Study: 2 Million U.S. Scientists Identify As Evangelical
But among evangelical scientists, a strong majority (57 percent) perceive hostility from scientists toward religion, which may suggest Christians in scientific fields have negative experiences with fellow scientists in the workplace regarding their faith.
What’s Wrong With Buying Your Way Onto the Bestseller List?
Additionally, authors who buy their way into sales and accolades disadvantage their brothers and sisters who are actually gifted to write. Yes, I know some of the bestselling Christian authors have actually written their own books, but too many have not, and adding the dishonesty of system-gaming to the dishonesty of ghostwriting further hinders the work of real artists who are getting crowded out of the marketplace.
That got me thinking about questions that I wrestled as I wrote Through a Screen Darkly, my memoir of “dangerous moviegoing.”
I used to feel guilty about many of my favorite comedies. They seemed irreverent, disrespectful, even dirty.
But the more I’ve thought about comedy, and the more I’ve read about it, the more I’ve come to understand what it’s really doing to me. And the more I’ve come to recognize the difference between destructive comedy and healthy comedy.
I had a profound, deep, emotional, religious experience, fueled by a man made, false presentation of Jesus. Much like the children of Israel had a profound, deep, emotional, religious experience, fueled by a man made, false presentation of God, in the form of a golden calf. The problem with the movie isn’t, in my judgment, that it is a technical violation on the edges of a law God made, that seeing it might make Him mad because He’s so persnickety. The problem is that, for me anyway, I was lead right into the vicious heart of idolatry, which was cleverly disguised as a positive Christian experience.
Re-reading Kathleen Norris’s contemplative classic, Dakota: A Spiritual Geography, I was struck by the chapter, “Gatsby on the Plains,” about how folks in small settings can become insular, resistant to change, quick to turn on one another, vulnerable to conspiratorial thinking, suspicious of “outsiders,” and incapable of absorbing new information. I have seen all these tendencies and more in small communities and congregations. I recognize them in myself.
Why Buying Stuff Won’t Make You Happy (and One Thing That Might)
There are valuable pursuits available to us: love, justice, faith, compassion, contribution, redemption, just to name a few. These should be pursued with great fervor. But far too often, we trade the pursuit of lasting fulfillment for temporary happiness. We can do better. We can dream bigger.
Redirect your desires toward lasting pursuits. Find happiness there.