Latest / The Gospel Briefing / Sun May 24, 2026 — Gunfire at the White House, Missiles Over Kyiv, Scouts Rescued
Transcript
- This is The Gospel Briefing. I'm Charles King. Today... gunfire near the White House for the third time in a month. A hypersonic missile lands in Kyiv. And twenty-eight Boy Scouts pulled from a rising river in West Virginia. Headlines... Heartbeat... Hope. Let's get into it. [TRANSITION] Saturday evening. A man approached a security checkpoint near the White House. He opened fire. Officers returned fire. The man is dead. That's the bare outline from the Secret Service. Details are still coming in. But here's the part that should make all of us stop... this is the third incident of gunfire in the vicinity of President Trump in the past month. The third. I want to be careful here. We don't yet know the shooter's name, his motive, his background. The investigation is just beginning. So I'm not going to speculate, and I'd encourage you not to either. But the pattern itself tells us something. Whatever you think of this president — and Christians across this country think very different things about him — political violence is becoming a feature of American life. Not a glitch. A feature. Scripture has a category for this. It's called bloodguilt. In Genesis 9, God says that whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed... for God made man in his own image. The image of God is the reason murder is wrong. Not because it disrupts society. Because it desecrates an image-bearer. When a culture starts treating political opponents as something less than image-bearers — as obstacles, as enemies, as targets — we are not having a policy disagreement anymore. We are in spiritual territory. Here's what I keep coming back to. Proverbs 21:1 says the king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord. He turns it wherever he will. That verse applies to presidents we like. It applies to presidents we don't. And it applies on days when bullets are flying at security checkpoints. God is not surprised by Saturday night. Pray for the officers. Pray for the president. Pray for a country that is forgetting how to disagree without reaching for a weapon. [TRANSITION] Overnight into Sunday, Russia launched a mass drone and missile attack on Kyiv. At least two people are dead. Dozens injured. And for the second confirmed time in this war, Russia used the Oreshnik — a hypersonic ballistic missile that travels more than ten times the speed of sound. President Zelenskyy confirmed the strike Sunday morning. Other reports from the broader attack put the death toll as high as four, with injuries climbing. Let that sit for a moment. A weapon faster than any defense system can reliably intercept... fired at apartment buildings... in a war that has now ground on for years with no end in sight. There's a temptation, when a foreign war drags on this long, to stop feeling it. The headlines blur. The names of the dead don't reach us. That's a human response. It's also one we have to fight. Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus. He knew he was about to raise him. He still wept. The Christian response to suffering is not detachment. It's lament — even when we can't fix what's broken. Romans 12:15 puts it simply. Weep with those who weep. You don't need a foreign policy position to obey that verse. You just need a heart that hasn't gone numb. And here's where hope comes in. Revelation 21 promises a day when God himself will wipe every tear from their eyes. No more death. No more mourning. No more Oreshnik missiles falling on apartment buildings in Kyiv. That day is coming. Pray for it. Pray for Ukraine. Pray for Russia, too — because Jesus told us to pray for our enemies, and somebody's enemies are over there. [TRANSITION] Now a story that will lift you up. Saturday, along the Cacapon River in West Virginia, a routine Boy Scout river trip turned dangerous fast. Floodwaters rose. Twenty-eight scouts found themselves trapped on the banks as the current picked up speed. Rescue crews moved in. All twenty-eight scouts were brought to safety. I love this story. I love it for a few reasons. First — competent adults still exist. Rescue teams trained for exactly this scenario showed up and did the job. In a news cycle full of institutional failure, sometimes the system works. Tell your kids. Second — those scouts were not alone. Adults had planned the trip. Adults responded when it went sideways. And other adults dropped what they were doing to come pull them out. That's what Galatians 6:2 means when it says bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. We are not designed to face rising water alone. Not literal rising water. Not the figurative kind either — the diagnosis, the layoff, the wayward child, the marriage that's struggling. Somebody is supposed to show up for you. And you are supposed to show up for somebody. If you don't have that... that's worth fixing this week. Not next month. This week. [TRANSITION] A few more headlines worth your attention. President Trump announced on social media what he's calling a breakthrough with Iran. Details are unclear. Iranian state media has contradicted parts of it. So... cautious watchfulness is the posture here. Isaiah 31 warns against trusting in chariots because they are many. Diplomatic announcements are not peace. Peace comes from the Prince of Peace. NASCAR is mourning. Two-time champion Kyle Busch died Thursday after severe pneumonia progressed into sepsis. He was a giant in his sport. James 4:14 says our life is a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Hug your people tonight. The Enhanced Games take place Sunday in Las Vegas. Dozens of athletes — including former Olympians — competing while openly using performance-enhancing drugs. It's being marketed as the future of sport. It's actually a very old story. First Corinthians 9 talks about athletes exercising self-control in all things to receive a perishable wreath. The Enhanced Games skip the self-control part. They're going to find the wreath still perishes. And Dominion Voting Systems still has pending lawsuits against Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell over 2020 election claims. The legal grind continues. Truth, it turns out, takes a long time to defend in court. Proverbs 12:19 — truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment. [TRANSITION] In a moment you'll hear today's verse. What you do with it after — that's where Bible Copilot comes in. It's an inductive Bible study app — open any verse, ask anything about it, and it walks you through it: observe, interpret, apply. One rule: Scripture interprets Scripture. No outside commentary. No agenda. Free — no ads, no account, no data collection. Pro is five dollars a month for unlimited studies and guided reading plans. Search Bible Copilot in the App Store. Link's in the show notes. Today's verse is Psalm 46:1 and 2. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea. Gunfire at checkpoints. Missiles over Kyiv. Floodwaters in West Virginia. The mountains do feel like they're moving sometimes. But God is a very present help. Not a distant one. Present. Today. Thanks for listening to The Gospel Briefing. If today's episode helped you, share it with one person who needs a steadier voice in the noise. I'll see you tomorrow.