By: Troy Rappold on September 1, 2022
This semester’s reading starts with two important books from two important South Africans—Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela. Both biographies will prove to be enduring for generations to come. Both men earned the Nobel Prize for Peace and both men helped bring an end to Apartheid and the beginning of Democracy. They were both pillars of…
By: Roy Gruber on September 1, 2022
“The oppressed, instead of striving for liberation, tend themselves to become oppressors.”[1] I find truth in that Paulo Freire’s quote from my own life. Long ago, being picked on in school easily led me to be the offender rather than on the receiving side. One might conclude there are only two places to reside…
By: Tonette Kellett on September 1, 2022
I learned to enjoy reading at a very young age. I found it to be an escape from whatever was happening around me at home. My parents were poor, and at times, neglectful. Within the covers of a book I could be well off, or have doting parents. I could travel the world and experience…
By: Michael Simmons on August 31, 2022
“The heroes and leaders toward peace in our time will be those men and women who have the courage to plunge into the darkness at the bottom of the personal and the corporate psyche and face the enemy within.” – Sam Keen, The Enemy Maker from Meeting the Shadow This quote from Sam Keen continues,…
By: Eric Basye on August 31, 2022
Nelson Mandela’s autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, and Desmond Tutu’s biography, No Future Without Forgiveness, are two powerful books demonstrating the influence of resilient leadership to challenge gross injustices with a kingdom orientation. Born in 1918 to the son of a chief, Mandela spent much of his life advocating for the freedom of his people,…
By: Nicole Richardson on August 31, 2022
A South African Anglican Archbishop, a Dutch psychologist, and a Rabbi walk into a bar… Comedy removed due to it causes to much anxiety inciting trauma and no one was ready to forgive. All lightheartedness aside, as I begin this new semester reflecting on my first quarter in my new pastoral call, I believe…
By: Andy Hale on August 31, 2022
Two very distinctive leaders, taking on two wildly diverging paths for the same pursuit, equality, and equity in South Africa. Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela could be compared to the spiritual and political contemporaries, Nehemiah and Ezra. Tutu was said to be the moral compass of South Africa, while Mandela was its father, guiding the…
By: Jonathan Lee on August 30, 2022
Nelson Mandela, the recipient of the Nobel peace prize in 1993, grew up battling the evil against human rights and racial equality in South Africa. In his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela recreates his lifelong destiny and struggle in overcoming apartheid in South Africa. And Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the author of No Future…
By: Henry Gwani on August 30, 2022
Long Walk to Freedom discusses South Africa’s democracy from the perspective of one of her most beloved sons. It chronicles the life of Nobel Laurette Nelson Mandela from birth at Mvezo, a South African rural area in a province that was then called The Transkei, to becoming the country’s first democratically-elected president. The journey includes…
By: Kayli Hillebrand on August 28, 2022
I spent most of the summer in Nelson Mandel’s Long Walk to Freedom. I chose to read it in entirety, compelled to know as much as I could about this global figure. Only ten when he was released from prison, I have limited memories of what was on the news surrounding his release and international…
By: Roy Gruber on April 28, 2022
An actual conversation I overheard last week: “Did you hear? There was another shooting.” “Yes, I did. We shouldn’t be surprised, though. Jesus said it would get worse and worse before the end.” “We are seeing that playing out right now. Maybe Jesus will return very soon.” “I sure hope so; it’s getting really dark.”…
By: Denise Johnson on April 27, 2022
The one’s mind is an amazing organ that can collaborate with others to solve the most seemingly unsurmountable challenges. Yet those same brilliant, and incredibly gifted individuals can become fixated on the numbers that substantiate their certainly. [1] Hans Rosling with his daughter-in-law Anna Rosling Rönnlund and son Ola Rosling joined forces in challenging the…
By: Elmarie Parker on April 27, 2022
Daniel Kahneman in his book “Thinking, Fast and Slow”[1] introduced us in the fall semester to the contrasting fast thinking of intuition (which includes perception, memory, and the mental shortcuts of heuristics), naming it System 1, with the slow thinking of effortful deliberation or System 2. Hans Rosling, in his book, “Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re…
By: Troy Rappold on April 27, 2022
In Hans Rosling’s 2018 book, Factfulness, our assumptions about the nature and the state of our world are challenged. Rosling organizes his book with “10 reasons why we’re wrong about the world, and why things are better than we think” (p.7). He devotes one incorrect perception with our world per chapter. A brief summary concludes…
By: Nicole Richardson on April 27, 2022
Perception is reality. Well at least that was the worldview of the leadership of a church I served in Pennsylvania. It was perception that partially led to my firing. I do not like this idea that reality is grounded on perception. Reading Hans Rosling’s Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World – and Why…
By: Kayli Hillebrand on April 27, 2022
Global health expert, Hans Rosling, spent much of his career redefining how global health was perceived and engaged with. In his final book, Factfulness, Rosling challenges the reader to look at current global realities from a different perspective. While the world can feel as if little to no progress is being made in multiple areas,…
By: Andy Hale on April 26, 2022
Everyone should read this book, especially those with whom I disagree. Or maybe I got that wrong from the first chapter as the Roslings explain why we have us versus them mentality. The late psychologist’s final work on sociology and critical thinking while battling pancreatic cancer collaborated with his son Ola, a statistician, and daughter-in-law…
By: Mary Kamau on April 26, 2022
The mention of trauma does not seems to draw so much attention and it has not been given significance as a crisis in society despite of the ‘epidemic’ that it really is. Covid19 was declared an epidemic and disrupted every aspect of life but it has been dealt with accordingly, because it was given the…
By: Eric Basye on April 24, 2022
If you have the wrong worldview, you will make the wrong decisions. This is the premise of Factfulness, a social psychology book written by Hans Rosling and his son and daughter-in-law. After years of attempting to teach a fact-based worldview to his students, Rosling found that despite the stats before them, many intelligent and well-rounded…
By: Denise Johnson on April 21, 2022
Over the years I have used the image of the Star Trek spaceship Enterprise, under attack to illustrate the human response to threatening circumstances and relationships. This picture seemed to accurately illustrate the positive and negative effects of our unconscious, spontaneous reaction to protect ourselves. Although, our shields initially provide a safe barrier they continue…
