Townhall Review | Commentaries

Each year Freedom House measures freedom around the world using several criteria. Unfortunately, its recent report showed the 14th consecutive year in which freedom worldwide has declined.

The world is full of more dictators and citizens possess fewer political rights and civil rights.  Ethnic and religious groups are under fire.  64 nations lost ground on the freedom scale last year, with only 37 making gains.

Surprisingly, the U.S. is not the bastion of freedom you might think. Its score on the freedom scale is going in the wrong direction, from 89 two years ago to 86 this year. Nearly 50 other nations score ahead of us. Outside interference by Russia challenged our free and fair elections, while religious and minority groups battle for rights.

You can question the criteria, but whenever there is a test of freedom, we want the U.S. to score well.

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President Trump needs to tell the American people how he plans to fix our health care system if he wants to win reelection. It’s an issue that many Americans care deeply about, and one that the President and Republicans should not be afraid to address.

The contrast between the Republican and Democratic visions for health care could not be more stark.

Democrats have called for more bureaucracy and more government control in our health care system—changes that have only driven costs higher and diminished choices for patients. But their interest in a single-payer, government-run system shows that Democrats have grander ambitions ahead.

In contrast, President Trump and Republicans want a health care system where patients and doctors—not bureaucrats—make critical decisions. One with more choices at lower cost. And a system where we have access to cutting edge treatments and cures.

The choice on health care is clear. Now, it’s up to President Trump and Republicans to make the case for why they’re right.

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Only rarely does a new film come along to remind movie lovers of Hollywood’s golden age some 80 years ago. “Greyhound,” starring Tom Hanks, is that sort of old-fashioned thriller, notably enriched by state-of-the-art special effects and riveting action sequences showing World War II’s Battle of the Atlantic.

Hanks, who also wrote the screenplay, portrays a destroyer captain given his first command, leading a crucial Anglo-American convoy across the ocean but facing destruction by “wolf packs” of German submarines. Based on a 1955 novel by C.S. Forester—who also wrote the beloved Horatio Hornblower series—this film gives loving attention to the hero’s profound Christian faith.

Hanks shows the over-burdened commander at prayer on multiple occasions, while portraying the emotional bonds between men of every background facing danger together. As with “Saving Private Ryan,” where Hanks also starred, or the great John Adams miniseries which he produced, “Greyhound” enriches our culture with an inspiring story of American heroism.

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If President Trump makes a comeback—and pulls off yet another upset victory on November the 3rd—it will be because he relied on the disgust of the American people with elites.

Trump will again run on a platform of America first, and on rebuilding the economy he built once before until it was shuttered by the novel coronavirus. He’ll point to his clear-eyed view of today’s aggressive and assertive Chinese Communist Party and to the strengthening of our military build-up: a growing Navy, the Space Force and the revitalized nuclear deterrent.

Trump will also run on his massive deregulation, and the appointment of justices and judges who are faithful to the Constitution.

An often hysterical media endlessly chants the same anti-Trump refrains.

But voters have to ask themselves: Which man do they want squaring off against Xi Jinping, rebuilding the economy, appointing judges, and funding the military?

Trump can embrace this disdain of elites that is widespread. And—yes—he can win again.

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Tech companies are in denial about the risks associated with political bias. They repeatedly feign ignorance before congressional committees and pretend to have no idea what shareholders are talking about when the issue is brought up at annual meetings. I know this from personal experience.

These executives are typically dismissive as though the issue isn’t even worth a discussion.

Well, maybe they’d better listen to the president of the company which in many ways built the modern information economy: Microsoft and their current CEO—Brad Smith. He recently told Neil Cavuto that “we in the tech sector need to step up” when it comes to inclusion of different political views.

So: the denial phase is over.

Microsoft is too big to be written off.

Silicon Valley has a thumb on the scale when it comes to conservatives. It’s up to them to restore our confidence.

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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gave a major speech last week, outlining a new approach to dealing with China. For many years, American policymakers have assumed that as China became more prosperous, it would become freer, more open and a responsible member of the international community.

We now know these assumptions were wrong.

So what do we do about it?

The Trump Administration is proposing a more clear-eyed view of China. We must recognize that the Chinese Communist Party is espousing a morally bankrupt ideology. Communism and socialism have never worked, and never will. We must, in Pompeo’s words, “engage and empower the Chinese people.”

And we must also join with the free nations of the world to push back on the ideology of the Chinese Communist Party. Pompeo suggested a new alliance of democracies.

That’s exactly the kind of bold action we need—to meet this great challenge of our time.

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We witnessed a major setback in the defense of life this summer as the Supreme Court struck down a Louisiana abortion law.

The 5-4 decision in the case known as June Medical Services v. Russo overturned legislation that required doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges to a nearby hospital. 

That just makes sense.

For conservatives and for the pro-life movement, the greatest disappointment is the math: 5 to 4. 

Chief Justice John Roberts was the fifth vote— the deciding vote. Based on his opinion in a 2016 case, we were hopeful he would vote to uphold the Louisiana law.

There is every reason for conservatives to be bitterly disappointed in the decision, but we dare not let bitter disappointment turn into a disengagement from the political process. 

What is at stake here is the infinite value of every single human life—human beings made in God’s image. And from that battle, we dare not run.
 

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A giant has fallen. J. I. Packer—the great theologian—has died at 93. Packer was spiritually listless as a boy. When he went to Oxford for university, everything changed.

His conversion happened at an evening service at St. Aldate’s Anglican Church in 1944. Initially, he was bored. Then Packer awoke spiritually. He knew “He needed to come in” to Christ, and did. On an unremarkable evening, the modern church gained one of her greatest voices.

Packer was linked with D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Christianity Today, Regent College, and the ESV Bible. He became a one-man publishing house for a brand of twentieth-century theology that was Reformational, biblical, cross-centered, and surprisingly experiential. His book “Knowing God” is a classic.

But Packer was no retiring flower. He wrote at full sail, with all hands to arms. He walked with God, taught us to know God, and then he was caught up to heaven. We honor him.

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I like to use Google Trends to see what people are looking up on the internet as a way of getting a sense of what average people are thinking about. I found that searches for the phrase “economic depression” peaked in late March. Then, in the ensuing weeks, we saw peaks in “better than expected” in the category of business and industry. Then we saw in early May a strong uptick in searches for “economic recovery,” and then a surge in business-related searches using the phrase “largest improvement.”

This basically tracks with the headlines. We saw scary headlines about the destruction of the economy, but then headlines showing that the U.S. economy is more resilient than given credit for. And then recovery headlines—with stats that showed some of the best improvements in decades.

Bottom line: We’re not doomed.

We can handle this.

We are handling it.

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A recent article in the New York Times demands our attention. The headline: “Sex Does Not Mean Gender. Equating Them Erases Trans Lives.”

The author argues that sex should not be equated with gender—because gender is a socially-constructed reality that does not have anything to do with biological sex.

But basic reality is indeed tied integrally and inseparably from biology. In sex—as male and female—we are looking at basic reality, part of the created order.

The author goes on to state: “In fact, stop using sex-based words to refer to people at all. They’re words for bodies, not for people with hearts and souls and minds.”

But, keep this in mind—we are created as individuals who are a unity— body and soul.

We are who we are, including our bodies, because God made us this way and He made us in His image.

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