Issues In Perspective

As we begin 2012, as Americans and as evangelicals, we will face, no doubt, huge challenges?the economy, foreign policy challenges, and a national presidential election to name a few. To at least create a framework for answering questions that arise, the entire Issues in Perspective is devoted to the question.

Sometime during the 2011 Christmas season, you have no doubt heard the reverberating words from George Friderich Handel?s imposing oratorio, Messiah.

For over 150 years Charles Dickens? story of the miserly, miserable Ebenezer Scrooge and his three ghosts has been a regular Christmas tradition throughout Western Civilization.

One of my favorite books, or actually series of books, is The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. In the first book of the series, Narnia is frozen in a seemingly permanent state of cold, frigid winter. There is never spring and there is never Christmas.

In November, the voters of Mississippi voted down a human personhood amendment by a 58% majority. Similar efforts have failed in other states as well. This amendment was a frontal assault on the legal and moral logic of Roe v. Wade.

On 6 December 2011, President Obama delivered an important speech at Osawatomie, Kansas, site of the famous 1910 Teddy Roosevelt speech. In this Perspective, I hope to not so much evaluate his speech but focus on the much larger issue of the role of the welfare state in our lives.

We live in a curious culture! Scandals abound. But what we seem to ignore as a culture is that we all have the same problem?the Bible calls it sin.

Over 100 years ago, a path-breaking book by the famed sociologist Max Weber was published in which, among other things, Weber made a profoundly important argument about the connection between religion and economics.

In his Pastoral Epistles (1 and 2 Timothy and Titus), the Apostle Paul argues very compellingly that ?sound doctrine? produces godly living. The two are thereby inextricably linked.

Herman Cain spent a part of his life in Omaha, Nebraska, where I live. Shortly after I became president of Grace University I met him.

Just before Thanksgiving, congressional leaders admitted that there would be no deal to reduce the US budget deficit by $1.2 trillion over ten years. Although this is not a surprise, it has significant ramifications for our nation.

Every 3 years, the OECD conducts exams as part of the Program for International Student Assessment, which tests 15-year olds in the world?s leading industrialized nations on their reading comprehension and ability to use what they have learned in math and science.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) published a report on 8 November on Iran?s nuclear program. The IAEA says that it ?has serious concerns regarding possible military dimensions to Iran?s nuclear program...?

This is Thanksgiving weekend and it is appropriate in this edition of Issues in Perspective to focus on Thanksgiving. To that end, I want to concentrate on the Thanksgiving hymn, ?We Gather Together.?

With the death of Apple founder and CEO, Steve Jobs, and the subsequent release of the biography of Jobs by Walter Isaacson, we have gained a new insight into the mind and heart of this remarkable man.

That the Penn State football coach, Joe Paterno, has been fired is almost unimaginable! I was born and raised in Pennsylvania, and in that state he is probably the most important single individual.

What are we to make of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement? What are its goals, its aspirations? Is it the left-wing equivalent of the Tea Party movement on the right? Is there any ideological coherence to this group?

The conventional wisdom is that the Supreme Court will soon agree to hear a case challenging the constitutionality of the healthcare law passed last summer. Basic questions are at stake here:

Nearly two weeks ago, I read a book by sociologist Christian Smith while returning to Omaha on a plane. It was an astounding account of the cultural phenomenon called emerging adulthood.

Recently, I read a remarkable magazine on medicine and health care throughout history. What was most striking was the article on healthcare in the Roman Empire. In my opinion, nothing better illustrates the power of worldview in explaining social change than this article.

In the new book by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, there is a startling account of an offer Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, made secretly to Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority in the summer of 2008.

Scripture teaches that humans, made in the image of God, have an innate sense of right and wrong, a moral monitor that either ?approves or accuses.? Conscience serves as an umpire, which disposes the human to view life situations in a moral/ethical light, thus judging/determining that some actions are ?right? and some are ?wrong.?

As Christians, how are we to treat the physical world, including animals? What is the value of non-human life? How much care do we as Christians need to take in relation to nature? How does God look at non-human creation? What are we to think about all of this?

If one is intellectually honest about what is occurring in western civilization, especially in the United States, one would conclude anecdotally that traditional marriage with one man and one woman, married and having children?is non-existent in major parts of the culture.

Recently, the American Academy of Pediatrics expressed deep concern about the effects of exposure to ?screens? (i.e., TV screens, computer screens, monitors, iPads, smartphones, and other such devices) on children. In fact, the AAP called upon parents to place severe limits on the exposure of young children to such ?screens.?