There is one incontrovertible fact about America: We are a nation of immigrants. It is important to remember this even about former president Trump: His mother came from Tong, a remote Scottish settlement that was once Viking territory. His grandfather came from Kallstadt, a Bavarian village. In America, everyone is from somewhere else; even Native Americans crossed the Bering Strait millennia ago.
Like a modern politician, Absalom intentionally presents himself as an alternative king, and is crowned king in Hebron; David flees Jerusalem.
The Alabama Supreme Court clearly opened a new phase in the legal battle over when life begins. Embryos created and stored in a medical facility must be considered children under the state’s law governing harmful death, the Court ruled. The ruling involved three couples who had sued the Center for Reproductive Medicine, a fertility clinic in Mobile, for inadvertently destroying their embryos. The plaintiffs argued that they were entitled to punitive damages under Alabama’s 1972 Wrongful Death of a Minor Act. The Court argued that the embryos fell under Alabama’s definition of minors and that the negligence lawsuits could proceed. The case now goes back to the State District Court for further litigation.
David is paralysed by the guilt from his sin and cannot act decisively as the King or as a father regarding his sons Amnon and Absalom.
The Russian state blandly announced the death of Alexei Navalny. Navalny was Russia’s foremost dissident and opposition leader. Despite being poisoned and repeatedly punished with long bouts of isolation in remote prisons, Navalny stood unbroken. He continued to mock Putin and denounce the invasion of Ukraine. As Nicholas Kristof argues, “His wit and refusal to bow to authority made him a Kremlin nightmare.”
David mourns the loss of his son; Amnon rapes his half-sister Tamar; but David refuses to discipline Amnon.
In 2023, Jean M Twenge, Psychology professor at San Diego University, published an important book entitled Generation: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silent—And What They Mean For America’s Future. She offers profiles of the living generations in the midst of a century of social change
David’s sin with Bathsheba and the subsequent murder of her husband Uriah resulted in 5 consequences for David’s family and the kingdom.
As I am writing this piece, continued American aid for Ukraine is in grave doubt. Tucker Carlson recently conducted a friendly interview with Vladimir Putin. There are reports from the front lines that Russia is advancing, in part because of Ukrainian ammunition shortages. In short, the war is reaching a critical stage, and Ukraine may lose because, among other factors, there is increasing evidence that many Republicans are simply turning against Ukraine. In fact, in some GOP circles, there is now outright contempt for the Ukrainian cause.
In 1978, the historian Christopher Lasch published a profoundly important book, entitled The Culture of Narcissism, in which he argued that this culture “assumes that psychic health and personal liberation are synonymous with an absence of inner restraints, inhibitions, and ‘hangups.’” And what could offer more liberation than throwing off the constraints of one of humanity’s oldest institutions, monogamous marriage? Polyamory is the most recent manifestation of this narcissistic penchant.
