Should transgender people be able to use the bathroom and shower facility that corresponds to their gender identity? This was the position of the Obama administration when it issued an edict last May requiring public schools to permit this choice. The administration threatened to withhold federal funding for schools that did not comply. A federal judge then put a hold on the president’s order.

To those who claim that this decision should be left to the states and to local school districts, supporters of the Obama mandate counter that civil rights take precedence over states’ rights. For instance, in Virginia v. Loving, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Virginia’s statute forbidding interracial marriage was unconstitutional. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 likewise outlawed racial segregation in schools, even though such policies had been enacted by local school authorities.

If transgender rights are civil rights, the argument goes, they should be enforced even over the objections of states and school districts.

The Trump administration clearly disagrees. Last Wednesday, the president issued an order rescinding Mr. Obama’s directive. He stated that states and public schools should have the authority to make their own decisions without federal interference. As a result, states and school districts will now be able to decide for themselves whether federal sex discrimination law applies to gender identity.

The president’s order includes language stating that schools must protect transgender students from bullying. And it does not require individual schools to prevent transgender students from using the bathroom of their choice. It simply gives them the right to make this decision free from federal interference.

But what of the argument that civil rights supersede states’ rights? Here’s my response: unlike previous civil rights legislation, transgender civil rights significantly impact the civil rights of all people.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Are transgender rights civil rights? →

A historical Jewish cemetery in Missouri was vandalized this past weekend, damaging nearly 200 headstones. Chesel Shel Emeth Cemetery in University City, just west of St. Louis, has served Jewish families in the area for 124 years. The attack toppled some headstones and damaged others.

Tragically, this is not new news. A recent wave of bomb threats caused eleven Jewish community centers to close temporarily. Terrorizing phone calls have targeted fifty-four Jewish community centers in twenty-seven states this year. Graffiti and swastikas have been reported on some college campuses as well as the New York City subway. President Trump denounced these crimes yesterday, stating that “anti-Semitism is horrible and it’s going to stop and it has to stop.”

But one dimension of the tragedy is good news: a group of Muslim Americans organized a campaign to repair the damaged cemetery. More than $80,000 was raised in the first twenty-four hours. Every dollar will go to the cemetery. Any remaining funds after the cemetery is restored will be allocated to repair other vandalized Jewish centers.

Anti-Semitism is a horrific sin as ancient as Israel’s enslavement in Egypt and as recent as the wave of attacks now escalating across America and Europe. Some aspects of this prejudice are unique to the remarkable Jewish people—jealousy over their material success, educational achievements, and cultural accomplishments. But other aspects are common to all racial prejudice—if I decide that I am superior to you based on our races, I can maintain this fiction even when your achievements, income, and social status exceed mine. Bigotry is the sin of small minds and souls.

Here’s the good news: no matter how the world feels about you, God knows your name. Right now.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Muslims help rebuild Jewish cemetery →

Researchers at Northwestern University in Chicago have documented an amazing fact. According to The Telegraph, when a human sperm meets an egg, “an explosion of tiny sparks erupts from the egg at the exact moment of conception.” Northwestern professor Teresa Woodruff calls the phenomenon “breathtaking.”

When I read the article, I thought immediately of John 1: “In [Jesus] was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (vv. 4–5).

Light always defeats darkness. It may take longer than we want to wait. It may happen in ways we can neither predict nor understand. But light wins.

Last Thursday, a panel gathered to discuss the topic, “Biology Isn’t Bigotry.” The five women who participated strongly criticized the notion that self-determined “gender identity” is the same as biological sex. One of the participants calls herself a “long-term leftist” and is on the board of Women’s Liberation Front, a feminist group. She and the rest of the panel warned that “gender identity” views amount to the erasure of women, voyeurism, and practicing eugenics on children.

The next day, Norma McCorvey died at the age of sixty-nine. She was better known by the pseudonym “Jane Roe.” The 1973 case that bears her name, Roe v. Wade, legalized abortion in the US. McCorvey later became one of America’s foremost proponents of life. In February 2005, she unsuccessfully petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn the legislation that bore her pseudonym. What changed her mind?

In her 1998 book, Won by Love, she explained:

“I was sitting in [Operation Rescue’s] offices when I noticed a fetal development poster. The progression was so obvious, the eyes were so sweet. It hurt my heart, just looking at them. I ran outside and finally, it dawned on me. ‘Norma,’ I said to myself, ‘They’re right.’ I had worked with pregnant women for years. I had been through three pregnancies and deliveries myself. I should have known. Yet something in that poster made me lose my breath. I kept seeing the picture of that tiny, 10-week-old embryo, and I said to myself, that’s a baby! It’s as if blinders just fell off my eyes and I suddenly understood the truth—that’s a baby!

Continue reading Denison Forum – Human life begins in ‘bright flash of light’ →

Alexander Acosta is President Trump’s new nominee for Labor Secretary. If confirmed, he will head the Department of Labor, which advocates for American job seekers, wage earners and retirees, and ensures that US workers receive appropriate benefits and rights.

We can use the help.

ABC News reports that Americans work more than anyone in the industrialized world. We take less vacation, work longer days, and retire later. It’s no wonder that, according to Forbes, 52.3 percent of us are unhappy at work.

After the president’s Labor Secretary announcement, I did a brief study of rest in the Bible. The concept appears early: “On the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done” (Genesis 2:2). Why would an omnipotent God need to rest?

The answer is found in the word “rested,” which translates the Hebrew term from which we get “sabbath.” Thus we read: “So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation” (v. 3). God rested as an example for those made in his image. If he would observe a Sabbath, so must we.

His example later became our command: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8). This commandment is so important that the text explaining it (vv. 9–11) comprises the longest commentary on any of the Ten Commandments.

Continue reading Denison Forum – The ancient cure for work stress →

From the one-day-late news department: scientists have used 3-D mapping to reveal the actual face of St. Valentine. They took photos of his skull, which is kept in Rome’s Basilica of Santa Maria of Cosmedin, then reconstructed his facial features.

From one facial extreme to the other: a twenty-five-year-old Hitler lookalike has been arrested in Austria. The man, who calls himself Harald Hitler, is charged with glorifying the Nazi era, which is a crime in his country.

I wish this were the only troubling news in today’s news. But it’s not.

The New York Times is reporting today that a science panel has approved editing human embryos to prevent disease or disability. Is this the start of eugenics? Since 2011, the number of violent incidents at churches has doubled. Louisville, Kentucky recently dealt with 151 calls about drug overdoses in a four-day period.

You could be forgiven for wondering if our country is following the fate of so many fallen empires before us. However, writer and filmmaker Paul Ratner disagrees. He has given us “5 Reasons Why America Will Not Collapse Like the Roman Empire.” Here’s his list:

1.    Political instability is here but the US is still a republic.
2.    The economy needs work but is in no danger of a collapse.
3.    The military situation is vastly different.
4.    The US is not in a cultural and social decline.
5.    Technology, not politics will transform the US (and the world).

Continue reading Denison Forum – 5 reasons US will not fall like Rome? →

Today is Valentine’s Day. To celebrate the holiday, Americans will spend $4.3 billion on jewelry, $2 billion on flowers, $1.9 billion on clothes, $1.7 billion on candy, $1.4 billion on gift cards, and nearly $1 billion on greeting cards. Today’s news is filled with stories of love appropriate for the holiday.

Not everything in the news is good news, however.

This Vogue article grieves me: “What to Get a Friend Post-Abortion.” The article pictures two teenage girls smiling and acting as though they are congratulating each other. What follows is an assortment of T-shirts, poetry, and other gifts. Among them is an invitation from Planned Parenthood to become an escort for other women who choose abortion. The nation’s leading abortion provider promises that “one day this won’t seem like such a big deal.”

It’s easy to see Valentine’s Day as a momentary respite from a culture that is sliding ever further from biblical morality. But it’s always too soon to give up on God.

Remember the story of Joseph: his brothers sold him into slavery out of anger at his dreams of superiority over them. Fast-forward thirteen years. Joseph is now second-in-command in Egypt, the greatest superpower in the world. His brothers have come to him for food in a time of famine. They do not recognize him, but he knows them.

To test them, he has his personal cup placed in the sack of Benjamin, their youngest brother. They are arrested and brought before him. He offers to keep Benjamin as his servant and free the rest.

The brothers he knew thirteen years ago would gladly have traded their younger brother for their freedom. The Joseph they knew would gladly have forced them into his service.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Where we will spend $4.3 billion today →

The Gramophone Awards were established in 1959. Fortunately, their name was soon changed to the Grammys. Last night’s show was dominated by Adele, who won five Grammys including song, record, and album of the year. David Bowie’s final album also received awards in five categories.

In all, there were 426 nominations in eighty-four categories. I looked over the list and found maybe ten songs I’d heard before. Watching the show, I realized how little of the music industry I experience personally.

Why is my ignorance of contemporary music a good thing?

The answer is not that I’m an advocate for withdrawing from society. To the contrary, I worry about Christians who adopt a Christ-against-culture worldview, pulling back into enclaves of spirituality and resisting the secular world wherever they can. While some aspects of contemporary culture are obviously off-limits for believers (see my warning last Friday not to see Fifty Shades Darker), retreating completely from society keeps our salt in the saltshaker and our light under a basket. This is the opposite of Jesus’ intention for us (Matthew 5:13–16).

I know little about contemporary music, not because such music isn’t important. Rather, it’s because ignorance of one dimension of life is a necessary condition for understanding another.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Why I’m grateful for the Grammys →

Yesterday, Mike Pence broke a 50–50 deadlock in the Senate to confirm Betsy DeVos as Education Secretary. This was the first time in history that a vice president had to break a tie on a cabinet nomination.

Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander, himself a former Education Secretary, accused his Democratic colleagues of opposing Ms. DeVos because she was nominated by a Republican president. Opponents claimed that the nominee’s support for charter schools and vouchers made her unsuitable to lead the Education Department.

It’s another day in the dysfunctional life of American politics. Supporters of President Trump see the rancor of his critics as proof that he is doing what they elected him to do—change the status quo and return government to the people. Opponents of the president blame him for the bitterness of our political climate.

According to columnist Jim VandeHei, there are other factors involved as well. Consider his list:

•    There is no market today for normal politics, much less compromise. To get noticed, leaders must be extreme.
•    Centrism is nearly extinct at the national level. The Tea Party on the right and aggressive liberals on the left dominate our politics.
•    National political parties are shells of their former selves. Social media has rendered these gatekeepers of establishment order nearly obsolete.
•    Fake news fans the flames of partisanship as faith in traditional media declines.

I would add that the cultural dysfunction of our day is the logical consequence of a decades-old worldview called postmodern relativism. Since our minds interpret our senses to produce knowledge, we’re told that all truth claims must by definition be subjective and relative. According to conventional wisdom, since there can be no objective truth, we must tolerate all views (except those we consider intolerant, of course).

Continue reading Denison Forum – Mike Pence makes history in a divided Washington →

Last night, the Denison Forum was honored to partner with Dallas Baptist University in hosting ABC News political commentator Matthew Dowd. He spoke on campus as part of the Leadership Lecture Series of the Institute for Global Engagement. We asked him to reflect on the recent election and describe our country as he sees it.

Matthew’s remarks were both profound and timely. He noted that significant change comes to our country every seventy to eighty years. Eighty years ago, we were coming out of the Great Depression and into World War II. Eighty years before, we were coming into the Civil War and the Industrial Revolution. Eighty years before, we were coming out of the War for Independence and into the agricultural revolution.

We are now in another time of significant cultural change. From politics to technology to industry to medicine to moral standards, everything seems to be in transition. Matthew believes that in such a chaotic time, we desperately need leaders who serve those they lead, who care for people more than politics or party, who know that souls are what matter most.

Earlier in the day, I took part in celebrating a man who personified Matthew’s thesis.

Friends from across the nation gathered at Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas to celebrate the life and legacy of Vester T. Hughes, Jr. His death on January 29 brought to an earthly end one of the most amazing lives I’ve ever known. And it marked the heavenly transition of a man who was my mentor and spiritual father.

Continue reading Denison Forum – What happens in America every 80 years →

“We saw the greatest game in NFL history. Greatest comeback. Greatest coach. And greatest quarterback. What an extraordinary sporting event.” That’s what columnist Peter Wehner tweeted after yesterday’s Super Bowl. Everyone who saw the game agrees with him today.

Why are we so enthralled with New England’s win in yesterday’s Super Bowl? On one hand, we ought not be surprised. The Patriots were favored to win the contest. Their quarterback had more Super Bowl experience than the entire Atlanta Falcons team combined. Their leader was coaching in his seventh Super Bowl.

What makes the Patriots’ 34–28 victory over the Falcons so memorable is the fact that it was so historic. Never before had a Super Bowl gone to overtime. Never before had a coach or quarterback won five Super Bowls. Never before had we seen a four-time Super Bowl MVP. Never before had a team come back from more than ten points down to win. All that changed last night in what The New York Times is calling “a comeback for the ages.”

When the Patriots made history, we felt that we made history. If we cannot win championships, we want to watch others win them. If we cannot be president of the United States, we want to watch as the president is inaugurated. If we cannot create great art, we want to see great art.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Patriots victory ‘a comeback for the ages’ →

Surprising Super Bowl trivia is in the news today. Lining up the facts, you can make a compelling case that the New England Patriots will defeat the Atlanta Falcons in Sunday’s game. For instance:

The Falcons have never won a Super Bowl. Their quarterback, Matt Ryan, has never won a Most Valuable Player award. Over his career, Ryan has defeated every NFL team except two—the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Patriots.

By contrast, the New England Patriots can secure their fifth title. Tom Brady could win his fifth championship, the most of any quarterback in history. He could also win a record fourth Super Bowl MVP.

Brady has started four games against the Falcons. He won all four. With six Super Bowls, he has more championship experience than the entire Falcons’ roster.

The game pits the league’s leading offense (the Falcons) against the league’s leading defense (the Patriots). This has happened only five times before in Super Bowl history. The team with the league’s best defense won four of the five.

Sunday’s game will be the first time Dan Quinn, Atlanta’s head coach, has competed against New England’s head coach, Bill Belichick. Since 2010, coaches in their first career game against Belichick are 3–22. And the last time the Super Bowl was played in Houston, the Patriots won.

Of course, none of this proves that New England will win Sunday’s game. Predictions, whether they are based on facts or speculation, are just that. Our culture is fascinated by them because they give us the illusion of control in a chaotic world.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Trivial reasons Patriots will win the Super Bowl →

On April 15, 2013, Roseann Sdoia watched the Red Sox play at Fenway Park and then went to Boylston Street to watch the Boston Marathon. Two bombs exploded. She was just steps from the second blast and lost her right leg. Fireman Mike Materia comforted her on the ride to Massachusetts General Hospital in a police vehicle. “He’s seen me on my worst day,” she says.

Now they’re engaged to be married.

Air National Guard Sgt. Matthew Noll returned last Monday from a seven-month deployment overseas. Here’s what made his return so emotional: he was reunited with his family at the Boston Celtics game that night. The video brought tears to my eyes.

We can all use good news in the news.

CNN is reporting this morning that two corrections department workers are being held hostage by inmates at a Delaware prison. Violence erupted last night at UC Berkeley hours before a political commentator was scheduled to speak. According to today’s Wall Street Journal, the White House has put Iran “on notice” after its missile launch.

What can we learn from the challenges of our day? Here’s an important life principle: failure is necessary to success.

This headline in Quartz caught my eye: “The experience CEOs want to see in every new hire.” I expected to read about drive, giftedness, and creativity. Instead, I learned about the value of failure. One CEO says, “I ask the question: tell me about when you failed.” Another notes that failure “makes you an executive of some substance.” Richard Branson: “It is only through failure that we learn.”

The best way to deal with problems is to trust them to God’s redemptive purpose. The wicked anti-Semite Haman plotted a holocaust in Persia that became the holy day of Purim (Esther 9). After rising from an Egyptian prison to Pharaoh’s palace, Joseph could say to his brothers, “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good” (Genesis 50:20). Paul’s imprisonment led to preaching before kings (Acts 26).

In each case, good did not just redeem evil—it required it. Without the test, there could have been no triumph. A mountain climber needs a mountain from which he could fall; a swimmer needs a lake in which she could drown; a sailor needs an ocean in which he could sink.

God uses sin to show us our need of grace. He uses pain to show us our need of a Great Physician. Oswald Chambers: “The one passion of Paul’s life was to proclaim the Gospel of God. He welcomed heartbreaks, disillusionments, tribulation, for one reason only, because these things kept him in unmoved devotion to the Gospel of God.”

Where have you fallen? Would you ask God to redeem your failure by drawing you to his transforming grace?

Rhonda Mawhood Lee is an Episcopal minister and very gifted writer. Her latest column is titled, “How I learned to love and raise the child from my husband’s affair.” The daughter she describes has been an instrument of healing for Rev. Lee’s marriage and a great blessing to her life.

A lesson she learned in suffering she now expresses in joy: “Love is the most powerful thing there is.” If you’ll trust your failure to God’s grace, you’ll agree.

Denison Forum

Last night, President Trump removed his acting attorney general after she refused to defend his executive order restricting travel from seven Muslim-majority nations. Sally Q. Yates was deputy attorney general under President Obama and was serving until the Senate confirms Trump’s nominee for the post, Sen. Jeff Sessions.

This is just the latest news in the ongoing controversy over the travel ban. Immigrants from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen, and Somalia are directly affected by the president’s decision.

The administration notes that these nations were listed on the Obama-era Terrorist Travel Prevention Act of 2015. President Trump blames the airport chaos that followed his executive order on computer outages at Delta Air Lines and political protests. He noted in a tweet that only 109 people out of 325,000 were detained and held for questioning. An additional 173 were denied entry on flights to the US from the seven countries listed in the order.

Arguments in favor of the ban:

•  A four-month restriction on travel from these countries is needed to keep Americans safe.
  •    The chaos that resulted was a temporary consequence of preventing terrorists from traveling into the US.
  •    If advance warning or a grace period had been announced, terrorists could have traveled before the ban took effect.
  •    The order is not against Muslims in general—it does not affect more than forty other Muslim-majority countries.

Democratic leader Chuck Schumer saw the controversy very differently, calling the executive order “mean-spirited and un-American.” The New York Times called the ban “illegal.” Critics note that none of the 9/11 terrorists came from the seven banned countries. Protesters in many other countries are registering their opposition as well.

My purpose this morning is not to argue for one side or the other. Rather, it is to think biblically with you about three issues central to the debate.

One: Scripture encourages security. Continue reading Denison Forum – Trump travel ban: 3 biblical priorities →