September 13 Updates

Affordable Housing

This is a topic that will never go away I guess.


http://www.urban.org/urban-wire/preserving-affordable-housing-what-works

Is a Bachelor's Degree Necessary in the 21st Century?
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/10/reverence-bachelors-degree/408346/?utm_source=atlfb  

Church and Coffee 

Pretty fascinating article on church hospitality and the role of coffee in it.


http://www.christianitytoday.com/local-church/dispatches/coffee/coffee-beverage-that-fuels-church.html?share=wk1QMSGZZCOGG8y26ZdX9nnotbIg6QNa

More Economic Disparity

"Economic writers sometimes say that the silver lining of being a young renter rather than a young buyer is that renters have more flexibility. But poor young people who didn’t go to college and are living at home are not hallmarks of a flexible lifestyle. They are products of a poor neighborhood with a centripetal power over its residents, binding them in place when they might be better off moving cities. Indeed, one of the sad ironies of this juxtaposition between the supermobile and the stuck is that the students who'd most benefit from mobility are stuck in place; those needing the biggest boost are on the slowest escalator.

"The decline in Millennial homeownership today is a single simple statistic masking a complex distribution of motivations. Rich, urban, college-educated, and supermobile Millennials have elected to trade their 30s for their 20s when it comes to buying a home. Meanwhile, poorer, less-educated, and stuck minorities have often traded homes and apartments for their childhood bedroom. Only one of these trends is worth cheering."

http://www.citylab.com/housing/2016/08/why-millennials-arent-buying-houses/497432/?utm_source=SFFB


The Importance of Community Involvement to Good Government

"In democracies like ours, trust is a critical currency. In many ways we are paralyzed without it. It is critical to building the necessary public and political support needed to create meaningful change in our communities. And therein lies the opportunity for community engagement practitioners."

http://www.planetizen.com/node/88483/how-community-engagement-can-restore-trust-government

And more on the "problem" of the white working class

This has some interesting comments from J.D. Vance that say more about his own faith than his book Hillbilly Elegy really told us. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/26/opinion/sunday/the-bad-faith-of-the-white-working-class.html?_r=1

Maybe some of these problems are spilling over to the "white collar working class," especially those who are past 45 or so?

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/20/opinion/dignity-and-sadness-in-the-working-class.html?smid=pl-share


The Smugness of Liberalism

This is an important article, that many of my "liberal" friends need to hear, yet I am unsure posting it on Facebook would be good--too much ammunition for some on the right to jump on it unfairly. So, here it is, parked while I think of how to share it.

http://www.vox.com/2016/4/21/11451378/smug-american-liberalism


...and Christianity Today's response:

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2016/september/i-overlooked-rural-poor-then-trump-came-along.html?utm_source=ctweekly-html&utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_term=13671525&utm_content=464719318&utm_campaign=email

What's wrong with western missionaries?

One more reference to "smugness" that all of us Christians, not just missionaries, can sometimes convey to those we "serve."

http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/what-s-wrong-with-western-missionaries?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=feedpress.me&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dg-articles


Teacher Burnout

Here's another perennial problem, in that we just can't seem to find it important enough to address:

http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/09/15/493808213/frustration-burnout-attrition-its-time-to-address-the-national-teacher-shortage?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20160915