Jesus Creed
C.S. Lewis saw Cair Paravel in this old ruins
Must read by Amy Simpson: “In the years since, that incident has become for me a symbol. The way people in that waiting room responded to my family’s public crisis is the way I’ve seen people—including those in the church—respond to serious mental illness. They didn’t know what to do for my mom or anyone associated with her. So they did nothing.”
Phantom Bible sayings … a little long-winded essay by John Blake but still a good reminder.
Jarrod in Australia: “World Vision national adviser Jarrod McKenna said that climate change has already started to hit the poorest of the poor around the world. “This is not simply an economic issue, but an ethical issue,” Ms McKenna said. “As a Christian I sung in Sunday school as a child ‘They are precious in God’s sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world.’ “If children of the world are truly as precious as Australian children, be they Kenyan, Indian, Nepalese or Chinese, now is the time to say yes to real action on climate change.”
Zion theology, not just cosmic theology: Jerusalem counts too. And also take a look at Glenn Kaiser, Jesus People USA: “I say this not just because Jesus People USA was in the middle of it or because I’m directly involved, but because it’s just plain old fashioned true: If you do the math, and if you think about an entire association of churches like Calvary Chapel, the Vineyard, and on and on, so many things happened in those few years, from the late ’60s to the early ’70s, that when historians look back at the last century, the Jesus Movement may end up being considered a more significant move of God in terms of people coming to Christ under biblical faith, as well as renewal among the poor. I think you’ll find it was more significant in the long run than Asuza Street or the Wall Street revivals. The Jesus Movement was the third Great Awakening in a lot of ways.”
Sandra and Derek on tour … near you?
Meanderings in the News
1. Is it in the brain? “Despite a growing interest in the ways spiritual beliefs and practices are reflected in brain activity, there have been relatively few studies using neuroimaging data to assess potential relationships between religious factors and structural neuroanatomy. This study examined prospective relationships between religious factors and hippocampal volume change using high-resolution MRI data of a sample of 268 older adults. Religious factors assessed included life-changing religious experiences, spiritual practices, and religious group membership. Hippocampal volumes were analyzed using the GRID program, which is based on a manual point-counting method and allows for semi-automated determination of region of interest volumes. Significantly greater hippocampal atrophy was observed for participants reporting a life-changing religious experience. Significantly greater hippocampal atrophy was also observed from baseline to final assessment among born-again Protestants, Catholics, and those with no religious affiliation, compared with Protestants not identifying as born-again. These associations were not explained by psychosocial or demographic factors, or baseline cerebral volume. Hippocampal volume has been linked to clinical outcomes, such as depression, dementia, and Alzheimer’s Disease. The findings of this study indicate that hippocampal atrophy in late life may be uniquely influenced by certain types of religious factors.”
2. Audrey Barrick on Patricia Heaton’s faith: “Actress Patricia Heaton has garnered high interest from the public not just for her new comedy Web series “Versailles” but for her frank talk on her Christian faith. The former “Everybody Loves Raymond” star went on The Adam Carolla Show Monday where she even tried to open the atheist host up to Christianity. “I think it’s interesting that you keep having these born agains come into your life – your driver, the guys you were in construction with,” Heaton said on the show. “C.S. Lewis calls those the hounds of heaven.” “I know where you’re going with this,” Carolla responded.”
3. Christian Jarrett: “It’s a trusted tool in the self-help armoury – visualising yourself having achieved your goals, be that weighing less, enjoying the view atop Everest, or walking down the aisle with the girl or boy of your dreams. Trouble is, reams of research shows that indulging in positive fantasies actually makes people’s fantasised ambitions less likely to become reality. Why? A new study claims it’s because positive fantasies are de-energising.”
4. Regardless of the cost, we keep chugging: “NEW YORK (AP) — People are paying more to fuel up these days — on coffee. Coffee price increases have outpaced even the hike in gasoline prices the past year. A one-pound can of ground coffee sold for $5.10 in April, up 40 percent from $3.64 the year before, according to the Department of Labor. By comparison, a gallon of regular gasoline cost $3.83 on average on Tuesday, up 37 percent from a year earlier. And while fuel prices are expected to stabilize, coffee increases could continue for some time because the prices that coffee companies pay for unroasted beans are still climbing — fast. Coffee futures were trading for $2.61 per pound Tuesday, roughly double a year earlier.”
5. Ranking Presidents is biased: “According to a University of Miami study, those historical rankings of American presidents that pop up every year or so are significantly weighted in favor of Democrats, thanks to the liberal leanings of academia. Political science professor Joseph E. Uscinski, one of the study’s authors, said the new analysis shows that the overwhelmingly liberal academic community consistently ranks Republican presidents about 10 spots lower than the public would. “I don’t think anyone is surprised,” Mr. Uscinski told The Washington Times. “Among the political scientists and historians that I work with, Democrats outnumber Republicans 8 to 1.” What was eye-opening, he said, was the stark difference between the historians’ assessments of Republicans and the grades given by the public.
Gil Troy, author of “Leading from the Center: Why Moderates Make the Best Presidents (2008),” said the debate over where presidents rank shouldn’t be taken too seriously. “I call it the ‘Presidential Stock Market,’ where the values of a presidency, over time, ebb and flow,” he said. “But it’s a very healthy discussion to have. The presidency is a larger-than-life office, and the men who serve there make up, in large part, the American pantheon. “And we always want to know who is in the pantheon, and why they are there.” The New York City native, now a University of Montreal professor, adds that he doesn’t mind the inherent silliness or subjectivity of a Top Ten.“As an educator, I have to admit I’m glad to see my students take up these discussions,” he said, “if it means that we’re talking about history instead of what Ashton Kutcher did last night.”
6. Good news for stroke research: “A “survival protein” that protects the brain against the effects of stroke in rodent brain tissue has been discovered by scientists at Johns Hopkins University. The finding has implications for treating stroke as well as Parkinson’s Disease, diabetes, and heart attack. When brain tissue is subjected to a stressful but not lethal insult, a defense response occurs that protects cells from subsequent insult. The scientists dissected this preconditioning pathway to identify the most critical molecular players, including the Iduna protein. This protein increased three- to four-fold in preconditioned mouse brain tissue following an insult to the tissue, the scientists said.”
7. Sad, sad news: “Taliban gunmen have killed the headteacher of a girls’ school near the Afghan capital after he ignored warnings to stop teaching girls, government officials have said. Khan Mohammad, the head of the Porak girls’ school in Logar province, was shot dead near his home on Tuesday, said Deen Mohammad Darwish, a spokesman for the Logar governor. “He was killed because he wanted to run the school,” Darwish said. Mateen Jafar, the education director in Logar, about an hour’s drive from the capital, Kabul, said Mohammad had received several death threats from the Taliban warning him not to teach girls. Jafar said Mohammad’s son was wounded in the attack. Education for women was banned by the Taliban government from 1996 to2001 as un-Islamic. There are periodic attacks against schoolgirls, their teachers and school buildings.”
8. This is sad too: “PARIS: Sex selection of foetuses in India has led to 7.1 million fewer girls than boys up to age six, a gender gap that has widened by more than a million in a decade, according to a study released Tuesday. In Indian families in which the first child has been a girl, more and more parents with access to prenatal ultrasound testing are aborting a second female in the hope that a subsequent pregnancy will yield a boy, said the study, published in The Lancet. The increasingly lopsided ratio of girls to boys is larger in wealthy households than poorer ones, the researchers reported. Between 1980 and 2010, they estimate, four to 12 million girls were aborted because of their sex. “Selective abortion of female foetuses, usually after a firstborn girl, has increased in India over the past few decades, and has contributed to a widening imbalance in the child sex ratio,” they conclude. The female shortfall for the zero-to-six age bracket was 6.0 million in 2001, and 4.2 million in 1991.”
9. From Reuters: “Staunchly Catholic Malta approved the introduction of divorce, backing the move by a small majority in a referendum. “The referendum outcome is not the one I wished for, but the will of the majority will be respected and parliament will enact legislation for the introduction of divorce,” Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said in a video statement on Sunday. The vote was seen as a test of the influence of the Roman Catholic Church in a country where 72 percent of people say they go to Mass on Sundays and nearly all marriages are held at the altar. The Mediterranean island of 400,000 people is the only country in Europe not to allow divorce. Early results from Saturday’s referendum showed a majority backing divorce of between 52 percent and 54 percent. The Divorce Movement declared victory and the anti-divorce movement conceded. Opposition leader Joseph Muscat had said changing the law was a vote for modernity and a chance for those with broken marriages to start afresh. Gonzi had said divorce offered “no solutions” and called for better preparation before weddings so that the “value of an indissoluble marriage is bequeathed to the young.” Divorce legislation was proposed in July last year by Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, a member of Gonzi’s own parliamentary group. It provides for people to become eligible for divorce after four years of separation. – by Christopher Scicluna in Valletta
10. Travel photos: advice. Good advice. My favorite travel photo we’ve taken is the one above to the left.
Meanderings in Sports
Willie Gault is still running: “That’s part of the reason the 50-year-old Gault recently set masters age-group world records by running the 100 meters in 10.88 seconds and the 200 meters in 22.44 seconds last month at the Occidental Invitational in Los Angeles. He also set 45-49 age-group world records in both events with a 10.72 in the 100 and a 21.80 in the 200.
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