It’s Monday, December 16h, A.D. 2024. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard on 125 radio stations and at www.TheWorldview.com. I’m Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com)
By Adam McManus
Nigerian Christians anticipate Muslim violence on Christmas
For more than a decade now, one country alone has produced the majority of the world’s Christian martyrs. In Nigeria, Africa, Muslims have killed 50,000 Christians between 2009 and 2023. During that period, millions were displaced from their homes.
Though many people both inside and outside Nigeria have sought to deny or obfuscate the anti-Christian sentiment in these attacks, the religious motivation becomes painfully clear when the violence occurs on Christmas. Last year, a series of lethal Christmas attacks demonstrated that religious motivation.
With large-scale massacres having occurred during the previous two Christmases, Samuel said his loved ones in northern Nigeria will be taking safety precautions this Christmas.
2 Timothy 3:12 reminds believers that “everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” But, in Nigeria, it could cost you your life.
Biden issues largest act of clemency in modern history
President Joe Biden will be commuting the sentences of 1,500 Americans who were released from prison and placed on house arrest during the pandemic and will be pardoning 39 individuals who were convicted of nonviolent crimes, according to the Thursday White House press release.
This will be the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history, reports TheBlaze.com.
Biden will be commuting these sentences and issuing pardons for those who have “shown successful rehabilitation,” shown “a strong commitment to making communities safer,” and who have “successfully reintegrated into their families and communities.”
The President has said, “The United States is a nation of second chances.” The President recognizes how the clemency power can advance equal justice under law and remedy harms caused by practices of the past.
Before Biden, former President Barack Obama issued the second-largest single-day act of clemency with 330 people.
Biden’s decision to grant clemency to 1,500 people follows the sweeping pardon Biden issued for his son Hunter Biden on December 1, alleviating Hunter from the federal crimes he was charged with earlier this year. The pardon was met with a slew of bipartisan scrutiny, especially given the president’s repeated insistence that he would not pardon his son.
Pelosi fell and was hospitalized in Luxembourg
Democratic Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi of California, the 84-year-old former House speaker, was hospitalized after “sustaining an injury during an official engagement” while traveling with a congressional delegation to Luxembourg to mark the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, reports The Epoch Times. The details about the injury were not provided.
According to Voice of America, Pelosi got a hip replaced on Saturday at a U.S. military hospital in Germany.
McConnell to challenge Trump’s “America First” foreign policy
In the aftermath of President-elect Donald Trump’s landslide victory, former Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell compared the Make America Great Again movement to American isolationists in the 1930s, insinuating that Trump would have been indifferent to the fascist uprising in Europe at the time, reports The Blaze.com.
Trump, whose foreign policy is far more hands-off than McConnell’s hawkish approach, is fundamentally at odds with the former leader’s geopolitical worldview. Consequently, McConnell spoke about the current state of foreign affairs and said it was “reminiscent” of the times leading up to World War II, criticizing American isolationists from both today and nearly a century ago.
It all comes down to McConnell and money. McConnell has greenlit over $170 billion to Ukraine, while Trump has repeatedly called for an end to the war altogether.
McConnell said, “We’re in a very, very dangerous world right now, reminiscent of before World War II. Even the slogan is the same. ‘America First.’ That was what they said in the ’30s.”
While McConnell may have stepped down from his leadership role, his grip on foreign funding is not loosening any time soon. Notably, McConnell stepped into the new role of chairing the Senate appropriations subcommittee on defense, which will allow him to continue influencing the cash flow to our “democratic allies.”
Liberal restaurant staff eager to refuse Trump staff service
From Washington, D.C., word comes that food workers are organizing massive protests that will target members of the incoming Trump administration. Industry veterans, bartenders, and servers are pledging to refuse service and cause mayhem inside dining rooms across the capital city.
The Washingtonian first reported on the culinary insurgency in a story entitled, “Clashes Are Coming for Trump Officials Dining Out in DC.”
The magazine interviewed a number of unnamed waiters, bartenders, and others who plan to make dining out a miserable experience for anyone connected to the Trump administration.
Christian talk show host Todd Starnes said, “The Democrats are all about tolerance and acceptance, not so much decorum or basic table manners. If you don’t pledge allegiance to their far-left agenda or ideology, it’s no soup for you!”
Missionary Amy Carmichael’s birth anniversary
And finally, on December 16, 1867, Amy Carmichael was born in Northern Ireland as the oldest of seven siblings. She famously served as a missionary in Japan, China, Sri Lanka, and India. She eventually dedicated her life to working in India.
Carmichael’s most notable work was with girls and young women. She often said that her ministry of rescuing temple children started with a girl named Preena. Having become a temple servant against her wishes, Preena managed to escape. Amy Carmichael provided her shelter, thus beginning her new ministry.
To her credit, she fought against ritual abortion, forced prostitution, and enslavement of girls for pagan temples. She cared for thousands of children despite opposition from local Hindus and even other Christian missionaries.
To identify with the culture, Carmichael herself dressed in Indian clothes and dyed her skin with dark coffee. While serving in India, she received a letter from a young lady who was considering life as a missionary, who asked, “What is missionary life like?” She replied, “Missionary life is simply a chance to die.”
Before her death in 1951 at the age of 83, she asked that no stone be put over her grave.
Luke 14:11 says, “For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Watch the 38-minute animated Torchlighters biography of Amy Carmichael with your kids through a special link in our transcript today at www.TheWorldview.com.
Close
And that’s The Worldview on this Monday, December 16th, in the year of our Lord 2024. Subscribe by Amazon Music or by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com. Or get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I’m Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.