Basic to any understanding of physics is the concept of mass. Why do particles of nature have mass? This is obviously a fundamental question of physics but one that is inscrutably difficult to answer. For four decades now, physics has worked from what is known as the Standard Model of physics—an explanation that relies on 17 fundamental particles of matter and three physical forces. But this model requires the existence of a force that, so to speak, keeps everything together. That is the importance of the “God particle,” the so-called Higgs Boson, named after an Edinburgh University physicist of 50 years ago—Peter Higgs.

George Herbert Walker Bush (1924-2018) died on Friday evening, 30 November 2018. He had a form of Parkinson’s disease that forced him to use a wheelchair or motorized scooter in recent years. He served as president from 1989 to 1993, capping a career of more than 40 years of public service. A decorated Navy pilot (compiling 126 carrier landings and 58 missions) who was shot down in the Pacific in 1944, he was the last of the World War II generation to serve as president. President Bush was a skilled negotiator and diplomat and, as president, helped end the Cold War and the threat of nuclear engagement with a careful handling of the Soviet Union’s collapse and the liberation of Eastern Europe. James A. Baker III, former Secretary of State, said of President Bush: “[He] was the best one term president the country has ever had, and one of the most underrated presidents of all time. I think history is going to treat him well.”

Science has always struggled with the scientific (technological) imperative: Just because science can do something does not mean it must do it. That imperative is now being tested by the gene editing technique known as CRISPR. For several years now, several scientists have warned of the day when the gene editing technique CRISPR would be used to create a genetically altered human being. Among other things, their concern was that that CRISPR would be misused to alter everything from eye color to IQ. For this reason many nations have banned CRISPR and any procedure that deliberately alters the genes of a human embryo.

The world order put together by the United States after World War II is unraveling. In the Middle East, nation states are disappearing, replaced by ancient tribalism and clan loyalties rooted deep in the region’s history. The benefits of open borders with lower tariffs and growing international trade are being challenged by a narrow nationalism, a dangerous isolationism and a short-sighted introversion. All aspects of the old order (e.g., the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, NATO and the European Union) are under siege with little or no public trust in that order. Because this old order was built on globalization, free trade and a commitment to democracy, the democracy part of the foundation is producing an unexpected tension between the leaders of the world and those being led. Upheaval, chaos, disorder and dysfunction now characterize our world. There is no better evidence of this unraveling than the relationship between China and the United States.

Vladimir Putin often repeats the claim that Russia and Ukraine are “one people.” Yet, his annexation of Crimea in 2014 and his subsequent “little war” in eastern Ukraine have pushed Orthodox religious folks in Ukraine farther away from his dream. What is his dream? Namely, to portray his government as a reincarnation of the old czarist empire where the Russian Orthodox Church served the interests of the Russian czar. Church and state were inextricably linked in czarist Russia. The Kremlin used the church as an instrument of its old imperial control. Putin has the same vision for Russia in 2018. But the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is not buying into Putin’s dream.

What is a citizen? When the Founders of this Republic wrote the Constitution during the summer of 1787, they did not include a definition of citizenship in the Constitution. During the early decades of the history of the American Republic, various laws were passed that heightened the ambiguity of what does citizenship mean and what are the requirements for citizenship?

The significant tax cut passed by the Republican-controlled Congress last year is a source of pride and joy for the Republican Party and especially for President Trump. The Republican Congress is now seeking to make these tax cuts permanent

Few have noticed what I believe to be one of the more momentous developments of 2018—the growing Russian footprint in the Middle East. Vladimir Putin has a major naval base in Syria, at least two airbases and a diplomatic clout with many Middle Eastern governments not seen since the days of the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Ed Stetzer, who holds the Billy Graham Distinguished Chair of Church, Mission, and Evangelism at Wheaton College and is executive director of the Billy Graham Center, asks this poignant question: “How can we spiritually lead our people struggling to respond in a culture charged by political polarization and fed a diet of cable news and social media?

Last year (2017) we celebrated the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses to the Castle Church door in Wittenberg, Germany, thereby beginning the Protestant Reformation. Most historians agree that one of the contributing causes of both the appeal and the subsequent spread of Protestantism was a crisis of confidence within the Catholic Church: corruption, immorality, nepotism, simony and other factors which describe a decadent church out of touch with its people. In many ways, a similar crisis of confidence is brewing within the Roman Catholic Church today.