I've been sharing some of my experiences as a first-time guest in worship in a variety of congregations since 2010, including Last week, I was the guest minister at Central Lutheran Church in Dallas. Today, my wife and I visited Mayflower Congregation United Church of Christ in Oklahoma City for the first time. While we had never attended before, we felt we knew this congregation a bit through their former Senior Minister (1985 - 2020), The Rev. Dr. Robin Meyers. He has been Read More …
abortion
American Morality: 1987 & 2014 (#1303)
CNN recently conducted a poll of American morality similar to the one conducted by Time Magazine in 1987. When the statistics are placed side-by-side, one can see significant signs of change over the past 27 years. Overall: In 1987, 7 out of the 8 actions surveyed were considered by the majority of Americans to be morally wrong. Now, only 3 of the behaviors are thought to be morally wrong by a majority (being married and having sex with someone else, cheating on taxes, and Read More …
Beyond Pro-Choice / Pro-Life (#0979)
"Not in Her Shoes" is a new brief video (under 2 minutes) designed to encourage conversation about abortion by suggesting people move beyond the labels "pro-choice" and "pro-life" that "actually don't reflect how people feel about abortion." So What? Watch the video and ponder the argument advanced by Planned Parenthood. Do you believe that moving beyond the polarizing labels (pro-choice and pro-life) will help people have more in-depth and meaningful conversations about abortion? Why or Read More …
Do Americans Share a Common Morality? (#0264)
Yesterday I wrote a review of America’s Four Gods: What We Say About God - & What That Says About Us by Paul Froese and Christopher Bader. One of the book's more interesting findings hints at a common American morality, which is shown in the chart below (p. 66). The authors write: But note the relative ranking of moral issues for all believers -- they are exactly the same. Specifically, no matter what kind of God a person believes in, he ranks the comparative Read More …