Dr. Richard Land once called our country, “the divided states of America.” How apt — especially when we survey the various responses to the coronavirus. They are lessons in liberty and lessons in tyranny. To paraphrase what a friend of mine wrote me recently, “We have 50 real-world government examples of liberty or tyranny — […]
Author Archive | Jerry Newcombe
A Challenge to Skeptics: An Easter Message
Guest essay by Jerry Newcombe Have you ever heard of Theudas? How about Judas of Galilee? They were would-be messiahs in the first century. How many followers do these men have today? Zero, zip, nada. Of course, we’ve all heard of Jesus Christ. One-third of humanity professes to believe in Him. But I guarantee you […]
And Then There Were None
In 2008, Abby Johnson, the manager of the Bryan, Texas (100 miles from Houston) Planned Parenthood, became that organization’s Employee of the Year. By 2009, she quit for conscience’ sake. Why? That year, for the first time, she saw an ultrasound of an abortion of a 13-week old unborn child in her own clinic. This […]
Columbus Day or Indigenous Peoples’ Day?
Guest essay by Jerry Newcombe Political correctness infects virtually every aspect of our culture, our thinking, our heritage. When I grew up (and I was born in 1956), Christopher Columbus was a great hero. Now, to some, he has become a villain. He is blamed for many unjustifiable things, most of which followed in the […]
The High Price of Forgetting God
Guest essay by Jerry Newcombe Recently a survey of Americans found an abysmal lack of knowledge of our history and some of the basics of American civics. The pollsters concluded: “A waning knowledge of American history may be one of the greatest educational challenges facing the U.S.” I once interviewed the late Mel and Norma […]
A Tale of Two Revolutions
Guest essay by Jerry Newcombe Could a contrast between the American Revolution and the French Revolution be relevant to today’s conflicts? I think so. The attempt to demote historic icons, like George Washington, is a case in point. George Washington grew up as a gentleman farmer in Virginia and was a fourth generation slave-owner. But […]
A Forgotten Voice in the Alabama Abortion Debate
Guest essay by Jerry Newcombe The goal of the new, strict Alabama abortion law is to potentially overturn Roe v. Wade. The law would penalize abortion doctors, and it contains no exception clauses, except for the life and health of the mother. In all of the brouhaha about the new Alabama law, there is a […]
As a Nation, We Have Forgotten God
Guest essay by Jerry Newcombe When I was a kid, there was an expression: “Stop the world. I want to get off.” Glancing at the headlines sometimes make me feel that way. For example, here are some stories highlighted on Drudge today (8/6/18): A crackdown on free speech by Apple. They decide what is and […]
Some Presidential Reflections on Christmas
Guest essay by Jerry Newcombe In the last few decades, we have somehow been conned into the idea that there is a strict separation of God and state in the public square of America. But that is so clearly out of step with our traditions, including our Christmas traditions. Some past presidents have made interesting […]
Thomas Jefferson and the Myth of a Secular America
Guest essay by Jerry Newcombe The contentiousness of the recent elections underscores how there are conflicting visions of what our nation should be. Are we a brave new world in a secular mold or are we endowed by our Creator with inalienable rights? Secularists have tried to change America into a godless void. And they […]
Happiness: The Christians’ Vindication?
Guest essay by Jerry Newcombe Many in our society seem to do everything they can to squelch Christianity, as the following examples illustrate: A retired Lutheran minister might get expelled from his retirement home. Why? For having Bible studies there. A chaplain was facing punishment for not facilitating a lesbian couple’s “marriage” retreat, because it […]
New Left Slogan? “Hey, Let’s Turn America Into Venezuela”
When you see Bernie Sanders, remember Venezuela. When you see Elizabeth Warren, think Caracas. When you see Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, think of the plight of those poor people fleeing Venezuela by the hundreds of thousands—just so they can eat. That may seem a little harsh. But the fact is that Venezuela went from one of the […]
Confessions of a “Christian Constitutionalist”
Guest essay by Jerry Newcombe After a recent column on “fake news,” someone sent me an email, accusing me of propagating fake news by saying the Bible had anything to do with the founding of America. The email stated the common charge that the Constitution was the product of men of the Enlightenment, with Masonic […]
What Was the “Crime” of Jesus that Got Him Crucified?
Guest essay by Jerry Newcombe Soon another Holy Week will be upon us, beginning with Palm Sunday and culminating with Easter Sunday. It was “the week that changed the world.” The week began in a humble, triumphant sort of way. That may seem like an oxymoron. Jesus was hailed as a king, but rode in […]
Loving God with Our Minds—a Tribute to the Late R. C. Sproul
Guest essay by Jerry Newcombe The greatest command, said Jesus, is that we love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Sometimes missing today among many professing Christians is the emphasis on the mind. A great evangelical theologian died December 14, 2017, R. C. Sproul (rhymes with role), the founder of Ligonier Ministries. […]