Recent Viewpoints

When I was growing up, there was lots of talk about the new morality. And while it is true that the 1960s and 1970s ushered in a new morality, there is growing evidence that the most significant shift in moral attitudes is taking place right now. A study by the Barna Group confirms what I have been seeing among young people. Put simply, the younger you are the more likely you are to have engaged in immoral behavior. The survey…

Christians have been called to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:18-20). Unfortunately, three powerful social forces in society undermine the effectiveness of the gospel in this country and around the world. Writers such as Peter Berger and Os Guinness have documented and described these forces. They are secularization, pluralization, and privatization. The first is secularization. It is the process by which sectors of society and culture are removed from the influence of…

No matter what’s on the busy parenting calendar, reading aloud to our children is a satisfying indulgence moms and dads should never feel guilty about. It’s good for kids — and parents. Children’s author and Newbury Medalist Kate Camillo says, “I do think that people, in the rush and clamor and get-things-done-ness of daily life, need to be reminded about what reading aloud can do.” Wall Street Journal children’s book critic, Megan Cox Gurdon agrees. “To curl up with children…

Arthur Brooks reminds us in a New York Times column that “We Need Optimists.” It is actually better for you to be an optimist rather than a pessimist. Psychologists have found that optimists enjoy better physical health and have a great ability to cope with setbacks. In this coming election year, however, we need to ask whether we want an optimist or a pessimist in the White House. In the past we have had presidents who were true optimists in…

by Kerby Anderson A few weeks ago I talked about the new HUD housing rules that will have a negative impact on your neighborhood. Robert Knight has read through these rules and reports that they should concern all Americans. Writing in the Washington Times he says that the HUD rules are “loaded with repetitive rhetoric, bureaucratic gobbledygook, threats for noncompliance and enough acronyms to fill a stadium-sized bowl of alphabet soup.” But you don’t need to read all these rules…

This last month we celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act. Back in 1990, President George Bush signed the legislation and predicted that it would make the lives of disabled people much better. It has done that. Disabled Americans have much better access to public buildings. All you have to do to understand the profound impact the law has had in America is to travel to other countries around the world. You see restaurants, museums, and churches…

A few months ago, I did a Viewpoint on the decision by Dan Price, the founder of Gravity Payments, to pay everyone in his company at least $70,000. You might remember that he did it because he read how some extra money for some people makes a big difference. Therefore, he decided to cut his $1 million salary to $70,000 and make that amount the minimum wage for the company. At the time, I predicted that it would make it…

Before the summer slips away, I want to talk about summer jobs. If you are older, you can probably remember the work experience you received by working various summer jobs. If you are a bit younger, you may not have had that same experience of working a number of different summer jobs but probably had at least one summer job. If you are a teenager, you may never have had a summer job. That’s a problem. Working a summer job…

We now have a U.S. Supreme Court decision that brings same-sex marriage to every state. But will everyone, even those who don’t believe it’s marriage, have to comply? To celebrate what they don’t believe is a marriage? To serve same sex weddings through their businesses? House same sex couples on their Christian college campuses? Employ homosexuals and transgendered people. Both the majority opinion and the dissent seem to protect the freedom of people to live according to values that are…

Is polygamy the next step in the redefinition of marriage? Jillian Keenan writes in Slate that we should legalize polygamy, and adds that “No, I am not kidding.” Frederik Deboer, writes in Politico that: “it’s time to legalize polygamy.” And he adds, “group marriage is the next horizon of social liberalism.” They remind us that many people (from Rick Santorum to Bill O’Reilly to Tony Perkins) have been warning that legalizing same-sex marriage will lead to polygamy and polyamory. The…

The argument against abortion has always been two-fold. Abortion is wrong because of what it does to the unborn baby. But there is another reason. Abortion is also wrong because of what it does to those who live. Mothers often pay a heavy price with post-abortive problems. And the society pays a price because of the coarsening and desensitization that accompanies a culture that aborts more than a million unborn babies every year. Charles Krauthammer picked up on these ideas…