Yesterday, Mike Pence broke a 50–50 deadlock in the Senate to confirm Betsy DeVos as Education Secretary. This was the first time in history that a vice president had to break a tie on a cabinet nomination.

Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander, himself a former Education Secretary, accused his Democratic colleagues of opposing Ms. DeVos because she was nominated by a Republican president. Opponents claimed that the nominee’s support for charter schools and vouchers made her unsuitable to lead the Education Department.

It’s another day in the dysfunctional life of American politics. Supporters of President Trump see the rancor of his critics as proof that he is doing what they elected him to do—change the status quo and return government to the people. Opponents of the president blame him for the bitterness of our political climate.

According to columnist Jim VandeHei, there are other factors involved as well. Consider his list:

•    There is no market today for normal politics, much less compromise. To get noticed, leaders must be extreme.
•    Centrism is nearly extinct at the national level. The Tea Party on the right and aggressive liberals on the left dominate our politics.
•    National political parties are shells of their former selves. Social media has rendered these gatekeepers of establishment order nearly obsolete.
•    Fake news fans the flames of partisanship as faith in traditional media declines.

I would add that the cultural dysfunction of our day is the logical consequence of a decades-old worldview called postmodern relativism. Since our minds interpret our senses to produce knowledge, we’re told that all truth claims must by definition be subjective and relative. According to conventional wisdom, since there can be no objective truth, we must tolerate all views (except those we consider intolerant, of course).

Continue reading Denison Forum – Mike Pence makes history in a divided Washington →

Last night, the Denison Forum was honored to partner with Dallas Baptist University in hosting ABC News political commentator Matthew Dowd. He spoke on campus as part of the Leadership Lecture Series of the Institute for Global Engagement. We asked him to reflect on the recent election and describe our country as he sees it.

Matthew’s remarks were both profound and timely. He noted that significant change comes to our country every seventy to eighty years. Eighty years ago, we were coming out of the Great Depression and into World War II. Eighty years before, we were coming into the Civil War and the Industrial Revolution. Eighty years before, we were coming out of the War for Independence and into the agricultural revolution.

We are now in another time of significant cultural change. From politics to technology to industry to medicine to moral standards, everything seems to be in transition. Matthew believes that in such a chaotic time, we desperately need leaders who serve those they lead, who care for people more than politics or party, who know that souls are what matter most.

Earlier in the day, I took part in celebrating a man who personified Matthew’s thesis.

Friends from across the nation gathered at Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas to celebrate the life and legacy of Vester T. Hughes, Jr. His death on January 29 brought to an earthly end one of the most amazing lives I’ve ever known. And it marked the heavenly transition of a man who was my mentor and spiritual father.

Continue reading Denison Forum – What happens in America every 80 years →

“We saw the greatest game in NFL history. Greatest comeback. Greatest coach. And greatest quarterback. What an extraordinary sporting event.” That’s what columnist Peter Wehner tweeted after yesterday’s Super Bowl. Everyone who saw the game agrees with him today.

Why are we so enthralled with New England’s win in yesterday’s Super Bowl? On one hand, we ought not be surprised. The Patriots were favored to win the contest. Their quarterback had more Super Bowl experience than the entire Atlanta Falcons team combined. Their leader was coaching in his seventh Super Bowl.

What makes the Patriots’ 34–28 victory over the Falcons so memorable is the fact that it was so historic. Never before had a Super Bowl gone to overtime. Never before had a coach or quarterback won five Super Bowls. Never before had we seen a four-time Super Bowl MVP. Never before had a team come back from more than ten points down to win. All that changed last night in what The New York Times is calling “a comeback for the ages.”

When the Patriots made history, we felt that we made history. If we cannot win championships, we want to watch others win them. If we cannot be president of the United States, we want to watch as the president is inaugurated. If we cannot create great art, we want to see great art.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Patriots victory ‘a comeback for the ages’ →

Surprising Super Bowl trivia is in the news today. Lining up the facts, you can make a compelling case that the New England Patriots will defeat the Atlanta Falcons in Sunday’s game. For instance:

The Falcons have never won a Super Bowl. Their quarterback, Matt Ryan, has never won a Most Valuable Player award. Over his career, Ryan has defeated every NFL team except two—the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Patriots.

By contrast, the New England Patriots can secure their fifth title. Tom Brady could win his fifth championship, the most of any quarterback in history. He could also win a record fourth Super Bowl MVP.

Brady has started four games against the Falcons. He won all four. With six Super Bowls, he has more championship experience than the entire Falcons’ roster.

The game pits the league’s leading offense (the Falcons) against the league’s leading defense (the Patriots). This has happened only five times before in Super Bowl history. The team with the league’s best defense won four of the five.

Sunday’s game will be the first time Dan Quinn, Atlanta’s head coach, has competed against New England’s head coach, Bill Belichick. Since 2010, coaches in their first career game against Belichick are 3–22. And the last time the Super Bowl was played in Houston, the Patriots won.

Of course, none of this proves that New England will win Sunday’s game. Predictions, whether they are based on facts or speculation, are just that. Our culture is fascinated by them because they give us the illusion of control in a chaotic world.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Trivial reasons Patriots will win the Super Bowl →

On April 15, 2013, Roseann Sdoia watched the Red Sox play at Fenway Park and then went to Boylston Street to watch the Boston Marathon. Two bombs exploded. She was just steps from the second blast and lost her right leg. Fireman Mike Materia comforted her on the ride to Massachusetts General Hospital in a police vehicle. “He’s seen me on my worst day,” she says.

Now they’re engaged to be married.

Air National Guard Sgt. Matthew Noll returned last Monday from a seven-month deployment overseas. Here’s what made his return so emotional: he was reunited with his family at the Boston Celtics game that night. The video brought tears to my eyes.

We can all use good news in the news.

CNN is reporting this morning that two corrections department workers are being held hostage by inmates at a Delaware prison. Violence erupted last night at UC Berkeley hours before a political commentator was scheduled to speak. According to today’s Wall Street Journal, the White House has put Iran “on notice” after its missile launch.

What can we learn from the challenges of our day? Here’s an important life principle: failure is necessary to success.

This headline in Quartz caught my eye: “The experience CEOs want to see in every new hire.” I expected to read about drive, giftedness, and creativity. Instead, I learned about the value of failure. One CEO says, “I ask the question: tell me about when you failed.” Another notes that failure “makes you an executive of some substance.” Richard Branson: “It is only through failure that we learn.”

The best way to deal with problems is to trust them to God’s redemptive purpose. The wicked anti-Semite Haman plotted a holocaust in Persia that became the holy day of Purim (Esther 9). After rising from an Egyptian prison to Pharaoh’s palace, Joseph could say to his brothers, “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good” (Genesis 50:20). Paul’s imprisonment led to preaching before kings (Acts 26).

In each case, good did not just redeem evil—it required it. Without the test, there could have been no triumph. A mountain climber needs a mountain from which he could fall; a swimmer needs a lake in which she could drown; a sailor needs an ocean in which he could sink.

God uses sin to show us our need of grace. He uses pain to show us our need of a Great Physician. Oswald Chambers: “The one passion of Paul’s life was to proclaim the Gospel of God. He welcomed heartbreaks, disillusionments, tribulation, for one reason only, because these things kept him in unmoved devotion to the Gospel of God.”

Where have you fallen? Would you ask God to redeem your failure by drawing you to his transforming grace?

Rhonda Mawhood Lee is an Episcopal minister and very gifted writer. Her latest column is titled, “How I learned to love and raise the child from my husband’s affair.” The daughter she describes has been an instrument of healing for Rev. Lee’s marriage and a great blessing to her life.

A lesson she learned in suffering she now expresses in joy: “Love is the most powerful thing there is.” If you’ll trust your failure to God’s grace, you’ll agree.

Denison Forum

Last night, President Trump removed his acting attorney general after she refused to defend his executive order restricting travel from seven Muslim-majority nations. Sally Q. Yates was deputy attorney general under President Obama and was serving until the Senate confirms Trump’s nominee for the post, Sen. Jeff Sessions.

This is just the latest news in the ongoing controversy over the travel ban. Immigrants from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen, and Somalia are directly affected by the president’s decision.

The administration notes that these nations were listed on the Obama-era Terrorist Travel Prevention Act of 2015. President Trump blames the airport chaos that followed his executive order on computer outages at Delta Air Lines and political protests. He noted in a tweet that only 109 people out of 325,000 were detained and held for questioning. An additional 173 were denied entry on flights to the US from the seven countries listed in the order.

Arguments in favor of the ban:

•  A four-month restriction on travel from these countries is needed to keep Americans safe.
  •    The chaos that resulted was a temporary consequence of preventing terrorists from traveling into the US.
  •    If advance warning or a grace period had been announced, terrorists could have traveled before the ban took effect.
  •    The order is not against Muslims in general—it does not affect more than forty other Muslim-majority countries.

Democratic leader Chuck Schumer saw the controversy very differently, calling the executive order “mean-spirited and un-American.” The New York Times called the ban “illegal.” Critics note that none of the 9/11 terrorists came from the seven banned countries. Protesters in many other countries are registering their opposition as well.

My purpose this morning is not to argue for one side or the other. Rather, it is to think biblically with you about three issues central to the debate.

One: Scripture encourages security. Continue reading Denison Forum – Trump travel ban: 3 biblical priorities →

Call it the Senior Adult Championship. Thirty-five-year-old Serena Williams is playing her thirty-six-year-old sister Venus in the Australian Open final tomorrow. Venus is the oldest player to reach an Australian Open women’s final in the modern era. Meanwhile, Roger Federer will play either Rafael Nadal or Grigor Dimitrov in the men’s final on Sunday (their semifinal match is in the fourth set as I write this morning). Federer is the oldest man to reach a Grand Slam final since 1974.

As the saying goes, you’re only as old as you feel. It turns out, science agrees.

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman describes a fascinating process psychologists call “priming.” In brief, what happens to us in one moment can affect us in the next moment in ways we don’t recognize.

For example, if you see the word “EAT,” you are temporarily more likely to complete the word fragment SO_P as SOUP than as SOAP. If you had just seen the word “WASH,” the opposite would more likely occur. Once your brain is primed with food, you are more likely to recognize other words such as fork, hungry, fat, diet, and cookie.

Priming works with concepts as well as words. Research subjects who were asked to walk around a room much more slowly than usual were much quicker to recognize words related to old age such as forgetful, old, and lonely.

In short, what our minds experience now influences what we are likely to experience next.

David testified to the positive power of priming when he told the Lord, “Your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in your faithfulness” (Psalm 26:3). Jesus often began the day alone with his Father (cf. Mark 1:35), as did David (Psalm 5:3), Abraham (Genesis 19:27), Jacob (Genesis 28:18), and Hezekiah (2 Chronicles 29:20). It is no surprise that their lives were marked by faithfulness to the God they worshiped at the start of the day.
Continue reading Denison Forum – Why ‘priming’ is so transforming →

Mary Tyler Moore is being called “the greatest woman TV star ever.” As John Podhoretz notes, she starred in two landmark sitcoms playing two very different characters, something no one else has done in the history of television.

Her death yesterday at the age of eighty continues to make headlines this morning. News sources are playing video clips of her funniest episodes. Her remarkable comedic timing and acting brilliance won her seven Emmys. But I think CBS captured the essence of her popularity with a one-hour special airing tonight titled, “Mary Tyler Moore: Love Is All Around.”

Whether on screen or in person, she made people feel loved. Actress Cloris Leachman spoke for many who worked with her: “The picture that we all have of Mary, that’s how she was—sweet, kind, so tender, so delicate. She was America’s sweetheart.”

This despite her struggles with diabetes and with alcoholism, which she wrote about in the first of her two memoirs. Her only child died at the age of twenty-four, the victim of an accidental gunshot. Perhaps her challenges helped forge her loving spirit and well-known charity work.

Maya Angelou was right: “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

There’s a lesson for Christians here. In a time dominated by animosity and negativity, reflecting God’s love in ours becomes even more powerful and urgent. This fact was impressed upon me today by a biblical text I had never noticed before.

Continue reading Denison Forum – What made Mary Tyler Moore so special? →

If you can spare a quarter-billion dollars, 924 Bel Air Road in Los Angeles might be your next home. This mansion, called “the eighth wonder of the world” by its developer, is making headlines today. I saw the article and immediately wanted to see more: the panoramic views, twelve bedrooms, twenty-one bathrooms, eighty-five-foot Italian glass infinity pool, James Bond-themed indoor cinema, and fleet of luxury cars and motorbikes.

Continuing the theme of wealth, Alex Caudros’s Brazillionaires: Wealth, Power, Decadence, and Hope in an American Country fascinated me with its descriptions of challenges faced by the ultra-wealthy. One specialist serving such clients arranges kidnapping insurance and has created games to teach wealthy children how to handle money. Another knows the numbers to call for clients who want to buy a racehorse or sell a diamond necklace. She also knows discreet psychiatrists and can make sure every one of a billionaire’s homes has the same clothing so he doesn’t have to pack much when traveling.

While the Los Angeles mansion is making news, the 43,000 people who are homeless in Los Angeles County draw less attention. A recent report states that eight of the richest people on Earth own as much combined wealth as half the human race.

Continuing the theme of need, I was fascinated recently to learn the origins of hospitals. In the fourth century, a wealthy Christian widow named St. Fabiola gave money to build a hospital in Rome and worked personally to serve the sick. Around the same time, St. Basil distributed food to the poor of Caesarea, then built a hospital for his city. In AD 325, the Council of Nicea directed that every city with a cathedral should also have a hospital since people traveling on pilgrimages would often arrive ill.

Thus began the hospital movement.

Ten of the twenty-five largest health-care networks in the US are Catholic-affiliated. Many others, such as Baylor–Scott and White Health in Texas, are Christian ministries of healing.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Welcome to America’s most expensive house →

Sales of stationery are booming. Writing pads, drawing sets, diaries, and binders are all selling at levels unseen in years. What is happening here?

Public relations entrepreneur Angela Ceberano has an explanation: “Sometimes, I just want to get rid of all the technology and sit down in a quiet space with a pen and paper.” According to scientists, she’s onto something.

Research by Princeton University and UCLA showed that the pen is indeed mightier than the keyboard. In three studies, students who took notes longhand performed better on conceptual questions than those who took notes on laptops. Another study shows that people who doodle on paper can better recall dull information.

1. S. Lewis never learned to type. Novelist Joyce Carol Oates writes all her books by longhand. Tom Wolfe used typewriters but couldn’t keep them maintained, so he wrote his last novel longhand. Danielle Steele writes all her books on a 1946 Olympia manual typewriter. P. J. O’Rourke uses a Selectric typewriter.

Creativity and simplicity are directly related. But these are not simple times.

It’s hard to read the news without angst these days. For instance, this morning’s Wall Street Journal reports that nascent peace talks in Syria are already in trouble as the government called rebels “armed terrorist groups” and the rebels refused to talk directly to the government. Today’s Los Angeles Times tells us that California Gov. Jerry Brown has declared a state of emergency after storms caused flooding, erosion, and highway damage.

And today’s Wall Street Journal also reports that school districts across the country are closing due to another norovirus outbreak. “We think this is the most infectious group of pathogens that have ever been described,” one health expert says. Unsurprisingly, the American Psychological Association notes that 75 percent of adults experienced moderate to high levels of stress in the past month.

There’s an antidote to the anxiety of our age, however.

David rejoiced that his Shepherd “leads me beside still waters” (Psalm 23:2). Zephaniah assured his people that their Lord would “quiet you by his love” (Zephaniah 3:17). From these texts, I draw this conclusion: if my “waters” are not “still,” I am not following my Shepherd. If my soul is not “quiet,” I am not fully experiencing his love.

Continue reading Denison Forum – A surprising solution for stressful times →

“America will be saved by an honest and good man who will work for all the people.” That’s what Jon Voight predicted yesterday in his address to a crowd gathered at the Lincoln Memorial.

Today Donald John Trump will be inaugurated as our nation’s forty-fifth president. Not everyone agrees with Voight: more than a quarter-million protesters are expected in Washington, DC this weekend. Thirty groups have received permits for rallies or marches before, during, and after the inauguration.

Why is our nation so divided over our new president?

Here’s an answer you may not have considered. Andrew Delbanco’s The Real American Dream claims that our culture has developed around three forces in which Americans have found hope: God, Nation, and Self.

During the colonial period, the central figure in the American story was God. The Puritan understanding of divine sovereignty infused colonists’ lives with purpose. Theirs was an abiding sense that God led them to build this nation as a “shining city upon a hill.”

Prior to the Civil War, the states largely saw themselves as independent members of a voluntary configuration. The bloodiest war in American history led to the cultural formation of a “United” States of America. From that point through two World Wars and the Great Depression, Americans increasingly looked to the nation as their source for justice, mercy, and hope.

In the 1960s, however, faith in the government declined dramatically. The Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal rocked our trust in our nation and her leaders. As Delbanco notes, our culture shifted to the self in “installing instant gratification as the hallmark of the good life, and in repudiating the interventionist state as a source of hope.”

Continue reading Denison Forum – The inauguration: Hope for a divided nation →

The Women’s March on Washington is this Saturday, the day after the presidential inauguration. As many as 200,000 women are expected to march for “the protection of our rights, our safety, our health, and our families.” Why aren’t pro-life women part of this event?

The March’s values include “open access to safe, legal, affordable abortion and birth control for all people.” The event’s sponsors include Planned Parenthood, NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation, and the National Abortion Federation. When news got out that some pro-life groups planned to participate, there was an immediate outcry from pro-choice supporters who claimed that feminism must include support for abortion.

Is this true?

Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Louisa May Alcott were all pioneers of early feminism. All were opposed to abortion. Nonetheless, abortion advocates continue to denigrate the pro-life position as an anti-feminist “war on women.”

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Pro-life supporters want what is best for all women. They are convinced by the evidence that abortion not only ends the lives of unborn women, it also harms their mothers and the rest of society.

Consider the economic cost of abortion. Of the 58 million abortions in America since Roe v. Wade, more than 12 million were females who would now be of child-bearing age. Thus, we can add at least another 12 million second-generation lives aborted, for a total of 70 million who would be contributing to the American economy.

The US government calculates Gross Domestic Product as $53,000 per capita. This amount multiplied by 70 million leads to a loss to our economy of nearly $3.7 trillion, more than 20 percent of our total GDP.

Continue reading Denison Forum – March on Washington excludes pro-life women →

A large man with white hair and a white beard visited Graceland last Sunday on the eighty-second birthday of Elvis Presley. Someone posted his photo on the Facebook page “Elvis is Alive.” Now conspiracy theorists claim that the man is Elvis himself.

They believe that Elvis faked his death in 1977 and has been living in seclusion ever since. They claim there were discrepancies with his death certificate, reports of a wax dummy in the original coffin, and several accounts of Presley planning a diversion so he could retire away from the public. Some followers have even formed the First Presleyterian Church of Elvis the Divine. Presleyterians are required to face Las Vegas daily and make a pilgrimage to Graceland at least once in their lives.

If you were talking to Presleyterians today, how would you convince them that they’re wrong? You could cite medical evidence that Presley died on August 16, 1977, but they would claim that such evidence was falsified or misinterpreted. You could debunk every Elvis sighting so far, but they would claim that their hero remains in seclusion. At the end of the day, you’d have a hard time convincing them that they’re wrong. Of course, they’d have an even harder time convincing you that they’re right.

We live in a world of Presleyterian logic today.

Iranian officials unveiled a huge billboard in Tehran commemorating “Captured US Sailors” Day. A year ago, they seized ten American sailors and two US Navy boats they claimed entered their waters illegally. They held the sailors for fifteen hours before releasing them. In their view, this was a triumph for Iranian supremacy over the “Great Satan.” In our view, it was a brazen attempt to embarrass America and our leaders.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Did Elvis Presley attend his birthday party? →

A psychologist named Cliff Arnall christened the third Monday in January as “Blue Monday.” According to him, the weather, debt from the holidays, and broken New Year’s resolutions combined to make yesterday “the most depressing day of the year.” Except that it wasn’t. Psychologists say the formula Arnall used has been “effectively debunked” and tell us that “there is no such thing as the most depressing day of the year.”

Consider some other news that doesn’t say what we might think it says.

Gallup is reporting: “In US, More Adults Identifying as LGBT.” If that’s all you read, you might assume that their percentage is escalating. If you measure the number of LGBT people in America by the frequency with which they are portrayed in movies and on television, you might assume that a quarter of the population is LGBT. Unsurprisingly, according to a recent survey, Americans estimate that 23 percent of Americans are gay or lesbian.

Here’s the fact: the LGBT portion of the American population has risen from 3.5 percent to 4.1 percent over the last four years. The percentage equates to ten million of the nation’s 326 million people.

Another example: despite published reports, Christians who regularly attend worship do not divorce at a higher rate than non-Christians. The opposite is true, in fact. And another: despite conventional wisdom, biblical Christianity is not declining in America. What is declining is the number of people who attend theologically liberal denominations. And what is especially declining is the number of nominal Christians. Many no longer consider themselves Christians, joining the ranks of the “nones.”

Paradoxically, the last fact is very good news.

Several years ago, a couple moved from Manhattan to Dallas and joined the church where I was pastor. The husband made the surprising observation that it was easier to be a Christian in New York City than in Dallas. He explained that in Manhattan everyone knows if they are Christian or not. There is no spiritual ambiguity. In Dallas, by contrast, many say they are Christians because they’re not Jewish or Muslim and have a membership in a church somewhere. He noted that “Churchianity” can be a major obstacle to Christianity.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Congratulations on surviving ‘Blue Monday’ →