Recent Viewpoints

Kerby Anderson Anna Ayers is an LGBT student at Ohio University who serves in the Student Senate. She reported receiving hateful notes including one that threatened her life. The Student Senate president assumed that at least one of the notes must have been written by someone in the Senate who would know which desk belonged to Ayers. Because of the turmoil, the Student Senate postponed all scheduled events. Instead, the students listened to Ayers speak and express her anger, frustration,…

Kerby Anderson A recent research paper concluded that first responders are more likely to die by suicide than in the line of duty. The Ruderman White Paper on Mental Health and Suicide of First Responders is a chilling look at the sobering statistics of the lives of men and women who protect us each day. The paper explains that, “Police and firefighters, when compared to the general civilian population, are at heightened risk for depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and suicide.”…

Kerby Anderson Most Christians understand that the problems facing America are not going to be solved in Washington. But it is noteworthy when a sitting U.S. Senator says that “Politics Can’t Solve Our Political Problems.” That was the title of a commentary by Senator Ben Sasse. He believes that the tribalism in our nation has a deeper source and is tied to loneliness in America. We are relational beings and want to be in tribes. He observes that, “the traditional…

Kerby Anderson After some of the political battles on Capitol Hill and after the political ads during the mid-term elections, I think most of us would like a return to civility. Hillary Clinton explains when civility might once again become part of the political process. She told CNN, “You can’t be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for.” So she concluded that if the Democrats were “fortunate enough to win back the House and/or…

Penna Dexter There’s a particularly nasty battle tactic being deployed in the gender wars. Women are blaming good men, as a group, for the sins of bad actors. A recent op-ed in the Washington Post provides a disturbing example of this. Victoria Bissell Brown, a retired history professor from Grinnell College in Pennsylvania, wrote her piece in a tone that suggests she’s speaking on behalf of all women. Its title is: “Thanks for not raping us, all you ‘good men.’…

Kerby Anderson Christians are surrounded by a supermarket of worldviews, so it is not surprising that many have uncritically accepted many of these false views of reality. The Barna Group in association with Summit Ministries conducted a survey of practicing Christians to determine how they were influenced by these worldviews. They found that younger Christians (millennials and generation X) were much more likely to accept unbiblical worldviews than previous generations. They also found that males were more susceptible than females…

Kerby Anderson A recent Gallup poll found that three fourths (77%) of Americans believe we are a divided nation. But we may not be as divided on as many issues as we think. Dirk Philipsen believes that Americans actually agree on a lot. He says one reason we seem to disagree is due to “tribalism.” He lives in the North Carolina Research Triangle, home of the UNC-Duke basketball rivalry. His favorite teams are ‘Duke and anyone playing the University of…

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…