Viewpoints with Kerby Anderson

Kerby Anderson
Karol Markowicz calls it “America’s Great Rip-off.” What she is talking about is the rising tide of shoplifting in this country. Although it may be easy to dismiss shoplifting as insignificant, she reminds us that it hurts everyone. We pay for it economically with increased prices, and we pay for it culturally with a further decline and degradation in society’s standards.
How bad is the problem? Anyone with a little bit of discernment should question the latest statistics. A liberal group estimating the impact of shoplifting is minimal if you exclude New York City. But that same group found a whopping 64% increase in shoplifting in the city.
The same group reports San Francisco had a decline in shoplifting even though businesses are leaving that city. Target is closing three stores in the area, citing “theft and organized retail crime . . . threatening the safety of our team and guests, and contributing to unsustainable business performance.”
She also makes the same case that a state senator on my radio program recently made. Smaller crimes lead to bigger crimes. “A black market emerges for the stolen goods, violence becomes more likely when theft continues unchecked, and an atmosphere of danger permeates the areas where people are stealing and suffering no consequences.”
We are left, she concludes, with a “feeling of helplessness — that no one is in charge and rules don’t matter — leads directly to societal decay. When security isn’t an expectation, antisocial behavior increases.”
There are solutions, but those must first begin with law enforcement and a district attorney that will prosecute criminal behavior. This next election is an opportunity to replace those who won’t do their job.

Kerby Anderson
For more than a decade, my radio program has had a millennial roundtable discussion to help the next generation learn to navigate the culture. One resource I recommend is the book, A Practical Guide to Culture, written by John Stonestreet and Brett Kunkle. The rowboat on the cover illustrates that the younger generations will have to navigate through choppy waters.
John has been on my radio program many times to talk about culture and share his experiences from Summit Ministries and the Chuck Colson Center. Both authors have ministered to thousands of students and their parents. They are facing a range of challenges from digital media to pornography to drugs to transgender issues.
They not only focus on the hot-button issues we hear about and read about every day, but they also focus on the undercurrents in the culture such as consumerism, materialism, addiction, the sexual revolution, and racial tension.
The younger generations face significant challenges, especially in an age with greater hostility toward Christianity. They also must do so in a digital world that moves much faster than in previous generations.
Another helpful aspect of the book is the attempt to answer or refute many of the cultural lies in our society. Technology helps spread these lies quickly. Christians will need biblical discernment to deal with so many lies that are assaulting biblical truth.
They say that young people can either celebrate, create, confront, co-opt, or correct cultural trends and habits. We must stand for biblical truth and correct cultural trends, but we also must do it with love and compassion. This book provides a model for all of us to follow.

Kerby Anderson
The media tells us we are facing an epidemic of loneliness. Everyone is writing about loneliness, and I have done so as well. But we must reject one of the reasons sometimes given for loneliness in America. John Stossel quotes from articles and magazines that argue that capitalism is what makes us lonely.
In his new video interview with Johan Norberg, the historian explains, “There is no empirical data that actually shows that we feel lonelier now than we did in the past.” John Stossel pushes back that more people live alone now than in the past. Norberg responds, “What they never tell you in the reports, is that people who live alone and spend less time surrounded by other people are also happier with those relationships.”
What Norberg explains in the video and his new book is the “complete opposite of what people expect.” It turns out that loneliness is less in capitalist countries and much worse in socialist countries. This is not what you hear in the media. Instead, one socialist on YouTube argues that “Material incentives of capitalists isolate us from nature, each other and ourselves.”
But when we discussed this on my radio program, my guests countered by saying that in a free market, the way you attract buyers is by producing a product or a service that meets the needs of another person. “In the market economy, we do each other’s services constantly. That’s how we get richer,” adds Norberg. “No deal ever happens unless both parties think that they benefit.”
Capitalism doesn’t make you lonely or isolated. The free market requires you to consider another person’s wants and needs. Once again, we find another benefit of the free market system.

Penna Dexter
An article in the online publication — FLI Insider — sent me searching through several years of radio commentaries to find my stories covering the “Christmas Wars.”
I found quite a few.
Here’s one from 12 years ago:  Mayor Tony Court of Ellwood City, Pennsylvania received a threatening letter from the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation about a nativity scene that had been displayed in his town for the previous fifty Christmas seasons. The letter insisted the nativity scene was illegal and had to be taken down. It could remain only if accompanied by an anti-Christmas banner containing a long message, ending with these words: “Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.”
“No way,” said Mayor Court. But many city officials are not so bold.
Over the years, the Freedom From Religion and other complainers have launched hundreds of challenges against creches on public property. Often they insist that localities obey something called “The Three Reindeer Rule” which requires that a number of secular trappings of Christmas be placed around the nativity scene.
Jorge Gomez of First Liberty Institute, author of the article that sent me on my search, explains that “the law protects expressions of faith in the public square.” That’s always been true, but many city officials don’t realize it, or they simply don’t want the fight.
Now, thanks to two landmark US Supreme Court victories for religious freedom, the folks at First Liberty want Americans to know “it doesn’t have to be that way anymore.”
The Supreme Court’s momentous decisions protecting Coach Joe Kennedy’s public prayer fand safeguarding the Bladensburg Peace Cross remove “major barriers and precedents against religious freedom.”
According to First Liberty, this “means you can go into your community and begin restoring Nativity scenes, Menorahs and other religious memorials, images, and displays.” First Liberty has launched Restoring Faith In America — RFIA.org — to help folks work with local leaders to seize this wonderful opportunity.  

Kerby Anderson
Thaddeus McCotter has a suggestion for you. Go to a search engine and ask it for the reasons for an impending climate apocalypse. It will list such things as the use of fossil fuels, agricultural practices, and much more. He says that is misleading because the seminal cause for this is YOU.
“Well, okay, maybe not you, specifically, but certainly enough people to make the world less burdened by the blight upon Mother Nature that is humanity. Fewer people mean fewer carbon emissions.” That is why his commentary has the title: “Save the Planet, Cull the Herd.”
That explains why abortion has been praised and pushed by climate activists as a “liberating right.” The Supreme Court ruled against Roe v. Wade, but the post-Dobbs world shows abortion proceeding along in most states.
It also explains why the American Medical Association might change its view on euthanasia. In the past, it described euthanasia as “fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer.” But attempts to alter that perspective are being proposed in government run healthcare in Europe.
One of my major professors in graduate school, I later discovered, was one of the co-founders of Zero Population Growth. Back when the organization started in 1968, the world’s population was 3.5 billion. Today the world’s population is 7.8 billion. If the founders thought the world was overpopulated 55 years ago, imagine what environmental activists today must now think.
If we have an overpopulation of deer, it is time to cull the herd and issue hunting licenses. Environment activists don’t want to issue hunting licenses, but they are eager to promote abortion and euthanasia. Remember that the next time you hear someone talking about an impending climate catastrophe.

Kerby Anderson
Many historians have written about the descent into barbarism. Novelist Mark Lewis reminds us that the “descent into barbarism is easy and fast; you only need to let yourself go.”
How does it happen? He suggests, “When it becomes socially acceptable to be a barbarian, as is increasingly the case in America, there will be more and more barbaric activity.” And he adds that it is often to the advantage of leaders to allow it to happen or even encourage it to happen. Once there is chaos, authoritarian leaders can justify increasing their power to manage the chaos.
Sadly, he observes, “Barbarism never elevates anyone.  It took Europe several centuries of the Dark Ages to get out of it.  We appear to be descending into it again, as law, religion, traditions, and social order no longer hold back the tide.” Government cannot stop this decadent slide.
Human reason, he adds, cannot not provide an answer nor a solution. Precisely because “human reason can never fathom the depths of the mind of God. And that is because every human has his own reason.”
He explains, “When one removes from a man that which separates him from the animals, when we teach man that he is nothing more than a glorified ape, we mustn’t be surprised when he acts like one, and when we take God out of man, we leave nothing but the animal.”
Pastors and Christian leaders have said for decades that it you teach children in the public schools that they are evolved animals, they will act like animals. If you take God and morality out of the culture, anarchy and immorality will result. The solution to this descent into barbarism is a revival and reformation.

Kerby Anderson
Today is December 7 – a day that President Roosevelt said would be “a date which will live in infamy.” On that fateful morning of December 7, 1941, America was attacked without warning. More than 2,400 Americans died and 1,100 were wounded. Our country was changed forever.
This attack led us into war, and the citizens of America responded with courage and resolve. So it may be well to reflect on what took place and how we today must also rise to the occasion of an attack on America more than eight decades ago.
Today is known as National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. It is a day when we honor the lives lost in that attack on Pearl Harbor and also honor the veterans of World War II. But it can also be a day in which we pay tribute to the men and women who are currently serving in the armed forces in an effort to promote freedom and justice around the world.
If you travel to Hawaii, you need to stop at the memorial in Pearl Harbor. The USS Arizona stands as a testimony to the 1,177 crew members who died as a result of the attack on December 7. I understand that more than 40 million people have visited that memorial and have therefore honored the heroic efforts of these sailors and marines. If you have been there, you know that it has become a sacred place as well as a reminder of what can happen when others (either a nation or terrorists) attack this nation.
In 1941, the enemies of the US were Japan and Germany. Today they are our friends. But we have new enemies, terrorists who want to destroy us and to destroy our way of life. We are protected from their evil intentions by those who serve in uniform.
So today, take a moment to reflect on your freedom that was bought with a price. And honor those who died for your freedoms and honor those who protect you today. December 7 is an important day, and I didn’t want it to pass without challenging you to consider its importance.

Kerby Anderson
Yesterday I discussed a Wall Street Journal article about a poll that revealed that most voters see the American dream slipping away. Only a third (36%) of voters said the American Dream holds true.
My focus yesterday was on the mindset that prevents young people from being successful. Why work hard if you are convinced the system is rigged against you? Perhaps the better way to look at it is to focus on the economic reality since the 1970s.
Go to a search engine and type the words “disconnect between productivity and work compensation.” You will see more than a dozen charts that show that productivity and wages were correlated and then sharply diverged in the 1970s. You can find other graphs that show that wages never increased when adjusted for inflation.
The reasons for this divergence are many: going off the gold standard in 1971, wage and price controls, dual incomes to qualify for home ownership, etc. You can debate some of the reasons, but you can’t argue with the result.
The builder generation (born before the end of WWII) generally was able to support a family with Dad working while Mom stayed home. They bought a house and were able to pay for their expenses. The boomer generation had a more difficult time making ends meet but still were able to own a home, sometimes by having a dual income.
Fast forward to families today where both parents are working and having a difficult time paying bills. As one couple in the Wall Street Journal article put it, “I’d be lying if I didn’t say that money is tight.” He then added “I feel we are a couple of paychecks away from being on the street.”
Over the last fifty years, the value of the dollar declined and the prices of everything went up. Wages didn’t keep up, and that’s another reason why people no longer believe in the American Dream.

Kerby Anderson
Just over a week ago, a poll published in the Wall Street Journal revealed that most voters see the American dream slipping away. Only a third (36%) of voters said the American Dream holds true compared to a majority (53%) of American voters who said that in 2012.
Derek Hunter argues in a recent column that “the American Dream is not dead; what is dead is most people’s idea of what that phrase means.” The poll defined the American Dream as “the proposition that anyone who works hard can get ahead, regardless of their background.”
He responds that the US is not like “Lake Wobegon, where everyone is above average.” Instead, the American Dream, he argues is a shot at success at any level. The US is still the land of opportunity, but that vision is marred by the left-wing educational complex.
“White kids are taught they’ve got all the advantages because of their skin color” and “young Black people are taught the country is racist.” But he argues that the true oppression in this country comes from so many people talking about oppression. You can’t tell young people to work hard and get ahead if they reject the American Dream and are convinced they can never succeed.
He says young people have “all been marinated in a culture of entitlement while denigrating the concept of earning.” Even “the concept of hard work is nearly dead, too – everyone wants to be Kim Kardashian now.” He is convinced that this pervasive sense of entitlement is true oppression.
There certainly are barriers to success and achievement, but you won’t ever be successful if you refuse to work hard and use your God-given talents, and if you start with the flawed assumption that the system is rigged against you.

Kerby Anderson
Two weeks ago, I documented the rise in antisemitism on the left. Today, I will focus our attention on antisemitism on the right.
Before I do so, let’s acknowledge that dividing anti-Jewish hatred into left and right is neither fair nor accurate. In my previous commentary, I quoted a liberal who condemns the views of his fellow Democrats who are antisemitic. Conservative leaders also condemn the views of antisemitic groups.
Sarah Arnold reports: “Antisemitism is on the rise …and Hamas’s slaughter on the Jewish land has expedited its exposure. We all thought the days were over when Jewish people had to be afraid to leave their homes or openly worship at a synagogue.”
Instead, those who hate Jewish people have become emboldened to march in the streets. This time it was members of a Neo-Nazi group (known as Blood Tribe) that marched through the streets of Madison, Wisconsin. They wore red shirts, waved swastika flags, and gave salutes to Hitler.
They describe themselves as a group that “openly directs its vitriol at Jews, non-whites, and the LGBTQ community.” They even stopped in front of a synagogue to chant: “Israel is not our friend.”
Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers lamented: “To see Neo-Nazis marching in our streets and neighborhoods and in the shadow of our State Capitol building spreading their disturbing, hateful messages is truly revolting.”
It is time for pastors and Christian leaders to speak out against such groups and individuals. God gave Abram and his descendants three promises in Genesis 12. Deuteronomy 14:2 calls Jews a chosen people. But even if you don’t believe the Jews are a chosen people, you should still treat the Jews with the same dignity as any other religious or ethnic group. This is a message we need to speak today.

Penna Dexter
Bioethicist and political thinker Leon Kass has often been called upon to weigh in on consequential moral debates. He lives both in the US and in Jerusalem where he serves as dean of faculty at Shalem University. His recent Wall Street Journal commentary, “Why the Jewish Way of Living Matters,” speaks to certain “Torah-based beliefs,” moral principles shared by the Jewish right and left. Some of these concern the centrality of family life. Dr. Kass states: “In this time of moral confusion and social fragmentation, Israel, by its example has something to teach us…..Alone in the developed world, it has a birthrate above replacement, with a low level of out-of-wedlock births.”
According to a Journal report, titled, “Why Americans Are Having Fewer Babies`,” the US relies on “a robust pool of young people. Without them, the US economy will be weighed down by a worsening shortage of workers.”
Demographers and economists are worried. In 2007, the number of babies born in the United States started to plummet. It hasn’t recovered. According to the Journal, the number of babies born last year was down about 15% from the number born in ‘07, “even though there are 9% more women in their prime childbearing years.”
We originally blamed the ‘08 financial crisis for the persistent drop. Now we look at other factors: The economy, feminism, and even concerns about the environment can influence childbearing decisions. But studies show, young women still want kids. The Journal article cites evidence which leads to the conclusion that “the gap between women’s intended number of children and their actual family size has widened considerably.”
In his documentary, “Birthgap,” data scientist Stephen Shaw points out that 80% of the childless women he studied wanted to have children. Many just thought they had more time.
This is heartbreaking for them and terrible for the country as we find ourselves in a childbearing trough. Hopefully, it’s not too late to turn this around.

Kerby Anderson
As I mentioned yesterday, Americans are concerned about the direction of the country. They also believe the economy has become much worse in the last few years. The explanation from the White House is that the President’s message about Bidenomics isn’t getting through to the American people.
One economist has another suggestion. He argued that Americans have “demonstrably false views about the current economy.” Also, he mentioned the slight difference between how Republicans and Democrats view the economy. That might suggest there is a political element to the current dissatisfaction.
A Harris poll shows that two-thirds (68%) of respondents reported that it was difficult to be happy with the economic news. Only a slightly higher number of Republicans (69%) agreed with the statement compared to Democrats (68%).
Even more telling was the fact that nearly two-thirds of Americans (65%) believe the economy is worse than the media makes it out to be. Here is where you see some political differences. A higher percentage of Republicans (82%) believe the economy is worse than reported by the media than Democrats (49%). But it is telling that nearly half of all Democrats agree with that statement.
The administration and the media can point to the fact that unemployment is close to a 50-year low and economic growth is improving. But those economic figures don’t seem to be influencing Americans trying to make ends meet.
Earlier this year, Bankrate published its annual Emergency Fund Report. They found that two-thirds (68%) of Americans were worried they wouldn’t be able to cover their living expenses for just one month if they lost their primary source of income. More than half (57%) said they couldn’t afford a $1,000 emergency expense.
This is the economic reality for millions of Americans. That is why they don’t express confidence in our economy.

Kerby Anderson
As the year of 2023 is winding down and we are heading into the election season of 2024, one thing is certain: most Americans are concerned about our nation’s future. An ABC News/Ipsos survey found that more than 75 percent of Americans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction.
Some commentators looking at that poll even wonder why the remaining 25 percent aren’t also concerned about America’s direction. Consumers are paying more for gas, food, and energy. Mortgage rates are higher than when President Biden took office. War has broken out in two major areas of the world, while military threats loom in other parts of the world.
Yesterday, I talked about the cost and concerns about the border and immigration. The only group that seems to be benefitting from our open border are the cartels. One headline recently announced, “Smuggling migrants to the US is a booming business.” Another story explained that cartels are “specializing in logistics, transportation, surveillance, and more, resulting in revenues up to $13 billion.”
The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll asked registered voters, “How concerned are you about the situation at the border?” They found that 82 percent were concerned (with 47 percent very concerned and an additional 35 percent somewhat concerned).
The response from the current administration has been that their message about the economy and the border isn’t getting through. But the facts about our current direction seem to be getting through to most Americans. They feel the rising costs of goods and services. And they suspect that allowing more than 6 million illegal aliens into this country cannot be good for them or the country.
It will be hard to make the case next year during election season that “steady as she goes” is the best policy for this nation.

Kerby Anderson
What is the annual cost of immigration to American taxpayers? The US House Committee on Homeland Security has calculated the cost, and we are in for significant “sticker shock.” Their new report reveals that taxpayers are losing nearly a half trillion dollars to the border crisis.
The staggering amount taxpayers lose to funding illegal aliens comes from nearly every sector of society. We pay more for healthcare, education, and housing to individuals and families here in this country illegally. We also must bear the brunt of extra costs for law enforcement.
In case you are wondering, only a small fraction of those costs is ever recouped from taxes paid by illegal aliens. The rest of those costs are what we must pay. In the past, many mayors of sanctuary cities have argued these costs are insignificant when we consider the benefit, we enjoy from migrants coming to this country. You might ask the mayors of New York City and Chicago if they still feel that way.
When I discussed this latest report on my radio program, one guest suggested that the government figure was probably low. That seems likely when you add to the millions who have illegally crossed the border another 1.7 million “gotaways” who escaped federal custody. We can assume some of them are involved in drugs and human trafficking. A few might even be terrorists, who deliberated avoided capture.
A second guest also reminded us that millions of illegals harm Americans in another way. They are competing for jobs with US citizens and thus keeping wages low and making it harder for some to get jobs.
Every poll I have seen shows voters consider border security and immigration to be one of their top issues. Wait until they find out how much it costs? This will certainly be an election issue.

Kerby Anderson
What is the annual cost of immigration to American taxpayers? The US House Committee on Homeland Security has calculated the cost, and we are in for significant “sticker shock.” Their new report reveals that taxpayers are losing nearly a half trillion dollars to the border crisis.
The staggering amount taxpayers lose to funding illegal aliens comes from nearly every sector of society. We pay more for healthcare, education, and housing to individuals and families here in this country illegally. We also must bear the brunt of extra costs for law enforcement.
In case you are wondering, only a small fraction of those costs is ever recouped from taxes paid by illegal aliens. The rest of those costs are what we must pay. In the past, many mayors of sanctuary cities have argued these costs are insignificant when we consider the benefits we enjoy from migrants coming to this country. You might ask the mayors of New York City and Chicago if they still feel that way.
When I discussed this latest report on my radio program, one guest suggested that the government figure was probably low. That seems likely when you add to the millions who have illegally crossed the border another 1.7 million “gotaways” who escaped federal custody. We can assume some of them are involved in drugs and human trafficking. A few might even be terrorists, who deliberately avoided capture.
A second guest also reminded us that millions of illegals harm Americans in another way. They are competing for jobs with US citizens thus keeping wages low and making it harder for some to get jobs.
Every poll I have seen shows that voters consider border security and immigration to be one of their top issues. Wait until they find out how much it costs. This will certainly be an election issue.

Kerby Anderson
Earlier this month, Jim Geraghty wondered if the killing of Paul Kessler would start a national conversation. You probably don’t even understand his question, which is an illustration of the fact that the media usually determines what event should spark a national conversation.
Paul Kessler is the 69-year-old Jewish man who died of a head injury at an event in Thousand Oaks, California. The Los Angeles Times reported the incident that occurred when pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian protestors were in the street. The editors could have reported it as the first time a Jewish death occurred at a time of rising antisemitism. Instead, it was just a story of a clash in a suburb outside of Los Angeles.
Jim Geraghty reminds us that “this wasn’t random violence. Paul Kessler went to a demonstration seeking to exercise his God-given, constitutionally protected rights to assemble and speak, and somebody on the other side felt entitled to knock him around and ended up killing him. This should horrify and outrage us.”
In the past, we have seen the media take a local incident and turn it into a national story followed by calls for a national conversation on a controversial social issue. A mass shooting, an anti-gay comment, racist graffiti, and a threat to an abortion clinic are local stories that became national stories because the media decided to use the incident to spark a national conversation. “If newsrooms wanted to make the name Paul Kessler famous, they could. He could be depicted as a martyr to free speech and the First Amendment.”
Once again this is a reminder that we should use discernment when watching the news and reading news stories. The media elite still work to determine what is important enough for a national conversation.

Kerby Anderson
Bari Weiss is Jewish and the author of the book, How to Fight Anti-Semitism. She noticed something 20 years ago when she was a college student and started writing about an ideology that seemed to contradict everything she had been taught since she was a child.
She admits she may not have perceived the nature of this ideology if it had not been for the fact that she was a Jew. She noticed that she was being written out of the equation and that the whole system rested on an illusion. It was “a worldview that replaced basic ideas of good and evil with a new rubric: the powerless (good) and the powerful (bad).”
Over the past two decades, she has seen this inverted worldview swallow each institution in America. She has seen it in the universities. As a staff editor at The New York Times, she saw it pervade the media. She has seen it influence everything from major corporations to medical schools, law schools, and high schools.
It also showed up in the Jewish community. Important Jewish organizations accepted this worldview to signal solidarity with the fight for equal rights. The problem is that this worldview measures fairness by equality of outcome rather than opportunity.
If you haven’t figured it out by now, she is talking about wokeness and especially DEI,  “diversity, equity, and inclusion.” She acknowledges these three words represent noble causes but are camouflage and justification of arrogating power. That is why she says: “It is time to end DEI for good.”
Wokeness and DEI are undermining America and the principles that make this nation great. We should be fighting for those principles and against a social scoring system that punishes hard work and success.

Penna Dexter
The United States Supreme Court recently set out a “Code of Conduct” to “gather in one place the ethics rules and principles that guide the conduct of the members of the court.” All nine justices signed it.
They have done this in response to pressure from groups on the Left who want Congress to put into place “ethics” requirements for Supreme Court Justices.
Enacting such legislation would intensify political accusations against justices and bring endless recusal fights in hot-button cases. And that’s the point. The Left seeks to weaken — really neuter — the Court because it’s not getting the rulings it wants.
Should Congress impose an ethics code on justices, it would violate the US Constitution’s separation of powers. The Founders created the judiciary, under Article III of the Constitution, as a separate and co-equal branch of government.
Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus criticized the justices’ document as inadequate, writing that it tells lawmakers, “You’re not the boss of me.”
That’s exactly what the Court should say.
Supreme Court justices police their own financial disclosures and make their own recusal decisions.
A Wall Street Journal editorial published last summer argues, “The nine justices are appointees with lifetime tenure under the Constitution in order to insulate them from political pressure.” The Journal emphasizes, “While Congress established the lower federal courts, the Constitution created the Supreme Court which sets its own rules.” Congress has no power to set rules for the Court or dictate how it is run.
The rules and principles laid out in the justice’s code are not new. The document is likely meant to deter any action by Congress. Justice Samuel Alito told The Journal, “No provision in the U.S. Constitution gives them the authority to regulate the Supreme Court — period.”
Last summer Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse’s draconian ethics bill passed the Judiciary Committee along party lines. If this legislation was ever enacted, it would destroy the independence of the Supreme Court. 

Kerby Anderson
The cancel culture has been around for many years. John Stossel gives a new perspective to it in his interview with 23-year-old Rikki Schlott. She is the co-author of the new book, The Cancelling of the American Mind. If the title sounds familiar, it should. Her co-author was the co-author of the earlier book, The Coddling of the American Mind.
As a college student, she felt she had to hide her conservative views. She says she was even “afraid to have Thomas Sowell and Jordan Peterson books on my bookshelf.” She rightly feared that if her classmates saw the books she might be “verbally attacked on social media.”
John Stossel reminds us of the long list of people who have been canceled. “A teacher in Virginia lost his job for calling a transgender student she. An art history lecturer lost her job simply for showing a painting of Muhammad. A University of Virginia med student was banished from campus for merely questioning the importance of microaggressions.”
Generally, the younger you are the more likely you are to have a positive view towards cancel culture. But there is an interesting exception. Generation Z reverses that trend. Rikki Schlott has an explanation. “That’s because if you’re a young person who grows up in a graceless society, you’re always looking behind your back. You see friends torn down on social media.”
Also, many universities encourage students to report other students. She says that when she went to college to pick up her ID card, she found emergency numbers on the back. One number was for the bias response hotline in case you were offended. The university sanctioned the idea of reporting other students.
It’s time to speak up and end the assault on free speech achieved through the cancel culture.

Kerby Anderson
Each year, we take time from our busy lives to celebrate a day of Thanksgiving. Though many holidays have become secular celebrations, this holiday still retains much of its historic religious overtones.
A day of Thanksgiving was set aside by the Pilgrims who founded Plymouth Colony. Life was hard in the New World.  Half of the Pilgrims died in the first terrible winter. After the first harvest was completed, Governor William Bradford proclaimed a day of Thanksgiving and prayer. By 1623, a day of fasting and prayer during a period of drought was changed to one of Thanksgiving because the rain came during their prayers. The custom prevailed in New England and eventually became a national holiday.
Religious freedom is one of the lessons of Thanksgiving. In 1606, William Brewster led a group of Separatists to Leiden (in the Netherlands) to escape religious persecution in England. After living in Leiden for more than ten years, some members of the group voted to emigrate to America. Having been blown off course from their intended landing in Virginia by a terrible storm, the Pilgrims landed at Cape Cod in November 1620. While still on the ship, the Pilgrims signed the Mayflower Compact.
The Mayflower Compact provides the second lesson of Thanksgiving: the importance of political freedom.  On November 11, 1620, Governor William Bradford and the leaders on the Mayflower signed the Mayflower Compact before setting foot on land. They wanted to acknowledge God’s sovereignty in their lives and their need to obey Him.
During this Thanksgiving season, let’s return to the wisdom of the Pilgrims. They valued their freedom and were willing to endure hardship in order to come to this country and freely worship. Let us thank God for these freedoms and be willing to defend them against all who would seek to take them away.