Recent Viewpoints

Penna Dexter Grade inflation is ravaging American universities. In 1960, 15 percent of grades were A’s. Today nearly 50 percent are. At the college level, more A’s are given than any other grade. The Washington Post reports that, last year at Harvard, two thirds of the grades were A’s — up from 35 percent just 12 years ago. According to the Post, “that doesn’t count A-minuses, which were another 18 percent.” Grade inflation occurs when schools award higher grades for…

Kerby Anderson Is America great? Was America great? These are questions that deserve an answer in a year when we will be celebrating the 250th anniversary of this country. We know the divisions. On one side is Donald Trump and all the people who wear caps that say, “Make America Great Again.” On the other side are the critics of him and the country who even created the #AmericaWasNeverGreat hashtag on social media. Critics have every right to express their…

Kerby Anderson Mollie Engelhart writes about “The Year America Stops Replacing Itself.” We were told that sometime in the future, perhaps around 2040, something profound would happen: Deaths in the US would outnumber births. Unfortunately, the date will be much closer than we expected. According to the Congressional Budget Office, that dismal demographic will arrive around 2030. I have been talking about the declining birth rate for decades. The future is merely coming closer than some expected. We have seen…

Kerby Anderson Pierre Poilievre is the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada and recently was on Joe Rogan’s podcast. They were talking about what happens when the government prints more money. He explained that the government printing money seems painless at first. “But if you have an economy with 10 apples and $10, it’s a buck an apple. You double the number of dollars to 20, but you still only have 10 apples. Suddenly, it’s two bucks an apple.”…

Kerby Anderson The writer of the book of Hebrews (10:24-25) reminds us of the value of church attendance. “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” We should gather with fellow believers out of biblical obedience, but there are several benefits to attending church. Over the last few months, I…

Kerby Anderson Stephen Soukup recently wrote about “Fenway Park, College Basketball, and the Loss of Community.” Although he used sports as his example, his point was about how communities used to provide meaning, loyalty, and continuity. He began with a video the Boston Red Sox posted in anticipation of Major League Baseball’s opening day. The video was a collection of clips from previous opening days at Boston’s Fenway Park. It sparked an online conversation about what America has lost over…

Penna Dexter What should American universities do to get their good reputations back? Surveys show Americans are losing confidence in higher education. The late Charlie Kirk famously recommended against going to college. Gallup polling done last year found only 42 percent of Americans expressing “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in higher education. According to The Wall Street Journal, “Confidence has fallen especially hard among conservatives, many of whom believe universities give priority to social justice over…

Kerby Anderson Artificial intelligence poses a problem for the Chinese communist government. That is why Cameron Berg wrote in the Wall Street Journal that “AI Is Bound to Subvert Communism.” In China, AI needs to pass an ideological test. If the chatbot fails those tests, they are quietly pulled from circulation. These large language models pull information from a vast array of human knowledge such as science, history, and philosophy. They must follow logic and use critical thinking skills. Cameron…

Kerby Anderson How many Americans attend church on a regular basis? The typical percentage usually cited is 22 percent. In other words, one in five people are sitting in a pew every Sunday. We have known that percentage is wrong. Decades ago, Gallup took the time to add up church attendance in towns and compared that to the population of the town. They knew the percentage was inflated. Carey Nieuwhof has been looking at church trends for years and has…

Kerby Anderson James Freeman, writing in the Wall Street Journal, reminds us that “The Great Migration Continues.” Last year, I did a commentary on the realignment of America based on the latest census figures. James Freeman updates this and shows that the trend continues. One headline from the Houston Chronicle proclaims, “Houston suburbs are still booming. But how long will it last?” An article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram explained that the Houston metro area ranked first in numeric growth…

Kerby Anderson Christian Schneider began his column with three dad jokes. I wasn’t exactly sure why he did that, until he explained that they were written by Claude, one of the most popular artificial intelligence programs. The title of his column was: “Did a Human Write This Column?” We all know how a dad joke is created. We think of a way to turn a phrase to get our kids to groan or laugh. By contrast, Claude has no brain…