Politics & Culture

Venezuela’s oil wealth and institutional collapse, combined with Chinese and Russian influence, turned it into a focal point of great power competition and shaped the Trump Administration’s hardline strategic response.

The crisis of fatherhood is the growing gap between how vital fathers are for children and how fragile the social structures are that sustain stable, responsible fathering. It includes physical absence through nonresidence, but also emotional absence, addiction, and disengagement even within the home. Culturally, fatherhood is often treated as optional or reduced to biology or money, while men are formed by scripts of autonomy or dominance rather than sacrificial stewardship. The crisis is tied to weaker marriage norms, economic instability, and institutional systems that can either support or discourage paternal involvement. A child centered policy ethic treats family stability as a public good, holds fathers accountable as moral agents, supports pathways to work and rehabilitation, and strengthens civil society, especially churches, to form men for faithful presence, protection, and nurture.

Christian and Islamic political theologies both affirm God’s sovereignty and a moral order for public life, but they diverge in how revelation, law, and political authority relate. Christianity typically maintains a structural distinction between church and state, treating government as real but limited, with ultimate allegiance belonging to God, and with faith not produced by coercion. Islamic thought has often envisioned a more integrated relationship between religion, communal identity, and public law, with divine guidance shaping social order through juristic interpretation, though Muslim political models have varied widely across history. These different theological architectures shape instincts about pluralism, conscience, citizenship, and the scope of law. Both traditions contain internal diversity and have been shaped by major historical transitions, but their enduring differences remain central for understanding public life in plural societies.