Worldview in the News

The worldview in the news. We'll talk about some current events here from a biblical perspective right here today on the Christian worldview radio program where the mission is to sharpen the biblical worldview of Christians and to share the good news that all people can be reconciled to God through putting their faith in Jesus Christ. I'm David Wheaton, the host, and our website is thechristianworldview.org. Well, we're glad you joined us today here on the Christian worldview radio program. We're going to talk about some issues going on in the news from a biblical perspective. But before we get to that, I just wanted to thank all of you who came out to our events this past weekend, both at the Christian worldview speaker series event on Sunday evening and also our golf and dinner event on Monday.

Both events went very well and maybe some of you who don't live in the Twin Cities area were able to watch online. The speaker series event with Darrell Harrison is linked a video of it if you missed it at thechristianworldview.org. I thought I'd start out today by just giving a few points that I took away from the event on social justice, how social justice is impacting the gospel and the church and Darrell Harrison's message. And a couple of the key points that stuck with me is understanding the difference between justice and mercy. That's a key thing here to certain because social justice is so difficult to define because it's so big. It's the pursuit of social justice is the rationale used to gain power, especially in government, because we need a more equitable society. There's a difference between equity and equality. Equality is treating everyone the same. Equity is forcing equal outcomes. And that's what social justice is about, is trying to create an equitable society, whether it's race or gender or sexual orientation or immigration, all these different issues. It entails so many things.

You have to keep it in mind what it's about. So there's a big difference between justice and mercy. So justice is rendering to someone what is due them by the law. So in other words, here's an example of justice. It would be unjust to enact capital punishment to kill someone without giving them fair trial and without evidence that will be unjust, sort of like what happened to Jesus Christ, a kangaroo court trial like that. Executing one who had never sinned that is unjust or shortchanging someone in a financial arrangement.

Someone, let's say wants to buy something from you and it's priced by the pound and you change the weight so that it appears to be more weight than it actually is. And so therefore you have charged more than you should have. That is unjust.

Rendering someone what is due them. You're due someone correct engagement by the law. That's justice. So it's also, by the way, not only is it unjust to enact capital punishment on someone without fair trial and evidence, I also believe it's unjust biblically to not punish someone who has committed that crime with evidence.

So if someone has premeditated with evidence, with witnesses, killed someone, I think it's unjust to not punish that person according to what scripture says, especially in the Old Testament. So that's justice. Rendering someone what is due them by the law. Mercy is voluntary compassion towards someone in need.

And that's where the whole thing gets confused. They call it social justice as if the inequities or inequalities in society are wrong toward a specific person or group, whereas mercy is voluntary compassion towards someone needs. So an example of that is giving money to a poor person.

They aren't do that. They're not compelled that by law that everyone should have, you know, money and be given things. But someone wants to help. That is compassion. It's voluntary. Justice is a compulsion by law. Mercy is a compassion out of the voluntary nature of the heart. So what happens with social justice? So now to combine these two ideas of justice versus mercy, social justice turns mercy or compassion into law.

And the Bible doesn't do that. And I think the quote by Tim Keller, the founder of the Gospel Coalition, I read this quote in the introduction to the message by Daryl Harrison last Sunday night. His quote from his book, Generous Justice, Keller is the founder of the Gospel Coalition where so much of this social justice ideology is coming out of in the evangelical world today. So Keller writes in his book, Generous Justice, I'll listen to this quote carefully. If you do not actively and generously share your resources with the poor, you are a robber. You are unjust. You see that there?

See how he does that? If you do not actively and generously share your resources with the poor, you are a robber. That's illegal. That's a matter of justice. You are doing wrong according to the law.

Nothing there to do with voluntary compassion. You are doing wrong. You are a robber. You are unjust. Rather than saying you are unmerciful or uncompassionate, or you should do more according to scripture, you should be obedient to scripture and do the law. No, you are unjust. See, that's this little sleight of hand that's taking place right now, turning what should be mercy into justice. Big difference, big difference to understand.

That's key that came out of the speaker series event this past weekend. Another question I asked Darryl was, why is there rarely any mention of the greatest? If you want to talk about social injustice in society today, the greatest social injustice by far is that babies who have no say in the matter are having their lives ended through abortion. That is the greatest injustice. And that's the one that doesn't seem to be talked about too much by these social justicians.

This is a glaring omission. There's nothing more unjust than losing your life by the arbitrary decision of another person. There's nothing more unjust than that. So why isn't that at the top of the list of those evangelicals who are pursuing social justice? Well, I think the reason is that social justice is a politically based and motivated cause that is designed to empower and enlarge government. That's all, that's the only reason it can be because how could you overlook that one as not being the number one social injustice? The abortion is the highest sacrament of the left.

It's a religious value of the left. And so it makes me very skeptical about evangelicals when they talk about social injustice, but they don't ever really mention very frequently, at least the greatest social injustice of our day, which is abortion. The next thing I learned from the event on social justice has to do with the issue of partiality. And that is at the root of social justice. Social justice is unbiblical partiality.

It shows partiality to certain politically correct groups. Now partiality, all over scripture, I won't get into all the verses, but the Bible basically says don't be partial. Don't show partiality or favoritism to one person or one group over another. Don't be partial to the poor or to the rich. Don't do things to them. Treat them with equality.

Treat people the same. When you show partiality towards one group, you're, by definition, showing impartiality to another. So let's just take an example of this. Blacks in the social justice world are seen as an oppressed group by whites. So evangelicals take this as, well, there's been great injustices in our country, and we don't have the kind of representation that general society is calling for with regard to race. So we haven't had very many elders on our church board who are of minority ethnicity. We, in our ministry leadership or our seminaries, we need more black professors. We need more literature and curriculum that comes from the black back, black authors and so forth. And so therefore, to do that, we are going to purposely select people and curriculum content based on someone's ethnicity.

You're showing partiality when you're doing that. If the top priority in selecting someone or some content is based on their ethnicity rather than the content of what it is, the content of their character, you're showing un-biblical partiality. And this is the wrong thing to do, because when you're doing that, you may be saying, we're going to select this particular minority candidate over this particular white candidate. Now, this white candidate has worked hard and done well, and they're more qualified than this other candidate, but we're going to be partial towards the white one, push them back, and impartial toward the black candidate.

That's just wrong. We should be color blind in the way we select people for things, and so we aren't unbiblically impartial. The next thing I learned from this particular event is that social justice is not a gospel issue, as we're being told over and over again. Charity, mercy, compassion, those are gospel issues. So for Christians listening, trying to figure out what this whole social justice thing is about, the difference between keeping the difference clear between justice and mercy, charitable action, voluntary compassion, these are all gospel issues. And so do those, do charity, do compassion, help the poor, help widows, help orphans. As scripture says, do those things, but don't think of it as justice and don't call it justice because you're confusing law with grace. And then look to the example of Jesus and his disciples and how they were involved with the social injustices of their day.

They weren't. Jesus never picketed or petitioned government to try to overturn structures of injustice in his society, and their society was far more unjust than our society, whoever it be. Jesus and his apostles kept on focusing on the gospel, sound doctrine.

He was focused on heart change, because when heart change, then comes the compassion, the charity, the mercy, all from a voluntary and willing heart. So Christians need to be discerning on this issue of social justice. Is the issue being discussed actually unjust?

That's the first question we need to ask. Is the particular issue that's being called a social injustice, is it actually unjust? You know, so many of these police shootings of minorities were called unjust. Well, was there a correct cause by a police officer for defending themselves? Is there really this overarching systemic injustice that police are targeting minorities?

I don't see the evidence for that. You can't take some few examples of it and then create a whole rule that that's systemic injustice going across the country. So ask yourself first, is this issue an actual injustice? Is the proposed solution biblical? We talked about church board ethnicities. If there aren't enough of a certain ethnicity or gender on a church elder board, should there be partiality shown?

Or should we select people based on their actual biblical qualifications and not look at someone's melanin in their skin as Darryl Harrison likes to call it? And then number three is, is the primacy of the gospel always being presented as the solution to social injustices? Remember the example of Jesus and the disciples? They were all about the salvation of individual souls. And by the way, the off product of that is when someone is regenerated, they tend to be or they should be much less unjust toward other people because they have a regenerated heart.

So these are some of the things I learned from the weekend on the social justice event, the speaker series event. And again, you can watch it for yourself. I tell you, it's he gave a lot. I mean, it was a lot there. I mean, you're it was a lot of substance in that message.

You need to listen to it very carefully to gather all he had to say. And you can do that at the Christian real of you.org. Okay, coming up in the program, we're gonna get into our topic for the day, which is worldview in the news, a lot of different events going on. We'll look at them from a biblical perspective coming back after this. You're listening to Christian real view.

I'm David. There's an abundance of resources available in Christian bookstores and online. But the sad reality is that many of them, even some of the most popular do not lead to a sound and strong faith. A key aim of the Christian worldview is to identify and offer resources that are biblically faithful and deepen your walk with God. In our online store, we have a wide range of resources for all ages, adult and children's books and DVDs, Bibles and devotionals, unique gifts and more. So browse our store at the Christian worldview .org and find enriching resources for yourself, family, friends, small group or church.

You can also order by calling our office toll free at 1-888-646-2233. That's 1-888-646-2233 or visit thechristianworldview.org. Social justice is a gospel issue. This has become the mantra of many evangelicals, rectifying perceived inequities of race, gender, sexuality, poverty, immigration, amongst others, is considered a top priority.

But what exactly is social justice? Is working for social justice a biblical mandate, an application of the gospel? Kel Beissner has written an insightful booklet entitled Social Justice, How Good Intentions Undermine Justice and Gospel. Also included in this revised 44 page booklet is a copy of the just released statement on social justice in the gospel. You can order the social justice booklet for a donation of any amount to the Christian worldview. Go to thechristianworldview.org or call 1-888-646-2233 or write to box 401 Excelsior, Minnesota 55331.

Think biblically and live accordingly. That's what we strive to do here on the Christian worldview radio program. We're going to try to do just that as we look at some issues in the news today. We have a lot of them almost every week as I take in the news and get emails from certain organizations and all so much going on in the country in the world at any given time that we tend to on this program tend to focus each program on a on a topic and we go deep into that topic whatever the topic is for most of the time the full hour interview someone and whatever. Well this week we decided to do something a little bit different and try to cover a lot of stories rather than just one over the entire hour and try to exercise a biblical worldview as we look at these stories because there's so much that comes out every single day. Everything has a worldview attached to it and so as you read these stories you're going to see how the worldview comes out and how Christians can apply a biblical worldview to what these events are taking place around us. So the first story comes from the website 538. This is apparently I've heard of it I don't visit this website live but I know it's a quite a popular website where they have a lot of news and so forth and commentary. And the title of this story on 538 is that the Christian right is helping drive liberals away from religion.

Did you get that? So it's the Christian right. So if you're Christian and conservative politically you're the one helping drive liberals away from religion. So you're hurting the cause of Christ.

You're hurting the Great Commission by being a Christian and conservative. So there's just a lot there just even in the title of the story. So let's get down into some of the meat here of the story.

Just a few paragraphs in this little commentary. A few weeks ago the Democrat National Committee formally acknowledged what has been evident for quite some time. Non-religious voters are a critical part of the party's base. In a one-page resolution passed at its annual summer meeting the DNC called on Democrat politicians to recognize and celebrate the contributions of non-religious Americans who make up one-third of Democrats. In response to this Robert Jeffress, a Dallas pastor with close ties to President Trump, appeared on Fox News saying the Democrats are finally admitting they are a godless party.

This was hardly a new argument. Christian conservative Christian leaders have been repeating some version of that claim for years and have often called on religious conservatives and Republican politicians to defend the country against a growing wave of liberal secularism. And it's true that liberals have been leaving organized religion in high numbers over the past decades. But blaming the Democrats as Jeffress and others are want to do doesn't capture the profound role, listen to this, the profound role that conservative Christian activists have played in transforming the country's religious landscape and the role they appear to have played in liberals' rejection of organized religion. So Christians are to blame, commentary here, Christians are to blame for people becoming non-religious and going to the Democrat Party.

Hmm. When two sociologists, the article continues, Michael Hout and Claude Fisher begin to look at possible explanations for why so many Americans were suddenly becoming secular, those conventional reasons couldn't explain why religious affiliation started to fall in the mid-1990s. In a paper published in 2002, they offered a new theory quote, distaste for the Christian rights involvement with politics was prompting some left-leaning Americans to walk away from religion. And you have to read a sentence like that and look at the look at the modifiers in there. Distaste for the Christian rights involvement was prompting some, they offered a theory, may have, I mean, it's just like evolution.

Well, the earth may have been evolved 2 billion years ago. It's all these little outterms in there that give them room to be wrong. Last paragraph. It was a simple but compelling explanation.

Why? As white evangelical Protestants became an increasingly important constituency for the GOP, the Christian conservative political agenda, listen to this, focused primarily on issues of sexual morality, including opposition to gay marriage and abortion became an integral part of the party's pitch to its own voters. But it was still framed as part of an existential struggle to protect the country's religious foundation from incursions by the secular left. Hout and Fisher, these two sociologists argued that the Christian right hadn't just roused religious voters from their political slumber, left-leaning people with weaker religious ties also started opting out of religion because they disliked Christian conservative social agenda.

Okay, now there's a lot there and it's a lot wrong. People don't switch political parties because of their dislike of Christian conservatives. This isn't about disliking Christians and their holding to abortion, anti-abortion and for biblical marriage.

You know what it's about? Why people go and vote Democrat? Because they dislike God's laws. They don't like abortion. They don't like the restraints of God on morality, on marriage and so forth. It's not about disliking Christians. They don't like Christians' God. They don't like Christians' revelation in the Word of God. It's about suppressing the truth.

And they want to get into a party that more suppresses the truth, which is the Democrat party today. For the wrath of God, Romans 1 said, is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth of unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them, for God made it evident to them. You see, when we run away from God's laws, we are suppressing the truth that is all around us. We're suppressing the truth that God shows us by creation all around us. The heavens declare the glory of God. It's obvious that look around you and how could this happen by accident?

All this creation had to have a creator. They suppress that. They suppress their conscience in their heart. God's put something in their heart that knows right from wrong. They have to suppress that. And then they suppress the communication, the revelation from God, the Word of God, what it explicitly says. They suppress that. And so they go to the party that more favors where their worldview is. So it's like saying, just imagine the opposite. It's like saying people become Christians because of the secularism or the religious leftism of the Democrat party. I mean, that's just ridiculous.

Who would think that? No, they go to where they want their God to be. People go to where they want to worship. And in the left, government is their God. And so they want to go there to worship their God of government. That's the idol they choose to worship. Now, conversely, it doesn't mean if you're a Republican that you worship God.

That is absolutely not the case. But Christians, what they do is they read God's Word. They see what God's Word says about life. It sees what it says about marriage. It sees what it says about morality. It sees what it says about the sinful nature of man and having limited government to separate the power of sinful man. And they gravitate toward that party, not because it's the Christian party, simply because the party has at least more representation of what their worldview, what their faith teaches them from being a Christian.

It's as simple as that. These people who are giving excuses that people go to the Democrat party because they dislike Christians, conservatives, no, they just can't get past the God of the Bible and what he says about morality and in life and many other issues. The implication of this is that conservative Christians are hypocrites. This article is an intention to shame Christians. So to keep Christians, oh, yeah, you're right.

We're such hypocrites. We're just fixated on two issues, marriage and life. No, we're fixated on many, many more issues than that. But those are two of the prominent ones.

Yes, it's intended to shame Christians. And you hear this coming from the evangelical world, by the way, now that if you're a Christian, you don't necessarily have to vote for a Republican. There are many Democrats that you can vote for as well. There are other issues that are just as important as marriage and morality and being pro-life.

I don't see that. I don't see any issue in the Democrat party that is better represented for Christians than would be in the Republican party. So in other words, they just, people just like the big one, they would say, how can a Christian be for, you know, the Democrat party is so much more, so much better for the poor and the hurting in this country? Well, the implications, the reality of that is what do you have to do to be able to help the poor in the Democrat vision? It is the coerced to steal, take money from people, unwilling givers, and then redistribute it to those who they deem the ones that are the needy.

It's all about big government. It goes back to the social justice issue, the difference between justice and mercy. Christians should believe in mercy, voluntary compassion toward those in need.

The left believes in the opposite coerced obligatory justice for those that they deem are in need. Big difference there. Okay. So there's a related story on this. I think you think, well, how can it possibly related to talking about the Christian right is helping drive liberals away from religion to what's taking place in China right now. The next story from the Christian post says China makes churches replace the 10 commandments with Xi Jinping quotes. Okay.

There's a replacement going on here and you're going to see as we, before we take, we won't have time to get this before this next break, we'll get to it after the break. I'll just start reading the article that China, well, let me just read it. Churches across China's central province of Henan have been forced to replace the 10 commandments with president Xi Jinping's quotes amid pressure from the government, a human rights magazine has revealed. The report was that the 10 commandments have been removed from nearly every three self church. The three self church is a Protestant denomination in China and has three principles of self-governance, self-support and self-propagation in indigenous missionary work. That's their principles of the three self church. And they have, the government has mandated that the 10 commandments be removed from these churches.

Well, it's interesting how the Chinese government took a lot longer than the American government did to take the 10 commandments out of society. Talk about more about that after this next break of the day here on the Christian real view. The prosperity gospel is a prominent false gospel that God offers health, wealth and prosperity. If you just have faith and give money, Costi Hinn grew up on the inside of the prosperity gospel movement.

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Normal retail is $17.99 without shipping. To order, call 1-888-646-2233 or visit thechristianworldview.org. Be sure to take advantage of two free resources that will keep you informed and sharpen your worldview. The first is the Christian worldview weekly email, which comes to your inbox each Friday. It contains a preview of the upcoming radio program, along with need to read articles, featured resources, special events and audio of the previous program. The second is the Christian worldview annual print letter, which is delivered to your mailbox in November. It contains a year end letter from host David Wheaton and a listing of our store items, including DVDs, books, children's materials and more. You can sign up for the weekly email and annual print letter by visiting thechristianworldview.org or calling 1-888-646-2233.

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I'm David Wheaton, the host. Our website is thechristianrealview.org. Just a reminder that if you missed the speaker series event, the message by Daryl Harrison on social justice, just go to our website.

It's housed right there to be archived there for you to watch it. Thechristianrealview.org is the website where you can do that. I forgot to mention something in that previous story, by the way, about the New York from the magazine FiveThirtyEight that said the Christian right is helping drive people or liberals away from religion. In other words, it's because of Christian conservatives that people move over the Democrat Party because they dislike their political activism so much. Well, I didn't give the reason why more people become secularists.

I said that this is a straw man argument. This is not the case. They're suppressing the truth and unrighteousness. That's where they want to be. They want to go to where they can worship their own God, which is government. But what's the reason they're becoming more secular? Well, the reason is this.

I think there's at least three because this is the default nature of man. They don't want to be under the authority of God. And they sense in the Republican Party, there's still a semblance of that left with regards to the basis for why the party believes in being pro-life, at least Christians in the party do, and why Christians believe that marriage is between one man and one woman, and why Christians believe that it's better to have a more limited government, and why compassion helping those in need should be done out of voluntary means rather than coerced means. So they don't want those things are biblical principles, and they don't want to be under that. They don't want to be in the authority of God in any way.

So they go over to the other party where there's just there's none of that. And if there is kind of any semblance of religion on their side, it's a completely reimagined so-called Christianity. It's a leftist Christianity. Second reason people become more secular, in addition to the default nature of man, to not want to be under God's authority, is that the educational system has completely brainwashed the country. We're reading this article right now about removing the Ten Commandments from churches in China and replacing them with Xi Jinping, their president's, his quotes rather than the Bible, is because there's been a educational system in our country that's removed the Ten Commandments and has completely brainwashed this country without any semblance of anything related to God in the Bible. I mean, if you looked at the educational system, you know what, decades and decades and a hundred years ago, the Bible was likely used as part of the curriculum.

The Ten Commandments is on the wall. There was prayer in schools. Kids were growing up immersed, whether they were actual Christians, born-again Christians or not, they were brought up with a consciousness that there was a higher authority, which is God.

There are laws that supersede man's laws, and there was a respect and reverence for that. That's completely stripped out of the educational system of this country, just like the Ten Commandments are being stripped out of churches in China. And so therefore people grow up, not with a Christian influence in the life they grew up, secularized.

Could that be the reason? I mean, that seems like a much more logical reason than saying that Christian conservatives are making people more secular. Finally, I think the final reason that there are more secularists is that the church in this country no longer holds mainstream influence.

Okay. Back in the day, again, a hundred years ago, 150 years ago, the point of greatest influence in this country was not the media, not political leaders. It wasn't the entertainment industry, musicians.

It wasn't corporate America. It was the pulpit at the church. People would come to church, they would be influenced by what was being preached in church, and that hold the greatest point of influence. And the church no longer holds that. And there's lots of reasons why. Again, it goes back to the first reason, the default nature of man.

Man tends toward disorder just as the universe does, because we live in a corrupted world and our hearts are corrupt. But I also think there's some responsibility in the church there that when you stop preaching all of scripture, the hard truths of scripture, when you try to become like the culture, when your methodology changes to try to appease the world, you are just going to have less influence. You're going to be less different from the world and people aren't going to see the relevance for them. They're going to see, well, that's a lot like the world. Why do I want that?

I want something different. And so they don't, the church no longer holds that mainstream influence. Okay. Back to the article on China, removing the Ten Commandments from churches.

I mean, think about that. The biblical commandments given to Moses, this article says from the Christian Post, which includes you shall have no other gods before me, you should not make yourself an idol, have been replaced with quotes from Xi Jinping, their supreme emperor, including excerpts from his speeches at a central United Front Work Department meeting. The core socialist values in Chinese culture will help to immerse various religions of China, support religious community in interpreting religious thought, doctrines and teachings in a way that conforms with the needs of the progress of the times, resolutely guard against the infiltration of Western ideology, and consciously resist the influence of extremist thought. Because disobeying the orders is seen as opposing the Communist Party, some Three-Self churches have been shut down for not implementing the rule, while other congregations have been threatened to be blacklisted by the government. See, one pastor said the government's first step is to prohibit religious couplets or verses, Bible verses, then it, just remember this as the path here ahead in America down the road.

You know, hopefully this won't happen, but this is the path forward. The government's first step is to prohibit religious couplets or verses, then it dismantles crosses and starts to implement the four requirements by ordering the national flag and core socialist values to be placed in churches. Surveillance cameras to monitor believers and religious activities are then installed. The last step is to replace the Ten Commandments with Xi Jinping's speeches.

Wow. This is really eerily similar, not quite to that extent yet, but what is being done here in America, trying to strip everything Christian in America, basically taking anything Christian out of the public square, the separation of so-called church and state, the removal of the Ten Commandments from school. This is where big government always goes. And this is why for the sake of freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of evangelism, all the freedoms that are enshrined in our constitution, Christians should be for limited government, more separation of powers, more freedom of speech, more of the freedom to be offended, frankly. If you don't have the freedom to be offended, you don't really have any freedoms at all.

We should be for people having the freedom to say what they want, as long as it's not inciting people to violence, you know, to harm someone physically, but we should be for the freedom of speech, not the freedom to not be offended. That leads to this politically correct world where we're going into today. And so China is further down this path of starting to require adherence to their worldview in churches. America is already there in mandating adherence to their secular worldview in our schools and in broader society and in government. It's only a matter of time before it starts to get into the churches as well. And they'll do that, by the way, through the anti-discrimination policies of if you don't marry two people of the same sex, well, you shouldn't be able to have tax exempt status, so you're going to lose your tax exempt status.

They'll put the pressure on. The screws will be tightened on Christians as they are. Now, speaking of that, the next article to see worldview in the news is from the New York Post. This article is entitled, Christian Artists Who Refuse LGBTQ Homosexual Customers, They Win Discrimination Suit.

Now, here's a little bit of positive news that has taken place over the last several years where there's been lots of negative news, bad news for Christians who want to live by, not just think, but live by their Christian beliefs. This article from the New York Post is out of Phoenix. The free speech rights of two Christian artists who make wedding invitations were violated by an anti-discrimination ordinance in Phoenix that makes it illegal to refuse service to same-sex couples for religious reasons.

The Arizona Supreme Court ruled in 4-3, just by one vote this past Monday. Basically, these two women, their names are Duca and Koski. They have a wedding invitation business and they make, part of their business is making custom wedding, designing custom wedding invitations. And so same-sex couple came in, they wanted a wedding invitation, custom designed for their wedding, so-called wedding, and Duca and Koski refused to do that. They said, we're not going to use our artistic skills to design something that violates our sincerely held religious beliefs.

And they were sued as a result of it and they lost in lower court. But fortunately, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that that was wrong for them to have to be forced, compelled to make a wedding invitation that violated their religious beliefs. The High Court said this, Duca and Koski's belief about same-sex marriage may seem old-fashioned or even offensive to some, the court majority wrote, but the guarantees of free speech and freedom of religion are not only for those who are deemed sufficiently enlightened, advanced or progressive, they are for everyone. Now look at the dissenting opinion said, the court's minority said, the case doesn't concern the content of custom wedding products, but instead pertains to the issue of identity for customers. Today's decision is also deeply troubling, they said, because its reasoning cannot be limited to discrimination related to same-sex marriage or based in the beliefs of any one religion, but instead extends more broadly to the claims, the right of by businesses to deny services to disfavored customers. There is a, we did a program on this earlier this year, who's going to win the battle in this country between the demands of the homosexual movement or the religious rights that are enshrined in our constitution. There are so many stories like this all the time.

And this, this story is just one bit of good news and a sea of bad news. Usually the Christians lose in this regard because discrimination is the greatest injustice of our day, that someone would refuse service because they have a sincerely held Christian belief. I really believe that true liberty should allow a business owner to reserve refuse service for anyone for any reason. I mean, if there's a homosexual owned a wedding invitation company and they want to refuse service to Christians, so be it, go find another wedding invitation maker.

Why sue the person? Let people have freedom of speech, freedom of association in this country as the constitution enshrines. This is David Wheaton coming back on the Christian real view after this. Environmental scare mongering is the favored tactic of the left to gain massive government control. After all, if you can convince people that we are imperiling our very existence by human caused climate change, there is no tax law or reordering of society that goes too far. Christians need to be fully informed of this nefarious climate change scheme. That is why we are offering two resources by Cal Beisner, founder of the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation, who brings a truthful biblical worldview to this issue. Climate Change in the Christian is an 80-minute DVD message and The Cosmic Consequences of Christ Crosswork is a 15-page booklet. One or both are available for a donation of any amount to The Christian Worldview.

To order, go to thechristianworldview.org or call 1-888-646-2233 or write to Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota, 55331. The mission of The Christian Worldview is to sharpen the biblical worldview of Christians and to share the good news that all people can be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. For when Christians have a stronger faith and when unbelievers come to saving faith, lives and families and churches, even communities, are changed for the glory of God. The Christian Worldview is a listener-supported ministry. You can help us in our mission to impact hearts and minds by making a donation of any amount or becoming a monthly partner.

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Monthly partners can choose to receive resources throughout the year. Call 1-888-646-2233 or go to thechristianworldview.org. Thank you for your support. Okay, final segment of the day here on The Christian Worldview radio program. David Wheaton, your host, our website, thechristianworldview.org, going over some worldviews in the news this week, discussing lots of different stories going on. We mentioned the last segment story about these wedding invitation makers, Christians who refused to make a custom wedding invitation for a same-sex marriage and they lost in their first court case and now they've won by the Arizona Supreme Court. This particular thing of the homosexual movement plays out in stories just all over the place all the time.

I have two more I'm going to briefly cover here. This is from the Duke Chronicle. The Duke Student Government Senate unanimously declined to recognize Young Life as an official Duke student group at its Wednesday meeting. Now why would Duke, the student group, why wouldn't they recognize Young Life as a chartered student group? Can you think about why that would be?

Well, it's just like every other story these days. Young Life is a national Christian organization that has branches serving middle and high school students in Durham and Chapel Hill. The group had requested official recognition to recruit and support a greater number of students as it already has a following on campus, but Young Life was rebuffed over concerns about the national organization's policies concerning homosexual leaders. At last week's Duke meeting, Duke senators noted that the national organization's rule barred LGBTQ plus individuals from leadership positions and that violates Duke's anti-discrimination, non-discrimination statement in their constitution. So just think about that. A Christian organization cannot be recognized by Duke University because they hold to a biblical view of man and woman marriage.

Think about that. That you won't be recognized. There's the ban we just read about in China. It's the same thing in just a different form here in America. You cannot have that view.

You can't be deemed discriminatory or you're not going to be recognized. The same thing in other news. I won't go over this whole one either.

Fox News. California adds Iowa to its travel ban. Now why would California care about, ban their federal or their state employees, including their university teams and so forth, why would they do a travel ban against Iowa?

Oh, well, here's the answer. Because Iowa has refused to fund gender transition surgeries. California announced last week that has added Iowa to the list of states on its ever expanding travel ban list because of that state's new prohibition against funding, state funding of gender transition surgeries under Medicaid.

Okay. So they're going to ban all their state employees and their athletic teams from going to Iowa because Iowa state doesn't actually fund gender transition surgeries under Medicaid or Medicare, I guess it is. The moral righteousness here of the left and of those who, who, who do these kinds of things is really on full display. This is really no different than the communist government in China. Uh, you know, the state of California is using the power they have. They don't have the same power as the Chinese government, so they can't go into churches and pull out the 10 commandments. But if they had that power, they would. So they're using all the power they have to enforce their ungodly values and are trying to hurt Iowa for having a policy they disagree with. If they had more power, by the way, they would be making churches in California, take down the 10 commandments. If they had that power, they would because they deem those churches to be discriminatory against LGBTQ plus values. And so therefore that needs to be taken down. Matter of fact, you need to be shut down if you're preaching that way. That's what they would do if they could.

But in the meantime, they have to just stick with doing things like travel bans against places that they deem offensive. Now the final story is on this story. You probably heard about this one. This was the case, uh, recently that there was an abortion doctor who recently died in, um, in Illinois. And when they went to his home afterwards, they found, uh, the identities of over 2000 fetuses or babies in his home.

And I believe he lived near South Bend, Indiana, I think across the border in, in, in Illinois from there. And so of course the natural question was for Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who's running for president, what his thoughts were on this completely gruesome discovery. So here's what Pete Buttigieg says in response to this discovery of over 2000 bodies of aborted babies in this abortion doctor's home. Like everyone, I find that news out of Illinois extremely disturbing. And, uh, I think it's important that that be fully investigated.

I also hope that it doesn't get caught up in politics at a time when women need access to healthcare. There's no question that what happened is disturbing. It's unacceptable.

And it needs to be okay. So he gives two reasons and needs to be, it's disturbing and unacceptable. Well, I think any, any, um, person with any kind of conscience would say that, but did you notice the pivot there, the pivot to that? Well, I hope this discovery doesn't hurt, uh, women's health, women's healthcare. You mean abortion.

It doesn't cause any further setbacks to the abortion industry. This is Pete Buttigieg, right? The professing Christian, right? Who always talks about God and the Bible on, you know, the, uh, a liberal view of God and the Bible on, on the campaign trail. He's worried about, yes, it was bad that this happened, but I just hope this doesn't lead to anything worse happening or anything bad happening to the progress of abortion in this country.

That's just tell you everything you need to know about Pete Buttigieg's worldview. So we have time maybe for one more story here. Let me see what it could be.

We have about three left. I'm not sure which one to pick. Um, let's see here. Well, let me see.

There's so, so, so many stories, so little time. Uh, well here's another one related to abortion. This one's from California. Once again, you can see what happens if you don't think politics matters. Consider California where it's completely controlled by Democrats and leftists. Now California legislature has voted to force colleges to dispense abortion pills.

This is from LifeSite News. The California Senate gave a final approval Friday to legislation to force colleges, again, mandates and university to provide chemical abortion pills and now awaits the signature of Governor Gavin Newsom. So now each public university student center has to offer by medication techniques, uh, health, what they call healthcare services for abortion for students.

So just think about that for a second. Now the, the taxpayers of California will have to fund abortion pills being given to students on their university campuses. You just really, it just, they're right about the progressive, uh, label for their party. It progresses into a more ungodly, God rebelling and God rejecting worldview by the day. Thank you for listening today to the Christian Real View radio program as we talked about worldview in the news.

If you missed any of the program, you can always hear it at thechristianrealview.org. There was a lot of bad news in what we discovered today. Things going the wrong way. A couple of bits of good news as well too. But you know what the best news is? The best news is that God has offered a way for sinful man to be made right with him to forgive us. And he did that through sending his son to pay the penalty we deserve to pay on the cross for our sin and that by repenting of your sin and putting your faith in the person and work of Christ, you can be made right with God.

That's the good news that you can take into this week. Until next week, think biblically and live accordingly. We hope today's broadcast turned your heart toward God, his word and his son. To order a CD copy of today's program or sign up for our free weekly email or to find out how you can be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, go to our website, thechristianworldview.org or call us toll free at 1-888-646-2233. The Christian World View is a weekly one hour radio program that is furnished by the Overcomer Foundation and is supported by listeners and sponsors. Request one of our current resources with your donation of any amount. Go to thechristianworldview.org or call us toll free at 1-888-646-2233 or write to us at Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota 55331. That's Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota 55331. Thanks for listening to The Christian World View. Until next time, think biblically and live accordingly.