{"id":15770,"date":"2013-06-13T12:08:08","date_gmt":"2013-06-13T16:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=15770"},"modified":"2013-06-13T12:08:08","modified_gmt":"2013-06-13T16:08:08","slug":"good-news-for-people-who-like-good-news-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/06\/13\/good-news-for-people-who-like-good-news-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Good news for people who like good news"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=3CqZ21_rgz4<\/a>\n<\/p>

\u2022 France says oui<\/em> to marriage equality<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2022 And Minnesota says you betcha<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2022 New principal takes over violent, failing high school, fires the security guards and hires art and music teachers<\/a>. School starts to turn around. It seems kids do better in school when the school seems more like a school<\/em> and less like a militarized prison.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u2022 One Voice for Change<\/a> is amplifying the voices of women in the Churches of Christ. It seems like an important, potentially history-making, movement in a denomination that has long been denying women a voice and denying itself the contribution of women\u2019s voices.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not closely familiar with the CofC, and I can\u2019t judge how effective this movement for change may be, but anything that has the support of James McCarty<\/a> and Richard Beck<\/a> strikes me as a Good Thing.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Gold mining and recovery uses lots of cyanide. You know, the deadly poison<\/em>. Cyanide salts have been the main way of extracting gold from ore \u2014 often resulting in cyanide waste poisoning the environment and leaching into groundwater. Now scientists at Northwestern University have figured out a way to extract gold using cornstarch instead<\/a>. Cheaper, non-toxic, and it seems to work better than cyanide did.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The endangered \u2014 and adorable \u2014 dwarf foxes of California\u2019s Channel Islands \u00a0have \u201cmade one of the\u00a0fastest recoveries of any animal in the history of the Endangered Species Act<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cTeen birth rate drops to record low in the U.S.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

US teen births have dropped to a record low, but the country still has one of the highest rates among developed nations, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe overall rate declined 25 percent from 41.5 per 1,000 teenagers aged 15-19 in 2007 to 31.3 in 2011 \u2014 a record low,\u201d the CDC report said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe number of births to teenagers aged 15-19 also fell from 2007 to 2011, by 26 percent to 329,797.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2026\u00a0According to the most recent National Survey of Family Growth, teens are increasingly using contraception during their first sexual encounter, and sexually active females and males are using dual measures \u2014 mainly condoms and hormonal methods.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u2022 Philadelphia sets a new standard<\/a> for protecting the legal equality and civil rights of LGBT Americans.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Church of Scotland stops pretending God doesn\u2019t call LGBT people to ministry<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cU.S. Murder Rate Is on Track to Be Lowest in a Century<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Someone spray-painted graffiti on Grace Episcopal Church in rural Randolph, N.Y. \u201cCan I still get to heaven if I kill myself?<\/a>\u201d appeared on the wall of the church in two-foot letters.<\/p>\n

Rather than approaching the tagging as a criminal act, however, church leaders decided to take the graffiti seriously as an expression of something spiritually meaningful \u2014 a cry for help, perhaps; even a mocking expression of religious skepticism. They approached it relationally, using the church building itself as a social media platform, and responding with their own message of hope.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Instead of calling the cops or setting up security cameras, the pastor spray-painted this reply next to the original message: \u201cGod loves you with no exceptions!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0Sarah Moon is now blogging here at Patheos!<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Twelve more reasons to celebrate, including: Marriage equality in France and Minnesota; cornstarch is better than cyanide; music lessons replace metal detectors; we Americans are murdering one another a lot less this year; tiny foxes make a big recovery; a place called Grace Church lives up to its name; and Sarah Moon brings her blog to Patheos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-15770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-hope"],"yoast_head":"\nGood news for people who like good news<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Twelve more reasons to celebrate, including: Marriage equality in France and Minnesota; cornstarch is better than cyanide; music lessons replace metal detectors; we Americans are murdering one another a lot less this year; 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