Author Archives: Steve

The Misrepresented Christian Divorce Rate

I’ve heard for years that, according to some study, the divorce rate among Christians is the same as in the general population. That never tracked with me. I’ve always thought something was askew. Yet I’ve heard Christians repeat that statistic many times. We like to speak badly about ourselves, I guess to show that we are scum in need of a Savior.

But in my naive little world, I believe Christ makes a difference.

So I’ve never believed that stat. I’ve always insisted, at least to myself, that Christian marriages are stronger than nonChristian marriages.

Because having Jesus in your life matters. That’s what I believe, no matter what surveys say.

Now I read a piece from Ed Stetzer about the subject. He says the difference-maker is depth of religious commitment. Plenty of people call themselves Christians. But those who are serious about their faith, as evidenced by certain surveyable behaviors–weekly church attendance, reading the Bible and Christian literature, praying regularly, pursuing discipleship–have a significantly lower divorce rate.

Stetzer says this is explained in a book by Bradley Wright called, “Christians are Hate-Filled Hypocrites…and Other Lies You’ve Been Told.” That’s a book I may need to read.

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Romney (Finally) Finds Some Footing

Mitt Romney came out loaded for bear in the first debate last night (Oct 3, 2012). He was animated, full of information, and fully energized.

President Obama, on the other hand, appeared passive, disengaged.

On Facebook, I kept a running list of comments going during the debate. Early on I said Romney was kicking butt, and repeated it later. That was my perception, and all of the pundits pretty much agreed with me. (Not that they were reading my Facebook feed.)

It also appeared to me that Romney was hogging much more air time. But this morning I learned that, according to the persons keeping the game clock, Obama spoke over four minutes more than Romney did–42:40 for Obama, 38:14 for Romney. I would never have guessed that. So I’m wondering what shaped my perception. Maybe, because I found Obama’s turns so dull, I was tuning him out, checking email, or using the opportunity to go to the fridge. Or, more likely, doing a Facebook update.

I did find Romney’s aggressive style to be off-putting. It annoyed me, the way he steamrolled the moderator, and forced his way into the foray. But I don’t find many other people bothered by that.

Will Romney’s performance matter? It certainly will help at least some. But the electorate is very polarized, with minds already made up. Maybe it’ll move the needle, but maybe not.

The pressure is on Biden now. If both ends of the Republican ticket prevail, that won’t go well for the incumbents. I do expect Obama to do much better in the town hall format. They will both be interacting with everyday people, rather than going at each other. Clearly, going at each other face to face is a format where Romney excels.

That, unfortunately for Obama, will also be the format for the final debate. However, the subject is foreign policy, which (in my book) is a glaring weakness for Romney and a strength for Obama. But Romney obviously prepares very, very thoroughly. I much prefer Obama’s view of the world and generally like his stewardship of foreign affairs. Whereas some of Romney’s statements, especially his sabre-rattling regarding Iran (he sometimes has seemed to really want to get into a war with Iran) seriously concerns me.

But we’ll see. I would predict, at this point, that Romney will win that final debate as well. And then it’s just a couple weeks until people vote.

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Pastors and Political Endorsements

Since I work around ministers all the time, I found this interesting. Ed Stetzer, from LifeWay Research, polled 1000 Protestant pastors. He found:

  • 90% believe they should not endorse political candidates from the pulpit (it was 85% in a similar poll in 2010).
  • Among pastors who call themselves Democrats, 98% believe political endorsements from the pulpit, compared to 90% of independents and 82% of Republicans. So Republicans are most in favor of using the pulpit to endorse politicians.
  • 44% of pastors personally endorsed candidates outside of their church role. The percentage was higher among pastors of very small churches (56%), and among pastors in small cities (49%).
  • 54% of self-described Democrats endorsed candidates outside of their church role, compared to 51% of Republicans and 34% of Independents.

An amendment to the IRS tax code in 1954 prohibits tax-exempt organizations, such as churches, from endorsing political candidates.

Stetzer writes on his blog:

In case you are wondering, my view is simple: Pastors should preach something more important than politics– they should preach Christ. They should preach Scripture. When they preach Scripture, they will indeed address issues that the world sees as political, but they distract from their message and mission when they start using the church to endorse canididates.

An old saying explains, “When you mix politics and religion, you get politics.” When it comes to endorsing candidates, I believe that statement applies–it hurts the mission of the church.

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Details, Please

Neither candidate has gotten specific on what he’ll do to get the economy moving. I’ve decided that neither candidate really, truly, knows. We’ll see in tomorrow’s first debate if either gets specific. I don’t expect Obama to do that–he, sadly, seems to be coasting just fine on the strength of incumbency. Meanwhile, Romney must make the case for an alternative path, and he’s just not getting it done. He keeps getting sidetracked.

Has there ever been an incumbent more vulnerable on the economy than Obama? At least, since Herbert Hoover in 1933? Republican movers and shakers are going nuts over what is shaping up to be a monumental missed opportunity.

This morning on Morning Joe, Chuck Todd made a good point. He said Romney has made the case for a weak economy, but hasn’t connected the weakness of the economy to specific Obama policies. Obama, on the other hand, has successfully directed blame in two directions: to the mess he inherited from George Bush, and to uncompromising Congressional Republicans.

The September 17 BusinessWeek notes that, if Romney got more specific, it would just open himself up to more attacks. That’s true. The same applies to Obama. Tackling the debt will require some pain and sacrifice, and people won’t vote in favor of pain and sacrifice. So the candidates are dodging. Obama’s getting away with it, Romney isn’t.

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The Worst Death Scene Ever

This scene, from a Turkish martial arts movie from the mid-1970s, “Karate Girl,” is considered the worst movie death scene ever. Watch it, and know that this scene cannot possibly be unseated from its throne.

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The Not So Common Knowledge of the Masses

The Pew Research Center asked people four questions to determine their knowledge of current events:

  1. Which party controls the House of Representatives?
  2. What’s the current unemployment rate?
  3. What nation does Angela Merkel lead?
  4. Which presidential candidate favors taxing higher-income Americans?

Seem like pretty basic, easy questions to me. However:

  • Only 14% of the general public got all four questions right. (Seriously? Those are easy questions.)
  • About 17% got all four questions wrong.
  • Rachel Maddow’s audience did the best: 38% got all four right.
  • Readers of the New Yorker, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and the Economist all placed above 30%.
  • MSNBC viewers did better (21%) than the audiences of Rush Limbaugh (19%), CNN (17%), and Fox News (16%). This affirms other studies I’ve heard which show that Fox News viewers tend to be ill informed (try this, this, this, this, and this for example). But note to MSNBC: 21% ain’t nothin’ to brag about.
  • USA Today readers and viewers of the network evening news coming in last at 15%. That kind of surprises me. I only read USA Today when I’m traveling, so I picture USA Today readers as well-traveled folk. But maybe they just read the entertainment section.

So how did people answer the questions?

  • 54% knew that Republicans controlled the House.
  • 52% knew the unemployment rate was about 8%.
  • 22% knew Angela Merkel led Germany.
  • 66% knew that Obama was more supportive of increasing taxes on the wealthy.

And these are the people who will be–yes, ever so, uh, thoughtfully–electing our next president.

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Wanting to Hear “Well Done!”

The final leg along the outfield track, with hundreds of people shouting their congratulations.

The final leg of the Fort4Fitness races on Sept 30 was in Tin Caps Stadium. You entered onto left field, took the track all the way along the outfield fence, then came down the first base line and finished at home plate.

The highlight, for me, was finally walking into Tin Caps Stadium. Hundreds of people lined the fences above the track. They were clapping for us, cheering, shouting congratulations–“You did it!” It was an amazing feeling.

The Apostle Paul said he wanted to run the race well, so that at the end, he would be told, “Well done!” I thought of that as we walked along the outfield track. Imagine when a faithful Christian arrives in heaven. All the angels gather to welcome him, applauding and saying, “You did it! Well done! Welcome home!”

I have a couple people in mind who were lowly in the eyes of the world, receiving no accolades. Yet they were faithful servants of their Lord. And when they arrive in heaven, the angels are going to tell each other, “Hey, So-and-So is arriving! Hurry! We need to go welcome him!” And the cheering as they enter Heaven’s Gate will be resounding and overwhelming.

At least that’s how I imagine it. It won’t be anything like that. It’ll be infinitely better. But that’s the best my human mind can imagine for now.

And I want to be cheered.

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Fort4Fitness, and Completing THE Race

Fort4Fitness participants from Anchor Community Church.

Pam and I, with our medals for completing the race.

The 2012 Fort4Fitness races were held September 29, 2012. Last year, Pam and I did the 4-mile walk (which she also did in 2010). This year we upgraded to the 10K walk (6.2 miles). We’d walked this distance several times before during the summer. I think our best time was around 18 minutes per mile. But on The Big Day, we managed 17:32 per mile. Total time: 1:48:39.

Lots of people from Anchor participated.

Our race was last, at 9 am. But we were there at 6 am to get a good parking place, and to cheer on the Anchorites who were doing the 4-mile walk at 7:30. Pastor Tim Hallman did the 13-mile (half-marathon) run at 8:30.

It was a fun morning. The Fort4Fitness people do a great job with the race. Along the route are gobs of people cheering you on–“Good job!” “You can do it!” About a mile into the walk we passed a large group of blacks singing a song with an African flavor–they were GREAT! Huntington University manned one of the refreshment stations along the route, giving out Gatorade and water.

It was especially fun walking through some of the neighborhoods. In some, the residents really got into it, scrawling encouraging words in chalk into the street and cheering us from their porches.

It’s an incredible event for the city. In just five years, it has grown from 3000 people to 10,000 people. They make it fun, with all kinds of things happening along the route. And at the end–all kinds of goodies await.

Yep, definitely–we’ll be back next year.

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Polluting My Mind

On Wednesday I did some running around town, and, bored with the NFL ref talk on ESPN, I switched over to WOWO. It was the Rush Limbaugh show. I listened to about 15 minutes of his indignation schtick.

Rush said a few things which I knew were either factually wrong or misleading, and made other statements which cried out for factchecking. Which is easy to do; I occasionally factcheck things pundits say. Rush’s track record for untruthfulness is well established (see here, for instance).

What a miserable life Rush leads. For three hours a day, he criticizes people with sarcasm and indignation. That’s what he does. Three hours a day, for several decades now. He makes up stuff when it suits his agenda, with no interest in accurately educating or informing his rapt audience. He has no compunctions about slandering people, about tearing down reputations. His purpose in life is to convince millions of people to despise the same people he despises. And, sadly, he succeeds in spades.

I would not take pride in a career like that.

Rush wants to get people riled up, to feed their anger, and to lay the blame for everything bad in the world at the feet of Obama and all things Democrat.

In real life, I hate being around negative people. They pollute my mind, bring me down, put a dark cloud over my world. So why would I listen to Rush on the radio? (Or to Sean Hannity, or Ed Schultz, or Michael Savage…on and on.)

So I just turned the radio off and contented myself with silence.

That night, my Scripture reading included Ephesians 4, which told me:

“So stop telling lies. Let us tell our neighbors the truth, for we are all parts of the same body. And don’t sin by letting anger control you…for anger gives a foothold to the devil….Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them….Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander….”

It applies to what I say and write, and it applies to what I allow to enter my head.

[Here’s a previous post I wrote about Rush.]

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Legends of Officiating

The NFL referee strike has finally ended. It was short–but probably longer than expected–run for the replacement refs. Now they can sink back into obscurity.

But at least two refs achieved a certain degree of immortality.

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