It's Thursday, September 1st, 2022.

I'm Albert Moeller, and this is the briefing, a daily analysis of news and events

from a Christian worldview. Sometimes the biggest

worldview issues of our day come with a name and sometimes it comes with a death

or in some cases the anniversary of a death.

It was the death on Tuesday of the last leader of the Soviet Union,

Mikhail Gorbachev, that gives us our main consideration for today.

We really are talking in worldview terms about some of the biggest issues of the

20th century continuing into the 21st century when we talk about Mikhail Gorbachev.

But the other person we're going to consider is the late princess Diana, the late princess of Wales, who died

25 years ago yesterday in a car accident in Paris. Less significant in terms of vast worldview

issues, but still as we shall see significant enough

for us to take some time today.

But first we go to Russia and to the death announced on Tuesday of Mikhail Gorbachev, the eighth

and last leader of the USSR, the Union of Soviet Socialist

Republics. He was the last General Secretary of the Communist Party there in the

USSR. He was the last of the Cold War leaders of the Soviet Union.

He was the last of a line and he ended up being one of the most controversial figures in the

history of the 20th century. Just think about the headlines after his death was

announced on Tuesday. Some people, and this would be particularly true in the West, there were many

who lionized him, many media sources, celebrated him as a great defender of human

rights and human dignity, someone who is basically to be remembered for bringing

...