Like millions of others, I watched the press conference between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday. Then I watched reactions in the press, and it was as if there were two different events.

Fox News reports that the president is facing “harsh bipartisan criticism back home” from lawmakers who claimed he “missed a chance to ‘stand up’ to the Russian president on election meddling.” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., was especially critical, calling the president’s statements “one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory.”

By contrast, several Republican leaders were supportive of Mr. Trump’s meeting with Mr. Putin. For instance, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ken., called critics of President Trump’s approach to Russia “mistaken” and said, “We should look for ways to make the dialogue better.” He described the president’s critics as victims of “Trump derangement syndrome.”

Our “post-truth” culture

Oxford Dictionaries selected “post-truth” as its international word of the year in 2016. The decision seems appropriate in our relativistic culture.

For example, Episcopal Church leaders decided last week to allow same-sex couples to marry in their home parish, even if their local bishop objects morally to gay marriage. This despite objections from some bishops that such a move would force Episcopalians “to accept social and cultural practices that have no Biblical basis in Christian worship.”

One bishop explained the motive behind the move: “Folks just want to be married at home.”

Episcopalians are by no means the only denomination to struggle with reconciling biblical truth and contemporary culture. The United Methodist Church, America’s second-largest Protestant denomination, is planning a special General Conference next year to decide its position on LGBTQ issues and marriage.

Presbyterians have divided into various denominations, largely over…

New Orleans Saints defensive end Mitchell Loewen was eating brunch with his wife and son last Sunday afternoon in downtown New Orleans. Suddenly he heard what sounded like “a bomb or an earthquake.”

He and others ran outside to find a silver Mercedes SUV lying upside down in the middle of the street. It had just plummeted from the fourth floor of an adjacent garage building.

Loewen later told reporters, “There were a bunch of people standing around, but not approaching the car and I was like, ‘What’s up, let’s help this guy.’ I mean, obviously there was someone in there. I wasn’t going to just stand by and watch. It was a life or death situation.”

The football player called people to help, and together they flipped the car onto its side and then upright. Loewen wrenched the door open, ripping it off its hinges, and leaned into the car to speak with the driver.

“He didn’t say much, he was just thanking us all. I hugged him and told him he was going to be OK, and then I prayed with him,” Loewen said. Paramedics arrived and took the man to the hospital; a police spokesman said he is expected to survive.

“A world of wealth for an inch of time”

We live in a dangerous world in need of more heroes.

A possible serial killer was arrested in Houston yesterday. A teenage girl died recently after eating a Reese’s Chips Ahoy! cookie she thought was a regular chocolate chip cookie. And twenty-three people were injured when a “lava bomb” crashed through the roof of their tour boat in Hawaii.

Money cannot buy tomorrow. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos is now the wealthiest man in modern history, but he’s not guaranteed to live until Thursday. Warren Buffett has donated more than $30.9 billion to different charities over the years, but benevolence cannot defeat mortality.

On her deathbed, Queen Elizabeth I cried out, “Time, time, a world of wealth for an inch of time.”

The League of Nations led to the United Nations, but nations still…