An article over at CNN, More Teens Becoming “Fake” Christians, raises news that is alarming but not new.*
According to Princeton Professor Kenda Dean, author of Almost Christian
She places the blame for this squarely and fairly on parents and pastors. “”Churches don’t give them enough to be passionate about,” she says. And she’s right.
Oprah and Elizabeth Gilbert discuss Eat, Pray, Love, the subject of a new movie with Julia Robert.
In a devastating critique of modern memoirs, Flowers puts Gilbert in the category of “Books by Unexceptional Women Who’ve Deluded Themselves into Thinking That Their Every Thought Is Transcendental.”
And she’s just getting started. She provides examples of “Books by Misfits Who Need to Tell Us How Pathetic They Used to Be but Aren’t Anymore” and “Books by Women Who Dare You to Call Them Sluts.”
Last week I wrote of pixels and plastic, about ebooks and the future, pointing out that I’m reading more—both electronically and on paper—since ebooks have become more accessible.
An article in the Wall Street Journal today reports that Amazon says customers are buying 3.3 times as many books as they did before they purchased a Kindle, and a marketing study paid for by Sony reports 40% of ebook readers are reading more than ever before.
Readers who are reading both ebooks and traditional books are reading on average 8 more books a year than those who read only print.
A visual look at recent content on my blog. From Wordle.net
It’s for those who aren’t sure they know what a post is.
A post is an entry on a blog. But not everyone who reads this is sure what a blog is either. So this post on this blog is for you.
I think I’ve read more this year than I have for the last five years. To be fair, I was on sabbatical last semester and was being paid to read, in a sense. But I’ve come to several conclusions, one of which has nothing to do with the ideas themselves. E-books are here to stay.
One of my favorite columnist is Peggy Noonan, a former speech writer for Ronald Reagan who now writes for the Wall Street Journal. She was a producer for CBS before she worked for Reagan, and has written several books since, including the well-received Patriotic Grace: What It Is and Why We Need It Now. (You can read her columns, without subscription, at opinionjournal.com)
I covet her job, of course. I wouldn’t mind making a living writing a column once a week. But I appreciate her sensibilities as well. A devout Catholic, she has become more of a cultural critic than a political commentator. And a constant champion for civility.
Posted in books, commentary, culture
Tagged distraction, manners, noonan, overload
As the school year approaches, we’ve had several college students with us this week, either for dinner or spending the night.
Last night there were six of them sitting on our front porch after supper, sipping tea and talking about things that matter. I like that about our front porch. And I like that about tea. They both encourage meaningful conversation.
Posted in culture, education, teaching
Tagged discipleship, hospitality, porch, tolerance
Just so you know, “too cool” is a song from Disney’s Camp Rock, where Meaghan Jette Martin’s character sings
Yeah I’m too cool
To know you
Don’t take it personal
Don’t get emotional
You know it’s the truth
I’m too cool for you
Too cool is also a tag team in professional wrestling.
And sadly, it’s also the mantra of the post-emergent church, where indie music and sermons about sex are the wrong answer to the question about declining interest by young people.
An occasional roundup of things that don’t matter very much.
got your goat?
More and more companies are using goats to manage the grass. rent-a-goat.com, for example, will bring in seven goats to mow your average size lawn for a couple of hundred dollars, completely free of carbon emissions. The Wall Street journal reports that both Yahoo and Google hired goats to clear around their property in northern California this year.
Image via Wikipedia
say it ain’t so
Jamba Juice is poking fun of McDonald’s new smoothies, with a fake ad for Cheeseburger Chill Smoothie. If McDonald’s thinks they can sell smoothies why can’t Jamba sell burgers. You can see the fake ad on YouTube but I wouldn’t bother. This is news you can’t use, or at least shouldn’t.
Posted in culture
This collection of essays in now available as a paperback.
failure to launch is not a movie
Just wait for it.
That’s the conclusion of Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, a psychology professor at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., who has “discovered” a new developmental stage he calls “emerging adulthood.”
Continue reading →
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Posted in commentary, culture, family
Tagged arnett, emerging adulthood, maturity, sin, youth