Trump’s Hollywood star defaced again

Donald Trump was given a star on the Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame in 2007. In recent years, his star has been defaced several times.

The latest attack came yesterday morning when a man removed a pickax from a guitar case and smashed the red marble marker bearing the president’s name. Police arrested a twenty-four-year-old man named Austin Clay, who did not reveal a motive for the alleged vandalism.

In other news, a soccer player named Jaelene Hinkle was cut from Team USA before its upcoming tournament. The story is making headlines because Hinkle, a devout Christian, declined to play on the national team last year. Her reason: the US wore rainbow-colored numbers on their jerseys to celebrate Pride Month, a position her faith and conscience could not support.

On July 18, she received a call-up to the national team. LGBTQ advocates were outraged. Then she was cut five days later. Even her critics call her the best player in the league at her position. Now many are wondering if she was cut because of her religious beliefs.

In better news, US pastor Andrew Brunson has been released from prison in Turkey. However, he is still under house arrest and faces up to thirty-five years in prison.

Learning from Robert E. Lee

If you’re looking for stories about personal attacks, you can find them every day in the news. If you’re looking for the best way to respond to such hostility, you’ll have to look elsewhere.

In Psalm 35, David describes his enemies: “Malicious witnesses rise up; they ask me of things that I do not know. They repay me evil for good; my soul is bereft” (vv. 11-12). How does he respond?

“But I, when they were sick–I wore sackcloth; I afflicted myself with fasting. I prayed with head bowed on my chest. I went about as though I grieved for my friend or my brother; as one who laments his mother, I bowed down in mourning” (vv. 13-14).

The best test of our character is how we respond to people we don’t have to treat well. This…