Tag: religion

To Do the Best We Can

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There is a certain subspecies of scientists who enjoy feeling smarter than “regular people.”  And I won’t be too exclusive.  This carries along to anyone who has “technical” training; physicists, biologists, engineers of every stripe, doctors of all kinds.  These folks are extremely proud of the fact that they don’t believe in God and enjoy preening about how much smarter they are than these religious folks.

Here’s an example.:

https://x.com/LyingWrongAgain/status/2015459692848337176?s=20

He’s set up a strawman; a pretend religious person saying that order cannot come from disorder.  And then he shows how a tub full of nails randomly jumbled together can become an ordered pile with all the nails parallel by someone rhythmically swinging it back and forth.  And somehow this is supposed to disprove the existence of God.  Well, I’m sure there are just as many annoying religious people who try to crow over their proofs of the foolishness of disbelievers and create strawmen of their own.  But I guess I’m more aware of all the educated fools who enjoy this game in academia and elsewhere.

I don’t claim to be an expert on cosmology or theology but I’m pretty sure neither camp can prove or disprove the existence of God to both sides’ satisfaction.  And I could be wrong but right up until the moment of truth I don’t think they ever will.

So, what’s my point?  I think both sides should be honest and forthcoming about the inability of either side to point to irrefutable proof for their point of view.  Maybe instead they could try to provide arguments for why their point of view is “better” for people.  In other words which belief makes people happier or better citizens or better parents.  Show us statistics that measure the behaviors and outcomes that go along with theism or atheism.  That at least has some relevance to people if something beyond their own fundamental beliefs is important.  Maybe there are some people who just will never make up their minds and instead could use social benefit to “break the tie.”  From everything I’ve read, people who believe in God are happier, healthier and better neighbors than atheists are.  So, from society’s point of view this might be something that should be touted (I guess).

But honestly, I’m happy that we live in a country where freedom of religion (or freedom from religion) is written into the fine print.  Making people pretend to believe something they don’t is counterproductive and absurd.  If there is a God, how abominable would he find unbelievers forced against their will to pretend to faith.  And alternatively forcing believers to deny God is bound to make them hate the state that forces them into this lie.

Whether we consciously consider it or not, we are all constantly looking for some part of the truth about life.  We are always making decisions to try and make our lives better; health wise, socially, politically and maybe spiritually.  And so, we come up with ad hoc rules for ourselves and how we live with our fellow humans.  But I think we’re all better off if we tread lightly on other people’s religious (or irreligious) beliefs.  We’re all here in the valley of the shadow of death and most of us are trying to do the best we can.

It Doesn’t Compute

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Most of life is about paying the bills.  We work most of our days to pay for food, shelter and raising children.  And for the most part we don’t think too much about all this.  After all what we do is the human analog of what very living creature on Earth has to do to keep its species alive into the future.  And none of them question why exactly all this goes on.

But when you get to a certain point and the end of the race is in sight and maybe you have a little more time on your hands than you used to, you might start asking some questions about what all of this is.  This is called philosophy or religion or maybe just plain curiosity.  One day you look around and think, “How the hell did this whole thing get started and where the hell is it going to end up?”

And it’s a good question.  The pessimist’s answer is the whole thing is just a complete accident.  Life itself is just a random occurrence that probably will just peter out and end when the sun dies in several billion years or maybe even sooner than that if some things go sideways for us here.  Who knows?  Maybe we ourselves will be responsible for the end of life.  Some madman may decide it would be fun to figure out a way to kill off every last bacterium and virus and make it so that none could ever reappear on Earth again.  It seems like a stupid idea but there are lots of crazy people and who’s to say that a really smart crazy man might not take it into his head to do something like that.

But there is definitely a sizable chunk of humanity that believe that we are here for a reason.  They believe in some kind of God.  Not necessarily the personal God of the Bible.  Some think there is some sort of universal spirit that is associated with all life or maybe just human life.  And it’s safe to say they have no way of ever proving what they believe in is real.  I’ve heard lots of people trying to prove God’s existence.  And I don’t think anyone has ever come up with anything that would convince an atheist that he is wrong.

No, the belief is not based on proof.  But at the same time, I don’t think for the most part it’s wish fulfillment.  I think it’s a form of intuition.  Some people look around and say I just don’t believe that all of this is the result of random chance working out over the course of several billion years.  It’s like that old idea that if a billion monkeys typed on a billion typewriters (word processors) for a billion years that they would come up with the Complete Works of William Shakespeare.  I think it’s a case of not letting large numbers intimidate you.  I can understand that over the course of geologic time mountains can turn into valleys and stars can explode.  But how does that create Mozart or Shakespeare or even you?  It doesn’t compute.

All God’s Children

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Over the course of the last thirty years more and more exoplanets have been “discovered.”  In most cases the astronomers use changes in stellar light output measured by their instruments to infer the diameter of a planet transiting in front of its star.  And what they’ve discovered is there are thousands of these planets.  In fact, they seem ubiquitous.  Everywhere we look we find them.

And this has convinced an awful lot of people that life must be ubiquitous in the universe too.  And that intelligent life must be common too.  This would go a long way to encouraging the crowd who believe that human beings are nothing special and any belief in the divine origin of the human race is completely unfounded.  The story goes we’re just some monkeys that got a little smarter than the other monkeys and have become a blight on the face of “Gaia.”

I have to say, I completely disagree.  I look at the Earth and compare it to the other planets in our solar system and I’m struck by how many factors conspire to make Earth a paradise while leaving all of the other planets different flavors of hell.  Everything from the effect of our large satellite, to the strength of the magnetic field to the balance between elements and compounds that make up the oceans and atmosphere, to the exact orbit of Earth around the Sun.  And that’s not to mention the remarkable way terrestrial life has shaped the environment in remarkable ways.  Plant life has increased the oxygen content of the atmosphere and life has changed the environment in innumerable ways.

And then we have the fossil record demonstrating the prodigious changes that have gone on for billions of years to produce the current flora and fauna of this remarkable world.  From the one-celled origins of life to the present-day complexity of creatures as varied as hummingbirds and blue whales; birds of paradise and Siberian tigers; dragonflies and giant pandas.  And us.

I’m sorry, I cannot believe that all this is just the random result of fermions and bosons rattling around the aftermath of the “big bang.”  To quote the immortal words of Vizzini, “Inconceivable.”  And I know he was dead wrong every time he said it but that is my rock bottom intuition.  All of this is purposeful.  All of this was directed.  We are here because life has meaning and human life is the soul behind the giant mechanism.  We are the witness and the object for which the whole dizzying array was created.

We are the guests of honor in a parade that stretches out to the detectable limits of the universe and back and forth in time from, “Let there be light” to the end of “Revelations.”  We’re here to make sense out of the wonders of creation and to use them to figure out the full potentialities of the human mind and soul.

And I don’t believe for a minute that we’ll destroy ourselves utterly.  History has shown just how stupid and cruel we can be.  Humans can be more vicious than any predator.  There are no depths we can’t sink to.  But that is lowest part of our nature.  We have not yet begun to figure ourselves out.  We’re still ignorant children.  But we will grow up and we will grow out of our ignorance.  And then we will become what we are supposed to be.  God’s children.

Gardening

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One day the Master was working in the garden and the Servant approached, “Father, your son wants to see you.”  The Master put aside what he was doing and asked, “What did he say to you?”  The Servant frowned and hesitated, “He says he won’t leave.  He says it’s not fair and he won’t leave.  I think the woman put him up to this insolence.”  The Master smiled ruefully, “She is spirited, isn’t she.  Well, look, leave this to me.  They’ll only blame you and become even more incensed.  I’ll have to have that talk with him now.  Just leave them alone for the time being.”  The Servant looked relieved, “Thank you Father.  I never know how to deal with them when they disobey.  It’s very confusing.”

The Servant left and the Master sat in thought for a while and then walked through the Garden to find his troubled son.  The young man was standing on a high hill and looking out at the beautiful forest and the valley below with its orchards and streams and grazing herds.  The Master approached him and called to him, “Hello my son, what would you like to tell me?”

The young man upon seeing the Master looked troubled and his shoulders slumped, “Father why must we leave our home.  This place is beautiful and full of all the good things that make our lives happy.  Why would you make us leave?”  The woman is afraid.  She thinks the Servant has told stories about her that made you angry at her.  He is always suspicious of her.”

The Master patted his son on the shoulder and laughed, “They don’t understand each other.  He doesn’t have any point of reference to decipher what she means.  And she can’t figure him out at all.  But all that’s beside the point.  You haven’t done anything wrong.  You two are not being punished.  And this is not your home.  It’s like the nest that a baby bird hatches into.  It is the place where you grew and developed.  But now you must leave the nest and face the world on your own.”

The young man looked angry, “But I’m not a bird.  I’m your son.  Why can’t I stay with you?  Don’t I share in your possessions?  The servant said we will be sent into the wilderness where wild animals and wild men are all around.  Why would you leave me at the mercy of the cruel places outside this garden?”

The Master looked sad, “The reason you can’t stay with me is because you are not like me.  Only the smallest spark of your being possesses the property I possess as my nature.  You will die.  You and the woman will grow old and die.  You must have children and raise them as I raised you.  You must learn how to survive in the world so that they can survive after you’re gone.  And that chain from parent to child must go on until time ends.  And when this world is finally at an end you will be like me.  And you will be able to remake the world in your own image and then you will find me again.  And your work will be done and we can enjoy what you’ve built.  In the meantime, I’ll leave the Servant within this world to keep it from falling apart.  But his strength is not as mine and eventually you will have to learn to control all the forces of the world; the stars and the voids and the waters of the deep.”

The young man was stricken, “But, I will die.  I will never see you again!”  The Master smiled, “Do not believe that.  There is a spark in you that can never die.  You were made to conquer death and you shall.  But now you must face death.  There is no other way.

But there is much you need to know.  The Servant will answer as many of your questions as you can think of in the next month.  And you and the woman will dine with me for the month you have left here.  And I will tell you some things you must know.  And some of them will be about her.  She will be a great help to you but remember that her nature is different from yours.  Learn what that means and take that into account.  And most importantly try to remember what a father and son are to each other for when you have children.  This will be your most important role.”

The young man was dazed from the impact of everything he had heard, “Dad, I’m scared.”  The Master hugged him to his chest and said, “Of course you are, so was I when I was your age.  But you’re lucky you didn’t have your grandfather to deal with.  He was much tougher than I am.”

Can I Get a Hallelujah

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Well, what shall I write tonight?  Nothing too down tonight.  There’s plenty to cry about but let’s raise our spirits instead.  You know I talk about how a leader is what we are missing.  But maybe a Caesar is not what we need.  Maybe we need a Preacher.  The churches have mostly rotted away and it shows.  People are empty and bitter and alone.

A man of the spirit might be exactly what this country; even this world needs.  Someone who could speak to us about how to fill up the void with meaning.  Give people hope.  I don’t think it will be someone who talks only about the hereafter.  It will need to be someone who has practical advice for this world.  And he can’t be a televangelist, at least not at first and never only.  This will have to be a hands-on man who builds his flock around him and builds some kind of community that helps people in the here and now.

What’s needed is a church that harnesses the people to help each other and builds something where everyone gets a sense of belonging to something worthwhile and true.  I think someone who could make that happen would rebuild this country.  It would have a place for all the parts of the community.  There will be things for the young, the mature and the old to do.  The young will learn, the old will teach and the grown-ups will support it with their time and money.  Eventually there will need to be a school to teach children the lessons they can’t learn in the public school.  Ideally, one day there should be a university too.  There should be youth organizations and sports teams.  There should be fraternal and sorority organizations for the kids and grown-ups.  Something will be needed to replace things like the Boy Scouts.  And the adults need their clubs too.  And the church should have charitable functions.  But these need to require that those who have been helped pay it forward by contributing their efforts to the community.

And what creed will this be?  Well, it will be Christianity but it will be non-denominational.  It won’t require that you have a required doctrine on the Trinity or the Immaculate Conception or Limbo.  If Jesus runs the Heaven you are trying to get in then you fit under this tent.

Well, that’s what I think we need.  People need to belong to something that provides a way to organize with their neighbors in a way that gives them a sense of community and fulfills their desire to belong to something constructive and adheres to what they believe is the good.

But how do you order up a holy man?  They only show up once every five hundred years.  The last one was Martin Luther (which was about five hundred years ago!).  They say that God provides what is needed.  Well, I think we are beyond need.  We’re desperate.

So, whether he calls himself Brother or Father, Padre or Reverend; it’s exactly the right time for a revival.  In fact, it may be the only thing that can save us.

Turtles All the Way Down

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Over the last few months, I have been reading and listening to a bunch of physics.  Particle physics and cosmology.  The micro and the macro of the attempt to understand the universe.  Limitless vistas of space with super clusters of galaxies and more exotic objects that stretch back to the alleged Big Bang.  And inside the proton are the ephemeral quarks and gluons flashing in and out of existence in (I kid you not) a yoctosecond.

And all of this hyperactivity of nothingness just to make it possible for me to push on the keys of my laptop to write this post.  All of those electrons and quarks following all these conflicting forces at various distances; the strong force, weak force, electro-magnetic force and gravity just so that reality can be felt and tasted.  All of these incredibly complex concepts and the mathematics that tries to describe it.  And the weirdness of quantum mechanics and its inherent and explicit ruling out of determinism.  All of this and how far we’ve come from Galileo and Newton.  And all we’ve achieved in technology.

And yet…

What are quarks made of?  What are gluons made of?  What happened five minutes before the Big Bang?  What happens five minutes after the End of the Universe?

There is no bottom.  There is no top.  There is no start.  There is no finish.

The human mind cannot encompass the infinite.  If we find something beneath quarks, I am sure there will be something under that.  And when the successor to the James Webb Space Telescope is put into service in twenty years at a cost of $100 billion or so I’m sure it will show us even further wonders that defy our ability to explain.  And so will the telescope after that.

And as the man said, “Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”  But that’s the part you have to wrap your head around.  Thinking that scientists have the ultimate truth is a misnomer.  All they have is the latest and greatest explanation as to how things work.

But they’ll never be able to tell you why you’re here or why you should care.  Each of us has to do that all by ourselves.

It’s remarkable.  Five hundred years after the Renaissance put us on the trajectory of man is the measure of all things and God is dead, we come right back to the same place.  The universe isn’t a big windup toy that means nothing and will return to nothing.  And after science tried to convince us that Earth is nowhere and humans are less than nothing it turns out that life is really the only thing with inherent value.  And human life is the miracle that we started out with before we killed God.

The more we study life the more in awe we are of its complexity and miraculous properties.  The more we study humans the more we discover about their potential.

I do not mean to disparage science.  Wresting the secrets of the universe from Nature is a noble endeavor.  And done with proper humility it is one of the finest works that can be achieved by the human mind.  But surely by now all the best minds in the world must be aware that an infinite universe cannot be defined by finite beings.  God built this nursery for us and it’s built to hold us while we grow up.  I can’t imagine we’ll find the door to the nursery unlocked.  At least not on this side of reality.

Nefarious (2023) – A Movie Review

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Here’s another film that I won’t have the spoiler alert attached because I won’t spoil any surprises.  My review will have more to do with the nature and the quality of the film than the plot synopsis.

The basic plot is that a psychiatrist, Dr. James Martin (played by Jordan Belfi) goes to a prison to interview a death row prisoner, Edward Wayne Brady (played by Sean Patrick Flanery) to determine if he’s sane enough to electrocute.  But when Martin enters the interrogation room, he discovers that the prisoner claims to be a demon from Hell possessing Brady’s body.  For the sake of convenience, he tells Martin to call him Nefarious.

And the great majority of the film is the interaction between Martin and Nefarious.  And that brings us to the question of what type of movie is this?  Is it a religious film?  Is it a horror movie?  Is it a suspense film.  I guess it’s little bit of each.  I’m not giving anything away by saying it’s not a gorefest.  The most visually disturbing scene is a prison electrocution.  But that’s hardly in the league of things like Saw.  I guess you call it a horror film in the same way that Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was a horror movie.  I would say that a psychological drama might more closely describe the atmosphere of the film.

And the film is definitely an attack on the lack of respect for human life that our civilization exhibits with respect to its attitude toward abortion and euthanasia.  And it was produced by a Christian production company, “Believe Entertainment.”  So, from these perspectives this is a religious film.

But whatever else it is, it’s also a well made and compelling film.  The characterizations by the two lead actors are highly entertaining.  Flanery’s Nefarious is mesmerizing.  He has all the best lines and he plays the part over the top and to the hilt.

Belfi does a very good job of portraying a somewhat smug member of the intelligentsia, an avowed atheist who comes up against a persona who tears away many of his comfortable assumptions about himself and his way of life.  And to the film’s credit it’s not a simplistic strawman exercise.  It’s done with skill and very effectively.

Now none of this is to say that Nefarious is a perfect film.  There are a couple of scenes that were less successful.  But overall, it was compelling and kept my interest throughout.  And now here is my recommendation.  I recommend this movie but with a caveat.  I paid twenty bucks to see this movie!  Camera Girl thinks I’m crazy and I kind of have to agree.  That’s an awful lot of money.

Southern Baptist Convention Ejects Churches With Female Pastors

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Hat tip to Vox Day for this news item   Who would have thunk it?  A mainline protestant denomination is taking a stand on churches that defy biblical authority.  What’s next, closing down the parishes in Sodom and Gomorrah?   Hey, maybe things are starting to happen.  Finally.

“The Southern Baptist Convention on Wednesday upheld its expulsion of two churches for having female pastors in a move that reaffirms the conservative leanings of the largest Protestant denomination in the United States.

The expelled churches were found not to be in “friendly cooperation” with the convention, according to the Baptist Press, a news website that covers the denomination.

The decision was made to expel the churches based on denomination’s doctrine that scripture reserves the role of pastor for men, the Baptist Press reported.

The expulsions reflect a conservative drift among many American evangelicals in recent years, though there are several other Baptist conventions that welcome women to pastors.

Linda Popham, who has served as a Fern Creek pastor since 1993, addressed the convention on Tuesday.

“We believe the Bible allows women to serve in ways in which all of you do not agree but we should still be able to partner together,” she said”

Guest Contributor – pigpen51 – 16JAN2023 – Reply to What’s Wrong With Modern Churches

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Here’s a Post About What’s Wrong with Modern Churches

I never knew that Bear Grylls was a man of faith. But it seems like he is not only a man of faith, but a wise man, as well. Myself, I have seen this same thing, for a very long time.
I attended Bible College in the early 1980’s, thinking that I might become a Baptist Pastor. Due to family circumstances, I was only able to attend for a year, but I learned much in that year. Not only knowledge about the Bible, but about Christians and the direction of the Church itself.
I could see even back then that there was a movement, not hidden, to try and move the conservative churches to become more liberal, and to turn to what I call a Social Gospel, instead of the Gospel of Truth. They were teaching Pastoral Candidates to question everything, to seek new and different interpretations of the Bible. To not believe the men like Spurgeon or Tozer, but to question them and to seek to find the places where they were wrong.
I always felt like a Church was supposed to be more of a hospital, for wounded Christians, than a Museum where so called ” Good Christians” came every Sunday to show how spiritual they are. And to listen to their pastors preach smooth words that put them at ease, words of comfort that they were just fine, and God loved them.
Well, God does indeed love them, especially if they are believers. Their sins are forgiven, but that doesn’t mean that they are walking in the light.
I found myself saved at an early age, perhaps 9 or 10. But I never knew that there was anything else required of me. Fortunately there was a real change in my heart and my life, and it was apparent that I had something different in my life. And it stayed with me all of my life. But at the age of 20, God showed me that there was more expected of me. I was in a serious car accident where it was like He shook me and said ” wake up, it is time for you to get to work.” So I got involved in the Church, and it was obvious that I was a Bible scholar, in that I understood how it was meant to be understood, and was able to see it as a whole, when so many failed to “get it.”
The problem I found was that Baptists failed to understand a lot of the things that I found in the Bible. Oh, they would acknowledge them, but then make excuses that didn’t hold water. Things about church discipline, and how salvation is by faith alone, but they then live like it is by works. To the place where a Baptist Pastor I knew would not leave a bottle of coke on his kitchen table, in case someone drove by and saw it and thought it was a beer bottle, and it made them stumble.
But I guess the biggest thing that drove me away from the Baptist church, but really it could have been just about any of the denominations of today, was their lack of genuine love for each other. They of course, made a big show of love, saying the right words, and telling each other that they will pray for them. But as you no doubt have seen, Christians are the only group that shoots their wounded. And if that wounded Christian is wounded so that the public is aware of it, all the better. One of those issues that I am thinking of is a young lady getting pregnant out of wedlock. Following the scriptures, it should be handled privately, and not be brought before the church, if the young lady understands that she made a mistake, and repents of it. The Baptist church, however, requires that lady to stand before the entire congregation and confess her sin.
Looking at Mary, the mother of Jesus, and how she came to be pregnant, and then Joseph who was called a just man, and not wanting to make Mary a public spectacle, but wanting to put her away privately, it seems like the whole public confession is totally against the teaching of the New Testament, and punitive at that.
I don’t see how a young lady, of 16-19 years old, pregnant out of wedlock, can feel loved if forced to stand before the entire congregation and confess her sin. It is a wonder that they don’t require her to wear the letter A on her clothing. This at a time when a young woman needs love and support from older women and families the most, they withdraw it.
Now we see churches trying to change, and to make the social gospel the big thing. Big production values, with rock bands and power point presentations, short films, etc. it is a wonder that they have any room for God in the building. And I think that is the feeling that young people get, and why they are seen to be leaving churches in droves. I hope that it turns around, but for that to happen, one thing will need to happen, and that is that God will have to be invited back into the building, and the church will need to begin it’s journey back into a hospital for the hurting, a refuge for the sick, and a shelter for those in a storm. I hope that it is not too late, because as the Church goes, so goes the nation.

To Paraphrase Huey Lewis and the News, “It’s Hip to be Unwoke.”

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According to the New York Times there is a troubling trend among some avant-garde kids to assume the trappings of traditional institutions, like the Catholic crucifix, and defy the virtue signaling mantra of their generation’s elite guardians.  So, the Times is looking for a sleuth to ferret out the details of this heresy and hopefully expose the malefactors so that they can be properly punished and then allowed to recant and declare their love for Big Brother.

This New York Times project is described in an article in the City Journal that goes on to try and explain these young rebels as the first fruits of a rebellion of the young against the dominant culture which in this case is the current all encompassing orthodoxy of woke-ism.  In other words, these young people are organizing a counter-culture against what used to be described as the Left’s counter-culture against western civilization.

The author states: “Few things are more natural for young people than to push back against the strictures and norms of their day, even if only to stand out a little from the crowd and assert their independence. A counterculture forms as a reaction against an official or dominant culture—and today, it is the woke neoliberal Left that occupies this position in America’s cultural, educational, technological, corporate, and bureaucratic power centers. In this culture, celebration of ritualized, old forms of transgression is not only permitted, but practically mandatory. Dissent against state-sponsored transgression, however, is now transgressive. All of what was once revolutionary is now a new orthodoxy, with conformity enforced by censorship, scientistic obscurantism, and eager witch-hunters (early-middle-aged, zealously dour, tight-lipped frown, NPR tote bag, rainbow “Coexist” bumper sticker, pronouns in email signature—we all know the uniform).”

Apparently, these young rebels can be found in trendy areas of lower Manhattan and their cachet as members of the avant-garde worries the gatekeepers of public morality at the Times and the author equates this worry with genuine peril that the youth among the elites could be corrupted and driven over to the dark side where one day they would produce a new consensus to shift the balance of power away from the monolithic progressive world view.  And a new regime could populate the Deep State with acolytes of the Dissident Right.

Well, I don’t know about that.  I know that Curtis Yarvin is interested in the lower Manhattan scene being discussed and he is of the opinion that the only way to neutralize the Deep State is to peacefully displace it with a new elite.  But in both of these examples I wonder at the circumstances and the time line that would bring about such a transformation.  Some kids in Manhattan adopting Christian symbology isn’t a bad thing but what is the larger significance?  Do these young people hope to change the values that guide modern life?  Are they looking to traditional values to give meaning to their existence?  And how many people are we talking about?  A handful, a few thousand or a growing trend?

And what will be the reaction of the gatekeepers?  I’m sure they’re already busy looking to siphon off any discontented teens with a Tik-Tok influencer who sports a trans-friendly pseudo-Catholic rosary that involves anti-Pope Francis’ official rainbow seal of approval.

I guess, on balance, any fear on the part of the official organs of the state like the Times is a good and promising symptom.  Therefore, I won’t rain on their parade.  But I think I’ll wait to celebrate until I see some larger more widespread evidence that the Zoomers have begun to rebel.  Possibly the “Let’s go Brandon” cheers (or their actual words) at football games could be interpreted as the first real sign of popular unrest of the young against the Left.  But I’ve assumed that was more of a reaction to the COVID lockdowns by the Biden administration and not a general anti-woke reaction.  We’ll need to see clearer signs such as voting trends or support for traditional institutions like religion and marriage.

But I’ll end by saying that anything that hints at the young abandoning the woke cult is encouraging.  Even if it’s a minority movement, it’s a start.