By: Jennifer Eckert on April 10, 2024
If Catholicism was a sport, author Matthew Petrusek would undoubtedly be the spirit team captain. Complete with metaphorical pom-poms and rah rahs, Petrusek penned his book, Evangelization and Ideology in a full display of loyalty to his “coach,” Bishop Robert Barron, by elevating and arguing in support of the bishop’s views on Catholic social teachings.…
By: Ryan Thorson on April 10, 2024
“It’s Not The Battles We Lose That Bother Me, It’s The Ones We Don’t Suit Up For.” – Toby Ziegler This quote is from a character in one of my favorite shows growing up, The West Wing. In this American TV drama, witty dialogue, thoughtful complex situations to solve and lessons on leadership shaped me…
By: Debbie Owen on April 10, 2024
My youngest sister joined some random atheist organization a few years ago and posted it on Facebook. She’s been an atheist since she was twelve years old – at least – and we’ve just had to agree to disagree. I have not been brave enough to engage her in a deeper conversation because I have…
By: Diane Tuttle on April 9, 2024
I will start by admitting when I began reading this book I wanted to shut down. It probably did not help that my work week got very stressful after someone threatened to shoot at one of my group homes with a real gun after he used a paint gun on our cars and windows of…
By: Kari on April 9, 2024
I used to take pride in multitasking. I even tricked myself into thinking I was good at it. Years ago, I was introduced to the idea that no one can truly focus on multiple things at once. I heard this while listening to a productivity podcast[1] and attempting to multitask. This started my journey of…
By: Joel Zantingh on April 9, 2024
Reading Dr David Rock’s “Your Brain at Work” is something like hearing a pep talk for one’s brain, in relation to something that happens everyday: decision-making. He addresses it, though, from the vantage point of neurobiology, to help us understanding what is going on in our prefrontal cortex, that “small, fragile, and energy-hungry brain region”…
By: Glyn Barrett on April 9, 2024
Understanding the complexities that Matthew R. Petrusek explores in ‘Evangelization and Ideology’ requires more than a mere week’s dedication to reading. He digs deeply, providing a guide to finding God within the political culture that surrounds us.” He writes to analyse four of the major secular ideologies of our day, namely, Utilitarianism, Classical liberalism, Progressivism…
By: Jeff Styer on April 8, 2024
Welcome to our pluralistic society, where everyone seems to have different thoughts and ideas and each one claims theirs to be true. Like I stated in an earlier post, I teach my Analysis of Social Policy class some of the basic philosophies with the purpose of helping them understand what people are using to make…
By: Christy Liner on April 8, 2024
I have seasons of being politically engaged, and then increasingly longer seasons of political disengagement. When I was in my early twenties, politics were simple (so I thought). It was about ensuring the US constitution was upheld and that people would maintain the liberties provided through it. As I got older, I realized some complexities…
By: Akwese on April 7, 2024
Focusing so much on reading, writing, and synthesizing this semester ( all things im not exceptionally skilled in) meant learning new skills, creating new processes of support, and facing many unknowns. Doing this meant utilizing what Daniel Kahneman calls System 2 thinking, which requires much more consideration, awareness, energy exertion, and conscious thought than System…
By: Elysse Burns on April 6, 2024
Dr. David Rock kindly reminds his readers that our brains have performance limitations. He writes, “As you learn more about your brain, you begin to see that many of your foibles and mistakes come down to the way your brain is built.” [1] In Rock’s Your Brain at Work, he explains the mechanics and purpose…
By: Julie O'Hara on April 4, 2024
After five days of lying in the dark, something surprising happened. I washed my hands and I noticed how the warm water flowing over my hands and wrist and it was good. I realized I was present in the moment. How long had it been since I experienced being present? I remembered chewing an apple…
By: Daren Jaime on April 4, 2024
I remember being the last person seated and taking my seat at the back of the plane. Exhausted from the conference, I quickly buckled in, began to rest my head against the window, and fell asleep before takeoff. In the midst of my sleep, the flight attendant woke me up and said, I’m sorry, sir,…
By: Debbie Owen on April 4, 2024
I was at a loss. At an impasse, actually. I had read most of David Rock’s Your Brain at Work over the last couple of days. I could see lots of connections to my NPO project. But when it came to starting a blog article with a story about this book I was stuck. When…
By: Ryan Thorson on April 4, 2024
“Slow down, you move too fast You got to make the morning last Just kicking down the cobble stones Looking for fun and feelin’ groovy” (The 59th street by Simon and Garfunkel) One of the reasons I decided to enroll in a doctoral program was because I wanted to learn the discipline of writing. As…
By: Nancy Blackman on April 4, 2024
In 2013, I was bedridden for 6 months. Not only did I need to step away from my work as a missionary, I couldn’t do much of anything but lie in bed. The energy needed to sit up was sometimes too difficult. With so much free time, I began to search the internet for answers.…
By: Graham English on April 4, 2024
On December 18, 2016, the church that I was pastoring experienced a devastating church fire. The fire department fought valiantly but the building couldn’t be saved. Unfortunately, the fire was caused by a person in the church who was later charged with arson. As a result of the fire, we had to move a congregation…
By: Diane Tuttle on April 4, 2024
For the longest time, I thought multi-tasking was a great way to get lots done in a short time period. I am not sure, exactly, what changed my mind. It might have been the stacks of papers that were left unfiled on my desk or the mountain of work I had yet to do. Regardless…
By: Christy Liner on April 3, 2024
In March I went on a lovely vacation to Japan with my family. I am half-Japanese and my mother’s side of the family lives in Japan. My mother’s conversion to Christ and marriage to my father wasn’t well received from her family, so I didn’t have the opportunity to know my extended family during childhood.…
By: Daren Jaime on April 3, 2024
Reading the newspaper was a daily ritual in my household. In fact, we had the news delivered to us daily at our doorstep. Sometimes, my sister would wake up early before work just to get an early jump at the goings-on in the world. My parents were also affixed to the headlines, which would prompt…
