Good day and welcome. Today is Thursday, June the 12th, 2025, and this is Denison Forum's

Daily Article Podcast. I'm Chris Elkins' narrator, voicing today's daily article, authored by

our co-founder and CEO, Dr. Jim Denison. An air India plane with more than 200 people on board has crashed near the

airport in India's western city of Amadabad, officials said this morning. The flight was scheduled to

depart at 3.40 a.m. Eastern Time. The plane was taking off and was headed to London's Gatwick Airport when it crashed in a densely populated civilian area, causing a massive fire with billowing black smoke.

At the time of this writing, officials have not yet confirmed whether there are fatalities. However, the company that owns Air India has activated an emergency center stating,

Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with the families and loved ones of all those affected by this devastating event.

When we hear or see news like this, we are immediately shocked by the tragedy and grieved for all of those affected.

And we are forced to admit the reality of our mortality.

Humans aren't brilliant enough to create machines that can fly at incredible speeds and heights,

but not brilliant enough to ensure our safety when we travel on them.

It is the same with every other dimension of our lives. Our cars crash.

Our homes can collapse in a storm. Medical science is more advanced than ever, but our body still

grow sick and die. None of this is what you wanted to read this morning, or what I wanted to

write when I woke up and started to work. But the Christian faith offers a hope

in the face of mortality found nowhere else a way of seeing death and life that redeems the former

and embraces the latter. This hope was expressed long ago in a surprising way that is still

powerfully relevant today.

St. Ignatius of Antioch was, according to early tradition, a disciple of the Apostle John. In the year 107, during the reign of Roman Emperor Trajan, Ignatius was arrested in order to

renounce his faith. He refused, so he was bound in chains and sent to Rome

for execution where he was fed to lions in the Circus Maximus. On his journey to Rome,

he wrote seven letters to various congregations. The last was to the church in Rome, asking

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