Recent Viewpoints

Today is the official beginning of the election season with the Iowa caucus. Over the next few months every state will have either a primary or caucus. A few states will have both a primary and a closed caucus. The election this year will most likely determine the future of this country. The next president will appoint 2-3 Supreme Court Justices and tip the balance of the court one way or the other. The next Congress will consider whether it…

I am starting to see a proliferation of bumper sticker that calls for all of us to “CO-EXIST.” Often they are on cars with a Bernie Sanders bumper sticker, but you can also find them on other cars as well. The primary message of the bumper sticker is to the religious communities. On the “CO-EXIST” bumper sticker, the letters are formed primarily by various religions. For example, the “C” is the Muslim crescent. The “O” is the peace sign. The…

In previous commentaries I have documented through various surveys that pastors and church leaders often are not addressing the important issue of the sanctity of life. There are a number of reasons for that, but one significant one is that they don’t quite know how to present the material. Dave Sterrett has solved that problem with his book, video series, and website with the name “We Choose Life.” The video series is a small group study with training and a…

In his last State of the Union address, President Obama set an ambitious goal to cure cancer. The previous year, Vice President Biden said that with a new moonshot, America could cure cancer. That is what President Obama called for this nation to do. Although I applaud the goal, it is worth looking at some of the medical facts that will make it hard to achieve the goal set forth by the president. First, cancer isn’t a single disease. The…

Common Core has not been a popular education program for many adults. It is likely to become even more unpopular now that undercover videos have been released. The account executive at one publisher explained, “It was never about the kids.” She went on to explain that it was about the money. She even suggests that changing the name from Common Core to something else might help publishers make even more money. If you are not familiar with Common Core, that…

Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz has been on talk shows expressing his concerns about the censorship that is taking place on college campuses. As I have mentioned in previous commentaries, it is helpful when someone who would disagree with you on everything from politics to theology at least agrees with your concerns about what is happening in the universities these days. He was on Fox & Friends last week to comment on the growing intolerance of the left and began…

A California teacher, who has logged 28 years in the profession, is waging a battle that could have a significant impact on public employee unions and First Amendment protections for teachers across the nation. The Supreme Court heard the case recently. The outcome could diminish the power of public-sector unions. Rebecca Freidrichs is a third grade teacher at Holder Elementary School in Buena Park, California. Early in her teaching career, she was a full dues-paying union member. But she didn’t…

The Bible rests upon a belief in absolute truth. Yet surveys by George Barna show that a minority of born-again adults (44 percent) and an even smaller proportion of born-again teenagers (9 percent) are certain of the existence of absolute moral truth. Even more disturbing is the fact that by a three-to-one margin adults say truth is always relative to the person and their situation. George Barna concludes in his book, Boiling Point: Monitoring Cultural Shifts in the 21st Century,…

Many candidates talk about trying to implement a flat tax. One presidential candidate actually is proposing a true flat tax. Ben Carson’s tax proposal has received high marks from a number of economists even though it is unlikely that it will be implemented since his candidacy seems to be fading. Nevertheless, it is worth talking about his flat tax plan because it reminds us how far off our current tax system is from a system that would be flat, fair,…

Much of the debate about the president’s new gun regulations centers on criminal background checks. The president wants to expand background checks to just about anyone selling a gun. While the administration is doing this, it needs to fix some problems with the current system. Dr. John Lott was on my radio program to talk about some simple and reasonable changes that must be made to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. He believes that these proposals would easily…

At the beginning of a new year lots of us try to find something we can implement in our lives that makes it better. Or that makes us better. Some of the things in our lives that we think are keeping us from serving the Lord are actually ways we are serving the Lord. We just may not recognize them in that way because they feel so mundane. We care for homes and families. We make a living. But, we…