The Cost of Making Disciples

(Excerpt) Christians, wrote Tertullian in the second century, are made, not born. Fortunately, we have a description of how they were made from the Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus.l Exposed to the gospel through lives of committed Christians, inquirers were questioned as to the seriousness of their intentions. Were they willing to change their lives and to renounce occupational patterns that were incompatible with the faith? Or, was the idolatry permeating their culture so pervasive that they were unable to hear the word ? If these candidates were capable of making lifestyle corrections, they entered the catechumenate. For as long as three years, these members in- process were led with care and deliberateness into Christian life. The setting for this faith apprenticeship was liturgical rather than academic, with regular patterns of prayer, exorcism, and the laying on of hands

Native American Educators and Their Leadership Roles on Reservations in the Northern Great Plains

Native American educators occupy a significant place within their respective communities. In this article I report findings from a qualitative investigation on the various ways Native educators define their roles to their students, schools, and communities. Using personal interviews in conjunction with combined snowball and purposive sampling techniques, I documented the perceptions and experiences of 21 Native American educators on their roles as professionals serving reservation schools in the Northern Great Plains. Reflecting the complexities of reservation life, the educators played a myriad of intertwined roles. Analysis of the data led me to identify two types of educators. One I refer to as affinitive educators and the other facilitative educators. Moreover, upon closer examination, I also discovered that the participants articulated two types of roles they perform, definitional roles and foundational roles. In this article I present the two types of educators and the associated roles expressed by the participants

To Act Or Not To Act: Will New York\u27s Defeated Death Penalty Be Resurrected?

Capital punishment has always been a topic of controversy in the United States. The debate about the death penalty, its value as a way to permanently incapacitate society\u27s most dangerous criminals and its effectiveness as a deterrent to violent crime, has increased. This phenomenon is particularly visible in New York State, where, in 2004, the New York Court of Appeals struck down the State\u27s death penalty statute as invalid under the New York Constitution. This Note describes the evolution of New York\u27s 1995 death penalty statute, analyzing the way in which the state legislature could respond to the statute\u27s unconstitutionality, and recommends that the legislature end the current debate over the future of capital punishment in New York by abolishing the death penalty. Part I describes the evolution of death penalty legislation at the federal level and within New York State. Part I further discusses the legislative reaction to the statute\u27s invalidation and describes the current debate in New York about the continued desirability of capital punishment. Part II presents the legislative alternatives of either amending or abolishing New York\u27s death penalty statute and discusses the arguments for and against each option. Finally, Part III argues that despite the challenges involved in either amending and reinstating the death penalty or abolishing it, the legislature should not allow the statute simply to remain inoperable by fault. This note concludes that given the need for action, the State Legislature should move to abolish the death penalty in New York

[Review of] Paul R. Spickard. Mixed Blood-Intermarriage and Ethnic Identity in Twentieth-Century America

Just as the mixing of peoples has been a dominant theme in American social history, it has also been a compelling, if not controversial, theme in American social science. Sociologists have long recognized that intermarriage is an important social phenomenon in American society. Thus, early American social observers were drawn to study this area of social life. From Frederick Hoffman\u27s earliest studies of black/white couples in the late nineteenth century to W. E. B. Du Bois\u27s observations on intermarriage at the beginning of the twentieth century, the systematic study of inter-marriage stands as one of the initial starting points for American sociology

Origin of Grassy Lake

Two theories have been proposed to explain the formation of Grassy Lake. One attributes the formation of the swamp to earthquake; the other states that it is one of the many so-called oxbow lakes in the area. A study of aerial photographs showing the absence of fault zones and related sandblows tends to rule out any possibility of an earthquake origin, and in size and shape the swamp in no way resembles an oxbow lake. The aerial photographs reveal instead that the formation of the swamp was due to a natural levee being built up by a river which meandered through the low area now called Grassy Lake. The presence of dense stands of bald cypress (Taxodium distichum (L.) Richard), which grow in abandoned river channels, and a knowledge of the ecology of bald cypress support this hypothesis

I Cannot Tell a Lie: Emotional Intelligence as a Predictor of Deceptive Behavior

Research has identified that perceived acceptability and likelihood of lying depend on the type of lie and personality characteristics such as honesty, kindness, assertiveness, and Machiavellianism. However, this research has focused on individuals’ experiences of their own emotions and neglected to consider how an individual’s understanding of others and their emotions influences deceptive behavior. I expanded upon this research during the summer of 2018 by investigating the relationship between emotional intelligence, personal intelligence, and perceived acceptability and likelihood of telling four types of lies, which are distinguished from one another based on their motivation (altruistic, conflict avoidance, social acceptance, or self‐gain). Participants were 80 University of New Hampshire undergraduate students who completed an online survey consisting of both self‐report and ability‐based measures. Results suggest that scores on ability‐based tests of personal intelligence may be useful in predicting an individual’s likelihood of telling lies for the purpose of social acceptance. Results also indicate a significant negative correlation between self‐reported likelihood of telling social‐acceptance lies and levels of personal intelligence, indicating that those with higher personal intelligence are less likely to tell social‐acceptance lies