“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters
discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the
majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the
result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The
average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years.

The consensus of Christian thought, doctrine, and policy recognizes that the Hebrews are the chosen
people of God, beginning with His call to Abram as recorded in Genesis 12:1-3: “The Lord had said to
Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. “I
will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a
blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.” The Bible records Joshua leading the people of Israel into the land that
was promised to Abram some 500 years earlier.

A movie was just released that claims that Jesus was a vegetarian. From what I gather, the point of the
movie is that Jesus was not only a vegetarian, but also actively opposed the killing and eating of animals.
In fact, the movie claims that the cleansing of the temple was not about making money off of the sale of
sacrificial animals, but the killing of the animals. Of course, there were a couple of other scriptures they
had to reinterpret in order to come to their conclusion that Christians should be vegetarians. And they
strongly insinuate that Christian leaders purposely hid this information from us.

The eclipse was interesting, wasn’t it? In the weeks before its happening, there were a lot of
“conspiracy theories” being thrown out there. They ranged from the beginning of the new world order
to NASA firing rockets at the moon to satanic rituals that would bring on the end of the world. One
article I read, though, added an interesting “conspiracy theory” as written by a Republican
congresswoman. It said this: “God is sending America strong signs to tell us to repent. Earthquakes and
eclipses and many more things to come. I pray that our country listens.”

There is an old saying that “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me”.
Evidently, there is a group of people that no longer believe that. I watched a discussion between two
men who “identified” as women and a conservative commentator. The conservative guy said that
gender dysphoria was a psychological disorder.

One of the more prominent issues coming up at the annual Southern Baptist Convention in June is the question
of whether or not a woman can be Biblically granted the role of pastor.  To understand that question better, we
must define some words and talk about responsibilities.  We must also remember the organization of the
Christian church today is much different in many ways than in its infancy.

What has Christianity contributed to Western Civilization? I ask that because I heard a young college
student say that the world would be better off if not for Christianity. He said that Christianity was
responsible for many wars, genocides, and human misery. This “educated” person spoke of Christianity
putting down women and encouraging racism. I do not know which professors taught such outright lies
and obvious misinformation, but that person shouldn’t be in a place of responsibility in any college or
university.

Few people outside of the denomination understand how a Southern Baptist church operates. Most
think that we are under the authority of the Southern Baptist Convention. We are not.

I saw something new in a worship service (at least it was new to me): worship flags. There were a
couple of young ladies on the stage with the worship leader and they were waving large flags. Picture
the color guard in a high school band. I looked it up online and was surprised to see a lot of companies
selling “worship and praise” flags.