It was an amazing day for the US at the Rio Olympics. Michael Phelps won his fourth gold medal, his twenty-second in his career. Simone Biles won the all-around gold in women’s gymnastics. And Simone Manuel became the first African-American swimmer to win gold.

We can always use some good news. That’s why I’ve just published a new booklet, Half-full or Hopeful? Five reasons for optimism in a pessimistic day, which I hope you’ll order from our website.

But this morning I must tell you about a story that seems too appalling to be true, but it is. According to USA Today, a mother in New Mexico gave her son up for adoption when he was a baby. He is now nineteen years old. They found each other on Facebook last year and began a sexual relationship.

They have been arrested for incest and now want to bring attention to something called “Genetic Sexual Attraction,” defined as “intense sexual desire that can arise between genetically related people who are united in Adulthood, after having been denied the opportunity to form proper emotional bonds.” Advocates want to “eliminate the irresponsible stigma associated with such relationships.”

You and I live in a culture which no longer has the tools necessary to determine right from wrong. We read stories daily about increasing acceptance of same-sex marriage, abortion, euthanasia, pornography, and cohabitation. Across the moral spectrum it seems America is becoming less biblical than ever before.

That’s why, more than ever before, it is critical that the church be the church. Before we can counter unbiblical cultural trends, we must first recognize that they are unbiblical. Then we must decide that the Bible is right, no matter how unpopular its teachings might be today.

Continue reading Denison Forum – THE MOST ASTONISHING STORY I’VE SEEN LATELY →

California State Senator Ricardo Lara proposed a bill earlier this summer that would threaten the religious liberty of all religious schools in the state that are not seminaries. It would require that such schools not “discriminate” against LGBT students or lose federal funding. As Biola University warned, the bill “functionally eliminates the religious liberty of all California faith-based colleges and universities who integrate spiritual life with the entire campus educational experience.”

Religious schools across the state flooded the senate committee with complaints. Christianity Today notes that the bill could have barred standards of belief and conduct for faculty and could have prevented colleges from giving preferential admission to students in its denomination or faith.

The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission called the legislation “its own form of discrimination by stigmatizing and coercively punishing religious beliefs.” The National Association of Evangelicals stated that protecting one minority community does not require the alienation of others. The senate committee noted that “the probability of litigation against the state appears fairly high.”

Yesterday, Sen. Lara announced that he was amending his controversial bill to keep religious exemptions in place. His bill would still require schools to “disclose if they have an exemption and report to the state when students are expelled for violating morality codes.” But it does not threaten federal funding for religious schools or require them to amend their morality standards.

This is good news. But there’s bad news on the religious liberty front as well.

Continue reading Denison Forum – BILL THREATENING RELIGIOUS LIBERTY HAS BEEN DROPPED →

To say that Simone Biles is a gymnast is like saying Michael Jordan played basketball. Gymnastics legend Mary Lou Retton says she is “as dominant as Michael Jordan was when he was on the top of his game.” A commentator this morning calls her “the most dominating gymnast the sport has ever seen.”

Simone is a three-time world all-around champion, four-time US national all-around champion, three-time world floor champion, and two-time world balance beam champion. Yesterday she was part of the US team that won gold in the women’s all-around competition at the Rio Olympics.

Simone has been in the news for more than her stupendous gymnastic achievements, however. Earlier this week, NBC announcer Al Trautwig referred to her adoptive parents as her “grandparents.” An adoption advocate reached out to correct Trautwig, but he stood firm: “They may be mom and dad but they are NOT her parents.” Her coach then tweeted the announcer, “Actually they are her parents.” Trautwig finally admitted his mistake and agreed that “Ron and Nellie are Simone’s parents.”

Here’s the rest of her story.

Simone and her three siblings were born to drug-addicted parents who struggled to care for them. Her father abandoned her mother and was never present in Simone’s life. She bounced back and forth between state and foster care. When she was six years old, her grandparents officially adopted her and her sister.

They introduced her to gymnastics and to their Christian faith. She attends mass with her family every Sunday, prays regularly, and carries a rosary her mother gave her. Now she is poised to make history.

In an eternal sense, however, she already has.

Continue reading Denison Forum – SIMONE BILES IS THE MICHAEL JORDAN OF GYMNASTICS →

Martha Stewart is the bestselling author of more than eighty-five books and an Emmy-winning television show host. She reaches 100 million consumers each month across her media and merchandising platforms as well as her branded products. Snoop Dogg recently released his fourteenth album. He is active in music, film, television, and his YouTube channel.

The two just announced that they will host “Martha and Snoop’s Dinner Party” on VH1 this fall. According to Yahoo!, they will “invite celebrity friends over for a half-baked evening of cocktails, cooking, conversation, and fun where nothing is off limits.”

Their collaboration is an odd pairing, and not just because they’re three decades apart in age.

In 2004, Martha Stewart was convicted of felony charges for insider trading and served five months in a federal prison. She then served five months in home confinement as part of a two-year term of supervised release.

Snoop Dogg, born Cordozar Calvin Broadus, Jr., was arrested after high school for possession of cocaine. He has had numerous drug arrests in the years since. He has also been arrested several times for illegal possession of handguns and other weapons. He was banned from Australia in 2007 and Norway in 2012. Last year he was arrested in Sweden for illegal drug use.

My point is not that the two should not be able to host a television show together. It’s actually the opposite: there’s something in human nature that applauds redemption. When athletes overcome grave challenges to compete in the Olympics, we cheer especially hard for them. When politicians come back from defeat to achieve success, we often admire them. When celebrities are released from prison, many become even more popular.

Consider Suicide Squad, a movie in which supervillains save the world in exchange for more lenient prison sentences. Critics panned the film, but audiences have made it the highest-grossing August movie release in history. Will Smith, one of the actors in the film, explained its success: “There’s something about bad guys being given an opportunity at redemption that people can really respond to. . . . All of our characters have this slight tether back to our humanity.”

Continue reading Denison Forum – MARTHA STEWART AND SNOOP DOGG TO HOST TV SHOW →

As of this morning, six US athletes have won gold medals at the Rio Olympics. Two won for individual events; four won in a swimming relay. They will be called Olympic champions for the rest of their lives. This is appropriate, since they have dedicated their lives to the success they achieved.

So far, the US women’s gymnastics team is in first place as well. A typical athlete competing on this team began her gymnastics training when she was two or three years old and had a coach by the age of five. She devoted between twenty and thirty hours a week to the sport as a child and has been focused on this year’s Olympics since the last Olympics ended.

It’s hard for the rest of us to imagine the sacrifices needed to become an Olympic athlete. There are 554 Americans competing in Rio, comprising 0.00017 percent of the US population. To win Olympic gold would be the highest goal most athletes could aspire to achieve.

And yet there are some in Rio who know better. Christianity Today profiles twenty-four athletes competing at the 2016 Olympics who believe there’s a greater reward in life than Olympic fame.

Gabby Douglas may be America’s best-known female Olympian. Winner of the gold medal in the 2012 all-around gymnastics competition, she explains how her faith relates to her athletic career: “I always pray at every competition, when the judge’s hand goes up I am praying, and there are little Scriptures I like to quote.” She cites Philippians 4:13 among others.

Continue reading Denison Forum – GABBY DOUGLAS, OTHER OLYMPIANS PUT GOD BEFORE GOLD →

The Opening Ceremony of the 2016 Summer Olympic Games is tonight. I can’t remember an Olympics more troubled than this one.

Problems began with a Zika outbreak in Brazil that led 150 health officials to recommend moving the games out of Rio de Janeiro, the host city. Spectators will be greeted with demonstrations, violent crime, poverty, and infrastructure failures. According to ABC News, the event could cost Brazil as much as $15 billion in losses.

Last week, a foot and other body parts washed up on a shore where Olympians will be playing volleyball. Nearly 60,000 people were murdered in Brazil in 2014; the country has been called “the deadliest place in the world outside Syria.” Assaults on beaches or in parks after dark are common. Drug gangs run the streets of many Brazilian cities.

Health experts are warning athletes competing in ocean events not to put their heads underwater. Raw human sewage teeming with dangerous viruses and bacteria has contaminated the water, especially where the rowing and sailing races will take place. Viral levels are up to 1.7 million times what would be considered unhealthy in the US. Ingesting three teaspoons of the water is likely to make an athlete sick.

And yet 10,500 athletes from 206 nations will be competing in twenty-eight different sports, hoping to win one or more of the 4,924 medals that will be awarded. Some 500,000 foreign travelers are purchasing 7.5 million tickets to attend.

The rest of us will be watching more than 6,000 hours of television coverage. There will be $5.4 billion lost in productivity from employees watching the Olympics while at work. Seventy-two percent of business professionals plan to watch the Games; 3.6 billion people will tune in worldwide.

Why? Because we all want to make history, and if we can’t make it, we want to watch it.

Continue reading Denison Forum – IS THIS THE MOST DANGEROUS OLYMPICS EVER? →

Humayun Khan was killed during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2004. His father, Khizr Khan, spoke to the Democratic National Convention last week, criticizing Donald Trump for seeking to ban Muslim immigrants from the US. After Trump responded, a media firestorm resulted. Chris Christie is making headlines this morning as he joins other Republicans who have disagreed publicly with Trump’s remarks.

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton continues to generate controversy over her emails. She told “Fox News Sunday” that FBI Director Comey called her answers on the issue “truthful.” The Washington Post found her statement so untruthful that it gave her its maximum “Four Pinocchios.” In addition, parents of servicemen killed in Benghazi continue to claim that she misled them as Secretary of State.

Despite these controversies, each candidate’s core supporters are still their core supporters. Why?

One: Each side is passionately opposed to the other.

In the latest CNN/ORC Poll, 42 percent of Clinton’s supporters say they will vote for her primarily to prevent Trump from being elected. Fifty percent of Trump’s backers say the same regarding Clinton. What their candidate does or says has little influence on those who are voting less for them than against the other option.

Two: Each side believes in its candidate.

Continue reading Denison Forum – 3 REASONS WHY PEOPLE STILL SUPPORT TRUMP AND CLINTON →

Col. Rob Maness was at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001 when terrorists flew an airplane into the building. He was helping survivors when a chaplain called him over to an injured man. “He was in really bad shape—it didn’t look like he was going to make it,” Maness said later. “I was told to stand there and hold his IV because it was leaking.” He kept talking to the injured man until paramedics took him to a hospital.

For fifteen years he prayed for the man and wondered what happened to him. Fast-forward to the recent Republican National Convention. Maness is running for the US Senate from Louisiana. Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry introduced him to another man who was in the Pentagon that day, Texas State Senator Brian Birdwell. It turned out that Birdwell was the man Maness helped save. Both are strong Christians; each is now giving thanks to the Lord for what the other means to him.

On a very different subject: After School Satan Clubs could be coming to an elementary school near you. The Satanic Temple is petitioning school officials around the country to include them in their after-school programming. This is in response to Good News Clubs, a Christian outreach program made legal by a 2001 Supreme Court ruling that after-school programs cannot be excluded on the basis of their sponsors’ religious views. If Christians can do it, Satanists can as well, or so they claim.

There’s a principle at work here: we seldom see the future consequences of present decisions. That’s a fact Satan uses against us, but one the Lord uses for us.

Satan hates us so much that he cannot tempt us to do anything for which the gain outweighs the pain. However, as the “father of lies” (John 8:44) he wants to convince us that the opposite is true. Because we want what Satan offers, we find a way to justify choosing it. We see the consequences of temptation only after we fall to it: “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death” (Proverbs 14:12).

Conversely, our Father loves us so much that he cannot lead us to do anything for which the pain outweighs the gain. He loves us as much as he loves his own Son (John 17:23). He always and only wants what is best for us. However, in the moment of obedience we often cannot see its benefits. We see the consequences of faithfulness only after we choose to be faithful. Then we can say with Paul, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18).

As a result, the time to prepare for spiritual challenges is before we face them. In the moment, we cannot trust what seems best to us. We must decide now that we will be faithful when the temptation or opportunity comes. Good students study for a test before they take it.

When you face challenges to your faith today, remember two images: Satan as a roaring lion seeking to devour you (1 Peter 5:8) and Jesus dying on the cross for you. Then choose wisely.

Denison Forum

It sounded too outlandish to be possible: a man was going to jump from an airplane at 25,000 feet without a parachute, trying to land on a net less than half the size of a football field. But that’s what Luke Aikins did last Saturday.

He became the first person to skydive with neither a parachute nor a wingsuit. Aikins jumped from an altitude just 4,000 feet short of the summit of Mount Everest, landing on his back in a net suspended 200 feet above the California desert. Then he climbed out into the arms of his wife. Why did he do it? To show that “if you train right you can make anything happen.”

Here’s my question: Why do we care?

We’re fascinated by the thrill of near-death experiences. We’ll hold our breath watching an acrobat cross a canyon on a high wire. We’ll buy a ticket to see trapeze artists and lion tamers. We’ll flock to movies like Jason Bourne that feature high-speed chase scenes and death-defying stunts.

We want to escape the normalcy of our routine to feel the excitement of the extreme. Somehow we know that the world we experience is not all there is. As C. S. Lewis notes, the most spectacular sunset evokes in us a sense that there is still “something more.” When you hear a brilliant musician or hike through a scenic forest, don’t you feel it? Our world at its most beautiful is not enough.

This “something more” is a symptom of the “God-shaped emptiness” Pascal found in every human heart. As St. Augustine noted, our hearts are restless until they rest in our Lord. Until we are home, we can expect to feel homesick. This world, no matter how much we invest in it, will never feed the deepest hunger of our soul.

Continue reading Denison Forum – WHY MAN JUMPED FROM 25,000 FEET WITHOUT PARACHUTE →

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 →