Recent Viewpoints

Penna Dexter Many tributes to Former First Lady (and First Mom) Barbara Bush describe her 1990 Wellesley graduation speech, which placed her, at least according to the Washington Post, “at the center of a national debate about the nature of feminism that would continue for decades.” Feminists claim their movement is about making choices, but 150 Wellesley students protested that Mrs. Bush had “gained recognition through the achievements of her husband.” Not quite the Wellesley way. In the end, she…

Kerby Anderson A number of months ago, the American Journal of Political Science issued a correction to a previous study. What was the error? The Journal reversed its conclusion that conservative individuals exhibited traits associated with “psychoticism.” They admitted that the interpretation of the coding was exactly reversed. In other words, it was liberal individuals, not conservative individuals, that exhibited these traits. As one commentator put it, “That’s one heck of an oops.” This finding made quite a splash in…

Kerby Anderson The congressional hearings with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg mostly focused on data collection and privacy. Fortunately, Senator Ted Cruz also raised important questions about what he called a “pervasive pattern of bias and political censorship.” And Senator Ben Sasse said he thought “America might be better off not being policed by one company that has a really big and powerful platform.” He even asked the founder if he could “define hate speech.” It turns out that censorship by…

Kerby Anderson The announced departure of House Speaker Paul Ryan brought lots of commentary, but one that deserves more attention is how his exit illustrates the desire of the American public to jettison adulthood. Andrew Cline says that “America is done with adults like Paul Ryan. Donald Trump and celebrities are the future.” He reminds us that Paul Ryan was introduced to the country as a young policy wonk with a head full of Austrian economics. That apparently wasn’t what…

Kerby Anderson Is what is happening these days in America normal? I doubt very few people would answer in the affirmative. But you would probably get different answers depending on a person’s political persuasion. Republicans might say America got off track when the Supreme Court nominations of Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas got so political. They might point to the actions of the previous president and the development of a swamp in Washington. Democrats might talk about the vast right-wing…

Kerby Anderson A question Joni Eareckson Tada has been asking over the years is “When Is It Right to Die?” That is the title of her book that has recently been updated. She understands this issue for many reasons. One of the most significant is the fact that she has spent more than 50 years in her wheelchair. She was on my radio program recently to talk about the latest edition of her book. She is concerned that society is…

Penna Dexter With unemployment at a low 4.1 percent, businesses are complaining that they can’t find enough workers. The WALL STREET JOURNAL says the shortage is due, in part, to “government benefits that corrode a culture of work.” Consider SNAP, the nation’s food stamp program. More than 40 million Americans are in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. That’s up from 17 million in 2000. Since then, the size of benefits and total cost of the program have exploded. Between 2000…

Kerby Anderson Dr. Anne Bradley has been on my radio program and in one of her articles, she talks about her first trip to the Soviet Union. Even as a teenager she could see through the attempt to make Russia look more prosperous than it was. In fact, her visit was one of the reasons she became an economist. She ends her article by telling the true story of what happened when Boris Yeltsin visited the United States. He was…

Kerby Anderson Americans in general, and even evangelicals in particular, seem confused about important details of their faith. A study done by Lifeway Research found that Americans don’t know much about theology, and many evangelicals seem confused as well. Tyler O’Neil wrote about the “12 Lies American Evangelicals Believe.” Here are a few of them. Americans generally believe that their personal salvation depends on good works. The survey found that three-fourths (77%) agreed with the statement that people must contribute…

Kerby Anderson Dr. Tim Keller was on my radio program to talk about his new book, Making Sense of God: An Invitation to the Skeptical. In many ways, it was a prequel to his earlier apologetics book, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism. His earlier book (The Reason for God) deals with two large issues: doubt and the reasons for faith. For the skeptic, he attempts to answer the major questions that keep skeptics from biblical…

Kerby Anderson If you think about it, your life is the culmination of lots and lots of decisions. Jim Clifton, CEO of Gallup, argues that people make 10,000 to 20,000 small decisions every day. If you multiply this by the US population you end up with one quadrillion decisions. This is one of the points Jeff Myers makes in his book, Understanding the Culture. The legacy you leave is the sum of all of these decisions. Many are inconsequential. Others…