Hearts & Minds

Since Plato, scholars have drawn a clear distinction between thinking and feeling. Now science suggests that our emotions are what make thought possible.

By Jonah Lehrer | April 29, 2007

Just over 50 years ago, a group of brash young scholars at an MIT symposium introduced a series of ideas that would forever alter the way we think about how we think.

read more......

North Park Community Association

Hello All,

Here's what's happening in North Park and what's new on the North Park Community Association Website:

· Use your Credit Card or PayPal to Join NPCA, Renew your Membership, Make a Concert Donation!

April 30th is deadline for inclusion in concert promotional materials.

· NPCA's Annual Elections & History Program 5/23/07

· Become a Board member of North Park Community Association

· Neighborhood Watch Block Captains Meeting 5/1/07

· Main Street Design Committee 5/1/07

· Public Facilities/Transp/Parks/Public Art 5/2/07

· History of Panorama Drive 5/10/07

· Festival of the Arts 5/20/07

· Planning Committee 4/17/07 Draft Minutes

Britain's slave trade records going online

LONDON -- A genealogy Web site said Friday that it will post 3 million names of slaves held across the British Empire in the early 19th century, putting searchable information online to help slaves' descendants research their past.

Love Bridge Prayer Meeting

An ambitious 5-year plan

With disease in check, Methodist bishop set to battle a spiritual 'cancer'

By Sandi Dolbee

RELIGION & ETHICS EDITOR

When Elizabeth Edwards learned that her cancer had returned, and that it was incurable, she said she was not praying for God to save her life. “I'm not,” the wife of presidential candidate John Edwards told Newsweek magazine this month. “God will enlighten me when the time comes.

also see......

Weekly offerings: takes on beliefs & behavior By Sandi Dolbee

Religion & Ethics Newsweekly

April 27, 2007

PERSPECTIVES: Second Anniversary of Benedict XVI's Papacy

COVER STORY: Minnesota Religious Diversity

FEATURE: Parenting Education

WEB EXCLUSIVE: American Religious Poems

Leading evangelical John Stott announces retirement

One of Britain's best known evangelical theologians and spokespeople, a former chaplain to the Queen, has announced that he is to retire.

The Rev Dr John Stott, aged 86, said yesterday that he will formally retire after fulfilling one final speaking engagement at the upcoming Keswick Convention in July 2007.

Full story

TO IRAQ AND BACK

Voices of Women presents the next WITWIGO (What in the World is Going On?).

TO IRAQ AND BACK at Mission Valley Library, 2123 Fenton Parkway, 858-505-8144. From 5:30-7:30 p.m. Monday, April 30, Tony Perry, San Diego bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times, recently returned from his fourth tour in Iraq and will deliver an illustrated presentation.

Omiya City Community Band from Japan

HANDS ACROSS THE SEA at the Carlsbad Community Church, 3175 Harding St., Carlsbad, 760-436-6137. At 2:30 p.m. Sunday, April 29, Coastal Communities Concert Band will perform a joint concert with the Omiya City Community Band from Japan. $15. www.cccband.com

THE TRINITY HOUSE

Community Awareness Builder - hosted by The Trinity House and presented by Southwest Soul Circuit this event on May 3rd, 2007 will discuss some important issues facing San Diego today. Guest appearances by National MusicWorld Recording Artists Trin-i-tee 5:7 and SoulFruit. Click here for more information regarding this event. There will also be a poetry contest with the theme "A Mothers Sacrifice" with a cash prize. Click here for information regarding the poetry contest.

Drinks that sound like drugs

Energy drink marketers hope the names, from left, Red Bull, Monster Energy, Cocaine and Amp give potential buyers the idea that they will get more than a little pick-me-up.

Landmark Survey on U.S. Latinos and Religion

A new, landmark Pew survey shows that Hispanics are changing the nation's religious landscape, especially the Roman Catholic Church. The report, released April 25, documents Latinos' distinctive religious practices and explores how their religious beliefs influence their political thinking. The survey, one of the largest ever on the subject, is a collaboration of the Pew Forum and the Pew Hispanic Center.

Other findings:

• More than half of Hispanic Catholics identify themselves as charismatics, compared with only an eighth of non-Hispanic Catholics.
• Latinos who are evangelicals are twice as likely as those who are Catholics to identify with the Republican Party.
• Two-thirds of Hispanics say that their religious beliefs are an important influence on their political thinking.

Read the executive summary
Read the entire report (PDF)
Read the press release

North Park Earth Day Clean-Up

WHEN: Saturday, April 28, 2007
9am - 12pm

WHERE: 29th & North Park Way

Join North Park residents, community members & business owners at an Earth Day Neighborhood Clean-Up. Be part of a regional cleanup event, hosted by I Love a Clean San Diego.
Visit www.creektobay.org for registration information.

Details:
• Arrive at 8:30 am for check-in and safety instructions.
• Two dumpsters will be located at 29th St. & North Park Way.
• Bring your pick-up trucks for large item removal.
• Bring supplies from home - brooms, dust pans, work gloves, etc.
• Water, coffee and lunch will be provided for volunteers
• Click Here to view information about materials that cannot be disposed of on this day

Special thanks to Councilmember Toni Atkins, EDCO, and the
City of San Diego Environmental Services.

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Handel's 'Hallelujah' chorus: A malice toward Judiasm?

A panel at the American Handel Festival 2007 certainly had an explosive issue: Michael Marissen's thesis that "Messiah" and more specifically the "Hallelujah" chorus exhibits anti-Judaic tendencies.
- Wendy Heller on Handel's 'Messiah'
- Michael Marissen: Unsettling History of That Joyous 'Hallelujah'

Rest Ministries of San Diego

This is a promotional video about a Christian ministry that serves those who live with chronic illness or pain. Rest Ministries is also the sponsor of National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week and HopeKeepers

WAYS TO GROW YOUR SUNDAY SCHOOL CLASS

Case File: Battle for the Bible

Air: Wednesday, April 25, 8:00 pm on KPBS

Today, speakers of English take for granted many phrases from the King James Bible -- from "let there be light" to the word "scapegoat" -- that were the work of an intrepid 16th-century translator who met not with acclaim but with years of exile, and eventually lost his life.

But this translator, William Tyndale -- who was burned at the stake on October 6, 1536 -- was no lone renegade. Rather, he was a pivotal transitional figure, his work a step toward bringing direct experience of the Bible to a reading public.

The film BATTLE FOR THE BIBLE explores the lives and lasting influence of three major figures in the translation and propagation of the English Bible: the 14th-century theologian, politician, and reformer John Wycliffe; Tyndale; and Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury under Henry VIII and advisor to the king through the period that saw the split with Rome and the creation of the Anglican Church.

The translation of the Bible into the vulgar -- the language of everyday people -- was a key element in the series of reforms within the Catholic Church that eventually resulted in what we know as the Protestant Reformation. Read more.......

Future Airs: 4/27 2:00am on KPBS; 4/29 5:00am on KPBS; 4/29 1:30pm on KPBS

Einstein & Faith

In an exclusive excerpt from a new biography, the great physicist wrestles with what it means to believe in God
20 Things You Need to Know About Einstein
Everything you need to know about the smartest man of the 20th century

Maybe it's time to flush the potty mouths - SANDI DOLBEE

Maybe it's time to flush the potty mouths

April 21, 2007
 
My friends say I'm going to get hurt one of these days. There was, for instance, the time I was at a gas station in North Park when a young man pulled up, leaving his rap music booming with all the subtlety of a plane taking off from Lindbergh Field.

I couldn't help but hear the words.

“Excuse me,” I said to him. “Would you like to see your sister raped?” 

His face scrunched up like an album left too long in the sun. I tried to explain. “That's what your song is saying – it's talking about raping your sister. Have you ever really listened to it?” 

He shrugged and turned his back. So much for my superhero powers of persuasion.

I got to thinking about that incident after radio host Don Imus was fired for calling the Rutgers women's basketball team “nappy-headed hos.” Imus argued unsuccessfully that rappers use a lot worse language and they get glorified. 

Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are among those who have gotten buddy-buddy with famous potty mouths.

Obama invited Ludacris to his office to discuss the rapper's AIDS campaign. This is a man who raps about killing people and flicking pennies from an overpass at rush hour. And those are his good points.

Clinton's rendezvous was with Timbaland, who threw a fundraiser for her at his Miami home. Timbaland's lyrics are salted with a derogatory description of women (rhymes with “witch”), the n-word and the before-mentioned “ho.” And these guys are considered mainstream artists.

Earlier this week, two local organizations that represent mobile DJs – like those who go to weddings and corporate parties – announced they will stop playing music with violent or hateful lyrics.

“If we don't make a stand against it, the envelope is just going to be pushed further and further,” says Ron Jones, president of the San Diego Disc Jockey Association. His group is joined in the campaign by the local chapter of the American Disc Jockey Association.

The biggest culprit is rap music, says Jones. “This is not some parent sitting around in 1957 saying Elvis is horrible. This stuff is vile.” 

Jones believes the ethical responsibility lies with companies that put out this music. But in the world of everyday ethics, it's more basic. It's about making the decision to turn this stuff off, one button at a time.

Newsboys, a faith-based rock group, has a rap song out that includes these lines: “See I agree we oughtta boycott hell, but we oughtta boycott dumb lyrics as well.” 

I think what I hear them saying is that smut is smut – no matter how good the beat.

Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, The Associated Press reports that police union leaders want a city firefighter fired over anti-police rap lyrics he wrote about turning “pigs into bacon bits.” 

And the hits keep coming.

Cover Story: Mormonism

Mormons have always been tight-knit, insular and mysterious to the world outside, ever since Joseph Smith said he had a revelation near Palmyra, New York, in 1820 in which God appeared with Jesus and told Smith that none of the churches at the time were true and that God was restoring the true Gospel back on Earth. Smith said he was selected to become the first Latter-day prophet of what was to be called The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Today, the LDS Church is one of the fastest growing in the U.S., with more than five and half million members. But despite the Churchs efforts to become more mainstream with the abolition of polygamy 115 years ago and the acceptance of African-Americans into the priesthood, several Christian churches, Southern Baptist prominent among them, have long held that Mormons are not Christians and some evangelicals regard the religion as little more than a cult.

Bob Faw explores the fears and misconceptions about the Mormon faith and what the LDS Church is doing to address criticisms about its doctrine and theology. According to Sandra Tanner, a former Mormon who runs a Salt Lake City bookstore, "You are talking about a very radical theology from standard Christianity. I believe they are a heresy of Christianity." But Dr. Dallin Oaks, one of the 12 apostles of the LDS Church and former president of Brigham Young university, says Mormonism is part of mainstream Christianity: "We are traditional Christianity... The two main differences that separate us from other Christian faiths is some of the content of our doctrine and our belief in continuing revelation. Everything else follows from those two."

Read the full story

NEW PASTOR ARRIVES IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Please welcome Rev. John Bombaro to our neighborhood. Pastor Bombaro is now the Pastor of Grace Lutheran Church on Park Boulevard and is quoted here,".....it was with great pleasure and joy that I undertook the call to serve Grace Lutheran Church. The 15 April 2007 ordination and installation service was a beautiful and memorable occasion distinctly marked by the presence of the Holy Spirit of our Risen Lord. The good people at Grace Lutheran Church have my solemn pledge to serve them, as well as the citizens of San Diego in need of the Gospel of God, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Top European prize goes to Reformation museum

Geneva's International Museum of the Reformation, housed on the spot where the city's citizens voted to adopt the Protestant Reformation in 1536, has been awarded the Council of Europe Museum Prize for 2007 - writes ENI's Stephen Brown.

Museum director Isabelle Graesslé received the prize - a bronze statuette by Catalan artist Joan Miro, a diploma and a cheque for 5000 euros. The president of the council's parliamentary assembly, Rene van der Linden, made the presentation at a ceremony in Strasbourg on 17 April 2007.

Full story

Williams says the Bible invites listening not dogmatism

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan WIlliams, has told a mixed audience at a public lecture in Canada that both hyper-liberal and ultra-conservative readings of the Bible are 'rootless' and are limited in what they can contribute to the life of the church.

In the Larkin Stuart lecture, delivered on 17 April 2007 at an event hosted jointly by Wycliffe and Trinity theological colleges in Toronto, Dr Williams said that Christians need to reconnect with scripture as something to be listened to and heard in the context of Jesus's invitation to the Eucharist and to work for the gracious kingdom of God.

Full story

God and Our Peace

Rev. R.J. Rushdoony

Posted on April 17, 2007

California Farmer 267:5 (Oct. 3, 1987), p. 40.

The Puritans were a remarkable people who accomplished far more than most men ever have because they knew what they believed and were totally dedicated. They numbered perhaps four percent of the English people when they took over the country; other men lacked their determination. One Puritan pastor, Richard Rogers of Wethersfield in Essex, was told by “a gentleman,” “Mr. Rogers, I like you and your company very well, only you are too precise.” Rogers replied, “Oh sir, I serve a precise God.” For this reason, God’s every Word had to be heeded and obeyed. Christopher Love stated it this way: “If you break God’s law, God will break your peace.”

Church members now number into the millions, but they lack the old-time power. They are too often content with pious gush, not an active faith with obedience. They do not want a precise God to command them, but they want God to be precise with His blessings: God is there to serve them, not to require anything of them.

Joshua’s warning to Israel is seldom heard today. He said to a people of casual faith: “Ye cannot serve the LORD: for he is an holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. If ye forsake the LORD, and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done you good” (Josh. 24:19–20).

Have you given God reason to break your peace?

Wednesday's Supreme Court decision

AP Images

Ruling May Elevate Abortion as Campaign Issue

Wednesday's Supreme Court decision upholding a federal law banning a highly controversial abortion procedure may raise abortion's importance in the presidential election campaign. The ruling, a major victory for anti-abortion advocates, is likely to press presidential contenders to take clear, unambiguous positions on an issue some would like to avoid.

Read the Analysis

Other relevant Pew Forum resources include:
Transcript: High Court Returns to Abortion Debate
Legal Backgrounder: The Supreme Court Revists the Abortion Debate

Pope to Visit 'Pentecostalized' Brazil

CNS

When Pope Benedict XVI lands in São Paulo's Guarulhos International Airport on May 9, he will encounter a religious landscape very different from the one that confronted his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, on his first visit to Brazil in 1980. Unlike in Europe, where the majority of former Catholics have become secular, many in Brazil are turning to pentecostalism. In fact, it's not far-fetched to say that Christianity in Brazil and other Latin American countries is becoming "pentecostalized."

Read the Analysis
"Spirit and Power": A 10-Country Survey of Pentecostals

Three New Harbor Presbyterian Sites

Three New Harbor Sites - Harbor is excited to announce the beginning of three new Harbor sites in the fall. Ramon Robles will be starting a Spanish-speaking church in East Chula Vista; Paul Kim will be starting a second site in Carlsbad(South Carlsbad/La Costa/San Elijho area); and Stephen Phelan will be starting a new church in Mid-City (Kensington, Talmadge, City Heights, College Area). If you know anyone who may be interested in these works that happens to live in or near these areas, then please contact America Salvatore at americas@harborpc.org (619-699-5950)

How to start a First Friday

How to start a First Friday

by Arthur Schwartz

Maybe you read my first article on First Fridays. Since that article has been written North Park has gone through a lot of changes. Our community continues to gentrify, and with that comes transition. Density continues to increase, traffic continues to thicken, but our neighborhoods continue to blossom and mature. After living in this community for 17 years it's refreshing to see all the new faces. On a darker side, it's no secret that North Park has experienced a bit of a crime wave recently. In all the years I've lived in this community, it seems like it happens in waves. And we all know a great solution is to form a Neighborhood Watch. Nothing is more proactive than to take some form of constructive action. I will say from experience that the concept of First Fridays also have their merits. For example, our neighborhood, has been hosting parties on a monthly basis for the last 5 1/2 years. Whether there is a crime wave in our community or not, we continue to break bread together a monthly basis. The result is, by default that we watch out for each other. And it is in that spirit of consistent nurture for one another that we keep our neighborhood safe. On a more global scale, have we not lost our sense of world community? So the easiest place to start to regain that feeling is in our own neighborhoods. With that said I am encouraging each of you who are reading this article to take the next step and regain that sense of community in your own neighborhood. If you're still reading, you're probably wondering how I start one of these. I will take you through step by step of how to get started. I promise you it will be one of the most rewarding experiences you will ever have in your life. It will also transform the face of your neighborhood forever.

Steps for successful launch of First Fridays:

1. Make a commitment that if you take this on you'll nurture it for a period of 18 months.
2. Purchase a clipboard and print a flyer with the time and date to launch your First Fridays, preferably the First Friday of the month.
3. Pick a beautiful afternoon and take your lovely spouse/significant other and knock on every door on your street.
4. Introduce yourself, let them know you're not running for office or collecting any money (this usually gets a chuckle).
5. In one minute or less, let them know you're putting together a neighborhood potluck, and you'll be hosting the first one.
6. At this point in time, I wouldn't explain the whole concept of First Fridays, because your goal is just to get people together for one night.
7. Hand out the flyer, ask them for their e-mail so you could send a final reminder (not everyone will give it to you).
8. Okay, now it's party night-have nametags ready for people.
9. Have your clipboard there and encourage people to sign up for future months.
10. Typically, we have these booked out for most of the year.
11. If you want to go high-tech like we have, we also have a distribution set up in a Yahoo group.
12. The Yahoo group is convenient, because we setup the parties for the year and automated e-mails go out on a monthly basis reminding everyone of next months gathering.

There you have it. Here's how I look at it. One Friday evening of every month I don't have any social decisions to make. I know I'm going to be there as long as I'm in town. I also know without a doubt, that great food will be there every month. And because our neighborhood has grown into a big family, you can guarantee there will be no shortage of laughs. We definitely have a history together. If you just paid $500,000-$800,000 for a home in this community, for a 1200 ft.² house why not enjoy the neighborhood and get to know your neighbors?

I hope you've enjoyed this cookbook on how to set up a First Friday. For groups of 10 or more I'll be happy to come by your home, and walk you through the steps. I can be reached at 619-253-5514. My e-mail address is ArturoSchwartz@gmail.com

US churches call for gun control following university shootings

Expressing the sorrow of many Christians in the US at yesterday's killings in Virginia, the General Secretary of the National Council of Churches USA (NCC USA) has also renewed the NCC's call for 'meaningful' legislation to prevent gun violence.

"My pastor's heart breaks for the families of those who died today," said the Rev Dr Bob Edgar following the fatal shooting at Virginia Tech University.

Full story

"world's brightest minds"

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TED conference makes videos available free online KurzweilAI.net April 16, 2007
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TED, known for its annual invitation-only summit of the "world's brightest minds," today made high-resolution videos of more than 100 full-length TED talks available free on its new website. TED.com's impressive new design includes an innovative custom video player. Shown here (click to play): Ray Kurzweil's TED 2006 talk, "How technology's......

http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=6671&m=19778

Contemporary yoga and meditation

Yoga and Christianity

T.D. Jakes | Contemporary yoga and meditation can be done without compromising one's faith; intention is key. | More On Faith

the power of God in Jesus just grabbed me. …

Evel Overcome with Good
Daredevil Knievel's testimony triggers mass baptisms at Crystal Cathedral.
By Brad A. Greenberg

"I don't know what in the world happened. I don't know if it was the power of the prayer or God himself, but it just reached out, either while I was driving or walking down the sidewalk or sleeping, and it just—the power of God in Jesus just grabbed me. … All of a sudden, I just believed in Jesus Christ. I did, I believed in him! … I rose up in bed and, I was by myself, and I said, 'Devil, Devil, you bastard you, get away from me. I cast you out of my life.' … I just got on my knees and prayed that God would put his arms around me and never, ever, ever let me go."

Read the whole story....

Cover Story: Black Church Music

Cover Story: Black Church Music

Music has been a traditional staple within the black church. Combined with the spoken word, it has the power to inspire, transcend and transform. But accomplished ministers of music are becoming increasingly hard to find as talented musicians opt for greater fame and fortune outside the world of the church.

Bob Faw looks at the challenges facing the black church as it seeks to fill the musical void within its ministry. "It's a difficult thing to try to find someone trained," explains Dr. Gary Simpson, pastor of Concord Baptist Church of Christ in Brooklyn, New York. "We are not training musicians in the music of the church, which the black church did all along its tenure. That kind of commitment is gone for the most part."

Read the full story

Dawkins says religion is "like sucking a dummy"

dummy n : pacifier, [German sauger]

Professor Richard Dawkins has described religious believers as “sucking on dummies” for comfort and said that giving children a religious education was comparable to “erecting a firewall in their minds” against scientific truth. Debating in London on the subject: “Are we better off without religion?”, he said religion was like “a child with a dummy in its mouth. I do not think it a very dignified or respect-worthy posture for an adult to go around sucking a dummy for comfort.” When his opponents, who included Rabbi Julia Neuberger and philosopher Roger Scruton, argued that “the religious gene” is in all of us, and it was part of the human condition to search for meaning, Dawkins replied: “Speak for yourself. It is not a part of me. It is not a part of the great majority of my friends in universities in England and the US and elsewhere.” The debate ranged from religious inspiration in art, to the human capacity for good and evil. You can read a full account via Times Online

Full story: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comm... , published 16 hrs ago
Complete Coverage: 1 more version of this story is available