Persuading others to embrace and perpetrate evil is not as difficult as we might think. All it really takes is a good marketing plan and an adept salesperson or, for a larger population, a committed sales force. Selling evil that appears evil can be a hard sell, but if it is repackaged as something that looks good or desirable, well, there are plenty of takers. This is not an altogether new concept. It is as old as the Garden of Eden.

Kolby and Keegan Kemp are not among your best known names from the college football ranks. Both played the sport at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois—a school known for excellence on the gridiron and in academics. Moreover, a school steeped in the Christian faith. Kolby played wide receiver for his four years there. Younger brother Keegan was a quarterback and receiver.

Everyone knows that one kid who joined the theater program and then became the epitome of a “theater kid.” If you asked them to tell you who they are as a person, they would probably say something related to theater, because it’s become their whole identity.

Several essential characteristics separate humans from other mammals. The most significant among them is our complex reasoning ability. We can solve problems throughout the full range of our current awareness. We have a powerful capability to observe, collect, and analyze facts. We can formulate theories and design meticulous studies to test them out. And we can debate the meaning of the findings of those studies.

Words cannot express the horror and disgust that have been aroused by the recent surprise attacks on Israel by Hamas.  The wanton torture, slaughter, and kidnapping of innocent children, youth, and elderly by Hamas terrorists cannot be justified, and witnesses declare that the unspeakable atrocities they committed are reminiscent of the Holocaust! And to top it off, those despicable acts have been met with praise and applause by some!

To this point in my life, I have had the pleasure of visiting three foreign countries. The memories of each hold a special place in my heart, punctuated by stunning views, friendships (and delicious meals shared) with some of the strongest and kindest people I’ve ever met, and a life-changing realization of the depth of God’s love for the world.

Never underestimate a heart of hatred. Every day in the news there are acts of unspeakable brutality around our world. Over the last several days, Israel has witnessed again just how deep the work of the Evil One can unfold in a human heart. On Wednesday of this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed his nation detailing atrocities that had occurred during the terrorist incursion into Israel last weekend. It wasn’t just killing. It was how people died.

Americans should be dismayed by the fact that the single most effective force for good in the West, which has done so much on behalf of the powerless and weak, referring to Christianity, is under virulent, relentless attack from the Left!

As news was breaking on Saturday and we were learning about the atrocities that were taking place in Israel, I immediately wrote an article. But even as I was writing, the news kept getting worse. How could this be happening? It turns out that things were far worse than we could have imagined. Here are some open, honest, raw reflections on the last 48 hours.

In a July 2010, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation featured a story by Ginger Gorman about a homosexual couple’s efforts to become parents. Peter Truong and Mark Newton of Queensland, Australia were celebrated as loving, caring, gay parents of their son, Boy 1.

Immigrants have long swarmed America’s shores because of the opportunities afforded to all who arrive here. Historically, a person could start a business with all the potential risks and rewards involved or take the safer route of being employed by someone else. Employment and educational opportunities have been virtually unlimited, and the choice was yours to make.

For those of us who survived the 1960s, we can recall the August 1969 festival known as Woodstock. Billed as “Three Days of Peace and Music,” the anticipated crowd of 50,000 instead grew to somewhere near a half a million people. All trying to survive those three days in less than ideal circumstances. 

It’s a topic that’s showing up more and more in books, thought pieces, news outlets, podcasts, and blogs, inside and outside the church: the secularization of America. Pew Research and Gallup (to name a few) have recently highlighted the rise of the “nones” (religiously unaffiliated) across the nation, specifically in the last several years.

Most schools are actively indoctrinating our children with falsehoods about all kinds of things. These falsehoods range from sexuality to racism to economics to our nation’s founding, even to math and science and medicine and the environment.

Given the moral and fiscal bankruptcy of our state and so much of our nation, we might ask, “Are we as conservative Christians in Illinois good for nothing?” It may feel that no matter what we do, our witness and work bear no fruit. But it does not need to be that way.