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When mortality is concrete and close, the view on nearly everything tends to sharpen. That sense of clarity comes through in Ross Douthat’s recent conversation with Ben Sasse, a former Republican senator from Nebraska, who was diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer last December. Back then, Sasse wrote on X: “Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence. But I already had a death sentence before last week too — we all do."
On Douthat’s podcast “Interesting Times,” the two men talked about Sasse’s current treatment, politics, higher education and what it’s like being close to death. Sasse, who is 54, spoke with a remarkably peaceful disposition, the kind that seems to come only with clarity of mind and understanding of what matters most.
The most moving part of the conversation, in my view, came at the very end when Douthat asked Sasse if he was angry at God for the health challenge he’s up against. Sasse responded that he wasn’t. “Not at all?” Douthat probed further. Sasse continued:
“No. I wouldn’t want a sovereign God to defer to all of my prayers with a yes. I’m not omniscient. I don’t know what the weaving together of the tapestry of full redemption should look like, but I know going through the period of suffering that I’m going through is a benefit because it is a winnowing.”
Sasse’s comparison of suffering to winnowing sent me to YouTube, watching a few videos about how this ancient agricultural technique is actually done. Traditionally, the grain is thrown into the wind using a basket or tray, which separates the lighter chaff from the heavier seeds. The person is typically sifting and shaking the tray, so that the wind can do its work (more modern options include a fan). The process often has to be repeated several times before anything unnecessary falls off and the seeds are fully clean.
“I’m filled with dross,” Sasse continued. “This suffering is not salvific, but it’s sanctifying, and I’m grateful for it.” Later he said he was “grateful that cancer is a stake against my delusional self-idolatry.”
Sasse grew up in the Missouri Synod Lutheran tradition and as a college student began identifying as a Reformed Christian. In college, he became involved in evangelical and parachurch organizations like the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Campus Crusade for Christ, where his wife Melissa was a staffer.
Sasse had described himself a “Lutero-Calvinist,” someone who combines the affinity for the Lutheran tradition but who has theologically become Reformed. He’s been a member of a Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) congregation, Grace Church in Fremont, Nebraska, and has helped start a congregation in Washington, D.C. He even co-edited a book on theology titled “Here We Stand!: A Call from Confessing Evangelicals for a Modern Reformation” (1996).
In the interview, Sasse said when he first received his diagnosis, Paul’s phrase kept resonating in his mind: “To live is Christ, to die is gain.” He took comfort in the idea that death was the “final enemy” and “there will then be no more tears.” He then offered how he saw his faith in the face of death:
“I believe in the Resurrection, and I believe in a restoration of this world. So, I did not feel great fear about my death.”
When Douthat asked what advice Sasse would give to a father in his 30s, Sasse didn’t hesitate: “No. 1, honor the Sabbath and keep it holy,” he said. He’d always postponed it, he said, tempted by work and sports. He’d spend the Sabbath differently now, warning especially against “digital intrusions” during dinnertime.
I thought of how before his assassination, Charlie Kirk, too, was pulled to focus on the transformational power of the Sabbath, which is the subject of his posthumously published book.
Sasse said he wishes he hadn’t traveled as much for his job and now advocates for a more family-centered, communal life: “Have more cousins and figure out how to live thick with them.”
Around 200 A.D., Tertullian, an early Christian apologist from Carthage, wrote that “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” Sasse is not a martyr in the same sense — he isn’t being thrown to the lions in the middle of the Colosseum as the public watches on. Still, there is something powerful about meeting life’s biggest test with courage, hope and faith — and with the humility to allow the world to learn from and understand this struggle.
Here are some other thoughts by Sasse that stood out to me:
- “It’s a little weird to say when you’ve just gotten an actual terminal diagnosis, but I will confess that I’ve always felt mortality heavy on my shoulders. I’ve always thought time was short.”
- “You really want to ask questions about why does a generally educated American adult, citizen, neighbor, voter, lover need to read history? What is the point of learning history? You’re not going to hear that argument in most history departments right now. So, what you’d like to see is great history, great literature, great love for music and the arts, etc. And those things are not being done in universities right now, by and large. Let’s build better liberal arts colleges at the center of these institutions.”
- “The whole dang point of America, the point of America is that we lay down our weapons outside the tent, and you go into the tent and you say: Speech cannot be violence, and violence is not a form of speech. What we believe here is that everybody is created in the image of God. They have universal rights.”
- “I think the grand divide that is coming, sociologically or demographically, is not chiefly a class divide. I think the grand divide that’s coming is about intentionality and what you do with your affections and these supertools.”
- “We need a lot more communitarian thickness to get at some of these self-restraints and self-controls that can use the tools instead of being used by the tools.”
Fresh off the press:
- Val Brinkerhoff traveled to 45 countries to photograph the sacred spaces of different cultures and faiths.
- The fertility rate in America has dropped once again from 53.8 in 2024 to 53.1 in 2025.
- Opinion: Science is recognizing the protective effects of religion.
President Trump and Pope Leo exchange
Pope Leo XIV said on Monday he had “no fear” of President Donald Trump’s administration, following the president’s lengthy post on Truth Social over the weekend, in which he criticized the pope.
“I have no fear of the Trump administration, or speaking out loudly of the message of the Gospel, which is what I believe I am here to do,” Pope Leo told reporters on his flight to Algeria, according to The New York Times. Regarding the Truth Social post, Pope Leo said: “It’s ironic — the name of the site itself. Say no more.”
On Sunday, Trump criticized Pope Leo in a lengthy Truth Social post, calling the church’s leader “WEAK on Crime” and “terrible for Foreign Policy.” He invoked the COVID-19 closures and said he preferred Pope Leo’s brother — “because Louis is all MAGA.”
“I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon,” Trump wrote. He went to to say that he didn’t want a pope who criticized the U.S. president. He inferred that Pope Leo was selected because of being an American as a way of taking on Trump. “If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican,” he wrote.
In conversation with reporters, Trump called the pope “a very liberal person,” according to The New York Times. Trump went on to post an image of himself as Jesus, giving a blessing to a man laying on a bed against the backdrop of a Statue of Liberty and an American flag.
Pope Leo told reporters on Monday that he did not see his “role as being political.” Neither was he intending to attack the president, he said. “I don’t want to get into a debate with him. I don’t think that the message of the Gospel is meant to be abused in the way that some people are doing.”
In the past few weeks, Pope Leo emerged as an ardent critic of the U.S. war on Iran, urging political leaders to seek peace. On Easter Sunday, Pope Leo extended an invitation to “abandon every desire for conflict, domination and power, and implore the Lord to grant his peace to a world ravaged by wars.” He continued the theme of confronting the growing power and aggression.
In a homily on Saturday, Pope Leo said: “A Kingdom in which there is no sword, no drone, no vengeance, no trivialization of evil, no unjust profit, but only dignity, understanding and forgiveness. It is here that we find a bulwark against that delusion of omnipotence that surrounds us and is becoming increasingly unpredictable and aggressive.”
Read the full story.
Faith in the news
- How faith was part of Artemis II — RNS
- In a postliterate internet age, young people are drawn to Catholicism, rich in images and ritual. — The Washington Post
- Why some women believe they shouldn’t have the right to vote. — The New York Times
End notes
On Sunday, my X feed was filled with videos of Ukrainian families blessing their baskets of Easter cakes called paschas on Orthodox Easter. But for some, attending church on one of the country’s biggest holidays looked a little different. These two friends decided to grab their baskets and race toward the church with them.