This Christmas season, as we sing ?Peace on the earth, good will to men, From heaven?s all gracious King,? from the magnificent Christmas carol, ?It Came Upon a Midnight Clear,? we echo the words of the angels in Luke 2:14 at the birth of Jesus. The ?peace? that the angels proclaimed and about which we sing reflects a deep longing of the human heart: Our lives are often in turmoil and wracked by personal hardships.

That the family is the bedrock institution of civilization is a given. But what constitutes a family is now being debated, and increasingly the state is taking over more of the family?s function. As a Christian, it is difficult for me to see this as a positive development; in fact, I believe it is one of the most worrying developments of the postmodern era. For that reason, I want to focus on the state of the family in this Perspective.

The recent conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza is a portent of a much more serious crisis looming on the horizon for Israel. It is a crisis that has political, military and profound security implications for Israel. In this edition of Issues in Perspective, I seek to place this entire conflict in a proper context.