The Supreme Court continued its busy week yesterday. One of its rulings related to a California law requiring pro-life clinics to inform clients about state-funded abortions. Imagine a law requiring a Christian pastor to instruct the congregation about Islam or a Jewish rabbi to inform synagogue attenders about Buddhism.

The law violated the free speech of those who staff pro-life clinics, forcing them to deliver a message with which they personally disagreed. And, as best I can tell, it applied only to pro-life clinics. Abortion clinics were not required to notify patients of pro-life options.

I’m grateful to report that the US Supreme Court struck down this onerous law.

Making abortion unthinkable

The ruling highlights two facts.

One: It’s always too soon to stop fighting for life. Even though abortion has been legal in the US since 1973, pro-life supporters continue to make legal and cultural progress.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Supreme Court ruling is great news for free speech and for life →

“If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.” This is how Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D–Calif.) urged protesters in Los Angeles to treat Trump administration officials in public.

This after White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked to leave a Virginia restaurant last Friday. That same day, Florida attorney general Pam Bondi was bullied at a movie screening in Tampa by hecklers who had to be deterred by her security personnel. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was jeered at a restaurant, as was White House official Stephen Miller.

The rancor may not stop with political officials. MSNBC’s Donny Deutsch: “If you vote for Trump then you, the voter, you, not Donald Trump, are standing at the border, like Nazis, going ‘you here, you here.'”

By this logic, attacks on Trump administration officials are likely to extend to Trump supporters. And they are likely to respond in kind.

Is this a civil war? Continue reading Denison Forum – Political hostility escalates: “Is America headed toward a civil war?” →

Racial discrimination is in today’s news after the shooting of teenager Antwon Rose in East Pittsburgh. Religious discrimination has been in the news with the recent Masterpiece Cakeshop Supreme Court ruling.

Gender-based discrimination has been much-discussed with Saudi Arabia’s recent decision to allow women to drive. Socioeconomic discrimination is a fact of life in many cultures around the world.

Now there’s a new kind of discrimination in the news.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders has served as President Trump’s press secretary since July 2017. She made headlines over the weekend when she was refused service by a restaurant in Lexington, Virginia.

The issue was not her race, her religious commitments, her gender, or her social or economic status. It had to do with her political positions. In her job, she explains and defends the president’s beliefs and actions on various issues.

Sanders was asked to leave the Red Hen specifically because the owner and some of her employees disagreed with some of these political positions.

Is political discrimination legal?

Disparaging people on the basis of their political beliefs happens routinely on late-night television and in the news. For instance, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and White House senior advisor Stephen Miller were recently heckled at restaurants by protesters objecting to the administration’s “zero tolerance” border policy.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Sarah Huckabee Sanders refused service: Political discrimination? →

A nine-year-old girl has been sent to rehab after she wet herself while refusing to stop playing the video game Fortnite.

“She was so hooked to the game she wouldn’t even go to the toilet,” her mother told a reporter. “My husband saw her light on in the night and found her sitting on a urine-soaked cushion playing the game.”

Fortnite has been played by 150 million people around the world this year.

The popularity of video games is so acute and addictive that the World Health Organization has now included “gaming disorder” in its classification of diseases. This disorder results in “significant impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning.”

Three reasons video games are so popular

In a recent study, 86 percent of video game players at least attended college. More than 8 percent completed graduate school. Video games are popular with every age demographic and with both men and women. They represent an $18 billion industry in the United States.

What does their popularity say about our culture? Why are they so alluring?

Obvious answers include the appeal of escaping real-life problems and the mental and emotional stimulation many gamers experience. But there’s more to the story.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Nine-year-old girl sent to rehab after wetting herself while playing video game →

The immigration crisis unfolding on the US–Mexico border continues to dominate the news. Nearly two thousand children have been separated from their parents since a “zero tolerance” policy was adopted for those entering the US illegally.

One facility in McAllen, Texas, houses two hundred such children. According to a migrant rights worker who visited the facility, one girl “was so traumatized that she wasn’t talking. She was just curled up in a little ball.” A quiet boy was seen clutching a piece of paper that was a photocopy of his mother’s ID card.

The head of the American Academy of Pediatrics visited a similar shelter in Texas, where she saw a toddler crying uncontrollably and pounding her little fists on a mat. She had been taken from her mother the night before and brought to the shelter.

Staff members gave her books and toys, but they weren’t allowed to pick her up, hold her, or hug her to try to calm her. As a rule, staff are not allowed to touch the children in the facility.

A “zero tolerance” policy

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen told reporters last night that the “vast majority” of children being held in detention facilities were sent to the US alone by their parents. She stated that this issue “has resulted after years and years of Congress not taking action.” Others blame the Trump administration for the crisis.

My purpose is not to fix blame but to consider practical options. Let’s begin with some history.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Separating children at the border: 3 options and my response →

I don’t remember the last time a biblical citation generated so many headlines.

Last week, Attorney General Jeff Sessions sought to defend the Trump administration’s immigration policies, especially with regard to separating families. At one point, he stated, “I would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13 to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained the government for his purposes.”

His citation set off a firestorm of debate in the culture and among Christians.

My purpose today is not to discuss the multitude of ways Romans 13 has been interpreted through history. Rather, it is to consider the larger question: When should Christians obey or disobey the government?

Obeying the state

God’s word consistently calls us to obey and support our governing authorities.

Paul urged that “supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions” (1 Timothy 2:1-2).

His instruction to Christians living in Rome was clear: “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment” (Romans 13:1-2).

The apostle then stated that “the authorities are ministers of God” (v. 6) and urged his readers: “Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed” (v. 7).

Peter added: “Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good” (1 Peter 2:13-14).

It would seem clear, then, that Christians are to submit to the authority of the government, seeing its exercise of power as God’s will for us. However, there’s more to the story.

Choosing civil disobedience

In Acts 4, Peter and John were ordered to stop preaching the gospel by the Sanhedrin, the highest authority in Judaism. Their response: “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard” (vv. 19-20).

After Peter was arrested again for preaching the gospel, he was again bold in his civil disobedience: “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). His faithfulness to God led to his martyrdom by Rome. Paul suffered a similar fate: imprisonment (2 Timothy 4:6) and execution.

And so, two apostles who counseled Christians to obey the state were executed because they would not obey the state.

Theirs are not the only such stories in Scripture.

In Daniel 3, the Babylonian king erected a golden image and required all people to worship it. The Jewish exiles Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego testified before the idolatrous king: “We will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up” (v. 18). You know what happened to them.

Three chapters later, Daniel refused to pray to the Persian king and was thrown into the lions’ den as a result.

In Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. noted: “One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” He agreed with St. Augustine, who claimed that “an unjust law is no law at all.”

John R. W. Stott was one of the most respected evangelical theologians of the twentieth century. In his commentary on Romans 13, he asks:

“Granted that the authority of the rulers is derived from God, what happens if they abuse it, if they reverse their God-given duty, commending those who do evil and punishing those who do good? Does the requirement to submit still stand in such a morally perverse situation? No. The principle is clear. We are to submit right up to the point where obedience to the state would entail disobedience to God. But if the state commands what God forbids, or forbids what God commands, then our plain Christian duty is to resist, not to submit, to disobey the state in order to obey God.”

Citizens of two countries

You and I are citizens of two countries. We live in a secular nation with secular leaders we are to support and obey. But we also live in a spiritual society with an omnipotent King whose authority is supreme (Psalm 2:10-11).

Jesus taught us to “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Matthew 22:21).

But when we are forced to choose, we must obey our highest authority.

Peter encouraged us to “show proper respect to everyone.” What does this entail? “Love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor” (1 Peter 2:17 NIV). We are to love each other, and we are to honor our secular leaders. But we are to fear only God.

On October 3, 1789, President George Washington issued the first formal proclamation of Thanksgiving in the United States. He stated: “It is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor.”

Let’s do our duty today

Denison Forum

Bilal Quintyne of Smyrna, Georgia, was headed out for a morning jog with a friend. He came upon a woman in an electric wheelchair stranded on the side of the road. Her chair’s engine had died, leaving one wheel on the busy street and the other on the sidewalk.

Quintyne took off his shirt in deference to the heat and pushed the woman for thirty minutes until they arrived at her home. His friend shot a video of the incident. As of this morning, it has been viewed more than three million times.

Why does this story resonate with so many people? I think its hero explained it best: “There’s so much hatred in the world and it costs nothing to love someone.”

How Muslims earn joy

The Muslim observance of Ramadan began this year on May 16. Since that time, observant Muslims around the world have abstained from eating, drinking, and sexual relations from sunup to sundown.

Ramadan ended yesterday with the celebration of Eid al-Fitr (“feast of breaking the fast”) that began at sundown and continues until this evening. Different countries and sects observe the holiday in different ways. Most include family and social gatherings, traditional sweet dishes, feasting, wearing new clothes, shopping, and gift-giving.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Man pushes woman home after her wheelchair breaks; video goes viral →

My father was born on this day in 1924, one day after George H. W. Bush. While my father died in 1979, Mr. Bush is now the first US president to reach ninety-four years of age.

I turned sixty earlier this year. When my father and Mr. Bush were my age, it’s hard to imagine that they could have imagined a story like this one:

A transgender man recently gave birth to a baby in the UK. British law states that those who give birth to children can only be noted as mothers on official documents. The parent has complained of discrimination. As a result, the baby could become the first person born in England and Wales not to have a legal mother.

Two verses we need today

The twenty-first century has brought remarkable advances for advancing the Great Commission. Christians can use digital technology to reach people previously inaccessible to our mission. We can use social media to win the lost and technology to disciple believers.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Transgender man’s baby could be first person without legal mother →

“Nice to meet you, Mr. President.” With these words, Kim Jong Un shook hands with Donald Trump as the two made history in Singapore.

Before the summit, the sitting heads of the United States and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea had never met. The summit began last night at 9 p.m. ET (9 a.m. Tuesday morning in Singapore) and lasted for four hours. The two met before a row of alternating US and North Korean flags, then sat down for a thirty-eight-minute, one-on-one meeting.

Their top advisers then joined them for another two hours of talks. The delegations concluded by sharing lunch together. Afterward, Mr. Kim announced, “The world will see a major change.”

“We’re going to have a great discussion”

Mr. Trump told reporters at the outset of the summit, “We’re going to have a great discussion. It’s my honor and we will have a terrific relationship, I have no doubt.” Mr. Kim added that “old prejudices and practices worked as obstacles in our way forward, but we overcame all of them and we are here today.”

The two signed a “joint statement” in which “President Trump committed to provide security guarantees to the DPRK, and Chairman Kim Jong Un reaffirmed his firm and unwavering commitment to complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”

Continue reading Denison Forum – My reflections on the Singapore Summit →

The much-anticipated summit between President Trump and Kim Jong Un is dominating global headlines this morning. The summit will be the first meeting between a sitting US president and a head of North Korea.

Their meeting is scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. ET, which is 9 a.m. Tuesday in Singapore. It will take place at the Capella Hotel on the resort island of Sentosa, off Singapore’s southern coast. More than a thousand journalists from around the world have converged on Singapore.

What will happen at the summit?

BBC News reports this morning that Mr. Kim wants to focus on rebuilding the North Korean economy and thus seeks sanctions relief and international investment. The Trump administration has made clear its focus on denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, with a timeline and technical details for dismantling weapons and weapons-making capabilities.

The two leaders could announce an agreement to work toward the “common goal” of removing nuclear weapons, mirroring the announcement that followed Mr. Kim’s meeting with South Korea’s president in April. It is also possible that they will sign documents officially ending the Korean War, which ceased in 1953 with an armistice but no peace treaty.

Continue reading Denison Forum – The Trump–Kim summit: 2 biblical imperatives →

A man in Texas nearly died when he was bitten by the severed head of a four-foot rattlesnake.

Jennifer Sutcliffe told a Corpus Christi news station that her husband had been clearing their yard over Memorial Day weekend when he saw and decapitated the snake. When he picked up the dead rattlesnake to dispose of it, the head bit him and released an almost fatal amount of venom.

He was flown to a hospital and treated with twenty-six doses of antivenom.

“When poisons become fashionable”

Like the dead rattlesnake, our crucified “old self” can still attack us.

Paul declared, “We know that our old self was crucified with [Christ] in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin” (Romans 6:6–7).

And yet the apostle admitted, “I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me” (Romans 7:18–20).

Is his dilemma familiar to you? It is to me.

Some sins in the news are beyond our comprehension. For instance, an Arkansas man admitted in court this week that he intentionally contracted HIV so he could expose others to the virus. He also pled guilty to several other heinous crimes.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Man bitten by severed head of rattlesnake →

Today is my thirty-eighth wedding anniversary. I am to be congratulated. According to my friends, my wife is to be consoled.

I cannot imagine my life without Janet. The world knows what an amazingly gifted teacher, writer, and minister she is. Our family knows that she is the very same person in private that she is in public. Her passionate commitment to her Lord, her family, and her calling animates everything she does.

I remember well the moment I first saw her: she walked into our sophomore English class at Houston Baptist University, smiling. I’d not seen that done before.

I had to know more but soon discovered that she had boyfriends. One after the other. I was finally able to get in line for a date. Two years later, we were married.

“If any of you lacks wisdom”

I will spend eternity thanking God for leading us to each other. But I cannot tell you precisely how he did. He used feelings, circumstances, and other people. There came a time when we simply knew that we knew we were to be married.

If I had to prove to her that she should marry me, I’d still be single.

We are facing many dilemmas today for which we need God’s direction. For instance, the American Bible Society is being criticized for requiring employees to affirm a statement of moral commitments. Among them: “I will seek to refrain from sexual activity outside of the marriage covenant prescribed and exemplified in the Bible: ‘a man will leave his father and mother and unite with his wife, and the two will become one,’ symbolizing the relationship between Christ and His Church (Matthew 19:5; Ephesians 5:31).”

Continue reading Denison Forum – The day that changed my life forever →

“The government, consistent with the Constitution’s guarantee of free exercise, cannot impose regulations that are hostile to the religious beliefs of affected citizens and cannot act in a manner that passes judgment upon or presupposes the illegitimacy of religious beliefs and practices.”

With these words, the Supreme Court issued a major ruling yesterday regarding religious freedom. What does it mean for us as we engage a culture that is in many ways “hostile” to our “religious beliefs”?

The story in brief

In 2012, Charlie Craig and David Mullins made plans to be lawfully married in Massachusetts, then return to Colorado for a wedding reception. They visited Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colorado, to order a custom cake.

Masterpiece owner Jack Phillips declined their request, explaining that his Christian beliefs kept him from using his artistic abilities to create such a cake. Over the years, he has declined to create many custom cakes that would display unbiblical messages. He wouldn’t make a cake celebrating a divorce, for instance.

He offered to sell the couple other baked goods in the store, but they declined and filed a complaint with the Colorado Civil Rights Commission. The Commission decided in their favor and ordered Masterpiece to take steps to ensure future compliance with its ruling. Phillips appealed that ruling and chose to stop making wedding cakes, costing him 40 percent of his business. He has also faced death threats.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Supreme Court rules for Christian baker →

We all want to make a mark in the world, to do something that will outlive us.

Prior to last night’s game between the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers, Sports Illustrated opined that “LeBron James is good enough to steal the NBA Finals.” Then Stephen Curry set an NBA Finals record with nine three-point shots as the Warriors defeated James and the Cavaliers 122–103.

Mortality is a fact of life, on the basketball court and everywhere else.

A teenager in Houston was hospitalized last week with an unusual and potentially deadly disease. Rhabdomyolysis causes a breakdown of muscle tissue, releasing a protein into the blood that can damage the kidneys. The cause? He worked out in the gym too much.

Today’s Wall Street Journal reports that a volcanic eruption less than thirty miles from Guatemala’s capital killed at least twenty-five people yesterday. Meanwhile, eruptions of the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii have stranded nearly a dozen people in an area cut off by lava.

And this morning’s New York Times profiles two elite climbers who fell to their deaths while scaling El Capitan in Yosemite last Saturday. Tim Klein had reportedly climbed El Capitan more than one hundred times; Jason Wells had climbed it many times as well. The men were tethered together when they fell one thousand feet to their deaths.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Teenager hospitalized after working out too much →

I enrolled at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS) in the fall of 1980. Over the next nine years, I received two degrees from the seminary and taught philosophy of religion there.

Dr. Russell Dilday, president of Southwestern during my time at the seminary, remains one of the most significant mentors in my life. Much at Southwestern has changed since then, but I continue to be grateful for my years at the seminary.

Recent events at SWBTS have generated national headlines. As a Southwestern graduate and former faculty member, I have a personal perspective on this issue. I recognize that many of you are not Baptist, but the topic we will discuss today transcends denominations and is relevant to all believers.

What happened at Southwestern Seminary

Dr. Paige Patterson became president of Southwestern Seminary in 2003. A week ago, the seminary’s trustees responded to escalating criticism of his leadership, especially his statements about women, by voting to change his status to president emeritus. They invited him to reside at the on-campus Baptist Heritage Center as theologian-in-residence and provided ongoing compensation.

His status changed again two days ago.

The trustee board’s executive committee made this May 30 announcement: “New information confirmed this morning was presented regarding the handling of an allegation of sexual abuse against a student during Dr. Paige Patterson’s presidency at another institution and resulting issues connected with statements to the Board of Trustees that are inconsistent with SWBTS’s biblically informed core values.”

As a result, the executive committee “unanimously resolved to terminate Dr. Paige Patterson, effective immediately, removing all the benefits, rights and privileges provided by the May 22–23 board meeting.”

Continue reading Denison Forum – My response to the firing of Paige Patterson →

Roseanne Barr continues to make news this morning. After her racist tweet about Valerie Jarrett led ABC to cancel Barr’s show, the reaction has been predictable.

From one side: a Washington Post columnist likened Roseanne to the Trump presidency and hoped that the latter ends in the same way as the former. (The same paper is also carrying a column claiming that “Trump’s not a liar. He’s a madman.”) Like many, Trevor Noah blamed Barr’s tweet on the president. Numerous celebrities celebrated the cancellation of her show.

From the other side: Barr’s supporters noted that Bill Maher compared President Trump to an orangutan and Joy Behar likened Vice President Pence’s faith to “mental illness,” but both kept their shows. One person tweeted, “I’m a black man and I stand with @therealroseanne! Yes, she made a horrible joke and she apologized. I see comedians, actors, etc make the same jokes and get applauded for it. This is outrageous.”

My point this morning is not to rehash the controversy ignited by Barr’s tweet. Rather, it is to think with you about what the reaction to her statement says about our culture and our faith.

The “great pillars of all government”

Continue reading Denison Forum – What the response to Roseanne Barr tweet says about us →

ABC canceled Roseanne after Roseanne Barr posted a racist tweet about former President Obama’s aide Valerie Jarrett. (I will devote tomorrow’s Daily Article to this evolving story.) Shares of Walt Disney Co. declined after box office sales for Solo: A Star Wars Story came in below expectations.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped nearly 400 points yesterday as a political crisis in Italy affected global markets. Oil prices also fell after reports that Saudi Arabia may lead an effort to pump more crude into the market. And the Wall Street Journal warns that Europe’s new privacy rules are thwarting security researchers and police around the world.

What do these stories have in common? They illustrate the fact that we can neither control nor predict the future. I raise this rather obvious point because it is relevant to two of the most moving books I’ve read in a long time.

Two transformative books

I just finished Kate Bowler’s heartbreaking and hopeful Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I’ve Loved. Dr. Bowler is a graduate of Yale Divinity School and teaches religion at Duke Divinity School. Her new book is transparent, funny, and thoughtful. She is one of the most gifted writers I know.

She is also battling Stage IV cancer.

Continue reading Denison Forum – “Roseanne” cancellation shows we cannot predict the future →