Tuesday, October 14, 2025

Part I

The Joy of Reunited Families: The World Watches the Incredible Sight of Freed Hostages in Israel

Just imagine the joy on the part of those families welcoming the 20 hostages released by Hamas yesterday. You saw the homecoming, two different groups of the hostages released and of course, they were released to great fanfare and international attention as well. These are Jewish hostages taken in Israel on October the 7th of 2023, and their release coming yesterday, was the culmination of an incredible diplomatic achievement, reaching what might be a temporary ceasefire, but at least it is a temporary ceasefire.

It also led to the exchange of those hostages held by Hamas with about 1,976 prisoners that were held by Israel. Now, here’s where I want to step back for a moment. Let’s just talk about the joy. First, let’s just talk about the joy. You could see the joy on the faces of the families under the hostages. I think we have to face the reality that these hostages have seen horrible, horrible, horrible things. Not only that they have lived under a situation in which their own lives could have been forfeited at any moment.

Now for human beings, that would be hard for an hour just to understand what it would be like to live two years under those conditions, not knowing whether or not you would become the next person killed by Hamas for its own political ends. And you have the release of those hostages and you see the families just imagine where the families were in terms of the joy, and yet they had to be filled with joy and terror, even until they saw the van doors open and saw their loved ones get off of those vehicles, safely there on Israeli soil. That had to be an unspeakably happy moment and you saw that. It’s an amazing thing to see heart-to-heart. It is impossible to see that and not be filled with joy.

But this leads to some very interesting moral considerations. Christians thinking about this through a biblical worldview. We have to understand that sometimes, we see things and we understand we’ve got to think them through. So, there was also joy when you had the release of those 1,976 prisoners of war, prisoners, some of them convicted of very grotesque war crimes against Israel that were released, including some others who were released not to Gaza or to the West Bank, but who actually were deported basically to a third country. The negotiations must have been very intricate. There is no moral equivalence here. That’s what’s really hard to say.

You can certainly say that this ceasefire agreement was between Israel and Hamas, but Israel is a legitimate nation. Hamas is a terrorist organization, but nonetheless, it was Hamas that attacked Israel. It was Hamas that was basically forced into this agreement as Israel was forced into this agreement by equal and opposite forces you might say. At the same time, you see the fact that these Palestinian families are glad to have their loved ones back too. So, let’s just back up and say watching this, there was joy in both places. There will be joy, especially on the part of many Palestinians when they received their loved ones back. But those loved ones had not been hostages.

They had been those who were taken when they had attacked Israel. They were basically prisoners undertaken because they had been engaged in terrorist activities or military activities against Israel, some of them convicted of multiple capital crimes. Now, Israel has muddied these waters itself, and this is just a part of Israel’s history, and this is a warning to the United States, to European nations and others. If you get into the routine business over the course of decades of paying either political or monetary or some other form of ransom basically for kidnapped hostages, then you create a business in kidnapped hostages. That is one of the problems of Israel’s history.

Israel has been in this business for a long time, and Israel has been so committed to getting its own people back who have been taking its hostages almost always by, well in one sense under the conditions of war with Arab countries, but more commonly by terrorist organizations. Israel has been so keen to get their people back that the exchanges have been radically numerically off. So, for instance, you would have one or two hostages returned and a thousand prisoners released. So, just look at the numbers. I mean, they’re so disproportionate. 

Yesterday, it was disproportionate. Twenty hostages, they weren’t prisoners of war. They were not people taken and convicted of crimes in a court of law. They were hostages. They were being held as hostages over against 1,976 persons who were convicted of crimes or held, because of crimes against Israel who were released. So, I want to say at the personal human level, it just shows us something about what it means to be human. We love each other in families. When a family member is gone, regardless of whether they’ve been convicted of a crime and are being held in Israel. And let’s just understand that given the worldview and the understanding of many Palestinians, they’re waging what in their eyes and according to their own ideology is a morally justified or theologically justified jihad against Israel effectively.

But it isn’t a moral equivalence when you look at hostages versus prisoners of war. It wasn’t equal when it comes to the numbers, but here’s something else. Israel, due to its own theological understanding, its own Jewish identity, it evidently apprises those lives disproportionately. Maybe let’s just put it that way. Israel was willing to release 1,976 in order to get 20, and Israel is also very, very insistent on getting bodies back. That might be a bit harder. Hamas leaders have indicated it is a complex situation because these bodies are held in various places under various Hamas groups that are united in terms of their hatred of Israel, but not united in terms of a central command, at least they say.

And so, it might be some time, but this also reminds us of something else. When we love someone, we care not only about their lives, we care even about their bodies. And that is because from a Christian biblical worldview, we understand that the body is awaiting the resurrection. We also understand that it’s impossible for us to know the person without the body, or to see the body without seeing the person.

Even if the person is dead, the body still represents a commitment, still represents a relationship, which is the reason why where you find Christianity, you find overwhelmingly the tradition of burying bodies, not just of taking care of them some other way, certainly not as has been the practice in some Asian cultures where you would have bodies burned in a funeral pyre. Even cremation has been extremely controversial among Christians, and that is because of the fact that the Christian biblical understanding of the person is that, we are psychosomatic unities, which is to say we have body and soul that are the person combined in a body. And the separation of the person, so to speak, from the body is temporary.

According to Christian theology, our bodies are awaiting resurrection and there will be a reuniting of body and soul. However, you want to regard it, the reality is that Christianity values the body in a way that most other belief systems do not. Historically, Judaism has done the same thing. And so, unsurprisingly, there’s a shared theological vision there. You see this in the Old Testament over and over again. You see this with the reference to the fact that one of the patriarchs died, or one of the kings of Israel or Judah would die and they would be buried with their fathers. That’s just a term of reverence. It’s a family burial place.

You go to the New Testament and just imagine, let’s just remember where Jesus was buried and let’s just remember the circumstances. It was in a tomb that had already been prepared. In biblical times, one of the things many families would do is to build a tomb in preparation for when it would be necessary seen as part of a family responsibility. So, all that to say, it comes to the fore in this kind of headline news, even when it comes down to Israel’s concern for receiving its bodies back, the bodies of hostages who were killed, that still is a matter of national priority, and that should tell us something.

Later in the day yesterday, President Trump went to Egypt for a formal ceremony, celebrating and commemorating, and on the part of some signing that temporary ceasefire agreement. President Trump declared it to be a very significant development. And I think that if anything, it’s an understatement and you see that because we actually have witnessed now the release of the hostages after two years. We have seen other diplomatic efforts fail, and we’ve seen this one succeed. Why? Well, once again, we understand as Christians that human action, human agency is just really important.

Donald Trump leaned into this, and I have to say he leaned into it with a great deal of personal intuition as well as of course, a lot of advice and counsel from others. He leaned into it in one particular way that becomes more clear over time, he leaned in influencing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to change his plans, fundamentally to change his plans. Not only that, but I think you can argue pretty clearly that President Trump and his administration basically communicated to Israel, you are going to go along with this and you’re going to count it a victory. But President Trump has been very keen to make clear that there were other parties that were involved, including some Arab nations.

He also mentioned Turkey, by the way, very interesting mention. He credited them with also using their influence to help bring about this ceasefire, and that would include a certain extent, surely putting direct pressure on Hamas or in other cases, here’s what you have to watch, putting pressure on others who were in the position to put pressure on Hamas. And so, this really wasn’t an international achievement. Will it last? Well, you better be careful how you define that. You have the end of World War I and there was an arm sign. Did it last? No. You look at World War II and you have formal absolute surrenders by Germany and by Imperial Japan. Did those last? Yes, they did. They’ve lasted until the present.

And as a matter of fact, they’ve lasted with the singular exception of a land war currently between Russia and Ukraine. But when it comes to Germany itself and when it comes to Japan, yes, those treaties have held, they didn’t hold in 1919. They did hold in 1945 and thereafter. So, the circumstances really do matter. But here’s the thing, you can’t possibly get to the next step without successfully achieving this step. It is huge. And President Trump honestly deserves a great deal of appreciation and respect for this act, and we leaned into it. So, let’s just talk about the reality that President Trump went to Israel. Why did he go to Israel? And there’s some people who say, “Well, he went basically to be able to claim victory.”

There’s another reason, and that is that when the President of the United States is there and you have promised to release the hostages, you know what? You better not leave the President of the United States without the accomplishment of that goal. That would come with consequences beyond imagination. I think that’s why so many of the nations in a position to put pressure on Hamas did exactly that, and the hostages were released. It wasn’t an act of goodwill on the part of Hamas. Hamas was forced into this, but they did follow through. So, let’s be thankful for that. And let’s pause to understand the joy on the part of Israel for receiving those hostages back. Just look at that joy from those families and recognize these are human beings made in God’s image and this is what joy looks like. 

All right, finally on this issue, understanding that there are many challenges ahead. It is really important to understand that when you look at this kind of situation, negotiations really have to take place step by step. There is no other way, and this was a step many people thought they would not see. We’ve now seen it. It’s going to take a lot of effort to get to the next step, and that means that the people have been paying attention and that includes the President of the United States, Donald Trump paying attention to this situation helped to bring about this situation. The picture we saw yesterday, the pressure is going to have to continue because this isn’t over. It’s not even close truly to being over.

Part II

Gen-Z and Christianity: Many Gen-Zers, Especially Young Men, are Turning to Christianity – Why?

All right, yesterday the New York Times released an article with the headline, “Why So Many Gen Z-ers Are Drawn to Conservative Christianity.” Okay, let’s just pause before we even look to the report, before we look at the article. Isn’t it interesting that the New York Times has devoted this space and given this attention to the question as to why so many young adults are drawn not just to Christianity, but to conservative Christianity? Now, no doubt, at least a part of this is the interest that came after the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

It is interesting having to watch the news and pay attention to these things for such a long time, I can tell you that there are just moments when all of a sudden, the press sees something it really hadn’t seen before. And it’s not that this trend is as new as some of these headlines might indicate. It is that many are just awakening to this fact and thinking this is worthy of some further consideration. Maybe the readers of the New York Times need to know about this. 

The author of this article is Daniel K. Williams, who’s associate professor of history at Ashland University. He’s done a lot of work basically in American religion, American conservative religion in the academic arena. He’s published a good many things including the book, Abortion in America’s Churches, a Religious History of Roe V. Wade. 

In this article, he’s asking or asking and answering the question as to why so many young adults are drawn not only to Christianity, but conservative Christianity. And he says, “The generation is mixed. About a third of Gen Z-ers are non-religious.” He says, “38% never go to church.” That’s a significant percentage, 38%. And he goes on to say, “That’s a mark of the rise of the nones. It is to say, Americans who mark none when it comes to religious affiliation.” But then he writes that, “Predictions that the Christian right would be moribund or dying at the point of death with Gen Z-ers have proved false in the aftermath of COVID.” He says, “And amid the longing for purpose community and transcendence that many Gen Z-ers feel a sizable minority of them have found their answer in conservative Christianity fueling both a religious and political revival among these young Americans.” He says, “They bring a new attitude to the combination of faith in politics and many see politics as a matter of spiritual warfare.” 

All right, very interesting. So, this is a surprise, I think even to many researchers and honestly to Christian leaders as well. And it shows up in some very unpredictable and unusual ways. So, we’ve talked about, I think the one that probably gets the most attention, and that is that this particular movement towards church attendance, religious identity, great interest and conservative Christianity, it is gender-specific, “Young male churchgoers now outpace young female churchgoers in weekly attendance.” Okay. So far as I know having followed this research in writing on this for decades, so far as I know, I think I can say with great certainty, this is the first time in recorded statistical history that this is so. This is a major change. And of course, you’re probably dating this back to the early 20th century and back to the late 19th century.

But the fact is we are accustomed to being told that women attend church more regularly than men. Well, when it comes to this generational cohort, young adults right now, that is not true. Indeed, the opposite is true. Now, it might not be true in your church, it is true for the generation. So, you just add this up, you have a significant portion of Gen Z-ers as they’re defined now, young adults turning towards Christianity, in particular that is weighted towards young males. And that’s why when you look for example, at a crowd, at a Turning Point USA meeting, and especially you add to that, Charlie Kirk’s a pretty significant move towards a more explicit Christian message.

And you look out at the crowd, there are a lot of young women there, but it’s marked by the fact that there are so many young men there, high school boys, young men in college and young adulthood. And I think if you go to many very healthy evangelical congregations, you’re going to see the same thing. There is just an unusual presence of young men. Now, it’s interesting that in this article, Daniel Williams points out that still 8% of this generation indicates a very secular identity. They’re not going to church at all.

He says, “Ultimately for many Gen Z, conservative Christian political activists, as with earlier generations, politics is a means to create a society that will not only protect the rights of conservative Christians to follow their conscience, but also allow conservative Christian values to flourish.” Okay, I think that’s a very interesting way to put it. But let me put it this way. I think what you see in these statistics, what you see, especially in these young men drawn to conservative Christianity, is that they understand that something’s imperiled. They understand that something is at risk, they understand that a great deal is at stake.

They’re in a position in their generation to see what happens when you have the moral unraveling of a civilization. I think you also see what happens when you have young men in these ages and the issues of gender fluidity and all kinds of questioning about sexual identity, gender identity, and sexual morality are raised. I think there is instinctive on the part of many of these young men, there is an instinct to lean into something deeper, something real, something that is going to represent moral truth, not just some kind of opinion or sociological analysis.

I think you see a deep spiritual hunger, yes, but I think sometimes what draws the first attention is the fact that when you look at the group there in that Turning Point USA crowd, you see people who are pretty sure who is a boy and who’s a girl, and they’re pretty sure it matters and they’re pretty sure it’s not a matter of choice. Now, the other thing we see here is the fact that it’s not just that these young men tend to be more conservative than many young women their own age. We’re now seeing that in many different age groups. You saw that in the report that we indicated just in recent days, about the divergence between the voting base in the Democratic Party and the voting base and the Republican Party.

The fact is that the Republican Party base is increasingly male and the Democratic Party base is increasingly female, but it is disproportionate, and it’s disproportionate because the female vote among Democrats is more often the determining factor. And so, you understand why it’s going to be very, very difficult on so many different grounds. It’s going to be very, very difficult for the Democratic Party to have any kind of course correction on this. And it is because it’s kind of an all-or-nothing political equation when it comes to many special interest groups.

And when it comes to so many of the ideologically leftist groups associated with the Democratic Party, they’re not about to accept compromise, and they say it right up front. Furthermore, you have the fact that many of the most influential figures in the Democratic Party right now are like Zohran Mamdani, the young Muslim who’s a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, who is running to be the next mayor of New York and is widely expected to win. And let’s just say he’s pushing the party of the left further to the left. And you look at the fact that the big issue right now, interestingly, the big issue right now among Democrats, and you kind of see this in the current government shutdown, look at the leadership in the Democratic Party in particular, Chuck Schumer.

Senator Chuck Schumer, New York Senator, he’s trying to hold onto relevance in a party that is actually shifting towards far younger leadership. And it’s not just younger in terms of age, it is further to the left in terms of their cultural and political perspective. So, it’s going to be really interesting to watch. And you know what? Here’s another fact. Conservative Republicans tend to be very interested in where the Democrats are going. And liberal Democrats tend to be very interested in where the Republicans are going. This is another truth about politics. It’s no fun to be in it by yourself. It’s a game for competitive advantage and both sides are trying to understand the other. And to some extent, no doubt, both sides are misunderstanding the other.

Part III

Naked Cyclists . . . Seriously? A Very Revealing Protest Against President Trump’s Intention to Deploy the National Guard in Portland

Okay, as you know, one of the big political controversies in the United States as President Trump taking action in especially some democratic concentrated cities threatening in Chicago, also threatening in Portland to use the National Guard, other federal leverage. And so, Portland being Portland, what does the protest look like? Well take this headline from the Associated Press, “Naked Bike Riders in Portland Demonstrate Against Federal Troops.” Well, there you go. You want to protest federal power, you want to push back on the man, you want to protest against a government crackdown, what do you do? You take off your clothes and get on a bike.

Where else? I was in Portland years ago there to preach in a church, and on Saturday night I was in Powell’s bookstore, very famous bookstore, and it has these big windows in the front. And all of a sudden, people started running to the windows and I decided I better go see what’s going on. Well, I wished I hadn’t because what I saw was just a fleeting sample of the naked bike race in Portland. I’ll just say it’s not for the faint of heart. Honestly, I’ve never wanted to unsee anything as fast in my life. But it does tell you a lot about Portland, and Portland’s an alternative culture when it comes to many of the people who live there.

They see themselves as kind of representing a specific West Coast alternative culture, somewhat reminiscent of the hippies. For example, in the 1960s and the 70s, the counterculture, all that was going on, and by the way, some of the people involved in this kind of stuff are actually people who were hippies in their teens and 20s. They’re just kind of staying in this same groove. 

All right. But this particular bike ride isn’t at the normal time. This naked bike ride in Portland was orchestrated to, “Demonstrate against federal troops, we’re told by the Associated Press “protesters rallying against the Trump administration of Portland put city’s quirky and irreverent reputation on display Sunday by peddling through the streets, wearing absolutely nothing or close to it,” a “Emergency edition of the Annual World Naked Bike Ride.” And then we are told by Jenny Kane and Christopher Weber of the Associated Press, “The bike ride is an annual tradition that usually happens in the summer, but organizers of this weekend’s hastily called event, said another nude bike ride was necessary to speak out against President Trump’s attempts to mobilize the National Guard to quell protests.” Rider Janine Kane called The Nude Ride, “A quintessentially Portland way to protest.” Well, let’s just say it’s not exactly like Paul Revere’s ride. 

The message given by many of the participants is, “We definitely do not want troops coming into our city.” And so, basically you have troops versus naked bicycle riders. There you go. How’s that for an interesting military equation? We are also told in the Associated Press story, “Naked bike rides have thronged the streets of Oregon’s largest city every year since 2004, often holding up traffic as the crowd cycles through with speakers playing music. Some years have drawn roughly 10,000 riders according to Portland World Naked Bike Ride.” That’s an organization.

One of those participating said this, “Joy is a form of protest. Being together with mutual respect and kindness is a form of protest,” that’s coming from one of the organizers of the protests of the ride, “It’s your choice how much or how little you wear.” I don’t know exactly how federal authorities are supposed to deal with this, but I guess it does simplify things because if you’re naked, it’s impossible to hide whether or not you’re say carrying a gun. At the very least, let’s just say it’s clarifying.