TruthBook Religious News Blog

Please click on "external source" to access a website called "The Elders," an independent group of eminent global leaders, brought together by Nelson Mandela, who offer their collective influence and experience to support peace building, help address major causes of human suffering and promote the shared interests of humanity.

Labels: humanity, peace, peacemaking, suffering, The Elders

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Friday, May 08, 2009

First-Ever Gallup Student Poll Shows That One-Third of America's Young People Are Struggling or Suffering

Gallup, America's Promise Alliance and the American Association of School Administrators incorporate youth voice into national dialogue on dropout prevention and college readiness

WASHINGTON, May 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A poll released today by Gallup and America's Promise Alliance shows that more than one-third of students surveyed in grades 5-12 are struggling or suffering, and half (50 percent) are not hopeful, as quantified by Gallup researchers. The findings mark the beginning of what will quickly become the largest-ever survey of American children, and will help school systems and communities benchmark progress and determine solutions to the dropout crisis. Currently, one in three American students does not graduate from high school.

For this initiative, Gallup measured three key metrics -- hope, engagement and well-being -- that research has shown have a meaningful impact on educational outcomes and more importantly, can be improved through deliberate action by educators, school administrators, community leaders and others. Questions focused on:

* Hope -- the ideas and energy students have for the future;
* Engagement -- the level of student involvement in and enthusiasm for school; and
* Well-being -- how students think about and experience their lives.

Findings from the poll include:

* Nearly two in three students in grades 5-12 surveyed (63 percent) are thriving; more than one-third are struggling or suffering. Struggling and suffering students evaluate life in negative terms, struggle to meet daily demands in life and lack some of the resources needed to succeed.
* Half of those surveyed (50 percent) reported answers indicating they are not hopeful, with one-third (33 percent) indicating that they are stuck, while 17 percent feel discouraged.
* More than nine in 10 (94 percent) of those surveyed say they will graduate. Those who are close to their parents/guardians, or who have a caring adult in their life are more likely to believe they will graduate.
* More than eight in 10 (86 percent) believe they will find a good job awaiting them after graduation.
* Eight in 10 (80 percent) said they smiled or laughed at school yesterday, while seven in 10 (70 percent) said they learned or did something interesting at school. Just half (52 percent) said they were treated with respect all day.

This is a lengthy article with much more information. Please click on "external source" to access the complete article.

Labels: America's Promise Alliance, dropouts, Gallup Poll, middle school students, suffering

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Friday, August 15, 2008

A love that scares us

Christianity has always dealt in hard truths

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Michael Gerson, Calgary Herald
Published: Sunday, August 10, 2008

In a recent investigative profile, The Associated Press tells the depressingly familiar story of televangelist Kenneth Copeland.

His ministry's private jet and lakeside mansion. The complex web of ranching, oil and media interests that benefits his extended family. In this case, there is no taint of hypocrisy. Copeland practises what he preaches -- a doctrine that God wants his followers to prosper in very material ways.

This prosperity gospel combines two of the most powerful forces on Earth: the profit motive and the power of positive thinking. At its best, it inspires hard work, generosity and the avoidance of life-destroying vices. At its worst, it is religiously infantile.

"I believe God wants to give us nice things," says evangelist Joyce Meyer.

"I think God wants us to be prosperous," pastor Joel Osteen assures us. "I think He wants us to be happy."

Whatever ethical problems such leaders may or may not have, they face a large theological challenge.

A religious system that promises happiness and "nice things" is difficult to reconcile with the faith whose founder had "no place to lay his head," urged his followers not to store up "treasures on Earth," and called on them to deny themselves and take up a cross of suffering.

This has never made the best marketing message. What company would adopt the electric chair or the hangman's noose as its logo?

Christianity has always dealt in hard truths -- God is not a means to our own ends, suffering is unavoidable in lives bounded by mortality and often wrecked by failure.

Suffering for the sake of suffering is useless; it is merely masochism.

But when suffering cannot be escaped as the health-and-wealth preachers promise -- or even nobly endured as the stoics promise -- it may perhaps be transformed.

"If you and I can share our pain," said the late theologian Henri Nouwen, "suddenly we find grace and joy coming in. In your tears and anguish and struggle, you suddenly discover community, you suddenly discover friendship, you suddenly discover affection, you suddenly discover forgiveness, you suddenly discover healing.

"All these things come through vulnerability."

In this odd faith where the poor in spirit are blessed, the highest ideal is suffering for others -- though most of us do precious little of it. This model of spiritual leadership has nothing to do with conventional measures of success and influence. It is found in the medical missionary who buries his or her life in the forgotten relief of forgotten suffering. In the dying pope who speaks for the vulnerable by exposing his own shocking vulnerability.

One of the most vivid literary pictures of this leadership comes from a strange source -- a self-loathing, self-described "Catholic agnostic," prone to prostitutes, opium and suicide attempts.

In Graham Greene's "The Power and the Glory," set in the 1930s, Mexico's authorities destroy churches and hunt down priests for execution. An unnamed whiskey priest -- disguised and constantly moving -- doggedly performs his sacramental duties while knowing he is a spiritual failure. He has a mistress, a child and a problem with alcohol. But stripped of dignity, respect and possessions, he discovers an identification with the poor around him.

Labels: Christianity, love, Michael Gerson, prosperity, suffering