World Improvement since 1800

(National Review 5/20/19):
Life Expectancy
1870: Europe: 36; America: 35; World: 30
2019: Europe: 81; America: 79; World: 72
Illiteracy
1800: World: 88%; 2019: World: 13%
Extreme Poverty
1820: World: 90%; 2019: World: <10%
Live in a Democracy
1816: World: <1%; 2015: World: 56%
% Living Beyond Age 5
1800: World: 57%; 2019: World: 96%

Key New Case Before USSCee Key Moral Issues

The Supreme Court will soon hear a very important case– Espinoza v. Montana Dept. of Revenue– which involves the anti-Catholic Blaine Amendment, a part of many state constitutions, & school choice.
Blaine Amendments were adopted by many states in the latter half of the 19th century when many new immigrants from Europe wanted to send their kids to Catholic schools. When the Blaine Amendment failed to pass & get added to our US Constitution, many states added it to their constitutions to prevent parents from choosing religious schools rather than the public schools (PS) which then existed.
The Montana Tax Credit Scholarship Program allows its citizens a $150 tax credit for contributions to privately-run scholarship programs, but it excludes any tax credits going to schools owned or operated by a church or synagogue.
The recent USSC Trinity Lutheran Church decision allowed state funds to go to resurface a church’s preschool playground just as it allowed such funding for secular schools. The funding was for a secular purpose (school playground resurfacing), and not for a “religious” purpose.
So also, in the case of scholarship awards, the funding is for the purpose of educating students in secular subjects, such as math, English, history and science. If religious subjects are also taught, there would be no extra funding for that.
The coverage for healthcare costs today is similar. State approved religious hospitals receive a fair share of public funding for healthcare chosen by the individual, at the same rate as secular or public hospitals.
Charter schools get lower funding levels than government run PS, and so taxpayers actually save money with charter schools. Funding private religious schools at levels well below public school funding would save taxpayers far more money. And such private schools would only be funded if they meet the educational requirements set by the state’s Department of Education.
But the key point is that parents should be able to choose any state accredited school—public or private, religious or secular—and receive their fair share of funding, which would always be less than the funding level for regular public schools. This would result in huge savings for taxpayers. And giving parents choice in education puts pressure on existing public schools to improve or they will lose more students to private schools. Everyone wins with school choice and competition—except the unions which would lose their educational monopoly. And, anti-religious bigots would also lose, as now parents would be free to select private schools with values being taught about key moral issues they support. And, no school would be funded if it sanctions hatred or violence.
This case (Espinoza v. Montana Rev. Dept.) could result in the elimination of Blaine Amendments in nearly 40 states which are supported by PS teacher unions& have a long history in anti-Catholicism and which deny religious freedom to all parents.
The First Amendment guarantees both “freedom from religion” and also “the free exercise of religion”. We do not want to see government deciding to support one religion over another, but we also do not want to see the government interfering with the free exercise of religion, and today that is a major problem in education.

Suicide is Growing

Sadly, we have seen recently a rising number of deaths through suicide. In nearly every nation, male suicide is far more common than female suicide. In the US, male suicides that result in death occur about 3 times as often as female suicides. But, on the other hand, females attempt suicide about twice as often as men. One of the few nations where female suicide deaths exceed male suicide deaths is India.
From 1980 until 2000, we had about 30,000 suicide deaths/year in our nation. In 2016, the number reached about 45,000. (Wikipedia)

Gun Terrorists & Media Bias

We’ve seen several recent (Aug. 3 & 4) acts of extreme gun violence with the killing of over 30 innocent civilians and wounding more than 50. One killing was in El Paso, Texas by a young man who was clearly a “white supremacist .” And he was often & correctly so identified by the media. Then the next day there was another mass killing in Dayton, Ohio by another young man, who was a left-winger & avowed Satanist.
But what was also interesting, but not surprising, was how rarely the liberal media identified this killer’s far-left beliefs.

Christianity & Homosexuality

One key aspect of Christianity with regard to Homosexuality is that we must love and respect the homosexual person, as he/she is clearly a child of God. The same is also true with regard to drug addicts and alcoholics. Such persons are children of God. But they suffer from a disorder—an addiction to drugs or alcohol, or a sexual attraction to persons of their own sex. But ONLY God can judge such individuals. We cannot and should not judge people’s souls.
However, we can judge the actions—drinking and getting drunk, or taking certain drugs and getting out of control. Such actions can be judged as objectively immoral and evil.
The same goes for gay sexual activity—i.e., sodomy. These actions are objectively evil and immoral, as are the actions of heterosexuals in fornication or adultery.
To honor drunkenness is crazy. So also is “honoring” sodomy by approving gay marriage. Sadly, some Catholic and Protestant groups have abandoned the historic Christian view that marriage is meant for one man & one woman, with the important objective of possibly creating new life to be loved & raised by parents.
We recently contacted a group called New Ways Ministry and spoke with a top official and asked him why their web site failed to
state the clear teaching of Christ’s church that gay sex is immoral and objectively evil. Yes, we must love and respect the homosexual person and not judge him as
an individual, as this is left to God alone. The gentleman hung up on us and would not answer our question: Why New Ways Ministry fails to state that gay sex (sodomy) is always immoral, and therefore gay marriage is objectively wrong.

NYC Public School Performance-
Regular PS vs. Charter –NYS Educ. Dept

(NY Post, 8/23/2019)
Proficiency % for Grades 3-8
2018 2019
English Math English Math
NYC Public 46.7 42.7 47.4 45.6
NYC Charter 57.3 59.6 57.3 63.2