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Illegal Immigration Is Real. So Is the Moral Damage We’re Doing

yelling at each other across a chasm

Let me make the following two statements assuming the very best of intentions on both sides.

  1. Trump and his administration deeply care about enforcing the borders of our nation (they’ve added 10,000 immigration agents in a year!). Frankly, since the fatal attacks of September 11, 2001, our national borders have been a focus for several administrations. Indeed, Democrats praised President Obama for penalizing employers of migrants and his mass deportations —back then he had earned the title “Deporter in Chief”.
  2. The media (and here I include individual influencers and people posting footage) care deeply about the rights of our people to hear the truth and the danger to our nation. Their desire to have constant coverage on the topic that is of growing importance is critical for our nation and grounded in the US Constitution.

Those two statements, even if true and at their best of intentions, ignore that there is something profound happening right now. Profundity is not only about WHAT but in HOW.

Under President Trump’s second term, the topic of border control and deportation has been reinvigorated but now, with cruelty and gross rhetoric from both the administration and the media.

I would like those of us who are Christians to pause. Listen. We are being changed by this rhetoric, folks. What the government and the media emphasizes reflects what those in charge of the government and the medial care about. History will justify or condemn them. But what we the people have allowed (or applauded), even in the short term, shrivels our hearts and freezes the soul of our nation.

Moreso, as Christians, it spoils our unique voice.

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current affairs human rey's a point

Speak Against Evil

man shouting into loudspeaker in style of roy lichtenstein

American Christians: you must speak against evil. Condemning evil isn’t optional. Doesn’t matter if you originally supported the person doing wrong. Doesn’t matter if you partly agree with the positions that result in the evil. You must speak against that evil.

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current affairs human rey's a point

Who Should I Vote For?

i voted sticker spool on white surface
Photo by Element5 Digital on Pexels.com

Who should I vote for: Candidate A (in 2024: Kamala Harris) or Candidate B (Donald Trump)? Maybe this is an easy question for some of you USian Christians. It’s not easy for me. I’m struggling.

I’m not struggling with other questions like how candidate A or B will ultimately come into power. God is in control of all governments even if people (or the state) don’t use their God-granted authority (to rule, judge, and even condemn) the right way.  

I’m not wrestling with how to act if someone I don’t want in the oval office gets there anyway. I have responsibilities to obey the government God put in place. The only time I have a different choice is if the ruler pits my obedience to the ruler against my obedience to God.

Further, I’m not struggling with the question if I should vote. Christians, regardless of their locale, should personify the best example of a citizen of a nation under the lordship of Christ. That would mean that a Christian, living in a system where he or she has the freedom and responsibility to mindfully perform civic duties—one of those being voting—should perform those civic duties. In general, I should vote. But it doesn’t follow that I (1) always have to vote or (2) have to vote for the candidates nominated by the two biggest parties. If the American democratic system produced Joseph Stalin (the far-left communist dictator) and Adolf Hitler (the far-right Nazi dictator) it doesn’t follow that I must pick one or the other.

In the current circumstance, I find myself considering and weighing my options. How do I weigh my options? Before I decide who to vote for, I need to figure out how I’m supposed to vote.

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current affairs rey's a point

Retrospective Lessons From Four Hard Teachings

man reflecting on life while sitting on Rock
Photo by https://www.pexels.com/@drayhanz

In agile, there’s this thing we do at the end of a sprint (which is a period of one to four weeks) called a retrospective. We look back at the sprint and think about what went well, what could we do better, and what actionable steps are we taking to get better for the next sprint.

This article isn’t going to be about Trump, Biden, COVID, Black Lives Matter, George Floyd, police brutality, implicit bias, Supreme Court justices, or a church splitting. This article isn’t going to be about how we as a nation can do better.

This is just me doing a retrospective before the next sprint. Feel free to read over my shoulder.

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current affairs history philosophy

Did Nye and Ham Really Debate Creation?

Screen Shot 2014-03-29 at 7.13.29 PM

I recently watched a debate, aired from the Answers in Genesis Creation Museum in Kentucky, between Ken Ham (degreed in Applied Science with an emphasis in Environmental Biology) and Bill Nye (degreed as a Mechanical Engineer and pupil of Carl Sagan).  The topic for the debate was “Is Creation a viable model of origins in today’s modern scientific era?” This is important.

To make his case, Bill Nye would have to show that creationism is not a viable model at all; Ken Ham would have to show that creationism is just as viable as any model because the scientist is working in God’s world.

Mind you, right off the bat, I’m surprised that Bill Nye would agree to this topic. Any debater would simply have to show that there was no inconsistency between science and any creationist religion to win the debate.

Indeed, Bill Nye, during the Q and A session, admits that there is absolutely no inconsistency between modern science and the belief in a creator God. He does make claims about how you don’t need God for the process of evolution (calling it a process that leads to complexity from the bottom up instead of a process that leads to complexity from the top-down) but he admits no inconsistency.

On that ground, Nye would have lost the debate.

Unfortunately, from the start, the debate had nothing to do with the debate topic. Indeed, the topic strayed so far that proponents (on either side) would clamor that their position won. 

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