This country had a crime spike in 2021. The only real question is whether it will continue in 2022. Social commentators remind us that once law and order is lost, it is not easy to restore.

How bad was this crime spike? The Uniform Crime Report details a rise in murders of around 29 percent. A dozen US cities set homicide records: Tucson, Arizona; Columbus, Ohio; Toledo, Ohio; Rochester, New York; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Indianapolis, Indiana; Louisville, Kentucky; St. Paul, Minnesota; Portland, Oregon; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Austin, Texas; and Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Some of these cities are a surprise, but Portland and St. Paul Minnesota are not. These are places in the country where the city leaders called for defunding the police and then went ahead and did just that. Mayors in some of the cities who originally talked about defunding the police have now quietly decided to restore funding.

Of course, homicide isn’t the only crime statistic on the way up. YouTube is full of videos of criminals breaking into stores and running off with stolen goods. Some of the videos show criminals in stores casually walking through the store picking up items and walking out.

Store owners have tried to stop this rash of “smash and grab” by posting security. But you can see videos where they don’t try too hard to stop the pillaging since they don’t want to get hurt.

Law enforcement is also experiencing what has been called the “Minneapolis Effect.” Proactive policing is declining because of so many anti-police protests. Arrests are down, and crime went up.

As much as we would hope 2022 would be better than 2021, these trends won’t be easily reversed. We may see a continued crime wave before it can be stopped.

It’s election season, so we are hearing the word gerrymander once again. The term gerrymander comes from the early part of the 19th century. Eldridge Gerry, the governor of Massachusetts supported legislation that redrew the districts of his party. One district looked like a salamander, so his opponents called it a Gerry-mander. The term stuck and is with us to this day.

Democrats have been in full gerrymander panic because they feared that many of the state legislatures, which are Republican controlled, would draw districts that would favor Republicans rather than Democrats. But the latest analysis by a left-leaning group concludes that Democrats may have more of an advantage in congressional seats. Data for Progress found that 212 House seats may be to the left of the country this year (that’s up from 203 in 2020).

The solution proposed in many states is to have “independent” redistricting commissions. Looking at the impact of these redrawn districts makes it hard to accept that they are truly independent. For example, the California commission could eliminate 3 of the 11 Republican seats in the House of Representatives. The New York commission could cut the number of Republican seats to 3 from 8.

Democrats like to point to Texas that is gaining 2 seats due to the increase in the 2020 Census. Both new seats will likely go to Republicans due in part to the fact that both houses of the Texas legislature are controlled by Republicans. But just the opposite took place in legislatures in Illinois, Maryland, and Oregon that are controlled by Democrats.

In an ideal world, perhaps computers should draw fair representative boundaries. But don’t believe all the rhetoric being tossed around about one party or the other carving out partisan boundaries. Both parties do it.

On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, let me suggest that you take some time to read his letter from a Birmingham Jail. If you are young, I think it will give you a better idea of what the civil rights movement in the 1960s was all about. If you are older, it will remind you of some forgotten events and chapters in American history.

Dr. King wrote the letter in response to a published statement by eight clergymen. He wrote it in the margins of the newspaper and later on scraps of paper and finally on a pad his attorney left for him.

He answers his critics about his tactics during the civil rights movement and then makes his case for his nonviolent campaign. To those who call his action “untimely,” he reminds them of what it is like to be a black person in America that has “seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim.”

He also deals with the controversial issue of just laws and unjust laws. “A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law.”

Finally, he addresses the responsibility of the church. He notes that the church of the early Christians “was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society.” And when they were commanded to do something contrary to the Bible they said they were “called to obey God rather than man.” This was a reference to Acts 5:29.

As you read his letter remember that he wrote it when he was 34 years old and in jail. Ask yourself how many people you know (pastors, professors, activists) who could write with such intellect and such passion. This letter by Martin Luther King, Jr. is worth reading, and I trust you will consider doing so today.

Liberals in America often say they believe the US needs to be more like Europe. The next time I hear that I will respond, “So, that means you want more restrictive laws on abortion and more voter integrity laws.” As I documented last month, if you look at the abortion laws in most European countries, they are quite like the Mississippi law currently being considered by the Supreme Court. That is also the case when you compare our voting laws to European countries.

Professor John Lott, in a speech he delivered at Hillsdale College last September, spoke on the topic of election integrity. He began by reminding us that sixteen years ago the Carter-Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform proposed a uniform system of requiring a photo ID to vote. It also pointed out that widespread absentee voting made vote fraud more likely. And the commission lamented that voter files contain ineligible, fictional, and deceased voters.

It is important to remember that none of these claims were controversial sixteen years ago. They came from Democrats like former president Jimmy Carter and Republicans like former Secretary of State James Baker.

He then documented that of the 47 countries in Europe today, 46 of them currently require government-issued photo IDs to vote. The one exception is the United Kingdom, but even it isn’t much of an exception. Many parts of the UK do require voter ID, and the British Parliament is now considering a nationwide requirement.

What about absentee voting? Of the 47 European countries, 35 of them don’t allow absentee voting for citizens living in country. Another 10 countries, allow absentee voting but require voters to show up in person and present a photo ID.

If we truly want the US to be more like Europe, then we should have more of these election integrity laws.

Many Americans are being influenced by what can be called the woke movement. It is essential that Christians think through the implications of this attempt to restructure society under the guise of fighting oppression and injustice.

Noelle Mering is the author of the book, Awake: Not Woke, A Christian response to the cult of progressive ideology. She was on my radio program recently to talk about the tactics being used to promote woke ideology.

For example, we are not defined in the image of God but to the evil in society. You are merely one entity in group identity rather than a person made in the image and likeness of God. You aren’t praised or criticized by your actions and attitudes. Instead, you are elevated or condemned based on your group, your racial background, or your gender.

The book begins with some necessary chapters on the origins of critical theory and the way these ideas came to America and then were spread to society. Then she focuses on four important dogmas: group over person, will over reason, power over authority, and the crowd and the victim.

She then explains how we have been indoctrinated into the ideas of woke ideology through the sexual revolution and through thought and speech control. And, of course, so much of this indoctrination has come through educational activism.

She concludes with important chapters on restoration. That includes restoration of the person and restoration of the family. We should not only stand up against the woke movement, but we should also be working to rebuild the foundational elements of a Christian society.

If you want to understand what the woke movement is and know how to respond to it biblically, this is a book you need to read.

Americans are being watched digitally, and it doesn’t seem to matter whether they are innocent citizens, suspects, or criminals. That is the argument made in the brief filed by the Rutherford Institute in a case before the Supreme Court.

The case involves a man who federal investigators traced using cell site location information that allowed them to trace his movements back in time. He was arrested, indicted, and convicted. The issue isn’t his guilt but the fact that the information was gathered electronically without a warrant.

The use of this technology provided a conviction, but it can also be used to identify where you are at any given time. It can tell if you are at home, in church, at the store, or at a political event. The typical response from many people is that they have nothing to hide. But consider how this technology is currently being used in communist China.

John Whitehead is the president of the Rutherford Institute and observes that, “Cell phones have become de facto snitches, offering up a steady stream of digital location on users’ movements and travels.” Then also consider that “police are tracking people’s movements by way of license plate toll readers; scouring social media posts; triangulating data from cellphone towers and WiFi signals; layering facial recognition software on top of that; and then cross-referencing footage with public social media posts.”

Essentially “Americans are being swept up into a massive digital data dragnet that does not distinguish between those who are innocent of wrongdoing, suspects, or criminals.” We are supposedly protected by the Fourth Amendment, but this new technology allows investigators access to our lives and activities.

We are not only losing our privacy, but technology is being used against us even when are innocent of wrongdoing. That is why I am glad this case is before the Supreme Court.

Critical thinking is going to be more important in this age of confused thinking and logical fallacies. Kevin Williamson talked about what he called the “one-armed paper-hanger” argument. I have never heard this technique called that, but it is worth discussing because it shows up so often, especially in op-eds and news stories.

He was critiquing a writer who said we should not consider adoption to be a viable option to abortion because, “I was adopted. I know the trauma it can inflict.” She didn’t personally experience trauma because she had a good upbringing. But she heard about the trauma from her biological mother.

The argument goes something like this. I have had an experience, so that makes me an expert. “I have cancer, so here is what I think about health care reform.” Another example is, “I am the parent of a child who died in a school shooting. Here is what I think about gun control.”

Having cancer doesn’t necessarily give you any special knowledge about the policy positions and economic realities of health-insurance subsidies or hospital procedures. Healthy people and sick people have a variety of opinions about health care. Being sick does provide an emotional appeal, but it doesn’t provide more intellectual weight to the argument.

And notice how this argument is often used to promote a liberal agenda. It is rare to find a headline like this: “I am the parent of a child who died in a school shooting. Here is why I support the Second Amendment.”

Sometimes the argument is reversed: “I’m a millionaire but I believe rich guys need to pay higher taxes.” This argument should be accepted because it goes against my own interests. But it is also an emotional appeal and doesn’t deserve more weight than other arguments.

We need more critical thinking in our world. That’s why you should be on the lookout for “one-armed paper-hanger” emotional arguments.

The possibility of military confrontation between the US and China seems greater than in the last few decades. What might trigger that confrontation would be a military action by China against Taiwan. But the reason for tensions between the US and China and tensions between the US and Russia may be due to reasons most of us have not considered.

Andrew Michta is the dean of the College of International and Security Studies at the George S. Marshall European Center for Security Studies and a former professor the US Naval War College. He believes the current tensions are due to the “conviction in Beijing and Moscow that their power advantage relative to the US and its allies will worsen unless they move soon, making victory increasingly unattainable.”

The conventional wisdom has often been these countries (and especially China) are likely to move militarily because of their perceived strength. He argues that these leaders may conclude they are getting weaker and need to strike now for several reasons.

The US military has been focused on counterterrorism and will require time to restructure. Also, the domestic conditions in the US and Europe have been “buffeted by the trifecta of Covid-19; increasingly brazen mass migration” along with cultural issues.

A final reason is due to internal pressures “building within Chinese and Russian societies. For both countries, population trends and current projections paint a devastating picture.”

Conflict between the US and these two countries is not inevitable. But some military experts wonder if the US might find itself embroiled in a two-front war. We should all hope and pray that does not happen. And that’s even more reason for us to be in fervent prayer for our political and military leaders in this country.