The impeachment trial as a Rorschach test: Three rules of engagement for Christians

President Trump is speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos this morning. Meanwhile, the Senate is preparing to launch only the third impeachment trial of a president in history.

According to a recent Gallup poll, 51 percent of Americans would like the Senate to vote against conviction, while 46 percent want the Senate to convict the president and remove him from office. Unsurprisingly, 93 percent of Republicans are opposed to convicting the president, while 84 percent of Democrats are in favor of doing so. 

These positions reflect the president’s overall popularity: 88 percent of Republicans approve of the job he is doing, while only 10 percent of Democrats agree. 

A Rorschach test for our country 

Hermann Rorschach developed the instrument that bears his name in 1921 after noting that schizophrenia patients often interpreted the things they saw in unusual ways. 

The participant is shown a series of ten inkblot cards and asked to describe what they see. However, there are no objectively correct answers. What we see says more about us than about the inkblots we are interpreting. 

Impeachment functions in much the same way in our culture today. It would be difficult to live in America without having an opinion about President Trump. A statistical analysis found that the media has given three times as much airtime to his presidency as to President Obama’s. Our culture seems to be consumed daily with who he is and what he does. 

Predictably, those who support the president believe the evidence supports his acquittal. Those who oppose him believe the evidence supports his conviction. 

We can discuss this issue as long as we wish, but few seem open to changing their minds about President Trump. However, the way Christians discuss this divisive issue can change how people see our Lord. 

Just as the US Senate is following rules of engagement for the weeks to come, so should followers of Jesus. Let’s consider…

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Four Lessons Pastors of Struggling Churches Are Learning from Each Other

Podcast Episode #608

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If you can afford Netflix you can afford an online community where pastors can come together regularly at Church Answers Central. Today’s post comes from the blessing of pastors who have decided to focus on each other and four lessons they have learned from each other.

Highlights:

  1. “I am not alone.”
  2. “I am not crazy.”
  3. “There are resources available.”
  4. “There is hope.”

Resources mentioned in today’s podcast:


Episode Sponsors

Vanderbloemen has been serving churches for nine years, but did you know that Vanderbloemen also serves Christian schools, nonprofits, and Christian businesses? So if you’re listening, and you know a Christian school, nonprofit, or values-based business that is hiring, contact our friends at Vanderbloemen for your staffing needs.

For more information, visit Vanderbloemen.com.


The mission at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ by equipping students to serve the church and fulfill the Great Commission. The school offers more than 40 different degree programs, including the new Master of Arts in Church Revitalization in partnership with Church Answers and the Revitalization Network. This 37-hour degree is designed to help students move established churches from flatlining to flourishing.

Learn about this program and more by visiting sebts.edu. Where are you going? Southeastern will help you get…

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Kirk Franklin Opens Up about His Struggle with Depression, Anxiety

Kirk Franklin Opens Up about His Struggle with Depression, Anxiety


Kirk Franklin is opening up about his struggle with anxiety and depression in 2019 after what he called a “high amount of loss” in his life.

According to The Christian Post, Franklin posted a video detailing his struggles on his Instagram Friday.

“[In] 2019, I experienced a high amount of loss in my life. I went to more funerals in 2019 than I’ve ever been to in my life. I went to the funerals of friends, the funerals of people’s parents and the funeral of people’s kids and it was a lot,” he said in the video.

In recent months, Franklin helped support Tony Evans, who lost his wife to cancer in December. Franklin also supported fellow Christian music artist TobyMac, whose 21-year-old son unexpectedly died in October.

“It just really brought a lot of anxiety. To me, I really struggle with a lot of anxiety and really got into a funk that I couldn’t really get out of. [It was] this just really dark funk, that I was in, depression, battling it. Not only that, just the anx (sic) that death can bring to you also is this anxiety about the future. It’s a fear of who’s next, what’s next?” Franklin added.

The 49-year-old then noted that he has reached out to his therapist.

“I was just talking to him (his therapist) about being very anxious and very consumed with fear and worry and just the struggle with it all. He said, ‘When I begin to live a life of gratitude, more gratitude then I will begin…

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Click here to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Christian Headlines.

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Supreme Court Takes Up Obamacare Abortion/Contraceptive Mandate

Supreme Court Takes Up Obamacare Abortion/Contraceptive Mandate


The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed once again to take up the Obama-era abortion/contraceptive mandate in a case that will determine if a Trump administration rule granting religious exceptions to the mandate was proper.

Lower courts ruled against the Trump administration, and the administration appealed to the high court. 

At issue are rules finalized by the Trump Department of Health and Human Services in 2018 that exempted employers “who have a religious or moral objection” to contraceptives and certain abortion-inducing drugs from being forced to cover them within Obamacare. The new rules did not apply to publicly traded companies.

The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, required the coverage of “preventive care,” which Obama’s HHS interpreted as covering any Food and Drug Administration-approved contraceptive and sterilization procedure – including those such as Plan B, which can work after fertilization, and “ella,” which can work after implantation. Pro-life groups consider the latter two drugs abortifacients. 

Pennsylvania and California filed suit in separate circuits against the Trump rules in federal court and won. The Supreme Court will hear appeals from the Pennsylvania case, Trump v. Pennsylvania, and from a separate case, Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania. The two cases will be consolidated. 

The Little Sisters of the Poor, an institute…

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Click here to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Christian Headlines.

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How Michael Luther King Jr. became Martin Luther King Jr.

In 1934, an African American pastor from Georgia sailed
across the Atlantic Ocean to the Holy Land. Afterward, he traveled to Berlin,
where he attended an international conference of Baptist pastors.

While in Germany, this man—who was named Michael King—became
greatly inspired by what he learned about the great German reformer Martin
Luther. So he did something remarkable: he changed his name to Martin Luther
King.

His five-year-old son was also named Michael. Not long after the boy’s father changed his own name, he changed his son’s name as well. And Michael King Jr. became Martin Luther King Jr.

The similarities between Martin Luther and Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr. do not end with their names. Both saw the potential for greatness in
the people they served. Both were willing to stand for truth at great personal
risk. And both served their cause as a means to serving their Lord.

The message of the church

As a Christian, you bear and represent an even greater name.

Those who know you follow Jesus will measure your Lord by
your life. This is only natural. We tend to judge Islam by Muslims and Buddhism
by Buddhists. We measure a movement by its leaders and most committed
followers.

The good news is that even in our secularized culture, those
you know who will not attend a church service can see the message of the church
in you. They may not listen to a sermon, but they will listen to your words.

Lest this fact discourage you, remember who and Whose you
are. The same Holy Spirit who inspired Martin Luther and Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr. lives in you (1 Corinthians 3:16). He is ready to empower and employ anyone
who is fully submitted to his power (Ephesians 5:18). If you will seek to be
obedient, he will use your life in ways you cannot measure on this side of
eternity.

That’s why, in today’s reading from My Utmost for His
Highest,
Oswald Chambers urged us to “guard jealously your
relationship to God.” If you…

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Click Read More to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Denison Forum.

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Conservative Columnist Claims He Was Fired for Writing There Are Only ‘Two Sexes’

Conservative Columnist Claims He Was Fired for Writing There Are Only ‘Two Sexes’


A Denver Post columnist says he was fired due to a column in which he ridiculed the “easily triggered” and “perpetually offended” on the Left and also insisted there are only two sexes. 

Jon Caldara wrote a conservative-libertarian column for the newspaper, although his final column was published Jan. 17. In it, he criticized what he saw as the lack of transparency among state Democrats, including on the subject of state-mandated sex-education.

“[T]hey certainly don’t want education transparency when it comes to their mandate to convince your kid that there are more than two sexes, even if it’s against your wishes,” wrote Caldara, who is president of the Independence Institute, a Denver-based think tank. “Among the most controversial laws that passed last year was the comprehensive human sexuality education mandate which ripped local control away from your neighborhood school board. Now if your school district wants to teach even basic sex ed, the teacher must also teach the ‘health needs’ of LGBT individuals.

“And in the anti-free-speech style that the left now embraces, the new law bans discussions that ‘employ gender stereotypes,’ or any language the state’s new oversight board of LGBT activists consider ‘stigmatizing.’ In case you hadn’t noticed, just about everything is stigmatizing to the easily triggered, perpetually offended.”

He…

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Click here to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Christian Headlines.

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40 Faculty Members Demand Apology from Canadian University for Hosting Screening of Unplanned

40 Faculty Members Demand Apology from Canadian University for Hosting Screening of Unplanned


Some forty members of staff from a university in London, Ontario, Canada, have asked that their institution issue an apology for screening a pro-life movie on campus.

King’s University College has come under fire for showing the movie “Unplanned,” which tells the powerful story of Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood clinic director turned widely influential pro-life activist.

On Wednesday, professors from across a variety of academic disciplines sent a letter to Principal David Malloy complaining that the screening had caused “furor and fear” among the school community.

“The public endorsement of an anti-abortion stance at King’s University College by the Director of Campus Ministry is of great concern to the viability of our institution as we work to recruit and maintain excellent students, staff and faculty,” the letter read in part, according to CBC.

Protesters gathered outside the university during a screening of the film last week, many of them holding up posters containing slogans such as “Trust Women” and “I am a woman not a womb.”

Reverend Michael Bechard, Director of the Office of Campus Ministry, told the outlet that they chose to show the film because it is “really consistent with our general ethic of life at King’s.”

Many faculty members disagreed and urged Malloy to assure that the screening event was not congruent with the school’s…

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Click here to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Christian Headlines.

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2020 census begins in remote Alaskan town: A call to disciple all nations

The United States 2020 census begins Tuesday in a surprising
way.

Toksook Bay, population 661, is on the edge of Alaska near
the Bering Sea. Its homes are painted lime green, purple, or neon blue to help
distinguish them from the white winterscape that makes it hard to tell where
the frozen sea ends and the village begins.

The rest of the US will begin the census in mid-March, but
by that time Toksook Bay will empty as its residents scatter for traditional
hunting and fishing grounds. The frozen ground makes it easy to get around now,
but by March it will melt into marsh that’s difficult to traverse.

So census takers are traveling by boat and plane to Toksook Bay to be sure its residents are included.

As much as these Americans deserve to be a part of our
national census, they deserve even more to be included in God’s family. Jesus
called us to make disciples of “all nations.”

Who will hear the good news of his love from you today?

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Click Read More to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Denison Forum.

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South Dakota Lawmakers Introduce Bill Outlawing Gender Reassignment Procedures on Minors

South Dakota Lawmakers Introduce Bill Outlawing Gender Reassignment Procedures on Minors


Conservative lawmakers in South Dakota have introduced a bill this week to punish doctors who perform gender reassignment surgeries on minors.

 According to Faithwire, the bill will make it illegal for doctors to perform surgeries “for the purpose of attempting to change or affirm the minor’s perception of the minor’s sex, if that perception is inconsistent with the minor’s sex.”

Under the legislation, sex reassignment procedures performed on a child would become a Class 4 felony. The surgeries including castrations, vasectomies, hysterectomies, vaginoplasties, and mastectomies. It would also include the administration of puberty-blocking hormone drugs and the removal of any healthy or non-diseased body parts.

As child reassignment cases have recently taken center stage in media attention, namely the James Younger case in Texas, Republican State Rep. Fred Deutsch introduced the bill as a form of protection for South Dakotan children.

“An ever-increasing number of people who had so-called sex reassignment as minors now find themselves regretting the decision as they’ve matured,” he said, according to The National Review. 

“Performing irreversible sex reassignment on a minor whose brain is still developing is wrong. But we can try to prevent harm to those who may later regret it by hitting the pause button before someone pushes a child into a mistake…

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Click here to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Christian Headlines.

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Woman Drives Car into Oncoming Traffic to Test Her Faith, Two Are Injured

Woman Drives Car into Oncoming Traffic to Test Her Faith, Two Are Injured


Police claim that a woman in Pennsylvania intentionally drove her car into oncoming traffic while waiting to hear a calling from God. 

According to ABC News, the woman crashed into another vehicle injuring both passengers inside. Reports note, however, that the woman allegedly did not care about her victim’s conditions because she believed “God would have taken care of them.”

Nadejda Reilly, the 31-year-old Pennsylvania woman, drove around for several hours earlier this month waiting to hear from God. Eventually, the woman took matters into her own hands and decided to drive her car straight into an oncoming vehicle on Route 93 near the Weatherly area of Carbon County, Pennsylvania, Fox News reports. Reilly is reported to have walked away from the car crash without any injuries.

Bruce Baillet, the trooper who interviewed Reilly, noted that the two people in the other vehicle were sent to the hospital and treated for their injuries, but Reilly expressed no concern for them. The ages and conditions of the victims have not been reported.

According to the arrest affidavit, “Reilly related [that] God took care of her by not having her injured,” Baillet wrote. “Reilly expressed no concerns or remorse for the victims. Reilly also stated she did not care if the other people were injured because God would have taken care of them.”

Reilly remains in jail, where she has been…

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Click here to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Christian Headlines.

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