Recent Viewpoints

Church pastors and Christian leaders significantly underestimate the influences on the next generation. That is the conclusion of David Kinnaman of the Barna Group. They have conducted more than 5,000 interviews with youth and young adults. He believes we underestimate three aspects of discipleship. First, he says, we underestimate the profound impact of social changes on the millennial generation. This generation is “more conversant with technology, less likely to come from married families, and more financially indebted than any previous…

Most of us have noticed the moral decline in America and have heard how many commentators have described it. Greg Koukl at Stand to Reason has coined a term that I think does a great job of explaining what is happening. He says that our culture is becoming velocitized. He first heard the term in a driver’s training class in high school. “When a driver accelerates from, say, 30 to 60 miles per hour and settles in, he gets acclimated…

Over the last few months there has been talk of repealing one of the most onerous parts of the Affordable Care Act: the medical device tax. Of all of the various elements of Obamacare, why has so much attention been focused on this part of the law? Scott Atlas writing in the Wall Street Journal last month reminded us that the “overwhelming majority of the world’s health-case innovation occurs in the U.S. This includes ground-breaking drug treatment, surgical procedures, medical…

Federal judges have been striking down state marriage laws right and left, so it was encouraging to see one judge who understood his role in the judicial process and acknowledged judicial precedents. Judge Jeffrey Sutton wrote in his opinion for the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals that states have the right to define marriage, especially when the is based on basic biology and thousands of years of history and tradition. He wrote that marriage “has long been a social institution…

Now that we’re past the election, can we finally put aside the war on women accusations and rhetoric? There are signs that this political tactic, which the left has been using to garner female votes, has lost its effectiveness. Make no mistake, a gender gap still favors Democrats. But the party’s strategy, painting conservative Republicans as conducting a war on women, has pretty well petered out. In the 2014 election cycle, the left’s principal candidates in this war were Colorado…

The TV program, “The Walking Dead” is the highest rated TV program about zombies. As scary as that program might be, there are other zombies that could make your life miserable. I am talking about the Zombie Congress. In the past, we described a Congress after the elections as a “lame duck Congress.” The term was coined centuries ago to refer to a stockbroker who defaulted on his debts. A lame duck cannot keep up with the flock and is…

Yesterday I talked about Brittany Maynard ending her life using Oregon’s “Death with Dignity Act.” I also mentioned how euthanasia is being used in the Netherlands. We can see the problems with physician-assisted suicide by looking at what is happening in Europe. An article in The Christian Institute warned that the euthanasia rate in the Netherlands is increasing dramatically. “Euthanasia deaths in the Netherlands have risen by 151 percent over the last seven years.” Back in 2006, about 2000 people…

Earlier this month, Brittany Maynard ended her life. She had become the public face of the euthanasia movement when she moved to Oregon so they she could end her life using Oregon’s “Death with Dignity Act.” Before doing so, she engaged in a video campaign with the group Compassion and Choices. The debate over euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide has been taking place for decades, but her publicized choice about ending her life once again brings the debate into the public…

Today is Veteran’s Day. This is an almost forgotten event and yet it deserves as much attention at Memorial Day. Some of our European allies value it more than we do, but I will get to that in a minute. Veteran’s Day began as Armistice Day. As “The Great War” (which we today call World War I) was winding down, there was a need to designate an official time for the end of hostilities. The Treaty of Versailles was signed…

Now that the midterm elections are behind us, we should focus on what is even more important: culture. Many Christians argue that elections are downstream from where real change in taking place. Often politicians and judges are making decisions to “catch-up” with the culture. Mark Steyn understands this. He writes about this in his book, The Undocumented Mark Steyn. He gives us a preview of some of his insights in his New York Post article, “The real battle for America…

According to Psalm 122:6 we are to Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! and, upon my return from a recent trip to the Holy Land, I have a new appreciation for that directive. Israel, and especially Jerusalem is a messy conglomeration of religious fervor and political division. The socioeconomic differences between Israeli and Palestinian areas are stark. During my stay, I saw hints of the heating up of hostilities that later boiled over. One evening, I was walking with fellow…