The Politics Of The Righteous: A Religious And Political History Of Conservative Neo-evangelicals In Central Florida

In 1953 a small, seemingly insignificant, church was founded in Winter Park, Florida. By the early 1970s, Calvary Assembly of God, a church that had started with a dirt floor, was declared one of the fastest growing churches in America with membership easily reaching over several thousands.1 In the late 1970s and 1980s, it became a major religious and political force in central Florida so much so that it had received visits from then presidential hopefuls Pat Robertson and Vice President George Bush. The changes that took place at Calvary Assembly, both politically and religiously, provided a microcosm of the rest of the nation, while at the same time, these changes made Calvary a leader within the charismatic neo-evangelical subculture. The incredible growth of Calvary Assembly is part of a larger narrative on the expansion of neoevangelicalism, and more specifically, the charismatic movement in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as, the growth of central Florida. As a result of their growth Calvary was able to launch, and participate in, many programs on both the local and national level. Religious orthodoxies seeped into the political and social thought of those at Calvary, which influenced, and helped to explain, how the church became politically active. Part I examines the growth of Calvary within the context of the growth of Central Florida and the growth of the charismatic movement, This section will include the founding of Charisma 1 Stephen Strang, “Calvary Assembly-Fastest Growing Sunday School in the U.S.,” Pentecostal Evangel, July 30, 1978, 6. iii magazine, major national events such as the Jesus Festivals, and the impact of charismatic revivalists. The impact of Calvary on the local community is another part of the story. Part II addresses the political bloc Calvary produced in central Florida. The church participated in and influenced national rallies such as “Washington for Jesus.” It shared its political views with central Florida through bulletins like Insight, which addressed moral issues like pornography, homosexuality, education and abortion. Calvary also used events like Freedom Celebration, and articles in Charisma to promote its views on American freedom. As a result local and national politicians and political groups recognized Calvary Assembly as a political powerhouse. Another part of the story is that Calvary and central Florida represented the local side of a national story on evangelicalism and national politics

FROM BIBLE COLLEGE TO UNIVERSITY: FACTORS RELATED TO INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE DURING THE LEADERSHIP OF THREE UNIVERSITY PRESIDENTS FROM 1979 TO THE PRESENT

Higher education is known for its slow rate of change, but as the 21st century continues institutions of higher education (IHEs) are feeling the pressure to adapt. In addition to the pressures faced by higher education at large, Christian IHEs faces increasing secularization. This qualitative case study examined the underlying history and rationale for transition and change during the administrations of three presidents. Using organization change theory, three administrators were interviewed to determine the factors that influenced change at a Christian IHE from 1979 to 2019. The institutional changes in Christian higher education provided rich areas for research on leadership and organizational change, growth, and development. Results indicated that religious identity, institutional identity, academic growth, student population and demographic growth, governance and leadership, and finances were all factors that influenced chang

Cancer Biomarker Discovery: The Entropic Hallmark

Background: It is a commonly accepted belief that cancer cells modify their transcriptional state during the progression of the disease. We propose that the progression of cancer cells towards malignant phenotypes can be efficiently tracked using high-throughput technologies that follow the gradual changes observed in the gene expression profiles by employing Shannon's mathematical theory of communication. Methods based on Information Theory can then quantify the divergence of cancer cells' transcriptional profiles from those of normally appearing cells of the originating tissues. The relevance of the proposed methods can be evaluated using microarray datasets available in the public domain but the method is in principle applicable to other high-throughput methods. Methodology/Principal Findings: Using melanoma and prostate cancer datasets we illustrate how it is possible to employ Shannon Entropy and the Jensen-Shannon divergence to trace the transcriptional changes progression of the disease. We establish how the variations of these two measures correlate with established biomarkers of cancer progression. The Information Theory measures allow us to identify novel biomarkers for both progressive and relatively more sudden transcriptional changes leading to malignant phenotypes. At the same time, the methodology was able to validate a large number of genes and processes that seem to be implicated in the progression of melanoma and prostate cancer. Conclusions/Significance: We thus present a quantitative guiding rule, a new unifying hallmark of cancer: the cancer cell's transcriptome changes lead to measurable observed transitions of Normalized Shannon Entropy values (as measured by high-throughput technologies). At the same time, tumor cells increment their divergence from the normal tissue profile increasing their disorder via creation of states that we might not directly measure. This unifying hallmark allows, via the the Jensen-Shannon divergence, to identify the arrow of time of the processes from the gene expression profiles, and helps to map the phenotypical and molecular hallmarks of specific cancer subtypes. The deep mathematical basis of the approach allows us to suggest that this principle is, hopefully, of general applicability for other diseases