Writing for USA Today, Cathy Lynn Grossman explains the intersection of a religious coalition and Major League Baseball: A coalition of 25 religious denominations, including Christians and Muslims and Jews, is throwing some heat toward Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig and the players, saying the time has come to ban smokeless tobacco in the upcoming contract negotiations. Leaders from the Southern Baptist Convention and the United Methodist Church (the two largest Protestant Read More …
What Kind of Disciple? (#0388)
Scot McKnight, renowned New Testament scholar and professor of religious studies at Northpark University, wrote an article entitled "Full Disciple" in the February-March 2011 edition of Neue Magazine exploring the discipleship ministry of local congregations. McKnight asks his readers, "What kind of disciple is your church producing (p.56)?," before suggesting that churches would benefit from aligning their vision with that of Jesus: For Jesus a disciple is someone Read More …
The End of Gender-Segregated Ministries? (#0387)
Adam J. Copeland recently transitioned from serving as pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Hallock, MN to serving as mission developer of the ELCA affiliated Project F-M, which is a new "faith community for young adults and the young at heart" in Fargo-Morehead area. He recently blogged about the limitations of gender-segregated groups, suggesting: Gender-segregated groups seem very old school — glass ceilings are being broken left and right, though we still have a Read More …
Imagine an Institution (#0386)
A short illustration, posted on April 20 by Jerry Bowyer on the forbes.com blog, was printed in the May 31, 2011 edition of the Christian Century: Imagine an institution that requires its leaders to attend not only college, but graduate school. Imagine that the graduate school in question is constitutionally forbidden from receiving any form of government aid, that it typically requires three years of full-time schooling for the diploma, that the nature of the schooling bears almost no Read More …
Not Welcome Here: Schools Deny Churches Rental Opportunities (#0385)
A significant part of the life of a church is gathering together for worship. While many congregations do so in buildings they own, an increasing number do so in rented space. Renting is an attractive option for new congregations, for those in areas with expensive real estate, for those with limited needs for space during the week, for those in the midst of rapid growth, and for those who simply prefer to be without the burdens of property ownership. In many communities, Read More …
Do Mainline Protestants Really Have Bigger Brains? (#0384)
A recent study funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Templeton Foundation suggests that mainline Protestants have larger brains than those with other religious affiliations. Yonat Shimron's article summarizes the findings: It found an association between participants' professed religious affiliation and the physical structure of their brain. Specifically, those identified as Protestant who did not have a religious conversion or born-again experience — more Read More …
What is an Undergraduate Degree Worth? (#0383)
With the rising costs in higher education, prospective students are increasingly weighing the likely return on investment before enrolling. Beckie Supiano's recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, suggests that rather than asking whether or not an undergraduate degree is a worthwhile investment, individual students should instead look at specific degree plans. She cites Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce's extensive report Read More …
My Reviews of 100 Recently Published Books (#0382)
For the last two years, I have had the pleasure of reading and reviewing a book a week. I encourage you to browse the alphabetical listing below as you ponder your summer reading plans. For your convenience, each title is linked to my review. Author Title Year Aboujaoude, Elias Virtually You: The Dangerous Powers of the E-Personality 2011 Allison, Jay and Gediman, Dan, eds. This I Believe: The Personal Philosophies of Remarkable American Men and Read More …
Review of Virtually You (#0381)
Meet the Author Elias Aboujaoude is a psychiatrist who serves as Director of the Impulse Control Disorders Clinic and the Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Clinic at Stanford University School of Medicine. His research interests have focused on obsessive compulsive disorder and behavior addictions, including problematic Internet use. Aboujaoude has written two books: Compulsive Acts: A Psychiatrist's Tales of Ritual and Obsession Read More …
A New Trend: Long-Lasting Marriages (#0380)
The first few sentences of Carol Morello's recent Washington Post article explain a significant trend: Americans may be postponing marriage, and fewer are wedding at all. But what about the people who do get married? They’re staying together longer than they have in years. Three in four couples who married after 1990 celebrated a 10-year anniversary, according to census statistics reported Wednesday. That was a rise of three percentage points compared with couples who married in the early Read More …