Affirm or Help?

Say a friend came to you for financial advice. “I’ve really been depressed lately,” he says. “I feel like I should be rich, but I have $150,000 of debt piled up on credit cards.”

Would you:

A) Affirm his feelings and say, “Wow, man. I’m so sorry. I think you should go buy yourself a Lamborghini so that you can live how you feel.”

B) Try to help and say, “Wow, man. I’m so sorry. Let’s see if we can figure out how to cut your spending and help you feel comfortable living within your means.”

This may sound like a pretty obvious answer to you. It would be at best irresponsible, and at worst evil to affirm his feelings. This analogy is exactly the same as the trans issue we are dealing with today. If a male friend came to you and said, “I’ve been really depressed lately. I feel like I’m a girl.”

Would you:

A) Affirm his feelings and say, “Wow, miss. I’m so sorry. I will use female pronouns for you. Let’s get you on some girl hormones and have a doctor remove your boy parts.”

B) Try to help and say, “Wow, man. I’m so sorry. Let’s get you some help so that you can feel comfortable as a man.”

Affirming something that is not true does not help anyone. As shown by the Cass Review, a landmark 2024 UK study, it makes things worse. We know that gender dysphoria is a mental health problem that is doing a lot of damage in the world. It is not healthy.

Both sides know this. Conservatives point out that Robin Westman, the shooter at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis on August 27, 2025, suffered from gender dysphoria. Instead of receiving help to address it, Westman was affirmed with a name change and female pronouns, and mainstream news still refers to him as ‘she,’ even after the tragedy.

Using “affirming language” does not help them. Giving them hormones of the opposite sex does not help them. Surgery does not help them. Even the people pushing that approach know that it does not work. They give proof themselves when they point out that nearly 40% of those with gender dysphoria attempt suicide, yet the Cass Review shows no evidence that hormones or surgery reduce this risk. They do not come to the obvious conclusion that we should stop trying to normalize this mental illness. They instead blame the people who want to help those suffering from it.

Instead of going along with a feeling based outside of reality, we need to make it easier for people to find help. Unfortunately, when you search for help, most of what you find is the opposite. Even if you ask ChatGPT, it suggests biased, secular organizations that will not help you overcome your gender dysphoria. You would be taking a major risk if you go to a psychologist who studied at an American university. Radical gender ideology has saturated those places. They are far more likely to make things worse by encouraging you to continue in your confusion, or even to act on it with hormones or surgeries. In fact, these radicals have succeeded in banning helping people in some states. There is a major case in front of the Supreme Court right now, Chiles v. Salazar, that will decide if states can ban what they call “conversion therapy,” which ironically is not conversion at all. It is affirming a person’s real gender.

This is why we need to share good resources for people who need help. Since you cannot just look for help online without getting awful results, here are resources that you can go to if you or someone you love is struggling:

If you are near a Bible believing church, that is a great place to start. Talk to a pastor. The one obstacle to this approach is knowing which church to go to. There are churches now that call themselves “progressive” or “affirming.” Those are not real churches. They are social clubs for people who want to belong to a church but do not like what God says. If you are not familiar with the Bible and are unsure of what church to go to, email me at steve@steveconnally.com and I will personally research and find a scriptural church in your area.
Focus on the Family – Transgender Resources – Offers Christian-based guidance for families and individuals, including compassionate counseling options, articles on standing firm in biological identity, and practical guidance for parents and churches. www.focusonthefamily.com/parenting/transgender-resources/
Restored Hope Network – Its website says, “Restored Hope is a membership governed, inter-denominational network dedicated to restoring hope to those broken by sexual and relational sin, especially those impacted by homosexuality and gender confusion. We proclaim that Jesus Christ has life-changing power for all who submit to Christ as Lord; we also seek to equip His church to impart that transformation.” https://www.restoredhopenetwork.org/what-we-believe
Sex Change Regret – Founded by Walt Heyer (who detransitioned after living for 8 years as a trans woman), this ministry offers testimonies and counseling aimed at addressing underlying trauma and encouraging healing in alignment with one’s God-given design. They emphasize the spiritual and psychological roots of gender confusion. https://sexchangeregret.com/
Advocates Protecting Children – APC’s core mission is to serve and equip those responding to gender activism by offering facts, research, and guidance. Its vision explicitly calls for the “abolition of the gender industry,” including shutting down gender clinics and cosmetic surgeries for minors, while emphasizing child protection and holistic healing. The organization stresses that gender dysphoria in children often resolves naturally with supportive, non-affirming care, citing studies on desistance rates and long-term outcomes. They also provide educational materials for parents, educators, and churches, as well as peer groups and low-cost counseling referrals. www.advocatesprotectingchildren.org/
Harvest USA – This organization is located in Pennsylvania and focuses on providing biblical guidance for sexual and relational struggles, including transgenderism, pornography, and same-sex attraction. They offer counseling in Philadelphia or virtually, but their website also has a lot of good resources about any number of struggles. https://harvestusa.org/how-we-help/transgenderism/

One final thought. I know that some will argue that we should lie and affirm gender dysphoria because it might stop somebody from harming themselves or even taking their own life. Would you say the same thing if your daughter’s boyfriend threatened to kill himself if she breaks up with him? That happens often, and some boys do follow through. Using the possibility of suicide to emotionally manipulate people is not an acceptable reason to give them their way. It is tragic when somebody chooses to end their life, but that is not a reason to accept lies. Try to help them by lovingly telling them the truth.

Know Your Audience

As a blogger, one of the main questions you have to ask yourself is, “Who am I writing to?” Is your ideal audience people who agree with you or people who disagree with you that you are trying to persuade?

The reason it is important to know your audience is because you will take a different tone depending on who you have in mind. Part of what made me think about this was listening to other voices in the conservative movement. Some do not seem persuasive to me at all. Mark Levin, for example, is a brilliant guy, but he comes off as a grumpy old man who thrashes anyone who disagrees with him.

Others who I admire seem more persuasive. Rush Limbaugh did not come off as a grumpy guy. He did not come off as mean. He loved parody and satire to make his points. He would “illustrate absurdity by being absurd.” He would mock the left. What made him great was that he came off as a happy-go-lucky guy, with a genial personality and a good sense of humor. Dennis Prager is also very kind and fun-loving. He treats everyone with respect, whether they agree with him or not. He even wrote an entire book on happiness.

Without hesitation, I will tell you that my main goal is to persuade people. I want to influence people and make a difference. I want to explain conservatism in a way that makes sense to people and turns them into conservatives. Most importantly, I want to point people towards the Bible. Maybe, just maybe, it will lead someone to turn to God. Ultimately, that is our purpose for being alive.

What does this mean? I mentioned that Rush Limbaugh used to mock the left. Can I joke about people who I am trying to persuade? Can I mock them? Can I call them out for believing stupid things? I don’t want to come off as a complete jerk to reasonable people. That last sentence holds the key word: reasonable.

If you look at the likes on my posts and articles, you would think most of the people who read my thoughts agree with me. If you read the comments, you would think that most of the people disagree with me, or even viciously hate me. While I want to persuade people, there are people who I am not writing to. There are people who are completely unreasonable and unreachable. Their minds are closed. Don’t get me wrong, I hope they read my articles and think about them. Maybe that seed will eventually grow. However, I do not care to argue with them. It is a waste of time and energy. Most of them are dug in to their emotional positions and will just harden their hearts to any other viewpoint. If I do argue, it is for the other people to hear the arguments, not because I think the crazed leftist will budge. They are fair game to be poked fun at or used as examples of foolishness.

The people I am writing to are the people who are genuinely open to understanding. That does not necessarily mean people in the middle. It might, but some of the most closed-minded people I know are staunchly “independent.” They are so concerned with seeming open-minded that they will not take a side. The people I am writing to are people who are actually curious. Instead of arguing or trying to ask gotcha questions, they ask good, honest questions. They say things like, “Hmm. I never really thought of it that way. That makes a lot of sense.” If they want to argue, they probably are not ready to hear.

When it comes to the people who already agree with me, my gut reaction was that it does not do any good to “preach to the choir,” but the more I thought about it, the wider my focus became. There are two main reasons to write to people who are already on my side. First, I want you to know that you are not alone. If you turn on a T.V., read from mainstream media sources, or attend college, you hear 95% secular leftist viewpoints. You might start thinking you are the only sane person left on earth. Even worse, you may start to doubt your sanity. I imagine it is a feeling that the Old Testament prophets had when they spoke up for God and the people ignored them. It is a lonely feeling. I have felt it myself, especially living in California. It always helps to hear that other people are with you. Second, I want to help give you reasons for your beliefs and positions that you might not have been able to put into words yourself. This might give you ammunition to explain biblical, conservative values to your friends and family. There have been many times when I have listened to people like the great Dennis Prager and thought, “He is putting into words exactly what I think, but better than I could have!”

Ultimately, I hope everyone reads what I write, but it will only resonate with reasonable people. Some of you will just get irrationally angry at me. Please feel free to leave crazy comments. Those are fun.

Bill Gates vs. Elon Musk

Bill Gates and Elon Musk are both massively wealthy innovators. They have also become divisive figures to large swaths of the population.

Mr. Musk, of course, riled the left by heading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which had as its goal to cut government spending and help our country be more fiscally responsible.

Mr. Gates is known for his charitable giving through his Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. While many conservatives take issue with some of the left-wing causes that Gates contributes to, most people would praise much of the giving that deals with feeding children in third world nations. In May, he announced that he would donate almost all of his fortune, nearly $200 billion, by 2045.

Conflict arose after Gates announcement when he took a shot at Musk. Gates accused Elon of “killing the world’s poorest children” with his proposed cuts in USAID programs. While Mr. Gates is right that we should help the poor, there are some big problems with his criticism of Elon.

First, while Gates might have good intentions wanting to help people through USAID, it is a very unwise use of our money. The United States Government does not have the money to spend. It would be one thing if the government had a large budget surplus. Unfortunately, the government is operating on an estimated budget deficit of $1.83 trillion! It is not a good idea to spend money that you do not have.

Second, and more importantly, there is the issue of freedom. One of the main differences between conservatives and leftists is what we do about disagreement. Conservatives say, “I disagree, so I’ll do what I want and you do what you want as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone.” Leftists say, “I disagree, so the government should force you to do what I say.” In short, conservatives believe in freedom. Leftists do not.

This criticism by Gates denies the American people of their freedom. If we cut USAID, it does not deny the people the ability to help people through foreign aid. Any person who wants to donate money to the causes that Gates supports can do it the same way he does, through private donations. There are, in fact, many good reasons for a person to prefer individual charitable donations to going through the government. If we have learned anything from DOGE, it is that government is wrought with waste and fraud, and highly inefficient.

There is a recent TikTok that went viral by a woman named Jen Hamilton, where she makes a similar argument. She even tries to make the case that the Bible backs her position. In the video, she is responding to a comment that said, “Whoa. Be careful there. I am happily MAGA and absolutely love Jesus. We are exhausted from liberal nonsense.” Hamilton opens her Bible and reads from Matthew 25:31-45, which culminates in Jesus explaining, “Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.” As she reads the passage, she overlays on the screen headlines that say things like, “Millions of Low-Income Households Would Lose Food Aid Under Proposed House Republican SNAP Cuts,” “Trump’s new spending bill includes reducing federal funding for SNAP food program by nearly $300 billion,” and “Exploring the potential impact of Medicaid cuts in Trump’s big budget bill.” Then she says, “I don’t know. Sounds pretty liberal.”

This woman and Gates make the same mistake. They equate care for the needy with government spending. What she forgets is that the Bible also advocates for free will. The Bible is very clear about this. 2 Corinthians 9:7 says, “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” When you push for government spending to fund your pet causes, you are using compulsion through taxes to pay for what you think is best. Government spending does not even count towards what the Bible says to do, because it is not by choice. You are basically saying, “I care about this cause, so you should be forced to pay for it.” That is not caring. It is controlling.

When it comes to the giving that the Bible actually calls for, conservatives dominate the left. Statistics show that while conservatives earn 6% less income, they give 30% more to charity. The fact that Elon wants to save money for taxpayers is the opposite of greedy. It actually helps people, and respects their freedom to choose where to give their charitable dollars. Those charitable dollars are far more likely to be spent wisely when not being filtered through government bureaucracies.

Bill Gates has the right to give his fortune to whatever causes he chooses to. Some of those causes are probably great. Likewise, you should have the right to give to whatever causes you choose to. Here lies the big difference. While conservatives would love it if Bill Gates gave to causes of our choosing, we respect his free will. Conservatives think that freedom must be protected, even if people choose to use their money differently than we want. It is their money, not ours, and not the government’s. Elon Musk respects this fact, and should be praised for his work at DOGE, not attacked.

The Sky is Falling! Testing the Predictions of Doom by Democrats

Who remembers the story of Chicken Little? In the children’s tale, something falls from a tree on Chicken Little, who panics and runs around telling his friends that “the sky is falling!” Today, the phrase “Chicken Little” is used to describe someone who is a constant worrier or pessimist, or who spreads alarm or baseless reports of danger.

Lately, a lot of Chicken Littles are running around warning us that the sky is falling. These Chicken Littles are also known as Democrats. Just turn on your television, check your social media feed, or talk to your Democrat friends and you will hear horrifying predictions of doom.

Their predictions brought to mind a Bible study that my dad taught a long time ago. He was trying to show how unlikely it is that all of the prophecies in the Bible come true unless it really is God’s word. In the New Years Bible study, he got December issues of tabloids that had psychics making predictions about the coming year. Some said that we would make contact with aliens. Others tried to predict who would win the World Series or guess celebrity gossip and scandals. Then at the end of the year he would go back and see how accurate those psychics were as compared to the Bible’s perfect record. Those predictions were predictably inaccurate.

My dad’s old Bible study was memorable and fun, and it inspired me to similarly test the doomsday prophecies we keep hearing from the left. This will not only be interesting to watch, but being able to look at information and correctly predict what will happen in the future is important. If Democrats are consistently wrong, we should not listen to them, and certainly should never vote for them.

Some of their predictions are just policy issues on which they disagree with President Trump. That is not our main focus. We are talking about the dire warnings that they pushed throughout the campaign, and still seem to be sticking to. My guess is that these predictions are about as likely as the psychic predictions from the tabloids in the 90s. Here are some of the Democrat prophecies that we keep hearing.

President Trump will change or void the Constitution and stay in office after this term. – Shortly after the election, President Trump made a joke about running for a third term. Some Democrats, who do not understand jokes, have floated the idea that President Trump will try to remain in office after this term, and even introduced a resolution to clarify that the 22^nd Amendment does not allow him to do so. The alien contact predictions are far more likely than Donald Trump remaining in office after inauguration day in 2029.

President Trump will enact a national abortion ban. – Kamala Harris has made this prediction, as have many other Democrats. Hopefully, this prediction does come true, but President Trump has said he will not.

President Trump is a racist who will persecute minorities. – This prediction is more difficult to define. Searching through articles and videos, many claim that President Trump will take away the non-white citizens’ rights, but they do not give any examples of what rights are supposedly going away. The only actual policy that keeps popping up is that President Trump thinks ethnic minorities are smart enough that they are capable of competing for hiring and college admission with whites without DEI policies to handicap the whites. That is true. Republicans do think more highly of minorities than Democrats do. Since this prediction is so vague, the way we will decide if it has come true is if, in four years, whites have any rights that non-white citizens do not have.

President Trump is an “existential threat to democracy.” – We have heard this one too many times to count. Determining the accuracy of this prophecy is extremely simple. The Democrats have already told us that they never really believed this and were just lying to scare people, because they are already talking about how to win the next election. Obviously, if an election occurs in 2028, democracy will have survived. Not only that, but President Trump would like to strengthen the democratic process and restore faith in our elections by passing a nationwide voter ID requirement.

President Trump is Hitler. Also known as – Trump is a fascist/dictator/authoritarian who will rule with an iron fist. – This one seems like a strange prediction, considering President Trump has already been the president for a full term and did not act in an authoritarian way. It is highly doubtful that he will now, all of a sudden, want to act like a dictator. By definition, a dictator uses his power to dictate (control) what citizens do with their lives, using the force of government. President Trump, on the other hand, has actually made it a focus to cut regulations and eliminate government intrusion in our lives. In fact, President Trump is having Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy try to get rid of full government departments, cut the number of government employees, and eliminate regulations and expenses. In all fairness, he was the president during the most authoritarian time in American history. However, he was not the perpetrator. It was state governors who forced lockdowns, mask mandates, and pushed experimental vaccine mandates. In fact, the Democrat criticism of Trump was that he should have been more authoritarian and taken away more liberties. My guess is that President Trump will be far less dictatorial and authoritarian than the Democrats are. If Democrats mean it when they say they fear authoritarian rule, they will help President Trump make government less influential in our lives. They should vote for things like school choice, tax cuts, and eliminating government departments, employees, spending, and regulations. My prediction is that their authoritarian tendencies will shine through and they will not. We will see whose prediction is more accurate.

President Trump will use the military to attack political opponents and media members, or the “enemy from within.” – The Left made this prediction by twisting and combining two different statements by President Trump, so it seems unlikely to come true. He has said that some terrible people are hurting our country more than foreign enemies. He has called them “the enemy from within.” He has mentioned fascists, Marxists, communists, Adam Schiff, Nancy Pelosi, and members of the media as being in that group. He also spoke about possible unrest in the streets on election day by groups he called “radical left lunatics” (Presumably meaning groups like Antifa). He said that the National Guard or the military should easily handle that. Many on the left have turned that into a prediction that President Trump will unleash the military on the sets of “60 Minutes” and “The View,” or to throw Adam Schiff into prison at Guantanamo Bay. As entertaining as all that would be, this is likely another prediction that will not happen.

President Trump will have the military bash down shop doors and drag away immigrants. – Joy Reid made this “prophecy” on November 26^th, and several others have made similar predictions. President Trump has said that he will crack down on illegal immigration and finish the wall. He has also said that his first focus is on deporting criminals who are illegally in our country. How likely are the predictions of military sweeps of city streets and storefronts to round up law-abiding immigrants to come true? We shall see!

President Trump will cut Social Security. – A large billboard in Arizona made this claim, which the Harris campaign and the media echoed. Contrarily, President Trump said that he would propose “no tax on social security.”

President Trump will weaponize the justice system and prosecute political opponents. – This prediction could go a couple of different ways. We can again look back and see that he did not do this in his first term as president and assume that he will refrain from doing it again. Yes, there were the “Lock her up” chants, but he obviously did not. Hillary Clinton was ignored after 2016 and is still free. This was, of course, before the Democrats actually did politically weaponize the justice system against their political opponents, and especially targeted President Trump himself. President Trump has good reason to return the favor, and he very well may. The other way he could react is to reform or dismantle the government mechanisms and agencies that were corruptly used to go after him and other Republicans. He could gut the Justice Department and the FBI to try to prevent them from being used for political persecution again. Only time will tell.

This is a solid group of predictions to test whether the left has any idea what they are talking about, or if they are just making up stuff to scare people. I suppose there really is the possibility that they actually believe what they are saying, like Chicken Little did. Either way, we will revisit these predictions in four years to see how accurate they were. Hopefully, the sky is not falling.

Five Quick Thoughts About the Assassination Attempt on President Trump

When I first heard that President Trump had been shot, a person I know reacted by saying, “Good.” I would like to say that this surprises me, but unfortunately, the left has spent such so much time vilifying the man, it was half expected. Democrats and the media have spent the last 8 years comparing him to Hitler, baselessly calling him a dictator. By the way, a dictator is somebody who has absolute power and exercises control over the lives of his people. This is a ridiculous claim to make about a President who had deregulation and lessening the government interference in our lives as a cornerstone of his 4 years in office.
Another person told me that they were surprised it wasn’t a Trump supporter who made an attempt to kill President Biden, because Trump supporters are “a little wacko.” While I am sure that out of the many Trump supporters there are plenty of bad apples, most of his fans that I have met are very kind and loving people. The scary thing about this comment was that it came from a conservative. Unfortunately, this person is older, and still watches the mainstream media and late night talk shows. President Trump, and his supporters, are painted as wackos by the network news and the late night talk shows. You cannot trust the sources that informed the public 50 years ago. Those sources can only be seen as opposition research. Also, if you have any negative thoughts about Trump supporters, I encourage you to go to a Trump rally and talk to the people there. They are the people who you would hope to live next door to.
The failures of the secret service need to be investigated. How was somebody able to get on a rooftop so close to the stage? How was he allowed to get off a shot after spectators pointed him out?
Things like this are likely to happen when one side of our political spectrum is actively protesting and ridiculing the Ten Commandments. Our country needs to turn back to God. There is no other way to turn the tide.
President Trump is a real man. This is a guy who got shot, stood up with blood on his face, and raised his fist in defiance telling Americans to “fight!” Who would be a better guy to face down our enemies abroad than him?

Every Path is Not Equal: Harrison Butker’s Wisdom

Say there were two kids. The first kid was smart, and a voracious reader, who studied hard and listened to his parents. This kid worked tirelessly to be the best athlete he could be. He messed up sometimes, but adults generally liked him. The second kid was equally as smart, but chose not to read or study because he preferred video games. He often disobeyed his parents. He was a gifted athlete, but chose to quit the team because he did not like to practice. He often hung out with troublemakers and spent many days after school in detention. Which of these kids would you guess will have a more successful, happier life?

This is one of the rare occasions that a conservative and a leftist might agree. The first kid is far more likely to have a good life. The reason is obviously that some choices are better than others. Some priorities are better than others. Not all paths are equal.

If somebody stood in front of a group of kids and told them about these two kids, and advised the group that they should choose to be like the first kid, very few people would complain. Some choices are better than others, and if somebody gives advice to choose the better path, that is a good thing. Hopefully, kids will listen.

This is exactly what Super Bowl hero Harrison Butker did on May 11. The kicker for the world champion Kansas City Chiefs gave the commencement address at Benedictine College, a small Catholic school in Kansas. Unfortunately, the reaction has been less supportive. The speech, which you can watch here, was pilloried by the secular media. The NFL issued a statement saying that “his views are not those of the NFL as an organization.” There are even calls for Butker to lose his job, including a petition signed by over 136,000 people calling for the Chiefs to kick him off the team.

Did he say something immoral and dangerous, like that boys can be girls or girls can be boys? Did he defend communism? Did he condemn Israel? No. Had he done any of those things he would have been applauded by the media. He did say a number of things that are obviously true. He spent most of the address telling Catholics to be bold in their faith and admonishing priests not to get comfortable with the depravity of our world and to speak out against what is wrong instead of trying to fit in. He spoke about how many priests abandoned their flocks and went along with the tyrannical lockdowns of churches instead of fighting back. He spoke out against people who claim to be Catholics, yet take positions on issues that are diametrically opposed to what the Bible says, calling out President Biden specifically.

Then, he got into the part of the speech that has gotten the biggest backlash. He said that many of the women there were most excited about their marriage and the children they would bring into the world. He talked about a “diabolical lie” that is prevalent in our culture today. The lie he alluded to is that women are told that more fulfillment comes from having a successful career than from being a good wife and mother. He was correctly warning that this lie is harming women, and our country. He was giving advice. Godly advice. Just like the kid who chose to be studious and good, versus the kid who did not, one path is better than the other.

It is difficult to understand why anybody falls for this lie. Work is not something to be envied. God literally cursed the ground to make work miserable! If you look all the way back to the beginning, when Adam and Eve sinned and ate the forbidden fruit, God cursed both of them. The curse he put on women is that they would have pain in childbirth. Then He cursed Adam in Genesis 3:17-19.

¹⁷Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’:

“Cursed is the ground for your sake;
In toil you shall eat of it
All the days of your life.
¹⁸Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you,
And you shall eat the herb of the field.
¹⁹In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread
Till you return to the ground,
For out of it you were taken;
For dust you are,
And to dust you shall return.”

In other words, God’s curse to men was that they would be forced to toil and work cursed ground just to eat, until they eventually die. Now, our culture does something that my dad used to pull with me. He would tell me to drink the milk from my cereal. I hated milk, so I would say, “Why do I have to?” Dad would reply, “You don’t have to. You get to.” Our culture now tells women, “Why should men get to go work and you have to take care of the kids?” They reverse the “get to” and the “have to.” The difference is, I didn’t fall for it with the milk. Many women have with the work. They want the “privilege” of taking on the curse that God put on men. It is the equivalent of men wishing that they could have pain during childbirth.

Conversely, children are the opposite of a curse. Psalms 127:3-5 says: “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, The fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one’s youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them; They shall not be ashamed, But shall speak with their enemies in the gate.” Children are a reward from God!

Harrison Butker advised women not to fall for this trick like they fell for the serpent’s trick in the Garden of Eden. He never said that women are incapable of working outside the home. He never even said that they should not work outside the home. He was simply advising that one path is more important and more fulfilling than the other. It seems obvious that raising good kids would be more fulfilling, and more fun, than working. It certainly seems obvious that it is more important. Would I have preferred that my mom was a highly paid CEO instead of staying home and raising me and my two sisters? Definitely not! My guess is that very few women who chose kids over career regret it.

I will admit that this path is not for every woman. Butker was speaking in a religious setting. I will be the first to say, if you are not a religious person, and especially if you are not married, you should not have children. Some women lack the godly wisdom to be wives and mothers. I encourage them to take the career path. Anybody can do that. It takes a much more exceptional woman to be a good wife and mother.

Some have complained that he should not have singled out women and wondered why he did not also call out the men in the audience. Those critics likely did not even listen to the speech and are judging based on media reports, because Butker did, in fact, spend the next section of the speech talking to the men, and blaming many of societies ills on the absence of strong men in the home. I urge you to listen to the whole speech.

While a lot of crazies are attacking Harrison Butker, the news isn’t all bad. Many people have come out in his defense, including the wife and daughter of the Chief’s owner, their coach Andy Reid, and many teammates. His jersey is now a top seller. More importantly, his good advice is now being talked about. Hopefully, many men and women alike will take it and choose the better path. It will make them happier and more fulfilled, and make the world a better place.

A Compromise to End the Divisiveness

On the morning of June 14, 2017, James Hodgkinson went to a park and opened fire on Republican lawmakers at a practice for the annual congressional baseball game, injuring 4 and leaving Majority Whip Steve Scalise in critical condition. To many people, this was not surprising because of the polarized climate of political discourse in the United States. According to a 2022 NBC News poll, 80 percent of Americans believe that their opposing political party poses a threat to the country, and if not stopped, will destroy it. Most politicians claim to want to end the divisiveness and bring people together. Many regular Americans are fed up with the division in our country, especially in Washington. We should all want to stop this division from becoming violent.

In light of this polarization, I thought it would be the perfect time to propose a compromise that should unite Americans on one major issue. It turns out Hodgkinson was a strong supporter of Senator Bernie Sanders, who ran to be the Democrats’ presidential nominee in the last two elections. His Facebook page was reportedly covered with posts about a major talking point of Senator Sanders and the Democrats: income inequality. For years now, the main strategy of Democrats to win elections has been to divide people into groups and tell one side that they are victims who need to vote for Democrats to fight for them. They divide people into black vs. white, male vs. female, gay vs. straight, and Christian vs. non-Christian, but maybe the biggest division they push is rich vs. poor.

You have probably heard Senator Sanders or other Democrats talk about “the top 1 percent” or how “the rich need to pay their fair share.” Democrats consistently propose that we raise taxes on whoever they deem rich. They want us to keep our progressive tax system, where the percentage of income that you are forced to give the government in taxes goes up as you earn more. Not only that, but they want to raise taxes at an even steeper rate. In fact, the shooter at the baseball practice was shown in a photograph holding a sign that reads “Tax the rich like Congress did for 70 years till Reagan’s Trickle Down. We need 20 brackets – $20 million.”

Republicans often refer to this rhetoric as class warfare. They note that somebody else’s success does not hurt the people on the bottom, and in fact, it helps them. Most Republicans prefer a flat tax system, where everyone pays the same percentage of their income in taxes. This still means that people with higher incomes pay more taxes, but not at a higher, disproportionate rate. A flat tax is without a doubt the most fair tax system. Unfortunately, there is too much opposition by Democrats to get a flat tax system in place.

This is where my compromise comes in. This may even sound like a lopsided win for Democrats at first glance. I propose that as a compromise, we keep the Democrats’ progressive tax rates that we currently have. The current tax brackets range from 10% at the bottom up to 37% at the top. Here is the catch that should unite Americans. We should lock all of the tax brackets together on a sliding scale. By this, I mean that if the top rate is raised by 5%, to 42%, the bottom bracket goes up equally to 15%. If the top rate is lowered to 32%, the bottom rate is lowered to 5%. The result? Every American would now be on the same team.

Many Republicans are going to balk at this idea because it is unfair and a progressive tax system punishes achievement. I agree. As I said, the only fair tax system is a flat tax. Hear me out, though. Think about the results of this compromise. No longer could someone say, “Raise taxes on that guy over there, as long as you don’t raise mine.” Very few people will want to raise your taxes if it also raises theirs. Democrats would not be able to pit people against each other like they always do. At least, not on this issue.

This is, ultimately, the best way to unite Americans. Align their interests. That way, when Democrats fret that Republicans want tax cuts for “the rich,” people will all be happy because that means lower taxes for them too. When Democrats want to raise taxes on the rich, who will support them if that also means raising their taxes? While at first glance this idea might seem unfair, the practical effect would be to unite rich and poor, eliminate tax hikes, and likely end the career of politicians who try to raise taxes.

When Americans are united on a cause, it generally leads to success. This is one of the rare instances that unity can be easily achieved. I do not make a lot of money, but I want to lower your taxes. Do you want to lower mine?

Why Abortion is Hard to Talk About

With the overturning of Roe v. Wade, abortion is on everybody’s minds. While those on the left fret that there will now be a plague of babies across the land, many on the right celebrate that our nation’s greatest evil has ended. Neither, of course, is what the Supreme Court decided. The decision simply says that the Constitution does not guarantee the right to an abortion, which is obviously correct. That does not, however, outlaw abortion. What it does is allows the states to decide their own rules on abortion. This means that open discussion and persuading people actually matters again. The question now is, how do we do that?

To many pro-life people, it seems so simple and obviously wrong that they forget to look at the discussion from a pro-abortion person’s worldview. It is very difficult not to be disgusted and angry with people who think it is alright to murder a baby, but pro-lifers have to remind themselves that without God, murder is not wrong. People who are pro-abortion do not share biblical values, and without God, those people are logical to think the way that they do. Trying to convince them is futile because they do not believe there is a God to tell them that murder is wrong. They do not believe there is a God who will judge them for their murders in the future. Murder is a perfectly logical thing for them to do if they think it will make their lives better. If a baby seems like it would be inconvenient, killing the baby makes perfect sense. In fact, if a neighbor plays their stereo too loud at night, murdering that neighbor makes perfect sense. If someone is competing for a job you want, murdering that person is logical. If you find yourself in a love triangle, murdering your romantic competition is rational.

Without God, people are just animals. Many on the left will openly push this idea. You see PETA equating animals with people all the time. They have equated KFC cooking chickens to the Nazis murdering Jews in the Holocaust. With that in mind, is it wrong if a lion kills an antelope? Of course not. That is just a lion trying to improve its life. If there is no God, a human killing to improve their life is no different from a lion killing to improve theirs. Without the shared viewpoint that human life is intrinsically more valuable than an animal’s, attempts to persuade non-believers that abortion is wrong will likely be futile.

Does this mean that we should give up on persuading people that abortion is wrong? Not at all! It just means that we must start with the deeper issue of what makes something right or wrong in the first place. The first chapter of my book, The God Bet, goes into this very issue in depth. It makes the point that if we do not start from the same foundation of morality, it is very unlikely that we will ever agree on much more than that ice cream is delicious. There is little chance of convincing someone that abortion is wrong because it is murder if that person has no basis for believing that murder is wrong. For this reason, the most important and effective way to convince people that abortion is wrong is if we first convince them that God is real and that He created people in His image, with a purpose higher than their own personal pleasure.

Our top priority should be showing God’s love to people so that they want to follow Him, too. If we successfully do that, we could alleviate most of the problems in our country. It is obvious to anybody who is honest. I would wager that weekly church attendees are underrepresented in our criminal population. When we hear about a string of 7-11 robberies and murders like those that happened here in Southern California last month, a deacon from the local church is probably not the most likely suspect.

This does not, of course, mean that people who believe in God are perfect. They certainly still do bad things, because by nature everyone wants to do what they feel like doing. The difference is that people who believe in God have a reason to try to not give in to those urges. Without God, there is not even a reason to hold back.

This is why when the topic of abortion comes up, we should not automatically jump into the immorality of the practice. They will see it as pushing our religion on them. They do not realize that laws against rape, theft, perjury, slander, and murder outside the womb, among others, are also pushing religious values on them. In fact, this is why we see all these things increasing. Without the base of our values, God, people have started to decide their own right and wrong. For example, the rise in violence across the country is not because of guns. It is due to the weakening of religious values in America.

We need to persuade two groups that abortion is wrong. The first is the general public, which is necessary to get laws changed to protect the unborn. For that, I honestly believe that religious revival is the only way to do it. Arguing that something is wrong with people who decide their own right from wrong is a waste of time.

Since abortion will still be legal in many places, like where I live, in California, the other group that we need to persuade is women who are pregnant and considering abortion. This is more immediate because it can directly save lives in the moment, even if it is only one at a time. Obviously, the best way is again to point that woman to God, but because of the urgency in the situation, where a life is on the line right then, we may have to persuade someone who does not yet believe in God. Without that belief in God, there is only one other possible way to convince people of something. You have to appeal to their own self-interest. I truly believe that God tells us right from wrong not to control us, but because He loves us and doing what He says is ultimately in our own self-interest. It will make our lives better whether we can see how or not. Therefore, to convince somebody, we must figure out how making the correct moral decision will also be better for them intrinsically. When looking at pregnancy, this is easy to see. I asked on social media if any woman out there regretted their decision not to have an abortion. Of the over 500 comments, not a single woman regretted having their baby. So, leaving out the morality issue, we can pretty much guarantee that a woman who has a baby will be glad she did, even on a selfish level.

Remember that we Christians are not of this world. We do have to live in it. When we live in a pagan society, we have to keep in mind that other people do not share our values. When the apostle Paul lived, the society was worse than it is now. He did not conform to it, but he also did not give up on it. He did not simply address the symptoms of sin, although he did not shy away from those topics. He focused on sharing Jesus, because that is how the other problems can be fixed. We should try not to get overly upset with pro-abortion people, because they don’t know any better. They decide their own right and wrong. We are on a higher level than them, so expecting them to live at our level is unrealistic. By all means, keep trying to change the laws, because lives are at stake. The way to do it is by showing that we have a God who loves us. Once more people realize that, the rest can be more easily remedied.

We cannot bring people to God by fixing our nation’s problems. We must fix our nation’s problems by bringing people to God.

The Underrepresented in the Covid Story

Those on the left constantly opine that white males are overrepresented in Hollywood, in business, or in any other venture they can think of. They say that we should correct that by discriminating against white males in favor of people of color and women. Apparently, Democrats think people of color and women need help because those persons are not smart enough, talented enough, or hard-working enough to succeed based on merit. Those leftists think that media attention should show a more representative sample of how America is, based entirely on percentages. However, there is a segment of society that is far more underrepresented than any group the left complains about.

I realized this injustice while I was getting my hair cut. One of our local network news broadcasts was on the television and the anchors were feigning sympathy while gloating that a Republican who had spoken out against tyrannical mandates had died of “complications from Covid.” My first thought was that “complications from Covid” generally means that the person died of something else while testing positive for Covid. My next thought was that the only reason the media is trumpeting this story is that it fits their agenda of scaring people about Covid. If they honestly cared about giving fair representation based on the actual numbers, for every story about somebody dying of Covid, there should be tens of thousands of stories about the most underrepresented group there is: People who did not die of Covid.

The media does not even acknowledge this massive group because it might inadvertently cause people to be less afraid. They love reporting that we will die if we don’t do exactly what they tell us to do, but they hate it when we don’t oblige them by dying like we were supposed to. Low death counts really frustrate the left. The huge disparity between stories of people dying from Covid and those who have not died from Covid needs to be corrected.

Since the left has trouble reconciling their need to scare people with their purported concern with proportional representation in the media, I am going to help them out. While I can name myriad people who have not died of Covid (considering all of us are in that demographic), I will stick to people many of us will recognize. Fortunately, Covid is as undeadly to celebrities as it is to us average Joes, so there are plenty of examples. Let’s get started.

Tom Hanks – The panic all started back in March of 2020 when legendary actor Tom Hanks announced that he had Covid. News reports made people contemplate what life would be like without one of the most familiar faces in the world.

Update: You might be wondering why the media would tell you about Tom Hanks’ impending death, yet didn’t even cover his funeral or people mourning at his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. What jerks, right? Well, I’m happy to inform you that Tom Hanks did not die. The media had gotten the fear they wanted from the story so it ended at the beginning.

Side note: Many of you immediately think of Forrest Gump when you picture Tom Hanks, but I still think back to Bosom Buddies, when America still knew that men dressing as women was something to laugh at. Hanks’ co-star from Bosom Buddies, Peter Scolari, actually did die this year, but did not have Covid, so it was barely mentioned in the press. They were shocked to find out that even if you don’t get Covid it’s still possible to die. In fact, the odds are right around 100%.

President Trump – In October of 2020, President Donald Trump announced that he had tested positive for Covid at the age of 74. To the chagrin of Democrats, President Trump did not die.

Bob Barker – Yes. Bob Barker is still alive! I was as surprised as you are when I looked it up.

Me – I am not a celebrity but you are reading my article, so it counts. Plus, I have been in the group of people who lived our lives fully and ignored the tyrannical rules. The panicked wimps on social media have smugly been saying for two years that we will be wiped out by Darwinism, so I know it galls them that I am still alive. Just smile at them and laugh. It drives them even more crazy.

Rudy Gobert – The first NBA player who tested positive for the coronavirus was Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz. You may remember that he mocked the severity of the virus by goofing around and touching all of the microphones at a press conference. He later apologized, but as it turns out, he was right. Gobert is still with us.

The cast of The Bachelor/Bachelorette from every single season – There are just so many people who have not died from Covid that it is easier to list them in groups of hundreds of people. Between the two shows there have been 44 seasons of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, with right around 1,180 contestants, and while some have died, not a single one of them has succumbed to Covid. I guess this is not the most dramatic disease ever.

The Los Angeles Dodgers – For the first time in 32 years, the Dodgers won the 2020 World Series. Their victory was not without controversy, though. During the 6th and deciding game of the series, third baseman Justin Turner was removed from the game because he had tested positive for Covid. Though he was not sick, he was told that he could not be on the field with his team who he had worked so hard with for years to win a championship. After the game, Turner came back onto the field to celebrate with teammates and take pictures with the trophy. He even took off his mask for pictures. This started a media firestorm. Leftist sportswriters and commentators were swift to call for Turner’s head. They openly questioned whether fines, suspensions, or other punishments should rain down on Turner and the Dodgers. They claimed that he had put everyone on the field in grave danger with his irresponsible behavior. Some even fretted that Turner had endangered the few thousand fans allowed in the stands at the game. We waited with anticipation to find out which Dodgers would return to defend their title in 2021 and which ones would meet their doom. A week went by. Then another. There was no word from the press on which Dodgers had died. Eventually, spring training for the next season rolled around, and the Dodgers players took the field and played baseball as if they had nothing wrong with them. Even Justin Turner himself was alive and hit 27 home runs after his death sentence. If the sportswriters really thought the players were in danger, this survival miracle should have been a huge story. Instead, there was silence, as if they knew from the beginning that it was a non-story.

All of the MLB, NFL, NBA, and NHL – The four major sports leagues in the United States bring Americans many hours of entertainment and joy. They also bring billions and billions of dollars into the economy. Between the MLB (1,026 on opening day rosters), NFL (1,696), NHL (999), and NBA (529), there are 4,250 players. Some of you might be wondering how many of these players have not died with Covid and why is the press not reporting on it? The answer is that none of these players have died with Covid and highlighting that fact might ease public fear. Despite the 100% survival rate, these leagues are still requiring testing and canceling games due to Covid. I guess they haven’t figured out the sabermetrics for Covid strategy yet.

The non-death count – I will wrap up by using a pretty staggering number. We keep hearing a highly exaggerated death count of over 800,000, which even according to the CDC, counts mostly 80-year-olds with three or four other causes of death involved. What needs to be reported is the non-death count, or how many Americans did not die of Covid to provide some perspective. That number is approximately 334,031,568 at the time of this writing. I say “at the time of this writing” because as you can see if you click the link, our population is actually growing. That may surprise some of you, since you have been led to believe that Covid is decimating our population. However, in fact there are more Americans now than in March of 2020. So, the next time you hear the media complaining about groups being underrepresented in our culture and starting hashtag campaigns like #OscarsSoWhite, think about how the survival of over 334,000,000 people is being ignored by the press. #AmericaSoPanicky