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Ransom note received for Savannah Guthrie’s mother · The Daily Article

• 0:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's Wednesday, February the 4th, 2026.
• 0:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: We're glad you've joined us for the Daily Article Podcast from Denison Forum.
• 0:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm narrator Chris Elkins, giving voice to today's Daily Article, written by author and theologian, Dr. Jim Denison.
• 0:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's of Anna Guthrie has withdrawn from hosting the 2026 Winter Olympics opening ceremony to focus on her family.
• 0:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: As you know, her mother, Nancy Guthrie, has disappeared in Tucson.
• 0:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: Police believe she was taken against her will in a possible kidnapping or abduction.
• 0:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now, CBS News is reporting that its Tucson affiliate received a ransom note which contains specific details about the home and what Nancy Guthrie was wearing that night.
• 0:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: The sheriff has expressed concern that the 84-year-old needs medication she must take daily, saying the clock is literally ticking.
• 0:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: Mrs. Guthrie's disappearance is tragically not unusual in the U.S.
• 1:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: In addition to abductions, elder fraud and abuse are epidemic, as hundreds of thousands of adults over the age of 60 are abused, neglected, or financially exploited each year.
• 1:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's been said that the way we treat people is the true measure of our character.
• 1:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: As we'll see today, this is both bad news and good news.
• 1:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: The choice is ours.
• 1:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: Cultural commentator Aaron Rins latest Wall Street Journal article is titled, America is a wash and vice.
• 1:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: The subtitle explains his thesis, gambling, drugs, and pornography were once held at Bay by the country's Judeo-Christian moral consensus, not anymore.
• 1:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: In quote, Ren notes that we hear a lot less about the mafia than we use to, in part because federal law enforcement has worked hard to break up their criminal networks.
• 1:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: But Ren explains the larger reason, quote, society has legalized much of what the mafia used to do, gambling, drugs, and pornography.
• 2:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: As a result, America is now a post-vice society.
• 2:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: In quote,
• 2:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: First, he sights gambling now legal in all the handful of states.
• 2:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: About half of 18 to 49-year-olds have online betting accounts, even though sports betting reduces savings and increases bankruptcy and domestic abuse.
• 2:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: second, he notes the legalization of marijuana, which causes a variety of serious medical problems and the decriminalization of psychedelic drugs like psilocybin.
• 2:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: He also reminds us of the opioid crisis in which completely legal drugs sold by legitimate businesses caused hundreds of thousands of American deaths.
• 2:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: Third, he points to pornography, now delivered at industrial scale in high definition video for free online.
• 2:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: This despite the fact that sex trafficking and child sexual abuse are common in the online pornography world.
• 2:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: reports that, for much of our history, America had a, quote, soft institutionalized generic Protestantism that created an emphasis on moral reform and vice-suppression, in quote.
• 3:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: As examples, the Comstock Act of 1871 banned the sending of obscene material in the mail, while the Man Act of 1910 banned interstate prostitution.
• 3:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: However, religious adherents and church attendance have declined in recent decades, while, quote, academics and cultural figures called into question the old religious moral framework.
• 3:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: Written concludes, a new, different public moral order has replaced the old one.
• 3:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: This one has no problem with vise.
• 3:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: The main streaming of destructive vices is but one unforeseen negative outcome of the decline of Christianity and America.
• 3:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's unlikely to be the only one, in quote.
• 3:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: Legislation can constrain immorality to the degree that laws can be enforced, but it cannot produce morality.
• 4:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Because fallen humans are motivated by the will to power, our drive to be our own God, revealed in Genesis 3 verse 5, we will all most always do what is in our own perceived best interest.
• 4:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: Even altruism typically serves our ends, we want to impress others with our compassion, obligate those we serve to serve us in return, and motivate God to reward us for our service.
• 4:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: And temptation will always appeal to our basis instincts.
• 4:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: Nearly nude celebrities, at last Sunday's Grammys, appeared as they did because they wanted to generate the publicity they knew their outfits would produce.
• 4:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: Their strategy obviously worked.
• 4:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: The internet is still talking about them this morning.
• 4:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: They came up to the line of public nudity, which as far as the law can go, while violating all principles of decorum and good taste in the service of advancing their careers.
• 4:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: Coming to the line of what is illegal while producing content that is clearly immoral and damaging both to those who make the content and those who view it, those in the tobacco industry similarly victimized their customers for the sake of their profits.
• 5:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Elective abortion is the most obvious and tragic example of all.
• 5:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: As mother Teresa observed, it is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish."
• 5:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: In quotes, since abortion was legalized in America, more than 65 million children in America have died as a consequence of this moral poverty.
• 5:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm no exception to the principle that laws
• 5:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: I have spent my entire adult life teaching, preaching, and writing biblical responses to the issues of our day.
• 5:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: By virtue of my vocation, I get to spend more time and scripture each day than nearly anyone I know.
• 5:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: But what I know I should do and what I want to do are not aligned often enough.
• 6:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: Paul's testimony in Romans 7 verses 22 and 23 resonate with me, I delight in the law of God in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
• 6:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now comes the good news.
• 6:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: After Paul asks in verse 24, who will deliver me from this body of death, he answers immediately in verse 25, thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
• 6:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: The living Lord will transform my heart and shape my motives as he remakes me like himself according to Romans 8 verse 29.
• 6:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: He will give me the desire to obey his word and the power to fulfill this desire.
• 6:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: He wants to reproduce himself in me and in multitudes of other believers until the body of Christ encircles the world and advances his kingdom to the ends of the earth.
• 6:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: The key is to settle for nothing less than such holistic holiness, being better than our broken culture is not good enough.
• 7:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: We must want to be so much like Jesus that our private thoughts and our public words and actions please and glorify Him every moment of every day.
• 7:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: Do you want such holiness today?
• 7:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you do, ask Jesus for the empowering of His sanctifying spirit and then do what He lead you to do.
• 7:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you don't, ask for the faith to have faith, the grace to seek grace.
• 7:36
  [UNKNOWN]: you