The U.S. House Judiciary subcommittee recently held a hearing in D.C. in which they focused on the government's use of financial surveillance. The hearing was prompted by a staff report released by the committee, which found that federal law enforcement agencies have been engaged in broad financial surveillance of Americans, without a warrant and often without any suspicion of wrongdoing.

Over the past several years, the Family Research Council has been tracking acts of hostility against churches in the United States. Between January 2018 and November 2023, at least 915 acts of hostility occurred. The types of acts include vandalism, arson, gun-related incidents, bomb threats, and more.

America is divided, but you already knew that.  There is no place for coming together in many of its disagreements.  The differences are polar opposites, and neither side is willing to yield ground.  This presents a very serious, if not existential, threat to the nation.  Abraham Lincoln, quoting Jesus Christ noted that, “A nation divided against itself cannot stand.”

The seemingly never ending efforts to keep Donald Trump from regaining a return to his temporary residence at the White House got personal in Illiinois this week. The Chicago Tribune alerted us that Cook County Judge Judge Tracie Porter has ruled that the former president should have his name struck from the March 19 Illinois Republican primary ballot.

“Just the facts, Ma’am.” In the 1950s, this phrase caught hold in our American vocabulary, inspired by the persona of Sergeant Joe Friday of the TV show, Dragnet. The no-nonsense police investigator reflected a concept (even if he never uttered the exact words that became so well established in pop-culture) embraced by the Modernist worldview.

In my last article I addressed the reality that many born-again Christians have been thinking and acting too much like the non-Christians around them.  I pointed out particularly the willingness of so many to lie, or misrepresent the facts, when it appeared to benefit them.  Sadly, abandoning truthfulness is not the only similarity between many of God’s people and the world.

If there is one thing that our cultural leaders are not very earnest about anymore, it is marriage. There is much ado made about dating and the wedding ceremony itself, but how to succeed in marriage itself is given little attention. Statistics indicate that approximately half of marriages end in divorce. This is more than scandalous, it is destructive to the nation and dreadfully harmful to children, to say nothing about how God vies such things!

The first two commandments God gave Israel are theologically very significant. Yahweh alone, the Triune God, was to be recognized and worshipped by Israel. And the only true God was not to be captured by human imagination and expressed through man’s ingenuity and creativity. All idols or images of the true God and all false gods were and are totally abhorrent.

“Amazing grace! how sweet the sound-that saved a wretch like me!  I once was lost but now am found. . . .” These opening words from John Newton’s famous gospel song acknowledge the reality of our lost condition without Jesus Christ.

Perhaps you’ve never heard of Allie Phillips. She is one to keep your eye on. Her story may help determine the fate of babies in Tennessee and elsewhere. 

January first is often considered the time for “New Year’s Resolutions,”  “turning over a new Leaf,” or launching a new “self-help program.”  Such things may have some benefits but have generally been nothing more than filler for newspapers and TV shows during the slow time following the holiday season. However, because I see our country floundering and confused, divided and drifting, I have a recommendation: How about a change of hearts in America where, for starters, we make truth normative, and children loved? 

It's been about 18 months since Dobbs was handed down, and I still remember the elation mixed with near-disbelief that I felt when I first heard the news. As with many of the most important memories in life, I even remember where I was when I was told—standing in the dining room of a summer retreat center on a sunny June day.

No one likes to talk about cancer.  I lost both my parents to the killer as well as numerous friends. My wife and I are now praying for several who are fighting for their lives against it. We hate it, but we talk about it virtually every time we get together with those who are dealing with it, partly because you can’t ignore the “elephant in the room” and partly because you will never defeat it by ignoring it! 

As a Christian and a pastor, I have spent a lot of time getting to know God. It goes with the territory! But the more I understand the goodness of God, the more difficult it is to understand the hatred so many have for God, especially as we consider that Christmas, “the most wonderful time of the year” is rooted in a knowledge of God’s grace.

Four days after Hamas’ brutal, barbaric attack on the nation of Israel, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) of the Southern Baptist Convention released an “Evangelical Statement in Support of Israel.”