live among humans.”

12 This made the king so angry and furious that he ordered the execution of all the wise men of Babylon.

13 So the decree was issued to put the wise men to death, and men were sent to look for Daniel and his friends to put them to death.

14 When Arioch, the commander of the king’s guard, had gone out to put to death the wise men of Babylon, Daniel spoke to him with wisdom and tact.

15 He asked the king’s officer, “Why did the king issue such a harsh decree?” Arioch then explained the matter to Daniel.

16 At this, Daniel went in to the king and asked for time, so that he might interpret the dream for him.

17 Then Daniel returned to his house and explained the matter to his friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah.

18 He urged them to plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.

19 During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision. Then Daniel praised the God of heaven

20 and said:

“Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever;
wisdom and power are his.

21 He changes times and seasons;
he deposes kings and raises up others.
He gives wisdom to the wise
and knowledge to the discerning.

22 He reveals deep and hidden things;
he knows what lies in darkness,
and light dwells with him.

23 I thank and praise you, God of my ancestors:
You have given me wisdom and power,
you have made known to me what we asked of you,
you have made known to us the dream of the king.”

24Then Daniel went to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to execute the wise men of Babylon, and said to him, “Do not execute the wise men of Babylon. Take me to the king, and I will interpret his dream for him.”

25 Arioch took Daniel to the king at once and said, “I have found a man among the exiles from Judah who can tell the king what his dream means.”

26 The king asked Daniel (also called Belteshazzar), “Are you able to tell me what I saw in my dream and interpret it?”

27 Daniel replied, “No wise man, enchanter, magician or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about,

28 but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. He has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in days to come. Your dream and the visions that passed through your mind as you were lying in bed are these:

29 “As Your Majesty was lying there, your mind turned to things to come, and the revealer of mysteries showed you what is going to happen.

30 As for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because I have greater wisdom than anyone else alive, but so that Your Majesty may know the interpretation and that you may understand what went through your mind.

This passage is interesting to me because it shows the kind of attitude that God answers. The King in this passage was tired of hearing man-made stories from his servants – stories that were undoubtedly influenced by the servants desire to survive the King’s wrath. The servants would only have told the King things that were vague and happy, so that they could never be proved wrong or found to be judgmental or offensive. But the King was tired of that. He wanted someone with authority to tell him the truth about the way the world was.

In the rest of the chapter, Daniel interprets the dream, and concludes by saying this: “The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true and its interpretation is trustworthy.”. The King replies: “Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this mystery.”

I think it is is going to be difficult for Christians living today to be able to tell people their dreams like that. But what we can do is talk about God’s miracles as revealed by science and history. We can study astrophysics, biochemistry and history and we can explain what God did in creating and fine-tuning the universe for life, in sequencing amino acids into functioning proteins, in creating brand new body plans in the Cambrian explosion, in raising Jesus from the dead as a matter of historical record, and so on. We have to show how great God is to people who do not even think he exists, and without assuming that they believe in the Bible. And we have to do it by focusing on what is true. 

Early last week, I got a message from a friend who was interested in a girl that he met on an online dating service. She claimed to be a Christian. My friend explained why he was so interested in some of the evidences I outlined above. She was not impressed. She said “I prefer to show people Christianity is true by not judging them, by being compassionate, by introducing them to a fun and affirming community”. There was no emphasis on truth in her approach. In fact, any religious group could do those things and “establish” their religion as true, by appealing to feelings. But this is clearly not what the God of the Bible intends for people who seek him. He is a God of truth, and truth is established by logical reasoning and supporting evidence.

There are still people out there like the King who are looking for someone who can speak to them with authority. All it takes from us is a little studying, and we can be like Daniel, too. But we have to know what God has done from science and history, and speak with authority about how we can know that God has acted supernaturally. Authority to speak comes from having knowledge about what we are talking about, and knowledge comes from studying and debating with people we disagree with. Nebuchadnezzar  was not a believer in the God of Israel, but he was still interested in truth. That won’t always be the case, but it is the case for some people.