Does plagiarism matter to Christians? That is a question Dr. Warren Throckmorton asks in a recent column. I had him and Mary DeMuth on the Point of View radio talk show to discuss about some of the problems that have surfaced in Christian publishing.

In the secular world, plagiarism is a big deal. In his article, he documents cases where people have lost their jobs or received severe sanctions both in the news room and in the academy. And if a professor catches a student engaged in plagiarism, we know that student faces severe consequences as well.

Warren Throckmorton isn’t convinced that the Christian world takes the issue seriously given the response to a number of high-profile cases of Christian authors lifting material from other books and calling it their own. Sometimes there is a legal settlement, but often the issue is greeted with a yawn with no further action taken.

Mary DeMuth believes one of the reasons for this problem is the Christian celebrity culture. Big name authors bring in lots of revenue to Christian publishers. At the same time, there is pressure for them to produce books quickly. Interns or associates they hire to write much of the material may not be careful about what they lift from other sources. And sometimes the authors themselves are borrowing concepts from other authors without an appropriate citation.

Warren Throckmorton also believes that if we started demanding that authors write their own material, ghostwriters and researchers would be out of work. And fewer books would be published by these authors each year.

We might expect that the Christian world would hold to a higher standard in publishing than the secular world. But the lack of response from Christians on social media about some of these cases of plagiarism suggest that we aren’t holding authors to that standard. The solution, of course, is for those of us in the Christian public to hold them accountable.

When the Internet was growing, we often heard promises that the World Wide Web would usher in a digital utopia. It would connect diverse communities and promote democratic values around the world. Fred Bauer is a recent article suggests that the dream of digital equality has actually become a nightmare.

In some ways, social media has fulfilled some of its promises. Every person can have a platform and can theoretically connect with people around the world. You don’t have to master some of the complex computer codes that many of us had to learn decades ago. The user-friendly platforms make it possible for just about anyone to build a platform and establish a digital community.

But the harsh reality is that these social media platforms have coalesced around a small number of powerful players. These high tech giants have immense power in determining which voices are heard and which are eliminated. Sometimes it is done by human actions, but often it is accomplished by shifting algorithms that determine who is heard and who is eliminated.

We often hear about the social media mobs that demonstrate a mob mentality toward views and people they dislike. But Fred Bauer explains that many of these movements are not bottom-up affairs. They are social media pressure campaigns harnessed by people who already have significant platforms. They merely pick out targets for their follows to attack and collaborate with others in order to make their message seem larger than it might actually be.

His article is a reminder that many of these online battles in social media should not be seen as a reaction from “the people” but actually orchestrated campaigns against selected targets. This isn’t the Internet we were promised a few decades ago, and it is worth understanding how activists are using social media against many of us today.

Although human trafficking is in the news quite often, there is still much we need to learn about this scourge in our society. That is why I invited Victor Boutros of the Human Trafficking Institute to join me on radio. His organization has put together a helpful flyer about “7 Things Everyone Should Know About Human Trafficking.”

First, the problem is enormous. Traffickers are exploiting as estimate 24.9 million victims. That means there are more slaves in the world today than existed during the height of slavery a few centuries ago. The vast majority of traffickers operate in countries where they are likely to get away with their crimes.

Second, human trafficking is NOT about movement. When you hear the word trafficking, you think victims are being moved around. Often, this isn’t the case. The essence of trafficking is coercion not movement.

Third traffickers are motivated by money. The wages of sin are enormous when human trafficking is involved. Annual profits exceed $150 million a year. That is more than the annual profits of Exxon, Microsoft, BP, Samsung, and Apple combined.

Fourth, anyone can be a trafficking victim. It affects children and adults, citizens and visitors, women and men, and boys and girls. Fifth, traffickers vary their tactics. They tailor their tactics to the unique vulnerabilities of each victim.

Sixth, the goal is not to prosecute the victims. Law enforcement wants to put traffickers in jail. And seventh, there is hope that traffickers can be stopped. We are not powerless against this enormous problem. The Human Trafficking Institute has developed specialized programs to help law enforcement in this country and other countries begin to make a difference.

When you hear the facts and statistics, it is easy to get overwhelmed by the magnitude of this problem. Fortunately, many groups are working to stop traffickers and prevent others from becoming victims.

During the last election, health care was a big issue. The major provisions of the Affordable Care Act took place five years ago, and insurance premiums have more than doubled for both individuals and families. The solution proposed by a number of candidates was to move past ObamaCare to Medicare for All.

Scott Atlas is a senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution and has run the numbers. He exposes the “False Promises of Medicare for All” in a recent op-ed. You don’t actually even need to run the numbers. Just look at what is happening in other countries that have a single payer system.

First, there is an enormous cost. In order for Britain’s National Health Service to stay afloat, the government must tax its citizens some $160 billion a year. California considered implementing a single payer system, until politicians realized it would cost $400 billion a year. That, by the way, is twice the state’s annual budget. In previous commentaries, I have quoted from one study that estimated that Medicare for All in America would cost more than $32 trillion over the first decade. And the same study concluded that doubling the federal income tax and corporate taxes wouldn’t be enough to pay for it.

Cost isn’t the only problem with a single payer system. Scott Atlas reminds us “nationalized programs have consistently failed to provide timely, high-quality medical care compared with the U.S. system.” Long waiting lines are typical. England last year has a record number of patients on the National Health Service waiting lines. Thousands had been on a waiting list for more than a year after receiving their diagnosis and referral. Also, single payer systems also impose long delays before releasing the newest drugs for cancer and other serious diseases.

Medicare for all might be a nice slogan, but the enormous cost and the inevitable reduction in timely health care are just a few reasons to reject this false promise.

When the presidents of France and the United States were together earlier this month to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, French President Macron decided to criticize President Trump’s use of the term “nationalism.” President Macron argued that: “Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism” because it will actually “erase what a nation holds dearest . . . its moral values.”

Senator Marco Rubio responded to that claim in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. He believes that the French president got everything exactly backwards. “It is through the nation that moral values can be upheld and sustained. In America, our ideals are deeply intertwined with our national traditions and institutions.”

Senator Rubio went to on the explain that, “What makes America exceptional is that our values are built into our national identity. While we have never been completely true to our founding ideas, for more than two centuries each generation has fought and succeeded to move us closer to them.”

He also quoted from President Abraham Lincoln who spoke of a united American spirit in his First Inaugural Address: “The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

Critics of President Trump want to remind us of the negative connotations of the word “nationalism.” That is certainly true as well. However, I appreciate that fact that Senator Rubio wants to remind us of the importance of national pride and patriotism, especially in a country that is defined more by ideas that by any ethnic or religious cohesion.

The day after Thanksgiving is usually considered the official start of the Christmas season. Now would be a good time to evaluate what you plan to spend over the next few weeks. Overall, the estimates are that Christmas spending will exceed $720 billion. The average planned Christmas spending for Americans is around $1000. And that apparently does not even include the Christmas parties and travel during Christmas time.

Now there is nothing wrong with giving gifts at Christmas, but I couldn’t help but take a moment to compare what we spend at Christmas to what most Christians give throughout the year. Barna Research did a study of giving by Christians and found that less than ten percent of born-again Christians give ten percent to their church. A significant percentage of Christians spend more for presents at Christmas than they give to the church and Christian organizations throughout the year.

Barna Research also found that age and annual income were significant indicators of giving. For example the older you are, the more likely you were to tithe. Also, the poorer you were the more likely you were to tithe. A person who makes $20,000 a year is twice as likely to tithe as a person who makes $40,000-50,000 a year. And a person who makes $20,000 a year is eight times more likely to tithe than a person who makes $75,000 a year.

All of these statistics makes me wonder about our priorities. We seem to be more willing to give presents at Christmas so others can lay up treasures on earth instead of investing in God’s work and laying up treasures in heaven.

So during this Christmas season, I hope you will take a moment and consider what you might do to support your church and worthwhile ministries. That might even include the radio station that carries this commentary. Let’s reevaluate our financial priorities and try to get our spending and giving ratios back in line.

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 on 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.

Thanksgiving is tomorrow, and I suspect that you are doing lots of things to get ready for this special day. Let me suggest you add one more item to your to do list. Visit our website and download a copy of my Thanksgiving Quiz.

Thanksgiving is a wonderful time to gather as a family, but I also believe it can be a great time to teach our children and grandchildren about America’s godly heritage. I created this short quiz to be a conversation-starter around the Thanksgiving table.

We used to go around the table before the meal and ask our children to tell what they were thankful for. After a few years of hearing about how they were thankful for their cat, their doll, their video games, I knew we needed to do something else.

The Thanksgiving Quiz was born out of that frustration. It has nineteen questions and answers on the Pilgrims and the Mayflower Compact as well as some questions and answers about the Christian heritage of America.

Who were the Pilgrims and why did they leave Europe for America? Why did they celebrate Thanksgiving? What is the Mayflower Compact, and why is it significant? What lessons did the Pilgrims learn about work and even free enterprise? How did the Christian faith influence America? These are just a few of the sorts of questions that you can ask around the table and give short answers.

Perhaps it is time to recapture the importance of Thanksgiving. On the bicentennial celebration of the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock, Daniel Webster, on December 22, 1820, declared the following: “Let us not forget the religious character of our origin. Our fathers were brought hither by their high veneration for the Christian religion. They journeyed by its light and labored in its hope. They sought to incorporate its principles with the elements of their society, and to diffuse its influence through all their institutions, civil, political, or literary.”

It is my hope this quiz will help your family see the importance of Thanksgiving.