An invitation from a family member or friend is the most effective way to get people to attend church, a new survey shows, casting doubt on several time-tested methods used by churches to attract new members. (story)
“Who are you upsetting? Who are you connecting? Who are you leading?” (3 questions in a fascinating TED Talk by Seth Godin)
Want to stay healthy? Wash your hands more often. The WSJ shows how and why.
“Is marriage on its way to becoming the relationship equivalent of our appendix (in that it's no longer needed but can cause a lot of pain)?” Lisa Davis, in Time magazine, on the rise of couples doing what she’s doing: forgoing marriage.
The NY Times says that on abortion President Obama is being “drawn into [a] debate he hoped to avoid.” How so? Sheryl Gay Stolberg says Obama has tried to walk the tightrope between the prochoice and prolife camps, but in what way? One would expect Stolberg to come up with grumbles from prochoice people to illustrate how Obama is caught in the middle. Instead, she quotes Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, who told allies that their movement was emerging from “eight years in the wilderness.”
“A new Gallup Poll, conducted May 7-10, finds 51% of Americans calling themselves ‘pro-life’ on the issue of abortion and 42% ‘pro-choice.’ This is the first time a majority of U.S. adults have identified themselves as pro-life since Gallup began asking this question in 1995.” The organization explains:
With the first pro-choice president in eight years already making changes to the nation's policies on funding abortion overseas, expressing his support for the Freedom of Choice Act, and moving toward rescinding federal job protections for medical workers who refuse to participate in abortion procedures, Americans -- and, in particular, Republicans -- seem to be taking a step back from the pro-choice position. However, the retreat is evident among political moderates as well as conservatives.
It is possible that, through his abortion policies, Obama has pushed the public's understanding of what it means to be "pro-choice" slightly to the left, politically.
Join the 2009 Day of Prayer and Fasting for World Evangelization May 31.
Understanding Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses is now available on iTunes for free. (HT: Between Two Worlds).
Charles Colson cites disturbing examples of how the insistence on gay marriage is leading to a restriction on religious liberty.
“First, the silver lining: people of faith are better citizens and better neighbors….Now, the cloud: young Americans are ‘vastly more secular’ than their older counterparts.” That’s the opener for a USA Today piece about the upcoming book by Robert Putnam and David Campbell. “Religious people are three to four times more likely to be involved in their community. They are more apt than nonreligious Americans to work on community projects, belong to voluntary associations, attend public meetings, vote in local elections, attend protest demonstrations and political rallies, and donate time and money to causes — including secular ones.” A key factor in the difference: the relationships that are built. “‘It's not faith that accounts for this,’ Putnam said. ‘It's faith communities.’ But many of those faith communities are dwindling, according to numerous studies of religious membership in the U.S., and those pews are not being replenished by young Americans, Putnam and Campbell said.” (story)
Baylor baseball has just tanked since mid-April. What gives?
A Christianity Today editorial says that evangelicals now have the “mainline” mantle once owned by what are still referred to as “mainline denominations.” They write, “So how do we, the new mainline, avoid becoming like the old mainline? While the factors in the decline of the old mainline (what some now call the sideline) are many, certainly theological compromise in a misguided pursuit of relevance at all costs played a major role. A rigorous and public recommitment to the unchanging truth of the gospel is essential if we are going to continue in bringing more people to the foot of the Cross and assist them in becoming fully devoted followers of Christ.”
. . . But Cathy Lynn Grossman of USA Today asks, “Will this work? Several evangelical groups, notably the Southern Baptist Convention, have been sharply focused on clear doctrine -- but have no growth to show for it. The biggest church in the USA, Joel Osteen's massive congregation in Texas, makes no mention of doctrine. Do you think churches will be able to reel back in those people who have found a level of comfort with spirituality on their own? Can unchanging truth stem the drift?” Hmm. . . .
News of two longitudinal studies appeared in major news venues this week. According to The Atlantic, the men of the Grant Study are now in their 80s, and they’ve been studied since they were sophomores at Harvard in research to determine what makes us well-adjusted to life. “Perhaps in this, I thought,” concludes the author, “lies the key to the good life—not rules to follow, nor problems to avoid, but an engaged humility, an earnest acceptance of life’s pains and promises.” (David Brooks opines about the Atlantic piece here.) Also, a famous study on the origins and development of self-control appeared in the New Yorker.
No comments:
Post a Comment