6 Reasons Why This Evangelical Christian is Voting for Nikki Haley

(My evangelical bonafides: I grew up in a non-denominational evangelical church and married my husband while he was in an evangelical seminary. He has pastored two evangelical Bible churches for a total of almost 30 years. I have authored four books with evangelical publishers, including Harper Collins/Zondervan.)

Haley at her rally in our Columbia, SC suburb last Saturday

This is not a rant against Donald Trump or the people who support him, who include many of my friends. I respect their choices. As with the tensions surrounding our beliefs about where God’s sovereignty ends and free will begins or how God created the earth—young or old earth, theistic evolution or intelligent design—godly people with a high view of Scripture disagree. And we can still treat one another with gentleness and respect in the spirit of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, “…bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

We each give account to God for the stewardship of our citizenship and vote.

With a very heavy heart I would possibly vote for Trump in November, but could only do that in good conscience before God if I did whatever I could now to get someone else on the ballot instead. Here in South Carolina our early primary votes carry extra weight in shaping the presidential race. So we have donated to Nikki Haley’s campaign, have her sign in our yard, and I am writing this post

Why Haley?

The joy of trusting God like Shadrach, not Jacob

Long ago, these were my hands…until they were wrecked by rheumatoid arthritis. Thirty+ years ago I had three joints replaced, two ruptured tendons repaired, and one large nodule removed. Yesterday I had  a second surgery on my right hand. The nodule has grown back and was removed again. The middle joint of my thumb underneath it has been destroyed, so it was stabilized by drilling a hole and inserting a pin. Recovering the use of my right hand may take three months (for the bone to strengthen).

The problems in my hand are not very painful, but it is getting harder and harder to grasp things with my right, dominant hand. The nodule may grow back. So the prospect of big gain is iffy. But my doctors are recommending this surgery, so I am trusting them and am all set to do it.

I am also trusting God for the gain of function we are hoping the surgery delivers.

When I told all this to a friend yesterday, she responded, “Well, you have an army of people praying for you.” I smiled and thanked her. It’s true. And if any of you reading this would like to volunteer, I’d be grateful. We have so many nerves in our hands.

A Prayer for the Hostages. And for us.

photo courtesy Storyblocks

A nephew of one of the Hamas hostages said his aunt “’had to adjust to the sunlight’ because she had been in darkness for weeks. ‘She was in complete darkness,…completely cut off from the outside world.”

Imagine living in total darkness, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for 7 weeks—50 days for the now-released hostages, 105 days and counting for those still in captivity. Think what you were doing on October 7th.  Now think of erasing all you’ve done since then. All that work, vacation, time with family and friends, church fellowship, football, Thanksgiving, Christmas prep–all those moments you’ve held dear.

Imagine instead sitting and sleeping in plastic chairs or benches. In the dark. All that time. In some cases alone. In others, crowded together with strangers and ordered to keep quiet. One meal of rice and bread a day. Knocking on the door when you need to go to the restroom. Waiting hours until you are taken.

Isolation. Darkness. Deprivation.

I think about the hostages often. Grieve for them. Plead to God for their release. And for their spiritual deliverance.

“The people living in darkness have seen a great light.” We can pray for God to shine his light in the hostages’ darkness.

Smart, fun, generous…and difficult—my mom died a year ago today

How God is way ahead of us and with us in the Valley of the Shadow

It’s been a year since I’ve regularly posted here. After Mom’s death I needed time to process. Grieve. Reflect. Rest. I didn’t intend to pull back this long. One thing that has drawn me back: I’ve wanted to tell the story of how amazingly God provided for us during her final three years fraught with vascular dementia.

I’ve also wanted to encourage others on an all-too-common yet nearly impossible journey. Nothing really prepares you for the unimaginable twists and turns of caring for someone who has always been so sharp and fiercely independent, who begins to need help doing her laundry, and even taking her medicines. Especially when they insist on remaining a thousand miles away.

Just when you’ve figured out how to respond to hallucinations or accusations of stealing, another unthinkable challenge comes up. But let me tell you how God shepherded us through the Valley of the Shadow…

The last 20 months have been a tale of two cities for us—”the best of times and the worst of times.”

Nancy Pearcey’s New Book Flips the Script on Toxic Masculinity

This book has the potential to revolutionize our vision of what it means to be a man in today’s culture–how to lift up the beauty of God’s design for men (in pulpits, schools and men’s ministries), how to raise a good man, what to look for in a good husband, and how to heal many of the broken relationships in our families and churches. Read on to see why this could be one of the most family-and-culture transforming books you might ever read.

From my newsfeed recently: “…straight white men are abusive, [they] are serial killers…[they] are the ones shooting up schools, right?” The narrative that masculinity is toxic is pounded into men and boys daily. For such a time as this, Nancy Pearcey’s new book, The Toxic War on Masculinity, flips the script, showing that masculinity is not inherently toxic, but the war on masculinity certainly is.

Yes, Nancy writes, “men are typically larger, stronger, and faster than women. In general, they are also more physical, more competitive, and more risk-taking.” And while it’s true that the American Psychological Association notes that “most mass shooters are male, they overlook the controlled power and aggression used by the heroic men who have stopped mass murderers.” On 9-11 we were proud and grateful to mostly all men who ran into the burning buildings and searched the wreckage for survivors. That is what good men do. They protect and rescue. They show courage and aggression under control. And good moral character.

But Nancy exposes today’s competing script for masculinity: “Men everywhere seem to experience the tension between what they define as the “good man” and the way our culture pressures them to be a “real man”—‘be tough, be strong, never show weakness, win at all costs…get rich, get laid.’”

So how do you expose the falseness of a widely embraced cultural narrative?

Is CRT in our schools? A response

On September 10th local teacher Sarah Ostergaard tackled the difficult issue of Critical Race Theory in our local paper–a hot button issue in our Columbia, SC suburb and the nation. She posed this question and answered it by explaining that critical race theory is not in our schools because technically and historically CRT is “a theoretical framework involving the history of US laws, systems, and organizations that focus on “the nuances of the rights protected by the 1st Amendment vs. the 14th Amendment, the history of voting rights, or the quantitative effects of public policies. It is not a k-12 curriculum.”

Memorial Day–Come with me to Arlington Cemetery

It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart. Ecclesiastes 7:2

Just weeks ago, as pinkish-white cherry blossoms graced the grayish-white marble headstones of the dead who served our country, we walked and rode through Arlington Cemetery. The delicacy of the blossoms’ beauty and the massive orchestration of rows upon rows of markers belie the horror and chaos of the wars that have sent the bodies of so many men and women to rest in these forested hills overlooking Washington D.C.

A Deep Dive into the New Reality Marching towards Ukraine

What will daily life be like for Ukrainian leaders, Christians, and families? Insight from Alexander Solzhenitsyn and James Michener

To listen to some news reports today, most of our leaders are resigned to the probability that within two weeks Russia will have captured Kyiv and set up a new government in Ukraine, one loyal to Russia. They are hopeful that most of the invading Russian military will withdraw, and things will “calm down.” Any spike in gas or food prices for Americans will return to more normally (inflated) levels, and the stock market will bounce back to pre-invasion numbers.

But the nightmare will only be beginning for the people of Ukraine–loss of Western freedoms and the expansion of Russia’s FSB security service that will surveil and punish any who resist will be the new daily reality. What will this mean for the Ukrainian leaders, Christians and families? How can we pray for them?

What will a new government mean for Ukrainian leaders?

MLK Day: In the time of BLM and critical race theory, how can it be relevant, encouraging, or even fair to be a “chosen race”?

MLK Memorial, ht Flickr

We live in times when the very idea of a “chosen race” is offensive.

And yet, God was not hesitant in the least to tell Moses, “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel” (Exodus 19:5-6).

Having just delivered Israel from bondage to the Egyptians, God leads them to Mt. Sinai and, upon arrival, this is the very first thing he tells Moses to tell them. He is giving them a new identity: his chosen people. His treasured possession.

He wants them to know that “all the earth is mine,” and out of “all peoples” Israel will have a special relationship with him and a unique identity. “If you obey my voice and keep my covenant,” you will be a “holy nation.” A “holy” nation is a nation “set apart” from all other nations. You will be a kingdom of priests endowed with royal authority to bring people to me.

This is so foreign to our deeply democratic sensibilities. “We the people” choose our own leaders. We believe in equality. One citizen, one vote. What made Israel so special? And how can being a “chosen race” be a source of deep encouragement and challenge or even fair in today’s world?

Critical Race Theory: Good resources (Part 2)

In my last post I discussed the “definitional mess” that is Critical Race Theory and offered a worldview critique. Job one in our racially charged culture is to seek to understand, What do we really mean by “Critical Race Theory”? And then, seek to understand the longings for justice in the hearts of our Black neighbors and friends.

We can agree with the CRT experts that understanding and pursuing justice for the poor and oppressed should be a high priority for us. The Bible speaks more about that than about freedom from high taxation, forbidding gay marriage or many other conservative political and social goals.

Paul tells us we are called to be ministers of reconciliation between God and man. The Bible, especially Amos and the other prophets, call us to be ministers of reconciliation between man and man, especially unjust practices that trample on the oppressed. So how can we best pursue understanding and justice across the racial divide?

Critical Race Theory: A worldview critique (part one)

How can we speak the truth in love about CRT?

image courtesy Storyblocks

Critical Race Theory is in a definitional mess. When President Biden’s press secretary Jen Pasaki was asked what her boss thought about it recently, she responded, “The president believes that in our history, there are so many dark moments, and there is not just slavery and racism in our history. There is systemic racism that is still impacting society today…And he believes, as I believe as a parent of children, that kids should learn about our history.”

The message from the White House is that Critical Race Theory (CRT) is mainly about teaching the hard truth about slavery in our schools. But this is only one small aspect of of CRT. Other aspects of CRT are far more concerning.

What do our educators think about CRT?

What are we to make of the fact that the National Education Association convened recently and approved resolutions to “oppose attempts to ban critical race theory”? To help them do that they also voted to jumpstart a study that “critiques empire, white supremacy, anti-Blackness, anti-Indigeneity, racism, patriarchy, cisheteropatriarchy, capitalism, ableism, anthropocentrism, and other forms of power and oppression at the intersections of our society.”

Marvel Comics v. Jordan Peterson: One of the world’s most dangerous profs podcasts his journey to faith and draws heavy fire

Imagine if C.S. Lewis had podcast his journey to faith, and millions of unbelievers had listened in. Imagine if the forces of secular universities, progressive politics and media had targeted him to take him out before he could cross the line of faith and bring thousands with him.

A similar journey by a similarly brilliant academic may be taking place right now. In the last six weeks over a million and a half people have listened to his remarkable recent podcast discussing his wrestling with conscience, suffering, meaning, and is Jesus really the Son of God?

And last week Marvel Comics took the lead to destroy him. Why Marvel Comics? Because he has a vast following among young men.

According to Marvel, Jordan Peterson, clinical psychologist and professor of psychology at Harvard and now Toronto University, is more dangerous than a Nazi. More dangerous even than Hitler. Their newly released Marvel comic, written by progressive intellectual Ta-Nehisi Coates, casts Red Skull, the super Nazi who would go where Hitler wouldn’t dare, as quoting Peterson’s ideas as his own. (Only Captain America could take down Red Skull and his Hail Hydra organization.)

How exactly did Peterson, neither a conservative nor a Christian, earn the wrath of Marvel and Coates?

What do we see at the foot of the cross?

The pain Jesus suffered went far beyond the flogging, nails and suffocation

Storyblocks

Stand with me at the foot of the cross. Come close. So close that when we look up, all we can see is that face. The arms outstretched, the hands barely visible in our peripheral vision.

What do we see?

If you saw Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, you no doubt took away indelible images of the physical pain and agony of Jesus’ death on a Roman cross. In our imaginations we see the nails and the stretching, hanging, and suffocating, and we are astonished that anyone would willingly give up a throne to submit to such excruciating torture.

On the day he died, Jesus endured so much physical pain; yet the Scriptures say he didn’t open his mouth. Like a lamb going to the slaughter, he endured silently the scourging, mocking, spitting, slapping, nailing, the struggle to breathe.

But at the crucial juncture, Gibson’s movie could not show us, nor can we even imagine the greater pain of being cursed—being totally removed from the presence of God. Around noon something beyond all imagination began to happen.

The world went dark, and Christ became sin. 

How can we be angry about culture or politics and not sin?

Raise your hand if you feel like you live in a time where people love empty words and seek after lies. Where the honor of seeking to follow Jesus and listen to his Word is turned to shame. That’s exactly how King David felt in Psalm 4. So he gives himself some good advice: “Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent.”

David urges himself to begin with deep reflection alone on his bed in silence. We can benefit from the same advice. Here’s a prompt for our reflection: What does it mean to be a person of truth and grace in a culture of lies?

The ninth commandment, “Do not bear false witness against your neighbor,” gives us a good place to begin: And the Westminster Catechism  offers us a great little test to help us take the measure of our own commitment to truth. After all, we can’t do nearly as much about changing others as we can about changing ourselves:

  1. Are we committed to “preserving and promoting truth between man and man?
  2. Are we committed to “preserving and protecting the good name of our neighbor, as well as our own”? (What if our neighbor is on the other political side? What if we are engaged on social media?)

The Equality Act passes. Tough two weeks. Romantic Realism.

We’ve hit the post-2020 election wall of reality pretty hard lately— Amazon banned the thoughtful and science-based When Harry Became Sally, singer Demi Lovato declared that gender-reveal parties were transphobic, and Mr. Potato Head came out as gender fluid.

Even Dr. Suess’s books have been cancelled from their featured spotlight at Read Across America Day.

To cap it off, at the confirmation hearing for Biden’s nominee to be #2 at the Department of Health and Human Services, Sen. Rand Paul could not get him/her to admit that children should not be able to make their own decisions to make sex changes with hormone blockers or surgery without parental involvement.

The outrage has lit up social media.

Four Valentine Lessons on Love from Netflix’s Virgin River

Virgin River is a down comforter on a cold pandemic night kind of TV series that invites you to find a cozy spot and wrap the warmth and softness of its love story and small town around you.

Unlike a comforter, it has some serious edges and romantic tension, but nothing that seems headed over a cliff. Even so, as the Netflix writers take Robyn Carr’s 20+ book series and elevate it to be as appealing as possible to a general audience of non-romance readers, they inevitably enfold some of God’s greatest lessons about love into their script.

Some reviewers accuse the show of being too traditional and cliched–too “Hallmarky.” I disagree. Yes it’s kinda soapy, but still in a different class. And to my mind it’s success simply proves that Jesus has the best information on how to have good relationships. When the second season was released last November it zoomed to #1, displacing both The Crown and Queen’s Gambit.

A Christian Response to the LGBT Anti-discrimination Executive Order

Looking line by line at the fears and compassion behind the order

President Biden has signed an executive order prohibiting discrimination against the LGBTQ community. Behind the order lie deep tensions that are erupting in competing visions of compassion, agonizing struggles of conscience and courtroom battles across our country. (full text of the Order)

It sounds reasonable. No one should abuse LGBTQs or shame them as less than human because of their identity or sexual orientation. And no one should lightly gloss over that statement. They are made in God’s image and we should take seriously bullying that turns into battering, disgust that turns into assault, or violence triggered by “gay panic” over unwanted same-sex advances. They are not “deformed” or “diseased.” They do not “deserve to die.”

When we see LGBTQ’s  through the eyes of Jesus, who loves them and gave himself for them, we see their brokenness and know that we too are sexually broken. We show them true compassion as fellow travelers–all of us needing the redeeming, restoring love and forgiveness of Christ.

But there is a difference between the compassion of Christ for sinners and the compassionate statements in President Biden’s order. To understand what is truly at stake, let’s ask some hard questions of its meaning, line by line, and look for hidden assumptions.

When “the centre cannot hold”

Thoughts on our taste of tear gas and anarchy in the Peoples' House

“Destruction,” from The Course of Empire by Robert Coles

“Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world…

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.”

–from “The Second Coming,” William Butler Yeats, 1919

What a sad, hard week for America; the People’s House breached, lives taken, pandemic ratcheting up and up. Never in my lifetime have the words of Yeats’ most famous poem felt so achingly true. Words written in the wake of the “blood-dimmed tide” of World War I when the Spanish flu was rising, infecting Yeats’ own pregnant wife.

3 Deeply Important Issues We Face This Week, How I’m Praying, 1 Action Step

Big decisions are being made today, tomorrow and in the next four years about the future of our country, and the results may permanently change America. I’ve included how I’m praying about these issues, sometimes fasting, and encourage you to do the same. Especially this week. You’ll find one time-sensitive action step recommendation at the end.

#1 Will we be able to have free and fair elections in the future?

In a December post I wrote about the danger of the media’s suppression of the evidence of fraud in our November elections.

How To Have a Sorrowful but Always Rejoicing Covid Christmas

We will be alone this Christmas. Eleven hundred miles from any family. Distanced from friends who will take the risk to be with their grandchildren (as I would if we had them), but it means we won’t be visiting them either. Ah, Covid. You are such a joy stealer. Such a prime example of the curse of sin in a fallen world.

This week I wake up thinking of the distance and the empty calendar ahead. Today, as I play my Christmas music, I’m fighting back a few tears. Maybe you’re fighting for joy too. How can we reclaim the joy of this Advent season?

I’ve been surprised how our fall Bible study of the book of Revelation has helped. As I’ve reflected on the first and second advents together it has lifted my spirits so much.

The angel’s announcement of the first Advent, “He has come!” invites us into a story of great joy, but also great sorrow. An almost-divorce over an out of wedlock pregnancy, no room in the inn, Herod’s slaughter of babies in his search to destroy Jesus, Simeon’s prophecy that Jesus will cause the rising and falling of many and his postscript to Mary that “a sword will pierce her heart” certainly proved true. What a reflection of our own Covid Christmas–celebration fraught with sorrow.

But expanding our Advent celebration to Jesus’ second advent taps into our future sorrow-free joy. Jesus’ second advent stands in stark contrast to his first. Consider how they are similar but wildly different, and how the second advent magnifies our joy: