The Bible gives us a story of the world told from God’s perspective. That is why the Christian worldview provides the best explanation of the world. It answers questions like, “Why am I here?” and “What is my purpose in life?”

Greg Koukl provides a big-picture introduction to the story of the Bible in his new book, The Story of Reality: How the World Began, How It Ends, and Everything Important That Happens in Between. He was on my radio program to talk about how this book can answer questions Christians and non-Christians have.

Christians need this book to put the puzzle together. Dump a puzzle at your feet and you will see what the Christian puzzle looks like for many believers. It is a pile of pieces that they have never tried to put together. To make matters worse, some of the pieces come from other worldviews and don’t even fit the puzzle. This book puts the puzzle together.

Non-Christians need this book because it tells the true story of history in a way that makes sense. Greg Koukl anticipates the questions and skepticism they may have about the story and answers those questions with his extensive apologetic background. He reminds them that this isn’t a religious fairytale. It is a true story of the way things really are.

The narrative backbone of the story includes five parts: God, Man, Jesus, Cross, and Resurrection. The book takes you through a theological tour of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration. Christians will be able to fill in pieces of their puzzle. Non-Christians will be able to see the big picture and understand why it is important for them to make a decision about the truthfulness of the gospel.

The Story of Reality would be a great sermon series or Bible study for Sunday School classes or small groups. And it is a book to hand to someone who does not understand the gospel and may even think it is irrelevant.

The crime rate is up in many cities, so maybe it’s time to consider a solution rarely suggested. Let’s see what faith-based organizations and people of faith can do. The evidence is that they can reduce the crime rate and the recidivism rate in our prisons. This is the argument Baylor University criminologist Byron Johnson makes in his book, More God, Less Crime.

Sadly, most social scientists and even criminologists seem reluctant to make the connection between faith and the impact religious perspectives could have on America’s crime problem. Dr. Johnson believes that a faith-based ministry or message doesn’t resonate with most social scientists. Many are even hostile to religion, as demonstrated by the opening chapter in his book entitled, “The Last Acceptable Prejudice.”

Dr. Johnson also says that faith-based organizations are merely tolerated within the criminal justice system. In some places, they are seen as valuable and even helpful. In other jurisdictions, they are viewed with suspicion. This is unfortunate since the criminal justice system is facing cutbacks and shrinking budgets. Prison ministries like Bill Glass, Prison Fellowship, and Kairos Prison Ministry can provide people and programs that can make a difference. Faith-based organizations of all kinds can provide volunteers and educators to help with programs in life skills and adult education.

The book is full of positive examples of what can happen when Christians get involved in their local community. He tells the story of “The Boston Miracle” where police and pastors worked together to break the stranglehold gangs had in the community. He also talks about the mission of the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise and violence-free zones. And he even gives practical advice on the important issue of prisoner reentry and aftercare.

Most importantly, he provides a review of the literature so that churches and faith-based organizations can show skeptics that the title of the book is true: More God, Less Crime.

Economist Thomas Sowell filed his last column awhile back. At the age of 87, he certainly has earned his retirement. We will miss his insight, but benefit from the books and columns he has written over the years.

One of his last few columns had the engaging title “Football and Fallacies.” As is so often the case, he takes on one of the fallacies of the liberal left. He talks about the reaction from the players in the NFL when a black punter took the field. One of the defenders cried out, “Fake!” His reaction was understandable since you never see a black kicker in the NFL.

Thomas Sowell put it this way: “I have seen hundreds of black players score touchdowns, but not one kick the point afterwards. I have seen a black President of the United States before I have seen a black kicker in the NFL.”

The point he is making is that politicians and judges have always assumed that statistical differences between racial groups indicate discrimination. If so, does that mean there is discrimination among kickers in professional football? Of course, we all know the answer to that question. Owners and coaches will pick the best player regardless of their ethnic background. In fact, they will even take foreign players who cannot even speak English if they can kick a football.

The lesson here is that we have been told for decades that statistical differences are automatically a reason to suspect discrimination, whether between races or sexes. He goes on to remind us that some of the differences in wages between men and women have more to do with different career choices.

Let’s be honest. Some statistical differences do point to discrimination (either overt or subtle), but in most cases the differences are due to other factors that have nothing to do with discrimination. This is a lesson I hope politicians and judges can learn from this football story.

Graeme Wood gives us a chilling picture of what Islamic jihadists are really like. His book, The Way of the Strangers: Encounters with the Islamic State, is the result of years of interviewing ISIS members. It is amazing that he was allowed to interview them and that they didn’t consider killing him or holding him for ransom.

Those who he interviewed were called “The Strangers.” When he asked them why they called themselves that, they said it was a saying that the Prophet Muhammad gave them. Islam began as something strange and will return to being strange, according to their theology.

That last point is something I want to discuss. Rachel Martin (of NPR’s Morning Edition) asked Graeme Wood about his belief that many in the West misunderstand the religious roots of ISIS. Since he has interviewed many of them over the last few years, his answer is important for us to hear.

He agrees that “there is a strong urge to say that Islam has nothing to do with religion, that ISIS is a bunch of psychopaths, people with blades cutting off heads wantonly. Unfortunately, that’s just not true. ISIS has looked into Islamic history with historical accuracy, with intellectual vigor.”

I hope that these new faces in the Defense Department and the Department of Homeland Security begin to understand the religious roots of Islamic jihadists. It has been fashionable to say that Muslim terrorism is a deviation of Islam and is not representative of the religion. That may be so, but that does not mean we should ignore the reason that these jihadists desire to kill innocents and bring down the Western world. Religion plays a much more important part in their actions than many in the current positions of leadership are willing to acknowledge.

Graeme Woods spent years trying to understand ISIS and the fighters for the Islamic state. Our leaders need to read his book and understand the motivation of these jihadi

Throughout the years, John Stossel has been trying to find ways to simplify economics and illustrate the benefits of free markets. He has found that Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” is often invisible to his viewers. Friedrich Hayek’s “spontaneous order” is clearer but still hard to show.

That is why he began to use some of the ideas found in the article, “Rinkonomics: A Window on Spontaneous Order.” It inspired him to rent a skating rink in order to illustrate some of these key economic principles.

He says, imagine you have never seen a rink and are trying to get a government regulator to approve this new business. You will flood an area, freeze the water, and then charge people to strap sharp blades on their feet and zip around the ice. There will be few rules. Most regulators would resist your bizarre skating idea. They would want stoplights, barriers, and someone on a megaphone directing skaters.
John Stossel decided to do just that. He rented a rink and began to boss people around: “You, turn left; you, slow down.” The skaters hated it. And it didn’t make the skating any safer. Some people responding to him actually lost their balance and fell.

Perhaps you think they needed some experts. Government regulators would say he failed because he is not a skating expert. So he hired an Olympic skater. She did no better with the megaphone.

Actually, for skating to work, you only need a few rules, like skate counterclockwise. And you might need an employee to police reckless skaters. The rest comes from spontaneous order. “Skaters make their own decisions. No regulator knows the wishes, skills and immediate intentions of individual skaters better than the skaters themselves.”

The principle here is simple. Let people make their own choices, and spontaneous order will surface. Skaters find their own path. Buyers and sellers make lots of independent decisions in a market economy. Spontaneous order arises. This is the simple lesson from a skating rink.

A new report from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) finds that teenage virgins are healthier than other students who are sexually active. At first, you might think that is merely an obvious conclusion since virgins are not likely to contract a sexually transmitted disease (STD).
But the conclusions are based on many other factors as well. Students who are virgins actually rate significantly and consistently better in nearly all health-related behaviors and measures than their sexually active peers. Let’s look at a few examples.

Sexually active teens are 3,300 percent more likely to smoke daily than their virginal peers. And same-sex and bisexual sexually active teens are 9,500 percent more likely than virginal teens.

The same dichotomy exists with dating violence. Sexually active teens are 260 percent more likely to experience some form of physical violence in dating relationships. Same-sex and bisexual sexually active teens are 683 percent more likely than their virginal peers.

As you might expect there is a real difference in terms of alcohol and drug use. Sexually active teens are 337 percent more likely to binge drink than teen virgins. They are also 336 percent more likely to use marijuana and 500 percent more likely to have injected a drug than teen virgins.

All statistics reinforce the idea that sexual chastity and involved parenting make a difference in the lives of teenagers. Some of these activities may not be directly related to being a virgin or being sexually active, but they do show a strong correlation between two different mindsets. Teens that control their sexual urges are usually making other wise decisions about other aspects of their lives.