When You're Happy And You Know It

This is in today's Johnson City Press:

LONDON — When you’re smiling, the whole world really does smile with you.

A paper being published today in a British medical journal concludes that happiness is contagious — and that people pass on their good cheer even to total strangers.

American researchers who tracked more than 4,700 people in Framingham, Mass., as part of a 20-year heart study also found the transferred happiness is good for up to a year.

“Happiness is like a stampede,” said Nicholas Christakis, a professor in Harvard University’s sociology department and coauthor of the study. “Whether you’re happy depends not just on your own actions and behaviors and thoughts, but on those of people you don’t even know.”

While the study is another sign of the power of social networks, it ran through 2003, just before the rise of social networking Web sites like Friendster, MySpace and Facebook. Christiakis couldn’t say for sure whether the effect works online.

“This type of technology enhances your contact with friends, so it should support the kind of emotional contagion we observed,” he said.

Christakis and co-author James Fowler, of the University of California in San Diego, are old hands at studying social networks. They previously found that obesity and smoking habits spread socially as well.

For this study, published in the British journal BMJ, they examined questionnaires that asked people to measure their happiness. They found distinct happy and unhappy clusters significantly bigger than would be expected by chance.

Happy people tended to be at the center of social networks and had many friends who were also happy. Having friends or siblings nearby increased people’s chances of being upbeat. Happiness spread outward by three degrees, to the friends of friends of friends.

Happy spouses helped, too, but not as much as happy friends of the same gender. Experts think people, particularly woman, take emotional cues from people who look like them.


Christakis and Fowler estimate that each happy friend boosts your own chances of being happy by 9 percent. Having grumpy friends decreases it by about 7 percent.

But it also turns out misery don’t love company: Happiness seemed to spread more consistently than unhappiness. But that doesn’t mean you should drop your gloomy friends.

“Every friend increases the probability that you’re at the center of a network, which means you are more eligible to get a wave of happiness,” Fowler said.

Being happy also brings other benefits, including a protective effect on your immune system so you produce fewer stress hormones, said Andrew Steptoe, a psychology professor at University College London who was not involved with the study.

No wonder Shuck and Jive readers are the happiest campers around!! Spread the joy! Find us on Facebook too!

Rick War(monger)ren Speaks for Jesus

Check this post from Why Won't God Heal Amputees.

Rick Warren is supposedly the nice, normal evangelical. He, you remember, was the one that interviewed Obama and McCain in regards to their faith. Apparently, he is running for America's preacher.

Well, count me out of his church. He is a war-mongering fundamentalist. He is bad news. Sean Hannity loves him, of course. Hannity wants to "take out" Ahmadinejad and looks to Pastor Rick for wisdom. Rick thinks that is a good idea. According to the Bible, you cannot negotiate with "evil-doers."

HANNITY: Am I advocating something dark, evil or something righteous [by saying we should kill Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad]?

WARREN: Well, actually, the Bible says that evil cannot be negotiated with. It has to just be stopped. And I believe…

HANNITY: By force?

WARREN: Well, if necessary. In fact, that is the legitimate role of government. The Bible says that God puts government on earth to punish evildoers. Not good-doers. Evildoers.

Which government did "God put on Earth?" Canada? Yugoslavia? Iran? The United States? All of them? Some of them? Maybe God put the Iranian government on Earth to punish evildoers, like George W. Bush. That is what many Muslim fundamentalists believe.

Hannity and Warren are cut from the same hijab as the Muslim fundamentalists. Different government, different holy book, but the same religion--the religion of self-righteous, paranoid, extremist violence.

Here is the clip:

Using the Bible for Justice

I find quoting passages of the Bible to support some cause or another tiresome, annoying, and for the most part, meaningless. If your argument doesn't hold up on its own in the light of reason, no amount of biblical prooftexting is going to make it better.

A halo around a turd just makes it holy sh**.


That said, since certain passages of the Bible are chosen to "prove" that certain categories of people are unfit for places of power, prestige, or even human rights, it is good to address the Bible.


Sexual and gender minorities are the target of the day. Several passages from the Bible are quoted in attempt to show that G-d agrees with the prejudices of those who quote them.

Plenty of students of the Bible have written fine essays and books to show that the passages quoted do not stand up to the light of reason in regards to denying people rights, freedoms, and access to power. Here are plenty. (Or see the sidebar of this blog).

A recent post by More Light Presbyterians takes a different strategy. This post offers texts from scripture that can be used to support rights and freedoms for sexual and gender minorities.

If the Bible is a big deal for you, you might be interested in these texts (and you are invited to add your own). Here are a few:

1. "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (Matthew 22:36-40)
   
2. "God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them." (I John 4:16)
3. The story of Ruth and Naomi shows Biblical consecration for "non-traditional" families. (The Book of Ruth)
4. David and Jonathan. (1 and 2 Samuel) Even the most conservative plain text reading of this story would conclude it's certainly an extraordinary covenanted relationship.
5. The story of Lydia (Acts 16: 11-15) shows Biblical consecration of a female-headed household.
6. Jesus was an unmarried man in a tradition culture and his group of followers consisted of a sort of non-traditional extended family.
   
7. So too with Paul.
8. Jesus welcomed sexual minorities. "For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can." (Matthew 19:11-12)
9. The first Gentile convert to Christianity was a sexual minority. (See Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch, Acts 8:26-39)
10. In Acts 15, the Apostles welcomed Gentiles into the church. This was a radical reversal because previously Gentiles were seen as "by nature" unclean and "by practice" polluted by idolatry. (See Acts 15:1-21)
11. "As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:27-28)
12. "Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God." Romans 15:7

Check out the post for more and feel free to add yours!

Prop Eight: The Musical!!

You'll love Jack Black as Jesus. "See ya later, sinners!"

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Depriving Religion of Its Capacity to Destroy People

Hat tip to NT Wrong for locating this interview with Gerd Ludemann, author of Eyes that See Not: The Pope Looks at Jesus. Here is the transcript of the interview conducted by Luis Rodriquez. NT Wrong points out a few gems. I like this one:

Whoever does historical research – that's my experience – will have to say: "I no longer believe". To give an example: historical researchers, work on God. They discover that God is a projection; they work on Jesus and discover that Jesus didn't say most of things that the Bible claims he said....

....when studying the Bible, we discover nothing but opinions of people about God—which they ascribed to God or whoever they want to. We never come across God or the Holy. We just come across the opinions of people. Then we tie them to the situation of their time and look at them from a new vantage point. We try and determine their agenda, what they wanted to do or what they wished had happened—it’s wishful thinking. By arriving at these results, we deprive religion of its threat, of its capacity to destroy people. It's the language of people from the past, not the present and, thereby, our research is a critique of ideology. That I think it's very important. As such, historical scholarship is destroying religion. Having read the bible historically and critically, you can no longer read it piously, because you know if you do, you deceive yourself.

I do like that observation that historical study deprives religion of its capacity to destroy people. I have to say that as a minister, my work more often than not is to help people pick up the pieces of their lives that have been destroyed by religion.

Some people need to reclaim and reintegrate some aspect of religious belief into their lives. Others need to come to peace with leaving it behind. In either case, the religion or no-religion that they currently embrace is completely different from the religion that destroyed them.

What has been the most helpful destroyer of the destroyer? Facts.

The God who wants to send you to hell has no power when you see that his fearsome image is a creation of the fearful little man behind the curtain.

People-less Homes Need People Too

I was wondering when this was going to happen. From today's Johnson City Press:

MIAMI — Max Rameau delivers his sales pitch like a pro. “All tile floor!” he says during a recent showing. “And the living room, wow! It has great blinds.” But in nearly every other respect, he is unlike any real estate agent you’ve ever met. He is unshaven, drives a beat-up car and wears grungy cut-off sweat pants. He also breaks into the homes he shows. And his clients don’t have a dime for a down payment. Rameau is an activist who has been executing a bailout plan of his own around Miami’s empty streets: He is helping homeless people illegally move into foreclosed homes. “We’re matching homeless people with people-less homes,” he said with a grin.

Now this is the kind of Robin Hood love that needs to happen so Americans can start getting their priorities straight. Check this.

Rameau and a group of like-minded advocates formed Take Back the Land, which also helps the new “tenants” with second hand furniture, cleaning supplies and yard upkeep. So far, he has moved six families into foreclosed homes and has nine on a waiting list.

“I think everyone deserves a home,” said Rameau, who said he takes no money from his work with the homeless. “Homeless people across the country are squatting in empty homes. The question is: Is this going to be done out of desperation or with direction?”

With the housing market collapsing, squatting in foreclosed homes is believed to be on the rise around the country. But squatters usually move in on their own, at night, when no one is watching. Rarely is the phenomenon as organized as Rameau’s effort to “liberate” foreclosed homes.

Florida — especially the Miami area, with its once-booming condo market — is one of the hardest-hit states in the housing crisis, largely because of overbuilding and speculation. In September, Florida had the nation’s second-highest foreclosure rate, with one out of every 178 homes in default, according to Realty Trac, an online marketer of foreclosed properties. Only Nevada’s rate was higher.

Like other cities, Miami is trying to ease the problem. Officials launched a foreclosure prevention program to help homeowners who have fallen behind on their mortgage, with loans of up to $7,500 per household.

The city also recently passed an ordinance requiring owners of abandoned homes — whether an individual or bank — to register those properties with the city so police can better monitor them.

Take ten minutes to watch this documentary of what this is about:

Speaking of homelessness, the author of this blog contacted me and said, "Give me some link!" You got it, my friend.




This is Kevin Barbieux, The Homeless Guy, whose homeless home is Nashville. He blogs about what life is like being homeless.

I am chronically homeless, having experienced several episodes of homelessness since the age of 21 - spending about half my adult life on the streets. On this blog I write about my experiences, and my opinions and knowledge of homeless life. You can email me at thehomelessguy (At) gmail dot com.

Folks, it is nearer than you think.

Will You Make Jesus Happy this Xmas?

Woke up to this morning's news:

Keep the Promise

World AIDS Campaign






This is Cold Play, Fix You

Princeton Activists Protect Traditional Sidewalk Values

Check this important video. Princeton students encouraged by Propostion 8 in California want to return their campus to traditional sidewalk values: Freshmen stay on the grass and off the walks.

In related news, check these great posts from Drew:

1. It Is a Civil Rights Issue
2. Can Laws Forbidding Same-Gender Parents Harm Kids?
3. Why Are Homosexuals So Upset About Prop 8?

I Evolved From Jesus

Thanks to Jim West for this one.