All posts by Dr. Charlie Self

We Know Better, Part 5: Clarity in our Communication

July 20th, 2022 |

In this era of inversion and perversion of knowledge and morality, we are watching the triumph of solipsism (I invent my own world) and subjectivism (everything is relative – except my right to feel good) over empirical observation and rational reflection. One moment we are told to “follow the science” and the next we are informed that the science is flawed (when it digresses from our chosen narrative or opinion).  Whether it is COVID policies, gender anarchy, political ideology, or moral reflection, we have chaos in the public square and cancellation of women and men deviating from particular elites’ norms.

A key reason for this confusion is alteration of the meaning of particular words and concepts. What was “understood” just a decade or two ago is now, “triggering” to some newly identified oppressed group.

The meaning of particular terms can change over time and common understandings do evolve. For example, “liberal(ism)” in the 18th and 19th centuries meant little government interference and affirmation of free markets. By the mod-20th century, new meanings were attached to this idea, with more government intervention a hallmark of this term. I am not being negative about this term, just making a point that words can change. Another example today is “democracy.” America is a constitutional republic with representative governance and democratic elements. We are not a pure democracy where a current 51% can run roughshod over the minority. Local and state governments still matter. Saying that the latest SCOTUS decision sending abortion back to the states is a, “threat to democracy” is a deceptive and ignorant word salad of monumental proportions. What happened was a decentralizing of authority and pro-choice adherents must now make their arguments in many locales. We actually have more democracy, not less here.

In today’s public square we now have insane new phrases such as “pregnant people” and “birthing people” in an attempt to normalize biological females that want to identify as men and still birth a child. Any disagreement with these manufactured terms is “violence” against the ½ of 1% trans community. Friends, the science is clear: with rare exceptions, all humans are born with XX or XY chromosomes…and no hormones or surgeries will change this. We should help everyone become whole and comfortable in their given bodies, not encourage confusion and mutilation.

Racial tensions are real and we still have work to do so all have access and opportunity to flourish. Progress is hindered by elites depriving underserved families of school choice and economic opportunities. Proponents of charter schools and vouchers, and entrepreneurial efforts are labeled racist even thought their work serves the neediest communities. There are a million African American families waiting for charter school opportunities. This perversion of language is also seen when Black conservatives are declared, “the Black face(s) of White Supremacy.” Such labeling prevents serious debates over principles and policies that actually lift people out of poverty and lead to racial reconciliation. “You ain’t Black” if you do not vote for one party is a perfect example of nonsense overcoming critical reflection. This convoluted thinking is now ruining education as words like, “objective truth” and “agency” and even answers in mathematics are labeled racist!

Climate change policies are destroying our economy and oppressing the poor and working classes – by design. The global elites are using a false apocalypse to gain more power and wealth and control everyday life. As mentioned in an essay above, we can continue improving our ecology without impoverishing hard working people. These policies also accelerate inflation and restrict real scientific creativity. Notice that “global warming” (which has been cooling off and on for two decades) is now “climate change” and the data is tightly controlled. Why? Because there is no imminent threat to our planet, and, without the cooperation of China, India and Russia, no progress is possible. American emissions are down considerably and our oil refining is 46% cleaner than anything from Russia. The cries for electric cars are hypocritical due to the lack of infrastructure, high price, use of slave labor in procuring rare earth minerals, and disdain for the working class.

Abortion in rare circumstances can be healthcare when a mother’s life in danger. Apart from this unusual moment, abortion is killing a human person and the vocabulary anarchy here is stunning. When asked about any limits to abortion (gestational age), pro-choice advocates revert to the doctor-patient relationship, even though Roe v. Wade was rooted in viability. These confused folks are advocating that crisis pregnancy centers be shuttered in the name of “real” healthcare. The inversion here is horrendous – there is much better healthcare offered by these centers than the abortion mills of Planned Parenthood that keep preventing any legislation demanding serious medical accountability. “Access” for pro-choice means abortions all the way to birth and allowing a live baby who survives this horror to die if not wanted.

Words matter. Humans are male or female. Democracy is good – and representative governance that is local is better that the Washington, D.C. Leviathan. “Birthing persons and “pregnant people” are adult biological females. “Cisgendered” means a normal man or woman. “Green” policies are an excuse for bureaucrats accumulating power. It is time for clarity and ending the intentional confusion of Orwellian elites. “African American” and “Hispanic-Latino” identities are not confined to one political ideology.

Let’s restore sanity and true debate.

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America: An Experiment in Virtue-Based Liberty

July 8th, 2022 |

As we celebrate our nation’s 246th birthday, it is a good time for reflection on our historical and contemporary strengths and weaknesses, and rededicate ourselves to best ideals of the founders and framers.

Trigger warnings: If you regard America as the source of most of the evil in the world, you will be provoked by the essay. If you regard America as a divinely-chosen nation, you will be unhappy. OK, time for reflection.

American history has a few saints and many sinners. The founding of colonies such as Plymouth, Rhode Island, Maryland, and Pennsylvania with freedom of religion baked into their identities are a highlight of our history. The intolerance found in 17th and 18th century Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Virginia is tragic for liberty.

Slavery came crashing to our shores in 1619 and affected all American colonies, even where it was not widely practiced. The de facto and de jure oppression of million due to race violated everything later enumerated in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. This is why African Americans rightly speak of three American founding moments: the “promissory note” of 1776, the Emancipation of Juneteenth, 1865 with the passage of 14th and 15th Amendments, and the Civil Rights and Voting Acts of 1965. We are still overcoming the systemic evils of slavery and Jim Crow, but progress has been made.

Religious and social awakenings have helped the cause of justice throughout our history. Abolitionist movements, educational and labor reform, 70 years of work by the Suffragettes, and many more private and public initiatives have cleared the way for millions to enjoy a better life. We must celebrate these moments of progress and well as lament the evils they sought to overcome.

We have opened and shut our gates to immigrants during our 246 years. Like all Empires (yes, we are an empire, with the conquest of a continent and acquisition of oversee territories), a dominant tribe begins opening citizenship to others. For the USA, White Protestants have haltingly welcomed women and men from all cultures. From the despised Irish to the isolated Chinese, to a huge Central and Eastern European influx in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, along with the variegated hospitality to Hispanic/Latino neighbors. At times we fulfilled the words of the Statue of Liberty and welcomed the “huddled masses.” At other times, xenophobia overtook justice and Fortress America with all its toxic narrowness took over. Such evil kept thousands of Jews from finding refuge during the Shoah. Other times it was non-European groups that were systemically kept out. Ironically, the current non-policies for immigration allow foreign money to buy influence and open our doors to whoever can pay, while denying many hard-working folks opportunities and pathways to citizenship.

America is a land of economic opportunity, and, in the last half-century, a generous benefactor to those who struggle. We are still the land of promise for millions, while we struggle to reform bad welfare policies and poor educational systems that keep too many citizens from flourishing. Once again, a mixture of greatness and deep flaws.

Finally, our treatment of the Indigenous Peoples from the 17th century to the present was uniformly unjust, with only a few exceptions led by missionaries and visionaries. Exploitation was unnecessary – we could still have fashioned our free land without breaking every treaty, forcible conquest and exile, and maltreatment of cultures quite divergent from the European imports. Only repentance, economic repair, and humility can begin repairing this history. Yes, the Indigenous were not all virtuous, and one can argue that there were moments of violence perpetrated on colonists and settlers that were evil. But the proportionality is clear, and the Christian and Enlightened ideals of the (mostly) White conquerors were subverted by greed and racism.

Finally, our history has been punctuated with marvelous religious and social awakenings that further the cause of liberty, and enshrining freedom of conscience/religion in the First Amendment has made all religious communities stronger and self-sufficient. We remain one of the few nations in the world where anyone can peaceably start a religious community without permission from the government (unless you desire tax-exemption). Right now, we can assemble and practice our faiths with no interference from the state. Yes, there are complications and exceptions, but this remains the most enduring legacy of our American Experiment.

So, let’s raise a toast, and fall to our knees. Let’s celebrate opportunity and lament injustice. Let’s labor so all can flourish, and humbly ask for divine help. Happy Birthday, USA!

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We Know Better, Part 4: Being Human

June 30th, 2022 |

We are in a crisis of human identity. Both anthropology (the study of human nature, cultures, and experiences) and epistemology (the study of knowledge and the search for the truth particular matters) are being debated in unprecedented ways.

In this essay, I am NOT advocating to any reversion to cultural-historical functions for women and men or calling for coercive rules for how adults peaceably regulate their lives. A pluralistic, free, and virtuous society rests on freedom of conscience and voluntary association(s). In the spirit of the title of this series, I am asking that we pause from our misplaced anger and unreflected compassion and realize that we do know better about sexual identity.

There is no place for bullying or harming any person of any identity. But declaring criticism of these ideologies, “violence” is itself an attack on freedom of conscience.

When a Supreme Court Justice appointee refuses to define the word woman (an adult biological female is the proper answer), the triumph of subjectivism is almost complete. When even secular feminist thinkers are excoriated for not affirming every current fad of gender anarchy, we are in trouble. When normative biological sexual identity is defined as “cisgender(ed)” and any hints of the differences between boys and girls are called out as “toxic” – we are in trouble.

As I share my thoughts, I come to this with decades of education and interaction in the epicenters of gender reflection: Santa Cruz and Berkeley, CA. All of my academic degrees and much of my work has been amidst the ever-changing currents of what is politically/publicly acceptable. I have laughed and cried, served and worked with women and men of all faiths or none, and all manner of sexual attractions and identities. Each person is a divine image-bearer and offers much to our world. And, until recently, my deepest convictions were at least somewhat respected and tolerated. After the Supreme court decision of 2015 affirming gay marriage (with the Justices admitting that many will disagree and must be allowed such freedom), it seemed that everything desired by proponents of non-traditional lifestyles was in place. No discrimination, no persecution for private behavior, and access to all privileges and services others enjoy.

But the radical proponents of gender anarchy were not done. Suddenly our culture wars metastasize and there are now scores of identities that must be publicly celebrated, and children must have the right to alter their body’s chemistry and even eliminate signs of their biological sex, without permission from parents! Now the real agenda of the radical Left is exposed: destruction of the biological/nuclear family. Mom, Dad, and biological children in a unit of loving cooperation is now seen as hindering progress toward “the collective” and a remnant of outdated religion. Never mind that in all civilizations throughout all of history, parents and children (and their extended clans) are the heart of human identity and flourishing.

The pagan-secular Towel of Babel is now a transhumanism of complete subjectivity.

When feminists Martina Navratilova, J.K. Rowling and Naomi Wolf are excoriated as “TERFs” (trans-exclusionary radical feminists) and biological males can choose new bathrooms and compete in female sports simply by declaring a new identity, we are in trouble.

Friends, we know better. With rare exceptions, the DNA and physiology of male and female are innate and unchangeable. There is HUGE range of behaviors and dispositions (and neuroscience affirms a range of conditions) of males and females, so stereotyping is unhelpful and unscientific. If adults desire a certain identity, name change, and have a range of affections, that is their private business. But asking rational and religious people to promote such ideas and actions is coercive and a violation of conscience.

Friends, we know better. Children and adolescents are in a constant state of development and expecting them to have the faculties for choosing their gender and ripping such choices away from family systems is cruel and unjust. Research for more than half a century places the number of long-term same-sex attracted and bisexual people at somewhere around 5% of the population (Kinsey’s bad research and his 10% figure from the 1950s have been repudiated many times), for men and women over 25. The explosion in adolescents identifying as bi- or trans- is clear cultural conditioning. When school officials hide children “transitioning” from parents, this is a complete violation of family preeminence over the state.

We know better. Biology matters. Public schools have no business imposing their ideologies on students and hiding their agendas from parents. Ethical statements about sexual identity and practices are not violence. Let’s affirm liberty for all – including the liberty to make moral proclamations without fear.

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We Know Better, Part 3: A Sustainable Energy Future

June 1st, 2022 |

Humankind is wildly and wonderfully inventive. From harnessing fire to cook our proteins to replacing foraging with farming, we historically keep developing ways to enhance our lives. From indoor plumbing to access to transportation, from electricity to the internet, we continually elevate our access to goods and services. In the last seven decades, abject poverty in our world has declined from 40% to 15% of the global population.

In the area of energy, the last three centuries have been amazing. From steam to coal to oil and gas, from geothermal and natural gas to nuclear and solar power, we keep inventing new ways to give more people access to affordable energy.

Development has its price, and we have had to work hard to clean up the ecosystems we damage with our progress. We all know about environmental disasters, from Three Mile Island to Love Canal, Chernobyl to Great Lakes pollution. For many sensitive to environmental concerns, these and other moments are a call for drastic action and the immediate end to fossil fuels. Add to this the apocalyptic language of climate change advocates and the stage is set for increased coercive national and international power to regulate energy and compel change.

What this history is lacking is the positive contributions of free markets and scientific progress to a cleaner future without massive transfers of wealth impoverishing the working and middle classes. All the policies of the UN, Davos, and a variety of non-binding agreements call for massive bureaucracies and wealth transfers that have no guarantee of any improvements in global temperatures. The price tag and Leviathan controls keep increasing. Several UN officials have admitted that even if all nations signed on to the Paris Accords and take drastic action, that the impact would be negligible. All officials affirm the real goal – wealth concentration and transfer that impoverished the middle class in the West as well as developing economies globally.

The current Administration has deliberately moved the USA from energy independence to skyrocketing prices and programs costing trillions in inefficient green technologies. What is never highlighted in most media are the tremendous quantum leaps in lowering emissions, increasing efficiency, and the research into true alternatives to fossil fuels. European nations have refired coal plants to power electric cars. Nuclear energy sustains much of Western Europe. The rare minerals and slave labor employed for batteries is not part of the narrative. We CAN recycle plastics better, make current fuels cleaner, AND develop new technologies.

The same people telling us to drive expensive electric vehicles buy their organic produce in local markets, with their arugula transported from family farms in diesel trucks. Line-caught salmon and tuna come to our shores in boats using regular fuel. Celebrities take private jets to lecture the masses about conforming to global governance. We can do better.

The way forward is not the “Good old days” of gas guzzlers and no environmental standards. We have come too far for that. We must refine current energy sources while we develop cost-effective new ones. Free markets must lead the way, not inefficient federal agencies. We need new oil and gas leases properly administrated. We need to commend Israel’s ability to supply energy to Europe without hindrance and favoritism to an aggressive Russian empire. Reasonable incentives for cleanliness and efficiency are helpful, but current draconian laws in California and elsewhere will only continue shrinking the working and middle classes.

This both/and prudential approach is what most people favor, except for the political and technological elites that believe they are the smart ones and should tell “the people” what they really need. We must shrink federal and global bureaucracies, and have more local and regional governance. We can improve our ecosystems while expanding economic opportunity, if we have courage and wisdom empowering creativity and innovation through free markets.

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We Know Better, Part 2: Creating a Culture of Flourishing

May 24th, 2022 |

Half a century ago, Roe v. Wade created a right to abortion out of thin legal air. Fabricating a right to privacy loosely connected with human rights amendments, The Supreme Court overruled many state laws. The language of the ruling is rooted in ambiguity, with the majority opinion admitting that future scientific progress on viability could alter the application of this right. Feminists hailed the ruling as a woman’s right to bodily autonomy and the end of the, “back alley/coat hanger” era of abortions. Since 1973, over 62,000,000 babies have been killed, a disproportionate number being babies of color, especially African American children.

For the first thirty years after Roe v. Wade, leaders in both parties were found in the pro-choice (pro-abortion) and pro-life (anti-abortion) camps. Almost all agreed that abortions in the final trimester should be avoided. Pro-life leaders understood there were rare exceptions that needed medical accommodation. The Hyde Amendment prevented federal funds from being used to finance abortions. Casey vs. Planned Parenthood further cemented pro-abortion policies. In the mid-1990s, the late Justice Ginsburg admitted that Roe rested on dubious legal and scientific foundations and needed to become federal legislation.

In the last two decades, pro-abortion advocates have gone from, “safe, legal, and rare” to “anytime, for any reason, up to and even during delivery” and “shout your abortion” as a positive thing. Economics, emotional happiness, and depersonalization of the developing child in the womb are all part of this radicalized strategy.

With a Supreme Court ruling immanent on abortion restrictions in Mississippi, the stage is set for the partial or complete overturning of Roe v. Wade. An unprecedented leak of an early draft penned by Justice Alito has enraged pro-abortion forces and threats of violence loom large as I write this essay.

As a thoughtful Christian and caring human being, I cannot in good conscience condone the destruction of innocent life, from conception to coronation. Tragedies of natural miscarriages and occasional urgent medical emergencies are one thing, but making the exceptions a general rule is nothing less that dehumanization of the vulnerable and state-sanctioned killing. By the way, I am also against the death penalty for civilian criminals, mainly because of 1) the possibility of a mistaken conviction; and 2) the desire for redemption for the convicted, even while in prison for life. Many current euthanasia laws are immoral and the number of intentional deaths is increasing.

Our need: a new vision of human flourishing

What I write here will not change the minds of advocates on either side, unless there is a fresh way of envisioning and framing the entire issue. We need a culture of life, a conscientious consensus on human flourishing that can unite women and men of goodwill and welcome children as gifts, not burdens, and unique persons, not clumps of cells. Here are some beginning axioms, some values that can help refocus and even reimagine the conversation:

  • Protecting the unborn is part of a larger vision of caring for the vulnerable and affirming the value of every human person, regardless of their utility to society. From the unborn to the physically and mentally challenged, to the mentally ill and those struggling with diseases and old age, ALL people matter.
  • We must create safe pathways for women to report sexual assaults and foster a climate of dignity so that perpetrators cannot intimidate their victims, with shame displaced by liberation for those who receive help. 
  • Anti-abortion advocates are often accused of not caring for mothers and children outside of the womb. This is an unfounded assertion, as there are hundreds, even thousands of agencies, centers, churches, and community groups ready to help. We can do better in empowering single moms (and couples) for a brighter future, including education and job training, housing and medical care. 
  • Churches and community groups can expand their services for adoption and foster care and help place children in loving homes, as well as offer safe haven for incest and rape victims.
  • We can incentivize marriage and work by demanding greater accountability of the fathers for the children they help conceive and working to get people off unemployment and welfare. 
  • We can encourage young adults to delay sexual intimacy until marriage, finish at least a high school education, then remain faithful in their marriages (with exceptions for abuse, abandonment, and adultery, of course). Marital sexual intimacy is not only for procreation; however, we must stop divorcing this sacred act from one of its divinely-intended purposes.
  • We must reject dehumanizing euphemisms for the developing child in the womb. An embryo and a fetus are growing human persons, not clumps of cells.
  • In this flourishing future, we are not punishing the vulnerable, but persuading women and men of conscience with moral arguments, as well as scientific evidence.

The late Theodore Hershberg, former president of Notre Dame University, prayed we would be a society that welcomes children as a gift, not a burden. Philosopher Peter Kreeft argues that abortion is the moral issue of our day because underneath all the arguments are our understanding of God’s gifts of life and choice. May we choose life and flourishing.

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