As a nation, the monstrous evil in Newtown, Connecticut will haunt us during the 2012 Christmas season. It is unimaginable that someone could kill 20 children, all of them either 6 or 7 years old. How could this occur? How could God, who is good, permit such horror? This despicable act of evil will now doubt affect public policy decisions on gun control and mental health care. But it also serves to remind us that nowhere is truly safe. Evil will always find a way to raise its ugly head. To help us process this indescribable terror, I am drawing on some comments of several months ago on Issues in Perspective. May these comments give us a context and help us as we pray that God will bring good out of such sadness and loss.

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.

As I am writing this, the 2012 national election is only days away. With the ridiculously long primary season, we have been in this presidential cycle for nearly two years! That this is one of the more important elections in recent memory is a given. Whoever becomes the next president and whoever is elected to the House and the Senate will face challenges of historic proportion . . . It is imperative that we remember we will also be voting for other national offices. In addition, we will vote for state officials and local officials, all of whom will represent us at various levels . . . In this Perspective I offer several broad guidelines and principles. Much of my analysis will focus on the presidency, all the while remembering that there are other significant offices for which we will vote.

Of all the challenges Christians face in defending their faith, the existence of evil is one of the most formidable. We claim that God is good, yet there is suffering, pain and monstrous acts of barbarity. Add to that the existence of mass murderers, serial killers and the monotonous regularity of murder in our cities. Evil has a deep, penetrating darkness to it and, when it comes to personal motivation of those who do evil, there is an almost impenetrable wall that defies investigation

For the first time since the European settlement of North America in the early 1600s, according to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, Protestants are in a minority. The Pew report shows that where 53% of respondents identified themselves as Protestant in 2007, in 2012 only 48% do so. This decline comes primarily from white evangelical and mainline Protestant Christians, but is especially pronounced among mainline churches. Entitled ??Nones? on the Rise,? the report is an important indicator on the state of American religion in 2012. Here is a salient summary of the report:

Together with Psalm 1, Psalm 2 introduces the major themes of the book of Psalms, the hymnbook of ancient Israel. Psalm 1 teaches that the blessed human being is the one who enjoys the ?sumptuous meal? of God?s Word each day?and then meditates on it throughout the day. Psalm 2 helped the ancient Israelites to understand how they fit into God?s big picture. It is about worldview issues. Together, these two Psalms give focus to what is really important to God. . . Finally, Psalm 19 is the perfect introduction to thinking about science, for it argues for the complementarity of God?s two revelations?His world and His Word.

Human effort marks the world’s religion, not faith in a God who solved the fundamental problem of the human condition in Christ. Yet, religion, as I am defining it in this essay, continues to dominate the world scene. In fact, religion seems to be growing – and with it a growing hostility and intolerance. When one combines meritorious religion with political, military and financial power, you have a lethal combination. This has been much of the narrative through human history – and it continues today. Let’s consider modern Islam as an example. Several thoughts.

Recently a Harvard Divinity School scholar, Karen L. King, published a paper, provocatively entitled, ?The Gospel of Jesus? Wife,? on a 4th century 1 ½ by 3 inch Coptic papyrus scrap that, she argues, contains the phrase, ?Jesus said to them, ?My wife. . . .?? Indeed, she announced her research in the Vatican?s front yard at a Coptic Studies conference at the Catholic Church?s Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum in Rome?Written in Coptic, an Egyptian language that uses Greek letters, the fragment is in the opinion of several scholars who have seen it, not a forgery. What should we make of this papyrus scrap? Does it provide evidence that Jesus did indeed have a wife? How should we think about this provocative thesis? Several thoughts.