Making Sense of the Tragedy in Miami and Understanding a Rise in Deaths Not Linked to the Covid Virus - BreakPoint This Week
Breakpoint
Colson Center
4.8 • 3.1K Ratings
🗓️ 2 July 2021
⏱️ 63 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
John and Maria start by making sense of the tragedy in Miami. With the Champlain Towers collapse there are many questions. John discusses a few ways to consider tragedies, and how Christians can respond with a worldview large enough to hold the brokenness we're experiencing.
Maria then shares a commentary she wrote related to Gwen Berry, an athlete who recently turned her back to the American flag while standing on the podium during Olympic trials. John highlighted the importance of protecting liberties to dissent, even when dissent seems egregious to unity and the purpose of the Olympics.
John provides clarity on a recent letter sent from the IRS to a Christian organization that was seeking tax exempt status. The letter essentially told the organization they can't receive the status due to their practice of communicating a voting guideline that aligns with a religious perspective.
Maria then shared new data that shows a striking rise in deaths to young people. The data highlighted that the rise in deaths was not related to the Coronavirus. John outlines a few key points to help Christians not only think well on the issue, but potentially stand in support of young people who are suffering in light of the pandemic.
To close Maria shares how a recent beauty queen, Miss Nevada, is actually a biological male. The man identifies as transgender, competing in the beauty pageant and taking the next step in the competition to Miss America.
-- Story References --
The Champlain Towers, a Condominium Highrise, Collapsed Last Friday
The northeast portion of the building, facing the beach, fell to the ground, while other units were left standing. But after days of intensive searches, the scene appeared quiet on Thursday, with cranes frozen above the rubble. The silent scene froze heroes who are digging through rubble working to find the over 100 people still missing.
Why You're Free to Hate America
Last week at the U.S. Olympic Trials, an American hammer thrower turned away from the flag while the United States National Anthem played. Gwen Berry later told reporters that the national anthem "doesn't speak" for her.
IRS Denies 501(c)3 status to Conservative Group in TX
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has denied tax-exempt status to a Christian group in Texas on the grounds that "the bible [sic] teachings are typically affiliated with the [Republican] party and candidates."
Young American Adults Are Dying — and Not Just From Covid
Nearly 19% more Americans died in 2020 than in 2019, according to data that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This is the biggest such increase since 1918, when deaths rose 30%.
Transgender woman wins Miss Nevada USA pageant, "making history"
A transgender woman has been crowned Miss Nevada USA — for the first time in the pageant's history.
-- Cites and Recommendations --
John Adams - HBO Series on Former President John Adams
The Patriot - Roland Emmerich Directed Movie
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to Breakpoint this week where we're talking about the top news stories of the week from a Christian worldview. |
| 0:06.7 | Today we're going to talk about the situation in Surfside, Florida, where a condo collapsed, killing many people, and where many people are still missing. |
| 0:14.6 | We're also going to talk about a strange situation in Texas where the IRS is denying tax-exempt status to a conservative organization. |
| 0:23.6 | We're looking forward to our time together today. Thanks for joining us. Well, welcome to |
| 0:28.9 | Breakpoint this week, where we're talking about the major news stories of the week from a Christian |
| 0:33.6 | worldview. I'm Maria Bear, alongside John Stone Street, president of the Colson Center |
| 0:38.7 | for Christian Worldview. John, happy almost 4th of July. Are you going to be grilling out? |
| 0:44.5 | Oh, yeah. I probably. Usually that's the plans that my wife has for me, so I think that's probably |
| 0:51.2 | the case. So is that your domain? If you guys are grilling out, is that your job? |
| 0:56.7 | Sarah will grill a little bit, but yeah, I do actually like to do it than a good bit. |
| 1:02.0 | It's always, you know, it's not too hot to do it here in the summer. |
| 1:04.6 | That's the other thing. |
| 1:05.4 | You know, it's not like brutally hot. |
| 1:07.5 | So, yeah, it's pretty nice. |
| 1:09.6 | Did you see that it was like 121 in Portland? |
| 1:14.3 | Yeah, yeah, just amazing. |
| 1:16.2 | And that's a part of the country. |
| 1:18.5 | You know, if you live in the Midwest or, you know, the southeast, |
| 1:21.3 | everybody has air conditioning. |
| 1:22.8 | If you live in Colorado, it's probably 50-50, probably even less. |
| 1:26.7 | If you live out in Seattle, I think the numbers were, what, 20% or something like that, of homes, actually had air conditioning. |
| 1:33.2 | So that means, you know, the vast majority of people are not only dealing with that, that can't even really go inside and escape it. |
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