Recent Viewpoints

When you increase the minimum wage, two things happen. Some people lose their jobs while those who keep their jobs see an increase in their paycheck. Unfortunately, politicians focus on the second effect and often ignore the first. I thought of this when I saw the latest AEI report from Seattle. It said that the $15 minimum wage increase “is getting off to a pretty bad start.” Leah Jessen, writing for the Daily Signal, wonders whether the loss of 700…

Universities talk a great deal about free speech, but they have been clamping down on speech they don’t like for many years. When I first started speaking on college campuses in the mid-1970s, I was impressed that professors would invite a Christian speaker into their classroom. Sometimes they would even say to the class: “You have heard my views on this subject. In the interest of academic freedom, I wanted to give you a chance to hear a Christian’s views…

Is it possible America’s most important Founding Father was born in France in 1509? From the time of the Apostles and – for more than 1500 years after virtually all political theorizing was produced by Christians, and with Biblical foundations. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo – in the late-fourth and early-fifth centuries taught that civil government was not part of the original creation – it was made necessary by the fall and to be significantly limited in scope. In the 12th…

You’ve heard the news: China is fully abandoning its one-child-per-family birth policy. Now it’s a two-child-per family policy. The Wall Street Journal described China’s one-child policy as “the most notorious of the Communist Party’s intrusions into Chinese lives” and “one of the worst government intrusions on freedom in world history.” The new policy will still limit the number of children a family has, now to two, instead of one. The Journal says this shows “Beijing isn’t ready to totally relinquish…

Christians who do not want to participate in Obamacare have been able to opt-out by joining one of the Christian health care sharing ministries. In the past, I have talked about how this could be a real option for Christians. These groups do not actually provide health insurance but allow members to send money to a designated individual or the company that are shared with a member with medical expenses. In order to join, you have to agree to the…

America’s Founding Fathers recognized that one of the keys in forming a lasting and effective government is an accurate anthropology.You need to have a right view – of those who will govern, and be governed “If men were angels,” wrote James Madison in Federalist #51″no government would be necessary.” Madison was echoing the great spark of the Reformation, Martin Luther, who said: . . .if all the world were true Christians, there would be neither need nor use for princes,…

You had to see this coming. A recent article in Irish News argues, “that gay cousins should be allowed to marry each other following the same-sex marriage referendum.” After all, the only reason we don’t allow cousins to marry is to protect the genetic pool. This wouldn’t be a problem for gay cousins. Dr. Michael Brown, who supports traditional marriage, takes their argument one step further and asks in a recent column, “Why can’t two gay brothers marry?” He points…

Is it even possible to form a lasting human government? In Federalist #1 – the essays written to support passage of the Constitution, Alexander Hamilton wrote that this experiment in liberty would “…decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force.” The Founders knew the history of mankind – a long train…

How did we get here? What I mean is that in the late 18th Century . . . surveys showed that 99.8% of those living in the United States—99.8%—claimed to be either Roman Catholic or Protestant Christians… and the other .2% said they were Jewish. In the late 19th Century – Supreme Court Justice David Josiah Brewer, writing for a unanimous Court – said “this is a Christian nation.” Yet here we are in 2015 . . . five justices…

Later this month the U.N. Climate Change Conference will be held in Paris. You can tell how skewed the environmental priorities of the participants are by looking at one picture that accompanies the op-ed by Bjorn Lomborg. The title of his piece is: This child doesn’t need a solar panel. The picture is of an impoverished half-clothed boy in Mozambique crossing a trash-strewn mud hole. No, this boy and his family need food, clean water, clothing, and much more. But…

If you were asked to do a series on the Founding Fathers of America, who would you select? George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton . . . there are so many from which to choose. But my guess is – you might not think to include Augustine, John of Salisbury, Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Huldrych Zwingli, John Knox, Guillaume Farel, Christopher Goodman . . . Do you even know those names? Have you ever considered why…