1. WATCH: The NFL’s Chilling New Anti-Domestic Violence Ad Will Make You Stop and Listen
The ad, which is set to air during Sunday’s Super Bowl and depicts a real-life 911 call, comes after a media storm uncovering high-profile domestic violence cases involving NFL players this past year.
2. The Problem with Immodest Pastors
Kaetlyn Beatypens this brilliant response to the #ChristianCleavage “debate,” the latest in the occasional flare-up of “ladies, let’s not cause our brothers in Christ to stumble by wearing _______.” (Insert: yoga pants, v-necks, makeup, high heels … y’know, clothes in general.) From the piece: “I truly care for the young men and women tasked with leading our churches. And my hope is to help them find their worth in Christ, and not succumb to what ads for Urban Outfitters’ new line of moto jackets portray as right.”
3. Let’s Talk About Millennial Poverty
“In the United States, approximately 15 [percent] of residents live below the poverty line and another 10.4 million are considered ‘the working poor.’ And yet, we have very, very concrete — and very incorrect — perceptions about how poverty actually looks. And it does not look like Millennial college grads. So we kind of keep ignoring it.”
4. Hundreds of Thousands of Children in Gaza Suffering from ‘Shell Shock’
"Children who saw their siblings or parents killed, often gruesomely, have been left stricken and around 35 per cent to 40 per cent of Gaza’s million children are suffering from shell-shock according to Hasan Zeyada, a psychologist with the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme."
5. Nashville Evangelical Church Comes Out for Marriage Equality
“Full privileges are extended now to you with the same expectations of faithfulness, sobriety, holiness, wholeness, fidelity, godliness, skill, and willingness. That is expected of all. Full membership means being able to serve in leadership and give all of your gifts and to receive all the sacraments; not only communion and baptism, but child dedication and marriage.”
6. Most Americans Support Government Action on Climate Change, Poll Finds
Nearly half of Republicans, in fact, support government intervention. Further 48 percent of Republicans say they are more likely to support a candidate who campaigns on fighting climate change.
7. Christian Women Were Made to Lead
Karen Swallow Prior, professor of English at evangelical Liberty University, announces a new leadership initiative at the school: “If women outside the church need help from Sheryl Sandberg to ‘lean in,’ imagine what women inside the church are facing.”
8. Pentagon to Propose $585 Billion Budget for 2016 — $38 Billion Increase
”The defense budget request, set to be unveiled on Monday, includes $534.3 billion for the base budget and $50.9 billion in supplemental funding for the war in Afghanistan and other counterterrorism operations, according to draft Pentagon comptroller briefing highlights obtained by POLITICO.”
9. Meet Disney’s First Latina Princess
The popular Disney Junior show Sofia the First is getting a spinoff in the form of Disney’s first Latina princess — 16-year-old Princess Elena of Avalor. Check out an illustration of the new character.
10. Breeding ‘Like Rabbits,’ Sex by Rhythm Method, and Other Natural Family Planning Myths
“In discussing birth control and population issues when visiting the Philippines recently, Pope Francis said the Catholic Church promoted ‘responsible parenthood’ that didn’t require good Catholics to be ‘like rabbits.’ The frank imagery prompted a flurry of playfully creative headlines that ranged from mocking to woeful. And the byproduct of such reaction stories? The continued misinformation on what Catholics currently practice and what the Catholic Church actually teaches when it comes to family planning.”
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