Recent Viewpoints

Kerby Anderson As we approach the November midterm elections, it is worth mentioning once again the need for states and local jurisdictions to clean up their voter rolls. The recent special election in Ohio was yet another reminder of the fact that there is still lots of work to be done. The race between Republican Troy Balderson and Democrat Danny O’Connor ended up being very close. That means that counting of absentee ballots and provisional ballots will be important and…

Kerby Anderson What started out as a slogan and a bumper sticker has essentially become a platform of one political party. I am talking about the call to “Abolish ICE.” ICE stands for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. In some respects, the call to abolish ICE is not new. Fifteen years ago, you could find some activists calling for the dismantling of ICE because they perceived that the agency violated civil rights. But the call to abolish ICE has…

Penna Dexter Two recent news stories converge to demonstrate how a fully functioning, vibrant economy depends upon a culture of life. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that job openings in the US climbed to 6.7 million in the three months ended in June, the highest level since 2001. The number of unfilled jobs is growing in nearly every industry. The Journal explains that an expanding economy that demands more labor combined with a historically low unemployment rate has resulted in a situation…

Kerby Anderson Addiction is hard to escape. Whether we are talking about drugs and alcohol, or gambling, or a variety of other addictions. Dennis Prager says one of the hardest addictions to escape is the addiction of getting something for nothing. The addiction he is talking about is the entitlement addiction. He reminds us that we have lots of examples of people voluntarily giving up drugs, alcohol, or gambling. We don’t have many examples of people giving up their addiction…

Kerby Anderson America is turning more into a secular society, but this post-Christian nation has not turned into a kinder, more tolerant place to live. Peter Beinart, writing in The Atlantic, reminds us that a vast majority of Americans still believe in God, but they are fleeing organized religion in increasing numbers. The percentage of people with no religious affiliation jumped from 6 percent in 1992 to 22 percent in 2014. Among Millennials, the figure is 35 percent. Many secular…

Kerby Anderson If you have seen any of the videos posted showing leftist mobs confronting conservative leaders, you know that we may be just one wrong move away from mob violence. The most recent video posted involved Charlie Kirk and Candace Owens (Turning Point USA). They were eating breakfast in a Philadelphia café and were verbally assaulted with whistles and bullhorns pushed into their faces. Water was thrown on Kirk, and Owens had to tell one woman with a bullhorn…

Kerby Anderson We are in the midst of a battle over socialism. This isn’t an academic debate about socialism. It isn’t even a discussion about the impact of socialism on Venezuela. The battle over socialism is taking place in the mid-term campaigns led in part by self-proclaimed socialists Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Two of the key talking points have been free college tuition and “Medicare for All.” These are not just fringe topics only discussed by a few radical…

Kerby Anderson Michael Barone asks a troubling question: “Why is it considered liberal to compel others to say or fund things they don’t believe?” He raises this question in light of the three Supreme Court cases that struck down compelled speech but in two cases by the narrowest of margins. He wonders why liberals on the court and progressives in society aren’t disturbed by attempts to compel speech. In the past, liberal justices like Oliver Wendell Holmes supported free speech…

Penna Dexter US citizens are having fewer babies these days. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, which is part of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of babies born last year in the US was down 2 percent from the previous year and has hit a 30-year low. The US birth rate dropped to an all-time low in 2017: 60.2 births per 1000 women.  And the US fertility rate is the lowest it’s been…

Kerby Anderson A recent case before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals provides a window on what President Trump’s impact will be on the courts. Federal law makes it illegal to buy handguns across state lines. Several plaintiffs sued, arguing that this restriction violates the Second Amendment. The case was originally heard before a three-judge panel, and the plaintiffs lost. Then they asked to have the case heard by the full Fifth Circuit Court of 15 judges. The plaintiffs lost…

Kerby Anderson When God wanted to reveal truth to his prophets and the people, He often did so on a mountain.  Just think of the names of the mountains we read about in the Bible. Mount Sinai, Mount Carmel, Mount Hermon, and Mount Moriah are just a few examples. Dr. Jarrett Stephens writes about the messages on these mountains in his new book, The Mountains Are Calling: Making the Climb for a Clearer View of God and Ourselves. He will be…