In mid-July, the Israeli Parliament, by a vote of 62 to 55, enacted a basic law, “with the weight of a constitutional amendment, declaring Israel ‘the nation-state of the Jewish people,’ built on national self-determination ‘unique to the Jewish people.’ It prioritizes Jewish building and downgrades Arabic from an ‘official’ language alongside Hebrew to one with a ‘special status.’”
We live in an age where incendiary phrases such as “fake news,” “alternative facts,” and harsh, accusatory, bullying speech are the new normal. In addition, because of the internet and our civilization’s commitment to free speech, radical, extreme views on almost any subject are readily available to everyone. Tragically, there is therefore very little room for critical analysis of what is being said or what is being argued. It is almost impossible to have a reasoned, well-thought-through discussion about anything today.
The curious, confounding and provocative Helsinki news conference involving President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin begs the question, what exactly does Putin want? As one commentator argued, Helsinki “was a summit [Putin] has dreamed of for 18 years.” His Russian advisers used terms such as “fabulous,” “super,” beyond “our fondest hopes” to describe the recent Helsinki meeting. Putin quickly embraced Trump’s invitation to a second meeting in the United States this fall. Putin is finally getting what he wants—and Donald Trump is delivering it to him.
The retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy from the Supreme Court has caused consternation among pro-choice elements in our culture and near euphoria among pro-life elements. Some pro-life folks actually believe that the nomination of Brent Kavanagh to the Court will bring an end to Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Court decision establishing abortion as a Constitutionally protected right. Furthermore, the “zero-tolerance” policy of the Trump administration when it comes to children of illegal immigrants has raised serious questions about what it means to be pro-family.
Suicide is a tragic, heart-wrenching reality in our world today. It is rarely discussed in church and few pastors know how to address it from the pulpit. Colleges and high schools are facing a growing number of students showing signs of “distress” that often lead to suicide.
The confusion among men within American society is at a point of crisis. The rise of feminism and the abusive behavior of Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby and countless other men have fostered the #MeToo Movement. The LGBTQIA movement has raised questions about what it means to be a male. This identity crisis extends to how men view God and Christianity: American men are twice as likely to call themselves atheists. Columnist Ross Douthat observes that “men who are looking for post-Christian enlightenment seem to gravitate toward secular-religious cults like the New Atheism, or more recently toward toxic forms of alt-right politics. In this sense the post-Christian religious landscape is potentially taking Christianity’s gender gap and widening it, playing its own metaphysical role in the growing divergence and polarization of the sexes.”
For much of American history, the fault lines of conflict were religious—Catholic, Protestant and Jewish. The theological differences between these three religious groups defined how each focused on the major cultural issues of the day (e.g. Prohibition of the 1920s, public education and its curricula in the 19th century). Protestantism dominated the culture and rather routinely set the culture’s agenda. America was a Protestant nation and that fact defined almost every cultural issue of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. But in the 20th century, that consensus began to shatter.
The Gaza Strip, nestled between Israel and Egypt, is a mess. Recent events have demonstrated the intractable nature of this small strip of land. The Palestinians who live there are in poverty, with high unemployment and constant shortages of food, power and almost everything else. A snaking metal fence that divides the Gaza Strip from Israel has become the focal point of a conflict that stretches back to 1948. In May over 60 Palestinians were killed by Israeli Defense Forces and hundreds more were wounded. Hamas, which rules Gaza, has been organizing a “March of Return” to reclaim the land lost in 1948.
I was recently reviewing some old articles I had stored and found, in the 13 November 2006 issue of Time magazine, a debate between Richard Dawkins, an avowed atheist, and Francis Collins, a Christian who converted from atheism. It is an insightful debate, well worth reading. Dawkins is an Emeritus Fellow of New College at Oxford University in England. His 2006 book, The God Delusion, attacks faith philosophically and historically, using the Darwinian hypothesis for its intellectual support. Collins is Director of the National Institutes of Health. At age 27, he converted from atheism to Christianity. His book, The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief, was a bestseller.
It has been said that the one thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history. Sadly, this is often true. We are to learn from history, but tragically rarely do we do that. But, there is something called a philosophy of history and genuine, biblical Christianity has something to contribute here. This is an important issue because we in the Postmodern world are slaves to what is often called “presentism,” which in itself is a philosophy of history. Presentism is an arrogant way to view the past. It assumes that our assumptions, our technological achievements make us superior to every previous generation and age.
