Sunday, January 04, 2026
Saturday, January 03, 2026
The Church, culture, and the nation
The Church is called to stand for justice and truth, defend the vulnerable, promote peace, and shape a future anchored in righteousness.
January 2, 2026
The Church, culture, and the nation
As Jamaica steps into 2026, the Church stands at a defining crossroads. The question before us is no longer whether the Church should engage the nation, but how intentionally and courageously it will do so. The biblical vision is clear: The Church should shape culture so that culture, in turn, influences politics. When the Church abdicates this responsibility, the moral compass of the nation weakens; when the Church rises, the nation is strengthened.
The Church as the Driver of Culture
Scripture consistently presents God’s people as a formative force within society. Jesus declared, “You are the salt of the earth…You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:13-14). Salt preserves and light illuminates — both are cultural functions. Culture is formed by values, beliefs, language, ethics, and shared moral assumptions. When the Church teaches righteousness, justice, dignity, and responsibility, these values become embedded in the culture. Politics then reflects what culture already esteems.
Therefore, the goal is not for the Church to become partisan, but for the Church to be prophetic — to shape consciences, inform citizens, and cultivate moral clarity. A culture formed by biblical values will naturally demand better governance, accountability, and justice from its leaders.
Overton window
Overton window
This article is about the political concept. For the 2010 novel, see The Overton Window.
The Overton window is the range of subjects and arguments politically acceptable to the mainstream population at a given time.[1] It is also known as the window of discourse.[2] The key to the concept is that the window changes over time; it can shift, or shrink or expand.[3] It exemplifies "the slow evolution of societal values and norms".[3]
This article is about the political concept. For the 2010 novel, see The Overton Window.
The Overton window is the range of subjects and arguments politically acceptable to the mainstream population at a given time.[1] It is also known as the window of discourse.[2] The key to the concept is that the window changes over time; it can shift, or shrink or expand.[3] It exemplifies "the slow evolution of societal values and norms".[3]
An illustration of the Overton window, along with Treviño's degrees of acceptance
The term is named after the American policy analyst and former senior vice president at Mackinac Center for Public Policy, Joseph Overton, who proposed that the political viability of an idea depends mainly on whether it falls within an acceptability range, rather than on the individual preferences of politicians using the term or concept.[4][3] According to Overton, the window frames the range of policies that a politician may recommend without appearing too extreme, in order to gain or keep public office given the climate of public opinion at that particular time.[5]
The term is named after the American policy analyst and former senior vice president at Mackinac Center for Public Policy, Joseph Overton, who proposed that the political viability of an idea depends mainly on whether it falls within an acceptability range, rather than on the individual preferences of politicians using the term or concept.[4][3] According to Overton, the window frames the range of policies that a politician may recommend without appearing too extreme, in order to gain or keep public office given the climate of public opinion at that particular time.[5]
Friday, January 02, 2026
Mamdani vows to ‘govern as a democratic socialist’ in inaugural speech
Barry Williams/ New York Daily News Zohran Mamdani is sworn in during his ceremonial inauguration at City Hall on Thursday. (Barry Williams/ New York Daily News)
By Chris Sommerfeldt | csommerfeldt@nydailynews.com | New York Daily News and Téa Kvetenadze | tKvetenadze@nydailynews.com | New York Daily News
PUBLISHED: January 1, 2026 at 4:38 PM EST | UPDATED: January 1, 2026 at 6:43 PM EST
A year ago, Zohran Mamdani was a backbench state assemblyman who had just launched a bid for New York City mayor that many saw as a long shot because of his unabashed left-wing politics.
But on Thursday afternoon, Mamdani was inaugurated as the city’s 112th mayor with a vow to “govern as a democratic socialist,” a sign that he sees his upset election victory as a mandate for his leftist affordability agenda, which has resonated with many New Yorkers reeling from skyrocketing costs of living.
“We will govern without shame and insecurity, making no apology for what we believe. I was elected as a democratic socialist, and I will govern as a democratic socialist,” Mamdani, who at 34 is the city’s youngest mayor in more than a century, said in an inaugural address on the steps of City Hall to thunderous applause from thousands of supporters.
“I will not abandon my principles for fear of being deemed radical.”
Mamdani, who’s also the city’s first Muslim mayor, delivered his speech after taking the oath office on a Koran held by his wife, graphic artist Rama Duwaji. The oath was administered by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who, like Mamdani, is a democratic socialist and is seen as a grandfather for the modern American left.
“All of us have heard that Zohran’s opponents have called the agenda that he campaigned on ‘radical, communistic,’ oh, and ‘absolutely unachievable’ — really?” Sanders said before administering the oath. “That’s not what we believe.”
Thursday’s public ceremony came after Mamdani officially was sworn in as mayor at midnight Wednesday during a private ceremony with his family.
How incongruous? Mayor Zorhan Mamdani and Ayatollah Khamenei
Zohran Kwame Mamdani takes the oath of office as Mayor of New York City in an abandoned Subway Station at Midnight on January 1, 2026.
While Zohran Mamdani becomes the Mayor of New York City, Ayatollah Khamenei is facing protests and civil unrest in Tehran. Mamdani is not only a Democratic Socialist, but also a Shia Muslim, specifically a Twelver. Similarly, Ayatollah Khamenei is also a Shia Muslim and holds the highest authority in the Islamic Republic of Iran, a theocratic state. The contrast between Mamdani in New York City, USA and Ayatollah Khamenei is stark and noteworthy. While Mamdani, a Shia Muslim, takes on the role of mayor in New York City, his fellow Shia Muslim, Ayatollah Khamenei, is potentially facing a coup d'etat and the loss of his authority.
Why Christians Must Beware of Zohran Mamdani
I don't agree with all of this man's postulations, but his main observations are well founded and require our attention.
Thursday, January 01, 2026
Trump’s inner circle is filled with architects of Project 2025. Here are the policies they have implemented so far
About half of the policies in the ultra-conservative manifesto have been implemented by the Trump administration, writes Ariana Baio
Sunday 28 December 2025 12:11 GMT
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Approximately half of the recommendations in Project 2025 have become official policies, presidential directives or overall goals of the Trump administration in the first 12 months of President Donald Trump’s second term.
The nearly 1,000-page ultra-conservative policy blueprint emerged from the Heritage Foundation think tank in 2023 and was widely seen as a possible manifesto for a second Trump turn despite denials by the candidate himself and many of those around him.
Filling the federal workforce with political appointees, phasing out the Department of Education, rolling back major Biden administration-era policies on climate change, axing diversity polices and offices, as well as ramping up immigration deportations, were some of the major policy changes that aligned with the conservative mandate.
Project 2025 Bingo: An update
Analysis Mara Richards Bim | December 30, 2025
With the current administration’s effort to “flood the zone” and obfuscate their illegal and immoral shenanigans, one would be forgiven for forgetting the origins of what has become known as Project 2025.
Project 2025, technically called “The Mandate for Leadership,” was released in time for the 2024 election. It was a policy document created by the Heritage Foundation that offered the next Republican president a blueprint to enact from Day One.
The document was so deeply troubling that Donald Trump infamously distanced himself from it, saying he’d never read it and had no interest in it. Yet, within days of his reelection, he hired the key architects of the plan to hold positions of power within his administration — chief among them Russell Vought.
The plan was and remains so troubling for so many because it advocates not for smaller government but for a larger government used like a sledgehammer to bend the will of the people toward the autocratic vision of a few.
“It’s time to revisit Project 2025 and see what was (and wasn’t) on our Bingo cards.”
With the current administration’s effort to “flood the zone” and obfuscate their illegal and immoral shenanigans, one would be forgiven for forgetting the origins of what has become known as Project 2025.
Project 2025, technically called “The Mandate for Leadership,” was released in time for the 2024 election. It was a policy document created by the Heritage Foundation that offered the next Republican president a blueprint to enact from Day One.
The document was so deeply troubling that Donald Trump infamously distanced himself from it, saying he’d never read it and had no interest in it. Yet, within days of his reelection, he hired the key architects of the plan to hold positions of power within his administration — chief among them Russell Vought.
The plan was and remains so troubling for so many because it advocates not for smaller government but for a larger government used like a sledgehammer to bend the will of the people toward the autocratic vision of a few.
“It’s time to revisit Project 2025 and see what was (and wasn’t) on our Bingo cards.”
Zohran Mamdani takes oath as New York mayor with historic Quran
Incoming mayor uses edition symbolising New York City history; to use two family Qurans in public ceremony on Friday.
This photo provided by the New York Public Library shows the Schomburg Quran on December 16, 2025, in New York [Jonathan Blanc/The New York Public Library via AP Photo]
ByErin Hale and The Associated Press
Published On 1 Jan 20261 Jan 2026
Zohran Mamdani on Thursday became the first New York City mayor to be sworn in using a Quran.
The first Muslim and South Asian mayor of the United States’ biggest metropolis, Mamdani used his grandfather’s Quran and a 200-year-old copy on loan from the New York Public Library (NYPL) for the private swearing-in event held at a disused subway station under Times Square.
He then plans to use two copies of the Quran that belonged to his grandfather and grandmother for a daytime ceremony at New York City Hall on Friday.
The historic Quran, borrowed from the library, once belonged to Arturo Schomburg, a Black historian and writer who sold his collection of 4,000 books to the NYPL in 1926. His collection became the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
Schomburg was born in Puerto Rico in the 1870s to parents of German and Afro-Caribbean descent. He later immigrated to New York and was a key player in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s – a period of intense cultural and intellectual flourishing within New York’s Black community.
The library praised Mamdani’s decision to use Schomburg’s Quran because of its connection to one of New York’s “most groundbreaking scholars and for its simple, functional qualities”.
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