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
July 17, 2015
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
By Mark A. Taylor Someone close to me said late in September, “I know who I”m voting for in this presidential election, but I”m not sure why.” She was expressing the feeling of many Christians about this year”s election. They”re not too excited about it. And they”re not the only ones. Peggy Noonan asserted in The Wall Street Journal that, even among dedicated Democrats or Republicans, many wonder if their candidate is truly ready for the job. “I haven”t heard a single person say, “˜Yes, my guy is the answer,”” she wrote September 27. “A lot of shrugging is going
February 6, 2008
By Mark A. Taylor Don”t criticize presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee without expecting some feedback. That”s evidently one piece of advice Peggy Noonan could offer. The former speechwriter for President Reagan said she”d been hearing from Huckabee supporters since making negative comments about him in her weekly column for The Wall Street Journal. “As I have read their letters, I have felt nothing but respect,” she wrote. “They believe that what ails America and threatens its continued existence is not economic collapse or jihad. It is our culture.” Most CHRISTIAN STANDARD readers would agree. We see evidence of cultural decay all
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April 28, 2026
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