Kerby Anderson
We need to find the “lost boys of America” and reach out to them. They are responsible for mass shootings. And they are also killing themselves (slowly with drugs or quickly through suicide). This needs to be a priority for every church in every community.
Many people have written about this. David French wrote an essay and quoted from two authors I have discussed in previous commentaries. Robert Putnam is best known for his book, Bowling Alone, that addressed the crisis of loneliness when few were aware of these dangers. He then went on to write the book, Our Kids, that explained how kids in crisis grow up in relative isolation from children in healthy families.
The other author is Malcolm Gladwell, who wrote about the need to see all the school shootings together rather than looking at each incident independently. As I have mentioned in previous commentaries, he says the school shootings (and later, mass shootings in general) represent a form of slow-motion riot. Each new shooter lowers the threshold for the next.
His conclusion is ominous. “The problem is not that there is an endless supply of deeply disturbed young men who are willing to contemplate horrific acts. It’s worse. It’s that young men no longer need to be deeply disturbed to contemplate horrific acts.”
They may commit those acts in a shooting or even turn the gun on themselves. We have heard the profile before. You can probably write the script. “Is the shooter an alienated young man? Yes. Did he meticulously plan the shooting? Yes. Did he repeatedly broadcast his deadly intent on social media? Yes.”
They are a danger to us, and they are a danger to themselves. We need to create programs to reach out to these lost boys. After all, the Bible makes it clear that we are our brother’s keeper.

Kerby Anderson
Batya Ungar-Sargon is the deputy opinion editor of Newsweek and is getting lots of attention for her recent book, Second Class: How the Elites Betrayed America’s Working Men and Women. In her book, she explains the plight of people who live and work on the opposite end of our social ladder.
She is unusual among the establishment media because she is willing to interview people in the working class and thus tell the story of class differences in America. Her book destroys the elitist idea that these hard-working people are angry, radical, and illiterate.
One of the most significant problems the working-class face is what can be called “excessive credentialism.” More and more jobs require a college degree when it is rarely necessary to perform well.  Working class people without a degree are thus unable to pursue a career that will give them social mobility and financial security.
She calls that the “diploma glass ceiling.” They deserve a chance at a job but are overlooked when a management position opens. To make matters worse, they sometimes find themselves training a college graduate with less aptitude and experience.
Their economic hardships are made worse by the sneering mindset of American elites who often paint them as racist and intolerant. Wokeness, she argues, is often an attack on the working class. It merely serves to demoralize people further down the social ladder while making those at the top feel virtuous and superior.
It’s worth noting that President Trump in 2020 signed an executive order to revise the qualifications for government jobs from a college degree to relevant experience. We need more reforms that will switch emphasis from degree-based hiring to merit-based hiring.