The trouble with most of us
/The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise rather than saved by criticism. -Norman Vincent Peale
ideas that challenge / comfort / inspire
Articles of interest about religion, politics, & the virus - Jan 15
/***THE VIRUS
What COVID-19 will look like once the pandemic ends
Flu cases have been shockingly low during the pandemic. Here why.
Experts have worked out how long you stay immune for after catching COVID
Disappointing Chinese Vaccine Results Pose Setback for Developing World ($)
How Scientists Trace New Coronavirus Variants
COVID-19 severity linked to gut bacteria in first-of-its-kind study
Moderna thinks its vaccine will protect against the coronavirus for at least a year
***RELIGION AND THE ATTACK ON THE CAPITOL
Wheaton College faculty condemn 'abuses of Christian symbols' at Capitol siege
Evangelicals and other faith leaders still support Trump after deadly US Capitol attack
Why pro-Trump evangelicals brought shofars to DC this week
About 60 of the 138 House members who objected to the Electoral College count were evangelical Christians
A Christian Insurrection: Many of those who mobbed the Capitol on claimed to be enacting God’s will
How Prominent Evangelicals Reacted to the Capitol Riot
They Invaded the Capitol Saying ‘Jesus Is My Savior. Trump Is My President’
***OPINIONS ABOUT THE ATTACK
What Americans believe about violence against the government (opinion)
Capitol rioters made a mockery of Christian values (opinion)
A Call For Evangelical Reckoning (opinion)
Donald Trump and the future of our faith (opinion)
***RELIGION AND POLITICS
US set for flurry of ‘Christian nationalist’ bills advanced by religious right
Trump Ignites a War Within the Church ($)
How White Evangelical Christians Fused With Trump Extremism
Franklin Graham “shames” the ten Republicans who voted to impeach Trump
For some Christians, the Capitol riot doesn’t change the prophecy: Trump will be president ($)
Charismatics are at war with each other over prophecies of Trump victory
Most Evangelical Trump Voters Didn’t Turn on Mike Pence
State Department Office Sees Last-Minute Surge of New Evangelical Appointees
The U.S. Senators who objected to the Electoral College results were almost all evangelicals
***RELIGIOUN & FINANCIES
Religious nonprofits scramble to get enough donations to match the surge in community needs
***DENOMINATIONS
Denominational leaders denounce Capitol violence while evangelicals offer mixed responses
Southern Baptist Convention leader calls for president’s resignation
***MEGACHURCHES
Houston megachurch pastor sentenced to 6 years in prison for bilking investors
The Majority of American Megachurches Are Now Multiracial
Healing in Freedom
/Being loving is far more therapeutic that being correct. People need first to believe that you are willing to let them be who they are. If you attempt to direct another person’s every move, you eventually lose your effectiveness, no matter how correct you may be. Freedom for each of us is to be who and what we are, that’s the cornerstone of an influential life.
When you give freedom to others, it doesn’t mean you are lowering your standards or that you don’t care about them. It means you are providing an atmosphere to let others think and feel and act without excessive pressure to fit your mold. The paradox is that when others sense the freedom you offer, they are more attracted to you. They key is to learn how to use this freedom.
Les Carter, Imperative People: Those Who Must Be in Control
A brand new ending
/Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending. -Carl Bard
Staying Power
/Life is tumultuous – an endless losing and regaining of balance, a continuous struggle, never an assured victory. We need a hardbitten morale that enables us to face these truths and still strive with every ounce of our energy to prevail.
But there is no possibility of sustaining ourselves in that effort if our values and beliefs are so weakened that nothing seems worth the struggle. First and last, humans live by ideas that validate their striving, ideas that say it’s worth living and trying.
John Gardner, Self-Renewal
It’s all about the long term
/If everything you do needs to work on a three-year time horizon, then you’re competing against a lot of people. But if you’re willing to invest on a seven-year time horizon, you’re now competing against a fraction of those people, because very few (people) are willing to do that. Just by lengthening the time horizon, you can engage in endeavors that you could never otherwise pursue. At Amazon we like things to work in five to seven years. We’re willing to plant seeds, let them grow—and we’re very stubborn. We say we’re stubborn on vision and flexible on details. In some cases, things are inevitable. The hard part is that you don’t know how long it might take, but you know it will happen if you’re patient enough. So you can do these things with conviction if you are long-term-oriented and patient.
Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder (born Jan 12, 1964)
(The title of this post comes from the title of the first shareholders letter Bezos' sent in 1997)
Articles of interest about higher ed - Jan 11
/***THE VIRUS
UN: COVID-19 herd immunity unlikely in 2021 despite vaccines
US COVID-19 death toll still among the worst in the world
Can you still spread Covid-19 if you get the vaccine?
538 Answers All (Or At Least Some) Of Your COVID-19 Vaccine Questions
***HIGHER ED & THE VIRUS
Where Campuses Reopened, Covid-19 Cases Spiked--Where Colleges Went Remote, They Declined ($)
Study Provides Evidence for a 7-Day Quarantine for University Students Exposed to COVID-19
UC San Diego introduces vending machines for COVID-19 tests
Pandemic Worsens Existing Challenges At Public Colleges And Universities
For some colleges, COVID-19 ‘accelerated innovation’ in how to adapt
***HIGHER ED & THE VACCINES
Should college students be required to get the COVID-19 vaccine? It’s too early for colleges to decide
Colleges Weigh Whether to Require Covid-19 Vaccines, or Just Urge Them ($)
***SPRING SEMESTER
Stanford pulls plug on the return of freshmen and sophomores to campus ($)
Pitt asks students to delay return to campus
Universities Are Again Delaying The Start Of Spring Semester: Syracuse, Michigan State, Penn State Among The Latest
***HIGHER ED & POLITICS
Thousands of law school alumni and students push for disbarment of Sens. Hawley and Cruz
Universities issue statements Condemning Capitol Rioting
How Biden’s Education Department will tackle pandemic and Trump-era policies
Two private institutions revoked Trump's honorary degree
***LAYOFFS & FURLOUGHS
Amid pressure from alumni, Guilford College trustees reverse plans to slash academic majors and faculty jobs
Shippensburg University faculty member demands action to save jobs and university education for working-class students
***COLLEGE FINANCES
Universities pay millions to departing football coaches
As pandemic wears on, colleges and universities grapple with how to survive
Universities are outsourcing billions of dollars worth of services
American colleges are facing a $130 billion dollar crisis
***HIGHER ED IN COURT
Columbia University Settles complicated Sexual Assault Case ($)
Judge orders LSU to turn over complete police report sought in USA TODAY lawsuit
***HUMANITIES
Why we need the arts and humanities to get us through the COVID-19 pandemic
***FREE SPEECH
Why one man’s Supreme Court case against his school is uniting the ACLU with the Catholic Church
The fraught balancing act between free speech & cracking down on campus support for rioters & incendiary language
U.S. Supreme Court Takes Up Cheerleader Free Speech Dispute
Community College agrees to get rid of speech zones after federal lawsuit
***ONLINE CHEATING
Chinese Government to Randomly Check Student Theses for Plagiarism
Jerusalem's university wants to film students during online tests to crack down against cheating
West Point cheating scandal involved mostly athletes, including 24 football players on Liberty Bowl team
***ACADEMIC LIFE
Arizona State University Workers Demand Remote Learning, Access To Vaccines
Chapman University President Condemns Controversial Law Professor Who Aided Trump
As the spring semester dawns, a pep talk for college educators
UC Berkeley instructors reflect on semester unlike any another amid COVID-19
***ADMINISTRATORS
University of Maryland Provost resigns
Auburn University Provost facing no-confidence vote Tuesday
***CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS
Grand Canyon University statement on Christianity and race/ethnicity
Former State Rep. Rick Saccone Resigns From Position At St. Vincent College After Posting Video From U.S. Capitol
Turnover Rate Rising for Christian College Presidents
Robin Rylaarsdam Named Provost of Bethel University
***LIBERTY UNIVERSITY
Liberty sues Higher Ed Council and Northam, alleging online courses discriminated against
Liberty Univ. is lone holdout on rescinding Pres. Trump's honorary degrees
***RESEARCH
Can Publishers Maintain Control of the Scholarly Record?
The majority of COVID-19 research is composed by publications without original data
Study: peer review and editorial processes do not penalize manuscripts by women https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/7/2/eabd0299
Our findings suggest that authors often disregard advice from peer reviewers after rejection
***STUDENT LIFE
Pennsylvania School District Asks Supreme Court To Allow It To Continue To Violate Students' First Amendment Rights
Inside the Lives of White Students at Historically Black Colleges
About 85 percent of 14K students responding to survey said the pandemic had a negative effect on their performance
America Is Pumping Out Too Many Ph.D.s
Student Journalists Are Fighting for Protection After Covering the Crises of 2020
***COLLEGE ADMISSIONS
How the pandemic is shaking up college admissions and testing
Covid is making it harder to get into a top college
***RACIAL ISSUES ON CAMPUS
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga assistant football coach fired over racist tweet
Lawsuit Claims University of Michigan Professor Harassed Researcher
To avoid criticism
/To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing. –Elbert Hubbard
Teens starts nonprofit to lift spirits of seniors during pandemic
/#GOODNEWS
Read the KHOU story here
Power Corrupts
/All power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely. -Lord Acton (born Jan. 10, 1834)
No rules
/There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds. -G K Chesterton
A step into authenticity
/Transition may not be simply a step toward an outlook that is more appropriate to the life-phase that we are actually in. It can also be a step toward our own more authentic presence in the world. That would mean that we come out of a transition knowing ourselves better and being more willing to express who we really are, whenever we choose to do so. It would also mean that we are more often willing to trust that who-we-really-are is all right—is valid and a person capable of dealing with the world.
William Bridges, The Way of Transition
Articles of interest about journalism, social media, fakes & more - Jan 7
/***THE VIRUS
Covid-19 immunity likely lasts for years
U.S. Is Blind to Contagious New Virus Variant, Scientists Warn ($)
New Study Shows What Causes Brain Damage In COVID-19 Patients
***JOURNALISM
Why it’s so difficult for journalists to get inside hospitals to document COVID-19 cases
How Newspapers Reacted To The Insurrectionist Takeover Of The US Capitol
The role of Mark Schlefer in the development of the Freedom of Information Act ($)
Examining How The Trump Years Helped To Shape The Media
***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM
Study: Newsrooms Lost Over 16,000 Jobs In 2020
How Britain’s first black female TV reporter was forced out
Gazette announces layoffs, buyouts amid pandemic
The Courier Journal will be printed remotely with the closing of its downtown presses
Newspapers And TV Stations Got Special Access To PPP Loans. Digital Media Didn’t
***FAKES & FRAUDS
QAnon Conspiracy Theories And Misinformation: 'Bonkers' What Americans Believe
On Facebook and Twitter, people are posting a lot about misinformation
Channel 4 under fire for deepfake Queen's Christmas message
***CONSPIRACIES & THE VACCINE
Misinformation Spread By Anti-Science Groups Endangers COVID-19 Vaccination Efforts
***CONSPIRACIES & THE ELECTION
No, antifa did not invade the Capitol
False Claims Fuel Trump's Election Result Disinformation Campaign
How Election Fraud Claims May Disenfranchise Black Voters
***SOCIAL MEDIA & APPS
Facebook Pages Redesign Eliminates 'Like' Button To Focus On Followers
Twitter and Facebook Lock Trump’s Accounts After Violence on Capitol Hill
Politicians Turn To TikTok To Appeal To Younger Voters
Best apps to download now for your new iPhone or iPad
***PRIVACY & SECURITY
App privacy labels show stark contrasts among messaging apps
SolarWinds hack may have been much wider than first thought
Flash is finally dead. Here's how to remove it from your computer
Security camera installation: 8 tips from the pros
The coming war over location data
***LITERATURE
With 'The Great Gatsby' In Public Domain, Artists Riff On Classic Story
In 'Great Gatsby' Prequel, Narrator 'Nick' Finally Gets His Own Backstory
'The Great Gatsby' Enters Public Domain
The Post-Trump Future of Literature (opinion) ($)
***POETRY
Poetry Escapes The Beauty Bind In 'Wound From The Mouth Of A Wound'
The New Yorker’s Year in Poetry
How Poets Use Punctuation as a Superpower and a Secret Weapon
The great thing
/The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one's 'own,' or 'real' life. The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one's real life -- the life God is sending one day by day. –CS Lewis
These people are your real friends
/As we grow up, we realize it becomes less important to have more friends and more important to have real ones. Remember, life is kind of like a party. You invite a lot of people, some leave early, some stay all night, some laugh with you, some laugh at you, and some show up really late. But in the end, after the fun, there are a few who stay to help you clean up the mess. And most of the time, they aren’t even the ones who made the mess. These people are your real friends in life. They are the ones who matter most.
Marc & Angel Chernoff, 20 Things to start doing in your relationships
Articles of interest about religion (& the virus) - Dec 5
/***THE VIRUS
This COVID-19 vaccine distribution tracker lets you see where the doses are going
California funeral homes run out of space as COVID-19 rages
New Research Shows How Covid-19 Can Trigger Brain Damage
Coughing, sneezing, vomiting: Visibly ill people aren’t being kept off planes
A psychologist's guide to changing the minds of anti-maskers
Doctors discovered a new way to tell which coronavirus patients will get worse
You’re Infected With the Coronavirus. But How Infected?
***RELIGION & THE VIRUS
Greek Church tells priests to ignore pandemic closure order
Evangelical Singer's Plans For Skid Row Concert Backfires
Joni Eareckson Tada Asks for Prayer After Contracting COVID-19
What It Looks Like To Be A Hospital Chaplain In A Pandemic
Religious nonprofits scramble to get donations to match the surge in need ($)
New Mexico megachurches fined $10K for violating coronavirus restrictions
How The Pandemic Has Affected The Ways People Worship
***RELIGION AND POLITICS
Congressman concludes congressional prayer with 'amen and awoman'
Pelosi appoints first woman as House chaplain
Are Ads Against Ga. Senate Candidate Also An Attack On Black Churches?
***RELIGION & THE LAW
Mass. top court grapples with 'ministerial exception' to anti-bias laws
Mormon church sued over role in Scouts abuse scandal
Pa. transit system to pay atheist group $275,000 in legal fees after refusing its ads
***MEGACHURCHES
California Megachurch Hosts Large Crowd For New Year’s Eve Wedding
More Hillsong pastors resign amid megachurch’s ongoing scandal
Tennessee megachurch holds packed, maskless services
***RELIGION & RACIAL ISSUES
After permit approved for whites-only church, small Minnesota town insists it isn't racist
D.C. Church Sues Proud Boys For Tearing Up Black Lives Matter Sign
***CHRISTIAN CELEBRITIES
Justin Bieber Says He's No Longer Part of Hillsong Church Amid Scandal
Ignoring warnings, Kirk Cameron hosts 2nd caroling event as COVID-19 cases surge in Ventura County
***PARACHURCH MINISTRIES
Ministry roiled by late founder’s sexual misconduct scandal
Christian-based organization to move national headquarters out of Colorado Springs after 3 decades
Religious nonprofits scramble to get enough donations to match the surge in community needs ($)
***RELIGION OUTSIDE THE U.S.
The Men Who Lost Their Wives to ‘Eastern Lightning’ Also known as “Church of Almighty God”
Self-renewal and Failure
/The self-renewing man is versatile and adaptive. He is not trapped in techniques, procedures, or routines of the moment. He is not the victim of fixed habits and attitudes. He is not imprisoned by extreme specialization.
For the self-renewing man, the development of his own potentialities and the process of self-discovery never end. It is a sad but unarguable fact that most human beings go through life only partially aware of the full range of their abilities. By middle-age, most of us are accomplished fugitives from ourselves. How long is it since you have failed at anything? If it is long, you are in poor shape. If you are sufficiently adventurous, sufficiently willing to try new things, you will stumble fairly often.
John Gardner, published in the Saturday Review XLVI, Jan. 5, 1963
Why are conspiracy theories popular?
/People who feel powerless or vulnerable are more likely to endorse and spread conspiracy theories. This is seen in online forums where people’s perceived level of threat is strongly linked to proposing conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theories allow people to cope with threatening events by focusing blame on a set of conspirators. People find it difficult to accept that “big” events (e.g., the death of Princess Diana) can have an ordinary cause (driving while intoxicated). A conspiracy theory satisfies the need for a “big” event to have a big cause, such as a conspiracy involving MI5 to assassinate Princess Diana. For the same reason, people tend to propose conspiratorial explanations for events that are highly unlikely. Conspiracy theories act as a coping mechanism to help people handle uncertainty.
Stephan Lewandowsky & John Cook, The Conspiracy Theory Handbook
those who wander
/Not all those who wander are lost. -JRR Tolkien (born Jan 3, 1892)