The Megachurch, its Critics and The Prosperity Gospel

The biggest critic of the megachurch has consistently been its theology: the prosperity gospel. Megachurches are accused of using this gospel to take from attendees while promising prosperity that is simply not guaranteed. Why is this the prominent belief about megachurches? What does the megachurch have to say about such accusations? This paper explores these questions and the role of the prosperity gospel in shaping the identity of the megachurch. I believe it’s come to redefine the megachurch as a church whose motives for evangelism are questioned because of the theology of health, wealth, and victory that is synonymous with such large churches. A fair amount of research on the megachurch either focuses exclusively on its theology, the prosperity gospel, or addresses it at great length. I would argue that critics have observed issues with the theology that characterizes the megachurch that leaders and promoters of the megachurch don’t see a problem with. The question then becomes less about the megachurch alone and more about its theology, its biggest identifier. What is so wrong with the prosperity gospel according to critics, what do leaders and promoters of the megachurch have to say about this and why does this matter

Get Out, Queen & Slim: A Content Analysis of How Race is Portrayed in Two Mainstream Hollywood Films

This paper analyzes how African-Americans and race are portrayed in two mainstream Hollywood films: Get Out (2017) and Queen & Slim (2019). The goal was to compare emerging themes to what previous literature indicates about the portrayal of African-Americans and race in mainstream films and representation on-screen and behind-the-scenes in Hollywood. Previous literature suggests that African-Americans are often placed in stereotypical and limiting roles and that this is in part due to the lack of diversity behind-the-scenes. A content analysis along with open-source coding revealed racial solidarity as the key emerging theme throughout both films. A theme that was also challenged in Queen & Slim, resulting in a more complex race narrative. Findings suggest that African-Americans are being portrayed in more complex roles and that race in film reflects societal constructions of it. In other words, the portrayal of race in these films mirrors African-American’s lived experiences and the way race is portrayed in American society. I believe the diverse, predominantly black production team, plays a role in portraying race with more nuance and African-Americans with more complexity

The Synchronization System of the Thomx Accelerator

International audienceThe ThomX compact light source uses a 50 MeV ring to produce X-rays by Compton scattering. For historical reasons the linac and the ring could not operate at harmonic frequencies of each other. A heterodyne synchronization system has been designed for this accelerator. This synchronization is based on mixing the two RF frequencies to produce an heterodyne trigger signal and that is then distributed to the users. Bench tests of the system has demonstrated a jitter of less than 2 ps. We describe here this synchronization system

High repetition rate CEP-stable Yb-doped laser source for attoscience

We report on the CEP-stabilization of an ultrashort pulses Yb-doped source delivering 75 microjoules, 60 fs at 100 kHz with a measured every shot CEP noise lower than 320 mrad over 1s

10μJ ultrashort sub-100 fs FCPA synthesizer (orale)

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Modal instability suppression in a high-average-power and high-finesse Fabry–Perot cavity

International audienceAn experimental method to remove modal instabilities induced by thermoelastic deformation in optical high-finesse resonators is presented and experimentally investigated in this paper. The method is found suitable for multi-mirror folded monolithic and compact cavities, such as those used in the particle accelerator environment. It is also suitable for very high stacked average power. Here we demonstrate stable operation at the 200 kW intracavity average power

Compact kW-class enhancement cavity operated at GHz repetition rates for Inverse Compton Scattering sources

International audienceWe report on a compact kW-class optical system composed of a GHz oscillator amplified at high average power and coupled to an optical cavity exhibiting a 250 enhancement factor.</jats:p

Optical Cavity R&amp;D for Laser-Electron Interaction Applications

International audienceLaser-electron Inverse Compton Scattering X-ray source based on optical enhancement cavity is expected to produce higher-flux and better-quality X-rays than conventional sources, in addition, to become more compact, much cheaper than Free Electron Laser and Synchrotron Radiation. One X-ray source named ThomX is under construction at LAL, France. An electron storage ring with 50 MeV, 16.7 MHz electron beam will collide with a few picosecond pulsed laser to produce 10¹³ photons per second. A prototype cavity with a high finesse (F=25,100) in the picosecond regime is used to perform R &amp; D for ThomX. We obtained 380 kW power stored in the optical cavity and mode instabilities were observed. The EOM-based frequency modulation to measure the finesse, the influence of dust on finesse, high-power experiments and other related issues are mentioned briefly. We will also describe the TTX2 (Tsinghua Thomson Scattering X-ray source) at Tsinghua University which is in design process. TTX2 prefers using an electron storage ring and an optical cavity in order to get high X-ray flux