Why is liberal California the poverty capital of America?

Guess which state has the highest poverty rate in the country? Not Mississippi, New Mexico, or West Virginia, but California, where nearly one out of five residents is poor. That’s according to the Census Bureau’s Supplemental Poverty Measure, which factors in the cost of housing, food, utilities and clothing, and which includes noncash government assistance as a […]

Of Crudeness and Truth

Nothing scandalizes a leftist like the truth. Point out that women and men are different, that black Americans commit a disproportionate amount of violent crime, that most terrorist acts are committed by Muslims, and the Left leaps to its collective feet in openmouthed shock, like Margaret Dumont after a Groucho Marx wisecrack. This is racism! This […]

Can Liberalism Change?

Can contemporary American liberalism change? Even to raise this question is to remind ourselves of the political upheaval of the last year. Not so long ago, the more obvious question would have been whether this liberalism had any need to change, whether it would not go from victory to victory unchecked, at least at the […]

Is the end near for religion?

“At the heart of every civilization, religious values are asserted.” — Fernand Braudel Even at this season that should be about spiritual re-awakening, it is hard to deny that we live in an increasingly post-religious civilization. Virtually everywhere in the high-income world, faith, particularly tied close to institutionalized religion, has been dropping for a decade, […]

Can Evangelicalism Survive Donald Trump and Roy Moore?

For centuries, renewal movements have emerged within Christianity and taken on different forms and names. Often, they have invoked the word “evangelical.” Followers of Martin Luther, who emphasized the doctrine of salvation by faith alone, described themselves in this way. The Cambridge clergyman Charles Simeon, who led the Low Church renewal movement within the Church of […]

Baltimore Murder Rate Surges Again In 2017 (Now Tied With Venezuela); Here’s How Your City Fared…

Once again this year, the Brennan Center for Justice has analyzed violent crime stats from the 30 largest cities in America to provide some insight on national trends.  Not surprisingly, this year’s report is full of more bad news for the residents of cities like Baltimore and Chicago that have experienced devastating spikes in homicides over the […]

American Jews — Not Just the Orthodox — Should Join Christians in Defending Religious Liberty

In a recent piece entitled “Why are Orthodox Organizations Embracing Christian Values?” Rabbi Jill Jacobs attacked Orthodox Jews for opposing the Obama Administration’s now-rescinded health insurance mandate, which required employers to provide or be complicit in providing some abortion-inducing drugs and sterilizations. She incorrectly suggested that this position conflicts with Jewish law, suggesting that these Orthodox Jews came […]