Showing results for "mike" in Religious Studies

Years before he wrote the Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis published another fantastical fiction series: the Ransom Trilogy. Yet these three novels – Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength – have never enjoyed the same widespread popularity as Narnia or any of Lewis’s apologetical works, whether in mainstream culture or among Christians.

Six percent of Americans are ex-evangelicals. Their stories often include being spiritually abused by authoritarian church leaders and/or psychologically traumatized by harmful religious teachings and practices. Whereas religion and church often provide a welcoming community that has positive effects on mental health, sadly they can just as easily cause devastating hurt and harm. According to therapists and faith transition coaches, they can cause what is being recognized in the mental health community as religious trauma.

The Ephrussis were a grand banking family, as rich and respected as the Rothschilds, who “burned like a comet” in 19th-century Paris and Vienna society. Yet by the end of World War II, almost the only thing remaining of their vast empire was a collection of 264 wood and ivory carvings, none of them larger than a matchbox. The renowned ceramicist Edmund de Waal became the fifth generation to inherit this small and exquisite collection of netsuke. Entranced by their beauty and mystery, he determined to trace the story of his family through the story of the collection.

Over the last few decades, many dark secrets have been pouring out of Christian communities around the world. Most of them focus on some form of misuse of trust or abuse at the hands of church leaders. For centuries religious leaders have “circled the wagons” in an attempt to preserve the money-making institutions they lead. The result has been a continual cycle of abuse and the disillusioned leaving the institutional church world in droves. From 1982-1989, author Bob Scott founded and pastored the Kansas City Fellowship with his friend and then brother-in-law Mike Bickle.

Ahead of the pivotal 2020 elections, momentum is building across America to revisit the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that struck down laws protecting unborn children and their mothers nationwide. Life is Winning: Inside the Fight for Unborn Children and Their Mothers tells the story of how the pro-life cause went from an orphaned political “problem” to a winning issue embraced at the highest levels of the Republican Party, thanks to a small-but-ambitious group of pro-life women.