Follow Along with the Message

Fake News? (Part 2)

Pastor Tom Lundeen

...and one of the biggest targets of fake news (from a variety of ) is the Christian Church and Jesus followers. 

There's a lot of fake news about the Church Jesus bled and died and rose to . 

Last Sunday we laid a very important foundation for this entire series by seeing: 

1. What Jesus  of the Church

Today let's dive into a number of fake news talking points and "mythunderstandings" about the Christian faith/Church...

2. Don't Confuse Me with the  

It's a lack of  in a world today that closes the door to any factual data that doesn't line up with what we want the facts to be.

Note Isaiah 5:20

The vast amount of evidence shows that religion and spiritual commitment has an  positive impact...it's not even close to negative. 

3. The  Reality (note 2 Corinthians 5:17)

Dr. Rodney Stark, America's Blessings: How Religion Benefits Everyone, 

Including  

Religious/spiritually committed people are: 

A. More : 

• Are the primary source of secular charitable funds that benefit victims of misfortune whatever their beliefs
• Dominate the ranks of blood donors and other  behaviors 
• Far more likely to donate their money and time to socially beneficial programs and to be active in  affairs. (The impact of religious people   on volunteering alone is an estimated $47 billion annually in the United States alone!) 

B. : 

• Enjoy superior mental health - are deemed happier, less , and far less likely to commit suicide
• Enjoy superior physical health - have an average life expectancy more than  years longer than that of the irreligious

C. Intellectually : 

• Read more than their irreligious friends and neighbors
• Are less likely to believe in the occult, UFO's, Bigfoot, etc.
• Although often portrayed as "ignorant" and "backwards", more likely to  and sustain "high culture".

D. Better  Lives: 

• More apt to marry, less likely to divorce, and report higher degrees of  with their spouse. More likely to have children. 
• Religious husbands are far less likely to  their wives or children. This is of course contrary to the story that religions create systems of oppression in the home because of 'male patriarchy'.
• Religious fathers are more likely to be involved in youth-related activities such as coaching sports teams or leading Scout troops, etc. 
• Religious couples enjoy their sex lives more, women are more likely to have regular orgasms, and  happens more often. They are also far less likely to have an affair. 

E. Better : 

• Religious students perform better on standardized achievement tests, are far less likely to drop out of school, obtain better jobs upon graduation, and are far less likely to be on unemployment or welfare (the studies for all of these and especially this one and all surrounding crime stats, etc., factor in /geographies across the US)
• In  studies done over a 66-year period (up to 2010): religion has a positive effect on society in regard to crime, deviance, and delinquency. 
• Crime rates in the US compared to the decidedly less religious countries of Western Europe are glaringly less in many categories, with the exception of homicide rates: Denmark has nearly 21/2 times as many burglaries per 100,000 people, and is exceeded by Austria, Switzerland, the UK, Sweden, Belgium, and the Netherlands. The same is true for theft & assault rates. 
• Urban stats going from present-day back to the 1920s show that the higher a city's church membership rate, the lower its burglary, larceny, robbery, assault and  rates. 

MYTHUNDERSTANDING:

• Saying 'YES!' to Jesus as Lord and following Him sincerely..make an  difference...
• Note 1 Peter 2:9-10
• Are you a member of God's  family?
• Note 1 Peter 2:11-12

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