DG Meyers How do I account for the fact that, every Shabbes after the Shemoneh Esrei, I feel compelled to thank the Creator of the Universe for my cancer? http://www.patheos.com/blogs/goodletters/2014/06/the-mercy-of-sickness-before-death/ Read more

It is a willingness to use coercive methods, from government action to public shaming, to shut down debate and censor those who hold a different opinion as if they have no right to their views at all. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2014/06/13327/?utm_source=The+Witherspoon+Institute&utm_campaign=d75fba624a-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_15ce6af37b-d75fba624a-84107317 Read more

Mark Tooley Even as the U.S. church loses nearly 100,000 members annually, the African church gains over 200,000 annually, in places like Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Angola. The DRC alone has more than 2 million United Methodists, and there may be more Methodists in church on a typical Sunday in the DRC, where attendance exceeds membership, than in the U.S., where the opposite is true. http://www.aleteia.org/en/religion/article/the-coming-methodist-split-5796747523653632 Read more

John Stackhouse Among the doctrines that have divided Protestants from Catholics since the Reformation has been the doctrine of purgatory. But recently, fresh overtures from the Catholic side—such as the book by University of Toronto doctoral student Brett Salkeld, Can Catholics and Evangelicals Agree about Purgatory and the Last Judgment?—have suggested that purgatory might be less divisive than previously thought. http://www.christiancentury.org/article/2014-05/hard-work-holiness Read more

Matthew Franck Here, then, are some words of advice on language, intended for those who would like to exercise “reflection and choice” as human beings and citizens, rather than be the manipulated victims of “accident and force.” I’ll make just four points, though I could mention many more. http://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2014/06/uncluttering-the-house-of-the-mind Read more

WSJ: Opinion A drastic physical change doesn’t address underlying psycho-social troubles. (more…) Read more

A new book tells the harrowing story of Memorial Medical Center, where some physicians took the lives of their patients during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2014/06/13261/?utm_source=The+Witherspoon+Institute&utm_campaign=145e99d0a0-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_15ce6af37b-145e99d0a0-84107317 Read more

The consequences for evangelical groups that refuse to agree to the nondiscrimination policies, and therefore lose their official standing, vary by campus. The students can still meet informally on campus, but in most cases their groups lose access to student activity fee money as well as first claim to low-cost or free university spaces for meetings and worship; they also lose access to standard on-campus recruiting tools, such as activities fairs and bulletin boards, and may lose the right to... Read more

Thousands of years after they first appeared in history, the Samaritans continue to practice the biblical rites including animal sacrifice. The Tower’s photographer captures their unique Passover experience. http://www.thetower.org/article/photos-ancient-rituals-in-the-land-of-the-bible/ Read more

[Demographer Nicholas Eberstadt has written recently of the declining birth rate all over the Muslim world. Here is an explanation for one part of it.] Like many young couples, Sherag, an architect, and Bita, a recent college graduate, cited a litany of problems as reasons for their dark outlook: an intrusive state and its conservative ideology, a sickly economy, political instability. “When we go to bed we don’t even know what will happen when we wake up,” he said. thttp://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/08/world/middleeast/iran-tehran-offers-incentives-to-middle-class-families-to-have-more-children-as-population-declines.html Read more