Matt Wash exposed the fact that at least one major hospital in Tennessee is providing “gender affirming care” to minors, i.e., mutilating healthy parts of a child’s body, to change their appearance and ostensibly to address incongruities between their subjective mental states and objective physical realities. It dawned on me that how one views Christmas—whether it’s about Santa coming to town or the Son of God coming to Bethlehem—determines how one should think about such care.

Tuesday morning, I had a great sense of thanksgiving flood over me in the absolute strangest context. I was as mad as the proverbial wet hen with some people—good people—who have been grinding me down over the import to the work of God in His Church of Christians understanding the fundamentals of law and civil government. If you ever had reason to be frustrated over something or someone and giving thanks was the last thing on your mind, maybe today’s commentary will provide some help.

I was a “MAGA man” before MAGA was a thing. What might distinguish me from some MAGA enthusiasts today, but perhaps not many Christians, is that when I ran for the State Senate in 1994, I aspired to bring Biblical principles to the legislature to save our country from liberal ruin. I now confess that aspiration was un-Easter like.

As I head into the new year, a friend’s response to one of my recent post-election commentaries weighs on me. My friend asked, “David, is the republic lost? What can we do?” Sentiments like this have been expressed to me before, but I sense it is more widespread than ever and the earnestness by which it is expressed is greater. After the year we have all had, I think the start of a new year calls for an answer to these questions. If we can’t or won’t answer them, there may not be much that will be “new” in 2021.