A Gentler Kinder Easter
The Hill reports PETA President, Ingrid Newkirk, in a letter to the White House, requests they make some significant changes to their annual Easter Egg Roll, scheduled for April 1, 2024, on the White House lawn.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is calling on the White House to roll a different way this spring — swapping chicken eggs for potatoes at the annual Easter Egg Roll. ...
“Potatoes are the most popular vegetable in the country and can be safely dyed, allowing for spudtacular traditional activities, such as rolling them, seeking for them, and decorating them. You could even hold potato sack races and games of hot potato!” the letter to the first lady said.
Newkirk urged Biden to “leave a legacy of kindness” by starting a new potato-filled tradition at the White House.
Whether you think Easter Egg hunts are fabulous or frivilous, it's far more than some of the traditional Easter trappings which the world is calling us to revamp and rethink lately.
Churches across America (and across the globe) are being called to present a kinder, gentler version of the Gospel itself. In the name of leaving a "legacy of kindness," the world would have us to water down the truth and the power of the Gospel message.
Indeed, the offer of salvation is for ALL, regardless of our past or current sins or lifestyles. Yet it is a "Come as you are!" message, not a "Come as you; stay as you are!" message. That said, God calls us to repentence and newness of life.
Affirming unbelievers in their sin is neither kinder nor gentler. Affirming unbelievers in their need for a savior is both and more!
Don't settle for a counterfeit gospel which amounts to nothing more than a basket of colored potatoes. Celebrate new life in Christ this Easter, in all its redemptive glory!
"Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out ..." (Acts 3:19, ESV).
"The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance" (2 Peter 3:9, ESV).
Buy Truth
Years ago, many people were very dependent upon horses for transportation and farm work. Horses were expensive, and so the buyer needed to make sure the new horse was in good health. If the horse was sick, the success of the farm could be in jeopardy.
Prospective horse buyers would examine the animal's teeth. The condition of the teeth was a reliable way to determine the age and overall health of the horse. This examination helped protect the buyer from buying a bad horse.
Instead of taking the time to examine something, we could choose to go fishing, spend time with friends, or watch TV. Choosing to examine something costs us the pleasure of doing something else.
Proverbs 23:23 instructs us to "Buy truth and do not sell it...."
One way to "buy" truth is to "spend" time seeking truth and examining something before we believe it.
Buying the truth has nothing to do with spending money. Poor people can buy as much truth as rich people. Buying truth has to do with the effort required to find and acquire the truth.
1 Thessalonians 5:21 instructs us to, "Examine everything and hold fast to that which is good."
Examination takes work, time, and mental energy. In essence, this is how we buy truth or pay for the truth. No monetary cost, but a cost nonetheless.
Putting A Trigger Warning On Truth
In a flagrantly glaring display of irony, the UK’s University of Northampton is taking censorship and wokeness to caricaturish new levels by slapping a trigger warning on none other than George Orwell’s classic, dystopian novel, 1984, seeking to spare sensitive students from unwitting exposure to “explicit material.”
Said “explicit material” is the story of a dystopian future world controlled by thought police, where language is redefined, former events and people are “memory holed,” and history is rewritten to suit the narrative of the ever watchful Big Brother. Truth is no longer objective. In fact, truth (or what used to be recognized as truth) is Public Enemy Number One, and must be hidden from the masses at all costs.
It is to this novel that this bastion of re-education education has slapped its stamp of censorship -- woke culture’s most prolifically used mark of impending danger – the trigger warning.
This is nothing short of dystopian life, imitating dystopian art, imitating dystopian life. So close to current events have the themes of this sci-fi classic come, that putting a trigger warning on it is like putting a trigger warning on a mirror. Don’t look! You might see reality!
In response to criticism, a spokesman for the university said:
“While it is not university policy, we may warn students of content in relation to violence, sexual violence, domestic abuse and suicide. In these circumstances, we explain to applicants as part of the recruitment process that their course will include some challenging texts. This is reinforced by tutors as they progress through their programme of studies. We are aware some texts might be challenging for some students and have accounted for this when developing our courses.”
Oh, so it’s the violence and sexuality inherent in the story line from which they want to protect these young adults. Really? Even as institutions of education here in the US and around the world want to teach Kindergarteners about gender preferences, while promoting pornography to middle and high schoolers through libraries and reading lists?
What are they really trying to shield these young people from? Is the trigger warning actually for the protection of the delicate, fragile sensibilities of the students? Or is it for the protection of the elites and mavens of indoctrination who fear their subjects students might actually be confronted with reality, and rather than cower under the weight of it, embrace it?