Recent Viewpoints

Kerby Anderson Mass shootings have many things in common. The perpetrator is an alienated young man who usually broadcasts his intent on social media. Instead of focusing on gun laws and mental health, we should focus attention on the psychology of the shooters. David French writes about “The Lost Boys of American Life.” In his essay, he quotes from two authors I have discussed in previous commentaries. Robert Putnam is best known for his book, Bowling Alone, which addressed the…

Kerby Anderson We are living through a period of “bullhorn politics.” Who would have imagined that people with bullhorns would not only be marching in the streets but even in front of the homes of Supreme Court Justices? Daniel Henninger reminds us that after the draft of the opinion by Justice Samuel Alito was leaked, a high fence was set up that surrounds the Supreme Court building. But think back to 2015 when the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4…

Kerby Anderson Victor Davis Hanson recently wrote about the “Leftist Mind,” and that got my attention since I have recently written a booklet on the “The Liberal Mind.” My goal was to describe the foundational assumptions of a liberal mindset. Hanson instead reminded us of how leftists supported the Electoral College and every decision from the Supreme Court until recently. A decade ago, Democrats loved the Electoral College. The “blue wall” states made the election and reelection of Barack Obama…

Kerby Anderson The Supreme Court ruled that Coach Joseph Kennedy did not violate the Constitution when he went to the 50-yard-line after a game and offered a short prayer. It shouldn’t have taken seven years to come to that conclusion, but the fight for religious liberty can sometimes be a long process. The court’s decision generated lots of comments and commentary. But I found the comments by George Will to be especially helpful. He is a great writer, but also…

Penna Dexter The sexual revolution was well underway when the Roe v. Wade decision brought abortion to the nation. If anything, the free sex culture of the sixties brought about the demand for legal abortion. Now, the demise of Roe may very well shine a spotlight on real damage to the culture enabled by legal abortion. A couple of well-known cultural commentators predict this in pieces published at Townhall.com.  Radio host Dennis Prager wrote last week that the 70’s feminists…

Kerby Anderson George Barna has been doing an extensive inventory of the worldviews of Americans through the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University. He was on my radio program recently to talk about two of his most recent surveys dealing with truth and morality. Past generations of Americans viewed God as the basis for truth. Not only has that changed for the general population, it has also changed significantly within the church. He found that there were certain groups…

Kerby Anderson Over the last few weeks, the term “Marxism” has been used quite a bit to describe the philosophy of both individuals and organizations. But what does this term mean? Marxists come in different variations. I saw that when I took a graduate-level class on Marxism with students from different countries who were Marxist. If there is one central, unifying principle, it is the writings of Karl Marx that are best articulated in The Communist Manifesto. Jon Miltimore reminds…

Kerby Anderson Dinesh D’Souza has written about The United States of Socialism. It provides a good overview of the influence of socialism in our world today with good responses to the arguments used to support socialism and to criticize capitalism. He also introduces the concept of “identity socialism” which attempts to cobble together various victim groups in an effort to promote a socialist revolution. Millions of young people in our country today are convinced that socialism is superior to capitalism….

Kerby Anderson The latest cancel culture tactic is to publish the name and amount of charitable donations. Concern about revealing the names of donors has been a problem in the past. One example often cited is Brendan Eich, the Mozilla CEO who was removed from the company when critics discovered that he has donated to the California Proposition 8 campaign in 2008. Given our toxic political culture, you can imagine the impact revealing donor names would have on future donations….

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…

Penna Dexter The pro-life movement isn’t over, nor should it weaken with the end of Roe v. Wade.  Getting rid of Roe has never been the movement’s sole motivator. Not so long ago, striking down Roe seemed a near-impossibility. But pro-lifers were busy supporting pro-life candidates, passing restrictions on abortion, counseling abortion-minded women, and providing for their needs. All of these efforts must continue. Leaders elected partially due to their claims to be pro-life can and should be held accountable…