J. Nick Pitts serves as the Executive Director of the Institute for Global Engagement at Dallas Baptist University.

Previous to this he held the position of Director for Cultural Engagement at Denison Forum on Truth and Culture. He came to the Denison Forum in 2014. He contributed to the Forum in the areas of geopolitics and popular culture, as well as serving as the editor of the Daily Briefing.

Nick earned his PhD from Dallas Baptist University. He co-hosts the Point of View radio talk show each Wednesday and frequently appears on Glenn Beck's TV show Think Tank. His op-eds have been published by Huffington Post, Religion News Service, Townhall.com, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

He received a bachelor’s degree in 2007 from Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee, and a master’s degree in 2009 from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.

Here’s the problem with suggesting that upsetting speech warrants “safe spaces,” or otherwise conflating mere words with physical assault: If speech is violence, then violence becomes a justifiable response to speech.

Just ask college students. A fifth of undergrads now say it’s acceptable to use physical force to silence a speaker who makes “offensive and hurtful statements.”

That’s one finding from a disturbing new survey of students conducted by John Villasenor, a Brookings Institution senior fellow and University of California at Los Angeles professor.

WASHINGTON — “We cannot afford to be so politically correct anymore,” Donald J. Trump thundered at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

“Here, at our convention, there will be no lies. We will honor the American people with the truth, and nothing else.”

Though fact checkers disagreed with his assessment that it was a lie-free convention, Trump’s from-the-podium denunciations of political correctness during the campaign resonated loudly. “I think the big problem this country has is being politically correct. I’ve been challenged by so many people, and I don’t frankly have time for total political correctness. And to be honest with you, this country doesn’t have time either,” Trump told Megyn Kelly at the Fox News debate in response to questions about his offensive comments about women. He would later dismiss his shockingly crude comments to “Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush as “locker room talk.”

Teens are growing up more slowly than they did two decades ago, and today's 18-year-olds act like the 15-year-olds of the 1990s, per a new study. Researchers found that U.S. teens are engaging in adult activities — drinking, driving, dating and working for pay — later than they used to, delaying the transition from adolescence into adulthood.

The big picture: Avoid falling into the trap of seeing these trends as all good or all bad. "It's a tradeoff," lead researcher and author of a new book, iGen, Jean Twenge tells Axios. Today's teens may be less prepared for adulthood, but they're safer, with rates of car accidents and teen pregnancies falling dramatically.