With humblest apologies for an unstable internet connection that’s causing this update to run about 12 hours late, welcome to the late edition of Sunday Social Hour with the week’s activity from Café social networks.
Submitted from Twitter via the #ecafe tag:
On her blog, the Rev. Laura Toepfer (@HeyToepfer) puts the “Signs of a Healthy Parish” list into the realm of memedom.
The Rev. Kurt C. Wiesner (@keepercaines34) points us to an article in Newsweek that argues that perhaps the power of positive thinking–including “prosperity theology”–is… overrated:
In her new book, Bright-Sided: How Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America, Barbara Ehrenreich calls positive thinking a “mass delusion.” She argues that an unrelenting drive to train our brains to overlook problems and blame ourselves for failures has blinded us to inequality, incompetence, and stupidity.
The philosophy of positive thinking, she argues, developed both as a reaction to the negativity of Calvinism and a salve for the sick and anxious, but has, over time, been turned into a kind of blind optimism. At the heart of positive thinking is a belief that you can will anything you like into happening: recovering from cancer, getting a promotion, becoming a millionaire. Often, the worse things are, the more vehemently people are encouraged to be sunny. The more companies downsized and restructured in the ’80s and ’90s, the more popular affirmation-chanting, team-building consultants became. And all the while, as the country’s wealth shot up, the gap between rich and poor ballooned.
Twitterers can nominate stories for the roundup (and discuss them amongst each other) using the hashtag #ecafe.
Meanwhile, on Facebook, the post on church security elicited this comment from Roger Walker:
Some parish churches still are open during the day and some 24-hours. It is possible to be done especially when parishioners volunteer to provide security. My parish church is open everyday with a sign posted on the door announcing “church open.” I know of another Episcopal Church and a RC Church that are open 24/7. The doors are never locked … Read Moreto the people. Yes, bad things can happen but mostly they don’t. It would be wonderful to see an effort made by all parish churches (EC, RC, etc) to have their doors open once again.
The post on the caption contest featuring Ann Fontaine generated four submissions from Facebook:
Barbara Miles: Happy St. Francis Day two ewes!
Stephen E. Moore: Behold the lambs of God.
Ann Davis Garvin: “It’s OK! I’m going to bless you, not eat you!”
Christianne McKee: Bless me, mother. I’ve been baaaaaad.
Most popular this week was “The Bible is too liberal“, and the most heated conversation arose at Covenant, Schmovenant?
Next week, we’re back to our regularly scheduled afternoon coffee break. Don’t have coffee now, unless of course it’s decaff–or you’re halfway around the world.