The key to a nations ability to administer authority is an understanding among its individual leaders that theirs is not the ultimate authority. And the key to a nation’s ability to harbor morality is an understanding among its individual leaders that their common sense is not the ultimate source of morality. 

Christians often look at noble efforts such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) as not going far enough. But it is an illustration of the character of a just God imprinted upon the hearts of unjust men and women. Its veneration is an opportunity.

We have memorials to Pearl Harbor and Auschwitz, Oklahoma City and Shanksville, PA, not merely because we want to remember those we lost, but because we do not want to forget the lessons we learned about ourselves in those moments. Each tragedy speaks to the depth of our collective depravity and the glory of God’s image in every victim and hero.

As a journal of Christianity and American foreign policy, we wish to acknowledge the distinct contribution made by Sen. McCain to the advancement of Christian virtues in the field of American foreign affairs and American Foreign Policy. 

The choice is not between open borders or Birkenau. The choice which lies before us is whether or not we will make a government which reflects the divine justice for which government exists. 

This is an axiom, as true for foreign policy as it is for our faith. We may not be bound by history, but we are damned if we ignore it. The root of conservatism is the tendency to see value in traditions not as ends unto themselves but as visible reminders of the sacrifices of those who have gone before.

More than any other period in the last two thousand years, Christians across the globe are facing persecution. From Africa to the Middle East, India to Southeast Asia, China, and North Korea, the global church is undergoing violent persecution. While Christians in America and in the West are aware of the plight of their brothers and sisters abroad, the question remains: do they care?