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Weekly Meanderings 30 May 2015

Weekly Meanderings 30 May 2015

Last updated on: May 30, 2015 at 1:00 am by Scot McKnight

Weekly Meanderings 30 May 2015 2015-05-30T01:00:39-05:00 Scot McKnight

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Arrivederci Assisi!

Good students:

BETHLEHEM, N.H. —The graduating class at Profile Junior-Senior High School in Bethlehem made a heartfelt decision to give the money raised for their senior class trip to the school’s principal, who was recently diagnosed with cancer.

Principal Courtney Vashaw said they work hard to teach the students about caring for others and being compassionate, but not in her wildest dreams did she think that lesson would directly affect her.

“We decided to not go on our senior class trip this year and donate all of our funds to your cause,” said Ian Baker, a senior.

The class was scheduled to leave for Rydin’ Hi Ranch in New York on Sunday and spend four days there.

The gift comes less than a week after Vashaw told them she had been diagnosed with a rare, aggressive form of cancer. After four years of hard work, the senior class gave her nearly $8,000 for medical care.

“It is very hard for me to accept help, and I have no idea what to say to you,” said Vashaw.

“She’s just very caring, very selfless, and we wanted to be selfless, too,” said Baker.

Patsy McGarry, on the Irish same-sex marriage vote:

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin is of course correct. The Catholic Church does indeed need a reality check in the wake of the same-sex marriage referendum.

As the unequivocal result of the referendum became clear he said: “I think really that the church needs to do a reality check, a reality check right across the board, to look at the things it’s doing well, to look at the areas where we really have to start and say, ‘Look, have we drifted away completely from young people’?”

It’s not just young people. The people who voted for this referendum included tens of thousands of practicing older Catholics in the cities, towns and countryside of Ireland. People who will continue to practice their faith but who no longer accept that their gay sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, grandchildren, even their gay parents, are “objectively disordered” with a tendency to evil, as their Church teaches.

CS Lewis vs. D Bonhoeffer as now evangelical saints, by Carl Trueman:

There are likely to be three things which have contributed to the phenomenon Mills describes. First, there is a subordination of doctrinal confession to aesthetics. Particularly in American evangelicalism, there is a tendency to treat doctrinal difference with chosen heroes as something to be ignored or wished away rather than addressed. Thus, C. S. Lewis and Dietrich Bonhoeffer have become American evangelicals as a result of posthumous virtual baptisms into the faith, the brash boldness of which would surely have made even Brigham Young blush.

Now, Lewis and Bonhoeffer both said nice things about Jesus. One wrote exceptionally well. The other died opposing Hitler. They were decent, admirable Christian fellows from whom we should all learn. But they were most definitely not conservative American evangelicals. That they have been made into such indicates how significant doctrinal differences have given way to a desire to recruit them to the chosen cause. It is a triumph of aesthetics and consumer taste over doctrinal confession.

Speaking of which (kinda), see this about the value of looking at green space and nature for our brains?

But the psychological benefits of green roofs to busy office workers may also be substantial, according to new research. In a study published in the journal Environmental Psychology, the University of Melbourne’s Kate Lee and a group of colleagues found that interrupting a tedious, attention-demanding task with a 40-second “microbreak” — in which one simply looks at a computerized image of a green roof — improved focus as well as subsequent performance on the task.

The research adds to a growing scientific literature on the health advantages— psychological and otherwise — of being exposed to views of nature in urban settings, for instance through the presence of parks or trees. Research in this area is so far along, in fact, that researchers are considering whether it might be possible to identify the right “dose” of nature that people need to receive in order to actually reap significant health benefits.

Other psychological benefits of nature views have also been captured in recent literature. In one study, research subjects who viewed a 12-minute nature documentary before playing a game that involved managing a fishery resource engaged in more sustainable behavior.

Back to Italy, and the problem of Africa’s migrants:

But Italy must do its part first. It can and should accept a reasonable share of migrants.

Above all it’s a moral issue: you cannot let migrants drown in the Mediterranean or send them back to the countries in crisis from where they’ve escaped, often risking their lives.

But there’s also a practical reason: migrant labor can help revamp Italy’s sluggish economy after a triple-dip recession and contribute to boosting the appeal of neglected territories.

This does not mean that Italy should be left to deal with the migrant emergency on its own. The request forwarded to Europe is indeed a reasonable one, and soon a European scheme of quotas will kick in, but first Italy needs to do its homework as we seem to have no sense of national solidarity….

Yet there could be an easier solution, once Europe makes a ruling on migrant quotas.

A good way for Italy to deal with the crisis would be to host its share of migrants in the thousands of ghost towns that dot the boot, a bit like many U.S. towns on the verge of dying out did with Latinos.

It’s hard to believe yet the peninsula has 6,000 ghost towns that have been partly or totally abandoned across time, while communities are shrinking in another 15,000 that have lost over 90% of their population.

These villages — many dating from pre-Roman times — have been abandoned due to a mix of factors: pirate sacks, natural disasters such as quakes and floods, war bombings, harsh conditions and emigration to larger cities or the U.S. in search of a better life.

Yes, Chris Collins’ contract is extended:

Chris Collins didn’t even raise a glass with wife Kim the night he agreed to a contract extension to remain at Northwestern.

“Maybe we gave each other a hug,” Collins told the Tribune. “I was never worried about it. I want to be here for the long haul and build a program.”

The extension, yet to be announced by the school, resulted from Collins’ end-of-season meeting with Jim Phillips, NU’s athletic director.

The Anglican Communion’s Church of Ireland issued this statement following the recent vote to legalize same-sex marriage in Ireland:

The archbishops and bishops of the Church of Ireland wish to affirm that the people of the Republic of Ireland, in deciding by referendum to alter the State’s legal definition of marriage, have of course acted fully within their rights.

The Church of Ireland, however, defines marriage as between a man and a woman, and the result of this referendum does not alter this.

The church has often existed, in history, with different views from those adopted by the state, and has sought to live with both conviction and good relationships with the civil authorities and communities in which it is set. Marriage services taking place in a Church of Ireland church, or conducted by a minister of the Church of Ireland may – in compliance with church teaching, liturgy and canon law – continue to celebrate only marriage between a man and a woman.

We would now sincerely urge a spirit of public generosity, both from those for whom the result of the referendum represents triumph, and from those for whom it signifies disaster.

Dave Chase and the healthcare tax — what is costing Americans:

It’s been reported that 80% of employer payroll increases have gone to pay healthcare costs over last 20+ years so employer costs have increased with little going in the pockets of workers (not to mention no meaningful improvement in overall healthoutcomes). Over the last 50 years, the cost of consumer goods and services have gone up eight-fold with one exception — healthcare. Healthcare costs have increased 274-fold.

The average American household would have ~$1,000,000 in their retirement account

I did some very rough, back-of-envelope calculations on what could be put into people’s retirement plans if there wasn’t healthcare’s rampant overtreatment and hyperinflation. I used historical rates of inflation, S&P growth and healthcare premiums. Over 30 years, if we didn’t pay the “healthcare hyperinflation tax” the average American household would have ~$1,000,000 in their retirement account (assuming growth in a S&P index fund and reinvestment of dividends). Instead, the statistics on retirement savings for the average American are horribly low. With the status quo we are stealing our future both financially as well as what we do in how we overtreat (and thus harm) people.

Many people also don’t know that the average couple will have $300,000 of healthcare expense not covered by Medicare. The point of the open source Health Rosetta project is to not sit idly by (Disclosure: The Rosetta concept is an idea that I have conceived of and is in its early days. The objective is to openly share what is working). Proactive purchasers of health and wellness services at employers can address this today. No new legislation is needed. Having said that, local, state and federal governments should also leverage the proven insights/models outlined in the Health Rosetta. Some cities are also taking action that I’ll write about later.

Not only are there huge direct costs to the “tax” the healthcare system has placed on us. There are a number of indirect costs we are all facing.

Invitation to Christians for Biblical Equality

“Becoming New: Man and Woman Together in Christ”: Christians for Biblical Equality international conference in LA, July 24-26

CBE is pleased to announce that its 2015 international conference, “Becoming New: Man and Woman Together in Christ” will be held on July 24–26, 2015 at the Hilton Los Angeles Airport Hotel. The conference theme verse is 2 Cor. 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (NIV).

Scholarships are available for individuals with financial need but deadline is approaching. http://www.cbeinternational.org/content/scholarships-discounts

Dr. Mimi Haddad, president of CBE, says that this year’s conference features “some of the most gifted group of speakers in CBE’s history,” with plenary speakers:

Pastor Eugene Cho, founder of One Day’s Wages, “a grassroots movement of people, stories, and actions to alleviate extreme global poverty”; founder of the Q Café, a community café; and lead pastor of Quest Church in Seattle
Pastor Ken Fong, senior pastor at EvergreenLA, the “first English-only multi-Asian American, multiethnic, multigenerational church” and executive director of the Asian American Initiative of Fuller Theological Seminary, where he is assistant professor of Asian American Church Studies
Pastor Adelita Garza, church planter and lead pastor of Puente de Vida/Bridge of Life Church in Santa Paula, CA, and president of the Police Clergy Council and president of the Light of the City Ministry
Professor John Stackhouse, the Samuel J. Mikolaski Chair of Religious Studies at Crandall University in Moncton, Canada, and author of 8 books, including Finally Feminist: A Pragmatic Christian Understanding of Gender
Professor Anne Zaki, assistant professor of Practical Theology at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo, Egypt, and is the resource development specialist for the Middle East for the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship

Anyone interested in learning more about evangelical biblical equality is invited to attend, learn from dynamic, multi-ethnic and diverse aged speakers, and connect with others passionate about making room for the gifts of both women and men in the church.

CBE has invited a diverse group of speakers from our community: African American, Arab American, Asian American, Hispanic American, and international speakers, speakers under 30 and older than 60, speakers who are students and moms, tenured professors and writers, single and married. CBE especially wishes to invite persons of color and young people to attend this year’s conference.

Why should you come?

As plenary speaker Anne Zaki says, “I have not yet been ordained and the process has continued on for these past six and a half years since I first applied. The reason I am able to write the word “yet” here is partly due to the work of groups like CBE, who have offered me companionship in my understanding of Scripture, freedom to follow my call to pastoral ministry, and courage to make room for the full extent of women’s ministry in the Presbyterian Church in Egypt.”

John Stackhouse explains: “CBE has long been the primary resource for Christians interested in seriously argued, Biblically grounded discussion of gender. It has helped me immensely, and I am honoured to partner with CBE in its vital work.”

Other workshop speakers include:

Gail and Kate Wallace, co-founders of The Junia Project
Lisa L. Thompson, director of Anti-Trafficking for World Hope International
W. Tali Hairston, director of the John M. Perkins Center at Seattle Pacific University, dedicated to reconciliation and global urban leadership and Christian community development
Rev. Dr. Young Lee Hertig, an Asian-American women’s clergy leader and mentor, professor at Azusa Pacific, and executive director of the Institute for the Study of Asian American Christianity
Austin Channing Brown, multicultural liaison at Calvin College (and speaker at the Why Christian? Conference organized by Rachel Held Evans and Nadia Bolz-Weber)
Professors Karen Longman (Azusa Pacific University), Jeff Miller (Milligan College), Sandra Morgan (Vanguard University), Ron Pierce (Biola University), James Smith III (Bethel Seminary), Marianne Meye Thompson and John L. Thompson (Fuller Theological Seminary), Allen Yeh (Biola University)
Dr. Mimi Haddad, president of CBE
And more!

Info about the conference is here: http://www.cbeinternational.org/content/2015-los-angeles-conference

Link to scholarship info: http://www.cbeinternational.org/content/scholarships-discounts

Line up of speakers here: http://www.cbeinternational.org/content/speakers and

http://www.cbeinternational.org/content/workshops

(Written by Emily Zimbrick-Rogers, CBE research intern)

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