Global Influence: 21St Century National and Global Issues Critical to Global Leadership

By Lemuel Baker Ph.D

If you are a leader or professional at any level or discipline the information in this book is of time sensitive importance to you. To achieve global influence, leaders at any level or discipline must take some time to become familiar with the critical issues of our time, 21st century issues that influence our lives. When we begin to understand the critical issues of our time the religious community can then provide intelligent input bringing God's influence to a society that has problems that need the right solutions from people with the right motives who can be trusted. The ancient Statesman Daniel was an excellent example of bringing God's influence at very high levels only because he was assessed by his peers to be of an excellent spirit, well rounded, educated, intelligent, managing his weight, his emotions and spirit well.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 22, 2023
• ISBN: 9781669855064

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Copyright © 2023 by Lemuel Baker, Ph.D.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®). Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. [Biblica]

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Rev. date: 01/13/2023

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CONTENTS

Dedication

Introduction

Chapter 1:Mental Health the Church and Society - Global and National Mental Health Trajectory

Chapter 2:Gun Violence and Mental Health Disorders

Chapter 3:Charleston, South Carolina Church Shooting, a Spiritual Marker

Chapter 4:The Nehemiah Plan, Rebuilding the Walls of Black America!

Chapter 5:Looking Inward - Fixing the Animus Associated with Police Departments - Moving Forward From Minneapolis

Chapter 6:A New Era of World Displacement - Immigration a Salient Global Issue - Immigration Reform!

Chapter 7:Climate Change - Papal Encyclical - Pope Francis Endorsed Climate Change

Chapter 8:Intergenerational Dynamics - A Leadership Competency

Chapter 9:Managing for Millennials in the Workplace - A New Generation of Global Leaders - Millennial Leadership - Millennial Fears & Concerns!

Chapter 10:Low Educational Standards an Underlying Cause for Political Protests

Chapter 11:Religious Persecution, Statistical Increase!

Chapter 12:What is Journalism - Is Journalism in Crisis?

Chapter 13:Understanding Sexual Abuse in the Church

Chapter 14:Biblical Models for Choosing Governmental Leaders

Chapter 15:Understanding Brexit a Synopsis

Chapter 16:How COVID-19 Influenced Faith Based Organizations-A Multi-Disciplinary Overview

Chapter 17:Choosing Our Own Prophets - The Further Weakening of a Nation

Current List of Books by Lemuel Baker, PhD

1. Feed My Sheep - The Effective Christian Leader

2. Misunderstood - Difficult concepts of The Bible

3. Focused Praying - Shifting Gears from Passive to Fervent Prayer

4. Explanation - Christian Apologetics for The Busy Person

5. The Many Faces of Judaism - Jewish Studies for The Busy Person

6. Do Kings Drink Wine - Should Christians Drink Alcohol

7. Being The Best of The Best

8. Global Influence

9. The US-Israel Covenant Story

Dedication

I dedicate this book to my beloved grandmother the late Joyce B. Gould who herself had a great desire for missions, for scripture reading and for learning. Her descendants are fulfilling her dreams that were not completed each descendant gifted with portions of her giftings. I honor my grandmother keeping her name alive and her place in creation history. She has a yad v’ shem a place and a name in creation, in history and most importantly in my life. God bless you grandmother and forevermore. Amen.

Introduction

If you are a leader or professional at any level or discipline the information in this book is of time sensitive importance to you.

To achieve global influence, leaders at any level or discipline must take some time to become familiar with the critical issues of our time, 21st century issues that influence our lives. When we begin to understand the critical issues of our time the religious community can then provide intelligent input bringing God’s influence to a society which has challenges that require the right solutions from people with the right motives who can be trusted. The ancient statesman Daniel was an excellent example of bringing God’s influence at very high levels only because he was assessed by his peers to be of an excellent spirit, well rounded, educated, intelligent, managing his weight, diet, emotions and spirit well. He was very intelligent, emotionally stable and intensely spiritual. What a package!

As a result he was well respected and was given great access to matters of great consequence. Saint Paul also advocated being of an excellent spirit when he stated let your magnanimity be known to all men. Saint Paul had the same profile as the statesman Daniel which also gave Saint Paul great access and great influence. Important chapters of this book deal with mental health disorders and the role of the Church, mitigating mental health disorders, generational cohorts and their differences, how to manage millennials, millennial leadership and intergenerational dynamics.

As leaders we must grasp that when we implement good ideas these ideas will get us close to winning and no further but if we omit the right ideas we will always come close but never succeed. Good ideas are needed for maintenance but the right ideas always get us across the line to be an influencer. This book is designed to equip the reader regarding salient issues facing 21st century leaders such as ‘immigration and the new era of world displacement,’ so that God can open doors giving you access and so that you can bring godly influence to a world that needs solutions. Other global topics addressed in this book affecting all of us in the 21st century are ‘Christian persecution, Climate Change, Black cities in crisis and fixing the animus associated with police departments.’ We must wrap our hands around these complicated issues.

Chapter 1

Mental Health the Church and Society - Global and National Mental Health Trajectory

Every time we come together in a House of Worship, this time set aside for the purpose of worship and hearing the messages within scripture, is most important. It is a time of interventions whereby many mental health issues are dealt with by the word of God and by the Spirit of God. Many individuals would go over the edge if the Church would not intervene by its psycho-spiritual functions provided by the teaching of the scriptures and the messages within scriptures. The weekly Church services are preventative, proactive and restorative in their implementation. The Church is integral to society and if this institution is removed there would be an immediate decay of every aspect of society.

We attempt to abolish the institution of the Church or to make the institution irrelevant to the fabric of society because we lack understanding of its function as a vehicle used to intervene in the lives of desperate individuals. If we understood the Church and its function we would see the vast number of suicides, murders, abuses, thefts and all manner of deviant behaviors prevented just by a Sunday morning service by the preaching of the scriptures. Each time a Church meets this is a sacred time of psychological and spiritual intervention. The Church is the glue that holds society together. Mental Health regarding parishioners can be mitigated through several models already being used by many local Churches.

For example your Sunday night Testimony time where parishioners share their feelings both hurts and triumphs, your special Prayer time at the end of each service where a leader has the opportunity to connect with a parishioner one-on-one for that moment, home visitation where we can build strong bonds, form community and pray specifically regarding confidential situations, men’s and women’s gatherings, specialized cell groups, personal prophecy lead by the Holy Spirit that edifies, and most importantly the ministry of the preventive-therapeutic word of God that prevents disasters and heals from the trauma of disasters. Interestingly, your greeting program is also a part of mitigating mental health as greeters provide genuine warmth to parishioners some who may be on the verge of mental, emotional, spiritual, financial breakdown. Each of these eight models if already in place should be augmented, elevated among the many Church objectives and fueled by fervent prayer sometime during each session or event always given priority by the senior leadership.

Mental Health and the Church may seem counter-intuitive because why should any group dedicated to worshiping God be concerned with mental health? The reasons both society and religious institutions hesitate to discuss and to mitigate mental health issues are the stigma, the shame and the embarrassment associated with the topic and pathology. As a result mental health has become a standing crisis surpassing major physical diseases certainly in years to come. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a specialized agency of the United Nations that coordinates international public health, depression is the leading contributor to the global burden of disease. More importantly according to the W.H.O depression was projected to reach second place ranking in their top 10 list of global burden of diseases by the year 2020 and reach the number one global disease burden by 2030.

Currently 5 of the entries on the top 20 list of global burden of diseases are mental health diseases. The W.H.O has identified depression, psychosis, somatoform and self harm as 4 categories seen globally that require mitigation. A key contributor to bad mental health is factional fighting countries such as Israel, Nigeria and South Africa who experience prolonged fighting. As the US increases inter-party fighting, aggression due to opposing ideologies, partisan fighting in the form of violence, mental health disorders will increase adding to the already upward trajectory of mental health disorders. Other major contributors to bad mental health are unemployment, poverty, any economic down-turn, lack of education, and homelessness.

The legalization of cannabis is an additional force that may plummet even more people into depression. This point of view is heavily challenged and must be carefully researched. The British Medical Journal 2002, The American Journal of Psychiatry 2001, Australian and UK studies show a direct link between cannabis and mental health disorders specifically depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, mood disorders, psychosis in the form of delusions and hallucinations. These particular research studies that focused on long-term affects of cannabis across all generational cohorts concludes cannabis has a negative impact on mental and physiological health, and causes mental health disorders instead of being a result of mental health disorders due to the high levels of the predominant cannabis chemical THC.

Our Relationship With Technology - Is there a downside to technology as some Silicon Valley gurus are claiming? As a trend, top Silicon Valley executives are removing technology from their homes referencing physiologic and structural brain changes to their children similar to the brain changes of those with substance abuse and compulsive eating disorders. Their decisions in part may also be based on cultural, religious leaning and a penchant to support existing data by injecting culture and religion. Is technology such as your smart phone, ipad, lap top, your social media activity replacing literal face2face interaction with people during each day. This is a big one! Technology can be both the cause of loneliness as well as the result of loneliness. Those of us who