Christ’s incarnation is the fulcrum of human history. Yeshua bar Yoseph’s life, ministry, crucifixion, death, and resurrection is the turning point away from a hopeless human existence ending in meaningless entropy towards a way of life with genuine hope.

Jesus of Nazareth, an obscure carpenter and itinerant preacher from a backwater province of the early Roman Empire, opened the way for all people everywhere to reconcile with God the Father, creator of heaven and Earth, of all that is seen and unseen. His messiahship transformed the scope of what is possible for each and every one of us.

Even if I were not a terribly flawed Christian believer, as a historian I would be compelled to recognize that the effects of this man’s life transcend the legacy of every other man. Christianity is and always has been at the heart of our shared Western Civilization. From its birth in the Dark Ages following the fall of the Western Roman Empire through the present day, faith in Christ was and remains the mote of dust around which the West’s distinct civilization coheres.

The West redefined its inherited Classical according to the Christian notions that all human beings are made in God’s image, all governments are accountable to God, and love is our highest virtue and best destiny. The West then became the world’s first worldwide civilization and its first industrial civilization, effectively conquering the entire planet before World War I.

The West remains the Earth’s default human society, linking it through commerce, communications, and international institutions. It is the West that developed human rights, built republics, cured Polio, went to and from the Moon, forged the Green Revolution, and still offers unprecedented opportunities to the people of the world for freedom and prosperity.

Christ is at the center of all of this. Christians insist that all human life has value, not just the great, heroic, storied men of the Iliad and Plutarch’s Lives. Christ cared for poor and forgotten men, for women, for children, for slaves. All of these children of God could be saved, and all of them mattered.

This universality of human value made peace and prosperity within a stable and decent civil society possible. We human beings are ends as well as means. The Christian West has been ever more fully implementing this universality for two millennia.

Jesus’ fulcrum existence began when the infinite and eternal re-entered creation within the limited form of a finite human being. The transcendent God that crafted everything in existence became, in a mysterious fashion, merely one portion of this reality. Illimitable divinity was born of woman, lived in a specific circumstance of time and place, knew pain, hunger, and even doubt; “Father, Father, why have you forsaken me!”

The omnipotent would know weakness. The omniscient would know uncertainty. The omnipresent would know limits. Most importantly, the immortal would know death. All of this because God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten son to die for our sins, so that we might have eternal life.

Jesus did not come as a conquering warlord, an all-powerful ruler who commanded Empires. In His time, He was nobody that anyone was ever compelled to listen to. His followers were undistinguished by birth or special training or talents. He promised no easy life, no charmed existence without travail. He offered that people take up a cross as he did. He offered division,
separation, strife, and seemingly endless conflict with the non-Christian world.

When he died, his followers could fit inside a single room. Yet, today, no part of the world has not heard the name and story of Christ. Christianity, along with Buddhism and Islam, is one of the world’s three largest religious faiths.

It remains the fastest growing. When St. Paul determined that converts would not need to become Jewish by being circumcised and keeping Kosher, Christianity exploded across the Greco-Roman world. This evangelical expansion continues apace.

Whether you like Jesus or not, agree with Christianity’s many denominations or not, Christ’s message has resonated through humanity for two thousand years like few others.

All of this began in a Bethlehem manger with a fourteen year old mother who was pregnant before being married. Alone in a strange town, Mary and Joseph experienced the fear and hope that characterizes new parenthood. The hope of the world was a helpless infant. Utter strength began in abject weakness.

Without Christ, life is nothing but an anarchic struggle by the most desperate and aggressive among us for totalitarian power. Without Jesus, none of our pain and sacrifice means a thing, because everyone inevitably dies.

Everything wrought by human hands and human willpower is an exercise in futility. We are reduced to being wannabee godlings struggling amongst ourselves for the meaningless illusions of power, stability, security, and control. Without the hope of Heaven, our existence becomes Hell.

That is what Christmas means to me, a hope for something better both within this life and beyond. I hope to live in genuine gratitude for the hope God offers, from the sure and true basis of His loving grace. I hope for a life that has meaning and is worth living. That hope, to me, is the greatest Christmas present of all!

Katie Louise Knowles, 47, was found guilty of felony DUI following a two-day jury trial in October 2025.

The charge stems from an incident on May 6, 2025, in which Knowles was called in as a possible intoxicated driver. After locating Knowles, officers conducted a traffic stop and investigated. Due to Knowles’ behavior during the traffic stop, the standardized field sobriety tests were not administered. Suspecting Knowles was under the influence of drugs—not alcohol—officers offered her a urine or blood test, but she refused.

After obtaining a search warrant, officers collected a sample of Knowles’ blood which later revealed that she had methamphetamine, among other drugs, in her system. Felony DUI is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Having previously been convicted of at least two prior felony offenses, Knowles was also convicted of being a Persistent Violator (sometimes called ‘habitual’ or ‘repeat offender’). This enhancement mandates that a prison sentence be no less than 5 years but allows a Court to extend a sentence by up to life. Knowles was sentenced on December 15, 2025, by District Judge Regina McCrea.

Knowles’ criminal history spans 25 years and includes convictions for possession of drug paraphernalia, frequenting a location where drugs are used or present, possession of controlled substances, and several probation violations. Knowles also has 6 prior convictions for DUI:

• Misdemeanor DUI in 2001 (Bonner County)
• Misdemeanor DUI in 2002 (Bonner County)
• Felony DUI in 2010 (Bonner County)
• Felony DUI in 2013 (Bonner County)
• Misdemeanor DUI in 2016 (Spokane County)
• Misdemeanor DUI in 2017 (Spokane County)

Knowles is also pending a DUI charge out of Spokane, Washington, from an April 2025 incident. (Knowles is innocent until proven guilty in that case).

At sentencing, Criminal Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Laura McClinton recommended a 15-year prison sentence with parole eligibility after 8 years.

District Judge Regina McCrea sentenced Knowles to a 10-year prison sentence with parole eligibility after 5 years, but suspended the sentence and placed Knowles on probation for 10 years. District Judge Regina McCrea also ordered a 4-year driver’s license suspension and that Knowles participate in substance abuse treatment as a condition of her probation. Knowles has been in custody since her arrest on May 6, 2025, and was ordered to remain in jail until her release into treatment on February 24, 2026.

Prosecuting Attorney Stanley T. Mortensen thanks the Idaho State Police for investigating the case and Laura McClinton for prosecuting the case.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), “[a]bout 32% of all traffic crash fatalities in the United States involve drunk drivers. In 2022, there were 13,524 people killed in these preventable crashes. In fact, on average over the 10-year period from 2013-2022, about 11,000 people died every year in drunk-driving crashes.”