Last night, US forces launched fifty-nine precision-guided missiles at the Shayrat Airfield in Syria. The base houses the two squadrons of Syria’s Su-22 ground attack aircraft used to carry out the April 4 chemical attack that killed at least eighty-eight civilians.

US President Donald Trump explained: “It is in this vital national security interest of the United States to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons.” Syria called the US strikes an act of aggression. Russian President Vladimir Putin defended the Syrian government and said that the strikes “have dealt a serious blow to Russian-US relations.”

This is the first direct military action the US has taken against the al-Assad regime. Syria’s six-year civil war has claimed more than 400,000 lives, displaced six million people internally, and caused five million Syrians to flee the country. It appears that the attack was a warning rather than the beginning of a major intervention since the US targeted only one base. Also, US missiles did not target Syrian surface-to-air missile sites, indicating that the strikes were not preparation for larger fixed-wing airstrikes.

What is a biblical response to this news? Consider four imperatives.

One: Defend those who cannot defend themselves. Sen. Ben Sasse: “The use of chemical weapons cannot become normal—civilized people cannot grow indifferent to such suffering.” God’s word agrees: “Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked” (Psalm 82:3–4).

Continue reading Denison Forum – Missile strike in Syria: 4 biblical imperatives →

“There’s so little trust between the two parties that it was very difficult to put together an agreement that would avert changing the rules.” This is how Sen. Susan Collins (Republican from Maine) explained the failure of efforts to avoid today’s “nuclear option.” Republicans are now expected to change Senate rules today so that a simple majority can confirm Judge Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court. Democrats warn that this change will damage any prospects for bipartisan efforts in the future.

Senate Republicans are also considering other rules changes that would further prevent Democratic opposition and speed up the consideration of President Trump’s non-Cabinet positions. A spending bill later this month to prevent a government shutdown is expected to be extremely contentious as well.

I remember when Republicans were led by President Ronald Reagan and Democrats by Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill. They battled mightily over policy and party differences but then came together for the country’s good. Now we seem to be divided across the spectrum of life, from abortion to sexual identity to marriage to family to taxes to health care to euthanasia. Why?

For an answer, I reached back twenty-six years to a book that coined the phrase that defines our era. In 1991, sociologist James Davison Hunter published Culture Wars. He noted that “America is in the midst of a culture war that has and will continue to have reverberations not only within public policy but within the lives of ordinary Americans everywhere.”

According to Hunter, our conflicts are “rooted in different systems of moral understanding.” The orthodox system affirms a “consistent, unchangeable measure of value, purpose, goodness and identity.” It trusts objective authority sources such as the Bible. By contrast, cultural progressivism believes that humans experience the world subjectively as our minds interpret our senses. As a result, it claims, there is “no objective and final revelation from God” since “moral and spiritual truth can only be conditional and relative.”

Continue reading Denison Forum – The ‘nuclear option’ and the grace of God →

I was there for the birth of the legend that is Tony Romo.

It was October 23, 2006, during a game between the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Giants. My older son and I were at the game. The Cowboys were struggling in the first half; when the team came out to start the second half, there was palpable excitement on their sideline. I turned to my son and said, “I’ll bet they start Romo.” It turned out, I was right.

His first pass was tipped and intercepted. He went on to throw two touchdowns and three interceptions in the game. Two days later, Cowboys head coach Bill Parcells named Romo the team’s starting quarterback. He made the Pro Bowl that year, the first of four times he received that prestigious honor. In the years following, the list of Cowboys team records he set is astounding:

•    Passing touchdowns for a career (eighty more than Troy Aikman)
•    Passing yards for a career
•    Quarterback rating for a career
•    Games with three or more touchdowns
•    Games with three hundred or more yards passing
•    Most fourth-quarter comebacks (five more than Roger Staubach)
•    Passing touchdowns in a season
•    Passing yards in a season
•    Passing yards in a game.

In addition, Romo is the NFL’s all-time highest rated quarterback for the month of December and for the fourth quarter of games played.
Continue reading Denison Forum – The moment that changed Tony Romo’s career →

North Carolina’s victory over Gonzaga in last night’s NCAA title game is dominating headlines this morning. Meanwhile, four other stories in the news are more troubling:

•  A Mississippi woman called 911 yesterday as her car sank into a rain-swollen creek. She tried to direct rescuers to her location, but they arrived too late. They later found her body in the creek outside her car. She was one of four people killed in storms across the South.
•  A boiler exploded in an industrial building south of St. Louis yesterday morning, killing three people and damaging three buildings.
•  More than 250 people have died in Mocoa, Columbia, after a wall of water and mud hit the town like an avalanche. Rescue crews are desperately digging through the rubble in their search for survivors.
•  A bomb blast on a subway train in St. Petersburg, Russia, killed fourteen people. Authorities now say that the attacker, Akbarjon Djalilov, was a suicide bomber.

When I read about the first three tragedies, I felt grief for the victims and their families, but I did not feel a sense of fear or dread. We live in a fallen world where such disasters are an inevitable occurrence (Romans 8:22). We don’t spend much emotional energy fearing what we know we need to accept. As we grow older, we become callous to this reality unless it threatens us directly.

When I heard about the fourth, my visceral reaction was different. I’m guessing yours was the same. Terrorism that is so leaderless and amorphous could seemingly strike anywhere at any time. I don’t see why residents of St. Petersburg would be more susceptible to attack than residents where I live in Dallas, Texas.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Officials say Russia attack was suicide bombing →

South Carolina defeated Mississippi State last night in the NCAA women’s basketball championship game. This after Mississippi State ended Connecticut’s historic 111-game winning streak Friday night with a stunning shot at the overtime buzzer. Gonzaga plays North Carolina tonight in the much-anticipated men’s title game.

March Madness has been a welcome distraction from the news. CNN is reporting today that Chicago police have arrested a fourteen-year-old boy in a group sexual assault on a teenage girl that was broadcast on Facebook Live. Police are looking for as many as six people who were shown in the video of the assault.

Former Defense Secretary Ash Carter told a reporter yesterday that a preemptive strike against North Korea could lead to an invasion of South Korea. London is now home to more than 423 mosques and is, according to one Islamic preacher, “more Islamic than many Muslim countries put together.”

What many of us feel as we read the news is more anxiety than fear. Theologian Paul Tillich distinguished between the two: fear has a specific object, while anxiety is more ambiguous and amorphous. We prefer the former to the latter—we can define and hopefully defeat our enemy, but it’s hard to defeat a feeling. Many have a general sense that things are not going well (only 38 percent of likely voters say the US is headed in the right direction) but don’t know what to do about it.

In this context, a statement I read recently has been deeply encouraging.

Continue reading Denison Forum – March Madness and anxious times →

Vanna White has been turning letters on Wheel of Fortune for more than three decades. As the show prepares to celebrate its thirty-fifth season this September, she gave an interview to Fox News that is making news today.

Here are some interesting facts she disclosed:

• She has worn more than 6,500 dresses on the show.
• She calls Pat Sajak her “work spouse,” but they tape only four days a month, so it’s an unusual friendship.
• She realized she “made it” when she saw herself on the cover of Newsweek while standing in line at a grocery store.
• She began supporting St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital after she became a mother.
• She is now sixty years old but intends to keep working as long as she can.

The reporter asked if she regrets posing for Playboy years ago. She explained: “When I first moved to Hollywood, I was too embarrassed to ask my dad for rent money. I was young and I wanted to do it on my own. So, I did these lingerie shots and from the moment I said I would do them, I thought, ‘I shouldn’t be doing this, but I’m not going to ask my dad for money, so I’m just going to do it!’ Once I got ‘Wheel of Fortune’ and some fame, Hugh Hefner then bought those pictures. He’s the one who put me on the cover of the magazine. I didn’t do it for Playboy. I didn’t want them on there, but it happened.”

Vanna White made some money she spent many years ago, but she will regret her decision for the rest of her life. Her experience illustrates perfectly the paradox of temptation and integrity. Temptation seems to benefit more than it costs at first, but its disastrous consequences always outweigh their reward. Integrity usually costs more than it benefits at first, but its positive consequences always outweigh their cost.

Continue reading Denison Forum – What does Vanna White regret? →

I woke up this morning to news that a bus carrying fourteen senior adults from First Baptist Church of New Braunfels collided with a pickup yesterday afternoon. Thirteen bus passengers were killed. One passenger was hospitalized in critical condition; the pickup driver was hospitalized in stable condition.

The senior adults were returning from a three-day retreat at a Baptist encampment.

So far this morning, authorities have not determined the cause of the crash. No matter who or what caused the crash, the passengers were not at fault. Yet all but one were killed.

Tragedies like this bring us to the most difficult challenge Christians face theologically. We believe that God is all-knowing, all-loving, and all-powerful. No other religion affirms these tenets about a personal God as fully as we do.

Since God is omniscient and not bound by time, he knew that the crash would happen before it did (Psalm 139:4; 1 John 3:20). Since he is love (1 John 4:8), he would seemingly not want such a tragedy to come to his children. Since he is omnipotent (Matthew 19:26), he could have prevented the crash from occurring. The Lord who stilled the storms and raised the dead could have stopped a bus and a pickup truck from colliding.

Yet he did not.

Today there are families grieving the sudden loss of their parents and grandparents. A pastor is trying to help his congregation come to terms with a tragedy their church will obviously never forget. The rest of us will watch with sorrow for those who are suffering.

Continue reading Denison Forum – 13 killed in Texas church bus crash →

Disunity is making headlines this morning. Democrats are threatening to block Judge Neil Gorsuch’s path to the Supreme Court; Republicans are threatening to change Senate rules to allow a simple majority to confirm his nomination. The UK has formally begun its departure from the European Union while Scotland is taking steps toward independence.

Meanwhile, good news on unity comes from a source you might not have considered: trailer parks.

Let’s say you’re planning to retire to Florida so you can play golf, go to the beach, and generally enjoy life. But you don’t have the money for an expensive retirement village. According to today’s Time magazine, more and more people are moving into mobile homes located in senior adult trailer parks. For instance, one section of one Florida county features 150 trailer parks for seniors.

Their allure is not the mobile home but the community that surrounds it. Here, seniors go shopping and play games and look out for one another. They are safer and happier together than they are apart. They know intuitively what the Bible says explicitly: we are broken people in need of unity.

Do you feel a need for inner cohesion, a sense of centeredness in a conflicted and fragmented culture? I feel the same way. I’ve been meditating lately on this brief prayer by King David: “Unite my heart to fear your name” (Psalm 86:11). “Unite” translates the Hebrew yahed, meaning “to concentrate” or “to be joined exclusively to.” The “heart” in Jewish psychology is the center of our emotions and will. David prays that his life would be focused, centered, holistic, indivisible. He seeks to be one person in every dimension and circumstance of his life.

Three facts follow:

One: We are not who we need to be.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Trailer parks: the new retirement trend →

Some bad news stories are easier to take than others. For instance, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft says that Tom Brady is willing to play for six or seven more years. Fans of the thirty-one other NFL teams are not happy about this news.

Meanwhile, a “supermassive” black hole that can devour anything in its path is hurtling through space at five million miles an hour. However, it is currently eight billion light-years from Earth, so we’re safe for the moment. And my least favorite vegetable is in the news: scientists have converted a spinach leaf into a tiny, beating human heart muscle.

Other bad news is beyond terrible. The families of those who were killed by Khalid Masood last week in London are continuing to grieve their senseless and tragic loss. Those injured in the attack are trying to recover.

Two victims I hadn’t considered are Masood’s wife and mother. His wife issued a statement this morning: “I am saddened and shocked by what Khalid has done. I totally condemn his actions. I express my condolences to the families of the victims that have died, and wish a speedy recovery to all the injured.” And his mother is telling reporters that she has “shed many tears for the people caught up in this horrendous incident.” Today they are grieving Masood’s death and all the deaths he caused. I cannot imagine such pain.

Where is the Christian faith when we face life’s darkest days?

Continue reading Denison Forum – Tom Brady and other bad news →

Some of the weekend news was unexpected: South Carolina and Gonzaga will play in this year’s NCAA men’s basketball Final Four for the first time in their history. Oregon will join them for the first time since winning the inaugural tournament in 1939. (North Carolina also made the Final Four, but that’s no surprise at all.)

Other weekend news has become all too familiar. A shooting at a Cincinnati nightclub left one dead and fifteen wounded; police are still searching for suspects this morning. Authorities today can find “no apparent reason” for a shooting on the Las Vegas strip that killed one person and injured another. Two missing girls were found stabbed to death in North Carolina; their father has been arrested on murder charges.

Were you shocked by the London terror attack last week? Were you surprised by news of more violence here at home? One of the most dangerous temptations of our day is to view such tragedies as the “new normal.”

Becoming callous to calamity is an understandable defense mechanism. We don’t have the emotional bandwidth to treat each new violent act as new. So, in this day of twenty-four-hour news coverage, as we are bombarded all through the day with bad news from anywhere in the world, it’s easier to tune it out, to shrug our shoulders and withdraw emotionally from the culture.

Here’s where our biblical worldview sets us apart from the world.

Continue reading Denison Forum – What happened for the first time since 1939? →

House Republicans are set to vote this morning on legislation that would replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA). They hoped to vote on their bill yesterday, but too many conservatives and moderates opposed it. Even if they prevail, their legislation faces an uphill battle in the Senate.

Why is this issue so complicated and divisive?

As one medical ethicist explains, we insist on four values that are difficult to reconcile: high quality of care, freedom of choice, affordability, and a system in which everyone shares both costs and benefits.

Contrast our social values with those of other countries. Nearly all the world’s highly industrialized nations—including Canada, Japan, Australia, and western European countries—have health care systems that provide universal access at significantly less cost than in the US. However, to pay for their health care, these societies typically limit insurance options. The UK also restricts the adoption of high-cost medical innovations. And these nations generally impose limits on fees providers can charge and on pharmaceutical prices.

For many Americans, the system prior to the ACA worked well. It offered a wide range of medical options and excellent care at a price they considered affordable. However, this system was too expensive for many others. As costs escalated, the gap between those with coverage and those without health care continued to grow.

The ACA sought to balance our four priorities, ostensibly providing choice and care while driving down costs and expanding coverage. However, opponents claim that it restricted choice, limited care options, and expanded coverage by imposing a financial model that was unfair and untenable. Now critics of Republicans’ attempt to repeal and replace ObamaCare are making similar allegations against their legislation.
Continue reading Denison Forum – The health care controversy: 3 biblical priorities →

The world has witnessed what British Prime Minister Theresa May is calling “a sick and depraved terrorist attack.” CNN reports this morning that authorities have now arrested seven people in connection with the deadliest terror attack in central London in twelve years.

Just before 2:45 PM GMT yesterday, while the House of Commons was debating a proposal regarding Scottish independence, a silver Hyundai 4×4 veered from the roadway of Westminster Bridge. The narrow sidewalk where the Thames flows under the “Big Ben” clock tower was crowded with tourists and office workers. The terrorist drove into the crowd; witnesses reported that the impact threw two bodies into the Thames.

The driver then smashed into the iron railings near the base of the clock tower and got out of the vehicle carrying a large knife. He repeatedly stabbed police officer Keith Palmer, killing him. An armed policeman then shot and killed the attacker.

A woman from Spain and a man in his mid-fifties were killed. Twenty-nine people were hospitalized; seven are in critical condition. Among the injured was a group of French schoolchildren.

The attack came on the one-year anniversary of the Brussels bombings that killed thirty-two people. Police say they know the assailant but have not released information about him as of this morning. They believe, however, that he was “inspired by international terrorism.”

We can now add London to the recent list of vehicular attacks, along with Nice, France; Berlin, Germany; Ohio State University; and Jerusalem. ISIS and al Qaeda have called on their followers to use trucks and weapons to “mow down the enemies of Allah.”

Why do jihadists see tourists on a London sidewalk as their enemies?
Continue reading Denison Forum – Seven arrested in London terrorist attack →

Today’s headlines are dominated by Judge Neil Gorsuch’s nomination hearings and the ongoing debate over health care. Meanwhile, an unusual high school wrestler interests me so much that I’d like to focus on his story this morning.

“He’s been very vocal about his goals: wrestling in a national championship, becoming an NCAA champ, not just a state champ.” That’s how Kobey Pritchard’s wrestling coach describes his protégé’s motivation in the Iowa state wrestling tournament. What makes Pritchard different from his competitors? He wrestles without a left leg.

Kobey was five years old when he was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma in his left femur. Doctors removed the leg when he was six. Now he’s ranked number four in the state in his weight class. His drive and determination are inspiring his teammates and his fellow competitors.

In other news, Norway has taken over the top spot in the World Happiness Report. This despite the fact that oil, a key part of its economy, has plummeted. What accounts for Norway’s happiness? The report’s lead author explains: “It’s the human things that matter. If the riches make it harder to have frequent and trustworthy relationship between people, is it worth it? The material can stand in the way of the human.”

Martin E. P. Seligman is a psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania and author of the bestseller, Authentic Happiness. Dr. Seligman describes three kinds of “work orientation”: a job, a career, and a calling.

A job earns you a paycheck and nothing more. A career entails a deeper personal investment in your work. But a calling is a passionate commitment to work for its own sake. According to Dr. Seligman, finding your “calling” is the key to authentic happiness.

Continue reading Denison Forum – One-legged wrestler seeks state title →

Judge Neil Gorsuch began his confirmation hearings yesterday as he and the Senate Judiciary Committee members made their opening statements. The committee will begin questioning the nominee today.

Whether Judge Gorsuch deserves to be confirmed is not the question for Republicans and many Democrats. As I noted when President Trump nominated him, he seems imminently qualified to sit on the Supreme Court. The larger question has little to do with the judge and everything to do with the state of our culture.

Many Democrats are still furious that Republicans refused to act on President Obama’s earlier nominee; in their view, this was a seat their party should have filled. Others are mindful that Judge Gorsuch would replace Antonin Scalia, preserving the present ideological balance of the Court. Since three of the current justices are in their eighties, Democrats may wait to contest future Trump nominations. And several Democratic senators serve states that voted for Mr. Trump in the election; their political futures may be in jeopardy if they oppose Judge Gorsuch.

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans need eight Democrats to side with their fifty-two-seat majority to reach the sixty-vote threshold required to confirm the nominee. If not enough Democrats support Judge Gorsuch, or if the Democrats threaten to filibuster the proceedings, the Republicans can waive the sixty-vote minimum and confirm the nominee by a simple majority. But this so-called “nuclear option” could damage any hopes of bipartisan cooperation on other issues.

In thinking about the partisan divisiveness on display this week, I was drawn to the prescient observations of John Adams, our second president. He wrote in 1789, “There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.”

The fact that we have a “democracy” (“power of the people”) does not exempt us from political dysfunction. Mr. Adams: “It is vain to say that democracy is less vain, less proud, less selfish, less ambitious, or less avaricious than aristocracy or monarchy. . . . Those passions are the same in all men, under all forms of simple government, and when unchecked, produce the same effects of fraud, violence, and cruelty.”

What is the solution?

Continue reading Denison Forum – John Adams on Neil Gorsuch hearings →

A hamburger has sold for $10,000 in Dubai. According to CNN, “The giant burger contained seven beef patties—one for each of the emirates in the United Arab Emirates—aged cheddar cheese and veal bacon strips in a saffron brioche bun.” But its contents don’t explain its price. It was sold at an auction; its preparer explains that “all proceeds will go to breast cancer awareness and free detection at an earlier stage.”

When we know why people spend their money as they do, we learn something significant about their values and their culture.

Consider popular movies. I go to a lot of films because I believe that successful movies are a window into the soul of our society. We see movies because we want to. Going to the theater is not like going to work or even going to church, activities that are required or can become habitual. When we examine why a movie is popular, we learn something about our culture.

The last two movies I’ve seen are The Shack and Beauty and the Beast. Both have been enormously successful. According to a Forbes reviewer, The Shack “got off to a pretty terrific start” when it opened earlier in the month; so far, the movie has made more than $43 million worldwide. And Beauty and the Beast has passed Batman v Superman as the highest debut for a March movie in history.

Both have been in the news for nontheatrical reasons: The Shack because of its portrayal of God as a woman and other nontraditional theological elements, and Beauty and the Beast because it includes a gay character (actually two, if you count the dance scene at the end). My purpose this morning is not to review either film. Rather, it is to see what their popularity tells us about ourselves.

Continue reading Denison Forum – What a $10,000 hamburger and ‘The Shack’ tell us →

“Somewhere along the line, Disney went off course. No longer did it see itself as a defender of children’s innocence. Instead, it saw itself as a conduit to social change. Walt Disney became Harvey Milk.”

This is how a gay attorney views Disney’s decision to include a gay scene in Beauty and the Beast. In an Orlando Sentinel op-ed, Joseph R. Murray II calls himself “a proud member of the LGBT community.” But he disagrees with Disney’s decision to promote LGBT issues with children.

Murray’s assessment is insightful: “The vision for Walt’s world was clear: Entertain children. Disney characters were about hope, optimism, and above all else, making sure children were able to enjoy their innocence for as long as the outside world would permit.” Now Disney is promoting the “outside world” in unprecedented ways.

Why has the company departed from its founder’s vision? I would hazard two guesses. One: Some at Disney believe that LGBT youth need reaffirmation. But Murray responds: “I was gay and grew up without gay Disney and made it just fine.” Two: Disney executives view LGBT rights as civil rights and believe they should be taught to all of society, children included.

For those who liken LGBT rights to the civil rights movement of the 1960s, the logic is simple. When America legally abolished racial discrimination, we wanted to spread the message of racial inclusion across our culture, beginning with our children. Now LGBT advocates want to do the same, beginning with our children. And Disney is apparently a willing colleague in this strategy of normalizing homosexuality.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Gay lawyer criticizes Disney for gay scene →

“It’s time to build new religions around what we really believe in, technology.” So states the founder of the Hack Temple, a building that was a 104-year-old church in San Francisco.

The cathedral, built in 1912, served as a place of worship for nearly eighty years. It then became an English school for Chinese-speaking children. Last November, Pavel Cherkashin, a former Adobe and Microsoft executive, spent $7 million to buy it. He is now renovating it into an event center for technology innovators.

Hack Temple hosted its first TEDx event last month. It held a dance party earlier this month. It provides communal workspaces for meetings with mentors or small groups. The organ now displays a neon sign that reads, “hello world.”

Cherkashin is right: technology qualifies as a religion for millions of people around the world. The Oxford English Dictionary includes in its definition of “religion” these descriptions:

•    “The condition of belonging to a religious order.”
•    “A particular religious order or denomination.”
•    “People devoted to a religious life.”
•    “A system defining a code of living, esp. as a means of achieving spiritual or material improvement.”

Substitute “technological” for “religious” in these phrases and you describe many of the people you know. They belong to a “technological order,” a subset of society that focuses especially on technology and innovation. They subscribe to a “particular technological order” such as Apple or Android devices and preferred social media platforms.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Church makes technology its religion →

It sounds like the start of a bad sitcom: a Democrat and a Republican rent a car and spend twenty-four hours driving through a snowstorm to Washington. Except it really happened.

Democrat Beto O’Rourke and Republican Will Hurd, both US congressmen from Texas, couldn’t fly back to the capital for today’s votes because the winter storm gripping the Northeast canceled their flights. So they decided yesterday morning to rent a car and spend the next day roadtripping to DC.

The two livestreamed what they called the “Bipartisan Roadtrip.” They took questions along the way. Their trip garnered national attention, not least because it’s the first time in recent memory that a Democrat and a Republican cooperated on anything.

The political divide in our country seems to be growing. Of America’s 3,113 counties (or county equivalents), only 303 were decided by single-digit percentage points in the last presidential election. By contrast, 1,096 counties were that close in the 1992 election. During the same period, the number of “landslide” counties (votes decided by margins exceeding 50 percentage points) exploded from 93 to 1,196.

Now there’s division even within the parties. According to The Hill, twelve House Republicans are opposed to the Republican plan to repeal and replace ObamaCare. Assuming all Democrats vote against the plan, if nine more Republicans reject the legislation it will not pass the House, much less the Senate.

We should not be surprised by such divisiveness. The Pew Research Center reports that in 1994, only 16 percent of Democrats and 17 percent of Republicans viewed the other party as a “threat to the nation’s well-being.” In the years since, this percentage has more than doubled for Democrats and nearly tripled for Republicans. Meanwhile, the number of Americans who express consistently conservative or liberal opinions has doubled over the past two decades.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Texas congressmen driving to DC go viral →

While the East Coast braces for what USA Today calls a “historic storm,” an op-ed in this morning’s New York Times warns that our nuclear weapons are vulnerable to cyberwarfare. Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reports that synagogues across America are ramping up security in the face of continued bomb threats.

Some sins are so public that they generate headlines. Others, less so.

I was walking in our neighborhood early yesterday morning and watched a driver pull up to a four-way stop sign, slow down slightly to see that there were no other cars or people in the way, then speed through the intersection. For the rest of my walk, I considered the theological implications of what I had just witnessed.

Here’s why: my neighbor’s decision represents precisely the kind of temptation that most plagues people who read an article such as this one.

We know that public sin dishonors God, ruins our witness, and harms everyone it affects. My neighbor would no doubt have come to a legal stop if there had been other drivers or people in the intersection.

But private sins known to no one but God, choices for which we cannot see significant negative consequences, are another matter. Judgmental thoughts not verbalized, greed or lust or jealousy or anger not acted upon—these are temptations we think we can indulge. Only God knows, and we can confess them to him and be forgiven without cost. Or so we think.

Continue reading Denison Forum – A ‘historic storm’ and the state of our souls →

Are you feeling less productive this morning? A little more stressed? You might blame March Madness, the annual college basketball tournament whose participants were announced yesterday. (Villanova, last year’s champion, is this year’s top seed.) Americans will waste at least 84.8 million hours of work fixating on the games, costing us $2.2 billion in lost productivity.

Or you could turn to a medical explanation. The hour’s sleep we lost Saturday night because of Daylight Savings Time has been linked to reduced worker productivity and an increase in heart attacks, strokes, and car accidents.

From the mundane to the esoteric: perhaps the problem is tiny visitors from outer space. Micrometeorites barely the width of a human hair rain down on our planet continuously, covering our planet with ten tons of cosmic dust every day. According to one scientist, “We inhale this stuff. We eat it every time we eat lettuce.” That’s a stressful thought.

Or maybe the problem is that aliens are bombarding us with fast radio bursts (FRBs). These strange radio waves have perplexed scientists since they were discovered ten years ago. Now a Harvard professor is suggesting that they might be leakage from planet-sized transmitters that are powering interstellar probes in distant galaxies. Whatever is generating the FRBs is powerful enough to push around something weighing a million tons, twenty times heavier than the biggest cruise ships ever built.

Continue reading Denison Forum – March Madness and the anxiety of our age →