WORLD Magazine, Jan. 9, 2016 Vol. 31 No. 1 by God's World Publications

2015 News of the Year

J A NU A R Y 9 , 2 0 1 6

• DEFLATEGATE • HILLARY CLINTON EMAILS • BOKO HARAM • ANDRAÉ CROUCH • IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL • SYRIA • PARIS MASSACRES •

• BEN CARSON • LEGALIZED SAME-SEX MARRIAGE • COPTIC CHRISTIANS • PAUL RYAN • ISIS • FREDDIE GRAY • KANSAS CITY ROYALS •

ELISABETH ELLIOT • PLANNED PARENTHOOD • DONALD TRUMP • SYRIAN MIGRANTS • CHARLIE HEBDO

NEPAL QUAKE • CONFEDERATE FLAG • LEONARD NIMOY • SOUTH CAROLINA FLOODING • POPE FRANCIS

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SEX, SIN &

SALVATION God’s Grace in a Fallen World

Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary APRIL 21 - 23, 2016

Christ Church at Grove Farm Sewickley, PA

SPEAKERS

Dr. Rosaria Butterﬁeld Rev. Tim Challies Dr. Peter Jones Dr. Heath Lambert Dr. George Scipione Dr. John Street Dr. Derek Thomas

TO REGISTER:

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Bible classes Bisons for Christ Chapel Devotionals Service projects Spring break missions Summer campaigns

The heart of our mission Harding is, at its core, a Christian university. We strive to integrate faith into all aspects of University life â&#x20AC;&#x201D; from classrooms and athletic fields to residence halls and study abroad programs. Students are encouraged in their relationship with Christ and receive an education built on faith and Christian principles. Daily chapel and Bible classes allow students to grow spiritually, and service projects and mission trips give opportunities to put Christianity into practice. As a result, a studentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s time at Harding has an eternal impact.

Faith, Learning and Living Harding.edu | 800-477-4407 Searcy, Arkansas

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JAN0916 / VOLUME 31 / NUMBER 1

NEWS OF THE YEAR

22 Photos 42 Events 58 Deaths

DEPAR T MEN T S

8 Joel Belz 11 Dispatches 20 Janie B. Cheaney 72 Mindy Belz 75 Mailbag 79 Andrée Seu Peterson 80 Marvin Olasky ON THE COVER Photo illustration by Krieg Barrie

Migrants walk toward a refugee center after crossing the CroatianSlovenian border on Oct. 23. JURE MAKOVEC/AFP/GET T Y IMAGES

WORLD (ISSN 0888-157X) (USPS 763-010) is published biweekly (26 issues) for $59.95 per year by God’s World Publications, (no mail) 12 All Souls Crescent, Asheville, NC 28803; 828.232.5260. Periodical postage paid at Asheville, NC, and additional mailing off ices. Printed in the USA. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. © 2016 WORLD News Group. All rights reserved. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to WORLD, PO Box 20002, Asheville, NC 28802-9998.

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“The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof; the world and those who dwell therein.” —Psalm 24:1 editorial Editor in Chief Marvin Olasky Editor Timothy Lamer Senior Editor Mindy Belz National Editor Jamie Dean Managing Editor Daniel James Devine Washington Bureau Chief J.C. Derrick Reporters Emily Belz • Sophia Lee • Angela Lu Senior Writers Janie B. Cheaney • Susan Olasky Andrée Seu Peterson • John Piper Edward E. Plowman • Cal Thomas • Lynn Vincent Correspondents Megan Basham • Julie Borg Anthony Bradley • Andrew Branch • Bob Brown James Bruce • Tim Challies • Michael Cochrane Kiley Crossland • John Dawson • Mary Jackson James Marroquin • Jill Nelson • Arsenio Orteza 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

Seething cauldrons CIVIL, RESPECTFUL DIALOGUE SEEMS TO BE A THING OF THE PAST ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES

WORLD JANUARY 9, 2016

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Campuses are supposed to be places where a culture learns to avoid physical confrontation and moves instead toward verbal exchange.

Students in Ann Arbor, Mich., rally as a show of support to University of Missouri students.

DOMINIC VALENTE/THE ANN ARBOR NEWS VIA AP

The valet at our hotel was eager to talk. He was, indeed, one of those fellows who, when I asked him casually if he’d grown up there in Savannah, Ga., proceeded to give us his whole life story. But especially, for some reason, he was eager to tell us about the grief being imposed on his aging mother. She had taught for more than 25 years in a local college, and had relished that assignment. But somewhere in the recent past, she had caught a student cheating on a project— a pattern soon confirmed as she checked in with other faculty. No one else, though, had bothered to confront the wrongdoer. Now the matter had taken a dark turn. Instead of joining his mother in promoting a high standard of academic integrity, the college’s administration was pursuing a line of discipline against his mother, charging her with jeopar dizing the student’s rights. “My mother isn’t worried about herself,” my new friend stressed. “She’s kept careful notes about every detail. But she is worried about the college. Everything there has changed.” Indeed, everything “there” has changed. But don’t suppose that such a sweeping charge applies only to the college in Savannah. Everything has changed, or is at least in the pro cess of changing, throughout higher education in America. Frightening illustrations of that reality were beginning to dominate the news media just a few weeks ago. There was, for example, the embarrassing ruckus at the University of Missouri where the president was forced to resign and, for all practical purposes, students took over the leadership of the univer sity. Seething cauldrons of physical unrest in Missouri came close to being replicated in Minnesota and Connecticut. Then came the call for removing the name of Woodrow Wilson from the program in his honor at Princeton University. Copycat demonstrations played out at one campus after another, and the whole

movement seemed in late November to be pick ing up steam. Then came the horrific shootings in San Bernardino, Calif.—a development that eclipsed and perhaps even derailed, for a time, a protest movement that might otherwise have brought back memories of harsh campus unrest 50 years ago. But don’t suppose that a temporary silence proves that the crisis on America’s campuses is going to go quietly away. The anger is deep. The resentments—often based on awkwardly volatile issues—are to be found in a huge variety of student and faculty groupings. Participating pro testers appear to be impoverished on at least three fronts: Many students, and even many faculty, have lost a handle on basic facts. They don’t know names and dates of people and places. Name a country (try Vietnam) and ask someone to match that country with a continent. Or ask a typical student to match World War II with a particular century. The stuttering silence might embarrass you. Similarly distressing is the inability of so many in academia to keep a discussion on a coherently logical track. Many have never heard of the traditional logical fallacies and don’t even notice it when they move from the core or essence of the argument itself to beating up on the person (or persons) making the argument. This “appeal to force” has become a traditional campus diversion in recent years, just as it did at the University of Missouri this fall. But especially destructive is the inability of so many folks in our colleges and universities to carry on a civil, respectful, and controlled conversation—a pattern that seems just as often true among faculty and administration folks as it is with freshman students. Campuses are sup posed to be places where a culture learns to avoid physical confrontation and moves instead toward verbal exchange. American academia has tended instead to turn this lesson upside down. That’s why I predict that as winter turns into spring, serious campus unrest will move bigtime back into the nation’s headlines. And you’ll remember the sober analysis of the hotel valet here in Savannah: “Everything there has changed.” A

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Faith and Free Enterprise.

DISPATCHES NEWS / QUOTABLES / MOVIES

Slowing down

ASSET DECLINES SHOW THE WEAKENING OF A ONCEROBUST CHINESE ECONOMY by June Cheng News of the Chinese yuan’s inclusion in the global reserve currencies basket of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) late last year was icing on a cake going stale. In 2015 China saw its GDP growth slow to 6.9 percent (in official, apparently exaggerated statistics), its stock market drop 40 percent, and its money flow out of the country as economic confidence dropped. IMF Director Christine Lagarde said the inclusion (alongside the dollar, the euro, the Japanese yen, and the British pound) was “a recognition of the prog-

GREG BAKER/AFP/GET T Y IMAGES

ress that the Chinese authorities have made in the past years in reforming China’s monetary and financial systems.” Maybe, but last year China was learning that it’s hard to have it both ways: greater economic freedom without religious and political freedom. The government has intensified its crackdown on human rights lawyers, ethnic minorities, intellectuals, and religious groups including Christians in Wenzhou. Press freedoms also deteriorated: The day after China’s stock market plummeted in August, staterun Chinese newspapers stayed silent

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on the topic in line with a government propaganda directive that read, “Do not conduct in-depth analysis, and do not speculate on or assess the direction of the market.” Authorities detained a Chinese business reporter for writing a story about the government’s intervention in the stock market. They claimed his story caused the market chaos, but markets don’t thrive when investors lose confidence. Many are skeptical An investor in Beijing of the IMF’s move watches the and the attempt of stock market. President Xi Jinping to cover up increasingly authoritarian actions. Xi said the slowing growth is the “new normal” as the country transitions from an economy based on investments and exports to one driven by domestic consumption. JANUARY 9, 2016 WORLD

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As the problems pile up, Cato Institute fellow Xia Yeliang believes that the reform China needs is incompatible with Xi Jinping’s decidedly leftist ideals. Rather than continuing to open up China economically, Xi is regressing back to a Mao-era climate where control is ultimate, Xia claims. Xia felt this chill himself as he was fired from his position as an economics professor at Peking University in 2013 for his criticism of the Communist Party and for signing Charter 08, which called for democracy and respect for human rights. The slowdown is revealing deepseated but glossed-over problems in China’s economy: a real estate bubble, mountains of local government debt, and unprofitable state-owned enterprises. Just under the surface sits the possibility that when the money stops rolling in, public dissatisfaction could bring political change.

WORLD

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JANUARY 9, 2016

CHINA PHOTOS/GET T Y IMAGES

hina’s meteoric rise began in 1978, when Deng Xiaoping’s market reforms introduced private property, broke up state-owned industries, and opened up the country to foreign investment. For the next 3½ decades, China grew at an astounding 10 percent a year—compared with America’s rate of about 2 percent a year—and quickly moved from being the world’s factory to being the world’s second-largest economy. Investments fueled the country’s growth, as China overbuilt infrastructure on borrowed money. Such high growth rates were unsustainable: Official data pegs the current GDP growth at 6.9 percent, but the economic research group Capital Economics believes actual growth is about 4.5 percent. In October, imports fell 19 percent as exports dropped 7 percent from a year earlier. November saw China’s foreign reserves—foreign assets held by the central bank—fall by $87 billion, to their lowest point since 2013, meaning that more and more money is leaving the country. Rose Lin sees this firsthand at her job as a manager at a real estate firm in Chengdu. The Sichuan capital used to be a thriving market as newly wealthy

and advises them not to place their faith in idols that can disappoint, such as the Chinese economy, but rather in a God who doesn’t change. “In the next three to five years, I don’t think it’ll get better,” Lin said of the economy. She’s wary of good reports that don’t represent the actual situation: “You can’t expect the government to pull along the entire marketplace.” Another problem is the massive debts accrued by the local governments, which reached $3.7 trillion at the end of 2014. After the 2008 recession, officials borrowed heavily to fund construction projects such as gleaming new airports or high-tech industrial areas in order to help propel growth. Yet they didn’t have plans in Chinese yuan place to pay back those loans, and the central government has had to bail them out. investment in building a waterfront At the same time, the government is hotel in Chicago. also propping up failing state-owned The Chinese housing market is in enterprises, leading to a national debt poor shape, even as the government twice the size of the country’s GDP. provides incentives for citizens to keep Many Chinese overlook the sins of buying. According to analysis by their leaders as they enjoy living Standard Chartered, housing and standards far surpassing those of sectors related to home construction previous generations. Xia predicts that made up 3 percent of the GDP growth a halt in the growth of their wealth— in 2010, compared with 1.1 percent in say through a stock market crash or a 2015. With an oversupply of aparthousing bubble burst—could wake the ments, the number of new homes Chinese from their pragmatic stupor constructed has fallen by 28 percent, An economic slowdown could also with 9 million unsold and 40 to 50 lead to even higher taxes on the million homes vacant as investments. already disgruntled rural farmers, in At the same time, Chinese purchases turn leading to greater instability. of overseas real estate in cities like Los In 2010, an estimated 180,000 Angeles, Vancouver, and Sydney rose protests, riots, and incidents took by 49 percent in the last year, accordplace in China, mostly over land grabs, ing to real estate brokerage firm Jones heavy taxation, and corrupt officials. Lang LaSalle. Xia noted that China has a long history Regardless of the positive spin in of farmer rebellions bringing about state-owned newspapers, Lin said that change in the country. “The economy “for those of us actually in the industry, is going down and people will finally it’s very clear that it’s not doing well.” see there’s no more opportunity to She’s watched as friends sold their make more money,” Xia said. “They companies and moved overseas, while will have more complaints, and then others turned to her for advice now there might be more conflicts between that things have gone south. As a the people and the regime.” A Christian, Lin points them to the Bible citizens swooped up properties for investment, leaving the luxury highrises empty. But now, Lin says the only buyers interested in apartments are those actually needing a place to stay. The investors have fled Chengdu—and China—for brighter prospects overseas, following the example of Chinese real estate tycoons such as Wang Jianlin, who last year announced a $900 million

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DISPATCHES

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‘This was a rare threat. We get threats all the time.’

Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent RAMON CORTINES on closing all of the more than 900 schools in the district on Dec. 15 because of an emailed threat of violence reportedly from overseas. The threat turned out to be a hoax, and the schools reopened on Dec. 16.

TOM FITTON, president of Judicial Watch, on the administration’s failure to respond to the group’s Freedom of Information Act request for documents relating to its work with aid groups to resettle refugees in the United States. Judicial Watch is suing the State Department to get the records.

‘Multiculturalism leads to parallel societies and therefore remains a “life lie.”’

‘40’

German Chancellor ANGELA MERKEL on the importance of assimilating immigrants. Merkel, celebrated as Time magazine’s "Person of the Year" for accepting hundreds of thousands of refugees into Germany this year, said Germany may be reaching its limit in accepting more.

‘A large scale movement of Women in Solidarity with Hijabs is my Christmas #wish this year.’ LARYCIA HAWKINS, associate professor of political science at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill., on her decision to wear a hijab “as part of my Advent Worship” and her encouragement to other women to do the same. She said she was standing in “human solidarity” and “religious solidarity” with “Muslim sisters,” who “worship the same God” as Christians. Wheaton College has placed Hawkins on administrative leave pending a review of her comments.

WORLD

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JANUARY 9, 2016

THE PERCENTAGE OF AMERICANS who rate national security and terrorism as the top issue for the federal government to address, according to a December poll from The Wall Street Journal and NBC News. The figure was up from 21 percent in April, and it almost doubled the next highest issue in the December poll—job creation and economic growth at 23 percent.

‘Even a blind squirrel can find a nut every now and then.’ House Speaker PAUL RYAN on Republicans compromising with Democrats occasionally.

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‘The Obama administration has something to hide about refugees, terrorism, and national security.’

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DISPATCHES

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Thanks for the memories THE FORCE AWAKENS REVELS IN STAR WARS NOSTALGIA BUT FAILS TO GO FAR BEYOND IT by Megan Basham

Daisy Ridley and John Boyega Peter Mayhew and Harrison Ford

About an hour into the mega-event (can a film this hyped even be called a movie?) Star Wars: The Force Awakens, you can almost hear how the conversations at Disney offices must have gone before director J.J. Abrams began shooting. The reason nobody liked George Lucas’ prequels is because they didn’t include enough references to the original trilogy. They didn’t have enough of the fun stuff. Rest assured. Abrams got the message. The Force Awakens is so crammed full of fun stuff it’s like an economy-sized jar of Prego. A re-creation of the intergalactic bar scene? It’s in there. A revived Millennium Falcon? It’s in there. A certain cameo from a certain beloved character? Don’t worry, this is no spoiler. Because if said character appeared in 1977’s space opera classic, then yes, with only one or two notable exceptions that Disney will no doubt utilize in upcoming entries, he or she (or it) is in there. For millions upon millions of Star Wars fans, such heavy doses of nostalgia will alone make Abrams’ relaunch worth watching. And there’s no question that it’s a lot of fun to see the old Rebel gang back together. However, unlike Abrams 2009 reboot of Star Trek, The Force Awakens doesn’t completely fire on its own lateral thrusters. There’s so much of the past crowding the screen, the future doesn’t have enough room to make its own claim on our imagination. The two principals of the Republic’s new guard, orphaned scavenger Rey (Daisy Ridley) and renegade stormtrooper, Finn (John Boyega), are likable enough, but there’s something consistently bland about them. They’re rushed from action scene to action scene too quickly to develop any real chemistry. It doesn’t help that

WORLD JANUARY 9, 2016

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THE FORCE AWAKENS: LUCASFILM • MUSTANG: AD VITAM

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one of cinema’s all-time great couples— Han Solo and Princess Leia—reunite in the background, reminding us of what we’re missing. A Resistance flyboy named Poe (a fantastic Oscar Isaac) presents the one new character with enough charisma to compete with our old favorites, but his role is small, and we get the feeling it’s not going to grow much bigger in the two upcoming sequels. The backstory of how the evil Empire, destroyed at the end of Return of the Jedi, grows into the essentially identical First Order is given similarly short shrift. Though 30 years have passed and the Rebellion has morphed into the Resistance, things haven’t changed much. Even the uniforms for both sides remain the same. On the one hand the continuity is comforting. On the other, the lack of new detail flattens out the believability of the world. How could so little have changed in that amount of time? Conversely, how is it the Rebellion appears to be passing into myth when so many players in that conflict remain on the scene? Abrams seems to trust that his viewers’ enthusiasm for the source material will paper over certain logical inconsistencies. Still, far be it from me to be the moviecritic Grinch stealing Christmas joy from sci-fi fans everywhere. The Force Awakens may not be everything A New Hope was, but it offers plenty of entertainment and visual treats, particularly for parents who can take their kids without risking anything more concerning than a few instances of minor profanity (exclamations of “hell” being the main one I noticed). The Force Awakens has to be one of the mildest PG-13 action movies to hit theaters this year. Another bonus, despite its title, this Star Wars doesn’t emphasize the “force” as a New Age concept nearly as much as the previous films. For both heroine Rey and villain Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), the force is more akin to a superpower than a mystical intuition developed through spiritual discipline. And if the experience doesn’t quite live up to your memories of first meeting Luke, Leia, Han, and the rest, well, you can always have new hope for the next, already announced Star Wars adventure in 2017. A

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High spirits

HACKNEYED MUSTANG RAISES WORTHWHILE QUESTIONS ABOUT SOCIAL MODESTY by Sophia Lee Any parent with a gaggle of girls knows it’s not easy to repress the energy, spirit, and desires of daughters blossoming into womanhood—however much the anxious parent might want to shield her children from a dark, perverse world. That’s what the grandmother and uncle of five beautiful, fast-budding sisters try to do in the Turkish coming-of-age drama Mustang, set in a rural coastal village in modern-day Turkey. It all begins when the five orphaned sisters—Sonay (Ilyada Akdogan), Selma (Tugba Sunguroglu), Ece (Elit Iscan), Nur (Doga Zeynep Doguslu), and Lale (Günes Sensoy)— frolic at the beach with a group of male schoolmates, buoyant with carefree laughter and fun. They plunge into the Black Sea in their plaid skirts, and there engage in a juvenile game of chicken fight.

Long, flowing hair is a conspicuous visual theme in Mustang: All the other modest women in the film pin up their hair and cover it with a head scarf, but not these young girls, whose loose, wild tresses flip and flounce, defining their feminine youth. Their tangled hair is still damp when the sisters reach home, where their grandmother (Nihal G. Koldas) greets them with a black face. A scandalized neighbor had witnessed the scene at the beach and had spread word of the girls’ obscenity—or “rubbing your parts on boys’ necks!” as the grandmother screeches, dragging them one by one behind locked doors for discipline. Confused, the girls protest their innocence, most of them still too young and naïve to understand the power and charm of their blooming sexuality. An irate Uncle Erol (Ayberk Pekcan) then marches the sisters off to the doctor for virginity tests. They all pass, but no matter—from then on, the guardians resolve to safeguard their chastity until marriage and remove anything that’s likely to “pervert” them: makeup, computers, telephones, glitterstudded shorts, clingy tank tops, even postcards of military men. JANUARY 9, 2016 WORLD

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DISPATCHES

MOVIES

Soon, narrates Lale, “the house became a wife factory that we never came out of.” The neighborhood aunties pop in daily to teach the girls how to wrap dolmas, stuff blankets, and do all the other housewifely duties each sister is destined to perform for her future husband and in-laws. Comatose with boredom, the girls come up with ways to rebel—ultimately resulting in steel bars on windows and doors and spikes on walls. What’s most interesting about Mustang is the different way in which each sister responds to her confinement: One embraces her sensuality with conscious, beguiling ease, pushing the boundaries of virginity with her secret boyfriend (the film gets its PG-13 rating for “mature thebonds, but in a matic material, sexual content, and a rude way that takes gesture”), while another resigns to her fate them for granted: with little effort at hiding her discontent. Of course Kate Yet another sister decorously serves coffee CRUDE SISTERS PLAYS FOR LOW and Maura will and cookies to her future in-laws, but STAKES by Alicia M. Cohn make up; of binges on other things (food, danger, boys) course their in private. parents will forgive them for their Meanwhile, as young Lale watches her In the 1980s and again in the property-destroying behavior. sisters led off one by one in white dresses ’90s, the teen party movie Kate’s daughter, Haley (Madison and red veils, her defiance swells and her became a staple. The genre has Davenport), never leaves the family mind whirs with schemes. Each child, facfaded since then, but Hollywood circle even when condemning her replaced it with the adult party ing the same circumstance, preserves her mother’s irresponsible ways. movie, a slightly tongue-in-cheek unique personality and desires, even if she Much publicity about Sisters has formula modeled on those teen hasn’t yet figured out all of those desires. focused on the supposed reverse movies and likely created mainly by What these sisters do know is that they typecasting of making Fey the wild adults who grew up on movies like want some space to grow, instead of being child cosmetologist and Poehler Sixteen Candles or Can’t Hardly Wait. funneled into arranged marriages. the straitlaced nurse. That is Sisters follows that formula and Mustang is a film tinged with Western because plenty of women see (or has a little fun mocking it (in this political and cultural overtones. Seen want to see) themselves in one world, the youngsters are the through the perspective of a prepubescent woman’s public persona or the responsible ones), girl, the conclusion— other. Women who want to be like but mostly relies if there is one— BOX OFFICE TOP 10 Fey or Poehler—and have the kind upon the charm seems half-baked FOR THE WEEKEND OF DEC. 11-13 of bond that can even survive mud and chemistry of and immature. The according to Box Office Mojo wrestling—can watch Sisters withstars Tina Fey and themes of patriarchal CAUTIONS: Quantity of sexual (S), violent oppression and Amy Poehler. The out any threat of reality stepping (V), and foul-language (L) content on a 0-10 sexual repression at Fey-Poehler comon the laughs. scale, with 10 high, from kids-in-mind.com times seem hackbination is nearly That is not to say the movie is S V L epic at this point innocuous. Sisters is rated R for neyed and simplistic. 1̀ The Hunger Games: in pop culture, crude sexual content and language But the film does Mockingjay, Part 2* PG-13....... 2 6 1 2̀ In the Heart of the and their fans will throughout and for drug use. Fey’s present a worthwhile Sea* PG-13....................................................... 2 5 3 probably like Kate sprinkles nearly every question: How can a 3̀ The Good Dinosaur* PG.............. 1 4 1 Sisters despite its sentence with crude language. young, modern 4̀ Creed* PG-13............................................... 4 5 5 low stakes and Poehler’s Maura attempts to flirt woman reconcile the 5̀ Krampus* PG-13...................................... 1 5 5 simplistic “family by making accurate references to seeming conflict 6̀ The Night Before R............................ 8 4 10 loyalty” message. anatomy. The film has a lot of between social mod7̀ Spectre* PG-13......................................... 5 6 3 The movie drinking, drug use, descriptions of esty and individual 8̀ The Peanuts Movie* G................. 1 1 1 emphasizes family sexual acts, and near-nakedness. A empowerment? A 9̀

Tina and Amy

WORLD JANUARY 9

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*Reviewed by WORLD

UNIVERSAL PICTURES

Spotlight* R................................................ 4 4 5

10 Brooklyn* PG-13...................................... 6 2 5 `

See all our movie reviews at wng.org/movies

12/16/15 5:29 PM

Last train out to get off-the-grid?

Amazing “Solar Generator” Is Like Having A Secret Power Plant Hidden In Your Home!

Generate An Endless Supply Of Free Electricity From The Sun BY MIKE WALTERS

STAFF WRITER, OFF THE GRID NEWS

f you have ever wanted to have an emergency backup system that supplies continuous electrical power in an outage, this will be the most important message you will ever read. Here is why. There is now a completely portable (and ultra-high efficient) solar power generator which produces emergency household electricity on demand when you need it most. News of this “solar backup generator” (it’s the biggest “off-the-grid” breakthrough in 50 years) is spreading like wildfire all across the country! Why? The answer is easy. You see, this solar generator is extremely powerful and yet very simple to use. It produces continuous electricity and runs with absolutely no noise whatsoever. It also emits no fumes. But the best part about the solar generator is that once you own one, you can...

Generate Free Electricity From The Sun! Charged by the sun with a powerful solar panel, the unit then stores the power for your use when you need it. We all face disruptive threats to the grid, with hurricanes, tornadoes, snow and ice storms cutting off electrical power to millions of Americans each year. Then there are man-made disasters and outages. Blackouts and rolling brownouts are becoming common in many parts of the United States as our grid gets stretched beyond its capacity and has now become a target for terrorists.

Gas Stations Can’t Pump Gas Without Electricity! It’s true. When the power goes out, you’re left with whatever gas you have on hand because the gas station pumps all run on electricity. A few gallons stored in a gas can means a little electricity for a little while, then it’s quickly “back to darkness.” Here’s the thing: I could go on and on about life without electricity and what a nightmare gas generators can be. But here’s the bottom line: Solutions From Science, a Thomson, Illinois technology company is now offering an amazing power generating system that can provide plenty of electrical power in the event of an outage or emergency. And the best part is that you can have the power safely in your house.

A True Breakthrough In Home Power Generation! If I could bring one over to your house and let you start plugging in appliances, you would immediately understand what all the fuss is about. But I can’t do that. So, I’ve made a special new website that explains everything in detail:

www.MySolarBackup.com The emergency backup system comes ready to go. (It’s called plug and play) Just start plugging in your favorite household essentials. By the way... the units sell retail for almost $3295.00 plus shipping and handling. But I’m going to show you a way around that. I have negotiated a very special offer for World readers. Here’s what you can do right now. You can use coupon code WLD11 to override the price on the site and get one of these new units for more than half off as a World Magazine reader. In fact, you can get one now for just $995.00 if you move quickly. To do that, the absolute fastest way to get one is by going to the website at:

www.MySolarBackup.com

The truth is, we are extremely vulnerable to all kinds I’m so convinced every American household needs a Solar of meltdowns that can create temporary or even long-term electrical outages. With that in mind, many smart Americans Generator, that I’ve arranged for this special deal to get one to you at this dirt cheap price. I truly believe there’s never been now want… a better time to have a way to generate your own electricity.

A Solar Powered Backup In Place!

CREDIT

When you compare a solar generator to a gas generator, the difference is pretty remarkable. Here’s why. First, gas generators make an incredible amount of racket… if you can even get them started in the first place. With a gas generator, you pull and pull some more, all because your generator has been sitting in the cold and the carburetor is playing hard to get. This, of course, is not a lot of fun in the dark. Another reason to avoid gas generators is that you just can’t safely run one in your house. But the number one reason you don’t want to be caught in a time of crisis with a gas generator is…

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Sincerely, Mike Walters P.S. One more thing. It’s very important. Make sure you use coupon code WLD11 to get all the discounts you have coming as a World Magazine reader. P.S.S. The website again is MySolarBackup.com. There’s a ton of informational videos there for you to do some research on solar powered backups.

12/16/15 10:45 AM

JANIE B. CHEANEY

The gift of garb

CLOTHES ARE MUCH MORE THAN A COVERING FOR OUR SKIN

WORLD

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JANUARY 9, 2016

Clothes are not just for covering, but also for projecting, interpreting, expressing, communicating, and sometimes for hiding.

DORI OCONNELL/iSTOCK

For every species except ours, fashion is scales, fur, and feathers, typically in one size and color. It’s what all the marmosets are wearing this eon, and the latest in bicolor chameleon scales—all the rage forever. Chihuahua-wear is Chihuahua-wear, and I suppose the little doggies are perfectly comfortable with that. But humans have a choice, and for us clothing is both glory and shame. Nudity is theoretical, ideological, and (strangely) not natural. Even the most primitive bushman wears something, if only a rag about the middle or a collar of shells. Even in the technical absence of clothes, such as at a strip club or a porn shoot, the human mind is cutting and tailoring an attitude to wear. In only three situations is nakedness perfectly natural: birth and early childhood, sex (sometimes), and judgment. People wear clothes because they have to, but also because they want to. Clothes are not just for covering, but also for projecting, interpreting, expressing, communicating, and sometimes for hiding. Like most everyday phenomena, wearing clothes turns out to be weirder and more perplexing than we think. It was first an act of desperation, as Adam and Eve frantically grabbed leaves off the trees to cover themselves. The leaves were laughably temporary, so the Lord provided animal skins—a gracious concession, as many astute commentators have pointed out: borrowed righteousness owed to the sacrifice of an innocent creature. But soon enough, clothes became much more than covering. In the Bible they serve as booty (Achan hid them in his tent), reward (Naaman offered them to Elisha), symbol (Hezekiah and the king of Nineveh exchanged their finery for sackcloth), and moral obligation (don’t take the poor man’s cloak, says the Law). The labor that went into producing a garment

made it valuable: Jesus’ executioners considered even his unremarkable tunic worth gambling for. Throughout almost all of history clothes have signaled status and position. Color was dictated by necessity (dyes were expensive) and even by law: During Shakespeare’s time, for example, the poor were restricted to “sad colors,” while tradesmen could indulge in a little more variety, but not much—the full spectrum was reserved for the rich. In the early 19th century, though, something remarkable happened: Textile manufacturing became the first triumph of the Industrial Revolution, and clothing gradually transitioned from a valuable commodity to a very cheap one. Today clothes pile up on garage sale tables, clearance racks, the collection bin behind Goodwill, and our closets, where we spend the day after New Year’s wondering what to get rid of. As we take abundant food for granted, so we do abundant garb—the only consumer item, to my knowledge, whose value depends chiefly on the trendiness of the retailer. We’ll never go back to the garden; clothes are here to stay. They are a necessity, but also (as in the beginning) a gift. The age of abundant clothing allows us the luxury of telling the world who we are by how we dress. But Christians also have the obligation—and privilege—to tell the world whose we are. Most discussions about “modesty” concern what not to wear, but what to wear deserves thought as well. The heart of modesty is consideration for others (and incidentally, the male of the species should be aware that excessive sloppiness can be as inconsiderate as suggestiveness). Color, style, appropriateness, and flattering lines complement the wearer, but might they also praise our Maker? Near the end of That Hideous Strength, the conclusion of C.S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy, some of the female characters are trying on gowns for a special occasion. Each finds the perfect dress—for the others. No one chooses her own, and the wardrobe contains no mirrors for selfadmiration. Each woman’s pleasure comes from pleasing the rest, and He who shaped each woman is also pleased. That’s how it will be someday: Our bridegroom has chosen the perfect outfit for us to wear to our wedding. It’s a robe of righteousness— no longer borrowed, but our very own. A

 jcheaney@wng.org  @jbcheaney

12/16/15 10:49 AM

TRINITY INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

Preview Day is Trinity Collegeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s premier visit event â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a great opportunity for you to learn about our school and meet other prospective students and their families. You will visit a class, attend a chapel service, eat lunch with a faculty member from your major, go on a campus tour, and learn more about what it means to be a student at Trinity.

Join us for a first-hand opportunity to see all that Trinity has to offer. Find out more and register at tiu.edu/worldpreviewday.

DORI OCONNELL/iSTOCK

tiu.edu/worldpreviewday 2065 Half Day Road

Deerfield, Illinois 60015

800 822.3225

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Refugees and migrants arrive on the Greek island of Lesbos on Nov. 28 after crossing the Aegean Sea from Turkey. They were part of a steady stream of 5,000 migrants per day who were taking that route to Europe. SANTI PAL ACIOS/AP

PHOTOS 2015 News of the Year

JANUARY 9, 2016 WORLD

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Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson poses for a selfie during a Sept. 22 campaign event at Cedarville University. Political outsiders Carson and Donald Trump led a crowded field of GOP presidential contenders for much of the year. JOHN MINCHILLO/AP

WORLD

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Rescue workers tend to victims of the Nov. 13 terrorist attacks in Paris. Muslim terrorists killed 130 persons in coordinated attacks at restaurants, bars, and a concert hall in the city’s 10th and 11th districts. JACQUES BRINON/AP

JANUARY 9, 2016 WORLD

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Villagers in Gumda plead for food from relief workers a few days after an April 25 earthquake in Nepal. The remote mountain village, which aid workers reached by helicopter, was at the epicenter of the massive quake. WALLY SANTANA/AP

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Tu Shouzhe on July 29 stands on the roof of the building that houses the Protestant church he helps lead in eastern China’s Zhejiang province. Hours before, Chinese authorities had cut down the building’s cross, as they did at thousands of other Protestant and Catholic churches in the province in 2015. MARK SCHIEFELBEIN/AP

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The Calbuco volcano near Puerto Varas, Chile, erupts on April 22, prompting the evacuation of nearby communities. The eruption was the first for the volcano in more than 42 years. DIEGO MAIN/ATON CHILE/AP

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Protesters in Bujumbura, Burundi, react to police firing shots toward them during a May 26 demonstration against President Pierre Nkurunziza’s controversial bid for a third term. Opponents of Nkurunziza said his candidacy was illegal and led a boycott of the July election, which Nkurunziza won with 70 percent of the vote. DAI KUROK AWA/EPA/L ANDOV

JANUARY 9, 2016 WORLD

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Mourners at a Jan. 7 rally at Union Square in New York hold signs depicting the eyes of those killed when Islamic terrorists attacked the offices of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. The attackers killed 12. JOHN MINCHILLO/AP

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U.S. Air Force Academy graduates celebrate as F-16 Thunderbirds make a flyover at the completion of the May 28 graduation event in Colorado Springs, Colo. BRENNAN LINSLEY/AP

JANUARY 9, 2016 WORLD

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The secular worldview of evolution is stated to be a ‘fact’ 24/7. Can you defend the biblical worldview?

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EVOLUTION’S Achilles’ Heels

his award-winning documentary and companion book will equip you to defend the Bible’s account of history.

Like no other documentary, fifteen Ph.D. scientists collaborated to produce a coordinated, coherent, powerful argument that directly demolishes the very pillars of the belief system that underpins our now-secular culture— evolutionary naturalism. You can use Evolution’s Achilles’ Heels to show how the theory’s supposed strengths are, in fact, its fatal flaws! n n n

Natural Selection Genetics The Origin of Life

n n n

The Fossil Record The Geologic Column Radiometric Dating

n n

Cosmology Ethical Implications

See the trailer at

/EAH

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12/14/15 4:10 PM

Donald Trump emerged in the summer as the frontrunner in the race for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination and remained atop the polls into December.

EVENTS 2015 News of the Year

compiled by Kristin Chapman

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12/15/15 11:12 AM

BAGA: REX FEATURES VIA AP • DIPLOMATS: CHIP SOMODEVILL A/GET T Y IMAGES • TERRORISTS: YOUTUBE • OHIO STATE: RONALD MARTINEZ/GET T Y IMAGES

TOM PENNINGTON/GET T Y IMAGES

January JAN. 1

JAN. 21

Vietnam legalizes same-sex marriage.

U.S. DIPLOMATS arrive in Havana (for

the first time since the 1970s) for two days of talks aimed at normalizing relations with Cuba.

JAN. 2

Turkey grants permission to construct the first church building in the country in nearly a century.

JAN. 3

Boko Haram militants attack RESIDENTS OF BAGA and other Nigerian towns, killing as many as 2,000 and sending thousands of survivors fleeing. 1

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

BAGA: REX FEATURES VIA AP • DIPLOMATS: CHIP SOMODEVILL A/GET T Y IMAGES • TERRORISTS: YOUTUBE • OHIO STATE: RONALD MARTINEZ/GET T Y IMAGES

JAN. 6

JAN. 18

The price of crude oil drops below $48 per barrel, the lowest price since April 2009. ——— Same-sex couples can begin obtaining marriage licenses in Florida.

Boko Haram militants kidnap 80 persons, including 50 children, in northern Cameroon.

JAN. 16

The U.S. Department of Defense announces plans to send troops to train supposed moderate Syrian rebels.

JAN. 14

Flash flooding in Malawi displaces 100,000 persons and kills at least 175.

JAN. 7 ISLAMIST GUNMEN

storm the offices of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, killing 12 persons. Two more days of terror attacks ensue.

JAN. 13

A rocket attack on a passenger bus kills 12 civilians in pro-Russian separatistheld Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.

JAN. 12

Underdog Ohio State, led by quarterback CARDALE JONES, upsets Oregon 42-20 to win the inaugural College Football Playoff National Championship.

JAN. 11

Millions (including many foreign presidents and prime ministers, but not Barack Obama) march down the Boulevard Voltaire in Paris to protest the Charlie Hebdo massacre.

JAN. 9

A New York judge sentences radical imam Abu Hamza al-Masri to life in prison on federal terrorism charges.

JANUARY 9, 2016 WORLD

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February FEB. 25

FEB. 23

Islamic State militants kidnap more than 250 Assyrian Christians and kill at least 15 in northern Syria. ISIS later releases 19 captives.

FEB. 1

In the Super Bowl, the

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FEB. 3

FEB. 24

ISIS releases a video showing it burned alive captured Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh.

FEB. 18

Former Atlanta Fire Chief KELVIN COCHRAN files suit against the city of Atlanta and Mayor Kasim Reed, saying the city violated his equal protection rights in firing him over his Christian beliefs.

FEB. 10

Craig Stephen Hicks kills three Muslim college students in Chapel Hill, N.C. — NBC suspends NBC Nightly News anchor BRIAN WILLIAMS following revelations he misrepresented his experiences while embedded with U.S. military forces.

FEB. 14

A Muslim extremist attacks a free-speech event at a Copenhagen café, killing one man and wounding three police officers. He later kills a second man and wounds two more police officers before he is shot dead.

WORLD

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FEB. 15

Alaska becomes the third state to legalize recreational marijuana. ——— The United Kingdom becomes the first country to legalize the creation of three-parent embryos. ——— A Texas jury convicts Eddie Ray Routh in the murders of Chad Littlefield and former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, known from the movie and memoir American Sniper.

ISIS releases a video showing the beheading of 21 CHRISTIANS— one from Ghana and 20 from Egypt—kidnapped in Libya.

SUPER BOWL : K ATHY WILLENS/AP • SNOW: AMY SMOTHERMAN BURGESS/KNOXVILLE NEWS SENTINEL/AP • WILLIAMS: EVAN AGOSTINI/AP • COCHRAN: DAVID GOLDMAN/AP • CHRISTIANS: STILL FROM ISIS VIDEO

The United States, France, and Britain evacuate their embassies in Sanaa, Yemen, as an anti-American Shiite militia takes power.

intercept an end zone pass and beat the Seattle Seahawks 28-24.

JANUARY 9, 2016

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SELMA: JUSTIN SULLIVAN/GET T Y IMAGES • CLINTON: DON EMMERT/AFP/GET T Y IMAGES • NETANYAHU: JACK GUEZ/AFP/GET T Y IMAGES • FLIGHT 9525: L AURENT CIPRIANI/AP

FEB. 11

NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS

Winter storm “REMUS” hits the South, dumping up to a foot of snow and stranding motorists along Alabama’s Interstate 65.

March MARCH 26

MARCH 6

SELMA: JUSTIN SULLIVAN/GET T Y IMAGES • CLINTON: DON EMMERT/AFP/GET T Y IMAGES • NETANYAHU: JACK GUEZ/AFP/GET T Y IMAGES • FLIGHT 9525: L AURENT CIPRIANI/AP

SUPER BOWL : K ATHY WILLENS/AP • SNOW: AMY SMOTHERMAN BURGESS/KNOXVILLE NEWS SENTINEL/AP • WILLIAMS: EVAN AGOSTINI/AP • COCHRAN: DAVID GOLDMAN/AP • CHRISTIANS: STILL FROM ISIS VIDEO

A Wisconsin police officer fatally shoots Tony Robinson, 19, during an altercation. The incident sparks protests. 2

MARCH 8

Thousands gather in SELMA, ALA., to observe the 50th anniversary of the 1965 “Bloody Sunday” civil rights march. 6

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence signs into law the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. ——— Saudi Arabia begins airstrikes in Yemen targeting the Houthi rebels backed by Iran and Hezbollah.

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MARCH 1

Thousands of mourners and protesters march in Moscow to remember Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, 55, assassinated two days earlier.

MARCH 15

MARCH 28

Boston records its snowiest season on record with 108.6 inches.

MARCH 17

Israeli Prime Minister BENJAMIN NETANYAHU’s Likud Party wins big in national elections.

MARCH 24

Apparently suicidal German co-pilot Andreas Lubitz crashes Germanwings FLIGHT 9525 in the French Alps, killing all 150 aboard.

Amid election day attacks by Boko Haram, Muslim leader Muhammadu Buhari defeats President Goodluck Jonathan in Nigerian elections.

MARCH 25

After the U.S. trades five Taliban prisoners to gain Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s freedom, military officials charge him with desertion.

MARCH 10

HILLARY CLINTON addresses

questions regarding her use of a private email account while secretary of state. ——— The University of Oklahoma expels two students responsible for leading Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity members in singing a racist chant.

JANUARY 9, 2016 WORLD

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April APRIL 2

APRIL 24

Former Olympic champion Bruce Jenner says he is transgender. He soon appears on the cover of Vanity Fair as “Caitlyn.”

APRIL 4

APRIL 28

South Carolina policeman Michael Slager shoots and kills Walter Scott, an unarmed African-American fleeing a traffic stop.

APRIL 5

Rolling Stone retracts a discredited article about a purported gang rape at the University of Virginia. 1

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APRIL 1

Gov. Jerry Brown orders mandatory water use reductions for the first time in California’s history, as the state’s four-year drought reaches near-crisis proportions.

APRIL 25

A NEPAL EARTHQUAKE kills more than 8,000 persons and injures more than 23,000.

APRIL 12

Baltimore police arrest Freddie Gray, who sustains injuries, falls into a coma, and dies on April 19. VIOLENT PROTESTS

APRIL 7

Kansas Gov. SAM BROWNBACK signs a law banning late-term dismemberment abortion.

APRIL 8

The district attorney drops murder charges against Texas mother Hannah Overton in the death of her foster son Andrew.

and rioting follow.

APRIL 10

Barack Obama and Raúl Castro shake hands in Panama, in the first such meeting between U.S. and Cuban presidents since the Cuban Revolution.

APRIL 19

ISIS releases a video showing militants executing at least 35 Ethiopian Coptic Christians in Libya. ——— As many as 700 MIGRANTS die when their boat sinks while crossing the Mediterranean Sea from Libya to Italy.

GARISSA: CARL DE SOUZA/AFP/GET T Y IMAGES • BROWNBACK: ORLIN WAGNER/AP • PROTESTS: PATRICK SEMANSK Y/AP • NEPAL : NIRANJAN SHRESTHA/AP • MIGRANTS: ALESSANDRO DI MEO/ANSA VIA AP

Nigeria’s army rescues 200 girls and 93 women from Boko Haram.

WORLD JANUARY 9, 2016

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CAMERON: PETER MACDIARMID/AFP/GET T Y IMAGES • DUGGAR: D DIPASUPIL/GET T Y IMAGES FOR EX TRA • BRADY: RONALD MARTINEZ/GET T Y IMAGES • OIL SPILL : JAE C. HONG/AP • IREL AND: CHARLES MCQUILL AN/GET T Y IMAGES

Al-Shabab militants kill 147, mostly students, at GARISSA UNIVERSITY in Kenya. ——— The United States, Iran, and five world powers agree on a nuclear deal framework.

May MAY 9

MAY 21

GARISSA: CARL DE SOUZA/AFP/GET T Y IMAGES • BROWNBACK: ORLIN WAGNER/AP • PROTESTS: PATRICK SEMANSK Y/AP • NEPAL : NIRANJAN SHRESTHA/AP • MIGRANTS: ALESSANDRO DI MEO/ANSA VIA AP

Liberia marks the end of an Ebola epidemic that claimed the lives of more than 4,700 citizens. More cases re-emerge in following months.

MAY 13

The USDA reports that over the past year more than 40 percent of honeybee colonies have died.

MAY 8

Prime Minister DAVID CAMERON and his Conservative Party emerge victorious in British elections. 1

JOSH DUGGAR resigns from the Family

Research Council after publication of sexual abuse accusations from 12 years prior. On July 16, TLC cancels the show 19 Kids and Counting.

MAY 29

The United States officially removes Cuba from its list of state sponsors of terror.

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

MAY 3

Police shoot and kill two armed men attempting to assault a Garland, Texas, event featuring cartoons of Muhammad.

MAY 11

The NFL suspends New England Patriots quarterback TOM BRADY for four games and penalizes the team for its role in “Deflategate.” A judge later overturns the suspension.

MAY 17

MAY 28

A biker brawl at a restaurant in Waco, Texas, leaves nine persons dead, 18 injured, and 170 under arrest. ——— ISIS seizes control of Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s Anbar province. Thousands of Iraqis flee.

A federal grand jury indicts former U.S. House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert on charges of lying to FBI agents and making illegal payments to an undisclosed person to cover up “prior misconduct.”

MAY 26

The IRS reports that thieves hacked into its system and compromised thousands of taxpayer accounts.

MAY 22

Citizens in IRELAND vote to legalize same-sex marriage.

MAY 19

A RUPTURED PIPELINE north of Santa Barbara, Calif., leaks 105,000 gallons of crude oil, with 21,000 gallons contaminating the Pacific Ocean.

JANUARY 9, 2016 WORLD

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June

JUNE 12

Amid a worsening drought, California lawmakers tell farmers to reduce their water consumption, the biggest cuts in the state’s history.

A CHINESE CRUISE SHIP capsizes and sinks during a windstorm, killing more than 400 persons. 1

JUNE 25

The Supreme Court upholds key provisions of Obamacare.

The U.S. SUPREME COURT votes 5-4 to force states to redefine marriage and recognize same-sex marriages.

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JUNE 6

Thoroughbred AMERICAN PHAROAH finishes first in the

JUNE 30

Greece’s bailout expires and the country defaults on a $1.7 billion payment to the International Monetary Fund.

JUNE 17

Dylann Roof, 21, sits for an hour in a Bible study before opening fire, killing nine persons at EMANUEL AME CHURCH in Charleston, S.C.

Belmont Stakes and nabs the first Triple Crown in decades.

JUNE 2

Indian officials say a heat wave suffocating the country has left more than 2,300 persons dead. ——— Wholesale egg prices hit a record $2.62 per dozen due to a bird flu outbreak.

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JUNE 16

The FDA tells companies they have until 2018 to remove all artificial trans fats from food products. ——— The GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers 105-97 in Game 6 to win the NBA championship.

CRUISE SHIP: CHINAFOTOPRESS VIA GET T Y IMAGES • SUPREME COURT: ML ADEN ANTONOV/AFP/GET T Y IMAGES • AMERICAN PHAROAH: SCOT T SERIO/ESW/CAL SPORT MEDIA VIA AP CHARLESTON: STEPHEN B. MORTON/AP • GOLDEN STATE: TIMOTHY A . CL ARY/AFP/GET T Y IMAGES

JUNE 9

An appellate court rules that Texas can require abortion clinics to meet the same standards that hospital-style surgical centers must meet.

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EMBASSY: ADALBERTO ROQUE/AFP/GET T Y IMAGES • IRAN DEAL : CARLOS BARRIA VIA AP • FL AG: JOHN BA ZEMORE/AP • TRANSPL ANT: CLEM MURRAY/PHIL ADELPHIA INQUIRER/TNS VIA GET T Y IMAGES

JUNE 1

JUNE 26

July JULY 1

JULY 13

EMBASSY: ADALBERTO ROQUE/AFP/GET T Y IMAGES • IRAN DEAL : CARLOS BARRIA VIA AP • FL AG: JOHN BA ZEMORE/AP • TRANSPL ANT: CLEM MURRAY/PHIL ADELPHIA INQUIRER/TNS VIA GET T Y IMAGES

The Episcopal Church votes in favor of allowing religious weddings for same-sex couples. ——— Cuba and the United States agree to reopen EMBASSIES in Havana and Washington.

JULY 2

A ferry capsizes in the Philippines, killing at least 61 persons.

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter announces plans to allow openly transgender persons to serve in the military.

JULY 14

The United States and five other powers reach a NUCLEAR DEAL WITH IRAN. ——— NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft completes a historic flyby of the dwarf planet Pluto and its five moons.

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

JULY 16

Boko Haram claims responsibility for two explosions at a Gombe, Nigeria, market that kill at least 49 persons. ——— Gunman Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez attacks two military centers in Chattanooga, Tenn., killing four Marines and a Navy sailor.

JULY 19

A white University of Cincinnati police officer shoots and kills Samuel DuBose, an unarmed African-American, during a traffic stop.

JULY 9

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley signs legislation removing the CONFEDERATE FLAG from Statehouse grounds where it flew for more than half a century.

JULY 27

The Boy Scouts of America votes to end its ban on gay scout leaders. ——— Thirty-five women who have accused comedian Bill Cosby of sexual assault appear on the cover of New York magazine.

JULY 28

The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia announces it successfully conducted the first pediatric double hand transplant in the world for 8-year-old ZION HARVEY.

JULY 29

Turkey launches airstrikes on Kurdistan Workers’ Party camps in northern Iraq, upsetting Kurds who play a leading role in the fight against the Islamic State.

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August AUG. 2

AUG. 16

Nigeria announces its army rescued 178 kidnapped persons from Boko Haram.

Government airstrikes on a Syrian marketplace in the rebel-held town of Douma leave at least 80 persons dead.

AUG. 21

Three Americans and one Briton thwart an apparent terrorist attack aboard a high-speed train en route to Paris. ———

AUG. 6

ISIS seizes Al-Qaryatayn in Syria and kidnaps 200 civilians. It later bulldozes parts of the ancient MAR ELIAN MONASTERY. 2

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

AUG. 5

AUG. 18

A Boko Haram attack on a Nigerian village leaves 151 persons dead. Many of the dead had drowned as they tried to flee across a river.

Explosions at a chemical warehouse in Tianjin, China, leave 173 persons dead.

AUG. 11

Vester Flanagan shoots and kills reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward during a live broadcast in Virginia.

AUG. 13

AUG. 12

Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton hands over a personal email server to the FBI.

AUG. 26

Hackers leak private data on the 30 million users of the infidelity-promoting website Ashley Madison.

AUG. 24

China’s stock market records the biggest slide in eight years and spurs a 1,000-point plunge on the Dow Jones industrial average.

AUG. 22

Responding to undercover videos showing PLANNED PARENTHOOD engaged in sale of baby body parts, 80,000 protesters at 354 PP locations call on Congress to strip taxpayer funding from the abortion giant.

MONASTERY: AP • HAVER AND GRIEST: JOHN BA ZEMORE/AP • ANIMAS RIVER: JERRY MCBRIDE/THE DURANGO HERALD VIA AP • PL ANNED PARENTHOOD: ERIC GAY/AP

A U.S. appeals court strikes down a Texas law requiring voters to show identification before voting. ——— An EPA cleanup crew investigating a leak accidentally creates an environmental disaster when a debris dam breaks and releases 3 million gallons of toxic sludge into Colorado’s pristine ANIMAS RIVER.

become the first women to graduate from the U.S. Army Ranger School.

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BOY: DHA/AP • SUPERMOON: SERGEI GRITS/AP • DAVIS: TIMOTHY D. EASLEY/AP • POPE: CARL COURT/GET T Y IMAGES

1ST LTS. SHAYE HAVER and KRISTEN GRIEST

September SEPT. 2

SEPT. 27

The body of a 3-year-old SYRIAN MIGRANT BOY ends up on a beach in Turkey, prompting an international outcry about the refugee crisis.

A SUPERMOON lunar eclipse occurs: It marks the end of a series of four total lunar eclipses that began in April 2014.

SEPT. 8

Pope Francis changes Roman Catholic policy to make it easier for married couples to get annulments. 1

SEPT. 24

A stampede at the annual Muslim pilgrimage to the city of Mecca kills more than 2,000 persons. 8

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

SEPT. 3

SEPT. 15

North Korea says it is ready to use nuclear weapons against the United States and any others opposed to the regime.

SEPT. 17 BOY: DHA/AP • SUPERMOON: SERGEI GRITS/AP • DAVIS: TIMOTHY D. EASLEY/AP • POPE: CARL COURT/GET T Y IMAGES

MONASTERY: AP • HAVER AND GRIEST: JOHN BA ZEMORE/AP • ANIMAS RIVER: JERRY MCBRIDE/THE DURANGO HERALD VIA AP • PL ANNED PARENTHOOD: ERIC GAY/AP

Kentucky clerk KIM DAVIS, found in contempt of court after she declines to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, goes to jail until Sept. 8.

SEPT. 11

A large construction crane topples onto the roof of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, killing more than 100 persons.

Senate Republicans fail in their lastditch effort to pass legislation derailing President Obama’s nuclear agreement with Iran.

SEPT. 19 POPE FRANCIS

begins his visit to Cuba and the United States.

SEPT. 23

Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn resigns after revelations that the company falsified emissions tests on some of its vehicles.

SEPT. 22

Senate Democrats block the PainCapable Unborn Child Protection Act.

SEPT. 21

Goshen College and Eastern Mennonite University, which changed their hiring policies to include employees in same-sex marriages, leave the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, averting a likely split in the organization.

SEPT. 30

Russia intervenes in the Syrian civil war—in support of President Bashar al-Assad— with a series of airstrikes.

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October OCT. 1

A landslide in a GUATEMALAN VILLAGE kills more than 250 persons and leaves dozens missing. ——— Christopher Harper-Mercer, 26, opens fire at Oregon’s Umpqua Community College, killing nine persons and injuring nine others.

OCT. 29

After weeks of political negotiations, U.S. Rep. PAUL RYAN, R-Wis., emerges as the successor to departing Speaker of the House JOHN BOEHNER, R-Ohio.

OCT. 5

The United States and 11 Pacific Rim countries finalize the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership. ——— Gov. Jerry Brown signs legislation making California the fifth state to legalize physicianassisted suicide. 2

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

OCT. 3

OCT. 10

Two bombs explode outside Ankara’s main RAILWAY STATION in Turkey, killing more than 100 persons. ——— Iran tests a medium-range missile capable of delivering a nuclear weapon.

OCT. 7

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei bans Iran from negotiating further with the United States after world powers reached a nuclear deal.

OCT. 27

Tensions mount after a U.S. warship sails by one of China’s artificial islands in the disputed Spratly region.

OCT. 4

ISIS militants continue to destroy ancient artifacts by blowing up Palmyra’s Arch of Triumph. ——— Torrential rainstorms, fueled in part by Hurricane Joaquin, trigger massive flooding across SOUTH CAROLINA .

OCT. 31

A RUSSIAN PLANE CRASHES on the Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 persons aboard. Intelligence sources later show evidence of ISIS responsibility.

MUDSLIDE: LUIS SOTO/AP • RYAN: ANDREW HARNIK/AP • TURKEY: STRINGER/EPA/L ANDOV • FLOODING: MIC SMITH/AP • PL ANE CRASH: AP

Doctors Without Borders accuses the United States of war crimes after a U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan destroyed one of its hospitals and killed 22 persons.

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ROYALS: DAVID J. PHILLIP/AP • PARIS: ANNE SOPHIE CHAISEMARTIN VIA AP • MISSOURI: JEFF ROBERSON/AP • KEYSTONE: MANDEL NGAN/AFP/GET T Y IMAGES

November NOV. 12

Islamic terrorists carry out two suicide bombings in Beirut, killing at least 43 persons and injuring more than 200.

NOV. 13

In coordinated attacks across PARIS, teams of Islamic terrorists linked to ISIS kill at least 129 persons and injure scores more. ——— A U.S. airstrike reportedly kills Wisam al Zubaidi, the leader of the Islamic State affiliate in Libya.

NOV. 1

The KANSAS CITY ROYALS defeat the New York Mets 7-2 in Game 5 to win the World Series. 1

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

MUDSLIDE: LUIS SOTO/AP • RYAN: ANDREW HARNIK/AP • TURKEY: STRINGER/EPA/L ANDOV • FLOODING: MIC SMITH/AP • PL ANE CRASH: AP

ROYALS: DAVID J. PHILLIP/AP • PARIS: ANNE SOPHIE CHAISEMARTIN VIA AP • MISSOURI: JEFF ROBERSON/AP • KEYSTONE: MANDEL NGAN/AFP/GET T Y IMAGES

NOV. 3

NOV. 23

Houston voters defeat a gay and transgender rights ordinance, and Ohio voters reject a measure to legalize marijuana.

NOV. 9 UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI

President Tim Wolfe resigns amid student protests against racism on campus.

The U.S. State Department issues a worldwide travel alert due to the risk of increased terrorism. Brussels remains at the highest alert level.

NOV. 27

Robert Lewis Dear, 57, allegedly opens fire at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colo., killing three persons and wounding nine others.

NOV. 24

After escalating warnings to stop violating its airspace, Turkey shoots down a Russian military jet near the Syrian border.

NOV. 8

In Myanmar elections, Nobel laureate AUNG SAN SUU KYI and the National League for Democracy win a landslide victory.

NOV. 6

President Obama rejects TransCanada’s request to build the KEYSTONE XL OIL PIPELINE.

NOV. 4

University of California at Merced student Faisal Mohammad stabs four people on campus before police shoot and kill him.

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December DEC. 2

Syed Farook and his Pakistani wife, Tashfeen Malik, open fire and kill 14 persons and injure 21 others at the INLAND REGIONAL CENTER in San Bernardino, Calif. ——— Britain’s Parliament votes to join its allies in fighting ISIS in Syria. Two days later, Germany votes to join the fight against ISIS.

DEC. 6

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

DEC. 3

DEC. 14

The U.S. Senate votes to repeal parts of Obamacare and cut off federal funding to Planned Parenthood. ——— Defense Secretary

Oil prices continue to fall, dropping below $35 per barrel. ——— Hollywood hosts the world premiere of the new Star Wars movie, The Force Awakens.

ASHTON CARTER

opens all jobs in combat units to women.

DEC. 12

SAUDI ARABIA allows women to run for office and vote for the first time. ——— World leaders in Paris claim their countries will reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

DEC. 9

DEC. 7

In the wake of the San Bernardino attack, GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump calls for a halt to the entry of Muslims into the United States.

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The U.S. Senate passes the Every Student Succeeds Act, an education overhaul that replaces No Child Left Behind. PRESIDENT OBAMA signs it into law the next day.

DEC. 8

The U.S. House votes to tighten a visa waiver program to make it harder for terrorists to enter the country.

INL AND REGIONAL CENTER: JAE C. HONG/AP • CARTER: CLIFF OWEN/AP • SAUDI ELECTION: AYA BATRAW Y/AP • STAR WARS: ALBERTO E. RODRIGUEZ/GET T Y IMAGES FOR DISNEY • OBAMA: EVAN VUCCI/AP

President Obama addresses the nation, promising to “destroy” ISIS but offering no new military strategy.

JANUARY 9, 2016

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12/14/15 4:39 PM

Members of an Islamic State affi liate walk (and later behead) captured Ethiopian Christians along a beach in Libya.

DEATHS 2015 News of the Year

compiled by Edward E. Plowman

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ABDUL A ZIZ: HASSAN AMMAR/AP • ANDERSON: PRESS ASSOCIATION/AP • BANKS: FOCUS ON SPORT/GET T Y IMAGES • BERRA: BET TMANN/CORBIS/AP

STILL FROM ISIS VIDEO/AP

ABDULLAH BIN ABDUL AZIZ 90 / Jan. 22 / Sixth and most reform-minded king of Saudi Arabia so far, a U.S. Sunni ally who cracked down on extremism and encouraged interfaith tolerance by example but kept the lid on religious freedom and maintained the royal family’s power and strict political control.

ABDUL A ZIZ: HASSAN AMMAR/AP • ANDERSON: PRESS ASSOCIATION/AP • BANKS: FOCUS ON SPORT/GET T Y IMAGES • BERRA: BET TMANN/CORBIS/AP

BRAD ANDERSON 91 / Aug. 30 / Cartoonist who in 1954 created “Marmaduke,” a mischievous but lovable Great Dane, seen in up to 600 newspapers in 20 countries. LYNN ANDERSON 67 / July 30 / Lawrence Welk Show regular in the 1960s and popular country singer best known for her classic 1970 recording “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden.” TARIQ AZIZ 79 / June 5 / Chaldean Christian by birth in Mosul, Iraq, native Aramaic speaker, and former journalist, he was the silver-haired, cigar-smoking foreign minister and international spokesman on behalf of Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein for 20 years. BILL BADGER 78 / March 11 / Retired Army colonel and hero who ended the 2011 shooting rampage that killed six and wounded 13, including U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords, in Tucson, Ariz. Suffering a gunshot graze wound to the head himself, he tackled and helped subdue assailant Jared Loughner.

ERNIE BANKS 83 / Jan. 23 / Two-time National League baseball MVP as shortstop and slugger with the Chicago Cubs. He hit 512 home runs during his 1953-1971 career. The team’s first African-American player, he was known and loved by fans as “Mr. Cub” for his consistently cheery and upbeat attitude despite the team’s disappointing also-ran records. CHUCK BEDNARIK 89 / March 21 / Roughand-tough football great; two-time All-American at the University of Pennsylvania, where he played center; and Hall of Fame center and linebacker for the Philadelphia Eagles (1949-1962), one of the last NFL players to play on both offense and defense. WALTER BERNS 95 / Jan. 10 / Distinguished constitutional scholar, political scientist, author, and university professor whose insistence that a democracy depends on the character of its people (“the purpose of law is and must be to promote virtue”) thrust him to the forefront of America’s 20th-century conservative movement. YOGI BERRA 90 / Sept. 22 / Eighth-grade dropout, a WWII Navy combat veteran, a wit whose humorous “Yogi-isms” often turned meanings on end but endearingly so for many, and one of baseball’s greats as catcher and a power batter for the New York Yankees (1946-1963). The 15-time All-Star hit 358 home runs, drove in 1,430 runs, and won 10 World Series with the Yankees.

JAMES BEST 88 / April 6 / Actor with 83 movies and 600 TV shows to his credit, but remembered best for his role as Rosco P. Coltrane, the bumbling sheriff of Hazzard County, in The Dukes of Hazzard (1979-1985). THEODORE BIKEL 91 / July 21 / Versatile singer, stage and screen character actor, and sometimes social activist who toured on stage for decades as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof and created the role of Baron von Trapp in the original Broadway production of The Sound of Music.

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KHAN BONFILS 42 / Jan. 5 / Actor known for his roles in James Bond and Star Wars films, especially as Jedi master Saesee Tiin in Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace. ARNAUD DE BORCHGRAVE 88 / Feb. 15 / Flamboyant, wellconnected journalist was chief foreign correspondent for Newsweek for 25 years, editor in chief of The Washington Times (1984-1991), and CEO of United Press International. MARCUS BORG 72 / Jan. 21 / Prominent Lutheranraised liberal theologian, religion professor at Oregon State University (1979-2007), author (Jesus: A New Vision), and a leading scholar in the Jesus Seminar. MALCOLM BOYD 91 / Feb. 27 / Episcopal priest, known for his civil rights activism and anti-war protests in the 1960s and ’70s, his writings (of his 28 books, his 1965 Are You Running With Me, Jesus? was a bestseller), and his mid1970s public declaration that he was gay—one of the earliest clergy notables to do so.

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MARCIA BROWN 86 / April 28 / Award-winning author and illustrator of children’s books, including Cinderella, Once a Mouse, and Shadow. VINCENT BUGLIOSI 80 / June 6 / Prosecutor in the Charles Manson trial who went on to write the best-selling truecrime book about the murder case, Helter Skelter. EVA BURROWS 85 / March 20 / Australia-born top elected “General” (1986-1993) of the Salvation Army denomination, founded in 1865 and headquartered in London. She rekindled evangelism as the group’s primary founding goal. During communism’s collapse in Eastern Europe and Russia (1989-1991), she quickly arranged for re-entry of the faith group into the countries that had banned it.

DAVID CANARY 77 / Nov. 16 / Actor who played the good-and-evil twins Adam and Stuart Chandler on ABC’s daytime soap All My Children for nearly 30 years, beginning in 1984, with five Emmy wins for Outstanding Lead Actor. WAYNE CARSON 72 / July 20 / Award-winning songwriter of many chart-topping country-pop hits in the 1960s and ’70s, including “Always on My Mind,” “The Letter,” and “Somebody Like Me.” BILLY CASPER 83 / Feb. 7 / Under-famed golfing great, a brilliant putter who took up the sport in 1955, won 51 PGA tournaments, two U.S. Opens, and a Masters.

BOND: MARY ANN CHASTAIN/AP • BROOKE: MAURIICE SORRELL/ EBONY COLLECTION/AP • BURROWS: SALVATION ARMY • CANARY: STUART RAMSON/AP • CASPER: BET TMANN/CORBIS/AP

JULIAN BOND 75 / Aug. 15 / Articulate civil rights advocate for more than 50 years as a Georgia legislator, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, chairman of the NAACP, and university professor.

JIM ED BROWN 81 / June 11 / Country music regular at the Grand Ole Opry for more than 50 years, with many solo and group hits with his sisters Maxine and Bonnie. The trio’s 1959 recording of “The Three Bells” (ringing from a chapel for birth, marriage, and death) led the Billboard country chart for 10 weeks and crossed over as the No. 1 pop song for a month.

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COLLINS: EVAN AGOSTINI/INVISION/AP • CROUCH: FRANK WIESE/AP • CUOMO: BOWERS/GET T Y IMAGES

EDWARD BROOKE 95 / Jan. 3 / Liberal Republican politician from Massachusetts who was the first African-American elected to the U.S. Senate.

OWEN CHADWICK 99 / July 17 / Eminent British historian of Christianity, longtime Cambridge professor, and prolific author whose topics ranged from biographies to portrayals of rural church life and incisive church history (from his 1964 The Reformation to his 1993 The Christian Church in the Cold War). He helped to oversee the 16-volume The Oxford History of the Christian Church, contributing three of the volumes himself.

ORNETTE COLEMAN 85 / June 11 / Composer, saxophonist, a leading innovator of the free jazz movement of the 1950s and ’60s, and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for music in 2007.

COLLINS: EVAN AGOSTINI/INVISION/AP • CROUCH: FRANK WIESE/AP • CUOMO: BOWERS/GET T Y IMAGES

BOND: MARY ANN CHASTAIN/AP • BROOKE: MAURIICE SORRELL/ EBONY COLLECTION/AP • BURROWS: SALVATION ARMY • CANARY: STUART RAMSON/AP • CASPER: BET TMANN/CORBIS/AP

STÉPHANE CHARBONNIER 47 / Jan. 7 / French cartoonist and editor of the Paris-based Charlie Hebdo magazine known most for his satire of Islam and Muhammad. Muslim terrorists murdered him and 11 others in Paris.

JACKIE COLLINS 77 / Sept. 19 / Writer with a troubled past whose explicitly sensuous novels sold tens of millions of copies worldwide, including her 1983 opus, Hollywood Wives (more than 15 million sold). JOHN P. CONNELL 91 / Sept. 10 / Actor best known for his starring role in TV’s live soap opera Young Dr. Malone (1958-1963). CATHERINE COULSON 71 / Sept. 28 / Actress known for her early 1990s TV role in Twin Peaks as Margaret Lanterman, aka “the log lady,” an eccentric woodsman’s widow who claimed her chunk of ponderosa pine knew the town’s secrets. YVONNE CRAIG 78 / Aug. 17 / Actress who starred as Batgirl in the 1960s ABC series Batman.

ANDRAÉ CROUCH 72 / Jan. 8 / One of gospel music’s alltime greats (seven Grammy awards, six Dove awards), a singer, songwriter, and arranger whose soulful, rhythmic, remarkably singable creations (like “Soon And Very Soon” and “The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power”— written in his midteens) bridged racial and generational divides. SUZANNE CROUGH 52 / April 27 / Actress who played Tracy, the redheaded youngest daughter on ABC’s 1970-1974 TV series The Partridge Family. MARIO CUOMO 82 / Jan. 1 / Three-term governor of New York and liberal beacon for the Democratic party during the Ronald Reagan era. GARY ROSS DAHL 78 / March 23 / Marketing executive who created the “Pet Rock,” a wildly popular 1970s fad, and wrote Advertising for Dummies.

JEAN DARLING 93 / Sept. 4 / One of the last surviving characters from Hal Roach’s silentfilm Our Gang series (renamed The Little Rascals in the sound and TV eras). BRUCE DAYTON 97 / Nov. 13 / Father of Minnesota’s governor and last of the five brothers who turned their family’s regional Hudson-Dayton department store business into the national retail discount giant Target Corp., with about 1,800 U.S. stores and more than $70 billion in annual sales. “LITTLE JIMMY” DICKENS 94 / Jan. 2 / Diminutive country singer-songwriter with a big sense of humor and the oldest active cast member of the Grand Ole Opry.

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RICHARD DYSART 86 / April 5 / Veteran stage and screen actor who played senior partner Leland McKenzie in the long-running TV courtroom drama L.A. Law.

ELISABETH ELLIOT 88 / June 15 / Best-selling Christian author (Through Gates of Splendor), speaker, and former missionary with her husband Jim Elliot, one of five missionaries martyred in Ecuador in 1956.

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MERVIN FIELD 94 / June 8 / Protégé of George Gallup and public opinion researcher who in 1947 launched the California Poll, a one-man endeavor to track the state’s political winds, later enlarged and renamed the Field Poll, the standard for nonpartisan polling in the state. STAN FREBERG 88 / April 7 / Wacky, versatile humorist who made hit comedy records, voiced many cartoon characters, hosted radio and TV specials (including outrageously amusing putdowns of liberal American foibles), and reached his zenith as Advertising Age’s “father of the funny commercial” (as in “Today the pits; tomorrow the wrinkles. Sunsweet marches on!” and Contadina’s “Who put eight great tomatoes in that little bitty can?”).

FRANK GIFFORD 84 / Aug. 9 / NFL Hall of Fame running back, receiver, and defensive back for the New York Giants (19521964) who became a sports commentator for CBS and went on to announce NFL games for ABC’s Monday Night Footaball (1971-1997). An autopsy revealed Gifford had suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a condition common among football players.

DOUGL AS: BET TMANN/CORBIS/AP • ELLIOT: HANDOUT • GEORGE: AYNSLEY FLOYD/AP • GIFFORD: ABC PHOTO ARCHIVES/ABC VIA GET T Y IMAGES

ANITA EKBERG 83 / Jan. 11 / Blond former Miss Sweden who became Hollywood’s sensuous symbol of beauty in the 1950s, best known for her role in Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita.

MICHELE FERRERO 89 / Feb. 14 / Italian candymaker who brought Nutella chocolate and hazelnut spread, Tic Tac mints, and namesake Ferrero Rocher chocolates to the world.

FRANCIS GEORGE 78 / April 17 / Vatican cardinal and retired archbishop of Chicago who in 2002 during the clergy sexual abuse scandal urged the church to bar any priest from serving who faced credible allegations. He later led the U.S. bishops’ fight against Obamacare on religious liberty grounds—opposing its contraception mandate and closing the archdiocese’s Catholic Charities foster care arm when the state tried to force the group to place children with same-sex couples.

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GORE: MART Y LEDERHANDLER/AP • JONES: AP • JOURDAN: MGM

DONNA DOUGLAS 81 / Jan. 1 / Actress known for her role as the buxom tomboy Elly May Clampett in the 1960s TV sitcom series The Beverly Hillbillies.

M. STANTON EVANS 80 / March 3 / Guiding force in modern conservatism, he was a journalist who worked for conservative intellectual giant William Buckley at National Review, editor of the Indianapolis News (1959-1974), primary author in 1960 of the founding document of principles of the Young Americans for Freedom, tactician for Ronald Reagan, columnist, author of many books, and founder-director in 1977 of the National Journalism Center in Washington, D.C., offering journalism training and internship placements to hundreds of students.

MARTIN GILBERT 78 / Feb. 3 / Preeminent British historian, the official biographer of Winston Churchill, and author of more than 80 books chronicling World War II, the Holocaust, the founding of the state of Israel, and other important events of his era. RONNIE GILBERT 88 / June 6 / Audacious alto folk singer, the female member of the trendsetting, post-WWII leftistminded quartet “The Weavers” (with Pete Seeger, Lee Hays, and Fred Hellerman), known for folk standards like “This Land Is Your Land,” “On Top of Old Smoky,” and “Goodnight, Irene.”

MARQUES HAYNES 89 / May 22 / Basketball wizard, often dubbed the “world’s greatest dribbler,” who dazzled opponents and millions of spectators for more than 50 years with his ball-handling skills for the Harlem Globetrotters and other barnstorming teams. BILLY RAY HEARN 85 / April 15 / Pioneer of contemporary Christian music who began as a Baylor-trained Southern Baptist music minister, became an executive at Word Inc., signed up many of the best-known Christian recording artists, and went on to create record labels (Myrrh, Sparrow) and international music companies. LABREESKA HEMPHILL 75 / Dec. 9 / Forceful-voiced matriarch of the gospel singing family The Hemphills that received eight GMA Dove awards, best known for their 1981 hit, “He’s Still Working on Me.”

GORE: MART Y LEDERHANDLER/AP • JONES: AP • JOURDAN: MGM

DOUGL AS: BET TMANN/CORBIS/AP • ELLIOT: HANDOUT • GEORGE: AYNSLEY FLOYD/AP • GIFFORD: ABC PHOTO ARCHIVES/ABC VIA GET T Y IMAGES

MELVIN GORDON 95 / Jan. 20 / Business leader who for more than 50 years headed the secretive candymaker Tootsie Roll Industries (dating from 1896, when a New York confectioner started making the chewy chocolate rolls, naming them for his daughter).

STEVE HAYNER 66 / Jan. 31 / Presbyterian minister, president of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (1988-2001), professor of evangelism and church growth at Columbia Seminary (2003-2009), and the seminary’s president (2009-2014).

LESLEY GORE 68 / Feb. 16 / Pop music singer who as a teenager zoomed to stardom with hit songs about heartbreak and jilted romances (“It’s My Party”) that segued later into feminist themes (“You Don’t Own Me”). LARI GOSS 69 / Jan. 10 / Gifted gospel music legend with multiple awards as a producer, arranger, recording artist, and songwriter (“Cornerstone”).

THEODORE HESBURGH 97 / Feb. 26 / Influential Holy Cross Catholic priest who was president of Notre Dame University (1952-1987) and achieved his goals of enlarging the school, changing its status to coeducational and its governance to independent and making it as well known and respected for its academic standing as it was for its reputation in football.

DEAN JONES 84 / Sept. 1 / Genial screen and stage star best known for his roles in Disney films, including those where his co-star was a cat (That Darn Cat), a dog (The Ugly Dachshund), and a Volkswagen Beetle race car (The Love Bug). On Broadway, he was the original lead in Stephen Sondheim’s 1970 musical Company. He professed faith in Christ in the early 1970s and became involved in Christian projects. LOUIS JOURDAN 93 / Feb. 14 / Handsome French actor who appeared in films and on television in Europe and America for more than 50 years, including as a romantic hero in the acclaimed awardwinning movie Gigi (1958) and a charming villain in the James Bond movie Octopussy (1983).

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MARY DOYLE KEEFE 92 / April 21 / Petite Vermont model for Norman Rockwell’s 1943 faux muscular “Rosie the Riveter” cover image for The Saturday Evening Post, symbolizing the women who worked in American industry while millions of men were at war.

MONICA LEWIS 93 / June 12 / Singer and performer known to millions as the spirited voice for Chiquita Bananas in a 1947 commercial aired repeatedly on many broadcast outlets for 14 years. EARL LLOYD 86 / Feb. 26 / First black player in NBA history, a 6-foot-6-inch forward who made his debut with the Washington Capitols in 1950, played on the 1955 championship Syracuse Nationals team, and in 1971 became head coach of the Detroit Pistons.

BEN E. KING 76 / April 30 / Soulful baritone who led The Drifters with hits in the late 1950s and early ’60s and scored big with his classic solo singles “Spanish Harlem” and “Stand By Me.”

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MOSES MALONE 60 / Sept. 13 / One of pro basketball’s most renowned players, a three-time NBA MVP and 13-time All-Star, a 6-foot-10inch center and dominant rebounder with a career scoring total of 27,409 points and

more than 15,000 rebounds. He spent 21 years in pro basketball, five of them with the Philadelphia 76ers, whom he led to the 1983 NBA championship in his first season with the team. GERALDINE McEWAN 82 / Jan. 30 / British stage, film, and television actress, known best for her 2004-2007 TV series role on BBC and PBS as Agatha Christie’s amateur detective Miss Marple. COLLEEN McCULLOUGH 77 / Jan. 29 / Australian-American fiction writer whose second novel, The Thorn Birds (1977), sold more than 30 million copies worldwide and in 1983 was made into TV’s second-most-popular miniseries (after Roots). ANN M McGOVERN 85 / Aug. 8 / Adventuresome, widely traveled author of 55 children’s books, both fiction and nonfiction, with artwork by top picture-book illustrators and collective sales exceeding 30 million copies. Titles include her 1968 bestseller Stone Soup and 1967’s Too Much Noise. Noise

KEEFE: JIM COLE/AP • KING AND LEE: REX FEATURES VIA AP • LESLIE: WARNER BROS. • MALONE: HEINZ KLUETMEIER/SPORTS ILLUSTRATED/GET T Y IMAGES

B.B. KING 89 / May 14 / Singerguitarist known as “The King of the Blues,” with hits such as “My Lucille,” “Sweet Little Angel,” and “Rock Me Baby.”

JOAN LESLIE 90 / Oct. 12 / One of the most popular actresses in Hollywood’s Golden Age of the 1930s and ’40s, she played opposite Humphrey Bogart and Ida Lupino in High Sierra, Gary Cooper in Sergeant York, Fred Astaire in The Sky’s the Limit, James Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy, and Ronald Reagan in WWII’s This Is the Army.

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MEADOWS: HULTON ARCHIVE/GET TY IMAGES • MILNER: MARTIN MILNER ARCHIVES • MINOSO: KIDWILER COLLECTION/DIAMOND IMAGES/GET TY • MOLINARO: BOB D’AMICO/ABC VIA GET TY • NIDETCH: MARTHA HOLMES/THE LIFE IMAGES COLLECTION/GET TY IMAGES

CHRISTOPHER LEE 93 / June 7 / English actor whose visage became the face of evil in his film roles as villains Dracula and Frankenstein, as Count Dooku in Star Wars, as the wizard Saruman in Lord of the Rings, and others.

KEEFE: JIM COLE/AP • KING AND LEE: REX FEATURES VIA AP • LESLIE: WARNER BROS. • MALONE: HEINZ KLUETMEIER/SPORTS ILLUSTRATED/GET T Y IMAGES

JAYNE MEADOWS 95 / April 26 / Stage, screen, and television actress best known for her work (1952-1959) as a panelist on TV’s high-rated game show I’ve Got a Secret—and wife of comedian Steve Allen as well as sister of actress Audrey Meadows.

MARTIN MILNER 83 / Sept. 6 / Television actor who traversed America in a Corvette with a buddy for four years on TV’s Route 66 (1960-1963) and played veteran LAPD police officer Pete Malloy in NBC’s Adam-12 (1968-1975). MINNIE MINOSO 89 / March 1 / Major League Baseball’s first black player from Latin America and an All-Star outfielder for the Chicago White Sox.

SAMUEL H. MOFFETT 98 / Feb. 9 / Missionary, teacher, author, and church historian whose two-volume A History of Christianity in Asia is a standard in the field. He served as a missionary and seminary professor in China (1947-1951) and later taught at South Korea’s main Presbyterian seminary (1959-1981) and at Princeton until retirement in 1986. AL MOLINARO 96 / Oct. 30 / TV character actor who played Murray the cop on The Odd Couple in the early 1970s and diner owner Al Delvecchio on Happy Days (1974-1984). DICKIE MOORE 89 / Sept. 7 / Child actor who played in dozens of movie features and shorts before age 12. At age 6 he played the title role in Hollywood’s first sound adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist. At 16, in Miss Annie Rooney, he kissed Shirley Temple on the cheek—a kiss he avowed was his “first ever—on or off the screen!” VERNON B. MOUNTCASTLE 96 / Jan. 11 / Johns Hopkins medical researcher and recipient of nearly every major award in science for his discoveries about how the brain perceives information and organizes it in vertical columns connected to deeper regions of the cerebral cortex. JOHN F. NASH 86 / May 23 / Princeton scholar and mathematician who shared a Nobel Prize in 1994 for work that furthered the reach and power of modern economic theory. The 2001 film A Beautiful Mind portrayed his decadeslong descent into severe mental illness and eventual recovery.

JEAN NIDETCH 91 / April 29 / Compulsive-snacking, 214-pound New York housewife with a 44-inch waist who decided to do something about it, shrank to 142 pounds (and was still there into her late 80s), co-founded Weight Watchers in 1963, and became the franchise chain’s public face for decades.

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BOYD PACKER 90 / July 3 / High-ranking leader of the Mormon church, next in line to be its president, and an outspoken defender of the church’s teachings on morality and family in an era of social change.

MENES ABDUL NOOR 85 / Sept. 14 / Top evangelical leader, author, teacher, broadcaster, and force for evangelism in Egypt. Of Coptic heritage, he was pastor of Kasr elDobara Evangelical Church in Cairo (1976-2007), a Presbyterian congregation he helped to grow to more than 8,000 congregants, the largest Protestant church in the Middle East. MAUREEN O’HARA 95 / Oct. 24 / Feisty, redheaded, Irish-born beauty with green eyes whose acting in great movies helped to make her era known as Hollywood’s Golden Age. Her more than 50 films included How Green Was My Valley (1941), the Christmas classic Miracle on 34th Street (1947), and The Quiet Man (1952)—one of five films in which she starred opposite John Wayne.

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GARY OWENS 80 / Feb. 12 / Deep-voiced, witty LA radio disc jockey and cartoon voice-over actor who shot to fame as the zany between-bits, handover-ear announcer in the TV hit comedy series Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In (1968-1973).

CALVIN PEETE 71 / April 29 / Most successful African-American golfer to play on the PGA Tour (with 12 wins) prior to Tiger Woods. Remarkably, Peete did not begin playing golf until he was in his 20s, and joined the tour at age 31.

NIMOY: REED SAXON/AP • O’HARA: SILVER SCREEN COLLECTION/HULTON ARCHIVE/GET T Y IMAGES • OWENS: MARK J. TERRILL/AP • PEETE: LENNOX MCLENDON/AP

LEONARD NIMOY 83 / Feb. 27 / Actor who garnered fame as the gaunt-faced, pointy-eared starship Enterprise officer Mr. Spock in NBC’s Star Trek TV series (19661969) and the popular Star Trek film reprises beginning in 1979.

LEANNE PAYNE 82 / Feb. 18 / Evangelical author, speaker, counselor, and founder in the 1980s of Pastoral Care Ministries, a Wheaton, Ill.–based organization that sponsored “inner healing” conferences and training until 2008.

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PLISETSK AYA: EFREM LUK ATSK Y/AP • PUGH: AP • ROCCO: NICK UT/AP • SCHULLER: PAUL HARRIS/ONLINE USA/HULTON ARCHIVE/GET T Y IMAGES

BETSY PALMER 88 / May 29 / Multitalented performer—actress in TV drama series in the early 1950s, regular on the Today show alongside host Dave Garroway, and panelist for 10 years on I’ve Got a Secret—but probably known best among later generations as the slashing murderess Mrs. Voorhees in the 1980 horror film Friday the 13th.

MAYA PLISETSKAYA 89 / May 2 / Russian ballerina internationally regarded as one of the greatest ballet dancers of the 20th century. With Moscow’s Bolshoi troupe from 1943 at age 18 to 1990, she was still performing at 61.

JETHRO PUGH 70 / Jan. 7 / Tall and fast lineman who was part of the Dallas Cowboys’ famed “Doomsday Defense,” led the team in quarterback sacks (1965-1972), and helped the Cowboys win two Super Bowls. JEAN RITCHIE 92 / June 1 / Red-haired soprano folk singer who brought into the folk music boom of the 1950s and ’60s hundreds of old ballads she had grown up with in Kentucky’s Appalachian Mountains, accompanying herself on the guitar, autoharp, or the almost-extinct stringed mountain dulcimer.

TIBOR RUBIN 86 / Dec. 5 / Hungarianborn Jew who as a teenager endured a Nazi concentration camp and later as a U.S. soldier in Korea in 1950 single-handedly held off an enemy advance on his retreating regiment—earning him belatedly the Medal of Honor, the military’s highest award for valor. ANN RULE 83 / July 26 / Prolific true-story crime writer for detective magazines and author of over 30 books, including her 1980 bestseller, The Stranger Beside Me—about serial killer Ted Bundy.

PLISETSK AYA: EFREM LUK ATSK Y/AP • PUGH: AP • ROCCO: NICK UT/AP • SCHULLER: PAUL HARRIS/ONLINE USA/HULTON ARCHIVE/GET T Y IMAGES

NIMOY: REED SAXON/AP • O’HARA: SILVER SCREEN COLLECTION/HULTON ARCHIVE/GET T Y IMAGES • OWENS: MARK J. TERRILL/AP • PEETE: LENNOX MCLENDON/AP

LYLE SCHALLER 91 / March 18 / Former urban planner for cities in Wisconsin and Ohio who became a Methodist minister and an analyst of American church culture in the last half of the 20th century.

TERRY PRATCHETT 66 / March 12 / Award-winning British author of more than 70 books (with sales of over 85 million worldwide), including 40 titles in his acclaimed Discworld comic fantasy series. PAUL PRUDHOMME 75 / Oct. 8 / New Orleans chef whose blackened redfish and other fixings at his K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen restaurant in the 1980s sparked a nationwide craze for Creole and Cajun cooking and awakened new interest in American cuisine.

ALEX ROCCO 79 / July 18 / Emmy-winning character actor best remembered for his 1972 role as Moe Greene, a Las Vegas casino owner shot through the eye in The Godfather.

ROBERT SCHULLER 88 / April 2 / Celebrated Reformed Church in America television pastor and motivational speaker. He famously grew his Garden Grove (Calif.) Community Church from a drive-in theater in 1955 to the spacious, upscale, glass-walled Crystal Cathedral in 1980. He launched the weekly Hour of Power telecast in 1970 and hosted it until 2010.

ROCHUNGA PUDAITE 87 / Oct. 10 / Second-generation Christian from northeast India who translated the Bible into his native Hmar language and founded Bibles For The World, a Colorado Springs– based partnership ministry dedicated to Bible distribution in India and to establishing Christian schools there. He and his wife also founded the Evangelical Free Church of India, a denomination that now has 350 churches in northeast India.

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BOB SIMON 73 / Feb. 11 / Longtime CBS reporter who spent nearly 50 years covering world events from Vietnam to Iraq, where he spent 40 days in captivity under Saddam Hussein’s rule; killed in a taxi crash in Manhattan.

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JOEL SPIRA 88 / April 8 / New York physicist who in the late 1950s invented the solid state light dimmer switch for homes and apartments, founded the Lutron company in Pennsylvania in 1961, added new innovative energy-saving devices and designs to the product line, and grew it into one of the largest lighting controls companies in the world. GARDNER C. TAYLOR 96 / April 5 / Baptist minister often dubbed by peers as the “prince of black preachers,” pastor of Brooklyn’s large Concord Baptist Church of Christ (1948-1990), a confidant of fellow Baptist minister and civil rights champion Martin Luther King Jr., and a leader of the faction in the National Baptist Convention U.S.A. denomination that split off in 1960 to form the more activist-oriented Progressive National Baptist Convention. KEN TAYLOR 81 / Oct. 15 / Canada’s ambassador to Iran who hid Americans at his residence for three months during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, then facilitated their escape by arranging for plane tickets and fake Canadian passports.

ROD TAYLOR 84 / Jan. 7 / Handsome Australian-born movie and TV actor who starred in The Time Machine (1960), Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 thriller The Birds, and Hotel (1967). JOHN TEMPLETON 75 / May 16 / Prominent Philadelphia pediatric surgeon who retired in 1995 to run his late billionaire father’s Templeton Foundation, a philanthropy whose grants and awards include its annual faithrelated Templeton Prize. He was an evangelical Presbyterian who also supported conservative causes.

SHARIF: REX FEATURES VIA AP • SIMON: PATRICKMCMULL AN.COM VIA AP • SMITH: RICH CL ARKSON/THE LIFE IMAGES COLLECTION/GET T Y IMAGES • TAYLOR: AP • TEMPLETON: COURTESY OF TEMPLETON FOUNDATION

OMAR SHARIF 83 / July 10 / Egyptian actor who started his climb to international acclaim in the 1962 film classic Lawrence of Arabia for his portrayal of the Arab warrior who led fellow Arab fighters to team up with British adventurer T.E. Lawrence in battles against Turkish occupiers. It was his first English-language film. Others followed with him in leading roles, including Genghis Khan and Dr. Zhivago.

DEAN SMITH 83 / Feb. 7 / Widely recognized as one of the greatest coaches in college basketball, who in his 36 seasons with North Carolina’s Tar Heels won two national championships and the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament 13 times and was America’s fourth-all-timewinningest coach, with 879 victories.

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THOMPSON: CAMERON CRAIG/AP • VAN PAT TEN: MARK TERRILL /AP • WALLENDA: ALVAN QUINN/AP • WILLKE: PETER DE JONG/AP • WRIGHT: BET TMANN/CORBIS/AP

STUART SCOTT 49 / Jan. 4 / ESPN anchor known for his passion behind the microphone, his hip-hop style, the catchphrases he created, and a positive outlook about the cancer that claimed his life: “You beat cancer by how you live, why you live.”

THOMPSON: CAMERON CRAIG/AP • VAN PAT TEN: MARK TERRILL /AP • WALLENDA: ALVAN QUINN/AP • WILLKE: PETER DE JONG/AP • WRIGHT: BET TMANN/CORBIS/AP

SHARIF: REX FEATURES VIA AP • SIMON: PATRICKMCMULL AN.COM VIA AP • SMITH: RICH CL ARKSON/THE LIFE IMAGES COLLECTION/GET T Y IMAGES • TAYLOR: AP • TEMPLETON: COURTESY OF TEMPLETON FOUNDATION

TONY VERNA 81 / Jan. 18 / CBS sports producer and director who trucked a refrigerator-sized videotape machine to the 1963 Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia, marking the first use of technology given a name by sportscaster Pat Summerall a month later at the Cotton Bowl game in Dallas: “instant replay.”

FRED THOMPSON 73 / Nov. 1 / Former U.S. senator from Tennessee, short-lived GOP presidential hopeful, Watergate attorney, and actor who appeared in some prominent films (Marie, The Hunt for Red October, and others) and television series, including as District Attorney Arthur Branch on NBC’s Law and Order (2002-2007). PHYLLIS TICKLE 81 / Sept. 22 / Author and founding religion editor at Publishers Weekly who promoted the rapidly expanding Christian book publishing industry in the 1990s. Known for her controversial 2008 book, The Great Emergence: How Christianity Is Changing and Why, in which she envisioned a future syncretistic religion that jettisons the orthodoxies of the past. PAUL E. TOMS 90 / Feb. 7 / Pastor of the historic, influential, missions-focused Park Street Church in Boston (1969-1989) and a leader in America’s evangelical movement, serving as president of the National Association of Evangelicals and chairman of its World Relief affiliate along the way. DICK VAN PATTEN 86 / June 23 / Actor known best for his role as loving father Tom Bradford in the 1977-1981 TV series Eight Is Enough.

JENNY WALLENDA 87 / April 4 / High-flying matriarch of the five-generation family of Wallendas with circus culture in their DNA. The daughter of high-wire superstar Karl Wallenda of Ringling Bros. circus fame, she was a famed aerialist who anchored her father’s historic seven-person chair pyramid, among other nerve-jangling roles. COLIN WELLAND 81 / Nov. 2 / British actor and writer who won an Oscar for best original screenplay for Chariots of Fire. The film won four Oscars, including best picture and best music.

DAVID K. WINTER 84 / August 15 / Influential evangelical educator, president of California’s Westmont College (1976-2001), and co-founder and former board chair of the D.C.-based Council for Christian Colleges and Universities.

JIM WRIGHT 92/ May 6 / Texas Democrat known for his oratorical skills who was elected to Congress in 1954, became House speaker in 1987, but resigned in 1989 under pressure for breaking ethics rules on finances. Among his high marks: helping President Jimmy Carter fashion the 1978 Camp David peace agreement between Israel and Egypt.

JOHN WILLKE 89 / Feb. 20 / Cincinnati obstetrician for 40 years and Catholic pioneer in the pro-life movement who co-authored with his late wife their landmark 1971 Handbook on Abortion and served as president of the National Right to Life Committee for 10 years.

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MINDY BELZ

Upside-down gospel

OUTRAGEOUS LOVE CONFOUNDS A LAWLESS, ANGRY WORLD

WORLD JANUARY 9, 2016

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Christianity doesn’t create conflict-free zones. It creates peace and joy in the heart of conflict zones.

Displaced Assyrians, who had fled their hometowns due to ISIS attacks, worship at a church near Damascus last March.

LOUAI BESHARA/AFP/GET T Y IMAGES

With the end of one year we formally enter an election year, a presidential campaign likely to be unlike any other in my lifetime—and that’s coming from someone who remembers the fiery populism of George Wallace and the turbulent election of 1968. With each moment of new vitriol, Donald Trump seems only to rise in the polls. Nations rage, and Americans are restless, raging too. I am humbled to remember that any child of King Jesus is also a child of King David. David had six wives. That is, before he took two more from other men’s houses. Yet he was somehow “a man after God’s heart” even when his actions seemed to sow chaos and treachery. “By the hand of my servant David I will save my people Israel,” God said (2 Samuel 3:18). What made him God’s anointed and at the same time such a scoundrel? Only this: God ordained him. And over and over David turned back to God, acknowledging Him as Creator and pleading for His mercy, as his only redeemer and friend. Where would we be without the trust of David and the psalms proclaiming it? Radical is not a strong enough word for the ultimate work of the Davidic covenant, the good news that a scoundrel and philanderer can become a child of God, can be even God’s anointed. It’s outrageous. It confounds all our sense of right and wrong. When we grasp this news, realizing we are all King Davids at heart, it’s enough to turn the world upside down. Christianity doesn’t create conflict-free zones. It creates peace and joy in the heart of conflict zones. In this new year, I’m looking for ways the church confounds a lawless, terror-prone world with its upside-down gospel and outrageous love. Here are three examples unfolding at year’s end:

Airlifting Iraqis. On Dec. 10 the Nazarene Fund made possible the first evacuation of Christian refugees from Iraq. In the company of television show host Glenn Beck and advocate Johnnie Moore (Defying ISIS: Preserving Christianity in the Place of Its Birth and in Your Own Backyard), 149 Iraqis made their escape to start new lives in Slovakia. The Nazarene Fund has pledged to help them for three years, working with the Slovak government and the local Catholic hierarchy, setting up housing outside the town of Nitra where they will receive language training and job assistance. “We want to make sure they can integrate and be sure they learn the language and have places to stay,” Moore told me. “The goal is not to tether them to charity but to help them get on their own feet.” The Nazarene Fund has raised $12 million to do this and has plans for more such evacuations. Standing by Syrians. John Samara, a Syrian pastor who early on in his country’s civil war (2012) took refuge in Houston, was just back from Damascus when I spoke to him by phone in early December. “In Syria it feels you are standing at the gates of World War III,” he told me. Yet Samara and his ministry, Ananias House, continue to partner with 36 churches in Syria that are growing. The group provides material aid and spiritual discipleship reaching Muslims and Christians alike. Refugees feeding refugees. On Dec. 19 about 200 refugees planned to gather for a pot-luck Christmas feast at a Dallas church. The brainchild of Samira Izadi Page, director of Gateway of Grace and an Iranian-American, she and her husband launched the ministry and partner with 50 area churches to help refugees. A Muslim convert to Christianity, Page received asylum 18 years ago in the United States. “The negative portrayal of refugees these days causes them to feel unwanted, to feel shame, insecurity, anxiety and fear,” she said. “To share the joy of Christmas with refugees who have never experienced Christmas is a great way of removing some of the fear and anxiety.” At one time we all were separated from God, strangers and aliens, but the blood of Christ has brought us near to Him, breaking down walls of hostility everywhere—and giving us hope in a hostile world for a new year. A

 mbelz@wng.org  @mcbelz

12/16/15 3:24 PM

quarryville introduces

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the world market GIFTS AND PRODUCTS B Hand-crafted olive wood gifts. www. giftsandtoysfromIsrael.com. Free book available—no purchase necessary. Supporting Christian artisans in Israel. MINISTRY OPPORTUNITIES B Be a Mission Nanny! Volunteer women needed to serve missionary families with childcare & homeschooling help; www.MissionNannys.org MINISTRY EMPLOYMENT B Grace for Dover, a mercy ministry in Dover, Delaware is seeking an Executive Director. We practice “helping without hurting” as we provide job and financial training, ESL, mentoring, and other community development services. Fundraising and administrative skills a must! View full job posting at: http://GraceForDover.org/?p=241. EMPLOYMENT B Colorado Dude/Guest Ranch seeking service-minded summer staff of high integrity. Latigo Ranch at LatigoTrails.com. B Salem Christian Homes in Chino, California, is seeking a highly engaged, experienced, and dynamic leader to fill its CEO position. The organization has a 54-year history of providing Christian care for individuals who have developmental disabilities. At present 112 adults are being cared for in 19 community homes in Chino, Ontario, Upland and Lakewood, California.

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MAILBAG SEND LETTERS AND PHOTOS TO MAILBAG@WNG.ORG

NOVEMBER 28

‘Fat of the land’

, As an avid WORLD reader and a family physician, I thank you for this article on obesity. Exercise and healthy eating, as encouraged by Michelle Obama, are two pieces of the solution. Other factors include genetic defects, ethnicity, place of residence, poverty, and the availability of healthy foods. Obesity is a serious and complex problem, but progress is possible with a multidisciplinary approach. ELIZABETH A. BUCHINSKY / MANASSAS, VA.

g Today we’re always telling kids to get exercise. No one had to do that when I was young. The food I eat today is probably healthier than what we grew up on, but I don’t remember snacking all the time. We had three meals as a family, and that was the only time we ate. It’s insane trying to address this problem from the top down.

condition and spur more insurers to pay for the treatments and medicine required to battle it. ANDREW KUZYK / MC DONOUGH, GA.

Copenhagen, Denmark submitted by Bonnie Easton

‘College math’

g Most colleges and universities need to come down out of the ivory tower and focus on practical ways to equip students for life and leadership. Colleges that discover new and better ways to equip students without loading them up with debt will be the new leaders in higher education. AL AN MC TIER ON WNG.ORG

, I have four teens and have saved what I can, but I can’t afford to send my oldest to a Christian college without him taking on debt. He’ll likely earn his degree from worldly professors. I pray that the Lord will protect his heart and that his potential for the kingdom will not corrode. We have made Christian higher education so costly that we force students to choose between debt and the world. JIM WILLSON / NESBIT, MISS.

BILL POWERS ON WNG.ORG

, Our 4-year-old granddaughter looked at your cover and said to her grandmother, “Look Mimi, broccoli makes you fat!” VERNON PETERSON / KINGSBURG, CALIF.

, Another reason to be suspicious of liberalism: broccoli. JAMES HICKMAN / WORTHINGTON, OHIO

g Maybe the answer isn’t providing the right food but restricting electronic devices. Boredom is a great motivator, and without video games a child might go jump rope outside instead. JOELLYN CL ARK ON WNG.ORG

, The American Medical Association has officially recognized obesity as a disease; hopefully this will induce physicians to pay more attention to the , Mail/email g Website

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 Facebook  Twitter

JANUARY 9, 2016 WORLD

12/15/15 10:48 AM

MAILBAG , At some point the truth that higher education is badly overpriced will reveal itself. I suspect that online colleges and trade schools are beginning to fill the void left by bloated brickand-mortar institutions that have continued to degrade their curricula. Welcome to capitalism. GREG SAMSON / COEUR D’ALENE, IDAHO

, It is time to end the concept of a l iberal arts education and require students to take only those courses necessary for a specific career. RUSSELL GUETSCHOW / VICKSBURG, MICH.

g Please do not put all schools in the same basket. There are great Christian schools that provide students with a Christian worldview along with the skills and knowledge needed to get a job. Andrée Seu Peterson makes some valid points, but other reasons for higher tuition include ever-increasing health insurance costs and regulatory and accreditation demands. Finally, don’t students have some responsibility for taking out $50,000 in loans for a degree that doesn’t lead to a job? STEPHEN CRANE ON WNG.ORG

‘Feeding “friends”’

 Facebook can be an easy mission field: free, available 24/7, air-conditioned, and you don’t even have to get out of your pajamas. I wish more believers would use Facebook for sharing their faith as easily as they share about their lives. LORI BAKER GALLOWAY ON FACEBOOK

g In my experience, Facebook dis-

agreements almost always degenerate into shouting matches in which we treat profile pictures as the embodiment of an idea rather than a human being. We don’t talk to each other; we talk at each other. If this is our Mars Hill, it’s a pretty sad substitute. HANS DECKER ON WNG.ORG

follow Janie B. Cheaney’s advice, because so many posts by Christians do not speak the truth in love; they just bring scorn to the faith. SHIV KAPOOR ON WNG.ORG

‘The Peanuts Movie’

 The only flaw in this movie was the pop music. The producers should have maintained the spirit of Vince Guaraldi’s original music. JULIE NOYES ON FACEBOOK

NOVEMBER 14

‘Blowing their tops’

, I read this article with great disappointment. Living in the West Virginia coalfields for the past 35 years has given us a greater appreciation for the hardworking miners here. Many evangelical Christians support mountaintop removal, and mining companies that are reclaiming the land with good conservation techniques are practicing good stewardship. CINDY KEARNS / BEAVER, W.VA.

‘Houses taken over’

, How much interference in churches will Christians put up with? Just as parents who put their children in public schools tolerate increasingly outrageous conditions, church people will by and large go along with government diktats. But when the tax breaks are revoked, the buildings lost, and the fair-weather churchgoers have departed, whatever is left will be the Church. JOHN NIXDORF / NAPERVILLE, ILL.

‘Blaming the meds’

, Julie Borg presented a refreshing approach on the link between anti depressants and violence. As a person who has struggled with chronic clinical depression for years, I’m usually upset by evangelicals demonizing the depressed and scoffing at medicine in simplistic ways. TIM L AITINEN / ARLINGTON, TEXAS

g I occasionally get in Facebook dis-

cussions about Christianity. They help me to sharpen my beliefs, if nothing else. I wish more Christians would

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‘Looking for Mr. Butterfield’ , The huge difference between Nixon and Hillary Clinton is that she is not

12/15/15 4:26 PM

Lana’s story: Heel injury

currently in a government position, so she cannot be impeached. But she may be held to account if she is convicted of lying under oath; her testimony in the Benghazi hearing may provide a baseline for later charges. Her behavior toward the families of those killed because of her incompetence was appalling, but her arrogance may be the rope that hangs her, metaphorically speaking.

Member for fourteen years

Echocardiogram

Go to: mysamaritanstory.org

MARY JO HEARN / ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.

OCTOBER 31

‘Lines of communication’

, I am frustrated by the presidential debates in both parties. What candidate in his right mind believes that ISIS and its affiliates can be “defeated”? A ghost that travels the world, activated by replaceable leaders and motivated by Quranic beliefs, cannot truly be eliminated. On healthcare, why don’t candidates talk about ideas for increasing competition among insurance companies? Do any candidates have viable solutions to the long-term shortfall for Social Security and Medicare? Do they realize how an increasing number of doctors no longer accept Medicare and Medicaid patients because the payments are so ridiculously low? JIM CRAIG / RICHL AND CENTER, WIS.

‘Fallen and forsaken’

, This article was truly eye-opening about the atrocities of ISIS. Thank you for the fresh perspective on the Middle East and Christians. CALEB SHOEMAKER / CYPRESS, TEXAS

LETTERS & PHOTOS , Email: mailbag@wng.org , Mail: WORLD Mailbag, PO Box 20002,

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. • More than 50,000 families (over 167,000 individuals)* • Sharing over $15 million* in medical needs each month • The monthly share has never exceeded $405 for a family of any size*

Asheville, NC 28802-9998

g Website: wng.org  Facebook: facebook.com/ WORLD.magazine  Twitter: @WORLD_mag

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

Please include full name and address. Letters may be edited to yield brevity and clarity.

Biblical community applied to health care

samaritanministries.org 888.268.4377 facebook.com/samaritanministries twitter.com/samaritanmin * As of November 2015

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12/15/15 10:51 AM

A CALL TO R E T HINK CEL IB AC Y a L IF E T O T HE F UL L E S T

Jesse Yo w

A CHRISTIAN RESPONSE “[A] biblically thorough, evangelistically zealous, humbly selfdisclosing and pastorally compassionate defense of traditional Christian sexual ethics.”

TO HOSTILITY AND PERSECUTION

WESLEY HILL,

Trinity School for Ministry, author of Washed and Waiting

Persecution. Hostility. Your future. IVPRESS.COM

World, Same Sex Attraction and the Church #11640.indd 1

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KRIEG BARRIE

12/2/15 9:13 AM

12/16/15 5:59 PM

ANDRÉE SEU PETERSON

My life as a bug THE KINDNESS AND SEVERITY OF BEING KNOCKED OFF MY FEET On Nov. 16 at 7:08 in the morning just after waking I suddenly became violently dizzy; the mirror, dresser, and chest of drawers were flying around the room. This spinning was accompanied by nausea, and I heaved (mostly water) into the trash can that my husband hurriedly swung to my side of the bed. I say dizzy, but the disorientation was such that it seemed some physical connection at the base of my brain had been severed, so that the correspondence between what our eyes report and what is really there was no longer to be taken for granted in this life. There were no reasonable explanations or precursors—I hadn’t eaten too late or dined on food that disagreed with me; nor did I have a cold. The very strangeness of the onset immediately made me think there was no reason why this may not be a permanent condition. One hears such things: My friend Heidi lost her hearing in the left ear with no warning whatsoever and has not regained it nine years later. And so I started to consider how I might adapt myself to being bedridden for the remainder of my life. I would need a laptop for my writing. Subject matter would be limited, but I was open to the notion that God could provide a rich vein of material in the new (to me) kind of suffering. My husband suggested going to the hospital, but there was no question of that because I couldn’t raise my head even a few inches without being pulled into the centrifuge again. The only way would be a stretcher manned by ambulance drivers, and I adamantly ruled that out, which my husband did not fight exceedingly since our experience with hospitals has been disappointing. After the first hour of retching I found that if I remained perfectly still on my back I was OK, even happy, so that when my neighbors paid visits to the patient in the course of the day, they were surprised to find a woman looking

KRIEG BARRIE

 aseupeterson@wng.org

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I occasionally tried to sit up, in order to satisfy myself that I was indeed bedridden and not pretending.

hale and ready at any moment to make dinner. The force keeping me immobilized was, as it were, an invisible cage, or like those electronic fences running the perimeter of people’s yards that keep the dog from straying out of bounds. Behold then the kindness and severity of God! (Romans 11:22)—severity in restraining my stiff-necked penchant for busyness and task completion; kindness in accomplishing it without resorting to pain. My daily Bible reading time with David (who was given leave from his boss to care for me) was much extended on the first day and subsequent days also, which I could not help but see a divine hand in, for many were the mornings I had protested my spouse’s requests to linger longer over some Old Testament passage, or had thrummed impatient fingers at his prolonged prayers. It was I, not David, who made the connection to the 70 years of Sabbaths that God forced upon the land during the Babylonian occupation in compensation for Israel’s equal number of Sabbath years of neglect of the command to give the land repose from its yielding of crops. I wasted the afternoon of Day 1 listening to the radio. At the start of Day 2 I lifted my head to see if the glass ceiling was still in place, which it was. Thereafter throughout the hours, while I read the Bible and Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis, about a man in Germany who awoke to discover he was a large insect, I occasionally tried to sit up, in order to satisfy myself that I was indeed bedridden and not pretending. By Day 3 in the same pajamas I was wondering if I should start dressing in day clothes during the day and reserve pj’s for the night, like permanently paralyzed people do, to make a distinction between times and seasons (like God) and perchance to feel a little perky. I am feeling better now. A nurse friend explained the workings of the inner ear and how a renegade microscopic calcium crystal may temporarily float inside the labyrinth to foil a precise equilibrium and what we take too casually as our ability to stand and walk. If Darwin had been in the room, the man would have repented. A JANUARY 9, 2016 WORLD

12/16/15 3:29 PM

MARVIN OLASKY

Old every evening MAINSTREAM MEDIA YEAR IN REVIEW

WORLD

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JANUARY 9, 2016

Behar

Matthews

Reid

As the presidential campaign escalates in 2016, liberal journalists are likely to fall in line once again, praising even vapid comments as wisdom.

BEHAR: ETHAN MILLER/GET T Y IMAGES • ROBERTS: STEPHEN LOVEKIN/GET T Y IMAGES FOR DC ENTERTAINMENT • MAT THEWS: MIKE COPPOL A/GET T Y IMAGES FOR NANTUCKET FILM FESTIVAL MEYERSON: HANDOUT/THE WASHINGTON POST • REID: JEMAL COUNTESS/GET T Y IMAGES FOR THE WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER • QUINTANILL A: VIRGINIA SHERWOOD/NBC

My wife Susan and I look forward in 2016 to our 40th anniversary. Like God’s lovingkindness described in song, a good marriage does not fade away, but is new every morning. Would that I could say the same about daily mainstream media reporting. Yet as I fill in my 28th straight annual ballot for the Media Research Center’s “Worst Reporting” award, the tragedy of reporters-turned-propagandists is … old every evening. Yes, some journalists covered Hillary Clinton’s scandals with the hope of knocking her off and making Bernie Sanders or Joe Biden the Democratic nominee. Joy Behar, co-host of ABC’s The View, said on Oct. 14 regarding Sanders, “I actually am aroused by him. … I like an old Jewish guy who’s a socialist. That’s my type of guy. ... To me, Bernie is hot.” Yes, some publications felt obliged to provide a bit of negativity concerning Clinton—but her overall coverage remained positive and sometimes idolatrous. Time ran this about Clinton: “Her decades in our public life must not blind us to the fact that she represents new realities and possibilities. Indeed, those same decades have conferred upon her what newness usually lacks: judgment, and even wisdom.” Did Clinton’s solipsistic email carelessness throw into question her judgment, and even wisdom? Nah, said MSNBC’s Chris Matthews: “It’s almost like, ‘Don’t take your pens home and use them at home.’” That network’s Joy Reid dug deeper: “I have been utterly bored with the story to the point where I only recently began to really sort of dig into it. ... It’s one of those cases where the trailer is really simple, but the movie is kind of too hard to follow. ... I don’t even understand it.” As the presidential campaign escalates in 2016, liberal journalists are likely to fall in line once again, praising even vapid comments as wisdom. Here’s ABC’s Cokie Roberts on Clinton: “She does have a new message out from the last

time, which is the grandmother message, and she’s using it very well. On climate change for instance, when she says, ‘Everybody says I’m not a scientist.’ She says, ‘I’m not a scientist either, I’m just a grandmother with two eyes and a brain.’ That’s brilliant.” Meanwhile, leading newspapers will continue to blast away at conservatives. The Washington Post’s Harold Meyerson last April 8 gave a preview of what we can expect: “Today’s Republican Party is not just far from being the party of Lincoln: It’s really the party of Jefferson Davis. ... It is the lineal descendant of Lee’s army, and the descendants of Grant’s have yet to subdue it.” If Marco Rubio becomes the nominee, we’ll see more of what CNBC’s Carl Quintanilla asked him Roberts during the Oct. 28 Republican debate: “You’ve been a young man in a hurry ever since you won your first election in your 20s. ... Why not slow down, get a few more things done first, or at least finish what you start?” The double standard is evident: Does anyone remember a Meyerson debate question like that aimed at Barack Obama in 2008? If Ted Cruz becomes the nominee, we’ll see greater press savagery. Did you see what The Associated Press sent out on June 20, when Cruz spoke at a Quintanilla “Celebrate the 2nd Amendment” event in Iowa? It was a photo of Cruz framed so that a big handgun on a wall poster pointed at Cruz’s forehead. After receiving criticism, the AP said it would not sell that photo to new requesters, but subscribers to its photo service could continue to use it. I’ll conclude with a sadly funny quotation. Following a train derailment in May, perennial “worst quote” contender Chris Matthews said, “In communist countries like China, they just draw a straight line, whether it goes through your house or not. ... [Amtrak] doesn’t go in a straight line. In this case, it tried to make a turn and turned over, because there’s so many turns on that route. How do you get rid of the turns?” Hmm ... How does China get rid of the turns? How about by imprisoning anyone who resists? Liberals once stood for liberty. Now, the totalitarian impulse lurks behind each bend of the liberal railroad. A

 molasky@wng.org  @MarvinOlasky

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LutheranReformation.org

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