You know things have gone from bad to worse when the co-founder of an Internet website is criticizing his own site as an enemy of democracy. I have been doing radio commentaries on the bias and inaccuracies in Wikipedia since 2008. But an interview with co-founder Larry Sanger illustrates why you shouldn’t depend on this Internet site for information.

“Wikipedia is more one-sided than ever,” he explains. And he believes the site “has made itself into a kind of thought police that has de facto shackled conservative viewpoints with which they disagree.” For example, citations from news outlets like the Daily Mail and Fox News have been banned. Alternative perspectives on controversial issues are often ignored.

University students often discover that Wikipedia is not accepted as a source for academic papers. That is due to the open source, collaborative nature of the site. Errors and inaccuracies abound in the articles. But Sanger is now pointing to a bias that resembles what you find on most university campuses today.

Leftists monitoring Wikipedia maintain a strict control over what is published and reject diversity of opinion in issues ranging from race relations to climate change. They work to maintain that every article is on what they say is “the right side of history.”

The bias may even have an influence in elections. To illustrate his concern, Sanger cites the Wikipedia article on Joe Biden. There isn’t anything that “remotely resembles the Republican take on Biden.” And the paragraph on a possible Ukrainian scandal “reads like a defense attorney brief.” And there is no mention of the Hunter Biden laptop.

Most of us have known the problems with Wikipedia. Now the co-founder provides even more examples of why you shouldn’t trust the Internet site.

Earlier this month I talked about a ruling from the IRS that denied tax-exempt status to the group Christians Engaged. The IRS argument was that the Bible teachings of the group aligned with views of Republicans. The IRS has reversed its decision, but the controversy surfaced some issues that need to be considered.

When some members of Congress heard of the IRS decision to deny the request for tax-exempt status, they fired off a letter to the IRS commissioner. They called for him to “personally review this determination, and remove the individual, or individuals, responsible for the blatantly biased, discriminatory, and flawed reasoning that led to that determination.”

At this point it would be tempting to move on since the original ruling was changed. But the members of Congress in their letter pointed to a troubling issue. The reason the IRS ruled against the Christian organization was because it affirmed “the sanctity of life, the definition of marriage, and biblical justice.” Those are views they argued as also held by “thousands of Christian churches across the country.” If those beliefs were enough to disqualify a Christian organization, those same beliefs could be used to remove the tax-exempt status of those churches.

Perhaps you are thinking that is an overreaction to one IRS ruling. Perhaps, but consider that one member of Congress recently suggested that the Catholic Church should be punitively stripped of its tax-exempt status because the US Conference of Catholic Bishops voted to draft a document that would rebuke pro-abortion Catholic politicians.

It’s possible that such comments are only meant to scare churches and church leaders into silence. Or perhaps they truly believe the government should strip any tax benefits from religious groups that hold views contrary to the administration. In either case, Christians need to pay attention.

Americans seem to be of two minds when polled about the current administration and the future of this country. For example, a Harvard/Harris poll reported a very high approval rating (59%) for President Biden and his administration. On the other hand, if you dig into the specifics you find that Americans are very concerned about some of the administration policies and the direction of this nation.

Let’s look at two issues that both start with the letter “I.” That would be immigration and inflation. The administration has tried to downplay and even ignore these issues, and the mainstream media have been willing to ignore these issues. But the American people have some significant concerns.

Eight out of ten voters said that illegal immigration is either a very serious (43%) or a somewhat serious (37%) issue. Also, a large majority correctly answered that the number of monthly immigrant crossings have increased since Biden took office. It is also worth noting that voters significantly underestimated the number of new illegal immigrants coming into the country. This underestimate is probably due to the lack of media coverage of the crisis at the border.

Two thirds (68%) believe that the Biden Administration executive orders on immigration actually encourage illegal immigrants. And a majority (55%) also believe that the current administration should have left the Trump Administration policies in place.

When voters were asked about inflation, they were more concerned about it than the current administration. A significant majority (85%) said they were either very concerned (45%) or somewhat concerned (45%) about inflation. They may not understand all the economic issues, but they can see the prices of everything increasing even while be assured there isn’t a problem.

Americans may be of two minds. They are willing to give a high approval rating but also expect something to be done with some of these important issues.

Sometimes a political party can get way out front of the voting public and then pay a price at the ballot box. Matt Vespa reminds his readers that this happened to Republicans in a past election. But he focuses most of his commentary on what is happening in the Democratic party due to its “woke wing.”

We have been through years of political correctness, speech codes, pronoun criticism, and critical race theory. Some leaders in the Democratic party are starting to fret that “this lurch to the Left on anything cultural will cost them a ton of votes.” This could be significant in the elections next year.

He quotes from one article that observed that “a growing number of Democrats are ringing the alarm that their party sounds – and acts – too judgmental, too sensitive, too ‘woke’ to large swaths of America.” They go on to warn “that by jamming politically correct terms or new norms down the throats of voters, they risk exacerbating the cultural wars” and could then lose many seats in the next election.

In an earlier commentary I quoted Democratic strategic James Carville, who was quoted in this article. He lamented “people in faculty lounges in fancy colleges use a different language than ordinary people” and then added “This is not how voters talk.”

You won’t gain the trust and support of the American people by being self-righteous and condescending. And they certainly won’t follow you if you use language found only at a few elite universities. Yet that seems to be the direction being forged by the “woke wing” of the party.

There is a vicarious lesson to be learned from this. Be gracious and humble. Make rational arguments. Understand the mindset of the average American and appeal to them with facts and language they understand.

We all know examples of Big Tech censorship, but most Americans seem unconcerned with the impact this is having on free speech and our society. Earlier this month, Donald Trump announced the was suing Big Tech. The announcement was greeted with either comments like “he deserved it” or else a resignation that this was inevitable.

Christian author Eric Metaxas had his radio program thrown off YouTube for what was called “content restrictions.” As one commentator noted, this action was ignored by many even in the Christian community and hardly considered newsworthy.

Have we become so jaded by Big Tech censorship? You may not like the former president or read any of the best-selling books by a Christian author. But you should at least be concerned that what has been done to such prominent people can also be done to you. As former president Trump said in his op-ed: “If Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube can censor me, they can censor you�”and believe me, they are.”

He mentions a Michigan school teacher who was banned from Facebook for sharing an article questioning mandatory masks for young children. When her brother went missing, she was unable to use that social media to get the word out. A Colorado physician was deplatformed by YouTube for making a video explaining how her church could hold services safely.

I realize that it is unlikely that the former president’s lawsuit will go very far in the court system. I also understand that these companies are private entities and not subject to First Amendment concerns. Moreover, many Democratic members of Congress would even like Big Tech to go further in censoring their political opponents.

Very little change will likely take place in the near future, but that doesn’t mean we have to ignore the unfairness of Big Tech censorship.

We often talk about worldviews, but do we know how they were formed through history? Professor Glenn Sunshine wrote a great book entitled Why You Think the Way You Do: The Story of Western Worldviews from Rome to Home. It helps us see the influence of worldviews through history. He defines worldview as “the framework you use to interpret the world and your place in it.”

He begins by discussing the worldview of Rome. By the end of the book we return to that same worldview. Western civilization is a product of ancient Roman civilization plus Christianity. Glenn Sunshine argues that once you removed Christianity, modern society reverted back to Roman society and a recovery of the ancient pagan worldview.

Like Rome we value toleration as the supreme virtue. The Romans lived in an oversexed society. So is our society. Rome practiced abortion. So does our society. Rome was antenatal and made a deliberate attempt to prevent pregnancy. They focused on sexual enjoyment and did not want to bother with kids. In our modern world, birthrates in most of the western democracies are plummeting.

So how should Christians live in this world? Of course, we should live out a biblical worldview. Every generation is called to live faithfully to the gospel, and our generation is no exception.

This is especially important today since we are facing a society that is not willing to accept biblical ideas. In many ways, we face a challenge similar to the early church, though not as daunting.

From history we can see that the early church did live faithfully and transformed the Roman world. Christians produced a totally new civilization: western culture. By living faithfully before the watching world, we will increase our credibility and earn the respect from those around us by living in accordance with biblical principles.

For decades, sociologists have documented the phenomenon of extended adolescence. This is where someone who is an adult still acts like a teenager. One classic example would be a 35-year-old who has part of their rent and bills covered by parents and continues to take college classes.

Jean Twenge in her latest research on the trailing edge millennials (who she calls iGen) are extending this phenomenon even further. She documents that teenagers are becoming adults even later than the last generation. She argues that teens today are less prepared for adulthood. She also adds that they are safer, since the rates of car accidents and teen pregnancies have fallen dramatically.

Fewer 12th graders have tried alcohol. Back in 1994, 85 percent had tried alcohol. Today, only 66 percent have tried alcohol. Only 73 percent of 12th graders have drivers’ licenses, down from 85 percent twenty years ago.

One of the more dramatic differences can be found in social dating. Only about half (58%) of them have been on a date. Compare that to 83 percent of 12th graders who had been on a date back in 1994 by their senior year.

Another dramatic difference is one that we have talked about in the past: work experience. About half (56%) of 12th graders have worked for pay, which is down from 72 percent in 1994. Many more are taking college prep classes or hanging out at home.

All of these dramatic changes have resulted in a relatively new term being used by sociologists: emerging adulthood. This is their attempt to describe a new life stage between adolescence and adulthood.

All of this reminds me of the jingle, “I don’t want to grow up, I’m a Toys-R-Us kid.” Maybe it’s time for adults to say to the kids: its time to grow up.

Americans don’t know much about the Constitution, and it apparently is getting worse. Nine years ago, I wrote and recorded a commentary about constitutional illiteracy.

Back then I quoted John Whitehead (Rutherford Institute) who testified before a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee concerning the rule of law. He provided some alarming statistics based upon a survey done about ten years ago.

They found that only one in four Americans could name more than one of the freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment. In one study, they found that only one person out of 1,000 people could name all five First Amendment freedoms. Those would be the freedom of religion, speech, press, and assembly, along with the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

I thought about those statistics when I read an editorial written by Cal Thomas. He quoted from a recent poll conducted by the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center. They found that 37 percent of those interviewed could not name ANY of the five rights protected in the First Amendment.

Nearly a decade ago we were lamenting how few could name more than one of the First Amendment freedoms. Today, more than a third cannot name any of the freedoms in the First Amendment.

Americans are not only ignorant of the Constitution; many are ignorant of the structure of our government. A third (33%) could not name one of the three branches of government. About a fourth (26%) could correctly name all three.

Unfortunately, some of these Americans who are ignorant of the Constitution and ignorant of our government actually vote in elections. You can’t protect the rights guaranteed in the Constitution if you don’t know what they are. You can’t protect our system of government if you don’t know how it is structured. I hope you can see that we have lots of work to do to educate Americans about the Constitution.