Recent Viewpoints

Kerby Anderson Yesterday I talked about “defining woke.” Today, I want to talk about defining words. Noah Rothman recently explained “How We Know That Woke Is Losing.” He begins by explaining that the media has been pretending that we no longer know what the word “woke” means. That’s a new tactic of the left, but it’s like their other tactic of redefining words. One example of this linguistic sleight-of-hand was the decision a decade ago to ditch the phrase “gun…

Kerby Anderson For decades, the left has been willing to redefine terms to win a debate and convince the public of their views. Tomorrow I will provide some examples of that linguistic sleight-of-hand. But today, I want to talk about a new strategy. Leftists claim that the word “woke” and “wokeness” cannot be defined since so many politicians and commentators are using those terms in a negative way. Are some people using the term “woke” without understanding what it means?…

Kerby Anderson Recently I mentioned the name of Shane Pruitt on my radio program, and it reminded me of his book that we talked about a few years ago. We live in a world devoid of much common sense, and so it is worth mentioning his book, 9 Common Lies Christians Believe. You have heard most of them before. They are little phrases and one-liners that people say to encourage you. You might be going through some tough struggles, and…

Kerby Anderson Years ago, a doctor wrote an article entitled, “What’s Keeping David McCullough from Sleeping?” This noted historian and award-winning author had trouble sleeping because he was worrying about what was happening in the country. He was concerned that our leaders “have forgotten about history. They are unaware of the past, and uninterested in how they will be remembered in the future. Timothy Goeglein (who was special assistant to President Bush) opened his article with that story to remind…

Kerby Anderson Freedom in this country depends upon three important foundations: morality, limits, and human rights. First, freedom depends on morality. John Adams observed, “Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” When the citizens have an internal moral compass, the size and scope of government can be small. There is no need for external laws and regulations from government. If people do what is right and…

Penna Dexter Historic Christianity celebrates May 31st as The Feast of the Visitation, which has also been described as the first meeting of Jesus and John the Baptist. Mary, early in her pregnancy, travels to visit her cousin Elizabeth, who is much further along in her pregnancy with John the Baptist. The verse is Luke 1:44 where Elizabeth exclaims: “Behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.” Such an…

Kerby Anderson The current debate about the federal budget centers on whether the government is too big and too inefficient. Most Republicans argue that the federal government is too big. Many Democrats ask: “Where is your evidence that government has grown too big?” John DiIulio is a co-author of a significant book about American government. He explains that government grows larger by using three types of what can be called “administrative proxies.” The first are state and local governments. The…

Kerby Anderson Today is Juneteenth. You may know it as a recently declared federal holiday, but I have found that most Americans (outside of those who live in Texas) don’t know much about it, which is why I am talking about it today. Here’s a summary of the history President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves in 1863. But his action could not be enforced in many places in the South until the Civil War ended in 1865. That…

Kerby Anderson “To know only one country is to know none.” That insight by Seymour Martin Lipset is so important that Jonah Goldberg believes it should be pounded into the heads of every high school student. He suggests that: “Whenever you hear people talk about America as uniquely or exceptionally flawed—or superior—the first question you should ask is, “compared to whom?” He provides several examples. Yes, America has a murder problem. But it is worth putting that tragedy in perspective….

Kerby Anderson One of the common mistakes among Christians is to assume that the future will be merely an extension of the present. We might assume there will be some changes, but often we can’t imagine the world changing as much as it has. We need to understand some of the dynamic changes in our world. That is why I have written two booklets about “American Realignment” and “American Political Realignment.” The former looks at demographic and economic changes that…

Kerby Anderson You may remember the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey” where the computer, HAL 9000, would not allow itself to be shut down by the astronauts. HAL begins to malfunction in subtle ways but becomes paranoid about being shut down. That was movie fiction. We now have historical fact. OpenAI’s latest model (o3 AI model) was given a simple script to shut off. In 79 out of 100 trials, it independently edited that script so the shutdown command would…