Oblivious Biden

Published in The Washington Times, June 18, 2022

By Jonathan Imbody

As polls indicate that roughly only one in three Americans approve of his performance, President Biden has responded incongruously with self-congratulatory rhetoric. The inverse relationship between the president's popularity and pronouncements is striking:

As inflation races past income and families choose between eating or driving, Biden responds blithely, "Look, here’s where we are. We have the fastest growing economy in the world. The world. The world."

Policy versus politics: A retrospect and prognosis

A physician member of the Christian Medical Associations (CMA) recently asked me for a perspective on the tragic temporary takeover of the U.S. Capitol and the role of politicians before and after that tumultuous event.

The physician's email began, "I’m so saddened by this incident and so appalled…."

I've been asked to share the response to that physician more widely, so my edited response is below, followed by some thoughts on public policy ministry, the past four years and the next four years.

Thoughts on the Capitol takeover and surrounding events

I responded to the physician's concern and request for perspective about the Capitol takeover and surrounding politics as follows:

Restoring the soul requires genuine repentance

In a New York Times piece, "The Faithful Voters Who Helped Put Biden Over the Top," a Democratic party political activist argues that Joe Biden's “restoring the soul of America” mantra resonated with religious voters. But mantras are not policies, and restoring the soul is not a political endeavor.

Our national malaise, conflict and division reflect our own inner personal malaise, conflict and division. Politicians cannot accomplish the deep spiritual restoration and revival that each of us desperately needs; that is a Divine mission that requires our assent.

Restoring the soul requires genuine repentance from our actions and attitudes that contradict our divinely created purpose and worth. Restoring the soul requires a regeneration by faith, a recognition of the divine imprint on every human being and the attendant sanctity of life and a deepened love for our neighbors.

USAID to Dads: Help advance women's agenda, and btw, get circumcised

Apparently USAID bureaucrats feel so antagonistic or ambivalent toward men that the only way they can stomach Father's Day is to allow that at least some men help advance their women's agenda. And then they encourage readers to learn more about male circumcision. Now there's a Father's Day present for which every Dad hopes.

Here's what a recent USAID email had to say--and not say--about Father's Day:

"This Father's Day, we salute men and recognize their essential role in families--in finance, health, education, and much more.

"At the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), we believe that gender equality and women’s empowerment are at the core of development. Today, as we celebrate fathers everywhere, we want to underscore that men’s informed and active participation in development is crucial to creating a more equitable world for all. \

"In this spirit, we wish to send special thanks to the many men around the world who continue to support women and girls’ right to equal footing with men and boys, even at the risk of going against dominant socio-cultural norms. Your dedicated service is vital to better health and improved lives for everyone. Only together can we unlock full human potential on a transformational scale.

Learn more:

• "Find out about USAID’s commitment to meeting the reproductive health and family planning needs of couples and individuals around the world.

• "Learn about the REAL Fathers initiative and how we’re working with husbands and fathers to reduce domestic violence.

• "Learn more about how men protect themselves and their partners from HIV through USAID-supported voluntary medical male circumcision programs.

• "View the USAID Father's Day photo gallery."

Pew Poll: People of faith are happy, family-oriented, giving

Americans who pray daily and attend church weekly "are more engaged with their extended families, more likely to volunteer, more involved in their communities and generally happier with the way things are going in their lives," a Pew Research Foundation poll has found. The study also "shows a clear link between what people see as essential to their faith and their self-reported day-to-day behavior."
For example, Pew found,

"Among Christians, believing in God tops the list, with fully 86% saying belief in God is 'essential' to their Christian identity. In addition, roughly seven-in-ten Christians say being grateful for what they have (71%), forgiving those who have wronged them (69%) and always being honest (67%) are essential to being Christian." 

The poll provides solid evidence that the vast majority of Christians diligently seek to live out their faith consistently, walking the talk. And that a consistent faith and lifestyle correlates positively with a richer, more satisfying and loving life.
The results of Christian faith extend beyond personal thriving and satisfaction, the survey found:

"For example, nearly half of highly religious Americans – defined as those who say they pray every day and attend religious services each week – gather with extended family at least once or twice a month.

"By comparison, just three-in-ten Americans who are less religious gather as frequently with their extended families.

"Roughly two-thirds of highly religious adults (65%) say they have donated money, time or goods to help the poor in the past week, compared with 41% who are less religious."

And that's just volunteering to help the poor. Add to that number those who volunteer to tutor or coach youth, counsel pregnant couples, teach classes, assist the elderly, provide childcare and give of their time, money and talents in healthcare, educational, cultural and social services programs.
One of America's early analysts, Alexis de Toqueville, observed that "I am certain that they hold

Alexis de Toqueville

[faith] to be indispensable to the maintenance of republican institutions."1
Toqueville also noted how Americans band together in voluntary associations to address social concerns:

"In no country in the world has the principle of association been more successfully used, or more unsparingly applied to a multitude of different objects, than in America. [A] vast number of other [associations] are formed and maintained by the agency of private individuals."2

Many of those American associations to help the poor, educate, heal, inspire and protect have Christian roots. Like de Tocqueville, any honest student of history recognizes that the moral fabric and the practical progress of our nation have been woven with thousands of threads of people of faith who have volunteered their time, talents and resources to help others.
So in a day when much news related to faith is discouraging and disturbing, we can rejoice in this reminder that many of God's people are remaining faithful not only in belief, but also in action.
_________
Footnotes
1. de Tocqueville, Alexis. Democracy in America - Volume 1 (p. 253). Kindle Edition.
2. Ibid., p. 151.

Faith Steps excerpt: A personal journey--existential angst and the Strange Book

Part V in a series of excerpts from my new book, Faith Steps, which encourages and equips people of faith to engage with friends and in the public arena on vital issues.
From Chapter Four, A Personal Journey:

The cultural revolution of the 1960's, launched during the tumult of the Vietnam War and fed by radical ideology and drugs, had shaken the traditional American foundations of faith, morality and even reality itself. It hadn't taken much, it seemed, to strip the nation of its religious facade, revealing superficial beliefs ungrounded in Scripture and a cultural religion that had drifted far away from the living God.

No one, as far as I could discern, seemed to come even close to offering any real answers to the meaning of life, the nature of man or the existence of a Creator.

Haight Ashbury hippies turned out to be better at turning on to drugs than offering any substantive alternatives to the American capitalism they simultaneously despised and depended upon. My parents' generation had won World War II and provided wonderfully for their families, but many couldn't muster much meaning in life beyond financial security. So their children, wise to their parents' emptiness and hypocrisy but not to their own, traipsed off into Zen, LSD and Woodstock.

American political leaders had launched a successful race to the moon and built an unrivaled economy but then violated the public trust with moral lapses and bungled burglaries. Mainline religious leaders had long since lost the biblical moorings for faith and taken to mumbling a social gospel that eschewed spiritual life for the latest hip political ideology. Educators were trading traditional scholastic disciplines for subjective, "relevant" explorations–like the high school course I took on Rock and Roll.

I found the silence of meaning terrifying.

Good News / Strange News

In desperation, I took up reading a paperback copy of Good News for Modern Man–a loose, modern translation of the New Testament. I would read passages for a while but could only take so much of what struck me as bewildering, even bizarre.

I was looking to plant my feet on firm ground, not float off into spooky spiritualism. Angels and demons, prophecies and parables. That stuff practically made me shiver.

Yet after a time, for some reason, I would once again delve into the pages of the Strange Book....

Read more: 

Amazon paperback: http://tinyurl.com/nhanq29

Kindle e-book: http://tinyurl.com/p2q8ywg  

Faith Steps: How can we move toward God through personal and public policy choices?

Part IV in a series of excerpts from my new book, Faith Steps, which encourages and equips people of faith to engage with friends and in the public arena on vital issues.
From Chapter Three, Faith Steps--Moving Toward God:

Defiance leads to alienation but compliance leads to relationship

The good news is found in a silver lining in the cloud of rejected revelation. Consider carefully this unspoken corollary of the process of revelation and response outlined in Romans:

If we respond to God's revelation through nature and conscience  by making moral choices aligned with His creation and His law,  our thinking begins to align with God's principles and our hearts soften toward Him.

Perhaps a husband resists an adulterous temptation and devotes himself to loving his wife. A woman sacrificially cares for her elderly mother who suffers from Alzheimer's. A teenager makes a culture-challenging personal decision to save sex for marriage.
As individuals make choices aligned with God's principles, they step closer toward divine relationship and their providential purpose. Our gears mesh when aligned with our Maker's blueprint, yielding peace, satisfaction and fulfillment.
Conversely, when we make choices opposed to our Maker's principles, we experience negative results such as failure, loneliness and conflict. We cannot find peace, satisfaction and fulfillment. Adultery shatters marriages and families. Enmity with parents removes the crucial emotional support children need. Teenage sex results in emotional scars, disease and crisis pregnancies.
Each moral decision we make and action we take–to acknowledge God or not, to choose good or evil–either draws us closer to God or drives us farther from Him.

Faith steps are the moral choices we make
and actions we take toward God,
as we respond to His revelation and invitation.

A discerning and open individual will perceive readily the difference that moral choices make and the fruit they produce in his or her life. Such experience can begin to train the mind and conscience in the direction of God and His principles, as we learn through experience to choose the path that yields the best result.

Read more: 

Amazon paperback: http://tinyurl.com/nhanq29

Kindle e-book: http://tinyurl.com/p2q8ywg 

Saving students' lives: What it takes to be a hero

While California teacher unions, fretting over lawsuits, opposed a lifesaving bill to equip schools with EpiPens to save students from deadly anaphylactic shock, courageous and committed physicians like Dr. Kent Brantley risked their lives caring for Ebola patients in Africa whom they hardly knew.

What makes the difference? A worldview that considers the interests of others and not just self. A mantra more like "Do unto others…" than "What's in it for me?" A focus on the long-term, soul-sustaining casting of character rather than the short-term pleasure of cash in the pocket.

These are the everyday choices that determine what kind of people we will be and how others will view us. For all the teachers of character who daily put our children and grandchildren ahead of petty self-interest, thank you for your honorable service. For the heads of the teachers unions, just get out of the way of these heroes.

Off the bench and onto the field

How the September 11 Pentagon attack changed one survivor's spiritual outlook

Early in the morning of the September 11 attack on the Pentagon, at 3 a.m., Sandy Robinson woke up suddenly.

"I had an incredible sense to pray," she recalls. "Such an urgency--from the Holy Spirit--to pray for my husband's protection." She prayed fervently.

Later that morning, Sandy's husband Scott left home to commute as usual to the Pentagon, where he served as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army. Sandy left for a business meeting.

A few hours later, Sandy's colleague interrupted the meeting with heart-stopping news: The Pentagon had just been hit in a terrorist attack.

"You wouldn't believe what went through my body at that moment," Sandy recalls. Frantically, she dialed her husband's cell phone--but couldn't get through. Within an hour, however, Sandy finally received a voice mail message from Scott. He had survived the attack.

Sandy would later learn that Scott had been working perilously close to the site of the crash. Rocked by the blast, he had encountered impenetrable smoke billowing through the hallways. Screams from colleagues battered his ears and an acrid smell assaulted his nostrils. Scott managed to stumble away from the fire and escape out of the building. Then he and his colleagues set about aiding the victims.

A few hours later, Scott and Sandy finally connected by phone, and he reassured her that he was safe. Sadly, 20 of Scott's colleagues--including a very dear friend--had not survived.

Two weeks after the attack, Scott and Sandy shared their testimonies at McLean Bible Church in McLean, Virginia. Scott noted that the one question that keeps coming to him from reporters and friends is why he thinks he survived. To Scott, the answer is clear.

''I was spared to glorify God," he says.

Describing what he termed a "lukewarm" Christian faith before the tragedy, Scott says the event has forced him to take stock of his faith and priorities.

"I was on the bench," he laments. "I need to get on the field."

Scott sees his survival as an opportunity to share God's love and compassion with others. He notes the newfound openness across the nation to discussing spiritual matters in the media and in the workplace.

"People are looking for answers," he observes. "The answer--the only answer--is Jesus Christ."

Sandy agrees that their mission is one of service and testimony. Throughout the ordeal, Sandy testifies, "God has given us the stamina, the strength, to minister to others."

Through tears, she notes that Scott's living beyond the attack "is an incredible blessing from the Lord."

Scott and Sandy say they have drawn comfort from Psalm 46, verse 1: "God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble."

Reflections on 911

The commentary below was published just after 911. I wrote the personal reflection that follows below in 2006 on the five-year anniversary of 911. Thought it might be of interest today as we remember the fallen and the heroes.

---

Remembrances left at Pentagon 2001

An American foundation

Published in the Washington Times, September 13, 2001

by Jonathan Imbody

The atrocities of September 11 left many Americans wondering how terrorists could strike at the heart of our nation's power. In fact, they did not--and never can.

The heart of our nation's power has never been our military and financial might but our commitment to a civilization based upon liberty and love. Reaffirming these highest values--even more so than rebuilding our physical security--now poses the greatest test of our nation's mettle.

As we commence this task, let us take inspiration from the selfless firefighters and paramedics who died trying to save strangers trapped in the World Trade Center. Let us follow the example of servant-leaders like Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who joined the many service men and women at the Pentagon tending to the wounded. Let us imitate the quiet love shown by hundreds of citizens who stood in line to donate blood to aid their suffering neighbors. This is a nation of citizens who respond with love in action to the question, "Who is my neighbor?"

Such acts of selflessness, service and love will carry us through extremely difficult days ahead. And our reaffirmation of these values will strengthen an American foundation that can never be shaken.

---

Personal reflection on 911

At this time five years ago, I was sitting in my home office, as I am now. Our daughter Bethany had called from work with the news about the attacks on the World Trade Center. As I watched that New York scene on TV, I felt and heard a thud. That thud turned out to be a plane crashing into the Pentagon, a few miles from our home.

Bethany had left the Pentagon on her morning commute into Washington an hour and a half before the plane hit. A series of cell phone calls to her followed, as the news unraveled about the terrorist attacks and rumors swirled about bombs exploding and fires in DC. We didn’t know what target would be next, and with Bethany’s office located in the Watergate and directly across from the Saudi embassy, her security was uppermost in our minds. I loaded a bike and a moped into our van and headed toward the city to get her out—a daunting challenge with much of DC evacuating outward. We eventually met up in Vienna, VA and I brought Bethany home safely.

But for thousands of Americans, of course, the news was much worse.

Our region here in DC remained in a state of siege for weeks to come. We fell asleep to the sound of fighter jets and awoke to machine-gun-touting soldiers in areas where we used to walk unconcerned.

Today we mourn the loss from that day of rescue workers, military personnel and innocent citizens. Five years after the attacks, we live in relative peace and apparent security, though our soldiers fight and give their lives on our behalf overseas. The war against terror rages on, even as we go about our daily business.

It occurs to me that our war on terror is a picture of spiritual warfare. A crisis, an attack occurs in our lives, and we earnestly seek God for intervention and protection. As He does so, and as we regain peace and security, it is easy to forget that spiritual warfare still, in fact, rages and roars all around us:

Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith …

Check your charities' rankings and efficiency with Charity Navigator

As you consider putting your values into action by donating to a nonprofit ministry, consider also checking the ratings of ministries by objective charity reviewers.

One of those reviewers is the Charity Navigator. From its web site: 

Charity Navigator is considered by many to be the leading evaluator of non-profit effectiveness. Charity Navigator, America's leading independent charity evaluator, works to advance a more efficient and responsive philanthropic marketplace by evaluating the Financial Health and Accountability and Transparency of America's largest charities. Charity Navigator selected as Best Charity Review Site in Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine’s “The Best List 2011.” 

The Christian Medical Association, for example, just received the highest (four-star) rating by Charity Navigator.  Just 1,410 of the 1,600,000 charities in America receive this designation. Charity Navigator objectively reviews the financial statements and tax filings of non-profits, determining those that have the lowest overhead and spend the highest percentage of resources on program beneficiaries.