They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality as to indulge in every kind of impurity and they are full of greed.
Ephesians 4:18-19 NIV
Education is a big deal in my family. My father worked for the Berkeley USD his whole career, working himself up from P.E. Teacher to Associate Superintendent. Several of my cousins also work(ed) in school districts. But the emphasis is not on collecting degrees - it is on learning. I have worked with people that don't have college degrees that are far smarter and wiser than those who do hold degrees. The one thing that smart and wise folks have in common is the willingness to learn. They read, they take classes (formal and informal), they learn about history, other peoples and cultures.
Unfortunately, I feel as if there's an effort now to embrace ignorance or, at the very least, to keep the 45-Base of Insurrectionists ignorant. It is much easier to spread a lie than to prove a truth. And even though there's been a ton of proof that Biden won the election, the Big Lie continues. The Virginia governor won on the lie that Critical Race Theory is being taught in K-12 (although McAuliffe made plenty of gaffes to contribute to his loss), and Conservatives spread the false idea that CRT makes White people hate themselves. It's ironic to me that people who say Liberals are "snowflakes" still haven't acknowledged that Biden won the election, that there is systemic racism (which we should all be trying to eradicate), and that some still carry Confederate flags as if they never lost the Civil War.
Speaking of ignorance, how is it that the United States of America, a country with plenty of vaccines at our disposal, still has over 750K deaths (of the 5 million worldwide)? It's because of false information being put out there about the vaccines, it's because of the original lies about it being a "Democratic hoax," it's because people are trying to make a public safety issue a personal rights issue. Quite simply, it's about willful ignorance and political bullshit. Both Trump and Biden should've been united against this pandemic. Heck, Biden even praised Trump's Operation Warp Speed (although Trump's distribution plan was poor/nonexistant.) But the GOP is capitalizing on their far-right ignorant base to fight even this pandemic which everybody should have been united against.
The other thing I don't get is people's objections to Renewable Energy. Yes, I drive a gas-powered car in addition to a hybrid. And I do turn on my gas-powered heater in the winter. But I also realize that this planet only has so much fossil fuel available, and I believe that we have enough smart people in this world to figure out how to generate renewable energy. This would also open up jobs for people in addition to taking care of the planet. Personally, I call it "Planet Care" instead of Climate Change because it seems some people cling to ignorance and won't learn about CC because it has a liberal name. To put it simply, if you're a Christian and reading this, I believe God made us stewards of this planet and we should take care of it. If we keep drilling into it to get limited resources, we're going to wreck the planet and run out of those resources anyway.
So why are the Conservatives leveraging ignorance? Lately, you hear them complaining about "Cancel Culture" (I call it "Consequence Culture"), vaccine and masking mandates and Election Fraud. I believe they are telling lies and exploiting the ignorance because they want to deflect attention away from the January 6 Insurrection Investigations and to continue passing Voter Restriction laws and gerrymander districts to win elections. Instead of simply working for the people, they are basically cheating to get their way.
I've been following Heather Cox Richardson, a historian who breaks down the day's political events and have learned a lot. While it's frustrating to me (and I'm sure most Americans) that Congress takes so long to get anything done, I recognize that it's because there's constant push/pull within the Democrats' moderate and progressive wings... all while trying to work with the obstructionist Republicans who don't want the Democrats to get a "win." Just as proving out truths takes time, so does making any actual real progress... and I'm glad that, at the very least, the Infrastructure Bill passed.
