Brene Brown Preaches

This Sunday, Februrary 11, we'll hear and discuss Dr. Brene Brown's recent sermon at the Washington National Cathedral. Regular Adult Forumer's will recall several previous times when Brene Brown has been our featured topic, especially her talks on empathy and vulnerability. She is a well-known and popular speaker who has been on NPR, PBS, CNN, The Washington Post and Psychology Today. From her webpage at Rice University: 

"Brené has spent the past ten years studying vulnerability, courage, worthiness, and shame. Brené spent the first five years of her decade-long study focusing on shame and empathy, and is now using that work to explore a concept that she calls Wholeheartedness. She poses the questions: How do we learn to embrace our vulnerabilities and imperfections so that we can engage in our lives from a place of authenticity and worthiness? How do we cultivate the courage, compassion, and connection that we need to recognize that we are enough – that we are worthy of love, belonging, and joy?"

Please join us a 9:45. We'll be delighted to see you.

The sin of wealth inequality

This coming Sunday the Adult Forum will view Richard Wilkinson's TED Talk, "How income inequality harms societies." We watched this a few years ago, but it is worth another viewing. The data Wilkinson presents is based on his book, "The Spirit Level" which shows a multitude of correlations between income disparity within countries and the magnitude of those countries' social ills. It's an amazing set of data. Not too surprisingly, the United States has greater wealth inequality that any other nation, and the social ills to match. We'll speculate on how the recent tax bill will affect us.
Please join us. We'll be delighted to see you.

Origins and persistence of poverty

This coming Sunday, January 28th we'll view and discuss a TEDTalk on poverty, given by Dr. Gary Haugen, author of "The Locust Effect." From the website: "Collective compassion has meant an overall decrease in global poverty since the 1980s, says civil rights lawyer Gary Haugen. Yet for all the world's aid money, there's a pervasive hidden problem keeping poverty alive. Haugen reveals the dark underlying cause we must recognize and act on now." Here's the link: Click here. Bryan Wyatt will be using Haugen's book for his sermons during the next two Sundays.
On a related note, this column by Angus Deaton (2015 Nobel laureate in Economics) recently appeared in the NY Times. It addresses the recent UN findings on poverty in America. As others have noted, it's worse than we think.

Please join us Sunday morning at 9:45 in Martin Hall. All are welcome. 

Catching up with what we've done.

I'm posting just to keep a record of what we've done in the Adult Forum
During the second half of December and the first half of January we most listened to and discussed end-of-the-year episodes from "The Daily", a podcast produced by the NY Times. These included:
Derek Black's recanting of white nationalism
Vandalism and forgiveness related to anti-Muslim sentiments, and
The loss of steel-workers' jobs in Indiana, featuring Shannon Mulcahy.

Last week, Jan 21 we hosted a guest speaker, Skipper Darlington IV who is the founding CEO of Africa ASAP (Aerial Surveillance Against Poaching) in Tanzania. This was a powerful, compelling and heartfelt presentation about an important and dangerous initiative to reduce the rate of elephant and rhino extinction. Many thanks to Skipper and to Cathe Crosley for making this happen. Africa ASAP's website is worth a look. http://www.africaasap.org/ 

As always, all are welcome and encourage to attend.

Dr. Jim Pleasant on Infinity

Next Sunday, December 17th we'll hear a presentation from our own Dr. Jim Pleasant, retired faculty in the Department of Mathematics at ETSU. Jim has a talk on infinity and its multiple forms. We look forward to a fascinating and engaging presentation. Please join us at 9:45 in Martin Hall

Dec 10 Richard Rohr

On December 10th we listened to this recording of Fr. Richard Rohr https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9_EHq3UO7I. It was worth it.
On December 3rd we heard member Jim Wilson give his story based on his manuscript "Survival of the Fittest: How God saw me Through." This presentation was thoroughly enjoyable, carried by Jim's naturally good nature and upbeat spirit. He is a man who regularly counts his blessings and feels a deep sense of gratitude and joy in his life.

Carrie Newcomer via On Being

On November 19 and 26 we listened to Carrie Newcomer interviewed by Krista Tippett, host of On Being. I thought was deep, and beautiful. Here's the link: https://onbeing.org/programs/carrie-newcomer-a-conversation-with-music/. See what you think.