The Stream’s Top 10 Originals From 2018
Goodbye, 2018! Here we come, 2019!
What a year. From the Kavanaugh hearings to the World Cup, from mass shootings to the glimmers of joy and hope, it’s been a long year. And it’s a good reminder that in 2019, the world will still need the Church to be the salt and the light.
As we move forward into this new year, let us look back and remember the top 10 most-read Stream stories of 2018.
Why are you surprised?
Why are you surprised when I bring hell to your hallways.
You talk guns, guns, guns. Give me ten minutes and Google, and I’ll have a dozen ways to take out dozens more. It ain’t the tool, fool. It’s the thirst.
Thirst for vengeance, thirst for thrill, thirst for destruction, thirst for the kill, thirst for attention, thirst for fame. You’ve shown me since birth that fame rates more than merit. Bring terror? Who cares? I’m trending.
I usually avoid really sick, appalling spectacles. I skip movies like Saw. But last Thursday I saw something worse. I went to the sex-education committee meeting of the Fairfax County School Board. I have never seen anything as shocking.
Understand, that I have sat through years of shocking meetings. My day job is monitoring and lobbying the United Nations. But, I have never seen or heard anything like this. This meeting was a horror show.
The Family Life Education Curriculum Advisory Committee advises the Fairfax County School Board for the content of the sex-education lessons taught to students from kindergarten through 12th grade. This group has come up with over 80 hours of sex-education for these poor kids. And some of it is straight-up pornography.
Evangelical leaders who voted for Donald Trump have been subjected to a fresh wave of mockery after he (and first lady Melania) failed to recite the Apostles’ Creed at the funeral for President George H.W. Bush. As the Huffington Post headline declared, “Every President Recited The Apostles’ Creed Except Trump, And People Definitely Noticed.”
But this neither concerns me nor surprises me, since I didn’t vote for Donald Trump because I thought he was an evangelical Christian.
Whether you love President Trump or loathe him, if you call yourself a Christian, this appeal is for you. All of us, regardless of our background or voting preference, are called to pray for those in authority (see 1 Timothy 2:1-4). Now is the perfect time to pray.
We all know that the President is a very strong man, whether you call him stubborn or courageous, bullheaded or brave. Either way, he man is a fighter like few others, and if anyone has a forehead of steel, it is Donald Trump — for better or for worse.
But he is only human, and the attacks are coming from every side.
I saw a video recently of a young boy all dressed in drag from head to toe. He sashayed his little boy body onto the television studio stage amidst the wild applause of … a room full of parents. It was a famous morning talk show, and the celebrity hosts were gushing over this child-drag queen, without the slightest hesitation or reservation at all. He’s being hailed as a “trailblazer.”
I don’t really want to talk about this boy, because he is a child, and I’ve no wish to hurt him in any way. He’s being hurt enough.
We need to talk about the adults. The parents.
Imagine. You’ve had a rough week and a pressure-packed month at the office. Finally, it’s Friday. TGIF! Escape! You head out I-66 with the job and the Nation’s Capitol in your rear view mirror. With each mile you lose the stench of the Swamp, the weight of your responsibility, the burden of a boss who works 17 hours a day and rarely on script. Up ahead is a nice dinner with some friends, a couple’s night.
You arrive in a quaint town tucked in the Shenandoah Mountains. A haven. You sit down at your table. The owner comes over. Not to say hi. Not even to discuss the night’s specials. She’s there to throw you out. Throw your whole party out. (literally and figuratively). Why? Because she hates your boss, and by extension hates you.
We’ve seen this show before. A Christian recording artist or author becomes very popular, reaching beyond a typical Church audience and becoming popular in the larger world. He or she is then asked about homosexuality and fudges the answer. In turn, the Church quickly condemns him or her. Can we do better this time around?
I’m talking specifically about the very popular Christian recording artist Lauren Daigle, whose career skyrocketed when she recently appeared on the shows of Ellen Degeneres and Jimmy Fallon.
James Robison: Can you tell me what you believe America must hear about what’s happening with this caravan? How should wise, caring Americans see it and respond to it?
Pastor Sam Rodriguez: Let’s lay it out. Let’s outline it.
- We are a sovereign nation. As a sovereign nation we not only have a mandate, we have a responsibility and a clarion call to protect our borders and protect the sovereignty of our nation. We are not anarchists. We cannot embrace the idea of lawlessness or chaos.
- 14,000 people headed toward our borders without an invitation from the United States of America is a recipe for chaos. It’s a recipe for confrontation that can and should be avoided.
I do not know if Brett Kavanaugh is guilty of what he’s accused of doing when he was a teenager. His innocence or guilt is a separate matter.
What I do know is that the anti-Kavanaughs — i.e. the Left, the Democrats — could not care less whether he’s innocent or guilty. They do not care what he may have done as an intoxicated teen. Nor are they racing to defend the honor of Ms. Ford.
This is about abortion.
Supporters of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s vague and unsubstantiated charges, based on hazy memories, against SCOTUS pick Brett Kavanaugh have their mantras. One of them is “Women don’t lie!” Their next, slightly subtler slogan is, “Why would she lie?”
One sane answer is: To control a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. Candidates for office routinely lie to get a whole lot less.
But here’s an even more direct reason why Ford might be blaming the wrong guy for what happened to her: She has profited from an abortion drug.
