“Obamacare has failed the American people. Over the past seven years, we’ve seen premiums skyrocket, choices dwindle, and government take more control over our health care. Left unchecked, the damage wrought by Obamacare would continue to spin out of control.”

With these words, House Speaker Paul Ryan has introduced the American Health Care Act, the long-awaited bill to repeal and replace Obamacare. According to the Speaker and other media sources, here is what the measure contains:

•  The bill maintains coverage for people with preexisting conditions.
  •    It allows children to stay on their parents’ insurance plans until the age of twenty-six. It also requires all insurers to offer ten essential benefits, including maternity care and preventive services. And it bars insurers from setting a limit on how much they must pay to cover a person.
  •    The “Patient and State Stability Fund” allows states to allocate resources in ways that will best care for their most vulnerable populations.
  •    The bill enhances Health Savings Accounts, creating choice and competition among insurers.
  •    The measure continues Medicaid expansion for low-income Americans until 2020, then provides an advanceable, refundable tax credit to create an open market for insurance coverage. The credit is capped to prevent wealthier Americans from claiming it.
  •    The bill repeals fines on people who don’t carry insurance. However, it levies a 30 percent penalty for lapses in coverage.
  •    A provision bars Planned Parenthood from receiving federal funds. President Trump reportedly offered to preserve Planned Parenthood’s funding if the organization would promise to stop providing abortions. The organization quickly rejected the president’s offer.
  •    Analysts have not yet had time to assess how the bill would affect federal spending or the number of people covered by insurance.

House committees plan to begin voting on the 123-page legislation this morning, launching “what could be the year’s defining battle in Congress,” according to the Associated Press. The bill’s passage in the House is not assured, and opposition is mounting in the Senate because of concerns that poor people could lose insurance.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Republicans release ‘American Health Care Act’ →

So headlines a New York Times column that has gone viral. Amy Krouse Rosenthal is dying of ovarian cancer. She has been married to “the most extraordinary man for 26 years” and planned on at least another twenty-six with him. Instead, she wrote a deeply moving essay about her husband in hopes that “the right person reads this, finds Jason, and another love story begins.”

Reading her tribute, I wanted to be as caring as Jason. If I were a wife, I would want to be as courageous as Amy.

We need more models of courageous caring today. What does it say about us that Logan, the bloody final installment in the “Wolverine” series, topped the weekend box office? Or that nudity at a Paris fashion show is making headlines? Or that Facebook is testing artificial intelligence tools as it tries to help curb the suicide epidemic?

In days like these, our culture can use the best models we can find. But the answer to our challenges isn’t so simple.

Stanford professor Albert Bandura is widely considered America’s greatest living psychologist. The recipient of sixteen honorary degrees, he is best known for pioneering “social cognitive theory.” In essence, Bandura believes that students learn by observing models and replicating their behavior. If imitation enables students to accomplish their goals, such success encourages them to perform similar behaviors. Over time, the successful student becomes a model for others and the process multiplies.

Prof. Bandura would agree that Amy Krouse Rosenthal’s article has been popular in large part because it inspires us to follow the example she and her husband have set. Imitating success is a popular self-improvement method in our secular culture. But I’m convinced that it’s not enough to take us where we need to go, for three reasons.

First, if we merely imitate our models without truly understanding their behavior, we will struggle to apply their example to different circumstances. What works in starting a church may not work in leading an established congregation. Unique challenges sometimes call for unique approaches. Continue reading Denison Forum – ‘You May Want to Marry My Husband’ →

Carryn Weigand Owens is being called America’s “moral compass.” Anyone who saw President Trump’s tribute Monday night to Ryan Owens, her fallen Navy SEAL husband, will never forget it. The president was right: her husband’s sacrifice is “etched into eternity.” And her courage in responding to his tragic death is an example for us all.

We should not be surprised.

Carryn Weigand was co-captain of the University of Virginia Cavaliers women’s soccer team and one of its best players. After earning a BA and Master’s degree, she chose to serve her country as an intelligence officer around the time of the 9/11 attacks. Then she met and married Ryan, a Navy SEAL Team 6 member. The couple had four children together. After twelve deployments, he was killed on January 28 during a mission in Yemen. Carryn buried him in Arlington National Cemetery just six days before the president’s speech to Congress.

This Sunday would have been Ryan’s thirty-seventh birthday. The next day would have been their thirteenth wedding anniversary. Carryn’s courage in the midst of her grief is an example for us all. And proof that character transcends politics.

Or at least it should.

A former Hillary Clinton campaign volunteer responded to Carryn’s appearance Monday night and the extended ovation she received by tweeting a horribly derogatory statement. The good news is that he was immediately fired by his employer after a firestorm of criticism. A Salon columnist later called the president’s recognition of Owens’s sacrifice a “disgrace”; a Washington Post writer called it “contemptibly cynical.”

Continue reading Denison Forum – Navy SEAL widow inspires the nation →

An interview with Oprah Winfrey aired yesterday in which she signaled she may be open to running for president. She now joins a list of celebrities such as Kanye West, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and Tim McGraw who have speculated publicly about running for office. If they do, they can expect a level of public scrutiny they’ve never experienced before. The higher the mountain, the harder it is to climb.

The same principle holds for Christians. If you serve Jesus, you can expect opposition from everyone who is opposed to your Lord (John 15:18).

It’s no surprise that religious persecution in China is intensifying as the government seeks to curb the rapid growth of Christianity in the formally atheistic country. Catholic nuns in the Democratic Republic of Congo are coming under increasing attacks from vandals who are destroying convents and churches. As Christianity spreads rapidly across Africa, such oppression will likely intensify.

Believers in America seldom face life-threatening persecution. However, we are watching the culture slide away from biblical morality with increasing speed. For instance, the latest version of Beauty and the Beast has a gay scene between LeFou and Gaston. Disney just aired its first-ever gay cartoon kiss. Creators of Moana say they wouldn’t rule out an LGBT Disney princess in the future.

Moral relativism has untethered our culture from objective truth and Judeo-Christian morality. As a result, we have witnessed seismic shifts on life’s most essential issues, from abortion to same-sex marriage to euthanasia. How should Christians respond?

One: Know why we believe what we believe.

Our faith is more than an opinion we hope others will tolerate. It is founded on empirical, historical facts: the Bible is truth and Jesus rose from the dead. Don’t believe the deception that your faith is just one “truth” among many. It is grounded in a reality that the entire universe will one day acknowledge (Philippians 2:9–11).

Two: Know why others believe what they believe. Continue reading Denison Forum – Will Oprah run for president? →

I thought Donald Trump’s address last night to a joint session of Congress was the most effective speech he’s ever given. His words and tone were presidential, and his passion for our country was obvious. Seventy percent of viewers said the speech made them more optimistic about the direction of the country. I heard one television commentator say afterwards, “He may have been inaugurated on January 20, but he became president tonight.”

However, the partisan divide that challenges our future is on clear display this morning.

The Huffington Post sarcastically headlines, “Speaker’s Pet,” with a picture of the president shaking hands with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan. The Los Angeles Times complains, “Trump speech: Promise the world, leave out the details.” The Washington Post is skeptical: “A tale of two speeches: The contradictions of Donald Trump’s Presidency.” On the other side of the aisle, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich was “Blown Away” by the president’s “Unifying” speech to Congress.

Why are our political divisions so entrenched? According to scientists, our brains are to blame.

University of Southern California cognitive neuroscientist Jonas Kaplan has been studying how our brains react when our political beliefs are challenged. Kaplan and his colleagues performed functional MRI scans on the brains of forty participants, all of whom held strong political views. They monitored brain activity as their team presented counterarguments and tried to sway the subjects’ political positions.

According to the MRI scans, the areas of the brain that were triggered control deep, emotional thoughts about the subjects’ personal identity. When these parts of the brain were stimulated, the subjects felt challenged and became defensive, shutting down any willingness to accept counterarguments.

Such divisiveness is truly dangerous, for it threatens our nation’s future. In a two-party system, compromise and consensus are essential to progress. When one-half of Congress stands to applaud the president while the other half sits in stony silence, the government gridlocks and America suffers.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Brain science and Trump’s speech to Congress →

Should transgender people be able to use the bathroom and shower facility that corresponds to their gender identity? This was the position of the Obama administration when it issued an edict last May requiring public schools to permit this choice. The administration threatened to withhold federal funding for schools that did not comply. A federal judge then put a hold on the president’s order.

To those who claim that this decision should be left to the states and to local school districts, supporters of the Obama mandate counter that civil rights take precedence over states’ rights. For instance, in Virginia v. Loving, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Virginia’s statute forbidding interracial marriage was unconstitutional. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 likewise outlawed racial segregation in schools, even though such policies had been enacted by local school authorities.

If transgender rights are civil rights, the argument goes, they should be enforced even over the objections of states and school districts.

The Trump administration clearly disagrees. Last Wednesday, the president issued an order rescinding Mr. Obama’s directive. He stated that states and public schools should have the authority to make their own decisions without federal interference. As a result, states and school districts will now be able to decide for themselves whether federal sex discrimination law applies to gender identity.

The president’s order includes language stating that schools must protect transgender students from bullying. And it does not require individual schools to prevent transgender students from using the bathroom of their choice. It simply gives them the right to make this decision free from federal interference.

But what of the argument that civil rights supersede states’ rights? Here’s my response: unlike previous civil rights legislation, transgender civil rights significantly impact the civil rights of all people.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Are transgender rights civil rights? →

A historical Jewish cemetery in Missouri was vandalized this past weekend, damaging nearly 200 headstones. Chesel Shel Emeth Cemetery in University City, just west of St. Louis, has served Jewish families in the area for 124 years. The attack toppled some headstones and damaged others.

Tragically, this is not new news. A recent wave of bomb threats caused eleven Jewish community centers to close temporarily. Terrorizing phone calls have targeted fifty-four Jewish community centers in twenty-seven states this year. Graffiti and swastikas have been reported on some college campuses as well as the New York City subway. President Trump denounced these crimes yesterday, stating that “anti-Semitism is horrible and it’s going to stop and it has to stop.”

But one dimension of the tragedy is good news: a group of Muslim Americans organized a campaign to repair the damaged cemetery. More than $80,000 was raised in the first twenty-four hours. Every dollar will go to the cemetery. Any remaining funds after the cemetery is restored will be allocated to repair other vandalized Jewish centers.

Anti-Semitism is a horrific sin as ancient as Israel’s enslavement in Egypt and as recent as the wave of attacks now escalating across America and Europe. Some aspects of this prejudice are unique to the remarkable Jewish people—jealousy over their material success, educational achievements, and cultural accomplishments. But other aspects are common to all racial prejudice—if I decide that I am superior to you based on our races, I can maintain this fiction even when your achievements, income, and social status exceed mine. Bigotry is the sin of small minds and souls.

Here’s the good news: no matter how the world feels about you, God knows your name. Right now.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Muslims help rebuild Jewish cemetery →

Researchers at Northwestern University in Chicago have documented an amazing fact. According to The Telegraph, when a human sperm meets an egg, “an explosion of tiny sparks erupts from the egg at the exact moment of conception.” Northwestern professor Teresa Woodruff calls the phenomenon “breathtaking.”

When I read the article, I thought immediately of John 1: “In [Jesus] was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (vv. 4–5).

Light always defeats darkness. It may take longer than we want to wait. It may happen in ways we can neither predict nor understand. But light wins.

Last Thursday, a panel gathered to discuss the topic, “Biology Isn’t Bigotry.” The five women who participated strongly criticized the notion that self-determined “gender identity” is the same as biological sex. One of the participants calls herself a “long-term leftist” and is on the board of Women’s Liberation Front, a feminist group. She and the rest of the panel warned that “gender identity” views amount to the erasure of women, voyeurism, and practicing eugenics on children.

The next day, Norma McCorvey died at the age of sixty-nine. She was better known by the pseudonym “Jane Roe.” The 1973 case that bears her name, Roe v. Wade, legalized abortion in the US. McCorvey later became one of America’s foremost proponents of life. In February 2005, she unsuccessfully petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn the legislation that bore her pseudonym. What changed her mind?

In her 1998 book, Won by Love, she explained:

“I was sitting in [Operation Rescue’s] offices when I noticed a fetal development poster. The progression was so obvious, the eyes were so sweet. It hurt my heart, just looking at them. I ran outside and finally, it dawned on me. ‘Norma,’ I said to myself, ‘They’re right.’ I had worked with pregnant women for years. I had been through three pregnancies and deliveries myself. I should have known. Yet something in that poster made me lose my breath. I kept seeing the picture of that tiny, 10-week-old embryo, and I said to myself, that’s a baby! It’s as if blinders just fell off my eyes and I suddenly understood the truth—that’s a baby!

Continue reading Denison Forum – Human life begins in ‘bright flash of light’ →

Alexander Acosta is President Trump’s new nominee for Labor Secretary. If confirmed, he will head the Department of Labor, which advocates for American job seekers, wage earners and retirees, and ensures that US workers receive appropriate benefits and rights.

We can use the help.

ABC News reports that Americans work more than anyone in the industrialized world. We take less vacation, work longer days, and retire later. It’s no wonder that, according to Forbes, 52.3 percent of us are unhappy at work.

After the president’s Labor Secretary announcement, I did a brief study of rest in the Bible. The concept appears early: “On the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done” (Genesis 2:2). Why would an omnipotent God need to rest?

The answer is found in the word “rested,” which translates the Hebrew term from which we get “sabbath.” Thus we read: “So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation” (v. 3). God rested as an example for those made in his image. If he would observe a Sabbath, so must we.

His example later became our command: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8). This commandment is so important that the text explaining it (vv. 9–11) comprises the longest commentary on any of the Ten Commandments.

Continue reading Denison Forum – The ancient cure for work stress →

From the one-day-late news department: scientists have used 3-D mapping to reveal the actual face of St. Valentine. They took photos of his skull, which is kept in Rome’s Basilica of Santa Maria of Cosmedin, then reconstructed his facial features.

From one facial extreme to the other: a twenty-five-year-old Hitler lookalike has been arrested in Austria. The man, who calls himself Harald Hitler, is charged with glorifying the Nazi era, which is a crime in his country.

I wish this were the only troubling news in today’s news. But it’s not.

The New York Times is reporting today that a science panel has approved editing human embryos to prevent disease or disability. Is this the start of eugenics? Since 2011, the number of violent incidents at churches has doubled. Louisville, Kentucky recently dealt with 151 calls about drug overdoses in a four-day period.

You could be forgiven for wondering if our country is following the fate of so many fallen empires before us. However, writer and filmmaker Paul Ratner disagrees. He has given us “5 Reasons Why America Will Not Collapse Like the Roman Empire.” Here’s his list:

1.    Political instability is here but the US is still a republic.
2.    The economy needs work but is in no danger of a collapse.
3.    The military situation is vastly different.
4.    The US is not in a cultural and social decline.
5.    Technology, not politics will transform the US (and the world).

Continue reading Denison Forum – 5 reasons US will not fall like Rome? →

Today is Valentine’s Day. To celebrate the holiday, Americans will spend $4.3 billion on jewelry, $2 billion on flowers, $1.9 billion on clothes, $1.7 billion on candy, $1.4 billion on gift cards, and nearly $1 billion on greeting cards. Today’s news is filled with stories of love appropriate for the holiday.

Not everything in the news is good news, however.

This Vogue article grieves me: “What to Get a Friend Post-Abortion.” The article pictures two teenage girls smiling and acting as though they are congratulating each other. What follows is an assortment of T-shirts, poetry, and other gifts. Among them is an invitation from Planned Parenthood to become an escort for other women who choose abortion. The nation’s leading abortion provider promises that “one day this won’t seem like such a big deal.”

It’s easy to see Valentine’s Day as a momentary respite from a culture that is sliding ever further from biblical morality. But it’s always too soon to give up on God.

Remember the story of Joseph: his brothers sold him into slavery out of anger at his dreams of superiority over them. Fast-forward thirteen years. Joseph is now second-in-command in Egypt, the greatest superpower in the world. His brothers have come to him for food in a time of famine. They do not recognize him, but he knows them.

To test them, he has his personal cup placed in the sack of Benjamin, their youngest brother. They are arrested and brought before him. He offers to keep Benjamin as his servant and free the rest.

The brothers he knew thirteen years ago would gladly have traded their younger brother for their freedom. The Joseph they knew would gladly have forced them into his service.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Where we will spend $4.3 billion today →

The Gramophone Awards were established in 1959. Fortunately, their name was soon changed to the Grammys. Last night’s show was dominated by Adele, who won five Grammys including song, record, and album of the year. David Bowie’s final album also received awards in five categories.

In all, there were 426 nominations in eighty-four categories. I looked over the list and found maybe ten songs I’d heard before. Watching the show, I realized how little of the music industry I experience personally.

Why is my ignorance of contemporary music a good thing?

The answer is not that I’m an advocate for withdrawing from society. To the contrary, I worry about Christians who adopt a Christ-against-culture worldview, pulling back into enclaves of spirituality and resisting the secular world wherever they can. While some aspects of contemporary culture are obviously off-limits for believers (see my warning last Friday not to see Fifty Shades Darker), retreating completely from society keeps our salt in the saltshaker and our light under a basket. This is the opposite of Jesus’ intention for us (Matthew 5:13–16).

I know little about contemporary music, not because such music isn’t important. Rather, it’s because ignorance of one dimension of life is a necessary condition for understanding another.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Why I’m grateful for the Grammys →

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 →