Recent Viewpoints

Kerby Anderson It has become trendy in some circles to say that the world would be a better place without religion in general and Christianity in particular. I really do wonder if professors, commentators, and people on social media really believe this or are just saying it without any serious reflection. As I like to sometimes say to my atheist acquaintances, I see lots of Catholic hospitals, Presbyterian hospitals, and Baptist hospitals. I have never seen a humanist hospital. Previous…

Kerby Anderson Are single-parent families just as good for children as two-parent families? Some of the headlines recently in newspapers and news magazines seem to say so. But all you have to do is look back at academic studies to see that, in nearly every case, two parents are better than one. One older family study deserves renewed attention. Dr. Patrick Fagan, using data from the National Survey of Children’s Health, found two important factors. Children who grow up in…

Kerby Anderson Americans in general, and even evangelicals in particular, seem confused about important details of their faith. A study done by Lifeway Research found that Americans don’t know much about theology, and many evangelicals seem confused as well. Tyler O’Neil wrote about the “12 Lies American Evangelicals Believe.” Here are a few of them. Americans generally believe that their personal salvation depends on good works. The survey found that three-fourths (77%) agreed with the statement that people must contribute…

Kerby Anderson Most people would expect liberals to be open-minded, and yet they find that they are often the most intolerant. Kim Holmes explores the reasons for this transformation in his new book, The Closing of the Liberal Mind. He was on Point of View to talk about the history of the radical change in mindset and attitude. Classic American liberalism in this country was based on a belief in liberty. Citizens were to be free from government coercion and…

Kerby Anderson Michael Youssef warns us that we face both external threats and internal threats in his book, The Hidden Enemy. We face an external threat from radical, political Islam. That does not mean that all Muslims are enemies. He has great concern and passion for Muslims, having been born in Egypt. His broadcasts go into Muslim countries to proclaim the gospel. But he is well aware that radical Muslims want to sweep away Western civilization and impose a global…

Penna Dexter An absurd phrase is used in the White House’s 2021 budget proposal: “birthing people.” It appears in a section dealing with funding to reduce maternal mortality, which is worse among black mothers. Senators tried to get clarification at a hearing. Oklahoma Senator James Lankford asked Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, “Can you help me get a good definition of ‘birthing people’? Secretary Becerra couldn’t — or wouldn’t — do it. “I’ll check on the language there,…

Kerby Anderson According to Peter Van Buren, there is another virus loose in the land. He refers to it as “learned helplessness.” The previous pandemic and lockdown encouraged many Americans to adapt by no longer challenging the ever-shifting rules promoted by various politicians. He wonders why we would allow the government to deny us the opportunity to say goodbye to a parent dying in a hospital. And now that we are in this post-vaccination period, it seems hard for some…

Kerby Anderson If you’ve watched congressional politics, you know the game. Pull together all sorts of funding projects that would never pass on their own, and then stick them in a bill with a title like “health care reform” or “COVID Relief.” This time the bill is referred to as an “infrastructure bill. We obviously need to fix our roads and bridges. We need to upgrade our ports and airports. We even need to modernize our water and sewer systems….

Kerby Anderson Prices are increasing everywhere and so there is lots of talk about inflation. At the same time, there are other economists warning that a future oversupply of goods might bring a deflationary period. Whatever economic circumstances are on the horizon, we can be sure that the value of the dollar will be decreasing. Let’s look at each of these issues. One measure of inflation is the consumer price index. It grew by 4.2 percent in April and surged…

Kerby Anderson Cryptocurrency has been in the news lately, so it’s not surprising that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have been a topic of discussion in Congress. In fact, Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) and Representative Warren Davidson (R-OH) recently spoke at the Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami. However, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) took the opportunity at a Senate hearing to criticize cryptocurrency, calling on the federal government to regulate or eliminate it. She does seem open to a government-backed digital currency,…

Kerby Anderson The opening lines of a Wall Street Journal editorial observed, “That didn’t take long.” We aren’t even half a year into the Biden presidency, and already have an IRS scandal. ProPublica published “The Secret IRS Files” showing how some of the wealthiest Americans avoid income tax. It documents the years in which Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Michael Bloomberg paid no federal income taxes. It also provided an inside look at the financial lives of Bill Gates, Warren…