John Stonestreet – Page 3

The Population Zombie Strikes Again: Guest Column

Sep 16, 2026John StonestreetCultureCulture, Family

Overpopulation fears keep returning, despite failed predictions and devastating consequences.

A group of scientists are, once again, predicting imminent disaster because of overpopulation. “It might sound like the evil plan of a nefarious villain,” a recent Daily Mail, article read, “but scientists now say that we need to halve Earth’s population to save the planet.” The researchers have even offered “non-coercive measures” to lower the global population to four billion by the year 2200. Of course, that includes “providing women in low–income countries with family planning services.” Their plan, according to The Daily Mail, is similar to that of Marvel villain Thanos, who thought he could eliminate suffering by eliminating half the human race.

Rather than seeing people as incredible resources of creativity and ingenuity, Thanos and these scientists assume that more people means less food and less wealth. Like a zombie that keeps coming back no matter how many times it’s killed, this thinking is a rehash of the flawed work of Paul Erlich. His 1968 book, The Population Bomb, which predicted global starvation and utter economic collapse if the population at that time didn’t stop growing, is perhaps the best example in recent memory that “ideas have consequences” and that bad ideas have victims.  

In fact, as an obituary to Ehrlich admitted, his ideas “encouraged mass sterilization program[s] in India and the one-child policy in China and influenced how children everywhere were viewed and valued.” His predictions were, as Chuck Colson noted in 2001, spectacularly wrong.

[A]lmost none of the dire predictions associated with what Ehrlich called “The Population Bomb” came to pass. That’s because the doomsayers didn’t understand what it really means to be human. Ehrlich’s was only the most dramatic expression of a worldview that saw reducing birth rates as the key to not only humanity’s, but the entire planet’s fate. In this view, people were akin to parasites. They consumed resources and gave little, if anything, back. Population had to be contained both for our sake and for the sake of the earth. 

In fact, since Ehrlich’s ideas became mainstream, the world population has more than doubled, from 3.8 billion people in 1972 to an estimated 8.3 billion today. Yet, instead of mass starvations and increased conflicts over resources, crop yields have increased dramatically and global rates of undernourishment and starvation has been reduced by more than half.  

Humans are simply not the virus that Ehrlich, Thanos, and these scientist claim. Yes, we do create a mess of problems, but we are also innovators of additional resources and new solutions. That, of course, makes sense if the Biblical story of reality is true and the naturalistic one is not. If we really were made co-creators by the One who created all things, humans are not just consumers but producers who are tasked with cultivating the creation. 

In contrast, population scare warnings have very real victims—tens of millions, in fact. In just the last 50 years, over 60 million Americans have been killed through abortion, and among what has driven the practice is the fear of bringing a child into a dying world. In China, where the myth of the population bomb led to the horrific one-child policy, some 300 million babies were slaughtered, many against the will of their mothers.

Instead of saving the planet, vain ideas of population control have left the nations of the world with a birth dearth. Russia, China, and Japan are notably struggling to maintain their numbers even as their older population phases out of the workforce. The same is happening in the U.S.

Zombie ideas of overpopulation and human pestilence gets humanity tragically wrong and misunderstands the created world. Had Ehrlich’s claims remained in his books, the damage would have been minimal. But his ideas, as they tend to do, grew feet and walked into the real world of image bearers. They wreaked havoc. It’s long past time for this zombie to stay dead.

Antisemitism on the Rise, Again: Guest Column

Sep 8, 2026John StonestreetCurrent EventsIsrael, Racism

As antisemitism rises around the world, Christians must be unequivocal in rejecting hatred of Jews.

According to a new report from the J7 Large Communities’ Task Force Against Antisemitism, “In both the number of lethal attacks and the number of casualties, 2025 was the deadliest year for antisemitic attacks . . . in more than 30 years.” As a CBS article describing the report pointed out, this includes 15 people who were shot dead at Bondi Beach in Australia, two who were killed at a Manchester, UK synagogue, two who were gunned down at a Jewish museum in DC, and an 82-year-old Boulder, CO woman who died a month after being hit with a Molotov cocktail.

While the attackers responsible often claim vengeance against Israeli actions in the Middle East, the attacks are not against Israeli military or government sites. Instead, as has been the case for much antisemitic violence throughout history, the targets are random people around the world who happen to be Jewish.

In fact, Jews have been the target of irrational hate and violence since at least the fifth century BC, when Haman was bested by Mordecai. According to the historian Josephus, some 50,000 Jews were killed in the AD 60s when an ethnic riot broke out in Alexandria, Egypt. The harassment and murder of Jews in the Russian Empire was so common it’s portrayed as an ordinary fact of life in the musical “Fiddler on the Roof.” Most evil, of course, was the Holocaust perpetrated by the Nazis in the 1930s and 40s, a mass murder so horrific that there are still fewer Jews alive in the world today than there were before it.

One reason this demon has returned is that history has moved on. The memory of the Holocaust is fading, and the world is less familiar with names like Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Nearly everyone that was involved—victim, villain, or liberator—is now dead. Without the power of eyewitness testimony, the lessons of “Never Again!” are lost.

Another factor is a quirk of this cultural moment, in which skepticism is considered a virtue (not to mention profitable). Like the dwarfs in C.S. Lewis’ The Last Battle, many are convinced they are too informed to be “taken in” by commonly held ideas. Their cynicism is not the result of newly surfaced facts, but a posture of dis-believing all accepted narratives. This posture is the pop-intellectual version of what philosopher Philip Rieff called a “deathwork.” Rather than pursuing truth, it’s more popular to join the knee-jerk disbelief crowd who claim that the “postwar consensus” is just what “They” want you to believe.

In other words, the new antisemitism is as irrational as it is evil. There’s nothing Christian about it.

In 1943, before the world learned of the Holocaust, apologist Francis Schaeffer responded to Jew-hatred:

Considering anti-Semitism, the first thing that fixes itself in my thinking is the fact that Christ was a Jew. When we open the New Testament to Matthew 1:1, we find the very first claim made concerning Christ is that he sprang from Abraham and was a descendant of David. The Bible does not say that Jesus just happened to be a Jew, but the Word emphasizes over and over again that he was a Jew.

Hatred of Jews has no place whatsoever for the Christian. This is about more than even the biblical call to love our neighbors, though that should be enough. Jesus’ Jewishness is at the center of His identity because at the center of God’s plan to bless all the nations of the earth was His making a chosen people of the descendants of Abraham. To hate “the Jews” is to scorn the most important Jew of all.

Inoculating Your Children from Socialism: Guest Column

Sep 2, 2026John StonestreetCurrent EventsCommunism, Socialism

According to a 2025 survey, 62% of Americans under 40 have a positive view of socialism or communism. Where did this come from, and what should be done? That’s the question we asked Eric Patterson, president of the Victims of Communism Museum and Memorial Foundation,

We have a problem with both “practical socialism” and “ideological socialism.” We’ve raised a generation of “practical socialists,” meaning that their every need and desire has been provided for by an external authority with apparently no personal cost. Why shouldn’t this support extend into adulthood?

On the ideological side, many of us weren’t paying attention when the media and public education radically changed the narrative taught in our schools. No more the hard-fought American Dream. Instead, they were taught that our history is one of oppressors (usually white and Christian or Jewish) grinding the oppressed. Thus, we need a radical restructuring of American institutions.

Ideas have consequences. Good ideas have good consequences, so re-centering on gratitude, work and value creation, rightful patriotism, and other key themes can help.

The first step is to cultivate gratitude rather than entitlement in the next generation. This begins in the home with how we teach our children to say thank you, show respect to teachers and elders, and recognize the blessings of daily life in America—food on the table, safety, freedom to fully practice our faith, and opportunity for advancement. These are privileges that millions around the world are denied. We should not take them for granted.

Tied to this, is a generation that deeply distrusts authority. Some of this is the result of failures by older generations—broken homes, public scandals, and a culture that too often mocks or dismisses the role of public officials, police, and even parents. Think, how many times have our kids heard, “all politicians are corrupt” or the police mocked as “po-po” or donut-lovers?

When legitimate authority and public service is undermined at home and in the public square, it leaves a vacuum that radical ideologies are eager to fill. By the time kids arrive in college, they’re primed to see America’s story not as one of opportunity and progress but as a litany of oppression and injustice. How we model gratitude and respect for authority—both in word and deed—matters more than ever.

We must also be mindful of what our young people consume—in books and the boundless online content. “Content” spans everything from more ideological school textbooks and Wikipedia articles to viral TikTok videos and Instagram feeds. Much of this material shapes their worldview more powerfully than any classroom lesson.

Limiting exposure to harmful or hedonistic material is only part of the equation; we must also provide access to uplifting stories and ideas that reinforce the values we hope to see flourish. Carmen Agra Deedy’s The Rooster Who Would Not Be Quiet and Carina Felina are children’s books that are analogies of the communism that has decimated her native Cuba.

At the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, we’ve curated an Amazon page of appropriate materials for different age groups and curricula for elementary and middle school families and schools that tells stories of courage, honesty, and sacrifice in contrast with the evils of communism.

Another vital element is the cultivation of rightful patriotism, which C.S. Lewis says stems from an appropriate love of home. Patriotism doesn’t mean ignoring our nation’s shortcomings. Rather, it means an honest pride in the American story—a story that, while imperfect, is remarkable for its steady march toward greater freedom and equality.

One of the best ways to cultivate a love of America is by speaking with recent immigrants. My family has heard me quiz taxi drivers: Afghans, Ethiopians, Ukrainians, Pakistanis, Somalis, and others who fled the devastation of their homelands and who deeply appreciate the freedoms and opportunities the U.S. offers.

A fourth element that deserves attention is the value of work. For too many young people, the experience of holding a job, earning a paycheck, and learning to manage money is delayed or missing entirely. Just a few years ago, it was common for teenagers to take on summer jobs, mow lawns, babysit, or work in local stores. Their work created value, and they were compensated for that value. Learning the value of a dollar, saving up for something special, and making decisions about spending and giving are all part of growing into a responsible citizen.

Finally, we must not neglect the role of religious faith in the shaping of character. Martin Luther King, Jr. rightly observed that communism is incompatible with Christianity because it is “secular, atheistic, and materialistic.” Our Judeo-Christian heritage teaches the opposite. It instills a sense of human worth, dignity, and responsibility for family and neighbors. It teaches that every person is created in the image of God, deserving of respect and compassion.

By teaching children about faith, gratitude, rightful patriotism, and the value of work, we instill in them a sense of purpose and reality that can withstand the destructive ideologies of this civilizational moment.

That was Eric Patterson, president of the Victims of Communism Museum and Memorial Foundation, Learn more about their work at vocmuseum.org.