The Briefing, Thursday, November 1, 2012
TODAY: The human dimension of Hurricane Sandy, leadership lessons from Sandy, young millennials turn into economic conservatives, the French government decides to pay for all abortions, churches accommodate to short attention spans, and yet another (very strange) Halloween challenge. I discuss all these in today’s edition of The Briefing: A Daily Analysis of News and Events from a Christian Worldview.
Hurricane Sandy is now just a tropical depression moving into Canada, but the storm left a wake of devastation that includes over 50 deaths. Reporter James Barron of The New York Times revealed that the victims included 11 and 13-year-old boys who were killed in their home when a 90-foot tree crashed into the house. An off-duty police officer who helped a family get to safety drowned when he went to check the basement for others who needed rescue. Story after story will unfold with tragedy and grief.
Hurricane Sandy will join those storms that now reside in the nation’s memory of tragedy. Such storms become part of our life story, part of our family saga, and a communal memory that links generations in a shared experience of disaster and its aftermath.
The statistics of Hurricane Sandy are shocking — winds of 129 miles per hour clocked in New Hampshire, for example. Americans have learned a new vocabulary in the wake of the storm, including the word “dewatering,” which now is very much on the minds of those in the flooded region.
Many lessons will be learned in days and months ahead, but the importance of leadership is already very much in view. The good news is that most leaders across the political spectrum have led well, helping citizens to understand the scale of the danger and then to take responsible action. President Obama (a Democrat) joined New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (a Republican) in mobilizing resources. Mayors like Newark’s Cory Booker (a Democrat) and New York City’s Michael Bloomberg (a Republican turned Independent) demonstrated why mayors still matter.
In other news, Martha Irvine of the Associated Press reports that those young Americans known as the millennial generation are turning increasingly conservative when it comes to economic policy. The reason seems simple enough — as these young Americans move into adulthood and face economic reality, this changes their worldview. They are looking for jobs and hoping to marry, have children, buy houses, and enjoy the fruit of their labor. The worldview implications for Christians are many, but one salient fact is that worldview often shifts with age and with the assumption of new responsibilities. This report adds new data to that evidence.
Other evidence of the importance of worldview comes from France, where the government is expected to approve full and direct government funding of all abortions and to make contraceptives totally free for teenagers 15-18. This highly secularized nation will now not only make abortion on demand fully legal – it will pay for all abortions, in full. The radical secularization of France explains how such a policy could come into place with widespread public support.
Lois K. Solomon and James D. Davis of the Sun Sentinel (Ft. Lauderdale, FL) report that many churches are offering shortened worship services designed to attract attendance from a generation marked by a short attention span. The Rev. Chip Stokes of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Delray Beach said: “We are increasingly aware of the time pressures on families, and they have been telling us that the traditional service is too long for them. We recognize that things are changing and we have to be more adaptive without losing our core.”
The article raises significant questions about the plausibility of conforming worship services to the tastes or attention spans of those too busy to attend a regular service. Christian worship requires an attention span, and churches that market to taste are likely to find that they gain little and lose much. The article also makes clear that when services are cut, the sermon suffers the greatest cut. Some churches have dispensed with the sermon altogether. For Evangelicals, preaching stands at the very center of biblical worship.
Finally, The Wall Street Journal reported that parents in Churchill, Manitoba in Canada had to warn their children of danger in bone-chilling detail last night. They were not kidding. The danger in that Arctic community is that the little trick-or-treaters would become what the locals call “bear bait.” Polar bears make their way through the area this time of year, eating in preparation for the long winter. The kids out last night were to be protected with helicopter cover, armed sentries, and bear traps loaded with seal meat.
The question that seems obvious to my mind is this — Why send kids out with the danger that they could become “bear bait?”
I discuss all these in today’s edition of The Briefing: A Daily Analysis of News and Events from a Christian Worldview. Listen here. Links to all articles cites are also provided.