With each passing year many of us attempt to change some aspect of their lives for the better. This is often called a “resolution.” A New Years resolution is considered an intentional, firm decision to make a change that will matter to one’s life, or the life of those around us. New Years resolutions often have to do with some pattern of behavior one is aware of, but that one believes is not doing him or herself any good. Perhaps it is even doing active harm. Often these behaviors relate to things like our diets, the amount of exercise we get each week, or how much time we spend working (or not working). These minor, but not unimportant, habits are often in the crosshairs of the “New Year Resolution” plan. However, the word “resolution” has other meanings as well, one of which is “the action of solving a problem, dispute or contentious matter.”
We don’t often think of this meaning of resolution when the New Year rolls around. Yet the success of the first kind of resolution, a determined decision to change some aspect of one’s life for the better, often relates to the second kind of resolution: whether or not a particular problem, dispute or contention from the past has been solved, or “laid to rest.” One common feature for us all is the need to see important issues brought to resolution so as to be able to move resolutely forward with our lives. Unfortunately, it is not always the case that we receive the opportunity to witness true resolution of a problem or dispute. Moreover, it is often up to us to initiate the process of resolution to a particular dispute-something which could itself be a kind of resolution in the first sense. Unsolved or unresolved problem areas from our past that often severely hinder us from living well in the present. This is a basic psychological principle.
Unresolved problems from an individual’s past, however, also find an analogy in the culture. There are, just as in each private life, unresolved problems in our public life that continue to plague us as a people– ongoing disputes that weigh heavily upon our collective soul and the conscience of a nation. They are not trivial things either. In going unresolved, or in being buried once the media cycle deems them no longer interesting, they nevertheless continue to fester in our subconscious. They are almost always matters of truth and, as such, perpetual issues of justice.
Therefore, instead of writing a “Year in Review” article this year, here are 10 things I believe many Americans, and many American Christians, want to see resolved in 2024. These are not all problems that just occurred in 2023, but include disputes and contentions that go back further and yet remain unresolved.
5 Things Americans Want To See Resolved in 2024
1) George Floyd’s “Murder”: The scare quotes here are doing an enormous amount of work. With the release of a new documentary by Emmy-award winning reporter Liz Collins, The Fall of Minneapolis, the evidence continues to mount showing the George Floyd “killing” to be one the greatest hoaxes and travesties of justice in recent American history. So compelling is Collins’ new film, that two preeminent voices of reason, Glenn Loury and John McWhorter, have both called for a complete reevaluation of the George Floyd narrative. In Loury’s own words: “We’ve been lied to.” And this is a lie that not only put four potentially innocent men in prison, but has resulted in the near murder of one of them, namely, Officer Derek Chauvin.
2) The Origins of Covid-19: The country, nay, the world, was promised an investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic that ravaged our lives. But is the cause of this unprecedented event in human history (given our modern technology, of course) being swept further and further under the rug? Is the investigation going to happen, or not? Or are politicians and “the experts” banking on our short attention span, and our fascination with Taylor Swift’s* love life, to conveniently allow the origins’ question to go unresolved. Or, are we just too afraid of China?
3) Jeffrey Epstein’s “Guest List”: Here is one that our feeble cultural memory has almost entirely forgotten about. Yet this is easily producible information that could potentially shed a great amount of light on the kind and degree of corruption that exists among our political and cultural elite. Some of it has already been released. If Americans are truly interested in the “moral character” of their politicians, as so many progressive Christians reminded us throughout Trump’s first presidency, then why not pursue accountability equitably and at all costs?
4) The End of Trans Chaos: Trans-isms, “Transgenderism” and its supra-set “Transhumanism,” are ideologies. As such, they are obviously not easy to resolve. However, until our culture deals with the trans issue, and does so definitively, we will not only continue to not be healthy, we will not be able to flourish in any possible future. This is not a call to oppression, as most trans-ideologues would make it out to be. It is a call to truth and just action. Trans ideologies must be firmly and decisively defeated, not only for the sake of those caught up in their web of lies, but also for the sake of the civilization at large. Trans-isms are civilization-ending ideologies. To continue to “slice the salami” (thanks to Ian Paul for that phrase) on trans issues will only delay the inevitable demise of the West. We all know this, we just need to do something about it now.
5) Who left the cocaine?: It may seem trivial to a country with a diminished and distorted conscience, but it relates to the theme that runs throughout all these points: corruption at the highest levels. So seriously now, who left the cocaine in the White House? Or is doing smack, let alone receiving illicit sexual favors, in the symbolic, and actual, center of the country’s political life not even a thing on our moral radar anymore? If so, shame on us.
5 Things Christians Want to See Resolved
1) Evangelical Support for Black Lives Matter: Almost immediately after the George Floyd incident, a number of prominent Evangelical leaders, like clockwork, fell in line with the popular cultural narrative, i.e., the false popular narrative. At the same time, others were warning these “leaders” to be careful of associating with groups like Black Lives Matter: an organization which at the time was known to be openly Marxist, founded by practicing pagan spiritualists, anti-family, pro-abortion and pro-LGBTQ+. Yet these prominent Evangelicals conveniently found themselves at the front lines of the new battle for social justice, some of them encouraging other Christians to protest, so long as they “masked up” while doing so.
Now we know even more about BLM, namely, that they support Hamas and are a bunch of self-serving con-artists. Thus, it seems time that Evangelicals who supported BLM, either through their donations, their actions, or their encouragement, repent of their participation in the George Floyd lie, dissociate themselves from BLM, condemn the anti-semitic organization for what it is, and, perhaps, be so good as to visit poor Derek Chauvin and the other Minneapolis police (say their names: Tou Thao, Thomas Lane, and Alexander Kueng) whose lives have been unjustly ruined by the George Floyd affair.
2) Who Leaked Dobbs?: Roe v. Wade was overturned: praise God. I firmly believe that angels rejoiced at the news that more human beings would have the chance to live, as opposed to being killed in the womb. Of course the enemies of human life were not as happy as the angels. And one of those enemies leaked SCOTUS’ righteous decision to overturn the most unrighteous law ever passed in this nation’s history. The reason seems pretty clear: to prepare those who despise humanity for a counteroffensive. Perhaps it is immaterial that the decision was leaked, but it was likely illegal, and, as Chief Justice Roberts himself called it, “an egregious breach.” Again, let’s resolve an issue like this, and hold those in places of power and prestige accountable for their unethical acts.
3) The Nashville Manifesto and Covenant School Shooting: Not all leaks are unethical. Sometimes it is the withholding of information that should be made public which comprises an “egregious breach” of trust. Recently seven Nashville police officers were “put on administrative duty,” apparently for their roles in the leaking of Audrey Hale’s manifesto of death, a plan that led to the murder of three 9-year old students and three adults teachers. Reports say that the reassignments are not “punitive,” but one is left to wonder. Moreover, why would Nashville police hold back this message of hate to begin with? What were they trying to cover up anyway? Why did it have to be leaked in the first place?
4) Same-Sex Marriage Confusion: Some of these unresolved issues are more ideological and, as such, less concrete. In turn, being less concrete, it is less clear as to the nature of what a resolution would look like. They are not single events that demand greater revelation, revelation which may lead to final resolution. They are ongoing conflicts that require greater degrees of resolution, even if no final one is in sight. However, the confusion that exists in the Church today, in all its manifestations be they Evangelical, Anglican, Roman Catholic, even Orthodox, over the nature of marriage and the moral status of homosexuality is devastating. It is hard to say there is any other issue in the world today that is dividing the Christian Church more so than same-sex marriage.
The depth and scope of the conflict seems no less great than the depth and scope of early Christological controversies in the Church, Reformational disputes over the nature of justification, or modernist conflicts over the nature of miracles. Of course, the dispute over same-sex marriage is downstream from far more general anthropological questions, like “what are human beings at all?” But this itself is a very modern controversy. Still, within the Church, it is the “dubious” nature of the dialogue on same-sex marriage which only feeds distrust and division among its members. This ambiguity and vagary about same-sex marriage was once again on display in Pope Francis’ most recent letter on the issue regarding the blessing of same-sex couples.
5) Weaponizing the Justice Department against Christian Activists: On September 23, 2022 at 6:45am the house of pro-life advocate Mark Houck, a father of seven, was raided by “a SWAT team of about 25 [people] … and 15 vehicles.” According to Houck’s wife, the SWAT members who came to arrest Houck for an apparent violation of the FACE Act (Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances) roughly one year prior “started pounding on the door” and threatened to break it in if he didn’t answer. On top of that Ryan-Marie Houck testified that about five guns (according to Houck, M-16’s) were pointed at her husband. What was Houck’s apparent crime? In October 2021 he tried to protect his 12-year old son from a reproductive “health” care clinic escort, Bruce Love, who was becoming aggressive with Houck and his boy. In January of 2023, Houck was acquitted of all charges (go figure), and is currently considering pressing his own charges against the FBI and state troopers.
When the high priests and Pharisees came out to arrest Jesus in the Garden of Gethsamene, they came out in force and en masse. We must be wary of a government that treats people who are not dangerous as dangerous, and who are not terroristic as if they are terrorists. When you see a crowd of federal agents surround the home of a peaceful pro-life demonstrator, weapons drawn, this should remind you of something: this is exactly what the Sanhedrin did to Jesus in the Garden (Matt 26:47-56).
Conclusion: What Will it Take to Be Healthy Again?
The resolution of moral problems and the closure resolution brings are necessary criteria for any healthy relationship, even a relationship with oneself. Some of the problems mentioned in this article are obviously not ones that can be resolved easily, and perhaps not completely. However, I believe that greater degrees of resolution, to include the corresponding psychological closure such resolution brings, are possible. It lies within our power to resolve, if we only have the resolve to do so. Just as in our personal and private lives we stagnate, backslide and fail to flourish when unresolved issues hover over us like Damocles’ sword, so too in our corporate life as a nation. As such, one resolution we might all make this year, is to beseech almighty God for the power and the humility to seek out and find a greater peace, and, in so doing, find ourselves healthy again.
*As to Taylor Swift, who was named Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year,” all I can say is I have never listened to a single one of her songs. Is her music any good? At the same time, maybe another thing we could put to rest in our culture, is treating every single musical artists as a “sex symbol.” Can we stop associating art and sex at every turn? It might also help us a society to mature.
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