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The hope, joy and sorrow of Palm Sunday is a gift to all of us
April 13 is Palm Sunday, a holy day kept by many Christians around the world. This day commemorates the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem some 2,000 years ago.
For Jesus, it was the beginning of a dramatic week that would see him crucified and later raised from the dead. This day, Palm Sunday , marks the beginning of Holy Week. For those Christians who keep Holy Week, we recall the dramatic events as told in the Gospels: the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
In the Gospels, we read that Jesus entered Jerusalem in a procession that must have resembled both a parade and a protest. People lined the way throwing garments and palm branches as Jesus entered the holy city. They shouted “Hosanna!” This means, “Save us!”
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Ancient Jerusalem then was under Roman occupation, led by a puppet government. People wanted freedom and hope. They wanted what all people want: the ability to flourish as the people God has made us to be. But the military occupation needed people to be loyal first to the government over all else.
When people began to call Jesus their king and their Lord, it was a threat to the established order. The tension on the first Palm Sunday must have been palpable. Hope and fear, freedom and might, righteousness and sin all mixed together.
It’s not so different today. All around us, the world seems increasingly divided against itself. I think people across the political spectrum can agree on that. Chaos seems to increase. Violence reigns. Where is our peace?
Like those people of long ago, we who follow Jesus might well want to shout with fervor, “Hosanna! Save us!” We might like Jesus to come in and clean up our mess. But I think Jesus expects us to clean up the mess we have made. We need to turn over a new leaf. This is the very definition of repentance.
When we shout “Hosanna!” today we should not be thinking that Jesus will “save us” by fixing the mess we have made without expecting us to change. Quite the contrary. Fixing the world happens one life at a time, starting in our own hearts.
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The events of Holy Week show us that God loves us more than we can imagine. Jesus was willing to die for us, to suffer, to open the gates of eternal life to all who believe in him. On the cross, he asked his Father to forgive his executioners. The whole story — from start to finish — is a story of sacrifice, generosity, forgiveness, mercy, and, above all, grace.
If you go to a church this Sunday, you’ll likely experience a collision of two moods. Waving palms and singing vigorous hymns, you may feel hope and joy. Then hearing the story of Jesus’ suffering and death, you may feel sorrow. I love this contrast.
Hope, joy, and sorrow come together so often in our world. Read the headlines . Talk to a neighbor. Look around. If we can make sense of this collision of hope and sorrow on Palm Sunday, we have a good start at making sense of it every day of our lives.
You see, we humans mess up pretty regularly. We need a redeemer. We can’t get out of our mess on our own. And, yes, we also need to own up to our failings and be ready to amend our lives. This is exactly what Palm Sunday is about.
Jesus enters the chaos of our lives and our world. We beg for salvation. Jesus will always hear us, and he is ready to forgive us our sins. And he is ready to journey with us through life’s challenges.
This won’t make the problems of the world go away by magic, but it can give us courage to be bearers of grace and mercy in this world.
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Fears of another narco-state rise as Latin American country readies for pivotal vote
Ecuadorians go to the polls today in a runoff election between incumbent President Daniel Noboa and leftist challenger Luisa González. Noboa is seen as a pro-Trump conservative, while González is viewed as an ideological ally of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro.
Noboa refused to recognize Maduro as the legitimate president of Venezuela after his staged 2024 election and is also committed to fighting criminal gangs with all available resources to restore peace and security in Ecuador.
It’s expected González will follow in the footsteps of her mentor, former president Rafael Correa, and seek stronger ties with Latin America’s leftist governments of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silval, Gustavo Petro of Colombia and Gabriel Boric of Chile.
“Security has been his principal mandate as the president of Ecuador. He’s dedicated a lot of time, effort and resources to deal with the security situation,” Joseph Humire, executive director of the Center for a Secure Free Society and senior fellow of the America First Policy Institute, told Fox News Digital.
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“However, there’s been only marginal improvements in the security situation, and it’s compounded with other problems,” Humire added.
González is running on a platform calling for an increase in the military’s role in fighting gang violence but also strongly condemns excessive use of force and abuse of human rights.
She “appears to have a softer perspective on the issue of crime, meaning she has not stated her willingness to chase drug cartels but, most probably, would intend to negotiate with them,” Mathias Valdez Duffau, visiting fellow at the Center for International Studies at Catholic University of Argentina, told Fox News Digital.
Valdez Duffao said a policy of negotiation is similar to the policy of former President Correa’s administration and would focus on whole-of-government crime reduction approaches that would look to integrate criminal gangs into civil society.
“The reality is that negotiating with criminal gangs might give the government a short-term space to maneuver, but the gangs become stronger and end up co-opting government officials, which eventually leads the country to the brink of becoming a narco-state,” ValdezDuffao warned.
Violence and insecurity remain at the top of voters’ minds. Ecuador has the highest murder rate in Latin America, with 6,986 recorded homicides in 2024, making it the second most violent year in Ecuador’s history. Some 95,000 people fled the country in 2024 as many communities became focal points of turf wars between rival gangs competing for territory.
President Noboa declared an internal armed conflict in 2024 and ordered the armed forces to carry out military operations to neutralize various transnational organized crime groups. The anti-crime initiative saw an increase in the military’s presence in prisons and communities across the country.
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Noboa also called for the international community to provide military assistance and suggested the U.S. army could work with Ecuador to combat violent gangs.
Despite the president’s hardline position on crime, January 2025 was Ecuador’s most violent month in recent history, with 781 people killed. Noboa partnered with Erik Prince, founder of the private security firm Blackwater, and formed a strategic alliance in March to strengthen Ecuador’s ability to fight narcoterrorism.
InSight Crime, a nonprofit focusing on organized crime and security in the Americas, reports that Ecuador is one of the region’s “most significant drug trafficking hubs” and ships cocaine from Peru and Colombia to Central America, Mexico and Europe. Many of these drug trafficking organizations working through local proxies and other criminal groups have infiltrated the prison system and expanded its network of street gangs.
The various groups operating throughout Ecuadorian society and within the prison system work with domestic and international drug traffickers, including the Sinaloa Cartel, considered one of the most powerful drug trafficking organizations in the world and responsible for a large amount of fentanyl trafficked into the U.S., according to the Department of Justice.
President Noboa and González each received around 44% of the vote in the first round of the election. González is the leader of Citizen Revolution and is considered the heir of former President Correa. She’s also looking to become the first female president of Ecuador. If she wins, Ecuador could see a return to the leftist economic policies of the Correa presidency.
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Whoever wins in the second round will have to contend with an evenly divided National Assembly split between both parties, making legislation to solve the country’s endemic violence and economic problems even more difficult.
Saúl Medina, a former governor of Tungurahua, told Fox News Digital that, after the electoral cycle, a comprehensive and determined strategy to combat gang violence must be enacted.
Two of the most important issues that must be addressed, according to Medina, are strengthening institutions and executing better oversight of the police and justice system to root out corruption, and prison reform.
“Prisons must stop being operational centers for gangs,” Medina added.
Valdez Duffao, Humire and other experts on Latin America agreed Noboa has ingratiated himself with President Trump. They are ideologically similar and, should Noboa win, it could put him in a better position to address the country’s endemic violence.
Yes, we need a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing
Here’s the latest insanity from Washington according to documents obtained by CNN : The Trump Administration intends to get rid of the “research arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), close all weather and climate labs and eviscerate its budget along with several other NOAA office.”
Though the documents in question are a part of the budget proposal for 2026 calling for cuts of more than 27%, CNN reports that the “administration expects agencies to enact the changes immediately.”
We know that Republicans have a long history of denying the reality of climate change which, according to the United Nations , refers to
long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. Such shifts can be natural, due to changes in the sun’s activity or large volcanic eruptions. But since the 1800s, human activities have been the main driver of climate change, primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas.
Climate, on the other hand, is simply the weather observed over time. In their rush to deny climate change, the Trump Administration has decided that perhaps it would be better if we didn’t know what kind of weather to expect at all. But as CNN points out:
The cuts would devastate weather and climate research as weather is becoming more erratic, extreme and costly. It would cripple the US industries — including agriculture — that depend on free, accurate weather and climate data and expert analysis. It could also halt research on deadly weather, including severe storms and tornadoes.
The justification from the administration is that the cuts are to “education, grants, research and climate-related programs in the NOAA…which the administration believes “are misaligned with the … expressed will of the American people.” But is this really the will of the American people?
To be clear, having the capacity to give people useful information about the tornado heading their way might remind them that extreme weather events are becoming more severe and more common and that there could be a reason for that. If they look too hard for the reason, they might begin to ask questions the Trump Administration thinks best left unasked. Makes sense to me.
The post Yes, we need a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing appeared first on The Moderate Voice .
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The administration won a narrow procedural victory, but it took a substantial constitutional loss.
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Inside Donald Trump’s relationship with God, in his own words: ‘I was saved’
It’s Holy Week , and President Donald Trump isn’t just leading the country, he is leaning hard into the belief that he’s been chosen to do so.
With renewed spiritual fervor and a flair for providential drama, Trump has been weaving his personal faith into the fabric of his presidency, especially after surviving an assassination attempt last year.
“I believe that my life was saved that day in Butler for a very good reason,” he declared during his address to a joint session of Congress last month. “I was saved by God to make America great again. I believe that.”
It’s a sentiment that’s becoming central to Trump’s second term. At the National Prayer Breakfast in February, Trump reflected more personally: “It changed something in me, I feel. I feel even stronger. I believed in God, but I feel much more strongly about it.”
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According to Trump, it wasn’t just a lucky turn of the head — it was divine intervention. As he tells it, he looked toward a chart at just the right moment.
“God did that. I mean, it had to be,” he said.
Even Don Jr., Trump’s loyal son and hunting enthusiast, chimed in.
“He told me the chance of missing from that distance was like missing a one-foot putt. There had to be somebody that saved you, and I think I know who it is,” Don Jr. said, “and he looked up.”
Trump often credits his Presbyterian upbringing for instilling his early sense of morality, and, as he tells it, his destiny. At the 2024 National Faith Summit, he recalled attending Sunday school, watching Billy Graham crusades, and being raised by a devout Scottish mother and a “very strong” but “great-hearted” father.
“I was blessed to be raised in a churched home… and that faith lives on in my heart every single day,” Trump added.
That foundation, he argues, is critical not just for him personally, but for the soul of the country.
Over the past two years, Trump has repeatedly sounded the alarm over America’s spiritual decline.
In an August 2024 sit-down with Fox News host Laura Ingraham , he said bluntly: “One of the reasons that our country has lost, sort of, everything — it’s lost so much — is we don’t have religion to the same extent.”
Trump often returns to the government’s role during the pandemic as a flashpoint.
“People weren’t even allowed to meet outside… They’d arrest everybody. They were fascists. They were horrible,” he said. “That was a very bad time for organized religion — but religion, you know, it gives you some hope. Gee, if I’m good, I’m going to heaven.”
At the 2023 Faith and Freedom Coalition event, he warned, “Religion is going down in terms of importance and popularity. This is not a question of popularity. We love God, and we want to protect ourselves. It keeps you sane. It keeps you honest. It keeps you good. It keeps you kind. It makes you help other people. And they’re trying to take that away from you.”
From the White House podium to packed mega-church rallies, Trump has used his presidency to advocate for religious liberty as a cornerstone of his leadership.
“As long as I’m president, no one is going to stop you from practicing your faith or from preaching what is in your heart,” he said during his first term in 2017 — and he has echoed that promise ever since.
“Faith inspires us to be better, to be stronger, to be more caring and giving… It is time to put a stop to the attacks on religion,” he said.
Trump’s made international religious freedom a consistent part of his agenda, too. In a 2017 interview with Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) host David Brody, Trump focused on persecuted Christians.
“They’ve been horribly treated… If you were a Christian in Syria it was impossible, at least very tough, to get into the United States… We are going to help them,” he said.
Trump continues to link America’s founding ideals directly to faith.
“Our Declaration of Independence proclaims that our rights are bestowed on us by our Creator,” he said at the 2019 National Day of Prayer dinner. “Each time we pledge allegiance to our flag, we say that we are one nation under God.”
At the 2017 National Prayer Breakfast, he added: “Freedom is not a gift from the government, but that freedom is a gift from God. America will thrive, as long as we continue to have faith in each other and faith in God.”
Whether he’s recounting Sunday school memories or a bullet that missed “where it counts,” Trump’s messaging in 2025 is unmistakable — he believes he’s not just leading a country, he’s fulfilling a divine mission.
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“I enjoy a very great relationship with God and a very great relationship” with evangelical Christian voters, he told CNN host Jake Tapper in 2016. “I live a very different life than probably a lot of people would think… I try to lead a good life and I have.”
Now, nearly a decade later, it’s a message that’s only grown louder, more personal, and — in his view — more providential.
“It might have touched [my hair],” he said of the would-be assassin’s bullet. “But not where it counts.”
In Trump’s own words: “I believed in God… but now something happened.”
Don’t give me your “traditional values” crap.
If your so-called “traditional values” benefit your own ethnic group while harming others, then you are one the baddies even if you don’t realize it. After all, the expression “traditional values” isn’t a synonym for godly values or good values.
The “Are we the baddies?” question comes from the British sketch-comedy TV series That Mitchell and Webb Look . One of the show’s episodes features a sketch depicting a scene from World War II. In the scene, two German Schutzstaffel (SS) officers are talking to each other, when one asks the other, “Are we the baddies?”
That sketch gains new relevance with the way that some of Donald Trump’s current supporters act.
One such supporter is USA Today columnist Nicole Russell.
In an opinion column published by USA Today, Russell complains about being hated, mocked and scorned because of her so-called “conservative” beliefs.
Here is an excerpt from her column :
“As a conservative woman living in Texas, I often feel like I’m living a dual reality. I’m a mom and a writer, but that’s not all. I go to church, laugh with friends and wave at my neighbors while we are walking our dogs. . . But online, in the legacy news media and in my increasingly ugly inbox, I live in a different world. In that world, I’m portrayed – and viewed – through a singular lens: my conservative beliefs. As such, I am easy to hate, mock and scorn.
I am far from the only woman who experiences this abuse. Progressives claim to value women, but they routinely demonize conservative women who refuse to conform to the molds that the left tries to force us into. That’s not only bad for women like me and for our society, but it’s also a poor reflection of reality. Tens of millions of American women embrace traditional values and conservative ideas.”
In that last sentence, Russell does not make a good argument because she fails to define what she means by “traditional values and conservative ideas.”
For example, in the mid-19th Century, plenty of white Southerners attended churches every Sunday. They also wanted to conserve the white Southern traditional value of keeping Black Americans enslaved. So, they supported the formation of the Confederacy, which was formed for the purpose of conserving the right of Southern states to enslave Black Americans.
In Nazi Germany of the 20th Century, plenty of Germans wanted to conserve the German traditional value of anti-semitism. So, they supported Adolph Hitler becoming Germany’s chancellor.
Does Nicole Russell believe that “traditional values” require one to support Donald Trump? If she believes that, then how would she respond to the group Christians Against Trump ?
Here is how that group describes itself:
“We are Christians from diverse theological and political backgrounds, united in our commitment to love, justice, and the teachings of Christ. We recognize that Christians may disagree on certain political issues, but we are united in our belief that the words and actions of the criminal and felon Donald Trump not only fail to espouse Christian values, but are in direct opposition to many of them. These actions undermine compassion, integrity, and respect for all individuals—values that lie at the heart of our faith.”
In short, the members of Christians Against Trump are opposed to Donald Trump because his words and actions contradict their Christian values.
Nicole Russell ends hers opinion column with this sentence: “I’m done with seeing progressives in politics and journalism spew hate at women for embracing conservative political and social values.”
Again, just what are those “conservative social values” that Russell is referring to?
She doesn’t identify such values as being godly or as being good for all who live in the USA.
So, to Nicole Russell and like-minded people, I say, “Don’t give me your traditional values crap. Neither the word conservative nor the word traditional is a synonym for godly or good. Sure, your particular values may be mocked, but the values of Neo-Nazis and White Supremacists are also mocked. If people are mocking your values, then perhaps the problem is with your values, not with them.”
The post Don’t give me your “traditional values” crap. appeared first on The Moderate Voice .
Sunday’s Forum
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