Recent Viewpoints

Kerby Anderson Americans currently promoting socialism tell us that we shouldn’t look at the failed socialist experiments in Cuba or Venezuela. Instead, we should look at Sweden as proof that socialism works and can bring great prosperity. That’s not what Swedish historian Johan Norberg says. He is featured in a new documentary, “Sweden: Lessons for America.” John Stossel also interviewed Norberg for Stossel TV. Norberg makes it clear that “Sweden is not socialist—because the government doesn’t own the means of…

Kerby Anderson Immigration will still be a big issue this year. That is why we need to be asking good questions, especially of our elected representatives. Michael Brown, in a recent column, asks four good questions that we might want to ask of those who are supposed to be trying to fix our immigration system. He admits that he is not an expert and has no agenda. He is genuinely asking these questions. He asks, “if illegal immigrants are flooding…

Kerby Anderson If you have ever taken a social science class, you have probably heard about the law of unintended consequences. Sometimes a policy generates unexpected benefits, but usually it creates unexpected problems and even perverse incentives. Although this reality usually develops because of government programs, it also surfaces within companies and corporations. Last year Starbucks announced that anyone has the right to use a Starbucks restroom. The company did this because two African-American men were denied access to a…

Kerby Anderson Yesterday I talked about how big the federal government has grown. It is an order of magnitude larger than the largest Fortune 500 companies. But there is a second problem that makes this first problem even worse. Many of the people who are supposed to manage this organization have never been confirmed and placed in those positions. The US Senate has confirmed less than half of the positions in four federal government cabinets. Those would be the Justice…

Kerby Anderson One thing the government shutdown has done is to remind us how big government is today and how many government employees there are. When just a quarter of the government shuts down and thousands of “non-essential” employees are sent home, you realize how large the federal government has grown. Many years ago, I had an opportunity to interview Senator Jim DeMint about his book that warned how the “BIGS” were taking away our liberty. Those would be big…

Penna Dexter A question to ask ourselves as we begin a new year is: “What does the Church do when more and more of it becomes apostate?” WORLD magazine reported on an example of this as the boards of two evangelical Christian organizations, the Council for Christian Colleges and the National Association of Evangelicals, quietly passed resolutions supporting an idea called “Fairness for All.” Increasingly localities are passing Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (or SOGI) laws governing employment, housing, and public…

Kerby Anderson Ashley Bratcher is the actress in the upcoming film, “Unplanned.” The story in the film is powerful, but so is her personal story. The film will be out in March and tells about the conversion of Abby Johnson who was a clinic director for Planned Parenthood and became a pro-life activist. Ashley auditioned for the part and considered herself pro-life but admits she was certainly not an activist. However, as she read more about Abby Johnson and about…

Kerby Anderson Much has been written about the millennial generation, but the most readable and interesting is the book by Grant Skeldon, The Passion Generation. He has been a regular participant on the Point of View radio talk show “millennial roundtable” and brings lots of insight into this generation. He is the founder of the Initiative Network which seeks to train millennials to be Christ-loving, city-changing, church-investing, disciple-making, local missionaries. Although the book focuses on millennials, it is really about discipleship….

Kerby Anderson In this New Year, churches face a number of threats. The Alliance Defending Freedom is warning churches of seven threats to their religious liberty. Pastors and their congregations need to know what these threats are and be prepared and protected. One threat to pastors is the potential loss of a provision that treats housing for pastors as tax-exempt. This has been threatened for many years but faces a major challenge by the Freedom from Religion Foundation in the…

Kerby Anderson Let me begin by wishing you a Happy New Year. At the start of this New Year, I wanted to pass on some advice. In previous commentaries, I have talked about the value of using this time of year to change something in your life. There is nothing magical about using January 1 as a start date, but why not use it to improve yourself? First, I would recommend you pick just one thing to change. If you…

Kerby Anderson As 2018 is winding down, it is worth taking a moment to look back over the year and consider some of the top stories. We often find that stories that start in one year continue to the next. Sometimes new stories in the coming year remind us of stories of the previous year. Of course, 2018 was an election year. Coverage of the congressional campaigns dominated much of the news coverage, especially in the fall. Democrats will take…