Trent Harmon is the fifteenth and last winner of American Idol. However, my favorite moment came before the winner was announced last night.

Carrie Underwood, arguably the most successful winner in the history of the show, was given the honor of performing the last song before the final results were announced. She chose to sing Something in the Water, a song about the way faith and baptism change those who know Christ. (For more, see Janet Denison’s article on her faith.) Her amazing performance illustrated the importance of using our influence for the glory of God.

But back to American Idol. Time magazine calls it the show that “won contemporary culture.” Why was it so successful? Why are the answers relevant to you this morning?

Time notes that Idol was the first show of its kind in the U.S. When it launched in 2002 as an adaptation of the British Pop Idol franchise, few expected it to do so well. Survivor, the first reality show, was only two years old. The genre was in its infancy, at least in our culture.

That was then; this is now.

Continue reading Denison Forum – THE SUCCESS OF ‘AMERICAN IDOL’ →

In 1976, Rocky won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Happy Days was the highest-rated show on television. Apple Computer was formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. And I voted in my first presidential election.

In the forty years since, I’ve never seen anything like this.

There have been forty-nine presidential primaries and caucuses so far, with 1,574 delegates awarded to Republican candidates and 4,380 to Democratic candidates. There are twenty-four primaries left, with 769 Republican and 1,977 Democratic delegates remaining. In other words, more than two-thirds of the delegates available have now been determined.

By this point in the 2012 race, Mitt Romney was the consensus Republican nominee; his remaining challengers would win a total of seventy-five delegates the rest of the way. In 2008, John McCain clinched the Republican nomination on March 4. In 2004, John Kerry clinched the Democratic nomination by March 11. In 2000, George W. Bush and Al Gore had each clinched their party’s nomination by March 15.

Continue reading Denison Forum – I’VE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE THIS →

This is the most absurd, contradictory story I can remember: The current Time magazine cover story reports on the disastrous effects of pornography on those who view it. Yet the magazine’s cover image is so explicit that I warn you not to view it. The image that accompanies the story on page 40 is nearly as graphic. I would not want this magazine near anyone I know.

First, let’s discuss the content of the article. Belinda Luscombe documents the growing number of young men who are convinced that “their sexual responses have been sabotaged because their brains were virtually marinated in porn when they were adolescents.” So they are creating online community groups, smartphone apps, and educational videos designed to help men quit porn. Luscombe observes: “For the first time, some of the most strident alarms are coming from the same demographic as its most enthusiastic customers.”

Many have been worried for years about pornography’s degradation of women and normalization of sexual aggression. British Prime Minister David Cameron has begun the process of requiring porn sites to verify the age of their users or face a fine. The Utah state legislature has unanimously passed a resolution treating porn as a public-health crisis.

Continue reading Denison Forum – DO NOT LOOK AT THE COVER OF ‘TIME’ MAGAZINE →

North Carolina is in the news today for two reasons. One is that the University of North Carolina lost the men’s NCAA basketball championship game last night to Villanova on an amazing last-second shot.

The second reason is that the state’s “bathroom bill” debate continues to generate national controversy. The story began in Charlotte, where an ordinance was passed that forced businesses to allow transgender customers to use the restrooms and locker rooms of their choice. If it had gone into effect, business owners could have faced fines and even potential jail time if they did not accommodate transgender customers.

The state legislature then intervened, drafting legislation that requires individuals to use the bathroom corresponding to the sex identified on their birth certificate. After Gov. Pat McCrory signed the bill into law, furor erupted.

Numerous governors and mayors across the country issued travel bans to North Carolina. Among them, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s ban is especially interesting. Houston voters’ action on a bathroom ordinance in 2015 was nearly identical to the North Carolina bill. Yet when the Syracuse men’s basketball team traveled to Houston to play in last weekend’s Final Four, Gov. Cuomo’s office was notably silent on their travel plans.

Continue reading Denison Forum – BATTLE CONTINUES OVER NORTH CAROLINA ‘BATHROOM BILL’ →

#PanamaPapers was the top trending topic on Twitter yesterday. It is trending on Facebook and on the front page of reddit.

Why? What is this all about?

Yesterday, news broke of a year-long investigation into offshore shell corporations. These companies have been used by some of the world’s most notable politicians and leaders to hide billions of dollars. The investigation is being called the “Panama Papers” scandal because the information was leaked from a Panamanian law firm, Mossack Fonseca, by an anonymous source.

The data was initially obtained by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The scope of the leak is massive—11.5 million documents on 214,000 shell companies spanning a period from 1977 to 2015. This may be the largest leak of classified information in history. Nearly 400 journalists in more than twenty-five languages have worked on the story over the last year.

According to the BBC, the leak reveals information about seventy-two current or former heads of state. Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, Egypt’s former President Hosni Mubarak, and Libya’s former leader Muammar Gaddafi were included. According to The Guardian, associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin secretly moved as much as $2 billion through offshore accounts.

Continue reading Denison Forum – ‘PANAMA PAPERS’ CORRUPTION SCANDAL BREAKS THE INTERNET →

“I am optimistic that we will see this nation come back to God.” So states Britain’s Pastor Agu Irukwu of the Redeemed Christian Church of God. His group was founded in Nigeria but now has 600 congregations across the U.K.

Nearly 800 British churches have closed in the last six years, but Pentecostal or charismatic churches are taking their place. For instance, Hillsong Church London holds four services every Sunday, attended by 8,000 people. More than 5,000 churches have been started in Great Britain since 1980. God is moving in a country desperate for spiritual awakening.

Meanwhile in America, Southern governors are facing increased pressure to compromise on religious liberty or lose business for their states. Colleges are spending millions of dollars to deal with an escalation in sexual misconduct cases. And the U.S. government will spend an addition $22 million to fight an epidemic of heroin and painkiller abuse.

Does our nation need moral and spiritual renewal?

Continue reading Denison Forum – IS GREAT BRITAIN EXPERIENCING REVIVAL? →

I almost always begin my daily column by interacting with the day’s news. However, Good Friday is unlike any other day. And the two questions I’d like to explore with you this morning deserve our full attention. The first is one I’ve been asked often. The second is one I’ve never considered before today.

Our first question is both simple and profound: “Why did Jesus have to die?” The fact that he died to pay for our sins is not in question. Rather, why did God require that he do so? If I run into your car in the parking lot, I assume someone doesn’t have to die for my debt to be paid. Why did God require the death of his Son to pay ours?

The answer is that sin separates us from the holy God who is the only source of life (Isaiah 59:2; John 14:6). That’s why the Lord warned Adam that if he ate the forbidden fruit “you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17). That’s why “the soul who sins shall die” (Ezekiel 18:20). That’s why “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

Continue reading Denison Forum – A GOOD FRIDAY QUESTION I’VE NEVER CONSIDERED BEFORE →

In December 2014, President Obama began the process of normalizing relations with Cuba. The two governments now have embassies in each other’s countries. Prior to the president’s arrival on Sunday, the hotel company Starwood announced that it will be making a “multimillion-dollar investment” in Cuban hotels. Cruise lines are preparing to include the island nation in their Caribbean itineraries.

However, the Cuban government has not budged on human rights.

Dozens of members of “Ladies in White,” a group that campaigns for the release of political prisoners, were arrested hours before Mr. Obama touched down in Havana. According to Columbia University professor Christopher Sabatini, over 1,400 dissidents and human rights activists were detained just in the last month. Clearly, the Castro regime wants the economic benefits of improved relations with the U.S., but it does not want to cede power and control to obtain these benefits.

Those who are familiar with Holy Week should not be surprised.

Continue reading Denison Forum – OBAMA IN HAVANA AND THE CUBA I KNOW →

Terasem Movement is a research foundation that seeks to “transfer human consciousness to computers and robots.” The firm has created thousands of highly detailed “mind clones” to record the memories, values, and attitudes of specific people.

Using this data, scientists created a replica of the wife of the company’s founder. The robot is named Bina48. Made of skin-like rubber, it makes facial expressions, greets people, and has conversations—all made possible through facial and voice recognition software, motion tracking, and internet connectivity.

At least 56,000 people have given information to create “mindfiles” that can one day be uploaded to a robot or holograph. According to the company, everything down to a person’s mannerisms and quirks can be recreated.

The desire for immortality is basic to human nature. There is something in us that wants to outlive us. Even thirty-two percent of atheists and agnostics believe in an afterlife. We have this desire to live forever because God gave it to us. It is part of his plan for us. He created us to live forever with him in paradise. This world is just the first step toward that world, a means to that end.

Continue reading Denison Forum – COMPANY MAKING ROBOTS TO CLONE HUMANS →

March Madness began yesterday for men’s college basketball teams. There are more winners and losers than the sixty-four teams that began the tournament, however.

If you’re one of the forty million people who filled out a bracket, know that your odds of predicting the winner of every game are one in 9.2 quintillion. (Baylor’s loss yesterday ended my chances.) But beer and pizza companies always win during March—beer consumption escalates nearly thirty percent, while pizza orders increase by nineteen percent.

Meanwhile, productivity in America loses. Experts estimate that lost wages paid to distracted and unproductive workers could reach as high as $1.9 billion. That amount of cash stacked in dollar bills would reach approximately 120 miles into the atmosphere. That’s seventeen times higher than the altitude at which commercial jetliners fly.

Clearly, what we do in private affects what we accomplish in public.

This fact relates to our spiritual lives as well. In My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers claims that “my worth to God in public is what I am in private.” Why is this true?

Continue reading Denison Forum – HOW MUCH WILL MARCH MADNESS COST OUR ECONOMY? →

President Obama has nominated Merrick B. Garland to be the nation’s 113th Supreme Court justice. In most years, this would be an historic but typical act for a president. But this is not like most years.

In coming days and weeks we’ll hear heated arguments from both sides in what promises to be one of the most vitriolic Supreme Court nomination battles in history. Republican leaders are already on record that they will not consider any replacement nominee from Mr. Obama. Democrats will counter that Republicans are violating their constitutional duty to consider the president’s candidate. They will likewise brand their opponents as obstructionists who put party ahead of the nation.

Republicans will counter that they have the constitutional right to respond to the president’s nomination as they wish. And they will cite a lack of precedent for a president to nominate a Supreme Court justice during the last year of his second term.

The crux of the issue, however, is simple.

Continue reading Denison Forum – OBAMA NOMINATES GARLAND FOR COURT: WHY THE UPROAR? →

Donald Trump won Florida, Illinois, Missouri, and North Carolina last night. And Bernie Sanders won Missouri, delaying Hillary Clinton’s march to the nomination.

Six months ago, who would have imagined either outcome?

I attribute Donald Trump’s success to five beliefs: (1) immigration and foreign trade are costing us jobs; (2) Muslims hate and threaten us; (3) the religious liberty of Christians is in peril; (4) President Obama is a weak leader who doesn’t believe in American greatness; (5) politicians have failed us. Trump’s supporters view him as a strong, non-political leader who will build a wall against immigrants and keep Muslims out of America while renegotiating foreign trade and guaranteeing religious liberty for Christians.

I attribute Bernie Sanders’s success to two beliefs: (1) the “one percent” are ruining our economy for the rest of us; (2) America should increase the government’s role in providing health care, education, and social services. When George Stephanopoulos recently asked Sanders if he wants to turn America into Denmark or Sweden, the senator replied, “And what’s wrong with that?”

These political narratives and the circumstances that produced them have created the most polarized political climate America has seen in decades. How would Scripture advise God’s people to respond to these strident, chaotic days?

Continue reading Denison Forum – LAST NIGHT’S PRIMARIES: WHAT IS GOD SAYING TO US? →

North Korea is claiming that it could wipe out Manhattan by sending a hydrogen bomb on a ballistic missile into New York City. Turkey has targeted Kurdish militants with airstrikes in Iraq, retaliating for a suicide car bombing that killed at least thirty-seven in the Turkish capital. Sea-level rise could disrupt the lives of more than thirteen million people in the U.S., according to a study published yesterday.

Welcome to another day in the news.

Do you sometimes feel overwhelmed by the challenges we face? Wages have been stagnant since 1979. The number of Americans dying of heroin has quadrupled in recent years. Now that same-sex marriage is legal, an organized effort has begun to legalize all “consensual sexual relations,” including polygamy and incest.

In days like these, it’s easy to abandon hope. But when you’re ready to give up, look up.

In Job 40, God addresses the multitude of skeptical questions posed by Job and his friends. Not by responding to their issues, but to their finitude. The Lord points to “Behemoth, which I made as I made you” (v. 15), an animal whose strength surpasses that of any human. Then God notes that he made “Leviathan,” a creature no man can conquer or control (Job 41).

Continue reading Denison Forum – WHEN YOU’RE READY TO GIVE UP, LOOK UP →

Miracles From Heaven premieres this week. The movie tells the true story of a girl suffering from a rare digestive disorder that threatened her life. After she fell into the hollow of a tree, she was examined by doctors who could find no evidence of her terminal disease.

The girl’s mother is played by well-known actress Jennifer Garner. She told People magazine that her role helped her become reengaged with her faith. Her commitment to Christ “has always been quietly a part of me,” she said. Now she’s “getting used to the idea of talking about it.”

Every person the actress influences for Jesus will be grateful.

I bring you greetings today from Scotland, where my wife and I spent the last week. The history of this small nation is remarkable. We visited a chapel constructed in 1130. I spoke in another chapel built 600 years ago. We walked around a royal mansion begun in the 16th century and an abbey founded in 1128.

Continue reading Denison Forum – ‘MIRACLES FROM HEAVEN’ AND JENNIFER GARNER’S FAITH →

She wanted to make official what he has been doing unofficially for years. Earlier this week, a video went viral showing a young woman named Misty surprising her father figure, Ryan, with adoption papers.

In her letter to him, she wrote: “You’ve raised me my whole life . . . putting my hair in tight Princess Leia buns . . . I know we are so weird together, but that’s what makes you you, and I cannot imagine not having you in my life. I’m so grateful to be able to call you Dad.”

In the eyes of the state, Ryan may not have been her legal father. But that did not keep him from acting like a father. Such can be said of God.

He is a Father regardless of whether someone acknowledges it or not. As Flannery O’Connor noted, “The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.”

God draws near to the brokenhearted (Psalm 34:18), extends grace generously (2 Corinthians 9:8), and loves lavishly (1 John 3:1). Contrary to cultural belief, God is not mad at us, but is madly in love with us. He quite literally has loved us to death. And Christ’s death and resurrection is an invitation to be adopted as sons and daughters of the King.

Continue reading Denison Forum – GIRL SURPRISES MAN WHO RAISED HER WITH ADOPTION PAPERS →

When the bat flew out of the player’s hands and towards the head of a child, a father knew he only had seconds to respond. Eight-year-old Landon was distracted, sending a picture to his mom of the great view he and his dad had from behind the dugout. But love, taking the form of his father’s now bruised arm, shielded him from the potentially tragic collision.

His dad Shaun Cunningham said: “I saw it heading towards him. I didn’t have a lot of time. Guess I’d call it Dad-mode. Just protecting my son.” An unhurt Landon told a local reporter: “I have a great dad! My dad’s a hero!”

The picture has since gone viral. Everyone else is moving away from the bat, except for the father, who is moving towards it. The picture is an echo of eternity, a shadow of the divine.

You may know Ernie Johnson as the award winning sportscaster for Turner Sports. He was recently featured on ESPN’s E:60. This particular episode highlighted Johnson’s hard work and rise to fame, but the central theme of Ernie’s story was his desire to bless his children. According to Ernie, “There is nothing better a dad can do than bless his son.” His father had blessed him, and now he wants to bless his children. Another echo of eternity, a shadow of the divine.

Abraham Kuyper found that God the Father litters the world with reminders of Himself. These “few precious stones that we discover on earth are merely the scattered signposts of a new Jerusalem.”

Continue reading Denison Forum – DAD SAVES SON AND THE PHOTO GOES VIRAL →