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“Has there ever been a better time and a better place to be alive?” · The Daily Article

• 0:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Good morning and welcome to the Daily Article Podcast from Denison Forum.
• 0:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's Monday, September 21st, 2026.
• 0:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is an automated reading of today's Daily Article, authored by Dr. Jim Denison.
• 0:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: Today's article is titled, has there ever been a better time and a better place to be alive.
• 0:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: We could start the week with bad news from the weekend, such as North Korea's ballistic missile tests, or the Houthi's missile attack, the targeted the capital of Saudi Arabia.
• 0:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: But I'd rather not.
• 0:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: Instead, let's begin the week with some good news in the news.
• 0:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: New FBI data shows that violent crime fell 9.3% in 2025, marking the largest year-to-year decline since the Bureau began estimating such trends in 1936.
• 0:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: According to New Census Bureau data, the nation's poverty rate fell in 2025 to a historic low and inflation-adjusted median household income reached a record high.
• 1:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: Harvard University economist and professor Daniel Schog said the data represents continued economic growth.
• 1:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: Rhoiter's reports that the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell with the underlying trend pointing to continued labor market stability.
• 1:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: surveying all the good news of late, Wall Street Journal opinion writer James Freeman asked, has there ever been a better time and a better place to be alive?
• 1:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: But there's a butt.
• 1:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: The Washington Post headlines, retail sales rebound strongly in August, even as people are wary over economy.
• 1:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: Why are they wary?
• 1:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: Consumers were less optimistic in August than in July about future business conditions.
• 1:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: The labor market outlook and their income prospects.
• 1:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: Only 24% of Americans rate the economy excellent or good, while 76% say it is only fair or poor.
• 1:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: Such negativity can become a self-fulfilling prophecy as the post-noted.
• 2:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Consumer spending is a main economic driver making up about two thirds of the U.S. economy.
• 2:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: If consumers pull back, it can spell danger for economic growth.
• 2:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: I am reminded of the toilet paper shortage during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• 2:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: People became afraid that there would be such a shortage, so they bought up all they could find, which created the shortage they feared.
• 2:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: This pattern is especially relevant for those of us who follow Jesus, for reasons worth exploring today.
• 2:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: You've probably heard that half of all marriages end in divorce.
• 2:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is categorically false.
• 2:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: That erroneous number is derived by dividing the number of marriages in a given year by the number of divorces.
• 2:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: For example, in 2003, 7.5 people got married per 1,000 people.
• 2:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: While 3.8 got divorced, so the divorce rate was 50%.
• 2:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: However, if you properly compare the number of divorces in a year to the total number of marriages, not just those in a particular year, the percentage is far lower.
• 3:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: The actual number peaked in the 1970s around 40% and has been declining ever since.
• 3:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: Years ago, I was discussing this issue with the Counseling Minister at the Church I-Pastored, and he explained why the falsehood is more damaging than I realized.
• 3:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: If people believe that half of all marriages end in divorce, they are far more likely to believe that divorce is more likely unacceptable for their own marriage.
• 3:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: The same pattern pertains to claims over recent years that Americans are abandoning the church to become nuns.
• 3:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: Those who have no religious affiliation.
• 3:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: A scholars buyron our Johnson and Thomas S. Kid right in the Washington Post.
• 3:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: There's no question that the decline in mainline denominations is real.
• 3:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: Episcopalians dropped from about 3.4 million members in the late 1950s to about 1.6 million in 2022, for example.
• 3:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: However, they report that young men are attending church, more than they did in previous generations.
• 4:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: High profile intellectuals, such as Ayaan, Hercy Ali, have publicly announced their conversion to Christianity, and the nuns have plateaued at less than 30% of respondents.
• 4:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: The total number of congregations in Metropolitan Boston doubled between the 1960s and the early 2000s.
• 4:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Johnson and Kid also note that millions of people, most of whom are non-denominational, evangelical, or pentacostal, attend church faithfully, but never appear on the media's radar.
• 4:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: Here's my point.
• 4:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is conducting his ministry in the world today, just as he conducted it when he visited our planet 20 centuries ago.
• 4:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: Christians are now the body of Christ.
• 4:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: In and through us, Jesus goes where He's wanted, meets felt needs to meet spiritual needs, and works by the power of His Spirit to build followers who manifest His character wherever they go.
• 4:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: Our problem in the West is that many have turned His movement into an institution and His Lordship into a hobby.
• 4:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: If we make Jesus our advisor rather than our King and serve Him so He will serve us.
• 5:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: We should therefore not be surprised that the Lord is leading many in places that were once America's mission fields to become missionaries to us.
• 5:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: As Dr. Ryan Denison noted in his Friday Daily article, The West is now the world's newest mission field.
• 5:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is as much at work today as he has ever been.
• 5:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: The key is joining him by becoming like him.
• 5:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: The great philosopher and theologian Dallas Willard taught that discipleship is the process
• 5:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: He suggested that we should imagine how Jesus would do your job.
• 5:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: How would he be a pastor, or lawyer, or doctor, or plumber?
• 5:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: The good news is that we don't have to wonder and then try to do what we presume he would.
• 5:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: He wants to do our job in and through us today.
• 5:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: In the spirit of the disciplines, Dr. Willard writes, true Christ likeness, true companionship with Christ, comes at the point where it is hard not to respond as he would.
• 6:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for listening to the Daily Article Podcast.
• 6:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: For links, scripture references, or to find out more about Denison Forum, visit us at DenisonForm.org or click the link in today's show notes.