Duke Professor J. Kameron Carter uses films Avatar and District 9 to investigate whether America is truly a postracial culture. Spoiler: no!
Continue readingQ2014: Russell Moore and the Prophetic Minority
Russell Moore celebrates the loss of Christian influence in popular culture.
Continue readingQ2014: Brian Fikkert and First World Poverty
Economist Brian Fikkert examines the Western assumptions about what success looks like. He suggest that we’re actually impoverished, that our spiritual need blinds us to better ways to help the Global South.
Continue readingQ2014: Nicole Baker Fulgham Inspires the Next Generation of Women
President and Founder of THE EXPECTATIONS PROJECT Nicole Baker Fulgham outlines what we must do if we truly want to promote the flourishing of the least fortunate.
Continue readingQ2014: Father Bruno Shah Defines Love
Father Bruno Shah, OP calls us to recover the Christian imagination of love. We learn to imitate Jesus (the ultimate lover) particularly through our worship.
Continue readingQ2014: Donna Frietas and the Hookup Culture
Don’t miss the StoryMen #QNashville Day 1 recap. Click here to listen!
Donna Freidas was teaching a course on sexuality and spirituality. All of her students talked about “hooking up”. After Spring Break, they were all debriefing when one student said,
I hookup all the time and I don’t know why. I don’t even like it.
The other students all agreed. Donna was shocked, so she began studying the collegiate hookup culture. She found that young adults believe they are supposed to be casual about sex in college.
Official Social Contract of the Hookup:
- Anything from kissing to sex
- Brief
- Feel zero emotional attachment so you don’t get attached. Communication is bad because it leads to attachment.
- Alcohol (This last aspect is technically unofficial, but alcohol is nearly always involved.)
Stats on attitudes about hookups
- 41% are profoundly unhappy
- 23% are ambivalent (“whateverist” — Donna’s term for those who are casual about… everything. They’re a growing population)
- 36% more or less “fine” (not great/good/fun/etc)
Hookups are Efficient
College Students are Missing Romance & Dating
- Both men and women yearn for romance
- Both men and women wish for old-fashioned dating.
Romance is very chaste. It’s talking (for like 5 hours). It’s no technology. Romance is communication. It’s connection. It’s knowing and being known. It’s a lavish amount of time.
Responding to Hookup Culture
- Teaching YAs to slow down. (In life)
- Pressing “pause” on participating in hookup culture (maybe even for a weekend). This is sneaky abstinance.
- Start talking about romance, love, dating intimacy, and overall relationship skills.
Christianity is bigger than its teaching against premarital sex. If that’s our only response, we teach kids that the only thing that matters when they’re young is to not have sex. That’s an impoverished view of Faith. — Donna Freitas
The Good Samaritan Approach (Creative Attention)
Creative Attention requires you to see them where they are, not where you want them to be.
Q2014: Unity with Christena Cleveland, Bill Haslam and Karl Dean
Three #QNashville speakers address the need for unity. Christena Cleveland speaks to dissolving the division between “us” and “them”. Then Republican governor of Tennessee Bill Haslam and Democrat mayor of Nashville Karl Dean discuss how they work together across party lines to get things done.
Continue readingQ2014: Sheryl Eberly and Good Manners
Sheryl Eberly bemoans the loss of basic civility in our current culture. After exploring the roots and nature of good manners, she makes a plea to cultivate civility again.
Continue readingQ2014: Andy Crouch & Religious Freedom
Andy Crouch unpacks the concept of Religious Freedom as a justice issue and measurement of how well a society promotes religious flourishing.
Continue readingDon’t Mess with My Wife!
Today, my wife Amanda turns 29.
We’ve been married for a little over 4 1/2 years, and in that time, I’ve come to appreciate something very important about her:
Amanda is tough. Very tough.
We joined a boxing gym at the beginning of the year. Amanda goes 5 days most week – according to the staff she’s one of the most dedicated members. They say she’s also got great form and can hit hard.
In other words, Amanda can probably beat you up.
Of course, she never would. She’s way too nice for that. But she is very tough. The only time she might punch you is if you try to keep her from lifting furniture when she’s helping friends move or suggest she isn’t tough enough for a certain task.
I’ve been at Q 2014 this week in Nashville, and particularly during Shaunna Niequist’s excellent talk today, I couldn’t help but think over and over about Amanda. She’s a strong woman who won’t let someone else tell her what she can’t do. The only limits she allows are the ones she puts on herself.
Amanda isn’t afraid to lead. She’s not afraid to stand up for people who can’t stand up for themselves.