Since World War II, three major international financial institutions have facilitated (and dominated) the world?s investment in development opportunities in roads, airports and other infrastructure issues throughout Asia (and much of the world)?the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. The leadership of these organizations has been restricted to Europeans, Americans and Japanese; China has been excluded. But China has the world?s largest foreign reserves (an estimated $4 trillion) and is quite eager to invest these reserves overseas.

On 17 March 2015, the Presbyterian Church (USA) [PCUSA] voted to change the definition of marriage within the PCUSA constitution to include same-sex marriage. The language of the constitution was changed from ?a man and a woman? to ?two people, traditionally a man and a woman.? The PCUSA thus joins other denominations/religious associations that permit their clergy to perform same-sex marriages: the Episcopal Church, the United Church of Christ, the Quakers, and the Unitarian Universalist Association of Churches, and both Reform and Conservative Judaism.

Fifty years ago (1965), Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a sociologist, Assistant Secretary of Labor, and later one of the most important U.S. Senators of the 20th century, wrote a controversial but prescient report on the importance of the family for African-American children: The Negro Family: The Case For National Action (aka the Moynihan Report). It focused on the deep roots of black poverty in America and concluded controversially that the relative absence of nuclear families would greatly hinder further progress toward economic and political equality.

Genuine, biblical Christianity is colliding with an increasingly militant secularism in western civilization. In fact, western secularism is uncomfortable with religious convictions of any kind. Christianity has always been an integral part of western civilization?but no longer. Hence, secularists tend to lump together Christianity, Islam (in all its varieties), Judaism?indeed all faiths that claim something absolute. Several bizarre developments illustrate this trend toward militant secularism, which dismisses all religious convictions

Two visions for the Middle East?s future are colliding, and the vital center of that collision is Iran. President Obama assumes that the current Iranian regime will choose GDP over ideology. History tells us that the West has assumed that past rogue regimes would choose national interest over ideology and religion?that ?prudent calculation and statecraft would trump megalomania? (per columnist David Brooks). This was the assumption before the summer of 1914, when World War I began. The West assumed the same with Adolf Hitler between 1936 and 1939. Currently, this is the assumption with ISIS and with the growing tension between the Sunni and Shiite extremists active in the Middle East.

Seemingly, out of nowhere, last June, the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS or sometimes called ISIL) seized Mosul, Iraq and has gained more territory in Iraq and Syria since then, comprising an area now larger than the United Kingdom. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been the leader of ISIS since May 2010. He regards himself as the caliph of Islam and his movement is energized by a deeply-rooted Islamic theology. ISIS is not a group of thugs who simply use Islam to justify their actions. ISIS is an intensely important expression of Islam and it can be only understood if examined from that perspective.

In 2011, British author E.L. James self-published Fifty Shades of Grey. Vintage Books acquired the publishing rights of the book and Hollywood released a movie adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey this Valentine?s Day. The book and movie chart the fictional romance of a recent college graduate, Anastasia Steele, and billionaire businessman, Christian Grey. In both the book and the movie are explicitly erotic scenes, which also feature sexual practices of BDSM (bondage/discipline, dominance/submission and sado/masochism).

Since the 1950s, the National Prayer Breakfast, usually in February, has been an important event in Washington, D.C. Normally, it is not a controversial event. Typically, the President makes remarks or gives a brief speech at this breakfast. This year, President Obama?s comments evidenced a lack of wisdom and discretion. In fact, his choice of words indicated a failure of leadership as president. Let me explain.

At the end of January, European and world leaders observed the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. It was an important event, reminding everyone that the horror of the Holocaust must never become a mere distant memory; it must never be forgotten. The irony of this memorial at Auschwitz is that anti-Semitism is evident again in Europe, despite the pledge of ?Never Again? echoing from Auschwitz. What evidence is there that anti-Semitism is once again raising its monstrous head?

Over the Christmas holidays, I read two books that probed the search throughout history for world order. My strong opinion is that every Christian believer should read these two books. Equally important, every political and economic leader should read them. The first is World Order by Henry Kissinger; the second is Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy by Francis Fukuyama. I want to summarize the arguments of both books and then, using Psalm 2, add a biblical perspective to their arguments.