I have come to appreciate David French, a columnist for the New York Times and an evangelical Christian. Writing in one of the most liberal newspapers in America, his voice is surprisingly refreshing and wise. Recently, he wrote a column highlighting the difference between a libertarian and a libertine.
Former Republican senator from Missouri, John Danforth, recently wrote, “Since the end of World War II, Republicans have stood firm against Russian designs in Europe. Now, populists have injected an isolationist element into the party.” The Economist also observed that “in place of a foreign policy that saw America as a protector of freedom and democracy is a new doctrine of America First that shuns allies (barring Israel) and would give up on the Ukrainians fighting off a Russian invasion even when no American soldiers are at risk . . . Although [Ronald] Reagan remains beatified within the party, the institutions he was aligned with have changed.” The party now stands for protectionism, isolationism and nativism.
Even a cursory study of history indicates that the central goal of geopolitics is maintaining a balance of power in the world. This was true in the ancient world with a balance between Egypt and the various Mesopotamian powers. It was true in the Napoleonic era when Napoleon sought dictatorial control over Europe, only to be defeated and a new balance established at the 1815 Congress of Vienna. Both World War I and World War II saw Germany destroy the fragile balance of power in Europe. Post World War II saw a perilous balance of power maintained between the United States and the Soviet Union. Today the balance of power in the world is shattered and, in 2023, only the United States can restore this much-needed balance.
The story of the Pilgrims is the story of the beginning of the holiday we know as Thanksgiving. But sometimes in America, we equate the Pilgrims with the Puritans, and assume they were identical groups. They were not. Pilgrims were also known as “Separatists,” meaning they chose to separate from the established Church of England, the Anglican Church. The Puritans remained in the Anglican Church and chose to attempt to “purify” it from within—hence the name “Puritan.” In 1608, a group of Separatists, who would become the Pilgrims, fled England and settled in Holland. They desired freedom of worship there.
Lance Morrow, senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, made this poignant observation: “A decent conscience, uncontaminated by ideology, knows what it is looking at. The torments that Hamas ‘militants’ inflicted on Oct. 7—mass slaughter, rape, the beheading of babies—amounted to behavior that the high court of any uncorrupted intelligence in the world would describe as evil.” Indeed, President Biden courageously spoke of the Hamas raids as “pure, unadulterated evil.”
Psalm 1 is one of my favorite Psalms, for it makes clear that life is about choices and, in effect, there are only two paths to choose in life—the path of a walk with God or the path of rejecting, defying God. Each choice has profound, eternally significant consequences. I have returned to this Psalm many times over the years—but especially now in 2023 when things seem to be in such a mess. Even though the human race has amassed immense knowledge, now accessible via the Internet, we seem incapable of stopping the pain we inflict on ourselves and on one another. Wars, dysfunction, disorder and chaos describe our culture, our world—and even many of our families and communities. We cannot halt “the path of the wicked,” this repetitive path that leads to the “way of evil” and “deep darkness.”
Former President George W. Bush recently wrote this defense of PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief): “When I took office in 2001, the situation with HIV/AIDS on the African continent and elsewhere was dire. A group of advisers including Condi Rice, Josh Bolten and Mike Gerson encouraged me to act before an entire generation was lost.
The church of Jesus Christ is living in an age of turmoil. How we respond to this turmoil is indicative of our faith and our view of God. Often, we as Christians give the appearance of loving the world and the things of the world, the reason I began this Perspective with a quote from 1 John 2. Furthermore, we often give in to the quest for power and allow the “deceitfulness of sin” to shape our decisions and goals for this life—the reason I quoted from Hebrews 3.
The Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated areas on earth. More than 2 million people live inside a sliver of land, just 25 miles long and 7 ½ miles at its widest. On Saturday morning, 7 October 2023, Hamas terrorists from the Gaza Strip broke down the barriers separating Gaza from Israel and engaged in a well-planned and well-executed series of raids involving mass murder, the kidnapping of children, elderly and women; the storming of a music festival to shoot and kill whomever they could find; and rape, execute and slaughter every Jew they could find. To add to this horror, Hamas terrorists filmed all of this and placed it on social media sites for the entire world to see.
With the 1945 victory in World War II, the United States began to construct an entirely new world order based on freedom of movement, global trade and a monetary system rooted in the American dollar. The implementation of that order produced the United Nations, NATO, the World Bank, The International Monetary Fund and other entities. Today, that order is coming apart and its effects are widespread and potentially destabilizing.
