In 1956, too few teenagers and young adults were getting the new polio vaccine, so officials turned to Elvis Presley. The entertainer got a polio vaccine on the Ed Sullivan Show, an endorsement that helped vaccination rates go up and eliminate the disease from the country.

Six decades later, history seems to be repeating itself.

The death of Charley Pride

The first batches of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine began distribution yesterday. Vaccinations will begin at 145 sites this morning, with another 425 sites on Tuesday and 66 on Wednesday. “V-Day” has already occurred in the United Kingdom, where a 90-year-old woman became the first person to receive an approved COVID-19 vaccine in the Western world.

Help against the pandemic cannot come soon enough. The singer Charley Pride, once called “the Jackie Robinson of country,” died of coronavirus-related complications Saturday. I once shared a program with him and could not have been more impressed with his humility and grace. His death reminds us this virus is a threat to every one of us, regardless of our wealth or status.

However, as with the polio vaccine decades ago, many are reluctant to take a COVID-19 vaccine. According to a recent survey, about a quarter of U.S. adults say they will not get such a vaccine; another quarter are not sure if they want to be vaccinated. And 50 percent of white evangelicals and 59 percent of Black Protestants say they won’t get the vaccine.

Black Americans are especially unsure about the vaccine. This is due in part to the continuing impact of the horrific Tuskegee Syphilis Study in which Black males were refused treatment for syphilis, the use of Henrietta Lacks’ cancer cells without her permission, and the legacy of J. Marion Sims—called the founding father of gynecology—who experimented on enslaved women without anesthesia or their consent.

So, should you take a COVID-19 vaccine when one becomes available to you?

Please note that in what follows, I am not a physician or offering medical advice. Rather, I will explore two ethical issues today—abortion and the love of neighbor. Along the way, I will share with you my personal conclusions while urging you to determine your own.

Do the vaccines use aborted fetuses?

A California bishop recently claimed some researchers producing the various vaccines made use of cells from an aborted fetus and stated that Catholics therefore should not avail themselves of such vaccines. However, many ethicists disagree with this conclusion and assert taking a vaccine does not promote or endorse abortion.

Joe Carter’s article on this issue is especially helpful. He notes the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines used cells from the HEK293T fetal cell line in the testing process, though neither includes such cells in the vaccines themselves.

This tissue was acquired in the Netherlands in the 1970s but records pertaining to its origins were lost. As a result, it is not known whether the tissue came from a spontaneous miscarriage or an elective abortion.

However, the cell line developed from it no longer contains fetal tissue cells. In addition, since it is completely unnecessary to create new cell lines from aborted children today, vaccines made from existing cell lines do not promote abortion.

Baptist theologian Albert Mohler notes the use of fetal tissue obtained from abortion in medical research is immoral, but “there is no activity related to abortion in the present that is in any way associated with the use of these vaccines.” Mohler adds that the seminary he leads would distribute the vaccine if the school is given access to it.

Using Roman roads for the gospel

Even if we assume the original fetus was aborted, using cells developed from it today is akin to the use of organs from a person who was murdered. Transplanting such an organ into a recipient’s body does not mean the recipient participated in the murder of the donor.

By way of analogy, living at peace with another nation even if that peace was brought about by unjust means—targeting of civilians or using illicit weapons, for instance—does not endorse these means. Nor does riding on a train line originally built by slaves endorse slavery.

Russell Moore adds that Christians in the Book of Acts used Roman roads to carry the gospel without determining whether the taxes paid for them were raised ethically. (For more, see articles here, here, here and here.)

Scripture teaches life begins at conception (cf. Psalm 139:15–16), making abortion clearly unethical. However, for the reasons argued above, I agree with pro-life ethicists who believe that receiving the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine is moral with regard to abortion.

“The saddest aspect of life”

Biblical Christians should consider a second mandate as well—loving our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:39).

Evangelical ethicists Matthew Arbo, C. Ben Mitchell and Andrew T. Walker write: “Loving another person can involve many things, but it at least involves seeking their good, a good that includes their health and vitality.”

They add: “It is not possible to properly love a person and to act unnecessarily to jeopardize their health. By this, we mean displaying wanton disregard for the health of others. … If by being vaccinated we can protect others from illness, then we have a corresponding obligation, given our Lord’s command to love neighbors, to be vaccinated. Vaccinations not only protect me, but also protect other vulnerable members of society.”

I agree. For this reason, I intend to take the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine as soon as it is available to me.

As you make your decision, I encourage you to seek not only medical knowledge but also biblical wisdom.

Science writer Isaac Asimov observed: “The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.” Let’s evaluate the former in light of the latter, to the glory of God.

Jim Denison is the co-founder and chief vision officer of Denison Forum. He pastored churches in Texas and Georgia and now speaks and writes to empower believers to navigate cultural issues from a biblical perspective.

Is the COVID-19 vaccine ethical? Abortion, loving our neighbor and the priority of biblical wisdom was first published in The Daily Article by the Denison Forum. Daily Articles are republished in the Baptist Standard under agreement with Denison Forum and are not intended to represent the Standard’s views.

The coronavirus pandemic is generating tons of discarded PPE. This gear is often made of polypropylene plastic, which can take hundreds of years to degrade in landfills and oceans.

Enter Binish Desai, a recycling prodigy in India who at age 16 founded a company that has turned textile waste into furniture and coffee grounds into plates and bowls. Now he has found a way to convert PPE into bricks.

Body coverings, masks and head caps are isolated for three days, sanitized, shredded and sanitized again, then they’re mixed with 47 percent paper sludge and a binding agent and pressed by hand into molds. Each brick costs about four cents.

From the redemptive to the frightening: A volunteer at an animal sanctuary in Florida was hospitalized last week after a tiger almost tore her arm off. She reached into the tiger’s cage to open a door when the animal attacked her.

Other volunteers worked to stop the bleeding and preserve her arm. A team member said later the volunteer kept repeating she felt “so stupid” for opening the gate.

The most read Bible verse this year

Bible searches have soared online during this very difficult year, with a record number of people turning to Scripture for help and hope. Searches on the YouVersion Bible App increased by 80 percent.

Which verse was most read? Isaiah 41:10, which promises: “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

The website BibleGateway.com also saw unusual spikes around the first COVID-19 lockdowns last spring, the killing of George Floyd and the protests that followed during the summer, and the U.S. presidential election in the fall.

I believe this instinct to turn to Scripture in difficult times is prompted by the Holy Spirit. He works to convict us of sin (John 16:8) and to “guide [us] into all the truth” (John 16:13).

However, we must be willing to work with him to redeem our challenges, turning the PPE of our lives into “bricks” that can build our future and resisting the “roaring lion” who is “seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

A story that has made headlines over recent weeks illustrates the urgency of such humility.

“The crisis of Christian celebrity”

Carl Lentz, the former lead pastor of Hillsong East Coast and a personal friend of Justin Bieber and Kevin Durant, confessed to marital infidelity last month after he was fired from his position. New York Times reporter Ruth Graham published an article over the weekend describing allegations of a celebrity culture surrounding his church and its leaders.

Evangelical columnist David French responded with a very thoughtful article, “The Crisis of Christian Celebrity.” After surveying a depressing list of public moral failures among Christian leaders in recent months, he offers this hopeful note: “I’ve known a number of Christian public figures who haven’t fallen—men and women who’ve lived decades in the public eye and have lived with integrity.”

What makes them different? French explains: “While they’ve come from different backgrounds and different strands of Christian theology, they’ve typically shared two common convictions. First, they don’t trust their virtue. Second, they don’t believe they earned their fame.”

He is exactly right. Many years ago, a wise mentor taught me always to say of those in public sin, “There but for the grace of God go I.”

We desperately need the strength of the Holy Spirit to live holy lives. And we need to remember daily that whatever fame we have is entrusted to us by God for his glory and the advancement of his kingdom.

There is a hidden danger, however, that Christians like you and me face every day.

How to make God’s name “great among the nations”

In a culture as secularized as ours, writing or reading an article like this one counts as spiritual achievement. It is easy for Christians who maintain a modicum of spirituality to be lulled into a sense of moral superiority over our more secular friends. The answer is to understand and embrace the standard to which our Father calls us today.

In Malachi 1, the Lord looks to a day when “from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts” (v. 11).

Note: God is most glorified when our offering is “pure.” He grieves those who “offer blind animals in sacrifice” and “those that are lame or sick” (v. 8a).

God asks: “Present that to your governor; will he accept you or show you favor?” (v. 8b). If our president or governor deserves our best, how much more does our “great King” (v. 14) who loves us, saves us, redeems us and offers us his omnipotent best?

C.S. Lewis wrote in The Problem of Pain: “To be a complete man means to have the passions obedient to the will and the will offered to God.” In The Great Divorce he added: “If we accept Heaven we shall not be able to retain even the smallest and most intimate souvenirs of Hell.”

The greatest threat to your future success

If you have not yet fallen into public sin, this fact does not mean you will not. Perhaps Satan is waiting for you to climb even higher on the ladder of success so your fall will be even more damaging for you and those below. Your confidence in yourself based on your past success is the greatest threat to your future success.

There are only two kinds of Christians—those who fall into moral failure and those who take proactive steps of humility to keep from joining them.

Which are you?

Jim Denison is the co-founder and chief vision officer of Denison Forum. He pastored churches in Texas and Georgia and now speaks and writes to empower believers to navigate cultural issues from a biblical perspective.

Turning PPE into bricks: The most read Bible verse of 2020 and the hidden danger on the path to God’s best was first published in The Daily Article by the Denison Forum. Daily Articles are republished in the Baptist Standard under agreement with Denison Forum and are not intended to represent the Standard’s views.

Who will succeed Alex Trebek as the host of Jeopardy!, one of the longest-running shows on television?

Trebek filmed enough episodes to go through Christmas, but the producers will have a decision to make in 2021. Former champion Ken Jennings, who begins filming future shows today as the interim host, may be the front-runner. Journalists Anderson Cooper and George Stephanopoulos may be on the short list. Trebek himself nominated Betty White in a 2018 interview, but the 98-year-old actress might be a bit of a stretch.

Here’s what the host, whoever he or she may be, will need to do to succeed like Alex Trebek: Imitate his humility.

Trebek once told an interviewer: “You have to set your ego aside. The stars of the show are the contestants and the game itself. That’s why I’ve always insisted that I be introduced as the host and not the star. And if you want to be a good host, you have to figure out a way to get the contestants to—as in the old television commercial about the military—‘be all you can be.’”

The host and not the star

This is a Christmas season like no other in living memory. Time reports  “the U.S. COVID-19 outbreak is worse than it’s ever been.” Dr. Anthony Fauci warned in an interview yesterday that, following Thanksgiving travel, the United States could see “a surge upon a surge.”

But even amidst the pain and tragedies of the pandemic and the uncertainties of our political future, the essential truth of Christmas remains unchanged. Jesus still is Immanuel, “God with us” (Matthew 1:23). It still is true he was born so we might be born again (John 3:7). He came to die so, as he promised, “everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:26).

Christmas is about Christ. And Christ does not change: He is “the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). He was the same during the Civil War, the 1918 pandemic, World War I, the Great Depression and World War II. He was the same on Sept. 10, 2001, as he was on Sept. 12, 2001.

If we would experience the abundant life Christ came at Christmas to provide (John 10:10), the key is to be the host of this season and not its star.

“With joy you will draw water”

Alex Trebek knew the success of Jeopardy! depended not on him but on the contestants. Paradoxically, the show’s success resulting from his humility made him one of television’s greatest success stories.

If you want to experience the hope, peace and joy of Christmas, make this season about Christ. Isaiah invited us to declare: “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation” (Isaiah 12:2).

If Christ is your Christmas “song,” this will be the result: “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation” (v. 3). And you will “host” the Christmas season by helping others share the joy you have experienced: “You will say in that day, ‘Give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted. Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously; let this be made known in all the earth’” (vv. 4–5).

Our problem is our culture makes the birthday of Jesus about anything but Jesus. Imagine attending a birthday party at which the guests gave presents to each other, but no one acknowledged the one whose birth made the party possible. Or celebrating the gifts Jesus came to give rather than the One who gives them.

In The Problem of Pain, C.S. Lewis described the fall of the first humans and the self-idolatry to which we are tempted as a result: “They desired to be on their own, to take care for their own future, to plan for pleasure and for security, to have a meum from which, no doubt, they would pay some reasonable tribute to God in the way of time, attention and love, but which, nevertheless, was theirs not his. They wanted, as we say, to ‘call their souls their own.’

“But that means to live a lie, for our souls are not, in fact, our own. They wanted some corner in the universe of which they could say to God, ‘This is our business, not yours.’ But there is no such corner. They wanted to be nouns, but they were, and eternally must be, mere adjectives.”

“There is only one relationship that matters”

How can we make this Christmas season about Christ?

For today, let’s decide we want to know Christ more intimately than ever before, that we want to experience his transcendent and transforming presence in ways we never have. Let’s reject the temptation to “call our souls our own” and refuse to make Christmas about us rather than about our Lord.

In other words, let’s make Jesus the star of the season.

In today’s My Utmost for His Highest, we find my favorite paragraph in all of Oswald Chambers’ writings: “There is only one relationship that matters, and that is your personal relationship to a personal redeemer and Lord. Let everything else go, but maintain that at all costs, and God will fulfill his purpose through your life.”

Will God “fulfill his purpose through your life” today?

Jim Denison is the co-founder and chief vision officer of Denison Forum. He pastored churches in Texas and Georgia and now speaks and writes to empower believers to navigate cultural issues from a biblical perspective.

How to succeed like Alex Trebek: Focusing this Christmas on “the only relationship that matters” was first published in The Daily Article by the Denison Forum. Daily Articles are republished in the Baptist Standard under agreement with Denison Forum and are not intended to represent the Standard’s views.

Gunner is a 3-month-old Cavalier King Charles spaniel owned by Richard Wilbanks of Estero, Fla. “We were just out walking by the pond,” Wilbanks told CNN, and an alligator “came out of the water like a missile. I never thought an alligator could be that fast.”

The animal grabbed Gunner and dragged him underwater. Richard said adrenaline or instinct kicked in, and “I just automatically jumped into the water.” He pried open the alligator’s jaws, which he said was “extremely hard” and left his hands “chewed up.” However, he saved his puppy, who had a puncture wound in his belly but is doing fine after a trip to the veterinarian’s office.

Watching the dramatic video, the thought occurred to me: Gunner will never need to wonder if Richard Wilbanks loves him.

Why Thanksgiving was odd for me

A farmer was showing his pastor a plot of ground he had spent the last year cultivating from a patch of tangled briars and weeds into a beautiful garden. The pastor commented on what a wonderful work God had done. The farmer replied, “Reverend, you should have seen it when God had it all to himself.”

Thanksgiving is an odd holiday for secular Americans. I know—I used to be one.

Our family never attended worship services when I was growing up, but we always observed Thanksgiving—at least the food and football. I remember wondering why we should be thankful to a God I had never experienced—so far as I knew—for what we had through our own hard work.

I’m not alone. When asked what Thanksgiving means to them personally, Americans rank “to be thankful” behind “to spend time with the family.” Our families are tangible, and we enjoy sharing a generic feeling of gratitude with them.

However, this feeling passes quickly. Someone might say a prayer over the meal, which then becomes the focus of the event, followed—and often preceded—by football. The reason Thanksgiving is not more memorable for more people is many misunderstand its true nature and significance.

Cutting flowers at the roots

Scripture calls us to “give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). We are to “give” thanks, not “feel” thanks. The holiday is Thanksgiving, not Thanksfeeling.

True thanksgiving requires an object, just like friendship or love. We do not feel friendship generically; we feel friendship toward a friend. We do not feel love in an abstract or impersonal sense; we feel love for a person we love.

The problem is that to give thanks ultimately requires us to acknowledge the existence and relevance of the God to whom we owe such thanks. We won’t celebrate Thanksgiving this Thursday by thanking our employers for our jobs or our doctors for our health. There is something spiritual about true thanksgiving.

However, this is a dilemma for secular people. They want the experience of thanksgiving—a sense of gratitude shared with family and friends—without the reality upon which it is based. They want experience apart from reality in other ways as well, as when they seek sexual intimacy without marriage.

Many will do the same with Christmas. I was walking in my neighborhood yesterday and passed a yard sign for the company that installed Christmas lights on the roofline of the house. I noticed the sign advertised “Holiday Lights,” not Christmas lights. We will hear “Happy Holidays” rather than “Merry Christmas” over the coming weeks.

This is not primarily because we don’t want to offend our Jewish, Muslim or Hindu neighbors, since they make up less than 6 percent of all Americans. It is because secular people want the experience of Christmas without the reality of Christ. They want to enjoy the birthday party while ignoring the guest of honor.

Our culture cuts the flowers off at the roots and then wonders why they die.

Is God a cosmic egotist?

As a means to choosing thanksgiving over thanksfeeling, let’s close by asking, “Why does God seek our gratitude?”

His word commands us to “give thanks to the Lord” (Psalm 107:1), to “offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving” (Psalm 50:14), and to “continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God” (Hebrews 13:15). Is this because God is a cosmic egotist whose feelings must be placated?

On the contrary: Giving thanks to God is best for us.

Like the farmer mentioned above, we are not truly thankful for what we believe we have earned by our own hard work. I may say, “Thank you,” to someone who provides a commodity or service for which I paid, but I do not actually feel myself in their debt.

When we try to “be like God” (Genesis 3:5), the cardinal sin of the human condition, we are unwilling to be led, forgiven, healed or helped by the God with whom we are competing for the throne of our lives.

But if we take time to recognize how much God has given us by his unmerited favor and to express genuine gratitude for such grace, we position ourselves as creatures before our Creator with the humility that seeks what we cannot earn but only receive.

If we acknowledge that “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17), we will open our hearts and hands to receive his best.

Like Gunner, you owe your life to Someone who did for you what you could never do for yourself. Not just in this life, but in the life to come as well.

How will you respond to such grace today?

Jim Denison is the co-founder and chief vision officer of Denison Forum. He pastored churches in Texas and Georgia and now speaks and writes to empower believers to navigate cultural issues from a biblical perspective.

Man rescues puppy from alligator: Choosing Thanksgiving over thanksfeeling was first published in The Daily Article by the Denison Forum. Daily Articles are republished in the Baptist Standard under agreement with Denison Forum and are not intended to represent the Standard’s views.

According to Belgian tradition, Santa Claus lives in Spain but visits their country each year on the morning of December 6, walking on their rooftops to drop gifts into their chimneys.

Coronavirus restrictions were posing a problem for this year’s visit, however. So, government officials made some exceptions: Santa will not be required to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival, and he can work during evening curfew hours.

Nonetheless, officials encouraged St. Nick to “always respect distancing, wash hands regularly, and wear a face mask” over his long white beard. And they are hoping in this difficult year, he will be lenient in gift giving. “Every kid here is a hero,” they assured him. “So, for once, you don’t have to check it in your big book.”

“For many, religious liberty is an excuse for bigotry”

Unlike the Belgian approach to Christmas, worldwide government opposition to religious liberty seems to be escalating. Pew Research Center reports the highest level of global government restrictions on religion in a decade. Since 2007, when Pew began its survey, the median level of government restrictions has risen 65 percent, and the level for social hostilities has doubled.

This issue came home for American Christians recently when Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito stated during a keynote address to the Federalist Society: “It pains me to say this, but in certain quarters, religious liberty is fast becoming a disfavored right.”

Citing the Little Sisters of the Poor (who refused to allow their health insurance plan to provide contraceptives), Ralph’s Pharmacy (whose owners refused to provide abortifacient drugs), and Masterpiece Cakeshop (whose owner refused to create a cake celebrating a same-sex wedding), he observed: “For many today, religious liberty is not a cherished freedom. It’s often just an excuse for bigotry, and it can’t be tolerated, even when there is no evidence that anybody has been harmed.”

Justice Alito added: “Even before the pandemic, there was growing hostility to the expression of unfashionable views. And that, too, was a surprising development. Here’s a marker: In 1972, the comedian George Carlin began to perform a routine called ‘The Seven Words You Can’t Say on TV.’ Today, you can see shows on your TV screen in which the dialogue appears at times to consist almost entirely of those words.

“Carlin’s list seems like a quaint relic, but it would be easy to put together a new list called ‘Things You Can’t Say if You’re a Student or Professor at a College or University or an Employee of Many Big Corporations.’ And there wouldn’t be just seven items on that list—70 times seven would be closer to the mark.

“I won’t go down the list, but I’ll mention one that I’ve discussed in a published opinion: You can’t say that marriage is the union between one man and one woman. Until very recently, that’s what the vast majority of Americans thought. Now it’s considered bigotry.”

You “have” eternal life

Let’s note this fact: What matters most to Christians cannot be taken from us.

Enemies of the gospel could imprison the first Christians, but they could not stop their movement. They could take their lives, but they could not threaten their eternal lives. That’s because, contrary to what many people think, eternal life does not begin when we die.

Jesus said of himself, “Whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16, my emphasis). Note the present tense.

The moment we ask our Savior to forgive our sins and become our Lord, his Spirit comes to dwell in us (1 Corinthians 3:16). As a result, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17, my emphases).

How should we respond to this fact?

For more, see my latest video, “What does the Bible say about eternal life?”

Jim Denison is the co-founder and chief vision officer of Denison Forum. He pastored churches in Texas and Georgia and now speaks and writes to empower believers to navigate cultural issues from a biblical perspective.

Supreme Court justice warns religious liberty is fast becoming a disfavored right: What matters most cannot be taken from us was first published in The Daily Article by the Denison Forum. Daily Articles are republished in the Baptist Standard under agreement with Denison Forum and are not intended to represent the Standard’s views.

Legendary Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek died yesterday at age 80 after a battle with cancer. His life story was part of his appeal: His father was a hotel cook who emigrated to Canada from Ukraine. Trebek graduated from college with a philosophy degree and worked as a newscaster before beginning his career in game shows in 1973.

In his autobiography, The Answer Is … Reflections on My Life, Trebek stated his life motto: “A good education and a kind heart will serve you well throughout your entire life.”

Let’s apply the latter to the story dominating the news: Numerous media outlets declared Saturday Joe Biden has won the White House. President Trump’s team has filed numerous legal challenges.

Whatever our position on the election, I believe God has two messages of encouragement for us today. Both are calls to a “kind heart” based on five words that continue to change the world.

A message for all Americans

I walked yesterday in a cemetery in our neighborhood, where I found myself standing at the graves of a father and the son who bore his name. The father fought for the Confederate Army; his son fought for the United States in World War I. Their stories are the story of American democracy.

Presidential elections have been passionately contested since the first contested election in 1796, but each time, our democracy held. The United States has fought 12 major wars across our history, but each time—with one exception, as we will see—our democracy held.

America has survived pandemics, depressions, recessions and presidential assassinations. We have seen rioting in our streets and terror attacks on our cities. And yet, each time, our democracy held.

The only exception was the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln, which led to the Civil War and the deaths of as many as 750,000 American soldiers, more than all other American war casualties combined.

Our democracy was broken by the 1860 election, because we rejected the five words which birthed our nation: “All men are created equal.” This is America’s founding creed, a statement first proclaimed in the biblical declaration: “God created man in his own image” (Genesis 1:27).

The South blamed the war on northern aggression against their rights; the North blamed the war on southern slavery. The two sides could not find a peaceful way to protect the equality of all people, and our nation’s bloodiest war was the result.

Democracy works so long as we continue to embrace our founding creed.

It works because it gives every citizen the same vote as every other citizen. No matter your wealth, race or gender, your vote counted as much as that of the president, the president-elect and our wealthiest billionaire.

As a result, Americans live in a country where 70 million people supported the incumbent of our highest office, but our nation will transfer power peacefully to his opponent. Even the ongoing legal challenges to the outcome are an expression of the rule of law based on the equality of all citizens.

Whether your candidate won or lost, if we continue to believe “all men are created equal,” America won.

A message for all American Christians

The five words changing the world lead to a second message as well, one directed to America’s Christians: We must work boldly and graciously for the equality and sanctity of life for all Americans.

As we face critical issues in coming years, God calls his people to pray, speak and act. Consider three examples.

Life begins at conception, meaning the preborn are equal to all other Americans. Please join me in praying for our new leaders to protect them. Speak up for the unborn. Then act on their behalf by caring for pregnant women and advocating for adoption.

Life is sacred until natural death, meaning the elderly and infirm are equal to all other Americans. Please join me in praying for our new leaders to protect those at risk. Speak up for them. Then act on their behalf through compassion and ministry.

Religious liberty is America’s “first freedom,” preceding even the freedoms of speech, press and assembly in our First Amendment. Please join me in praying for our new leaders to protect this freedom. Exercise your religious liberty by speaking up for religious liberty. Then act by inviting all Americans to find true freedom in Christ.

“Our trust resides in Jesus alone”

You and I are called to stand for truth with grace, to hold our leaders accountable with humility, and to treat those with whom we disagree with the respect that honors them as our fellow creatures.

In Before You Vote: Seven Questions Every Christian Should Ask, David Platt notes: “Our trust resides in Jesus alone. He alone has no weaknesses. He alone is pure and holy. He alone has a monopoly on justice. No political candidate or party can remedy human depravity or change the human heart, and no political candidate or party can provide for us, protect us, save us, or satisfy us. Jesus alone can do these things. That’s why our sole aim is his approval, not the acceptance of a political candidate or party.”

Platt therefore concludes: “As the church, we are not for Trump, we are not for Biden, and we are not for anyone else. … In any election, the church is not for any political party or candidate. No, we are for Jesus. All our trust is in his Word. All our allegiance is to his mission. All our hope is in his rule today and in his promise to return one day for those whose hearts belong to him.”

Will you be “for Jesus” today?

Jim Denison is the co-founder and chief vision officer of Denison Forum. He pastored churches in Texas and Georgia and now speaks and writes to empower believers to navigate cultural issues from a biblical perspective.

The death of Alex Trebek and the election of Joe Biden: Five words that are changing the world was first published in The Daily Article by the Denison Forum. Daily Articles are republished in the Baptist Standard under agreement with Denison Forum and are not intended to represent the Standard’s views.

Sean Connery passed away Saturday at age 90.

If you are my age and you think of the Scottish actor, James Bond comes first to mind. If you are the age of my children, you may think of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade or The Untouchables, a role for which he won an Academy Award. If you are in high school, you may not know who he was.

History works that way. Since the present moment is the only moment there is, we filter the past through its prism. We remember the way things were in ways that are true to the way things are, at least for us.

The problem is, there is more than one way to remember the past, because there is more than one way to experience the present.

How is this fact relevant to tomorrow’s election?

The prism of the present

Some Americans view our history through the prism of faith. They note statements such as George Washington’s 1796 Farewell Address in which he observed, “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.”

For them, tomorrow’s election is about preserving the faith upon which our nation was built and bringing that faith to the challenges we face today.

Other Americans view our history through the prism of secularity. They point to the founders’ failure to eradicate slavery as contradicting or canceling their faith commitments. They note the word “God” nowhere appears in the Constitution.

For them, the election is about charting a new course that will right the wrongs of racial and economic injustice and protect our nation from the enforcement of creedal religious legalism.

The problem each faces is there is truth on the other side. The Founders’ declarations of faith and their insistence on a consensual morality as the foundation for our democracy are facts of history. Racial and economic injustice are facts of history as well.

No matter who wins tomorrow’s election, the bad news is no political leader or party can solve our most enduring problems.

The good news is there is another way to interpret our past and to find hope for our future.

Why humans “give themselves a master”

Writing for the Washington Post, Richard Just points to an observation by the French writer Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859) in Democracy in America.

Tocqueville wrote: “When authority in the matter of religion no longer exists … men are soon frightened at the aspect of this limitless independence. This perpetual agitation of all things makes them restive and fatigues them. As everything is moving in the world of the intellect, they want at least that all be firm and stable in the material order; and as they are no longer able to recapture their former beliefs, they give themselves a master.”

In other words, if we don’t worship God, we will put people in his place. We will trust them to do what only God can do.

Elaborating on this possibility, Just quotes Quincy Howard, a Dominican sister who directs a multifaith coalition advocating democracy reform. She told him American politics arguably is “on the brink of being idolatrous at this point, and this goes for the left as well as the right.”

Humans can outlaw slavery, but God can transform hearts that hate into hearts that love (Galatians 5:22). Humans can punish injustice, but God can make hearts that “hunger and thirst for righteousness” (Matthew 5:6). Humans can interpret the past, but God can see the future.

However, if humans “give themselves a master” other than the Master, we forfeit all our omniscient, omnipotent Lord wants to do in our nation and our lives.

“Whoever finds me finds life”

If you have not yet voted, please vote tomorrow for candidates whose character and policies most align with biblical values. Pray for outcomes that most advance the common good for every American from conception to natural death.

But do not believe for a moment the winners of the election will do what only the Lord can do.

God’s wisdom calls to us: “Blessed is the one who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors. For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord, but he who fails to find me injures himself; all who hate me love death” (Proverbs 8:34–36).

Any nation that aborts the unborn, discriminates against racial minorities, celebrates sexual hedonism, euthanizes the elderly, and ignores the word and judgment of God injures itself and loves death. Any such nation urgently needs to repent before it is too late.

We should vote for leaders, but as de Tocqueville warned, we must not make them masters. Rather, we should say with the psalmist: “Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maidservant to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, till he has mercy upon us” (Psalm 123:2).

The hour is late. A. W. Tozer was right: “Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth. Acute desire must be present or there will be no manifestation of Christ to his people. He waits to be wanted!”

Is he waiting for you?

Jim Denison is the co-founder and chief vision officer of Denison Forum. He pastored churches in Texas and Georgia and now speaks and writes to empower believers to navigate cultural issues from a biblical perspective.

The death of Sean Connery and tomorrow’s election: “Whoever finds me finds life” was first published in The Daily Article by the Denison Forum. Daily Articles are republished in the Baptist Standard under agreement with Denison Forum and are not intended to represent the Standard’s views.

“We don’t see them as Democrats. They’re the Mitchells. We know they are good people who live next door. We love them.”

In a country where 93 percent of us say civility is a problem, this story in The Wall Street Journal is welcome news. We meet the Gates family, who are lifelong Republicans, and the Mitchells, who are lifelong Democrats. The two families are next-door neighbors in suburban Pittsburgh. The Gates home displays a Trump yard sign; the Mitchell home displays a Biden sign.

But next to each there is another sign which says, “WE [HEART] THEM” with an arrow pointing to the other family’s home and “One Nation” inside the heart drawing.

What is the key to such civility among families who disagree politically?

Each couple has three children, roughly the same ages. They share a love for hockey; the boys play on the same team. They gather for dinner together each Monday evening. As the Journal notes: “They don’t argue. They don’t label each other. They listen to each other’s perspective, look for common ground, and recognize that reasonable and good people can reach different conclusions.”

Gillian Mitchell, age 14, says: “I’m not a voter, but I think people should be mature and not argue all the time or fight. Fighting just leads to more fighting.”

“One of the best set of hearings”

The U.S. Senate is expected to vote later today on President Trump’s nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. During a rare Saturday session, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) announced her support, making it more likely Republicans will have enough votes to confirm Barrett’s nomination.

However, as another example of how bitterly divided our partisan politics have become, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 12 to 0 last week to advance the nomination to the full Senate. The vote was unanimous only because the 10 Democrats on the committee boycotted the vote to protest what they called a “sham process.”

After Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) thanked committee chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) last week for presiding over “one of the best set of hearings that I’ve participated in,” NBC News reported “calls for her ouster from Democratic leadership were swift, unequivocal and relentless.”

Why Sudan’s agreement with Israel is so historic

In other news, Israel and Sudan will normalize ties in a U.S.-brokered deal. The agreement is part of what The Wall Street Journal calls “a broader diplomatic realignment in the Middle East.”

Friday’s announcement follows accords Israel entered last month with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Unlike these countries, however, Sudan has engaged in armed conflict with Israel in the past as part of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and the 1967 Six-Day War.

Sudan also hosted the Arab League summit after the 1967 Arab-Israeli War at which eight Arab nations approved what is known as the “Three Nos”—no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel and no negotiations with Israel.

The United States designated Sudan as a state sponsor of terrorism in 1993 for harboring Osama bin Laden and others and accused the African nation of supporting Hamas, Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. U.S. officials have suspected Iran of using Sudan to smuggle weapons to Hamas militants in Gaza.

In other words, Sudan’s normalization of relations with Israel truly is historic. U.S. and Israeli officials say they expect Morocco and Oman, along with several other Muslim and Arab nations, to join the so-called Abraham Accords in coming months as well.

A Persian proverb on peace

Neighbors who oppose each other politically can still be friends. Judge Barrett’s confirmation would end the divisive process of filling Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s vacant seat. Sudan and other Arab nations are taking unprecedented steps toward peace with Israel. All of this is good news in our divisive days.

However, the Nov. 3 election will not end political rancor; some fear it will only exacerbate tensions. The confirmation of Judge Barrett would not end battles over the Supreme Court, as court-packing could prove an even more divisive issue. Israel’s agreement with Sudan will not lessen the threats posed by Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran, and it may exacerbate them.

As urgent as political peacemaking is, the ultimate key to peace is not political. A Persian proverb quoted by Cal Thomas in his new book America’s Expiration Date still is relevant: “There can never be peace between nations until it is first known that true peace is within the souls of men.”

The prophet said to God, “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you” (Isaiah 26:3). Jesus told his disciples, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace” (John 16:33). Paul testified, “To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace” (Romans 8:6).

How to “become a loving person”

Let’s seek to be at peace with the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). Ask your Lord to show you anything keeping you from “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding” (Philippians 4:7), then confess any sin or take any step he brings to mind. Ask the Spirit to produce the “fruit” of peace in your spirit (Galatians 5:22). Then determine to give others what God has given you.

Frederick Buechner noted that by God’s sanctifying grace, “the forgiven person starts to become a forgiving person, the healed person to become a healing person, the loved person to become a loving person.”

Will you be a “loving person” today?

Jim Denison is the co-founder and chief vision officer of Denison Forum. He pastored churches in Texas and Georgia and now speaks and writes to empower believers to navigate cultural issues from a biblical perspective.

How neighbors with conflicting political views stayed friends: Good news for peace and the best news of all was first published in The Daily Article by the Denison Forum. Daily Articles are republished in the Baptist Standard under agreement with Denison Forum and are not intended to represent the Standard’s views.

A free speech demonstration staged by conservatives in San Francisco on Saturday was attacked by several hundred counterprotesters. An Associated Press photographer witnessed a Trump supporter being taken away in an ambulance.

When demonstrators threw glass bottles and plastic water bottles over police barricades at the group, the event was canceled. The event’s organizer posted photos of his bloody mouth with a front tooth missing and another hanging loosely. The San Francisco Police Department said three officers were assaulted with pepper spray and caustic chemicals; one was taken to a local hospital for treatment.

In other news, Twitter and Facebook blocked users last week from sharing a New York Post article making damaging claims about Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s son. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said his company had been wrong to block the links, but Twitter still refuses to unlock the Post’s account unless it deletes posts about its reporting on this issue.

Freedom of speech and trust in the media are more threatened today than any time in my lifetime. Three issues are at work here, each of which is enormously significant for all Americans.

One: Media bias

An exhaustive new survey by Gallup and the Knight Foundation found “deepening pessimism and further partisan entrenchment about how the news media delivers on its democratic mandate for factual, trustworthy information.”

They note 86 percent of Americans see political bias in news coverage. According to 73 percent of us, this lack of objectivity is a “major problem” in our society.

Here is where the survey is especially illuminating: 71 percent of Republicans have a “very” or “somewhat” unfavorable opinion of the news media, but only 22 percent of Democrats share this view. Seventy percent of Democrats say attacks on the media are not justified, while 61 percent of Republicans say they are.

Clearly, the more conservative we are, the more we see bias in the media. This seems especially true for conservative Christians, as evidenced by media coverage of Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court.

Writing for the Wall Street Journal, Daniel Henninger spotlights articles unfavorably covering her Catholic faith, her engagement with the Christian group People of Praise, and her faith-based values. He then states, “How sad if modern liberalism cannot abide the hopeful center of Amy Coney Barrett’s life.”

Two: Fake news

Sinan Aral is the head of MIT’s Social Analytics Lab and author of the new book, The Hype Machine: How Social Media Disrupts Our Elections, Our Economy, and Our Health—and How We Must Adapt. He writes: “When the news is false, it can wreak havoc on financial systems, health systems, and democratic institutions, creating real consequences from virtual falsity.”

The fake gas shortage in Texas after Hurricane Harvey in 2017 is an example. Aral blames “false news spread through social media, then picked up and reported through broadcast media.” The resulting run on gas created a real shortage. Aral warns: “The weaponization of misinformation is one of the most insidious threats to democracy in the Information Age.”

Fake or false reporting unfortunately is not confined to social media. New York Times columnist Bret Stephens sparked an uproar last week when he criticized his own paper for sponsoring the 1619 Project without sufficient concern for warnings regarding its numerous, critical historical flaws and falsehoods.

For example, the Project pointed to 1619, the year African slaves first were introduced to the American continent, as our country’s “true founding.” After numerous historians protested, these words disappeared from the digital display copy without explanation. Stephens cites this and numerous other issues as a “gift” to critics of the Times.

Three: Echo chambers

Broadcast, digital and social media have made it easier than ever for us to curate our news feeds, consuming only those sources whose opinions agree with ours. As the partisan divides in our country continue to widen, these echo chambers are only reinforcing our positions and our rejection of those who disagree with us.

Sadly, more than three in four Americans have little to no friends of opposing political viewpoints. This despite the fact, as Rabbi Jonathan Sacks notes in Morality: “I learn to be moral when I develop the capacity to put myself into your place, and that is a skill I only learn by engaging with you, face to face or side by side.”

Three biblical responses

One: Listen to those with whom you disagree. Scripture notes, “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another” (Proverbs 27:17). When Nathan rebuked David for his sin with Bathsheba, the king repented (2 Samuel 12:1–13).

Are you consuming media with which you disagree? Are you accountable to someone who can “sharpen” you?

Two: Measure all truth claims by biblical truth. God says of his word, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). Read the media through the lens of Scripture, not the other way around.

Are you measuring “truth” by the truth?

Three: Share truth with grace. I often quote the mantra, “speaking the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15), because this calling never has been more urgent. Our culture needs nothing more than it needs biblical truth shared with biblical grace.

Will you ask the Lord to help you do both today?

Jim Denison is the co-founder and chief vision officer of Denison Forum. He pastored churches in Texas and Georgia and now speaks and writes to empower believers to navigate cultural issues from a biblical perspective.

Free speech demonstrators attacked in San Francisco: Three urgent problems and three biblical responses was first published in The Daily Article by the Denison Forum. Daily Articles are republished in the Baptist Standard under agreement with Denison Forum and are not intended to represent the Standard’s views.

Oreo has released limited-edition rainbow cookies in support of the LGBTQ+ community. They are not sold in stores; to receive a pack, you need to share a photo of “you and your friends at last year’s Pride parade, your chosen family, or how you show allyship for others.”

In other news, crowds in Los Angeles gathered in defiance of COVID-19 guidelines after the Lakers won the NBA title Sunday. Looting broke out, and bottles and fireworks were thrown at police. The police department arrested 76 people for “confrontational, violent, and destructive behavior.” Eight officers were injured, and more than 30 buildings were damaged.

Meanwhile, protesters in Portland knocked down statues of Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln in a declaration of “rage” toward Columbus Day. And a second wave of coronavirus infections has struck Europe, with record high daily infections in several countries amid a widespread case of “COVID-fatigue.”

Here’s another sign that’s a sign of the times: The Satanic Temple wants to put up billboards that show people how to obtain abortions more easily.

Their “religious abortion ritual” is supposed to be a “sacramental act that confirms the right of bodily autonomy.” According to the Satanic Temple, if people perform this ritual, they can claim a religious exemption from mandatory waiting periods, counseling, ultrasounds and other measures required by some states before an abortion can be performed.

However, billboards promoting their ritual have been declined by Lamar Advertising. In response, the Satanic Temple has sued the company. In their lawsuit, they state Lamar rejected the content of the billboards as “misleading and offensive.” The Satanic Temple alleges this rejection was based on religious discrimination.

It would be hard to make this up.

“Thank God for Abortion” necklaces

For many years, evangelical Christians have been asking how America can avoid God’s judgment.

Legalized abortion has killed more than 62 million babies in the United States. So far this year, more than 675,000 preborn children have died by abortion, three times the number of Americans who have died from COVID-19. Abortion is the leading cause of death in the United States, surpassing heart disease and cancer.

Nonetheless, pro-abortion activists are selling “Thank God for Abortion” necklaces and even abortion-themed ice cream.

Sexual “liberation” moves us further each day from biblical sexual morality. The rising popularity of euthanasia further victimizes some of our most vulnerable people. The epidemic of secularism has led to the wholesale rejection of God’s word and threatens religious liberty in our nation.

Against this backdrop, I am reading the book of Hosea these days and have been deeply impressed by its call to repentance and holiness.

“They shall reap the whirlwind”

In his permissive judgment, our Lord allows us to experience the consequences of our sinful choices. Comparing our society to the sins listed in Romans 1:18–32, it seems clear to me we are at least experiencing God’s permissive judgment of our culture’s immorality.

However, if we do not repent, we experience God’s proactive judgment by which he acts directly to expose our sins and draw us to repentance. Hosea shows us some ways divine judgment escalates. Since his warnings are in God’s word, they are relevant for all time, not just his time (cf. Romans 15:4). Let’s evaluate our cultural moment by what the prophet reveals.

God judges our economy. When we choose the idolatry of materialism, trusting the provision more than the Provider, God responds: “I will take back my grain in its time, and my wine in its season, and I will take away my wool and my flax” (Hosea 2:9).

He judges external religion. When we practice a religion about God but forsake intimate relationship with him, he responds: “I will put an end to all her mirth, her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths, and all her appointed feasts” (Hosea 2:11).

His judgment can be slow and unseen. The Lord warned: “Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment, because he was determined to go after filth. But I am like a moth to Ephraim, and like dry rot to the house of Judah” (Hosea 5:11–12).

“Moth” and “dry rot” both work in unseen but devastating ways.

Hosea 7:9 repeats God’s warning: “Strangers devour his strength, and he knows it not.”

His judgment escalates. God warns if his people do not repent, “I will be like a lion to Ephraim, and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear and go away; I will carry off, and no one shall rescue” (Hosea 5:14).

He repeated his warning: “Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces, and Judah has multiplied fortified cities; so I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour her strongholds” (Hosea 8:14).

In short, employing one of the most memorable phrases anywhere in Scripture, the Lord warns, “They sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind” (Hosea 8:7).

The question of the hour

When Hosea uttered these prophecies, the prosperous and externally religious nation of Israel could not have imagined such warnings would come to pass. However, the nation’s rejection of his call to personal repentance led to their destruction by Assyria in 722 B.C.

To be clear: My purpose today is not to predict our future. Rather, it is to ask whether our nation is experiencing God’s passive judgment and therefore whether we should heed Hosea’s warnings of proactive judgment. And it is to call us to personal repentance and godliness in order that we might be the change our nation needs to embrace.

In Christ the Eternal Son, A.W. Tozer defined “accepting Christ” as having “an attachment to the person of Christ that is revolutionary, complete, and exclusive.” He explained this “attachment” is “revolutionary in that it reverses the life and transforms it completely. It is an attachment to the person of Christ. It is complete in that it leaves no part of the life unaffected. It exempts no area of the life of the total man.”

How attached to Jesus are you today?

Jim Denison is the co-founder and chief vision officer of Denison Forum. He pastored churches in Texas and Georgia and now speaks and writes to empower believers to navigate cultural issues from a biblical perspective.

Oreo rainbow cookies and looting in L.A.: Is Hosea’s warning relevant to us today? was first published in The Daily Article by the Denison Forum. Daily Articles are republished in the Baptist Standard under agreement with Denison Forum and are not intended to represent the Standard’s views.

The White House released a photograph yesterday of President Trump working out of Walter Reed National Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., while undergoing treatment for COVID-19. His medical team said he could be released as soon as today if his condition continues to improve. Global stocks rose this morning on the news.

The president’s illness has not only thrown the race into turmoil—it also has revealed deep fault lines in our culture.

“The other side is less than fully human”

When the president and his wife announced they tested positive for COVID-19, some of the responses on social media were so horrific and some of their language was so profane I will not repeat them or link to them.

By contrast, Joe Biden tweeted: “Jill and I send our thoughts to President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump for a swift recovery. We will continue to pray for the health and safety of the president and his family.”

Kamala Harris added  she and her husband join the Bidens “in wishing President Trump and the First Lady a full and speedy recovery. We’re keeping them and the entire Trump family in our thoughts.”

And MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, no friend of the president, tweeted, “God bless the president and the first lady. If you pray, please pray for their speedy and complete recovery—and for everyone infected, everywhere.”

Some of Trump’s critics are responding to him and his wife as people whose ideas they oppose. Others are responding to them as enemies who should be punished or worse.

In Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks writes: “To be sure, many elections in the past have been raw, rude, and raucous in their rhetoric. That is part of the competitive nature of electoral politics. But something new is happening, the sense that the other side is less than fully human, that its supporters are not part of the same moral community as us, that somehow their sensibilities are alien and threatening, as if they were not the opposition within a political arena, but the enemy, full stop.”

How did we get here?

Three reasons for our divisions

Rabbi Sacks cites three factors that explain the depth of our divisiveness.

One: The deepening individualism of Western society since the 1960s.

When we were facing the Great Depression and two world wars, our external threats and financial challenges united us against common enemies. Recent decades of relative peace have atrophied such unity.

Two: The “narrowcasting” effect of the internet.

Previously, news came to us through networks that presented a broad range of opinions and held to journalistic standards based on balance and truth in reporting. Sacks laments that we have now moved from “broadcasting” to “narrowcasting,” which he defines as “news filtered to reflect our given interest and political stance.”

Such reporting strengthens our confirmation bias, the subliminal desire to see our beliefs ratified. Studies have shown associating with people who share our views makes us progressively more extreme in these views.

Three: The “disinhibition effect.”

The new media gives everyone a microphone. The best way to communicate is face-to-face; the worst way is for communication to be anonymous, invisible and unregulated. But the latter describes the way 3.5 billion people communicate every day.

Sacks comments: “I can simply say what I feel better for having said, without consideration or restraint. This is not the normal logic of communication, which is to inform, persuade, or convince. Rather, this is communication as primal therapy, and it helps create the anger it then expresses and amplifies.”

Three opportunities for God’s people

As children of the God who is love (1 John 4:8), we should be a model of civility in a divisive day. The good news is the faith we follow holds the answer to all three sources of such divisiveness.

Individualism is countered by the unity we find in Jesus. In him, “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female” (Galatians 3:28).

When last did worshiping Jesus draw you closer to someone with whom you disagree?

Confirmation bias is countered by submitting to the truth and authority of God’s word, even—and especially—when it disagrees with our opinions. Scripture is “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16).

When last did reading the Bible change your mind and heart?

The disinhibition of social media is countered by the grace of Jesus: “By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). When we know we are pardoned sinners, we are motivated to pardon other sinners.

When last did you pray for someone whose actions or opinions angered you?

Will you today?

Jim Denison is the co-founder and chief vision officer of Denison Forum. He pastored churches in Texas and Georgia and now speaks and writes to empower believers to navigate cultural issues from a biblical perspective.

How President Trump’s critics have responded to his illness: Three sources of incivility and three invitations for Christians was first published in The Daily Article by the Denison Forum. Daily Articles are republished in the Baptist Standard under agreement with Denison Forum and are not intended to represent the Standard’s views.

It’s not often we get to see history being made, but that’s what happened Saturday afternoon when President Trump nominated Judge Amy Coney Barrett for the Supreme Court of the United States.

Any nomination to our nation’s highest court is historic. If confirmed, Judge Barrett will become only the 115th person in American history to sit on this court and only the fifth woman. Moreover, she will be the first person with school-age children to serve.

But what most concerns opponents of the president’s nomination is another historic fact: She would give the court a six-to-three conservative majority by replacing Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, long considered the leader of the liberal faction of the court. This could be crucial with upcoming cases on the Affordable Care Act, abortion restrictions and perhaps the 2020 presidential election.

Much already has been said in opposition to this outcome. I’d like to explain why this opposition is so heated and what it means for every evangelical in America today.

“A brilliant and conscientious lawyer”

Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s judicial qualifications to serve on the court are beyond dispute. Harvard law professor Noah Feldman, a self-described liberal who is “devastated” over Justice Ginsburg’s death and “revolted by the hypocrisy” of considering the president’s nomination, nonetheless writes: “I want to be extremely clear. Regardless of what you or I may think of the circumstances of this nomination, Barrett is highly qualified to serve on the Supreme Court.”

He explains: “I disagree with much of her judicial philosophy and expect to disagree with many, maybe even most of her future votes and opinions. Yet despite this disagreement, I know her to be a brilliant and conscientious lawyer who will analyze and decide cases in good faith, applying the jurisprudential principles to which she is committed. Those are the basic criteria for being a good justice. Barrett meets and exceeds them.”

If a self-described liberal would endorse Judge Barrett in such strong terms, why is opposition to her nomination mounting so quickly? Their problem lies not with her capacities or qualifications, but with her faith.

“The dogma lives loudly within you”

Friday night, HBO’s Bill Maher called her a “******* nut” and said she was “Catholic—really Catholic. I mean really, really Catholic—like speaking in tongues.”

Although Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was deeply influenced by her Jewish faith, such faith was acceptable to Maher and those like him since they shared her liberal worldview.

In 2018, Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) confronted Brian Buescher, a nominee to the U.S. district court in Nebraska, over his membership in the Knights of Columbus, a faith-based service organization that supports traditional Catholic positions on marriage, abortion and human sexuality. The senator asked if the nominee would terminate his membership in this organization since it had taken “a number of extreme positions” on social issues including abortion and marriage.

When Amy Coney Barrett was nominated for the 7th Circuit Court in 2017, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California) stated: “Whatever a religion is, it has its own dogma. The law is totally different. And I think in your case … the conclusion one draws is that the dogma lives loudly within you. And that’s of concern when you come to the big issues that large numbers of people have fought for for years in this country.”

The senator added, “Over time, we learn to also judge what they think, and whether their thoughts enable them to be free to observe the law.”

The senator’s statement crystallized the problem I’m addressing.

“A judge must apply the law as written”

Following the president’s announcement Saturday, Judge Barrett stated: “I clerked for Justice Scalia more than 20 years ago, but the lessons I learned still resonate. His judicial philosophy is mine, too. A judge must apply the law as written. Judges are not policymakers, and they must be resolute in setting aside any policy views they might hold.”

This is known as “originalism,” the theory that “the constitutional text ought to be given the original public meaning that it would have had at the time that it became law.” Justice Ginsburg, by contrast, was a staunch advocate of the “living” Constitution theory, which holds that the meaning of the text changes over time as social attitudes change.

Originalists focus not on what “they think”—to quote Sen. Feinstein—but on what the law says. This is why Judge Barrett’s personal Catholic beliefs on issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage should be irrelevant during her confirmation hearing since they have no bearing on decisions based strictly on the law as it currently exists.

The fact her beliefs have been and will be attacked says more about her attackers than it does about her. They clearly would judge based not on the original meaning of the Constitution but according to their personal beliefs.

Here we find the larger problem in our culture: We now live in a postmodern culture in which all truth, whether found in the U.S. Constitution or claimed by your neighbor, is deemed personal and subjective.

This is why the Supreme Court has become so legislative in the postmodern era, making laws Congress did not enact when the unelected justices discovered “rights” to abortion and same-sex marriage that clearly are not in the text of the Constitution. And it is why critics of unchanging biblical morality are becoming more vociferous in their opposition with each passing day.

“Holding fast to the word of life”

We will have reason to say much more about the debate over truth as Judge Barrett’s confirmation process moves forward. For today, let’s deepen our resolve to obey and share the word of God, remembering the psalmist’s prayer that “the sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever” (Psalm 119:160).

Let’s intercede for those who consider Judge Barrett’s nomination, praying they conduct themselves with the decorum and civility befitting their positions and that the hearings do not further fracture our divided culture. And let’s pray for Judge Barrett to manifest the character of Christ (Romans 8:29) and the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23) as she faces intense scrutiny and global attention.

“Holding fast to the word of life” is our mission and should be our mantra (Philippians 2:16). Is it yours today?

Jim Denison is the co-founder and chief vision officer of Denison Forum. He pastored churches in Texas and Georgia and now speaks and writes to empower believers to navigate cultural issues from a biblical perspective.

What a self-described liberal said about Amy Coney Barrett: Fighting for truth with courageous grace was first published in The Daily Article by the Denison Forum. Daily Articles are republished in the Baptist Standard under agreement with Denison Forum and are not intended to represent the Standard’s views.