Recent Viewpoints

Kerby Anderson Liberal U.S. Senators keep asking religious questions of nominees that come before their committee. Article VI of the Constitution prohibits religious tests for public office but that hasn’t stopped some of these senators. Three months ago Senators Bernie Sanders and Chris Van Hollen questioned a nominee for deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget. You have thought they would have asked Russell Vought about fiscal and budgetary issues. Instead they focused their questioning on a post…

Penna Dexter Daily, we grieve over the bad news of hurricane devastation. Perhaps it’s time for some good news. Here’s some: The Washington Post’s Robert Samuelson writes: “The middle-class comeback may be the year’s most underreported story.” The 2008-2009 financial crisis and the ensuing recession hit America’s middle class hard. Many Americans lost jobs. Many lost homes through foreclosure. And many accumulated debt to get through the crisis. But things have improved, dramatically. In a column entitled, “The Quiet Comeback…

Kerby Anderson Will orthodox, Bible-believing Christians find it harder and harder to buy and sell in America? If you asked that question a few decades ago, people would think you lost all rationality. But that is a question Rod Dreher rightly asks in a recent editorial. He points to the decision by Vanco Payment Solutions to cut off services to a Christian ministry because it is listed on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s “Hate Map.” The Ruth Center is a…

Kerby Anderson Last week, some Texas churches and a synagogue devastated by Hurricane Harvey floodwaters sued the Federal Emergency Management Agency. They did so because they believed they should have access to disaster relief funds. Their argument is fairly simple. Other non-profit organizations are eligible for these federal funds, but are denied to religious groups. They believe they should have equal access to these disaster relief grants. This lawsuit follows the 7-2 ruling by the Supreme Court in the Trinity…

Kerby Anderson So often when the threat of North Korea is discussed we are presented with a false choice. Either we go to war or we do nothing. The latter option has been the hallmark of American inaction for too long. A military strike should be the last resort, but there are other things we can and should do. An acronym used by the National Strategy for Combating Terrorism is: DIMEFIL. A recent editorial in the Wall Street Journal fleshed…

Kerby Anderson The Hill is considered the top U.S. political website read by the White House and more lawmakers than any other site. A recent op-ed in it had the arresting title: “US Courts: Can’t pray at work, can’t pray at home.” Kelly Shackelford and James Ho were the authors. They make their case by citing two appeals court decisions. The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals told Mary Anne Sause, a public housing resident, “that two officers could force her…

Kerby Anderson Even a devastating hurricane can provide some positive lessons. News outlets and commentators have been pointing to so many great “feel good” stories of people who stepped up to save people from the floodwaters and to provide for them once they were rescued. At least for a short period of time, the racial divisions were set aside as people from different ethnic backgrounds stepped up to help people of various ethnic backgrounds. We didn’t know if the people…

Penna Dexter I live in Texas. There’s a gaping wound in my state and nation. It needs care and prayer as it heals from Harvey’s devastation. Still we can be grateful for the lessons learned and applied well from another devastating Gulf storm, Hurricane Katrina. We learned to get ready. One can always hope a hurricane will weaken or change course. But as Hurricane Harvey formed, state and federal authorities assumed the worst and made detailed pre-storm preparations. Two hundred…

Kerby Anderson Members of Congress are debating fiscal issues, but unfortunately they often are debating the wrong issues. On the table are two issues: the debt limit debate and the tax reform debate. As important as they are, they pale in comparison to a bigger issue. Justin Bogie and Chase Flowers say, “America is Heading Straight into Its Most Avoidable Crisis Ever.” In fact, they compare it to the familiar story of the sinking of the Titanic. The crew of…

Kerby Anderson So often we hear that the “vast majority of Muslims are peaceful.” While that is certainly true, the claim doesn’t go far enough. Many years ago, William Kirkpatrick wrote about “The Vast Majority Myth.” He countered this idea with three propositions. The first proposition is that “the vast majority of people are peaceful, until they’re not.” It is easy to find examples of people who were peaceful for a long time and then quickly turned violent. The vast…

Kerby Anderson Hate labels have been thrown around quite a bit lately. Much of that started with the Southern Poverty Law Center. As I have mentioned in previous commentaries, the group used to provide a valuable service but now throws the hate label around irresponsibly. Their “Hate Map” identifies groups that deserve the label (white supremacists, Neo-Nazis) with many others that do not (Family Research Council, American Family Association, Alliance Defending Freedom). Unfortunately, too many other organizations take them seriously….