Yet another fear message

Last week, I flew out to Seattle for a conference, and, as I usually try to do, I sat in the back of the airplane (maximizes chance for open seat next to me). This meant that I got to listen to two stewardesses talking next to me, in between shifts of racing the food cart up and down the aisle.


One of them went of on a bit of a rant about high school girls getting pregnant, and she made the case that because of some reality tv show about teenage moms (we don't have TV, so I'll take it on faith that it exists), now high school girls are intentionally getting pregnant so that they can be on reality TV. The stewardess paused and mournfully exclaimed, "what is this country coming to?"


Certainly the number of out-of-wedlock births has increased, though much faster among women over 20 than under 20, still it's hard to see a reality-tv show tie in. Given all the stupid things that people do on reality tv, I certainly hope that not many people seek to emulate them.


At the very least, I've gotten to the point where I almost automatically discount statements that include the phrase: "what is xxxxx coming to."  They seem to almost always be wrong or at least very exaggerated.

Why I'm not a computer tech

I used to think that I am reasonably competent when it comes to computer use, until this week.


First, I had a laptop given to me, and while I enjoyed using it, the screen was rather dark. So, if it was sunny outside, I would have to close the curtains. This has gone on for about a month before I realized that I could make the screen brighter.


Then, I was dragging a file in Windows, and I unexpectedly sneezed. When I looked up, the file was no where to be found. I had accidentally dragged it into some random folder, and it took me about 5 minutes to find it.


Finally, and this is the best, my high school son Floyd got a computer last Fall, and part of the agreement was that I would install a parental filter on it. I did, and several times I adjusted the settings on it to make it safer for a teenager to use. Well, come to find out that the filtering program that I use doesn't support Macs, so there's been not filter on his computer. Doh-h-h-h.


So, if you need any help with your computer, just let me know.

Ted Haggard, falling down and not letting go

GQ recently had an interesting interview with Ted Haggard, former bigtime Evangelical pastor.


In it I was struck by how much difficulty he seems to have of letting go what happened--both by him, and, especially in reaction to him. As I understand it, New Life Church gave him a big severance payment but required him to leave the state for a couple of years.


Now Ted is back in Colorado Springs, staring a new church.


This article got me thinking about some pastors' ego-investment and identification with their churches--especially when the pastor either planted the church or had been with it for a long time.


When things are going well in that type of situation, what's good for the church is also good for the pastor. The church grows, s/he feels good about doing a good job. When the church has significant accomplishments, some of the credit goes to the pastor. In this sense, the ego-invested pastor basically spends most their work life doing things that can make them feel better about themselves and look better to others. (Not saying this happens to all or even most pastors).


This provides incentive for the pastor to put a lot of work and time into the church, making it all that more successful.


The problems with this approach are put into relief when the pastor is forced out of the church. It must be very confusing for the pastor when a group of people decide that what's best for the church (e.g., the pastor having to leave) is not what the pastor feels is best for himself/herself.


This must make it very confusing for someone like Ted Haggard to understand that an action deemed best for the church pushes him away from it.


I suppose a corollary to this might be that some pastors feel that what's good for them is, by definition, good for the church.


This highlights the need for pastors to have healthy, balanced lives outside of the church so that they don't view the church almost as an extension of themselves.


Thoughts?

Body posture in a developing country

Over the break, my wife and I spent a glorious week on the Caribbean island of Nevis. We spent our time swimming, snorkeling, walking along the beach, and driving on the wrong side of the road.


After a few days, I started to notice something. When we were around both tourists (mostly American) and locals, the locals had much better body posture. As a whole, they stood up rather straight and had normal walking gaits. In contrast, it was not infrequent for the tourists to be slumping or hunched over. After I noticed this, I started paying more attention, and I found relatively few exceptions.


It made me wonder if the American (western?) lifestyle, complete with sedentary activity and high levels of stress, didn't manifest itself on our bodies. This certainly seems to be the case with peoples' weight, but I wonder if it's also the case with body posture.


I don't know if I stand up straighter now, after a week on Nevis, but it sure helped me get the real winter that we've had here for the past month.

Professor Hitler reacts to a snow day

The best part about yet another snow day... somebody had time to put together this video.  (Jay Hickey is the guy who announces class cancellations).

ChristianityToday Book of the Year...

Christianity Today has named my book its Book of the Year on the topic of Christianity and Culture. They write:


"With wit and wisdom, Wright uses scholarly means to serve kingdom ends, defusing anxiety about the American evangelical prospect and reigniting vision. It's a work of both smart debunking and kind edification, utterly necessary in a time of statistically aided ideological warfare."


I really, really appreciate this. The last award that I won was in high school when I was voted to be the "most likely to have to wait a long time before winning another award."


It's most gratifying to have others appreciate my work for what I intended it to be. Thank you CT!

200,000 visitors old...

This week my blog received its 200,000 visitor... boggles the mind. (Though, presumably 199,000 were looking for something else.)

The American ideal: Lukewarm religion?

Something that I enjoy in writing a blog is hearing other people's perspectives on things that I'm interested in. For example, awhile ago I posted a list of religious countries, and I got this comment:


"As a Brit living in the U.S., I find the religious angle the hardest thing to deal with. It is pretty much social and employment suicide to admit to being an atheist in these parts. There may be freedom of religion but there is no freedom from religion."


As an Evangelical Christian, I'm aware of the pressure in my workplace and in social situations to be discreet about my religion. As Stephen Carter wrote in his book The Culture of Disbelief, religion is expected to be like a hobby--fine if you do it at home, but you should bring it to others too much.


However, it seems that a similar dynamic works with atheism--that atheists feel pressure to keep mum about their beliefs.


I wonder, then, if the American ideal of religion is not take it too seriously. So, if you're a believer, try not to overdo it. If you don't believe, don't be too strident about it. Be lukewarm, and you'll fit in.


(For a biblical perspective on this, see Revelation 3:16).


What do you think?

Back from vacation

Cathy and I celebrated our 20th anniversary with 8 days in the Caribbean, on the wonderful island of Nevis. I'll post more on it, but here's a before and after picture from yesterday. What a difference 12 hours makes!


11 am (ferry to St. Kitts and airport), and then
11 pm (30 inches of snow while we were gone)

Some really bad stats about religion and gays

Here's a story about gays, suicides, and Mormons. It holds the distinction of getting just about every statistic used wrong, and then drawing inferences from them. My guess is that the writer knew the conclusion ahead of time and wasn't going to let simple data stand in the way.

Thanks Mike!

Finally, someone understands!

I have spent the last month putting the final touches on my next book. (Working title: Slow Cooker Recipes for the Holidays), and I was/ am really struggling with it. I realized that the root of the problem is that I'm convinced that the book is utter rot and that I've wasted pretty much most of this last year writing it. Ugh... how depressing.


I was talking to my friend Ed, who himself is a successful writer, and he sent me this link.


The advice is from literary agent Rachelle Gardner, and she observes that: "Usually there comes a point in the editing process where they feel like they're not just sick of it. They're convinced it's Really Bad. Like Piece of Cr*p bad. Like, OMG the publisher is going to cancel my book bad."


Yep, that's me.


Her advice: "When you get like this? It's a "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" moment. The man behind the curtain is your insecurity, trying to control things while pretending it knows All.


It doesn't. It knows nothing. So, do nothing.


Ignore that voice. Just push through it. Keep going."


Somehow it's very comforting knowing that other people feel the same way. I just hope that I'm as wrong about my book as they have been about theirs.


Thanks Ed!

The problem with Twitter

I've discovered a problem with my Twitter account... sometimes people read it.


I recently had an e-mail exchange with a magazine editor, and, me being me, I cracked a joke in my e-mail to him. The problem, though, was that I sent the e-mail at 2 in the morning on a night that I wasn't sleeping well. I woke up the next morning worried that the tone of the joke was a little harsh. So, I posted as much on Twitter, saying that I worried about being "snarky".


Later that day I got the editor's response to my questionable e-mail, and the first line was "Wow, that was snarky." I started to panic that I'd really goofed this one up until I scrolled down the message and saw "Kidding! (I saw your tweet)."


A very good joke, and a reminder that every great once in awhile people read what I write.

Climate change and Christianity?

A friend recently sent me this call for papers, and it reminded me of something that I don't understand. Why do people think that their religious beliefs gives them a unique insight into climate change? I was reading a book earlier this year that described Jerry Falwell and other Evangelical leaders advocating a certain position about the causes of climate change. Now, I have no problems with religious people having opinions about all sorts of things, but what I don't get is how it's tied to religion. Yes I am a Christian, and that informs a lot about how I see the world. For example, here. However, it doesn't give me a lot of insight into the effect of different chemicals in the atmosphere and their sources. Personally, I think that climate change probably results from humans activities, but that's not at all a faith statement.


Still, as long as people are bring religion into the debate about climate change, I suppose that it makes sense to study it....


****


CALL FOR PAPERS: RELIGION & CLIMATE CHANGE
Expressions of interest are requested by 15 February, 2011; Papers July 2011


Papers are requested for a special issue of the Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature & Culture (JSRNC) on “Religion and Climate Change” and a possible book. Anthropogenic climate change is among the most significant and far-reaching social issues of our time. Although climate scientists are near unanimous about potentially catastrophic consequences, mobilizing a meaningful response has proven to be a real challenge. Numerous statements on climate change by faith-based actors and institutionalized religious groups have occurred in recent years. However, far less research has been published about actually existing faith-shaped action by religious institutions, groups and individuals.


****


Thanks Mike!

A good example of using statistics in the pulpit

One of the fun things with writing a book is hearing how people respond to it. This week a pastor in St. Joseph, MI posted a thoughtful review of my book here. What impressed me in his review were his own thoughts about how to use statistics in his preaching. He describes well, so I'll just quote the relevant sections:


"One example in which Dr. Wright challenges Barna’s writing is in the off repeated statistic that Christians get divorced as often as non-Christians. I’ve bored my friends and colleagues for years telling them this is simply not true! When I ask, “Is this true among the Christians you know?” they admit it isn’t, but they assume the statistic is true because someone wrote it down. As you can imagine, that does not make it true.


...


I’m a preacher myself, but I refuse to use statistics unless they both make sense and can be validated—otherwise I make it clear to my hearers that I am aware statistics are only as valid as the research on which they are based."


I appreciate his thoughtfulness in using data in his teaching, and I think it's a good example for other preachers as well.


Thanks Rick!

Misinformation about Evangelicals... again

Newsweek magazine recently had an article about Amish fiction. In the midst of it, the author threw in these statistics about American Evangelical Christianity:


"The most ardent fans of the Amish romances are evangelical Christian women who buy the books at Walmart. To them, the Amish represent more than simplicity. Evangelical Christians have among the highest divorce rates in the country; single Christian mothers are often their families’ main breadwinners. For these moms the Amish books are, literally, a fantasy: a picture of the perfect environment in which to raise Christian children." [Emphasis added].


I assume the writer read them on-line somewhere or maybe heard them from someone somewhere. I was thinking of posting a comment linking to data, but I can't imagine it would make a difference.


Thanks Andy.

Religion and crime... today's ecological fallacy

This post on the website atheismresource.com cites a study that finds that crime rates in less religious countries are lower than those in more religious countries. Okay, I can accept that as plausible.


But then the post veers off-course by exclaiming that: "Atheists don't commit as much crime as the religious do."


This is an ecological fallacy. Correlations at the group level don't necessarily hold at the individual level. In fact, at least here in the United States, religion is associated with less crime rather than more crime.


How do I know? I coauthored a meta-analysis of 60+ articles on the topic.


The abstract:


Do religious beliefs and behaviors deter criminal behavior? The existing evidence surrounding the effect of religion on crime is varied, contested, and inconclusive, and currently no persuasive answer exists as to the empirical relationship between religion and crime. In this article, the authors address this controversial issue with a meta-analysis of 60 previous studies based on two questions: (1) What is the direction and magnitude of the effect of religion on crime? (2) Why have previous studies varied in their estimation of this effect? The results of the meta-analysis show that religious beliefs and behaviors exert a moderate deterrent effect on individuals' criminal behavior. Furthermore, previous studies have systematically varied in their estimation of the religion-on-crime effect due to differences in both their conceptual and methodological approaches.


I posted this on the atheism resources website, but I'm cynical enough to think that they won't correct their post. It's too consistent with what they might expect and too juicy to change. I expect this not because they are atheists, but rather because they are advocates of a particular position... and advocates often don't like data that disagrees with them.


I hope to be pleasantly surprised, though.


(Thanks Edward)

How to ask for a better grade

It's that time of year, when I'm calculating grades and students are hoping to get good grades. Each semester I get several requests asking for better grades because either the student needs it or the student really, really wants it. I suppose that in some sense these requests are silly, since all students want and see themselves as needing good grades, but I can understand the sentiment behind them.


Sometimes I want to ask the same things in my own life. Could I please have more merit pay? I really want it and need it. Could you please accept my article? I really....


I did get one request, however, that made me chuckle. Somewhere in these messages is usually a compliment of the course, which I suppose isn't a bad idea, since they are asking for something. in this request, though, the student launched right into the asking and then signed his name. Then, apparently realizing that he forgot the key compliment-component of the request, he added a postscript:


PS: Your class is nothing short of awesome!


I guess that having been late in compliment, he went all out with it. Does anyone ever say something is short of awesome? "Your class was good, maybe really good, but it fell short of awesome." Now that's a compliment that could get a better grade!

The inadvertent Christmas fan

I'm not much for the Christmas season, at least how it's celebrated in the US. In fact, about my only Christmas tradition is posting the lyrics to this song. You can understand, then, why I wasn't too pleased with this event in the past week.

The other day I took the dog for a long walk, part of it in the woods. It was a cold day, so I got one of her little sweaters (she's a miniature poodle), and since it's hunting season, I got a bright red one (who knows what hunters will shoot at). Halfway through the walk, I realized that I had dressed her up in the most Christmas-y outfit imaginable. Bright red, with green sparkle hearts, white tassels, and "seasons greetings" written all over it. I tried to glare at passer-byers who fawned over her, just to let them know that I didn't mean it.

My boring celebrations

Earlier this week I sent off the last few chapters of my next book to my editor. Now, there's still plenty of proofreading to do, and it's far from done, but it is certainly a milestone in the project... one that I have been working toward since early Spring.


So, what did I do to celebrate? Took one day off to walk in the woods with the dog, cook a nice supper, and clean my office. Today I spent answering the three weeks worth of e-mail that I hadn't gotten to in the final, big push. When I was writing, I thought that getting the book off would be followed by a big, fun celebration, but when the time came, I was too tired to do much of anything.


Hopefully the book will be better than my celebrations of it.

A Church doing the right thing

A church that I am familiar with has had a tough couple of years. Their lead pastor stepped down amidst moral impropriety and financial mismanagement. What's surprised me the most in this difficult situation is the congregation's response to the situation. As I've heard members of that church talk about the situation, they've intentionally sought to show love and mercy to the previous pastor, his victims, and the church as a whole. Several people even made it their goal to support him personally as he transitioned to a new life situation--despite the considerable hurt they felt. Wow.


I'm sure that that church wasn't perfect in it's love, but compare it to how other organizations might respond. Imagine a bank CEO embezzling funds or a childcare worker somehow putting children at risk or a physician withholding treatment. In any of these situations the organizations response would probably be rather severe, and I can't imagine a lot of concern and support for the offending individual.


Once again, I appreciate the good work of the church.