NEWS of the YEAR Pandemic / Tension / Politics / Moments / Deaths

“I’M 54 YEARS OLD, AND THIS IS THE MOST INSECURE I’VE EVER BEEN ABOUT MY JOB IN MINISTRY.“ —PASTORS AND CHURCHES STRUGGLE IN 2020, P. 38 NEWS OFNEWS YEAR THE 2020 EARNING YOUR TRUST, EVERY DAY. 12.26.20

VOLUME 35

NUMBER 24

FEATURES 12.26.20 VOLUME 35 NUMBER 24

44 2020 NEWS OF THE YEAR Pandemic / Tension / Politics / Moments / Deaths

38 2020’S CHURCH DIVIDE A pandemic and national controversies have splintered churches and taken a toll on pastors struggling to hold them together by Sophia Lee

NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES 12.26.20 WORLD DEPARTMENTS 12.26.20 VOLUME 35 NUMBER 24

5 MAILBAG 8 NOTES FROM THE CEO

23 Anya Taylor- Joy as Beth Harmon in The Queen’s Gambit

Dispatches Culture Voices

13 NEWS ANALYSIS 23 MOVIES & TV AT ITS CORE, 10 Joel Belz Safe harbor during The Queen’s Gambit, THE QUEEN’S 20 Janie B. Cheaney political turbulence Voices of Fire 36 Mindy Belz GAMBIT OFFERS 110 Andrée Seu Peterson 16 HUMAN RACE 26 BOOKS 112 Marvin Olasky Defeats and disputa- A ROCKY- 17 QUOTABLES tions: Losers in sports and society STYLE TALE 18 QUICK TAKES OF ACHIEVING 28 CHILDREN’S BOOKS Heroic plots for SUCCESS IN A boys of all ages MERITOCRACY 30 Q&A DESPITE EARLY Roland Warren DISADVANTAGES. 34 MUSIC Sandra McCracken’s latest album steadies ON THE COVER: in turbulent times illustration by Krieg Barrie

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EDITOR IN CHIEF Marvin Olasky WORLD NEWS GROUP SENIOR EDITOR Mindy Belz CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Kevin Martin CHIEF CONTENT OFFICER Nick Eicher WORLD MAGAZINE FOUNDER Joel Belz DEVELOPMENT Pierson Gerritsen, Debra Meissner, EDITOR Michael Reneau Andrew Belz, Sandy Barwick, MANAGING EDITOR Daniel James Devine Whitney Williams, Ambria Collins NATIONAL EDITOR Jamie Dean FINANCE Bill Gibson SENIOR REPORTERS Emily Belz, Angela Lu Fulton, HOW DID ADMINISTRATION Kerrie Edwards Sophia Lee MARKETING Jonathan Woods REPORTERS Leah Hickman, Charissa Koh, YOU AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT EDITOR Mickey McLean Harvest Prude DECIDE ADVERTISING John Almaguer, Kyle Crimi, Elizabeth Kerns STORY COACH Susan Olasky MEMBER SERVICES Amanda Beddingfield SENIOR WRITERS Janie B. Cheaney, Andrée Seu WHICH Peterson, Lynn Vincent CORRESPONDENTS June Cheng, John Dawson, Maryrose PHOTOS WORLD FOR STUDENTS Delahunty, Sharon Dierberger, Juliana SHOULD Chan Erikson, Charles Horton, Arsenio EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Rich Bishop Orteza, Jenny Lind Schmitt, Laura G. MAKE THE GOD’S WORLD NEWS WEBSITE gwnews.com Singleton, Russell St. John, Jae Wasson MANAGING EDITOR Rebecca Cochrane FILM AND TV EDITOR Megan Basham CUT IN WORLD WATCH WEBSITE worldwatch.news REVIEWERS Sandy Barwick, Bob Brown, Jeff Koch, PROGRAM DIRECTOR Brian Basham Marty VanDriel THE NEWS EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS Kristin Chapman, Amy Derrick, OF THE Mary Ruth Murdoch, Elizabeth Russell WORLD JOURNALISM INSTITUTE ART DIRECTOR David Freeland YEAR ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR Rachel Beatty WEBSITE wji.world ILLUSTRATOR Krieg Barrie SECTIONS? DEAN Marvin Olasky GRAPHIC DESIGNER Arla Eicher ASSOCIATE DEAN Edward Lee Pitts DIGITAL PRODUCTION ASSISTANT Dan Perkins

“I wanted BOARD OF DIRECTORS WORLD DIGITAL to choose John Weiss (chairman), William Newton (vice chairman), powerful WEBSITE wng.org Mariam Bell, John Burke, Kevin Cusack, Peter Lillback, EXECUTIVE EDITOR Timothy Lamer and beautiful Edna Lopez, Howard Miller, R. Albert Mohler Jr., MANAGING EDITOR Lynde Langdon photos that Russell B. Pulliam, David Skeel, David Strassner ASSISTANT EDITOR Rachel Lynn Aldrich told a com- Member of the Associated Press REPORTERS Mary Jackson, Onize Ohikere, pelling story. Kyle Ziemnick Finding them CORRESPONDENTS Julie Borg, Laura Edghill, Collin Garbarino, Julia A. Seymour, Steve West was easy, though I probably HOW TO CONTACT US WORLD RADIO waded through more TO BECOME A WORLD MEMBER, GIVE A GIFT MEMBERSHIP, CHANGE ADDRESS, WEBSITE wng.org/radio than 25,000 ACCESS OTHER MEMBER ACCOUNT INFORMATION, OR FOR BACK ISSUES EXECUTIVE PRODUCER Paul Butler AND PERMISSION: images since The World and Everything in It October. The EMAIL [email protected] HOSTS Nick Eicher, Mary Reichard, tough part ONLINE wng.org/account (members) Myrna Brown, Megan Basham was narrow- or members.wng.org (to become a member) MANAGING EDITOR Leigh Jones ing them PHONE 828.435.2981 within the U.S. or 800.951.6397 outside the U.S. REPORTERS Kent Covington, Anna Johansen, Monday–Friday (except holidays), 9 a.m.–7 p.m. ET Sarah Schweinsberg down to fit in SENIOR CORRESPONDENTS Katie Gaultney, Kim Henderson, the space we WRITE WORLD, PO Box 20002, Asheville, NC 28802-9998 Les Sillars had. I could BACK ISSUES, REPRINTS, PERMISSIONS 828.435.2981 or [email protected] CORRESPONDENTS Maria Baer, Ryan Bomberger, Laura have easily FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK facebook.com/WNGdotorg Finch, George Grant, Jill Nelson, filled another FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @WNGdotorg Bonnie Pritchett, Jenny Rough, 50 pages!” FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM instagram.com/WNGdotorg Cal Thomas, Emily Whitten PRODUCERS Johnny Franklin, Carl Peetz —WORLD Art WORLD OCCASIONALLY RENTS SUBSCRIBER NAMES TO CAREFULLY SCREENED, Rich Roszel, Kristen Flavin Director LIKE-MINDED ORGANIZATIONS. IF YOU WOULD PREFER NOT TO RECEIVE THESE PROMOTIONS, PLEASE CALL CUSTOMER SERVICE AND ASK TO BE PLACED ON Listening In David OUR DO NOT RENT LIST. Warren Cole Smith Freeland

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4 WORLD 12.26.20 MAILBAG

LENDING AN ARM TO END COVID-19 history and civics when we home NOV. 7, P. 67—WYETT H. COLCLASURE II/SALEM, ILL. schooled our children, and this is the I appreciate WORLD’s attention to the method I preferred in teaching about concern and sources of information our past. regarding the use of fetal cells in vac cination research. CHEERS FOR GOOD MEN SARAH CLIFTON/HAMPTON, VA. NOV. 7, P. 27—NATHAN ZOSCHKE/THOMAS, OKLA. Jeff Barrows implies it is acceptable I appreciate how Megan Basham’s to use vaccines that use aborted fetal review of Ted Lasso helps counter the cell lines because the related evils feminists’ “toxic masculinity” narra occurred decades ago. If it is immoral tive. But it’s unfortunate that such a to commit the evils of abortion and positive show has profanity in it. organ harvesting but not immoral to consciously benefit from these evils, WALTER STANSBURY/PETOSKEY, MICH. then why would Christians ever inter Megan’s review completely misses the pose for the victims? WATCH AND mark. Ted Lasso’s gratuitous and con stant profanity and sexual references WAIT overshadow any possible redeeming OUT OF DESOLATION, FRUITFULNESS qualities. That it is a hit with conser NOV. 7, P. 32—NATALIE WEBER/DERBY, KAN. I could not have been vative Christians is an indication of I appreciated Michael O’Brien’s exam more pleased with our slide into cultural poverty. ple and encouragement to young your election coverage. people to pray and seek God for the I’ve never been so torn path He wants them to take. We do our young people a disservice when between the words of MAILBAG we adopt the same educational pri men and their actions NOV. 7, P. 5—JEANNINE LIEBMANN/ST. LOUIS, MO. orities as the world. and platforms. It made me smile to read the two letters you received from readers complaining NOV. 7, P. 40—ROZANNA LEEVER/ ZACHARY ANDERSON/PUERTO VALLARTA, MEXICO MORGANTOWN, PA. about your coverage of President Marvin Olasky failed to confront Trump—one saying you side too much O’Brien on his Catholic false gospel with him; the other, not enough. That and mystic answers to prayers. You means you’re willing to call balls and owed your readers a clarification at strikes rather than take a side. the least. STEPHEN DAVIS/LAKE JACKSON, TEXAS None of us agree with everything “WHO’S WHO” IN SOCIAL STUDIES expressed in a news publication, but NOV. 7, P. 10—SUZANNE RINGGER/GREENVILLE, S.C. I know of no better alternative with Joel Belz’s column brought back mem a Biblical worldview and a mission to ories. As pioneer homeschoolers inform, educate, and inspire. Thank almost 40 years ago, we displayed you for standing in the gap (Ezekiel history lessons on a wall of our base 22:30) and helping to point us rightly. ment classroom. Each week we added at least three people to our timeline. LETTERS AND COMMENTS Now the “baby” of our family is almost CORRECTION EMAIL [email protected] 40 and homeschools her own children. MAIL WORLD Mailbag, PO Box 20002, Pastor Daniel Foster preached to the Asheville, NC 28802-9998 Massachusetts Legislature on Elec- WEBSITE wng.org JIM MATTHEWS/SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS FACEBOOK facebook.com/WNGdotorg tion Day, 1790 (“On dog teeth, an I am interested in your ideas about TWITTER @WNGdotorg earthquake, and presidential bites,” teaching based on significant people, INSTAGRAM instagram.com/WNGdotorg Nov. 21, p. 72). PLEASE INCLUDE FULL NAME AND ADDRESS. famous and infamous. I taught some LETTERS MAY BE EDITED TO YIELD college classes and several classes in BREVITY AND CLARITY. READ MORE LETTERS AT WNG.ORG/MAILBAG

12.26.20 WORLD 5

IT’S YOUR GIVING Notes from the CEO KEVIN MARTIN IN DECEMBER THAT TELLS US, MORE THAN ANYTHING, WHAT WE CAN DO NEXT YEAR.

have contributed significantly to the deepening and broadening that has been going on since he first made public that invitation. My invitation is different. A few of you may be able to make the kind of commitment Joel is calling for. I suspect most of us cannot. But while those few large donors have made a huge contri- Time to refuel bution to the growth of WORLD, they do not equal the outsized effect of the for our mission tens of thousands of you who give WORLD relies on an army of people smaller, but equally generous and sac- rificial, gifts to our work. contributing in unique ways to support One thing I have appreciated about Biblically objective journalism WORLD’s reporting is our emphasis on behind-the-scenes, on-the-ground, day- in-and-day-out work that moves God’s N THE PREVIOUS ISSUE of WORLD, Marvin Olasky included a work forward, rather than focusing fundraising appeal in his column (“Win one for Joel,” Dec. 5). solely on big, splashy people doing big, In this issue, just a few pages deeper in, you’ll find Joel Belz’s splashy things. fundraising appeal. Our funding works the same way, It’s that time of year. with input from a whole army of people For WORLD, it really is that time of year. Your donations doing what they can to support the work in December make up about 40 percent of our fundraising of Biblically objective journalism. We’re I revenue for the entire year. The total amount of your giving thankful so many of you have enlisted during the month is very important to our work, obviously. alongside us in that work. Please use the What’s just as important is the timing of your substantial giving, envelope in this issue to make a donation coming as it does while we’re finalizing our plans for the coming year. before the end of the year, or visit We know what we’d like to do next year. We know what we must do next wng.org/donate to make an easy online year. But it’s your giving in December that tells us, more than anything, contribution. what we can do next year. In his column, Marvin highlighted WORLD’s unique Biblical approach to journalism. Joel will remind you of both the depth and the breadth of WORLD’s reporting, and of our desire to go deeper and broader. As is his custom, Joel will re-up his call to those of you who can commit to supporting WORLD with a three-year commitment of $5,000 per year. Over the years, dozens of you have answered that call and, as a result, EMAIL [email protected]

8 WORLD 12.26.20 U S E A P P L I C A T I O N F E E W A I V E R C O D E : W M 4 D E C 2 0

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I t i s s t i l l p o s s i b l e t o g e t a g r e a t e d u c a t i o n o n t h e l e f t c o a s s . W e w o n ’ t r a d i c a l i z e y o u r k i d s . WE NEED MORE PEOPLE TO Voices JOEL BELZ STAND WITH US IN THIS GROWING EFFORT, THIS EXPANDING REACH.

Airlines report on holiday travel More than 2 million people went through screening at U.S. airports on Friday and Saturday. … Deep and wide Dig deeper: Read John Dawson’s report in Begin- nings about why the coronavirus death rate has WORLD’s journalism is dropped since the spring. —Rachel Lynn Aldrich succeeding at being both What strikes me today, frankly, from my bed as I recover from a broken femur, is how deep and wide FEW YEARS AGO, I wrote that WORLD Mag- we are covering things now. From top to bottom, Lyn- azine was a journalistic offering that faced de’s daily email illustrates the scope of what WORLD the tension of being sometimes wide and is producing. After the day’s headlines, she links to sometimes deep. A biweekly newsmaga- deeper dives in print and online articles. Then she zine—with the resources God had given references the day’s The World and Everything in It us—could not cover the entire scope of podcast and its content. After that she advertises what’s reality or staff bureaus in every major on our daily video for students, WORLD Watch. Live A city around the globe. So I wrote that we hyperlinks appear throughout, then she closes it with as journalists had to make judgments about how a cartoon. This email goes out five days per week. deep, or how wide, we would go in each article of For this width and depth, I’m profoundly grateful each issue. for Lynde and the team of 60 other correspondents, This December, I get to view WORLD’s offering in editors, broadcasters, reporters, and anchors that a new, and grateful, light. Every morning my inbox make up our team. I’m enormously proud of each one contains “The Sift” from WORLD Digital Managing of them. Editor Lynde Langdon. Here’s a sample, from Nov. 24: In fact, a longtime reader from New Hampshire wrote recently: “Your vision from so many years ago Dear Friend, has been proven to be extremely fruitful. Congratu- Thanks for joining us for the morning news. lations on the success of WORLD and all that it does Here’s what we’re Sifting today: in all the different media. The reach is growing exponentially, and you should be very pleased.” Michigan certifies for Biden Each year I ask during December if you would The Michigan State Board of Canvassers approved consider helping me lead the way with a $5,000 gift, the results of the state’s election on Monday. … and to do that for three years. Many of you have On Monday, Trump tweeted that he authorized responded. Thank you. We need more people to stand the General Services Administration, which man- with us in this growing effort, this expanding reach, ages the functioning of government agencies, to so that even more we can bring Biblical Christianity work with Biden’s team on a transition plan. He to bear on journalism. I will be grateful for every also said he would continue to make the case that single gift, no matter its size. With your gift, do you he won the election. mind telling me personally of how deep, and how wide, Dig deeper: Read Mindy Belz’s column about WORLD’s impact is on your news consumption? the importance of smooth presidential transitions You can give online at wng.org/donate, or you can to national security. —Lynde Langdon send a check, or transfer assets to: WORLD News Group, P.O. Box 20002, Asheville, NC 28802. Another entry from that day’s edition: Thank you. And to sign up for The Sift daily email— or any of our other email newsletters—go to wng.org/ newsletters.

10 WORLD 12.26.20 EMAIL [email protected]

DISPATCHES

News Analysis Human Race Quotables Quick Takes

Safe harbor during political turbulence Election sparring continues as a Senate runoff and Inauguration Day approach

by Jamie Dean

RESIDENT FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT famously called Dec. 7, 1941, “a day which will live A pro-Trump in infamy”—the day that Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and Roosevelt began drafting rally outside the Georgia a declaration of war. State Capitol Most Americans won’t remember Dec. 5 as a day of infamy, but it may live as a to protest consequential date in presidential history. the results of On Dec. 5, 2019, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., announced the House of the 2020 presidential Representatives would proceed with articles of impeachment against President Don- election P ald Trump. ELIJAH NOUVELAGE/GETTY IMAGES 12.26.20 WORLD 13 DISPATCHES News Analysis

On Dec. 5, 2020, Trump appeared at his last major rally before “safe harbor” day—a deadline for states to certify their results before the Electoral Col- lege vote on Dec. 14. (Congress will officially tally the electoral votes in a special session on Jan 6.) The Georgia rally bobbed in unchar- tered waters: Trump was still contesting President-elect Joe Biden’s win in Geor- gia and elsewhere, and control of the U.S. Senate was still undecided. Two runoff contests in Georgia on Jan. 5 will determine whether Republicans hang on to a slim majority in the Senate or if Democrats control both chambers of Congress and the White House. Trump railed against Georgia officials, but those officials were fellow Republicans. Gov. Brian Kemp said he had to follow the law regarding elec- tions. Secretary of State Brad Raffen- sperger told reporters: “We have now counted legally cast ballots three times, and the results remain unchanged.” Judge Andrew Brasher of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals denied a Geor- gia-related appeal submitted by attorney and Trump supporter Sidney Powell. Trump nominated Brasher to the court last year, and the Senate confirmed him in February. John Adams Still, more legal action questioning Georgia’s election practices continued up to and beyond “safe harbor” day. town in the early morning hours before But while Trump ripped Georgia Thomas Jefferson’s ceremony. Adams officials, he rejected the notion that was only the second U.S. president, and Georgia Republicans should boycott the the first to face election defeat. The Jan. 5 runoffs to protest Trump’s loss in affair had been contentious. Historian the state: “At stake in this election is Ted Widmer notes in The Wall Street control of the U.S. Senate, and that really ADAMS AND Journal that Jefferson called Adams’ means control of this country.” JEFFERSON LATER administration “a reign of witches,” Meanwhile, other eyes turned to Jan. though Jefferson had been Adams’ vice 20—the day set for Biden’s inauguration. WENT ON TO ENJOY president. Adams backers called Jeffer- Reports swirled that Trump may con- RECONCILIATION son supporters “Anarchists.” sider skipping the Biden ceremony. If AND A WARM Adams found defeat difficult. He so, he’d be the fourth president in his- wrote in a letter to his son, “My little tory to skip his successor’s inauguration. FRIENDSHIP. bark has been overset in a Storm Squall The last time it happened was 1869, of Thunder and Lightning and hail when President Andrew Johnson stayed attended with a Strong Smell of Sul- at the White House during Gen. Ulysses phur.” S. Grant’s inauguration. The first was It didn’t feel like safe harbor, but 1801, when President John Adams left Adams accepted defeat even though he

14 WORLD 12.26.20 STUART/LIBRARY OF CONGRESS President George H.W. Bush and President- elect Bill Clinton shake hands during a stroll around White House grounds during a post-election visit by Clinton in 1992.

didn’t stick around for Jefferson’s cer- emonies. Widmer notes Adams and Jefferson later went on to enjoy reconciliation and a warm friendship over some 14 years of correspondence. It’s hard to imagine a warm kinship between Trump and Biden in the near future, but Michael Medved (a conservative commentator and Trump critic) makes an interesting suggestion in an op-ed for USA Today: Even if Trump doesn’t show up for Biden’s inauguration in January, Vice President Mike Pence should attend. Medved poses it as a way for Pence to preserve his own potential run for the presidency, but he also says the vice president could “contribute powerfully to a peaceful transition and the mend- ing of a badly frayed social fabric.” George H.W. Bush, the last president hymn that eventually became known whose almighty word / The winds and to suffer defeat after one term, commit- as the “Navy Hymn.” waves submissive heard, / Who walkedst ted to a peaceful transition the night of This year, during a season of polit- on the foaming deep / And calm amid his loss to President Bill Clinton in 1992. ical, social, and personal turbulence, its rage didst sleep: / O hear us when The election outcome was clear, and the hymn seems fitting as an Advent we cry to thee / For those in peril on Bush told supporters: “I just called Gov. plea for truly safe harbor: “O Savior, the sea.” Clinton and offered my congratulations. … I wish him well in the White House.” Bush also spoke directly to “the young people of America.” He asked them “not to be deterred, kept away from public service by the smoke and fire of a campaign year or the ugliness of politics.” He urged them “to partic- ipate in the political process. It needs your idealism. It needs your drive. It needs your conviction.” On Dec. 5, 2018, Trump declared a national day of mourning over the death of President Bush at age 94—two days before the anniversary of the Pearl Har- bor attack and the day Roosevelt said would live in infamy. Bush once spoke at the Pearl Harbor National Memorial in Hawaii. A World War II veteran himself, he choked up remembering ordinary soldiers dying to defend their country—“the boys who this day became men and men who became heroes.” And he quoted from “Eternal Father, Strong to Save,” a

CYNTHIA JOHNSON/THE LIFE IMAGES COLLECTION VIA GETTY IMAGES 12.26.20 WORLD 15 DISPATCHES Human Race DIED Walter E. Williams, who built a career as a professor and writer, died Dec. 2 at age 84. Despite growing up in poverty in Philadelphia with his single mother, he earned his doctorate in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1972. His 10 books and newspaper column often pitted the deep researcher against popular thought. His book More Liberty Means Less Govern- ment: Our Founders Knew This Well explains the often harmful outcomes of well-meaning minimum-wage increases, welfare programs, and judicial leniency. In The State Against Blacks, he spoke against occupational licensing, taxicab regulations, and other practices that hurt black entrepreneurs.

PICKED President-elect Joe Biden chose Califor- nia Attorney General Xavier Becerra to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). In 2017 Becerra filed 15 felony charges against pro-life activists for their undercover investigation of Planned Parenthood. He and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris spear- headed the prosecution of David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, alleging they illegally recorded conversations Chuck Yeager at Edwards Air Force Base, circa 1986 during their 2015 investigation of Planned Parenthood and the sale of aborted babies’ body parts. Becerra did DIED not investigate Planned Parenthood over the sales. Under Becerra, HHS could work to undo pro-life regulations the A fast flyer departs Trump administration instituted. Famed ace and test pilot Chuck Yeager dead at 97 SENTENCED Pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong HARLES “CHUCK” YEAGER, the United States Air Force brigadier will spend 13½ months in prison after general most well known for being the first person to break the protesting excessive use of force outside sound barrier, died Dec. 7. Yeager became an ace fighter pilot in the a Hong Kong police station in 2019. Fel- U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II despite insufficient edu- low activists Ivan Lam and Agnes Chow cation. After the war, he became a test pilot at Muroc Army Air Field received seven- and 10-month sentences, in Southern California. In 1947, Yeager flew the BX-1 (nicknamed respectively. The West Kowloon magis- “Glamorous Glennis” after his wife, Glennis Yeager), which carried trates court handed down the sentences him faster than the speed of sound and earned him the MacKay, on Dec. 2. The activists belonged to the C Collier, and Harmon international trophies. He did it with two bro- defunct Demosisto political party and ken ribs. “We didn’t know if we could break the sound barrier,” he helped to draw international attention said later. “But it was our duty to try. That’s the way I looked at it.” to Hong Kong’s crackdown on dissent. At the test field, Yeager reached 670 mph and would accelerate to The semi-autonomous territory of China 1,650 mph years later. has detained at least 31 people under a national security law Beijing imposed in June.

16 WORLD 12.26.20 DAVID MADISON/GETTY IMAGES DISPATCHES Quotables

“It’s the best early birthday present I could wish for.” MARGARET “MAGGIE” KEENAN, 90, on being the first Briton to receive the U.K.’s newly approved coronavirus vaccine on Dec. 8, a few days shy of her 91st birthday. “It means I can finally look forward to spending time with my family and friends in the New Year after being on my own for most of the year,” she said.

“Santa is exempt from this because Santa, of all the good qualities, has a lot of good innate immunity.” DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, on why Santa Claus is still coming to town this year despite the COVID-19 pandemic and travel restrictions.

“I was not trying to attract any kangaroos, I can assure you that.” Australian jogger TRACY NOONAN, who was attacked by a large kangaroo while exercising in Beaconsfield, a Melbourne suburb, on Nov. 28. A park ranger said the woman’s perfume—“Stash” by Sarah Jessica Parker—might have attracted the animal’s ire.

“Today these platforms have become hunting grounds for censors, military cybertroops, and state-sponsored trolls.” MING YU HAH, a regional deputy director for Amnesty International, on Google’s and Facebook’s practice of censoring user content on their platforms in Vietnam at the request of the Communist government there. Vietnamese officials hold 170 prisoners of conscience in prison, many for their social media activities, according to Amnesty.

“I’m still getting sold, even though I’m five years out of that life.” COLLEGE STUDENT “CALI,” 23, who told New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof that pornographic videos showing her sexual abuse as a minor continue to circulate on the website Pornhub. In response to Kristof’s reporting and public pressure, Pornhub said it would expand content moderation and allow uploads only by verified users.

12.26.20 WORLD 17 DISPATCHES Quick Takes DOMESTIC DELUGE Police in Rich- 2 mond Heights, Ohio, say a domestic dispute between a woman and her boy- friend resulted in an oven full of cat food and a ceiling collapse due to standing water. An unnamed woman complained to local police on Nov. 5 that her boy- friend vandalized her apartment while she was away. According to the woman, the man left the water on in a stopped-up and overflowing bathtub, then left the oven on with cat food inside. The woman said she returned later to discover her apartment so waterlogged that the ceiling of the apartment below her col- lapsed. In a twist, the apartment complex’s management reported that neither the man nor the woman actually leased the property: It subsequently banned both from the premises.

MY COVID-19 WISH LIST Not funny 3 but sad: A postal office in southwest France that handles mail addressed to “Père Noël” (“Father Christmas”) says anxiety over the coronavirus this year has extended to children’s letters to Santa. “My mother is a care-giver and sometimes I am scared for her,” wrote one 10-year-old girl named Lola in her letter. “Take care of yourself Father Christmas, and of the Elves.” Another girl, Zoe, wrote that COVID-19 had made the year unusual and “that’s why I am not asking you for many thing[s] to 1 avoid infection.” One card sent to Santa included a face mask in the envelope. RUGBY VIEWING RIGHTS HIGHWAY ROBBERY The large 4 metal pole roped to the roof of one TECH GIANT AMAZON.COM BRIEFLY PROMPTED an international stir England Florida resident’s car might have looked when it told a Northern Ireland resident that he lived in Ireland and and Georgia suspicious enough, even before he tried compete at not the United Kingdom. Eager to watch a Nov. 14 rugby match Twickenham to recycle it. Florida Highway Patrol between England and Georgia airing on Amazon Prime, Northern Stadium troopers say they caught Douglas Allen Ireland resident Chris Jones was disappointed to learn it was blocked. on Nov. 14 Hatley in Tampa with a power pole in London. Frustrated, Jones reached out to Amazon on Twitter. An employee strapped to the top of his maroon 1997 of Amazon responded, “We apologize but upon reviewing your Toyota sedan. According to officers, location you’re in Northern Ireland. Rugby Autumn Nations Cup Hatley, 71, tried to sell the pole to a coverage is exclusively available to Prime members based in the UK. metal recycling facility on Nov. 16, but We don’t have the rights to other territories.” Tweets from other the company grew suspicious when he Northern Irish rugby fans piled up, excoriating the Seattle, Wa., firm couldn’t produce documentation to for presumptively kicking the six counties of Northern Ireland out show that he owned the utility pole. of the United Kingdom. Eventually, representatives of Amazon Troopers stopped the conspicuous car acknowledged the error and restored appropriate access to the the same day, charged Hatley with grand service. theft, and transported him to the Hills borough County Jail.

18 WORLD 12.26.20 DAVID ROGERS/RFU/THE RFU COLLECTION VIA GETTY IMAGES HOLIDAY, FLA., SURPRISE To their whether the travel website’s survey 5 great consternation, several neigh- results were scientifically valid. bors on a residential street in Holiday, Fla., have discovered they don’t own GUTSY OPPOSITION A fistfight their own backyards. The group of 8 broke out in Taiwan’s parliamentary neighbors recently received trespass body on Nov. 27 after tensions over meat notices from the anonymous owner of imports boiled over. Arguments gave way the land through an attorney represent- to blows as lawmakers in the Legislative ing the land trust. Public records indi- Yuan debated a policy to allow the impor- cate an entity known as (818) 239-2215 tation of American pork and beef onto Land Trust acquired the land through the island. While Premier Su Tseng-chang a tax deed auction in 2008. The parcel, spoke, members of the opposition party just 20 feet wide and valued at $937 by dumped pig organs onto the floor of the Pasco County appraisers, cuts through NEEDLESS legislature. If the goal was to shut down the backyards of nine homes and TO SAY, JAIL the premier’s speech, the gambit worked. includes one resident’s above-ground DOESN’T While lawmakers threw punches, two pool. One homeowner, Niki Reschar, members from opposing parties wrestled reached out to the attorney on record SERVE HIS each other to the ground. with the land trust and offered $2,000 FAVORITE to buy her section of the parcel. “He just MEAL. GRAB ’N’ RUN One deer in the Czech said, ‘No, the landowner wants money, 9 Republic has a clever idea for sur- and it’s going to be more than you can viving hunting season. A Czech hunter do,’” Reschar told WFLA. said a deer stole his rifle after charging him and snagging the gun strap with its CASH AND PEPPERONI Police in antlers. According to Czech police, a 6 Fullerton, Calif., say one burglar dog spooked the deer, causing it to was in no rush to complete his robbery charge the hunting party. After search- of a local pizza restaurant on Nov. 8. ing the nearby forest for the .22-caliber According to authorities, 25-year-old Hornet rifle, the hunter gave up and suspect Oscar Sanchez stole cash and phoned police to report a missing gun. computer tablets during the break-in. On Nov. 22, Czech police said anyone But police say security footage also finding the rifle should contact them. shows Sanchez pilfering some dough, tossing it out, and making a pizza for himself during his robbery. While the pizza was baking, Sanchez allegedly went through the cash drawers. Police arrested Sanchez days later and charged him with grand theft and second-degree burglary. “Needless to say, jail doesn’t serve his favorite meal,” Fullerton police said in a Facebook post.

UNCULTURED KIDS A startling 7 number of American youth have never seen a cow in person, according to a newly released poll from a travel website. A survey conducted by the RV travel website Parked in Paradise asked Americans between 11 and 24 years old questions about their experiences while traveling. A full third of the 3,500 respondents claimed never to have seen a cow. The Nov. 3 report said 42 percent of respondents had never left the United States, while 15 percent said they had never left their home state. It isn’t clear

12.26.20 WORLD 19 “IT IS I MYSELF. TOUCH ME Voices JANIE B. CHEANEY AND SEE. FOR A SPIRIT DOES NOT HAVE FLESH AND BONES AS YOU SEE THAT I HAVE.”

in the virgin about 33 years earlier, that microscopic marriage with a human egg—this unimaginable union of God and man they see before them—started back then. But no … Those genealogies, those tedious “begats,” casting the bloodline back through centuries from Joseph to Crossing the line Heli to Matthal to Levi to Melchi and so on, all the way back to Adam. It must have started then. God’s emphasis on spirit But no … and flesh goes back further Remember when God bent down and breathed life than Christ in the manger into a mound of clay, and man became a living being? Surely it started then. But wait … ’M TRYING TO BELIEVE in reincarnation,” wrote Even further back, the Spirit broods over potential. my best friend from high school, when we The Word trembles on the brink. Time and place have were two years out from graduation and try- yet to be; all is bliss and glory, filling the infinite. The ing to figure it all out. If I’d had my wits about Glory has something in mind, and even though there’s me—they were pretty scattered back then—I no word for it, we’ll call it all things: each particular, would have written back, “Let’s talk about after-its-own-kind animal, vegetable, and mineral. incarnation.” As conceived in His mind, “all things” are made of I While celebrating Christmas as hard as it particles so tiny that learned men in the yet-to-be can, the world doesn’t think much about this doctrine. future, with all their subtle instruments, will not be It’s very strange—nothing like it. And yet there’s noth- able to understand what holds them together. But in ing so oddly resonant, both in Scripture and in history. the mind of the Maker is a line at the frontier where For one thing, God breaking down the wall between matter and spirit meet and the universe begins. spirit and flesh didn’t begin or end with a baby in a With a “Let there be,” the future Son of Man crosses manger. Recall the two from Emmaus, rushing back that line and brings forth all things. to Jerusalem and encountering a buzz of excitement: “It is I myself. Touch me and see. For a spirit does “The Lord has risen indeed, and he’s appeared to not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” Simon!” Everybody’s talking, speculating, repeating And flesh and bones—as we’ve always experienced themselves over and over like TV pundits after big them—don’t live forever. But this flesh and bones will. breaking news: Unbelievable! We have to go back in order to go forward. He takes Then Jesus shows up, and it really is. They think them as far back as “man became a living being.” Then He’s a ghost! Or “spirit”—something profoundly forward through the law and the prophets, and they uncanny and frightening. begin to see that, in Him, all things hold together. He probably looks different—perhaps there’s some- Soon after this, Spirit will cross another line. With thing not entirely human about him. Still, there’s wind and fire He will rush upon them, as He rushed enough of Jesus to recognize. And something more to upon Samson and Saul in the old days, only not to fear. This is not the man they knew, who walked the work God’s will through them but to be God’s will in dusty lanes with them and broke bread with them and them. talked with them for hours. It’s not (quite) the man The Father speaks, and light appears. who suffered and sighed, bled and died. The Son enters a human egg, and incarnation hap- And yet it is that man—times infinity. pens. They can’t believe at first because they have never The Holy Spirit pierces a wall of flesh, and indwell- seen anything like it. No one has. ing begins. And yet, in a way, it isn’t new. That seed, planted He loves a good story, they say. By crossing that line at the birth of time, He began the greatest one of all. And it’s not over yet.

20 WORLD 12.26.20 EMAIL [email protected] TWITTER @jbcheaney What happens when your daughter encounters a Sold-Out Humanist?

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CULTURE

Movies & TV Books Children’s Books Q&A Music

CHESS WITH FRIENDS Popular show The Queen’s Gambit emphasizes the role community plays in individual success

by Megan Basham

CHARLIE GRAY/NETFLIX 12.26.20 WORLD 23 CULTURE Movies & TV Mr. Shaibel fosters Beth’s growing intellectual prowess, teaching her a few lessons about graciousness along the way. But Shaibel is hardly the only man she comes to rely on. Her male compet- itors may dismiss her in the beginning because they’ve never played against a girl before, but none try to shut her out of their field. Eventually, they even set aside their own interests to support hers. At its core, The Queen’s Gambit offers a Rocky-style tale of achieving success in a meritocracy despite early disadvantages. Though she begins life profoundly underprivileged, Beth’s greatest obstacle is her own self-sabo- tage, fostered through drinking and drug abuse. Her addictive tendencies may have grown out of the harmful place and patterns she was born into, but she must take responsibility for her choices if she wants a future filled with something beyond bitterness and envy. But if the series doesn’t offer feminist, you-go-girl triumphalism or griev- ance, neither does it overemphasize personal bootstraps. Again and again, VEN BEYOND its 1960s sets the men in Beth’s life come to her rescue, and costumes, there’s some- unraveling the extreme self-reliance her thing old-fashioned about mother taught her that left her alone in The Queen’s Gambit, Net- the world. Without her friends’ support, flix’s new drama about an Beth could never pull herself up to com- orphaned girl competing in pete on the world stage in Moscow. the man’s world of profes- The show is not perfect. Characters sional chess. swear profusely, and some episodes take E The hit series isn’t unnecessary swipes at international another modern morality play about IT’S A Christian organizations. Beth also patriarchal oppression. If it had been, SURPRISINGLY engages in several emotionless sexual it likely wouldn’t have become popular encounters, including, one scene hints, enough to send sales of chess boards WARM AND with another woman. There’s no nudity, and books skyrocketing. Instead, it’s a RIVETING TALE OF and all but one are implied, not shown— surprisingly warm and riveting tale of OVERCOMING and that one is noteworthy for how overcoming hardship and finding com- degrading and unfulfilling it is. Once munity in unexpected places—namely, HARDSHIP AND Beth stops the drugs and alcohol, she from the men whom less insightful sto- FINDING also stops sleeping around, illustrating ries would have turned into villains. COMMUNITY the truthfulness of Ephesians 5:18: “Do When she first arrives at the Methuen not get drunk on wine, which leads to school for girls, 9-year-old Beth Harmon IN UNEXPECTED debauchery.” has been let down by every woman in PLACES. In the end, the show is at least hon- her life. Her mother abandons her est enough to show that, sure, sin is fun through suicide, then her headmistress and can even seem to give you an edge manages her behavior by feeding her for a while, but ultimately it takes much daily doses of tranquilizers. The only more than it offers. person to take real notice of her is the If your conscience allows you to tol- school janitor, a chess enthusiast. erate these elements, The Queen’s Gam- bit is the rare show that is as smart as advertised, and even more engaging.

24 WORLD 12.26.20 PHIL BRAY/NETFLIX FEELING INSPIRED RCA Inspiration plans to release a full-length music album featuring the Voices of Fire choir.

appears in promo material, he makes just two appearances in all six episodes.) BOX OFFICE Singers don’t audition in a Holly- wood studio with an audience. This TOP 10 competition spends almost all of its time in a church. Vocalists sing on a sanctuary

WEEKEND OF DEC. 4-6, ACCORDING TO stage to judges sitting in pews. The set- BOX OFFICE MOJO. QUANTITY OF SEXUAL (S), ting brings an authenticity and, for VIOLENT (V), AND FOUL-LANGUAGE (L) CONTENT ON A 0-10 SCALE, WITH 10 HIGH, churchgoers, a hominess to the compe- FROM KIDS-IN-MIND.COM tition. And those who audition largely don’t S V L sing rock ’n’ roll, R&B, or pop hits. 1 The Croods: Instead, most sing soulful, gospel hymns. A New Age PG . . . . 1 3 2 It’s moving to hear “Blessed assurance, 2 Half Brothers PG-13 . .2 4 5 Jesus is mine …” and “I need Thee, oh I 3 Freaky R ...... 6 8 8 need Thee …” or to watch one singer 4 All My Life PG-13 . . not rated belt out “Jesus Loves Me” with tears 5 The War With streaming down her face. Grandpa PG . . . . .2 4 4 Another departure from the norm: 6 Elf* For the contestants, there’s no hope of (2020 rerelease) PG . .3 3 3 personal fame or prize money—just the 7 Come Play PG-13 . . not rated joy of exercising their gifts and helping 8 Let Him Go R. . . . .2 6 3 SING YOUR people experience the healing power of 9 Honest Thief PG-13. . 1 5 5 music. The series explores many of the 10 Die Hard contestants’ stories and how music has (2020 rerelease) R. not rated PART helped them overcome. *REVIEWED BY WORLD On Voices of Fire, Voices of Fire will remind audiences contestants compete how some of the greatest singers of all time got their start in church choirs.— for their place legends such as Aretha Franklin, Tina on a gospel choir Turner, and Gladys Knight. Show judge and choir director Pat- by Sarah Schweinsberg rick Riddick says people don’t realize that, in many ways, it’s more difficult to sing in a choir than as a soloist. Riddick ALMOST EVERY MAJOR NETWORK has says many of today’s top vocalists have created its own spin on a reality singing never been in a choir, and it shows. He competition. ABC has American Idol. and the other judges hope the compe- SURPRISE STREAM NBC has The Voice. And on Fox, The tition will inspire more churches to pull Masked Singer. out their choir robes and hymnals. Warner Bros. Pictures All of these shows focus on finding For a show about creating a choir, announced on Dec. 3 it would the best solo singer. But, while it’s fun to though, we don’t actually hear the choir debut its entire 2021 film slate hear an incredible vocalist, none of these sing very much. Most of the competition simultaneously on both its programs has ever attempted to bring involves listening to choir members struggling streaming service the best soloists together into a choir. singing individually. Too bad. It would HBO Max and in theaters. That’s what Bishop Ezekiel Williams have been fun to see and hear more of Filmmakers, agents, and the- and his panel of judges do in Netflix’s the process of making all of those indi- ater executives pilloried the Voices of Fire. Williams sets out to cre- viduals sing as one. move, an acknowledgment ate a great gospel choir filled with faces Still, for those who haven’t stepped that 2021 may not restore the of every color and age. foot in a church building, Voices of Fire film business to its pre- Supporting the effort is Williams’ presents the Church for what it is: A pandemic heights. nephew, Grammy Award–winning place where people of any kind, no mat- singer Pharrell Williams, who produced ter their mistakes, have a home together the show. (While Pharrell’s name in Christ.

WARNER BROS: GERALD HOLUBOWICZ/ABACA/SIPA USA/AP; VOICES OF FIRE: ANTONY PLATT/NETFLIX 12.26.20 WORLD 25 CULTURE Books Independence is, and how terrible the decision 160 years ago of Bookmarks many Southerners: “They had to make a Defeats and choice between slavery and the Declara- disputations tion, and they chose Losers in sports and society slavery.” Pro-slavery writers challenged the Declaration’s by Marvin Olasky “four substantive truth claims about equality, rights, consent, and revolution, and they also turned against the polit- Editors Mary Pilon and Louisa Thomas, ical, social, and economic institutions in their introduction to Losers: Dis- of a free society.” patches From the Other Side of the Scoreboard (Penguin Random House, 2020), write: “The locker rooms of win- Michael Lind’s The New Class War (Port- Willem Ouweneel’s Adam, ners are crowded. … The locker rooms folio, 2020) points out differences Where Are You? (Paidea, of losers are desolate and awkward. The between members of the managerial and 2020) is a thorough theologi- players are somber, quiet; some shrink high-tech overclass, who have prestigious cal critique of evolutionism. into the stalls. People ... keep their dis- occupations and see Dan Kimball’s How (Not) To tance, as if losing is a contagious infec- themselves as citizens Read the Bible (Zondervan, tion.” So true. The worst sporting event of the world, and 2020) shows how to respond I ever covered was a 2007 basketball “average Americans” to critics who say Scripture is game in Madison Square Garden where who live within 18 anti-women, anti-science, the crowd started in the first quarter miles of their mothers. pro-violence, and pro-slavery. chanting, “Fire Isiah.” Isiah Thomas was Our synthesis of the Valerie Hansen’s The Year the Hall of Fame point guard who failed economic liberalism of 1000: When Explorers as the trade-making the libertarian right Connected the World— president of the New and the cultural liberalism of the bohe- and Globalization Began York Knicks. mian/academic left doesn’t thrill “work- (Scribner, 2020) offers links Losers includes an ing class” Americans who have little between past and present. article by Gay Talese bargaining power: For them “the jobs of Roger Crowley’s The on a heavyweight the future are mostly low-wage jobs, Accursed Tower (Basic, 2019) champion who lost, many of them in health care.” Plus, within doesn’t mourn the fall of Acre Floyd Patterson. Twice “technocratic neoliberalism,” some in 1291 that signaled the end knocked out in the first employers are “vilifying the theology of of the Crusades: Crowley says round by mob-connected Sonny Liston the worker’s church as a firing offense.” the massacre of Christian in 1962 and 1963, the thoughtful boxer defenders that ensued was told Talese, “It’s easy to do anything in payback for a massacre of victory. It’s in defeat that a man reveals James Copland’s The Unelected Muslims a century earlier. himself.” Other wisdom from Patterson: (Encounter, 2020) shows we lose when Richard English’s Does “When you have millions of dollars, you we abandon the Con- Terrorism Work? (Oxford, have millions of friends.” Not in Talese’s stitution and embrace 2016) concludes that it usually article but worth mentioning: Patterson (these are chapter doesn’t, but terrorism did was a Christian. After he defeated Archie titles) “Legislating accelerate France’s 20th- Moore to win the World Heavyweight Without Congress,” century withdrawal from Championship in 1956 he said, “I just hit “Administering With- Algeria, England’s from him again and the Lord did the rest.” out the Executive,” Malaya, and the U.S. from “Judging Without the Lebanon. Ku Klux Klan terror- Judiciary,” Regulating ism following the Civil War More difficult than defeats in sports, Without Rulemaking.” He includes good returned African Americans though, are defeats in war. C. Bradley stories: Race car driver Bobby Unser to a modified form of bond- Thompson’s America’s Revolutionary gained a criminal record when during age. —M.O. Mind (Encounter, 2019) shows how a blizzard he snowmobiled into a pro- great a document our Declaration of tected national wilderness area.

26 WORLD 12.26.20 is for his congregation to know he’s a killer. But when he’s tapped to rescue Christine Secret pasts and Lewis, a reporter kidnapped by terrorists, he’s drawn back into the action. And there’s plenty of action: car chases, knife fights, daring escapes explosions, gun battles, even a fistfight atop Four novels from Christian publishers a moving train. The silly banter of doting by Sandy Barwick church ladies and the romantic chemistry between John and Christine help to soften the story. This solid debut novel presents a complex and likable man who knows he’s forgiven but still struggles to reckon with his life before meeting Christ.

Nine by Rachelle Dekker: Lucy has scant memories of her past but remembers enough to run from it. The teenager’s goal: to escape a mysterious enemy and reach Corpus Christi. Along the way she meets Zoe, a waitress with a past she’d like to forget. The two team up to survive a sinis- ter government plot that aims to bury evidence of a mind-control project gone awry. The story explores human nature’s complexities—can we choose to be good rather than evil, and vice versa? This suspenseful page-turner has an interesting theme but includes intense scenes of torture and violence. Worse, it implies that love excuses a multitude of sins (even murder), not as the perfect love found in a righteous God, but the mercurial love found in flawed human beings. None of the characters seek God’s guidance or forgiveness.

The Escape by Lisa Harris: A plane trans- porting two prisoners from Washington to The Gentleman Spy by Erica Vetsch: Upon the sudden deaths of Colorado crashes in the remote Idaho wil- his father and older brother, Marcus Haverly becomes the Duke of derness, leaving the pilots and one prisoner Haverly. He fears his new title will interfere with his secret occupa- dead. The two U.S. marshals on board begin tion as a spy for the British Crown, so he proposes marriage to Lady the hunt for the remaining escaped convict. Charlotte, hoping she’ll provide the cover he needs. However, Char- They grow more frustrated as the danger- lotte is not a typical shallow, shy debutante. She is well-read, out- ous and cunning murderer manages to stay spoken, and determined to help London’s population of prostitutes, one step ahead of them. The longer the including her recently discovered half-sister. Charlotte, too, has prisoner evades capture the better chance private reasons for agreeing to the unexpected union, but neither he will have to leave the country and dis- she nor Marcus expects love to be part of the arrangement. This appear forever. Subtle faith elements Regency period novel has it all: action, suspense, history, and the emerge in the dialogue: “Sometimes the right amount of believable romance. darkness seems so much stronger than the light.” “Maybe, but God is so much bigger than the darkness.” Harris delivers an A Cross To Kill by Andrew Huff: Small-town pastor John Cross is intense cat-and-mouse chase that includes hiding his past profession as a CIA assassin. The last thing he wants a mysterious backstory and many loose ends, leaving the door open for follow-up books.

12.26.20 WORLD 27 CULTURE Children’s Books Afterword Strong and courageous Heroic plots for boys of all ages by Kristin Chapman

The Bright Light and the Super Scary Darkness by Dan DeWitt: DeWitt’s newest picture book helps children confront a common fear of the dark through their faith in Jesus. In simple terms, DeWitt shows how the Bible is ultimately Middle-grade boys who a story about light versus dark. After Adam and Eve’s fall, savor suspenseful, action- DeWitt writes, “people began to love the darkness more filled reading may enjoy than the light,” and “sometimes it seemed like the darkness Justin D’Ath’s Extreme was going to win.” But God sent Jesus, and we no longer Adventures series that have to fear because “Jesus is the bright light that defeats the scaredy-cat darkness!” opens with Crocodile Kids will also love that the book’s cover features glow-in-the-dark ink. (Ages 3-8) Attack (Kane Miller, 2010). When Sam Fox stumbles upon a robbery, he must Mountain Born by Elizabeth Yates: This 1944 Newbery Honor foil a kidnapping while Book introduces readers to Peter as he comes of age working on surviving a cyclone—and his family’s mountain farm. When Peter’s mother revives a new- crocodiles. Although the born lamb from death to life, the cosset becomes Peter’s charge. unfolding plot requires sus- The lamb grows into an extraordinary sheep and forges a special pension of disbelief, it will bond with Peter as he learns to care for the flock. The story offers entice even reluctant read- gentle wisdom and illustrates how strength and courage are found ers to keep turning pages. in faithfully and selflessly doing the work set before you. It also WORLD has reviewed highlights the gift of mentorship from old to young. (Ages 6-12) other books with heroic plots that would also appeal to boys: In Trenton Lee Silverbelly by S.J. Dahlstrom: The Wilder Good series contin- Stewart’s The Secret ues with Dahlstrom’s latest installment following Wilder’s quest Keepers—WORLD’s 2017 to bag a trophy buck on his grandfather’s Texas ranch. After his Children’s Novel of the grandfather shares the tale of Silverbelly, a legendary buck Year—Reuben discovers an roaming the region, Wilder makes plans to hunt down the elusive antique watch with super- deer. Amid a snowstorm and a sour run-in with a neighbor, natural powers that he however, his grandfather gently teaches Wilder about steward- must keep from evil hands. ship in hunting. The book culminates with Wilder facing two Andrew Peterson’s difficult decisions. This wholesome and adventurous story would Wingfeather fantasy saga make a great read-aloud for fathers and sons who hunt together. (Ages 9-14) follows the adventures of three children as they discover their destiny while Little Britches: Father and I Were Ranchers by Ralph Moody: eluding villains. S.D. Smith’s In the early 1900s at the tender age of 8, Moody moved with his Green Ember series about family to Colorado, hoping the climate would improve his father’s “rabbits with swords” also failing health. The new ranch is fraught with problems, but the features siblings uncovering family determines to stick it out. In this 1950 memoir, Moody the truth about their lineage recalls the eventful (roundups, tornadoes, and irrigation disputes) while battling the enemy. as well as the ordinary (haying, horses, and holidays). The story To read full reviews, search emphasizes the father-son relationship and traces Moody’s path WORLD’s archives at to manhood under his father’s wise tutelage. Note: some coarse wng.org using the book title dialogue and taking of God’s name in vain. (Ages 9-14) or author’s name. —K.C.

28 WORLD 12.26.20

CULTURE Q&A LOVE THEM ALL To save more unborn babies, pro-life efforts must inspire, engage, and support fathers

ROLAND WARREN worked in the corpo- What faith did you have? I went to Church rate world for 20 years and led the of God, out of Anderson, Ind. At church MARVIN National Fatherhood Initiative for 11. camp every summer I learned about OLASKY In 2012 he became president and CEO who Jesus was. There was a real focus INTERVIEWS of Care Net, the nation’s largest net- on Jesus as your personal savior. There ROLAND WARREN work of pregnancy resource centers. would be altar calls, and pretty much Here are edited excerpts of our August every year I’d make a profession of faith. conversation. Then football not at Ohio State but You grew up in Ohio without a dad in your home? My mom and my Princeton. Ohio State was the dream, if father split up probably when I was 5 or 6. I had been better. But at Princeton I played football and ran track. Having What position did you play in football? Running back in high school those seasons helped me avoid some of and college. That kept me on the straight and narrow for the the other stuff that I could have poten- most part—having a focus on academics, athletics, and then faith. tially gotten involved in.

Were you part of a Christian fellowship

30 WORLD 12.26.20 ILLUSTRATION BY JOHN JAY CABUAY at Princeton? A lot of the black students from the dining hall. We still have one were involved in the gospel choir, which of the bowls. Yvette took a year off, then I was involved in, but frankly I wasn’t a went back to school. I finished my senior regular at church. year and went to work.

You met Yvette, your wife-to-be, in your After graduation in 1983, you worked at sophomore year. She was a freshman in IBM. It was a godsend because that job the same dorm with the goal of becoming offer was in Trenton, not far from a doctor. We were both Christians, and Princeton, and soon after I started, the we knew what God’s standard was. We office moved from Trenton to Princeton. had some desire but didn’t have the dis- That was fantastic because I was five cipline, and we found ourselves preg- minutes from home while Yvette was nant. Telling people in school about it going through school. Then she was was embarrassing and difficult: People pregnant again her senior year and fin- knew we were Christians. Having to ished her thesis a month after she deliv- deliver that news to my mother and her ered our second son. She’s a pretty father was hard. They were both very amazing woman. The nurse was accurate disappointed. Her father wasn’t a big in saying Yvette wouldn’t graduate with fan of me to begin with, and my mother, one child. She graduated with two. who had gotten pregnant in high school, was very concerned that this would THE MORE Your personal story links well with Care derail my life. But God was faithful in SUCCESSFUL Net’s goals. That’s one of the reasons I’m the middle of that. OUR ADVOCACY, passionate about this work, because I’ve been there: the temptation to keep the Princeton student services encouraged THE MORE CARE secret, abort the child, move on. But abortion? The nurse suggested that WOMEN WILL what inspired us in that moment—I unless Yvette had an abortion she NEED. IF ROE V. probably didn’t say it as well then as I wouldn’t be able to graduate and become can now—was we knew our son wasn’t a doctor. The nurse could have asked, WADE WERE a life worth sacrificing. He was a life Who’s the father? Maybe we can get him OVERTURNED worth sacrificing for. in to support his child. None of that. TODAY, IT WOULD The involvement of the father makes a What was your immediate reaction when NOT OVERTURN huge difference.As a newer person to Yvette told you she was pregnant? I don’t SEX OUTSIDE the pro-life movement, I think that nar- remember the initial reaction other than OF MARRIAGE, rative has been missing. We focus on I loved her and wanted to marry her saving the baby and helping the moth- anyway. I was probably surprisingly UNPLANNED er—“love them both”—but that misses calm, and I’m not sure where that calm- PREGNANCY. something. We should say “love them ness came from because we had no vis- all” because of the impact on the abor- ible means to support ourselves. Our tion decision of the guy who got her parents basically cut off financial sup- pregnant. For too long in the pro-life port for us at that point. Sometimes movement we haven’t focused on engag- you’re so young you don’t know enough ing him and inspiring him to be involved. to be scared. We just said we’re going My wife’s ability to fulfill her hopes was to do this, one step at a time. Her father tied to the decision I had to make in that did give us a wedding present of paying moment—to be a husband to her and a for the delivery of Jamin. father to our child growing inside her.

How did you make it work financially? If when she said “I’m pregnant,” you had We moved into married student housing said, “You’re going to have an abortion, and were able to work and find little aren’t you?”—what would have hap- projects. God always provided a finan- pened? I’m hopeful she would have said, cial opportunity for us to make some “I’m going to have the child anyway,” money. I’d take sometimes extra food but she’d be in a very difficult position. from the training table and bring it If I were to have a heart attack at this home for her. We took one plate, one moment, the most important person is cup, one bowl, and one set of utensils the first responder whose action

12.26.20 WORLD 31 CULTURE Q&A Christ. Mary’s pregnancy was unplanned house divided against itself. If you think from a human perspective. Mary had maintaining the relationship is more uncertainty to deal with: How am I going important than upholding the Biblical to tell my father, my mother? What’s my principle about sex outside of marriage, affects the life trajectory of the person community going to say? But Mary you’re making an idol out of a relation- in a crisis. With pregnancy, the guy is focuses on the certainty: “Let it be unto ship. typically the first responder. We did a me as you have said.” What did God do national survey of women who had had to make sure Mary’s unplanned preg- How does this work out at street level? abortions and asked them who they nancy wasn’t a crisis pregnancy? He sent When they were coming to you not to talked with about it. The No. 1 person— an angel to Joseph to say, “Do not be get pregnant, they’re unlikely to come ahead of medical professionals, abortion afraid to take Mary as your wife.” God’s back to you to help them bring the child providers, pregnancy centers, their response to an unplanned pregnancy: into the world. Say you have a friend mother, their best friend, their father, Create a family. who’s an alcoholic. Other friends have anybody—was the guy who got her preg- been giving this person alcohol to pre- nant. He’s the first responder and the The pro-life movement has political and serve the relationship. Will people who most influential person in her decision compassion wings. Do we focus too much don’t want to drink anymore go to the to abort. on the political side? The more success- person who’s been giving them alcohol? ful our advocacy, the more care women No, they’ll go to that one friend who What if the guy says, “I support whatever will need. If Roe v. Wade were overturned made the Word of God, truth, primary. decision you make?” That’s a guy’s non- today, it would not overturn sex outside Jesus didn’t value relationship above response response, a shift of the moral of marriage, unplanned pregnancy. truth when the rich young ruler asked and social responsibility to her, with an a question. attempt to make it look like you’re sup- A controversy is brewing among preg- portive. That response is not the kind nancy resource centers: Should they Do you like pro-lifers playing off Black that leads a woman to say, “I can do this.” prescribe birth control pills to unmarried Lives Matter by saying “unborn black women? They say they want to build rela- lives matter”? If you’re focused on How does that work in counseling? You tionships. Care Net affiliates do not George Floyd when the officer’s got a always want to ask, “Does the father encourage behavior that is not Biblical. knee on the throat and he’s saying “I know?” The next question a lot of times Jesus never violated a principle to do a can’t breathe,” but you’re not focused is “What does he think?” We’ve encour- good. I understand the relationships on the child in the womb fighting for its aged pregnancy centers to make the argument, but violating a Biblical prin- first breath, to me you’re not legitimate next question “Why did you tell him?” ciple to support a Biblical principle is a in terms of caring about my people. Also, “How were you hoping he’d respond?” In many of those situations they’re hoping he’ll say, “I’ll be your husband and a father to our child. We can do this.” Why do you think the other side frames this issue as her body and her choice? They want to isolate her from anyone who could be an influence in the other direction. We don’t want to isolate her. We want to surround her with support.

Roe v. Wade delinked fatherhood and motherhood. When we talk to clients, the mother often says, “I can’t give birth Cartoon to this child.” She understands she’s already a mother: Her body is changing. Often when we talk to the men, they say, “I don’t want to be a father.”

He already is a father. The question on the table is “What kind of father will you be?” The law for 40-plus years has been telling men you’re not a father until birth. But think about the birth of

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Patient ROBBY KLEIN ROBBY to the hymn “Be Still My Soul” “Be Still My the hymn to “I started reading and absorbing and absorbing reading “I started not is Spirit the with communion “If Mission accomplished. Intentionality Intentionality accomplished. Mission videos two cut, title the there’s Then COVID-19 played a role. Shutdowns Shutdowns role. a played COVID-19 and Shive Chester credits McCracken on McCrack wasn’t The pandemic gathering I began ago, years few “A alluding to Scripture, her lyrics achieve achieve her lyrics Scripture, alluding to feel. Biblical distinctly a and maintain “My she says. age,” a young at Scripture And I’m sure. for that, mom nurtured con on that dependent as just definitely nection these days. gets work creative the center, the at anemic.” pretty can be a comfort to people in difficult difficult in people to comfort a be can inten be more to and I wanted times, tional about that.” 89– the Psalm the album, from saturates compo Jordan McCracken–Leslie based opens Sing” that “I Will sition Kingdom McCracken were, (There it. closes that “in the run hymns other a few admits, Unchanging God’s to ning”—“Hold she says, them. “I hope,” among Hand” soon.”) that of a version release “to and one unplugged “lyric” which—one of and Andrew Morgan Cindy featuring YouTube on McCracken’s Greer—are Gareth McCracken, by Written channel. so it’s Masen, and Sarah Davies-Jones, float to seems it that serene worshipfully soul “Let my accord. own its of upward the refrain, goes meet You,” rise up to soul / Let my the sun rises to the day “As patient / Let that meet You rise up to McCracken when Even come.” kingdom or simply quoting, paraphrasing, isn’t required McCracken and supporting and supporting McCracken required vocals), (bass, Foote musicians—Jay guitars, (drums, LaMarca Anthony and Chester (keyboards), Shive vocals), record guitars”)—to and piano of (“lots online. parts exchange and in isolation are Ben and “Tyler coherence: the for and attentive musicians stellar such each out the personality drew They listeners. kept and players other the of each of is really which the center, at the lyric me.” to important on the work she began when radar en’s album. an album that make to and ideas songs I’ve anxiety. against back push would music that about the way a lot thought

ON SONGWRITING: “When you’re soaked in the Word and have a steady diet of Scripture, the Holy Spirit prompts those things and brings those things up.” - - - , is her 13th studio , is her 13th studio Patient Kingdom 12.26.20 WORLD Her latest release, release, latest Her Audrey Peterson, (Andrew Ben Shive by Produced So says the Christian singer-songwriter Sandra Sandra singer-songwriter the Christian So says ’M SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN.” IN SOMEWHERE ’M Assad, JJ Heller) and Tyler Chester (Switchfoot, Tyson Tyson (Switchfoot, Chester and Tyler Heller) JJ Assad, a like the album unfolds Bareilles), Sara Motsenbocker, open and melodies folk-pop Singable psalter. modern-day in the all the more resonate lyrics devotional heartedly far. century so the 21st of year tumultuous most her lithe, grainy voice along the alto-soprano continuum. the alto-soprano along voice grainy her lithe, the contempo for and her second in a row player long sin as about also It’s Music. Integrity label rary-worship get. endeavors musical as gle-minded McCracken via email from Nashville when asked to situate situate to asked when Nashville via email from McCracken Music

34 steadies in turbulent times in turbulent steadies Orteza Arsenio by psalter latestSandra album McCracken’s

CULTURE Modern-day I Smart’s verse demands an uncommon Encore sensitivity to a wide range of dynamics. Sounds for It’s a sensitivity that the Norwich Cathe- dral Choir’s 20 boy choristers possess the season in spades. Noteworthy new Christmas releases A Drummer Boy Christmas by For King & Country: The Smallbone broth- by Arsenio Orteza ers have hit upon a formula for making an all-sacred rock Christmas album Bleak Midwinter by Barnaby Bright: that doesn’t feel Another excellent new Of all of the Christmas songs on the misbegotten: take recording of Benjamin verge of being recorded too many times, seven carols capable Britten’s A Ceremony of “In the Bleak Midwinter”—lyrics by of handling U2-lite levels of guitar, bass, Carols can be found on Christina Rossetti, music by either Gus- and drums, throw in a few genera- Britten: Saint Nicolas, tav Holst or Harold Darke—is surely the tion-gap-bridging originals (making A Ceremony of Carols most durable, holding up under both sure that at least one is as good as “The (Signum Classics) by the high-art and folk-art conditions. Nathan Carol of Joseph,” a long-overdue answer Crouch End Festival and Becky Bliss, aka song to “Mary, Did You Know?”), throw Chorus and BBC Concert Barnaby Bright, in a monologue making clear the reason Orchestra under the have opted for the for the season (two if you count the direction of David latter (and for recitation in “Won’t You Come”), and Temple. As recorded in Holst’s tune), giving play and sing as if what you’re creating what Temple describes the carol an eerie might be the only Christmas music that as the “crystal clear yet reverent sheen millennials will ever hear. Given the acoustic of All Saints’ that falls within the parameters of their West’s rapidly increasing secularization, Church in East Finley,” Bandcamp tags (“Americana,” “indie it just might be. the enunciation of the folk”). They’ve also opted to focus in 40 amateur Crouch End one of their covers and at least two of voices is captured their originals on a topic especially rel- Johann Pachelbel: Magnificat by especially well. evant during these COVID-19 times: the Himlische Cantorey, Jan Kobow: But what makes the sadness of having to spend Christmas Even without the booklet’s English album essential apart from the ones you love. translations, the piety emerging from Christmas listening is these sacred works by the Baroque Saint Nicolas—per- composer best known for his Canon in formed in the equally Benjamin Britten: Sacred Choral D comes through. friendly confines of a Works by Choir of Norwich Cathe- It’s clear, in other restored north London dral, Ashley Grote: Several new record- words, from the theater—by the BBC ings of Benjamin Britten’s choral suite vigor and rigor of Concert Orchestra, A Ceremony of Carols have appeared the singing and the Coldfall Primary this year, all of them good, each distin- playing that some- School Choir, the guished mainly, if at all, by their micro- thing transcendent Hannah Brine Choirs, phone placement and the acoustics of is afoot. Of Pachelbel’s many composi- and the operatic tenor their respective venues. This album also tions based on Luke 1:46-55, this album Mark Le Brocq. With a includes the cantata Rejoice in the contains four, all sung in Latin, begin- text by Eric Crozier Lamb, Britten’s set- ning with the triumphant 19-minute highlighting the heroic ting of excerpts Magnificat in C PWV 1502 and conclud- Christian sanctity of from Jubilate Agno, ing with the equally triumphant 12-min- the real-life fourth- an ecstatically ute Magnificat in C PWV 1504. Together century-A.D. bishop of eccentric 18th-cen- they create an intensely reverent atmo- Myra, the cantata sepa- tury poem of praise sphere that the two German pieces (one rates man from myth. composed by Chris- penitential, one consoling) and the Frankly, it makes the topher Smart during his incarceration three-movement (Latin) Mass only former seem the more for insanity. As adapted by Britten, enhance. exciting of the two. —A.O.

12.26.20 WORLD 35 “HUMAN CULTURE HAS Voices MINDY BELZ ALWAYS HAD TO EXIST UNDER THE SHADOW OF SOMETHING INFINITELY MORE IMPORTANT THAN ITSELF.”

Few of us imagined the United States becoming the largest known carrier of the virus by midspring and remaining that way until year’s end. We move into On the edge of a new year with no corner of the nation untouched. Its effects to our health as a nation, at home and a precipice abroad, will linger, may deepen, even with the coming of vaccines. Reaching for new life born Tasting the bitter reality of the pandemic opens of sorrow and suffering the door to savoring the sweet sight of two elderly Britons receiving the first vaccines on Dec. 8. “It could make a difference to our lives from now on,” said N MY FIRST MAGAZINE COLUMN OF 2020, I wrote 81-year-old William Shakespeare, receiving his jab 20 about “new life born from sorrow and suffer- miles from the birthplace of his namesake, who lived ing” and asked: “Are we ready to embrace the his entire life in the shadow of bubonic plague. suffering to come in the new year? And are we Past and present meet all over. C.S. Lewis addressed able to look beyond the bad-news headlines students at Oxford in 1939 on learning in wartime. to find opportunities for helping neighbors “The war creates no absolutely new situation: it simply and to glimpse more of the good news to aggravates the permanent human situation so that we I come?” can no longer ignore it,” he said. “Human life has Allow me to be the first to answer: I was not ready. always been lived on the edge of a precipice. Human Public health experts long predicted the arrival of culture has always had to exist under the shadow of the once-in-a-century pathogen the COVID-19 virus something infinitely more important than itself.” turned out to be, but not the complexities it would Some of the lessons from the pandemic will have present to those of us living through it. us retreat from 21st-century life as we knew it, and The coronavirus in its essence hasn’t fooled us. that will be good. I love hearing the stories of teens Early on, the experts put its case fatality rate some- and 20-somethings making their way this year: stu- where below the 1918 influenza pandemic of around dents enduring long school days in masks, or youth 2 percent, and as of Dec. 6 it had a still-fluctuating groups leaving meals on the doorsteps of elderly worldwide rate of 2.3 percent. From the beginning it church members. (You can recall along with me at our posed peculiar risks—transmitting efficiently and “Creative coronavirus help” page at wng.org.) My exponentially, each infected person spreading it to on friends who are mothers of teens say they are relishing average two or three others, and randomly killing this time with children who have no choice but to sit healthy adults as well as the already-sick and the and talk with their parents in the evening. elderly. That’s why the Trump administration on Jan. And the journalist in me—especially after covering 31 declared a national public health emergency. disease and disruption in other parts of the world—is We weren’t ready for its social impact, its wild struck by the nearness of these events at home. For disruptions to our jobs, schools, churches, and home everyone now the news of the day isn’t abstract or far life. We weren’t ready for living out months in this away: We are wearing it on our faces. I hope this trans- altered universe. Political upheaval and a new reck- lates into compassion for the wider world, as I believe oning on race have flowed from its havoc, leaving our 2021 will bring global disruptions in ways we now only country changed. It’s left us thin and stretched, as can glimpse. Bilbo Baggins would say, like too little butter scraped Advent was made for these times. The coming of over too much bread. Jesus brought confrontation and upheaval, a distur- bance of the established order, and an always-needed reminder: Miracles are real.

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BY SOPHIA LEE illustration by Rachel Beatty

CHUCK BOWER AND FIVE OTHER LOCAL PASTORS his cheek touched the pillow. Now, Bower (thankfully, sat at a restaurant patio in King, N.C., to strategize. It he and the other pastors in the group all tested neg- was early June, and the pastors realized they needed ative) can’t remember the last good night’s sleep he’s to rethink church operations since the coronavirus had. He often wakes up in the middle of the night and pandemic looked to keep lingering. Yet none of them tosses restlessly. His mind churns with questions: “What had ever dealt with such a public health crisis before. should I do?” “What could I have done better?” “How Two days later, one of the pastors texted the group: much more can I take?” His whole family had tested positive that morning. “I Year 2020 has been a brutal, perfect storm of a apologize for showing up on Monday,” he wrote. “If I pandemic, a contentious election, racial unrest, finan- had had any signs, obviously I would have stayed away.” cial troubles, and rampant conspiracy theories. It’s That was one of many sleepless nights for Bower, been a particularly treacherous time for church lead- lead pastor of Poplar Springs Church of Christ, a man ers to navigate when members split over issues like who regularly plunged into blissful sleep the moment face masks. But it’s not just about masks. Political and

38 WORLD 12.26.20 ideological tensions within churches aren’t anything Adding to the dynamic is the fact that usual modes new, but pastors say this year each conflict—whether of discipleship and fellowship—meeting in person, it’s over mask mandates, Black Lives Matter, or pres- reading facial expressions and body language, touch- idential politics—overlaps with the others in a con- ing each other, singing and laughing together—are founding Venn diagram. gone. No seminary courses prepare pastors for decid- “It doesn’t seem like there’s any conversation that’s ing whether to close their churches, when to open, disconnected from conflict in some way,” said Nate which ministry to cut, or how to care for the sick from Pyle, lead pastor of Christ’s Community Church in 6 feet away. Some churches have fired their pastors Fishers, Ind., who’s seen his own members leave over over their decisions on the pandemic. Many pastors disagreements on how his church is handling discus- have lost church members, spent hours explaining sions on race. “In a sense, we’re playing whack-a-mole their decisions to an offended party, or lost track of and trying to deal with all of these conflicts at the who’s stopped engaging and who’s fallen through the same time.” cracks.

12.26.20 WORLD 39 A July 2020 survey by Lifeway Research revealed the top “pressure point” Protestant pastors faced during the pandemic was maintaining unity in their churches and dealing with complaints and conflicts, followed by figuring out how to care for members from a distance. Other top pressure points included “personal exhaustion” and ministry “uncertainty.”

THESE SAME STRESSES PLAGUE BOWER DAY AND night. March 15—the Sunday most churches across the United States began canceling in-person services— Bower and his elders did the same and decided to stream his sermon online. Several members emailed Bower, alarmed: Don’t let Rome dictate the church, one member warned. Bower sent a letter to church members assuring them that the church was not facing persecution from the government—he and the elders wanted to keep people safe. In early June, abid- ing by North Carolina’s public health guidelines, Bower’s church held in-person, socially distanced outdoor services on a field at the church campus. Some congregants grumbled about having to meet outdoors—they said the church was caving to government control. Discontented rumblings grew louder in mid-Sep- tember when the church finally moved services back into the building but required social distancing and masks. The day Bower made those announcements, several people told him they wouldn’t comply. Some left and joined another church that had fewer restrictions. One man complained passionately yet begrudg- ingly came to church flashing a “Trump 2020” mask—but at least he showed up. These are people Bower has shepherded for years, committed members who served the church, families he’s baptized and prayed for, loved ones he visited in hospitals. To see such a family leave because of a mask requirement or lack of kids’ ministry hurt. Meanwhile, Bower was disheartened to see political bickering and conspiracy theories popping up on social media, so he quit Facebook. In October, Bower led a three-part sermon series on unity within the Church. Most congregants’ comments were positive, but the handful of negative ones clung like barnacles to his memory, including one insisting that all Christians must vote THE TOP for Donald Trump. Those comments discouraged “PRESSURE POINT” Bower: “What weighs on me most is, I just wonder … PROTESTANT did they miss what we’ve tried to teach over the years about being a disciple of Jesus? How do people get so PASTORS FACED sucked [into politics] so easily?” DURING THE PANDEMIC WAS CONGREGANTS ON BOTH SIDES OF THE VARIOUS spectrums are struggling too. MAINTAINING Some churchgoers say they left because church UNITY IN THEIR leaders were getting too partisan. Montrell and Kelsey CHURCHES. Thigpen had been attending a Calvary Chapel in Sun Valley, Calif., for many years—Kelsey since she was a

40 WORLD 12.26.20 “Does anyone know anyone in our church who contracted the virus?” No one indicated they had. “Out of 700 people. Not one. … I think this whole thing is an issue of control—it’s to control people, control society; it’s to implement a new Marxist, socialistic government.” The Thigpens were watching the service online and felt publicly shamed. Montrell visited his pastor to discuss his concerns but felt dismissed. That was the last time the Thigpens spoke to him, though Mon- trell said they love him: “[He] is 100 percent one of the best men I know. An awesome mentor” who was his wife’s pastor “for all 27 years of her life” before Montrell and Kelsey got married. But they still decided to livestream services from another local church. I emailed the pastor twice and called three times to ask questions but received no response. Others have left their churches for the opposite reason. In the spring, many people assumed online services would provide a short-term season of digital worship. But weeks stretched to months, and people now suffer from Zoom fatigue: Some Christians can’t gather, sing, hug, or break bread with the church body. The loss is not just physical, but spiritual, mental, and emotional. As a homeschooling father and data artist who already works remotely, Robert Rouse decided wor- shipping through a screen wasn’t an option for his family: “To me, online churches are no different than a low-budget TV show.” Before the pandemic, he once taught a Sunday school class on the limits of digital interaction. So when most churches near his Dallas home shut down in-person services, Rouse and his family quietly looked for another church. He didn’t want to voice opinions against his church leadership’s decision to livestream services, but he also felt too strongly about the necessity of gathering. Currently, the Rouses attend a church called Free Grace Bible Church that’s still gathering in small groups indoors. It doesn’t have its own building, so different families host the service at different times. child, Montrell since he began dating Kelsey, now his Worshippers Each Sunday, Rouse and his family drive 40 minutes wife—and thought their pastor was getting increas- at LifeAustin each way to a farmhouse, where about 15 people sit Church in ingly political. The church featured on its homepage Austin, scattered throughout the living room, sing hymns with a link to a local voting guide with endorsements for Texas a piano, and freely hug each other. “It’s just not as all Republican candidates and conservative ballot much of an issue,” Rouse said. “Everybody’s like- measures. minded … it feels like an escape, at least for once a The church held in-person services for a time, then week,” from what he describes as “a world gone mad.” moved services outdoors. But according to the Thig- pens, few people wore masks or social distanced. THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE THIGPENS AND Kelsey, a nurse on a COVID-19 floor, told her pastor the Rouses is a common headache for pastors: One she didn’t feel comfortable attending in person because couple in California doesn’t think their church takes she’s exposed to COVID-19 patients all day and most the coronavirus seriously enough. One family in Texas of the church’s members are elderly. The pastor later left because they thought their church restricted too mentioned the Thigpens by name in a sermon and much. Many churches have families from both sides said: “They say they don’t want to give anyone the of the spectrum in their congregations, and pastors virus.” A few minutes later in the sermon he asked: feel they’re twisting into pretzels trying to minister

BOB DAEMMRICH/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO 12.26.20 WORLD 41 to both. “It’s like trying to nail Jell-O to a tree,” one pastor told me. No matter what they decide, someone’s mad. Pastors are wearing themselves out trying to man- age other people’s emotions, said Sean Nemecek, a third-generation pastor who counsels other pastors and blogs at The Pastor’s Soul. “That constant criticism just beats you down over time,” he said. “In every little thing, you’re being attacked and judged. A lot of pastors are just afraid of being hit one more time.” Nemecek said he’s seen a “dramatic increase” in pastors seeking counseling this year, many who say they’re burned out, especially as they watch engagement drop, not knowing which congregants are gone for good. Barna Group in late April and early May polled Americans who identify as Christian, claim faith is very important in their lives, and attend church at least monthly before COVID-19: One-third said they’d been streaming a church service online other than their own, and about 14 percent had switched churches during the pandemic. Another one-third said they were completely disengaged: They’d stopped attending any church or even viewing services online. What’s happening to these people? These silent disappearances are what most bother Chuck Frost, who pastors two small United Methodist churches in Vancleave, Miss. When Frost first decided to livestream services in mid-March, he was the only pastor in his area to do so. Most other churches remained open. At first, Frost was apprehensive: Was he overreacting? Then in October, his entire family fell ill with COVID-19, including his 90-year-old father- in-law, who died soon after contracting the virus. His wife, a special needs teacher, contracted the virus at school. When I spoke to Frost in November, he still had not fully recovered his sense of smell. The last several months have been grueling. Early in the pandemic, responses from his two churches were heartening: Online viewership was high, and people from other churches were also tuning in. Mem- bers donated $7,000 to buy better equipment for livestreaming, then raised another $4,000 to help a A cart holds want to risk coming. Frost can only imagine why oth- couple of families fix their roofs. But over time, view- cleaning ers disappeared without a word, and he keeps won- equipment, ership started to dip, even as Frost ramped up online gloves, and dering: Will they come back? Are they even in touch content: four devotionals a week, a Sunday sermon, masks so with God? a Wednesday Bible study, and kids ministry videos. He workers “I’m 54 years old, and this is the most insecure I’ve can clean tried everything he could think of to create some sort between ser- ever been about my job in ministry,” Frost said. Like of normalcy for his congregation, yet online atten- vices at the many other pastors, he wrestles with the list of all the dance continued to bleed. Frost stopped counting International things he could have or should have done differently: Church of numbers because it depressed him. Las Vegas. “This year has exposed where people are spiritually. Both his churches have now resumed in-person But you can also say the same—that it has exposed my services, but people are required to wear masks and own pastoral deficiencies.” social distance, and many congregants simply never Nemecek hears about such insecurities a lot from showed up. Many didn’t report why, but “pastors hear pastors: “Honestly, the environment of what’s going a lot,” Frost said. Some people didn’t like the mask on has less of an impact on the pastors than what’s requirement. Some were upset that Frost had closed going on in their own souls.” During his counseling, in-person services. Some feared the virus and didn’t he tries to diagnose the source of each pastor’s burn-

42 WORLD 12.26.20 ETHAN MILLER/GETTY IMAGES out and help separate identity in Christ from the cir- cumstances of ministry: “When pastors get to that place, then they’re better able to navigate what’s going “WE’RE GOING THROUGH on in the world around them.” Pastors tell me that’s the only thing keeping them going. “We’re going STORMS LIKE WE’VE through storms like we’ve never seen before, but our NEVER SEEN BEFORE, BUT anchor is the Lord. An anchor doesn’t guarantee there OUR ANCHOR IS THE LORD. won’t be storms, but it holds fast,” said Bower, the pastor in North Carolina. “That’s my comfort.” AN ANCHOR DOESN’T These days, Frost’s prayers are simple. He prays, GUARANTEE THERE “Lord, have mercy!” Then, “All thanks be to God.” WON’T BE STORMS, BUT Though short, his prayers are anchored on a divine assurance that’s unshakable and unchanging even as IT HOLDS FAST.” the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain: “We were made for joy. We were made for hope. We were born to love. And so that’s what I intend to do.”

EMAIL [email protected] TWITTER @sophialeehyun 12.26.20 WORLD 43 2020 NEWS OF THE YEAR PANDEMIC Who could have predicted on Jan. 1, 2020, that a coronavirus invisible to the human eye would change life for nearly every person on the planet and kill more than a million people? Viruses do not catch God by surprise, but SARS-CoV-2 surprised the world, spreading quietly and rapidly. Its incubation period (up to 14 days) and tendency to infect some people asymptom- atically while causing severe COVID-19 or death in others made the virus especially difficult to contain. Also hard to contain: the political and economic debates over virus-fighting measures, including state-mandated lockdowns and mask-wearing. The following images illustrate the tensions the pandemic brought to our lives this year. On Jan. 1, 2021, we’ll ask: How long until the outbreak ends? And hopefully, we’ll pray for mercy.

An Ethiopian Public Health Institute worker checks temperatures at the Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

44 WORLD 12.26.20 EDUARDO SOTERAS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

WUHAN OUTBREAK The body of an elderly man who col- lapsed and died lies on the pavement on Jan. 30 in Wuhan, China, the city identified as ground zero of the coronavirus outbreak. By the end of the month, the World Health Organization had declared a global health emergency, and China had reported 213 deaths from the novel coronavirus and nearly 10,000 confirmed infections.

HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

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FIRST CASES A doctor examines an image while checking a patient infected by COVID-19, the name given to the illness caused by the new corona virus, at Wuhan Red Cross Hospital in Wuhan on Feb. 16. Doctors worked to understand the disease and prevent spread of the airborne virus as case numbers quickly multi- plied: China reported 1,770 total dead by Feb. 17.

STRINGER/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

NURSING HOMES HIT Health workers move a COVID- 19 patient to an ambulance outside a Life Care Center in Kirkland, Wash., on Feb. 29. After jumping to the United States in January, the virus hit the elderly especially hard. More than one-third of U.S. deaths have been linked to nursing homes.

DAVID RYDER/GETTY IMAGES UNDER QUARANTINE Judie Shape, a resident of the Life Care Center in Kirkland, Wash., who tested positive for the coronavirus, presses her hand against a window while talking with her daughter Lori Spencer (left). Spencer and her husband, Michael (right), were not allowed to visit Shape in person as the Life Care Center and other assisted living facilities barred outside visitors.

TED S. WARREN/AP

A CRUISE AND THE CORONAVIRUS A bus departs near the cruise ship Diamond Princess, docked under quarantine in Yokohama, Japan, on Feb. 14. More than 3,700 passengers and crew had to be quarantined aboard the ship for two weeks as hundreds of passengers tested positive for the coronavirus.

CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

12.26.20 WORLD 49 TOILET PAPER PANIC Panic shopping ensued— including at a Costco store in Novato, Calif.—in March as states began limiting travel in an emergency effort to contain the virus’s spread. One odd result: Aisles at many super- markets became bare of toilet paper and cleaning products as manufacturers struggled to keep up with demand.

JOSH EDELSON/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

DO-IT-YOURSELF PROTECTION An employee sanitizes cart handles and eyes a shopper wearing a mask and snorkel at a Costco in King of Prussia, Pa., on March 25.

MICHAEL BRYANT/THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER VIA AP

50 WORLD 12.26.20 EUROPE’S CRISIS Health workers evacuate a COVID-19 patient from the Mulhouse civil hospital in Eastern France on March 23. France, Italy, Spain, and the U.K. suffered the highest death tolls in Europe since the early days of the outbreak.

JEAN-FRANCOIS BADIAS/AP

DRIVE-THRU TESTING A medical worker swabs a woman undergoing a coronavirus test in her vehicle in West Palm Beach, Fla., on March 16. The drive-thru testing strategy enabled widespread testing while keeping visitors outside of hospital facilities.

CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES NEW YORK HOT ZONE A patient arrives in an ambulance at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York on April 13. The city of New York became a major breakout site for the coronavirus early in the pandemic, logging 700-800 virus-linked deaths per day during a mid-April peak.

JOHN MINCHILLO/AP

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ANTI-LOCKDOWN Demonstrators protest lockdowns and other government efforts to fight the pandemic outside the California State Capitol in Sacramento. Opponents of lockdowns and mask mandates argued such measures were eroding American civil liberties.

STANTON SHARPE/SOPA IMAGES/ SIPA VIA AP

LOVE IN QUARANTINE Husband and wife Pascual Pérez, 84, and Agustina Cañamero, 81, kiss through masks and plastic sheeting at a nursing home in Barcelona, Spain, on June 22.

EMILIO MORENATTI/AP A SHOCKING TOLL Funeral home employees use disinfectant in a morgue in Brussels while tending to the body of a person who died of COVID-19. In early December, the known global death toll from the virus surpassed 1.5 million.

KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

HOLIDAY DESPAIR Dr. Joseph Varon comforts a patient in the COVID-19 inten- sive care unit of the United Memorial Medical Center in Houston on Thanksgiving Day.

GO NAKAMURA/GETTY IMAGES

12.26.20 WORLD 55 SOCIALLY DISTANCED HONORS High-school graduate Thomas Hardin rings a cow- bell during a parent-orga- nized vehicle procession celebrating the 2020 graduates of J.J. Pearce and Richardson high schools in Richardson, Texas, on May 9.

TONY GUTIERREZ/AP

STANDS WITHOUT FANS Kyle Tucker, a left fielder for the Houston Astros, catches a fly ball while playing against the Oakland Athletics during Game 4 of the American League Division Series in Los Angeles on Oct. 8. With spectators typically banned or limited in sports stadiums during the outbreak, some teams filled the seats with cutouts.

ASHLEY LANDIS/AP

56 WORLD 12.26.20 AGE OF ZOOM A lower-school substitute teacher works from her home in Arlington, Va., on April 1. With the shutdown of businesses and schools, meetings and education moved largely online with the help of telecon- ferencing software such as Zoom, whose market value ballooned from $19 billion to $139 billion, surpassing the worth of ExxonMobil.

OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

SONGS IN LOCKDOWN Stephane Senechal, a French opera tenor, sings “’O Sole Mio” to his neighbors from his window in Paris on the evening of March 26, the 10th day of a nationwide lockdown.

PHILIPPE LOPEZ/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES BURYING THE DEAD Workers in Piura, Peru, disinfect a coffin containing the body of a COVID-19 victim on April 15. Restrictions meant to reduce the spread of the virus limited traditional burial rites in many places, with funerals often canceled or limited to 10 people. Peru suffered one of the world’s highest per capita death rates from the virus.

SEBASTIAN ENRIQUEZ/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

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CRUISER GRAVEYARD Luxury cruise ships are dismantled and cut up for scrap metal at the Aliaga ship recycling port in Izmir, Turkey, on Oct. 2. The pandemic pushed the cruise industry to a financial brink, forcing cruise lines to move some ships into early retirement. Airlines also lost billions of dollars and parked thousands of air- planes in the spring as passenger traffic plummeted.

CHRIS MCGRATH/GETTY IMAGES

TASK FORCE BRIEFINGS Dr. Anthony Fauci, who heads the Naitonal Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks at a March 20 press briefing with Vice Preside Mike Pence standing nearby. Fauci became one of the most well- known health officials early in the pandemic. He was a member of the White Coronavirus Task Force, participated in daily press briefings, and had other media appearances.

ERIN SCHAFF/THE NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX

60 WORLD 12.26.20 ONLINE CHURCH Pastor Jim Erickson preaches in an empty auditorium at Grace Church Eden Prairie in March. The Eden Prairie, Minn., church was one of many that streamed services online or met outdoors during the pandemic.

ADAM BETTCHER/GETTY IMAGES

CELEBRATING THE SURVIVORS At Bois de l’Abbaye hospital (CHBA) in Seraing, Belgium, workers take a moment to applaud as 100-year-old patient Julia Dewilde leaves the hospital on April 29 following successful treatment of COVID-19. Every victory over the virus was cause for joy.

KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES 2020 NEWS OF THE YEAR TENSION The coronavirus pandemic dominated 2020’s news cycle heading into Memorial Day weekend. But that changed on May 25 when 46-year-old George Floyd died after a Minneapolis police officer pinned him to the ground during an arrest. Derek Chauvin’s knee stayed on the neck of a handcuffed Floyd for almost nine minutes. Chauvin was fired and faces a murder charge. Floyd’s death—and the bystander video of the incident—sparked months of nationwide, sometimes-violent protests focusing on racial discrimination and police brutality. The deaths of other black Americans during confrontations with police fueled more demonstrations. As the summer sweltered, protesters marched and some neighborhoods burned as Americans again confronted each other over matters of racism and justice.

Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin holds his knee to the neck of George Floyd on May 25.

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PROTESTS A woman yells at a sheriff’s deputy in Minneapolis during a protest on May 28 following George Floyd’s death. Protests began on May 26, the day after Floyd died.

MARK VANCLEAVE/ STAR TRIBUNE VIA AP

RIOTS Months after the George Floyd protests began, rioters had damaged or destroyed at least 1,500 business and government buildings in the Minneapolis and St. Paul areas, such as this Arby’s restaurant that rioters set fire to on May 29.

JOHN MINCHILLO/AP BLM GAINS ATTENTION Protesters hold signs outside a Minneapolis police station on June 13. The organization Black Lives Matter took the lead in organizing more demonstrations across the country. On June 6, the protest movement peaked with more than 500,000 attending demonstrations in nearly 550 locations across the United States.

KEREM YUCEL/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

TENSIONS ESCALATE Minnesota State Patrol officers take a break during demonstrations on May 29 in Minneapolis. On June 2, one retired St. Louis police officer, David Dorn, 77, died while trying to protect a pawn shop from looters following protests.

KEREM YUCEL/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

12.26.20 WORLD 65 DEMONSTRATIONS SPREAD Protesters kneel on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn as New York Police Department officers watch on June 4. After George Floyd’s death, demonstrations spread across the United States for much of the early summer.

FRANK FRANKLIN II/AP

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PORTLAND ABLAZE Portland, Ore., Mayor Ted Wheeler speaks to Black Lives Matter protesters on July 22. Protests, riots, and violence continued for months in Portland, but Wheeler and other city leaders shunned federal officers’ presence there. Despite criticism from the left and the right, Wheeler won reelection in November. Protests, many turning violent, continued.

NOAH BERGER/AP

PROTESTS TURN TO RIOTS Rioters smash a police car in Los Angeles during a demon- stration on May 30. The Los Angeles City Council in June voted to cut the city police department’s budget by $150 million, but Black Lives Matter-LA proposed cutting the $1.8 billion budget by 90 percent.

MARK RALSTON/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

68 WORLD 12.26.20 RAYSHARD BROOKS SHOT Tomika Miller weeps over the body of her husband, Rayshard Brooks, during his funeral on June 22 in Atlanta. Police officers there shot Brooks after he took one of their stun guns during his arrest and tried to flee. His death sparked protests and riots, and demonstrators burned down the Wendy’s restaurant where Brooks died.

CURTIS COMPTON/ATLANTA JOURNAL- CONSTITUTION VIA AP

STATUES COME DOWN Demonstrators toppled the statue of Confederate Gen. Albert Pike on June 19 in Washington, D.C. Rioters tore down statues across the country, including some of outspoken abolitionists. Local governments also removed many Confederate statues erected decades after the Civil War.

ERIC BARADAT/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES BREONNA TAYLOR On Sept. 23, Louisville police arrest a man protesting a grand jury’s decision not to charge Louisville cops with murder after one officer killed Breonna Taylor during a botched drug raid at her home. The raid netted no drugs. Taylor died in March, and several months of investi- gations—and protests— followed.

JOHN MINCHILLO/AP

DESTRUCTION Yogi Dalal hugs his daughter Jigisha as his other daughter, Kajal, bows her head inside the family’s food and liquor store in Chicago on Aug. 10. Police arrested more than 100 people that night for vandalizing and looting stores during protests that turned violent. Several police officers were injured in the nighttime melee.

CHARLES REX ARBOGAST/AP OCCUPIED Protesters and anarchists took over six blocks in Seattle from June 8 until July 1 and renamed the area the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP) zone. Demonstrators there demanded the defund- ing of police and other reforms. Four shootings in the zone between June 21 and June 29 left two people dead and four wounded.

TED S. WARREN/AP

SCENES OF HOPE New York City Police Chief Terence Monahan hugs an activist during a protest on June 1.

CRAIG RUTTLE/AP

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FACING THE FUTURE Two months after George Floyd’s death, Alonzo Johnson III, 7, stands with mother Alicia D. Smith and brother Walter Johnson III, 11, in front of a Floyd mural near where police pinned him down. Other Floyd murals have appeared across the United States since Floyd died.

JASON ARMOND/LOS ANGELES TIMES VIA GETTY IMAGES

12.26.20 WORLD 73 2020 NEWS OF THE YEAR POLITICS At 2020’s dawn, the United States was in the middle of impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump. Impeachments are historic, but 2020 made this one seem more like a historical footnote. After competing wings wrestled for control of the Democratic Party, former Vice President Joe Biden gained its nomination for president. Meanwhile the country faced the death of a Supreme Court justice, the confirmation of her replacement, the coronavirus’s effect on a wild campaign, and an election the Trump campaign has since characterized as “rigged” for Biden, despite failing to offer substantive proof. With Senate control still undetermined, 2020 closes with Americans even more divided than when the year began.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California tears her copy of President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address after he delivered it to a joint session of Congress on Feb 4.

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CAMPAIGN TRAIL Lily Barbour, 5, holds a campaign sign for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., during a campaign event on Feb. 23 in Austin, Texas. Sanders, having just won the Nevada Democratic caucuses and the New Hampshire Democratic primary, was the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination.

NICK WAGNER/AUSTIN AMERICAN- STATESMAN VIA AP

ACQUITTED At the National Prayer Breakfast on Feb. 6, President Donald Trump holds a newspaper showing the U.S. Senate acquitted him of two articles of impeachment the day before. Both the House’s vote to impeach Trump in December 2019 and the Senate’s vote to acquit went mostly along party lines.

EVAN VUCCI/AP HEATED DEBATES Democratic presidential candidates Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., spar at a debate in Charleston, S.C., on Feb. 25. Four days later, former Vice President Joe Biden won the state’s primary, propelling him to front-runner status.

PATRICK SEMANSKY/AP

VIRTUAL LEAD Joe Biden speaks during a virtual campaign event on April 13 during which Bernie Sanders endorsed him, making Biden the presumptive Democratic nominee for president. By the spring, the Biden presidential campaign stopped in-person events and shifted online because of the escalating coronavirus pandemic.

ANDREW HARRER/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES

12.26.20 WORLD 77 MASKED CIVILITY Former Vice President Joe Biden and current Vice President Mike Pence greet each other in masks and with an elbow bump at a ceremony in New York to observe the 19th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. The coronavirus limited how the Biden and Trump campaigns operated and altered protocols for presidential and vice presidential debates.

AMR ALFIKY/THE NEW YORK TIMES VIA AP

SUPREME COURT STRUGGLE Demonstrators for and against the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the United States Supreme Court rally on Capitol Hill on Oct. 14. President Donald Trump nominated Barrett after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Sept. 18.

JOSE LUIS MAGANA/AP

78 WORLD 12.26.20 NOTE-FREE Amy Coney Barrett shows her blank notepad as she speaks during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Oct. 13. When Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, asked Barrett what reference material she was using to answer the committee’s questions, she revealed the blank notepad, confirming she was answering from her own knowledge. The full Senate confirmed Barrett to the Supreme Court on Oct. 26 in a 52-48 vote.

TOM WILLIAMS/AP

CAMPAIGNS CONTINUE President Donald Trump gestures before speaking at a campaign rally in Winston- Salem, N.C., on Sept 8. He and Joe Biden battled for the Tar Heel State, which Trump won on Election Day by less than 2 percent of the vote.

EVAN VUCCI/AP

ELECTION DAY Steph Smith drops off her ballot for president at a special ballot box in Rollinsville, Colo., on Nov. 3. The coronavirus pandemic prompted more remote and mail-in voting, which became the center of election controversy.

JASON CONNOLLY/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

12.26.20 WORLD 81 VOTE TALLIES Election worker Kristen Mun empties ballots from a bin in Portland, Ore., on Election Day. U.S. voters cast a record 65 million mail-in votes due to the coronavirus pandemic.

PAULA BRONSTEIN/AP

VOTE CHALLENGES Supporters of President Donald Trump rally at City Hall in Phoenix on Nov. 5. Trump and his allies filed dozens of legal challenges to vote counts in several states in the weeks after the election. Despite claims of widespread voter fraud, courts overwhelmingly rejected the Trump campaign’s legal arguments.

ADRIANA ZEHBRAUSKAS/THE NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX

82 WORLD 12.26.20 BIDEN’S WIN People launch fireworks in Washington, D.C.’s Black Lives Matter Plaza on Nov. 7, celebrating President-elect Joe Biden’s win. The Associated Press and other news outlets projected that day that Biden had won Pennsylvania and obtained the needed 270 Electoral College votes to win the presidency, despite the Trump campaign’s accusations of voter fraud and dozens of legal challenges in key states.

JACQUELYN MARTIN/AP

TRANSITION BEGINS President-elect Joe Biden, accompanied by Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, speaks about economic recovery on Nov. 16 in Wilmington, Del. By early December, Biden had named key members of his administration’s economic team.

ANDREW HARNIK/AP 2020 NEWS OF THE YEAR MOMENTS Year 2020 set a record for the Atlantic hurricane season—30 named storms, 12 hitting the continental United States—but tempests came in other shapes as well. Civil wars continued in Yemen and Syria, wildfires raged in the U.S. West, and China continued to menace the people of Hong Kong. Crises, conflicts, and close calls can remind Christians they are not home yet, but that God is still in control.

A boat lies alongside train tracks in Alice B, La., two days after Hurricane Delta’s Oct. 9 landfall— one of a record five tropical storms and hurri- canes to hit Louisiana in a single season.

84 WORLD 12.26.20 BRYAN TARNOWSKI/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES

DESPERATE TRAVELERS Men from Morocco and Bangladesh sit in a wooden boat in the Mediterranean Sea as workers from the migrant rescue organization Open Arms approach. More than 80,000 migrants arrived in Europe via risky Mediterranean voyages in 2020. Hundreds of others died in the attempt.

SANTI PALACIOS/AP

FACE OF OPPOSITION In Minsk, Belarus, 73-year-old protester Nina Bahinskaya holds the former Belarusian national flag outside her apartment building on Sept. 10. Bahinskaya became a recog- nizable face during mass demonstrations against the heavy-handed government of President Alexander Lukashenko. Critics claim Lukashenko’s landslide reelection in August was fraudulent.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

86 WORLD 12.26.20 TENNESSEE TWISTERS Debris from homes lies scattered near Cookeville, Tenn., on March 3 after a series of tornadoes tore through the state, killing 25 people and injuring more than 300.

MARK HUMPHREY/AP

WEST COAST AFLAME Wildfire embers cast an orange glow on the Bidwell Bar Bridge in Oroville, Calif., on Sept. 9. The Bear Fire, sparked by lightning, was one of several massive California wildfires that drove what was by far the state’s worst wildfire season on record: 6,500 square miles burned and more than 10,000 structures destroyed.

NOAH BERGER/AP DUCK AND COVER Civilians flee north out of Idlib, Syria, on Feb. 15 amid President Bashar al-Assad’s military campaign to retake rebel-controlled areas in the country’s north- west. The Syrian people have suffered under a civil war for nine years.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

CITYWIDE BLAST Men sit on a damaged balcony facing the site of the massive and deadly Aug. 4 port explo- sion in Beirut, Lebanon, caused by a fire that ignited 3,000 tons of stored fertilizer.

FELIPE DANA/AP IN CHINA’S GRIP Riot police in Hong Kong arrest a protester at a pro-democracy demonstra- tion in Causeway Bay on June 12. Communist leaders in Beijing over the summer imposed a vaguely worded national security law on the semi-autonomous region that allows authorities to crack down on any activity deemed subversive to the government.

VINCENT YU/AP

UPHELD BY A TAIL A sculpture of a whale’s tail upholds a metro train car that slammed through the end of a section of elevated tracks in Spijkenisse, Netherlands, on Nov. 2. No one was hurt.

PETER DEJONG/AP

12.26.20 WORLD 89 2020 NEWS OF THE YEAR DEATHS Year 2020 included the deaths of notable politicians, academics, theologians, athletes, and artists. The pages that follow recognize those whose deaths received much media attention—along with several whose deaths didn’t. We’ve noted when those deaths came primarily because of COVID-19. You’ll notice a different format at the end of the section: COVID-19 didn’t just kill famous people, but took members of our churches and communities who won’t make the perennial lists of celebrity roll calls. So, using local newspaper accounts, we’ve compiled a small list of COVID-19 victims who will be missed by their communities. We acknowledge the list is a small representation of all those who have died of COVID-19. —by Susan Olasky

J.I. Packer

90 WORLD 12.26.20 PHOTO BY RON STORER/GENESIS

January each morning,” according to The Wall Street Journal, “propping himself up 1 DON LARSEN, 90 / New York Yankee on his elbows and toes while singing who in 1956 pitched the only perfect ‘Abide With Me,’ reciting the Lord’s game in World Series history. Prayer, and praying for loved ones.”

1 DAVID STERN, 77 / A long-serving 21 TERRY JONES, 77 / A member of NBA commissioner, he saw the league the British comedy troupe Monty add seven teams, inaugurate the WNBA, Python, he directed Monty Python and begin a development league. and the Holy Grail, Life of Brian, and The Meaning of Life. 3 KEN FUSON, 53 / A journalist with the Des Moines Register and 23 JIM LEHRER, 85 / A newsman and Don Larsen Baltimore Sun, he struggled with a co-host of the PBS program NewsHour gambling addiction that nearly for 36 years, he moderated 12 presi- destroyed him and wrote in a self- dential debates, more than any other penned obituary, “Skepticism may be journalist. cool, and for too many years Ken embraced it, but it was faith in Jesus 24 PETE STARK, 88 / A liberal con- Christ that transformed his life. That gressman and the first declared atheist was the one thing he never regretted. in Congress, he served 20 terms before It changed everything.” losing a reelection bid in 2012. During his 40 years in Congress he champi- 3 QASEM SOLEIMANI, 62 / Iranian oned liberal changes to healthcare. general and head of that country’s intelligence forces who died in a U.S. 26 KOBE BRYANT, 41 / A basketball drone attack. star for 20 years with the LA Lakers, Elizabeth Wurtzel he won five NBA championships, 7 NEIL PEART, 67 / A lyricist and earned two Olympic gold medals, and drummer for the Canadian band made the All-Star team 18 times. Rush, he earned a reputation for both his drumming and his Ayn Rand– 26 BOB SHANE, 85 / The last surviving influenced lyrics. In his later years, member of the Kingston Trio, whose he called himself a “bleeding-heart song “Tom Dooley” reached No. 1 on libertarian.” the singles chart, selling more than 3 million copies and earning a Grammy. 7 ELIZABETH WURTZEL, 52 / A lawyer and writer of the memoir Prozac 28 HARRIET FRANK JR., 96 / An Nation, which chronicled her depres- Oscar-nominated screenwriter with sion, she battled and wrote about her her husband, she co-wrote the screen- addictions to cocaine and heroin, plays for Hud and Norma Rae. making “a career out of my emotions.” Jim Lehrer 30 JOHN ANDRETTI, 56 / A nephew of 8 BUCK HENRY, 89 / Co-creator with auto-racing superstar Mario Andretti, Mel Brooks of the TV comedy spy he became in 1994 the first driver to series Get Smart, he became a screen- compete in both the Indianapolis 500 writer with credits on The Graduate, and the NASCAR 600-mile night race What’s Up, Doc?, and Catch-22. in North Carolina on the same day.

18 JACK VAN IMPE, 88 / A television 30 FRED SILVERMAN, 82 / A televi- evangelist and end-times preacher, he sion programmer for all three major interpreted current events in light of networks for 30 years, he created or Biblical prophecy. greenlighted shows including Scooby- Doo, All in the Family, M*A*S*H, The 18 GEORGE H. WALKER III, 88 / George Waltons, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, H.W. Bush’s cousin who, when old, Kojak, The Love Boat, Charley’s “did a three-minute plank exercise Kobe Bryant Angels, Roots, and Happy Days.

92 WORLD 12.26.20 LARSEN: BETTMANN/GETTY IMAGES; WURTZEL: NEVILLE ELDER/CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES; LEHRER: NIKKI KAHN/THE WASHINGTON POST VIA GETTY IMAGES; BRYANT: KEVORK DJANSEZIAN/AP 31 ANNE COX CHAMBERS, 100 / Heir to coronavirus last December, but author- the Cox newspaper fortune and one of ities muzzled him. the wealthiest women in America, she was active in Democratic politics and 8 ROBERT CONRAD, 84 / An actor who supported Atlanta art and animal starred in TV’s The Wild Wild West, he welfare charities. performed his own stunts so well the Stuntmen’s Hall of Fame inducted him 31 MARY HIGGINS CLARK, 92 / The as a member. “Queen of Suspense” who wrote more than 50 best-selling novels that 11 JOSEPH SHABALALA, 78 / The shunned profanity, sex, and graphic founder of Ladysmith Black Mombazo, violence, she often featured Catholic he brought Zulu harmonies to a broad women as protagonists. audience by collaborating with Paul Mary Higgins Clark Simon on the album Graceland. In a 1991 NPR interview, Shabalala February described himself as a Christian who sings about “good and bad things, 2 MICHAEL “MAD MIKE” HOARE, 100 / especially how to be good to God, An anti-communist mercenary, he led how to praise God, how to respect, his “Wild Geese” group that fought in how to forgive each other.” Congo and failed to overthrow the Seychelles’ socialist government. 12 FREDERICK KOCH, 86 / The oldest of the Koch brothers, he rejected the 5 KIRK DOUGLAS, 103 / The son of family businesses (Koch Industries Russian-Jewish immigrants, he became and libertarian politics) to pursue a Hollywood superstar who received a philanthropy and collect manuscripts Life Achievement Award from the and manor houses. American Film Institute and an hon- Kirk Douglas orary Academy Award for his work in 13 CHUCKIE O’BRIEN, 86 / The foster films such asSpartacus , Lust for Life, son and confidant to Teamsters Union and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. president Jimmy Hoffa, he became the chief suspect when Hoffa disappeared 5 JOHN C. WHITCOMB, 95 / A theolo- in 1975. He lived under that shadow gian and Bible teacher, he became one for 45 years. of the early proponents of young- earth creationism and co-wrote with 14 CLAYTON WILLIAMS, 88 / A Texas Henry Morris The Genesis Flood. oilman, Aggie, and Christian, he said he ran his oil business like Christopher 6 ROGER KAHN, 92 / A journalist and Columbus: “When he left, he didn’t baseball writer, his 1972 book The Boys know where he was going; when he of Summer brought “new journalism” got there, he didn’t know where he techniques to sportswriting and showed was; and when he got back, he didn’t Robert Conrad the human side of baseball heroes. know where he’d been. And like Christopher Columbus, he did it all 7 ORSON BEAN, 91 / A comedian and on borrowed money!” frequent game show panelist, he pur- sued happiness through drugs and sex 15 DONALD STRATTON, 97 / One of the before coming to belief in God: “I last surviving crew members of the don’t know anyone who doesn’t have battleship USS Arizona, bombed by an empty spot at the center of him, the Japanese at Pearl Harbor, he which must be filled in order to be devoted his life to making sure really happy. That spot, like it or not, Americans remembered his fellow is reserved for God.” sailors’ sacrifices.

7 LI WENLIANG, 33 / A Chinese 16 LARRY TESLER, 74 / A computer ophthalmologist and whistleblower scientist who wanted computers to be from Wuhan, he warned of the novel Donald Stratton easy for everyone to use, he developed

CLARK: DEBORAH FEINGOLD/CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES; DOUGLAS: SUNSET BOULEVARD/CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES; CONRAD: 12.26.20 WORLD 93 WALT DISNEY TELEVISION VIA GETTY IMAGES; STRATTON: KATHRYN SCOTT OSLER/THE DENVER POST VIA GETTY IMAGES functions such as cut-and-paste think that if Martha Stewart and Oprah during his time at Xerox and Apple. had a daughter, it would be B. Smith.”

17 OWEN BIEBER, 90 / President of 23 AHMAUD ARBERY, 25 / An the United Auto Workers during the unarmed black jogger, his killing by 1980s and early 1990s, he supported armed white residents led to protests the anti-communist Solidarity move- and civil unrest in Georgia when ment in Poland and the anti-apartheid authorities delayed arresting the movement in South Africa. He and his shooters. wife were married 69 years. 24 CLIVE CUSSLER, 88 / The prolific 17 JA’NET DUBOIS, 74 / An actor and author of sea-based thrillers that sold singer, she had a role on Good Times more than 100 million copies, he also Ja’Net DuBois and co-wrote and sang “Movin’ On founded Numa, an organization Up,” the theme song for The Jeffersons devoted to finding and excavating television show. shipwrecks.

17 CHARLES PORTIS, 86 / A newspa- 24 KATHERINE JOHNSON, 101 / One of per reporter and novelist who the “human computers” at NASA shunned the literary world, he wrote (made famous in the book and movie the 1968 Western True Grit, which Hidden Figures), she calculated flight became a bestseller when the John paths and double-checked the work of Wayne movie version came out. early computers, overcoming racism and sexism with her dedication and 17 MICKEY WRIGHT, 85 / A golfer with mathematical skills. 82 victories on the LPGA tour, she won 13 majors before retiring from 25 ROY LARSON, 90 / A Methodist full-time play at age 34. Golf great Mickey Wright minister who became a religion Ben Hogan said Wright “had the finest reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times, golf swing I ever saw.” he trained a generation of reporters to cover religion as they would other 19 SY SPERLING, 78 / The founder of hard news stories. Hair Clubs for Men, he became famous for late night infomercials 25 HOSNI MUBARAK, 91 / Egyptian touting his hair replacement method. dictator for three decades, he improved Egypt’s standard of living 21 CREIGHTON LEE CALHOUN, 86 / while oppressing dissidents and A retired Army lieutenant colonel, brutalizing political opponents. he earned the nickname “savior of the southern apple” for the 40 years he 28 JOSEPH COULOMBE, 89 / The spent tracking down old apple trees, founder of Trader Joe’s, he built taking cuttings, and grafting them. stores catering to his typical cus- Katherine Johnson The New York Times in 2011 compared tomer: “overeducated and underpaid Calhoun’s quest for heirloom apple ... the classical musicians, museum varieties to “Ahab looking for Moby curators, journalists.” Dick.” 29 EVA SZEKELY, 92 / A Hungarian 22 MICHAEL “MAD MIKE” HUGHES, 64 / Jew, she survived the Holocaust and A daredevil who wanted to prove the went on to win two Olympic medals— earth is flat, he died when his home- gold in 1952 and silver in 1956—in the made rocket crashed into the 200-meter breaststroke. California desert.

22 B. SMITH, 70 / A model who became March a businesswoman and lifestyle brand, her restaurants and TV show appealed 1 JACK WELCH, 84 / The CEO of to affluent blacks. She once told NPR, “I Hosni Mubarak General Electric from 1981 to 2001,

94 WORLD 12.26.20 DUBOIS: MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES; WRIGHT: LEONARD KAMSLER/POPPERFOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES; JOHNSON: NASA/DONALDSON COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES; MUBARAK: BARRY IVERSON/THE LIFE IMAGES COLLECTION VIA GETTY IMAGES he made that company profitable and 14 JON BUELL, 80 / A longtime earned the nickname “Neutron Jack” Campus Crusade director and for his emphasis on cost cutting, ter- co-founder of Probe Ministries and minating unprofitable businesses, and Foundation for Thought and firing unproductive workers. Ethics, he brought together scien- tists who wrote The Mystery of 2 JAMES LIPTON, 93 / Host of Inside Life’s Origin (1984), which influ- the Actors Studio for 22 years, he enced a generation of intelligent was famous for his well-researched design proponents. interviews with A-list actors about craft. He often ended interviews by 17 LYLE WAGGONER, 84 / Sidekick asking, “If Heaven exists, what to Carol Burnett on her weekly would you like God to say when you show, he combined good looks and Kenny Rogers arrive at the pearly gates?” comic timing to become a house- hold name in the 1970s. 5 WENDELL GOLER, 70 / A journalist with decades of experience in 18 CATHERINE HAMLIN, 96 / A Washington, he joined Fox News at Christian OB-GYN from Australia, its inception and became a White she and her husband, Reg, founded House correspondent before retiring. the Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, which has treated 6 MCCOY TYNER, 81 / A jazz pianist more than 60,000 women: “I and convert to Islam from believe that Reg and I were guided Christianity, he played with John here by God.” Coltrane before going out on his own. His percussive style influenced 18 AL WORDEN, 88 / The command other pianists and earned him rec- module pilot on Apollo 15, he also ognition as a Jazz Master from the Breonna Taylor appeared on Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood National Endowment for the Arts. and spoke to children about space exploration. 8 DARIUS L. SWANN, 95 / A black minister who opposed racial segre- 20 KENNY ROGERS, 81 / The smooth- gation in North Carolina schools, he voiced singer crossed genres sued in a case that ended up at the including country, folk, jazz, and Supreme Court and bears his name— pop. His most memorable hits were Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg “The Gambler,” “Lucille,” “Lady,” Board of Education. It ushered in an and “Islands in the Stream”—a era of court-ordered busing for duet with friend and icon Dolly desegregation. Parton.

8 MAX VON SYDOW, 90 / A Swedish 23 STANLEY SPORKIN, 88 / The actor for seven decades, he worked SEC enforcement chief in the Catherine Hamlin with Ingmar Bergman and starred in 1970s, he led a crusade to bar U.S. The Seventh Seal and The Exorcist. corporations from paying bribes to gain international business. 9 EDWARD BLOCH, 97 / An Army Air Corps veteran who survived the 23 DANIEL PRUDE, 41 / A mentally Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, ill black man, his shooting by he returned in 2016 for the 75th police in Rochester, N.Y., set off commemoration of the attack. civil unrest when video of the shooting went public. 13 BREONNA TAYLOR, 26 / A black medical technician in Louisville, Ky., 24 ROMI COHN, 91 / A teenager in she was killed by police in a Czechoslovakia during WWII, he no-knock raid on her apartment, saved 56 Jewish families by provid- leading to months of protests and ing them with false documents. He civil unrest. Lyle Waggoner died of COVID-19.

ROGERS: SILVER SCREEN COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES; TAYLOR: COURTESY JU’NIYAH PALMER; HAMLIN: KATE GERAGHTY/ 12.26.20 WORLD 95 SYDNEY MORNING HERALD/FAIRFAX MEDIA VIA GETTY IMAGES; WAGGONER: PT/GLOBE PHOTOS/MEDIAPUNCH/IPX/AP 24 ALBERT UDERZO, 92 / A cartoonist, America is through the relentless love he created with writer René Goscinny and compassion of caring neighbors.” the French graphic novel series Asterix, which has sold more than 380 28 WILLIAM HELMREICH, 74 / A million copies in 100 languages. sociology professor at City College in NYC, he walked 125,000 blocks of the 25 RICHARD REEVES, 83 / Journalist city over four years, about 6,048 and political commentator with a miles, talking to residents and learn- syndicated column, he wrote ing about the city he called “the often-biting critiques of presidents, greatest outdoor museum in the especially George W. Bush, whom he world.” He died of COVID-19. ranked as one of the worst. 29 JOE DIFFIE, 61 / A 1990s country Fred “Curly” Neal 26 FRED “CURLY” NEAL, 77 / A music singer-songwriter, he had 18 basketball player and showman, he Top 5 singles, including “If the Devil played with the Harlem Globe Danced (In Empty Pockets),” and trotters for 22 years, displaying his “Third Rock From the Sun.” He died ball-handling skills in more than of COVID-19. 6,000 games. 30 TOMIE DEPAOLA, 85 / A children’s 26 JOHN SEARS, 72 / An attorney book writer and illustrator, he who worked for both Richard Nixon authored hundreds of children’s and Ronald Reagan, he had a repu- books, including Strega Nona and tation as a political strategist rather The Knight and the Dragon. than a committed conservative. 30 BILL WITHERS, 81 / A singer-song- 27 PATTY COLSON, 89 / The wife of writer, he wrote “Grandma’s Hands,” Prison Fellowship founder Chuck Joseph Lowery “Ain’t No Sunshine,” and “Lean on Colson, she worked with him in Me.” He was a 2015 Rock and Roll Hall prison ministry. of Fame inductee.

27 HARRIET GLICKMAN, 93 / Concerned about racial hatred after April the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., she wrote to cartoonists 1 EDWARD FEIGHTNER, 100 / A WWII suggesting they introduce black naval flyer, he shot down nine characters into their strips. Charles Japanese planes. He became part of Schultz, creator of the popular the Blue Angels, tested aircraft, and Peanuts, received one of the letters instructed Navy flyers before retiring and soon after introduced Franklin. as a rear admiral after a 34-year military career. 27 JOSEPH LOWERY, 98 / A minister Tom Coburn who co-founded with Martin Luther 1 JASON HARGROVE, 50 / A Detroit King Jr. the Southern Christian bus driver and married father of six, Leadership Conference and led the he blasted on YouTube the woman organization for two decades, he who got on his bus and coughed four gave the benediction at President or five times without covering her Barack Obama’s first inauguration. face. The profanity-laced video brought to the fore the danger transit 28 TOM COBURN, 72 / An obstetri- workers faced from the coronavirus. cian and U.S. Senator from Hargrove died 11 days later from Oklahoma, he earned the moniker COVID-19. “Dr. No” for his opposition to waste- ful government spending and was a 1 ELLIS MARSALIS, 85 / A New Orleans compassionate conservative: “The jazz musician and father of noted jazz best way to drive out the culture of artists Wynton and Brandon Marsalis, dependence and entitlement in Bill Withers he died of COVID-19.

96 WORLD 12.26.20 NEAL: BILL GREENBLATT/UPI/ALAMY; LOWERY: RIC FELD/AP; COBURN: TOM WILLIAMS/ ROLL CALL VIA AP; WITHERS: MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES 5 BOBBY MITCHELL, 84 / A Hall of picturing Richard Nixon as Bill Fame football player, he played for 11 Clinton’s guardian angel. years, scored 91 touchdowns, and ran for 14,078 total yards despite discrimi- 9 VIRGINIA SAVAGE MCALESTER, 76 / nation he experienced as the first A Dallas historic preservationist, she African American player on the wrote in 1984 the comprehensive book Washington Redskins, the last NFL on residential architectural styles, A team to open its roster to black Field Guide to American Houses. players. 10 ABIGAIL THERNSTROM, 83 / A 6 EARL G. GRAVES, 85 / The founder social scientist whose parents were of Black Enterprise magazine, he also Communist Party members, she sat on corporate boards, owned Pepsi- moved to the political center and Bobby Mitchell Cola of Washington, and wrote the co-wrote America in Black and White: best-selling book How To Succeed in One Nation, Indivisible with her Business Without Being White. husband, Stephan.

6 AL KALINE, 85 / A Hall of Fame 11 WILLIAM VOORTMAN, 88 / A post- baseball player with the Detroit WWII Dutch immigrant to Canada, he Tigers, he never played a game in the co-founded with his brother minor leagues, earned 10 Gold Gloves Voortman Cookies and became a as an outfielder, and had 3,007 hits. generous giver to Christian causes. Sportswriter Joe Posnanski wrote of the once hot-tempered Kaline, “He 13 YING KAO LEE, 87 / A DuPont came to represent fortitude and chemist who died of COVID-19, he kindness and dignity.” invented the lacquer that keeps cars shiny. 7 HENRY GELLER, 96 / As chief coun- John Prine sel for the Federal Communications 15 BRIAN DENNEHY, 81 / An American Commission, he persuaded commis- actor in plays (Shakespeare and sioners to use the equal time provision O’Neill), movies (Gorky Park), and to require one anti-smoking ad for television (Death of a Salesman), he every paid cigarette ad. Big Tobacco criticized the Hollywood blockbuster pulled its ads, which eventually led mentality: “You have to hit a home Congress to ban cigarette advertising run every time you come up to the on radio and TV. plate.”

7 JOHN PRINE, 73 / Known as the 17 BENNIE ADKINS, 86 / A veteran Mark Twain of American songwriting, who during a four-day battle killed he penned songs like “Sam Stone,” more than 135 Vietnamese while suf- Angel From Montgomery,” and “Hello fering 18 wounds and saving many in There.” Artists such as Johnny Cash soldiers, he received the Medal of Brian Dennehy and John Denver covered his songs. Honor in 2014. He died of COVID-19. 19 SY ROGERS, 63 / A Christian and 8 LINDA TRIPP, 70 / The Pentagon former homosexual who lived for 18 employee who secretly recorded months as a transgender woman, he phone conversations with former had an international teaching minis- White House intern Monica Lewinsky, try that focused on God’s grace, she became a central figure in Bill sexuality, and culture. Clinton’s impeachment for perjury and obstruction of justice. 18 PAUL O’NEILL, 84 / A former CEO of Alcoa, he served as Secretary of the 9 MORT DRUCKER, 91 / A Mad Treasury under George W. Bush and Magazine cartoonist, he specialized spent his retirement providing clean in celebrity caricatures and movie water in Africa and reducing medical parodies like “It’s a Blunderful Life,” Linda Tripp errors in the United States.

MITCHELL: AP; PRINE: GIE KNAEPS/GETTY IMAGES; DENNEHY: DAVE BJERKE/ 12.26.20 WORLD 97 NBCU PHOTO BANK; TRIPP: KHUE BUI/AP 20 THOMAS WILLIAM LESTER, 81 / style and church activities, but finally The Christian actor who played made a complete break: “The Lord handyman Eb on Green Acres, he was showed me you got to do one or the the last surviving cast member from other. … In order to be my child, you the 1960s television show starring Eva got to give it all to me. I don’t want Gabor and Eddie Albert as wealthy half.” New Yorkers who take up farming in Hooterville. 11 JERRY STILLER, 92 / The comedian who performed with his wife, Anne 21 BETSY WYETH, 98 / Widow of the Meara, on The Ed Sullivan Show more painter Andrew Wyeth. He once said than 30 times, he went on to play of her role in his career, “She rules George Costanza’s volatile father on me with a steel arm.” Seinfeld and another loud-mouthed Don Shula dad on King of Queens. When Anne 27 TROY SNEED, 52 / A gospel music Meara died in 2015 after 61 years of writer, singer, and producer, he spent marriage, he said, “There were no 10 years with the Georgia Mass Choir walls between us in any way. We both and appeared with Whitney Houston knew what the other was thinking in the 1996 filmThe Preacher’s Wife. even when we weren’t listening.”

12 JOYCE LIN, 40 / A Missionary May Aviation Fellowship pilot and IT spe- cialist, she died when her plane carry- 4 MOTOKO FUJISHIRO HUTHWAITE, ing COVID-19 tests crashed on a flight 92 / The last surviving female member in Papua New Guinea. She received of the Monuments Men and Women, degrees in computer science from who after WWII saved art and other MIT. She then went to seminary cultural treasures in Europe and Richard Penniman through MAF and combined her love Japan. In 2015 Congress awarded the of computers, flying, and Jesus. group the Congressional Gold Medal. 13 FRANCIS ANDERSEN, 94 / An Old 4 DON SHULA, 90 / The head coach Testament and Hebrew scholar, he of the Baltimore Colts and Miami partnered with a computer scientist Dolphins, he led his teams to 347 to apply machine learning to the victories, including playoff games, study of the Hebrew scriptures. the most ever by a coach. In 1972, his Dolphins’ team had a perfect season, 14 PHYLLIS GEORGE, 70 / A former the only team to achieve that record. Miss Texas, Miss America, and First Lady of Kentucky, she co-hosted The 5 MILLIE SMALL, 73 / A Jamaican NFL Today, covering three Super singer, she introduced audiences in Bowls and opening opportunities for the United States and Europe to ska other women in sports broadcasting. Jerry Stiller music with her hit “My Boy Lollipop.” She told Texas Monthly about her first try to be Miss Texas: “I needed to lose 8 ROY HORN, 75 / Half of the illusion- to win. Like they say, ‘If you lose, ist act Siegfried and Roy, he survived don’t lose the lessons,’ and I learned an almost fatal tiger mauling in 2003 a lot.” that left him partially paralyzed. He died of COVID-19. 15 FRED WILLARD, 86 / An actor who appeared in mockumentaries Best in 9 RICHARD PENNIMAN, 87 / A singer Show and This Is Spinal Tap, he also who went by the name Little Richard, had recurring roles on Everyone Loves he electrified audiences in the 1950s Raymond and Modern Family. with exuberant, sexually charged per- formances that influenced generations 16 WILSON ROOSEVELT JERMAN, 91 / of rock musicians. He went back and A White House butler, he served 11 forth between an “omnisexual” life- Phyllis George presidents, starting with Eisenhower

98 WORLD 12.26.20 SHULA: GEORGE GOJKOVICH/GETTY IMAGES; PENNIMAN: MARK LENNIHAN/AP; STILLER: WALT DISNEY TELEVISION VIA GETTY IMAGES; GEORGE: DEBORAH FEINGOLD/CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES and retiring during the Obama presi- John McCain, Jeremiah Denton, and dency in 2012. James Stockdale. He survived torture and years of solitary confinement, 18 KEN OSMOND, 76 / The actor who serving later for 28 years in the U.S. played two-faced Eddie Haskell on Congress. Leave It to Beaver for six years, he found himself typecast as Eddie and 27 LARRY KRAMER, 84 / The writer eventually joined the LAPD as a and AIDS activist who founded Act Up motorcycle cop. Shot while trying to (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), apprehend a car thief, he resumed which disrupted worship services at acting, playing a grown-up Eddie St. Patrick’s Cathedral and forced Haskell in Leave It to Beaver sequels. policymakers to respond to the AIDS epidemic. Ken Osmond 19 ANNIE GLENN, 100 / Married for 73 years to astronaut and U.S. Sen. John 29 LOU SHELDON, 85 / Pastor and Glenn, she overcame a severe stutter founder of the Traditional Values to become an advocate for others Coalition, he was an influential leader with speech disabilities. She died of of the religious right in the 1980s and COVID-19. 1990s.

19 RAVI ZACHARIAS, 74 / A Christian 31 CHRISTO, 84 / A Bulgarian-born apologist and global speaker, he conceptual artist, he collaborated established Ravi Zacharias Ministries with his wife, Jeanne-Claude, to wrap to “help the thinker believe and the buildings and natural landmarks with believer think.” fabric to form transient displays: “The reason we don’t like the projects to 22 JERRY SLOAN, 78 / A basketball stay is no one can charge for tickets, player with the Chicago Bulls, he then Ravi Zacharias nobody can buy this project.” coached the Utah Jazz for 23 years. He was second only to Greg Popovich in 31 IRENE TRIPLETT, 90 / The last coaching longevity with the same recipient of a Civil War pension, she NBA team. received $73.13 a month for her father Mose’s service. Before Gettysburg he 23 EDDIE SUTTON, 84 / A basketball deserted from the Confederate army, coach who took four different college joined Union forces, and fathered teams to the NCAA tournament and Irene when he was 83. won more than 800 games in his 37 years at Division I schools, he retired from Oklahoma State after causing a June drunk-driving accident. He later told students, “It’s really slow suicide if 2 WES UNSELD, 74 / A 6-foot-7 profes- you drink.” sional basketball player, he was both Eddie Sutton Rookie of the Year and MVP in his first 25 GEORGE FLOYD, 46 / An unarmed NBA season, one of only two players black man in Minneapolis, he died to accomplish that. When his basket- when a police officer knelt on his neck ball career ended, Unseld became a for almost nine minutes until Floyd behind-the-scenes force at the Unseld was unresponsive. He was dead on School in Baltimore, a school his wife arrival at the hospital. His death founded to provide quality education spurred protests and calls for police for inner city children. reform throughout the country. 6 THOMAS FREEMAN, 100 / A notable 27 SAM JOHNSON, 89 / A highly deco- debate coach, he trained Martin rated combat pilot in the Korean Luther King Jr. and Barbara Jordan. and Vietnam wars, he was a prisoner He also served as pastor of a Houston of war for nearly seven years in the church and preached weekly for 69 “Hanoi Hilton” with fellow POWs Lou Sheldon years.

OSMOND: WALT DISNEY TELEVISION VIA GETTY IMAGES; ZACHARIAS: AB FORCES NEWS COLLECTION/ALAMY; SUTTON: RICH SUGG/ 12.26.20 WORLD 99 KANSAS CITY STAR/TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE VIA GETTY IMAGES; SHELDON: STEPHEN HOLMAN/TULSA WORLD/AP 8 PIERRE NKURUNZIZA, 55 / The auto- izing trend in American education, cratic president of Burundi who toler- she founded with her husband ated no dissent, he rejected calls early Pensacola Christian Academy, Abeka in the coronavirus pandemic to shut curriculum, and Pensacola Christian down his country. Though his official College. cause of death was heart attack, experts believe both he and his wife 29 CARL REINER, 98 / A comedian died of COVID-19. and creator of The Dick Van Dyke Show, he also directed movies includ- 8 BONNIE POINTER, 69 / A singer ing Oh God and The Jerk. and songwriter whose parents were Church of God ministers, she per- 30 JOHNNY MANDEL, 94 / A music formed with the Pointer Sisters composer and arranger, he wrote Carl Reiner before going solo in the late 1970s. “The Shadow of Your Smile,” “Suicide Is Painless,” and other songs for the 12 WILLIAM SESSIONS, 90 / A cinema. by-the-book prosecutor and federal judge before Ronald Reagan made him head of the FBI, he modernized July the organization but also earned condemnation for the bureau’s fail- 1 HUGH DOWNS, 99 / Host of ure to end peacefully the standoffs Concentration, The Today Show, and at Ruby Ridge and the Branch 20/20, and an early announcer on The Davidian compound in Waco. Tonight Show With Jack Paar, he once held the record for most on-air 16 CHARLES WEBB, 81 / Author of hours (10,000) by a broadcaster. The Graduate, a fictionalized version of his own romance with his Ian Holm 4 DONNIE AND RONNIE GALYON, 68 / wife, he spent the rest of his life The longest-surviving conjoined shunning his parents’ wealth and twins, they supported their family by privilege and giving away his money. touring North and South America as part of various circus acts before 17 JEAN KENNEDY SMITH, 92 / The retiring in 1991. youngest sibling of President John F. Kennedy, she served as ambassador 6 CHARLIE DANIELS, 83 / A member to Ireland from 1993 to 1998 and of the Country Music Hall of Fame, founded Very Special Arts, an arts he played as a session musician in program for children with Nashville before becoming a head- disabilities. liner with hits like “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.” 18 SERGEI KHRUSHCHEV, 84 / An engineer and son of former Soviet 6 ENNIO MORRICONE, 91 / An Italian Hugh Downs Premier Nikita Khrushchev, he composer, he wrote scores for moved to the United States in 1991 movies, including The Good, the and became a naturalized citizen in Bad, and the Ugly; The Mission; and 1999. Once Upon a Time in America.

19 IAN HOLM, 88 / A Shakespearean 8 NAYA RIVERA, 33 / An actress on actor who played Bilbo Baggins in the TV series Glee, she drowned while the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings on a lake with her 4-year-old son. movies, he received an Oscar nomination for his role as Harold 10 MORRIS CERULLO, 88 / A Abraham’s trainer in Chariots of Pentecostal preacher and faith healer, Fire. he held crusades in more than 100 countries and conceived the Legacy 27 BEKA HORTON, 90 / A fundamen- International Center, a $200 million talist Baptist who fought the secular- Charlie Daniels Bible-themed attraction in San Diego.

100 WORLD 12.26.20 REINER: CHRIS HASTON/NBCUNIVERSAL VIA GETTY IMAGES; HOLM: JON NASO/NY DAILY NEWS ARCHIVE VIA GETTY IMAGES; DOWNS: NBCUNIVERSAL VIA GETTY IMAGES; DANIELS: BROWNIE HARRIS/CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES 12 JOANNA COLE, 75 / Author of The 22 JOAN FEYNMAN, 93 / An astrophys- Magic School Bus books, she com- icist and younger sister of Nobel bined humorous storytelling with physicist Richard Feynman, she over- science in a long-running series that came sexism in graduate school and turned into an animated children’s her mother’s pronouncement that program on TV and Netflix. girls can’t do science to become an authority on sunspots and the causes 12 KELLY PRESTON, 57 / Actor and of auroras. wife of John Travolta, she appeared in Jerry McGuire and Twins. 25 OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND, 104 / The last surviving member of the Gone 13 GRANT IMAHARA, 49 / An electri- With the Wind cast, she starred cal engineer, he co-hosted Discovery with Errol Flynn in movies such as John Lewis Channel’s Mythbusters show and Captain Blood and Robin Hood. earlier worked on animatronics for Star Wars, Matrix, and Terminator 25 REGIS PHILBIN, 88 / A television franchises while at LucasFilms. talk and game show host, he overtook Hugh Downs—who also died this 17 JOHN LEWIS, 80 / An acolyte of year—to earn the Guinness record for Martin Luther King Jr. and propo- most hours on U.S. television. He also nent of nonviolence, he suffered won six daytime Emmys and numer- beatings and jailings, co-founded ous other honors in a career spanning the Student Nonviolent six decades. Coordinating Committee, and helped organize the 1963 March on 29 BILL MONTGOMERY, 80 / A busi- Washington before serving in nessman, he co-founded Turning Congress for almost 34 years. Point USA to influence a younger Regis Philbin generation of conservative activists. 17 J.I. PACKER, 93 / An influential He died of COVID-19. theologian and author of Knowing God, he taught systematic theology, 30 HERMAN CAIN, 74 / An African wrote prolifically about doctrine American businessman, pastor, and and Biblical inerrancy, and simply politician, he competed in the summed up the gospel message: Republican presidential primaries “God saves sinners.” in 2012. He died of COVID-19.

17 C.T. VIVIAN, 95 / A pastor and civil rights leader, he worked along- August side Martin Luther King Jr. and received a nationally televised 4 JEAN JACOB PAUL, 61 / A pastor, he punch from sheriff Jim Clark while planted churches, established a registering African Americans to Reformed Bible college, and set up Olivia de Havilland vote. The punch drew protesters to an orphanage in Haiti. Selma, where thousands converged on the Edmund Pettis Bridge to 5 PETE HAMILL, 85 / A high-school begin their march from Selma to dropout and “new journalist” for Montgomery. Forty years later, more than six decades, he chronicled Vivian recalled that moment: “I got life in New York City, wars, and poli- down on my knees and said, ‘Thank tics. The son of an alcoholic father, he you, Lord.’” explained his 1972 decision to stop drinking: “I have no talent for it.” 22 CHARLES EVERS, 97 / Brother of civil rights martyr Medgar Evers, 6 BRENT SCOWCROFT, 95 / National he went from small-time crook to security adviser to Presidents Gerald businessman, mayor, radio host, Ford and George H.W. Bush, he advo- and provocative Donald Trump cated a realist foreign policy that supporter. Herman Cain favored international stability. An

LEWIS: JEFF HUTCHENS/GETTY IMAGES; PHILBIN: ROBERT MORA/GETTY IMAGES; DE HAVILLAND: DONALDSON COLLECTION/ 12.26.20 WORLD 101 MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES; CAIN: JASON GETZ/ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION VIA AP opponent of the Iraq War, he said, before joining the Trump organiza- “We continually step on our best tion and supporting his brother’s aspirations. We’re humans. Given a presidential bid. chance to screw up, we will.” 18 BEN CROSS, 72 / A British actor, he 11 TRINI LOPEZ, 83 / Mexicano singer played Oxford runner and Olympian and guitarist, he added beats to “If I Harold Abrahams in the 1981 film Had a Hammer” and “Lemon Tree,” Chariots of Fire. turning folk songs into international hits in the early 1960s. He died of 19 SLADE GORTON, 92 / A GOP senator COVID-19. from Washington, he supported the Equal Rights Amendment, govern- 11 SUMNER REDSTONE, 97 / A lawyer ment-funded abortions, and home- Angela Buxton and media magnate, he used hardball town industries like Microsoft, which tactics to parlay his father’s lone earned him the nickname “the drive-in cinema into a corporate Senator from Microsoft.” behemoth that included CBS, Paramount Studios, and Viacom. 23 EDIE LOCKE, 99 / A teenage refugee He told Larry King in 2009, “I have from the Nazis in 1939, she became no intention of ever retiring, or of editor in chief of Mademoiselle, a dying.” magazine that “combined fashion and beauty with feeding the mind.” 12 MARVIN CREAMER, 104 / A geog- Publisher Condé Nast fired her in raphy professor and sailor, he is the 1980 for refusing to remake only person to circumnavigate the Mademoiselle in Cosmopolitan’s globe in a sailboat without instru- image, focusing on sex. ments. He used nature—bird migra- tion patterns, wind and ocean Trini Lopez 24 GAIL SHEEHY, 83 / A practitioner currents, and the position of the sun of “new journalism,” she wrote and stars—to plot his voyage, which Passages, a book of pop sociology took 17 months in a 36-foot sailboat. and anthropology that became a bestseller. 14 ANGELA BUXTON, 85 / A Jewish tennis champion, she partnered with 25 ARNOLD SPIELBERG, 103 / An black champion Althea Gibson to electrical engineer and father of win 1956 doubles titles at the French film director Steven Spielberg, he Open and Wimbledon. The pair designed a mainframe computer at overcame barriers of race and reli- GE that influenced the development gion to become tennis superstars in of personal computers. the 1950s. 26 JOE RUBY, 87 / A writer for the 14 ÉDOUARD NELSON, 45 / A French Hanna-Barbera animation studio, he Ben Cross pastor, church planter, and vice and writing partner Ken Spears president of the National Council of created in 1969 the long-running Evangelicals of France (CNEF), he cartoon Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! died in a climbing accident while on vacation with his family. 28 CHADWICK BOSEMAN, 43 / An actor who turned down stereotypical 14 “BIG JIM” THOMPSON, 84 / The roles for black males, he went on to longest-serving governor of Illinois star in 42 (about Jackie Robinson) and (1977-1991), he was a moderate Black Panther. In a speech to Howard Republican whose political savvy University graduates in 2018, he won plaudits from Democrats. quoted Jeremiah and added, “Sometimes you need to feel the pain 15 ROBERT TRUMP, 71 / The youngest and sting of defeat to activate the brother of President Donald J. real passion and purpose that God Trump, he worked in real estate Chadwick Boseman predestined inside of you.”

102 WORLD 12.26.20 BUXTON: S&G/PA IMAGES VIA GETTY IMAGES; LOPEZ: POPPERFOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES; CROSS: LAFORET/SIMON/GAMMA-RAPHO VIA GETTY IMAGES; BOSEMAN: VICTORIA WILL/INVISION/AP 29 STUART KING, 98 / An RAF ality in the 1970s and earned the ire of flight lieutenant during WWII, he both Playboy and social conservatives. co-founded Mission Aviation Fellowship in 1945 to reach isolated 10 DIANA RIGG, 82 / A founding people for missionary and humani- member of the Royal Shakespeare tarian purposes. Company, she played Emma Peel in TV’s Avengers and later had a role 30 JOHN THOMPSON, 78 / A Hall of in Game of Thrones. Fame college basketball coach, he turned the Georgetown Hoyas into 12 TERENCE CONRAN, 88 / Retailer a perennial powerhouse and and restaurateur, he introduced became in 1984 the first black head affordable modern design to coach to lead a team to the NCAA American and British consumers John Thompson championship. through his Storehouse, Conran’s, and Habitat stores.

September 12 BOB HARRIS, 61 / A Republican political operative in North 1 SYLVESTER FRANCIS, 73 / The Carolina, he had muscular dystro- founder of New Orleans’ Backstreet phy, which robbed him of his voice Cultural Museum, he documented the and use of his limbs. One colleague city’s social aid and pleasure clubs called him “the Stephen Hawking of and other aspects of black street life. conservatives” because he conducted his prodigious research from 2 TOM SEAVER, 75 / A Hall of Fame his bed, using eyebrow sensors to pitcher for the New York Mets, a team communicate with his computer that went from laughingstock to keyboard. “Miracle Mets” and a championship Tom Seaver in 1969, his third year in the league. 13 LILLIAN BROWN, 106 / A makeup artist for nine presidents (Kennedy 5 ROGER SHIFFMAN, 67 / A toy entre- through Clinton), she got her start preneur and president of Tiger when the producers of Face the Electronics, he had a hit in the late Nation noticed that guests on her 1990s with Furby, a talking plush toy local program looked better than that spoke Furbish. their guests. She worked on John Kennedy 11 times before he became 6 LOU BROCK, 81 / A Hall of Fame president, including before the baseball player for the St. Louis famous Nixon-Kennedy debates. Cardinals, he broke Ty Cobb’s career stolen-base record (a record Ricky 14 BILL GATES SR., 94 / A lawyer, Henderson later broke) and sparked civic activist, and father of Microsoft St. Louis to three National League Founder Bill Gates Jr., he helped Lou Brock pennants and two baseball establish and run what became the championships. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, guiding its giving toward global 9 RONALD KHALIS BELL, 68 / One of health and the search for an AIDS two Bell brothers who formed the vaccine. core of Kool & the Gang, he wrote or co-wrote many of the band’s greatest 16 STANLEY CROUCH, 74 / An outspo- hits, including “Jungle Boogie” and ken jazz critic, he rejected black “Celebration,” which came to him nationalism to embrace American after reading a hotel Bible about pluralism: “We do know there is an everyone praising God. Afro-American culture which is impossible without American culture. 9 SHERE HITE, 77 / Author of The And American culture, as we under- Hite Report, she brought her feminist stand it, is impossible without the sensibilities to studies of female sexu- Diana Rigg Negro-American component.”

THOMPSON: BOB STOWELL/GETTY IMAGES; SEAVER: DAN FARRELL/NY DAILY NEWS ARCHIVE VIA GETTY IMAGES; 12.26.20 WORLD 103 BROCK: LOUIS REQUENA/MLB VIA GETTY IMAGES; RIGG: JOEL SAGET/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES 17 WINSTON GROOMS, 77 / A Southern ship with teammate Brian Piccolo, writer and author of Forrest Gump, which became the basis for the TV he found fame after that book movie Brian’s Song. He scored 22 became an award-winning movie touchdowns in his rookie season, starring Tom Hanks. including six during a muddy game in Chicago against the 49ers, a 18 RUTH BADER GINSBURG, 87 / record that still stands. Nominated by President Bill Clinton in 1993, she was the second female 25 VIRGINIA MOLLENKOTT, 88 / justice on the United States Supreme A Milton scholar and theologian Court. Prior to that she worked as a who often referred to God as “she,” law professor, an American Civil Mollenkott wrote and spoke in Liberties Union attorney, and an support of radical feminism and Ruth Bader Ginsburg appellate court judge. After becom- LGBTQ rights with books like ing the leader of the Supreme Omnigender: A Trans-Religious Court’s liberal wing, she developed Approach. a pop culture following as the “Notorious RBG.” 27 YURI ORLOV, 96 / Soviet physicist and contemporary of Andrei 18 SAM MCBRATNEY, 77 / The author Sakharov, he founded the Moscow of the best-selling picture book Helsinki Group to monitor human Guess How Much I Love You, which rights abuses in the ’70s-era Soviet has sold more than 50 million copies Union. The Kremlin exiled him to since its publication in 1994, he died Siberia and later stripped him of two weeks before the sequel hit his Soviet citizenship and deported bookstores. him to the U.S., where he continued his human rights work while teach- 19 J. DELANO ELLIS II, 75 / Founder Gale Sayers ing physics at Cornell University. of the United Pentecostal Churches of Christ, he brought high church 29 MAC DAVIS, 78 / Singer, song- ecclesiology to the black church: writer, and actor, he won fame as a “What we’re discovering … is that singer with hits such as “Baby, order is not blasphemous. Order Don’t Get Hooked on Me.” As a best represents God.” songwriter he penned hits for Elvis Presley (“In the Ghetto”) and 19 DONALD KENDALL, 99 / A former Bobby Goldsboro (“Watching president of PepsiCo, he oversaw Scotty Grow”). expansion of the No. 2 soft drink company (behind Coca-Cola), buy- 29 HELEN REDDY, 78 / An ing Lays, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and Australian pop singer and activist, Kentucky Fried Chicken—and sell- she scored big hits with “Delta ing U.S. products to the USSR and Dawn” and the feminist anthem “I Mac Davis China. Am Woman,” which earned her a Grammy. In her acceptance speech 20 ROBERT GRAETZ, 92 / A white she thanked “God, because She Lutheran pastor of a black church in makes everything possible.” Montgomery, Ala., he became involved in the civil rights movement, participated in the October Montgomery bus boycott, saw his house firebombed twice, and tried 2 BOB GIBSON, 84 / A Hall of Fame to persuade other Southern white pitcher with the St. Louis Cardinals, pastors to join the civil rights cause. he led his team to three World Series with his intimidating fastball and 23 GALE SAYERS, 77 / A Hall of Fame demeanor. Hank Aaron said, “He’d running back for the Chicago Bears, knock down his own grandmother if he wrote a memoir about his friend- Bob Gibson she dared to challenge him.”

104 WORLD 12.26.20 GINSBURG: NIKKI KAHN/THE WASHINGTON POST VIA GETTY IMAGES; SAYERS: TONY TOMSIC/AP; DAVIS: GLOBE PHOTOS/MEDIAPUNCH/IPX/AP; GIBSON: AP 3 RICHARD SCHIFTER, 97 / A Jew Christian musicians to support whose parents died in the Holocaust, George W. Bush’s program to dis- he became a State Department offi- tribute inexpensive AIDS drugs cial during the Reagan administra- in Africa. tion and used his position to push Moscow to allow Soviet Jews to 14 RHONDA FLEMING, 97 / A emigrate. Hollywood star in the 1950s and 1960s in films includingGunfight at 6 JOHNNY NASH, 80 / A reggae and the O.K. Corral, she earned the pop singer, he was famous for the hit nickname “Queen of Technicolor” “I Can See Clearly Now.” for the way that new film technology captured her red hair and 6 EDDIE VAN HALEN, 65 / A guitar green eyes. Eddie Van Halen virtuoso with Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band Van Halen, he played on 15 THOMAS HOWARD, 85 / A hits including “Jump” and Michael brother of Elisabeth Elliot, he was Jackson’s “Beat It.” an English professor, scholar of the Inklings, and convert to Catholicism 8 WHITEY FORD, 91 / A Hall of Fame who influenced some young evan- left-handed pitcher for the New York gelicals to become Anglicans and Yankees, he holds the record for Catholics. victories by a Yankee, with a 236-106 career record. He won the Cy Young 16 JOHN HENDERSON, 107 / The old- Award in 1961, made the All-Star est living former Texas Longhorn team 10 times, and helped power the football player, he and his wife, team to six World Series Charlotte, held the Guinness record championships. for oldest married couple on earth, Joe Morgan with a combined age of 211 years in 11 JOE MORGAN, 77 / A Hall of Fame 2019. They celebrated their 80th five-tool player with Cincinnati’s anniversary in December 2019. “Big Red Machine,” he helped the Reds win back-to-back World Series 21 J. MICHAEL LANE, 84 / An epide- championships in 1975 and 1976. miologist, he was instrumental in MLB’s Harold Reynolds credited the fight to eradicate smallpox. Morgan with opening the second base position to a series of great black 22 WILLIAM BLINN, 83 / A screen- players in the ’80s and ’90s: Lou writer, he created the police drama Whitaker, Willie Randolph, Delino Starsky & Hutch, was head writer DeShields, and others. on the miniseries Roots, and won an Emmy for Brian’s Song, a story 12 BERNARD COHEN, 86 / A lawyer, he about interracial friendship. argued Loving v. the Commonwealth Rhonda Fleming of Virginia, in which the U.S. Supreme 23 JERRY JEFF WALKER, 78 / A Court in 1967 struck down laws country singer and songwriter, he against interracial marriage. wrote “Mr. Bojangles” and drew other musicians to Austin, where a 12 ROBERTA MCCAIN, 108 / An oil distinctive music scene developed. heiress whose father-in-law and husband were Navy admirals, she 25 LEE KUN-HEE, 78 / A Korean became John McCain’s mother and a business leader, he built Samsung stylish straight talker who once told into an international electronics Vogue, “Honey, I’ve had a dream life, powerhouse despite convictions and it was all luck.” (and later pardons) for tax avoid- ance and bribery. 13 JAY SWARTZENDRUBER, 52 / A Christian music publicist and editor 28 CECILIA CHIANG, 100 / A restau- of CCM Magazine, he encouraged Whitey Ford rateur in San Francisco who hailed

VAN HALEN: ROSS MARINO/GETTY IMAGES; MORGAN: BETTMANN/GETTY IMAGES; 12.26.20 WORLD 105 FLEMING: SUNSET BOULEVARD/CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES; FORD: RICHARD DREW/AP from Shanghai, she introduced 9 HARRY JACKSON JR., 66 / A promi- Americans to authentic Chinese food, nent black Pentecostal minister and including potstickers, mu shu pork, adviser to President Donald Trump. and kung pao chicken. 10 LUCILLE BRIDGES, 86 / The black 28 BILLY JOE SHAVER, 81 / An out- mother who in 1960 enrolled her law-country singer and songwriter, he daughter, Ruby, in an all-white wrote songs for Kris Kristofferson, school in New Orleans despite vicious Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, and opposition from some white parents. Waylon Jennings. Although he lived hard, songs like “I’m Just an Old 10 TOM HEINSOHN, 86 / A Hall of Chunk of Coal (But I’m Gonna Be a Fame basketball player and coach Diamond Someday)” reflected his with the Boston Celtics, he contrib- Sean Connery belief in Jesus. uted to 10 NBA championships (eight as a player, two as a coach). 29 TRAVIS ROY, 45 / The Boston University hockey player who was 13 PAUL HORNUNG, 84 / A Hall of injured and paralyzed 11 seconds into Fame running back for the Green his first college game, he lived for 25 Bay Packers under Vince Lombardi, more years, becoming a philanthro- he played on four championship pist who supported others with spinal teams but served a one-year suspen- cord injuries. sion for gambling on Packers games.

31 RANCE ALLEN, 71 / A gospel singer 16 BEN WATKINS, 14 / After the who sang for President Obama at murder-suicide of his parents in 2017, the White House in 2015, he often he was a successful contestant on reworked secular songs into gospel MasterChef Junior in 2018 with tunes (the Temptations’ “Just My Alex Trebek recipes for peach cobbler and fried Imagination” into “Just My chicken, and was diagnosed with Salvation).” cancer in 2019.

31 SEAN CONNERY, 90 / The Scottish 22 PAT QUINN, 37 / In 2014 he and a actor famous for playing James Bond fellow surfer with amyotrophic and Indiana Jones’ father, he embraced lateral sclerosis (ALS) made the ice the cause of Scottish independence. bucket challenge a craze, helping to raise $220 million for ALS research.

November 23 DAVID DINKINS, 93 / Elected in 1989 as the first black mayor of New 6 KEN SPEARS, 82/ A sound editor York City, he struggled to control the and writer at the Hanna-Barbera stu- city’s soaring murder rate, rising dio, he co-created Scooby-Doo with racial tensions, and crumbling Paul Hornung partner Joe Ruby, who died in August. finances.

7 JONATHAN SACKS, 72 / The former 25 DIEGO MARADONA, 60 / An chief rabbi of Britain for 22 years, Argentine soccer star who buddied he used his position as head of the with mobsters and Fidel Castro, he Orthodox community to promote led his country to a World Cup but Jewish values and warn of rising struggled with addiction. anti-Semitism around the world. 27 TONY HSIEH, 46 / An entrepre- 8 ALEX TREBEK, 80 / As host of the neur and CEO of online shoe store game show Jeopardy! since 1984, he Zappos, he sold the company to won six Emmys and a 2011 Peabody Amazon.com in 2009 for $1.2 billion. Award “for decades of consistently encouraging, celebrating and reward- —Please look for WORLD’s December ing knowledge.” Diego Maradona obituaries in an upcoming issue.

106 WORLD 12.26.20 CONNERY: BOB PENN/SYGMA/SYGMA VIA GETTY IMAGES; TREBEK: KRIS CONNOR/GETTY IMAGES; HORNUNG: TONY TOMSIC VIA AP; MARADONA: MICHAEL REGAN/FIFA VIA GETTY IMAGES Real Estate Commission, headmaster of West he served for 59 years on minster Academy in east the deacon board at Memphis. Middle Baptist Church in COVID-19 IN Whitehaven. JOSÉ MARÍA SILVESTRI, 73 / Founder of Iglesia CHURCHES TIMOTHY KIM, 68 / A Evangélica Misionera pastor and acupuncturist Argentina (IEMA), he Many churches and ministries in Los Angeles, he believed in small-group are mourning members who died unknowingly brought the discipleship. His church coronavirus home when had more than 3,000 of the disease. Here are a few. he moved his mother-in- small groups in law from her nursing Argentina and abroad. home after an outbreak. MARLON ALSTON, 46 / to die of COVID-19. While She already had the LYNN KELLOGG SIMPERS, A bus driver, church in the hospital she posted virus, which spread to 77 / A star in the original musician and deacon, on Facebook a message Kim, his wife, and two Broadway production of and entrepreneur, he that began, “Until the young-adult children. Hair, she later performed also mentored boys with- good Lord calls me away Kim and his mother-in- Christian music. out dads in the North from this world to the law died. Lawndale community next, I want to make it ELSA STEWART, 62 / of Chicago. clear that I believe in HERBERT NYGREN, 91 / Described as “a pastor’s Jesus Christ as the True An ordained Methodist stalwart prayer warrior LORNA BREEN, 49 / An Lord and Savior.” minister and professor at and encourager,” she emergency room doctor Taylor University, he vol- served Christ in and member of the ISAAC GRAHAM, 66 / unteered as pulpit supply Chattanooga, Tenn. Redeemer community in The longtime pastor of for nearby churches, NYC, she committed sui- Macedonia Baptist which sometimes paid EDOARDO TAMER, 83 / cide after treating people Church in Harlem, NYC, him with eggs. A Franciscan priest with COVID-19, contract- he also traveled the U.S. serving in Aleppo, ing the disease herself, to mentor other pastors. DAVID PEÑA, 64 / An Syria, he chose to stay and returning to work ex-con and ex-addict, he after civil war broke too soon. Her father said RONNIE HAMPTON, 64 / became a Christian in out in 2011. on CNN, “She went down A well-known Shreve prison and later founded in the traces like a horse port, La., pastor, he Texas Reach Out PATRICIA H. THATCHER, that had pulled too heavy recorded from his hospi- Ministries to serve 79 / A retiree in Albany, a load and couldn’t go a tal bed video offering ex-offenders. N.Y., she sang in her step further.” gospel encouragement. church choir for 42 ARLOLA RAWLS, 81 / years, worked with LUTHER COLEMAN, 108 / HARRISON JOHNSON, 65 / Neighbors and church refugees, and taught A minister and farmer A pastor and funeral friends called her “Mama Bible studies. in Mississippi, he had director, he gained Rawls” for the way she moved to Chicago to be national attention when loved children in the LAWRENCE WILKS, 80 / near his family. he invited the public to neighborhood who had A punning pastor, he attend the funeral for a lost their mothers. She went from selling ceme- REGINA DIX-PARSONS, 75 / victim of the 2019 El often fed more than 30 tery plots at Robert Co-founder with her Paso mass shooting. The people at Sunday dinners Schuller’s Crystal husband of Refreshing victim’s husband said he in her Chicago home. Cathedral in Anaheim, Springs Church of God in didn’t want to grieve Calif., to hosting TV’s Christ in Schenectady, alone. Johnson preached TIM RUSSELL, 62 / Hour of Power. N.Y., she performed with the service, which drew An assistant pastor at the church choir and sang 3,000 mourners. Second Presbyterian CAROLE RAE at gospel music festivals. Church in Memphis, WOODMANSEE, 81 / A LAWRENCE JOHNSON, 80 / Tenn., he became presi- musician and choir direc- PATRICIA FRIESON, 61 / A Memphis real estate dent of the Memphis tor, she taught in her last A retired nurse, she was broker and the first black Center for Urban Bible study about old the first person in Illinois member of the Tennessee Theological Studies and hymns.

12.26.20 WORLD 107

Christian Education from Award-Winning Journalists in NYC

If you’re college-bound... Journalism, Culture and Society (JCS) Students prepare themselves for careers in the news media and related industries. This training coupled with internships and student media experience helps students land their dream job. Or choose from any of our other eight majors from humanities to finance.

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I am amused to recall the ease with which the question of who is on your side was settled on one occasion 1,400 years ago. Gilead defeated Ephraim in war, and as the losing Ephraimites tried to make their escape across the Jordan, Gileadite soldiers seized the fords The great division of the river. When any Ephraimite came and said, “Let me cross over,” the Gileadite would ask, “Are you an We live in a time of discerning Ephraimite?” If he replied no, the Gileadite would say, who’s on which side “Pronounce Shibboleth.” And if he was an Ephraimite he would say Sibboleth, because he could not pronounce Shibboleth. And they would kill him (Judges WAS INVITED, OUT OF THE BLUE, to the home 12). Very efficient. of a woman for tea. Just she and I. She is a Speaking of “sides,” Eric Metaxas writes in his mas- fellow worshipper at our local church with terwork Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy: “In whom I have only infrequent contact—the 1933 … most pastors were quite convinced that Hitler occasional Saturday morning prayer meeting was on their side, partly because he had a record of with a few other women, a social gathering pro-Christian statements.” at her farmhouse a year or two ago. Especially Gradually some Christians discerned a different I since the virus we have been almost entirely spirit in the Führer, and the incompatibility of his out of touch. National Socialism with Biblical Christianity, while Doubtless she had been observing me awhile, for others were beguiled and met the fate of the frog in I was not in the house five minutes before she said, the pot. The result was a church split—the “Confessing while preparing the tea, “I’ll put it right out there: I Church” (of which Bonhoeffer was a part) and the voted for ______.” I replied that I had too and added “German Church,” which stuck with Hitler. that it was good to get it on the table and have it over That is the one good thing about mounting pres- with, to defray the tension. sure: It has the effect of making things clear that were The tension needs no explaining. It is the subter- ambiguous and incipient before. It brings to the surface ranean dis-ease in every human interaction in these what was latent, “so that thoughts from many hearts times—the question of which “side” the other is on, may be revealed” (Luke 2:35). of whether our interlocutor is one of “them” or one “There must be factions among you in order that of “us.” Of whether it is safe to talk. those who are genuine among you may be recognized,” George Orwell captures this social dis-ease in his says Paul (1 Corinthians 11:19). We see in hindsight dystopian 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four when which faction in Deutschland was genuine and are describing the office dynamics between protagonist grateful that the entire German church did not go Winston Smith and a colleague in the Ministry of headlong off the cliff. Truth: I have been shaken to see the increase of lawlessness “The other person was a man named O’Brien, a in our nation (Matthew 24:12). With each incremental member of the Inner Party and holder of some post worsening I thought, “Now everyone will see how so important and remote that Winston had only a dim wicked these people are! This is surely the evidence idea of its nature. … He felt deeply drawn to him. … that will persuade them!” But that did not happen. I Because of a secretly held—or perhaps not even a was wrong. I had not remembered an important story belief, merely a hope—that O’Brien’s political ortho- in Scripture: doxy was not perfect. … He had the appearance of Jesus raised a dead man named Lazarus from the being a person that you could talk to if somehow you grave, the most compelling evidence of His deity to could cheat the telescreen and get him alone.” date. Rather than persuading the Pharisees, it hardened them. That day they made their plans to kill the Lord.

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WJI21-fp-ad.indd 1 12/8/20 12:47 PM ONE ADVANTAGE OF Voices MARVIN OLASKY BELIEVING IN THE GOD OF THE BIBLE IS THE REALIZATION THAT HE IS WISE AND WE ARE STUPID.

outside our brains. We should pray for reporters, not curse them—and I want to bring to your attention two other established ways to help and one new one. Most of you know of our World Journalism Institute, which has trained 500 young people and 110 mid-career ones since 1999: Nearly 60 are involved with WORLD, Seeking modern-day and a bunch are with local newspapers. Report for America is also worth watching: I had dismissed that organization because I thought it just creates newspa- Zengers per jobs for liberals and radicals, but RFA co-founder Media crisis and opportunity and president Steven Waldman tells me RFA has two conservatives on its 32-member advisory board and is glad to collaborate with Christian efforts. He says he’ll HEN I WORKED ON The Boston Globe 50 let me know about students who might be right for the years ago, revered columnist George Fra- World Journalism Institute. I’ll let him know about WJI zier loved to play off a popular saying by graduates who would be good RFA recruits. writing, “One man’s Mede is another man’s The new kid on the block is my own. God has given Persian.” Today, Biblical literacy is rare and my wife and me what we need financially, so we have a meat-and-poison allusion that legitimates set up a small foundation, Zenger House, that begin- contrary opinions is culturally cancellable. ning next year will be on the lookout for Biblically W I used to write an end-of-the-year col- objective stories to which we will award Zenger Prizes, umn featuring instances of big media bias. I stopped named after a brave Christian editor who went to jail because they were too easy to write, but if you want in 1735. Print pieces may be up to 3,000 words, audio specific examples put “media research” in the WORLD or video reports up to six minutes. Awards will range search engine at wng.org, then check-mark “Olasky”: from $1,000 to $5,000. You’ll find columns from December 1996, 1997, 1999, I’m not asking WORLD readers for any money: 2001, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, Please contribute to the World Journalism Institute. I and 2015. am hoping some of you will be story scouts for us. The Media Year of our Lord 2020, though, was Rules and explanations are at zengerhouse.com, but jaw-dropping not just because of individual stories but here’s the basic premise: Biblical objectivity means because many powerful entities classify conservative having the perspective God clearly communicates in (or Christian) views as poison. The New York Times Scripture, rather than relying on our own subjective printed a column from Sen. Tom Cotton arguing for preferences. Crucial to keep in mind: Just as much of strong action against the looting and rioting that fol- the Bible is earthy, not abstract, so we prize pave- lowed George Floyd’s death. Two days later, facing ment-pounding news features written at street level, criticism via Slack and Twitter, Times publisher A.G. not suite level—in short, the kinds of stories you’re Sulzberger said Cotton’s column was “contemptuous” used to reading in WORLD. We’re not looking for essays and “should not have been published.” The editorial or devotional pieces, good as those sometimes are. page editor resigned under fire, as did the top editor Here’s how you can help: On Jan. 1, 2021, or soon of The Philadelphia Inquirer after its own kerfuffle. thereafter, please create a “Zenger Prize” list on your I’ve known journalists who probably asked their computer and start putting on it links to published mirror every morning, “Who’s the smartest of them print, audio, or video pieces you think qualify. Don’t all?” One advantage of believing in the God of the Bible send your list right away, but on Sept. 1 or thereafter is the realization that He is wise and we are stupid. through Jan 31, 2022, please email it to zenger1735@ Without that understanding, we often sling opinions gmail.com. Journalists, starting then, can also submit and skip the reporting that connects us with reality their own published stories. We plan to announce winners on May 4, 2022, the day Pulitzer Prizes will also be announced.

112 WORLD 12.26.20 EMAIL [email protected] TWITTER @MarvinOlasky When you visit Union University, you’ll discover what sets us apart and why Union is one of the premier institutions and SPRING 2021 DAY AT THE U best values in Christian higher education. Join one of our Feb. 15 | Mar. 12 preview day experiences, come for a personal on-campus visit, or visit virtually without leaving your home.

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