Hi. Welcome. Come on in. Sit a spell. Take a load off. Relax with me. Let’s chat. Well, let’s link to be more precise. Welcome to the Weekly Town Crier. This is where I collect for you some of the things that made me pause along my meanderings through this world wide wasteland. A few roses along the way, if you will. The diamonds in the rough. But just because I link something doesn’t mean I endorse something, just that it gave me reason to pause and think and hopefully will the same for you. Enjoy:
See what I hear at Last.fm.
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Read as the New York Times examines how naming your favorite book can “break the deal” in a new romance: “Naming a favorite book or author can be fraught. Go too low, and you risk looking dumb. Go too high, and you risk looking like a bore — or a phony.”
Read about the suspension of Peter Enns from Westminster Theological Seminary. Browse as Justin Taylor collects several links related to the issue.
Read as the New York Times considers student abstinence groups.
Read as Barna considers new statistics on marriage and divorce.
Read about the Russian doomsday cult “sheltering in a bunker” as they await “apocalypse their preacher says is looming in either April or May” who “say credit cards and food packaging bar codes are satanic
Read about science trying to “explain” religion.
Read about Rick Warren taking the “purpose driven” agenda to Uganda.
Read about Africa being poised to become the “top Christian continent.”
See the Bluetooth microphone you can have implanted into your teeth!
Read about Mr. T. apparently bringing a boy out of a coma.
Read about podcast novels.
Read about the discovery of the Sea of Galilee.
Consider Abraham Piper’s list of six reasons pastors should blog.
Read about Ted Turner apologizing for his past criticisms of religions as he “formed a $200 million partnership Tuesday with Lutherans and Methodists to fight malaria.”
Read about the recent UCLA study finding that “while attendance at religious services decreases dramatically for most students between their freshman and junior years, the students’ overall level of spirituality, as defined by the researchers, increases.”
Read Christianity Today’s review of the new album from Delirious, Kingdom of Comfort.
Read this piece which notes that “Dozens of prominent evangelical leaders recently endorsed a statement declaring what many Christians already hold to be true — that Jewish people need the gospel and Jesus Christ to receive eternal life.”
Watch this piece that has been making the rounds profiling Oprah’s “beliefs.”
Read this piece about why to leave your iPod at home when you travel.
Read as the Daily Texan talks to Eisley.
Read about the Bible’s impact on our finances.
Read about “religious” and “secular” families uniting over the homeschool battle.
Read this piece which says that Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses are the fastest growing churches in the country.
Read as Richard Mouw challenges us on whether we a “stingy or a generous God” as he challenges: “I am passionate in my agreement with Martin Luther on justification by faith alone. But do I believe that a person can be confused about this doctrine and still be saved?”
I just got my inaugural issue of The City from Houston Baptist Universtiy. Check it out yourself.
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I could be wrong, but seems like when I was doing research right before I got married ten years ago, that the divorce rate was basically 50%, across the board regardless of age or religion. So is the divorce rate going down?
I saw that video about Oprah and had tried to find more information about that class and that book (seems like you have to pay money to find out =P). Don’t get me wrong, I’m already not crazy about Oprah. I just don’t like to pass on false information. Anybody got any links for more info?
Wow. I don’t think the quotation marks around “churches” in that Christian Post article about Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses was unbiased reporting. I’m not familiar with that publication, but I assure you the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is indeed a church.
I know, I know, you don’t necessarily endorse everything that you link to. And I’ll try not to get defensive about my religion.
This weekend has been the General Conference of our church in which the leadership of the church broadcasts messages of the gospel to the worldwide membership. After hearing one particularly powerful and affirming talk given by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, Steve and I both thought of you and past discussion we’ve had here on your blog and thought how articulately he stated our beliefs about modern-day revelation and open scriptural canon. If you don’t mind, when the text becomes available on Thursday, I’d like to email it to you or link to it, because I know there were many questions directed at me back then about this that I did not satisfactorially (is that a word??) address.
Hey Amber, this might help. That 50% number is really a myth. It’s created by measuring the number of all divorces, whereas the only meaningful way to measure it is to look at the number of first marriages ending in divorce. The perspective gets skewed when 2nd, 3rd, and 4th marriages are considered equivalent to first marriages. To illustrate, the guy with 3 divorces gets counted 3 times, whereas the guy who stays married gets counted once. That’s why the number should be center on the number of people who have been divorced, rather than the number of marriages that end in divorce.
Here’s the audio. Elder Holland is one of the Twelve Apostles and a great great man. Let me know what you think.
Thanks Emily,
I’ll let you know when I have a chance to listen. Hope your house-hunting is going well!
Thank you!
