Argentina voted on December 30, 2020, to legalize elective abortion in a region of the world with some of the most restrictive antiabortion laws. A number of advocacy groups have been trying to change abortion laws in Latin America with varying degrees of success. These groups include Salvadorans attempting to end prison sentences for women having abortions and Colombians and Mexicans trying to decriminalize abortion.

“The movement in Argentina has been an inspiration,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, the Americas director at Amnesty International. “As we become more progressive societies, where the Catholic Church wields less power, these movements create an opportunity for states to acknowledge that abortion is a human right.”

On January 6, 2021, we witnessed something at our Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., that many of us would never have imagined. Our own people were breaking into and ransacking the building we formulate our laws in. Five people died during the events that occurred that day.

Over the summer, we saw violence in a number of our major cities. Some of that violence also has roots in political differences in our country.

Much of the anger of the far right and far left stems from the perceptions both sides have of the other. Social media and mainstream media have fed the fire that burns on both sides of the political spectrum. Lies, half-truths, innuendo, opinion, and speculation are accepted as if it is the word of God. Leaders on both sides have played a part in the fraying of our culture.

On January 3, 2021, Representative Emanuel Cleaver gave the first daily congressional prayer of the new 117th Congress. Cleaver is also a United Methodist pastor who has served for many years in Congress.

Cleaver was criticized by some for ending his prayer with the words "Amen and Awoman." The criticism stems from the fact "Awoman" is not a word. In fact, "Amen" has no connection to gender either. "Amen" merely means "so be it."

Britain officially left the European Union (E.U.) in January 2020, but it didn't entirely leave in another way. It began an eleven-month transition period that ended at midnight on December 31, 2020. The eleven months was supposed to give the E.U. and Britain enough time to work out a trade deal to continue the orderly movement of goods and services. Things did not go according to plan. In December 2020, the two sides were still trying to iron out the deal.

Since the outbreak of Covid-19, there has been some anecdotal information that the virus would lead to increased suicides. Being primarily confined to your home, losing a job, losing a loved one(s) - all of these things can contribute to depression and anxiety, which could lead to suicide for some individuals. Recently, some new data has confirmed the speculation.

Both Japan and South Korea are among a few countries to provide current data on suicide rates. Most countries take a year or two before issuing their most recent numbers. Suicide rates in Japan and South Korea have increased noticeably during 2020.

We should all be familiar with the words of Jesus in Matthew 24:6, “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.” There is no doubt that wars and rumors of wars have been with us throughout human history. They will continue down to the time of Christ’s second coming. Some recent events have created some seemingly new conflicts in the world.

Ethiopia’s human rights commission reports at least 600 people were killed in the town of Mai Kadra in western Tigray on November 9 when local youths known as Samri, aided by the then-local administration, went door to door killing those they identified as members of the minority Amhara and Wolkait ethnic groups.

Over 92,000 sexual abuse claims were filed against the Boy Scouts of America as the November 16 deadline arrived for submitting claims in the organization’s bankruptcy case.

This number is much larger than what was expected from lawyers across the United States who have been signing up clients since the Boy Scouts filed for bankruptcy protection in February. The lawsuits allege decades-old sex abuse by Scout leaders.

In the filing, the Boy Scouts’ attorneys conceded that predators used the Scouts to access children, and local troops failed to act on all reports of abuse. The Boy Scouts National Chairman Jim Turley apologized to families in an open letter in February.

The dramatic drop in religious commitment in the United States may be one of the most foreboding indicators of where our country may be headed in the next forty years. Unlike similarly advanced technological cultures like Europe and Japan the U.S. has maintained more religious commitment. But a new book by Ronald F. Inglehart, a political scientist at the University of Michigan, suggests we are catching up to other secular societies.

When asked to express the importance of God in their lives on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being “not at all important” and 10 being “very important,” Americans rated God at an average of 4.6 in 2017. That rating was down from 8.2 a decadebefore, according to an excerpt from Inglehart’s book, Religion’s Sudden Decline, in the September/October 2020 issue of Foreign Affairs.

The Church of Sweden recently announced that Swedish female priests outnumber male Swedish priests for the first time in the sixty years since females were permitted to become priests.

Of the 3,060 priests currently serving in Sweden, 1,533 are female, which is 50.1 percent, according to Cristina Grenholm, secretary for the Church of Sweden. The Church of Sweden Lutheran Confession is listed as representing 60.2 percent of Sweden’s population. Sweden is one of the most liberal nations in the world, so this development is not surprising. But other countries and churches are following along with the Swedish example.

Neuralink Corporation is an American neurotechnology company founded by Elon Musk and others, developing implantable brain–machine interfaces (BMIs). The company’s headquarters are in San Francisco.

Since its founding in 2016, the company has hired several high-profile neuroscientists from various universities. By July 2019, it had received $158 million in funding (of which $100 million was from Musk) and was employing a staff of 90 employees. At that time, Neuralink announced that it was working on a “sewing machine-like” device capable of implanting very thin threads into the brain, and demonstrated a system that read information from a lab rat via 1,500 electrodes, anticipating starting experiments with humans in 2020.

A recent movie playing on Netflix called Cuties has caused some controversy. Politicians expressed outrage, newspaper, radio and internet sites all commented. The director of the film, Maimouna Doucoure, said she was inspired to make the movie after she was shocked at a dance recital for young girls that seemed to sexualize them. This incident led her to begin researching social media and the pressures on young girls today.

Doucoure said, “I believe that cinema, and art in general, can change the world. We are able to see the oppression of women in other cultures. But my question is, isn’t the objectification of a woman’s body that we see in our Western culture not another kind of oppression?”

Bahrain and Israel announced on September 11, 2020, that they have agreed to establish diplomatic relations just a few weeks after the United Arab Emirates (UAE) worked out a similar deal (see my blog of August 28, 2020) with the Jewish state.

“This is a historic breakthrough to further peace in the Middle East,” read the joint statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain and President Donald Trump of the United States. The statement went on to say, “Opening direct dialogue and ties between these two dynamic societies and advanced economies will continue the positive transformation of the Middle East and increase stability, security, and prosperity in the region.”

Parts of a half-dozen states are being charred by more than 70 wildfires. Over 3.3 million acres have burned in California this year, which is a modern record. This has occurred before the traditional fire season begins. Thus far thirty-five people have been killed and over 4,000 homes, farmhouses and wineries have already been destroyed.

Over 14,000 firefighters were fighting fires from San Diego County in Southern California to the Creek fire in the center of the state. In September red-flag warnings, signaling a high fire threat, were up in much of California, Nevada, western Oregon and Washington, western Arizona and southern Utah.