Recent Viewpoints

On the heels of a successful Christian film, War Room, is another Christian film about faith, Woodlawn. I predict that this new film will do well as more people hear about it through word of mouth. The movie is a powerful story of what happened in the early 1970s at Woodlawn High School in Birmingham, Alabama. Racial conflict broke out because of government-mandated desegregation. In the midst of this, Hank brings a gospel message to the football team. More than…

When the framers drafted our constitution, they wanted to make sure there were enough checks and balances to protect the citizens from any abuse of power. One of those checks was the constitutional power given to the House of Representatives to impeach anyone who abused their office. Sadly, this check on power is rarely used anymore. George Will, in a recent column, makes a compelling case for the House of Representatives to impeach the current IRS director. Executive officers can…

One of the most shocking details from the recent shooting in Roseberg, Oregon was that the gunman reportedly singled out people who said they were Christian for fatal shots to the head. Turning Point Adventist Church sits a few miles from Roseberg’s Umpqua Community College, where a young man, who had earlier exhibited disdain for the Christian faith, took ten lives. The church’s pastor, Lonnie Wibberding asked his congregation that Sunday, “If he had been pointing that gun at you,…

With of all the congressional spending, there have been some e-mails circulating with common sense sayings written by wise people long ago. One of those is the ten “you cannots.” If you have not seen them, here they are: 1. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. 2. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. 3. You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich. 4. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class…

Every time there is a shooting, we hear lots of debate about guns and gun control. Then we all face the reality that not much will change. The debate subsides and we turn to other topics until the next shooting. The shooting in Oregon brought two new topics to the table that hadn’t been voiced in the past. This time, for example, we heard about the need to implement “common sense gun-safety laws.” Some of us are waiting for what…

One question I get when out speaking is: What can our country do about ISIS? Most Americans are not excited about committing ground troops, but they also realize that ISIS has become such a threat that something must be done. President Vladimir Putin has committed troops supposedly to battle ISIS, but it appears that is not his actual plan. Many commentators say Russian troops are in Syria because of the weak responses from this president and his administration. Putin and…

Is voting in this country a right or a privilege? I would say that it is both. We should never deny anyone who is eligible to vote the right to vote. But it is also a privilege, and that is why I am concerned with voter laws being proposed and sometimes being enacted around the country. One major push is for what is called “automatic registration.” We saw the beginning of this decades ago with the National Voter Registration Act,…

How influential could Christian voters be in the next election? Their participation could be significant if they are registered to vote and then go out and vote their values in an intelligent way. Recently, Gary Frazier and George Barna were on my radio program to talk about their work through the organization, United in Purpose. Let’s look at Christian voter participation in 2012. There were 90 million born again Christians of voting age. About 77 million of them were registered…

There’s some budgetary progress taking place in Washington D.C. — if lawmakers don’t abort it. October 1 marked the beginning of a new fiscal year and, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the deficit for FYE 2015, which wrapped up September 30, is down considerably. At $500 billion it’s still outlandish, but a huge improvement over the trillion-dollar annual deficits during this Administration’s first term. This improvement is due to budget restraint demanded by the tea-party voters that resulted in…

Presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson is still getting questions about his initial comments about Islam. It was encouraging to read from a former radical Muslim that the concerns Ben Carson expressed are also his concerns. He has read the Islamic literature and pronouncements and understands why many Americans would be wary of putting a Muslim into political office. Tawfik Hamid is an Islamic thinker and reformer. He was a member of a radical Islamic organization in Egypt. But he had…

A few weeks ago, candidate Ben Carson was asked if he would support a Muslim for president. Probably the best response would have been, “No Muslim is running for president this year or in the foreseeable future. It’s a very hypothetical question, Chuck. So let’s get back to the serious questions of our day.” Of course that is not how Ben Carson answered, and various critics made a huge flap over his response. Now that some of the controversy has…