The Gulf of Mexico and the Care of Creation by Russell Moore

Here is a thoughtful, Christian perspective by Russell Moore:

“As I type this, I am looking out at the Gulf of Mexico. You could have seen a similar sight out the window of the hospital where I was born, just a few miles down the road here on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. Now, though, those waters I grew up with, gently lapping against the sand, are threatening to bring with them millions of gallons of oil, spewing up from an exploded rig out in the Gulf. Five years after Hurricane Katrina leveled this hometown of mine, it is bracing for the worst environmental disaster in the history of the United States.

Some conservatives, and some conservative evangelicals, act as though “environmentalism” is by definition “liberal” or even just downright silly. Witness a lot of the evangelical rhetoric across social media on Earth Day a while back: mostly Al Gore jokes and wisecracks about cutting down trees or eating endangered species as a means of celebration.

Do some environmentalists reject the dignity of humanity? Yes. Do some replace the reverence for creation with that due the Creator? Of course. This happens in the same way some do the same thing with reverence for economic profit or any other finite thing.” (Read the rest…)

The Song of Science

“Nonbelievers may hear all the notes of science, but without a theistic context and perspective they will not hear the song.”–George Marsden
For more on the often confusing relationship of faith and science, see the excellent Science and Faith: Friends or Foes? by C. John Collins

Dave Barnes New Music Video – ‘God Gave Me You’

OK, this is a bit different, but very cool. I just wanted to celebrate my college roommate’s recent success. Dave Barnes has come a long way and worked very hard–and is a very talented Christian songwriter and performer. Here is his new video and link to his new cd. Check it out! Way to go Dave!

72% of Millennials ‘more spiritual than religious’

I came across this article today–front page of USA Today and written by Cathy Lynn Grossman.

Most young adults today don’t pray, don’t worship and don’t read the Bible, a major survey by a Christian research firm shows.
If the trends continue, “the Millennial generation will see churches closing as quickly as GM dealerships,” says Thom Rainer, president of LifeWay Christian Resources. In the group’s survey of 1,200 18- to 29-year-olds, 72% say they’re “really more spiritual than religious.”

Among the 65% who call themselves Christian, “many are either mushy Christians or Christians in name only,” Rainer says. “Most are just indifferent. The more precisely you try to measure their Christianity, the fewer you find committed to the faith.”

Key findings in the phone survey, conducted in August and released today:

•65% rarely or never pray with others, and 38% almost never pray by themselves either.

•65% rarely or never attend worship services.

•67% don’t read the Bible or sacred texts.

Many are unsure Jesus is the only path to heaven: Half say yes, half no.

“We have dumbed down what it means to be part of the church so much that it means almost nothing, even to people who already say they are part of the church,” Rainer says.

The findings, which document a steady drift away from church life, dovetail with a LifeWay survey of teenagers in 2007 who drop out of church and a study in February by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, which compared the beliefs of Millennials with those of earlier generations of young people. (MORE)

For helpful commentary on this, see Ed Stetzer

For more research on the emerging generation, see “Souls in Transition”