On 26 June 2015, the US Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that the 14th Amendment requires that all states license marriages between same-sex couples and recognize all marriages that were lawfully performed out of state. We have the ability to now evaluate the effects of this decision over the last eight years. Indeed, Matthew Schmitz, editor of Compact, has done just that. In an important article in First Things, Schmitz itemizes several ways that this decision has changed America.

As I have argued many times in Issues in Perspective, God has created three primary institutions, each with clear stewardship responsibilities: The family, the state and the church. Our God is a God of order and structure. Disorder, chaos and dysfunction result from not following His moral law and His revelation to us in His Word. God created humanity to live in community submitting to Him and to the institutions He has created. With the accommodation to postmodern autonomy, commitment to God and to His institutions is in serious decline. Disorder, dysfunction and chaos are the rule. In this edition of Issues, I want to focus on four consequences of this disorder.

We have all heard the term “woke.” It is part of our cultural dialogue. With an obvious difference in emphasis, both the left and the right along the political spectrum use the term. But, what exactly does “woke” mean in American civilization? Ross Douthat has perhaps given the best summary of the power and appeal of “wokeness.” All Americans treasure equality and liberty; we seek to transform these ideals into living reality within our culture. But there remain limits, disappointments and defeats—and terrible disparities persist.

That Russia is committing war crimes against the Ukrainian people is an indisputable fact. Consider what Putin’s forces are doing to evangelical churches in Ukraine […] Russian war crimes in Ukraine are incontrovertible.

In mid-March 2023, Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed to reestablish diplomatic relations and reopen embassies after seven years of conflict and tension. The major diplomatic breakthrough negotiated with China lowers the chance of armed conflict between the Mideast rivals — both directly and in proxy conflicts around the region (e.g., Yemen). The deal, struck in Beijing amid its ceremonial National People’s Congress, represents a major diplomatic victory for the Chinese as Gulf Arab states perceive the United States slowly withdrawing from the wider Middle East.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 stipulates the vital importance of parents in educating children: There is to be a formal structure where children are taught facts, ethical standards and doctrinal truth. They are also to model these virtues, values and standards before their children. Parents are thus central in the moral and spiritual formation of their children. In America, parents, the church and the school should be cooperative and supportive in accomplishing this goal of education. But moral and spiritual formation has been replaced by indoctrination and the pursuit of personal autonomy. It is difficult to be optimistic about the future of public education in the US. Christian parents need to take seriously their responsibility before God in educating their children.

The Age of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is upon us. It is a transformation of human thought and interaction with machines unprecedented in human history. Many are talking about AI but few understand it and even fewer are wrestling with the ethical implications of this revolution. Recently, Henry Kissinger, Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google and Daniel Huttenlocher, Dean of the Schwarzman College of Computing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, published an article in the Wall Street Journal that profoundly impacted me personally.

In 1963 Betty Friedan published her bombshell, The Feminine Mystique, which argued, among other things, that traditional gender roles had compartmentalized women as homemakers—to their detriment. Arguably, Friedan’s book was the manifesto of the feminist revolution. Laws and cultural norms changed as equal treatment of and more professional opportunities for women increased—many changes which were welcomed and long overdue. But what has been the effect of all of this on men and women? Has it all been positive?

Sports’ betting, illegal outside Nevada for decades, is all the rage now. The sports gambling industry’s explosion is the outcome of a Supreme Court decision in 2018, Murphy v. NCAA. In that decision a 7-to-2 majority ruled that a law passed by Congress and signed by George H.W. Bush in 1992, the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, violated the 10th Amendment’s anti-commandeering principle. The law barred sports gambling in states that did not already allow it.

For most of human history, the universe was considered timeless and unchanging; no longer. At the Space Telescope Science Institute, on the Johns Hopkins University campus, a constant torrent of data pours in from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Launched 13 months ago, Webb is orbiting 940,000 miles above the earth.