By: Kim Sanford on March 27, 2024
I know we’ve often been advised to not only read the books we’re assigned but also read about the books we’re assigned. That is, we’re meant to read reviews and the like, but I can’t say I always do. This week, though, for whatever reason I decided to start with some reviews of Jordan Peterson’s…
By: Caleb Lu on March 26, 2024
The power of words has become more and more clear. Whether it’s starting a podcast or a blog, or having an X (when can we stop saying “formerly known as twitter”?), Instagram, or TikTok account, everyone has access to some platform for getting their words, thoughts, and paradigms out to the masses. The influence of…
By: Kristy Newport on March 25, 2024
The line that jumped out at me while reading Rethinking Leadership by Annabel Beerel was: “During times of radical uncertainty, leaders need psychological strength, emotional balance, and courage to navigate the choppy waters ahead.” [1] I believe this sums up my current leadership needs. My brother and cohort friend, Greg McMullen, recently shared a vision…
By: Russell Chun on March 25, 2024
قبل ما تنطوي الصفحة” (qabl ma tantawi as-safha) – Before the page turns (Iraqi Arabic). Flashback Part 1 Peering into the topic Part 2 What others are saying Epilogue Flashback She’s dead. Dimitri repeated, “she’s dead.” Dimi a soldier from Ukraine spoke without feeling, his face frozen. I remember him teasing Nahla a few…
By: Audrey Robinson on March 24, 2024
Matthew Petrusek’s Evangelization and Ideology: How to Understand and Respond to the Political Culture uniquely blends Catholic Social Thought (CST) and political philosophy. Petrusek attempts to provide a methodology for arguing in our highly politicized environment. His ultimate goal is to provide culture with an “alternative to thinking – and acting – ideologically altogether.”[1] In…
By: Chad McSwain on March 23, 2024
I recently met with a colleague at Chick-fil-a to discuss the preaching calendar for the summer. While sharing lunch, she mentioned that she had not been at the restaurant in a number of years. I ask her more about this and she shared that it was because of their political positions. I quipped, “That chicken…
By: Noel Liemam on March 23, 2024
When I was growing up on a tiny Island in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean, I read and worked on my school assignments during the night in the light of a kerosene lamp; regardless of the low light it provides, I was able to see clearly and worked gratefully. After thirty-one years of…
By: Dinka Utomo on March 23, 2024
And even if you’re a rationalist, say, and a cynic and a nihilist, and you say, well, nothing has any meaning, you still run into the problem of pain. Because pain undercuts your arguments and has a meaning. So there’s no escaping from the meaning, you can pretty much demolish all the positive parts of…
By: Jenny Steinbrenner Hale on March 22, 2024
Where are the differentiated, courageous, joyful, hope-filled, undefended, empowering, and powerful women and men who are willing to lead with nothing to lose? Sometimes it seems these leaders are nowhere to be found on global, national, nor local community levels. However, if one pays close attention, it turns out, there are some very good leaders…
By: Jean de Dieu Ndahiriwe on March 22, 2024
Introduction: As I share what I have gleaned from Dr. Petrusek’s work, I believe his work, like many other bold believers, is very important in encouraging people of faith to step out into a hostile world and engage culture boldly in faith. As someone who has seen a good share of instability due to conflicts and…
By: Elysse Burns on March 22, 2024
Reading Bobby Duffy’s Why We’re Wrong About Nearly Everything felt like having a challenging conversation with a responsible and competent friend who encouraged me to “check myself.” It is never easy to hear, “You are delusional.” Duffy states, “The reason we get so many things wrong is a combination of effects of how we think…
By: Kari on March 22, 2024
As I write this, the last call to prayer of the day is sounding all around me. It is the eleventh day of Ramadan. The majority around me are fasting. They are not drinking, eating, swallowing their sputum, or smoking during sunlight hours (approximately 5:30 am until 7:30 pm). Thankfully, today was not very hot…
By: Cathy Glei on March 22, 2024
When I think about following Jesus, the word that encompasses my pursuit of Him as an apprenticeship. Apprenticeship is a method of training and on-the-job experience, developing a new generation of practitioners, often accompanied by some study and/or shared learning. Much of the training is done while working alongside an employer or instructor, who helps…
By: Akwese on March 22, 2024
I once heard it said that the greatest lie of all time is that we think we’re thinking, but in reality, most of the time, we’re simply operating off social conditioning and habit. Upon initially hearing this statement, I couldn’t help but pause and see its truth. I then began wondering how much of what…
By: Jana Dluehosh on March 21, 2024
Here I come, you ready for it, I’m going to stretch myself here and go off my topic…Okay, no I am not, I’m going to talk about the meaning of suffering. Why not? I work right in the middle of it and it’s the human condition. Jordan B. Peterson is a psychologist who wrote a…
By: Shonell Dillon on March 21, 2024
Lead or be led If there is anything that I have learned in life, it is that we will forever be a world of different opinions. As a leader, there is a push your values on others. The question is: Is what you believe best for all? As a religious leader, it is best that…
By: Todd E Henley on March 21, 2024
“Critical thinkers have an abiding interest in the problematic aspects of their own thinking, and they seek out these problem areas, target them, and change something about their thinking in order to reason more rationally, logically, and justifiably.”1 Thanks to this program and blogging every week, I am slowly, painfully, and finally learning how to…
By: Greg McMullen on March 21, 2024
Intro This week, I’m just going to be me on this post. A pastors perspective, rather than an academic look. I enjoyed Matthew R. Petrusek In Evangelization and Ideology: How to Understand and Respond to the Political Culture. Petrusek tackles a difficult subject that is tearing many countries apart, especially in America. Where I live and…
By: Tonette Kellett on March 21, 2024
Cut Flowers of Morality I decided to watch a few videos after reading Matthew Petrusek’s book Evangelization and Ideology this week. One in particular was very interesting as it featured so many of our authors. This video opened with a story by Petrusek about morality in our society today, or the lack thereof. He used…
By: Julie O'Hara on March 21, 2024
From Being Wrong by Kathryn Schulz and What’s Your Problem by Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg to Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow, I have been fully convinced that I, and everyone else is wrong. Already believing I was wrong made it seem pointless to read another book about being wrong. Wrong, again. According to Bobby Duffy, understanding ‘why’…
