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Trinity: Father,
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Important Figures
A Sunday School is traditionally a meeting together of Christians within a church setting for the purpose of receiving instruction about the Bible or God.
While Sunday School is often thought of as being for children, this is not always the case. Sunday School differs from a church service in that the teacher is not usually the main pastor and the setting is usually more informal and smaller and open to more questions or interaction from those attending. It usually is also broken down by groups, either by age, gender, or marital status.
Many churches have Sunday school classes before or after the main church service.
Attending Sunday School is often the only opportunity for children in secular countries to learn about the Bible. There are, however, some countries that do allow religious classes in public schools.
Sunday Schools often have an informal curriculum, but in many instances there is a formal schedule in place. This way, Sunday School courses can replace religious classes that were once allowed in public schools.
Seventh-day Sabbatarian churches and sects have adapted the Sunday School by presenting religious education on Saturdays with Sabbath School enrollment and attendance.
2 19th century
3 Socialist Sunday Schools
4 20th and 21st century
5 Small Groups versus Sunday School
6 Sunday School Songs
Sunday Schools originated in about 1780 with Robert Raikes and Thomas Stock in Gloucester, England. Raikes (1736-1811), a newspaper publisher and devout Anglican involved in prison ministry, served many who were waiting to die, and he had begun to realize that there was a need to begin earlier with prevention in order to be most effective in Christian outreach. The aim was to provide basic schooling to the working class, who could not otherwise afford any kind of education.
The Sunday schools, led by Christians, were taught on Sundays as this was the only day that the prospective students were not required to go to work. The Industrial Revolution had resulted in many children spending all week long working in factories, and Saturday was a normal part of the ordinary work week. Christian philanthropists wanted to free these children from a life of illiteracy. Scriptural texts were used as lessons, to teach reading and other subject matter; and the schools also served to give the Gospel to the unchurched poor.
Among the obstacles and challenges this kind of ministry faced from the beginning was the fact that the activities were conducted separately from worship services. Moreover, Sunday schools ministered to the poor. Feelings of class distinction were at a very high level in England at the time, so some were afraid it would break down what they considered to be God-given class distinctions. Working on Sunday was also strongly disapproved, so many churches and pastors resisted this ministry as Sabbath-breaking, and an ungodly defilement of the Lord's day. The teachers and their students were not able to meet in facilities that were geared to education (homes, factories, warehouses, empty, abandoned buildings), also it was free and thus non-income producing.
During the first 150 years of this educational ministry (1780–1930), it was taught only in the English-speaking world, and was primarily aimed at alleviating social conditions.
Beginning in the 1770s, after the First Great Awakening, increasing numbers of slaves in the Southern states had begun converting to evangelical religions such as the Methodist and Baptist denominations. Many clergy in their churches actively promoted the idea that all Christians are equal in the sight of God, a message that provided hope and support to the slaves. Many white owners and clergy preached a message of strict obedience, and insisted on slave attendance at white-controlled churches, fearful that if slaves were allowed to worship independently in black churches they would ultimately plot rebellion against their owners. These white churches, in which ministers promoted obedience to one's master as the highest religious ideal, were seen by black slaves as a mockery of the "true" Christian message of equality and liberation in Christ. Around the turn of the century, basic reading, writing and math started being taught to the slaves in Sunday School.
Well into the 19th century, working hours were long for adults and children alike. The first modest legislative restrictions came in 1802. This resulted in limiting the number of hours a child could work per day to 12 (!). Moreover, Saturday was still part of the regular work week. Sunday, therefore, was the only available time for these children to gain some education, religious or otherwise.
After the War of 1812, Sunday school spread widely in the United States through the independent efforts of unorganized individual groups seeking to educate the poor. In the U.S. the emphasis of the Sunday school was primarily on the Bible because of the availability of public schools which taught more general subject matter.
From 1820 to 1835, the Great Revival in the U.S. changed the denominational face of much of the U.S. from Congregational and Reformed to Baptist and Methodist. This was reflected in the varied doctrinal content of the individual Sunday schools, based on particular catechisms.
Catechisms were intended by their authors to teach the whole system of Christian doctrine, but were summaries of the Christian faith according to the particular interpretation of each denominational group. They relied on questions and memorized answers.
The first national Sunday School effort began in America during this period. The American Sunday School Union, a cross-denominational national organization founded in Philadelphia in 1824, published curricular materials and children's books that were used in many Sunday Schools in that day; its stated purpose was to organize, evangelize and civilize. The focus was intentionally evangelical, and so within the next 100 years the Sunday School had become the primary outreach arm of the Protestant churches.
In 1830, a Baptist Association in the state of Illinois passed a resolution which said, in part, "We as an Association do not hesitate to say that we declare an unfellowship with Foreign and Domestic Mission and Bible Societies, Sunday Schools, and all other Missionary Institutions." Since these had become independent efforts to do the work of the Lord, this raised significant concerns in many of the more fundamentalist groups that the church itself was being supplanted by a human institution. Therefore, these various efforts, including the Sunday School, were perceived by some to be an attack against the church itself, and thus the work of Satan.
By 1832 there were more than 8000 Sunday schools in the United States.
As the relatively novel concept of theological pluralism also began to take hold about this same time in 1832, one of the biggest Sunday school unions, The Union, decided to establish non-denominational Sunday schools in the "New West", the area of the Louisiana Purchase, as a missionary enterprise. Small communities would select a neutral place and Christians of many backgrounds would come together in what were called Union Schools. They decided to teach the Bible, because "the Bible unites", but catechisms divide. Because of this religious pluralism, Sunday school lessons focused on Bible stories rather than on doctrine, and on application rather than on interpretation. Publication of catechisms began to slow as a result. Sunday school students were often encouraged to memorize large portions of the Bible, earning prizes and incentives for doing so. This idea was dropped when it was realized that the students were more interested in the prizes than in God's word!
Most of the lay leadership of The Union was Presbyterian, and non-Presbyterians—Lutherans, Methodists, Quakers, Baptists, Episcopalians—worried that the movement might be a plot to bring the western youth into Presbyterianism under the guise of a non-denominational movement.
Meanwhile, the 1844 Factory Act lowered the 12 hour limit that a child could be worked to six and a half hours.
European immigrants during the 1800s found little land available to them to farm on the east coast, so they quickly re-migrated to the west. Many were Catholics so some Catholic leaders saw the Sunday school movement as a Protestant plot to capture the Catholic youth of the west. Many private Catholic schools were founded during this period as an answer to the Protestant education that then dominated the nation's public schools. In fact, the First Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1852 specifically urged every Catholic parish in the country to establish its own school for just that reason. In answer to this call, scores of Catholic parochial schools were established throughout the country.
Sunday School organization began expanding to include all ages. Sunday School became a way for unbelievers to be introduced to, and then assimilated into, the life of the church.
In 1873 the Methodist Episcopal Church started the first VBS (Vacation Bible School) under Bishop John H. Vincent in New York when he offered "summer Sunday school institutes that included educational and cultural components". Other churches quickly saw the benefits of including this kind of program.
By 1875 there were more than 65,000 Sunday schools in the U.S.. By 1889 there were ten million children in American Sunday schools and it was performing the heavy task of public education, sponsored by Christians out of their own pockets.
By the late 1800s, Sunday School was looked to as the main hope for church growth, a view that continued until the mid-twentieth century.
In 1898, Mrs. Walker Aylette Hawes established her "Everyday Bible School" to minister to the immigrant children who spent their summer days running the streets of New York City's East Side. She rented a beer parlor that was not used during the day (it was the only space available), and for six weeks, she gathered the neighborhood children together for worship music, Bible stories, Scripture memorization, games, crafts, drawing and cooking.
Socialist Sunday Schools
In Great Britain, Mrs. Mary Gray, a member of the Social Democratic Federation, who ran a soup kitchen for the children of the British dock strike, initiated the Socialist Sunday School movement in 1892. Her aim, on realizing they had little or no education, was to influence and educate them and make them aware of their socialist responsibilities and provide what was lacking in their day schools. She started the first Socialist Sunday School (SSS) with only one other besides her own two children but twenty years later there were approximately 120 of these schools throughout the country, 20 of them being in London itself.
Socialist Sunday Schools in Great Britain thus arose in response to a widespread feeling as to the inadequacy of the orthodox Sunday Schools as a training ground for the children of Socialists and of the need for some organized and systematic method of presenting the Socialist point of view and of teaching the ideals and principles of Socialism to the children, youths and maidens in the country. The main purpose was to supply the Socialist movement with fearless, capable and conscientious thinkers.
A national movement, the National Council of British Socialist Sunday Schools Union (NCBSSSU), formed in 1909, traces its origin to a school opened in Glasgow by Caroline Martyn and Archie McArthur. It was established as a protest against, and an alternative to, the perceived middle-class bias and assumptions of the regular churches. Its aims were to help the schools in their teaching of Socialism. The schools were grouped in District Unions and for the first ten years were affiliated to the (NCBSSSU) Council. However, in 1920 their Constitution was amended to allow direct school affiliation which meant there was wide representation at the Annual Conference.
It was their view that public education should be secular and Socialist Sunday Schools were for purely educational bodies and therefore their hymns did not have theological tendencies or the Christian dogma which was preached in religious churches of the day. They worked in close harmony with the Labor Movement and were concerned with the spiritual and social objective of the human race with regard to daily life and conduct.
The NCBSSSU manual is a very enlightening look into the teachings of the Socialist Sunday Schools and was prepared chiefly for the use of teachers. It contains specimen lessons and techniques to help the teachers together with suggested reading for Socialist Education.
20th and 21st century
With the turn of the century, from about 1900 on, church catechisms were used more than the Bible for religious education.
The most well-known catechisms widely used within the continental U.S. at the beginning of the twentieth century were:
Martin Luther's Large Catechism and Small Catechism, the standard catechisms of the Lutheran Church, first published in 1529.
Institutes of the Christian Religion, the standard catechism of the Calvinist churches, first published in 1536.
The Heidelberg Catechism, the standard catechism of the Dutch and German Reformed Churches of America, first published in 1563.
The Roman Catechism (or Catechism of the Council of Trent), the standard catechism of the Roman Catholic Church (up to 1997), first published in 1566.
The Westminster Larger Catechism and the Westminster Shorter Catechism, the standard catechisms of the Presbyterian churches, first published in 1648.
Pia Desideria ("Pious Desires"), written by Philipp Jakob Spener, a key theological treatise of the Pietist churches, first published in 1675.
A Holy Catechism, or Explanation of the Divine and Holy Liturgy, and Examination of Candidates for Ordination, by Nicolas Bulgaris, Revised and Edited, the standard catechism in English of the Eastern Orthodox Church, first printed in Venice in 1681.
The Episcopal Catechism, from the Book of Common Prayer, the standard catechism of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, first compiled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and published in 1789.
The Two Babylons: The Papal Worship Proved to Be the Worship of Nimrod and His Wife, by Alexander Hislop, a primary catechetical source for Scottish Presbyterians, and later for all anti-Catholic churches and organizations, first published in 1853 as a pamphlet and greatly expanded in 1858.
A Puritan Catechism, by Charles Spurgeon, the standard catechism of the Congregationalist churches, first published in 1885
The Baltimore Complete Catechism, The Baltimore Larger Catechism, The Baltimore Smaller Catechism, of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore, Maryland, the standard catechisms of the Roman Catholic Church throughout the United States (to 1962), first published in 1885.
Conflict of the Ages, by Ellen G. White, a five-volume book series, the primary catechetical source of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, first published in parts 1890–1917.
The Fundamentals: A Testimony to the Truth, a series of pamphlets first published between 1910 and 1915, and later compiled and edited as a single volume.
Age-specific, doctrinally-centered, denominational Sunday School Lesson Plans and study materials were developed from these sources according to multiple levels of understanding and need.
About 1900 Needham Bryant Broughton (N. B. Broughton) published Why Sunday Schools in Baptist Churches, which became a key text.
Between 1900 and 1920, 100 Socialist Sunday Schools (SSS) were established in 64 cities and towns in various parts of America, with probably more than ten thousand children attending. These SSS included children from 5 to 14 years of age, and they usually met for about two hours on Sunday mornings. According to Kenneth Tietelbaum, the purpose of the SSS was "to contest more directly the overly individualistic, competitive, nationalistic, militaristic… themes prevalent in contemporary public schools and other social institutions," and help in "supplanting capitalist social and economic relations with a more equitable and cooperative form," namely Socialism (Schooling for "Good Rebels": Socialist Education for Children in the United States, 1900-1920, by Kenneth Teitelbaum, 1 January 1993.)
By 1910, the Baptist and Presbyterian Churches had really taken up the banner of Vacation Bible School, formalizing the process and method of instruction, and publishing their own VBS textbooks.
Beginning in the 1920s the CCD program (Continuing Catholic Development) was developed for those children whose parents could not afford to enroll them in the Catholic educational system (parochial schools and high schools). The CYC (Catholic Youth Council) grew out of this program beginning 1941.
In 1941, the children's program at the North Side Gospel Center in Chicago laid the foundation for the principles of the AWANA program (Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed - 2 Timothy 2:15). Lance Latham, North Side's senior pastor, collaborated with the church's youth director, Art Rorheim, to develop weekly clubs that would appeal to churched and nonchurched kids. As a pioneer in children's ministry, Art created new and innovative ways to reach kids with the gospel and lead them to know, love and serve Jesus Christ. Other churches learned about the success of the program and inquired about its availability. In 1950, Latham and Rorheim founded Awana as a parachurch organization. By 1960, 900 churches had started Awana programs.
In the early 1960s problems began to develop as newer Sunday school curriculums failed to emphasize personal conversion of life style and works of mercy, and neglected Christian apologetics in favor of a more entertaining style of witness with a "feel-good" approach which contained nothing about personal sacrifice and commitment in the face of doctrinal confusion, indifference, secularism, pop culture, the new age movement and worldly opposition. The realities of sin, the last judgment and hell were ignored. Christian educators began to be at a loss to explain why young people began to leave their churches, and why so many of them entered colleges and universities unprepared to meet liberal and atheist challenges to belief in Jesus Christ as the only Savior of the world and the Bible as the inspired word of God.
On June 25, 1962, the United States Supreme Court decided in Engel v. Vitale that a prayer approved by the New York Board of Regents for use in schools violated the First Amendment by constituting an establishment of religion. The following year, in Abington School District v. Schempp, the Court disallowed Bible readings in public schools for similar reasons. These two landmark Supreme Court decisions centered on the place of religion in public education, and particularly the place of Protestantism, which had long been accepted as the given American faith tradition. Some conservatives like Billy Graham and Cardinal Francis Spellman, along with the more liberal Episcopal Bishop James A. Pike, condemned these decisions. Others, including the National Association of Evangelicals, applauded the Court for separating the state from the affairs of the church. Christianity Today supported the Court's prayer decision. Religious activity and education was confined to religious institutions and to parachurch organizations.
The Catholic TEC weekend retreat program for teens (Teens Encounter Christ) was developed in 1965, which emphasized teen moral conversion and commitment to Christ in the Church. The first scheduled TEC weekend took place 9–11 October that same year.
Christ Renews His Parish (CRHP, pronounced "Chirp") began as a renewal weekend for adults at Holy Family Parish in Parma, Ohio, in 1969. Separate men's and women's programs were developed.
In 1986 M. L. Moser, Jr. wrote Baptist Handbook for Church Members as an instruction manual for Independent Baptist Churches. In it he stresses the need for solid Christian education in the face of modern compromise with the truth of the Bible, the role of pastors and teachers.
In October 1990, the third annual meeting of Orthodox Christian Laity (OCL) in Chicago, Illinois, approved the formation of seven study groups to explore seven topics that were identified as critical to moving the Church ahead into the twenty-first century. This was the Project for Orthodox Renewal.
On August 15, 1997 Pope John Paul II officially promulgated the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), "a totally reliable way to present, with renewed fervor, each and every part of the Christian message to the people of our time." (Apostolic Letter Laetamur Magnopere.) Particular national, ethnic, age-oriented and special-needs catechisms were to be prepared from this source.
In 2000 the Southern Baptist Convention issued The Baptist Faith and Message: The 2000 Baptist Faith & Message, which included guidelines for youth education.
In 2002 the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) hosted the First Annual Pan-Orthodox Youth and Camp Workers Conference.
Most recently, well-informed, committed conservative Christian apologists and veteran Sunday School teachers having decades of experience have pointed out that to be effective in equipping young people and professionals to face the challenges of a highly educated secular society, the church needs to redefine the mission of pastors and youth leaders to include training in apologetics and worldview, devout reverence for God and forms of genuinely sincere Christian prayer and contemplation, along with more practical ways of effectively demonstrating and imparting all of this to their students (1 Peter 3:15). See Awe.
They assert that when America was a young nation, the clergy were often the most highly educated members of the community. The congregation looked up to them and respected their intellectual expertise. They argue that it is imperative for seminaries today to broaden the education of pastors to include courses on intellectual history, training future pastors to critique the currently dominant anti-Christian ideologies, and that pastors must once again provide intellectual leadership for their congregations, teaching apologetics from the pulpit, instructing the congregation in ways to defend scripture against the major objections they are likely to encounter, and not to avoid this intellectual task (2 Corinthians 10:5). They warn that a religion that retreats to the therapeutic realm of personal relationships and feelings will not survive in today's spiritual battlefield.
Among the groups emphasizing the primary spiritual value of relationships and feelings is the emerging church movement or Emergent Church which began in the late 20th century, which emphasizes experience, dialogue, feelings, and conversations. These are equated with the reliable inspiration of Scripture, while certitude, authority, and historical doctrine are to be avoided as divisive and spiritually harmful. There is no Sunday School. The emerging church movement claims to be a Conversation instead of a Church. All seekers and believers alike are invited to participate in the unifying, relaxed and informal setting of "the conversation", instead of worshiping in a structured institutional church which emphasizes doctrinal and dogmatic truths. In place of educationally structured Sunday School classes, they sit in large rooms for the purpose of small group gatherings for "enlightening conversations", often lit by candlelight, with the smell of incense and the ringing of bells, surrounded by statues and icons. The Bible itself is variously interpreted according to its perceived relevance or lack of relevance for each individual reader, who is encouraged to express his or her feelings about its value without fear of censure. Leaders of the movement claim to be implementing the Vatican call for authentic ecumenism by promoting the unity of a common spirituality. Catholic apologists dispute this claim, citing the Emerging Church Movement's deliberately heretical distortions of the Vatican II Document Unitatis Redintegratio (UR).
The emerging church movement with its doctrinal indifferentism and its forms of Small Group conversation is viewed with alarm by many conservatives as a radical falling away from historical Christianity through exalting personal subjectivism, and combining distortions of devotional Roman Catholicism, Orthodox mysticism and Protestant pietism, with expressions of "feel-good" New Age teachings about the Cosmic Christ of liberal Christianity in place of the real historical Jesus Who is the true cosmic Christ of St. Paul.
Small Groups versus Sunday School
In the 21st century there has been a renewed resurgence of the debate over Small Groups versus Sunday Schools, a debate having roots in the 17th century (1600's) controversy over Pietist "home churches" versus establishment churches such as the Lutheran and Anglican Churches, and John Wesley's technique of "methodism", questioning which of the two ministries, Small Groups or Sunday Schools, is more effective in producing authentically effective Christian disciples, who worship God in spirit and in truth and selflessly serve the needs of the whole human community, assessing whether Sunday Schools are needed or even necessary or if both can exist together. Foremost among groups chiefly opposed to Sunday School are some hardline Churches of Christ (these congregations also generally oppose a single person as the preacher).
In the megachurch world Sunday School is virtually non-existent, having been replaced by small groups (which may be organized by geography, age, or other interests) as well as specialized classes on subjects (either based on theology or other needs). In some churches which still maintain the concept a different term (such as "Bible Fellowship") may be used.
See Home schooling and Seminaries, also Martyr.
Sunday School Songs
20 Classic Sunday School Songs:
Arky Arky
Down in My Heart
The B-I-B-L-E
He's Got the Whole World in His Hands
I'm in the Lord's Army
All Day Song
The Light Medley
The Jesus Medley
O Be Careful Little Eyes
The Birdies In The Treetops
This Train
Whisper a Prayer
Zacchaeus Was a Wee Little Man
Father Abraham
Kum Ba Ya
The Wise Man Built His House
Hear audio recordings of the All Star Children's Chorus singing:
25 Sunday School Songs Kids Love To Sing (allmusic.com)
A listing of the lyrics of 30 classic children's Bible songs can be found at:
Jesus Loves the Little Children: 30 Children's Bible Songs (childbiblesongs.com)
What does the Bible say about Sunday School? (gotquestions.org)
When did Sunday Schools start? Timothy Larsen (christianitytoday.com)
Historical Background: The Sunday School Movement (digital.library.mcgill.ca)
A Short History of the Sunday School (drurywriting.com)
A Brief History of Sunday School, Jeri Tanner (ministry-to-children.com)
Raikes' Ragged Regiment: Reflecting on the Sunday School and Non-Sunday School Movements. Reflections by Al Maxie (2005). (zianet.com) includes details regarding historical hostility toward Sunday Schools
Churches of Christ. A Brief History of The One-Cup and Non-Sunday School Movement (freedominchrist.net) the opposition by Alexander Campbell and his successors
Christian Research Institute. The Two Babylons, by Ralph Woodrow (equip.org) a critique and rebuttal of anti-Catholic arguments used by Alexander Hislop, the 19th century author of "The Two Babylons"
The Church in the Southern Black Community (docsouth.unc.edu)
Roman Catholics and Immigration in Nineteenth-Century America, Julie Byrne, Dept. of Religion, Duke University, National Humanities Center (nationalhumanitiescenter.org)
A History and Introduction of the Orthodox Church in America (oca.org)
Catholic Schools in the USA (internationalstudent.com)
Catechisms (biblestudytools.com)
N. B. Broughton: Why Sunday Schools in Baptist Churches (elbourne.org)
The History of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD for the poor) (recongress.org)
Continuing Catholic Development (CCD) (church.stmatt.net) ages 3 through 18.
WCML Working Class Movement Library. Socialist Sunday Schools
Commentary. Socialist Sunday Schools, Dennis L. Cuddy, PhD. (newswithviews.com) Socialist Sunday Schools in the United States
Temple University Press. Book Review: Schooling for "Good Rebels": Socialist Education for Children in the United States, 1900-1920, by Kenneth Teitelbaum (temple.edu)
When and Where Did Vacation Bible School First Begin? (aboutthechildrensdepartment.com)
The History of Vacation Bible School (owensboroliving.com)
What is Vacation Bible School? (gotquestions.org)
History of Catholic Youth Council - CYC (cycstl.net) began 1941
History of AWANA (awana.org) began 1941
Awana Clubs: Ecumenical Children's Clubs? warning against AWANA doctrines.
How Awana and Children's Songs are Misleading Our Children (joywbennett.com) a critique of the misleading Awana teaching that Christians are always happy and never sad.
Religion & Politics: Fit For Polite Company. "When the Court Took on Prayer and the Bible in Public Schools", by Michael D. Waggoner (2012) Landmark Court decisions of 1962, 1963, having a legal history going back to the 19th century
A Brief History on Pietism and Statist Rulers: Why Rulers Promote a Pietistic Form of Christianity, Pastor Matt Trewhella (mercyseat.net)
History of TEC (tecconference.org) began 1965
TEC - Teens Encounter Christ (stwilliamsparish.org)
OCA hosts 14th Annual Pan-Orthodox Youth and Camp Workers Conference (oca.org) began 2002
Listing of Orthodox Christian Camps in the United States and Canada (orthodoxcamps.org)
Is There Biblical Support for Parachurch Ministries? (gotquestions.org)
Parachurch vs. Church: A False Dichotomy, Rick Meigs (blindbeggar.org)
Is Sunday School Dying? (childrensministry.com)
On the Failure of the Church to Educate (tectonics.org)
Fourteen Reasons Why the Sunday School has Declined (drurywriting.com)
The Sunday School Syndrome: Why Young People Leave the Church, by Ken Ham (answersingenesis.org)
History of Christ Renews His Parish (icelmhurst.org)
Baptist Handbook for Church Members (1986), M. L. Moser, Jr.
OCL - Project for Orthodox Renewal (ocl.org) adult faith formation.
Envisioning the Future of Faith Formation in the Episcopal Church (2011) (episcopalchurch.org)
United Church of Christ - Faith Formation and Christian Education (ucc.org)
Southern Baptist Convention. The Baptist Faith and Message: The 2000 Baptist Faith & Message (sbc.net)
Faith Baptist Bible College and Theological Seminary: Choosing Sunday School Curriculum: How Effectively Do You Want to Teach the Bible? (faith.edu) the necessity of improving the effectiveness of Sunday school classes.
Relevant Bible Teaching: When Christian Fundamentalism Goes Too Far failing in basic Christian formation and education.
Sunday School Teacher Certification (sundaysschooldivision.org)
—"Meeting the demands of a diverse and educated society will require that we work harder than previous generations."
Sunday School Center, Lincoln, Nebraska. Teacher Training - Sunday School (sunday-school-center.com)
Calvary Tengah Bible–Presbyterian Church. Qualifications of a Sunday School Teacher (scribd.com)
African Methodist Episcopal Church. AME Church School & Christian Education Certification Program (ameced.com) pdf
National Baptist Convention USA. What Is the Certificate of Progress Program (COPP)? (sedsc.org) pdf
Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana. The Enlistment and Qualifications of Sunday School Teachers, by Pastor Jack Hyles (jesus-is-savior.com) —Chapter 7 of Hyles Sunday School Manual
Assemblies of God. AG Discipleship Ministries: What Is Sunday School? (discipleship.ag.org)
Greek Orthodox Booklet. The Program of Teacher Education and Certification for Church School Teachers of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (goarch.org) pdf
Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church Sunday School Association of North America (Malankara.com)
Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh. Catechist Certification (diopitt.org)
Sunday School Lessons for Grade School Kids (kidssundayschool.com)
Catholic Sunday School Lesson Plans for Gospel and Readings (catholicmom.com)
Young Adult and College Age Bible Lessons: Baptist (rsbaptist.org)
Adult Sunday School - National Presbyterian Church (nationalpres.org)
USCCB - Adult Faith Formation (usccb.org)
Lesson Plans - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (usccb.org) educators and youth leaders.
Successful Change Strategy for Sunday School, Phil Van Auken (business.baylor.edu)
Grace Communion International: Disciplemaking Ministry: Prayerful Dependence, Jeb Egbert (gci.org) teaching adolescents authentic Christian prayer and Christian discipleship.
Christian Prayer, Meditation and Contemplation, Robert A. Jonas (emptybell.org) authentic Christian prayer traditions.
The Danger of Centering Prayer, Rev. John D. Dreher (catholicculture.org) the technique of centering prayer is neither Christian nor prayer—the deception and dangers can be grave.
Work and Contemplation (multimedia.opusdei.org) communion with Christ without ceasing while working and teaching.
Emerging Church (theopedia.com)
The Emerging Church Explained (cbn.com)
The Emergent Church Runs Away from the Bible!, by Don Boys, PhD. (cstnews.com)
What's So Dangerous About the Emerging Church? (gty.org) proud of uncertainty about the Bible
Emergent Church Spreading Spiritual Cancer, by Marsha West (forgottenword.org)
"The Dangers of the Cosmic Christ: A Review of The Coming of the Cosmic Christ by Matthew Fox", by Bob DeWaay. a conservative Christian review of the influential 1988 seminal heretical text by Matthew Fox
Is Ecumenism A Heresy?, by Fr. Brian Harrison, O.S., emeritus professor of theology of the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico, and at the time of writing was based at the Oblates of Wisdom Study Center in St. Louis, Missouri (catholic.com)
—exposing four ecumenical errors embodied in the "emerging church movement", deliberate heretical distortions of the Vatican II Document Unitatis Redintegratio (UR).
"Where did small groups start?" Elesha Coffman (christianitytoday.com)
"Sunday School vs Small Groups (Part I)", Jennifer Byrd (acstechnologies.com)
"Why Churches Should Euthanize Small Groups", by Brian Jones (christianstandard.com)
"Sunday School That Really Works", Steve R. Parr (christianitytoday.com)
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


to make a new layer. Our cores simply penetrate through those sediment layers and bring a sample of them back to the surface. By studying these sediment layers, scientists can construct a story about what happened from a long time ago until very recently.
make sure that we are "better safe than sorry!"
the ice sheet, and/or bits of sand and debris.
and label them. We want to make sure that they are labeled correctly so that people will know exactly where and when the core was taken, as well as which direction is up or down. In addition, we use an instrument called a magnetic susceptibility meter to determine how easily the sediments react to magnetism.
Sediments that come from the land react more than sediments that contain a lot of organic material. We measure the magnetic susceptibility every 5 centimeters.
the sediments. Once it is pulled to the surface, the sediments from this core are analyzed immediately. On one side of the barrel are hinged doors that we can open to look at the layers of mud and gravel. What types of things do you suppose we look at when we analyze the core?
remain clear, our next location should be very scenic!
me, it really sits on a server in Denver until our ship is able to communicate via satellite and modem to get the messages. You are also welcome to email me with suggestions for topics that you would like to see in the journal, as well as suggestions for photographs to accompany the journals. Hope to hear from you soon!
Kim and Broxton are measuring the magnetic susceptibility of a trigger core.
Ashley is taping a cap on the end of the piston core.
Jay, Ashley, and Dave are washing mud off the outer barrel of the piston core.


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32 Law Firms in Advertising/Marketing Law
Largest - Smallest Smallest - Largest A-Z Z-A
A Pittsburgh native long intertwined with the city's industrial kingpins, Reed Smith joined the crowd in globalizing via international mergers in the 21st century. With litigation at the forefront, the firm's practice strengths also include...
With more than 1,000 lawyers practicing across the U.S., Europe, and China, Cooley is synonymous with tech and venture capital work. The firm is also well regarded for its cyber/data/privacy, IP, M&A, private equity, cleantech, and...
This "brain trust" law firm is known for quietly (and smartly) going about its business—that business being antitrust, litigation, white collar defense & investigations, corporate, IP, export controls, data privacy and cybersecurity, and...
Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP
Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer (you can call it "Arnold & Porter") is home to more than 1,000 lawyers across 14 offices around the globe (plus an operations center in Tallahassee). The firm practices in more than 30 areas and is...
Founded in 1908, Davis Wright Tremaine has worked with small clients as well as those of Fortune 500 stature, with a focus on litigation, entertainment, environmental, intellectual property, and employment law. Today, the firm has more than...
Locke Lord is a full-service, international law firm of 20 offices and about 650 attorneys with offices across the U.S., as well as in Hong Kong and London. Locke Lord has received numerous industry recognitions as a global leader in the...
Crowell & Moring LLP
Founded 40 years ago, Crowell & Moring has 550 lawyers spread down the east and west coasts, as well as two offices in Europe. The majority of the firm's lawyers are litigators (2/3 to be exact), but the firm also has attorneys working in...
With roots in Chicago, Katten has grown to nearly 700 attorneys across more than a dozen offices around the globe. The firm is known for its corporate, finance, health care, and litigation practices, among others. First Chicago, Then the...
Troutman Sanders was founded at the tail end of the 1800s in Atlanta. But the firm has grown beyond its Georgia peach roots—more than 600 Troutman attorneys practice in 12 offices across the United States and China. Y 'all Are Getting Big ...
Born of a January 2011 merger between the Atlanta-based Kilpatrick Stockton and the Bay Area's Townsend and Townsend and Crew, Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton's 620 attorneys have spread out from coast to coast and jumped to several...


Winnipeg MB – CMA Entertainment is pleased to announce that DerRic Starlight and special guests Granny and Wind Dancer will Co-host the 2007 National Aboriginal Achievement Awards.
Starlight and his two puppet friends will be in Edmonton – Starlight's hometown – to provide red carpet coverage and backstage colour commentary at the gala on Friday, March 16. They'll also share on-stage time with Adam Beach, host of this year's special evening of recognition and celebration.
Each with their own exceptional talent, Beach and Starlight embody what the National Aboriginal Achievement Awards are all about – achievement!
DerRic's story of success on stage and screen began one fateful Christmas morning on Tsuu T-ina Nation, when Santa brought Kermit The Frog into his life. DerRic learned the voice of Kermit, and the rest of Jim Henson's Muppets followed. The residents of Sesame Street came next, and by his teen years, DerRic had amassed a catalogue of more than 200 voices.
En route to realizing his dream of creating his own characters, DerRic studied arts, media, theater, filmmaking, puppet-making and comedy at several US schools, and attended master classes with some of the finest teachers. Today, each of his 40 puppets is handmade with love, and alive with unique voice, personality and style.
DerRic tours extensively and travels the world with an engaging puppet cast, over 350 voices, and genuine knack for comedy. He has appeared on Beyond Words, Indigenous Circle, and The Sharing Circle, and had a dramatic role in the television movie Don't Call Me Tonto. He is currently developing several of his own television projects.
DerRic's expertise in Muppet voices brought him to the attention of the Disney Group of companies, who enlisted him to do voice-overs for The Muppets of Oz Movie.
The first puppet created by DerRic, Granny is the oldest and perhaps dearest. Inspired by his real-life grandmother, Granny is the loving 'ring leader' of the entire puppet roster, sometimes strict, and always spunky. She sports attitude, and being a respected Elder, tends to get away with lots.
Granny lives time-honoured Aboriginal customs and dances Traditional Ladies' Buckskin at Pow Wow. She'll even be donning a new white buckskin outfit for this year's National Aboriginal Achievement Awards.
"If you have a dream and follow it, one day it will come true," says Granny, who is living a dream of her own by Co-hosting the National Aboriginal Achievement Awards.
A typical 16-year-old girl from Siksika Nation, Wind Dancer's life is all about school, boys, being a diva, and Pow Wow. She dances Jingle Dress and is learning to sing, with hopes of following in the traditional footsteps of her loved and respected Granny.


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The demise of the Great British High Street is gathering pace. There was a time when a top name was a gold-plated covenant and the valuation of retail property was simple. That's no longer the case, as old-established names like BHS and Woolworths have disappeared from the scene. Surviving retailers like Marks & Spencer, New Look and House of Fraser are closing stores across the nation. The same applies to restaurants like Prezzo, for example. Banks are also closing branches and even Oxfam is planning to close some charity shops. The abandoned car park of Toys R Us in Tilling Road, Brent Cross, North London has become a huge fly tipping site.
This phenomenon has also affected small independent stores. Corner shops have been hit by the proliferation of mini-supermarkets owned by the major chains. The small shop with flats above, once a guaranteed income provider is no longer an investment of choice.
The convenience and speed of home deliveries has played a large part in this change. 85% of UK consumers aged 18 or over already shop on the internet. According to Conlumino/Webloyalty, 31% of high street stores will close by 2020. The Javelin Group predicts that 34% of retail sales will grow to 34% by 2020. The likes of Deliveroo and Just Eat are transforming the take-away market, giving customers who are time-poor and cash-rich greater and greater choice.
How will this affect the market? A sign of the times is the appearance of Amazon lockers in branches of Morrisons, as they hope to piggyback on on-line sales. Chain stores may get smaller as the bulk of stock will be available on a click and collect basis. Some individual stores may survive if they offer customers something to make the "shopping experience" more exciting. But large department stores may go the way of the dinosaurs and new uses will need to be found to fill the empty buildings. Possibly there may be a new wave of permitted development, allowing upper floors to be changed to apartments or hotels. They could also provide cheaper office space in areas where public transport connections are good.
House prices, too, will be affected. Whereas proximity to shopping was once a major factor, in some cases speed of internet connections may be more important. With technology making working from home become more prevalent, people may be happier to move to more remote areas with limited local shopping, but housing is more affordable as they can use the internet for shopping. Fewer homes were sold in London last year than anywhere else in England and Wales, according to an analysis of Land Registry data by Knight Frank. Prices are moving upwards in the North of England and Scotland.
Working at home gives the freedom for people to move where housing is more affordable and where state schools may both be better and less difficult to get into.
Anne Ashworth, Property and Personal Finance Editor of The Times has said than an unexpected side-effect of the slump in property transactions in London (sales in February were down 23% over a year) has been a rise in the popularity of the rental second home used for holidays and weekends; as well as getting a feel of what it would be like to live out of a major city.
In underwriting and risk assessment, access to information is easier, making informed decisions more likely. In this respect, experience and artificial intelligence can work hand-in-hand to produce the best result. Availability of credit reference and fraud prevention systems can likewise help to prevent costly errors.
It's a new world of wonders out there and e-commerce and digital information is growing daily. Consumers are more and more likely to make decisions and access information on mobile devices. Unfortunately, there is also a new breed of digital criminals whose nefarious skills become ever greater.
Lenders should be aware of both the opportunities and problems this presents and embrace the new age with confidence.
Benson Hersch, CEO of the ASTL
A version of this article appeared in the July edition of Mortgage Introducer
In Q1 2018, members of the ASTL lent £386.1 million worth of development loans, of which £242.2 million were categorised as bridging. This further highlights the crucial role of the short-term lending market in supporting the property development sector in the UK
Property development bridging loans are an extremely useful method of obtaining short term finance in order to either secure a property or refurbish with the intention of adding value. These development loans exclude what is generally termed "light refurbishment", such as the addition or renovation of bathrooms, kitchens and conservatories as these generally do not require planning permission or extensive structural changes.
Q1 2018 revealed a 22% increase in bridging development loans since the previous quarter, highlighting the growing trend for property developers to rely on short term lending solutions.
Benson Hersch, CEO of the ASTL says: "The role of small and medium building firms are seen as crucial in helping solve the housing crisis but access to finance still remains their toughest barrier to overcome. Whilst SME building firms continue to be locked out of mainstream channels, they will increasingly rely on different sources of finance such as short-term funding solutions. These alternative forms of finance are providing a solution and allowing small developers to play their part in housing delivery."
Press Release – Tuesday 3rd July 2018
Figures compiled by the ASTL's auditors from its bridging lender members for Q1 2018 have exceeded the outstanding figures for Q4 2017, when for the first-time quarterly completions exceeded £1 billion. Annual completions are now close to £3.8 billion
The value of loans written for the quarter ending 31 March 2018 revealed an increase of 1.5% compared to the previous quarter. Annual completions rose by 29.9%. In comparison to the same quarter last year, the value of loans written in the quarter has increased by 32.5%.
Total loan books are continuing to climb, with a rise of 13.1% compared to Q4 2017. Compared to the end of Q1 2017, the value of loan books has risen by 35.6%, to £4.2 billion. All figures highlight the current strength of the ASTL's bridging lender members.
The pace of increases in applications reversed recent declines and increased by 28.9% compared to a decrease of 11% in Q4 2017. On an annualised basis, applications are up by 23.2%, making up a total of £19.7 billion. Although applications do tend to be unreliable indicators and are dependent on how many lenders are offered the same deals, this is still a staggeringly large figure.
Benson Hersch, CEO of the ASTL says: "Our figures highlight the fact that the bridging finance industry is in good shape and is ready and willing to meet the challenges and opportunities of today's market."
"The bridging sector is now a well-established part of the property finance market and, barring any black swans, should continue to grow."
These figures are taken from the responses from ASTL members, which include most of the key lenders in the bridging market.
Press Release, Wednesday 23rd May, 2018
Oblix Capital, a specialist short term lender, has joined The Association of Short Term Lenders (ASTL) as a new associate member. Membership of the ASTL now stands at 35 lender members and 29 associate members respectively.
Oblix Capital is a London based firm, specialising in bridging and development finance. Led by a team of experienced real estate professionals, Oblix Capital provides financial support for both commercial and residential properties throughout England and Wales. Oblix Capital offers a diverse funding base, providing financial flexibility and transparency to borrowers.
Andy Reid, Sales Director, Oblix Capital comments: "Oblix has experienced rapid growth since being founded in 2014 and we see our membership to the Association of Short Term Lenders as our commitment to provide the industry with the high-quality service it deserves."
Benson Hersch, Chief Executive of the ASTL added: "The wealth of knowledge and insight Oblix Capital offers provides a strong addition to our growing membership at the ASTL. Their transparency and direct approach is an asset to the sector."
To find out more about the ASTL please visit: www.theastl.org
Press Release: Tuesday, 26 June, 2018
The UK Government has decided that it's time to "fix our broken housing market" and the latest response to the housing white paper consultation illustrates its determination to do so. In January, the Department for Communities and Local Government became the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government headed up by the Rt Hon Sajid Javid, who has been very positive in setting out their objectives.
Chancellor Philip Hammond announced in November's Budget that he would create new policies and commit the necessary funding to ensure the UK builds 300,000 new homes a year by the middle of the 2020s. The current run rate is less than 200,000, and has only just got anywhere near that level. In the recent Spring Statement, more initiatives were mentioned.
With demand for UK property outweighing current supply, the Government needs to embrace creative solutions to ensure more homes are added to the market. Theresa May recently hit out at house-builders to "do their duty" and placed further pressure on them to complete their projects and build on landbanks. As a result, this has allowed for a boom in the development finance sector as the specialist market continues to grow.
As the Government places blame on developers for the nation's chronic housing shortage, it's important to remember that alternative finance sources can offer property developers and investors tailored solutions to meet the specific needs of each project. As part of these proposed reforms, the Government should look to increasing market awareness of these funding products.
Members of the Association of Short Term Lenders are increasingly providing development funding in addition to their light refurbishment funding products. In Q4 2017, our members lent £319.4 million worth of development loans, highlighting the growing trend for property developers to rely on short term lending solutions.
The housing crisis continues to be high on the government's agenda and Sajid Javid highlighted last year that he wanted to do more to support SME building firms. Increasingly these small developers are relying on short term funding solutions, because traditional forms of finance are often not available to them. Recent research by Worldpay showed that of 1,000 small business owners, almost one in three reported difficulties in securing business loans from banks, potentially halting their expansion plans altogether.
Alternative finance holds the key to funding expansion for many British small businesses, as access to funds from traditional lenders remains restricted, they need to be aware that alternative forms of finance are available and are providing solutions.
A version of this article appeared in the April edition of Business Moneyfacts


Healing Touch Program welcomes you to an on-line Introduction to Healing Touch.
The video below is 27 minutes long. We recommend watching the video with a friend and sharing the techniques offered with each other. Watch the technique portion first, then pause the video and work on each other following the directions. Whether you watch with a friend or by yourself, you will come away with a greater understanding of energy medicine, Healing Touch, and practical applications you can use for your self care or with others.
We hope that the Introduction to Healing Touch inspires you to want to learn more. Classes are taught across the United States and Canada as well as in other countries. Learn about Healing Touch Level 1 by clicking here.
Requires Flash Player 8 or above. If the video does not appear below you may need to install the latest version of Adobe's Flash Player.
Simply click the play arrow at the bottom of the video to get started.


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Why on Mars?
Why an AFM on Mars ?
Clues to the geologic history and biological potential of the martian arctic shall be uncovered, by analyzing soil and water ice samples (scooped by the robotic arm).
Three instruments will be located in a box called MECA (Microscopy, Electrochemistry and Conductivity Analyzer). There are four wet chemical reaction cells, an optical microscope and an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). An associated experiment (thermal and electrical conductivity probe) is located on the robot arm on the Lander which is used to scoop Martian soil and water ice samples from the surface for processing by the MECA instruments.
Mars crater with water ice
click for a larger image (419k)
MECA characterizes the soil of Mars. By dissolving small amounts of soil in water, MECA determines the pH, the abundance of minerals such as magnesium and sodium cations or chloride, bromide and sulfate anions, as well as dissolved oxygen and carbon dioxide. Looking through a microscope, MECA examines the soil grains to help determine their origin and mineralogy. Needles stuck into the soil determine the water and ice content, and the ability of both heat and water vapor to penetrate the soil.
MECA will determine the sizes and shapes of particles and will perform experiments to learn about adhesion, abrasion, and the electrostatic behavior of particles on Mars. The optical microscope can image particles in the range from about 1 millimeter down to 1 micrometer (1/1'000 millimeter). The AFM has a much higher resolution which ranges from 10 micrometers down to 10 nanometers (1/100'000 millimeter). This new method allows scientists to have a much closer look at Martian soil and exciting new insights can be expected.
design by H.-R. Hidber text by H.-R. Hidber / A. Tonin last update : 05/26/2008


Do you know about the Sabarimala temple protests?
Sabarimala Sree Dharma Sastha Temple is dedicated to Lord Ayyappa, situated in Kerala. It is one of the most famous and prominent temples among all the Sastha temples based in Kerala. The temple has been in news for some time now because the entry of women ageing between 10 to 50 years was banned in the temple from time immemorial.
After much protest the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India, New Delhi had passed the verdict that women shall be allowed to visit the temple. The Court based its decision considering the scientific, biological and physical aspects.
The decision of the court supported the argument put forth by feminists that based on the biology of women and the fact that they menstruate shall not be a cause to prohibit their entry into any temples.
The Supreme Court also presented a rational and logical argument that devotion to lord should not be categorized based on our biological differences and considering that women were born out of a lesser god is absolutely unconstitutional and baseless said Justice Chandrachud.
Even after passing of the verdict by Supreme Court to allow the entry of women, there have been protests where locals are not letting women enter the temple.
The recent efforts of Trupti Desai to visit the temple were condemned and opposed when the local taxi drivers refused to take her along with her supporters to the temple.
She waited for more than 12 hours at the Kochi Airport, but all her efforts went futile when she couldn't move forward and had to finally return.
While some people are speaking in favour of the verdict passed by Supreme Court, some of them criticized Trupti's decision to disrespect the belief of the locals and to enforce herself into something which even the local women prevent from doing.
It is believed that the local people of Kerala, fear divine wrath and they cannot risk their lives and livelihood for the sake of promoting gender equality by allowing the entry of women in a certain temple. Not immediately after they had witnessed the havoc of severe floods that affected Kerala.
The entry into Sabarimala temple does not only confine to precautions related to prohibiting menstruating women but there are also precautions meant for men like one has to follow celibacy for at least 41 days to be able to enter the temple and to have 'Darshan' of the deity.
Such protests not only make the lives of the local people and devotees that come to visit the deity from far off places miserable, but such protest also put the lives of many people in danger with jams happening and roads being diverted or closed.
Many locals have said that God forbid if any other calamity like that of the floods that took place recently happens once again, who shall be responsible for that.
One more aspect that we would like to bring into consideration is the fact that whenever any temple is built and an idol is established in it, there are a set of mantras and chanting which is performed to bring life into that particular idol. The chanting is to bring together and invoke the forces and elements of the universe and then it remains no ordinary idol but rather very much like a living being, as per the Hindu Vedic religious belief.
Let's consider the simple example of the festival of Karwa Chauth that is popularly celebrated and many women still observe the 'Nirjala' fast which means one would not even consume water for the day. Even when there are live examples that the husband of the other nations also continue to remain hale and hearty even when their wives do not observe such fasts, the women at that point do not demand equal traditions be made. They are not standing for rights to be made where the men are also required to observe fasts for their wives.
When it comes to traditions and customs, we tend to give the benefit of the doubt. Rather than investing our time into protests that can put the life of people in danger, we must protect the rights of women where they are poor, weak and are downtrodden. The incursions of such kind as that of happening in Sabarimala temple shall not be encouraged.
We do not intend to encourage riots or protests but to let people understand that when we can respect such traditions then why can't we respect the belief system of the people of Kerala, who have been conditioned to believe that letting women in can really affect the lives of women and bring destruction.
It is not about women's rights, as it is not about prohibiting women to study, to appear for exams and other life rights. Therefore, it is a harmless prohibition, which can be removed once we have significant evidence in hand about why the entry is banned and how can it impact the lives of women and people in general.
When we could wait until the verdict of Supreme Court, let's wait for some more time to let the belief system of people be changed. Let's respect the rules and belief of the people and the place.
Nationallsts in Kerala should reach out to Syrian Christians since they are culturally in sync to Hindutva and have brains. Time to isolate Commies.
For more details on Sabarimala temple protests and related updates, like and subscribe to tentaran.com.


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2015-09-22 2015-09-23 Les Green1 Comment
British lawyers and the British public are angry with Lord Sumption's urging to go slow on sex equality to avoid the 'appalling' consequences to our legal system that could come from striving to get more women on the bench.
How out of touch can a Supreme Court judge get? (That is not a trick question.) Many people are appalled by the things Sumption explicitly says. I am as troubled by what he implies and—especially—by what he presupposes.
Sumption says that: the reason there are so few women judges in the UK is that female lawyers make a 'life style choice' to avoid the kind of work that would make them eligible to become judges; that the English Bar that provides such work is 'a very meritocratic institution'; and that fifty years would be a short time to wait for sex equality on the bench. The first two claims are false or misleading; the third is repugnant.
Sumption implies that: there is not now a large enough number (NB: not percentage) of women making that 'life style choice' for things to improve any sooner, and that there is serious suggestion of a remedy that could lead to '85 percent' of appointments going to women. I'm sure those claims are implied and not asserted because to assert them would call attention to their absurdity.
Sumption presupposes that: judicial office is something that should only come 'at the end of a successful career at the Bar'. One should do it as a kind of personal sacrifice, out of loyalty to 'a long cultural tradition which is genuinely based on public service'.
Never mind that, in Britain as elsewhere, desire for a judical appointment is as often based on personal or political ambition as on noblesse oblige. More important is this:
Why presuppose such things about a judicial career? Shouldn't judging be a job whose pay and conditions enable people to do it without having already banked a fortune as a successful lawyer? Why presuppose that a certain kind of practice is a desirable, let alone necessary, qualification for appointment to the senior judiciary? Sumption himself says that this kind of practice involves 'frankly appalling' working conditions. So why presuppose that a high-stress, narrowly focused, socially prestigious, financially lucrative career–often in London–is an ideal qualification for being a judge?
When we think of the appeals courts in particular, and the sort of decisions needed there—decisions about delicate questions of law that could reasonably go either way, decisions that require a sense of judgment and justice, decisions that profit from broad knowledge of our society and from ordinary human empathy—these are not things for which high-pressure, high-salary, super-lawyers have any special qualifications. Perhaps the contrary.
Brilliant judges—including brilliant women judges—could easily be found amongst in-house counsel, lawyers who went into business, lawyers in public service or in small firms, perhaps even amongst law teachers in universities.
The presumption that the tiny circle of our elite Bar is the best or natural training ground for judges is one of the things that entrenches the sexism of our courts. The main problem is actually not the attrition of women from the careers that Sumption thinks make for good judges; it is presuppostion that those careers make for good judges.
Wednesday's Child: The New vs The True
A paper by a junior scholar greatly impressed me. I thought it should be published. A distinguished philosopher did not share my view: 'It's warmed-over Rawls,' he wrote, in a curt letter of rejection.
Now, I could see for myself that the central claim of the paper wasn't completely new. But it was, I thought, completely true. And its case for a familiar truth was different from—though not inconsistent with—other arguments to the same conclusion. So why the obsession with the new?
This misery has company elsewhere, including in the social sciences. I do not only mean that, when others try to replicate famous 'findings', they cannot get the same results. I mean that hardly anyone tries to replicate anything. You can see why. Replication is expensive and unoriginal. Editors do not fight over a paper that argues that the findings of an earlier paper are all correct. Hence, there is a high prior probability that a lot of what finds its way into print is rubbish. (And then that rubbish is cited, and the citations re-cited, by philosophers who want their work to be 'continuous with' the advanced social sciences.)
In the humanities we do not have the excuse that originality is cheaper than replication. Admittedly, some of our work is not truth-apt, and some that is truth-apt is not truth-oriented (for instance, because it is bullshit). But I imagine that most of us hope that our claims about things like justice or law are, if not true, then true-ish. Yet our collective behaviour reveals a strong preference for the new over the (merely) true.
In my own fields, the pursuit of novelty has bad effects: one can be pretty sure that the next general theory of law will be more daft than the last one. And in moral and political philosophy writers continually 'discover' principles that no one in the history of humanity ever heard of.
The novelty-fetish has further knock-on effects. It isn't enough for ideas to be new; others need to acknowledge that they are new, so small novelties get over-emphasised, and the errors of past writers exaggerated. No longer are others merely mistaken, misguided, or muddled—their claims must be 'ridiculous', 'disgraceful', or 'ludicrous'. These epithets have various meanings, but they have a common use. They are all ways of pleading, 'Don't read him! Read me, me, ME!'
Though not excusable, this is understandable. Most of us write for a serious audience of a few hundred, of whom maybe a couple of dozen actually engage our work. (Legal and political theorists who imagine they have 'impact' in the halls of power, or even literature, mostly live in a hall of mirrors.) To lose a few precious readers to the judgment that our work is warmed-over Rawls (or Mill, or Marx…) feels like an amputation without anaesthetic.
We need to get over that. David Hume exaggerated when he wrote of political philosophy that, 'New discoveries are not to be expected in these matters.' But he was not ridiculously, ludicrously, or disgracefully mistaken. Here as elsewhere, Hume was mostly right—though with some one-sided over-emphasis. And there was nothing new in that either.
Wednesday's Child: The Teaching that Students Pay For
The universities minister, Jo Johnson, criticizes the 'lamentable' teaching some UK undergraduates receive. He is determined to 'drive it out': by subjecting universities to for-profit competition, by letting weak universities go under, and by imposing on everyone another costly and destructive regulatory scheme, the threatened 'Teaching Excellence Framework'.
Never mind that there is no empirical evidence that bad teaching is pervasive. Never mind that our leading universities compete in a global market against peer institutions that do not waste time on 'Excellence Frameworks'. Never mind that the best teaching is expensive, and if there are to be more contact hours, more feedback, and more Nobel laureates in smaller classrooms, someone will need to pay —if not the public, then students. But another reporting scheme, in which first prize may be permission to raise regulated fees by no more than inflation, will make teaching worse, not better. Hundreds of millions of pounds are already wasted in a national research evaluation scheme whose benefit has never been tested, let alone demonstrated.
Of course none of this is about empirical evidence. The government is worried about optics: 'It is not at all clear to some students what their tuition fees of £9,000 a year actually pay for…,' says Johnson.
It varies, but at my university (of which Mr Johnson is actually a graduate) one thing tuition fees do not pay for is the cost of tuition. We subsidize that, by spending our endowment to the tune of something like £8,000 per year per undergraduate. Yet there is no scenario in which the government will allow any university to let tuition fees rise to £20,000 or £30,000 a year. (Nor, in my view, should it.)
What then are students 'unclear about?' The answer is obvious. It is unclear to them why they should be paying even £9,000 a year when their counterparts in excellent German or Scots universities are not. It is unclear to them whether they should be going to university at all, since the economy is not producing enough graduate-level jobs for all who graduate.
We could clarify their minds about that without yet more bureaucratic regulation:
(1) They are paying tuition fees because they (mostly, their parents) voted for political parties who think higher education should be paid for privately and not publicly. (I set aside the massive charge on the public purse that will be racked up through unpaid student loans.)
(2) Their degrees are worth less because the economic value of going to university, though still significant, is lower than it used to be. A degree is in part a 'positional good'. The more graduates there are, the less valuable it is to be a graduate. And as long as the austerity-cult continues to depress the economy, even the few who graduate from elite universities now compete for fewer good jobs. (I set aside the bullshit jobs created by the regulatory schemes themselves.)
But maybe I oversimplify. Perhaps the unclarity in students' minds is of a different kind. Maybe they are asking, 'What am I doing here anyway?' or 'What's the point of education if it doesn't land me a better job?' If that is a widespread worry then it is a sign, not that university teaching is failing, but that it is succeeding.
Occupy (the right aspect of) the syllabus!
Brian Leiter comments on the mindless identity politics among the Berkeley undergrads who demanded that a course on 'classics of social theory' (Plato to Foucault) should mirror the social justice interests of the privileged college students who chose it:
'We must dismantle the tyranny of the white male syllabus. We must demand the inclusion of women, people of color and LGBTQ* authors on our curricula."
They ask,
'Are your identities and the identities of people you love reflected on these syllabi? … Is it really worth it to accumulate debt for such an epistemically poor education?'
First, as Leiter notes, there is the humiliating fact that these students seem unaware that Foucault was gay. Not to mention the interesting case of Plato. And all those confirmed bachelors among the tyrants. Yet the students turn lavender contemplating their own firm belief that there are no 'LGBTQ*' authors on the curriculum.
They have a better complaint about sexism. It is troubling that Foucault makes the syllabus while none of Wollstonecraft, Beauvoir or Arendt do. Choices always need to be made, but to omit all of these is a poor one. And I also share the view that 'classics' of social theory might include something from the Asian philosophers.
But a question: I take it that these students, or nearly all of them, want Asian philosophers translated into English, the lingua franca of the white male corporate plutocracy that runs their state and nation? (California is the home of the US "English Only" movement.)
As far as I can see, that is how they were served their Plato and Aristotle, their Marx and Weber–and their Foucault. Or are Sanskrit, Pali and classical Chinese now more widely read among Cal undergrads than are Greek, German or French? Somehow I doubt it.
I have a feeling that the linguistic mono-culture of most American students is utterly invisible to them. That is how hegemonic blinders work. White students don't see their own race; American students don't see their own language. They want their identities to be reflected in their syllabus. But in one of the ways most salient to the humanities and social sciences, they already are–and not to good effect. Of course, 'unilingual Anglophone' is, for most American students, not a social 'identity' they are aware of, let alone one they care to reflect on and, perhaps, transcend. (Ditto, of course, for social class.)
It seems to me that a college education that leaves students–especially in the humanities– linguistically crippled is an 'epistemically poor education' if anything is. (I know: 'What ableism!!)
It gets worse.
The students' complaint is introduced, without comment, with this backgrounder:
"This call to action was instigated by our experience last semester as students in an upper-division course on classical social theory. Grades were based primarily on multiple-choice quizzes on assigned readings."
At first, I thought OK that is a pretty good reason to 'occupy a syllabus'. Many American college students are racking up huge debts, and for what? A 'classics of social theory' course in which the instructors' main tool of assessment is multiple-choice quizzes? ('Hobbes is the foundation for unbridled capitalism: (a) Yes; (b) No; (c) I couldn't get the reading.')
It is easy to poke fun at the narcissistic self-involvement of privileged students who think everything should be a branch of "me studies". In truth, thinking about one's own identity can be a first step in thinking about others' identities–and then a further step up the ladder to thinking about social identity as such. But not if you think the problem is just the poverty of the reading list, as opposed to one's own impoverished ability to read beyond it.
The Refugee Crisis is not about Fairness
Governments have been shamed into addressing the refugee crisis in the Middle East and North Africa. The ugly idea that most Syrians, Eritreans or Afghans fleeing persecution and disaster are anything other than Conventional refugees is dissipating.
At the same time, another unhealthy idea emerges. It is the overweening concern with fairness. Not fairness towards refugees, but fairness among countries able to resettle them. It is a concern with who is doing more, or less, than their proper share as judged by some metric—by population, by GDP, by religious or ethnic makeup, or by geographical location. 'Unfairness' of that sort is the last thing we should be worrying about now.
Complaints of unfairness were first heard from front-line countries like Italy and Greece, and then Hungary, where the arbitrary fact of proximity to refugee-producing states was said to give them unfair burdens. The second wave of complaints held it unfair for Europe to shoulder a burden when rich countries in the Middle East—including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE—do so little. And now, perhaps most odious because it is the most trivial, Britain complains that, since it is not a member of the passport-free Schengen zone, it is unfair to expect it to help coordinate a resettlement scheme with other EU countries.
All of these complaints treat fulfilling one's moral (and legal) duties as an unwelcome burden that is tolerable only if it is shared according to some comparative measure. The fairness-obsessive cares more about the relative burdens on rich countries than he does about the absolute burdens his inaction imposes on those fleeing persecution and destruction.
The resettlement of refugees is not a public good in the economists' sense. It is not something like clean air, which requires the cooperation of many if it is to be produced at all, and not something like national security, which is open to all if it is provided for any.
Fairness does matter in addressing problems like that. For example, no one country or small group can halt destruction of the environment. Efforts short of a certain threshold are ineffective and pointless. If a large group enters an effective treaty, then any other country can benefit without pitching in. To get around this we need to change the situation; but no one would agree on a mechanism to do that unless its terms were fair. For instance, no poor country would agree to accept perpetual poverty just because rich countries had already used up the allowable quota of fossil fuels.
Settling refugees is not like that. Any country can be effective on its own. If Canada had admitted Aylan Kurdi's father (his aunt was already living in British Columbia), Aylan would be alive today. And in due course, his parents would be working, watching TV, buying food, paying taxes, and so on—in one of the richest and least populous countries in the world. But wouldn't that mean Canada had paid an unfair cost? If Canada resettled the Kurdis, the United States could have taken a free-ride on Canada's generosity. And so it is with respect to all other refugees and all other countries.
But that is a repugnant way of looking at things. First, it is unclear that there are long-run costs to resettling refugees. New residents who are eager, ambitious and grateful to be here are an asset, not a liability. Second, even with respect to short-run adjudication and settlement costs, the relative burdens among countries are unimportant. What matters is the absolute ability of any country to assist. It is relevant that Greek government is in such a parlous state that it cannot cope with the influx. Greece can hardly cope with anything. But it is not relevant that the Hungarian government is in a weaker fiscal position than the German government. It matters whether a country is able to take refugees; it does not matter whether other countries that are equally or more able are doing as much.
Consider an analogy. Any swimmer able to help has a moral duty to save a drowning child. He may not look around the pool to see whether the rescue would be less of a hassle to someone else, and he may not let one child drown on the ground that he already saved one yesterday. If he can effectively help, he must.
Coordination among refugee-accepting countries is often required—but by effectiveness, not fairness. What matters is getting refugees settled, not how the costs of doing so are distributed (except, of course, where that is instrumental to getting more people resettled quickly).
According to the Dublin Regulation, refugees arriving in Europe must claim asylum in the member state in which they first land. The idea is to provide a determinate adjudication of their claims, and to ensure that applicants are not passed around among states. (There is always one 'first state'.) But the fundamental duty to address an asylum request rests with any state to which it is submitted. If another state is already adjudicating it, that relieves others of the duty. But they cannot otherwise shirk by pointing out, even correctly, that another state would be less burdened by adjudicating, or that, if they wait, someone else will do it instead.
Waiting for a 'fair' distribution of the burdens of resettling refugees is immoral. Those able to act must do so, without regard to what others are doing save where coordination is needed—and they must do so now.
Wednesday's Child: When 'Normative' becomes Normal
I read in the BBC News Magazine that 'Nightly dreaming is a feature of the normatively-functioning brain – it is therefore part of our biological inheritance…' Ignore the glaring non sequitur. What about 'the normatively-functioning brain'? Is that a thing? Does the author, Shane McCorristine, ask his doctor if he has normative blood pressure?
Language changes, and the normalization of pompo-verbosity is a vector of change. That is also what gives us 'gender discrimination' in the place of 'sex discrimination.' Generally speaking, this usage is harmless. No one thinks that appointing four male drag queens to the UK Supreme Court is going to fix its current 'gender imbalance.'
The tendency to avoid 'normal' in favour of 'normative' has two sources. One is the disreputable desire to make a banal point sound fancy or academic. The other is the reputable desire to distinguish the typical from the desirable. But we don't need 'normative' for that. Your gran knew what 'normal sex' means and, like Dorothy Parker, she also knew that 'Heterosexuality is not normal, it's just common.' Of course, Gran would have been able to master the phrase 'heterosexuality is not normative…' and even, 'heteronormative sexuality is not normatively normative'. It's not complicated, once you know the code.
During a period of flux, however, we need to disambiguate. In contemporary jurisprudence, pervasive ambiguities have made the terms 'normative' and 'normativity' practically unusable. An article entitled, 'Explaining the Normativity of Law' could be about almost anything: there is no way of knowing in advance, and often no way of knowing in retrospect either. Here are some of questions you might find addressed under that title, together what seem to me the right answers, in telegraphic form.
Q: What is the relationship between laws and norms? A: Some laws are norms.
Q: What motivates people to conform to the law? A: There is no interesting general answer.
Q: How does the mere existence of law give people reason to conform to it? A: It doesn't.
Q: How is it possible that the existence of a law could give people reason to conform to it? A: It depends on what kind of reasons you have in mind.
Q: What explains the fact law provides a general moral justification for coercing people? A: There is no such fact.
Q: What warrants the use of normative terms in stating rules of law? A: The same kind of things that warrant the use of normative terms in stating rules of football or grammar.
As you can see, questions about the 'normativity' of law could be about the character of laws, about motivational psychology, about semantics, about practical reasoning, or about political morality. (I address some of the moral questions here.) There are probably other possibilities too.
This makes it difficult, especially for beginners, to find a safe path into contemporary legal philosophy. Pitfalls that have always been there are now obscured. In 1957, Lon Fuller asked how there could be 'an amoral datum called law, which has the peculiar quality of creating a moral duty to obey it'. The question-begging was so obvious that any undergraduate could step around it. But today, a begger of Fuller's sort might ask, 'How is the facticity of law consistent with its normativity'? Would you blame a student for thinking that there is a deep problem here? Or for hating jurisprudence?
I'm afraid it is probably too late for 'normative'; it is going the way of 'gender'. The best we can now hope for is logic-chopping to keep the path as clear as we can. It is so normal to use 'normative' for 'normal'—and a bunch of other things—that that has become 'the new normative'. You 'could care less'? I hope so.


Simon R Green • View topic - November book offers.
Post subject: November book offers.
Ok, so lets see how this goes.
We have 5 copies of the hardback of From Hell with Love and 5 of the paperback of Swords of Haven (the first Hawk and Fisher compilation).
Swords of Haven is £8 + shipping.
PM me with which you'd like, what name you want and a dedication if you want one. They'll be allocated on the time of the pm (I can't think of a fairer way?).
I'll count down the copies in this thread as they go.
I'll ship them as soon as I can. I usually meet up with Simon once or twice a month and I'll send them off as soon as I get them done.
For outside the UK, paypal.
For the UK paypal, bank transfer, cheque.
If there are any problems we'll refine this as we go !
Any comment, suggestions etc. let me know. . .
Post subject: Re: November book offers.
If I hadn't just bought the two, I would be on.
Sadly I'll have to wait until next month Perhaps there will be a Nightside title on December's list?
I can arrange for that, no problem. . .
Thread now closed for Nov.


text:
NASA Abandons Efforts to Repair RapidScatt
NASA has been working on a mission to repair a malfunctioned instrument in the international space. Trending news from November 28th indicates that they have since abandoned the mission and they will not be repairing the instrument anymore. Experts believe that this is a setback for the agency because it is supposed to take good care of the outer space and make sure that it is not littered. According to the official news that was released from NASA headquarters, they decided to terminate the failed ISS Rapid Scatterometer due to the complexities involved its resurgence.
RaidScat was launched to the station in 2014. It continued operating in god condition until this year when it failed. It was designed to collect direction data and wind speed. The machine was also equipped with the ability to measure scattering of radar waves that it was transmitting and those that it was sending. The powerful machine is believed to have lost power sometimes in August this year after an electrical power allotment system known as Columbus malfunctioned. The Columbus module is believed to have affected the operations of RapidScatt hence totally affecting its functions. Efforts from station controllers to save RapidScat proved futile as other instruments were also affected due to an untimely electrical overload. According to the report, control experts worked hard and finally managed to restore power in other instruments but RapitScat issue remained unsolved.
Experts believe that the instruments started to develop mechanical problems earlier than the power interruption issue. In August 2015, it failed to operate normally leading to a momentous drop of power levels of reflected signals. Its initial anomaly was the root cause of its final death at the beginning of the year. Scientists state that they have been trying to save the machine but they did not get a final solution. In several occasions, it complicated scientist's efforts to measure ocean winds. This is a blow to NASA because the sudden death of this instrument comes at a time when scientists have been fighting hard to get real data that can help control the untimely ocean waves and wind speed.
According to NASA, RapidScat was a reliable instrument that developed a complicated operation failure making their work difficult. News from the station indicates that they are not ready to replace RapidScat with any other instrument. They are in fact looking forward to relying on data sent from an Indian spacecraft referred to as the ScatSat1. This instrument uses a comparable scatterometer as RapidScat.
New blockbusters you need to watch in 2017
Can't get over her trauma: Kim Kardashian regularly visits a psychiatrist


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Filters: Author is Parker, D. E. [Clear All Filters]
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McCarthy, M.P., et al. Assessing bias and uncertainty in the HadAT-adjusted radiosonde climate record. Journal of Climate 21, 817-832 (2008).
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Titchner, H.A., et al. Critically Reassessing Tropospheric Temperature Trends from Radiosondes Using Realistic Validation Experiments. Journal of Climate 22, 465-485 (2009).
Dunn, R.J.H., et al. HadISD: a quality-controlled global synoptic report database for selected variables at long-term stations from 1973-2011. Climate of the Past 8, 1649-1679 (2012).
Willett, K.M., et al. HadISDH: an updateable land surface specific humidity product for climate monitoring. Climate of the Past 9, 657-677 (2013).
Doherty, S.J., et al. LESSONS LEARNED FROM IPCC AR4 Scientific Developments Needed To Understand, Predict, And Respond To Climate Change. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 90, 497-+ (2009).
Dai, A.G., et al. A New Approach to Homogenize Daily Radiosonde Humidity Data. Journal of Climate 24, 965-991 (2011).
Thorne, P., et al. Probable causes of late twentieth century tropospheric temperature trends. Climate Dynamics 21, 573-591 (2003).
Thorne, P., et al. A quantification of uncertainties in historical tropical tropospheric temperature trends from radiosondes. Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres 116, (2011).
Thorne, P., et al. Revisiting radiosonde upper air temperatures from 1958 to 2002. Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres 110, (2005).
Peterson, T.C., et al. State of the Climate in 2008. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 90, S13-+ (2009).
Achberger, C., et al. STATE OF THE CLIMATE IN 2010. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 92, S17-+ (2011).
Achberger, C., et al. STATE OF THE CLIMATE IN 2011 Special Supplement to the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society Vol. 93, No. 7, July 2012. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 93, S1-+ (2012).
Thorne, P., et al. Tropical vertical temperature trends: A real discrepancy?. Geophysical Research Letters 34, (2007).
Thorne, P., Parker, D.E., Christy, J.R. & Mears, C.A. Uncertainties in climate trends - Lessons from upper-air temperature records. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 86, 1437-+ (2005).
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Llangollen / Castell Dinas Bran
The Romance of
Fulk-Fitz-Warine
Dinas Bran plays a prominent part in the medieval tale, 'The History of Fitz-Warine'. It tells us of a story told to William the Conqueror as he moved into the Vale of Llangollen. Dinas Bran was apparently haunted by the devil possessed giant Geomagog, previously killed by a sturdy kick to the head and subsequent drowning by the knight, Corineus.
Pain Peverell (a cousin to William) declared that he would travel to Dinas Bran to defeat the giant. Accompanied by 15 knights and armed with a sword emblazoned with a cross of azure, he climbed to the summit.
That night a terrible storm of thunder and lightning broke upon the castle, and Peverell's knights all feared for their lives. Falling to the ground, they cowered and would not move. Although fearful himself, Peverell was made of sterner stuff, it seems. As a good Christian he made to prayer and asked for strength and protection from the devil.
The giant, Geomagog attacked from the dark, enraged by the piety of the knight. Breathing out great clouds of smoke and fire, the flames of which were quite visible in the town below, illuminating the summit. Peverell trusted in the Lord, and more vitally his sword and battle was met. Despite Geomagog's great size and strength, Peverell's blessed sword enfeebled the giant, and finally Peverell was able to mortally wound the fiend.
Recognising the power of Christ, Geomagog submitted. Peverell demanded to know who the giant was and why he resided at Dinas Bran. The giant was forthcoming, confirming the tale originally told to William of his death. Having given his soul to the devil, the spirit returned to the Vale and Dinas Bran to protect the treasure hoard collected by the giant and hidden at the castle. His interest piqued by the mention of treasure (the Normans ever were), Peverell demanded to know more of it. He was told of a fabulous wealth of golden pagan figurines, including the mythological stalwart of a golden bull. Indeed, the giant claimed the Vale had once been the domain of evil spirits until banished by St Augustine.
Cutting to the quick of the matter, Peverell demanded to know the whereabouts of the treasure, but was told in no uncertain terms to, 'speak no more of that for it is destined for others'. And at that, the spirit of the giant hissed out of Geomagog's corpse and left behind such a stink that Peverell was almost overcome.
William was, of course, much impressed with this tale, and kept the giant's mace as a source of wonder, having unceremoniously thrown the giant's body into a ditch somewhere outside of the town. True to form, William rewarded Peverell by granting him an awful lot of somebody else's land.
The treasure of Geomagog is said to lay somewhere on Dinas Bran to this day, waiting to be found, it is said, by a white dog whose silver eyes can see the wind. It is worth noting, that in the light of Bran's connection to London as previously stated, that there is perhaps a connection between Geomagog and the legendary Gogmagog, the legendary giant of British folklore and the guardian of London.