Kris and I are on a short respite, what I like to call a mini-sabbatical, of three weeks. I’m concentrating on the Everyday Bible Studies I’m writing for Zondervan. Philippians should be finished next week.
Photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash
Not evangelical, and now not Protestant. What then?
“Evangelical Protestants have been debating for years over the definition and usefulness of the ‘evangelical’ label,” wrote Ryan Burge yesterday at Christianity Today. “Now, it appears ‘Protestant’ may be losing its place too.”
Both a political scientist and a Baptist pastor, Burge has become a uniquely helpful expert for me to follow in recent years, as he blends statistical analysis with personal experience to explain changes in American religion. His new book on the “religious nones” is an ideal introduction to that increasingly significant phenomenon, and his Twitter feed regularly provides intriguing snapshots of religious trends.
For the new CT article, Burge drew on Nationscape, a relatively new weekly survey conducted by the Democracy Fund and UCLA. When asked about religion, Christian respondents can opt either to identify either by that general term or choose a more specific label: Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, or Mormon.
Most strikingly, Burge found that “Protestant” is becoming less and less popular with younger Americans, while “Christian” continues to grow. For example: while 70-year olds are about three times as likely to call themselves Protestant (33%) as Christian (10%) when given the choice between the two terms, almost the reverse is true among 20-year olds (22% Christian, 8% Protestant). The gap isn’t quite so large among people my age, but I’m still relatively unusual as a self-described Protestant in his mid-forties.
I’m hearing much the same. Protestant has never been a big claim by this group anyway.
CHICAGO — Reading is essential, and literacy is in focus at one California program helping adults learn how to read.
Project Second Chance, sponsored by the Contra Costa County Libraries in California, has volunteer tutors who teach basic reading, writing and spelling to anyone 16 years or older.
According to data from the Program International Assessment of Adult Competencies, four in five U.S. adults have English literacy skills sufficient to complete tasks that require comparing and contrasting information.
Issues surrounding adult literacy have accelerated because people were all apart over the past two years due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Most of the students that we teach have English as a second language. They’re immigrants. The other part of our program is for dyslexic students, and many of them go through school not ever learning how to read because teachers don’t know how to teach them. So it’s wonderful to have them come to our program and watch them learn,” said Judi Karcher, a Project Second Chance tutor.
Project Second Chance offers remote tutoring opportunities due to the pandemic and is currently accepting new students; however, it’s in need of more tutors.
“We’d love to have lots of tutors, anybody who was interested, you don’t have to have training. You don’t have to be a college graduate,” Karcher explained. “There’s a training program that teaches you how to use the programs that we use and get yourself set.”
Recognition, that’s what it’s about:
One of the most important Pickleball tips I could have benefited from early in my playing days is what I call Red, Yellow, Green Light Recognition. Like many former athletes that find their way to the pickleball court, I started out far too aggressive as a player. I hit every ball too hard and tried to hit a winner with every shot. It didn’t work out often, but it worked out often enough that I kept that approach going while I played with a group of fellow beginners.
That all changed, though, when I played my first time with an experienced group of pickleballers. Not only were they able to handle my max-effort forehands from the baseline (and deliver it right back at my feet), they were more precise- and soft- with most of their shots. When they did try to hit the ball hard, it usually resulted in a winner (or a soft shot back that they could then put away).
The Supreme Court’s big cases. Is this case big too?
Next month, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a case involving an Obama-era power-plant rule that’s no longer in effect, and never really was. The Court has agreed to hear so many high-profile cases this term, on subjects ranging from abortion to gun rights to vaccine mandates, that this one—West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency—has received relatively little attention beyond legal circles. But its potential ramifications are profound. At a minimum, the Court’s ruling on the case is likely to make it difficult for the Biden Administration to curtail greenhouse-gas emissions. The ruling could also go much further and hobble the Administration’s efforts to protect the environment and public health.
West Virginia v. E.P.A. “could well become one of the most significant environmental law cases of all time,” Jonathan H. Adler, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University and a prominent conservative commentator, wrote on the legal blog the Volokh Conspiracy. Or, as Ian Millhiser put it, for Vox, “West Virginia is a monster of a case.”
The case has a long and tangled history. Back in 2015, the Obama Administration issued what was called the Clean Power Plan, aimed at reducing CO2 emissions from power plants. The plan relied on the Clean Air Act, which instructs the E.P.A. to determine the “best system of emission reduction” for a given pollutant. The E.P.A. decided that, in the case of CO2, the “best system” involved not just upgrading the equipment at individual power plants but changing the way power is generated: to meet the regulations, some coal plants would have had to close or switch to burning lower-emitting natural gas. Before the plan could be implemented, the Supreme Court, in response to a lawsuit brought by more than two-dozen Republican-led states, issued a stay. The 5–4 vote was announced just days before Justice Antonin Scalia died. It was the first time that the Court had blocked a regulation before it had been reviewed by a federal appeals court.
For me it has meant a two year respite from getting on airplanes. It’s meant growing closer to my wife who is my bubble-mate! It’s meant treasuring those times when we have gathered with others. It’s meant working on our home. It’s meant near daily neighborhood walks, glorious sunsets, changing seasons, and getting to know people along the route. So many of my work years have meant getting on a plane or jumping into a rental car for a trip and I haven’t met many of the people in our community beyond my immediate neighbors. I’ve participated in virtual pilgrimages with people from all over the country–times to walk, and meditate on scripture, to listen to stories, and to pray. I’ve written nearly 600 blogs, engaged in hundreds of online conversations, worked with over 30 talented writers in my work, hosted online conversations with a variety of authors and online book groups, and read a few good books along the way (actually more than a few!). I’ve enjoyed plein air painting with my wife and a group of artists in good weather, and actually felt I improved. While I can think of things I wish we could do, I’ve lived, and I think lived well these past years. I even weigh five pounds less than at the beginning of the pandemic (not much, but I’ll take it!).
And by God’s grace, we’ve remained healthy. I don’t presume it will continue when I hear reports saying nearly everyone will catch this latest variant. But neither am I going to run out, plunge into a big, maskless crowd and “get it over with.” That’s the vibe I get as I listen to the media. When I talk to friends our age (late 60’s), we feel like the tornado sirens are blaring and right now we are going to our safe place until the storm of this latest wave blows through. We’re getting good at this. We’ve had a lot of practice and many of us have found the richness of life on the other side of “safe at home.”
Here’s how we look at it. No illness is “milder” when you get older. It takes longer for anything from a cut to a cold or the flu to heal. Even if our vaccinations and booster mean we don’t get sick enough to go to the hospital, that can still be pretty sick. And it is a crapshoot when it comes to after effects. And getting exposed and sick adds to the strain on testing, on our primary care docs, pharmacists, and if we get sicker, a host of others at a time they are all being pressed to the wall. As far as it depends on us, we’ll try to avoid becoming another case.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR MEANDERINGS--EDIFYING, WELL THOUGHT, MAKES ONE THINK...
You described well the way life has in many ways been enhanced as many of us cocooned in during the pandemic. My husband and I determined to find a new nature trail each month, and to hike them weekly. The result has been two of our new favorites. We decided even in the wintery cold to hike, so saw some spots along Lake Michigan we'd never seen with ice formations. Having time to read this Newsletter and reading and sharing either in very small groups or via technology has been another benefit. I was actually able to participate in some trainings that might otherwise have been harder to access has been another benefit. We have many many great benefits, in spite of longing for us to be on the other side of this. I began writing letters by hand again with the hope of being an encouragement to many who are isolated. That was one goal I made when this began. I will continue that on after we are on the other side of it.