The Great Dechurching


Book Description

We are currently experiencing the largest and fastest religious shift in US history. It is greater than the First and Second Great Awakening and every revival in our country combined...but in the opposite direction. Yet precious little rigorous study has been done on the broad phenomenon of dechurching in America. Jim Davis and Michael Graham have commissioned the largest and most comprehensive study of dechurching in America by renowned sociologists Dr. Ryan Burge and Dr. Paul Djupe. The Great Dechurching takes the insights gleaned from this study to drill down on how exactly people are dechurching with respect to beliefs, behavior, and belonging. This book gives the church in America its first ever deep dive into the dechurched phenomenon. You'll learn about the dechurched through a detailed sketch of demographics, size, core concerns, church off-ramps, historical roots, and the gravity of what is at stake. Then you'll explore what can be done to slow the bleed, engage the pertinent issues winsomely and wisely, and hopefully re-church some of the dechurched.




The Success Sequence Strategium


Book Description

A Great Read Outlining and Profiling Success In It's Specific Process While Considering Conditions That May Impact One's Success It's Self.




Holding It Together


Book Description

Other countries have social safety nets. The U.S. has women. Holding It Together chronicles the causes and dire consequences. America runs on women—women who are tasked with holding society together at the seams and fixing it when things fall apart. In this tour de force, acclaimed Sociologist Jessica Calarco lays bare the devastating consequences of our status quo. Holding It Together draws on five years of research in which Calarco surveyed over 4000 parents and conducted more than 400 hours of interviews with women who bear the brunt of our broken system. A widowed single mother struggles to patch together meager public benefits while working three jobs; an aunt is pushed into caring for her niece and nephew at age fifteen once their family is shattered by the opioid epidemic; a daughter becomes the backstop caregiver for her mother, her husband, and her child because of the perceived flexibility of her job; a well-to-do couple grapples with the moral dilemma of leaning on overworked, underpaid childcare providers to achieve their egalitarian ideals. Stories of grief and guilt abound. Yet, they are more than individual tragedies. Tracing present-day policies back to their roots, Calarco reveals a systematic agreement to dismantle our country’s social safety net and persuade citizens to accept precarity while women bear the brunt. She leads us to see women's labor as the reason we've gone so long without the support systems that our peer nations take for granted, and how women’s work maintains the illusion that we don't need a net. Weaving eye-opening original research with revelatory sociological narrative, Holding It Together is a bold call to demand the institutional change that each of us deserves, and a warning about the perils of living without it.




Creating an Opportunity Society


Book Description

Americans believe economic opportunity is as fundamental a right as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. More concerned about a level playing field for all, they worry less about the growing income and wealth disparity in our country. Creating an Opportunity Society examines economic opportunity in the United States and explores how to create more of it, particularly for those on the bottom rungs of the economic ladder. Ron Haskins and Isabel Sawhill propose a concrete agenda for increasing opportunity that is cost effective, consistent with American values, and focuses on improving the lives of the young and the disadvantaged. They emphasize individual responsibility as an indispensable basis for successful policies and programs. The authors recommend a three-pronged approach to create more opportunity in America: • Increase education for children and youth at the preschool, K–12, and postsecondary levels • Encourage and support work among adults • Reduce the number of out-of-wedlock births while increasing the share of children reared by their married parents With concern for the federal deficit in mind, Haskins and Sawhill argue for reallocating existing resources, especially from the affluent elderly to disadvantaged children and their families. The authors are optimistic that a judicious use of the nation's resources can level the playing field and produce more opportunity for all. Creating an Opportunity Society offers the most complete summary available of the facts and the factors that contribute to economic opportunity. It looks at the poor, the middle class, and the rich, providing deep background data on how each group has fared in recent decades. Unfortunately, only the rich have made substantial progress, making this book a timely guide forward for anyone interested in what we can do as a society to improve the prospects for our less-advantaged families and fellow citizens.




The Seven Powers of Success


Book Description

Question: What's better than a magic wand, fairy dust, or good luck? Answer: The power to take control of your life and improve your situation. You hold the keys your to success. Use your amazing powers to choose what you want in life, see where your current choices are leading you, and take action to keep your life on course. Charles Marshall shows how to learn from failure, lead with character, and believe when others don't. He provides the inspiration and guidance you need to flourish in every area of your life, including... deep and meaningful relationships financial responsibility and freedom emotional balance and vitality Question: You are designed to succeed, but are you destined to succeed? Answer: It's up to you.




The Power of the Past


Book Description

Drawing upon interviews with adults married to a partner of a different class background, The Power of the Past reveals the intimate connections between love and class and how enduring class attributes shape who they love and how their marriage unfolds.




Emerging Adulthood


Book Description

"Since the mid-20th century a quiet revolution has taken place for young people in American society, so quiet that it has been noticed only gradually and incompletely. As recently as 1960, the typical 21-year-old was married or about to be married, caring for a newborn child or expecting one soon, done with education or about to be done, and settled into a long-term job or a role as full-time mother. Young people of that time grew up quickly and made serious long-term choices about their lives at a relatively early age. Today, the life of a typical 21-year-old could hardly be more different. Marriage and parenthood are at least eight years off. Education may last several more years, through an extended undergraduate program-the "four-year degree" in five, six, or more-and perhaps graduate or professional school. Job changes are frequent, as young people look for work that not only pays well but will be enjoyable and fulfilling"--




The School-to-Prison Pipeline


Book Description

The school-to-prison pipeline is not what it is popularly advertised to be by the major media, whereby the installation of safety officers and security personnel in schools to protect the learning environment for all the students leads to mostly young men of color getting a record for disruptive behavior and being channeled into prison as the logical result of attending K-12 public schools. Rather, the school-to-prison pipeline is a conduit opened and maintained by the statists, those who promote the state before the citizen, to keep as many students as possible in the public school monopoly so that the two leading teacher unions, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, maintain as many dues-paying members as possible and to increase the number of dues payers, regardless of its impact on our children. The promoters of the school-to-prison pipeline deny African American, Hispanic, Asian, white, and other students of color from high-needs socioeconomic backgrounds a choice of where to go to school. If these parents or guardians want their children to go to a public charter or to use a voucher to select another private option, that is where the inquiry should end--the simple choice by their parents and guardians. Instead, the state "wins" by keeping more people in the state-run pipeline. The public unions "win" by keeping more unionized school staff and keeping the dues gravy train coming in to support unions, who in turn use their political strength to help elect candidates who favor unionized public schools versus school choice for our children and young people. How do the children win if their education options are artificially restricted? The students lose by being blocked in sometimes failing public schools with no viable choice to go elsewhere. And the poorer you are, the fewer choices you generally have. This denial of school choice would particularly impact black students, as blacks have disproportionately less money than the average American.




Agency


Book Description

Every child in America deserves to know that a path to a successful life exists and that they have the power to follow it. But many never set foot on that path because they grow up hearing the message that systemic forces control their destinies, or that they are at fault for everything that has gone wrong in their lives. These children often come from difficult circumstances. Many are raised by young, single parents, live in disadvantaged neighborhoods, attend substandard schools, and lack the moral safeguards of religious and civic institutions. As a result, they can be dispirited into cycles of learned helplessness rather than inspired to pursue their own possibilities. Yet this phenomenon is not universal. Some children thrive where others do not. Why? Are there personal behaviors and institutional supports that have proven to make a difference in helping young people chart a course for their futures? Agency answers with a loud and clear “yes!” This book describes four pillars that can uplift every young person as they make the passage into adulthood: Family, Religion, Education, and Entrepreneurship. Together, these pillars embody the true meaning of freedom, wherein people are motivated to embrace the ennobling responsibilities of building healthy social structures and shaping the outcomes of their own lives. For that reason, Ian Rowe calls the four pillars the FREE framework. With this framework in place, children are empowered to develop agency, which Rowe defines as the force of one’s free will, guided by moral discernment. Developing agency is the alternative to the debilitating ‘blame-the-system’ and ‘blame-the-victim’ narratives. It transcends our political differences and beckons all who dare to envision lives unshackled by present realities. In addition to making the case for agency, Rowe shares his personal story of success coming from an immigrant family. He defends America as an ever-improving country worthy of our esteem. He corrects misguided calls for “anti-racism” and “equity,” and champions a game plan for creating new agents of agency, dedicated to promoting the aspirational spirit of America’s children, and showing them the path that will set them FREE.