Leadingchurch.com

Salon

Mary Elizabeth Williams at Salon about her Christianity and why she thinks Maher is a bigot because of his take on Islam.

Facebook

Fascinating conversation on his podcast.

The podcast begins with Rachel’s shtick “The church wasn’t a safe space for me and others because of our views…” but Norsworthy rather smoothly and softly makes the point in church, even a small in a place like Dayton you’re going to have to go to church with bigots, obnoxious controllers, manipulators (I’m embellishing…) etc. This was done (around the 30 minute mark) in contrast to the Internet community which is ironically less diverse (along specific, narrow wavelengths) and the capacity to hone your image.

The irony of course being that the complaint against the church is that it isn’t diverse enough, but again diverse on a couple of specific issues.

The other complaint is that the church is controlling but here we recognize that the Internet community is MORE controlling in some ways.

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/political-straight-talk-about-religious-liberty-gay-rights/

The LGBTQ to the Democrats is like the NRA to the Republicans

NYTimes

In college, minority students are often the first in their families to attend, and may carry significant debt and have high expectations for future salaries. “The majority of those who successfully attend college choose careers other than education, mainly because of the pay,” said Marvin Lynn, dean of the School of Education at Indiana University in South Bend, who is starting a scholarship program for minority students interested in education careers.

Teacher turnover is a challenge in general, but Mr. Ingersoll said nonwhite teachers were more likely to resign than their white counterparts. They are disproportionately assigned to schools with large populations of children from low-income families, and are subjected to “student discipline problems and lack of resources and lower salaries, with often more top-down and scripted curricula,” said Mr. Ingersoll. He said minority teachers frequently cited frustration with management and lack of autonomy as reasons they quit.

NYTimes

One afternoon at the hospital, near the end of my grandmother’s life, my aunt huddled behind a television, fumbling with cables. Suddenly my grandmother said, “I’m sorry to hear about Nick.”

My aunt stopped fidgeting with wires and peeked out from behind the television. “What about Nick?”

“I heard he only has three months to live,” my grandmother said. “I’m sorry.”

My aunt, stunned and disappointed, sat quietly calculating what this meant. After two and a half years, was this really the end?

A couple of weeks later, my grandmother passed away at hospice with my mother and aunt by her side.

For victims of Alzheimer’s, whole lifetimes vanish. For their loved ones, faith is tested and perseverance tried.

But to see Nick’s fictional life stretched before us like a partly painted canvas proved that even memory loss couldn’t shatter my grandmother’s hope that my aunt would receive all she deserved.

Playing along with my grandmother kept us close to her, even as she was being taken from us. It was easier for us to live a lie. But with Nick’s death, we discovered our strength as a family. We were no longer pretenders. We were believers.

Premier Christianity

Patheos

The Atlantic