The current American immigration crisis is exacerbated by the two extremes that dominate the debate. The Democratic side often stresses repudiating the entire immigration structure, including detention camps, the deportation of non-criminal aliens, and “decriminalizing illegal entry and extending benefits to undocumented immigrants.” On the other extreme are those Republicans who deny that there is a crisis. The US has no responsibility to maintain humane conditions in the detention camps, especially for children. The migrant camp conditions are not inhumane and there is no moral responsibility to keep “vulnerable people, children above all, in the most humane conditions possible when their detention is required”

The American experiment in democracy is wrapped around precious terms such as rights and liberties: The freedom of expression; the free exercise of religion; due process rights such as legal representation; and, because of the diversity of America, principled pluralism. It is my argument that all of these freedoms are under siege. Each is being challenged by a Postmodern culture that values attaining individual autonomy through outright coercion and enforcing ideological intolerance in the name of selective exclusivity. Such developments are altering the American experiment—for the worse.

God’s Word identifies a false kingdom, the kingdom of darkness, ruled over by Satan (meaning “adversary”), which parallels and challenges God’s kingdom. It is a kingdom with false philosophies (Colossians 2:8), false religions (1 Corinthians 10:19-20), false ministers (2 Corinthians 11:14-15), false doctrine (1 Timothy 4:1; 2 Peter 2:10) and false Christs (1 John 2:18, 4:3). Satan is therefore leading a rebellion against God. The salient issue in this rebellion is who has the right to rule the universe—God or him? Apparently, one-third of the angelic host joined Satan is his rebellion. Humanity has also joined this rebellion (see Genesis 3) and, before we trust Christ, we are citizens of Satan’s kingdom.

The American higher education system has become totally dependent on its students amassing huge debt to finance a college degree. It is now a system in crisis. The basic statistics explain the nature of the crisis. Josh Mitchell of the Wall Street Journal explains that borrowers owe more than $1.5 trillion in student loans, an average of $34,000 per person. Over two million of them have defaulted on their loans in the past six years, and that number grows by 1,400 each day.

In late May 2019, the Supreme Court declined to review Box v. Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky. That case was about an Indiana law that included a provision that would make it illegal for an abortion provider to perform an abortion in the state when the provider knows that the mother is seeking the abortion solely because of the child’s race, sex, diagnosis of Down syndrome, disability, or related characteristics.

In April 2019, The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention issued its Artificial Intelligence: An Evangelical Statement of Principles. The statement is an important tool, enabling Christians to think about the expanding technology known as artificial intelligence (AI). In the Perspective, I want to summarize this significant statement.

In 2019, America finds itself once again in the midst of an intense national debate about abortion. It centers on law, the Supreme Court and rights—the rights of the mother and those of the fetus. I have been reading extensively on various aspects of this emotionally wrenching ethical issue and believe, that as Christians, there are other considerations that should be factored into our thinking.

Several state legislatures continue to debate or consider laws that would grant fetal personhood, meaning that a baby growing in the womb would have the same constitutional protection as the mother carrying the child. As a dimension of this discussion, several states are considering “fetal heartbeat” bills that would ban abortion after detection of a heartbeat, which can be as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. Alabama and Missouri, for example, recently enacted laws prohibiting in effect all abortions except for circumstances where the health of the mother is in jeopardy.

The evidence that American culture is becoming more secular is overwhelming. For example, the rise of the religious “nones” is one of the more profound developments within American culture. They constitute about a quarter of the total population and, about a third of those who became adults in the new millennium, identify with the “nones.” As The Economist reports, “Comparing 2016-2018 with the last three years of the 20th century, declared participants in organized religion have plunged by nearly 20 points to 52%.

In late April 2019, before he walked into a synagogue in Poway, California, and opened fire, John Earnest wrote a seven-page manifesto spelling out his core beliefs: That Jewish people, guilty in his view of faults ranging from killing Jesus to controlling the media, deserved to die; that his intention to kill Jews would glorify God.