In a rambling column otherwise focused on the November elections, Thomas Friedman revisited one of his favorite themes: his odd and unsettling affinity for autocracy.

According to Sebastian Gorka, ISIL is simply another form of totalitarianism, a political regime seen under Hitler and Nazi Germany that recognizes no limit to its authority and attempts to permeate every aspect of public and private life. Yet, peace with ISIL and other jihad-driven Muslim groups seems much more difficult to attain.

The arrival and early growth of Christianity in Korea coincided with the fall of Korea to the Empire of Japan and the emergence of a Korean independence movement. The first generation of Korean Christians became the main leaders of the independence movement, and they established a connection between Korean national identity and Christianity that has continued into the 21st Century.

North Korea, known for the totalitarian rule of Kim Il Sung’s family, once was the center of Christianity in Northeast Asia, its capital Pyongyang renowned as the “Jerusalem of the East.” This forgotten era has renewed relevance today as reports of underground Christianity come from North Korea and while the regime’s grip on society weakens.

“Radical Islam” points us in the wrong direction to identify the kind of Islam that motivates America’s enemies and is too vague to accomplish the defining and limiting that is needed for the grounding of expectations and the setting of strategy.

Gerard Russell’s Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms shows how Islam is not the only religion in the Middle East while displaying the hidden life of centuries old religious communities.

There is little incentive in this world for a North Korean to choose to follow Jesus. Yet 300,000 of them do so, and every last one lives dangerously close to martyrdom.

The earliest champions of a free press were not Enlightenment philosophes. They were dissenting Christians, most of them Protestants, battling the political and religious authoritarians of the day.

The rueful lessons of the Vietnam War, especially their roots in the hubris of modern liberalism, remain largely forgotten.