Recent Viewpoints

Kerby Anderson During the debate on tax reform, some listeners expressed their concern that the charitable deduction would be eliminated. Even after the bill was passed, one listener lamented that charitable deductions were dropped. None of that is true, but I kept wondering why people would believe this. Apparently some of the spokespeople for philanthropy expressed their concern that the tax bill would reduce the incentive for giving because it nearly doubled the standard deduction. That would mean few filers…

Kerby Anderson When it was announced that all of the 2017 senior class in a Washington, DC high school graduated with college acceptance letters, various news outlets called it a miracle. Teachers, students, administrators, and parents were celebrating. It turns out the miracle was cheating. Both NPR (National Public Radio) and the Washington Post ran stories about Frank Ballou High School boosting the graduation rate from 57 percent to 100 percent in one school year. It was too good to…

Kerby Anderson A new study by three political scientists concluded that concerns about the impact of fake news are overblown. You may have heard that fake news elected Donald Trump. Supposedly Trump voters were duped into believing false information and cast their vote on inaccurate facts. The recent study by professors at Princeton, Dartmouth, and the University of Exeter debunks that theory. The researchers collected tracking data from more than two thousand Americans and analyzed their news consumption. They sorted…

Kerby Anderson With all this talk about fake news, you might think this is a recent phenomenon. Jarrett Stepman provides a history of fake news in the US and the attempts government and other entities have used to try to stop it. He reminds us that the Founding Fathers were well aware of the power of the press. Many of them (such as Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Paine) were newspapermen and pamphleteers. That is why they were all…

Kerby Anderson As last year was ending and this year was beginning, we have seen tumult in Tehran. While Iranians have been protesting in the streets, there is another important story that is being missed. Mark Howard, writing in the Gospel Coalition, says the story can be summarized in two sentences. “Persecution threatened to wipe out Iran’s tiny church. Instead, the church in Iran has become the fastest growing in the world, and it is influencing the region for Christ.”…

Penna Dexter A survey recently released by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveals that, over the past decade, the number of high-school-age teens who are engaging in sex has dropped dramatically with especially pronounced declines in the past two years. The report’s authors are particularly encouraged by the steep fall in the rate of sexual activity among ninth and tenth graders and also among black and Hispanic teens. In 2015, 41.2 percent of high school students surveyed…

Kerby Anderson The media elite and political elite in this country are disconnected in many ways from the average American citizen. One illustration of this occurred as the final vote was taken in December on the tax reform bill. Many of these elites were scoffing at the fact that the tax cut to middle class Americans might only be $1000 per year. Moreover, they mocked that it amounted to only $18-19 per week. They don’t understand how an additional $1000…

Kerby Anderson One of the ways politicians get some attention in our current media climate is to make outlandish claims or use controversial phrases. So when various Democratic leaders referred to the recent tax reform bill as a grand “heist” it was not too surprising. But I am beginning to see that the use of the term was more than rhetorical flourish. It may indeed be a campaign theme of the 2018 elections. Take a look at the twitter accounts…

Kerby Anderson David French says in a recent column that one of the most under-appreciated and under-reported stories of last year was “that a post-Christian America is a more vicious America” that has rendered “America more polarized, not less.” His thesis is simple. “Remove from the public square biblical admonitions such as ‘love your enemies’ and the hatred has more room to grow.” When the fruits of the Spirit (love, joy, peace and patience) are gone, the culture is becoming…

Kerby Anderson Many presidential candidates campaign on the promise to roll back regulations that stifle innovation and stymie business growth. Once those candidates get into office, very little regulatory reform takes place. That is why what has happened in the Trump administration last year is so significant. The Wall Street Journal editors estimated that his presidency had been “reining in and rolling back the regulatory state at a pace faster than even Ronald Reagan.” They also remind us that regulator…

Kerby Anderson The World Health Organization has just added an unusual disorder to its list of mental health conditions. People who play an excessive amount of video games could be diagnosed with a “gaming disorder.” Of course, they aren’t saying that anyone who lives to play video games has this mental disorder. But they do set out some criteria to identify people with a gaming disorder. First, they show impaired control over gaming. This includes such things as frequency, intensity,…