GOOD NEWS PERSPECTIVE – No. 3, September 24, 2007
Welcome to the third issue of our new email newsletter, Perspective. We are getting very positive response from folks receiving it (literally hundreds of you have signed up!). Many of our Good News readers are choosing to subscribe, pleased with the idea of an update from us every other week between issues of the magazine. If you enjoy it, share it with others and urge them to subscribe by emailing us at: perspective@goodnewmag.org.
TENURED BIGOTS
In the August 18, 2007 issue of World Magazine, there is an important and fascinating article about bigotry toward evangelical Christians on the campuses of American colleges and universities. We may not be surprised, but it is stunning to see how pronounced the bias is.
In a recently released scientific survey of 1,269 faculty members across 712 different colleges and universities, a whopping 53 percent of respondents admitted to harboring unfavorable feelings toward evangelicals. The next closest group in the unfavorable ratings was Mormons at just 33 percent. Muslims’ unfavorable rating was just 22 percent.
The study was done by Gary A. Tobin, president of the Institute for Jewish and Community Research, who set out to gauge levels of academic anti-Semitism compared to hostility toward other religious groups. He found that only 3 percent of college faculty holds unfavorable views toward Jews. To read the one-page article, go to: http://www.worldmag.com/articles/13235.
RESEARCHERS SAY SEXUAL ORIENTATION CAN CHANGE
Contrary to some mental-health experts and many advocates of the pro-homosexual agenda, new research indicates that a change in sexual orientation is possible for some homosexuals.
That is the conclusion of a new book just released, Ex-Gays? A Longitudinal Study of Religiously Mediated Change in Sexual Orientation, written by Stanton L. Jones and Mark A. Yarhouse, and published by InterVarsity Press.
Asked why the study was conducted, Jones, a provost and professor at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, said the reason was “The ever-increasing pessimism expressed in the professional world that sexual orientation could ever be changed.” He went on to say, “When the mental-health field actually began to say that change is impossible—that sexual orientation cannot be changed—it formed the perfect scientific hypothesis to be able to conduct a study.”
What the two researchers found in a study over an extended period of time was that “not everyone is successful, not even a majority is successful, but a very substantial group of people report fairly dramatic change.” For the full article, go to:
http://www.citizenlink.org/
CLtopstories/A000005470.cfm.
SMART GROWTH CONFERENCE WOULD BE SMART CHOICE
Here’s a heads-up about a neat conference that would be well worth attending. Two nationally-known leaders in emerging growth trends for churches—Leonard Sweet and Mike Slaughter—will be speaking at the Smart Growth Conference: Leading Your Church in the Right Direction, set for October 19 and 20 at The Woodlands United Methodist Church, The Woodlands, Texas. The Woodlands’ founding pastor, Dr. Ed Robb III, will also be speaking.
The Rev. Mike Slaughter has led the Ginghamsburg United Methodist Church in Tipp City, Ohio, to become an amazing and innovative congregation that has caught the attention of the entire denomination. The Rev. Len Sweet, currently professor at Drew Theological School and visiting professor at George Fox University, has authored more than 100 articles, 600 published sermons, and 30 books. He is founder and president of SpiritVenture Ministries and in both 2006 and 2007 was voted one of the “50 Most Influential Christians.”
For more information and to register for the Conference, go to: www.smart.twumc.org.
CAN UNITED METHODISTS FOLLOW THEIR CALL?|
Lots of folks—bishops, seminary professors, church growth experts, and others—are asking why young people are not going into local parish ministry. This is a timely concern for us United Methodists as the numbers of our clergy under 35 years of age has shrunk badly.
Readers should be interested in a neat UMNS Commentary piece that is posted on our Good News website. From youthful voices at a GenerationX/Y Conference, we hear expressions that should concern us. From many came the concern that The United Methodist Church “is not looking for gifted Christian ministers, but rather “for by-the-book, work-within-the-system professionals who would pay their dues, innovate only within the system and not rock the boat.
Two major concerns emerged from the young adults, says writer Benjamin Yosua-Davis. First, no one approves of the candidacy process for ministry in The United Methodist Church. Most all had their horror stories about “horrendous difficulties” in a system “that doesn’t really seem to want them and makes their lives unnecessarily difficult.” All of this, I confess, sounds familiar. Candidates report lost papers, uncertainty about the process, etc.
A second major concern, especially among young clergy, was with seminary education. While appreciative of individual professors and individual courses, there was a sense “that seminary education is critically disconnected from ministry on the ground, especially ministry in the 21st century. Many question whether their schools have a clear idea about what it takes to be an effective church leader and, almost universally, young clergy leaders do not feel equipped to be leaders when appointed to their first parish. This seems to be true regardless of which United Methodist seminary they attended.”
For the full article, see the link on the Good News web site or go to: http://www.umc.org/site/apps/nl/content3.asp? c=lwL4KnN1LtH&b=2072519&ct=4434793.
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