With the end of World War II in 1945 and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, America emerged as the first and only global superpower. America therefore championed the values of democracy, open markets, human rights and the rule of law—and it had the clout of both military and financial power to impose this moral code on terrorists and tyrants. The result was a period of peace, prosperity and progress. That world order championed by the US is breaking down. What are the elements of the new world order now emerging? Who are the primary players in this new order? What will the future look like as the new order unfolds? With this edition of Issues in Perspective, I begin a three-part analysis of this emerging world order.

The First Amendment of the United States Constitution, ratified in 1791, begins: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” In other words, there will be no state (i.e., “established”) religion in the US, while the United States will protect and guard the “free exercise of religion.” Even a cursory reading of this Amendment indicates tension and the need to balance prohibiting the Congress from establishing a specific religion with the protection of individual citizens’ free exercise of religious beliefs.

Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 by warning of a nuclear strike. “Having exalted Russia’s atomic arsenal and promised Ukraine’s subjugation, he threatened countries tempted to interfere with consequences ‘such as you have never seen in your entire history.’ Russian TV has since tantalized viewers with chit-chat about Armageddon.” Even if he never uses the bomb in Ukraine, Putin has thus already upset the nuclear order.

The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is in grave crisis. In May, the SBC released a report, the “Report of the Independent Investigation,” produced by a third-party investigator, Guidepost Solutions, and totaling almost 300 pages, which “alleged that the denomination’s top leaders had suppressed reports of sexual abuse, opposed proposals for reform, and denigrated and discouraged abuse victims who approached them for help. One of the report’s most shocking revelations was the existence of an internal list of 703 suspected abusers, compiled by an employee of the denomination’s executive committee, its national leadership body.”

First, a review of the 1973 Roe decision. In December 1971, the Court heard oral arguments brought by an anonymous plaintiff, which contended that the Texas laws forbidding her from having an abortion were unconstitutional. A majority of the justices agreed. Harry Blackman was assigned the responsibility to write the opinion, but he was uncertain where in the Constitution this legal right was grounded and how late in the pregnancy the right was to be granted. He grounded his decision on an implied right of privacy found in the Constitution.

Former Vice President Mike Pence has never hidden his faith in Jesus Christ or his values and standards as a Christian. In terms of loyalty to the president over his four years of service (2017-2021), Pence was exemplary. But, when faced with the brutal realties of the insurrection on 6 January 2021 and the pressure he was feeling from the president, his faith gave him the stability and forthrightness to do the right thing—to stand for truth and to defend the Constitution. Let’s think together about the heroic courage of Mike Pence on that fateful day in January 2021.

President Biden has used the term “genocide” to describe Vladimir Putin’s barbarism in Ukraine: civilians being slaughtered, mass graves and the deliberate, intentionally ruthless bombing of civilians. Is this an accurate term to use? Is Putin guilty of war crimes similar to those of Hitler and Stalin?

Business leaders who employ college graduates; employers who are looking for qualified high school graduates; and political leaders who are objectively analyzing the return on the investment of the trillions of dollars spent on American education at all levels agree that the American educational system is in crisis. In this Perspective, I delve into two aspects of this crisis—Mitch Daniels’s observation about accountability in education and the perverted strategies centered on DEI.

It is nothing short of astonishing that a few ultra-conservatives still regard Vladimir Putin as a messianic, heroic figure. For such people, in the early decades of the 21st century, Putin is a valuable ally because he seeks to replace the multiracial, multilingual global order with strong nation-states. Putin’s ideologist, Alexander Dugin, writes: “We must create strategic alliances to overthrow the present order of things, of which the core could be described as human rights, anti-hierarchy and political correctness, everything that is the face of the Beast, the Antichrist.” Right-wing ideologist, Steve Bannon, concludes that “We, the Judeo-Christian West, really have to look at what [Putin] is talking about as far as traditionalism goes, particularly the sense of where it supports the underpinnings of nationalism.”

The war in Ukraine has upset the world order resulting in the rethinking of past assumptions and perceptions. To provide the context for this observation, let’s go back to the opening of the Chinese Winter Olympics in early February: Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping held a high-profile summit meeting in which they pledged friendship and solidarity. At the end of their meeting, they issued a joint manifesto.