Recent Viewpoints

Kerby Anderson The new book by David Green has the arresting title, Giving It All Away. He is the founder of Hobby Lobby and tells the story of his success and calls for Christians to give generously to churches and other ministries.He was on my radio program recently, and we talked about Hobby Lobby, the Museum of the Bible, and their court case that went all the way to the Supreme Court. The Green family has been at the center…

Kerby Anderson What makes a society successful? With all the talk about trying to “Make America Great Again,” the focus has been on individual political and economic policies. As important as those are, we need to step back and ask the bigger question about what makes for successful societies. Harvard historian Niall Ferguson has an answer to that fundamental question. His book, Civilization: The West and the Rest, puts so much in historical context: “For 500 years the West patented…

Kerby Anderson Khaldoun Sweis admits that reaching your secular friends with the gospel is difficult, but there are things we can do to be more effective. He and I have worked together at the International Society of Christian Apologetics, so I was excited to see many commentators like Ed Stetzer and Eric Metaxas quoting him. Khaldoun says we make a mistake “when we ignore the trends and zeitgeist of the times, and we make grave mistakes when we try to…

Penna Dexter The divorce rate is falling in America. According to an analysis of US Census Bureau data, it fell 18 percent from 2008 to 2016. Even after controlling for factors such as an aging population, University of Maryland sociology professor Phillip Cohen found the drop was still 8 percent. Underneath this trend there’s both good and bad news. The good news is: the marriages of Generation Xers and, to a greater extent, millennials are lasting longer. Couples are marrying…

Kerby Anderson In addition to my study of the millennial generation is my current research on the generation following them. Jean Twenge has given them the name iGen because their generation has always had digital devices like the iPod and the iPhone. They were born between 1995 and 2012. In fact, the leading edge of the iGen generation are now graduating from college. In many ways, they are different from previous generations. Here are a few characteristics that Jean Twenge…

Kerby Anderson A number of columnists and political thinkers have tried to explain why there is so much hate in the public arena. Shelby Steele is a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. He has some profound insights on “Why the Left is Consumed With Hate.” He takes us back to the 1960’s when this country “finally accepted that slavery and segregation were profound moral failings.” So the left put itself in charge of righting this wrong, thus giving…

Kerby Anderson Last month I quoted from Victor Davis Hanson’s article on “The Origins of Our Second Civil War.” One of his explanations focused on our college campuses. His insightful analysis is worth more than the few sentences I devoted to it a month ago. He argues that higher education helped split the country in two. For example, college campuses “competed for scarcer students by styling themselves as Club Med-type resorts.” This included upscale dorms with phenomenal buffets and lavish…

Kerby Anderson These last few weeks have provided all us with an education about memories. How well do we accurately recall events that took place decades ago? What have scientists discovered about true and false memories? We may never know how many of the memories that have been cited and even presented in the Senate Judiciary Committee are accurate. But we do have some data that suggests that the memories of people who testify in trials are often not as…

Kerby Anderson Today is Columbus Day. While this is a holiday for many, it is an opportunity for all of us to look back on the life and exploits of Christopher Columbus. I guess we should begin by acknowledging that Columbus Day today is not your father’s Columbus Day. Not so long ago Christopher Columbus was revered as the man who discovered the Americas and opened up the continent to settlement. Today he is often portrayed in a negative light…

Penna Dexter The loudest female voices regarding the allegations against Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh were those denouncing senators’ support for him and demanding it be “justified” with more investigation. Less reported were the numerous women who called Senate offices in support of Kavanaugh and who were critical of what they saw as a political lynching that unfairly destroyed the reputation of a brilliant jurist and family man. The #MeToo movement is shining a bright light on sexual abuse by…

Kerby Anderson Two weeks ago my commentary was all about “good news” that is rarely covered by the press since it isn’t really considered news. I wanted to come back and talk about some “bad news” that also is rarely covered by the press because it is too much in the future when the focus on news is what is happening now. Tyler Cowen wrote about what he called, “The Decline and Fall of the American Empire.” He doesn’t think…