Friday September 23, 2022
Good Morning!
It was Emerson who observed, “The corruption of man is followed by the corruption of language.”
George Orwell saw things similarly. “Political language,” he said, “is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”
Nowhere has the “woke” revolution struck and moved more quickly than the United States military:
1. Air Force Academy Goes Woke: Don’t Say ‘Mom and Dad’
From the Daily Citizen:
If the Air Force Academy has its way, its 4,000 cadets won’t be calling home to talk to “mom and dad,” but rather to their “parents,” “caregivers,” and “guardians.” The Academy’s “Diversity and Inclusion” (D&I) training, according to an expose by Fox News Digital, instructs cadets how to speak correctly in the military’s new era of wokeism.
The new speech rules, if the Academy is intent on enforcing them, could violate the free speech and religious freedom rights of cadets, however.
A D&I seminar slide from the Academy on “Inclusive Language” obtained by Fox News Digital instructs cadets to ask what people call themselves (i.e., preferred pronouns), use gender-neutral language such as “y’all” instead of “you guys,” and to replace “mom and dad” with “parents/caregivers/guardians.”
It also urges cadets not to use the term “colorblind” or “I don’t see color” or “we’re all just people.”
2. Senator Introduces Bill Promoting ‘Parental Rights’ in Education
From the Daily Citizen:
U.S. Senator Tim Scott has introduced a bill aimed at protecting parental rights in education.
Sen. Scott introduced the Parental Rights Over the Education and Care of Their Kids Act (Protect Act) on September 20, 2022.
According to a press release, the bill would protect parents’ rights by ensuring schools cannot conceal information about their student’s “gender identity.” The act would prevent federal funds from going to any elementary or middle school that permits students to “change their pronouns, gender markers, or sex-based accommodations (including locker rooms and bathrooms) without the consent of their parents.”
The four-page bill lists several examples of schools in various states, including Maryland, Iowa, and Virginia, where teachers either were instructed to, or did, help students as young as 12 years old create “gender transition plans” without their parent’s knowledge or consent.
3. Stacey Abrams Falsely Claims There’s No Such Thing as a Fetal Heartbeat at Six Weeks
From the Washington Times:
Stacey Abrams, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee in Georgia, has planted her flag in the debate over abortion, saying there is “no such thing” as a 6-week fetal heartbeat.
She dismissed heartbeat footage as “a manufactured sound designed to convince people that men have the right to take control of a woman’s body.”
4. Largest Teachers Union Promotes Extremely Graphic LGBTQ+ Sex Ed Website for Teenagers
From Political Insider:
Conservative activist and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute Christopher Rufo shined the light this week on some of the extremely graphic “LGBTQ+” materials being shown to children in schools.
Known for rabble-rousing the extreme left-wing crowd, Mr. Rufo broke down the contents of a website being promoted by the National Education Association (NEA).
This website was created by the National Education Association’s “LGBTQ+ Caucus” and is meant to provide updated sexual education links and information for students who identify as LGBTQ.
With all the talk on the left that conservative right-wing extremists are trying to ban books willy-nilly for no reason and are making false claims about oversexualized content in schools, it’s essential to take note when hard evidence like this is discovered and published.
5. Biden’s Abusive Title IX Rewrite
From National Review:
In June, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona proposed rewriting Title IX to better reflect fashions in progressive ideology. Owing to the foresight of his predecessor, Betsy DeVos, the department was required to open a two-month window for public comment. That period closed late last week after over 200,000 comments. Many of the comments expressed alarm — warranted alarm.
First, in the new regulations, the department seeks to “define sex-based harassment.” This is an expansion of the Supreme Court’s narrow definition of discriminatory sexual harassment — that which is “so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive that it effectively denies a person equal access” — to apply to all “unwelcome sex-based conduct.” The Court set a high bar, but the department’s new definition would cover everything from offensive jokes to refusing to use a student’s preferred pronouns.
Second, the department would “clarify obligations related to grievance procedures.” This involves gutting Title IX of its due-process protections: removing the requirement for cross-examination and the need to make accused students aware of the evidence against them; and reinstating Obama’s notorious “single-investigator model,” where a lone administrator plays detective, jury, and judge, all without a formal hearing.
Third, as concerns women and girls — the very people Title IX was designed to help — the new regulations would “articulate the Department’s understanding that sex discrimination includes discrimination on the basis of gender identity.” Redefining sex to include gender identity would eradicate female-only sports and spaces in every federally funded school, kindergarten through college. Countless young women and girls would lose out on opportunities, scholarships, and even their basic rights to privacy and safety.
6. ‘Commitment To America’ Released
From the Daily Signal:
House Republicans released their “Commitment to America” on Thursday morning, promising to fight for a strong economy, a safe nation, a future built on freedom, and a government accountable to its people.
The Commitment to America promises that Republicans will fight inflation and lower the cost of living, curbing “wasteful government spending that is raising the price of groceries, gas, cars, and housing” as well as increasing take-home pay, creating jobs that pay well, and stabilizing the economy through “pro-growth tax and deregulatory policies.”
Republicans also committed to maximize the production of American-made energy, reduce gas prices, strengthen the supply chain, and end American dependence on China.
In efforts to make the United States a safe nation, the Republicans promised to secure the border, combat illegal immigration, reduce crime, protect public safety, and defend the United States’ national security by supporting troops and investing in an “efficient, effective military.”
Part of the “Commitment to America” also focuses on a “future that’s built on freedom” — including efforts to promote student success and giving parents a say in their children’s education and defending fairness in women’s sports. And as part of this focus on a future that’s built on freedom, lawmakers also promised to confront Big Tech and demand fairness, as well as to help Americans achieve longer, healthier lives.
7. Media Silent on Politically-Motivated Killing of Republican Teenager
From MRC:
For more than three days now, left-wing TV networks have refused to report on the politically-motivated killing of 18-year-old Cayler Ellingson, a conservative, by 41-year-old Shannon Brandt in North Dakota.
In the early hours of Sunday morning, Brandt hit the teenager with his car, reportedly due to a political disagreement, before driving off. Brandt admitted to police that the collision was a deliberate attack, and that he had been motivated by Ellingson’s political affiliation. According to court documents, Ellingson called his mother twice and asked her to pick him up, saying that someone was chasing him. By the time she arrived to collect her son, Brandt had already run him down and left the scene.
A review of news coverage on leftwing broadcast (ABC, CBS, and NBC) and cable (CNN and MSNBC) outlets revealed that none of these networks have given the attack even one second of airtime. Both Fox News and Newsmax covered the incident on Tuesday evening during the 7 p.m. Eastern hour.
8. Parents, Just Go to Church
From the Gospel Coalition:
A parent in our church once made a statement that caught me off guard: “Corporate worship is crucial to my family. It’s the center of our family’s life.” I know this family. They do family worship as well, and they read devotions, but this father said corporate worship is the single biggest priority in his family’s life. Why?
This dad’s mentality is consistent with how Scripture prioritizes corporate worship. God is the center of our lives. In corporate worship, we make this clear. We receive God’s grace through Word, sacrament, and prayer. We respond to God’s grace with praise, thanksgiving, and love. We fellowship with him under his Word and by his grace. We serve, worship, and flourish out of that communion. In these ways, corporate worship is the whole Christian life in distilled and concentrated form.
If you feel inadequate to lead your kids spiritually, just go to church. If strategizing about your Christian parenting feels overly complicated, just go to church. If you’ve been taking a few too many Sundays off, just go to church. If all of this seems overwhelmingly difficult, ask God to give you the grace to have this consistent discipline in your family’s life. Faithful church attendance can have an eternal influence on your kids.
9. Johnny Carson’s Surprising Influence on Evangelical America
From the Daily Citizen:
Johnny Carson, the one-time undisputed king of late-night television during a reign that spanned four decades beginning in the 1960s until his retirement in 1992, has been dead for seventeen years – yet his impact is still being felt across various spheres of culture.
Even evangelical America – and Focus on the Family.
Dr. James Dobson was shepherding the meteoric growth of his new ministry, Focus on the Family. A clinically trained child psychologist, bestselling author and popular radio host and public speaker, Dr. Dobson remained always on the lookout for ways to improve his own craft and increase the effectiveness and reach of the ministry. He studied the Word on a daily basis, and was also open to other influences, too.
Enter Johnny Carson.
Recognizing the late-night host’s natural communication style, especially when it came to humor, Dr. Dobson would watch Carson’s monologue, studying it for ways to improve his own pacing and delivery. Their material and goals may have differed drastically, but both men had something to say and wanted to find the best way to reach as many people as possible.
Dr. James Dobson and Focus on the Family grew exponentially thanks to the Lord’s favor, culture’s needs – and its founder’s ability to connect with listeners, readers and callers.
As Christians, we might take note. Are we going out of our way to connect with the people the Lord has placed in our paths? As husbands or wives, fathers or mothers, are we students of our loved ones – studying them to figure out the best way to make an emotional and spiritual connection?
Jesus remains the one perfect communicator, and the one figure in all of history all of us should strive to emulate. He was the master teacher. He told great stories. He also listened – with both His ears and His heart. It’s the wise person who takes in all the best of what he or she reads, hears and sees – and considers such influences to be gifts from God to be discerned, disseminated and put into action.
10. Even babies in the womb may hate green vegetables: Study
From TheBlaze:
Researchers in England may have confirmed that babies don't like green vegetables even before they're born.
A new study offers a look at how unborn children respond to what their moms eat and how they react to different flavors in utero.
About 100 pregnant women in the U.K. were given capsules containing powdered versions of either carrots or kale. Thirty-five women consumed the equivalent of one medium carrot, 34 women ate the equivalent of 100 grams of chopped kale, and the remaining 30 were a control group who didn't eat either.
After 20 minutes, doctors used 3D ultrasounds to study the facial reactions of the babies as they began to taste what their moms ate. Babies whose mothers ate carrots mostly had happy expressions, while those who tasted kale frowned or grimaced.
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