The Daily Briefing highlights the news of the day and research that reveals the spirit of the day.
The Daily Briefing is a newsletter sent straight to your inbox every morning that provides biblical insight on today's news.
Top News
6. Trump tells Defense Department to 'prepare for possible action' in Nigeria (NBC News)
“President Donald Trump on Saturday said he has instructed the Defense Department to “prepare for possible action” in Nigeria over the country’s alleged killing of Christians.
“If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country, ‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities,” Trump wrote on social media.
“Trump’s announcement comes a day after he categorized Nigeria as a “country of particular concern,” a designation the U.S. gives countries the government deems as engaging in “particularly severe violations of religious freedom.” Other countries on the list include China, Cuba and North Korea.”
They can harm the body but they can’t touch the soul… 82 percent of Christians killed around the world from October 2022 to September 2023 were in Nigeria. In the first 7 months of this year alone, more than 7,000 Christians have been killed in Nigeria. Between 2009 and 2023 in Nigeria, Intersociety reports that at least 52,000 Christians have been killed, 18,500 abducted and unlikely to have survived, and more than 20,000 churches and Christian schools were attacked.
In his book The Martyrs of the New Millennium, Robert Royal distinguishes between red and white martyrs. Red refers to those who died for the faith, losing their life because someone hated our God. But then there are white martyrs, which refers to a lifelong witness through suffering, loss, or sacrifice without the shedding of blood. This is a leaving the comforts of home for the glories of the Gospel, a death to self.
We do not know the value of Christ, according to Robert Murray McCheyne, if we are not willing to cleave to him unto death. The martyr, like Moses, has a deep-seated belief that the riches of Christ far exceed the trappings of this world. And though they may lose their life, this world receives a powerful message. As Spurgeon put it: “Never did the church so much prosper and so truly thrive as when she was baptized in the blood. The ship of the church never sails so gloriously along as when the bloody spray of her martyrs falls on her deck.” (2 Tim. 3, 1 Pet. 2, 1 Cor. 15)
5. Rep. Nancy Mace cursed and berated Charleston airport police over escort, incident report says (CBS News)
“Rep. Nancy Mace allegedly berated and cursed at police officers tasked with escorting her through Charleston International Airport in South Carolina, allegedly saying they were "[expletive] incompetent," according to an incident report. According to a police incident report, officers with the Charleston County Aviation Authority Police Department were assigned to meet the Republican congresswoman at 6:30 a.m. Thursday to escort her from the curb to her flight. The officers were told she would be arriving in a white BMW at the ticketing curb area.
“At around 6:35 a.m., they were told she was running late and they kept waiting. According to the report, the officers never saw the car arrive. Surveillance video from the airport obtained by CBS News via the Freedom of Information Act shows Mace arrive at a sidewalk entrance in a dark-colored sedan around 6:50 a.m. No one else was visible in the vehicle… When the officers met Mace to escort her, they said she "began loudly cursing and making derogatory comments to us and about the department. She repeatedly stated we were '(expletive) incompetent"' and 'this is no way to treat a (expletive) US Representative'," the report states.”
If you’re quickly angered, you’re easily manipulated, according to Epictetus. “Any person capable of angering you becomes your master; he can anger you only when you permit yourself to be disturbed by him.”
In his book Why We Get Mad, Ryan Martin highlights that provocations don’t make us mad, but rather our appraisal of the provocation is key. He calls this the pre-anger state. There are 2 appraisals: primary (when something happens, we first evaluate the event) and secondary (our decision about what it means in the context of our life and whether we can cope with it). In this instance, being unable to go through a certain security line triggered a response that caused her to lose a place in any line.
Thomas Jefferson rightly noted: “Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching.” As Ananias and Sapphira found out the hard way, God is always watching. As such, our actions should both imitate and honor him, emulating his selflessness and channeling his graciousness. She may have been right in that she could use that line, but 2 wrongs don’t make a right. (Acts 5, Lk. 8:17).
4. Heritage Foundation shakes up staff in wake of Tucker Carlson-Nick Fuentes controversy (The Hill)
“Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts announced staff reassignments on Friday in the wake of the conservative uproar over his statement defending Tucker Carlson for interviewing white nationalist Nick Fuentes. Roberts tapped the think tank’s executive vice president, Derrick Morgan, to serve as acting chief of staff until the end of the year. Ryan Neuhaus, who was serving in the role, was moved to be a senior adviser.
“Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts is standing by Tucker Carlson after the conservative podcaster’s friendly interview with Holocaust-denier Nick Fuentes drew condemnation from within a GOP grappling with a series of antisemitic incidents. Roberts, in a video posted to X, denounced the “venomous coalition” that has criticized Carlson and said “their attempt to cancel him will fail,” though he didn’t specifically name anyone. He said Carlson remains a “close friend” of the highly influential conservative group and “always will be.”
“Roberts added that “I disagree with and even abhor things that Nick Fuentes says, but canceling him is not the answer, either.”
Did Roberts miss his Birch moment? When the problematic John Birch Society started to grow in number in the 1950s and 1960s, Bill Buckley, founder of National Review and other conservative entities, attacked and excommunicated the group from the ranks of the right, asserting that the conspiratorial views of the “kook right” didn’t represent the conservative movement.
Is this an issue about free speech or platforming an immoral speaker? Fuentes has engaged in Holocaust denial, called Adolf Hitler “really f***ing cool,” and said that if his movement gained power, it would execute “perfidious Jews.” He has suggested that women want to be raped and beaten up by him.
Roberts says that “the venomous coalition attacking Tucker the patriot are sowing division,” and that “the American people expect us to be focusing on our political adversaries on the left, not attacking our friends on the right.” So how are we to think about Tucker’s adversarial interview with Sen. Ted Cruz? Or last year, when speaking in Dubai, how are we to view Tucker sharing that Moscow is better than every city in the US?
Instead of Miciah, Roberts was a type of Zedekiah. When Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, asked for counsel from the Lord, he quickly heard from Zedekiah but sought after Miciah. The former was a yes man and the latter was a faithful man. However, Ahab, King of Israel, expressed his hatred toward Miciah and how he always shared bad news with him. Despite knowing he was going into a hostile environment, Miciah boldly shared with the kings, which ended up being contrary to what Ahab wanted to hear. In this instance, this was less a victory for free speech and more a failure of character. (1 Kings 22)
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Cultural News
3. Millennials, Gen Z are more likely to ask for help: survey (NY Post)
“The poll of 2,000 U.S. adults, split evenly between Gen Z, millennials, Gen X, and baby boomer generations, found that the two younger generations saw asking for help as a positive thing (71% for millennials, 66% for Gen Zers) more than Gen Xers and baby boomers (54% and 45%, respectively). Likewise, both a majority of Gen Zers (57%) and millennials (60%) believe they’re better at asking for help or support when it’s needed than their predecessors.
“If they were actually put in a challenging position where they had to decide to ask for help or manage it on their own, a quarter of all Americans (26%) said they’d prefer asking for help... According to one respondent, “It’s okay to need something to lean on. It doesn’t emasculate a man, and it doesn’t make a woman look like a damsel in distress.”
Help, I Need Somebody – The Beatles sang it, but we are hesitant to echo it. At least 2 rationales explain this: we expect rejection or doubt the quality of assistance. Despite research indicating that people like us more after helping us, we have an aversion to seeking out help because of the fear of rejection. But in reality, according to Heidi Grant in her book Reinforcements, not asking for help robs you of assistance and another person of joy. “We could make the argument that not asking for help is a selfish thing, in that it robs other people of one of life’s most reliable boosts to well-being.”
And then there is doubting the quality of assistance. One experiment found that subjects consistently underestimated the quality of help they would generate. People were more patient with them and had a greater knowledge base than expected.
In the Scriptures, we read how we were made out of community and for community. These people infuse life in us and color the world for us. Goethe was right: “The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers and cities; but to know someone who thinks and feels with us, and who, though distant, is close to us in spirit, this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden.” (1 Thess. 5:14, Gal. 6:2, Pro. 27:17, Jam. 5:16)
News You Can Use
2. See Mom 'Lift Off' While Trying to Catch 20-Foot Inflatable Pumpkin
Watch it here. “And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.” (Mk. 4:39)
1. Meet China’s viral Trump impersonator
Watch it here. “Imitate me, as I imitate Christ.” (1 Cor. 11:1)
