Recent Viewpoints

Penna Dexter Some bad ideas just keep coming back. And when they do, they’re often more dangerous than ever. One such proposal was the Equal Rights Amendment, which proponents claimed would protect women’s rights by prohibiting discrimination based on sex. Congress passed this amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1972 and gave it seven years to achieve ratification by three-fourths of the states. Thirty-five states ratified. In a constitutionally questionable move, Congress extended the deadline three more years. Still the amendment…

Kerby Anderson Mention celebrity suicides and you immediately think of Robin Williams, Anthony Bourdain, and Kate Spade. Talk about teen suicides and you think of the lost potential of young people. After all, it is the third leading cause of death among 10-24-year-olds. Every day at least 123 Americans die of suicide. It is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States. Depression is one reason, a psychological disorder that affects nearly a fourth of American adults in a…

Kerby Anderson The Apostle Paul encourages us not to be “anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” – Philippians 4:6. I have done a number of radio programs with Christian teachers and Christian doctors about anxiety and depression. Both Christians and non-Christians now believe anxiety is increasing in our society. A recent article by Amy Morin in Psychology Today lists “10 Reasons Teens Have So much Anxiety…

Kerby Anderson If you want to get a surprised reaction from people, tell them that we just had the best decade ever. I am fascinated by the reaction when I say it. Even people who are hardly environmental doomsayers have trouble believing it. Matt Ridley recently wrote, “We’ve just had the best decade in human history. Seriously.” Why would he say that? Let’s put a few facts on the table. “Extreme poverty has fallen below 10 percent of the world’s…

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…