Kahlil Gibran observed, “The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.” We must be able to contain a great deal of joy these days.

According to Quartz, less than half of America’s doctors are happy at work. Happiness ranges by specialty from a high of 43 percent for dermatology to a low of 24 percent for nephrology. A new national survey of law enforcement officers shows that the vast majority feel their jobs are harder than ever before. At least twenty groups have filed official permits in Washington DC for people planning to protest in the days surrounding the inauguration.

The World Happiness Report states that Denmark is the happiest nation on earth. Canada comes in sixth. The US ranks thirteenth. We are also less happy now than we were in 2007.

Does it feel like Friday the 13th, not just today but every day these days?

It’s hard not to let the cultural atmosphere dictate our attitude. So let’s watch Jesus confront controversial times. Then I hope you’ll accept a surprising invitation that will change your life and witness today.

In Matthew 10, our Lord sends his disciples into a culture that is opposed to his movement, knowing they will be “dragged before governors and kings for my sake” (Matthew 10:18). This is because he came not “to bring peace, but a sword” (v. 34). He faces questions to his Messianic legitimacy even from John the Baptist (Matthew 11:2–3) and is accused of being “a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners” (v. 19). He denounces Capernaum, his adopted hometown, because of her unbelief (vv. 23–24).

Yet Jesus knows that he can trust his Father’s “gracious will” (v. 26) and that those to whom he has revealed the Father can trust him as well (v. 27). So he extends an invitation that must have shocked his disciples: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28–30).

Continue reading Denison Forum – Surprising hope on Friday the 13th →

Along with much of America, I watched Donald Trump’s first press conference after being elected president. The conference began when Sean Spicer, the incoming White House Press Secretary, issued a stinging condemnation of a BuzzFeed report he called “frankly outrageous and highly irresponsible.” (Other media outlets also censured the report for its unsubstantiated claims.)

Mr. Trump later added his own denunciation of the outlet. A BuzzFeed reporter then disruptively tried numerous times to ask a question, but the president-elect refused to recognize him. While much of substance was discussed during the conference, this morning’s news coverage continues to focus on the belligerent nature of the event.

Meanwhile, Rex Tillerson had what NPR is calling a “tense confirmation hearing” over his nomination to be Secretary of State. And Cory Booker spoke against the nomination of Jeff Sessions for Attorney General. In so doing, he became the first sitting senator ever to testify against a fellow sitting senator at a confirmation hearing for a Cabinet post.

Despite the hostility of the day, I woke up this morning grateful for American democracy and optimistic for the future. Here’s why.

One: We’ve been here before.

Thomas Paine once called President Washington “treacherous in private friendship” and a “hypocrite in public life.” An English journalist in turn described Paine as “all that is base, malignant, treacherous, unnatural and blasphemous.” After Abraham Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address, one newspaper lamented “the silly remarks of the President” and hoped they would “be no more repeated or thought of.” Our nation has weathered acrimonious political climates before and will do so again.

Two: Democracy is better than the alternative.

Winston Churchill once called democracy “the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” I prefer a cacophonous free press to a saccharine state media and a divisive two-party system to a dictatorial one-party government. I’ve traveled often to Cuba and can testify that they have few of our challenges with media and politics. But I immeasurably prefer our problems over theirs.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Why I’m hopeful after the Trump press conference →

President Obama gave his farewell address to the nation last night. He spoke from McCormick Place convention center in Chicago, less than four miles from Grant Park, where he gave his 2008 victory speech.

Watching his address, I was struck by two contrasting themes.

One: Mr. Obama clearly wanted to claim success for his last eight years in office. Every president leaving office wants to do the same. It’s a natural way to consolidate gains and celebrate progress. At the end of his speech, he repeated the familiar “Yes we can!” from his 2008 presidential campaign, followed by “Yes we did!”

Two: The president wanted to cast his vision forward, clearly setting the stage for confrontations with the Trump administration and its competing agenda. He cited a laundry list of contentious issues, from climate change to discrimination to health care, and made it clear that he is not going to fade from view. His party has no clear leader and could face even more congressional losses in 2018. It seemed to me that Mr. Obama was not only framing his administration now ending, but also making a campaign speech for his future now beginning.

In coming days, I plan to share my thoughts regarding Mr. Obama’s worldview and its consequences for our culture. For today, let’s think about his farewell speech and more specifically, the right spirit in which to respond.

Consider a lesson from the recent election. In the current edition of Newsweek, Michael Wolff notes that the establishment media was so surprised by Trump’s success because they were so out of touch with Trump’s America. Their alignment with liberal values and cultural elites made it difficult for them to see other worldviews coherently or objectively.

Those of us who embrace biblical values must be careful not to do the same.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Responding to President Obama’s farewell address →

Time magazine calls the Golden Globes “Oscar’s looser, boozier cousin.” Last night’s show, filled with A-list actors and those who want to be, launched the annual awards season that culminates this year with the Academy Awards on February 26.

What do the Golden Globes say about our culture?

Let’s begin with what they don’t say. They don’t predict the Academy Award for Best Picture—Spotlight, last year’s Oscar winner, didn’t win a single Golden Globe. Only once in the last seven years did the Golden Globes and the Oscars choose the same Best Picture winner (Gravity in 2013). (However, from 1999 to 2003, the two were aligned on Best Picture ten out of eleven years.)

La La Land won last night for Best Picture in a musical or comedy; Moonlight won for Best Picture in a drama. We’ll see if either wins the Oscar for Best Picture.

Here’s what the Golden Globes do say.

There is room in our culture for grace. The Golden Globes are decided by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), an organization composed of ninety international movie and television journalists based in Southern California. The group awarded the first Golden Globes in January 1944. World War II was still raging, but the HFPA thought a January celebration of movie and television achievement was warranted.

Here’s why: the organization uses the event to raise funds for entertainment-related scholarships and nonprofits. In 2015, the group awarded grants totaling $2.1 million, bringing their overall donations to more than $21 million.

We are looking for joy. This year’s host, Jimmy Fallon, promised that the night would be “fun, and friendly, and joyous, and cool.” He delivered on his promise, beginning with the opening number’s spoof of La La Land. While the Academy Awards has an entire segment devoted to movie professionals who died in the previous year, the Golden Globes briefly noted that many celebrities died in 2016 before paying tribute to Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher.

We need hope. Actors who played Wonder Woman, Batman, and Thor all made presentations. Deadpool was the first live-action superhero movie to be nominated for Best Picture. Continue reading Denison Forum – What do the Golden Globes say about us? →

House Republicans voted earlier this week to weaken the Office of Congressional Ethics. Speaker Paul Ryan and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy both opposed the move, but were unable to dissuade the group. Then President-elect Trump issued a series of tweets questioning the proposed changes. The group then reversed its position, a decision that is making headlines this morning.

Ford Motor Company announced yesterday that it will cancel a $1.6 billion plant planned for Mexico and will invest $700 million in a Michigan assembly plant. The company tied the decision to “pro-growth policies” espoused by President-elect Trump. This after Carrier reported last month that it would keep hundreds of factory jobs in the US. Mr. Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence negotiated the deal personally. The announcement earned high praise from Americans.

Tweets and personal deals—are you wondering what is happening to the political process in America?

Continue reading Denison Forum – Trump tweets and Republicans reverse ethics vote →

Lee Shing Chak is a “world-class fortuneteller who combines the ancient art of feng shui and the modern practice of statistics to divine what the future holds.” He wants us to know that he predicted the spread of Ebola, the death of Osama bin Laden, a nuclear crisis in Japan, and the winner of the 2014 World Cup.

Now he is making predictions for us based on our birth year. If you were born in 1958 (like me), 1970, 1982, 1994, or 2006, yours is the “year of the dog.” (I’m not sure I appreciate the title.) He tells us that 2017 will be “fairly busy for you, with little time to relax and unwind.” And he warns that we should prepare for a sudden illness or serious natural disaster.

Of course, so should everyone else.

The story goes on, but you get the idea. For each category, Mr. Lee predicts good fortune as well as challenges for which we should prepare. As with all such fortune-telling, his predictions are so ambiguous that their fulfillment depends not on him but on us.

According to the American Federation of Certified Psychics and Mediums (yes, this group really exists), 39 percent of men and 69 percent of women admit to having consulted a psychic. Fortune-telling is especially profitable during difficult economic times such as the recent recession. One man spent more than $700,000 on a Manhattan psychic who promised to fix a romantic relationship.

Before you and I smugly conclude that we would never consult a fortune-teller, let me ask you: Have you ever made an appointment with a doctor in hopes of preventing disease? Have you ever asked a financial advisor to help you prepare for the future? Do you check the weather forecast before heading out of the house each morning?

But there’s a difference, you say, between trusting a psychic and consulting a doctor. Of course, you’re right. I have worked in medical ethics for years and have the highest respect for health care professionals (as well as financial experts and meteorologists). But aren’t these professions an attempt to predict the future—or at least prepare for it?

Continue reading Denison Forum – Famed fortuneteller predicts our future for 2017 →

A tourist posing for a photo beside a crocodile was bitten on the leg, according to this morning’s Associated Press. Mariah Carey is still in the news after she tried to lip-sync her New Year’s Eve concert but couldn’t hear the music and stopped singing.

What do these women have in common? Both are facing ridicule in the news today. And both can decide whether to let what is now their past define their future. So can we.

The problem is, we live in a culture that is fixated on yesterday and tomorrow. Guilt over the past afflicts us in the present. We love new year’s predictions. We even have a month dedicated to this obsession.

“January” is named for the Roman god Janus. He is depicted in ancient mythology with two faces, one able to see the past and the other able to peer into the future.

But Janus is a liar. He can see neither yesterday nor tomorrow because neither is real.

How much does “yesterday” weigh? What color is “tomorrow”? Both are just words, not realities. The past is gone and the future has not yet arrived. Today is the only day there is. This moment is the only moment that is real.

That’s why our Lord called himself “I Am” (Exodus 3:14). Helen Mallicoat said it well:

I was regretting the past and fearing the future.
Suddenly my Lord was speaking: My name is I Am.
When you live in the past, with its mistakes and regrets,
It is hard. I am not there. My name is not I Was.
When you live in the future, with its problems and fears,
It is hard. I am not there. My name is not I Will Be.
When you live in this moment, it is not hard. I am here.
My name is I Am.

Continue reading Denison Forum – A crocodile attack and Mariah Carey →

2016 is ending as unpredictably as it began.

David Bowie died in January; Debbie Reynolds died last Wednesday, one day after her daughter, Carrie Fisher. In between, the Chicago Cubs ended their 108-year drought by winning the World Series. The Cleveland Cavaliers won their first NBA title, ending forty-five years of frustration. Brexit was the greatest geopolitical surprise of the year until Donald Trump won the presidency.

It’s not shocking that Merriam-Webster named “surreal” its word of the year.

Now the news is filled with predictions for 2017 covering everything from the Nobel Peace Prize to the closing level of the Dow Jones. Meanwhile, most of us just want to live our best lives. We know that the higher our goal, the greater our success. As Dallas Cowboys legend Emmitt Smith recently noted, “Hall of Famers think about the Hall of Fame. Pro Bowlers think of going to the Pro Bowl.” Great players make great goals for themselves.

But there’s another side to achievement—we must lose to gain. The best athletes are fanatical about what they eat and how they exercise. Tim Cook routinely emails employees at 4:30 in the morning. Mark Cuban didn’t take a vacation for seven years while starting his first business.

The same principle holds spiritually. To grow in our relationship with the Lord, we must refuse whatever keeps us from him. Scripture calls us to give up everything that does not lead to God (Titus 2:11–12).

But that’s hard to do.

Continue reading Denison Forum – The best way to have your best year →

There’s good news in the news. Forbes predicts that the economy will be better in 2017 than it was in 2016. Fortune tells us that artificial intelligence will power medical research, driverless cars, and our daily interaction with technology. And Dallas Cowboys fans take note: Troy Aikman predicts that our team will play in the Super Bowl next February.

I could go on. But as Janet Denison notes in her latest blog, predictions aren’t promises. The best way to face the future is to depend not on what might happen but on what will. So here’s a promise for the new year: God is “able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power that is at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20).

However, if you’re like me, you’re wondering in the silence of your heart: Why would the King of the universe care about me? He knows my sins and failures better than anyone else does. Why would he love me so?

Abraham Kuyper, the great Dutch statesman and theologian, noted that God loves us because he made us. That’s a familiar thought, of course, but consider how Kuyper explains it: “There is subtle charm about the thing that we have made, and this is by no means always because of its intrinsic value, but rather because we have made it ourselves.”

Kuyper illustrates by describing a writer who values his article over others published in the same periodical, a florist who values the bouquet gathered from her garden over those available in the store, and a mother who revels in her child in a way no one else can. This is how our Father feels about every one of us.

Is this how you feel about yourself? Do you seek God’s best for your life, or are you settling for what our culture offers?

Continue reading Denison Forum – Cowboys in Super Bowl? Predictions are not promises →

On December 23, 2016, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) adopted Resolution 2334, which calls on Israel to “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem.” The US chose to abstain, allowing the resolution to become international law.

Why is this resolution so important to Israel, the US, and the world? As a frequent traveler to Israel and the Middle East, this development is especially personal for me. Let’s survey the basic facts, then I’ll offer my view on this vital issue.

What are the “settlements”?

The “West Bank” refers to an area slightly larger than Delaware situated on the western bank of the Jordan River and the Dead Sea. According to the CIA, it is home to 2.7 million Palestinians. Along with the Gaza Strip (an area along the Mediterranean coast), it is land Palestinians intend for their future state.

Israel captured the area during the 1967 Six-Day War. In 1980–81, Israel annexed East Jerusalem as well. Some 630,000 Israelis now live in 123 government-authorized settlements and about 100 unauthorized outposts in the West Bank and twelve major neighborhoods in East Jerusalem. Israel views these settlements as security measures to protect its people.

However, many nations consider the settlements illegal. They are also seen as a major impediment to the “two-state solution” whereby Palestine would become an independent state alongside Israel. Critics claim that Israel is stealing land Palestine needs for its state.

Israel has offered to give Palestinians land equivalent in size and value to the areas used for its security settlements. But many living on land that would be ceded to Palestine are opposed to such an arrangement, and Palestinian leaders continue to insist on borders determined in 1967.

Why is this vote so significant? Continue reading Denison Forum – Why I disagree with President Obama on Israel →

Christmas is far and away the favorite holiday of Americans. Its popularity crosses genders and generations. There’s nothing like this day of the year. Driving through Dallas yesterday, Janet and I noted the closed stores and empty streets as people spent the day with family and friends.

It’s a remarkable thing, the fact that our secular culture takes a day to remember the birth of Jesus. Of course, not everyone celebrates Christmas. For some, the day is more like Saturnalia.

Here’s the difference.

Saturnalia was a pagan Roman festival timed to the winter solstice and marking the “birth of the sun.” It featured drinking, feasting, and much immorality, culminating on December 25. Over time, the church moved its celebration of Jesus’ birth to that date to replace hedonism with worship. (Jesus was likely born in the spring, since Luke 2:8 tells us that the shepherds were “out in the field, keeping watch over their flocks at night.”) By the eleventh century, Christians called their worship “Christ’s Mass,” or “Christmas.”

In some ways, yesterday’s holiday was more like Saturnalia than Christ’s Mass.

An artist in California made headlines when he produced Christmas ornaments depicting same-sex nativity scenes. In one, two Josephs are worshiping the Christ child; in the other, two Marys are doing the same. Meanwhile, British police arrested five people after a Christmas Eve party descended into a mass brawl. And seven people were shot to death in Chicago over the Christmas weekend, while at least twenty others were injured.

In a culture like ours, how can we experience and demonstrate the continuing relevance of the first Christmas?

One: Open God’s gifts by faith. Continue reading Denison Forum – Gay ornaments and other Christmas news →

A man in Pennsylvania has admitted to buying fake Secret Service identification cards to impress women on a dating site. What does he really do for a living? He owns a company that scoops up pet poop. Here we find another example of “post-truth,” defining truth by personal belief rather than objective facts.

Unfortunately, I unknowingly engaged in “post-truth” this week.

Last Tuesday I included in my Daily Article a quote from C. S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters warning us against becoming “completely fixated on politics.” The quote was sent to me by a well-intentioned reader. It said exactly what I wanted to say that day. It had the imprimatur of Lewis, my intellectual hero. While I didn’t recognize the statement, it felt like something Lewis would say and was in keeping with his Screwtape voice.

There was just one problem: Lewis never wrote the words I attributed to him.

Several readers graciously alerted me to this fact. I am grateful to them and have resolved to check all quotes carefully in the future, no matter how close I am to my writing deadline. I wanted to notify you lest you use the spurious quote as I did.

Clearly, Christians are not immune from “post-truth.” If we find a statement that comes from someone we trust, says what we want to say, and has the imprimatur of a credible source, we can cite it as true without checking to see if it is.

This is a larger problem than you might think.

Preachers are tempted to exaggerate or tell fictional stories as factual to make their point. Business leaders are tempted to idealize their accomplishments to advance their business. Political leaders are tempted to say what it takes to get elected. I’m tempted right now to write what might impress you.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Fake Secret Service agent’s surprising real job →

“Denzel Washington Switches to Trump, Shocks Hollywood.” This headline announced the news that the famous actor was supporting Donald Trump for president, primarily because “he’s hired more employees, more people, than anyone I know in the world.” The story was fake. Not one word of it was true. But that didn’t keep it from going viral and trending on numerous news outlets.

Here are other examples of fake news in the news:

•  Donald Trump won the popular vote.
  •    The Clinton Foundation bought $137 million worth of illegal arms and ammunition.
  •    An FBI agent associated with Hillary Clinton’s email leaks was found dead in a murder-suicide.
  •    The Pope endorsed Donald Trump.
  •    The Pope endorsed Bernie Sanders.

None of these stories is true. But they were so popular that they were picked up by news feeds on Google and Facebook, giving them even more credibility.

Welcome to the era of “post-truth.” The Oxford Dictionaries just declared this term to be their “word of the year.” According to their definition, “post-truth” is an adjective “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Editors noted that use of the term increased by around 2,000 percent in 2016 compared to last year. They explained this spike “in the context of the EU referendum in the United Kingdom and the presidential election in the United States.”

These are challenging days for truth.

For decades, we’ve been told that truth is personal and subjective. The argument runs thus: Our minds interpret our senses, resulting in knowledge. But no two people sense the world or interpret their senses in precisely the same way. As a result, there can be no such thing as absolute truth. There’s only your truth and my truth. If “appeals to emotion and personal belief” persuade you, that’s your truth. Such appeals may be “post-truth” with regard to objective truth claims, but who are we to judge?

Continue reading Denison Forum – Did Denzel Washington support Donald Trump? →

Popular Christian author Glennon Doyle Melton recently announced that she is dating Olympic gold medalist Abby Wambach. This after inspirational author Elizabeth Gilbert of Eat, Pray, Love fame announced her romantic relationship with her female best friend. Two weeks ago, Christian author Jen Hatmaker and her pastor husband Brandon announced that they support same-sex marriage as well.

Unsurprisingly, the move to affirm same-sex marriage is affecting churches. For instance, First Baptist Church of Austin has adopted a “diversity statement” that welcomes members regardless of sexual orientation into “the full life of our community.” Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas announced last Monday that a majority of its members voted to open weddings, baby dedications, ordination, and leadership positions to people regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.

With more and more Christian churches and public figures endorsing same-sex marriage, it might seem that those who do not go along will be left behind. But popularity must never be a test for truth. Conventional wisdom is often less than wise.

I am convinced for numerous reasons that God intends marriage to be a monogamous covenant between a man and a woman. Of course, this subject is much larger than I can address adequately in this brief article, so I invite you to download my white paper, How to defend biblical marriage: What you need to know about homosexuality, same-sex marriage and the Bible.

However, I do want to address one way many proponents of same-sex marriage have argued for their position. They claim that people in the biblical era did not know of monogamous, loving same-sex commitment or marriage, so that the numerous biblical prohibitions against same-sex relations are irrelevant to such relationships. But it is a fact that same-sex relations were common in the ancient world; homosexual marriage continued in the Roman Empire until it was made illegal in AD 342.

Continue reading Denison Forum – More Christians affirm same-sex marriage: my response →

Congratulations—you survived last night’s “perigee-syzygy of the Earth-Moon-Sun system.” This is the technical term for the closest full moon our planet has experienced since 1948, a phenomenon known as the “Supermoon.”

What happened to you as a result? Your body experienced a rise in lunar pull equivalent to about 1/9th the mass of a paper clip. I doubt you noticed. Studies also show that, contrary to folklore, you weren’t at greater risk for epilepsy, psychiatric trauma, or an emergency room visit.

Nonetheless, it would be easy to think that something strange is happening these days. Three cows in New Zealand were stranded by earthquakes and had to be rescued. Similarly, Bruce Springsteen’s motorcycle broke down last Friday, and he had to be rescued by a group of bikers returning from a Veteran’s Day ceremony.

Especially troubling is what The Washington Post calls “the post-election hate spike.” More than any election I can remember, this campaign has left many in our country bitterly divided against those with whom they disagree.

In light of such vitriol, a perceptive reader reminded me of a relevant insight from C. S. Lewis in The Screwtape Letters. This classic book contains advice from a senior tempter to his apprentice. Its backward logic brilliantly unmasks some of Satan’s most subtle strategies. Consider this example:

“Be sure that the patient [the person being tempted] remains completely fixated on politics. Arguments, political gossip, and obsessing on the faults of people they have never met serves as an excellent distraction from advancing in personal virtue, character, and the things the patient can control. Make sure to keep the patient in a constant state of angst, frustration, and general disdain towards the rest of the human race in order to avoid any kind of charity or inner peace from further developing. Ensure the patient continues to believe that the problem is ‘out there’ in the ‘broken system’ rather than recognizing there is a problem with himself.”

Continue reading Denison Forum – Stranded cows and Bruce Springsteen →

A year ago yesterday, Islamic State militants killed 130 people and wounded nearly five hundred in the most lethal attack in France since World War II. On Sunday, French President Francois Hollande unveiled plaques for the victims and his country observed a moment of silence in their memory.

In the last year, there has been much good news in the battle against ISIS. The Iraqi army reported yesterday that troops have driven ISIS militants out of the historic town of Nimrud, south of Mosul. The assault on Mosul continues and troops have begun attacks on Raqqa, the capital of ISIS.

But the battle is far from over. The Islamic State is now using exploding drones and equipping children as suicide fighters. The more land it loses in its self-proclaimed caliphate, the more fighters it sends into Europe and beyond in preparation for attacks against its enemies. In other words, defeating ISIS in the Middle East, while urgently necessary, only fuels the resolve of its global followers.

While the world remembered the Paris attacks yesterday, a powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck New Zealand and triggered a tsunami. At least two people were killed. Dozens of aftershocks followed. The quakes remind us that whether our challenges are natural or man-made, much of what affects us is beyond our ability to effect.

This principle is especially important for Christians in the aftermath of the presidential election. Those who opposed Donald Trump are tempted to give up on America, concluding that our country neither wants nor deserves their continued support. Those who supported Mr. Trump are tempted to believe that they have done all their country requires by voting for him.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Why good news on ISIS is not good enough →