Jeff Bercovici's recent article on Forbes.com explains the key findings of the latest poll by the Pew Internet & American Life Project: When it comes to managing their social media profiles, women, on average, behave more like mature, responsible adults while men act like impulsive adolescents. Some of the gender differences include: Allow only friends to view content: two-thirds of women - less than half of men Have deleted people from network: 67% of women - 58% of men Read More …
Book Reviews – Helpful or ? (#0654)
I have now posted well over 125 book reviews on this site. This diverse list focuses on books published in recent years that have been helpful to me on my journey of faith. Many of the books I have reviewed are "religious," but others have no overtly religious or spiritual content. I find that the discipline of writing the reviews to fit my normal format (meet the author, book basics, and so what) forces me to capture the basics of who wrote, what they said, and why it matters. Read More …
Review of Christianity After Religion (#0653)
Meet the Author Diana Butler Bass is "an author, speaker, and independent scholar specializing in American religion and culture." Currently she serves as a Chabraja Fellow with the SeaburyNEXT project at Seabury Western Theological Seminary. Additionally, she has taught at Westmont College, the University of California at Santa Barbara, Macalester College, Rhodes College, and the Virginia Theological Seminary. In the early years of this century she was the Project Read More …
We Belong (#0652)
"We belong" is a two word summary of the sermon I heard the Rev. Dr. Ronald Patterson preach yesterday. That idea was so powerful that I chose to forgo the normal format for the sermon discussion group I have been facilitating the last several weeks. Patterson mentioned the first question in the Heidelberg Catechism (1563): What is your only comfort in life and in death? He also shared and built upon the answer. Our group, at my request, looked at the same issue Read More …
Religious Benefits (#0651)
The latest research by Gallup (more than 676,000 interviews conducted in 2010 & 2011) finds "very religious Americans of all major faiths have higher overall wellbeing than do their respective counterparts who are moderately religious or nonreligious." The following chart shows how specific groups fared by degree of religiosity: In the overall rankings when religions are considered as a whole (across the varying degrees of religiosity), Jews rank highest, Christians are in the Read More …
No Longer Divided: Virtual and Real (#0650)
Elizabeth Drescher is the author of Tweet If You Love Jesus: Practicing Church in the Digital Reformation and co-author of the forthcoming Click 2 Save: The Digital Ministry Bible (2012). In a recent guest post for Union Theological Seminary's New Media Project she provided one of the best brief explanations of the shifts in life on and off-line: Social media participation has clearly become a real part of the lives of almost every American in nearly every demographic Read More …
Why Are You Still a Christian? (#0649)
Gary Dorrien, Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary and Professor of Religion at Columbia University, recently shared why he is still a Christian on Ecclesio.com: On the lecture circuit I meet people every week for whom Christianity is a ruined word. They ask me nicely, or with puzzlement, or with hostility, why I am still a Christian. I try to explain that I was drawn long ago into the spirit and way of Jesus, which draws me like a magnet into its Read More …
High School Ministry – Defining Success (#0648)
Lutheran (ELCA) pastor Rich Melheim is the founder and chief creative officer of Faith Inkubators, which he describes as "a Christian education systems design think tank and resource provider dedicated to incubating faith every night in every home." In the February 22, 2012 edition of the Christian Century, he answered several questions regarding faith formation as a family matter, including one about high school youth ministry. Q: How do you define a successful church program for Read More …
Christianity is Bigger than That (#0647)
Bruce Reyes-Chow is a consultant who served as founding pastor of Mission Bay Community Church, until May of this year, and was the former moderator of the General Assembly of the 2.3 million member PCUSA. On the conservative Red Letter Christians blog he recently shared "An Open Letter to Frustrated Christians in the United States," featuring these words: Like many of you from across the theological and political spectrum, I am disturbed by the Read More …
1,000 Open and Affirming Congregations (#0646)
The United Church of Christ is known for being first: 1785 - first ordained African American pastor 1853 - first woman pastor 1972 - ordination of first openly gay minister Today, the denomination celebrates another first as it welcomes its 1,000th Open and Affirming congregation. Open and affirming congregations have publicly and specifically declared that those of all “sexual orientations, gender identities, and gender expressions” (or “lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender” Read More …