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Shepherds for Sale – Megan Basham

Posted by :admin On : August 25, 2024
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Category: Archives, Culture Wars, Evangelical Church, Progressivism

Ms. Basham’s subtitle for her book presents the essence of the book’s contents: How Evangelical Leaders Traded the Truth for a Leftist Agenda.

Megan Basham is a published author and culture reporter for the The Daily Wire. She is a frequent contributor to the Morning Wire, one of the top ten news podcasts in the United States. She has written for WORLD magazine, the Spectator, the Wall Street Journal, First Things, National Review, and the Telegraph. Even before the book was released on July 30, 2024, the podcasts interviews and speaking engagements discussing the contents of the book stirred considerable of controversy and backlash from several evangelical church leaders and organizations about whom she wrote. However, the truth of the facts, narrative, and conclusions presented in the book are supported by extensive research and meticulous documentation (53 pages containing 640 endnotes in the 319 page book).

In her book Basham identifies well-funded forces outside of the church that set out to change American evangelical churches with regard to their biblical beliefs that stood in the way of achieving political change within American culture. Those power brokers include George Soros, members of the Obama administration, the founder of eBay, and a host of other wealthy and/or influential left-wing organizations and individuals. Through their secular, well-funded foundations, think tanks, non-profits, non-governmental organizations, as well as left-leaning federal government agencies and complicit national media, the progressive left deliberately devised campaigns to infiltrate and dramatically influence well-known individuals and organizations in the American evangelical church: nationally-recognized faith leaders, Christian media, universities, megachurches, nonprofit organizations, para-church organizations, and entire denominations and their subsidiaries.

Why is the left so determined to influence the American evangelical church and its associated organizations? The reason is found in a quote from Basham’s Introduction.

Around 32 percent of the U.S. electorate describe themselves as evangelical, and the vast majority of that group leans right. Among Americans who describe themselves as conservatives, Protestant evangelicals are the single largest religious group by 23 points…

Look at any issue that represents a key priority for progressives, and you will find that even when all other major demographics have signed on, Christians, and evangelicals in particular, represent the most formidable roadblock. Whether it’s the LGBTQ movement, climate changed, or illegal immigration, again and again, polling research shows that evangelicals still stand as a fortress in the way of the political left. Indeed, they often stand in the way of the political right as well, earning the ire of many GOP…[1]

In the early 2000s, foundations funded by secular billionaires began to speak earnestly, if not very openly, about how to take down this fortress.[2]

In 2010, one of those progressive left-leaning foundations issued a report targeting the roadblock they faced in advancing the agenda of the gay lobby. But rather than continuing to unsuccessfully oppose churches in their stance against homosexuality, they would need to undermine their biblical stance again homosexuality, and that change must be instigated by the leadership in the American evangelical church and affiliated organizations. The report stated, “LGBTI organizations need to appropriate Christian values for a progressive rights agenda.”[3] (emphasis added by Basham) Eventually, in addition to politically advancing the LGBTI agenda, the progressive infiltrators used these tactics in advancing climate change, illegal immigration, the #MeToo Movement to include #ChurchToo, Critical Race Theory, Covid-19 propaganda, and hijacking the Pro-life Movement and Christian media (e.g., Christianity Today).

Megan Basham’s book tracks and courageously reports the efforts and successes of the progressives in the infiltration of their non-biblical agenda into the hearts, minds, and pulpits of many evangelical leaders and pastors. In a section titled “Wolves, Cowards, Mercenaries, and Fools,” Basham writes:

The question is: Why have so many well-known evangelical institutions and leaders in recent years started promoting causes that no plain reading of Scripture would demand, like lobbying for fossil fuel regulations or dismantling white privilege, while issues that unequivocally call for Christian clarity find them silent and stymied? When the guy who created the Christian children’s program VeggieTales starts arguing that evangelicals should take a more “nuanced” position on abortion, and when successive presidents of the Southern Baptist Convention say the Bible only “whispers” about sexual sins, something is badly off in mainstream evangelicalism.[4]

Basham identifies many others individuals and organizations who have been influenced by the progressive left’s agenda and have strayed from the biblical foundations in recent years. The following list contains only a fraction of the people and organizations identified by that Basham in her book:

Francis Chan, Francis Collins, J. D. Greear, Bill Hybels, Tim Keller, Max Lucado, Beth Moore, Russell Moore, Andy Stanley, Rick Warren, Evangelical Climate Initiative, Evangelical Environmental Network, Southern Baptist Convention, Ethics and Religious Liberty commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, National Association of Evangelicals, Charisma magazine, Christianity Today.

In 1984, theologian Francis Schaeffer published The Great Evangelical Disaster, in which he wrote of his concern that evangelical groups were accommodating and surrendering themselves and their churches to the spirit of the age. He wrote:

Here the gospel has been reduced to a program for transforming social structures. This is the Marxist line. It does not mean that those who take this position are Communists. But it does mean they have a complete confusion of the kingdom of God with basic socialistic concepts. In back of this stands the Enlightenment idea of the perfectibility of man if only the cultural and economic chains are removed.

But think further what this means theologically. What has happened to the fall and sin? Evangelicals for Social Action (ESA) seem to be saying that changing economic structures is the means of salvation for modern man since only this deals with the basic “cause of the disease.” Ironically their program is not radical enough! The basic problem is that of the fall and sin and heart of man. The basic problem is much deeper than social structures, and by not recognizing this, ESA ends up with an understanding of salvation which is very different from what the Scriptures teach.[5]

Written forty-one years ago, Schaeffer’s prescient warning has been ignored by the majority in 21st century American evangelicalism which is surrendering to the Great Apostasy described by the Apostle Paul. This great falling away was prophesied to be fulfilled at the end of the last days just before the catching away of the church by the Lord. Every sign of the times now points to the fact that the world is nearing the end of the last days of the Church age which is to be concluded by the rapture or catching away of the Church, both living and dead.

Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter—asserting that the day of the Lord has already come. Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.[ (emphasis added) [2 Thessalonians 2:1-3. NIV]

The “rebellion” (Gk apostasia), which literally means “departure,” “falling away” or “abandonment,” must come before the rapture of the church occurs and before the antichrist is subsequently revealed. The rebellion that occurs within the church will have two dimensions:

• Theological apostasy – People turning from and rejecting part or all of the true and original teachings of Christ and the apostles as recorded in the New Testament.

• Moral apostasy – People who have abandoned true faith in Christ may still claim to believe the right things and to accept the Bible’s teaching, yet they reject God’s moral law and standards. By doing so they corrupt and embrace the deception.[6]

The facts, narrative, and conclusions presented in Shepherds for Sale – How Evangelical Leaders Traded the Truth for a Leftist Agenda is abundant and undeniable evidence of the great theological and moral apostasy within a large majority of the leadership of the American evangelical church, many of whom have become wolves, cowards, mercenaries, and fools.

Larry G. Johnson

Sources:
[1] Megan Basham, Shepherds for Sale – How Evangelical Leaders Traded the Truth for a Leftist Agenda, (New York: Broadside Books, 2024), p. xviii.
[2] Ibid., p. xix.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid., p. xxi.
[5] Francis Schaeffer, The Great Evangelical Disaster, (Arcadia, California: Focus on the Family, 1984),
[6] Donald C. Stamps, Commentary and Articles, Fire Bible: Global Study Edition, New International Version, Ed. Donald C.Stamps, (Springfield, Missouri: Life Publishers International, 2009), pp. 2322-2323.

A Time to Preach, a Time to Pray, and a Time to Fight!

Posted by :admin On : August 5, 2024
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Category: American Church, Archives, Culture Wars, Evangelical Church

John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg (1746-1807) was a 30-year-old pastor and a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses. In 1775, Muhlenberg preached a message on the Christian’s responsibility to be involved in securing freedom for America. The text for his sermon came from the book of Ecclesiastes 3:1. “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.” He closed his message by saying: “In the language of the Holy Writ, there is a time for all things. There is a time to preach and a time to fight. And now is the time to fight.”

Thereafter, he threw off his clerical robes and revealed the uniform of an officer in the Revolutionary Army. That same afternoon, he and 300 men marched to join General George Washington and his troops. Muhlenberg became the Colonel of the 8th Virginia Regiment where he served to the end of the war, during which he was promoted to the rank of Major General.[1]

Muhlenberg’s Regiment was just one of many formed by pastors from across the colonies who arose and lead their congregations into the battle for freedom. Unlike today, the church during the revolutionary era served as the center-point for political debate and discussion on the relevant news of the day. Today’s church leaders have all but lost that concept of leading their congregations in a Godly manner in all aspects of their worldly existence and are afraid to speak out against the progressive agenda that has dominated our political system for the past century. The Church and God himself has been under assault, marginalized, and diminished by the progressives, secularists and socialists/Marxists, from both within and without the Church. It is time for church leaders and laypeople to stand up for our Lord and Savior and to protect the freedoms and liberties granted to a moral people in the divinely inspired US Constitution.

In his book Letter to the American Church, Eric Metaxas identifies several reasons—and excuses—for the silence of many pastors and Christian leaders in American evangelical churches. One of those reasons goes as follows:

The American Christians of our time have taken to using the term “the Gospel” in a new way, as though by doing this they hope to set religious and theological issues apart from all else, as though this were possible. And so now, when may American church leaders shrink from taking a particular stand, they often say that they are doing so “for the sake of the Gospel” that we will not contest these things. They say, that we will assiduously avoid taking sides in these terribly divisive “culture wars,” and will even more assiduously avoid being identified with any political party or candidate is manifestly out of bounds.[2]

This attitude or mindset has infiltrated even some of the most stalwart Christian evangelical denominations over the last 100 years. I wrote of one such denomination in Culturewarrior.net on February 23, 2024.

On February 7-8, 2024, one thousand Assemblies of God pastors gathered at the “1000+ AG Lead Pastor Connect” conference in Miami, Florida. This gathering was designed for lead pastors from the largest one thousand churches among the thirteen thousand plus AG churches in the United States. John Maxwell was the featured speaker, and the core of his message to the pastors was “to avoid politics, because it is polarizing.” Maxwell’s message created a firestorm among the faithful inside and outside of the denomination.[3]

At least one Assemblies of God pastor took Maxwell’s message to heart. In a recent sermon he spoke of the blasphemous portrayal of da Vinci’s iconic painting of the Last Supper with live performers in drag clothing representing Christ and His disciples. The scene was viewed by a worldwide audience during the opening ceremonies of the 2024 Summer Olympics. The following is the pastor’s recommended response to the blasphemy:

Here’s what we need to do in my opinion as believers. We need to pray that light will show from heaven. We can get mad and we can raise a fist and shake it, and there are some things that make us mad. And I don’t have any problem with getting mad about stuff. That’s okay, but the solution is not found in our anger. The solution is found in our prayers. (emphasis added)

In other words, according to this Assemblies of God pastor, we are to remain silent (except in our prayers) and not speak out or take action.

However, Erwin Lutzer implores Christians to be bold, speak out, and take action in the face of evil.

“Whether in Nazi Germany or America, believers cannot choose to remain silent under the guise of preaching the Gospel…we must live out the implications of the cross in every area of our lives. We must be prepared to submit to the Lordship of Christ in all ‘spheres’.”[4]

Yet, as we live out the implications of the cross in every area of our lives, we must understand that the culture wars in which we soldier for Christ are not about maintaining the American dream however one may define it. Rather, the culture wars are about restoring the biblical understanding of truth in all spheres of our national life. To do so one must speak the truth in the face of lies, stand on biblical principles when others compromise, and take right actions in spite of consequences. A hostile culture, an adversarial government, and a culpable legal system will extract a price from those that dare to oppose them. What is accomplished by such opposition when it seemingly brings only hardship, suffering, and defeat? “Suffering communicates the gospel in a new language; it authenticates the syllables that flow from our lips…It is not how loud we can shout but how well we can suffer that will convince the world of the integrity of our message.”[5]

What would the giants of the Christian faith have to say about silence and inaction “for the sake of the gospel”?

Alexandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008) – His background, experiences, and powerful words in defense of truth speaks far louder than the din of lies shouted by egalitarianism’s Ministry of Truth and its toadies including spineless politicians, the corrupt media, universities in name only, complicit mega-corporation billionaires, ranting Hollywood leftists, self-proclaimed “intellectuals,” and many corrupt voices and false teachers in the church. Solzhenitsyn wrote:,

In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it (evil) will rise up a thousand fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers . . . we are ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.

The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie. One word of truth outweighs the world.[6]

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) – Bonhoeffer knew well the cost of silence in the church when faced with evil in the public square. His ardent faith and boldness in confronting evil cost him his life by hanging on the personal orders of Adolf Hitler. He called silence when faced with evil what it was…sin.

We have been silent witness of evil deeds; we have been drenched by many storms; we have learnt the arts of equivocation and pretense; experience has made us suspicious of others and kept us from being truthful and open…Will our inward power of resistance be strong enough, and our honesty with ourselves remorseless enough, for us to find our way back to simplicity and straightforwardness?[7]

Silence in the face of evil is itself evil, God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.[8]

Franklin Graham – Graham said, “Those who are afraid to address moral issues are no better than those who commit transgressions.”[9] The truth of his powerful words is confirmed in Revelation 21:8, “But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” (emphasis added) [NKJV] In his commentary on this verse, In his commentary, Donald Stamps describes the ultimate destination of the cowardly.

The “cowardly” are those who lack faith in God and who fear the disapproval and threat of people more than they value loyalty to Christ and the truth of his Word. Their personal security and status among others on earth mean more to him than faithfulness to God. The “cowardly” include the compromisers among God’s people who give up the spiritual light and do not overcome evil.[10]

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) – The following quote is often attributed to King, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter.”

However, the quote appears to be a paraphrase of a more complex thought he uttered during a sermon in Selma, Alabama, on March 8, 1965, the day after “Bloody Sunday,” on which civil rights protesters were attacked and beaten by police on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

“Deep down in our non-violent creed is the conviction there are some things so dear, some things so precious, some things so eternally true, that they’re worth dying for…The cessation of breathing in his life is merely the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit…A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true.”[11]

Eric Metaxas – In his 2022 book, Letter to the American Church, Metaxas captures the essence of how the church has become silent in the face of evil.

…those who behave as though there is really nothing to worry about, who seem to think—as such prominent pastors as Andy Stanley and others do—that we ought to assiduously avoid fighting these threats and be “apolitical” are tragically mistaken, are burying their heads in the sand and exhorting others to do the same …Do we not realize that no good ever can come of such silence and inaction, that human beings whom God loves suffer when His own people fail to express boldly what He has said and why they fail to live as He has called them to live?[12]

Larry G. Johnson

Sources:
[1] William J. Federer, America’s God and Country, (Coppell, Texas: FAME Publishing, Inc. 1996), p. 460.
[2] Eric Metaxas, Letter to the American Church, (Washington, D.C.: Salem Books, 2022), pp. 10-11.
[3] Larry G. Johnson, “Silence in the Face of Evil-The Modern American Evangelical Church,” Culturewarrior.net, 2-23-2024, https://www.culturewarrior.net/silence-in-the-face-of-evil-the-modern-american-evangelical-church/
[4] Erwin Lutzer, When a Nation Forgets God, (Chicago, Illinois: Moody Publishers, 2010), p. 33.
[5] Ibid., pp. 120-121.
[6] Solzhenitsyn, AZ Quotes. https://www.azquotes.com/
[7] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “Letters and Papers from Prison Quotes,” goodreads. https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1153999-widerstand-und-ergebung-briefe-und-aufzeichnungen-aus-der-haft (accessed June 29, 2018 (accessed June 29, 2018).
[8] 20 Influential Quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer,” Crosswalk.com. https://www.crosswalk.com/faith/spiritual-life/inspiring-quotes/20-influential-quotes-by-dietrich-bonhoeffer.html (accessed June 29,
2018).
[9] Mario Marilla, “Politics in the Pulpit?” Mario Marillo Ministries, February 12, 2024. https://mariomurillo.org/2024/02/12/is-he-right/ (accessed 2-22-2024).
[10] Donald Stamps, Commentary on Revelation 21:8, Fire Bible: Global Study Edition, New International Version, Gen. Ed. Donald Stamps, (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers Marketing, LLC,
Copyright 2009 by Life Publishers International, Springfield, Missouri), p. 2565.
[11] “Did MLK Say ‘Our Lives Begin to End the Day We Become Silent’?” Snopes, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/mlk-our-lives-begin-to-end/#:~:text=Similarly%2C King never uttered the statement%2C “Our lives,every year on Martin Luther King%2C Jr. Day%3A (accessed 8-4-2024).
[12] Metaxas, Letter to the American Church, p. 51.

Battle of Protesters: Westboro Baptist Church v. LBGTQ+ Supporters & Agenda – They both win! – Part III

Posted by :admin On : March 17, 2024
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Category: American Church, Archives, Culture Wars, Homosexuality

Update on the death of Nex Benedict and the Political Aftermath

The death of Nex Benedict on February 8, 2024, was tragic. After Part II of this series was posted about the incident at Owasso High School, the results of the toxicology report revealed that Nex Benedict died of suicide. “The medical examiner’s report listed the probable cause of death as ‘combined toxicity’ from two drugs, one of which is available over the counter and the other by prescription.”[1] Another report indicated the probable cause of death “was a suicide, an overdose caused by a combination of diphenhydramine (commonly known as Benadryl) and fluoxetine (commonly, Prozac).”[2] However, there was no explanation as to how the medical examiner distinguished between death by suicide and death by accidental means.

Many are attempting to fix the blame for Benedict’s suicide on: (1) an alleged bullying incident at Owasso High School and (2) the supposed anti-LBGTQ+ policies and pronouncements of Ryan Walters, Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction. In the first instance, Benedict initiated and participated in the fight when she threw water on one or more of the girls. Benedict was guilty of initiating the fight after an exchange of words with the three girls. Also, she was equally guilty along with her friend of fighting in the school bathroom. In the second instance, The LBGTQ+ lobby and the left-wing media have accused Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters as indirectly causing Benedict’s death and have launched a strong campaign to have Walters removed from his office to which he was elected by Oklahoma voters.

(New York, NY – March 12, 2024) GLAAD, the world’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) media advocacy organization, is announcing the launch of an ad calling out the ways in which Ryan Walters, Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction, is unfit for office, and encourages viewers to call their state representatives to advocate for Walters’ removal. The 30-second spot, which will run in Oklahoma starting today, is supported by a five-figure buy. Released just a month after the tragic death of Nex Benedict, the ad highlights a number of actions from Walters that call into question his ability to properly lead Oklahoma’s students. The ad asks viewers to ask their representatives to remove Walters from office.[3]

In Part II of this series, it was noted that Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt, Ryan Walters, and the great majority of both houses of the Oklahoma State legislature have enacted legislation and established regulations in support of the education, safety, and well-being of students and families in Oklahoma. The homosexual lobby’s litany of supposed anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and regulations are almost exact counterpoints to Oklahoma’s legislation and regulations enacted to by the State of Oklahoma to protect Oklahoma children from becoming victims of mental and physical abuse by the national and Oklahoma LBGTQ+ juggernaut and its agenda.

As stated in Part I of this series, the homosexual lobby and their supporters in every facet of American culture do not really care about Nex Benedict and multitudes of children and teenagers like her. The priority of the homosexual lobby’s agenda is to impose their actions, ideas, and philosophy on every facet of society and therefore every American. These actions, ideas, and philosophy stand in direct contradiction to the Judeo-Christian/biblical worldview upon which America was founded. This conflict is what the culture wars are about, and the agenda of the homosexual lobby is just one battle in this war of worldviews. It is this war to which the remainder of this article will address.

Homosexuality vs. the Judeo-Christian Worldview

The Judeo-Christian worldview is based on the Bible. The Bible gives a very explicit condemnation of the practice of homosexuality.

24 So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. 25 They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. 26 That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. 27 And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved. Romans 1:24-27 [NLT]

The Bible is the Word of God and therefore infallible and inerrant. In other words, the truth of God’s word is objective, not subjective, and therefore unchanging over time.

Homosexuality has been present in societies since the creation of mankind and was often venerated in various civilizations through ages, e.g., ancient Greece and Rome. However, none of those societies and cultures survived. Quoted at the end of Part II of this series, Richard Weaver gave the reason for their destruction in his book Visions of Order-The Cultural Crisis of Our Time written 65 year ago. Weaver stated that when a culture, “…‘by ignorant popular attitudes or by social derangements’ imposes a political concept that creates a different principle of ordering society contrary to universal truths, dissatisfactions arise because society has tampered with the ‘nature of things’.”[4]

Homosexuality is one of those disorganizing concepts with regard to human relationships, and as it becomes successfully imposed on a society, it is ultimately disorganizing in building a stable, enduring society. Where traditional views of marriage and human sexuality declines, so do those societies decline that allow it to occur. In modern America, the homosexual view of human sexuality has become a political concept whose advocates wish to legitimize and impose on American society which is substantially built on the Judeo-Christian worldview and upon which the nation was founded. Only one of these two worldviews will ultimately prevail – the truth of the Judeo-Christian worldview as recorded in the Bible or the lie of humanism’s man-centric interpretations of existence.

Those who advocate for the cultural acceptance of the homosexual lifestyle or variations thereof argue that the biblical two-gender view of mankind (i.e., God created male and female) is outdated in modern times. Therefore, they argue that, “In the 21st century, the gender binary is increasingly considered to be a social construct that reinforces gender roles and stereotypes, a tendency that harms even those who are cisgender (that is, identify with the gender assigned at their birth).”[5]

According to the homosexual worldview, the requirement to limit human sexual relations between a male and a female is merely a social construct. Therefore, homosexuality, transgenderism, and various combinations thereof are not objectively evil as described in Roman 1:24-27. As the narrative typically goes, those that are wedded to the idea that only heterosexual view of human sexuality is allowed can’t accept that the world is moving on from these outdated attitudes.

In William Bennett’s book The Broken Hearth, he describes the battle of worldviews between homosexuality and the Judeo-Christian worldview. The following are quotes from Bennett’s book included in my 2011 book Ye Shall be as gods – Humanism & Christianity – The Battle for Supremacy in the American Cultural Vision.

If the arguments of the proponents of homosexuality fail to diminish the importance and exclusivity of the reproductive act in defining marriage, the proponents fight on other fronts. One tactic with which they have been very effective and successful is casting the proponents of homosexuality and same-sex marriage as commanding the moral high ground. They present themselves and their cause as morally superior to their opponents who are cast as villains in the morality play widely disseminated in popular culture. To oppose homosexuality is deemed the moral equivalence of racism, bigotry, ignorance, and homophobia. Those persons who are not accepting of homosexuality are labeled as intolerant. But Bennett identifies the humanists’ perversion of the concept of tolerance. He calls it “…the disfigurement of the idea of tolerance at the hands of the agenda- pushers of our day…that would brand as bigots those of us who exercise our elementary responsibility…to make firm moral judgments in matters touching on marriage and the raising of our children.” The humanist would force all to worship at the shrine of tolerance, but their price of admission is a tolerance rooted in moral relativism with no room for finding truth or judging something based on the concept of right and wrong. For those that fail to enter the humanist shrine, they become the objects of intolerant harassment through restrictions on free speech (speech codes), coercion, and intimidation. To the proponents of homosexuality, tolerance means forced acceptance, and such acceptance necessitates “normalization, validation, public legitimization, and finally public endorsement.”[6]

Why have so many of the religious elite fallen into the camps of the proponents of homosexuality? Writing 200 years ago, Alexis de Tocqueville, the author of Democracy in America, warned of religions that depend upon the principles of this world.

…when religion aims to depend upon the principles of this world, it becomes almost as vulnerable as all other powers on this earth. By itself, it may aspire to immortality but, linked to fleeting powers, it follows their fortunes and often collapses together with those passions which sustain them for a day.[7]

Many of mainstream Christian churches have linked themselves to the humanistic worldview, and their affinity for the cause of homosexuality is one of the principles of this (humanistic) worldview upon which they have come to depend. Those churches which have embraced the homosexual agenda have seen their number of adherents decline dramatically. By contrast, those churches which have grown are the ones that have stood against the assaults of secular culture and taught unequivocal biblical morality and salvation.[8]

Now it appears that the large numbers of evangelical churches have embraced the homosexual agenda or at least become silent in faithfully and regularly preaching the biblical standard against homosexuality as shown in Romans 1:24-27. Franklin Graham said, “Those who are afraid to address moral issues are no better than those who commit transgressions.”[9] This fear of speaking out about homosexuality has silenced much of the evangelical church.

Eric Metaxas, in his 2022 book, Letter to the American Church, captures the essence of how the church has become silent in the face of evil.

…those who behave as though there is really nothing to worry about, who seem to think—as such prominent pastors as Andy Stanley and others do—that we ought to assiduously avoid fighting these threats and be “apolitical” are tragically mistaken, are burying their heads in the sand and exhorting others to do the same …Do we not realize that no good ever can come of such silence and inaction, that human beings whom God loves suffer when His own people fail to express boldly what He has said and why they fail to live as He has called them to live?[10]

Larry G. Johnson

Sources:

[1] “Death of Transgender Student Nex Benedict ruled Suicide by Medical Examiner,” NBC News, March 12, 2024. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/nex-benedict-suicide-death-oklahoma-student-lgbtq-rcna143298 (accessed 3-16-2024).
[2] “The unanswered questions surrounding the tragic death of Nex Benedict,” VOX, 3-13-2024.https://www.vox.com/culture/24092224/nex-benedict-death-what-happened-okhlahoma-anti-trans-laws-backlash (accessed 3-16-2024).
[3] “New Ad Campaign calls for the removal of Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters,” Glaad.org, March 13, 2024. https://glaad.org/releases/new-ad-campaign-calls-for-removal-of-oklahoma-superintendent-of-public-instruction-ryan-walters/ (accessed 3-16-2024).
[4] Richard M. Weaver, Visions of Order – The Cultural Crisis of Our Time, (Wilmington, Delaware: Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 1995, 2006), p. 22.
[5] “Nonbinary gender,” Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/nonbinary-gender (accessed 3-3-2024).
[6] Larry G. Johnson, Ye shall be as gods – Humanism & Christianity – The Battle for Supremacy in the American Cultural Vision, (Owasso, Oklahoma: Anvil House Books, 2011), pages 356-357. Quoting William Bennett, The Broken Hearth, (New York: Doubleday, 2001), pages 105-107, 121, 138.
[7] Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Translated by Gerald E. Bevan, (New York: Penguin Books, 2003), p.348.
[8] Robert H. Bork, Slouching Toward Gomorrah, (New York: Regan Books, 1996), p. 286.
[9] Mario Marillo, “Is He Right?” MarioMurillo.org, 2-12-2024. https://mariomurillo.org/2024/02/12/is-he-right/ (accessed 3-16-2024).
[10] Eric Metaxas, Letter to the American Church, (Washington, D.C.: Salem Books, 2022), p. 51

Battle of Protesters: Westboro Baptist Church v. LBGTQ+ Supporters & Agenda – They both win! – Part II

Posted by :admin On : March 9, 2024
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Category: American Church, Archives, Christianity, Homosexuality

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Theater of the Absurd

The long anticipated clash of protesters and counter-protesters at Owasso High School ended peacefully on a sunny March 6th Wednesday afternoon. The Westboro Baptist Church protesters initially met in front of the Owasso School District’s administrative offices at 2:15 PM. At 2:30 PM the WBC protestors had moved to a sidewalk next to Owasso High School where they were met with hundreds of counter-protesters from at least five LBGTQ+ organizations from various states which included The Rainbow Youth Project headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, and the Diversity Center of Oklahoma.[1] Owasso Police had separated the protest and counter-protest groups by placing each on the opposite side of the street from the other.

The colorful Parasol Patrol based in Denver, Colorado, was led by co-founder Eli Bazan who spoke on camera with the Fox 23 News reporter to express the Parasol Patrol’s support of LGBTQ+ students in Owasso.

The Fox 23 News camera crew recorded the husky Mr. Bazan, sporting a beard, shaven head, and a pink knee-length skirt, as he led a large contingent of his supporters across the street to a point adjacent to the Westboro protesters. It was very apparent that this was contrary to police instructions. Consequently, the two groups now very close to each other and not separated by a street but only a few police officers. Fortunately, a physical confrontation was avoided, and loud cheers arose from the counter-protesters when the Westboro protesters eventually ended their protest and left.[2]

A Fox 23 News commentator reminded the viewing audience that the Westboro Baptist Church was considered a hate group according to the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), and it was the policy of Fox 23 News to not film any hate group. He stated the news channel did not normally cover hate groups but that they decided to cover the afternoon’s protests and counter-protests because of the safety concerns raised by Owasso Public Schools.[3]

While Fox 23 News correctly identifies Westboro Baptist Church as a hate group, it failed to identify the LGBTQ+ counter-protesters as groups embracing the beliefs of far-left radical organizations such as the SPLC. It behooves news reporters and their listening audience to check the integrity and agenda of any organization that proposes to identify hate groups before one similarly designate that organization as a hate group. Without doubt the Westboro Baptist Church qualifies as a hate group. But Fox 23 News based their decision in part on the SPLC’s hate list. However, the SPLC is notorious for labeling many organizations with conservative political views, espouse traditional family values, and in general support the Judeo-Christian worldview upon which America was founded. The SPLC’s lack of credibility and agenda is exposed when its blacklist of supposed Anti-LGBT hate groups is examined. Some of the most well-known and respected organizations in America have been designated as hate groups by the SPLC: American Family Association, Alliance Defending Freedom, Family Research Council, American College of Pediatricians, and D. James Kennedy Ministries.[4]

They both won!

The national attention devoted to the incident that occurred on February 7, 2024, at Owasso Public Schools is astounding. This incident at the center of these protests was described in Part I posted on culturewarrior.net on Monday, March 4, 2024. The two opposing protest groups each achieved their goals—publicity for their respective causes.

In the first group of protesters were members of the tiny unaffiliated Westboro Baptist Church cult of seventy individuals in Topeka, Kansas. WBC is nationally known for their absurd and nonsensical distortion of the Bible and inflammatory denigration of atheists, Jews, Muslims, other Christian denominations, homosexuals and transgender people, and a host of other targets. WBC’s goal is to gain attention and publicity through their outrageous slogans and actions at protests around the nation on a schedule published on their website. If publicity was truly the goal of their protest, they were wildly successful.

But the degree of WBC’s success is infinitesimal compared to that of the second group – the homosexual lobby in the United States. Even before WBC’s planned protest was known, the LBGTQ+ movement mobilized and coordinated efforts to accomplish their agenda through their allies in government and bureaucracy from national to local levels, business, media, and educational institutions at all levels.

Based on this single incident at Owasso High School, the well-funded and well-oiled machinery of the LBGTQ+ movement thrust Owasso, Oklahoma, into a frenzy of national scorn and derision based on incomplete information, half-truths, and outright lies. The following are just a few of many thousands of stories promoting the LBGTQ+ agenda based on the incident at Owasso High School.

• “WWhite House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre at the daily press briefing on Friday addressed the media about the heart-wrenching death of Nex Benedict, a nonbinary teenager from Owasso High School in Oklahoma who died recently after being bullied. Jean-Pierre opened her remarks with a personal acknowledgment of the tragedy.”[5]

• “In a powerful condemnation of the circumstances leading to the tragic death of nonbinary, Indigenous teenager Nex Benedict in Oklahoma, Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, is calling on the federal government to take decisive action…Robinson expressed profound concern over the hostile environment fostered by anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and rhetoric in the state (Oklahoma)… Robinson criticized Oklahoma’s rank as fifth in the nation for moving anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, including gender-affirming care bans, bathroom bills, and attempts to ban books, highlighting the violent political rhetoric from state officials as a significant contributing factor to the dangerous climate.”[6]

• “In response to a formal complaint the Human Rights Campaign lodged last week regarding the handling of sex-based harassment incidents, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has initiated an investigation into Owasso Public Schools. The investigation, announced late Friday, aims to address the Oklahoma school district’s response to harassment that may have contributed to the tragic death of Nex Benedict, a 16-year-old transgender student of Choctaw heritage.”[7]

• “As an Oklahoma community near Tulsa comes to terms with the death of a transgender high school student in early February, many critics of Republican policies in the state are voicing concerns about the anti-LGBTQ+ environment fostered by the right that enables bullying. In a poignant display of defiance and solidarity, Sean Cummings, an Oklahoma City business owner and local politician, went viral after a video posted online showed him laying blame for what happened on Ryan Walters, the state’s superintendent of public instruction, during a public meeting held by the Oklahoma Department of Education Thursday morning.”[8]

• “More than 350 LGBTQ+ organizations, activists, and celebrities are urging the removal of Ryan Walters as Oklahoma superintendent of public instruction, saying he has encouraged ‘a climate of hate and bigotry.’…‘We are outraged that a climate of hate and bigotry has been not only allowed to thrive, but encouraged by the person who is responsible for education in the state of Oklahoma. State officials must be held accountable for bringing the politics of hate into Oklahoma’s schools and making our most vulnerable youth pay the price…Superintendent Walters’ reprehensible conduct shows a willful rejection of his duty to protect the health and welfare of the children in Oklahoma’s public schools and instead has created an environment that allows for hostility and harm for youth like Nex.’”[9]

Oklahoma legislation: Anti-LBGTQ+ OR Pro-child and Pro-family?

These articles purport that Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters, and the Oklahoma legislature elected by the citizens of Oklahoma have enacted anti-LBGTQ+ legislation “including gender-affirming care bans, bathroom bills, and attempts to ban books, highlighting the violent political rhetoric from state officials as a significant contributing factor to the dangerous climate.”

The various LBGTQ+ groups will most certainly consider the following to be anti-LGBTQ+ legislation:

• Prohibition of instruction on LGBTQ+ topics in the public schools
• Bars transgender student athletes in K-12 and college from playing on sports teams that match their gender identities.
• Prohibits instruction on human sexuality to students in pre-kindergarten and elementary grades.
• Prohibit the promotion and use of cross-sex hormones, surgical procedures, and puberty-blockers, all based on the child’s perceived gender identity.
• Prevent drag queen story hours in schools and public libraries.
• Prevent the requirement to use pronouns based on the perceived gender identity.
• Removal of pornographic books and other materials from Oklahoma school libraries and classrooms including sexually explicit homosexual books and materials.

Time, space, and the reader’s patience do not allow this writer to respond to each of these and dozens of other legislative initiatives necessary to protect children from becoming mentally and physically victims of the LBGTQ+ juggernaut and its agenda.

Perhaps, the best description of the position of Governor Stitt, Superintendent Walters, and the State legislature when dealing generally with these types of issues in Oklahoma Public Schools is to examine the one issue that appears to be the most offensive to LBGTQ+ supporters and their advocates. That issue is the so-called “bathroom bill” signed into Oklahoma law in May 2022 and which has been labeled by the homosexual lobby and their supporters as a prime example of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.

An Oklahoma bill limiting access to public-school bathrooms by a person’s birth sex is now law…School districts and charter schools that don’t comply face a 5% deduction in their state funding. That could subtract thousands to millions of dollars, depending on the school system. Gov. Kevin Stitt signed Senate Bill 615 into law Wednesday. An emergency provision in the bill caused it to take effect as soon as the governor wrote his signature. “Governor Stitt believes girls should use girl restrooms and boys should use boy restrooms,” Stitt’s spokesperson, Carly Atchison, said in a statement Wednesday evening.

All public-school restrooms, locker rooms, changing rooms or shower rooms are now to be designated for exclusive use of the female or male sex. Use of these rooms is restricted to the sex listed on a person’s original birth certificate. The law requires schools to offer single-occupancy bathrooms and changing rooms for those who don’t want to use the facility that aligns with their birth sex.[10]

The vast majority of parents of k-12 students in public schools endorse this legislation. Parents do not want schools to allow use of school bathrooms by students based on their assumed LBGTQ+ gender identity. Parents do want their children to use bathrooms that align with their child’s birth sex. Therefore, the Governor, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, and state legislature have enacted laws and enforce those laws that reflect the will of the people of Oklahoma.

Battle of Worldviews

The more one understands the blazing culture wars in America, the more one realizes that there cannot be and will not be a compromise on these hot-button issues because in their essence these are fundamental issues of two differing worldviews, and only one worldview will prevail. In America, this conflict of worldviews is between the truth of Christianity’s belief in the Judeo-Christian God as recorded in the Bible and the lie of humanism’s man-centric interpretations of existence.

In his book Visions of Order-The Cultural Crisis of Our Time written 65 year ago, Richard Weaver states that when a culture “… by ignorant popular attitudes or by social derangements” imposes a political concept that creates a different principle of ordering society contrary to universal truths, dissatisfactions arise because society has tampered with the “nature of things.”[11] Homosexuality is one of those disorganizing concepts with regard to human relationships and ultimately disorganizing in building stable, enduring societies. Where traditional views of marriage and human sexuality declines, so do those societies decline that allow it to occur.

In Part III we will present an in-depth examination of:

• Homosexuality as a disorganizing concept with regard to human relationships and society
• The consequences of the tsunami of homosexual activism in its effort to undermine Judeo-Christian foundations of America society
• Why the American church allowed the disorganizing concept of homosexuality to “tamper with the nature of things?”

Larry G. Johnson

Sources:
[1]Amy Hybels, “Planned Protest and counter protest outside Owasso High School ends peacefully.” Fox 23 News, March 7, 2023. https://www.fox23.com/news/planned-protest-and-counter-protest-outside-owasso-high-school-end-peacefully/article_560edaf0-dc12-11ee-9b1d-3fae72469bc9.html (accessed 3-8-2024).
[2]Ibid.
[3]Ibid.
[4] “List of organizations designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as hate groups, Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_organizations_designated_by_the_Southern_Poverty_Law_Center_as_hate_groups (accessed 3-8-2024)
[5] “Karine Jean-Pierre ‘absolutely heartbroken’ over Oklahoma teen Nex Benedict’s death,” Advocate, 2-23-2024.
https://www.advocate.com/news/white-house-highlights-nex-benedict (accessed 3-6-2023).
[6] “HRC president demands federal investigations into Nex Benedict’s death amid Oklahoma’s anti-LGBTQ+
climate,” Advocate, 2-22-2024. https://www.advocate.com/news/kelley-robinson-doj-nex-benedict (accessed 3-6-2024).
[7] “Federal investigation opens into Owasso Public Schools after death of Nex Benedict,” Advocate, 3-1-2024.
https://news.yahoo.com/breaking-federal-investigation-opens-owasso-191300199.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall (accessed 3-6-2024).
[8] “Oklahoma politician roasts Ryan Walters for Nex Benedict’s death to transphobic superintendent’s face,”
Advocate, 2-27-2024. https://www.advocate.com/news/oklahoma-nex-benedict-viral-video (accessed 3-6-2024).
[9] After Nex Benedict’s death, 350 LGBTQ+ groups, activists, and celebs urge Oklahoma superintendent’s
removal,” Advocate, 2-28-2024. https://www.advocate.com/news/activists-demand-ryan-walters-removal (accessed 3-6-2024).
[10] “Oklahoma’s Gov. Stitt signs bill restricting school bathrooms to birth sex, effective
immediately,” The Oklahoman, May 25, 2022. https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/education/2022/05/25/stitt-
signs-oklahoma-bathroom-bill-restricting-transgender-school-access-birth-sex/9900609002/
[11] Richard M. Weaver, Visions of Order – The Cultural Crisis of Our Time, (Wilmington, Delaware: Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 1995, 2006), p. 22.

Battle of Protesters: Westboro Baptist Church v. LBGTQ+ Supporters & Agenda – They both win! – Part I

Posted by :admin On : March 4, 2024
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Category: American Church, Archives, Christianity, Homosexuality

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Members of Westboro Baptist Church from Topeka, Kansas, plan to protest at Owasso Public Schools on March 6, 2024 in response to the death of a self-described nonbinary individual[1] (see endnote for definition) one day following an incident at Owasso Public Schools on February 7, 2024. The Westboro protest is not about the unfortunate death of an Owasso Public School student, the Owasso Public School student body, the City of Owasso, and most certainly does present the true message about homosexuality as found in the Bible. What the protest is about is (1) publicity for a tiny sect of misguided false teachers, and (2) a massive public relations campaign to gain sympathy and support for the LGBTQ+ agenda and its followers.

What is the Westboro Baptist Church and what do their followers they believe?

The Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) is an American, unaffiliated Primitive Baptist church in Topeka, Kansas, that was founded in 1955 by pastor Fred Phelps. It is widely considered a hate group, and is known for its public protests against homosexuals and for its usage of the slogans such as “God hates fags” and “Thank God for dead soldiers.” It also engages in hate speech against atheists, Jews, Muslims, transgender people, and other Christian denominations…WBC has been protesting against homosexuality since 1989. Within a few years, the group expanded to protesting across the country. They often protest at public and private events, including funerals, sports games, and concerts…In 2016, Forbes stated WBC had about 70 members…The group is known to deface the American flag or fly it upside down while protesting. It also draws counter-protests. The group primarily consists of members of Phelps’s extended family, although many of its members have either left and/or been excommunicated.[2]

WBC is a cult that has clothed itself in a distorted form of Christianity and therefore is not Christian but a cult. Although WMC members vigorously teach and preach the five points of Calvinist doctrine, they twist or distort the true meaning of the Scripture such that it bears little resemblance to the doctrine of the vast majority of Baptist churches or other churches that adhere to five-point Calvinism.[3]

Although the message of WBC is almost universally repugnant, the vast majority of Americans are substantially ignorant of what the Bible and Christianity actually teaches about homosexuality and how to engage its practitioners. They condemn the WBC’s message but do not realize that their message is an absurd and nonsensical distortion of the Bible and the meaning of Christianity. Based on WBC’s miniscule size, we can unequivocally know that the WBC protests have been and remain one of Satan’s greatest successes in legitimizing the homosexual lifestyle and the LGBTQ+ agenda in the minds of Americans over the last thirty-five years since WBC began protesting homosexuality in 1989.

Satan’s success has occurred in two ways:

(1) Because most Americans (including many Christians) are ignorant or blind to WMC’s perversion of Scripture and the precepts of Christianity, their knee-jerk reaction is to paint Christianity as morally evil and/or the Bible as irrelevant when it comes to the moral condemnation of the practice of homosexuality and its many branches.

(2) Satan is also successful in using WBC’s message to silence a large number of American pastors and their congregants (including large numbers of evangelical churches) with regard to speaking the truth about the sin and consequences of homosexuality for fear of being tarred with the same brush as used to condemn the WMC and their followers. The consequences of this silence have been disastrous for America and its culture for over a half-century.

Since 2013 when President Obama and Vice President Biden openly and forcefully endorsed same–sex marriage, the legitimization of homosexuality and transgenderism has come to dominate every facet of American life: government, politics, military, education, arts and entertainment, media, education, business and economics, and the family. Not one facet has escaped the draconian force of this evil because the American evangelical church ceded its moral authority through its silence. This was predicted in the very first article posted on culturewarrior.net on March 6, 2013.[4]

To mark the 10th Anniversary of this website, an Culture Warrior article was posted on March 4, 2023, that described the astounding success of the LGBTQ+ agenda through the infiltration and corruption of every sphere of American life as noted above.[5] This article reveals how the initial 2013 Trojan horse of equality in the battle for cultural acceptance of gay marriage was just the beginning of the homosexual agenda’s efforts to dramatically undermined America’s moral foundations informed by the Bible and the founders’ Judeo-Christian worldview.

Events leading up to the March 6th protest by Westboro Baptist Church

The events preceding the death of Nex Benedict (born Dagny Ellis Benedict) is just a microcosm of the culture wars swirling in American in 2024. What is known at this time is that a 16-year old girl by the name of Nex Benedict, who identified as nonbinary, was involved in an altercation with three other girls in a restroom at Owasso High School. The timeline of events at Owasso High School and thereafter is found on the Owasso Police Departments website.[6]

Investigation Update 02-21-2024:
Since February 7th, 2024, the Owasso Police Department has been actively involved in an investigation into a physical altercation that occurred at the Owasso High School and Owasso Public Schools has been cooperative throughout the investigation. The students involved in the incident were all juveniles and juvenile files are confidential and inaccessible to the public in most circumstances.

From reports, records, and statements of witnesses, it appears that:
• On February 7, 2024, a physical altercation occurred in a restroom at the Owasso High School West Campus.
• The physical altercation was broken up by other students who were present in the restroom and a school staff member who was supervising outside of the restroom.
• All students involved in the altercation walked under their own power to the assistant principal’s office and nurse’s office.
• School administrators began taking statements from the students present in the restroom and began contacting parents/guardians of the students involved in the physical altercation.
• Each of the students involved in the altercation was given a health assessment by a registered nurse at the school and it was determined that ambulance service was not required.
• While it was determined that ambulance service was not required, the school nurse recommended that Nex Benedict visit a medical facility for further examination.
• On the afternoon of February 7, 2024, an Owasso School Resource Officer was assigned to respond to Bailey Medical Center where Nex Benedict was being examined. The School Resource Officer interviewed Nex and their parent concerning the altercation at the Owasso High School.
• The following morning, the School Resource Officer followed up with the parent.
• On the afternoon of February 8, 2024, Owasso Fire Department medics were dispatched to a medical emergency involving Nex Benedict, who was transported to the St. Francis Pediatric Emergency Room where they later died.
• While the investigation continues into the altercation, preliminary information from the medical examiner’s office is that a complete autopsy was performed and indicated that the decedent did not die as a result of trauma. At this time, any further comments on the cause of death are currently pending until toxicology results and other ancillary testing results are received. The official autopsy report will be available at a later date. The invesigtion is ongoing.

A 21-minute video from the body camera footage from School Resource Officer Caleb Thompson captured a critical conversation in the emergency room between Thompson, Nex, and Sue Benedict, the teen’s grandmother and adoptive mother. This video is available on the internet on YouTube.[7]

The essence of the video and police report is that three girls in a girls’ restroom at Owasso High School were making derogatory remarks about how other girls in their presence were dressed. One of the other girls (Nex Benedict) threw water from a container on at least one of the girls who had made derogatory remarks. An altercation began between the three girls and Nex whose friends joined the fight. Nex stated that she threw one of the girls from the opposing group into a towel dispenser (According to another report, the girl was thrown by Nex with such force that the towel dispenser was broken open and the door hung by one hinge). Nex states that she was thrown to the floor and they “were beating the sh*t out of me.” The above police report shows that the school’s registered nurse performed a health assessment of all participants after the altercation, and it was determined that ambulance service was not required. However, the nurse recommended that Nex Benedict visit a medical facility for further examination.

As noted in the above police report, preliminary information from the medical examiner’s office indicated that a complete autopsy was performed and indicated that the decedent did not die as a result of trauma. The police will make no other comments on the cause of death pending receipt of the results of a toxicology report and other ancillary testing. It should be noted that forensic toxicology testing is performed after a person’s death and is known as postmortem drug testing to identify and quantify potential toxins, which include prescription medications and drugs of abuse and interpretations of the findings.

Regardless of the cause, the death of Nex Benedict is a tragedy as is the death of all young people at such an early age. Unfortunately, the scheduled protests and counter-protests on Wednesday, March 6, will continue to poison the civil discourse in America and advance the agendas of both Westboro Baptist Church and the LBGTQ+ movement and its supporters.
We shall take another look at these issues in Part II following Wednesday’s protests and counter-protests.

Larry G. Johnson

Sources:
[1] Nonbinary gender, Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/nonbinary-gender (accessed 3-3-2024). “A nonbinary gender identity is adopted by individuals who feel that they do not fit into the traditional male/female gender binary. In the 21st century, the gender binary is increasingly considered to be a social construct that reinforces gender roles and stereotypes, a tendency that harms even those who are cisgender (that is, identify with the gender assigned at their birth). Those who identify as nonbinary may not feel that they are a man or a woman… Nonbinary is an umbrella term under which many labels fall: bigender and pangender individuals may identify with both or all genders at once, while genderfluid or genderflux individuals may feel that their gender identity fluctuates over time…Those who identify as nonbinary generally consider themselves a part of the LGBTQ+ community. They may identify as straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, asexual, or any other sexual orientation.”
[2] Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westboro_Baptist_Church.
[3] Westboro Baptist Church website. https://www.godhatesfags.com/index.html
[4] Larry G. Johnson, “Equality – The Homosexual Agenda’s Trojan Horse in its Battle for Cultural Acceptance,” culturewarrior.net, 3-6-2013. https://www.culturewarrior.net/2013/03/06/equality-the-homosexual-agendas-trojan-horse-in-its-battle-for-cultural-acceptance/
[5] Larry G. Johnson, “Tenth Anniversary of CultureWarrior.Net – March 6, 2013 – March 6 2023,” culturewarrior.net, March 4, 2023. https://www.culturewarrior.net/2023/03/04/tenth-anniversary-of-culturewarrior-net-march-6-2013-march-6-2023/
[6] Owasso Police Department, Investigation update 2021-2024, Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/story.php/?story_fbid=797096819120305&id=100064599824990
[7] OPD 2024-3316 Community Release, YouTube, originally recorded 2-7-2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJaBumoyRGg&t=12s (accessed 3-4-2023)