Links To Go (June 28, 2016)

Evangelical Christians are selling out faith for politics

Third, we are seeing a group focused on the rights and privileges of their own community, rather than the welfare of others — the poor, struggling and vulnerable. Many in that room do wonderful good works. But they have reduced Christian political involvement to a narrow, special interest — and a particularly angry and unattractive one. A powerful source of passion for social justice — a faith that once motivated abolitionism and various movements for civil and human rights — has been tamed and trivialized.


James Dobson Asserts: Donald Trump Is a ‘Baby Christian’ Who Needs to Be ‘Cut Some Slack’

“There are a lot of people ministering to him personally—a lot of ministers,” he stated in the recorded interview. “I mean, he did accept a relationship with Christ. I know the person who led him to Christ, and that’s fairly recent. I don’t know when it was, but it has not been long.”
“I believe he really made a commitment, but he’s a baby Christian,” Dobson contended. “We all need to be praying for him, especially if there is a possibility of him being our next chief executive officer.”


Partisanship in the U.S. isn’t just about politics, but how people see their neighbors

In an era of increasing polarization, Republicans and Democrats disagree over many things – and that extends even to the traits and habits they’d like or dislike in a new neighbor. Some of the widest gaps in how people of different parties see new neighbors are over new community members who own guns, don’t believe in God, regularly attend religious services or have served in the military.


Serving in Church: When Your Spiritual Gift Isn’t Changing Diapers

Love for the church means a heart that desires to give. There are weeks I’m tempted to go to church, sit back, and be served. Now, sometimes being served is necessary. If we’re always giving, but in pride refusing to receive, that’s not okay. There’s reciprocal joy in allowing others the chance to serve us.
At the same time, if we refuse to serve in the nursery because Sunday is our one chance to get away from kids, we’re thinking of church wrongly. The Bible speaks strongly about the church being our family, even more than our flesh and blood families. Sunday is not a chance to take a break from family—it’s a chance to serve our true family.


Why WOULD Anyone Sing in Church These Days?

We’ve minimized the congregation’s role.
We’ve changed our focus from disciplined, intentional music-making to creating emotional responses.
We’ve stopped training musicians.
We’ve chosen songs written for solo performance.
We’ve stopped giving the musicians among us the resources they need to apply their abilities.
We’ve chosen instrumentation that doesn’t support a congregation.
We’ve stopped leading and started performing.
So let’s stop asking why people aren’t singing anymore. It really shouldn’t be a surprise, since we’ve done nearly everything we can to kill congregational singing.


How an epidemic of grade inflation made A’s average

A recent study revealed that 42 percent of four-year college grades are A’s, and 77 percent are either A’s or B’s. According to Inside Higher Ed, “At four-year schools, awarding of A’s has been going up five to six percentage points per decade and A’s are now three times more common than they were in 1960.” At Yale, 62 percent of grades were in the A range in the spring of 2012. That figure was only 10 percent in 1963.


Tim Tebow helps airplane passengers during an on-flight medical emergency

The most recent installment comes from a Delta flight in which a passenger suffered a medical emergency while travelling from Atlanta to Phoenix. According to a Facebook post by Richard V. Gotti, passengers and crew members alike tended to the man until the plane landed.
One of the passengers who offered aid was none other than Tebow himself.
Tebow reportedly moved from his first class seat to the back of the plane to pray with the ill man’s wife and other passengers.


Parents brawl during kindergarten graduation ceremony

Up to six camera-toting parents posted up in a small space in the back of the auditorium at P.S./I.S. 178 in Crown Heights started shoving and yelling at each other over a photo opportunity around 10 a.m. as the young grads in light blue caps and gowns were handed their diplomas, witnesses said.


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