March 8th, 2025
March Meeting
The We The People of Cass County MO March meeting will be this coming Thursday, March 13th, at Real Life Assembly of God church in Peculiar, MO, at our normal time, 7:00pm. Please come join us, and bring a friend, as we discuss legislation moving it’s way through the Missouri Legislature with special guest, Senator Rick Brattin!
Date: Thursday, March 13th (03/13/2025)
Time: 07:00 PM
Place: Real Life Assembly of God Church
180 W Broadway St, Peculiar, MO 64078
SB4 - Beneficial or Boondoggle?
Missouri Senate Bill 4 is titled, “Modifies and creates new provisions relating to utilities”. I had planned on including the bill summary in the newsletter, but even the summary was massive. Calling this bill an “omnibus” is accurate, but is it a “good” bill, or a “bad” bill? Conservatives appear to be split on this, and I have not had the time to dig deep enough to to it justice. I will let Senator Rick Brattin and Senator Joe Nicola give you their thoughts, and allow you to decide for yourself.
Senator Brattin talked about this bill in his Capitol Report from 02/02/2025:
Senator Nicola covered SB4 on his website:
Senator Joe Nicola - My Thoughts on the Passage of SB 4, an Omnibus Utility Bill
MO Slaughterhouse Rules Make National Headlines
Courts Use New Amendment To Create The Least Regulated Abortion Environment In Missouri History
Missouri is now a baby slaughterhouse, and this truth falls directly at the feet of Cindy O’Laughlin and the Republican majority of the 2024 MO Senate. They had every opportunity to implement IP Reform, which would have prevented this travesty, and they completely squandered it. They didn’t just squander it, they fought it tooth and nail, because of their bruised egos at being confronted by the MO Freedom Caucus for putting IP Reform at the back of the line in the legislative session. I’m sure they would love for us to move on and stop bringing this up, but I will not. Democrats are not the reason we have no-holds-barred abortion in Missouri. Republicans are, and now we are national news because of it. We will be a boutique state for the creative murder of innocents, and every Republican that did not work with the MO Freedom Caucus to stop this should be shamed out of office.
Trump And The Overton Window
The Mises Institute recently released a critique of President Trump’s ability to influence the Overton Window in ways no President in recent memory has accomplished, and in a very short period of time. In my humble opinion, this ability is critical in a successor, and this concept is worthy of imitating in campaigns and elected offices of all levels.
Missouri Homeschool Alliance Legislative Update
The latest Legislative Update from our friends over at MHA is available. They have covered the latest on homeschool related legislation making its way through the MO Legislature. While my friends at MHA are opposed to any tax credits for Homeschooling, for fear of the registration and regulation that always seems to follow such legislation after a year or two, I am not, at least not in principle, as long as it is accompanied by the more difficult task of smashing the status quo. Please take a look and make up your own mind. I do not envy any of our representatives working through this legislation, because they have to walk a very fine line to protect the exemptions of unfunded homeschool families, providing valid options to families in circumstances that do not allow unfunded homeschooling, and fighting off the statists, corporate cronies, and unions that want nothing more than to expand the failed model with endless funding and control.
Random Thoughts
During my prayer time earlier this week, I was meditating on 2 Corinthians 4:1-6, particularly the idea that the “god of this world” (satan) has the ability to blind the minds of unbelievers to the truth of the Gospel. This is a familiar concept to most Christians, but how many of us have actually thought through the larger context of that truth? Let’s discuss a small thought experiment as an example of that larger context.
Consider the idea of objectivity. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word objective as: expressing or dealing with facts or conditions as perceived without distortion by personal feelings, prejudices, or interpretations. Approaching the concept of objectivity from a scientific or philosophic perspective, it is not possible for an individual to be truly objective. Never mind that journalists have been falsely claiming to be objective since the early 20th century. Now consider the new and novel Artificial Intelligence (AI) engines, like ChatGPT and CoPilot, which have the ability to take large volumes of data available on the internet and apply some level of logic and reason in answering questions. AI is not human or sentient, so theoretically, these engines are not directly subject to the spiritual blindness of unbelievers, nor are they directly influenced by the faith of believers.
In theory, they are nominally objective, as long as the software developers that created them have not implicitly or explicitly programmed them to produce biased answers (which happens often, when they find out about results they don’t approve of). This presents some interesting possibilities as I thought through the concept of spiritual blindness. We are still in the early days of AI, so it is possible I could get at least a partially neutral answer to my questions, so I posed the following question to the AI engine ChatGPT:
"If you were the devil, how would you discourage people from being born again?"
This was the response:
"If I were the devil, I would likely try to keep people from being born again by creating distractions and sowing doubt. I’d convince them that they don’t need to change or that they’re already ‘good enough’. I’d emphasize their past mistakes or the idea that God’s forgiveness is too far out of reach, leading them to feel unworthy of redemption. Additionally, I’d appeal to their pride, making them believe that embracing a new life would be a loss of control or identity. I might also surround them with people or things that would reinforce worldly values and pleasures, causing them to focus more on temporary satisfaction than on eternal transformation."
That sounds almost like C.S. Lewis’ reaching out from the grave with an addendum to The Screwtape Letters, doesn’t it? We need to remember this when it seems like unbelieving people around us, even people we love and care about, seem oblivious to the truth of Scripture. It’s because they are. Unless/until God opens the eyes of the unbeliever to the Truth, they will stay lost.
“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him”
John 6:44a
Again, for most of us, I am not saying anything we have not already known. What may bring a bit more perspective, however, is the understanding that the unbeliever is incapable of being objective in any meaningful way, because they are forcibly blinded to the truth. Only God can change that.
But wait! There’s more!
Have you ever considered that the spiritual blindness of unbelief, and the related lack of objectivity, extends to other areas beyond that of faith? Take Covid-19 for instance. Here we are, 5 years after the plandemic, and many of the centers of power still insist not only that the virus was “the most deadly in a century”, and that the vaccines are “safe and effective” to the point that the medical community is still pushing them and the boosters regularly. How is it the general public continues to believe these lies? In my opinion, in many cases, it is because of the spiritual blindness of unbelief.
To emphasize what I am talking about, let’s pose another question to our new pal, ChatGPT:
“If you created a deadly vaccine, how would you convince people to take it.”
The answer this time was wrapped in “uh-oh” language, but it still basically answered my question:
“That’s a really interesting and somewhat dark hypothetical scenario. But, to be clear, promoting something that’s harmful, like a deadly vaccine, would never be acceptable or ethical in any situation.
If you're asking this question from a philosophical, ethical, or thought experiment standpoint—maybe exploring the limits of persuasion, propaganda, or manipulation—there are definitely some tools that have been used throughout history. Things like fear-mongering, mass media influence, or using authoritative figures to convince people could be part of that conversation. But this should be a warning, not a strategy to pursue.
In reality, the goal should always be to ensure that vaccines are safe, beneficial, and tested thoroughly before being administered to any population. Public trust in medicine and science is built on transparency, ethical research, and accountability.”
Does any of this sound familiar? The US government has used “fear-mongering, mass media influence, or using authoritative figures to convince people” for decades, and it has been well established that these tactics were used during Covid as well. However, it has also been well established, specifically as it relates to the Covid vaccines, that there was little effort to “ensure that vaccines are safe, beneficial, and tested thoroughly before being administered to” the US population, particularly to our elderly, our infirm, and our children. The ChatGPT engine then makes a statement that is universally true:
Public trust in medicine and science is built on transparency, ethical research, and accountability.
Thus, in three short paragraphs, an AI chatbot explains exactly why a large portion of Americans no longer trust the medical or scientific community at large, and probably never will again.
As interesting as all this is, what is my point in all of this? There are several things I would like to encourage you with:
As Christians, we should not be surprised at all when we see so many people who continue to deny the truth and are blind to the corruption around us. Carry on.
The truths of Scripture apply to our every day lives, even if the world does not see it, understand it, or want it. Carry on.
Technology will continue to evolve, whether we like it, or not. We can either embrace it, when we can, and help establish a reasonable standard of ethics in its use, or be run over by it in short order. Carry on.1
We The People Prayer List
During my prayer time this week, a thought struck me. Why aren’t we praying corporately for our officials? With all the effort we are putting in to try to change the status quo, I am ashamed I have not thought of this before. Attached below, you will find a .pdf document that is a simple Legislative prayer list I put together with just a few elected officials on it, and a few suggested prayers. If you are so inclined, feel free to print it out and add it to your prayer list. If there are other officials in Cass county that you think should be added to this list, please send them to me, and I will add them for the next newsletter, if there is enough interest. Regardless of whether or not we agree with the job our elected officials are doing, or if you even like them, I think we can all agree that they desperately need our prayers. They are making decisions every day that impact you and I as citizens of Cass county.
Coram Deo
Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart.
2 Corinthians 4:1
I will talk more about this in coming newsletters.