I work in corporate America for a large firm, which will remain unnamed for the purposes of this post. As with most large firms, we have an internal main news page that we view daily for internal news/announcements/info. As the anniversary of 9/11 was this past Monday, I expected to see a brief statement acknowledging that horrible day in America that none of us will forget (or so I thought). I checked several times that day and literally no mention of 9/11 at all. Not a peep.

Of course I realize that in the politically correct (PC) corporate world they fear offending people to the point of being unreasonable. It seemed to me that there was no reason or excuse for my company to not write a simple, brief note of reflection about 9/11 on a day that affected all of its employees. In a way it didn’t surprise me at all, since their actions have been similarly ignorant in the past. However in my opinion they hit a new low with ignoring this day.

I submitted feedback to the internal communications department of my firm (responsible for the content of our news page) expressing my disappointment and inquiring why they did not acknowledge that day. I have not received a response and probably never will which is a shame.

I can speculate as to why it was not mentioned, from a simple oversight/technical problem (very hard to believe) to fear of “offending” someone. The latter seems a bit over the top, but it would not surprise me if that was partially true. Who would they offend? Good question.

Not having children of my own yet, the article I am about to mention is not in my realm of experience being a parent. However, — and that’s a big however — this article really got me aggravated at the author, how she treats her kids and thinks they are “boring”. I’m too steamed about this to write much more in this post other than to say she needs prayer and a reality check. Read it and be shocked at the selfishness wrought from a post-modern worldview of parenting.

For the most part, I have no interest in former CNN anchor Aaron Brown’s opinions on the news business. He’s just as biased as anyone else in that business (on either side of the political landscape).

An event that sticks out where I did respect his work was coverage of 9/11. I remember watching him and others report from New York and Washington D.C. as the events were happening that morning on a big screen TV in my office cafeteria. He covered it about as well as anyone could and I appreciated how clearly he communicated new information as it was coming, with that surreal, horrible scene just behind him.
In a recent speech he spoke about the news business today. Highlights were reported in a Palm Beach newspaper online about this speech. Many topics he discussed I could debate and others I could care less about. However there were two statements I thought were important to note:

“‘Truth no longer matters in the context of politics and, sadly, in the context of cable news,’ said Aaron Brown”

“Many Americans on the left and the right aren’t interested in the truth, but simply want news that confirms their viewpoints,” he said.

I read those sentences a few times. Whichever side of the political spectrum we fall on, we do prefer to hear news that confirms our worldview. However, I think many Americans are interested in the truth, whether it agrees with our position or not and if we want to admit it or not. I can absolutely see why he would question that with the culture we live in today. But I see his point in the sense that the truth is not always what we prefer to hear if it doesn’t confirm of our opinions. I think the statement cuts much deeper than cable news channel choices.
Do we want the news to report the unbiased truth? I think we all do, but to his point, many also want it reported to support our personal opinions. But the truth and our personal opinions do not always match up.

Note: This was originally posted on Dec 25th, however due to some technical issues with my website host it got lost in the shuffle. I didn’t realize it until now.

Merry Christmas! And I am not ashamed to say it!

Much has been made in some media outlets this month about the ridiculous shunning of the phrase “Merry Christmas” in corporate America and retail outlets nationwide. It must say its about time this really was made a focus nationally. Replacing the phrase Merry Christmas with Happy Holidays, Season’ Greetings, Winter Holiday, X-mas, Festivus, etc has become more widespread in the past 10-15 years. This is a shame as it is hiding the true reason for this holiday. I find it ironic that this trend has spread, yet most everyone in the country has this day off of work and 98% of businesses are closed. These are the same business and companies that forbid using the word Christmas.
Although this is the case, I am not surprised. Our culture had become increasing hostile toward anything referring to Jesus Christ. This is sad to see, however as a Christian I expect that many elements of this world will be hostile towards anything related to Christ. Despite the culture drifting away from a Christ-centered life, the great thing to know is the Lord God never changes. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. And on this day when we celebrate Jesus’ birth, it is reassuring to know that He will never sway in the turbulence of today’s culture, offering everyone mercy, forgiveness and redemption from sin through Him.

Merry Christmas!

As Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor submitted her letter of retirement today, so begins a battle of worldviews we all saw coming. Though it was somewhat unexpected that Justice O’Connor would be the first to retire on the current court, it was expected that a retirement would come within the year.

Justice O’Connor was appointed by President Reagan in the early 1980’s, politically leaning to the right, but predominantly a centrist. The only reason I mention that is to make the point that the impending battle for confirming the next Supreme Court Justice has become more about politics than interpreting the law.

I am a conservative, evangelical Christian who, in my perfect world, would like to see a conservative leaning court that would uphold my worldview. That being said, I have a problem with all involved in the process focusing so heavily on what a Supreme Court nominees (or any judge for that matter) political views/personal views are on many subjects.

Of course in a perfect world, judges would never inject their personal/political views in the process of making an “unbiased” ruling. But we all know this world is far from perfect and far too many judges try to legislate from the bench rather than interpret the law and Constitution.

We are left with a impending battle of worldviews/morals/ethics. A battle of absolutes vs. everything is grey, right vs. wrong, humble vs. selfish. In the end it seems it will come down to a battle of life vs. murder.(I’m sure you can guess what I think about that.)

My prayer is that what ever side people are on, we can respect each other though we may disagree. I’m sure I’ll be writing more on this topic as the confirmation process begins.