Last night, Donald Trump accepted the Republican Party’s nomination to become the forty-fifth president of the United States. Before he announced his campaign on June 16, 2015, fewer than 23 percent of Republicans said they could vote for him. Across the next year, he vanquished sixteen political professionals and is now one step from the Oval Office.

Why did he win the nomination? Consider ten factors:

One: Trump is not a professional politician. Republicans’ trust in government is below 10 percent, its lowest point since polling began in the 1940s. Voters wanted a candidate who isn’t part of the “system” and says what he thinks regardless of political correctness. Trump’s claim, “I am your voice,” was met with resounding cheers last night.

Two: Trump has achieved success in the “real world.” His business employs over 22,000 people; Forbes estimates his personal net worth at $4.5 billion. Voters wanted someone who knows how to run things and embodies the American Dream.

Three: Trump has celebrity and name recognition. Americans love celebrities, as do news outlets. The New York Times estimates that Trump received $2 billion worth of free media coverage during the presidential primaries.

Four: Trump embodies voters’ anger. According to surveys, 67 percent of Americans say they are angry at the federal government; 84 percent are angry with Congress. Trump’s belligerence mirrors the spirit of the times.

Five: Trump promises to protect the religious freedom of Christians. A higher percentage than ever before believe it has become more difficult to be an evangelical Christian in recent years.

Six: Trump says he loves our nation. Seven in ten Republicans believe President Obama doesn’t love America. Trump’s supporters believe that their candidate ran for president for no reason except to serve our country.

Seven: Trump promises to defend us from our enemies. Seventy-six percent of Republicans believe that Islam is as “at odds” with American values. Trump promises to keep terrorists out of our country and to rebuild our military.

Continue reading Denison Forum – 10 REASONS WHY DONALD TRUMP WON →

Pokémon GO is the most popular mobile game in American history. The app instructs players to use their mobile devices to catch Pokémon characters in the real world. It has sent multitudes of people into streets, parks, and malls looking for such creatures. More than twenty-one million people play the game every day in the US. (For more, see Ryan Denison’s Is Pokémon Go-ing to Church?)

I’m old enough to remember when Blockbuster stores rented video games and VHS tapes. Now Blockbuster stores and VHS tapes are no more. We could never have imagined then the technology we take for granted today.

One reason for the popularity of Pokémon GO is that it provides a distraction from a world that grows more frightening by the day. Security is tighter than ever for the Republican Convention in Cleveland. (For Nick Pitts’s reports from the convention, please go to our Facebook page.) According to this morning’s New York Times, ISIS has claimed responsibility for the seventeen-year-old Afghan who attacked passengers on a German train before he was killed by police. After the shootings in Baton Rouge and Dallas, police officers across the country are patrolling in pairs.

A psychologist noted in The New York Times, “With the frequency of shootings and terror attacks there is a sense of anxiety that’s building in people, a sense of vulnerability and powerlessness.”

In the face of such crises, it’s hard to take the long view. What happens today seems more important than what happened yesterday or will happen tomorrow. The current challenge seems to be more of a challenge than anything we’ve faced before or will face again. But that’s seldom true.

From 1960 to 1993, violent crime in America increased by 560 percent. It has since dropped to half that level. We are understandably worried about Islamic terrorism. But I grew up in a time when we lived every day with the very real possibility of nuclear war.

Continue reading Denison Forum – POKÉMON GO AND THE CRISES OF OUR DAY →

It has happened again. Three police officers were killed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana yesterday. Three others were injured. The gunman, a former Marine, was killed at the scene.

A long-time police veteran said, “I’ve never experienced anything like this.” The president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police noted, “This is perhaps the most difficult and dangerous time in American policing history.” Our police need our support and encouragement today more than ever.

The heartbreaking news from Baton Rouge followed a bloody attempted coup in Turkey that left 265 dead over the weekend. We are still grieving the tragedy in Nice, France, the police officers killed in Dallas, and the earlier fatalities in Louisiana and Minnesota.

Yesterday, a dear friend texted me the question everyone is asking: What is happening to our world?

ISIS is inspiring terrorism around the globe; North Korea is advancing its nuclear weapons capabilities; the European Union is fracturing; China’s military reach is expanding; violence at home seems to be escalating.

But the world is no more fallen today than it was last year. And Jesus is no less powerful than he has ever been. He warned us, “In the world you will have tribulation” (John 16:33a). “Tribulation” translates thlipsis, a Greek term describing the massive stone that crushed grain into flour. But then he added, “Take heart; I have overcome the world” (v. 33b).

It’s vital that we see our world through a biblical lens, that we view temporal events in light of eternal truth. Now that the political conventions are beginning, the Denison Forum wants to help our readers interpret these historic events in biblical context. So Nick Pitts, our Director of Cultural Engagement, will be reporting from both conventions.

Continue reading Denison Forum – BATON ROUGE SHOOTING: WHAT IS HAPPENING TO OUR WORLD? →

Brodie Copeland was an eleven-year-old Little League baseball player in Austin, Texas. He recently starred in a local production of Peter Pan. His family was in Nice, France, where they joined the Bastille Day celebration. They were waiting for fireworks to begin when a large truck rammed into the crowd. Brodie and his father were killed.

At least eighty-four died in the attack, including ten children.

This was clearly a terrorist assault. Al Qaeda and other jihadist groups have promoted such tactics, which have been used in Israel and elsewhere. ISIS recently boasted that its operatives killed or wounded 5,200 people during the most recent Ramadan. Clearly, jihadist attacks are part of our present and our future.

These are such difficult days. Bombings in Baghdad, Dhaka, and Istanbul were followed by shootings in Minnesota, Louisiana, and Dallas. And now this tragedy. In the face of such challenges, it is vital that God’s people gather to pray.

That’s just what Christians will do tomorrow in Washington, DC. “Together 2016” will meet at the National Mall from 9 AM to 9 PM and will feature more than forty Christian leaders. Pope Francis, Hillsong United, Tony Evans, Luis Palau, Josh McDowell, Francis Chan, Lecrae, and Kari Jobe are just some of those participating. More than a thousand churches nationwide have pledged to attend. There are 8,000 service opportunities within a 100-mile radius of Washington, DC during the week before and after the event.

Continue reading Denison Forum – 11-YEAR-OLD BOY FROM TEXAS AMONG DEAD IN NICE       →

Dallas residents are waking up this morning to the deadliest day for police officers since September 11, 2001.

At 7:00 last night, protesters gathered in a Dallas park and began marching through the streets of downtown. They were responding to officer-involved shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota. The rally was peaceful; police officers were present and were conversing with the crowd.

Just before 9 PM, as Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said, “Our worst nightmare happened.” Shots rang out. Ten police officers were shot, along with one bystander. An eleventh officer was later shot during an exchange of gunfire with a suspect. Five of the officers died. Some of the six who were wounded are undergoing surgery.

According to Police Chief David Brown, four people coordinated the attack with rifles, positioning themselves in triangulated locations near the end of the route protesters planned to take. The chief noted that snipers fired “ambush-style” from an “elevated position.” Some of the officers were shot in the back.

At 3:06 AM, authorities announced that a suspect had died after a standoff with police in a garage at El Centro college. Three people are now in custody. K-9 units are sweeping the area for possible bombs; large sections of downtown remain closed this morning.

Continue reading Denison Forum – DALLAS SNIPER ATTACK: ‘OUR WORST NIGHTMARE HAPPENED’ →

“He let the officer know that he had a firearm and he was reaching for his wallet and the officer just shot him in the arm.” This is how Lavish Reynolds described the shooting of her boyfriend, Philando Castile, in a video posted last night to Facebook. The video has been viewed nearly two million times and is generating national controversy this morning. Mr. Castile died at a Minnesota hospital.

This is the second officer-involved shooting to make headlines this week. Early Tuesday morning in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, a bystander’s cellphone video showed a black man named Alton Sterling being tackled by a white police officer. He was then held to the ground by two officers. One of them shouted, “He’s got a gun!” An officer then opened fire. The coroner later stated that Mr. Sterling died at the scene from multiple gunshot wounds to the chest and back.

The Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation into the shooting. Protests are continuing today in Baton Rouge; both officers have been placed on paid administrative leave.

The Minnesota video is just making news, but you have probably seen coverage of the Louisiana shooting. When you heard the story or saw the video, what was your first response? Did you assume that the officers’ actions must have been justified? Or did you see this tragedy as another example of racially-motivated violence in America?

Now consider these facts:

• There are nearly seven times as many black adult males in prison as white adult males.
• Quartz reports that black people are three times more likely than white people to be killed by police.
• According to a Pew Research Center report, eight in ten blacks say black people are treated less fairly than whites in dealing with police.

Do you interpret these statistics as indicating that black people are more likely to commit crimes than white people? Or do they indicate to you that police and the criminal justice system are biased against blacks?

Continue reading Denison Forum – MINNESOTA OFFICER SHOOTS BLACK MAN DURING TRAFFIC STOP →

I was reading about the spaceship orbiting Jupiter yesterday morning when something decidedly more down-to-earth hit my Twitter feed: the FBI director had just announced that he would not recommend criminal charges against Hillary Clinton for her handling of classified information when she was secretary of state.

I knew this would dominate the news cycle, so I wrote a white paper for our website: The Clinton email scandal: what you need to know. There I survey the history of the controversy, issues raised by the debate, practical questions, and ways Christians should respond. For today’s Cultural Commentary, I’d like to focus on a theme I didn’t address in the white paper.

When you heard the news, what was your immediate response? If you’re a Clinton advocate, you probably saw the announcement as vindicating your support. No criminal charges were recommended, so her campaign believes that the matter is now resolved.

If you’re a Clinton critic, you probably saw the announcement as vindicating your opposition. The FBI director strongly criticized Mrs. Clinton and her colleagues for being “extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.”

Two sides, reacting to the same report, are defending two completely different positions. Such is the state of our political culture today.

According to a recent survey, ninety-two percent of Republicans are to the right of the median Democrat, while ninety-four percent of Democrats are to the left of the median Republican. The percentage in each party with a highly negative view of the other party has more than doubled since 1994.

Continue reading Denison Forum – The FBI and Hillary Clinton: my analysis →

Let’s start with the good news: The Independence Day weekend ended without a terror attack in the U.S. There was a day when such an announcement would not be news at all. But we live in a different world than we have ever seen before.

Over the weekend, suicide attackers launched three strikes in Saudi Arabia. Families are searching for loved ones after a suicide bomb truck killed more than 200 in Baghdad. As Ramadan closes today, recent jihadist attacks have killed scores of people in Jordan, Lebanon, Yemen, and Bangladesh. Closer to home, Americans were charged or indicted last week in three Islamic terror cases.

CIA Director John Brennan spoke recently to the Council on Foreign Relations. He told the Council that he had never witnessed a time with “such a daunting array of challenges to our nation’s security.”

The director cited uncertainty in Europe following Brexit, escalating terror threats, and global instability that has displaced sixty-five million people (the highest figure ever recorded). Cybersecurity and risks from evolving biotechnology rounded out his list of threats we face.

While the challenges of our day are unprecedented, the fact that we face challenges is not. On this day in 1776, America’s future was uncertain, to say the least. We had declared our independence from the world’s greatest superpower and now faced the British Empire’s wrath. Of the fifty-six signers of the Declaration of Independence, twelve fought in battle, five were captured and imprisoned, seventeen lost property to British raids, and five lost their fortunes. All risked their lives for the sake of their country and the cause of freedom.

Continue reading Denison Forum – CIA DIRECTOR LISTS FIVE THREATS TO OUR FUTURE →

“It was like hell,” said an eyewitness to the Istanbul airport attacks. “It looked like a disaster movie,” said another.

As you watch the continuing covering of the tragedy in Turkey, what do you feel? Grief for those who are in shock and mourning? Anger at the deluded murderers who slaughtered innocent people in the service of an ideology that is a lie from hell? I share your pain and outrage.

But there’s an unstated realization in the back of our minds as well: we know we could be next. If terrorists could kill Muslims in Turkey and Americans in Boston and San Bernardino and Orlando, they can strike anywhere. This is something new and insidious for us.

I recently saw Free State of Jones, a film portraying an uprising against Confederate hostilities in Mississippi. I had not realized the degree to which innocent civilians were brutalized during the Civil War, many by troops on their side of the conflict. During World War II, artillery was stationed along the West Coast to combat a possible Japanese invasion, but few Americans worried that foreign soldiers would attack them as they went about their daily lives.

Now for the first time, we live in the knowledge that the next airport bombing or workplace terrorism attack could find us. How should we respond to this reality?

Some choose fiction. They deny the reality of their mortality and refuse to think about death and the beyond. A recent poll asked unchurched Americans how often they thought about whether they would go to heaven when they die. Only eighteen percent said they consider their eternal destination daily or even weekly. But denying mortality, like denying you have cancer, doesn’t make its reality less real.

I was listening to sports talk radio this week and heard a conversation regarding the death of NFL coach Buddy Ryan. His twin sons Rex and Rob are coaching on the same NFL team for the first time, but he didn’t live long enough to see their first game. One radio commentator stated, “Wherever he is, he’s watching them.”

Continue reading Denison Forum – ISTANBUL ATTACK: DON’T LET THE TERRORISTS WIN →

I was in a staff meeting yesterday afternoon when news broke of another terrorist attack in Istanbul. As of this morning, forty-one are dead and 239 are injured. The Turkish prime minister has announced that ISIS is likely responsible for this atrocity.

If this seems like another chapter in the same horrific story, you’re right.

Yesterday’s airport bombing is the eighth terrorist attack in Turkey this year. Radical Islamists have struck tourist areas in Istanbul and the capitol city of Ankara as well as cities in southeastern Turkey. I have been everywhere terrorists have struck and have flown into and out of Istanbul’s airport numerous times. Any of the dead could have been me.

Sixteen other terrorist attacks this year have been linked to ISIS. Yesterday’s tragedy came after an ISIS spokesman called for renewed atrocities during the last ten days of Ramadan. As with numerous other attacks, Muslims were on the front lines of the assault, proving that radical Muslims will kill other Muslims as readily as they target anyone else.

Let’s remember why this is happening. ISIS and other radical Islamists are convinced that the West has been attacking Islam since the Crusades. The Qur’an requires Muslims to defend Islam. Therefore, they believe that attacking Western targets is a defense of Islam. Civilians are on the front lines since they support their governments with their taxes and military service. To radicalized Muslims, every killing yesterday advanced Islam.

As a result, no place is safe. The more ISIS loses territory in Iraq and Syria, the more it will sponsor and incite terrorism abroad. Yesterday’s atrocity is by no means the last we should expect as this “war on terror” continues.

It’s easy to become numb to the carnage. We were initially shocked by reports of ISIS beheadings, but now they are common news stories. Bombings that slaughter innocent people used to outrage the world, but now they numb us with their frequency.

Therein lies my point.

Continue reading Denison Forum – ISTANBUL BOMBING: DON’T LET TERRORISM BE THE ‘NEW NORMAL’ →

Brexit continues to shake the world. Markets lost more than $2 trillion last Friday, the worst single day for the global economy in history. In the aftermath of what one expert called “the biggest global monetary shock since 2008,” two facts seem clear.

One: There is a simple explanation for this shocking event.

CNN’s Nic Robertson interpreted Brexit this way: “The message from the shires of England is that they no longer trust their leadership.” As a result, many in the U.K. “see a rich upper class that has grown ridiculously rich, intertwined with a political elite in their pocket and their thrall.”

Chris Patten, Chancellor of the University of Oxford, agreed: “Growing social inequality has contributed to a revolt against a perceived metropolitan elite. Old industrial England . . . voted against better-off London. Globalization, these voters were told, benefits only those at the top—comfortable working with the rest of the world—at the expense of everyone else.”

Nationalist movements are gaining popularity in Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Austria, France, Switzerland, Slovakia, Italy, and Greece. Radical Islam continues to gain adherents around the world. Brazilians recently voted to impeach their president. Anger against the establishment is growing in scope and severity. Brexit is just the first of many dominoes that will fall in coming months and years.

Two: Simple explanations are usually too simple.

Many who voted to leave the EU are now expressing regret on Twitter with the #Regrexit hashtag. A petition to force another referendum is gathering momentum with more than three million signatures.

Brexit was widely seen as a repudiation of establishment figures such as President Obama, who openly urged British voters to remain in the European Union. However, the president’s approval rating is at its highest level since the death of Osama bin Laden in May 2011.

Continue reading Denison Forum – THE SIMPLE EXPLANATION FOR BREXIT ISN’T SO SIMPLE →

Britain has voted to leave the European Union. Most global leaders had expected the U.K. to stay in the EU, but the vote was fifty-two percent for exiting the twenty-eight-member bloc.

The withdrawal process will take up to two years, so nothing will change immediately. But make no mistake—this is a historic event. One British lawmaker called the outcome “a seismic moment for our country.” Prime Minister David Cameron has announced that he will resign. Global markets plunged; the Dow Jones is projected to fall more than 500 points when it opens this morning.

Brexit proponents were especially frustrated about immigration. With a net migration of 330,000 people to the U.K. in 2015, more than half from the EU, many felt their national identity was under attack and that the influx endangered schools, housing, and health care.

“Take control” was the slogan of the “Leave” campaign, and it clearly resonated with the people. As The New York Times noted, “referendums are not about the question asked but the political mood at the time, and the political mood is sour.”

That may be an understatement.

In the U.S., Democrats and Republicans are condemning each other for inaction on gun control. The president is condemning the Supreme Court’s decision that thwarted his efforts to expand immigration through executive action.

We are anxious about the economy. Writing for Foreign Affairs, Dartmouth economist Douglas Irwin notes that productivity gains from technology caused eighty-five percent of the manufacturing job losses between 2000 and 2010. Such jobs are not coming back. Globalization and innovation are making a new economy that victimizes those who cannot adapt.

Many Christians are anxious about religious freedom. There’s been a national uproar after a thirty-three year veteran of the Air Force was forcibly removed from a retirement ceremony because he invoked God in a speech. (For more, see Nick Pitt’s article.) More than three-quarters of evangelicals feel religious liberty is more threatened than it was ten years ago.

Continue reading Denison Forum – BREXIT VOTE SHOCKS THE WORLD         →

People in Britain are voting today on whether their nation should stay in the European Union (EU). For the rest of us, this seems like an issue with little relevance outside of Europe.

Actually, what British voters decide today will affect all of us tomorrow.

Dubbed the “Brexit,” the question of Britain’s leaving the EU has been debated for months. Economists fear that a vote to leave would undermine London’s position in the world financial order. The chief of the NATO alliance says trans-Atlantic security would be stronger if Britain remained in the European Union.

If it left, however, Britain could establish its own trade agreements. It would no longer contribute to the EU budget, saving a net of 8.5 billion pounds per year. Brexit supporters say leaving would give the nation greater control over immigration as well.

Here’s why their vote affects us all. According to The Washington Post, a Brexit threatens more than a trillion dollars in investment and trade with the U.S. The International Monetary Fund predicts that a Brexit could reduce economic growth by up to 5.6 percent over the next three years. However, Brexit supporters say that leaving would strengthen the EU’s unity around the Euro and make Europe a better trading partner for the world.

Our planet is still 24,874 miles around (at the equator), but it feels smaller than ever. A radical Muslim leader in Iraq inspired terrorism in San Bernardino and Orlando. The Zika virus began in Uganda, but the World Health Organization says it is now a global public health emergency. Authorities warn that Mexican drug cartels currently pose a greater threat to Americans than ISIS.

We are connected morally to the world as well. A worldview shift called “postmodernism” began in Europe but is now just as powerful in America. Its central thesis: since our minds interpret our senses, “truth” is personal and subjective. As a result, there can be no objective moral standard on issues ranging from abortion to euthanasia. It seems that everything is now in play: support for polygamy is rising quickly, genetic engineering is on the horizon, and virtual reality pornography is here.

Continue reading Denison Forum – WHY BREXIT AFFECTS YOU →

Donald Trump met yesterday in Manhattan with nearly a thousand evangelical leaders. Nick Pitts, our Director of Cultural Engagement, attended the meeting as an observer. Trump was asked questions about religious liberty, national security, leadership, immigration, marriage, racial tensions, and America’s policy toward Israel. According to Nick, the meeting was civil, with no endorsement of the Trump campaign. Though some were clearly supportive of him, others were obviously skeptical.

However, a large group of pastors have made clear their personal endorsement of the presumptive Republican nominee. Pastors supporting Hillary Clinton have done the same. One group of ministers made news when they gathered around “President-to-be Clinton” to “decree and declare the favor of the Lord upon her.”

Pastors supporting politicians is a phenomenon with a long history. Leading up to the 1800 election, some ministers warned that Thomas Jefferson was an atheist who could not be trusted as president. Prior to the 1960 election, Norman Vincent Peale led a consortium of ministers who were opposed to John Kennedy because he was a Catholic.

I am not writing today to encourage or discourage ministers from supporting political candidates. There is no law against such personal endorsements, so long as ministers do not use their churches for political purposes. Some of my pastoral mentors make their political commitments public, while others (like me) choose not to do so.

Continue reading Denison Forum – EVANGELICAL LEADERS MEET WITH TRUMP: MY THOUGHTS →

Christopher Andrew Leinonen was one of the victims of the Orlando massacre. As thousands gathered for his funeral last Saturday, a handful of protesters from Westboro Baptist Church arrived. The tiny church has made itself famous over the years by picketing the funerals of military personnel and anyone else with whom it disagrees.

But this time the protesters were met by a group of men and women dressed as angels. Their large wings formed a wall that shielded mourners from the picketers. The tactic worked: one attendee said, “We couldn’t even hear WBC. All you could hear was peace and love.”

As a theologian who is convinced that the Bible forbids same-sex activity, I am saddened by the success of LGBT advocates in promoting their unbiblical agenda in our culture. But as a Christian who is convinced that God loves us all, no matter our sexual orientation or lifestyle, I am also saddened by the response of some Christians to the Orlando tragedy. A pastor in Sacramento said in a sermon, “The tragedy is that more of them didn’t die.” A pastor in Arizona said of the massacre, “I’m not sad about it; I’m not going to cry about it.”

God disagrees.

Do you love anyone enough to send your child to die for them? Does anyone love you that much? The Lord does: “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). As a result, “anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4:8).

Continue reading Denison Forum – ‘ANGELS’ BLOCK PROTESTERS AT ORLANDO FUNERAL →

Anton Yelchin played Pavel Chekhov in the rebooted “Star Trek” film series. He and his family emigrated from Russia seeking political asylum when he was just six months old. Anton began acting at the age of nine. With critical acclaim for his work in the “Star Wars” series, his future was bright.

Yesterday morning, friends became concerned when he did not show up for a band performance. They found Yelchin dead at his home. His car pinned him against a brick mailbox pillar and a security fence. According to the LAPD, “It appears he had exited his car and was behind it when the vehicle rolled down a steep driveway.” He was twenty-seven years old.

The future is promised to no one. And yet it is human nature to focus on tomorrow’s challenges when today is the only day that exists. If we are faithful to the opportunities of this day, our future legacy will take care of itself.

Last night, the Cleveland Cavaliers won their first NBA title. They made history as the first team to come back from a 3-1 deficit to win the championship. Their secret: they focused on each game as it came. By ignoring their legacy, they created it.

Meanwhile, Dustin Johnson won golf’s U.S. Open Championship. It was his first major title. He won it by focusing on each shot as it came. By ignoring his legacy, he created it. That’s how legacies are made.

There’s another reason to focus on the present: the law of unintended consequences shows that we cannot predict the future.

Continue reading Denison Forum – ‘STAR TREK’ ACTOR DIES IN FREAK ACCIDENT →

The Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the Golden State Warriors last night to force Game 7 in the NBA Finals. But my favorite figure on the court wasn’t Stephen Curry or LeBron James. It was a television reporter appearing in his first NBA Finals game. His story of courage is one we need in these discouraging days.

Craig Sager has been a sports reporter for forty-four years. Known by viewers for the loud suits he wears on air, he is better known by colleagues for his journalistic excellence. He has interviewed athletes from the sidelines of NBA games for seventeen years. However, his network has never broadcasted the NBA Finals.

Sager has also been battling leukemia. When the cancer recently returned, doctors gave him three to six months to live. So ESPN, the network broadcasting the championship series, inviting him to join their team for last night’s game. It was an emotional time for players, fans, and especially for Sager.

When his leukemia returned, Sager told reporters, “Still kicking, still fighting. I haven’t won the battle. It’s not over yet. But I haven’t lost it, either. There have been some victories and some setbacks, but I still have to fight it. A lot of work to do.”

We need more Craig Sagers today.

This has been a grief-filled week. The murder of Christian singer Christina Grimmie was followed by the Orlando massacre and the Disney tragedy. Yesterday, CIA Director John Brennan told Congress that despite recent progress against ISIS, “our efforts have not reduced the group’s terrorism capability and global reach.” Economists warn that a vote by British citizens next week in favor of leaving the European Union could damage the global economy.

In discouraging times, courage can be our most powerful witness. If others see us strong in faith, firm in resolve, and optimistic in spirit, they are drawn to the One who empowers us. When authorities persecuting the apostles “saw the courage of Peter and John,” “they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13).

Courage is an especially powerful witness for fathers. If our children see us trust God in hard times, they are more likely to trust him as well. I will always remember being with Dr. Gary Cook, then president of Dallas Baptist University, when doctors told him he had leukemia. His immediate response was to trust his life and future to God. His courage in the face of death glorified the Lord he loves. It is no surprise that his sons have followed his example with their own commitment to Christ and to ministry.

Continue reading Denison Forum – CRAIG SAGER: COURAGE ON AN NBA SIDELINE →

We woke up yesterday to the horrific news that an alligator dragged a two-year-old boy into a lake at Walt Disney World Tuesday evening. Disney closed all the beaches at its resorts. More than fifty law-enforcement personnel searched the lake. They eventually found the boy’s body and presume that he drowned.

Some blamed Disney for not posting signs warning about alligators in the water. Others were quick to blame the parents. As with the boy who fell into a gorilla pit in Cincinnati, people on social media lambasted the mother and father who allowed their son to play in the water.

Why do we feel such a need to assign blame when tragedy strikes?

Moments after the Orlando shooting, the media began looking for motives. The investigation has continued all week—was Omar Mateen conflicted about his sexuality? Was he truly inspired by ISIS? Meanwhile, authorities are still seeking a motive for the killing of singer Christina Grimmie. Since the murderer killed himself, we may never know his reasons.

We want to know why tragedy strikes so we can prevent future tragedies. If Disney or the parents could have done something to prevent the alligator attack, people could be saved in the future. If we can understand why murderers kill, we could prevent homicides in the future.

But there’s more to the story.

According to the United Nations, 437,000 people around the world were murdered in 2012 (their most recent report). However, National Geographic reports that 725,000 people die every year from diseases transmitted by mosquitoes. Freshwater snails transmit schistosomiasis, which kills between 20,000 and 200,000 a year. Annually, snakes kill 94,000 to 125,000; scorpions kill 3,250; sharks kill six people. And there’s no one to accuse for any of these tragedies.

Continue reading Denison Forum – DISNEY TRAGEDY: BLAME AND REDEMPTION →