Recent Viewpoints

Penna Dexter Every four years each political party sends seasoned activists to the table to write a platform for convention delegates to pass. Words are carefully chosen; positions painstakingly framed.  The document — though not binding on candidates — provides a blueprint for policies advocated by the party.  Since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, no other plank in the platform of either major party has received more scrutiny. The 2016 Republican platform language on abortion is strongly supportive of…

Kerby Anderson The other day I came across a shocking statistic. Lee Burdette Williams says, “About three million first-time college students will soon be arriving on campus—most of them coming directly from high school. About one million of them won’t make it through their first year or return as sophomores.” She concludes that “this attrition is financially and emotionally devastating for families” and it is also “destabilizing for colleges.” Why is this happening? Many of these departures are financial. Higher education…

Kerby Anderson When I talk about the polarization in this country, I am often asked why is there so much hostility against Christians? We are often the greatest source of ministry and encouragement in the community. In his book, Christians in a Cancel Culture, Joe Dallas devotes a chapter to this question about hostility toward Christians. You can summarize his excellent discussion with three words that begin with the letter “C.” The first is convenience. Whenever truth is told, someone…

Kerby Anderson Perhaps you have seen the news article, “Details about Jesus’ childhood revealed in 2,000-year-old manuscript.” The article explains this is the earliest known copy of a story about Jesus performing a miracle. The fragment was discovered on an ancient Egyptian manuscript. What they are talking about is what has been called the “Infancy Gospel of Thomas.” This book is not a gospel and was not written by the Apostle Thomas. In fact, it should not even be confused…

Kerby Anderson Perhaps the most disappointing Supreme Court ruling this last session dealt with the real concern about social media censorship. The justices chose not to decide the case supposedly because the plaintiffs lacked standing. Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote: “We begin—and end—with standing…. We therefore lack jurisdiction to reach the merits of the dispute.” The other argument dealt with the issue of “traceability.” Although numerous federal agencies did attempt to censor social media posts and people, Big Tech didn’t…

Kerby Anderson Last July, I wrote a brief commentary about what has been called Chevron deference. This is the idea that the court should always give deference to an administrative agency when it interprets an ambiguous statute. The recent 6-3 Supreme Court ruling dealt a significant blow to the administrative state and the power wielded by federal bureaucrats. One of the legal guests on my radio program concluded that it may have been the most significant case in this session…

Penna Dexter New data from the Gallup organization finds just under half of U.S. adults describing themselves as religious. In the same survey, 33% say they are spiritual, but not religious, and 18% are neither. It’s increasingly apparent that we live in a post-Christian society. Evangelist Sam Chan explains: “This is why evangelism is so scary and awkward….What worked in the age of Christendom seems ineffective in our post-Christian age.” In his book, How to Talk About Jesus (without being…

Kerby Anderson One book that documents the Judeo-Christian foundations of America is the book, On Two Wings, written by Michael Novak. He the author of more than thirty books and was awarded the $1 million Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion. In his preface, he says, “Although I have wanted to write this book for some forty years, my own ignorance stood in the way. It took me a long time, time spent searching up many byways and neglected paths,…

Kerby Anderson Today is the 4th of July, and I thought I would take a moment to talk about the origin of the ideas in the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson said that many of the ideas in the Declaration came from John Locke. Jefferson also gave credit to the writer Algernon Sidney, who in turn cites most prominently Aristotle, Plato, Roman republican writers, and the Old Testament. Legal scholar Gary Amos argues that Locke’s Two Treatises on Government is simply Samuel…

Kerby Anderson When two boys are wrestling in the living room and break something, a parent is sure to say: “This is why we can’t have nice things.” Christian Schneider applies this to society at large arguing “We Can No Longer Have Nice Things.” He opens with a story about The Portal, which is a public technology sculpture. It beams live video from the streets of New York City to Dublin, Ireland. It was one of several planned “portals” meant…

Kerby Anderson The other day, I saw a TV commercial for the March of Dimes which reminded me that I should do a commentary on what has been called the “March of Dimes Syndrome.” In my government classes, we often talked about it as a textbook example of goal succession. The March of Dimes was created in the 1930s to combat polio. By the 1950s, we had the polio vaccine. But instead of going out of business, the March of…