“As their ranks swell, singles reach out to others, pamper themselves, or simply relish their solitude” (“Singles forge new holiday traditions” in the CS Monitor)
After The Economic Crisis: A Parody of 15 Corporate Logos
“These are the days when the Christian is expected to praise every creed except his own.” - G.K. Chesterton
“David Beckworth, an assistant professor of economics at Texas State University, looked at long-established trend lines showing the growth of evangelical congregations and the decline of mainline churches and found a more telling detail: During each recession cycle between 1968 and 2004, the rate of growth in evangelical churches jumped by 50 percent. By comparison, mainline Protestant churches continued their decline during recessions, though a bit more slowly.” (NY Times)
“You arrive at the hospital as two people, and you leave as three. You can't just make a baby and walk away. It's yours forever. Unless, that is, you make a baby through in vitro fertilization. In that case, you can put the embryo away in a freezer and decide what to do about it later. Or never…. Nobody focuses on the extra embryos. The patients and doctors are preoccupied with making a baby. If you get one, congratulations. Anything extra is an afterthought. We treat the leftovers as raw material, available to be used or thrown away. But they aren't raw material. Eggs and sperm are raw material. Embryos are what we make with that material. They're us.” (William Saletan in Slate. Saletan, unlike me, is pro-choice. But Saletan, like me, sees the moral dimension of decisions over embryos.)
“We can compare our energy levels to, let's say, an air in a car tire. If the tire has no holes, it can keep the air inside for years. If the tire has a hole, even a tiny one, it will deflate with time and all your efforts to pump it up will be useless until you plug that hole. The same applies to your energy level. Before deciding where to begin to increase it, I would recommend looking at your energy zappers first. No matter how strenuously energy boosting you do, the energy will just continue to drain until you plug your "holes". Check out these energy zappers and see how many apply to you.
In last week’s “Links to Your World,” I commented on Newsweek’s cover story promoting gay marriage. Steve Waldman, who used to work for Newsweek and now serves as editor-in-chief of BeliefNet, was stunned at the Newsweek piece, especially editor Jon Meacham’s defense of it: “My head is just spinning about the transformation of the newsmagazine. This cover may ultimately become known less for its significance in the culture wars but as a watershed in the history of American journalism.”
“While [John Meacham and Lisa Miller in the Newsweek cover story advocating gay marriage] both claim they are arguing against exclusiveness and for inclusivity, they have managed to exclude from this crucial national conversation a significant proportion of the American population who happen to believe there is a strong biblical case for traditional marriage. The one thing we biblical conservatives will never do, however, is exclude people like Meacham and Miller from any conversation that matters to us. So, we invite them to sit down with us, or someone from our world, to have a biblical, intellectually rich conversation about marriage—if they really are interested in being serious about this crucial topic.” (from the Christianity Today editorial, “Looking for a ‘Serious’ Conversation”)
“A team of Franciscan archaeologists digging in the biblical town of Magdala in what is now Israel say they have unearthed vials of perfume similar to those that may have been used by the woman said to have washed Jesus' feet.” (story)
“Today is December 7 — the day that this government killed over 80,000 Japanese civilians at Hiroshima in 1941 — two days before killing an additional 64,000 Japanese civilians at Nagasaki by dropping nuclear bombs on innocent people” (Jeremiah Wright, in a December 7 sermon helping the people of his church commemorate Pearl Harbor Day—you know, the one that will live in infamy).
Watch this video from American Idol Jason Castro speaking his born-again Christian faith and how God animates his singing. It was produced by “I Am Second.” (HT: Creation Project)
“Hospitals and laboratories are doing research to find ways to treat and prevent Alzheimer's. Now a church in the United States has a program to help fight the disease” (Voice of America story)
“You might have seen the headline on CNN.com or in The New York Times earlier this week: ‘Attorney elected U.S. first Vietnamese Congressman’ [in Louisiana]. What you might not have realized was the subject of those stories, Anh “Joseph” Cao, is a Baylor Bear.” H-m-m. It’s also interesting that he was a Jesuit seminarian before he went to law school. And who knew the world of Louisiana politics would be so diverse: first, they elected Bobby Jindal as the nation’s first Indian-American governor, and now they’ve elected the nation’s first Vietnamese-American Congressman. Cao will be one to watch.
“More women are drinking, and the women who drink are drinking more, in some cases matching their male peers. This is the kind of equality nobody was fighting for.” (“Gender Bender” in New York magazine)
“‘It's a very homey feeling. You can't forget going to your grandma's house, and there's no way you can forget the smell, especially when the tamales are being made fresh,’ says Ms. Flores, now in her 20s.” (The Monitor covers an Hispanic Christmas tradition)
“At the slightest interruption -- an irritating ring tone, an insistent email alert or the hushed conversation in the adjacent office cubicle -- our thoughts can plunge into the mental underbrush like hounds snuffling after the wrong scent. As scientists document the normal brain changes at fault, they are highlighting a growing conflict between the push-me-pull-you demands of modern multitasking and our waning powers of concentration. By one estimate, the average office worker is interrupted every three minutes. Indeed, our inability to ignore irrelevant intrusions as we grow older may arise from a basic breakdown of internal brain communications involving memory, attention span and mental focus starting in middle age, researchers have discovered” (“Surveying the Brain for Origins of the Senior Moment”)
“Bill Gaither may not be an A-list celebrity or household name, but over a half century he has sold 20 million recordings and 20 million DVDs -- more than any other gospel performer. And the impact of this musical legend far exceeds mere sales figures” (Washington Post)
Time magazine’s “Top 10 Everything of 2008.” See if you agree.
"How do we change in order to contextualize without changing the gospel?" “That is the practical question in ministry. If you under-contextualize your ministry and message, no one's life will be changed because they'll be too confused about what you are saying. But if you over-contextualize your ministry and your message, no one's life will be changed because you won't really be confronting them and calling them to make deep change….To over-contextualize to a new generation means you can make an idol out of their culture, but to under-contextualize to a new generation means you can make an idol out of the culture you come from. So there's no avoiding it. There's far more to say about this subject, but I'll just give you one bit of advice. The gospel is the key. If you don't have a deep grasp on the gospel of grace, you will either over-contextualize because you want so desperately to be liked and popular, or you will under-contextualize because you are self-righteous and proud and so sure you are right about everything. The gospel makes you humble enough to listen and adapt to non-believers, but confident and happy enough that you don't need their approval.” (From an interview with one of my favorite church leaders, Tim Keller)
“Angels We Have Heard On High” … played on broccoli? (He begins playing about 45 seconds into the clip)
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