American Culture

“Arguments tend to be focused on facts and logic…. A person presents arguments in the hope that someone else will have their understanding or thinking altered as they consider the arguments…. Narratives, on the other hand, tend to be focused on personal stories and experiences. … Increasingly, the discourse in our culture is bereft of arguments but filled with competing narratives.” - Ben Edwards

“…according to a recent survey, over half of American adults (58%) say you get to decide what’s right and wrong for yourself. And it’s not just those outside the church who think this way—it’s prevalent even among those who attend evangelical churches, with 46% rejecting the idea of absolute moral truth.” - AiG

“A new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll sheds light on perceptions of Trump and religion after his widely criticized photo op outside a church.” - Politico

“That’s coming from the Left. But prominent figures from the Right have been saying something similar. …Some conservatives are saying that our ideology of freedom has led to the destruction of the morality that is necessary for any society….Some conservative intellectuals have gone so far as to advocate a non-democratic authoritarian government.” - Gene Veith

“Derek Rishmawy and Cameron Cole discuss whether or not evangelism will change as America becomes post-Christian. They address: Growing trends…Careful, intentional use of our Christian language…The confusion of Christian jargon…” - TGC

“In 2019, the U.S. saw a rate of 58.2 births per 1,000 women ages 15–44, according to statistics from CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. The number of births in 2019 was about 3.75 million, the lowest number of total births in 35 years.” - NR

My recent research, with Cary Wu, explores whether differences in social capital across counties can help explain the differences in the severity of the pandemic. … Although there are many definitions, social capital refers to the norms and relationships that facilitate coordination and resilience within a community.” - The Public Discourse

“The Jewish civil rights group counted 2,107 anti-Semitic incidents in 2019, finding 61 physical assault cases, 1,127 instances of harassment and 919 acts of vandalism. That’s the highest annual tally since the New York City-based group began tracking anti-Semitic incidents in 1979.: - AP

“It is a meta-analysis—that is, a study of studies–bringing together a wide range of disparate research and analyzing the data in terms of each other to arrive at more rigorous conclusions.” - Gene Veith

“The third and latest report in Dr. George Barna’s American Worldview Inventory 2020 evaluated the perceptions of God that people have in the U.S. Among the survey’s most surprising findings are that more Americans believe in Satan than believe in God and that more people believe that Jesus was divine and a sinner than believe he is divine and sinless.” - Church Leaders