We are faced with an unpleasant truth. We have a choice: We can react against the news, or we can rise to the circumstances by bringing our best resources to bear on the problem of sexual abuse and misconduct in our midst. Now is the time for us to employ all that’s best about us.

In the State of the Union address and the Democratic response, one statement jumped out to me, a call for our first allegiance.

Abortion happens in the real world, and so we have to deal with abortion in the real world, which includes all the difficulties of human stories.

Names are useful things, but they can also get us into trouble. Names identify us, but they can also hurt us. In this examination of the names we use for each other, Editor Eric Black follows up on his earlier editorial about centrist Baptists.

Is all the talk about a border wall distracting Christians from their call in this world? Editor Eric Black examines one Christian leader’s conception of the border wall and whether or not such a wall is the best solution to the real issue.

I grew up under the illusion that Baptists were one big happy family. At least, that’s what I thought as a young child. My exposure to the real state of affairs happened in 1988. I was in seventh grade, and I was appalled at how I saw adults, Christian adults, treating one another.

The coming year promises to test our understanding of goodness. Followers of Christ—evangelical or otherwise—will not have to wait to practice goodness in this world. We will have the opportunity to do the honorable thing even before the end of this editorial.

We are smart people. We are sophisticated people. We’ve made so much progress. And we still can’t save ourselves. In answer to our clamoring for a savior, a child is born to us who is Christ the Lord.

Who’s responsible for the impression people have of your church? Is it visitors and guests who are responsible for what they think about you? Or is it the membership of the church who is responsible? An experience from everyday life provides an object lesson in taking responsibility.

In a Dec. 27 special edition on child sexual abuse, the Baptist Standard hopes to open the door to healing and restoration for victims and survivors and to help individuals, families and churches to become safer for the most vulnerable among us.

Life is like a flag at half-staff. Half-staff is a place of mourning, not a place of rest. From half-staff, the flag can go either up or down. Up is triumph. Down is a place of honor after a day well-served. Up is where we all want to be. Down at least means we’re tucked away safely out of the weather. Isn’t life like that?

If you can read this, be thankful. Someone taught you to read, which took time and patience. Now you can get ahead in life because you can read. Others are staying behind or falling behind because they can’t. But you can change that.