In mid-July 2015, Iran and six world powers plus the European Union (EU) announced an historic agreement that seemingly postpones Iran?s capacity to build nuclear weapons. Arguably, Iran has suffered economically and financially under a series of sanctions the world community has imposed over the last several years. This agreement will lift those sanctions in exchange for a postponement of Iran?s nuclear weapons development. But it is also arguable that the agreement legitimizes Iran as a threshold nuclear state.

As she feasted on a luncheon salad and sipped wine, Dr. Deborah Nucatola, Planned Parenthood?s senior director of medical services, nonchalantly discussed how she methodically conducted late-term abortions to collect and preserve key fetal tissue and body parts. She declared that there is a great demand for fetal livers, but ?A lot of people want intact hearts these days.? To preserve intact fetal organs, Dr. Nucatola stated that ?We?ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that, so I?m gonna crush that part. I?m gonna basically crush below, I?m gonna crush above, and I?m gonna see if I can get it all intact?. . .This chilling video was released by the Center for Medical Research, an activist group seeking to expose Planned Parenthood for its abortion work and its nefarious disregard for prenatal human life.

The defense of Christianity and its claims has always been important throughout the history of the church. However, today the need to defend genuine, biblical Christianity is more important than ever. The Millennials of Postmodern, Postchristian America value personal autonomy more than anything else and give evidence of a significant lack of trust in all institutions, including the church. Millennials are therefore spiritually vulnerable.

The existential threat to Israel is real and has been since Israel was founded as a modern nation-state in 1948. The four major wars Israel has fought plus the numerous terrorist threats have defined Israel since its founding. But there is a new aggression being leveled at Israel?an economic aggression in the form of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign. Members of the European Union (EU) are working to develop economic sanctions designed to force Israel to accept political concessions such as ending the blockade against Hamas in Gaza. Further, major EU banks and financial firms have blacklisted various Israeli banks because they operate in the West Bank.

At the end of June, the Supreme Court of the United States predictably ruled in favor of same-sex marriage in a 5-4 vote, with the majority opinion written by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy. The ruling overturned all state prohibitions or regulations against same-sex marriage, in effect making same-sex marriage equal in the eyes of the law as monogamous, heterosexual marriage. This decision comes exactly two years after Kennedy?s majority opinion in US v. Windsor, which struck down a federal law denying benefits to married same-sex couples, and exactly 12 years after his opinion in Lawrence v. Texas, which struck down sodomy laws in the states. Justice Kennedy based this most recent decision on the 14th Amendment and its ?equal protection? and ?due process? clauses.

The cover of the July issue of Vanity Fair displays Caitlyn Jenner (the new transgender identity of 1976 Olympic gold medalist Bruce Jenner). Caitlyn is the new ?poster girl? of the transgender movement in western civilization … There is obvious tension between the transgender movement and modern feminism.

In many parts of the world, there is a growing concern about the retreat of the United States from global leadership in the economic, political and military arenas. In the international economic area, American leadership in the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank is of acute concern. For example, Kevin Rafferty, former World Bank official, writes that ?The United States has lost its way and is rapidly forfeiting claims to global financial, economic, political and moral leadership . . . Not for the first time, Obama has shown he can talk eloquently, but does not have a political clue how to get things done.? Although provocative, Rafferty?s statement is not unique. There is the perception among many of the world?s leaders that the US is disengaged and failing to provide the kind of leadership it has consistently done since World War II.

The assumption of personal faith, which used to be a staple of American culture, is no longer valid. Postmodern pluralism and relativism define our culture and personal autonomy drives individual ambition and meaning. For those of us who love Christ and see our identity as being in Christ, it is easy to become defensive and imagine ourselves as ?an aggrieved and repressed remnant.? But the New Testament offers another approach: Believers in Christ are to speak the truth in love. Jim Daly, President of Focus on the Family, argues that Christians should be a ?joyful minority. [But] we are no longer effective at persuasion because we lack humility. Some in the faith community are losing legitimacy among younger people because many Christians only speak truth and fail to do truth.?

Largely because of the procedure known as in-vitro fertilization (IVF), thousands of couples across the US are facing an ethical dilemma never faced before in history: What to do with their frozen embryos? The Department of Health and Human Services estimates that more than 600,000 frozen embryos are stored nationwide, in addition to countless more cryo-preserved eggs and sperm. [It is difficult to estimate how many frozen embryos there are worldwide.] IVF produces embryos in a petri dish, where the wife?s eggs are fertilized by the husband?s sperm. [Sometimes donor eggs and/or donor sperm are used as well.] Generally, there are multiple fertilizations and several are placed into the woman?s body in hopes one or more will attach to the uterine wall as a successful pregnancy. The rest of the robust embryos are frozen.

The Pew Research Center recently released its US Religious Landscape Study, which summarizes the conclusions from a monumental study of how American religion has changed between 2007 and 2014. Conducted among 35,000 adults in English and Spanish, the study fills in the gaps left by the data released by the US Census Bureau. This is necessary because the Bureau does not ask Americans about their religion. What follows is a salient summary of this important survey. It enables us to understand what is happening across the American religious landscape.