Recent Viewpoints

Here is an interesting fact. Families in San Francisco give almost exactly the same amount to charity each year as families in South Dakota. Arthur Brooks talked about this in his book, Who Really Cares? He went on to explain that these two communities were very different. They were separated by not only geography but by many cultural differences. Their donations to charity also represented a significant difference due to income. The average San Francisco family made (back when the…

What does the word “compassion” mean to you? The Latin root of the word literally means: “to suffer with” someone. In other words, we should be concerned about the plight of others and do something to help them. I would think most Christians would believe that means we should give of our time, our talents, or our treasure to help others. That would certainly include giving our time and money to charity. Charity is not a government program. Charity is…

We are at a crucial moment in history with regard to the institution of marriage. The attempt to get homosexual unions in under the banner of legally recognized marriage has a lot of momentum in the courts right now. People of faith who know that gay marriage is not marriage in God’s sight lament this. We oppose it in conversation and at the ballot box. At least some of us do. But many believers just don’t want to be in…

Should a child born in this country to parents who are here illegally be automatically granted citizenship? That has been the practice for the last century. But what was the intent of the authors of the 14th amendment? In an article in the Texas Review of Law and Politics University of Texas law school professor Lino Graglia challenges the policy of “birthright citizenship.” He believes we are not using a proper interpretation of the 14th amendment. The amendment says: “All…

Although I have written and spoken about Israel many times over the last few decades, I had never been to the country until last month. My experience there and the recent killing in Israel were a reminder that a two-state solution in Israel will not work. You don’t have to take my word for it, Israel’s minister of the economy, Naftali Bennett, makes a convincing case in his op-ed “For Israel, Two-State Is No Solution.” He reminds us of what…

Now that Republicans will control the U.S. Senate, some senators have been debating whether to restore the 60-vote filibuster rule for confirming judicial appointments. I think that would be a very bad decision, for many reasons. Historically the filibuster was not used to stop presidential appointments. A majority is all that is needed to pass legislation, but the Senate filibuster has been used to prevent a vote on key appointments and legislation. I have never understood why 41 members of…

Federal welfare programs have contributed to the decline in marriage in America. Most of us have known that, but it was helpful to see the research by Robert Rector at the Heritage Foundation to explain this in detail. How the War on Poverty Has Hurt American Marriage Rates was the title of his article. He explains that it is no accident that the decline in marriage began with President Johnson’s War on Poverty fifty years ago. When the War on…

President Obama has been promoting the idea of net neutrality and has been pushing the idea that the Internet should be managed like a public utility. The term “net neutrality” refers to the idea that broadband networks should treat all communications on their networks in the same way. In previous commentaries, I explained that the idea for net neutrality came from what is called the dotCommunist Manifesto. It talks about the struggle to “wrest from the bourgeoisie” the “patrimony of…

We live in a day when courts are reconsidering whether marriage should only be between a man and a woman. And we see legislatures considering whether to legalize same-sex marriage or civil unions. So maybe it is time to stop and consider the benefits of traditional marriage. I do this in my book, A Biblical Point of View on Homosexuality. After all, traditional marriage is the foundation of civilization. Most of us have never stopped to think about the many…

America is in the midst of redefining marriage. Some of these redefinitions are talking place in the legislatures and courtrooms. But today I would like to talk about another place where marriage is being redefined. This is happening through cohabitation. Some individuals merely started out postponing marriage. But over time they ended up postponing marriage indefinitely. An increasing proportion of the population has adopted this “marriage is optional” perspective and never married. They may have had a number of live-in…

On my recent trip to the Holy Land we did something very special. We visited a church at Cana in Galilee, the site where Jesus performed his first miracle, turning water to wine at a wedding. We had a ceremony there in which the married couples in our group renewed our wedding vows. It was good to do this — to ponder the meaning of the vows spoken. And it got me thinking about the weddings in which couples write…