I have a very dear friend who lives near Jerusalem. His name is Ronny Simon, a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the Israeli Defense Force, who serves as my guide when I lead my annual tours of Israel. He recently sent me a detailed email on his perspective about what is occurring in the Middle East today.
This weekend (8 May) we celebrate Mother?s Day in the United States. A recent article details the changing face of motherhood in the US. A summary of the findings:
Last week, Standard & Poor?s announced that it might need to downgrade the US government?s AAA bond rating for the first time in history, because of the dim prospects for serious debt reduction. This panicked investors, in the short term, who believe that Treasuries are the last safe haven in an uncertain world.
Last week, Iran and Egypt?s new government signaled they were moving quickly to thaw decades of frosty relations. Iran said it appointed an ambassador to Egypt for the first time since the two sides froze diplomatic relations more than three decades ago. Both the US and Israel are deeply concerned that such moves indicate that Egypt is reordering its foreign policy, which could further empower Iran and its regional clients Hamas and Hezbollah.
With the advent of modern technology, humanity has sought increasing control with the goal being manipulation of nearly everything for the good of the human race. Since the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, several historical developments have produced an openness in Western Civilization toward seeking to control and manipulate humans.
The four academic degrees that I have earned are in history and historical theology. Therefore, the historical perspective is quite important to me. In this Perspective, I seek to give an important historical perspective to the origin and development of 19th-century theological liberalism. When I am finished, I will make application to what is occurring within certain parts of current American evangelicalism.
Planned Parenthood is one of the most dangerous organizations in America right now. Its view of human life growing the womb is reprehensible. Basically, for Planned Parenthood, the baby has no value until it exists outside of the mother?s womb. It values the rights of the woman more highly than the rights of the child in the womb. It stands against everything I hold dear as a Christian. Planned Parenthood annually receives about $363,200,000 in various government grants and contracts. [$100 mill...
Social networks have provided one of the several sources of energy for the pro-democracy movements in the Middle East. Information technology is changing the global balance of power. ?The Facebook Generation? helped significantly to bring down Hosni Mubarak of Egypt. One of the heroes of this same revolution is the young Google executive, Wael Ghonim.
The economist, Robert Samuelson, has an interesting take on Social Security: He calls it ?welfare.? Here is why: First, it taxes one group to support another group, meaning it is pay-as-you-go and not a contributory scheme where people?s own savings pay their later benefits. Second, Congress can constantly alter benefits, reflecting changing needs, economic conditions and politics. Let?s think about this provocative thesis.
The debate over the 2011 federal budget is presumably over. After taking the nation to the brink, even possibly facing a possible shutdown of the federal government, the congressional leaders cut the budget and finally passed the 2011 budget, which runs through 30 September. As I approach this Perspective on the 2012 federal budget, I find the words of the economist, Robert Samuelson, refreshing and brutally honest...
I am not a medical doctor nor do I understand all the complexities of health insurance, but I have spent time in a hospital as both a patient and as someone who visits hospitals to comfort friends and those whom I care about. I also believe that there are several common sense principles that we are not following as a nation.
Jefferson was a child of the European Enlightenment and was certainly one of its more passionate advocates. Jefferson adopted the antisupernaturalism of the Enlightenment and used that bias when he reached his conclusions about Jesus. He revered Jesus as ?the first of human Sages? and regarded His ethical system articulated in the Sermon on the Mount as superior to all others. Lincoln was born into a Baptist family and his early life was surrounded by Baptist leanings. However, what evidence the...
The significant changes sweeping through the Middle East will have acute implications for Israel. At this point, it is impossible to deduce those implications in their entirety but there are a few hints.
In 1798 a British clergyman named Thomas Malthus argued that human population growth would exceed the world?s ability to feed this growth in population. Robert McNamara in 1968, as president of the World Bank, spoke of ?the mushrooming cloud of population explosion.?
The wave of populist uprisings throughout North Arica and into the Middle Eastern nations necessitates that we step back and do a reality check. What is going on? Is there a difference between what occurred in Egypt or Tunisia, for example, and what is occurring in Libya? What are the available options for these nations currently undergoing turmoil? Let?s examine these questions in this Perspective. First, columnist Tom Friedman helps us understand that there are two different types of states in...
One of the key themes of Issues in Perspective is the articulation and defense of the Christian worldview. That worldview is discerned from a study of the Bible and the application of that worldview to life. Two recent studies validate the biblical viewpoint.
Probably one of the most influential women in America today is Oprah Winfrey. The Oprah Winfrey Show is now history but she has founded her own network and her influence will hardly diminish.
Historian Niall Ferguson has written several insightful articles over the past few years helping me to understand the ongoing shift from the West to the East going on in the world. A new order to our world is emerging and, in this Perspective, I seek to make sense of it. First of all, Ferguson argues that over the last 500 years the West has had six ?killer applications? that explain its dominance of the world in every sense?militarily, financially, socially and in setting the world?s agenda....
At the end of December 2010, a huge natural gas discovery was confirmed in the Eastern Mediterranean inside Israel?s territorial waters. It is called the Leviathan gas deposit in the Levant Basin and marks a major development for Israel, with the potential for making Israel an energy exporter over the next decade. Natural gas was first discovered off Israel?s coast in 1999, but the quantity was so small that until recently, Israel was still planning on importing natural gas from Russia. The Levi...
Marvin Olasky was at one point a radical leftist history professor and an advocate of the communist worldview. But he trusted Christ a number of years ago and is now the editor of World magazine. Olasky recently appeared on Glenn Beck?s TV program. Beck is one of the media stars on the late afternoon Fox TV lineup. I believe the substance of that interview needs to be summarized. In effect, I will quote verbatim from Olasky?s account of his time with Glenn Beck. Beck introduced Olasky as ?a form...
One of the key themes of biblical Christianity is the importance of sound doctrine. The Apostle Paul uses this phrase especially in the Pastoral Epistles. The term ?sound? actually means healthy and, from Paul, we learn that sound doctrine is the key to godly living and to spiritual health. It is therefore quite significant to focus on the importance of sound doctrine in this postmodern world. And in this global village, building bridges to Islam is necessary. But how do we do that without compr...
There is quite a stir going on right now about the anticipated publication of Rob Bell?s new book, Love Wins: A Book about Heaven, Hell and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived. It is scheduled for release on Tuesday, 29 March 2011.
Issues in Perspective has lamented family breakdown, social disintegration and the decline of American civilization for several years now. The evidence for all these propositions seems overwhelming. However, a recent study gives a small ray of hope.
Recently, President Obama determined that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)?the 1996 law that bars federal recognition of same-sex marriages?is unconstitutional. He directed the Justice Department to stop defending the law in court.Despite the fact that his administration had defended DOMA during the first two years in office, that department will no longer do so. The Attorney [continue reading...]
President Obama recently presented his budget to the Congress and, as a part of this budget, he is launching an initiative for a high speed rail network for the United States. Indeed, VP Joe Biden, with great fanfare, announced the administration?s plan in Philadelphia to spend $53 billion over six years for a ?national high-speed [continue reading...]
During World War II, Adolf Hitler showered the grand mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini (the titular leader of the Palestinians) with gifts, wealth and a Berlin villa. Why? Because he broadcast Nazi propaganda to the Middle East, recruited European Muslims for the SS, exulted the Holocaust and after the war went on to represent [continue reading...]
As I am writing this, the Middle East is in turmoil. It is simply impossible to have a clear view of all that is occurring and what the short term and long term implications are. Civil war in some of the nations, a disruption in the flow of oil from this region, higher energy costs, the growth or the demise of radical Islam are all potential results, but no one really knows. It is simply too early. There are nonetheless a few items of importance that we can discern.
The proverbial day of reckoning for the United States, both at the national level and in most of the respective states of this union, has arrived. In this Perspective, I want to defend that proposition.
One of my favorite authors is Kay M. Hymowitz. Her written works have helped me in developing one of the major themes of Issues in Perspective?an analysis of cultural trends, especially the growing confusion of young men in American culture. She uses the term ?pre-adult? to define a new cultural development or even a new stage in human development between the teen years and adulthood. [Other sociologists, such as Christian Smith, have called this stage, emerging adulthood.] Here are some of Hymo...
Years ago, my wife and I watched a movie based on a famous book by Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago. The movie, made in 1965, is a gorgeous movie: The scenery of Russia in the winter is breathtaking and stunning. The movie is set during the tumultuous years of the Bolshevik Revolution that swept Russia from 1917-1920. As the forces of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, who took the name of Lenin, ravaged the country of Russia, they killed, pillaged and destroyed as they built their communist utopia in Russ...
