Recent trends that affirm traditions I was taught in Sunday school
Recently, I've been noticing that new discoveries and trends seem to back up some of the countercultural (and seemingly arbitrary) traditions I was taught in Sunday School.
For example, the end of "blue laws," coupled with rise of technology like email and iPhones, has renewed the sense that humans really do require a Sabbath. Several religious traditions encourage fasting, a practice that has recently been shown to protect from diseases like Alzheimer's.
Some of my recent podcast discussions also dovetail this intersection of secular trends and long-held religious teachings.
Joshua Becker, who writes about minimalism (which he defines as "the intentional promotion of the things we most value and the removal of anything that distracts us from it”) told me that minimalism is a natural outgrowth of his faith. For example, consider the admonition to “lay up . . . treasures in heaven.
Most recently, I talked to bestselling author A.J. Jacobs about his new book, Thanks A Thousand: A Gratitude Journey. Jacobs, who is agnostic when it comes to religion, decided to thank 1,000 people responsible for his morning cup of coffee. He found that an attitude of gratitude does bring joy.
Numerous Bible verses call for gratitude–even amid trials and turmoil. And it turns out that this is more than just something we are supposed to do to be nice or good people. As Arthur Brooks wrote a few years ago, "According to research published in the journal Cerebral Cortex, gratitude stimulates the hypothalamus (a key part of the brain that regulates stress) and the ventral tegmental area (part of our “reward circuitry” that produces the sensation of pleasure)."
I'll leave it up to you to decide whether there are spiritual rules behind all this, or if it's simply the case that our faith traditions were based on wisdom and truisms about human nature that science is finally able to corroborate.
Either way, don't miss my conversation with A.J. Jacobs about the 10 strategies to be happier with gratitude!
January 18 marks the 46th annual March for Life. Read my column about how the ultrasound has done more than anything to advance the Pro-Life movement.
Articles, podcasts, and other resources that I've recently published:
Matt Lewis & the News
The Daily Beast
"Rashida Tlaib is Becoming the Michele Bachmann of the Left"
"How Steve King's Idiotic and Odious Words Help the Left Destroy Western Civilization"
DMZ
Guest Appearances
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