Jim Denison

Nicholas Kristof’s recent New York Times article alleging widespread Israeli sexual violence has sparked fierce debate. Still, the greater danger is the “fallacy of false equivalence” that leads many to conclude Hamas and Israel are morally the same. In a culture increasingly shaped by collectivism, it becomes easy to see all Palestinians as terrorists or all Israelis as oppressors, even though Scripture reminds us that “the soul who sins shall die” and that every person is an immortal soul for whom Christ died. The more personally we experience the living Lord Jesus and his transforming love, the more passionately we will want to share it with our lost world.

In the day’s news, we are invited to put our hope in religion, politics, medical science, artificial intelligence, or future generations—but each continues to reveal its limits. By contrast, Jesus never glossed over the cost of discipleship, warning, “If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.” Yet “as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too,” as suffering drives us from self-reliance into deeper dependence on the Spirit. The more Christlike we become, the more we discover “him who is wholly lovable, wholly desirable.”

At least 136 people have died in the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but health officials say the number could be much higher. The director general of the World Health Organization said he is “deeply concerned about the scale and speed of the epidemic,” which is being caused by a type of Ebola for which there are no vaccines or treatments. Reading bad news can steal your hope; however, the good news is that there is a way to navigate bad news with the best news of all. This week, we’re discussing finding hope in surprising places. Today, we’ll consider the most surprising place of all.

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert will air its last show tonight. Why should you care? The ending could be nostalgic if you’re old enough to remember when David Letterman started the show in 1993 after being passed over as Johnny Carson’s successor on The Tonight Show. You might care about the controversy over the show’s ending: some claim that CBS acted for political reasons, while others point to reports that the show had been losing $40 million a year. I think the show’s ending is relevant for a different reason.

Beyond the BBQs lies a history of sacrifice. Discover the true meaning of Memorial Day and how we can move from celebrating to commemorating.

The British writer G. K. Chesterton noted: “The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind

Christians are used to our religious holidays being preempted for secular purposes. Nonetheless, we should be surprised that even a secular holiday such as Memorial Day has been secularized as well. Many Americans conflate Memorial Day with Veterans Day and think they are intended to fly flags and feel patriotic sentiments in honor of all our military. Many will not even be this reflective, spending today as the “unofficial beginning of summer” with backyard barbeques and similar holiday activities. It is especially ironic that a day intended to commemorate the sacrifice of our military heroes has been sacrificed in this way. There is a spiritual lesson here for us, one that transcends the day and its history.

Last Saturday, a paraglider in Austria was floating along when a Cessna 172 flew overhead and shredded her sail to pieces. The woman began spinning and plummeted to the earth before pulling her emergency chute. In the caption of her now-viral selfie video, Sabrina writes that May 23 will always be like a second birthday to her, since she knows how lucky she is to be alive. But like Sabrina, I have had a second birthday. If you are a born-again believer, the same is true for you. The key to the Christian life is to experience every day what we experienced on that day. How do we do this?

Sen. Tammy Duckworth has condemned a Memorial Day social media post by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) that featured the images and names of thirteen soldiers killed during the military conflict with Iran. After similar criticism on both sides of the aisle, the DNC deleted the post. From then until now, politics in America have often been practiced on a level approaching religious fervor. Our next election season begins as soon as the last election is over. Our era of 24/7 news coverage, social media, and narrated algorithms turns up the heat even further. But there’s another factor at work, one that transcends politics and is vital to us all.

After three seasons and twenty-six episodes, the HBO series Euphoria officially ended last night. The show has been widely criticized for its pervasive nudity and pornographic content. While many Christians already avoid sexually immoral shows and media content like this one, this topic is still highly relevant—for me, for you, and for everyone else—for a reason I had not considered before writing this article. Today, we discuss three facts about sexual sin, the historical context of lust in the New Testament, and ask the question, Does sexual sin damage people and society more pervasively than any other sin?