In the last fourteen years in doing this commentary, I have written about inflation at least a dozen times. But this time, I’m not talking about the theory of inflation but the reality of inflation. We all know that prices are going up on various goods and services and suspect they will continue to rise in the future.

The current inflation numbers are the highest they have been in thirty years. But if you remember my past commentaries on inflation, I documented that the current method for estimating the consumer price index involves using a different basket of goods than what was used in the past.

If we used the same metric that was used in 1980, we would have to conclude the inflation is higher than it has been in forty years. And if you rightly assume that the technological advances in the last forty years should be deflationary, then you would conclude we have the highest inflation in our lifetimes.

Faced with rising prices, we are first told that rising prices were just a result of supply-chain problems (partially true) and then that inflation was real but transitory. The latest claim is the “inflation is good for you.” Type in those words or similar phrases, like “inflation is good for the economy,” and you will see the latest attempt to make us feel good about the economy.

Of course, inflation is good for a federal government awash in national debt and good for people in debt. You can pay back debts with devalued dollars. Inflation is bad if you are concerned about income inequality. Rich people can invest in appreciating assets like art, stock, and real estate. People on fixed income and government payments are often hurt the most.

In fact, most Americans are hurt because wages never rise as fast as inflation, especially when you realize the inflation numbers are inaccurate.

You have probably chanted at one time or the other: “We’re number one.” But sometimes being number one isn’t something positive. If the legislation before Congress passes, the United States would be number one in taxes.

The Tax Foundation calculated combined tax rates for individual incomes across major nations. If you look that their chart, you will see that currently the US in in the middle with tax rates comparable to Switzerland, Turkey, Spain, and the UK. Under the current plan in Congress, the combined US tax rate would climb significantly and leap over every other country in the developed world.

Even with these high taxes, the federal government would still not be able to pay for all the spending in this legislation. One reason is the economic fact that when you raise taxes, you don’t always raise more tax revenue. Individuals and companies will focus their economic activities and investments elsewhere.

But a more important issue is that this legislation will cost much more than advertised. We are told that the bill will cost $2 trillion. And proponents point to a recent cost estimate from the Congressional Budget Office. But they are forced to score the bill under the budget tricks and gimmicks that really disguise its true cost.

The Penn Wharton Budget Model estimates the cost at $4.6 trillion over ten years (assuming temporary provisions become permanent). The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget puts their estimate at $4.9 trillion (if the tax credits and programs are made permanent).

Democrats in the House and Senate won’t tell you some of these important facts. Most of the establishment media won’t tell you this either. But I just did. I am convinced that most Americans would be against legislation that would make us number one in taxes and yet not even come close to paying for it.

George Barna has been doing an extensive inventory of the worldviews of Americans through the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University. He was on my radio program last week to talk about two of his most recent surveys dealing with truth and morality.

Past generations of Americans viewed God as the basis for truth. Not only has that changed for the general population, it is also changed significantly within the church. He found that there were certain groups that rejected the idea of absolute truth. That would be members of the LGBT community, political liberals, spiritual skeptics, Democrats, and young people under the age of 50.

By contrast, those most likely to see God as the basis of truth are the group called SAGECons. That stands for Spiritually Active Governance Engaged Conservative Christians. Nearly nine out of ten (87%) point to God as the source of truth and more than six in ten (62%) recognize the existence of absolute moral standards.

In his next report, he decided to see how we apply moral principles in real life situations. The questions ranged from telling a “white lie” to failing to pay back a loan to speeding to abortion. It was troubling to see what percentage of Americans felt that some of these behaviors were not even a moral issue. In some cases, a significant percentage might have believed it was a moral issue but that it was morally acceptable in today’s society.

Another troubling finding was what Barna calls a “seismic shift” in Christian views about morality. For example, born-again Christians in the survey were three times as likely to say they rely on the Bible for primary moral guidance. But less than half (48%) actually do so.

The latest Barna surveys are a reminder to pastors and other Christian teachers that we need to make the case for moral absolutes based on God’s Word.

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.

Has Christianity made a positive impact on Western civilization? That was a question I posed a few months ago in a commentary and provided a short list of atheists who would agree with that statement. Now, there are more atheists coming to that conclusion.

Jonathon Van Maren writes about a number of atheists who he calls “King Agrippa Christians.” After the Apostle Paul gave his testimony and the gospel, the king said he was nearly persuaded. None of the atheists Van Maren mentions have become Christians, but they do acknowledge the important contribution of Christianity to our world.

One example is the historian Tom Holland, who often writes about the ancient world. His new book, Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World, makes a convincing case for Christianity. Christian writers who have read the book praise it because it provides examples that various Christian historians have documented.

The ancient world was cruel. Spartans, for example, routinely killed off “imperfect” children. The bodies of slaves were treated like outlets for physical pleasure. Only a few citizens had rights.

Holland explains that Christianity changed the prevailing views about sex and marriage. It demanded that men control themselves. It placed sex within marriage and within monogamy. And Christianity elevated the status of women. To put it simply, Christianity transformed the world.

Without Christianity, the Western world as we know it would not exist. If the West had not become Christian, Holland writes, “no one would have gotten woke.”

This growing list of atheists who say positive things about Christianity is encouraging. They are willing to admit that Christianity has been a force for good in our world.

Harvard professor Steven Pinker had a simple explanation for why Republicans wanted to reopen the economy. Evangelicals were exerting an influence because they believe in an afterlife, which he said is a “malignant delusion.” It was a bizarre tweet, even for an atheist. Although many have answered his comment, I thought we might revisit it because you are likely to run into similar arguments.

Pinker argued that belief in an afterlife “devalues actual lives and discourages action that would make them longer, safer, and happier.” Actually, just the opposite is the case. Evangelical Christians believe that we are all created in the image of God. He has endowed us with purpose, meaning, and dignity. Christians have historically been a source for good. They believe that what they do in society has eternal consequences.

By contrast, an atheistic view devalues life. If we are merely an evolutionary byproduct, where is human dignity? If we are the accidental result of mass + energy + chance + time, where is any meaning to life? Moreover, why should we even care what another person might think since our brain is just a meat computer with millions of neurons firing? There is no truth. There is no purpose.

The Bible makes moral demands on us. Western civilization is based upon the Ten Commandments and other moral precepts. Civilized people obey these moral laws in order to have a better society. Atheism makes no demands on anyone because it rejects the idea of God and moral laws.

I would argue that the denial of an afterlife is a malignant delusion. If there is no final justice, then wrongs will never be accurately judged. There is no God. There is no justice. There is no fairness. That is the sad, dark world of the atheist.

In a recent column, Dennis Prager argues that we are seeing a dress rehearsal for a police state. Although I think he makes a convincing case, I am intrigued by people’s response to it. Some people see it, while others do not. It is like watching people look at an optical illusion. Some people see it; others do not.

Prager argues that our country is closer to a police state than ever before. And he hastens to add that “police state” doesn’t mean “totalitarian state.” We still have freedoms as evidence by the fact that he could write his column. But he says there are four hallmarks of a police state.

First are “draconian laws depriving citizens of elementary civil rights.” Over the last few weeks, I cannot even count the number of times I have talked about “draconian policies” or “extreme policies” issued by governors, mayors, and judges. Americans have been banned from going to work, meeting in groups, and going to beaches and parks.

Second, is a “mass media supportive of the state’s messaging and deprivation of rights.” We see that in the harsh reaction to asking questions about the value of certain policies and the decision by Big Tech to remove posts considered “misinformation.”

Third, is the use of police. We have seen people being handcuffed for playing ball with their children in a park or beach. We have seen people being fined for sitting on the beach or listening to a sermon in their parked cars with the windows rolled up.

Fourth, is the presence of snitches. One governor even set up a snitch line so you could turn in your fellow citizens.

As I said, many see these as police state tactics. Others, however, respond that these are merely temporary and pose no threat to our liberty. That may be true, but it is shocking how willing Americans have been to conform to what might not even have been allowed a few months ago.