A major premise of Scripture is that leaders are always called to a higher standard. Indeed, spiritual leaders in the church and in ministry are called to be “above reproach” (1 Timothy 3:2). Leaders in ministry are to be servant leaders, modeling the biblical truths they espouse (see Philippians 2:5-11, Luke 22:21-30 and John 13:1-17). Leaders are to avoid even the “appearance of evil” in their lifestyles and in their words (1 Thessalonians 5:22). For that reason, when a spiritual leader falls its effect is catastrophic.

After the insurrection of 6 January 2021 fostered by the incendiary words of President Trump, his son and the president’s attorney Rudy Giuliani, various social media giants (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat and YouTube) responded by permanently banning or suspending the president for violation of their respective “glorification of violence” policies. These actions have raised questions about free speech, the First Amendment and the power of these social media giants.

January 22 is always a dark day in American history, for in 1973 Roe v. Wade legalized abortion across America. The case denied the rights of the unborn and instead gave women the “right” to decide to end her pregnancy. It established the precedent that a woman’s right to choose is more important than a child’s right to live. It therefore demeaned life in the womb as unworthy in comparison to the mother and it established the false ideology that one human is more important than another.

Most of us were ready to say goodbye to 2020, a year filled with so much darkness: The disruptive, deadly COVID pandemic; toxic politics; wildfires in the West; a record number of hurricanes; and worldwide economic and financial disarray. This darkness is intensified by the utter confusion that plagues our Postmodern culture, a confusion marked by a seeming inability to answer two simple questions—“what is right” and “who am I?”

The COVID-19 pandemic has upended and disrupted almost every facet of our lives. Since the pandemic began in early 2020, medical and political leaders have declared that only a widely used vaccine will check this pandemic. Amazingly, months after the COVID-19 virus was detected and entered into our vocabulary, a successful vaccine has now been developed. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has provided emergency authorization for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines against the coronavirus.

On the traditional church calendar, January 6 is called the Feast of Epiphany, “when Christians celebrate how the light of Christ spreads to all nations. The season of Epiphany—also called Theophany in the East—focuses on Jesus’ revelation of his true identity to all the world.” In the West, it centers on the Magi finding Jesus. “In the weeks ahead, the Epiphany season recalls the baptism of Christ and the wedding at Cana, Jesus’ first miracle.”

The economic and financial realities facing the new administration of President-elect Joe Biden are formidable. The national debt has skyrocketed under President Trump. This enormous increase resulted from President Trump’s tax cut policies and the staggering increase in national government spending to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic (over $3 trillion, all financed by debt). Furthermore, during the Trump presidency, the trade policies of the United States were radically upended. Both of these policy changes will have a profound impact on the direction of US economic and financial policies for both the near- and long-term.

Christmas is an intriguing and agreeable story: The tale of an unwed mother and an ostracized family, angelic messengers, noble shepherds, magi from the East and a tyrannical king. But, Christmas has a prequel; it only makes sense within the context of the larger story of what God is doing in the world.

In a recent article in The Atlantic, columnist David Brooks commented on the necessity of personal security for human flourishing to occur. Correctly, he observes the multi-faceted nature of “security.” It involves financial, emotional, social and personal identity categories, each of which demonstrates how complicated human beings are when it comes to what produces security in their lives.

When it comes to gender issues in Western Civilization, confusion reigns supreme. Arguably, the next dimension of the postmodern sexual revolution, indeed the next civil rights movement, is the transgender one. Kay Steinmetz of Time magazine writes, “Transgender people—those who identify with a gender other than the sex they were ‘assigned at birth,’ to use the preferred phrase among trans activists—are emerging from the margins to fight for an equal place in society.”