Penna Dexter
One of the United Nations’ largest annual feminist gatherings, the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), is meeting in New York. Rebecca Oas from the Center for Family and Human Rights says, this year, there’s “a dramatic mood shift, largely because of the change in U.S. leadership.” A declaration adopted on the first day of the 2-week conference contained some language friendly to the gender identity agenda. But, to the chagrin of representatives from the International Planned Parenthood Federation, references to sexual and reproductive health, reproductive rights, and sexuality education were left out.
Feminists are not happy. Dr. Oas says, normally they ignore conservatives at the CSW. But not this time.
She reports that at a townhall for CSW attendees, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres spoke of a “ferocious backlash against the rights of women and girls” which, he says, “is growing in power and strength.” He opened the Commission with a warning: “The poison of patriarchy is back….with a vengeance.”
A change in the party controlling the White House normally brings a switch in how the U.S seeks to influence international abortion policy. Notably, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio rejoined the Geneva Consensus Declaration, which states that there is no international right to abortion and that no nation is obligated to fund or promote abortion.
UN agencies constantly work to implement a version of gender equality that is outside their mandate. They are supported by certain NGOs and by groups like Women Deliver, which has voiced its concern that conservatives now “hold power in key global capitals.”
Dr. Oas says “The presence of conservative groups at the U.N. is often derided and their messages have been increasingly denigrated as ‘anti-rights,’ including by U.N. officials.”
Conservatives are pushing back with a statement declaring that, in many countries, majorities or sizable minorities of women ”hold pro-life and pro-family values, which ‘are mainstream positions’ and not anti-rights.”
It’s their views that should drive U.N. policy.

Kerby Anderson
For decades, progressive professors and politicians have been promoting universal basic income, known as UBI. It is the fiscal program to pay a regular income to everyone without any conditions. Proponents argue that we all benefit from technological advances and thus deserve a steady income, especially as we enter a world where AI might take away many of our jobs.
Chuck Bentley (CEO Crown Financial Ministries) has been warning about the perils of UBI in his articles and in a chapter in his book, Seven Gray Swans. Giving free money to everyone doesn’t make sense economically nor does it make sense theologically. People benefit from working and enjoying the fruits of their labor.
The National Bureau of Economic Research published a study of UBI, which was summarized in a lengthy thread by Athan Koutsiouroumbas. They found that giving people in Compton, California at least $500 per month in free money did little to help them. The participants only ended up $100 richer and smoked more cigarettes.
Here is a summary of some of their findings. For example, “Receiving guaranteed income had no impact on the labor supply of full-time workers, but part-time workers had a lower labor market participation by 13 percentage points.” The researchers discerned “no overall effects on indices of psychological and financial well-being.”
These results should not be surprising. Many studies show that happiness and fulfillment come from earned success. People who work hard and receive the benefit of their work are much happier and fulfilled than people, who for example, win the lottery.
Proverbs 13:11 says, “Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers it little by little will increase it.” This recent study merely confirms what the Bible teaches and most of us know.

Kerby Anderson
President Trump wants manufacturing reinvigorated by bringing many jobs back to the U.S. That is great for America and great for American workers. But who is going to fill those jobs?
The latest numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show 7.6 million job openings along with 6.8 million unemployed workers. You might ask why those millions of unemployed workers haven’t snapped up those millions of job openings.
Mike Rowe (host of “Dirty Jobs”) says the problem of filling those jobs is two-fold. He says we have a “skills gap,” and we also have a “will gap.”
The skills gap is the disparity between the skills an employer expects their employees to have, and the actual skills employees possess. It is certainly true that jobs in the medical field require a science degree and jobs in big tech require a computer science degree. But most of the blue-collar skills don’t require a degree but require some mechanical ability and training.
Unfortunately, lots of high schools removed shop classes that could be training the next generation of Americans who like to work with their hands. Instead, students have been convinced they should go to college and take out massive student loans to get a degree that may not even prepare them for a future job.
The will gap is best illustrated by what economist Nicholas Eberstadt refers to as the “flight from work.” His Washington Post op-ed three years ago lamented that at that time there were seven million men who were not working and not looking for work. The number of non-working men has only dropped a percentage point in the last few years.
If the president is successful in bringing jobs back to America, pastors, parents, and other leaders must encourage the next generation to go to work.