More about Heroism

At the beginning of this month, Jordan Neely, a homeless man, entered a New York subway car and began both speaking and acting in a threatening manner to the other passengers. According to the police report, Neely was acting in a “hostile and erratic” manner while shouting threats that he would hurt people. He also said something about “going to jail or getting life in prison.” Perhaps most ominously, Neely said he was “ready to die.” Marine veteran Daniel Penny stepped in, attempting to subdue Neely by putting him in a chokehold for about fifteen minutes; once Neely stopped struggling, Penny put him in the recovery position. However, Neely was later pronounced dead at a hospital.

Initially, it seemed that might be the end of it, but the following week, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg gave in to mob pressure (including people standing on subway tracks) and charged Penny with manslaughter. Leftist activists, including several in the media, have called Penny a “vigilante.” As so often seems to be the case with the homeless, no one seemed to care about Neely in life, but so many have jumped on the Jordan Neely bandwagon to exploit his death.

Thankfully, there has been an outpouring of support for the heroic Penny, including financially, to the tune of more than two million dollars for his defense fund. Many others have expressed their thanks to Penny: “I would’ve wanted you on the subway if I was there. You are a very brave man,” one donor wrote. Another wrote, “I would only hope that if my husband wasn’t with me and someone was threatening me, someone would help me as well. Thank you sir. May God be with you and your family during your time of need. My prayers are also with you.”

Daniel Penny didn’t know this about Jordan Neely at the time, but Neely had been arrested forty-two times, including multiple times for assault. Like many homeless people, he suffered from mental illness. This is not to say that Neely’s life didn’t matter; of course it did. It does, however, give some context to his death. Mentally ill or not, each of us is responsible for our words and actions.

Ultimately, the charges against Penny may very well be dropped. If this case were to ever go to trial, I believe he would be acquitted; hopefully, it won’t come to that. Regardless, cases like this are going to continue to have a chilling effect on potential heroes stepping up in situations where others are being threatened, or even attacked. Why would someone be willing to risk his life, given the threat of losing his freedom even if he is successful in protecting the safety, and possibly life, of a potential victim?

On a related note: Back in 2009, before my son went off to college, I had a conversation with him related to the mass shooting at Virginia Tech two years before. I asked him what he would do if a gunman entered his classroom, and although our responses to that situation were different, it was a rich conversation. Just a couple years ago, he wanted to talk about that kind of situation again, and my heart swelled with pride when he indicated that he would rush the gunman if the opportunity presented itself.

With the ever-increasing prevalence of mass shootings, I have thought about what I would do if a gunman entered my church. I have wavered between at least three options: covering my wife with my body; throwing a chair at the gunman; or grabbing a mike and commanding him to stop in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. I suppose my response would depend in part on where the gunman and I were in relation to each other. Lord willing, one thing I would not do is cower. However, part of me wonders whether I would be arrested if I hurt the gunman. Seriously!

2 Timothy 1:7 (NIV) says, “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.” I like the way the New King James Version puts it even better: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” We can never know for sure how we will react in dangerous situations, but if we are prepared, it is more likely that we will respond the way we want to rather than being frozen in fear. Because of Daniel Penny’s military training, he knew how to respond to the threat posed by Jordan Neely; I want to be ready as well for whatever situation I may find myself in.

You’re probably thinking that it’s unlikely you will ever be faced with someone who is acting threateningly, or with some other imminently dangerous situation. I would say you’re probably right. However, I believe this kind of mental and spiritual preparedness can also make us ready to step in to help in other, more ordinary, less risky situations. For example, have you ever had the pleasure of changing a tire for someone? I have, a couple of times. These days, for various reasons, it seems that this skill is one that many people don’t possess, at least in my area. Or how about jump-starting someone’s vehicle? Maybe you can clean out the gutters of your elderly neighbor. These actions may not seem very “heroic,” but they can have a profound effect on the person you help.

(A while back, I wrote another post about heroism; take a look if you’re interested: https://keithpetersenblog.com/2021/07/27/what-does-heroism-look-like/)

Climate Change: Alarmism vs. Facts

Much has been written and said about climate change, often with rather extreme predictions about what will happen relatively soon if we don’t make radical lifestyle changes. This post begins with examples of alarmist predictions related to climate change and then moves on to facts via a couple of “cool” graphs that I came across. I will conclude with a Christian perspective on this issue.

Here are a few alarmist predictions about world catastrophe related to climate change.

  • In 1967, a book came out called Famine 1975! America’s Decision: Who Will Survive? (Notice the alarmism in the title!) This book predicted widespread starvation in the developing world in less than ten years due to ever-increasing population. Here’s an alarmist quote from the book: “Today’s crisis can move in only one direction – toward catastrophe.” However, in the ensuing decades, deaths from famine plunged, thanks in large part to major improvements in farming technology. In fact, more people died from famine in the decade immediately prior to the book’s publication than have died from it in the 50+ years since! In 1989, there was an echo of that starvation prediction by U.N. official Noel Brown, this time moving from overpopulation as its cause to climate change: “Shifting climate patterns would bring back 1930s Dust Bowl conditions to Canadian and U.S. wheatlands.” That hasn’t happened, either.
  • In the 1970s, believe it or not, there were widespread forecasts of global cooling–even global freezing. In 1970, for example, in the book Earth Day: The Beginning: A Guide for Survival, Kenneth Watt warned that then-current trends would make the world “eleven degrees colder in the year 2000 … about twice what it would take to put us into an ice age.” Five years later, British scientist Nigel Calder wrote in International Wildlife magazine, “The threat of a new ice age must now stand alongside nuclear war as a likely source of wholesale death and misery for mankind.” Three years after that, even Leonard Nimoy (who played science officer Spock in the original Star Trek series) joined the chorus, predicting a coming ice age in a documentary film. Given the current hysteria over global warming, these global ice age predictions may seem hard to believe.
  • In 1989, U.N. official Noel Brown made yet another prediction: “The most conservative scientific estimate [is] that the Earth’s temperature will rise 1 to 7 degrees [Celsius] in the next 30 years.” However, from 1989 to 2019, the temperature rose about half of a degree Celsius, according to NASA. (More on this below.) In a related prediction, Al Gore in his 2006 movie An Inconvenient Truth predicted that much of Florida and the San Francisco Bay would be underwater by 2016; has that happened, even now, seven years later than predicted? The movie also suggested that hurricanes would increase in frequency and intensity because of climate change; however, hurricane frequency has decreased since 2006, and their intensity has not increased significantly. A side note: Al Gore has since bought a beach-front property near Los Angeles for nearly $9 million, indicating that he doesn’t seem overly concerned about rising ocean levels.

Now let’s move from alarmism and hysteria to facts. Is global warming real? Yes, it is; the question is how much. Click here for a fun chart, which shows global temperatures from 2500 B.C. to 2040 A.D. (predicted), along with several historical notes: http://www.longrangeweather.com/global_temperatures.htm The most important thing to note is that climate change is cyclical over the long term; in other words, there are alternating periods of global cooling and global warming; we are currently in a period of global warming. The only thing I don’t like about the chart is that it shows temperature fluctuations in Fahrenheit rather than Celsius. For example, in the small orange rectangular box in the upper left, it says “RECORD GLOBAL WARMING IN 2016/2020; global temperatures hit 1.69 degrees above normal.” 1.69 degrees Fahrenheit = 0.94 degrees Celsius. Here’s the link to another chart that shows global temperature changes from 1880-2022: https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-global-temperature You can see that since 1977, every year has been warmer than average. Notice, however, that it has not been a continuous upward movement from one year to the next; 2022, for example, was significantly cooler than 2020.

Sometimes, scientists and politicians make very revealing comments. For example, in 1989, Stephen Schneider, a professor of biology at Stanford University, told Discover magazine, “We have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements, and make little mention of any doubts we might have. Each of us has to decide what the right balance is between being effective and being honest.” And here’s Sen. Timothy Wirth, a Democrat from Colorado, who said in 1988: “We’ve got to … try to ride the global warming issue. Even if the theory of global warming is wrong … we will be doing the right thing anyway in terms of economic policy and environmental policy.” Do you think anything has changed in the last 30+ years? Are “scary scenarios” and “simplified, dramatic statements” still the norm? How about it, Al Gore? And ponder Wirth’s frightening statement: “Even if the theory of global warming is wrong … we will be doing the right thing anyway…” The current “Go Green” movement is an extreme extension of that, with one of its goals to make fossil fuels obsolete and eventually make all of us drive EVs.

Climate change is related to environmental stewardship. Since this blog is focused on giving Biblical answers to questions and issues, what does the Bible have to say about this issue? In Genesis 1:28, God says to newly-created Adam and Eve: “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.'” This verse and others like it indicate that we are to responsibly take care of creation.

I have told many people over the years that some of my best times of worship have been out in nature, enjoying God’s creation. I believe that Christians should be the best stewards of creation on the earth! However, I don’t believe that alarmism and hysteria from any of our scientists and politicians is helpful. Obviously, they do it to get our attention, but in so doing they distort the truth, to put it mildly. Let me repeat a sentence from biology professor Stephen Schneider, above: “Each of us has to decide what the right balance is between being effective and being honest.” Now that’s scary! I believe it’s clear that climate change is cyclical and that in the current cycle, the globe is getting warmer. However, I also believe that at some point (probably beyond my lifetime), we will enter another cycle of global cooling.

In the article under the 2500 B.C. – 2040 A.D chart (see the first link, above), meteorologist Randy Mann says, “We believe we should be ‘going green’ whenever and wherever possible. However, some of the long-term warming and cooling of global temperatures may be the result of climatic cycles, solar activity, sea-surface temperature patterns and more. Our planet seems to be in a cycle of constant change.” I don’t agree with everything he writes in his article, but I agree with this statement, and I appreciate his nuance and balance. Our leaders should learn to do the same.

Volunteerism in My Community, Then and Now

Volunteering in various ways has always been important to my wife and me, so when we moved our young family to our current location back in the mid-1990s, we immediately started looking for ways to volunteer. We hosted a Vacation Bible School in our backyard a few weeks after we moved, and the following year, our son started kindergarten, so we took turns volunteering in his classroom. That same year, we were excited to hear that our city had a coalition of ~70 pastors who had begun meeting together regularly to pray for their congregations, each other, and our city. This was clearly the Lord’s timing because the following winter, the southern part of our city was inundated by a flood; a large number of the volunteers who went to help, including me and my young son, were from those churches. The fact that the informal coalition already existed made organizing the volunteers a very quick process. The following year, the coalition organized another work day with various projects around the city. The day began with a gathering of the volunteers, and we sang a Christian contemporary song and/or hymn a before heading out to the various projects; if memory serves, we sang “Amazing Grace,” and we did it a cappella. There was also a short prayer.

Another aspect of the church coalition was that the pastors agreed, among other things, that they would officiate and host weddings only for couples who had gone through pre-marital counseling. My own church, in fact, had a strong pre-marital program, and a few years later, my wife and I found another way to volunteer: we met (two-on-two) over the years with engaged couples and took them through a curriculum put together by one of our pastors. Our leadership also encouraged us to “prayer-walk” in our neighborhoods. This was really a time of blessing for our city! However, the devil was at work; the pastor who was the leader of the church coalition became involved in sexual immorality. He stepped down from his position as pastor; in addition, the church coalition fell apart because none of the other pastors stepped up to take leadership of it.

Fast-forward a few years, and a new organization of volunteers emerged; in fact, it originated in the church where the sexually-immoral pastor had stepped down. My son and I (and then also my wife and daughter) continued to volunteer at the annual work days. We began to notice some changes; for example, instead of singing “Amazing Grace” a cappella in our gathering at the beginning of the day, we heard the chorus of Journey’s iconic “Don’t Stop Believin'” pounding over loudspeakers. The next words of the chorus are “Hold on to that feelin’, streetlight people.” There are differing interpretations of its meaning, but if you listen to the whole song, let’s just say that “streetlight people” doesn’t exactly refer to people of wholesome character. On the positive side, another difference I have noticed is that this movement has spread to nine additional cities, and the number of volunteers has grown astronomically. So has the number of sponsors, which has grown from zero to more than one hundred; a few of them are churches, while the vast majority of them are local businesses.

On this year’s flyer, I have noticed some free giveaways (by drawing), including four tickets to one concert and two to another; a large-screen TV; two tickets to the Broadway national tour of Anastasia; and just added this week, four tickets to Six Flags! Oh, and if you pay $10 for a full pancake breakfast, your name will be entered into a drawing for a Yogurt Mill Gift Basket worth $150! (I should add that there are also free refreshments and snacks for everyone, which is as it should be.)

The sponsorships and giveaways prompted me to read the home page of the organization’s website; no mention is made of Jesus Christ or even of God. I’m not saying that there is anything wrong with this in and of itself; certainly, both believers and unbelievers can volunteer together! My main question for God’s people is this: if you’re volunteering for an event like this, that’s great, but would you be doing it even if there were no free stuff? Here’s what Proverbs 16:21 says: “All a man’s ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the Lord.” A companion verse is Proverbs 21:2, which says, “All a man’s ways seem right to him, but the Lord weighs the heart.”

A lot has been gained in my community in terms of volunteerism since the 1990s; this is particularly true when you look at the huge increase in the number of volunteers on our annual work days. At the same time, I think that something has been lost as well. My wife and I have gotten to that age and stage of life where physical labor is more difficult than it used to be; may the Lord continue to guide our youth and their parents in their volunteering in our community–and indeed every community–as we move forward.

“Forgive Them” and “Remember Me”

With Good Friday just a couple of days away, I’ve been thinking a lot about what Jesus said while He was on the cross. You may know that there were seven things recorded in Scripture that He said; in this post, I am focusing on the first two.

First of all, let’s look at the timing of Jesus’ crucifixion. In Mark 15:25, we read, “It was the third hour when they crucified Him.” That means it was 9:00 A.M. when Jesus was nailed to the cross. (“Zero hour” was 6:00, the beginning of the Jewish day.) Later in the same chapter, verse 33, Mark writes, “At the sixth hour darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour.” If you read verses 34-37, you can see why most scholars believe Jesus died shortly after the ninth hour began at 3:00, which means He was on the cross for about six hours.

Now let’s go back to very near the beginning of Jesus’ crucifixion. In Luke 23:34, we read: “Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.’“ Imagine: Jesus has just been nailed to the cross, and He asks His heavenly Father to forgive them! One question is: who is “them?” While I realize that there are those who believe that Jesus was forgiving all people for all time, I agree with those who say He was forgiving all those who confess their sins and believe in Him, for all time. 1 John 1:9 tells us, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” Psalm 32:5 says, “Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord’–and you forgave the guilt of my sin.” In other words, God’s forgiveness is conditional; people need to confess their sin and ask for His forgiveness. God does not forgive unrepentant sinners.

What about the second part of what Jesus said? “For they do not know what they are doing” means first of all, that those who directly participated in Jesus’ crucifixion didn’t understand or believe that they were crucifying the Messiah. 1 Corinthians 2:8 is very clear about this: “None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” There is also a very real sense in which no unrepentant sinner understands this; it isn’t until we come to Jesus in saving faith that we understand that our sin put Him on the cross.

Several years ago, I noticed something very striking in Matthew 27:44: “In the same way the robbers who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him.” Notice the word “robbers,” not “robber!” In other words, early during Jesus’ crucifixion, both criminals who were crucified with Jesus mocked Him. However, sometime during the next two-three hours, one of them had a change of heart. Luke 23:39-43 tells us, “One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: ‘Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!’ But the other criminal rebuked him. ‘Don’t you fear God,’ he said, ‘since you are under the same sentence?  We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.’ Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ Jesus answered him, ‘I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.’“

This criminal now understands that he is being punished justly, but that Jesus is the Perfect One, the Messiah; he even understands something of Jesus’ kingdom! He has acknowledged his sin and received Jesus’ forgiveness. I have often wondered if there are other things Jesus said on the cross which are not recorded for us in Scripture; regardless, this man had earlier heard Jesus ask His heavenly Father to forgive “them,” and here Jesus tells this man that he will join Him in paradise–on that very day!

If you read a few verses further in Luke, you will see that the Roman centurion also believed. Mark records it this way, in Chapter 15:39: “And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, ‘Surely this man was the Son of God!'” I believe we will see this Roman centurion in heaven as well.

This week, for the first time, I see the direct connection between the first two things Jesus said from the cross. First, He asks His heavenly Father to forgive all those who believe, and then He forgives a criminal who acknowledges his sin and implicitly asks for forgiveness. If you have not yet confessed your sin and asked Jesus for forgiveness, I pray that this will be the day you do it; He will forgive you, and you will experience a peace and joy like you never have before.

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Two years ago, I wrote a post about evidence for Jesus’ resurrection; you can read it here: https://keithpetersenblog.com/2021/03/24/evidence-for-the-resurrection/ Last year, I wrote a post about the Jewish mob who asked Pilate to release Barabbas, a criminal, rather than Jesus; you can read it here: https://keithpetersenblog.com/2022/04/07/give-us-barabbas/ These are two of my most-viewed posts.

“My Truth” and The Truth

Over the last few years, the phrase “my truth” has become very commonplace, especially among celebrities of one kind or another. Every time I hear or read it, I have a rather visceral reaction, which had caused me to question why that is.

In January of 2018, at the Golden Globes Awards ceremony, Oprah said, “Speaking your truth is the most powerful tool we all have.” That seems to be the moment when the phrase “my truth” went viral. Here are some other examples:

  • “Remember, all the answers you need are inside of you; you only have to become quiet enough to hear them.” (Debbie Ford, author (deceased)) I include this quote (written in 1998) because the idea of the answers being “inside you” seems to me to be somewhat of a precursor to “my truth.”
  • “As a comedian, I am obligated to tell you the truth, my truth. To share with you my beliefs, my perspective.” (Dane Cook, comedian) Cook says very explicitly that his truth means his perspective, or beliefs.
  • “Adults who loved and knew me, on many occasions sat me down and told me that I was black. As you could imagine, this had a profound impact on me and soon became my truth.” (Shaun King, author) King’s truth is found in his racial identity.
  • “My truth is I am gay and out, and if I can’t do that in my music, then I don’t need it.” (Billy Porter, singer) Porter’s truth is found in his sexual identity.
  • “This is your life; live it by your truth.” (Mikaela’s husband talking to her on TV series Manifest, final season) Truth here is in reference to Mikaela’s lived experience and perspective.
  • “Briana didn’t tell Trevor her truth because she thought that she would lose him if she did.”  (Kemi to C. Hemingway (pathologist) on TV series Alert) Here “her truth” means “her story.”
  • “I wouldn’t be surprised, Rusty, if you haven’t lied yet.  At least as you understand the truth.” (Tommy Molto to Rusty Sabich in Scott Turow’s Innocent) The phrase “my truth” is not explicitly used, but “the truth” refers to one man’s perspective about what he believes to have happened.
  • “Liberation from meaning leaves us skeptical of truth itself, comfortable only to acknowledge ‘your truth’ and ‘my truth,’ confident only in the reality of subjective feeling rather than objective fact.” (Michael J. Knowles, media host) This quote reveals a man of wisdom; Knowles understands the phrase “my truth” to be so often rooted in a person’s subjective feeling rather than objective fact.
  • “I’ve always been someone who’s believed in truth. I believe truth exists. I don’t believe in relativism, a ‘your truth, my truth’ kind of a thing. However, I also believe that the truth must always be spoken in love – and that grace and truth are found in Jesus Christ.” (Jonathan Jackson, actor) Jackson also shows wisdom in his understanding of “my truth” as being rooted in relativism. He also speaks of the truth and where it is found.

In summarizing these quotes, “my truth” most often means a person’s opinions/feelings or lived experience/”story.” In one case, it refers specifically to a man’s racial identity, and in another, his sexual identity. Thankfully, we have words of wisdom from Michael J. Knowles, Jonathan Jackson, and many others. However, the concept of absolute truth has largely gone by the wayside in our pluralistic, postmodern society, and in its place we have extreme relativism, where so many define “truth” according to themselves. Furthermore, as others have noted, “my truth” is non-negotiable, which means you are not allowed to question it. This explains the visceral reaction which I noted at the outset of this post.

With Good Friday/Easter weekend just two weeks away, I thought of Jesus’ exchange with Pilate, the Roman governor, on Good Friday morning in John 18:37-38: “You are a king, then?” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” “What is truth?” Pilate asked. With this he went out again to the Jews and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him.” However, Pilate gave in to pressure from the crowd and had Jesus crucified. Much has been written about Pilate’s question: “What is truth?” Some have been rather sympathetic to Pilate, but I think it’s clear that Pilate was a scoffer when it came to the truth, and he was motivated by fear.

A few chapters earlier, in John 14:6, Jesus tells us very clearly what, and especially Who, the Truth is: “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'” Yes, Jesus Himself is the absolute Truth, and the Bible reveals Him in His earthly humility as well as His heavenly glory. For anyone reading this who is not a follower of Jesus Christ, my prayer is that this is the time you will put your faith in Him.