September 1, 2024
An echo chamber is an environment where the same opinions are repeatedly voiced and promoted, so that people are not exposed to opposing views. Echo chambers also extend to online groups where people with similar opinions on any topic share their voices and validate each other.
February 16, 2016
By Mark A. Taylor Peggy Noonan wrote in Saturday”s Wall Street Journal about “the general decline of America”s faith in its institutions,” and you can guess the institutions she listed: “the professions, the presidency, the Supreme Court,” and the one she mentioned first, the church. I”m assuming Noonan, a Catholic, thinks first of the church she knows best, and statistics suggest the Catholic Church in America is in trouble. According to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), a national nonprofit research center affiliated with Georgetown University, attendance at Mass in the U.S. declined from 55 percent of the
We asked 35 Christian leaders, “Who is the influencer with the biggest impact on your life and ministry?” Most of these leaders listed several influential thinkers, writers, innovators, and leaders more of us should get to know. This response is from Victor Knowles, founder and director of POEM (Peace on Earth Ministries), Joplin, Missouri. ________ Leroy Garrett is perhaps best known for his magnum opus The Stone-Campbell Movement, but I think his best work is his transparent autobiography, A Lover”s Quarrel. It caused me to tear up a number of times. Anyone who can touch your heart can reach your head. This
March 19, 2013
By Mark A. Taylor Today Pope Francis, the first Pope from the Americas, will be formally installed in a mass that will headline news reports everywhere. Many nondenominational Christians will ignore the ceremony, while some will take the occasion to express their disdain for the abuses or errors of the church that claims 1.2 billion adherents worldwide. But we need not agree with Roman Catholic tradition or dogma to learn something from the unpretentious man who now heads that church. News of his unassuming humility is everywhere. Christopher M. Belitto, writing for CNN, described Francis”s first appearance to the masses
By Mark A. Taylor The question came to me when I discovered Peggy Noonan”s On Speaking Well at a $5 book table. The very first piece of advice from the most famous of President Ronald Reagan”s spreechwriters? “No speech should last more than 20 minutes.” I remember all the sermons I”ve heard””and delivered””that have been way longer than that. And I wonder if Noonan”s advice should apply to sermons too. Her rationale: Reagan . . . knew twenty minutes is more than enough time to say the biggest, most important thing in the world. The Gettysburg Address went three
November 27, 2011
By Mark A. Taylor Roy Lawson once wrote at this site that he generally avoids books about leadership. I haven”t pressed him, but I”m guessing his point is something like this: There must be some substance beneath our leadership methods. “Casting vision” and listening to the team and being decisive, along with a dozen other useful tactics, don”t mean much from a would-be leader who is not himself a person worth following. So let”s read books that nourish the soul and expand the mind before we go looking for technique. And yet many among us devour leadership books and seminars
October 29, 2008
Mark A. Taylor reflects on Christian uneasiness during a presidential election and reminds readers that voting matters, but no candidate can solve the country’s deepest problems.
February 6, 2008
Peggy Noonan’s criticism of Mike Huckabee drew passionate letters from supporters who see cultural decay as America’s central crisis. The article argues government can’t fix hearts—and lasting change comes through yielding to God’s Word and Spirit.
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June 8, 2026
Don Sanders
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Jerry Harris
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David Faust