As you consider the importance of worldview in international relations:

Iran…Saudi Arabia, Israel, Russia…

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in Saudi Arabia building a global coalition against Iran. National Security Advisor John Bolton met yesterday in Jerusalem with Russian and Israeli officials seeking to broker peace.  There is no question that economic sanctions are strangling the Iranian economy but the theocratic Islamic Republic of Iran is unlikely to give in to either its Sunni neighbors – whom it views as apostates to the true faith – or to Westerners whom it views as infidels.  When the U.S. President offered to negotiate with Iran with no preconditions, the Iranian parliament replied by chanting “death to America.” The 1400 year internecine Islamic division between Sunni and Shia cannot be underestimated in the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East – which now impact the entire globe.

North Korea

Media is reporting that “North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has received an excellent letter from President Trump” and that the leader of one of the world’s most repressive regime’s is considering the U.S. President’s invitation to return to negotiations. President Trump is set to travel to South Korea’s capital, Seoul, June 29-20 and some have suggested the two might meet at the border in the Peace House.  The news of President Trump’s letter to Kim comes just after a landmark state visit to North Korea by Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
While we pray and hope and work for the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula we also recognize the need for our President to show great wisdom in dealing with a man like Kim Jong Un who executes, imprisons, starves and stunts his own people.

China…

Don’t turn your back on China even as you turn necessary attention to the Middle East, Central America and Europe. China is seeking to limit conversation at the upcoming G20 to exclude Hong Kong.  The worldview implications here are mammoth. The people of Hong Kong have largely Western values as a former British colony. They have a Judeo-Christian understanding of freedom and justice.  But they are technically a part of Communist China which is now seeking to extend its process of Sinicization to the island.

Congo…

The Democratic Republic of the Congo, DRC, is in crisis. The ebola outbreak is being complicated by mistrust and a lack of financial resources.  Experts expect the World Health Organization to declare the current ebola outbreak an international emergency as it spreads to Uganda and threatens other central African nations.

Today’s conversation with Ruth Kramer from Mission Network News on the topic.

As you consider the crisis on the U.S. southern border….bear in mind the Golden Rule, the parable of the Good Samaritan and Matthew 25. 

Even as the President has delayed the implementation of plans for the deportation of undocumented people, the treatment of children on the border has reached a point of moral crisis. Real immigration reform is needed and it is needed now.  NHCLC leader, Sammy Rodriguez and the Evangelical Immigration table are calling upon lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle to work together in good faith to resolve the joint concerns for border security and the humanitarian treatment of desperate people.  And in the mean time, religious groups are asking for more help with refugees fleeing persecution around the world.

Several recent conversations Carmen has had on-air on the topic.

As you consider the news from the 2020 race...at the intersection of the conversation about life:

Former Vice President and the current front-runner in the Democratic primary race for the U.S. Presidency, Joe Biden is assuring Planned Parenthood’s Action Fund that he is committed to protecting access to abortion. Speaking at a Planned Parenthood candidate forum, the NYTimes reports, Mr. Biden “vowed that, if elected president, he would reverse the Trump administration’s policies limiting abortion rights and would seek to codify Roe v. Wade in federal law.”

Carmen wrote last week about the Hyde Amendment.