Guess who speaks in tongues?
In his soon to be released book, You Lost Me, Barrna Group president David Kinnman describes a growing percentage of Christians who have checked out of church. He calls them exiles, calculating there are between eight to twenty million of them. Exiles think culture, then Christianity. When you approach faith from this direction, the modern church sounds as if it is speaking in tongues—which explains why exiles are leaving.
To win the culture wars, study the war against cancer.
In the 1940s, finding a cure for cancer was likened to fighting a war. The new symbol overhauled the fight against cancer strategy. Today, many writers liken America’s values debates to culture wars. If they’re right, the faith community’s strategy is also overdue for an overhaul.
Studying the seals of four states might help.
Brinkmanship is a bad way to resolve our budget crisis. It is however indicative of a broken system. Fixing the system as well as resolving our debt crisis might benefit from studying the seals of four states—Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Virginia, and Kentucky.
It’s easels more than evangelism that makes a difference.
Mormonism is a hot topic nowadays. Newsweek magazine recently highlighted its vitality, evidenced in politics and business—think Harry Reid, Mitt Romney, Jon Huntsman, and Steven Covey. But it also animates the Twilight vampire novels of Mormon Stephenie Meyer. Many attribute this vitality to Mormon missionaries evangelizing the world. But vitality of faith might have more to do with easels and artists.
By Kevin Antlitz
What would it take to remove Flint and Detroit, Michigan from the list?
According to a recent Atlantic Monthly article, the most recent FBI crime data lists Flint and Detroit, Michigan as the two most dangerous cities in America.1 How would the church contribute to solving this problem? Crime is a complex problem, so the solution will likely also be complex. To shape the minds, morals, and manners of a society, Percy Bysshe Shelley, a Romantic poet of the 18th century, suggests giving preeminence to poets and painters.
Civil War buffs say it’s self-evident the South was finished when Vicksburg fell on the fourth of July 1863. Niall Ferguson disagrees—the decisive event occurred earlier. History and human nature remind us how self-evident truth is not always self-evident. In the case of America for example, the decisive date might not be the Fourth of July 1776.
These aren’t the right witnesses.
In The Authenticity Hoax: How We Get Lost Finding Ourselves, author Andrew Potter describes how the Enlightenment created “a new kind of person” who prizes authenticity. Authenticity presents two problems, however. It relies entirely on an individual’s take on reality while rebuffing those who disagree with it.
As the Tyrelle Pryor scandal drags down Ohio State’s football fortunes, a few sports pundits suggest stipends as a solution for financially strapped student-athletes. It’s a bad idea. Stipends add weight to an already big tail that’s wagging the dog.
Commencement speeches have become con jobs.
To commence is to get underway. Yet sample some of this year’s commencement addresses and you’ll see they undercut graduate’s initiative by reinforcing a sense of entitlement. Studies indicate this saps the energy required for those entering a bad job market and inheriting a ruinous federal debt.
Sixty-seven years ago today, on D-Day, American paratroopers told a parable.
Parables are designed to connect friends and confuse foes. Landing behind enemy lines, American paratroopers had one, called a clicker. It located allies yet was lost on the enemy—the same reason C.S. Lewis penned his own parable a year earlier, in 1943.
