WORLD Magazine, Dec. 27, 2014 Vol. 29 No. 26

BAD OBAMACARE NEWS // GOOD SNOWFLAKE BABY NEWS

DECEMBE R 2 7, 2 0 14

Runaway sleigh Misgivings grow as Uncle Sam repeats mistakes of welfare’s past and expects different results

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DEC2714 / VOLUME 29 / NUMBER 26

COVER STORY

Far as the curse is found

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The poverty rate remains stubbornly high 50 years—and trillions of dollars—after the federal war on poverty began, but some have learned true riches come from a source higher than government

F E AT UR E S

DEPARTMENTS

44 A nation at risk

4 Joel Belz 7 DISPATCHES

Extreme poverty, dependency, and distrust plague the Navajo Nation, and secular solutions aren’t working

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50 Iowa basics

With midterms over, attention turns to 2016 and the high-profile first presidential caucus

54 Code blue

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A string of bad news has beset Obamacare, and worse is likely on the way WORLD and Obamacare

ON THE COVER Illustration by Krieg Barrie

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Photo of Madeleine Kara Lim: handout

News Human Race Quotables Quick Takes

22 Janie B. Cheaney 25 CULTURE Movies & TV Books Q&A Music

34 Mindy Belz 59 NOTEBOOK Lifestyle Technology Science Houses of God Sports Religion

67 Mailbag 71 Andrée Seu Peterson 72 Marvin Olasky g Visit our website—wng.org—for breaking news and more

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—Psalm 24:1 editorial Editor in Chief Marvin Olasky Editor Mindy Belz Managing Editor Timothy Lamer News Editor Jamie Dean Senior Writers Janie B. Cheaney • Susan Olasky Andrée Seu Peterson • John Piper Edward E. Plowman • Cal Thomas • Lynn Vincent Reporters Emily Belz • J.C. Derrick Daniel James Devine • Sophia Lee • Angela Lu Correspondents Megan Basham Julie Borg • Anthony Bradley • Andrew Branch Tim Challies • Michael Cochrane • Kiley Crossland John Dawson • Amy Henry • Mary Jackson Michael Leaser • Jill Nelson • Arsenio Orteza Stephanie Perrault • Joy Pullmann • Emily Whitten Mailbag Editor Les Sillars Executive Assistant June McGraw Editorial Assistants Kristin Chapman • Mary Ruth Murdoch

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Joel Belz

Double trouble

With one action, the president offended both those who want less immigration and those who respect the law

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‘Let them follow the rules. I want them to feel welcome. But they have to do it legally.’

Jacquelyn Martin/ap

Folks who claim that President Barack Obama is overly consumed with political considerations have a tough riddle to solve: If politics are so all-important, why does the president keep doing things that are so politically awkward?

Specifically, why did Obama respond to his disastrous midterm election results with an executive order on immigration that he should have known would be colossally unpopular? If he’d just headed from the White House on the morning of Nov. 5 to the nearest Walmart, he could have learned all he needed to know.

I can tell you that, of course, because that’s what I do, from time to time, to ground myself in political reality. I did it again last week—and, boy, were the Walmart shoppers ready to talk!

Obama would not have liked what he heard.

I’ve done these very folksy and informal ­surveys at least 15 or 20 times in the last 20 years—but never have I heard folks respond so lopsidedly on one side of the issue. “Tell me, please,” I would ask while waving my right hand in a shopper’s face. “If over here on this side we put up a big stop sign in front of those who want to enter the U.S. from other countries, but over here on the other side” (now I’d start welcoming them with my left hand) “we promise that we’ve got room and that we’ll find a way to take care of you—on that spectrum, where would you put yourself?”

There was no pussyfooting among my respondents. Not a single person said anything resembling a cautious “Well, I’d have to think about that.” “Let me tell you straight up,” said Elmo Faren. “I don’t mean no harm to nobody.

Fact is, it may say more bad about me than it does about somebody who’s illegal. But when you’re full up, you’re full up. We’re full up. I’ve got a job, but it’s been 10 years since I’ve had anything like a real job that pays me enough to

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live on. Ask me—and I guess you did!—and I’ll tell you we’re headed the wrong direction.”

Ronda Brockwell played the same tune. “So,” I asked her, “what do you think of Mr. Obama’s executive order protecting 5 million immigrants from deportation? Do you have any advice for him?” “Well, he was wrong,” Ronda said. “He should be asking God for advice—and obviously, he’s not doing that.”

Indeed, in 28 short conversations with Walmart shoppers, I didn’t find a single one who was ready to defend the latest Obama pronouncements on immigration. (There was, to be sure, the attractive Hispanic family, with a full shopping cart.

They knew just enough English to learn what my mission was—and then graciously argued that they were late and had to hurry on.)

I wasn’t surprised by the ­proportion of the other 27 who just seemed “anti-immigration.”

“Enough is enough!” said Vickie Gaddy. And then she emphasized by repeating: “Enough is enough! Let’s just leave it at that.” Another shopper, who didn’t want me to use her name, said simply: “Charity begins at home, doesn’t it? We have enough serious needs right here.”

I was startled, though, by the number, ­certainly exceeding half, who stressed that their exception to Mr. Obama’s late November ­executive orders is based on what they see as an extralegal, or even illegal, process. “I’m a believer in a relatively low hurdle for those who want to come in on a legal basis,” suggested David Phelan. “But what we have right now is chaos. Let them build an orderly structure for those who want citizenship, and then follow that structure.” Jacqueline Marlowe agreed: “Let them follow the rules. I want them to feel ­welcome. But they have to do it legally.”

So the president, it seemed, was with a ­single action sticking his finger in the eyes of two huge political blocks. On the one hand, he was offending those who simply don’t want more immigration. But on the other, he was proving just as offensive to those who wouldn’t mind welcoming more outsiders—but want to achieve that end in an orderly manner.

But why alienate both groups? Where, in all this, is the always-calculating politician? What is the political benefit when even a crude sidewalk survey suggests that he’s chosen an altogether losing proposition? I just don’t get it. A

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12/9/14 12:09 PM

Lana’s story: Heel injury

Member for fourteen years

Echocardiogram

Go to: mysamaritanstory.org

Lana “We’re going to give up on this concept of insurance and trust God and His people?! Yeah, of course! That’s a no-brainer!”

For more than twenty years, Samaritan Ministries’ members have been sharing one another’s medical needs, without using health insurance, through a Biblical model of community among believers.

Samaritan members share directly with each other and do not share in abortions and other unbiblical practices.

JACQUELYN MARTIN/AP

Come see what our members are saying and start your Samaritan story today at: mysamaritanstory.org

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12/8/14 10:20 AM

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passion for STEM?

For graduation rates, the median debt of students who completed the program and other important info visit go.bju.edu/rates. (17797) 11/14

Do you have a

DISPATCHES NEWS / HUMAN RACE / QUOTABLES / QUICK TAKES

DEC. 6

CASSIDY WINS

SEAN GARDNER/GET T Y IMAGES

The Democratic Party lost its last Senate seat in the Deep South as Republican Bill Cassidy defeated incumbent Mary Landrieu in a runoff election in Louisiana.

Cassidy won 56 percent of the vote to Landrieu’s 44 percent by tying Landrieu to President Obama, who has a 39 percent approval rating in the state.

Landrieu campaigned on the promise that her position as the chair of the Senate’s Energy Committee would help the oil-rich state. Yet after Republicans won the Senate majority, she could no longer hold the post. Beginning January, Republicans will hold 54 seats in the Senate, nine more than they currently hold.

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dec. 5

Obama picks Carter

dec. 3

Hong Kong movement Three leaders of the Hong Kong protests turned themselves in to the police in a largely symbolic gesture to press for free elections and encourage an end to the months-long protest.

Police did not arrest Benny Tai, Chan Kin-man, and Chu Yiuming—the founders of Occupy Central—and only held them in the station for less than an hour.

Another 65 protesters also ­surrendered at the station. Yet other protesters refused to back down so easily: Student leader Joshua Wong went on a hunger strike to pressure talks with the government, but had to end it four days later for health reasons.

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carter: Jacquelyn Martin • hong kong: L am Yik Fei/Get t y Images • orion: Smiley N. Pool/Houston Chronicle/AP

President Barack Obama nominated Ashton Carter to replace Chuck Hagel as defense secretary after Hagel resigned under pressure in late November. Carter, who holds the second-incommand position of deputy defense secretary, formerly taught physics at Oxford and started working in the Pentagon under the Clinton administration.

Analysts say he is more assertive than his predecessor and would be more likely to recommend using American power.

But they also say the Defense Department has little foreign policy influence in the Obama administration. Carter will likely have a smooth confirmation, as he enjoys support from Senate Republicans.

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4:40 PM

DEC. 5

ORION IN THE SKY In what may be the first step toward taking humans to Mars, NASA launched the unmanned capsule Orion 3,600 miles into space, 15 times higher than the International Space Station.

Orion made two trips around the earth before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean four hours later. NASA off icials hope to send astronauts out on an Orion flight in seven years, but first need to ensure the craft can safely transport human beings. With their eyes fixed on Mars, NASA off icials celebrated the successful test flight: “There’s your new spacecraft, America,” announced Mission Control’s Rob Navias.

CARTER: JACQUELYN MARTIN • HONG KONG: L AM YIK FEI/GET T Y IMAGES • ORION: SMILEY N. POOL/HOUSTON CHRONICLE/AP

D E C E M B E R 2 7, 2 0 1 4

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dec. 6

Hagupit hits the Philippines

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PHILIPPINES: A aron Favila/AP • HUANGS: Bassem Wahbi/L ake Avenue Church/AP • CONGRESSMEN: J. Scot t Applewhite/AP

At least 21 persons died and more than a million others evacuated into shelters as Typhoon Hagupit hit the central Philippines, an area still recovering from last year’s Typhoon Haiyan, which left 7,000 persons dead or missing. Hagupit made landfall in the resort town of San Juan, about 60 miles south of the capital of Manila, with maximum sustained winds of 53 mph and gusts of 62 mph. Thankfully, the devastation this time around was less than officials had expected. Two days later, Hagupit weakened to a tropical storm and officials allowed villagers to return home.

Nov. 30

home for Christmas

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PHILIPPINES: A aron Favila/AP • HUANGS: Bassem Wahbi/L ake Avenue Church/AP • CONGRESSMEN: J. Scot t Applewhite/AP

A Qatari court cleared Matthew and Grace Huang of any wrongdoing in the death of their adopted daughter, Gloria, and four days later allowed the ­couple to return home to Los Angeles and reunite with their two adopted sons. The Huangs were imprisoned for a year after officials accused them of starving Gloria to death to harvest her organs. The Huangs said Gloria suffered from an eating disorder developed from ­childhood malnutrition in Ghana and chalked the accusations up to misunderstandings about cross-cultural adoption.

Officials initially blocked the Christian couple at the airport and confiscated their passports, but eventually allowed them to leave. At Lake Avenue Church, Matthew Huang said worshipping with their church family was “something we longed for for so long.”

dec. 4

Protest vote House Republicans responded to President Obama’s executive action on immigration by passing a measure stating the president did not have the authority to grant legal status to millions of illegal immigrants. Supporters acknowledged the bill would not pass through the Democraticled Senate, yet wanted to send a message of their anger. Some in the Republican Party want to use the House’s authority of spending to defund immigration policy changes, yet GOP leaders worry that such action would lead to another government shutdown that would hurt the party. Polls, however, continued to show the public opposes the executive order.

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Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa. (right), and Rep. Mike D. Rogers, R-Ala., arrive for votes on Capitol Hill Dec. 4.

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Around the globe

MORE NEWS OF THE WORLD IS ON OUR WEBSITE: WNG.ORG

FINLAND Nearly 12,000 persons resigned membership in the Lutheran Church after its archbishop expressed support for same-sex marriage. Finland’s Parliament narrowly approved legalizing gay marriage Dec. 5.

ISRAEL Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dissolved his coalition government Dec. 2, firing two cabinet ministers and calling for elections in early 2015—more than two years ahead of schedule.

SYRIA With the onset of winter, the UN World Food Programme halted food aid to 1.7 million Syrian refugees, saying it had run out of funds.

AFGHANISTAN Taliban fighters stormed a U.S. aid compound, killing longtime Christian aid worker Werner Groenewald, his two children, and two Afghans.

KENYA The International Criminal Court meeting at The Hague cleared President Uhuru Kenyatta of crimes against humanity. Kenyatta was indicted in connection with rioting in 2007 and 2008 that killed more than 1,000.

BRAZIL A widening scandal over illicit dealings involving state oil firm Petrobras could involve President Dilma Rousseff, the company’s former board chairwoman, as the country’s prosecutor general prepared to indict 11 executives.

YEMEN American photojournalist Luke Somers and South African teacher Pierre Korkie were killed by al-Qaeda militants holding them after a failed U.S. raid.

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former South26Korean lawmaker Park NEWS-Globe+LA.indd 12 Sun-young and distributed via South Korea’s Yonhap News e 1, 2013, nine young North Korean defectors who were flown back to North Korea on May 28, 2013

HANDOUT

NORTH KOREA Of nine young North Korean defectors repatriated by Laos last year, two have been executed, and the remaining seven have been sent to North Korea’s notorious prison camp—a modern-day gulag and hellhole of torture, forced labor, and inhumane conditions. It was the first time Laos handed over defectors directly to North Korea, and all were believed to be orphans between the ages of 15 and 23. “My heart breaks for the fact that all that work trying to rouse media and international sympathies for the kids were for nothing,” said a South Korean missionary (not named for security reasons) who cared for the defectors. “But it breaks even more when I think about the seven kids still suff ering in prison camp.”

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GREAT BRITAIN The National Health Service revised birth guidelines, saying home births are safer than hospital deliveries for low-risk pregnancies.

Looking ahead DEC. 21

Controversial pastor Rob Bell, who said he left Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, Mich., to broaden his audience, has found his ministry’s logical conclusion: an Oprah network television special.

Bell will star in a new one-hour talk show set to debut on OWN today.

Evangelicals have criticized Bell for preaching universalism.

DEC. 24

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Construction on Nicaragua’s proposed interoceanic canal linking the Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean will begin today and is slated for completion in 2019. The canal, hailed by Nicaraguan officials as a possible solution to the nation’s grinding poverty, projects to be a competitor with the Panama Canal for interoceanic traffic.

T RUST WORT H Y C H R IST I A N

DEC. 26

I N T ER N ET

The Friday after Christmas will be a holiday for all but the most essential federal government employees. Citing recent pay freezes and furloughs, President Barack Obama decided to give federal employees the paid day off through an executive order on Dec. 5.

R A DIO Reformation Network, the always-on streaming radio station, features

DEC. 28

USA Today will publish its last edition of USA Weekend magazine, a lifestyle publication that ran as an insert in more than 800 newspapers across the country. Industry experts blame declining advertising revenue for the closure.

biblical preaching and teaching, Scripture, news, audiobooks, music and more. Available for free through your app store or online at RefNet.fm.

JAN. 1

As many Americans enter 2015 paying lower fuel costs, Californians may not get the same break.

Provisions in the Golden State’s cap-and-trade law go into effect today that force gasoline wholesalers to purchase carbon off sets. Many analysts expect the regulation to raise prices for gasoline customers by as much as 13 to 20 cents per gallon by 2020.

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12/10/14 9:08 AM

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Community crisis

Protesters minorities. Trip rally on Dec. 4 Lee, an Africanin the Brooklyn American rapper borough of and a Christian, New York. composed a song and released it after the grand jury’s ruling. “I wanna say to all my young black men / I know it’s feeling like we just can’t win / But in your anger don’t sin … Where’s your hope at? Mine is in Him.” Beidel said he was proud of New Yorkers’ response to the ruling—both the “restraint” of the police officers handling the protests and the peacefulness of the protesters. While protesters were periodically arrested for blocking roadways, New York had none of the looting and burning of the Ferguson, Mo., protests.

Garner’s death occurred in the ­context of a changing NYPD. Mayor Bill de Blasio largely won election last

­ fficers in neighborhoods like his have o a difficult job, but the law-abiding ­residents pay a price for the seesawing law enforcement approaches.

“On one end of the spectrum, a heavy-handed policy can result in many innocent young men being harassed or rounded up in wide, blind arrest sweeps,” he said. “On the other end, residents live in terror of the local gangs because police officers try to avoid any confrontation in the [New York Housing Authority] complexes that may lead to accusations of brutality. There is a desperate need for a new generation of police officers who know the youth and families in our struggling communities by face and name.”

New Hope Community Church, for its part, had already been planning to start a basketball league in its parking lot next summer with neighborhood youth and police officers. A

New Yorkers wrestle with police relations after Eric Garner ruling by Emily Belz in New York, N.Y.

David Beidel has been a pastor in Staten Island for more than 20 years. His church, New Hope Community, is across the street from the West Brighton Housing Projects, and many of his congregants are low-income minorities. Beidel is also the president of the Staten Island Association of Evangelicals, a surprisingly diverse group of 20 evangelical churches on the majority-white Staten Island.

SIAE’s 20 churches have black, white, Chinese, and Hispanic pastors, congregations with white police ­officers and impoverished minorities.

The pastors meet regularly to pray, and worked together closely when Hurricane Sandy devastated many of their neighborhoods in 2012.

Several of the pastors from the association went with Beidel to pray at the spot where African-American Eric Garner died on Staten Island, the night the grand jury handed down its decision not to indict the police officer involved in his death. The churches held a prayer meeting the Sunday after.

Beidel describes Staten Island as having a “Mason-Dixon line,” where racial minorities largely live north of Interstate 278 and whites live south.

The Garner incident happened north of the “Mason-Dixon line,” back in July.

NYPD officers arrested Garner for ­selling loose cigarettes on the street, while he protested and told them not to touch him.

One of the officers put him in a choke hold in the course of the arrest, a practice banned in the NYPD. Garner gasped, said, “I can’t breathe,” over and over, and then went unconscious. When EMTs arrived shortly after, they did not give him oxygen or try to resuscitate him.

The encounter was captured on video, but the Staten Island grand jury did not indict the officer. Now the NYPD is conducting its own

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investigation, and the Department of Justice has opened an investigation on potential civil rights violations.

Protests broke out in New York and in other cities after the grand jury’s decision. The evangelical churches in New York were largely unified in calling for peaceful protest, prayer, and more attention to the voices of ethnic

year on a platform of ending Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s stop-and-frisk policy. This year, the crime rate has dropped even as the number of police stops has dropped by 79 percent. The number of misconduct complaints against the police has also had a significant drop from last year.

Still, the racial breakdown of those stopped is about the same. Police commissioner Bill Bratton is a proponent of the “broken windows” theory of policing, where his officers go after low-level violations like turnstile jumping in the subway—and selling loose cigarettes. Beidel said police

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12/10/14 7:58 AM

23 Years of Answering to God in All We Do!

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FOUND Police found Ohio State University defensive lineman Kosta Karageorge, 22, dead of a selfinflicted gunshot wound on Nov. 30. They found the player in a Columbus, Ohio, dumpster four days after he went missing.

Karageorge’s mother, who told authorities her son had been dealing with bouts of confusion due to concussions, said on the day of his death he sent her a text message saying he was sorry if he was “an embarrassment.”

Karageorge, also an Ohio State wrestler, would have been recognized at senior day during the No. 6 Buckeyes’ final regular season game on Nov. 29.

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RESIGNED The New Republic, a longtime bastion of liberal journalism, virtually died days after former President Bill Clinton appeared at its 100th birthday bash. At least nine senior staff and some two dozen contributing editors resigned en masse on Dec. 5 after owner Chris Hughes hired a new editor without notifying the current editor he was fired. Freelance contributors also pulled scheduled stories, forcing Hughes to suspend publication until February. The protesting staffers believe Hughes wants to make the publication a click-focused digital media company.

HUGHES: ERANGA JAYAWARDENA/AP • K ARAGEORGE: JOE ROBBINS/GET T Y IMAGES • WAT T: SAM GREENWOOD/GET T Y IMAGES

Cricket star Phillip Hughes, 25, died on Nov. 27 after he was struck in the back of the neck during a match in Australia. Hughes, who would have turned 26 on Nov. 30, was from England but was playing for South Australia. The league canceled matches after Hughes’ injury and will have to make a decision about opening the next season. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott was among about 5,000 mourners who attended Hughes’ funeral, which was broadcast to millions worldwide.

Houston Texans star J.J. Watt, 25, sent pizzas on Nov. 25 to local firefighters and police to express gratitude for their work. Watt—using impressive penmanship— included a handwritten, full-page letter of thanks: “As athletes, we often get the headlines and big crowds, but just like the men & women of our military, y’all are the ones who truly deserve the credit, appreciation & admiration.”

Watt is enjoying one of the best defensive seasons in NFL history: He has 11.5 quarterback sacks and on Nov. 30 became the first defensive lineman since 1944 to score five touchdowns in a single season.

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12/10/14 9:17 AM

BOYLE: REX FEATURES VIA AP IMAGES • RICHARD III: SOCIET Y OF ANTIQUITIES OF LONDON VIA UNIVERSIT Y OF LEICESTER/AP • DOYLE: MICHAEL BRADLEY/AFP/GET T Y IMAGES • REZAIAN: VAHID SALEMI/AP

SENT

By the numbers

Hughes: Eranga Jayawardena/ap • K arageorge: Joe Robbins/Get t y Images • Wat t: Sam Greenwood/Get t y Images

Boyle: Rex Features via AP Images • Richard III: Societ y Of Antiquities Of London via Universit y of Leicester/ap • Doyle: MICHAEL BRADLEY/AFP/Get t y Images • Rezaian: Vahid Salemi/ap

Dating Scottish singer Susan Boyle dreamed a dream, and it might be coming true. Boyle, who became an international sensation with her 2009 Britain’s Got Talent performance, has her first boyfriend at age 53. Boyle revealed the news to The Sun, a British newspaper, saying her beau is a doctor in Connecticut but declining to name him.

She said they met at a luxury hotel in Florida during a promotional tour of the United States. Boyle, whose personal story helped endear her to audiences, has sold more than 20 ­million albums over the last five years.

Confirmed Scientists have confirmed that genetic material recovered in 2012 belongs to King Richard III, an English monarch who died in the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. The discovery could have profound implications: DNA testing did not fully match the royal line, indicating marital infidelity likely occurred somewhere between the 14th and 15th centuries— which could cast doubt on the Tudor claim to the English throne. Professor Kevin Schurer, who worked on the project, told BBC News, “We may have solved one historical puzzle, but in so doing, we opened up a whole new one.”

18 trillion The national debt as of Dec. 1, in U.S. ­dollars, according to the U.S. Treasury.

The debt was up $7.379 trillion since President Barack Obama took office in 2009.

13 & 13

Accepted A former British spy, Phyllis Latour Doyle, 93, reluctantly stepped back into the spotlight when she accepted the Legion of Honour, France’s highest honor. At age 23 Doyle parachuted into Nazicontrolled territory near Normandy to gather intelligence on German troop locations in the months leading up to D-Day. Doyle—trained by a cat burglar who was released from prison to help the war effort— disguised herself as a poor French girl selling soap from her bicycle and eventually transmitted 135 secret messages to Allied Command. Doyle’s four children only learned of her spy past 15 years ago when they discovered it online.

Dropped Protests erupted in Egypt after a court dropped charges against former dictator Hosni Mubarak, 86,

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26 HUMAN RACE.indd 17

who was accused of killing protestors in the 2011 uprising that ended his 30-year rule. Protesters, mostly university ­students, saw the action as further erosion of the rights they won, and some claimed the old guard is back in charge. Mahmoud Kamel al-Rashidi, the judge who dismissed the charges, said Mubarak made mistakes but “to rule for or against him after he has become old will be left to history and the judge of judges.”

Charged A Tehran court formally leveled charges at Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian on Dec. 6 after Iranian authorities arrested him in July on unknown charges. The accusations against Rezaian remain unclear, because the court proceeding was closed and Rezaian’s lawyer hasn’t been allowed to meet with

The weight in pounds and ounces at birth of Mia Yasmin Hernandez, born on Dec. 1 in Alamosa, Colo.

40

The percentage drop in the price of oil between July and early December. Oil traded at $63 per ­barrel on Dec. 8. That same day, the average price for a gallon of gasoline had fallen to $2.67 from $3.26 the year before, according to AAA. Energy experts predicted that increased production would continue to bring prices down next year.

his client. Rezaian, an Iranian-American who holds dual citizenship, became the Post’s Tehran bureau chief in 2012.

Secretary of State John Kerry in a statement said he has “repeatedly raised Jason’s case, and the other cases of detained or missing U.S. citizens, directly with Iranian officials” during ongoing negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program. A DECEMBER 2 7 , 2 0 1 4 WORLD

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DISPATCHES

QUOTABLES

‘I’ll give it to you. You have employed a lot of people, mostly as secretary of defense.’

Mock conservative host STEPHEN COLBERT to President Barack Obama in a Dec. 8 “interview” on Comedy Central, after Obama spoke about job creation. Colbert is leaving the network to replace David Letterman next year on The Late Show at CBS.

‘Jonathan Gruber was pilloried today for being the most honest architect of this law.’

DANIEL B. RODRIGUEZ, dean of the Northwestern University School of Law, on students bargaining down tuition prices at elite law schools.

With enrollment at law schools plummeting over the past few years, students have more leverage to get better deals.

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D E C E M B E R 2 7, 2 0 1 4

ROLLING STONE magazine, in a letter to readers, apologizing for not interviewing more sources for a November story about an alleged gang rape at a University of Virginia fraternity. The story didn’t interview any of the alleged attackers or check key facts. It caused the university to suspend all fraternities until next year but then began to unravel as many details were proven false. The magazine initially blamed alleged victim “Jackie” before acknowledging that it should have spoken to more sources.

COLBERT: T YLER K AUFMAN/GET T Y IMAGES • SENATE REPORT: ASSOCIATED PRESS CANNON: HANDOUT • RODRIGUEZ: BARRY BRECHEISEN/INVISION/AP

are on Rolling Stone, not on Jackie.’

‘It’s insane.

We’re in hand-tohand combat with other schools.’

WORLD

U.S. Sen. MARCO RUBIO, R-Fla., on a Senate report that claims the CIA misled the public, Congress, and the White House on its aggressive interrogation methods after 9/11.

‘These mistakes

MICHAEL CANNON of the Cato Institute on the Dec. 9 congressional hearing in which legislators grilled MIT economist Gruber, a key architect of Obamacare, over his comments that a lack of transparency and “the stupidity of the American voter” were important in passing the law (see p. 54).

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‘The one-sided report that will be released by Democrats on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence cost U.S. taxpayers over $40 million dollars to produce, and its authors never interviewed a single CIA official.’

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12/10/14 11:17 AM

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DISPATCHES

QUICK TAKES

Local control

Trash collectors

For Paolo Quezada, a beard comes with strings attached. Off icials at the Mormonowned LDS Business College in Salt Lake City, Utah, granted Quezada permission to grow a beard in November, but only if he wore his “beard exemption card” on a lanyard around his neck at all times for anyone to see. Like many Mormon educational institutions, the LDS Business College prohibits beards. Quezada earned an exemption because an acting role he is preparing for requires him to portray a bearded character.

According to his beard exemption, which expires at the end of the year, Quezada must compensate for his beard by wearing a dress shirt, tie, and slacks to class.

Branching out

A Christmas tree could spark the next fight along the Korean Peninsula’s demilitarized zone. On Dec. 2, the South Korean defense agency gave a Christian ministry permission once again to erect a 30-foot Christmas tree–like structure near the nation’s border with North Korea. The ministry says it plans to deck the structure with lights and decorations that will be visible from the north. In past years, the structure has instigated strong reactions from North Korean A South Korean soldier stands guard leaders who, viewing the Christmas tree as Christians prepare a Christmas as Western propaganda, have promised tree near the border with North to shell the structure with artillery fire.

Korea in December 2010.

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A pair of Houston teens attempting to steal a car on Nov. 30 found they needed help—from their victim. Police say the 15- and 17-year-old alleged carjackers attacked a first-year student at a local medical school as he drove toward a parking space at his apartment. The pair then took the man’s keys and attempted to steal his vehicle before being stymied by the car’s manual transmission.

According to police, the teens then forced the victim at gunpoint to show them how to operate the clutch and manual shifter.

But the quick lesson was insuff icient, and the teens had to abandon the vehicle and flee on foot when police initiated a pursuit. Both suspects were arrested on aggravated robbery charges.

ILLUSTRATION: KRIEG BARRIE • QUEZADA: HANDOUT • APPLE: AMETE/ISTOCK • SOUTH KOREA: KIM JAE-MYUNG/AFP/GET T Y IMAGES • MANUAL SHIF TER: MILOSLUZ/ISTOCK

License to grow

Some New Yorkers have a big appetite—and then there are the anthropods. A study published in the journal Global Change Biology has hailed New York City’s insect population as the unsung hero of the Big Apple’s garbage collection. The North Carolina State University research team led by Elsa Youngsteadt calculated that insects in one small portion of a Manhattan neighborhood could dispose of about 2,100 pounds of discarded junk food every year. To measure the insects’ appetite, researchers placed hot dogs, potato chips, and cookies in New York City parks and street medians and measured how fast they disappeared. “This isn’t just a silly fact,” Youngsteadt noted. “This highlights a very real service that these arthropods provide. They eff ectively dispose of our trash for us.”

Beaten by a stick

D E C E M B E R 2 7, 2 0 1 4

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10:16 AM

MICHAELIS: GEOFF PUGH/REX/NEWSCOM • PETERBOROUGH: CLIFFORD SK ARSTEDT/PETERBOROUGH EXAMINER/QMI AGENCY • JERNIGAN: JON MEOLI/BALTIMORE SUN/TNS/L ANDOV • ILLUSTRATION: KRIEG BARRIE

The owner of a Chinese clothing store in the heart of Beijing has had enough of one particular kind of customer: Chinese people. According to the state-run Beijing Youth Daily, a clothing shop on Albemarle Road in the city’s embassy district recently posted a sign informing customers, “Chinese not admitted, except for staff.” A store clerk interviewed by the paper complained that its Chinese clientele has a reputation for shoplifting, pickpocketing, and trying on clothes without making a purchase. The sign caused an uproar on the Chinese social media website Weibo, but a legal expert told the newspaper the store’s owner probably isn’t breaking the law because China has no anti-discrimination legislation.

ILLUSTRATION: KRIEG BARRIE • QUEZADA: HANDOUT • APPLE: AMETE/ISTOCK • SOUTH KOREA: KIM JAE-MYUNG/AFP/GET T Y IMAGES • MANUAL SHIF TER: MILOSLUZ/ISTOCK

MICHAELIS: GEOFF PUGH/REX/NEWSCOM • PETERBOROUGH: CLIFFORD SK ARSTEDT/PETERBOROUGH EXAMINER/QMI AGENCY • JERNIGAN: JON MEOLI/BALTIMORE SUN/TNS/L ANDOV • ILLUSTRATION: KRIEG BARRIE

Slapped down

One thing’s now missing from the morning routine of many schoolchildren in Peterborough, Ontario: a high-five from a friendly crossing guard.

Earlier this year, city off icials informed the city’s crossing guards that they could no longer make any physical contact with students crossing streets. Off icials specifically told Peterborough’s crossing guards, who used high-fives to exchange pleasantries with children quickly, to end the practice. City off icials say the move was made to protect student safety. But on Nov. 28, a small group of families gathered at city hall to petition for a return to the normal, friendly morning routine.

A matter of taste

How valuable is Tetley’s off icial tea taste tester? The British tea manufacturer recently purchased an insurance policy on Sebastian Michaelis’ taste buds for more than $1.5 million.

Tetley entrusts Michaelis to taste a variety of teas so that the company can produce a blend that remains consistent even as crops produce varying flavors. “Tea, like wine, will change depending on the amount of sunshine and rain it gets—so it’s always changing taste,” he told Sky News. “We know exactly how to blend it together so it tastes the same.”

Snow rookie

Baltimore Ravens rookie Timmy Jernigan had an unusual excuse for being late to a team meeting on Nov. 26. The 22-year-old native Floridian was playing in the snow— for the first time in his life. Having never seen snow in person before, Jernigan couldn’t resist putting off meeting to build a snowman on the Ravens practice field with a team employee. Ravens coach John Harbaugh seemed to take the tardiness in stride. “It’s all good, he had a fun time,” Harbaugh told The Baltimore Sun. “It was just fun watching him enjoy it. He was like a little kid.”

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26 QUICK TAKES.indd 21

The best defense ...

A Georgia woman employed a well-timed vomit to escape a purse snatcher. On Nov. 29, a masked assailant struck the unnamed woman as she was walking to her car outside a mall in Athens, Ga. Then the thief shoved the woman against another car and attempted to steal her purse.

During the struggle, the woman vomited on the thief, who abruptly gave up the fight and fled without the purse.

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JANIE B. CHEANEY

Myth makers

Scholars who doubt Jesus’ existence follow standard conspiracy theory procedure

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Skeptics who nitpick evidence ignore the most convincing evidence of all for the ­existence of Christ, and that is the existence of Christians.

“The Preaching of St. Stephen,” fresco painting by Fra Angelico

Duncan P. Walker/istock

Was Jesus a historical myth or mythic ­history? The traditional view among skeptics is that a man named Jesus appeared in the early first century, became the central figure of a religious cult, and was executed for insurrection, after which His followers spread the rumor that He had come back to life. The “historical Jesus,” according to this theory, was the victim as much as the inspiration of a great hoax.

Lately, though, some scholars are becoming more vocal about their belief that no such ­person walked the earth. “5 reasons to suspect Jesus never existed” appeared in Salon last month, highlighting their work. The writer of the article boils the argument down to five main reasons: (1) the lack of contemporary ­secular references to Jesus, (2) the puzzling ­failure of the earliest Christian writers (such as Paul and Peter) to mention any details of His early life, like His virgin birth, (3) the lack of authorial attribution in the Gospels, (4) the many contradictions in the Gospels, and (5) the wildly conflicting views of the “historical Jesus” that scholars claim to have found.

Evidence like this is neither new nor especially convincing to a Christian, and some points made in the article are flatly untrue. “Even the New Testament stories don’t claim to be firsthand accounts”? John would disagree (John 19:35; 21:24; 1 John 1:1); so would Luke (Luke 1:1-3) and Peter (2 Peter 1:18). The Gospels contradict each other? On some details they appear to, but the story they tell is remarkably consistent. As for competing views of the historical Jesus—the fable of the blind men and the elephant illustrates how such a thing could be.

These arguments follow standard conspiracy theory procedure: Bypass the obvious, focus on the obscure, and stitch together the pieces that support the thesis. Skeptics who nitpick evidence—the appearance of trinities or ­crucified-and-resurrected gods in other

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­religions, for instance—ignore the most convincing ­evidence of all for the existence of Christ, and that is the existence of Christians.

The Roman Empire teemed with cults, ­philosophies, and mystery religions; they came and went and left intriguing tracks for skeptical scholars to follow up centuries later. Some of these produced quiet, moral individuals whose main purpose was stoically to endure. Some produced fanatics who threw themselves into martyrdom or zealots who were dragged to crosses. Some produced shamans who practiced occult rituals to influence the gods.

Christianity pulled together all these spiritual impulses, the wild and the calculated, and tamed them.

It produced quiet, moral individuals who went willingly to martyrdom and practiced “occult” rituals, not to influence their God, but to become more like Him. And they were everywhere. By the end of the first century, Christianity had infiltrated every rank of society and almost every province of the empire. They were mistrusted, they were misrepresented, they endured waves of spectacular persecution, and every year there were more of them. The faith offered clear advantages to the lowly, but also attracted members of the imperial family. And it spread and spread, like ripples in a pond, slowly raising humanity and leavening the ­culture with its central message of ­pardon and forgiveness in Christ. Jesus was the stone dropped into the pond.

Imagining creation without a Creator leaves a hole in the universe that science has not been able to close. Imagining Christianity without Christ leaves a hole in history that scholars can’t explain away. God doesn’t seem interested in forestalling their arguments with extra-biblical documentation; we have plenty, and the story is still unwinding. Luke the physician concludes his account of the church’s beginnings with no conclusion—he passes the story, like a flaming torch, to the second generation of Christians, who will hand it off to the third, and the fourth, and on down through time.

Christians: Some would be persecutors and destroyers (and perhaps not Christians at all). But more would be builders, affirmers, reformers, healers, teachers, and proclaimers, powered by the Spirit of God. If you believe it, you know it.

And that’s enough. A

 jcheaney@wng.org  @jbcheaney

12/4/14 2:50 PM

3504 4802/istock

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12/4/14 2:28 PM

What are students saying about Life at BoB jones university?

Earlier this year our students grabbed their cameras and started recording. The resulting 13-minute documentary tells their story.

www.lifeatbju.com

CREDIT

For graduation rates, the median debt of students who completed the program and other important info visit on.bju.edu/rates. (15609) 9/13

See what they have to say

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12/8/14 10:27 AM

CULTURE MOVIES & TV / BOOKS / Q& A / MUSIC

MOVIE

Unspoken

Louis Zamperini biopic tells an amazing story but leaves out what he said was the most important part of his life by Jamie Dean The best way to absorb the war epic Unbroken —a movie about the remarkable life of Olympian, World War II hero, and devoted Christian Louie Zamperini— is to know the whole story before watching the film.

Indeed, the opening moments of Unbroken—

Universal Pictures

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based on the best-selling book by Laura Hillenbrand— identify the movie as “a true story.” Perhaps a better description: “part of a true story.”

Hillenbrand masterfully captured the arc of Zamperini’s life in a book still topping The New York

Times bestseller list four years after its debut. The story traces an Olympic runner from California who becomes a World War II hero: Zamperini survived a plane crash, 47 days on a raft in the shark-infested Pacific Ocean, and two years of brutal abuse in Japanese prison camps.

The film—directed by actress Angelina Jolie—faithfully depicts the first two acts of Zamperini’s life, as he experiences the glory of the Olympics and the horror of war. (The film earns a PG-13 rating for wartime violence, mild language, and brief nudity in a prison camp.)

Zamperini—powerfully portrayed by the relatively unknown actor Jack O’Connell—nearly breaks under the relentless torment of a brutal prison guard known as “The Bird.”

The soldier courageously survives, and the movie ends with Zamperini reuniting with his family in California and offers a ­postscript about his life after the war.

But for Zamperini—who died in July at age 97—the movie ends where the most crucial part of his story begins.

What happened next isn’t portrayed in the film:

DECEMBER 2 7 , 2 0 1 4 WORLD

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MOVIES & TV

After returning from war, Zamperini spiraled into severe post-traumatic stress syndrome, and turned to alcohol for relief. He bitterly dreamed of returning to Japan to murder “The Bird.”

In 1949, he reluctantly attended a Billy Graham ­crusade in Los Angeles with his wife.

Hillenbrand found the sermon Graham preached that evening, and included the scene in her book.

Graham preached: “Here tonight, there’s a drowning man, a drowning boy, a drowning girl that is lost out in the sea of life.”

A stricken Zamperini returned the next night, and Graham again preached the gospel of salvation from sin through faith in Christ.

Zamperini and his wife embraced the gospel.

His conversion transformed him.

Zamperini turned from depression and alcohol to

Christian faith and service.

He forgave his captors, returned to Japan, and wrote a moving letter to “The Bird,” telling his tormenter: “I also forgave you and now would hope that you would also become a Christian.”

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MOVIE

Mr. Turner R Mr. Turner, written and directed by Mike Leigh, is not so much a film as it is a moving painting.

Lingering wide-angle shots bathe Dutch windmills and ships in sunlight. People seem insignificant in these landscapes—when they appear at all.

This is fitting for a biopic about eccentric landscape painter J.M.W. Turner. An ancestor of modern abstract artists, Turner shocked his Victorian audiences with indistinct paintings of seascapes and snowstorms.

With its convoluted romances and indulgent style, this film will shock modern audiences, as well.

Mr. Turner doesn’t have much of a plot: Turner intermittently paints and spends the rest of the 2½-hour runtime pursuing women.

The real-life Turner had twisted relationships, to say the least. He denied his two daughters and refused to support their mother, and he took a seaside hotel owner as his mistress. The film focuses on these aspects and also invents a lecherous dalliance with Turner’s maid, earning its R rating for sexual content.

The film could have been cut by an hour and still made sense. Lead actor Timothy Spall does the best he can with the lengthy script to turn Turner into an empathetic, if crass, character.

Perhaps the saddest part of the film is Turner’s self-isolation. Painting is usually a solitary pursuit, but Turner takes this to an extreme. He has no real friends. He would rather travel alone with an ­artist’s portfolio tucked under his arm than risk ­vulnerability. He even ­isolates himself from God: When a doctor tells Turner that he will die of a heart condition, the artist says, “So I’ll become a nonentity.”

One Scottish woman tells Turner that his paintings make viewers see the chaos in the universe.

According to Leigh’s script, art makes sense and beauty out of a cruel and meaningless world. But perhaps both life and art do have ultimate meaning.

Perhaps the light in Turner’s paintings symbolizes a deeper yearning for an eternal light and truth.

—by Rikki Elizabeth Stinnette

Mr. Turner: Focus Features • jolie & O’Connell : Universal Pictures

Jolie and O’Connell

The movie’s postscript says Zamperini credited his decision to serve God as ­saving his life, and that his faith motivated him to ­forgive his captors. But it doesn’t mention the Christian commitment Zamperini championed.

In a press conference after a screening in New York City, Jolie said she couldn’t include every part of Zamperini’s life in the film, and she rebuffed the suggestion she made his faith generic: “I don’t think it’s generic at all. I think it’s universal.” Jolie conceded the movie is “not specific to one faith” but said Zamperini “wanted the message to reach everyone.”

Zamperini did want the message of salvation in Christ to reach as many people as possible. (He told me that during an interview in 2011.) But while the gospel offer is universal, the gospel message is a call to faith in Christ alone for salvation.

During my interview with Zamperini in 2011, he said he was thrilled Hillenbrand included his Christian conversion in her account of his life: “There wouldn’t be a book without it.” And when he remembered the best day of his life, he didn’t mention his liberation from war.

Instead, he said, “It was the day I came to Christ.”

It seems clear Jolie has a deep admiration and affection for Zamperini, and wanted to tell his story carefully. In many ways, she did.

But by omitting his Christian faith, the filmmaker didn’t just miss one part of his life.

She missed the real reason Zamperini was ultimately unbroken. A

See all our movie reviews at wng.org/movies

12/10/14 10:44 AM

Kerry Brown/T wentieth Century Fox

CULTURE

MOVIE

MR. TURNER: FOCUS FEATURES • JOLIE & O’CONNELL : UNIVERSAL PICTURES

KERRY BROWN/T WENTIETH CENTURY FOX

Exodus: Gods and Kings R

Exodus: Gods and Kings director Ridley Scott introduced his movie at its New York premiere by saying it was “the biggest movie I have made.” “Big” is the best description of the film–minimal theology, but big, big visuals.

Christians are going to find various faults and textual departures with Scott’s interpretation of Exodus, just as they did with Darren Aronofsky’s Noah. For one, there’s the tiniest hint that the plagues could have natural causes. But is that any denial of God’s power? “The L ORD drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night,” says Exodus 14:21.

My chief textual complaint is that the film treats the Passover, the heart of the story, as an aside, a random religious act comparable to the pagan practices of the Egyptians. Fortunately, the Exodus screenwriters used almost no dialogue from the primary text, a tacit recognition that this is a significant adaptation.

Scott, like Aronofsky, does not profess faith, and he handles the faith elements gingerly. The first half of the film, before Moses (Christian Bale) encounters God in the burning bush, is more confident storytelling.

But the atheist director works hard to mold a mysterious narrative into something a modern mind can understand. He partly succeeds. The film, incredibly violent for its PG-13 rating, puts a magnifying glass on

the cruelty of Pharaoh (Joel Edgerton) to the Hebrews, so the audience understands why God would send such horrific plagues.

“I’m going from what is the basis of reality, not fantasy,” Scott told me. “This is not Harry Potter.”

Bale said while modern scholars debate the historicity of the Exodus account, he and the others involved approached it as a real, historical event. He delivers a solid performance as a Moses who goes from respected Egyptian general to a wild-eyed religious leader. Mentioning the veil Moses had to wear later in his life to shield people from God’s glory reflecting on

his face, Bale said Moses has to come across a little mad from his divine encounters: “Otherwise it trivializes a direct communication with God.” Have you read Exodus lately? It is a strange story, filled with terrifying imagery and diff icult theology, like the idea that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. In the film, Pharaoh stands in agony before Moses with his dead son in his arms, asking how he could worship a God like this.

Scott, even for ham-handed moments, gets at some of the strangeness of the biblical account, the BOX OFFICE TOP 10 otherness of God. FOR THE WEEKEND OF DECEMBER 5-7 according to Box Off ice Mojo The depiction of God–or the young boy I CAUTIONS: Quantity of sexual (S), violent incorrectly thought was (V), and foul-language (L) content on a 0-10 scale, with 10 high, from kids-in-mind.com God–is an unsettling aspect of the film. Only S V L one line late in the film 1̀ The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1* PG-13 ....... 2 6 1 lets you know that the 2̀ Penguins of young boy is a messenMadagascar PG..................................... 2 3 2 ger of God and not God 3̀ Horrible Bosses 2 R ........................ 7 4 10 Himself. Scott said the 4̀ Big Hero 6 PG............................................. 1 4 1 popular concept of an 5̀ Interstellar PG-13 ................................ 1 5 5 angel, wings and all, was 6̀ Dumb and Dumber To PG-13 .... 6 4 5 too fantastical, so he 7̀ The Theory of wanted to use a regular Everything PG-13 .................................. 4 3 2 boy to be God’s messen8̀ Gone Girl R .................................................... 8 6 9 ger to Moses.

9̀ The Pyramid R.................................... not rated

10 Birdman* R .................................................. 5 `

*Reviewed by WORLD

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Bale as Moses (above); Edgerton as Pharaoh and Golshifteh Farahani as his wife.

“How would you have represented God?” Bale responded when I asked about the child. “If you’re put in Ridley’s shoes, it’s an immensely diff icult thing.

What on earth do you do with that?”

Artistically ambitious films should do more than pipe in a deep voice from heaven. We know that in the Old Testament God’s appearances, or those of other heavenly beings, were scary. The child, Malak (“messenger of God”), has an M. Night Shyamalan creepiness. So kudos for creativity, even if Malak doesn’t quite pull it off.

Overall the visual eff ects are stunning. Crocodiles fight to the death in the Nile, lines of chariots rush around the edges of a mountain, a heap of frogs tumble off Pharaoh’s bed. The 3-D is superb.

Sometimes movies feel as if they have 3-D just to have 3-D. Here it enhances the shots without being obtrusive. If you can merely think of Exodus as a blockbuster, you’ll enjoy it. Read the book for the deeper, bigger story.

—by Emily Belz

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BOOKS

What if ?

A GRAB BAG OF PROPOSED NATIONAL RESOLUTIONS by Marvin Olasky Lots of people make New Year’s resolutions.

John R. Vile’s Re-Framers: 170 Eccentric, Visionary, and Patriotic Proposals to Rewrite the U.S. Constitution (ABC-CLIO, 2014) shows us decades of resolutions for the nation offered by both strong thinkers and crackpots.

Would we be better off if a proposal in the 1960s from the Council of State Governments had made it?

The council proposed that the United States have a “Court of the Union” consisting of the chief justice of each state’s highest court. Upon request by the legislatures of five

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states, the Court of the Union would review and have the power to reverse any Supreme Court decision “relating to the rights reserved to the states or to the people by this Constitution.”

What about all the balanced budget proposals?

In 2005 Nobel-winning economist James Buchanan proposed a constitutional amendment that would require Congress to “restrict estimated spending to the limits imposed by estimated tax revenues,” with three-fourths majorities of both houses able to waive that limit in

SHORT STOPS Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa’s Aspiring Adults Adrift: Tentative Transitions of College Graduates (University of Chicago Press, 2014) shows, among other things, colleges falling down on their jobs: “Rather than providing rigorous academic experiences to promote undergraduate learning and character formation, colleges and universities have embraced a model that focuses on encouraging social engagement and sociability.” Many students graduate with high self-esteem but low understanding of reality, and that’s why Chelsen Vicari’s Distortion (Front Line, 2014) is useful as a Millennial’s memo to other Millennials: Don’t fall in behind the Christian left’s Pied Pipers.

David Limbaugh’s Jesus on Trial (Regnery, 2014) is a solid introduction to the evidence of biblical truthfulness. The Romantic

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proposal: A constitutional amendment that would require Congress to “restrict estimated spending to the limits imposed by estimated tax revenues,” with three-fourths majorities of both houses able to waive that limit in extraordinary circumstances such as war. —James Buchanan

extraordinary circumstances such as war. Buchanan noted that Congress had abused its powers under the general welfare clause, so he proposed any program benefiting a particular group based on “ethnicity, location, occupation, industry, or activity” would be disqualified.

This past May I proposed we create President’s Questions sessions in the Senate chamber, like the Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons.

Vile’s book showed me that scholar/journalist Michael Novak suggested the same thing 40 years ago: “The president should be obliged

Rationalist , edited by John Piper and David Mathis (Crossway, 2014) presents good essays on C.S. Lewis by Randy Alcorn, Philip Ryken, and others. Steven Lawson’s John Knox: Fearless Faith (Christian Focus, 2014) is a good short biography.

Alex Wainer’s Soul of the Dark Knight (McFarland, 2014) gives a thorough treatment of Batman as a mythic figure in comics and film. Glenn Frankel’s The Searchers: The Making of an American Legend (Bloomsbury, 2013) is a well-researched look at what went into the making of John Ford’s superb Western in 1956, including the true 19th-century story and the relationship between Ford and John Wayne. —M.O.

on a biweekly basis to come before leaders of the opposition for a public hour-long accounting of his policies.”

Didn’t happen then, but now that the major public tests for candidates involve responding to questions, shouldn’t we have them do in office what they did to get elected?

Proposals from the left over the years have often shown the contempt for democracy recently evident in MIT Professor Jonathan Gruber’s crowing about Obamacare deceit. In the 1990s, John Mertens’ The Second Constitution for the United States of America wanted power moved from legislators to a Council for the Protection of the Environment that would phase out internal combustion engines, and to a Council for Production and Distribution of Food that would outlaw fast foods without recommended health and nutritional benefits.

Or how about the proposal two years ago by Robert Hinkelman that top Washington candidates be nominated by “established, certified organizations” such as the National Academy of Sciences, then tested by “qualifications compliance evaluators” before gaining a place on the ballot? (Others proposed a mandate that federal public officials have IQs of 130 or higher.) A

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RON MILLER

CULTURE

Notable books

FOUR SCI-FI OR FANTASY NOVELS reviewed by John Ottinger HALF A KING Joe Abercrombie Crippled Prince Yarvi takes the throne after his father’s murder, only to lose it to treachery. Vowing revenge on the traitors, the former prince turned galley slave gathers a motley crew of eccentrics to recapture his kingdom.

Prince Yarvi struggles mightily before discovering that not all heroes win and the struggle is often more worthy than the victory. This Viking-style adventure, with its violent action and grim landscape, suggests that the worst hardships, borne in good company, can help even half a man realize his true calling.

SOULMINDER Timothy Zahn Driven by grief over the death of his 5-year-old son, Dr. Sommers develops a soul-capturing device designed to postpone death long enough for damaged bodies to be repaired. But Soulminder also provides a path to immortality, leading the ruthless and selfish to covet it. At the moral center of the story is a pragmatic televangelist that author Zahn avoids caricaturing. Told as a series of vignettes, the novel has biblical allusions and a surprisingly sacrificial conclusion. It probes the ethical consequences of new technology, government’s role in it, and the moral dilemmas of its protagonist.

FOOL’S ASSASSIN Robin Hobb Brooding, 50-year-old FitzChivalry Farseer has retired from his role as king’s assassin and confidant. His aging wife shows clear signs of senility. Meanwhile, an old friend calls for help, but FitzChivalry fails to respond. In FitzChivalry’s war with time, superstition, and himself, we experience the Christian’s own struggle with guilt, fear, and regret. The sweet father/daughter relationship at the novel’s core highlights Hobb’s ability to write emotionally complex characters whose relationships are as messy, risky, and lovely as our own. This gentle fantasy meditates on the pains and pleasures of family and the eff ect of daily drudgery masking destiny’s call.

SPOTLIGHT Since man first dreamed of leaving this planet, visual artists have attempted to capture what might be “out there.” In The Art of Space, award-winning artist Ron Miller gathers 350 full-color photographs that trace the history of 2-D space art from the Victorian era to today. The coff ee-tablesized book places each work in its social, political, literary, scientific, and philosophical context, and also explains the aesthetic value of each work. Of note: a haunting image of Notre Dame Cathedral standing alone on a cratered moon landscape—a metaphor for religious alienation—and stark images of Soviet propaganda.

This informative and beautiful book blends science fact and science fiction and shows NASAcommissioned work alongside paintings for science fiction magazines. Cautions: two instances of heavily stylized nudity. —J.O.

RON MILLER

THE TOWERS Jordan Jeffers Jeff ers’ fantasy of a city under siege by the powers of darkness warns that the external enemy is not always the greatest one. Through his implicit condemnation of institutionalized and works-based religiosity, this debut author points his readers to the person of Christ and the true cost of His sacrifice. In it, true heroes are not those with prowess or power, but the weakest and meekest. Like C.S. Lewis before him, Jeff ers eff ectively uses allegory to tell a story about God’s transcendent power. Cautions: violence and frank discussion of vile sins.

To see more book news and reviews, go to wng.org/books

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CULTURE

Q&A

Lon Solomon

From burden to blessing Serving a special needs child changed a pastor for the better

by Marvin Olasky

photo by Joshua Yospyn/The Washington Post/Getty Images

At Christmas we celebrate the birth of Jesus who freely chose to come to earth to serve and save all who believe in Him. We often don’t appreciate the importance of serving others until we have no choice but to do so. That’s the experience of Lon Solomon, senior pastor at McLean Bible Church in Virginia for 34 years. He and his wife Brenda have three sons, seven grandchildren, and one daughter, Jill, whose birth and life led to the founding of Jill’s House.

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Did the problems with Jill begin at her birth in 1992? Everything at first seemed

to be great, but then she started having seizures, and more seizures, six, eight, 10 a day. On our first Thanksgiving with her she had 19 grand mals before the turkey came out of the oven. We spent the whole weekend in the hospital.

What was the cause? We now know it’s Dravet syndrome, a chromosomal aberration that leads to massive seizures and mental retardation, but doctors then did not know. Jill lost the ability to speak.

No medicine worked. We didn’t sleep through the night for years because she’d have seizures in the middle of the night. A hard time, and hard for our boys, because we couldn’t keep up with their schedules and still try to keep Jill alive.

How did this experience affect you?

I never had that kind of suffering in my family growing up. If I saw a disabled child on the street, I’d cross to the other side. I was a pretty shallow person, and this was a very painful, very difficult, don’t-want-to-go-through-it-again, growth experience that I thank God for. I think I’m a better husband, better father, better pastor. I never used to cry, but now when parents tell me a story of their

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little with us. We have a Velcro board in the house and pictures for “Walk,” “Eat,” “Go for a van ride,” “Get the mail”—she gets the mail every day—“Separate the ­silverware,” “Go to Target.”

How did Jill’s House start? Jill was about 3 and we had a meeting with parents in our situation—almost all moms, because a lot of dads fly the coop in these situations. I could see in their faces that they were tired, discouraged, hopeless. They needed a break. I said to Brenda, “Somebody needs to help these people!”

child, or even an aging loved one, I get it. God broke me down so I became more usable to Him. The Bible repeatedly gives us such stories. God always broke down people before He used them: Moses, 40 years in the wilderness. David, seven years hiding in caves. Ruth and Naomi, losing their husbands. God has to break us before He can use us to the fullest.

This suffering gospel seems the opposite of the prosperity gospel we often hear. I don’t buy into the

prosperity gospel at all. God’s general plan is to ­provide all kinds of benefits for His children, but Paul says in Philippians 1:29 we’re privileged to share in the sufferings of Christ, because we learn things through suffering that we cannot learn through success. I never saw anybody get humble through success.

At one point you viewed this whole experience with Jill as a curse, but now you see it as a privilege.

I regarded Jill as an imposition. I don’t even know how the change happened—no epiphany moment—but when she was 8, 9, 10, I began to think, “Lord, I’m looking at this all wrong. You don’t say in the Bible that serving other people leads to greatness, You say it is greatness.” Most of us get to serve an infant for a short period of time, and then they grow up, but most of us don’t get to serve someone like an infant for 22 years. I change her diapers. When she went through— began having her period—can we talk about that?

We can. I mean, I changed her pads and stuff.

You talk about an experience—I was like, “What in the world is this? Holy smokes, Brenda! Come here!” Now I do it and I don’t even think about it.

It’s just part of serving my daughter, and I consider it a real privilege to serve her.

‘Lord ... You don’t say in the Bible that serving other people leads to greatness, You say it is greatness.’

In that sense the experience was helpful to you and Brenda, and helpful to the church. But what about Jill? Yes—how’s this fair to her? Those of us

who believe in Jesus understand there’s another side to the grave, and that God doesn’t settle all accounts here. If He did, it would be very depressing. Jill’s been willing to live this life that God gave her—she doesn’t know she’s disabled, people feed, dress, bathe, ride her around. God forgive us for judging other people’s reality and seeing Jill as living a bad life, but there are limitations, and I believe God will settle up with Jill on the other side of eternity.

Suffering with Jill went on and on and on. Yes, but once Dravet sufferers get through puberty, they get better. Nobody knows why. We had 16 straight years of difficulty, but then Jill’s seizures started diminishing. Today at 22 she can go a month without a seizure, and can communicate a

 molasky@wng.org  @MarvinOlasky

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A video of this interview in its entirety can be found at wng.org and in the iPad edition of this issue

She turned and said, “If you care so much about these people, then why doesn’t McLean Bible Church do something to help?”

So the church did. We started Access Ministry, a Sunday ministry to allow people with children with disabilities to come to church, and then Breakout and Breakaway, Saturday ministries to give people a break. Brenda’s long-term dream was to establish Jill’s House, which would provide overnight respite for a family: You could drop your child off after school, the child would spend the night, and you’d get a complete night free during the week to spend with the other children, to sleep, to go out with your husband or your wife.

It took 14 years for that to happen? The county, the neighbors, the zoning—but God had it built, and it opened its doors in 2010. Six or eight Jill’s Houses exist around the country. Our goal is to see a place like this in every community in America. The kids love coming to the indoor pool and all kinds of activities, because these children never get to do these things.

It’s hard to take a child with a wheelchair to a pool by yourself.

Has it become a blessing to the whole city? Ninety percent of the families who use it have no relation to McLean Bible Church. We have Muslim, Jewish, ­atheist families, and we’re hoping to break down that wall of suspicion. They ask, “Why are you guys doing this for us? We don’t come to your church.” We’ve had the privilege of leading so many of these parents and children to Christ. A —For the story of how Lon Solomon himself came to Christ, please go to wng.org. For information about other respite care centers, see “We were exhausted,” WORLD, Dec. 1, 2012.

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MUSIC

Queen

In with the old

QUEEN COMPILATION ALBUMS WORK BETTER THAN THE BEST AND THE REST OF DAVID BOWIE by Arsenio Orteza

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inclination that opened them and their audiences to a broader-than-usual array of influences, what with the “play” being the thing and all.

Admittedly, 2014 is an unusual year for Queen to be the subject of archival releases in that the group essentially came to an end 23 years ago with the AIDs-related death of its iconic frontman Freddie Mercury. Yet, from the two-discplus DVD Live at the Rainbow ’74 to the historically revisionist, two-disc edition of the career-spanning compilation Forever (both Hollywood), the quartet’s singularity has never been easier to appreciate.

Live at the Rainbow ’74 proves that, long before Queen had a slew of hits on which to fall back amid expensive light rigs and dry ice, the quartet could hold its own as a no-frills, borderline-heavy-metal act on the small stage without losing sight of its capacity for mythological flights of fancy.

Forever is both more redundant and more ambitious. Omitting the band’s signature “Bohemian Rhapsody” and

MICHAEL PUTL AND/GET T Y IMAGES

Despite the continued decline of music sales, best-ofs and box sets by “classic” bands and performers continue to proliferate.

Some of the releases signal obvious commercial desperation, so often have their contents been recycled and repackaged over the years (Universal’s The Who Hits 50!). And some of it is simply beside the point, bundling portions of an artist’s long-available output without adding much in the way of perquisites (George Harrison’s The Apple Years [CMG], Bruce Springsteen’s The Album Collection Vol. 1 1973-1984 [Legacy]).

But in at least two cases, Queen and David Bowie, the powers that be have shown an imagination that makes the collections they’ve come up with worth assessing on their own merits or lacks thereof.

Queen and Bowie will be fused in pop music’s collective memory if only because of their collaboration on the 1981 hit “Under Pressure.” They did, however, have something else in common: namely, a particularly British theatrical

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anything resembling heavy metal, it seeks to reconstrue Queen’s 20-year run as an exercise in an agnostic, romantically tinged fatalism from which even Gustav Mahler might have drawn inspiration had he been born a century later than he was.

Some of Forever’s more anachronistic segues feel forced. It takes more than mellowness and existential resignation, after all, to make songs as stylistically disparate as “Lily of the Valley,” “Spread Your Wings,” “Friends Will Be Friends,” and “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” feel of a piece.

But on the whole the project provides a compellingly alternative narrative to the prevalent one that Queen was nothing other than a prolific hit machine, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

The three-disc version of David Bowie’s Nothing Has Changed (Legacy) attempts to do a similar favor for its subject. But by including an overgenerous 51 tracks (practically every Bowie single) and programming them in reverse chronological order, all that the compilers have managed to achieve is a gimmicky Benjamin Button effect while sandwiching hits from Bowie’s golden years between selections from his dud-strewn last three decades and first half-decade, respectively.

Some of the duds deserve a second chance (the three cuts from 2001’s never-released Toy, for instance, and “Seven” from 1999’s ‘Hours …’). But the sole new recording, “Sue (Or in a Season of Crime),” which veers dangerously close to the semi-operatic pretensions of Scott Walker, is not among them. And ultimately the ratio of misses to hits will try fans’ patience, making them wish they’d remained content with Rykodisc’s definitive 1990 hits-and-nothing-but compilation Changesbowie. A

 aorteza@wng.org  @ArsenioOrteza

12/9/14 1:13 PM

HANDOUT

CULTURE

SPOTLIGHT

Notable CDs

CLASSICAL ALBUMS reviewed by Arsenio Orteza BRUCKNER: SYMPHONY NO. 9 IN D MINOR Claudio Abbado and Lucerne Festival Orchestra

As the late critic Harold C. Schonberg observed, people either get Anton Bruckner’s massive, patiently unfolding works or they don’t. The conductor Claudio Abbado obviously got them, so sensitively did he, in what turned out to be his final concert, put the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra through the Austrian composer’s demanding paces. Tellingly, Abbado chose the version of Symphony No. 9 that Bruckner died before finishing instead of an ersatz, posthumously “completed” one, thus evoking the bittersweetness with which no doubt many a great man draws his last breath.

LA OREJA DE ZURBARÁN Huelgas Ensemble; Paul Van Nevel The latest strategy followed by this MedievalRenaissance vocal ensemble and its conductor Paul Van Nevel: Namecheck a famous 17th-century Spanish painter of (mainly) religious subjects in the title, find eight (mainly) religious examples in Latin and Spanish of music that he would’ve likely heard and found inspiring, and record them in the a cappella, polyphonic style of their time. The result: a spiritually intense soundtrack to equally spiritually intense paintings that, thanks to the internet, you don’t have to visit museums to see.

A more luminously gorgeous, restrainedly lush, conceptually imaginative, or fully realized blending of serious 20th-century music and jazz than Paris (Warner Classics) by the English trumpeter Alison Balsom and the equally English Guy Barker Orchestra you won’t easily find. “While this album is anything but a stereotype of a ‘Parisian’ sound,” writes Balsom in the liner notes, “every track has a link—be it direct or more tenuous—to the world of Paris.” And it’s that “world of Paris,” rather than the mere city itself, that Balsom evokes.

With two selections apiece from Satie and Ravel and three by Messiaen (the fifth movement of Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant Jésus), the serious compositions predominate. But the suggestively rich relief into which they’re cast by foils in the form of compositions by Django Reinhardt, Michel Legrand, Joseph Kosma, and Astor Piazzolla transforms them from exemplars of particular genres and times into signposts pointing toward something both more universal and more mysterious.

HYMNS OF THE CHURCH Oasis Chorale These shimmering, a cappella renditions of 17 selections from the John D. Martin–compiled Hymns of the Church (Benchmark Press, 2011) should not only spur sales of the hymnal but also rekindle among faithful hearts a love for reverential worship. “It is our intent,” read the liner notes, “that our music be a powerful reflection of God’s excellent beauty.” It is.

It’s also a map by which those tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of worship-music doctrine can begin navigating their way back home.

MICHAEL PUTL AND/GET T Y IMAGES

HANDOUT

DANCES OF THE DOLLS Serena Wang Now all of 10, this Chinese piano prodigy began recording these 26 selections just before she turned 9. And whether it’s her precocious talent or the care with which her program was assembled, she flatters the compositions as much as they flatter her (plenty in both cases). That the seven-movement Shostakovich title suite and Poulenc’s Villageoises, Petites Piéces Infantines were intended to be played by children doesn’t even suggest itself, so brightly does Wang make them sparkle. And her Mozart, Liszt, and Chopin aren’t exactly dullsville either.

To see more music news and reviews, go to wng.org/music

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MINDY BELZ

This hyperconnected world

What’s to be done with that email backlog?

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Humans are made for interaction.

That’s what the age we live in is really telling us.

Justin Lewis/stone/get t y images

The mail icon on my phone glares at me.

On any given day it says I have more than 10,000 emails. Try as I might, I don’t expect in my lifetime to conquer the backlog. Among the offers of “Unique Opportunity!” “Last Chance!” and “Eat Bacon, Reverse Diabetes” are surely some meaningful, and missed, gems.

When the year winds down and the days fill more with night than light, we seek rest and time to focus on the Prince of Peace. Yet the throng of a media-saturated world and the blare of nonstop information can seem more oppressive, more full of noisy gong and clanging cymbal than ever.

We wade through heaps of toxic sludge.

Elizabeth Lauten not only gave classless insult to the president’s children, she got a speeding ticket and was arrested for running a red light at 19. These things we learn in bullet points and bold face on the homepage of so-called serious news sites. Want a bigger blast? Try #EricGarner or #CrimingWhileWhite as recent court decisions prompted thousands into the streets and millions into inflamed hashtag ­comments on Facebook and Twitter.

Toxic social media can be serious stuff.

Earlier this month the FBI and Department of Homeland Security issued warnings to families of U.S. military personnel: Islamic State militants are scouring social media for Americans in uniform, calling on supporters to “show up [at their homes] and slaughter them.” Officials warned the troops and their families to take out public information that could make them a target.

In it all there’s tonic too. After all, humans are made for interaction. That’s what the age we live in is really telling us. So I’m wading through incoming and backlogged social interaction like a Marine taking a swamp, on the lookout for dry ground to speed the journey. And here are just a few life-giving promontories, ones

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worth pausing to give thanks for and learn from.

There’s the day-by-day informative—as when my credit card company emails to question an unusual charge—and there’s the sublime.

A few months ago William Murray, chairman of the Religious Freedom Coalition, emailed to ask about aid groups working with Syrian refugees. He learned I was traveling in Lebanon from Globe Trot (a three-times-a-week tonic of foreign news you can receive by email if you contact me) and wanted to know more about the refugees there. I put him in touch with a group working through churches in Bekaa Valley. Months later, without anyone ever being together in the same room, Murray’s coalition has been able to arrange 1,000 Christmas ­dinners for refugee children in Lebanon. He ­traveled there this month to host the first of 10 dinners where 100 children will have a festive time and go home with a basket of food for their ­families. When the internet brings the world close—­ linking plenty to want—that’s good.

Facebook helped connect a Sunni Muslim with an Israeli army spokesman in a remarkable effort to save a storied Jewish synagogue in war-torn Syria. The quest, reported in The Wall Street Journal, eventually involved Israeli officials, Syrian rebels, and New York rabbis. It failed to save a key landmark (the synagogue was bombed in May), but may pave the way for something more lasting.

Scripture has plenty to say about how we communicate, and models a variety of forms.

Recounting history and waxing poetic—even romantic—all have their place, along with harsh admonition and R-rated graphic details of real life in a fallen world. Sarcasm and humor?

Those too. But the forms are formed and the point is: Have a point. Speak with purpose. In this day that might mean pausing to think what I hope to accomplish in 140 characters, rather than simply increasing my Twitter followers.

Emails that get my attention state their purpose and show someone thought enough of my time to reread before sending them. Former President Ronald Reagan insisted all memos crossing his desk, no matter the subject, be no more than one page. Brevity isn’t boss, but it shows thoughtfulness. And whether you Facebook, Tweet, Gchat, or hit Slack, words fitly spoken and thoughts that connect are more to treasure than ever. A

 mbelz@wng.org  @mcbelz

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12/4/14 3:08 PM

FAR AS THE CURSE I The poverty rate remains stubbornly high 50 years—and trillions of dollars—after the federal war on poverty began, but some have learned true riches come from a source higher than government

by JA MIE DE A N in Neon, Ky. P H O T O BY L U K E S H A R R E T T

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E IS FOUND

An abandoned mine which once produced coal for the Bull Creek Coal Corporation stands across from St. Martha’s Catholic Church in Prestonsburg, Ky.

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n a steep hill overlooking an abandoned coal mine in McDowell, Ky., a broken railroad and rusted coal chute testify to busier days in this isolated community in the mountains of eastern Kentucky.

During the mine’s heyday in the 1960s, sturdy men strapped on heavy helmets with bright headlamps and descended into the earth to extract tons of black rock that powered thousands of homes and most of the state’s economy.

On a recent morning at the same site in McDowell, dozens of local residents clutched red shopping baskets and filed into the mine’s tiny office to extract a handful of donated canned goods to help them through the holiday season.

The once-bustling mine is now home to God’s Appalachian Partnership (GAP)—a Christian ministry that helps residents struggling in the region’s long-depressed economy. The simple supplies won’t make a feast, but they’ll supplement food stamps most clients receive.

On this morning, mothers with toddlers squeezed into a crowded hallway, carefully selecting cans of corn, jars of spaghetti sauce, and packages of ramen noodles from plastic shelves. In a room at the end of the hall, Perry Como’s voice wafted from a radio: “From now on your troubles will be out of sight.”

It’s a scene far removed from a November morning in the Oval Office in 1964. President Lyndon B. Johnson had just won the national election, and he told a Democratic senator his lofty ambitions for the term ahead: “Lincoln abolished slavery, and we’re going to abolish poverty.”

Fifty years later, the outcome is clear: The poor are still with us.

Indeed, Johnson’s “unconditional war on poverty”—inspired partly by visits to eastern Kentucky in 1964—produced an opposite effect. Instead of providing short-term aid and bolstering local economies, some government programs produced long-term dependence and weakened working conditions.

The more government gave, the less self-reliance grew.

That wasn’t Johnson’s goal. The president pledged he wanted to give ­poverty-stricken Americans “a fair chance to develop their own capacities” and embrace “opportunity not doles.” But a critical problem emerged: Sometimes relying on the dole became the most accessible opportunity.

Consider the stats: Today the federal government has at least 92 programs to help low-income Americans, including 17 food aid programs and more than 20 housing programs. Total government spending on the programs in 2012: nearly $800 billion.

Since Johnson declared war on poverty in 1964, the U.S. government has spent over $22 trillion on anti-poverty programs, according to the Heritage Foundation. That’s three times the cost of all military wars in U.S. history since the American Revolution. And it doesn’t include Social Security or Medicare.

The result? Today the poverty rate in America hovers at around 15 percent— about the same as when the war on poverty began.

But the federal government isn’t the only big spender.

In eastern Kentucky—where the poverty rate approaches 175 percent of the national rate—a host of nonprofits, church groups, and Christian ministries have poured massive amounts of money and manpower into the region.

Every summer, busloads of youth groups from all over the country descend on these hills to fix roofs, patch holes, and paint houses.

Often the assistance is helpful—especially to widows and the elderly—but it can also be overwhelming. In eastern Kentucky’s Owsley County—where

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President and government benefits account for 53 percent of the county’s Mrs. Johnson income—one resident told The American Prospect: “I think greet Tom we’ve been helped so much, we’re getting helped to death.”

Fletcher, an The combination of high levels of poverty and governunemployed saw mill worker, ment aid produces unflattering stereotypes of a region and members of once known for its backbreaking work ethic. Kevin his family and Williamson of National Review recently called this part of their friends in the country “the big white ghetto,” and derided locals for Inez, Ky., in 1964 (left). The “the pills and the dope, the morning beers … the tall piles distribution of gas-station nachos … the draw. …” center for God’s But beyond easy potshots over serious problems, Appalachian another story quietly unfolds. Some families have learned Partnership. that man doesn’t live by bread alone, and that poverty isn’t a line in a checkbook. And some of those helping have learned that relationships offer something the government can’t give, and that poverty is a problem everyone faces, no matter how much money they have.

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drive through eastern Kentucky’s coal mining towns reveals a region familiar with boom and bust. Since mining began here in the 1800s, many coal operations have hit it big and run their course.

These days, it’s more bust than boom.

For example, a drive through Neon, Ky., doesn’t take long, but this small town was once a bustling center for several ­surrounding coal camps. Miners came here to buy clothing and supplies, watch a show, or eat a meal.

These days, storefronts sit abandoned with piles of dusty merchandise still visible through busted windows. Cans of oil line the shelves of a long-closed auto repair shop, broken furniture clutters a closed General Electric store, and the marquee at the shuttered theater is rusting.

A local library is open, but its bulletin board reveals local problems, with announcements like: “Get your GED,” “Become a foster parent,” “Payday advances,” and “Narcotics Anonymous.”

In recent years, coal companies have laid off thousands of workers in this region, and unemployment has soared: In nearby Harlan County, coal jobs have fallen by 48 percent in the past three years, and the county’s unemployment rate has hit nearly 17 percent. inez: Bet tmann/Corbis/AP • gap: luke sharret t

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Several factors aid the decline: Natural gas has grown popular, coal is easier to mine in other parts of the country, and regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency have grown stringent. Some folks here accuse President Barack Obama of waging a war on coal with severe federal standards.

Whatever the cause, the outcome is clear: For many who stay here, jobs are hard to find and ends are hard to meet.

That’s a plight Tony Brown remembers. From his office at HOMES, Inc., a nonprofit organization that builds and repairs homes for low-income families, Brown recalls how he first came to the organization: He was a client.

Brown grew up near Neon, and married young. By the time he was 21, he and his wife had three children and eventually cared for four others belonging to struggling family members.

The family of nine lived in a former coal-camp house in desperate need of repairs.

Brown met two men from HOMES who would help strengthen the foundation for his house and his life: John

‘THAT’S WHEN I HEARD THE GOOD NEWS.... THAT IT’S ALL CHRIST’S WORK. THAT ANYTHING I DO NOW IS BECAUSE OF WHAT HE ALREADY DID.... AND THAT WAS GREAT NEWS TO ME.’ Belden and Seth Long worked for the organization, and eventually helped start a church in Neon that Brown and his family joined. (Brown is still a member of Neon Reformed Presbyterian Church.)

The men gave Brown a job at HOMES and mentored him in his Christian faith. They taught Brown he could work hard for a living, but he couldn’t earn his salvation. That was a revelation for Brown, who attended local churches that taught Christians could lose their salvation and work to get it back.

(It’s a common teaching in this region that leads to an exhausting cycle that causes many people to stop attending church.)

Belden—who went on to serve as the first pastor of Neon Reformed—explained God’s grace to Brown. “That’s when I heard the good news,” Brown says. “That it’s all Christ’s work.

That anything I do now is because of what He already did. …

And that was great news to me.”

That great news helped Brown connect his faith to his job, and he began to thrive. Before HOMES hired Brown to work construction in 1996, he says he was dependent on food stamps and welfare.

Tony Brown (left) and Seth Long.

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As he earned more money, his family received less government benefits.

Brown says some people struggle with giving up the certainty of a government check for the uncertainty of a job, but he thrived. “I started working here at about five and a nickel an hour, but I was as happy to go to work then as I am right now,” he says. “It was a great feeling for me to have my kids see me get up and go to work everyday. It still is.”

Brown knows that’s not the case for others. He knows men who are physically stronger than he who won’t work because they can collect government benefits. “They are in bondage to that check,” he says. “That check is their master.”

In some ways, a certain level of dependence grew even when jobs were more abundant. In the height of the coal-­ The God’s mining era, miners often lived in company-owned houses, Appalachian and bosses paid employees with tokens or “scrip” they could Partnership Christmas use in the company store to buy food and supplies they store in needed. In many camps, coal bosses even built the churches Minnie, Ky., and employed the ministers. stocked with Now, even traditional skills like gardening have dwindled, toys on Dec. 4 (top); Neon as people have grown reliant on food stamps. And local resiReformed dents say some recipients use food stamps to buy soda to sell Presbyterian or trade for cigarettes.

Church on Some parents have withdrawn children from literacy Main St. in downtown classes so the family can continue to draw Supplemental Neon, Ky. Security Income for children with disabilities.

Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times wrote about the phenomenon in 2012: “This is painful for a liberal to admit, but conservatives have a point when they suggest that America’s safety net can sometimes entangle people in a ­soul-crushing dependency.”

When it comes to help from local organizations, HOMES does require clients to participate in their home repairs, but some groups don’t make such requirements. Executive director Seth Long says some residents turn down help from HOMES, saying, “I want the free work.”

That makes helping people on a deeper level more difficult.

“It’s like there are so many resources, it’s hard to minister,” says Long. “Entrenching people in the entitlement mentality can happen even when people come to help.”

Other clients receive help after working for many years, and then facing difficult circumstances. Pat Hubbard—once a board member at HOMES—worked at a hospital for decades and supported two children as a single mom before she suffered a heart attack. After she lost a leg to medical complications, HOMES helped make her house more accessible.

She’s grateful for the service, and says it helps her continue to serve her own community. She remains active in her local church, where she plays an organ modified for her disability.

She’s discouraged by problems she’s seen grow in the region over the decades, but points to deeper roots: “It’s a moral decline for lack of spiritual instruction.”

Belden—the former pastor of Neon Reformed—learned that spiritual instruction wasn’t always easy to provide. Even after working at HOMES for several years, he found it was ­difficult to gain the trust of locals wary of outsiders.

Some of the wariness comes from the perception that outsiders bring a savior complex to Kentucky. Belden says he saw this mentality in some church groups that traveled from far away to volunteer for a week: “We’re the ones that have it all together. We’re the ones who are going to fix eastern gap: luke sharret t • neon: Patrick Murphy-Racey/Genesis

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Kentucky.” Some church groups were even disappointed if residents weren’t as destitute as they expected.

Belden resigned from the Neon church after nine years of exhausting work as a pastor. He left burned out and weary. But looking back, he says seeing his own weakness has made him realize he’s as needy as the people he served—a humbling lesson anyone trying to help others should learn.

“I think God was trying to tell us, ‘You’re not any different,’” says Belden.

“You do have something to give, but you need it just as much as they do.”

B

ack in McDowell, Ky., the staff at God’s Appalachian Partnership (GAP) has a similar mindset.

Staff members at the Southern Baptist ministry offer a food pantry to local residents on Tuesdays and a distribution of toys for children at Christmas, but they also talk to clients about spiritual needs. (As clients come in for their assigned distribution day once a month, they receive food items based on their level of need.)

On a recent Tuesday morning, staff member Kathy Henson met with Shirley Smith, a client who has been coming to the ministry for more than 10 years. Smith, 57, is the guardian for five grandchildren ages 7 to 18. Her income is around $700 a month.

Smith asks for prayer for a son struggling with drug addiction. But she also expresses excitement about recently joining a local church. Henson asks her, “That means you have a relationship with Jesus, right?” Smith answers, “I know that He walks with me.”

Director John Morris—who grew up in nearby Hazard— says the work requires patience and helping people learn how to manage the limited resources they do have. It’s often bewildering, he says, when he realizes it’s more economically viable for a client to stay on welfare than to drive a long distance to find a low-paying job.

Sometimes help begins with small steps: Helping clients develop a budget that shows how much they could save if they cut out soda or cigarettes. Cooking classes to show how they can prepare low-cost, healthy meals.

Finance classes with games that help teach basic budgeting principles.

The small steps can lead to bigger changes over time, as clients examine both material and spiritual needs. “They are constantly being told they’re poor,” says Morris. “They develop a hopelessness. … We tell them the hope of Jesus is the only hope we have of our lives being transformed.”

Henson says she knows clients are beginning to change when they talk about how much God has blessed them. She tears up when she recalls a client who recently came in for food and donated a handful of change to the ministry. “I didn’t even know what to do with it,” says Henson. “It was like the widow’s mite.”

Five decades after President Johnson vowed to end poverty, it’s helpful to remember Jesus’ commendation of the widow who was generous, though poor. The story is a reminder of the dignity of those who are thankful for what they have, and a motivation to continue to extend help to those in need, with help that goes beyond material needs.

It’s also cause for celebrating a Savior who became poor—and who still comes to make his blessings flow as far as the curse is found. A

 jdean@wng.org  @deanworldmag

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A nation at risk Extreme poverty, dependency, and distrust plague the Navajo Nation, and secular solutions aren’t working

by Sophia Lee in Chinle, Ariz.

Photo by Robert Alexander/Archive Photos/Getty Images

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ON A HOT,

cloudless Monday morning in the heart of the Navajo reservation, women wearing traditional turquoise jewelry and men with silver-buckled belts and cowboy hats gathered at a community center. All came determined to have their voices heard.

The Navajo Nation had just settled a historic lawsuit against the U.S. government for mismanaging the reservation’s funds and natural resources. The government agreed to pay $554 million— the largest settlement ever granted to an American Indian tribe.

This meeting in Chinle, Ariz., one of 110 Navajo chapters, was the first public hearing on what to do with the money.

Some people were so eager that they drove 140 miles to attend the hearing. Rows of pickup trucks with mud-crusted wheels filled the parking lot and stayed till sundown as the meeting dragged on for more than six hours. As people listed the desperate needs of the community, voices rose and emotions churned. It quickly became clear that $554 million wasn’t enough to alleviate the nation’s extreme depth of poverty.

The Navajo Nation is America’s largest Indian American reservation, comparable in size to West Virginia. Most of the 300,000 Navajos or Dinè (“The People”) still live on the reservation, which straddles striking terrains of northeastern Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, from rolling gold-and-amber plains to craggy red canyons. Its people, however, are trapped in thirdworld levels of poverty: acute material needs, poor infrastructure, and a Richardson’s Trading vicious cycle of injustice and violence.

Company & Cash Pawn on Route 66 Today, many Navajo families has served area depend on unstable low-pay work and Native Americans chronic public assistance. About 60 and catered to percent are unemployed, and over onecollectors of Navajo rugs, jewelry, and third are considered “severely poor.” other Indian arts The per capita income among Navajos since 1913. is about $7,000, compared to the national $28,000. Today 16,000 families still lack electricity, and 20,000 homes lack running water.

During my time among the Navajos, I frequently heard the word self-determination as a long-term policy in eradicating poverty. But without a clear definition on what “self-determination” means, questions about its implementation remain: Are the Navajos truly weaning themselves off federal assistance? Can the Navajo government reform itself? Would Navajos distinguish positive aspects of their cultural history from blatant idolatry? Are Christian missions doing life-changing gospel work instead of social work?

THE PUBLIC

hearing in Chinle gave me a good sense of the dire straits in Navajoland, as 40 individuals stepped up with requests and

complaints: A Vietnam veteran asked for a new veterans home so veterans won’t have to go to off-reservation cities. Several elderly members requested a senior citizen center and more nursing homes. Parents worry about insufficient college scholarships, lack of Navajo language programs, and inadequate Wi-Fi connection. The Navajo Technical University needs more full-time professors and a new campus.

Many fear that the $554 million would disappear into the pockets of tribal officials. One woman met applause and cheers when she shouted, “Why are we always denied? I think we should have the settlement paid out per capita, that’s what I say. And what land did we have to give up to get that money?” A local official quickly explained that no Navajo land had been bargained, but the thundercloud of distrust and anger continued to storm.

Distrust is a constant theme in Navajo history. After centuries of long-suffering domination, exploitation, and abuse from Spanish Conquistadors, Pueblo tribes, the U.S. government, and mineral corporations, distrust is etched into the Navajo psyche.

But the recent exposures of corruption among Navajo officials have redirected Navajo resentment toward their own leaders.

In 2007, for example, Navajo council delegates voted 71-10 to divvy $50,000 from an emergency fund to buy gold rings for themselves, brazenly tacking it as an amendment onto a measure that provides funding for summer youth employment.

In 2013, a federal audit accused the Navajo Department of Workforce Development of mismanaging $16.5 million in federal funds for a job-training program, while letting $13.4 million sit unused even as thousands of prospective applicants waited for assistance.

Other common misdeeds include siphoning cushy jobs for family and friends, taking lavish “business” trips and “training” conferences in Las Vegas or Hawaii, slush funds, and bribery.

(Several Navajo officials did not respond to requests for interviews for this story.) In 2009, irate voters approved a ballot initiative to reduce the legislative branch from 88 delegates to 24.

But the people still see their government as betrayers of hardearned sovereignty—and much of their bitterness is rooted in history.

TWO HUNDRED

years ago, the Navajos were pastoral, matrilineal clans loosely connected through common culture and language. They tended sheep, wove rugs and blankets, and lived in hogans—small round houses packed with earth or stone. Other than disparate groups appointing their own headmen, the Navajos had no unified representative body.

Then in 1922, oil was discovered on their land, and the U.S. government needed representatives to grant access. So in 1923 federal officials formed the first version of the Navajo Tribal D E C E M B E R 2 7, 2 0 1 4

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Council by hand-selecting—without Navajo consultation—24 delegates who best demonstrated “Westernized” values.

That’s not the only time the U.S. government micromanaged Indian life. Way before FDR or LBJ, American Indians were America’s first welfare project. The federal government promised subsidies and benefits in exchange for land, often shortsticking the Indians or outright violating treaty terms. Today, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) reach deep into all Indian tribes—while at the same time spending $2.6 billion annually in taxpayer funds to fund and oversee various federal programs on Indian tribal lands.

Meanwhile, Navajo leaders signed away their oil, uranium, coal, natural gas, and water rights, and by 1958, 93 percent of Navajo revenue came from extractive industries. This created thousands of temporary jobs and contributed millions annually to government coffers, but came at a bitter cost for the Navajos who endured forced removals from homelands, health issues, and polluted air and waters.

From 1944 to 1989, Navajo uranium miners returned home coated with uranium dust, which poisoned not just themselves but their wives and children. Neither the U.S. government nor mining companies had warned them about the known risks or even created safety precautions. More than 1,000 Navajos died from lung cancer or other radon-exposure-attributed illnesses, and local residents still suffer from lingering contamination and abandoned mill sites.

A SIMPLE

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drive through the reservation reveals the many cracks that bog down economic development. Most obvious are the unpaved roads—rock-ribbed dirt that oozes mud and slime when it rains or snows—and the rural isolation: You can drive miles without seeing anyone, except a lone trailer or two, or a tiny cluster of dilapidated single-unit homes and modern-day hogans.

But the greatest economic roadblock is land: Like a socialist country, the majority of reservation land is held communally, which means nobody really owns the land. Without secure property rights, Navajos cannot build or pass on their wealth, and business sites cannot sprout organically. In addition, the small percentage of individually allotted land became so fractionated over the years that hundreds of individuals now claim ownership over one parcel of land. A developer interested in leasing the land has to negotiate with too many people for conclusive consent.

In one town, I found three elementary schools, a high school, and a junior high school squeezed into a single block. Turns out, that was the only piece of land that the Unified School District could procure because of land constraints. Likewise, opening a dry-cleaning shop in Navajoland can require up to five years of waiting for the same governmental approvals that would take only a few days in a nonreservation area.

Unsurprisingly, all this red tape discourages potential investors, entrepreneurship, and job creation.

Meanwhile, the youngest and brightest Navajos are slipping away. Local educators find themselves in a Catch-22 situation: They provide cheap tuition, federal grants, and scholarships, only to have students leave the reservation with their knowledge and skills because of a lack of jobs.

I sensed a certain collective weariness among the 15 young men and women I met at a GED class in Twin Lakes, N.M. Many

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of the students are young, unmarried parents who dropped out of high school because of financial issues, family problems, or negative lifestyles such as gang activities or substance abuse.

When I asked about their dreams, they all answered guiltily: to leave the reservation and find a better life. “I know we’re supposed to stay and help our people,” one student said, sighing.

“But there’s nothing here for us.”

Aaron Sandovar, at 44 the oldest, said he’s stuck at the reservation because no able body stayed to take care of older family members and livestock. Sandovar started working when he was 15, learning to till the field, plant corn and melon, and tend the sheep. But he also remembers growing up without shoes and crawling into bed with an empty stomach. “Guess what—people are still living like that today,” he said, and he blamed the younger generation’s “mentality and attitude of demanding” for the status quo: “We’re always dependent on somebody.”

It’s a shared sentiment among many Navajos who worry that future generations may never shake off that long, strained addiction to dependency. The Navajos once taught strong t’àà hwò àj’t èego, or self-reliance, fiercely resisting government welfare at first. Today many able-bodied, intelligent young Navajos are living on welfare because their parents and grandparents did, and they don’t plan to stop.

GIVEN THE

1: J. Pat Carter/ap • remaining photos: Sophia Lee

condition in the reservation, it would be disastrous to cut off federal monies without a well-formed, long-term plan to reform Navajos’ legal and economic environment. Previous federal and missionary efforts to “assimilate” and “civilize” the Indians failed with devastating reverberations. In the past several decades, however, long-term policy has shifted toward Indian self-determination.

In 1975, Congress passed the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, which authorized Indian tribes to manage federal-funded programs such as healthcare and ­education. Most Navajos have embraced the concept and are gradually whittling it to fit Dinè culture and values.

One example is Tsèhootsooì Medical Center (TMC) in Fort Defiance, Ariz., which recently transitioned from a federal Indian Health Service facility into a tribal operation.

“Everything’s going to change,” said marketing and public relations director Ira Vandever. “We’re now at the same level as the federal government. We’re no longer seen as conquered people, expected to act accordingly to our ‘great white father.’”

The day I met Vandever, he was wearing moccasins, a studded leather belt, and silver-and-turquoise necklace, bracelet and rings—all of which he crafted himself. A Drake University alumnus, ex-professional football player in Germany, and owner of two European-fusion restaurants, Vandever is a true ­cosmopolitan. But as a born-and-raised Navajo and grandson of a medicine man, he’s also deeply traditional, following all the beliefs and rituals his grandfather taught him.

Like most other Navajo-run institutions, spirituality is a core value at TMC. Their guiding principle is hòzhò, roughly translated as “balance,” “beauty,” and “harmony.” They believe imbalance and disharmony beget social ills such as poverty and alcoholism. That’s why Navajo-operated modern hospitals like TMC employ shamans to conduct regular traditional ­ceremonies of song, prayer, and dance. When TMC opened a

4̀ (1) Shiprock Mountain off Navajo Highway 13. (2) Navajo kids at a Navajo church in Blue Gap, Ariz. (3) The public hearing at Chinle Community Center in Chinle, Ariz. (4) Robert Tso and his wife Rose at the Navajo Ministries’ Vertical Radio station in Farmington, New Mexico. (5) One of the many hogans in Blue Gap, Ariz.

(6) Navajos worshipping at Blue Gap United Methodist Church at a Saturday all-day service.

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new optometry unit, a medicine man came to chant for blessings and harmony.

CHRISTIAN

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Vietnam War (1) Navajo worshippers pray over a church member at a church service in Blue Gap, Ariz. when he finally (2) Larry Haskie (left) and Benson Ndolo, a asked Jesus missionary from Kenya. (3) The church sign Christ to be his at the end of a dusty, bumpy road.

Lord and Savior.

From then on, God has been healing all aspects of his life, even smoothing old bitterness into thanksgiving and praise: “Whatever the white men did to us, Christ already took care of it on the cross. I’m just thankful they brought the gospel of Jesus Christ to us.”

People like Haskie emphasize that only the gospel brings true relief and eternal reconciliation. God’s spirit moves and transforms His people—not just spiritually, but everything from intellectually to financially—in mysterious, miraculous ways.

Anything else, like the $554 million settlement, is temporary. A

SOPHIA LEE

missionaries have actively witnessed in the reservation for centuries, but local pastors estimate fewer than 10 percent of Navajos call themselves Christians, and consider even less to be truly born-again.

Today various Christian and other religious groups—from Baptists and United Methodists to Latter-day Saints and Catholics—scatter throughout the reservations. Mission groups visit in the summers for vacation Bible schools. Some Navajos convert, but when problems hit, many easily seek the old comforts of hand tremblers, healers, and medicine men. Some, like the Native American Church, even blend their practices with Christian themes.

Robert Tso, pastor of Victory Life Church in Shiprock, said God’s Word “simply isn’t given enough time to sink in.” Instead, many churches in Navajoland “water down the gospel and say things that tickle the ears. So there’s no liberation and freedom in the Christian walk, because they are weighed down by all that junk” such as false prophets, weak theologies, and idolatry that have tainted the people’s understanding of the gospel. Without consistent, sound Bible teaching and discipleship by local ministers, initial passions dry out and life transformations cease.

One week at the Navajo reservation exposed me to various movers and shakers: weary activists demanding formal apologies for past injustices; ambitious politicians parroting old promises; underfunded social workers struggling to meet growing needs; idealistic educators working within and against a broken system; and zealous Christians gradually compromising the gospel for pluralistic social work.

All interviews ultimately boiled down to one question: “What is poverty?” Depending on their definition of poverty, these folks gave me varied, eloquent solutions that made sense on paper, but didn’t compute quite as neatly in reality because of one common variable: humans—and all the complex baggage of brokenness and depravities that define humanity. Without clearly understanding human nature or the root cause of poverty, they were flicking blanks at the target.

None satisfied me the way worshipping with 30 Navajo men and women did at a tiny church in rural Blue Gap, Ariz., whose pastor Billy John is an ex-shaman. From noon to evening, they shared testimonies and sang classic hymns mostly in Navajo, but I needed no interpreter to understand their visible joy. One elderly woman recited Psalm 139 with tears. Another woman proclaimed, “I realize now that Jesus is the one and only true living God!”—to which everyone responded with cries of “Amen!” and “Jesus!” Many others testified how God delivered them from spiritual, social, and financial poverty.

Then I broke bread with Larry Haskie, a doe-eyed veteran who told me, “Navajos are like Job. Satan’s really been trying to destroy us, especially the family and church.” When I noticed the “Army of God” label ironed over his U.S. Army cap, he beamed: “Yeah, different army now.”

Haskie was an 8-year-old boy when Presbyterian missionaries first visited his home. They spoke about Christ but also criticized his family for herding sheep, calling it a “pagan practice.”

Years later, Haskie was cowering under sniper fire during the

 slee@wng.org  @SophiaLeeHyan

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IOWA BASICS With midterms over, attention turns to 2016 and the high-profile first presidential caucus

by Daniel James Devine i n O t t u m wa , Iowa

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Republican candidate for state treasurer described his spiritual journey to the potential voters in the room.

The Pizza Ranch chain, whose vision statement is “To glorify God by positively impacting the world,” is a go-to place for political meet-and-greets in Iowa. Mike Huckabee visited Pizza Ranches across the state when he ran for president in 2008, and other candidates followed his example. With the 2014 midterms over and 2016 on the horizon, Pizza Ranches and other small venues in Iowa can expect an upsurge of customers hungry for political change in the White House. And smart candidates will be there to meet them.

“A town of 3,000 people might have the next president of the United States serving pizza,” said Greg Baker,

a grassroots director at The Family Leader. “Iowans ultimately demand that hands get shaken, and all their questions answered. … Iowans are spoiled.”

As the state with the earliest caucus (scheduled for Feb. 1, 2016), Iowa is one of the first places presidential hopefuls go to gauge voter interest. That makes it a great place to learn, unofficially, who’s thinking about lacing up their White House racing shoes. In theory, the more

both photos: Charlie Neibergall/ap

he first Pizza Ranch opened in northwest Iowa 33 years ago. Today the cowboythemed buffet has over 180 branches and is most popular for two things you wouldn’t guess from its name: fried chicken and politics.

One fall evening before the November midterm elections, about 25 local residents crowded into a private room at a Pizza Ranch in Ottumwa. Inside, Bob Vander Plaats, a former candidate for governor of Iowa and president of The Family Leader, a Christian values group, dished out slices of supreme, cheese, meat, and veggie pizza before giving a pep talk about supporting biblical values in politics. Afterward, a

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support Iowans show a potential candidate, the more likely he or she will be to run.

So, who’s popular in Iowa?

Ask Iowa Democrats their favorite candidate, and the most common name you’ll hear is Hillary Clinton. In an October poll from The Des Moines Register and Bloomberg Politics, 53 percent of Iowa Democrats said Hillary Clinton would be their first pick as a

presidential candidate (10 percent chose Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, the poll’s second most strongly supported candidate).

Clinton has said she won’t decide about a presidential bid until after Jan. 1. Yet she’s widely seen as preparing for a race: She quit her job as President Obama’s secretary of state in early 2013, wrote a memoir, began what The Wire called a “NeverEnding Book

Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton at Sen. Tom Harkin’s annual fundraising Steak Fry in Indianola, Iowa.

Tour,” criticized Obama’s foreign ­policy, and made 45 stops in 19 states to support campaigns and fundraisers before the midterms. If that doesn’t smell like a presidential campaign appetizer, nothing does.

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Rick Santorum campaigning at Pizza Ranch in 2011.

e may have a problem,” Vander Plaats told me at a Pizza Ranch corner table when I asked about conservative candidates for 2016.

“And that is there are too many good ones. Huckabee: Obviously, Iowans still love Huckabee. Ted Cruz: They love Ted Cruz. Rick Perry’s got his mojo back.”

Vander Plaats listed off Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul. “They’re all coming out.”

Indeed they are. Joni Ernst’s highprofile Senate race this year gave presidential speculators like former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio a convenient opportunity to offer their endorsements on Iowa soil.

Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney,

W

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Huck abee: Ian McVea/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/MCT • Carson: Christ y Bowe/Pol aris/newscom paul : Mark Wilson/Get t y Images

who campaigned for Clinton in 2008. At a time when many Americans are frustrated with Obama’s foreign policy record, Bagniewski believes Clinton’s experience as secretary of state will play to her advantage.

“I think she understands America’s role in the world better than any other candidate out there,” he said. “She’s not a doubter of American exceptionalism.

She’s not a doubter of the need for a strong military.”

Not to say Clinton doesn’t have detractors in her party. “She’s got so many ties to Wall Street. … Hillary only comes into town when she wants something,” says Brenda Brink, a ­resident of Huxley who volunteers for the grassroots Ready for Warren ­campaign. “Elizabeth Warren speaks for the people. … It’s the people who are still being held down and need a hand up.”

The field seems wide open for Clinton, though: Warren has so far declined calls to run.

Santorum: Patrick Fallon/ZUMA/newscom

Some have speculated Iowa has a “woman problem,” and by extension, a “Hillary problem.” Iowa has never elected a female governor or sent a female representative or—until this year—senator to Washington. In 2008 Hillary Clinton lost the Iowa caucus to John Edwards and a little-known Illinois senator named Barack Obama. Her ­campaign never recovered.

However, the November elections this year, in which Iowans elected Republican Joni Ernst as their next senator (with strong support from male ­voters), seem to have debunked the idea Iowans will not support a female candidate.

And although Clinton didn’t connect well with Iowans in 2008 (because she didn’t visit enough small towns, some say), she may know what to do differently this time.

“It’s the retail politics. It’s getting out there and meeting as many people one-on-one as she can,” said Sean Bagniewski, an attorney in Des Moines

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HUCK ABEE: IAN MCVEA/FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM/MCT • CARSON: CHRIST Y BOWE/POL ARIS/NEWSCOM PAUL : MARK WILSON/GET T Y IMAGES

(1) Carson; (2) Huckabee; (3) Paul.

neurosurgeon Ben Carson, and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie also have visited Iowa in recent months, either campaigning for Republican candidates or speaking at conservative events and fundraisers.

In contrast to broad Democratic support for Clinton, Republicans in Iowa are broadly splintered over whom they’d prefer to send to the White House. In the Des Moines Register poll, more Republicans named Mitt Romney as their first choice—17 percent—than any other candidate, even though Romney claims he isn’t running. Other respondents in the survey split their support among more than a dozen other conservative figures, starting with Carson, Paul, and Huckabee.

While that suggests Iowa Republicans are unsure who is best suited to carry their torch in 2016, it doesn’t mean some haven’t already picked favorites.

Michelle Fetters Steen, who lives outside Indianola, supports Ben Carson.

“I feel like he’s honest,” said Steen, who first heard of Carson when he criticized Obamacare at the National Prayer Breakfast last year (while Obama sat about five feet away). Steen said Carson has courage and overcame a disadvantaged background without a “woe-is-me attitude.”

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they heard a speech from Rand Paul, whose father, Ron Paul, won 21 percent of Republican votes in the 2012 Iowa caucus.

Randy Davis, a chalk artist from “I think Rand Paul has a lot of interest Ottumwa, wants Mike Huckabee to jump from establishment Republicans right in. “I even have relatives who are now because they feel that they can trust staunch Democrats, and they would vote him,” Rogers said. “And also because they for him in a heartbeat.” He views think he can manage a winning coalition Huckabee, a Fox News television host, as of Republicans,” including tea party and someone who can work with Democrats libertarian-minded conservatives. without compromising his principles, Many grassroots conservatives and believes he’d be articulate and haven’t settled and are still open to charming in debates. hearing from all the candidates. Vander During the state convention in June, Plaats said conservatives will need to Will Rogers, the chairman of the coalesce around one soon, or they’ll Republican Party of Polk County, which end up with another candidate chosen covers Des Moines, had lunch with by the “establishment.” several other Republicans. They were “We know that establishment candi“extremely excited,” Rogers said, after dates cannot win the presidency,” Steve Deace, a conservative talk show host in Des Moines, told me. “Ask presidents Dole, McCain, Romney. They can’t win.”

Deace said the grass roots in Iowa are tired of losing: “I really think this time around it’s going to be a vetting process unlike any other. … Who can show that they are capable of rallying the conservative base, and beating the establishment in a primary? That’s who I’m going to support.” A —conservative talk show host Steve Deace 2̀

‘We know that establishment candidates cannot win the presidency. Ask presidents Dole, McCain, Romney.

They can’t win.’

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A string of bad news has beset Obamacare, and worse is likely on the way

by J.C. Derrick in Washington, D.C. P H O T O B Y D AV ID G O L D M A N/A P

LAST APRIL the Department of Health and Human Services reported some 8 million Americans had enrolled in health insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act. President Barack Obama stood in the White House Rose Garden and proclaimed the law a success: “The debate over repealing this law is over.”

But as the second open enrollment period gets under way, a string of bad news is casting new doubts on the president’s proclamation. The website works this time, yet systemic problems are growing: Companies are shedding jobs, rural hospitals are closing, premiums remain high, penalties have spiked, and the administration has admitted last year’s

The emergency room of the closed Flint River Community Hospital in Montezuma, Ga.

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cases close locations to cut costs or slide under the 50-employee threshold that requires a company to provide health insurance. Others are dumping employees into the health exchanges, risking the fines that will accompany enforcement in 2015 (see sidebar).

“This is exactly what our survey predicted,” said Duke University Professor Campbell Harvey, who helped poll more than 1,000 chief financial officers a year ago to ask how they would handle the ACA. Between 40 and 50 percent reported they would hire fewer workers, shift toward part-time employment, and/ or lower health benefits. “The impact on the real economy is astonishing,” Harvey said, and the country is “definitely” still in the early stages of feeling the effects.

As the nation’s labor participation rate already languishes at historic lows, the Congressional Budget Office this year projected the ACA would directly lead to the loss of 2 million full-timeequivalent workers by 2017, rising to about 2.5 million in 2024. Harvey said that “significantly understates the legislation’s impact,” because it is based on historical patterns and doesn’t reflect companies planning to hire less and shift to part-time labor.

Harvey believes if more people had understood the real effects of the law, the legislation would likely have never passed. He’s not alone: Jonathan Gruber, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology profes4̀ sor and Obamacare

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1: DOMINICK REUTER/LANDOV • 3 & 4: DAVID LEESON/GENESIS 2: MICHAEL CHAVEZ/SEIU/AP

enrollment figure was inflated. Actual first-year enrollment numbers landed at 6.7 million—leading the administration in November to lower 2015 enrollment expectations from 13 million to less than 9.9 million.

The main thrust of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is to increase access to healthcare, but on a surprisingly large scale it’s having the opposite effect.

Millions of Americans lost their health insurance because their plans didn’t meet the requirements of the law, accounting for a large portion of the 6.7 million 2014 enrollees. Ed Haislmaier, a health policy expert at the Heritage Foundation, estimates a maximum of 2.4 million previously uninsured individuals obtained insurance through the state and federal exchanges. Others have lost healthcare access through hospital closures: Forty-five rural hospitals have shuttered since 2010, including at least a dozen this year, according to North Carolina Rural Health Research Program tracking data. The closures are primarily due to new regulations and cuts to Medicare/Medicaid reimbursement, but rather than helping reverse the alarming trend, the ACA has accelerated the process.

“It’s going to get worse,” said Carla Roadcap, the former CEO of a 25-bed hospital in rural Linden, Texas. Roadcap told me her facility was already struggling financially, and knowing the ACA would bring more cuts in 2015 prompted the three-hospital system to close that location, affecting about 100 employees. Now the closest hospital is another rural location 15 miles away, the sole firewall saving Linden residents from a 35-mile drive—which would put thousands at risk of missing the “golden hour” for treatment after a major medical incident, such as a stroke or heart attack.

“It’s obvious to anyone working in healthcare that the healthcare delivery system needs to be changed,” Roadcap said. “How it needs to be changed is a whole different question.”

Today’s system still relies heavily on employment, and that’s another area where Obamacare is wreaking havoc.

Companies are making choices to cut hours, cut the workforce, and in some

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architect, sparked a public relations nightmare in November when videos surfaced showing him crediting secrecy and the “stupidity of the American voter” for getting the law through Congress. In Dec. 9 testimony before a House panel,

1: DOMINICK REUTER/LANDOV • 3 & 4: DAVID LEESON/GENESIS 2: MICHAEL CHAVEZ/SEIU/AP

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(1) Gruber. (2) People wait to enroll for health insurance in Los Angeles on Nov. 15. (3) Carla Roadcap. (4) The Good Shepherd Medical Center in Linden, Texas, which closed in April.

Gruber issued a blanket apology for his “insulting and mean comments” but defended the law and claimed it was passed in a transparent way. “My flaws as a private citizen should not reflect on any process by which the ACA was passed, or any success of that law.”

 jderrick@wng.org  @jcderrick1

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Heritage’s Ed Haislmaier, who was part of a panel discussion with Gruber earlier this year, said the professor’s attitude in the videos is typical: “There’s plenty of folks in health policy on the left who believe the same way.”

All this has left Obamacare’s approval ratings in the tank, forcing even some senior Democrats to distance themselves.

Following big GOP gains last month, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who faces reelection in 2016, said Democrats “blew the opportunity the American people 2̀ gave them” after the 2008 election and shouldn’t have put their energy into passing Obamacare. Schumer’s comments were more about political strategy—he still supports the health law—but it was a stunning admission from the Senate’s No. 3 Democrat.

Retiring Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, went after the substance of the law in a Dec. 3 interview with The Hill, saying the law is too complicated and doesn’t lower costs. “We should have either done it the correct way or not done anything at all,” said Harkin, who helped author the bill as chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.

Harvey told me he thinks “people from both sides would entertain a reexamination with a clean slate.” They may get that chance. In November the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a case challenging the subsidies the federal government is giving to lower-income enrollees in the 36 states that didn’t set up their own exchanges. The law says tax credits are available through marketplaces “established by the state,” but the administration in 2012 made them available in all 50 states.

The implications are huge: About four out of five enrollees receive a subsidy and many of them likely couldn’t afford the coverage without it. That means the law could be in tatters as early as next June,

WORLD and Obamacare WORLD News Group employs 58 individuals full time as of Dec. 1. The Aff ordable Care Act requires all companies with more than 50 employees to provide health insurance or pay an annual fine— $3,000 per employee for off ering substandard coverage or $2,000 per employee above 30 employees for off ering no coverage at all.

WORLD has for many years provided health insurance to its employees, but the ACA has made it increasingly difficult to find plans that are aff ordable and come without coverage for abortions and abortion-inducing drugs. Since it has become virtually impossible to predict and control costs, WORLD is moving its staff to a healthcare sharing ministry (see “Growing in a loophole,” June 1, 2013) beginning in January.

The new arrangement will satisfy the requirements of the individual mandate for employees, but it will not satisfy the requirements of the employer mandate.

Although WORLD may have to pay as much as $56,000 in fines, it will be able to lower costs, predict costs, and still provide ethical coverage to its employees.

“We are stewards of both the financial resources God provides through our members and the individuals and families He places under our care as employees,” said WORLD CEO Kevin Martin. “The ACA has made those two responsibilities mutually exclusive. We believe our move to a healthcare sharing ministry will best enable us to fulfill our responsibilities to our members and our employees.” —J.C.D.

weeks after the end of the second open enrollment period. If 2015 enrollment barely grows, Haislmaier said, “then the argument that I and others make is just to scrap this complicated system with a much more straightforward subsidy for people to go on the open market.” A

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12/8/14 10:29 AM

NOTEBOOK LIFESTYLE / TECHNOLOGY / SCIENCE / HOUSES OF GOD / SPORTS / RELIGION

LIFESTYLE

Where is she now?

One year after a remarkable birth by Chelsea Kolz Boes

At Christmas we celebrate one spectacularly unusual birth, but it’s also a good time to recognize babies like Madeleine Kara Lim. Her first year of life since her birth on Nov. 29, 2013, has been remarkably unremarkable. She loves to laugh, explore, and move—but she floated in liquid nitrogen for three years before the Lims adopted her.

Madeleine, created through in vitro fertilization (IVF), owes her life to medical innovation along with an attempt to revive an ancient practice. When ancient Romans discarded babies, Christians rushed to scoop them up. Now, about 600,000 fertilized eggs sit frozen, embryo storage is costly, and parents often ­discard the frozen embryos they don’t want. “Most will die,” Madeleine’s adoptive dad, Paul Lim, says: “It’s the moral equivalent of throwing your child out into the field.”

The Lims, with a 9- and 7-year-old born the usual way,

handout

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NOTEBOOK

LIFESTYLE

chose to adopt Madeleine.

Doctors thawed her and placed her, along with a ­sibling embryo, into the womb of Paul’s wife Susan.

The babies were each about the size of the head of a pin:

only 100 cells big.

The ­procedure took 30 minutes, and Susan spent the next day bedbound in a hotel.

Six weeks after implantation, though, Susan’s first ultrasound revealed just one beating heart. “Are you sure there isn’t another one?”

Susan asked. There wasn’t.

The Lims grieved.

Throughout the unusual pregnancy, Susan faced another difficulty: From

2008 to 2010, Paul had worked as a surgeon and Susan as a pediatrician in an Ethiopian hospital, ­correcting cleft palates— but it turned out that new, leaky, and fragile blood ­vessels were growing in her right eye, killing retinal cells.

The problem forced the family to move back to the United States in 2010.

Susan needed ­regular ­injections of the drug For a 2013 series about Paul and Susan Lim’s decision to adopt embryos, visit wng.org.

Avastin to stop extra blood cell production and save her vision—but she would not be able to take Avastin while pregnant, as it could harm the baby. Susan would have to refuse the drug and risk her sight. Once pregnant, she began to see ­divots when she read fine print, but she refused to treat the condition.

By God’s mercy, Susan’s eyesight grew no worse and she gave birth Nov. 29, 2013, at 9:03 a.m. Mother and 1-year-old are doing fine. A —Chelsea Kolz Boes is an editorial assistant for God’s World News

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measuring 12 feet wide by 24 feet long and sporting eight 6-foot-tall tires. r Challenges are good. I’ve never liked heights, but part of my job as I emptied my wagons into storage bins was to monitor the grain level in those bins. That involved climbing ladders attached to the outside of the 25-foot-tall bins and peering down through a door in the roof. I had to discipline myself to push through the fear the first few trips up the ladder, but it did get easier.

r We have opportunities to praise God. The solitary nature of farm work gives ample time for ongoing prayer ­conversations. The beauty of the ­sunsets and the varied topography in this part of the state also inspired me to praise God for His creative extravagance, and for His provision in times of economic uncertainty.

—Dave Bell; from 1988 to August 2014, Bell was editor and ­p ublisher of The Leader-Union (Vandalia, Ill.)

Madeleine lim: handout • bell : Jane bell

After more than three decades as a newspaper editor and publisher, I became this fall a farm hand. God, in His sovereignty, had allowed a corporate staffing realignment in which my position was eliminated.

That end marked a new beginning, including a stint as a farm worker during the harvest season. Instead of stressing over budgets, news coverage, and personnel issues, my new job description was remarkably clear—get the crops safely from the field to the bin.

My experience on the farm began when a longtime family friend needed a tractor driver to haul wagons of corn from his fields to the storage bins on his family’s farms. I jumped at the chance. I exchanged my button-down shirts and khaki pants for jeans, boots, and a John Deere cap.

For six weeks starting Sept. 24 I was at the helm of a John Deere 8320, pulling dozens of wagons of golden corn down the back roads of south-central Illinois.

The days were long but satisfying, as I saw that: r Small things done consistently add up to big things. With about 1,500 acres of corn, yielding close to 200 bushels per acre, we harvested nearly 300,000 bushels. r It’s fun to try new things. I learned to operate several tractors, including a monstrous four-wheel-drive John Deere

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10:38 AM

TECHNOLOGY Play stations

google: Dominic Lipinski/pa/ap • LinkNYC: handout

New York City still has 6,400 coin-operated pay phones, most of which languish, unused. But that may be about to change.

Next year, the city embarks on an elaborate plan to replace its aging and outdated pay phones with a network of 10,000 kiosks that will provide free, 150-footradius high-speed wireless internet, free phone calls within the United States, a free charging station for phones, and a touchscreen tablet to access directions and city services.

The new system, called “LinkNYC,” is a partnership between the mayor’s office and a consortium of technology, manufacturing, and advertising companies. Although the project will cost about $200 million, officials expect advertising ­revenue from the kiosks to generate more than $500 million over the next 12 years.

Most New Yorkers won’t miss the old-school pay phones. “I’m cool with it,” Miriam Dumlao, an East Village–based musician, told The Wall Street Journal. “Like, I don’t miss my tape player.” —M.C.

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NOTEBOOK

Words and actions

Computers are now ‘learning’ to describe what’s happening in images by Michael Cochrane Comedian Steve Martin once quipped that his sentences brightened up once he started using verbs. It was a joke, of course, but describing reality is more than just identifying objects, it’s identifying what those objects are doing. Now, with recent advances in image recognition technology, computers may be able to describe reality as well as—or better than—humans.

Last month, researchers at Stanford University and Google—each group working independently— announced the development of artificial intelligence software capable of not only identifying objects in images, but what those objects are doing. For example, an image described by a human as, “A group of men playing Frisbee in the park,” was captioned by the computer as, “A group of young people playing a game of Frisbee.”

The researchers found that the computer-­ generated descriptions were consistently accurate compared with human observations.

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Such a capability could lead to far more efficient cataloging and searching of billions of online images and videos.

Current search engine technology relies on human-generated written language descriptions of the image contents.

How does a computer learn to recognize multiple objects in an image,

what those objects are doing, and then write an accurate description—all on its own? The key is the rapidly advancing technology of Artificial Neural Networks (ANN)—software programs inspired by the architecture of the human brain.

The Stanford and Google researchers combined two types of ANN,

one focused on image recognition and the other on natural language ­processing. Next, they presented thousands of different images and descriptions to the hybrid ANN, “training” it to ­recognize patterns in the ­picture/description pairs.

They then gave the ANN a set of pictures it hadn’t yet “seen” to determine how well it had learned.

“I was amazed that even with the small amount of training data that we were able to do so well,” said Oriol Vinyals, a Google computer scientist and a member of the Google Brain project, to The New York Times. “The field is just starting, and we will see a lot of increases.”

But while the technology is considered “artificial intelligence,” it’s still merely highly sophisticated pattern recognition.

“I don’t know that I would say this is ‘understanding’ in the sense we want,” said IBM researcher John R. Smith in the Times article. “I think even the ability to generate language here is very limited.”

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SCIENCE

Gut-level response

Possible cure?

ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS MAY CAUSE GLUCOSE INTOLERANCE IN SOME PEOPLE by Julie Borg

analyzed the volunteers’ glucose levels and gut bacteria compositions. Many of the volunteers had begun to develop glucose intolerance, but some did not.

The researchers discovered that there are two different types of human gut bacteria and only one induces glucose intolerance when exposed to artificial sweeteners. “Our relationship with our own individual mix of gut bacteria is a huge factor in determining how the food we eat affects us,” Eran Elinav, lead researcher, said.

The research is preliminary, and any health recommendations must await further studies.

Crash cushion

Colello with his son, Ian

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Hundreds of thousands of football-related concussions occur every year.

Raymond Colello, a neuroscientist at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, is devising a way to use the repulsive forces of palm-sized magnets embedded into the front and sides of football helmets to reduce the impact of head-to-head collisions, the cause of 60 percent of football-related concussions.

The material packed inside traditional helmets reduces impact by deflecting some of the energy after a collision, but magnets pushing against each other could slow the collision down before it occurs. According to the Sports Concussion Institute, male football players have a 75 percent risk of sustaining a concussion.

The average NFL player sustains over 600 helmet hits per season, ranging from 20 g’s of force to more than 150 g’s. Around 100 g’s will cause a concussion. During testing the magnetic inserts have reduced 140-g hits to 88 g’s.

Although the magnetized helmets sound promising, they will only work in head-to-head collisions. Colello plans to begin testing with crash dummies by the end of the year. —J.B.

SWEETENERS: L AURA TAYLOR/FLICKR • PARKINSON’S RESEARCH: VOROZHTSOV INSTITUTE OF ORGANIC CHEMISTRY • HELMET: VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSIT Y

Artificial sweeteners, long touted as aids to weight loss and prevention of diabetes, may actually help cause the very disorders they were designed to prevent, according to research recently conducted at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.

The researchers discovered that even though artificial sweeteners contain no sugar they may effect gut bacteria and thereby inhibit the body’s ability to use glucose.

Mice given water treated with the three most common artificial sweeteners developed glucose intolerance while mice given sugar water did not.

In humans glucose intolerance is the first step toward metabolic syndrome and Type 2 diabetes.

The researchers asked a group of volunteers who did not usually use artificial sweeteners to consume them for seven days, after which they

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Siberian scientists at the Vorozhtsov Institute of Organic Chemistry, in Novosibirsk, may have found a cure for Parkinson’s disease. Animal trials are complete, and the researchers will begin human testing soon. If the medication proves to be safe and eff ective, it could be available before 2019.

The chemical is a derivative of turpentine, a paint thinner obtained by distilling resin from pine trees. “Our substance helps to restore the balance of neurotransmitters and is mild and works without major side eff ects,” lead chemist Konstantin Volcho told The Siberian Times.

Approximately 6,000 Americans are diagnosed with Parkinson’s each year, and 10 million people worldwide suff er from it. Scientists are baffled by its cause, but most suspect it is a combination of genetic and environmental factors. —J.B.

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9:02 AM

BAC TO TRONG/THE DAILY NEWS/AP

NOTEBOOK

HOUSES OF GOD

NOTEBOOK

BAC TO TRONG/THE DAILY NEWS/AP

SWEETENERS: L AURA TAYLOR/FLICKR • PARKINSON’S RESEARCH: VOROZHTSOV INSTITUTE OF ORGANIC CHEMISTRY • HELMET: VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSIT Y

GLASGOW, KY. Greg Cutcliff plays the bagpipes Sunday, Nov. 23, during a Kirking of the Tartans service at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Glasgow, Ky.

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SPORTS

Viral outbreak

Shocking images of high-profile domestic abuse cases put sports leagues in the hot seat by Andrew Branch

being the ‘suspension-ish’ state of Peterson and others during their cases. A judge reinstated Rice to the NFL, ruling the league wrongly punished Rice twice for the same offense. Peterson pleaded no contest to “reckless assault,” entering his own fight to be reinstated after sitting out nine games, albeit with pay.

Other leagues excoriated the NFL’s inconsistency and built bridges to domestic violence ministries. But at year’s end, uncertainty remains the norm.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver followed

Taylor (above); Voynov with his wife and daughter.

The road to Dallas Just three days after burying teammate Kosta Karageorge, who police say committed suicide, the Ohio State Buckeyes rallied together and pounded No. 13 Wisconsin 59-0.

That earned them the fourth and final spot in the inaugural College Football Playoff, joining Alabama, Oregon, and Florida State.

For the selection committee, the Buckeyes’ inspired mastery meant 11-1 Baylor University and Texas Christian University would both fall short, at No. 5 and No. 6, respectively. “I guess it takes being undefeated. Our goal next year will be to go undefeated,” Baylor Coach Art Briles said. New Year’s Day winners of a Florida State-Oregon Rose Bowl and an Alabama-Ohio State Sugar Bowl will meet Jan. 12 in Dallas, Texas. —A.B.

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taylor: Jeff Siner/The Charlotte Observer/ap • Voynov: Gregory Shamus/NHLI/Gett y Images • Buckeyes: Andy Lyons/Gett y Images

Prior to the February video of Ray Rice dragging his now-wife from an elevator, discipline for domestic abuse was a kind of foreign policy in sports.

Leagues handed out mostly meager suspensions, and the media didn’t cry foul.

But in 2014, the culture of viral videos and images caught up with professional sports.

Ray Rice’s legal case had concluded by the time the video of him knocking out his wife appeared in September. Then pictures surfaced of running back Adrian Peterson’s 4-year-old son, who suffered lacerations from a so-called spanking with a tree branch.

Professional athletes became the public face of domestic violence, and, for better or for worse, sports leagues took drastic measures to make a statement.

The NFL ran into legal trouble last month after changing its story and suspension plans more than once, perhaps the oddest

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through on a pledge to review league policies, ­suspending Charlotte’s Jeff Taylor 24 games last month.

The NBA has a 10-game minimum suspension for a person’s first violent felony, and Taylor pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor. In hockey, Los Angeles defenseman Slava Voynov has been suspended with pay since Oct. 20, similar to Peterson. The Kings have argued the league allowed them no relief in a tight ­salary cap to replace him.

And in the end, no league spat can help get to the truth of what happens when athletes’ home lives fall apart. The district attorney’s office charged Voynov with a felony for allegedly injuring his wife’s “eyebrow, cheek and neck” ­during an argument. But his wife refused to press charges and won’t testify, claiming her injuries weren’t intentional.

A consensus is emerging that justice is more important than having a star in the field. But American sports enters 2015 seeking an equilibrium between giving the accused a fair hearing and giving battered women the respect they deserve.

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9:36 AM

schilling: Winslow Townson • warren: nick ut/ap

NOTEBOOK

RELIGION

NOTEBOOK

CREDIT

schilling: Winslow Townson • warren: nick ut/ap

Bitter tweets Two faiths collided last month on Twitter. Retired pitcher Curt Schilling, a professed Christian who vowed a decade ago never to hide his beliefs (see “Never hide,” March 19, 2005), tweeted a series of comments critical of macroevoution, including, “Show me the fossils that became human” and “Where are the fossils?”

ESPN’s Keith Law showed his faith in Charles Darwin by responding, “There are hundreds of transitional fossils on record, Curt,” and offered as evidence a Wikipedia “list of transitional ­fossils.” That list, though, is based on cladistic analysis, which assumes that species have a common lineage, so if they have a similar anatomical character they are related: Thus, birds are the descendants of two-legged dinosaurs. Critics of cladism, though, say birds may not have evolved that way, or God may have created them.

The evolution debate continues to be a clash not of religion vs. science but faith vs. faith and science vs. science: As man gains greater knowledge of cell structure but no greater knowledge of transitional fossils, the holes in Darwinism become more apparent. Yet the hostile tweets Schilling received have a very low common denominator: Faithful evolutionists believe any criticism of their dogma is evidence of stupidity.

The Center for Science and Culture website (discovery.org/id) has at least 25 articles explaining why fossils that purportedly show how birds, horses, whales, tetrapods, and humans evolved show nothing of the kind. You can see that list, which includes items like “Human origins and the fossil record” or “Fact-checking Wikipedia,” and read the clear articles by going to wng.org and searching for “Schilling.” —M.O.

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Rick Warren

Good counsel

Tragedies help ignite a Christian counseling explosion by Dave Swavely & Marvin Olasky Family tragedies have prompted two evangelical leaders to promote improvements in Christian counseling for the mentally ill—and one venerable group has changed its name.

After Melissa Page Strange, the 32-year-old daughter of Frank Page, committed suicide, her dad—president and CEO of the executive ­committee of the Southern Baptist Convention—appointed a mental health advisory group. That group last month proposed that churches, seminaries, and Christian colleges improve preparation and education regarding mental health problems.

Last year Matthew Warren, son of Saddleback Church pastor and author Rick Warren, also committed suicide, and this spring a Saddleback conference on faith and mental illness drew 2,000 attendees. Rick Warren is now speaking often about mental health treatment, and last month Saddleback hosted a meeting for family members of those who have killed themselves.

Suicide is the extreme sadness, but many Christians who are not mentally ill, just weary, find counseling helpful.

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In another sign of the times, the American Association of Christian Counselors, a broad organization that does not certify counselors, has almost 50,000 members. Meanwhile, a certifying organization founded in 1976, the National Association of Nouthetic Counselors, has changed its name to the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors.

ACBC, which has 1,200 certified members, was originally the brainchild of Jay E. Adams, the Westminster Seminary professor whose 1970 book Competent to Counsel emphasized the importance of biblical counseling.

Adams, 85, has not served on the organization’s board in recent years.

He told WORLD, “I’ve been very sick.

At one point everyone thought I was going to die. … My wife even gave away my socks.”

Adams said he hopes ACBC will “become very selective about whom it certifies. The membership should include only those who really subscribe to doing biblical counseling exclusively.

I suspect that there will be influences trying to broaden out the membership qualifications. … Time will tell.”

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MAILBAG SEND LETTERS AND PHOTOS TO MAILBAG@WNG.ORG

NOVEMBER 15

‘Going viral’

 What an educational article on the

Ebola crisis and the great works Christians are doing on the forefront to fight the disease.

EVELYN SCHICKER VOLZ ON FACEBOOK

g Wow. Thank you for the reminder that God works and uses us in mysterious ways.

XMASTOMATO ON WNG.ORG

g I totally loved this column and am sending it to a friend whose parents are unbelievers. Her heart is for them to know the Lord, but I trust this will encourage her to let God be God. CHERYLQUILTS ON WNG.ORG

‘Radical turn’ g My children’s pediatrician just

returned from a volunteer stint in West Africa. Who would not go to help if they were able?

NEVERTHELESS ON WNG.ORG

‘The new photos’

can corral the Holy Spirit.” How true and, to my shame, how quickly I forget. God did it all, so why does my heart rev itself to an unnatural speed?

And oh, the churning in my stomach.

Great reading.

BGB ON WNG.ORG

, Andrée Seu Peterson’s new photo is

beautiful. Five years have given her an exquisite elegance.

DENISE TOW / EASLEY, S.C.

, Men too can be vain. Once for a publicity event I tried to substitute a nice photo of me for one that made me look old and feeble, but after reading this column I now feel guilty about that. Sigh.

Kemembe, Rwanda submitted by Berry Stubbs

 These youths joining radical Islam know not what they are doing until it is too late. We all do dumb things in our youth, and all parents fear that their kids will do something so dumb that there is no saving them from it. Sad. May God open the eyes of our youth!

BETH YODIS ON FACEBOOK

g I believe that many of these disaffected young people see our modern society as lacking strength and virility.

They think it has little purpose, honor,

BRUCE WOLLENBERG / MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.

, I was thinking sad thoughts about the new photos of WORLD’s writers, primarily that nobody is getting any younger, when this column smacked me in the face and reminded me to embrace getting older. We should live in reality rather than unreality.

Thank you.

JOSHUA BURBA / NASHVILLE, TENN.

‘Nothing but Him’

g Marvin Olasky notes that “No one , Mail/email g Website

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 Facebook  Twitter

D E C E M B E R 2 7, 2 0 1 4

WORLD

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MAILBAG or prestige. They yearn for something more, but they are deceived into ­looking in evil for what they think they want.

RSPENDLOVE ON WNG.ORG

‘Who is confined?’

g The observation that liberals treat other views as mere prejudices is quite true. Christians should not respond with anger or resentment but with ­reason. We Christians have a right to an equal place in the public square and, as Christ made clear, we have a responsibility for promoting the ­common good among all people.

NITROBOB ON WNG.ORG

single entity, in vital relationship with no one. The God of the Scriptures, however, is relational by His nature and has many, many adopted children.

As these Qatari officials learn the truth, may they see the love of God who crossed a universe to adopt us.

DEAN FROM OHIO ON WNG.ORG

‘Adult children’

, Megan Basham’s review of Laggies is perhaps the most insightful, interesting, and educational review I’ve ever read. She stated what many of us in the older generation can see and sense but have been unable to verbalize.

JOHN C. SKINNER / CARLSBAD, N.M.

g Under persecution, the gospel of

redemption looks better and better. As the foundations of civilization are undermined, soon more and more people will be confronted with the need for a Savior.

MIDWEST PREACHER ON WNG.ORG

‘Sent packing’

g Let the universities kick out the Christians! It draws people to these groups. God is bigger than a university administration.

LOWFREQ ON WNG.ORG

, Given the “all-comers” policy ­ niversities are adopting, why don’t u Christian students join clubs that oppose Christianity and be ambassadors for Christ? It would take a lot of prayer, courage, and support.

J.D. MOYERS / CENTENNIAL, COLO.

‘A small beginning’

, Mindy Belz’s accurate reporting on the Middle East has brought to my attention all the difficulty and hardship Christians in Mosul have to endure to worship God. It helps me realize how much I take our religious freedom for granted in this country.

CHRISTIAN BENDER / URBANA, OHIO

‘House divided’

g The article notes the Islamic ­ rohibition on adoption. The Islamic p concept of God portrays him as a 68

to the world and that they should “be like God in true righteousness.”

CHRISTINA NADENDL A / WINSOR, CALIF.

‘Incident in Room 304’

, As a newly graduated nurse working a night shift in 1980, I was caring for a 92-year-old woman who had just been taken off a feeding tube. I heard her say, “I’m hungry,” and reported it, but the next night there was still no tube.

After I heard her say it again I made a stink, her feeding tube was replaced, and she was soon in a chair and talking.

Not all interventions should be inflicted on the dying, but I cannot consider simple tube feeding an extraordinary measure.

MARY JENSEN / MISSOURI CITY, TEXAS

g I agree wholeheartedly with the

conclusion, although it’s regrettable that these issues have to be discussed in the context of R-rated ­movies. Also, the fact that parental healthcare coverage is now allowed up to age 26 gives young marrieds an economic incentive for continued dependency.

JOE ON WNG.ORG

‘A priceless conversation’  Read this in my mag last night; choked me up!

DAVE DRESSNER ON FACEBOOK

November 1

‘Fire and Fury’

, Megan Basham said Boyd’s faith is “deeper than superficial rule-keeping.”

I can appreciate that, but would point out that profaning the name of Christ has become a small thing in Hollywood.

Movie scripts have both “good” and “bad” characters treating the name of Christ profanely; is that a good thing?

Or is it, as Hollywood believes, a small thing?

MICHAEL MALLIE / KALONA, IOWA

, Basham said she’s glad the evangel-

ical character smokes, drinks, and swears, but this might “go down hard” with some readers. I am one of those readers. I try to instill in my two sons the biblical principle of not conforming

October 4

‘The poverty of pluralism’

, Thanks for this insightful column.

I recently came across an article describing “No-Go” zones in Sweden where Islamic mafia basically run the area to protect its drug trade. The Swedes are responding with sensitivity and attempts to understand. It’s an example of pluralism destroying a culture.

BILL STIEFEL / L ANSING, MICH.

Corrections

The lawyer representing some Nevada ranchers in land disputes is Karen Budd-Falen (“Long land ­battle,” Nov. 29, p. 49).

The person in the illustration ­identified as Khadijah Dare is Aafia Siddiqui (“Radical turn,” Nov. 15, p. 54).

LETTERS & PHOTOS , Email: mailbag@wng.org , Mail: world Mailbag, PO Box 20002, Asheville, nc 28802-9998 g Website: wng.org  Facebook: facebook.com/ WORLD.magazine  Twitter: @WORLD_mag Please include full name and address. Letters may be edited to yield brevity and clarity.

W O R L D D E C E M B E R 2 7, 2 0 1 4

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W W W. N C F I C . O R G / T H E O LO G Y | CO U P O N CO D E 2397 26 SEU PETERSON.indd 70

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Andrée seu peterson

In the fullness of time our seemingly random comings and goings carry a lot of importance

Since 1986 I have saved my kitchen calendars, those unsentimental diaries of a life of chauffeuring, car inspections, and returning library books. Their tattered pages contain many cross-outs and reschedulings of events that did not come to pass as I had planned.

I often marvel that nothing in the future— even two or three days hence—is ever certain.

All is subject to the unforeseen: Someone wanted to swap Sunday school duty so I penciled through Feb. 23 and took the following week. A May 27 doctor’s appointment with Glassman: canceled, since Eun Kyung visited from Korea. Dina at Village Diner: X-ed out, and underneath the hasty scrawl, “See Juliette.”

In contrast to this, “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son” (Galatians 4:4). No postponements, nor bumping up the date due to a cancellation. The time of Messiah’s appearing is predicted by Daniel, down to the year, 600 years before: “Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks” (Daniel 9:25).

Imagine the perfect coordination of every seemingly random molecule under the sun required for the delivery of a baby in a barn in Bethlehem. Noah had to wield his hammer at the right moment, Eli had to be in the temple the day Hannah was crying, Mordecai had to overhear the plot of the king’s two eunuchs. All must be achieved using agents making choices with authentic wills.

Beyond that, think of all the prophecies that Christ fulfilled: He had to be of the line of Abraham (Genesis 12:3); proceeding through Isaac’s branch (Genesis 17:19); narrowing ­further through Jacob (Numbers 24:17) and

krieg barrie

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 aseupeterson@wng.org

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Imagine the perfect coordination of every seemingly random molecule under the sun required for the delivery of a baby in a barn in ­Bethlehem.

Judah (Genesis 49:10); a descendant of King David (2 Samuel 7:12-13; Isaiah 9:7).

Besides Bethlehem (Micah 5:2; Luke 2:4-6), He had to be somehow from Egypt (Hosea 11:1; Matthew 2:14-15), Nazareth (Isaiah 11:1; Matthew 2:23), and Galilee (Isaiah 9:1-2; Matthew 4:13-16). He needed a birthplace massacre (Jeremiah 31:15; Matthew 2:16-18) and a rich man’s tomb (Isaiah 53:9; Matthew 27:57-60).

He also needed a death following betrayal (Psalm 41:9; Zechariah 11:12-13; Luke 22:4748), the exchange of money (Zechariah 11:1213; Matthew 27:9-10), false accusations (Psalm 35:11; Mark 14:57-58), spitting (Isaiah 50:6; Matthew 26:67), vinegar (Psalm 69:21), bound hands and feet (Psalm 22:16; John 20:25-27) but no broken bones (Exodus 12:46; Psalm 34:20; John 19:33-36), and a gambling game for garment spoils (Psalm 22:18; Luke 23:34).

The man fitting this bill had to be both regal (Psalm 45) and meek (Isaiah 53:7; Matthew 26:63; 27:12-14); every inch a king (Psalm 2:6; John 18:37) yet submitting to God (Psalm 40:7-8; Mark 10:45); ruler of the nations (Psalm 2:89) yet suffering servant (Isaiah 42:1); cut down in the prime of life (Psalm 89:45), yet master of the timing (John 7:6).

That’s only the beginning. My get-together with Howard and Betsy has been bumped three times for circumstances beyond our control.

But God’s calendar date for the spread of the Messiah’s message is a flawless confluence of thousand-mile Roman road-building projects, the Pax Romana, the religious vacuum following conquest, a universal linguistic delivery system in Koine Greek, a language unassociated with imperialism yet capable of the necessary subtlety.

“Probably no period in the history of the world was better suited to receive the infant church than the first century A.D. … By the second century Christians … began to argue that it was a divine providence which had prepared the world for the advent of Christianity” (Evangelism in the Early Church, Michael Green).

Nevertheless, “the fullness of time” would be naught but a lovely daisy chain to be admired from a distant outpost, far from God and far from hope, had He not woven it still further till it reached to you and took in all your comings and your goings. Then the star that shone on Bethlehem did shine upon your soul, and you were smitten by its light. A DECEMBER 2 7 , 2 0 1 4 W ORLD

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MARVIN OLASKY

Terror and grace in 1914

‘Fancy shaking hands with the enemy’

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Germans put up Christmas trees with hundreds of candles, and their bands serenaded the British with Christmas carols and ‘God Save the King.’

Robson Harold B/Imperial War Museums

One hundred years ago this month, ­millions of Europeans got a foretaste of quasi-hell, and some saw a moment of quasi-heaven.

Most German, French, Austrian, and Russian generals had all hoped and planned for quick victories as World War I began in August 1914.

By December, the horrible new normal of the next four years was sinking in. As historian Max Hastings put it, “Throughout history, armies had been accustomed to fight battles that most often lasted a single day, occasionally two or three, but thereafter petered out. Now, however, the allies and Germans explored a terrible new universe of continuous engagement. They accustomed themselves to killing and being killed for weeks on end.”

Some individuals had predicted this. German Commander in Chief von Moltke told Kaiser Wilhelm, “The war will utterly exhaust our own people even if we are victorious.” French writer André Gide spoke of entering “a long tunnel full of blood and darkness.”

As battles went on for weeks without respite, Bible-minded soldiers like Kresten Andresen of Germany saw how the dead piled up but the living also felt cursed: “We are on our way into the jaws of Hell. … We’re hardly human any more, at most we are well-drilled automatons who perform every action without any great reflection. O, Lord God, if only we could become human again.”

On Dec. 25, though, a bottom-up initiative in the trenches allowed many soldiers to become human again for a day. As one British soldier wrote to his hometown newspaper, The Bedfordshire Times and Independent, “There was no firing on Christmas Day and the Germans were quite friendly with us. They even came over to our trenches and gave us cigars and

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cigarettes and chocolate and of course we gave them things in return.”

The informal “Christmas truce,” with about 100,000 British and German soldiers ceasing to fight, began on the night before Christmas, when along miles of trenches Germans put up Christmas trees with hundreds of candles, and their bands serenaded the British with Christmas carols and “God Save the King.” Then as one British soldier wrote, “I was never more surprised in my life when daylight came to see them all sitting on top of the trenches waving their hands and singing to us.”

British and German soldiers put down their rifles and came cautiously out of the trenches.

Some had joint worship services and a few even played soccer. Letters home from British soldiers showed amazement: “Fancy shaking hands with the enemy! I suppose you will hardly believe this, but it is the truth. … Who would believe it if they did not see it with their own eyes? It is hard enough for us to believe. …

It seemed like a dream. … Now I am going to tell you something which you will think incredible but I give you my word that it is true. … I saw it but thought I was dreaming.”

For the generals, though, this dream was a nightmare: How would the soldiers start killing each other again the next day? A British army order soon forbad “any rapprochement with the enemy in the trenches. All acts contrary to this order will be punished in high treason.”

Other countries issued similar decrees, and soon one soldier could write to The Whitehaven News, “We’ve started scrapping again; and I can tell you it is not very nice in the trenches up to the knees in water.”

Isaiah, in chapters three and four of his book, forecast God’s judgment on nations that had gone astray: “Your men shall fall by the sword and your mighty men in battle.” Civilians will also suffer: “Instead of perfume there will be rottenness … instead of a rich robe, a skirt of sackcloth.” But misery creates pressure to repent: Some suffering comes for reasons beyond the ken of Job or the rest of us; but much of the time, when God slaps us in the face, our response should be, “Thanks, I needed that.”

One hundred years ago, God gave the czar, the kaiser, and their counterparts who claimed to be Christians an opportunity to admit that their strategies for early victory had failed. Yet they did not confess their pridefulness and kneel before God. Instead, they ignored His slap and poured out more buckets of blood. A

 molasky@wng.org  @MarvinOlasky

12/8/14 1:16 PM

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