US Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died last night, according to President Trump. She was one of two National Guard members targeted by a gunman in Washington, DC, on Wednesday. A second victim, Andrew Wolfe, 24, remains in critical condition at this writing. The shooting cast a pall over yesterday’s Thanksgiving holiday, reminding us that tragedy does not respect tradition. And yet we are commanded by God’s word to “give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). This could indicate that we are to be grateful in our challenges but not for them. However, Scripture also instructs us to “give thanks always and for everything to God.” In the face of unspeakable tragedy such as Wednesday’s shooting, why should we do this?

About Denison Forum and The Daily Article

Today's Daily Article was written by Dr. Jim Denison and narrated by Chris Elkins. You can read this article on our website. You may also receive it in your inbox by subscribing to our newsletter.

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The news is filled with Thanksgiving trivia, from today’s average gathering size (seven) and caloric intake (3,150–4,500 calories), to holiday travel statistics, to facts about the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (along with eight “infamous” balloon incidents), to “61 hot takes to fight about at Thanksgiving.” The English words “think” and “thank” are both derived from an ancient Indo-European root “tong,” meaning “to feel or think.” As I think about my life and the world, I find abundant reasons for thanks. I’d like to share three of them with you, each a simple fact inspired by a story in the news.

About Denison Forum and The Daily Article

Today's Daily Article was written by Dr. Jim Denison and narrated by Chris Elkins. You can read this article on our website. You may also receive it in your inbox by subscribing to our newsletter.

NOTE: Denison Forum is a fully donor-funded nonprofit ministry. To support our calling, please donate today.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reportedly wants to meet President Trump “as soon as possible,” possibly over Thanksgiving, to finalize a joint US–Ukrainian peace agreement. The US argument is that the current trajectory of the war suggests Ukraine would eventually lose the territory anyway. White House officials stress that Mr. Trump’s primary goal is to end the war, no matter what the peace deal ultimately looks like. As the political philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah noted, “A value is like a fax machine. It’s not much use if you’re the only one who has one.” Aren’t you glad God doesn’t feel the same way?

About Denison Forum and The Daily Article

Today's Daily Article was written by Dr. Jim Denison and narrated by Chris Elkins. You can read this article on our website. You may also receive it in your inbox by subscribing to our newsletter.

NOTE: Denison Forum is a fully donor-funded nonprofit ministry. To support our calling, please donate today.

As we focus on gratitude this Thanksgiving week, let’s consider a recent article in the Atlantic that offers surprising encouragement about evangelical Christianity. Spencer Kornhaber reports: “Signs of a true revival have been piling up lately. After years of decline, church attendance has leveled and might even be climbing.” The rest of the article focuses on a new album by Rosalía. Kornhaber writes: “The question of what we believe about our souls and what that belief demands is more serious than lifestyle fads or partisan politics allow for. … Embracing that search, Rosalía preaches, can be as significant as having an answer.” This is an assertion we need to discuss today, for reasons that far transcend the article that asserts it.

About Denison Forum and The Daily Article

Today's Daily Article was written by Dr. Jim Denison and narrated by Chris Elkins. You can read this article on our website. You may also receive it in your inbox by subscribing to our newsletter.

NOTE: Denison Forum is a fully donor-funded nonprofit ministry. To support our calling, please donate today.

The weekend’s headlines were dominated by political themes, from Marjorie Taylor Greene quitting to the Supreme Court keeping Texas’s new congressional map to the Orthodox Church receiving a wave of new converts. In each case, you have to be grateful for what is being reported to experience the news as good news. Here's why this theme matters this Thanksgiving week and every week. Gratitude is the pathway to flourishing. It’s not enough to have the resources necessary for happiness—we must be grateful for these resources to experience their full benefit.

About Denison Forum and The Daily Article

Today's Daily Article was written by Dr. Jim Denison and narrated by Chris Elkins. You can read this article on our website. You may also receive it in your inbox by subscribing to our newsletter.

NOTE: Denison Forum is a fully donor-funded nonprofit ministry. To support our calling, please donate today.

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Article Description

When news broke that President Trump was preparing to present Ukraine and Russia with a plan for peace, many were wary of what the proposal might entail. As details began to leak last night, it appears that at least some of those concerns were warranted. However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appears open to discussion, even if many of the nation’s European allies are not. Jonah Goldberg once noted that “Self-awareness is indispensable to seeing the lines between what you want to be true and what is actually true.” Unfortunately, self-awareness tends to be a quality that many of us struggle to consistently live out. And the results are often catastrophic. 

About Denison Forum and The Daily Article

Today's Daily Article was written by Dr. Jim Denison and narrated by Chris Elkins. You can read this article on our website. You may also receive it in your inbox by subscribing to our newsletter.

NOTE: Denison Forum is a fully donor-funded nonprofit ministry. To support our calling, please donate today.

President Trump stated on social media last night that he has signed the bill that directs the Department of Justice (DOJ) to publicly release all its Jeffrey Epstein-related files. Senators from both parties said the DOJ must now release the files within thirty days. Despite all our failed attempts to legislate morality, we persist in the effort. In large part, this is because abandoning the effort obviously would lead to anarchy and chaos. But also, this quest for a just society reveals something transcendent about our souls.

About Denison Forum and The Daily Article

Today's Daily Article was written by Dr. Jim Denison and narrated by Chris Elkins. You can read this article on our website. You may also receive it in your inbox by subscribing to our newsletter.

NOTE: Denison Forum is a fully donor-funded nonprofit ministry. To support our calling, please donate today.

Request your copy of Waiting for Christmas today! Advent is coming soon. 

Article Description

Text With Jesus is an AI-powered chatbot billed as “a divine connection in your pocket.” It invites you to “embark on a spiritual journey and engage in enlightening conversations with Jesus Christ, the apostles, and a multitude of other revered figures from the Bible.” Of course, chatbots creating the illusion that we are talking directly with Jesus are just that—illusions. However, many of us who would never use an app to talk to Christ nonetheless have a “chatbot” relationship with the real Jesus. I know. For many years, I was one of them.

About Denison Forum and The Daily Article

Today's Daily Article was written by Dr. Jim Denison and narrated by Chris Elkins. You can read this article on our website. You may also receive it in your inbox by subscribing to our newsletter.

NOTE: Denison Forum is a fully donor-funded nonprofit ministry. To support our calling, please donate today.

Tom Cruise received his first Academy Award this week, an honorary Oscar presented at the sixteenth annual Academy Governors Awards. He told the assembled gathering, “Making films is not what I do, it is who I am.” Equating what we do with who we are, our performance with our identity, is not a worldview unique to Mr. Cruise. We are made with a “God-shaped emptiness,” to paraphrase Blaise Pascal. But if secularized people will not turn to God, they will turn to anything else to fill the void.

About Denison Forum and The Daily Article

Today's Daily Article was written by Dr. Jim Denison and narrated by Chris Elkins. You can read this article on our website. You may also receive it in your inbox by subscribing to our newsletter.

NOTE: Denison Forum is a fully donor-funded nonprofit ministry. To support our calling, please donate today.

Request your copy of Waiting for Christmas today! Advent is coming soon. 

Request your copy of Waiting for Christmas today! Advent is coming soon. 

Article Description

Late last night, President Trump wrote on social media that House Republicans should vote to release all files in the Jeffrey Epstein case. His statement comes ahead of an expected House vote this week, after the House Oversight Committee released more than twenty thousand pages of documents related to Epstein last week. I recognize that we elect a president, governor, mayor, and so on, not a pastor or Sunday school teacher. We don’t typically care much about the personal morality of a CEO whose company’s products we buy. But we should. Today, we discuss three reasons why it’s important not to divorce character from leadership.

About Denison Forum and The Daily Article

Today's Daily Article was written by Dr. Jim Denison and narrated by Chris Elkins. You can read this article on our website. You may also receive it in your inbox by subscribing to our newsletter.

NOTE: Denison Forum is a fully donor-funded nonprofit ministry. To support our calling, please donate today.