by Motte Brown on 07/31/2007
I have a side project (work I'm getting paid to do outside the context of my job at Focus) that I'm having trouble completing. And of the many circumstantial reasons I could cite for being unproductive, I think the main thing is not having a technique for working at home. Doing business surrounded by my trappings isn't easy for me. And I highly esteem the "distractions" of my wife and kids after eight hours at the office. So how do... Read more.
by Suzanne Hadley Gosselin on 07/31/2007
We are entering a "post-homosexualist" era. Or so hopes Will Young whose article on the subject was published in The Times [London] over the weekend. The trademark of this era, he says, would be to get people to view gays as "utterly normal." Dr. Al Mohler comments on why this "next stage" is improbable: Young, who is a well-known figure in Britain, became famous when he won the first "Pop Idol" contest on British television. In his view, a public... Read more.
by Ted Slater on 07/31/2007
I hear people quip that "God is a crutch." They say that we Christians found ourselves needing help through the day, and so we looked outside of ourselves to the "Higher Power," God. They do have a valid point, but they don't go far enough. We weren't limping along, looking for a bit of assistance. We were dead, in need of life. We weren't flailing about in the ocean waves, grasping for a hand to draw us to safety. We... Read more.
by Ted Slater on 07/30/2007
This topic has been hashed and rehashed for centuries, and I hesitate to bring it up again. I don't want to open wounds or incite contention. I don't want to hurt anyone or lead them to feel condemned. For no particular reason, though, I found myself awake in bed late last night, wrestling with this issue. What is it? Who has it? Is "singleness" a gift? And so on. I believe the Lord laid it on my heart to raise... Read more.
by Suzanne Hadley Gosselin on 07/30/2007
This week I've been enjoying a vacation to the Northwest. On Saturday, I had the privilege of seeing my sister and 25 other voice students of Kristi Foster Studios perform "Heart and Music" a review of contemporary musical theater. The performances were dynamic, but the behind-the-scenes is what captured my heart. In the past, Kristi, 33, has passed on donations received at her two concerts toward a Christian charity, raising an average of $400. This year was different. Instead of... Read more.
by Steve Watters on 07/30/2007
Candice and I are about to take off for a week of vacation and our hope is that it can be Sabbath like. But I'm still not sure quite how to achieve that. Through trial and error, we've learned not to plan our agenda too tightly and to simplify the traveling portion as much as possible, but I still have a lot to learn about how to truly rest, find replenishment and make meaningful relationship investments in the process. Any... Read more.
by Ted Slater on 07/27/2007
A friend of mine, Eli Bremer, is going to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. No, not as a spectator. As a competitor. Earlier this week Eli won gold in the PanAmerican Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. His sport is the Modern Pentathlon, a competition that Baron Pierre de Cubriton, the founder of the modern Olympic movement, felt would showcase the best all-around sportsmen. Debuting in 1912, the pentathlon includes shooting, fencing, swimming, horseback riding, and running. Here's a portion... Read more.
by Ted Slater on 07/27/2007
Um, no it's not. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. Oh, and you want to have your cake and eat it too? Not me. I want to eat my cake ... and have it too. After that, I'm taking a nap. Read more.
by Candice Watters on 07/27/2007
"Friendship offers support, laughter -- and the occasional spare tire," said Thursday's Wall Street Journal. Reporter Jennifer Levitz asks, "Can Your Friends Make You Fat?" A study in this week's New England Journal of Medicine finds that social networks have an even greater effect on chances of becoming obese than genes do. The findings may help explain why obesity is rising in America despite widespread dieting and other weight-loss techniques, and why people's best efforts to slim down on their... Read more.
by Denise Morris on 07/26/2007
We've had a few people talking about interracial dating in the TrueU Coffee Shop lately. The topic has come up before, and I'm always interested in hearing people's opinions. It's a subject that's very close to my heart, since I am bi-racial (my mom is white and my dad is black). I've heard all of the questions that come along with the discussion: Is it wrong to date someone with a different skin color? Is it more difficult? Do children... Read more.
by Steve Watters on 07/26/2007
In a column about the uproar following Pope Benedict's statements about proper churches, columnist Rod Dreher made an interesting observation about what faith looks like among a new generation of Americans: Several years ago, researchers with the University of North Carolina's National Study of Youth and Religion polled American teenagers and found that faith was important to them. But it's faith not in established religion but rather in what NYSR's social scientists termed "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism." Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, as... Read more.
by Motte Brown on 07/25/2007
A writer at World Magazine Blog recently wrote that "[i]f TV fries your brain, then TV in the summer deep fries your brain in old funnel cake oil from the 1972 Mississippi State Fair." Meaning, there isn't a great selection of quality television programming during the summer months. Except, I would argue, for Discovery Channel's "Man vs. Wild." "Man vs. Wild" is a reality production where survival-expert and host Bear Grylls gets dropped in remote locations with extreme climates and... Read more.
by Motte Brown on 07/24/2007
Over at Desiring God's blog, Abraham Piper has a helpful post on reading blogs well for those who want to be good stewards of their time on the Internet. He recommends that we read the Bible first, stay away from trash, and utilize time saving tools and methods such as RSS feeds and scanning articles. Piper also provides some useful advice about the comments section, which is particularly relevant for our blog given the recent Catholic/Protestant debate. Be quick to... Read more.
by Suzanne Hadley Gosselin on 07/24/2007
Newsweek reports today on America's growing caffeine addiction. As an unabashed coffee lover, I relate. The article reports that sales of energy drinks like Red Bull and Full Throttle have grown tenfold since 2001. Plus, novelty items, including caffeinated lip balm, sunflower seeds and soap, are appearing. Why is the caffeine obsession growing? Studies show Americans have regularly been getting eight hours of sleep since 1960. It seems we go for caffeine because it makes us happy. For the general... Read more.
by Denise Morris on 07/24/2007
Last week we re-featured an article by one of TrueU's contributing authors, Jessica Inman. The article, "In Search of a Self-Esteem Fix," is about our culture's obsession with ourselves. Jessica talks about her struggle with truly believing that she is all the things God says she is, but she also talks about how this quest for a strong self-esteem can turn the wrong way fairly quickly: America has had an unyielding devotion to self-esteem since I was a little kid.... Read more.
by Motte Brown on 07/23/2007
If you're a high school graduate and have a superior command of the English language, here are 100 words you should know. It's a list compiled by the Editors of The American Heritage Dictionaries that "is representative of the words that serious students will encounter in their coursework and will come to use as adults, whether in conversation or while reading the daily newspaper." And of course, here on this blog as well. And if you try to belie it,... Read more.
by Ted Slater on 07/23/2007
Football player Michael Vick has made headlines for allegedly sponsoring some pretty gruesome dog fights. Which leads us to ask how a successful athlete could fall into such perversion. According to some, Vick's apparent downfall has resulted from his aligning himself with the gangsta rap subculture, something done in an effort to gain credibility, or "street cred." Columnist Bryan Burwell explains that a transition has taken place among black athletes in America. The ultimate symbols of black athletes in our... Read more.
by Ted Slater on 07/23/2007
It takes time to make good cheese. The cheddar I prefer ages for several years before it makes its way to my home. It started with high-quality ingredients, of course, but wasn't too notable until years passed. Single women take note: That's what good men are like. None of the single guys you know have the character of "the greats" in Christendom. Don't expect to marry a John Piper, Ravi Zacharias, R.C. Sproul, Gary Thomas, A.W. Tozer or C.J. Mahaney.... Read more.
by Motte Brown on 07/20/2007
That's the perspective Dr. Albert Mohler gives in his blog about documents released last month by the Vatican proclaiming that the Catholic church is the only true church. Dr. Mohler said that rather than being offended, evangelicals should be grateful for the Pope's clarifying statements because it "brings attention to the crucial issues of ecclesiology." He writes, Evangelicals should appreciate the candor reflected in this document. There is no effort here to confuse the issues. To the contrary, the document... Read more.
by Ted Slater on 07/20/2007
You've heard the saying that we only use 10 percent of our brains. Of course, as Snopes points out, that's a myth. Or is it? A recent New Scientist article discusses the case of a 44-year-old French man who, because of medical problems when he was a child, has a brain some 75 percent smaller than other men. He lives a relatively normal life as a husband and father and civil servant, though his IQ is 75 (below average, but... Read more.
by Steve Watters on 07/20/2007
Why Won't Women Commit? That's a headline you're not likely to see. Everyone knows it's men, not women, who have trouble committing to a relationship and that's why we get a lot of commentary about what can be done to get men to commit. But what if we're missing something in the analysis of how men and women view marriage and commitment? In our latest Mentor Series interview, Dr. Scott Stanley makes the following observation: The classic view is that... Read more.
by Motte Brown on 07/20/2007
The Boundless Line has been getting some recognition in the blogosphere recently. First, famed blogger Joe Carter of Evangelical Outpost and Family Research Council Blog lists us as a top 100 Christian blog. And now we've been nominated for Best Religion Blog by the Bloggers Choice Awards. The Bloggers Choice Awards works like the Peoples Choice Awards or the All-Star Game, meaning it's up to the people! The rules are pretty simple. You sign-up, nominate and vote for any and... Read more.
by Steve Watters on 07/19/2007
What is the state of marriage today? The researchers over at The National Marriage Project (based at Rutgers) have just released the latest. For the past nine years, they have produced an annual report called "The State of our Unions" providing a current snapshot of trends in marriage, cohabitation, childbirth, divorce and more. Their report also includes a feature essay each year on an emerging trend. This year's essay looks at marriage in America compared to other Western nations. Here's... Read more.
by Suzanne Hadley Gosselin on 07/19/2007
An article on WSJ.online celebrated the 10th anniversary of the blog this week. Besides the fact that blogging is no longer for computer geeks but is now the tool of actors, CEOs and moms, the article discussed the downside of sloppy discourse: In the decade since their conception, blogs, once a smorgasbord of links, have evolved into vehicles for a fuller, more forceful and opinionated prose. Not all of it has been lovely to behold, or even edifying. Inevitably, there... Read more.
by Candice Watters on 07/19/2007
Female students at Oxford are embracing the reality feminists have long denied. So reports fellow student Lucy Tobin in The Independent. In "Mum's the Word: Why Oxford Students are Putting Motherhood before Career" she writes, Feminists may be shocked. But while students do not see the glass ceiling as intact, there is a strong belief that women can only soar to the career heights of men if they choose not to have children. The twist is that they're OK with... Read more.
by Motte Brown on 07/18/2007
I was on vacation last week when it happened but I wanted to mark the passing of Dr. Harold O. J. Brown on Sunday, July 8, 2007. Dr. Brown was the founder of Care Net, a pro-life organization that supports a network of 1,090 pregnancy centers in North America. Here's an excerpt from Care Net's press release: Considered one of the great theological and philosophical minds of our generation, Dr. Brown gave his life to impacting the culture with the... Read more.
by Suzanne Hadley Gosselin on 07/18/2007
Modesty is on the rise according to an article in Newsweek. The article examines proponents of the "modesty movement," such as Pure Fashion, a modeling and etiquette program for teen girls. "Happiness is...living a life of virtue," the Web site, associated with the Roman Catholic church, proclaims. Its goal? "To show the public it is possible to be cute, stylish and modest." Web sites and organizations promoting modesty are gaining popularity: They cater to what writer Wendy Shalit claims is... Read more.
by Steve Watters on 07/17/2007
A few weeks ago, my wife and I bought a retro audio system. It was built by Crosley, an audio company that has been making radios since 1920 and offers a lot of modern technology packaged in classic radio boxes. Our motivation was to have a system that could play cassettes and records. We've enjoyed pulling out a couple of old 45s that my dad recorded when he was in rock'n'roll in the 60s and 70s. Having the player motivated... Read more.
by Suzanne Hadley Gosselin on 07/17/2007
Any fellow editors or wordsmiths out there know how satisfying it is to discover a mistake. That is why I practically began foaming at the mouth when I read Ted's post on attitudes toward the church. In the portion where he describes why he values a church that emphasizes homeschooling, Ted wrote: "I wasn't homeschooled, but do find a comradery among those who choose to homeschool." I immediately sent him a know-it-all e-mail pointing out his misspelling of the word... Read more.
by Ted Slater on 07/17/2007
Churches are rotten. Or so I gather from some of the comments on The Line and some of the songs in CCM. One of yesterday's comments speaks of attending a "country clubbish church that sometimes focuses too much on ourselves, that talks a lot of prosperity but little on the fact that God wants to use our prosperity to bless people beyond belief." The comment writer went on to speak of hearing "sermon after sermon about changing the world and... Read more.
by Candice Watters on 07/16/2007
"The New New Atheism" by Peter Berkowitz is a welcome critique of Christopher Hitchens, who is himself, "nothing new under the sun." God-haters (that is at root, the definition of an atheist) have been around since the beginning of time. It's one thing to hear your pastor say Hitchens is baselessly anti-God (as I did yesterday in church), quite another to read it on the pages of a mainstream secular newspaper. In today's Wall Street Journal, Berkowitz, a senior fellow... Read more.
by Steve Watters on 07/16/2007
During a study-abroad program in the early nineties, my fascination with jaw-dropping European cathedrals was always tempered by the reality that church attendance and active faith has been shrinking towards extinction in most corners of Europe in the past hundred years. I still remember a Lutheran pastor giving a tour of his church and telling us sadly about having to remove a balcony because of his dwindling number of parishioners. I've wondered over the years what it would take for... Read more.
by Suzanne Hadley Gosselin on 07/16/2007
I'm sure you've considered what is called the "peace and justice" movement. I've been attracted to its mercy and social justice messages. But in a column in Touchstone, Russell D. Moore, urges us to look deeper at inconsistencies within the movement. He writes: “Peace and justice” Christians are insistent in telling us they do not wish to move away from the protection of unborn life when they point to other social issues. They simply seek to “expand” Christian social witness... Read more.
by Steve Watters on 07/13/2007
This is a different kind of post. It's from an email written by a friend of mine in his eighties whose wife is dying. He shared this update with a lot of friends by email and so I don't think he would mind me sharing it with you. I wanted to post this not only to show the dignity he brings to the tragedy of losing a wife, but to the snapshots he recounts here of the life that unfolded... Read more.
by Suzanne Hadley Gosselin on 07/13/2007
Like many people my age, I love wearing flip flops. I have half a dozen different kinds. But as someone who works at an establishment with a dress code, I am not allowed to wear them at work. And according to Reuters, flip flop addiction may be having an adverse affect on young women's careers. Style gurus warn that flip-flops, which are worn mainly by younger women, could be harmful to a career. "Shoes convey the mood of a woman.... Read more.
by Ted Slater on 07/13/2007
This post isn't about China's growing military and how some see that as a threat to national and global security. This is about poisonous products coming out of China, toxic goods that cost less to produce due to their lower quality ingredients or components, which in turn boost the short-term profits of the manufacturers and businesses that distribute them. I say "short-term" because it's my prayer that these companies be held accountable for the damage they cause their customers. It... Read more.
by Suzanne Hadley Gosselin on 07/13/2007
Lady Bird Johnson, wife of former president Lyndon B. Johnson died Wednesday at age 94. I was intrigued by the headline of this article that touted her as a conservationist and family woman. Wife of the 36th president of the United States, Lady Bird outlived her husband by 34 years. I enjoyed reading her story. How she received her nickname "Lady Bird" (a name she first disliked and eventually accepted) from a childhood caretaker who said she was as pretty... Read more.
by Denise Morris on 07/12/2007
A recent Newsweek blog post talked about the Live Earth concerts and a presidential candidate debate about climate change. The author points out that most of the suggestions about what we can do to help out the environment are, well, pretty lame. "Turn your lights off when you're not in the room" or "use more energy-efficient light bulbs" are some of the most common suggestions. Presidential hopefuls are promising to cut greenhouse emissions, but not many are saying how. The... Read more.
by Ted Slater on 07/12/2007
One of the articles published this morning on Boundless, "Kamikaze at my Back," explores the issue of ongoing struggles with depression. The author provides no simple answers, but does find some calm in his surrendering his sanity to God. An excerpt: So I wonder if God has a purpose in depression that eludes my grasp. I wonder if, somehow, He will use my anxiety to bring someone redemption. And I wonder, if once God gives me not twice what I... Read more.
by Candice Watters on 07/12/2007
Part-Time Looks Fine to Working Mothers says the Washington Post, reporting on the findings of a new study by the Pew Research Center. "A new majority of working moms in the United States would be happiest in part-time jobs, with fewer seeing full-time work as an ideal," the study found. The Post says, In a notable shift during the past decade, working mothers overwhelmingly view fewer work hours as the best option for their busy lives with young children. The... Read more.
by Steve Watters on 07/12/2007
Married couples can't make kids the centerpiece of their marital happiness. That's a point Dr. Laura Berman made in a commentary for the Chicago Sun-Times earlier this week called "Are kids making you miss bliss?" In the midst of the challenges of parenting, couples definitely need the date nights and marriage investment Dr. Berman recommends in order to stem the drop in marital satisfaction typical of the parenting years. What's confusing are Dr. Berman's side comments about parenting outside of... Read more.
by Ted Slater on 07/11/2007
For decades the common understanding was that humans and chimps had 99 percent of their DNA in common. Darwinists used this "fact" to support their contention that humans and chimps obviously, therefore, share a common ancestor. Over the past couple of years, this "fact" has increasingly been shown to be utterly false. According to an article in last month's Science Magazine, there's more than a 6 percent difference. A 17.4 percent difference was found in genes expressed in the cerebral... Read more.
by Candice Watters on 07/11/2007
Today's young women are going solo. And they're not doing it with a smile on their face. Angry, crass and anti-man is de rigueur. Musicians as diverse as Country singer Carrie Underwood, Rocker Pink and Grungy Avrile Lavigne are sounding the same theme in their songs "Before He Cheats," U + Ur Hand" and "Girlfriend." So notes David Brooks in a column for the New York Times. He writes, If you put the songs together, you see they're about the... Read more.
by Ted Slater on 07/11/2007
This past Sunday I flipped on the TV as I was getting ready for the day, and came across a channel featuring black gospel videos. The first two featured Fred Hammond, and since I'm a huge Fred Hammond fan, I turned it up and began to sing along. The camera panned from the stage to the audience, and something struck me: As far as I could tell there was only one white guy in an audience of perhaps 2,000. That's... Read more.
by Suzanne Hadley Gosselin on 07/10/2007
In her blog entry "Slave to Food," Boundless writer Carolyn McCulley shares the testimony of her friend Michele, a woman who struggled with anorexia and bulimia. Michele writes: If I mention that I’m writing about worship, most of you will not feel threatened. You know that you worship the true and living God. Maybe it’s a particular worship chorus, a passage of Scripture, or the Sunday-scents of your sanctuary that come to mind. Whatever it is, you know exactly when... Read more.
by Denise Morris on 07/10/2007
For those of you who have visited the Colosseum in Rome or the Great Wall in China, you have officially had the honor of seeing one of the new 7 Wonders of the World. On Saturday (7/7/07 -- get it?), the results were announced in Lisbon, Portugal after online voting which allowed people to choose from 21 different man-made structures throughout the world. The Great Pyramid in Giza, Egypt is the only one of the original ancient wonders of the... Read more.
by Suzanne Hadley Gosselin on 07/09/2007
In "The Antidote for Darkness," Sally Morgenthaler discusses what our response should be to our own sinful failures as well as the failures of admired leaders or friends. She recounts the reaction of a young woman who sat in one of her classes: Her tears came slowly. They’d been held close under the lids, but 20 minutes into the hour, they could no longer contain what had collected there. I showed a clip from Seabiscuit…the part where an injured racehorse... Read more.
by Denise Morris on 07/09/2007
This weekend I hiked the tallest mountain in Colorado. At an elevation of 14,440 feet, Mt. Elbert is not the most difficult climb of Colorado's 54 mountains over 14,000 feet, but as I was huffing and puffing my way up to the top, I wouldn't have called it a walk in the park, either. As I hiked and surveyed the beauty around me, God -- in His kindness -- reminded me of a few things: * I often hear about... Read more.
by Candice Watters on 07/09/2007
"Live Earth has been branded a foul-mouthed flop," reports Britain's Daily Mail. Organizers expecting record numbers of viewers were disappointed and viewers expecting a call to environmental responsibility were grabbing for the remote while covering their children's ears. The swearing started at 1.30pm when Phil Collins, the first act on in London, used the f-word while singing with his band Genesis. Razorlight singer Johnny Borrell used the same expletive a few minutes later in one of his songs. And Chris... Read more.
by Motte Brown on 07/06/2007
Tom Minnery, Focus on the Family's Public Policy Senior Vice President, commented this week on a speech Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) gave at a church conference calling for more value-based decision making in government. Of course, as Minnery points out, Obama's prescription for solving the moral dilemmas of poverty and the uninsured essentially means ... bigger government. Tom says of Obama, He'd rather put his hand in someone else's pocket. Here's what he was saying, in essence: "You are hurting,... Read more.
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