Public Education Is Propaganda

Somewhere Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes says that the purpose of an education should be to produce a mind that cannot be humbugged. But today our educational system, from kindergarten to the universities, is engaged in the mass production of fashionable humbug -- propaganda rather than education.

Thomas Sowell, Random Thoughts, Townhall 1/27/15

Public Schools Are For Union Members

So long as public schools are treated as places that exist to provide guaranteed jobs to members of the teachers' unions, do not be surprised to see American students continuing to score lower on international tests than students in countries that spend a lot less per pupil than we do.

Thomas Sowell, Random Things, Townhall 1/27/15

Praise Must Be Earned

A child who learns to read, who can do mathematics, who can play the piano or baseball will have a true sense of accomplishment and an appropriate sense of self-esteem.  Schools that fail tot teach reading, writing, and arithmetic corrupt the proper understanding of self-esteem.  Educators who say “Don’t grade them, don’t label them.  You have to make them feel good about themselves” cause the problems.  It makes no sense for students to be full of self-esteem if they are empty of knowledge.  Reality will soon puncture their illusions, and they will have to face two disturbing facts: (1) that they are ignorant, and (2) that the adults responsible for teaching them have both failed them and lied to them.  In the real world, praise has to be the reward for something worthwhile; praise must be connected to reality.

Paul C. Vitz, "Psychology As Religion: The Cult of Self-Worship," p.18

It Will Be Done In Politics - Even if Insane

In politics, never assume that because something is insane, it will not be done. The Holocaust was as insane as it was a moral horror. But it was done. Even after the tide of war turned against Germany and it faced invasion and devastation, Hitler continued to pour scarce resources into the mass killing of people who were no threat.

Thomas Sowell, Random Thoughts, Townhall 1/27/15

Abortion Is Never Safe

For pregnant women, abortion is four times deadlier that childbirth, and often results in infertility and breast cancer -- commonly referred to as the "ABC link."  Eleven of 12 studies of American women reported an increased risk of breast cancer after having an induced abortion.

Gregg Jackson, Conservative Comebacks to Liberal Lies, p.4

Evolution is a Bad Philosophy

If the unimpeded progress of evolution were our chief concern, why should we care for the senile, the imbecile, the hardened criminal, the psychopath, the chronically sick, or the starving?  Would it not be more prudent to put them to sleep like a well-loved dog, lest they hinder the evolutionary process?  Compulsory euthanasia, not compassionate service, would be the logical deduction from the humanists' premise.  The fact that they draw back from this abyss indicates that their heart is better than their head, and their philanthropy than their philosophy.

John Stott, Decisive Issues Facing Christians Today, p.18

Why Mock Virtue?

When did we decide to be the kind of society that mocks virtue? When did we turn into the pudgy, freckle faced bully in all of the 90′s teen sitcoms who points and laughs at the studious kid just because he’s well behaved and does his homework? Maybe it’s always been this way. I don’t know. What I do know is that, these days, we are lost. It’s not that we do terrible things (although we do), it’s that we either don’t know or pretend we don’t know what we should be doing.

We run around like decapitated poultry, colliding with each other and bumping into walls. And when someone with their head on straight, or with their head on at all, suggests a clear direction, a course of action, or a change of behavior, we descend upon them like crazed hyenas. When someone simply says, “hey, that there is not good, but this here is good, so we should probably do this rather than that,” we pounce on them and rip their guts out, then hang their entrails from a bridge as a warning to anyone else who might get a little bold one day and think about developing a moral compass.

Matt Walsh, “Hey, Look! That Woman Is Trying to Be Modest! Let’s All Laugh at Her and Call Her Names!”

What Is Psychotherapy?

Modern psychotherapy is simply the attempt to do face-to-face pastoral work in service to different gods (e.g., self, feelings, desires of the body or mind, pleasure), different ideals (e.g., the "good life," wealth, entitlement), different diagnosis (e.g., addiction, dependency, poor self-esteem), and a different gospel (e.g., man is the center of all things, "I deserve it").

David Powlison, "Faith's Psychology & The Psychological Faiths," Christian Research Journal, Vol. 28/No.3, 2005

The Benefits of Faithful Marriage

In concurrence with the Bible, a growing number of secular theorists are also celebrating the wisdom of monogamous commitment.  Studies show that it enhances the life span of men and women who practice it and that the quality of life improves in proportion to the practice of fidelity.  Drug and alcohol abuse dropped significantly among married test subjects in a University of Chicago study, and monogamous individuals made more money, had twice as much sex as their non-monogamous counterparts, and experienced half the domestic violence of those studied who either lived together unmarried or lived alone.

Joe Dallas, "Darkening Our Minds," Christian Research Journal, Vol.27/No.3, 2004

Sex is Not an Idol

Human existence is not, first and foremost, about sexual pleasure and the display of sexuality.  There is much more to human life, fulfillment, and joy.  Sex simply cannot deliver the promises made by our hypersexualized society.

R. Albert Mohler, Jr., Desire and Deceit: The Real Cost of Sexual Tolerance, p.xii

Be Careful of Thoughts

Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny.


Source unknown; cited by Donald E. Wildmon in "The Case Against Pornography," p.141

The Truth About IQ Tests

Specious intelligence tests, colloquially known as IQ tests, were invented to justify incarceration of group labeled "feebleminded."  Often the so-called feebleminded were just shy, too good-natured to be taken seriously, or simply spoke the wrong language or were the wrong color.

Edwin Black, "War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America's Campaign to Create a Master Race," p.xv

Be Careful When You Say "I Love You"

My father counseled his four sons never to say "I love you" to a woman until they were ready to follow immediately with "Will you marry me?"  Nor should they think of saying "Will you marry me?" unless they had first said "I love you."  How much pain and confusion would be averted if men followed that rule.

Elisabeth Elliot, Passion and Purity, p.93

Individuals Make A Nation

There is surely nothing which is quite so illuminating and contradictory as the way in which people think along one line when they are thinking of nations and along a quite different line when they are thinking of individuals.  There is little point in talking eloquently about the sanctity of international contracts while you are dealing with people who break their own marriage contracts and other personal contracts, for nations consist of individuals.  The nation is not something abstract, and we are not entitled to expect conduct from a nation which we do not find in the individual.  All these things have to be taken together.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, God’s Way of Reconciliation: An Exposition of Ephesians 2, p.61

Disease Mongering

The business model of the pharmaceutical industry depends on extending the realm of illness -- using creative marketing to expand the pool of customers by convincing the probably well that they are at least mildly sick.  Disease mongering is the fine art of selling psychiatric ills as the most efficient way of peddling very profitable psychiatric pills.  Manipulating the market is particularly easy in the United States because we are the only country in the entire world that allows drug companies the freedom to advertise directly to consumers.

Disease mongering cannot occur in a vacuum -- it requires that the drug companies engage the active collaboration of the doctors who write the prescriptions, the patients who ask for them, the researchers who invent the new mental disorders, the consumer groups that advocate for more treatment, and the media and Internet that spread the word.  A persistent, pervasive, and well-financed "disease awareness" campaign can create disease where none existed before.  And psychiatry is especially vulnerable to manipulation of the normal/disease boundary because it lacks biological tests and relies heavily on subjective judgments that can be easily influenced by clever marketing.


Allen Frances, M.D, "Saving Normal," pp.28-29

Homosexual Hypocrisy

“Marriage equality” is their hypocritical rallying cry. But the cat has been out of the bag for a long time, and everyone is fast beginning to realize that this is the most ridiculous thing they’ve ever heard. It’s nothing more than a godless demand for unrestricted debauchery. What they really want is not equality, but absolute cultural dominance. Their unmasked agenda involves the implementation of an oppressive double standard in which their “gay” Special Rights invariably squash our all-important Civil Rights. It’s the “gay” way or the highway.

The institution of marriage is the inimitable edifice and social load bearing wall upon which any free nation and stable civil government must certainly be established. However, in their anti-Christ crusade to destroy, devalue and desecrate the foundational structure of the family, the homosexual juggernaut is rapidly augmenting their Leftist arsenal through a menacing cache of lawless judicial rulings and the ostensibly named anti-discrimination ordinances. Through these and other Statist strong-arm tactics, their wrecking ball strategy has succeeded by compelling silence, intimidating dissent and purging the country of every voice of reason. The very rights they claim to be fighting for are ironically the exact same legal protections that they ruthlessly strive to strip away from the people of faith and decency – or anyone else who might dare to disagree with the endorsement of their lascivious lifestyle. The Baal of homosexuality is a viscerally hateful and jealous god.

The militant homosexual efforts have alarmingly functioned as the caustic social acid that eats away and erodes every constitutionally-protected freedom we have ever held near and dear to our hearts. The pro-deviancy advocates claim to merely carry the mantle of freedom, but in their wake, they leave the republic ravaged and in ruins. If they have their way, the landscape of liberty will be left desolate. Satan’s compliant foot soldiers for the cause of counterfeit marriage will never stop sadistically trampling the principles of self-governance, the First Amendment and the will of the people under their feet.

Jeff Allen, The Hostile World of Homosexual Hypocrisy

"Homosexual" Couples Cannot Properly Parent

Psychologist Dean Bryd, vice president for the National Association for the Research and Treatment of Homosexuality, shares this concern:  "Studies demonstrate there is, in fact, a difference between non-heterosexual and heterosexual parenting.  Children raised by non-heterosexuals are more apt to experience gender and sexual confusion, they are more apt to become promiscuous, they are at greater risk of substance abuse or suicide."

Researcher Barbara Eisold conducted such a study and came to similar conclusions in her report "Recreating Mother," in which she asserts the need for a mother. ...

Researcher Harry Biller draws similar conclusions while studying infants raised by a lesbian couple without fathers:  "Differences between mother and father can be very stimulating to the infant -- the infant who receives verbal as well as physical stimulation from both mother and father profits from the experience.  Infants with involved fathers were usually at a developmental advantage.  Well fathered infants are more secure and trusting in branching out in their explorations."

... Children raised in a stable heterosexual home fare better than those raised by a homosexual couple, no matter how stable.  The difference between the two homes lies not so much in the nature or personality of the parents but in the contrast of gender, which is built into heterosexuality and which homosexuality, by its nature, must lack.  The male-female complement, a critical part of Created Intent, is praised in the Bible and confirmed in secular observations.  No matter how healthy, likable, or sincere a homosexual couple may be, they cannot offer a child a part of what is in that child's best interest: a father and a mother.


Joe Dallas, "What About Rosie?", Christian Research Journal, Vol.25 / No.1, 2002, "Practical Apologetics"

There Is No Such Thing as a "Homosexual"

If we use the false definition [of "homosexual'], where does one draw the line?  Are you a homosexual because you have a homosexual thought for one moment in time?  If not for one moment, then how long?  A season?  A lifetime?  Is a man or woman a homosexual who engages in one act of homosexual behavior or a series of encounters or relationships?  Are those who engage in exclusive homosexual practice for a lifetime the only "true" homosexuals?  Often we have stumbled in our efforts to share the truth of freedom in Christ because we were wrestling with opponents over what makes a person a homosexual.  Since there is really no such thing as a "homosexual," then we are chasing a mirage, a cloud, something we will never be able to grasp.

Already in the first moments of our battle with proponents of "homosexuality equals identity," we give ground by using their terminology; and we lose more ground as we seek to put forward a solution based on the terminology of their lie.  The truth is there are no homosexuals. ...

The Devil, working behind the scenes, has succeeded in redefining the meaning of key words, and therefore we only reinforce and strengthen a false identity by calling individuals by a name that does not apply.  Homosexuality involves feelings, attractions, and sexual behavior; it can be a mindset, and it can include cultural associations.  From these factors, one can embrace it as a personal identity.  People investing their lives into this kind of identity can expend so much of themselves that to think of leaving that identity can be quite threatening and very difficult even to discuss. ...

Truth One:  There is no such creation as a "gay" or "homosexual" person.  There is only homosexual attraction and behavior; accordingly, there can be no "change" from a sexual identity that never existed in the first place.


Rev. John J. Smid, "You Can't Change a Homosexual," Christian Research Journal, Vol.24 /No.2, 2002, "Viewpoint."

Psychotherapy and Prostitution

Psychotherapy, the world's second oldest profession, is remarkably similar to the first.  Both involve a contract (implicit or explicit) between a specialist and a client for a service, and for this service a fee is paid.  The expectations of the client and the personality characteristics of the specialist are important in determining the success of the transaction.  Both professions claim that their specific techniques are crucial, though evidence suggests that underlying nonspecific factors may really be the important determinants of a successful outcome.  One makes the mind feel better, the other makes the body feel better.  Both, furthermore, are difficult to study, for they are essentially human transactions.  When they are taken apart on the dissecting table, a part of the interaction ceases to exist.


E. Fuller Torrey, M.D., Witchdoctors and Psychiatrists: The Common Roots of Psychotherapy and Its Future, p.1

Education is the Great Equalizer

The great equalizer in America remains education. A good education or the acquisition of technical skills provides tremendous options for everyone, regardless of their birth circumstances. We live in a country where people are free to move without penalty to any state where jobs are available. We need to emphasize the fact that almost any kind of employment confers knowledge and skills that become valuable when trying to move up the economic ladder.

Dr. Ben Carson, Dispelling the Myth of Haves and Have-Nots in America

Class Resentment?

Obviously, the billionaire can afford to pay for certain things like luxurious homes and cars and the best seats on airplanes and at the theater. There is nothing wrong with that. It should not cause resentment in a society in which anyone is free to work hard and use their God-given talents to excel and increase their own value in the marketplace.  Some will not admit it, but our society would be pretty dreary if everyone shared the same level of poverty with no chance of advancing themselves economically through their own efforts.

Dr. Ben Carson, Dispelling the Myth of Haves and Have-Nots in America

America Really Is Great

The U.S Constitution was designed to preserve the freedom and rights of all citizens. Our Declaration of Independence states that all men are created equal and that we have certain God-given rights. With documents like these, how have we arrived at the state of such discord between purported haves and have-nots in our society?

Some will try, of course, to discount any discussion of this topic by talking about the treatment of slaves, indentured servants, Native Americans and others who historically were not treated well. I am willing to acknowledge that the same human frailties that characterized societies throughout the world found their way into America, but it is unfair to demonize a nation and its many constituents based on the shortcomings of some of its members. Those who condemn America for its past seldom talk about the tremendous good and generosity that have been demonstrated by the country that cannot be denied the title of most benign pinnacle nation in the history of the world.


Dr. Ben Carson, Dispelling the Myth of Haves and Have-Nots in America

Dangerous Sex

Aside from any religious or theological considerations, homosexual acts are unnatural from a medical standpoint.  Physicians can attest to some horror stories of what physically happens, especially to men, from such activities.  The human anatomy is such that it is apparent what role and function each part of the body plays.  Men engaged in homosexual acts suffer various serious physical side effects and debilitating diseases and injuries.  If those acts were natural, it follows that such harmful effects and diseases would not take place.  The bodily canal designed to evacuate some of the body's worst filth and toxins is hardly inviting to normal people.  Penetrating an orifice fashioned to evacuate the waste and toxins of another person rises to the level of abnormality for nonreligious as well as for religious people.  Even nonsectarian scientists form similar opinions about certain acts, depending on the harm the body suffers.

Helen Louise Herndon, "If Gays March on Rome, Why Not Mecca Too?"  "Viewpoint," Christian Research Journal, Vol.23/No.3, 2001

Darwinists Suppress Dissent

Defenders of evolution used to style themselves the champions of free speech and academic freedom against unthinking dogmatism.  But they have become the new dogmatists, demanding judicially imposed censorship and discrimination against the teachers, scientists, and students who dissent from Darwin.  These are tactics of intellectual suppression, not free inquiry, and they betray the Darwinists' insecurity about the defensibility of their own theory.


John G. West, "Darwin Day in America: How our politics and culture have been dehumanized in the name of science," p.267

Lifting and Leaning

There are two kinds of people on earth today, 
Just two kinds of people, no more, I say.

Not the good and the bad, for ’tis well understood
The good are half bad and the bad are half good.

Not the happy and sad, for the swift-flying years
Bring each man his laughter and each man his tears.

Not the rich and the poor, for to count a man’s wealth
You must first know the state of his conscience and health.

Not the humble and proud, for in life’s busy span
Who puts on vain airs is not counted a man.

Wherever you go you will find the world’s masses
And ever divided in just these two classes.

And, strangely enough, you will find, too, I ween,
There is only one lifter to twenty who lean.

In which class are you?  Are you easing the load
Of overtaxed lifters who toil down the road?

Or are you a leaner who lets others bear
Your portion of worry and labor and care?

Ella Wheeler Wilcox
From "The Best Loved Poems of the American People."

Are We Human Cattle?

Leftists and the Black Community

When the political left wants to help the black community, they usually want to help the worst elements in that community -- thugs they portray as martyrs, for example -- without the slightest regard for the negative effect this can have on the lives of the majority of decent black people.

Thomas Sowell, Random Thoughts, 12/30/14

Parasites as Victims

There are few modest talents so richly rewarded -- especially in politics and the media -- as the ability to portray parasites as victims, and portray demands for preferential treatment as struggles for equal rights.

Thomas Sowell, Random  Thoughts, 12/30/14

Achievement or Privilege?

Our schools and colleges are laying a guilt trip on those young people whose parents are productive, and who are raising them to become productive. What is amazing is how easily this has been done, largely just by replacing the word "achievement" with the word “privilege."

Thomas Sowell, Random Thoughts, 12/30/14

Achievement Differences?

Explaining differences in achievements between groups often pits those who attribute these differences to ability against those who attribute differences to barriers. Neither seems to pay much attention to differences in what people want to do. Few guys from my old neighborhood were likely to end up as violinists or ballet dancers, simply because that was not what they were interested in.

Thomas Sowell, Random Thoughts, 12/30/14

Freudian Child Care Crime

Most of the damage we have seen in child rearing is the fault of the Freudian and neo-Freudians who have dominated the field.  They have frightened parents and kept the truth from them.  In child care I would say that Freudianism has been the psychological crime of the century.


Dr. Louise B. Ames, Co-Director of the Gesell Institute of Child Development.  Cited by E. Fuller Torrey, M.D., in "Freudian Fraud: the Malignant Effect of Freud's Theory on American Thought and Culture," p.128