Recent Viewpoints

What will be the financial impact of President Obama’s executive order concerning nearly 5 million undocumented immigrants? The White House has acknowledged that these newly legalized workers will contribute to Social Security and Medicare. Will this help us with our current crisis of entitlements or make the problem worse? There are some that believe it will help us since we will have millions more paying into Social Security and Medicare. I even had one caller suggest that this might be…

Global planners are just finishing up an international conference in Lima, Peru with the stated aim of curtailing climate change. More than 190 nations are represented at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of the Parties, COP20. It’s arrogant for mere humans to think they can stop climate change. But climate change has been deemed the bad guy. Halting it is the goal that’s been articulated to summon nations to take part in these efforts to bind…

The latest research by the Barna Group has uncovered three trends that are redefining the information age. Social media (like Twitter and Facebook) along with other digital platforms (like eBooks and mobile apps) are changing the way we are processing information. We are now much more likely to scroll and skim rather than read in depth. The first trend the Barna Group identified was the feeling most people have that modern life is accelerating and becoming more complex. A majority…

Lots of myths surround the subject of divorce. One of the most pervasive is the concept of a good divorce. Book titles like The Good Divorce, Collaborative Divorce, and Happy Divorce keep coming. Diane Medved has seen enough and wrote a great column in USA Today on the myth that divorce is good. She is certainly qualified to write on this subject. She is married to film critic and radio talk show host Michael Medved. She also wrote a book…

Attending a top university and graduating at the top of your class is often an important key to success. Unfortunately, that is not true if you plan to be a federal judge. That’s the conclusion of John Lott in his latest book, Dumbing Down the Courts. He tracked the federal judge appointments over the last four decades and found some startling statistics. Graduates of the top ten law schools who also served on their school’s law review had a 30…

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…