Kerby Anderson
John West (Discovery Institute) was on my radio program recently to talk about his book, Stockholm Syndrome Christianity. To understand his conclusions, you need to remember what Stockholm Syndrome means.
The phrase comes from a bank robbery in Stockholm, Sweden that took place in 1973. An escaped convict and his accomplice took four bank employees hostage, who began to bond with the criminals and started to view the police and the government as enemies.
John West asks a powerful question: What if American culture isn’t collapsing because of crusading secularists? What if it’s failing because many leading Christians identify more with secular elites than with their fellow believers?
His book catalogs many examples. One chapter describes how Stockholm Syndrome Christians have infected the pastorate of churches leading to a dismissive view of the Bible. He quotes a pastor who wants to discard the Old Testament. He quotes others who are deconstructing God’s Word.
He details how Stockholm Syndrome Christians promote a diminished role for God in creation. He discusses the rise of scientific materialism. And he talks about Christians who seem to be evangelizing for Charles Darwin’s evolution.
As you might imagine, he also describes how Stockholm Syndrome Christians damaged our understanding of sex and gender. This has led to a redefining of marriage and abandoning biblical standards.
He concludes with a call to wisdom, a call to action, and the call to faithfulness. He also includes a website (www.stockholmsyndromeChristianity.com) with an online assessment that will help you diagnose you, your church, and others. He also provides discussion questions and a curated list of resources.
If you want to diagnose Stockholm Syndrome Christianity and provide a remedy, this is a book and website you will need.

Kerby Anderson
The U.S. has two debt problems: one long term and one short term. The first problem is a national debt of $36 trillion that has been increasing. Also concerning is the fact that the rate of indebtedness is also increasing.
The second problem is the current need to refinance so many federal treasuries this year. These T-bills are how we finance our debt, and $7 trillion of debt needs to be financed, along with the $2 trillion deficit this year. That means $9 trillion of current debt needs to be purchased.
Who is going to buy our debt? Not China, probably not Japan or any country in Europe. We need something to entice countries and companies to buy our debt.
Bitcoin might be the answer. At the Bitcoin Policy Institute, Michael Saylor ran models to show how investing in the bitcoin strategic reserve would build assets to offset the growing national debt. I mentioned that in a previous commentary.
But another presentation proposed a bitcoin bond (called a bit bond) that would increase an investor’s interest in buying bonds. Most of the purchase would go to the government, but a portion of the purchase would go to buy bitcoin. At maturity, the holder would receive all the upside price appreciation of bitcoin to a certain level. After that the additional appreciation would be split by half with the government.
The benefit to the holder would be an investment that likely would return a better percentage than normal. The benefit to the government would be the purchasing of bitcoin for the strategic reserve that is “budget-neutral” as required by the executive order signed by President Trump earlier this month.
Bitcoin might be way to pay off our national debt in the future but also attract needed investors to finance our debt today.