Recent Viewpoints

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…

America has the chance to stop funding one of the major perpetrators of an ongoing humanitarian crisis. But we’re kicking the can down the road to December. The disturbing videos released by the Center for Medical Progress, which highlight Planned Parenthood’s abortion activity, and their side business selling baby parts, should have made defunding Planned Parenthood immediately a no brainer. Horrified members of Congress went ahead and passed a bill to fund the government — including money for Planned Parenthood….

If you have watched any of the debates, you know that some important questions never get asked. And if the moderator does ask a challenging question, the candidate usually changes the subject. In a recent column, Kevin Williamson writes about The Question No Candidate Will Answer. In the next debate, he would like the moderator to say this: “Given that a small number of federal expenditures — Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, national security, and interest on the debt — typically…

The visit by Pope Francis to America stimulated lots of debate and discussion about economic policy and environmental issues. This debate about politics, economics, and the environment will continue and should continue because policies based on misinformation and economic misunderstanding would actually hurt the poor. George Will talks about the Pope’s “fact-free flamboyance.” The Pope is critical of free market capitalism and believes that the Earth is becoming “an immense pile of filth.” This is the hyperbole we have come…

Bernie Sanders will not win the Democratic nomination, but he has certainly attracted lots of young people to his campaign. A significant percentage of those in the millennial generation are following him and support his socialist platform. Robert Knight in a column that talks about his siren song of socialism is puzzled. The millennial generation is highly educated. He thinks they would be wary of anyone sporting a socialist brand. Bernie Sanders embraces it and attracts lots of young people….