Recent Viewpoints

Kerby Anderson Today is the 4th of July, and I thought I would take a moment to talk about the origin of the ideas in the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson said that many of the ideas in the Declaration came from John Locke. Jefferson also gave credit to the writer Algernon Sidney, who in turn cites most prominently Aristotle, Plato, Roman republican writers, and the Old Testament. Legal scholar Gary Amos argues that Locke’s Two Treatises on Government is simply Samuel…

Kerby Anderson When two boys are wrestling in the living room and break something, a parent is sure to say: “This is why we can’t have nice things.” Christian Schneider applies this to society at large arguing “We Can No Longer Have Nice Things.” He opens with a story about The Portal, which is a public technology sculpture. It beams live video from the streets of New York City to Dublin, Ireland. It was one of several planned “portals” meant…

Kerby Anderson The other day, I saw a TV commercial for the March of Dimes which reminded me that I should do a commentary on what has been called the “March of Dimes Syndrome.” In my government classes, we often talked about it as a textbook example of goal succession. The March of Dimes was created in the 1930s to combat polio. By the 1950s, we had the polio vaccine. But instead of going out of business, the March of…

Kerby Anderson Is much of the transgender ideology backfiring? Consider this recent poll by Pew Research. For the last seven years, they have been asking this question: “Which statement comes closer to your views? A) Whether someone is a man or a woman is determined by the sex they were assigned at birth, or B) Someone can be a man or a woman even if that is different from the sex they were assigned at birth.” I acknowledge that the…

Penna Dexter On a recent trip to Greece, I learned that during the Athenian Golden Age, 449-431 BC, there emerged a fervent belief in the ability of man.  Our tour leader, David Sparks explained the development of democracy in ancient Greece, which culminated in Athens taking power from the hands of a single ruler or aristocratic ruling class and redistributing that power to all male citizens regardless of social or economic status. “Each male citizen over eighteen was allowed participation…

Kerby Anderson The latest polls show a moral slide of generations. A good example can be found in George Barna’s American Worldview Inventory 2024. He concludes that “what Millennials began, Generation Z is accelerating.” This is a generational transformation of this country’s moral landscape. Let’s begin at the top level and then work down to specific moral issues. The percentage of Americans who have a biblical worldview has been declining over five consecutive generations. The number of adults with a…

Kerby Anderson How effective will the political campaigns this fall appeal to young voters? Most don’t like the fact that 2024 looks like 2020. And as one of my radio guests explained: “I am 28, and I am not excited about having a candidate running who is the reverse of my age (82).” New polling from Democratic firm Blueprint shows how skeptical and disillusioned young voters are about their choices for president and members of Congress and the state legislatures….

Kerby Anderson We know that many of our public schools are failing. Therefore, it is encouraging to hear a success story. That is what John Stossel brings in a recent video. Although the public schools in his home state of New York are producing kids with below average scores, he points to one exception. The school is aptly named the Success Academy. It succeeds, he explains, where government-run schools fail. The chain of 50 schools is run by a former…

Kerby Anderson When the Southern Baptist Convention met a few weeks ago, the messengers adopted a resolution about in vitro fertilization (known as IVF). While it is unusual for the nation’s largest Protestant denomination to debate medical ethics, they felt a need to respond to the recent ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court on IVF. The mainstream press reported this as an attempt to condemn the practice. The actual statement was to “reaffirm the unconditional value and right to life of…

Kerby Anderson Depending on the news source you have, you may or may not have heard about the arrest of eight individuals from Tajikistan who are suspected terrorists. In case you are unfamiliar with that country, it is at least 95 percent Muslim and located near Afghanistan, Pakistan, and communist China. Put another way, they come from a country that has been a hotbed for radical Islamic terrorism. The FBI and other intelligence agencies believe these eight illegal aliens were…

Penna Dexter I recently returned from a trip to Greece. One cannot go far in that country without being confronted with evidence of the rise and fall of great civilizations. We spent a day in and around Corinth, a wealthy ancient Greek city, destroyed by the Romans in 156 BC. The Romans killed all the men in Corinth and enslaved the women — and the children. The victorious Roman army sacked the city, utterly destroying it. In 146-144 BC, Julius…