President Trump's Christmas Address Reminds Us the Reason for the Season

 

President Donald Trump recently delivered a Christmas message from the White House, reminding Americans of the reason for the season.

"For Christians, this is a joyous time to remember God's greatest gift to the world. More than 2,000 years ago, the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary. He said, 'Do not be afraid, you have favor with God,’” President Trump said.

"The angel told her that she would give birth to a baby boy, Jesus, who would be called the Son of the Most High. Nine months later, Christ was born in the town of Bethlehem. The Son of God came into the world in a humble stable," Trump said before adding that Christmas is a time to give thanks to God.

"As Christians everywhere know, the birth of our Lord and Savior changed history forever," Trump continued. "At Christmas, we give thanks to God, and that God sent His only Son to die for us and to offer everlasting peace to all humanity.

"More than two millennia after the birth of Jesus Christ, His teachings continue to inspire and uplift billions and billions of people all over the globe," Trump said. "His divine words still fills our hearts with hope and faith."

The president also asserted that Christmas is a time to love one another.

"And Christians everywhere still strive to live by Jesus's timeless commandments to His disciples: love one another. Above all during this sacred season, our souls are full of thanks and praise for [the] Almighty God for sending us Christ, his Son, to redeem the world,” he said.

"Tonight we ask that God will continue to bless this nation and we pray that He will grant every American family a Christmas season full of joy, hope, and peace."

The president concluded the address by wishing Americans "Merry Christmas" and "a very, very great and happy new year" for the country.

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Life Has Claws

 

2020 has been a miserable slog of a year for just about everyone. Because of that, it seems the whole world goes to bed and wakes up angry about everything.

As I was recently cleaning up a mess a tenant made outside one of our rental homes, one of the neighbors came over and began yelling at me about how the house’s trash cans weren’t positioned on the road to his liking. When I told him that I’d have the tenants change their trash can habits, he stormed back across the street, began loudly yelling at his wife about something, got into his car and gunned the vehicle down the road.

I felt sad for him because he seemed to ooze unhappiness from every pore on his body. And judging by the 2020 data we currently have, he’s not alone.

Despair as a way of life

It appears that for a lot of people today, despair is not a moment, but rather a way of life.

For example, take nearly always sunny Colorado where the consistently beautiful weather is said to brighten everyone’s day, not only on the outside but the inside as well. A recent article in the Colorado Sun, entitled On Edge, by Tina Griego and Susan Greene says that Colorado now has the third highest prevalence of mental illness among adults.

Describing the state of Coloradans, the authors use words like “panic”, “fearful”, “irritable”, “dread”, “struggling”, “anxious”, “depressed”, and “isolated”. All of these mix together to create a climate of suicide there that the experts label “deaths of despair”.

Colorado isn’t alone, of course, as the same mood permeates most of the country. That attitude has a majority of people acknowledging that, especially today, life does indeed have claws.  

A three-step approach to overcoming despair

The Bible isn’t shy about disclosing the fact that life can be hard. Even Jesus admitted, “Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matt. 6:34).

That being true, what’s a good path to follow when it comes to getting past the daily drizzle of gloom?

A good first step is to take a deep breath and get some perspective. Yes, 2020 has delivered its share of hardships, but as the Babylon Bee says:

“While we understand it hasn't been easy, we also found very few instances of Viking raids, Black Plague, famine, world war, using rotary telephones, needing to look things up in a physical dictionary, slavery, people being burned at the stake, walking miles to school, living in caves, sleeping on the ground, ice ages, Nazi holocausts, civil war, infant mortality, global floods, ethnic cleansing, using leaves as toilet paper, using leeches as medicine, using wooden mallets as an anesthetic, fighting wild saber-tooth tigers, cannibalism, occupation by the Persian Empire...” 

That said, plenty of people this year have lost loved ones, jobs, etc. So, perspective is good, but let’s be honest: it doesn’t deliver much comfort when you’re hurting in the present. It’s as Solomon said: “Like one who takes off a garment on a cold day, or like vinegar on soda, is one who sings songs to a troubled heart” (Prov. 25:20).

But what does provide comfort is the constant reminder we see in Scripture about the sovereignty of God.

Sparrows don’t fall to the ground without His notice nor does Satan go one link farther on his chain than God allows. Scripture is crystal clear on this topic.

The Bible is also upfront about the fact that, while we’re asked to keep at least a six-feet space between each other at the moment to help stop the spread of COVID-19, God doesn’t maintain a social distance. Jesus put Himself on a cross, which tells me that God does not remain far-off when it comes to our pain and suffering.

Hardships always come but Romans 8:28 tells us He uses those situations for good. There’s no question that process involves mystery, but as Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said: “God is too good to be unkind and He is too wise to be mistaken. And when we cannot trace His hand, we must trust His heart.”

Lastly, there’s one sure fire way of getting past any personal despair you may be feeling.

A very experienced psychiatrist was once asked what he would do if he felt the presence of an oncoming depression. He surprised his questioner by saying, “I would find someone who is hurting and needs assistance more than I do, and I would help them.”

This is a dimension of doing-unto-others that you don’t hear often, but it’s one to which even secular psychologists are admitting. Tina Griego and Susan Greene’s article on the despair being experienced in Colorado ends with the same acknowledgement: “At least for now, still in the thick of it, our surest safety nets may be each other.”

So yes, life has claws. But as Christian apologist John Lennox points out in an interview, those claws only go so deep because of our, “relationship with Christ, through trusting Him and His death and particularly His resurrection. COVID-19 can’t touch that. I mean that quite sincerely. I might die of COVID-19 on a shopping trip. I might catch it, and because of underlying health problems, it would probably kill me. But what helps me to face it – not understand it all, not solve all the problems – but what helps me face it is the confidence that I have a relationship that actually transcends death.

And this is a very big thing.”

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Hindus beat and threaten to sacrifice pastor in India for distributing Bible tracts

 

Hindu extremists in India brutally tortured a pastor, belting his head and threatening to sacrifice him to their god because he distributed Bible tracts. 

Morning Star News reports that recently Shelton Vishwanathan, a house church pastor, was handing out Gospel tracts in Tiryani village, in Bihar state’s Sheohar District when six Hindu radicals approached him and ordered him to stop. 

Though the pastor complied, one Hindu seized the keys from his scooter, took away his phone and signaled the others to attack him.

“They punched my back and told me that they would offer me as a sacrifice to their deity as a punishment for distributing gospel tracts,” he recalled. “They struck severe blows on my head, so that I soon fainted.”

When he regained consciousness, he found himself locked in a dark room.

“I shouted for help, cried loud hoping someone would hear my cries and come to help me, but nobody could hear me,” Pastor Vishwanathan said. “I was lying down on the floor without food or water for the next few days. They did not give me anything to eat or drink.”

One week later, an elderly woman who lives nearby heard his cries and knocked on the door, he said.

“She told me that the door was bolted from outside and that she would open it for me on the condition that I would not tell anyone that she opened it,” he said. “She was very scared that if the assailants found out that she opened the door, she would also land in trouble.”

The woman took him out of the room and later gave him food and water, saving his life. 

“Had she not helped, I would not be alive today,” he said. “I fully believe that it was God who sent her to help me.”

After returning to his home in Sheohar, the pastor learned his family had searched for him throughout the district and eventually fled to his wife’s hometown in Nepal.

With help from other Christians, eventually, he was able to make contact and pay for his family to return home nearly a month after the attack. 

“I am overjoyed to see the Lord’s hand in every situation over the past two months,” said Vishwanathan. “My family who thought I must have been lost and died have returned to see me alive. We give thanks and praises to the Lord.”

This is not the first time the pastor has been attacked for his faith. In June 2019, eight Hindu extremists in Sheohar District pushed him off his scooter, breaking his hand and foot as they beat him.

Though the legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom India urged the pastor to file charges against the attackers, he refused.

“I had come under attack several times for leading a home church and sharing the gospel in villages but survived only because of God’s grace. Even in the past, the police warned me that there is a threat to my life. As the Navratri [Hindu festival] celebrations were in full swing, if I was found again the assailants might have really offered me as a sacrifice to the deity,” he explained.

Violence against Christians in Bihar state, in India’s northeast bordering Nepal and Bangladesh, has increased over the last few years. Christianity is practiced by less than 0.5% of the population, while Hindus make up 82.7% of the population. 

A recent report from United Christian Forum in India, a Christian organization that advocates on behalf of Christians in India, found that attacks on Christians and their places of worship in the state escalated in both number and severity in the early months of 2020.

In August, it was reported that three Christians in Bihar state were brutally beaten by Hindu extremists angered by the believers’ acceptance of what they called a “foreign faith" and “foreign God.” 

Earlier, a pastor in the state was severely beaten alongside members of his congregation after he was accused of carrying out forceful conversions.

Thomas Schirrmacher, the newly-appointed head of the World Evangelical Alliance, which represents over 600 million evangelical Christians worldwide, told The Christian Post that India’s religious minorities have faced increasing persecution since Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist BJP party rose to power in 2014.

“Elections are won by the Prime Minister with this topic: ‘India is for the Hindus,’ and suddenly Muslims and Christians find themselves in a country that clearly wants to get rid of them,” he said. “They promote the idea that an Indian by nature is a Hindu. So if he is not a Hindu, he has been stolen and must be reconverted.”

“This idea was not on the market 10 years ago, and has led to an increase in discrimination and killings of Indian Christians and other minorities,” he said.

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Gunman Killed after Shooting at NYC Church during Christmas Concert

 

A man was fatally shot in the head by police on the steps of a landmark New York City cathedral Sunday afternoon after he began firing two semiautomatic handguns at the end of a Christmas choral concert, police said.

A detective, a sergeant, and an officer fired 15 rounds after the man started shooting just before 4 p.m. at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, mother church of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, New York Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said.

“It is by the grace of God today,” Shea said, that no one besides the gunman was struck.

Witnesses told police the man was yelling “kill me” as he fired, Shea said. The man’s name was withheld pending positive identification.

The man had a lengthy criminal history and was carrying a backpack containing a can of gasoline, rope, wire, tape, knives, and a well-worn Bible, Shea said. The police commissioner called the actions of the officers “heroic.”

The 45-minute concert had just concluded and people were starting to walk away when a series of shots was heard, sending people running down Amsterdam Avenue screaming and diving to the sidewalk.

The gunman was dressed in black with his face obscured by a white baseball cap and a face mask. He held a silver pistol in one hand and a black one in the other as he stepped from behind a stone column at the top of the staircase.

A video posted on social media by one bystander showed officers crouched behind trash cans yelling “drop the gun!” and firing carefully aimed shots at the man for at least a minute and half as he darted in and out from behind a pillar.

Some terrified civilians lay prone at the bottom of the steps, clutching each other during the gunfire. Others cowered behind a lamp post. They ran for safety after the gunman was felled by an officer's shot.

Before the gunfire began, the concert featured members of the cathedral choir standing far apart on the stone steps wearing masks because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“It was just beautiful, and then at the end this person started shooting. Everybody is in shock,” a cathedral spokeswoman, Lisa Schubert, told The New York Times. “The shooter could have killed a lot of people. There were hundreds of people here and he shot at least 20 times.”

It wasn’t clear if the gunman was aiming at people or firing in the air.

“It is horrible that our choir’s gift to New York City, a much-needed afternoon of song and unity, was cut short by this shocking act of violence,” cathedral spokeswoman Iva Benson said by email.

The cathedral is one of the world’s largest. Construction began in 1892 and is still incomplete. The church has been connected to many New York luminaries and notable events over its long history. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a trustee. It hosted the memorial services for puppeteer Jim Henson and choreographer Alvin Ailey, and speakers over the years including South Africa’s Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

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Feeling anxious? Follow the peace

 

I know I’ve been writing about anxiety a lot this year. But my goodness, it feels like I honestly can’t catch a break from it. It feels like the nature of 2020. At the beginning of the year I, like many others, chose a word to define my year, and I truly can’t remember what mine was, but I can most certainly tell you what it has become – anxiety. With a steady, constant flow, I have felt tossed about by fear on many levels. In my entire life I haven’t dealt with as much worry surrounding as many wide-ranging topics as I have during this long, turbulent year. 

Even with weekly therapy sessions, journaling, and regularly making space to process, I still feel like I am trying to fit a round peg into a square hole. 

I keep trying to make this year into something it is not. I have continued to try and keep up with others’ expectations by trying to figure out a way to do it all. I have continued to max myself out in an attempt to be everything everyone else needs me to be: friend, mother, wife, daughter, and employee. All of this at the expense of my most important relationship – self. 

I have stretched myself past my limits to accomplish what I think everyone else needs, and completely lost touch with my mind and body screaming at me to STOP.

Out of a fear of feeling the loss that came with stillness and the ache that comes with saying no, I have ignored and forsaken the invitation to rest in the margin this year extended to me.

Can you relate? Recently God has been pressing an age old truth on my heart: follow the peace.

Things are looking worse here with Covid, not better. That is not me being a pessimist, just a realist. And with that, our fear and anxiety is probably here to stay, at least for a bit longer. I have often wondered how do you find peace in a world that’s not peaceful? Can you find rest in a restless world? 

Maybe we have to stop waiting for circumstances to change, maybe we need to find the peace in the midst of them.

The fatigue I’ve felt around decision making and meeting status-quo this year has left me utterly exhausted and on edge. But, going forward, I’m going to apply this principle of following the peace. Where is peace? What decisions bring peace? Check! Seek those, they are a yes. Which decisions or opportunities bring confusion or a feeling of unsettling? Negative! No thanks, maybe later, but definitely not right now.

What activities bring peace to you? Getting outside for a walk? Calling a close friend or relative? Therapy? Cancelling plans? Saying no? Saying a meaningful yes? Follow the peace those activities or actions bring. And value keeping your peace above all else.

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” –John 14:27

A lot of this year is completely out of our control. And if we focus on the control we don’t have, it will completely overwhelm us. But we have a choice, to focus on what we can control. We can control our decision making and how we spend our time. God is inviting us into a place of rest where we follow his peace for us in every decision. And we fully let go of the things in our lives not offering us that place of rest. 

In times as traumatic as these, there is no space for unnecessary burdens and losing touch with ourselves. Today I will take some time to figure out where God is highlighting his peace in my life, and I will cut away at what does not. 

Will you join me?

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Only those who attended church frequently escaped downward mental health trend in 2020

 

According to a Gallup Poll released Monday, those who attend church frequently were the only group of Americans that did not see the state of their mental health decline in 2020.

The results of Gallup’s November Health and Healthcare survey, conducted annually since 2001, reveal that the share of Americans who classify their mental health as “excellent” has reached an all-time low of 34%. The share of Americans who describe their mental health as “excellent/good” has also reached a record low of 76%. Nearly every demographic subgroup saw the state of their mental health decrease from 2019 to 2020.

However, among Americans who attend religious services weekly, 46% classified their mental health as excellent. That figure is an increase from the 42% who saw their mental health as excellent in 2019.

Those who attended church services weekly were also the group of Americans with the highest share of people who rated their mental health as excellent in 2020. Americans who made more than $100,000 a year came in a close second, with 45% describing their mental health as excellent.

This represents a change from 2019, when Americans making $40,000 or more, white Americans, those over the age of 50, Americans who attend church services almost weekly or monthly, Republicans, political independents, married people and men all had higher shares of people who classified their mental health as excellent than the most religious Americans.

In 2019, the share of frequent church attendees who believed that their mental health was excellent was actually identical to the share of Americans who seldom or never attend church services who said the same. The only groups where a lower share of respondents said that they had excellent mental health were women, Democrats, non-white Americans, unmarried people, people younger than 50, and those who made less than $40,000 a year.

The increase in the number of religious Americans who identify their mental health as excellent comes as churches across the country have seen their ability to hold in-person worship services hindered by coronavirus restrictions imposed by the governors of their respective states. Religious Americans have seen some victories in recent weeks, with U.S. Supreme Court rulings striking down worship restrictions in New York and California.

A recent survey conducted by the law firm Becket found that 74% of Generation Z respondents, the youngest group of Americans that have reached adulthood, described their faith as “somewhat important” during the pandemic. In a lawsuit challenging the forced closure of Christian schools in Lucas County, Ohio, attorney Brian Fox pointed to religious schools as a source of students’ “purpose, faith, and abiding hope.”

Meanwhile, the share of Americans who attend religious services “nearly weekly/monthly” or “seldom/never” that reported excellent mental health declined 12% and 13% from 2019 to 2020, respectively. All other groups saw their mental health decline over the past year, with the highest drops in those describing their mental health as “excellent” among Republicans (-15%) and those making $40,000 or more (-12%).

Among seniors, white Americans, women and unmarried people, the share of people who described their mental health as excellent dropped by 10%. All other groups saw single-digit declines in the share of people who saw their mental health as excellent.

“The latest weakening in positive ratings, from a Nov. 5-19 poll, are undoubtedly influenced by the coronavirus pandemic, which continues to profoundly disrupt people’s lives, but may also reflect views of the elections and the state of race relations, both of which were on Americans’ minds this year,” the Gallup survey concluded.

A random sample of 1,018 American adults living in all 50 states and the District of Columbia participated in the survey, which had a margin of error of +/- 4%.

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Harvard now refers to women as 'birthing people'

 

In a tweet promoting one of its panel discussions, Harvard Medical School referred to women as “birthing people” to be more inclusive of those who identify as nonbinary or transgender. 

In a Nov. 8 tweet, Harvard Medical School’s Postgraduate and Continuing Education proclaimed that “Globally, ethnic minority pregnant and birthing people suffer worse outcomes and experiences during and after pregnancy and childbirth” as it promoted a panel discussion about “Maternal Justice.”

The use of the term “birthing people” to describe women resulted in negative reactions from many commenters. “During slavery black women were referred to as breeders. This experiment to dehumanize women & to deconstruct us into nothing more than holes & body parts for men to use, started with black women. This is regressive and not progressive. Stop perpetuating this nonsense!” one Twitter user wrote.

“Reducing us to ‘birthing people’ is vile but also shows, glaringly, why women are underserved in medicine. Your contempt for us couldn’t be more apparent. We are women, and we will not be swept aside,” said another.

Another Twitter user who describes herself as a feminist responded to the tweet by describing it as “Foul foul foul. Say the word WOMEN!! WOMEN!! This is dehumanizing and sickening.”

In another post in its Twitter thread highlighting the panel, which came in response to the backlash, Harvard acknowledged that “the webinar panelists used the term ‘birthing person’ to include those who identify as non-binary or transgender because not all who give birth identify as ‘women’ or ‘girls.’”

“We understand the reactions to this terminology and in no way meant for it to erase or dehumanize women,” the university said.

Harvard’s embrace of “inclusive” terminology is not a new phenomenon. Many conservatives, including YouTube personality Sydney Watson, have reacted to the push for inclusive gender terminology with disgust for quite a long time.

Earlier this year, Watson posted Motherboard's list of “Suggested (Inclusive) sexual health language” on her Instagram page. 

The list suggests that the phrase “persons who menstruate” be used instead of “female/women,” “persons who produce sperm” instead of “male/men,” “pregnant persons” instead of “pregnant women,” “chest-feeding” instead of “breastfeeding” and “birthing persons” instead of “mother.” Some of those phrases have also become more widespread and have even drawn the ire of self-proclaimed feminists.

Sarcastically responding to an op-ed talking about “people who menstruate,” Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling tweeted: “I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?” Rowling received intense backlash for the tweet, with critics calling her “transphobic.”

When Healthline published an article with the term ‘vulva owners’ in the headline, Watson responded by saying, “Actually, we prefer to be called women.”

“Isn’t it amazing that women’s rights have progressed SO far that we’re no longer even referred to as ‘women,’ or even ‘females?’ So glad I’m now characterized as a ‘birthing person’ and a ‘vulva owner,’” Watson said in a subsequent tweet.

In a lengthy essay released shortly after she expressed disapproval of the phrase “people who menstruate,” Rowling seemed to agree that the inclusive language is actually dehumanizing to women:

“The ‘inclusive’ language that calls female people ‘menstruators’ and ‘people with vulvas’ strikes many women as dehumanizing and demeaning. I understand why trans activists consider this language to be appropriate and kind, but for those of us who’ve had degrading slurs spat at us by men, it’s not neutral, it’s hostile and alienating.”

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