In late December 2025, President Trump loosened the regulation of marijuana in the US. The Wall Street Journal editorially argued, “Reclassifying marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act doesn’t legalize the drug under federal law. But it does let marijuana sellers deduct expenses from their taxes like other companies. It also sends the signal to young people that marijuana isn’t all that harmful, despite mounting evidence that it is.”

Robert P. George, McCormick professor of jurisprudence and director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University, asks these penetrating questions: “What should the conservative movement stand for? What should conservatives dedicate themselves to conserving?” As we begin 2026, it is clear that people describing themselves as conservatives do not agree on the answers to these questions.

The current US Department of Defense under Pete Hegseth is fundamentally altering what are normally known as the “rules of war.” This is understandably controversial and difficult, but it is also an issue within Christianity and the tradition known as the Just War. Hegseth purports to be Christian; so, I assume he is familiar with biblical teaching on this subject and the doctrinal position known as the Just War. Let me explain.

As we begin year 2026, what are important global trends to watch? Every year The Economist publishes an issue with forecasts and analyses for the coming year. It is always a helpful tool in what to look for in the coming year. There are several important observations in this issue.

On 27 October 2025, Nick Fuentes appeared on Tucker Carlson’s podcast. On Carlson’s show, Fuentes assailed “organized Jewry” as the obstacle to American unity and “these Zionist Jews” as the impediment to the right’s success, while calling himself a fan of Joseph Stalin. Carlson said Fuentes should make his remarks about Jewish subversion of America more “universal,” so they cannot be dismissed as easily. But mainly the two agreed. Mr. Carlson shared with the Hitler admirer that he, too, despises Israel and Christian Zionists such as Ambassador Mike Huckabee and Senator Ted Cruz.

An important Eckman family tradition at Christmas time was always watching the much-loved, A Charlie Brown Christmas. My wife and I and our two children adored the characters: Lucy, the psychiatrist; Snoopy, the home-decorator; and Linus, the theologian. I have since learned that A Charlie Brown Christmas, which first aired on CBS in December 1965, was only the second animated Christmas special on American television; Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer being the first in 1964.

Editorially, the Wall Street Journal recently declared that: “An old political poison is growing on the new right, led by podcasters and internet opportunists who are preoccupied with the Jews. It is spreading wider and faster than we thought, and it has even found an apologist in Kevin Roberts, president of the venerable Heritage Foundation.” The cause of this recent furor is Nick Fuentes.

When did the national day of Thanksgiving begin in the United States? After the United States had completed its Constitution in 1787 and the new Congress was in session, the Congress proposed that the Bill of Rights be added to the Constitution as the first 10 amendments. (The Bill of Rights was one of the conditions for ratification of the Constitution). Representative Elias Boudinot of New Jersey and Connecticut Congressman Roger Sherman proposed that President Washington declare a national day of Thanksgiving, with “one voice, in returning to Almighty God their sincere thanks for the many blessings He had poured down upon them.” So, on 26 November 1789, Washington declared the first national day of Thanksgiving.

What has happened to American civilization? Shared moral values used to define the uniqueness of America (e.g., virtue, a sense of community and compassion). Columnist David Brooks provides a framework for understanding the enormous shift away from these shared values that has occurred within America over the last 50 years or so

The Founders of this nation argued that democracy could survive only if citizens could restrain “their passions, be obedient to a shared moral order and point their lives toward virtue. They relied on religious institutions to do that moral formation. As John Adams put it, ‘Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.’” Indeed, Alexis de Tocqueville in the 1830s concluded that “For the Americans, the idea of Christianity and liberty are so completely mingled that it is almost impossible to get them to conceive of one without the other.”