My grandparents lived in Salem, Arkansas, which was an all-white community in the Ozark foothills. One day in the early 1960s, Grandpa was strolling across the town square on his lunch break from his job at the post office. As he walked by the bus depot, a friendly voice called out to him. …

Glancing to his left, Grandpa found himself looking into the face of a man he hadn't seen for almost ...

University of Louisville psychologist Michael Cunningham recently did an extensive study of the most common complaints men and women have about each other. Here is what he discovered.

The most common complaints men have concerning women include:

• the silent treatment
• bringing up past transgressions
• being too hot or too cold
• being critical
• being stubborn and refusing to give in

The most common complaints ...

Psychologists have found an intriguing way to study what it is that we really like and dislike. It's called "affective priming." They print a word over a bouncing dot on a computer screen. If people's response is positive, they push any key with their left hand; if negative—any key with their right.

Too discover our deeper responses, researchers will use subliminal stimulation. They'll print ...

At my daughter's elementary school musical, the printed program noted: "This musical was originally written for 15 actors, but it has been adapted to accommodate our cast of 206." You know what kind of show this was. No-cut auditions, no performer left without something special to do. They danced, they sang, they delivered lines, and somehow 206 children graced the stage that night.

It was not a short ...

Improvisation is the willingness to live within the bounds of the past and yet search for the future at the same time. Improvisation is the desire to make something new out of something old.… It is experienced in being open to letting the people around you…have impact on what you are creating.

Wynton Marsalis is the artistic director of jazz at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts ...

As I read accounts of the New Testament church, no characteristic stands out more sharply than [diversity]. Beginning with Pentecost, the Christian church dismantled the barriers of gender, race, and social class that had marked Jewish congregations. Paul, who as a rabbi had given thanks daily that he was not born a woman, slave, or Gentile, marveled over the radical change: "There is neither Jew ...

A 2008 ABC News/Washington Post poll of 1,125 U.S. adults (including 201 African Americans) shows that many Americans think race relations are improving:

• When asked if they think race relations in the United States are excellent, good, not so good, or poor, 4 percent said excellent (up 2 percent from 16 years ago); 47 percent said good (up 17 percent); 36 percent said not so good (down from 45 percent); 12 percent said poor (down from 21 percent). The remaining 1 percent was unsure (down from 2 percent).
  

Mark DeYmaz, pastor of the Mosaic Church of Central Arkansas, is passionate about building a multi-ethnic and economically diverse church. In his book Building a Healthy Multi-Ethnic Church, DeYmaz stresses the church—especially the American church—ought to reflect the many colors and cultures that dot our landscape. The diversity this requires is not an easy task. Nonetheless, the church ...

In his book Sermon on the Mount: A Foundation for Understanding, author and professor Robert A. Guelich writes of the role Christ-followers play as peacemakers:

The peace intended is not merely that of political and economic stability, as in the Greco-Roman world, but peace in the Old Testament inclusive sense of wholeness, all that constitutes well-being…

The "peacemakers," therefore, are not ...

The 20th century was the bloodiest in human history. In Humanity: A Moral History of the 20th Century, Jonathan Glover estimates that 86,000,000 people died in wars fought from 1900 to 1989. That means 2,500 people every day, or 100 people every hour, for 90 years.

In addition to those killed in war, government-sponsored genocide and mass murder killed approximately 120,000,000 people in the 20th century—perhaps ...