Recent Viewpoints

Kerby Anderson In our world today, there is a great danger of groupthink. That is a name given to the way in which a group begins to think and reinforce that thinking due to pressures put on the group. One of the classic examples is the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Even though there was evidence that the Japanese might attack the US, military officials discounted that evidence believing that Japan would recognize the futility of war with the US. Recently…

Kerby Anderson Should a person who burns a gay pride flag be sentenced to 16 years in prison? I would hope that most of us would agree that the sentence is extreme. On more than one occasion I have been asked to comment on this absurd sentence from Iowa. I waited until I could get all the facts. And the facts illustrate why we need to reconsider hate crime legislation. The man sentenced to 16 years has a long criminal…

Penna Dexter Progressive pastor Doug Pagitt recently wrote an article for THE HILL which he titled, “Evangelicals Are No Longer a Sure Bet for Trump.” This is wishful thinking on his part. A column in THE NEW YORKER sheds light on Pastor Pagitt’s efforts to attract Christian support for Democrat candidates. In her piece, “Teaching Democrats to Speak Evangelical”, Eliza Griswold explains that, in recent campaigns, “moderate evangelicals” have been overlooked by the Democrat candidates. To remedy this, she says,…

Kerby Anderson The longest impact a president can make on the country is through the federal judges he appoints to the court. After three years in office, President Trump has appointed and had confirmed more federal judges than previous presidents in the last few decades. The highest court below the Supreme Court is the Circuit Court. More than a quarter (27%) of the US circuit court judges are Trump nominees. Let’s put this in perspective. President Obama appointed and confirmed…

Kerby Anderson When a pundit or politician makes an erroneous statement, I wait to see if anyone corrects the error. Sometimes you have to wait a long time (often forever) for a correction. That is why I waited a month to respond to some of the news reports and Twitter posts about the food stamp program. Mainstream media dutifully reported that the Trump administration formalized work requirements for food stamps. So far so good. But then many concluded that 700,000…

Kerby Anderson A few months ago, I provided some commentary on the New York Times 1619 Project that attempts to “reframe” American history. The authors suggest we begin America’s history in the year African slaves were first brought to America. In other words, the “true founding” of America was not in 1776 with liberty but in 1619 with slavery. Over the last few months, a number of respected historians in America have had very critical comments about the New York…

Kerby Anderson Antisemitism has been on the rise, and Jews are being targeted here in America. Here are a few of the most reported attacks over the last 15 months. A white supremacist kills 11 Jews and wounds 7 others during Sabbath services in a Pittsburgh synagogue. Another shooter opens fire in a Passover service in California. Two shooters with the Black Hebrew Israelites target a kosher grocery store in Jersey City and kill four. A black man storms into…

Kerby Anderson During the political campaigns this year, we will hear quite a bit about the need to have safe and secure elections. Democrat concerns about interference from Russia, and Republican concerns about election fraud will drive the discussion. Unfortunately, much of the rhetoric will focus on flawed bills that passed the House but were ignored in the Senate. A few months ago, I wrote about the Safe Act (Securing Federal Elections Act). While it had a number of positive…

Penna Dexter The economic numbers are good and improving in America — a blessing for which we must be thankful. Let this not blind us to the fact that, as a nation, in many ways, we’re still headed in the wrong direction. We’re aborting 800,000 babies a year. We’re mainstreaming deviant sexuality. It’s difficult to stand for and live according to what we know is the truth. Plus, we’re dabbling in socialist policies. How do we live going forward? Prayerfully….

Kerby Anderson Let’s start with an obvious statement: there are no easy answers for cities trying to deal with homelessness on their streets. But a recent court decision coupled with a decision by the Supreme Court to avoid the issue won’t help those cities in the western states. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down an attempt by Boise, Idaho to deal with people camping and sleeping on sidewalks. The court declared that giving a homeless person a ticket…

Kerby Anderson The future of the Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare, is in legal limbo. A three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals essentially declared the law unconstitutional but sent it back to the federal district court to evaluate its status. Two years ago, the Attorneys General of a number of states, led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, asked a federal judge in Fort Worth to strike down the law as unconstitutional. Their argument was simple….