Why I’m Voting for Donald Trump
Eight years ago today, the Turkish government arrested Andrew Brunson, an American missionary, and charged him with terrorism.
Brunson and his wife had spent 23 years in Turkey, founding churches and helping hundreds of refugees fleeing ISIS and Syria’s brutal Assad regime. To those who knew him, the idea that this peaceful man who loved the Turkish people was a terrorist was ludicrous. Members of Congress and many others immediately began efforts to free Brunson.
Turning a Blind Eye: Our War with China
In the fifth century BC, Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu wrote, “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”
In his new book, Blood Money: Why the Powerful Turn a Blind Eye While China Kills Americans, bestselling author Peter Schweizer warns that America needs to pay close attention to this proverb. Over the last few decades, China has been killing Americans by the millions without firing a single shot. And the political leaders who should be protecting us? When they act at all, it’s to protect China and their own pocketbooks, not the American people.
It’s a Wonderful Life Advent Devotional
The two big messages I want to get across is first, that God loves them, and wants us to love one another, and second, that the sorts of problems we see plaguing the fictional Bedford Falls—poverty, prejudice, people making decisions that hurt others, neighbors who are grieving, like Mr. Gower, the druggist, whose son succumbs to the Spanish flu, foolish relatives who cause difficulties, as Uncle Billy does—are problems we see today, in our own lives.
Radio Interview
On October 4th I was interviewed on the Eric Metaxas Radio Show, where we talked about my latest book – It’s a Wonderful Life Advent Devotional.
Why Statues Should Stay
When I was a child, I read a biography of Marie Curie, who grew up in Poland, then part of the Russian Empire. Every day, when she and her sister walked to school, they made a point of spitting on a statue of a hated Russian leader, whose name I cannot recall.
Forced to Celebrate Gay Pride?
Last month we were endlessly exposed to signs, television ads, and other reminders that June was Gay Pride Month. Signs were posted on store fronts ranging from Starbucks to Nordstrom. I couldn’t help wondering how many of the businesses had been coerced into “celebrating” gay pride. You see, last month I happened to be reading the new book by Jack Phillips, The Cost of My Faith: How a Decision in My Cake Shop Took Me to the Supreme Court. Phillips describes the day his life changed when a homosexual couple asked him to create a custom wedding cake for them. He politely explained that he would create birthday cakes, shower cakes, cookies, or brownies for them—but “I just don’t do cakes for same-sex weddings.” (Phillips also declines to make Halloween cakes or cakes featuring offensive messages. All of these decisions are faith-based.) In response, one of the men shouted profanities loud enough to be heard all over the shop, and gave Phillips
Help in the Midst of the Pornography Plague
A few years ago, a woman spotted her teenage son’s laptop on the kitchen counter. She opened the lid and what she saw horrified her — a series of pornographic pictures. She clicked on an image and a sexually explicit video began playing. She checked her son’s browser history which revealed this was not the first time her son had accessed pornography. This woman was shocked, but she should not have been. As Josh McDowell once told me, “The question is not if my kids will see pornography, but what will I do when it happens.”
Ding, Ding! Jesus is Born!
It must have seemed like a good idea at the time.
The nativity scene features all the usual characters: Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, the shepherds, and the Wise Men. But there’s something a little different; about them. I take a closer look, and realize the Holy Family is made up of: Koala bears. Crocodile shepherds gaze adoringly (hungrily?) down at the furry infant, while the three wise men—a wombat, a kangaroo, and an echidna–arrive bearing gifts.
Dorothy and Jack
Can men and women be friends—close friends?
Two of my favorite people, C.S. Lewis and Dorothy L. Sayers, would have offered a robust “yes.” Their affectionate friendship endured for fifteen years, until Sayers’ death in 1957. Upon hearing the sad news, says Lewis’s stepson, Douglas Gresham, Lewis cried.
Gina Dalfonzo examines and celebrates their friendship in her lovely new book, “Dorothy and Jack: The Transforming Friendship of Dorothy L. Sayers and C.S. Lewis.” Dalfonzo chronicles their friendship from the first missive Sayers sent to Lewis in 1942: A fan letter. At that time, both were well-known writers—she for her Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, he for The Screwtape Letters, The Problem of Pain, and his radio broadcasts about the basics of Christianity.
Fighting the Forces of Darkness
The Supreme Court recently shot down Louisiana’s law requiring abortionists to have admitting privileges at a local hospital—a law intended to protect women’s lives, given that so many of the worst doctors go into the abortion business.
I am old enough to remember when abortion was illegal in America. This means I have witnessed the battle to protect unborn babies for all the 47 years it has been fought. While the Supreme Court decision was a disappointment, I have reason to hope.
