Kirjahaku

Interfaith marriage is on the rise in America, from 15% of all marriages in 1988 to 36% in 2010. This is true in every region of the country, for people at every income and educational level, and across religious traditions: evangelicals, Jews, Muslims, Mormons, Catholics, and others are increasingly marrying outside the faith. On the surface, this looks like another triumph of the American melting pot. But that is only part of the story. As Wall Street Journal veteran Naomi Schaefer Riley shows in this provocative book, interfaith marriages are often fraught with peril. People often marry at a time when they have drifted away from their religious roots, and it may seem as if the only relevant question is who will officiate at the wedding. But once couples are married, and especially after they have kids, religious questions reassert themselves. Should we donate to the church? How do we handle holidays? How will we raise the kids? Do we take them to services? Send them to religious schools? These questions, and many others, increase marital tension. Indeed, as Riley shows, interfaith couples report lower levels of marital satisfaction than same-faith couples. Yet, while an overwhelming majority of Americans claims that religion is important to them, interfaith couples rarely discuss these issues before the wedding. Indeed, many equate religion, the source of their most deeply-held values, with the skin-deep matter of race, believing it bigoted to emphasize shared religious values. As a result, they are often woefully unprepared for the challenges of interfaith marriage. Drawing on a groundbreaking new national survey of 2,500 Americans and extensive interviews with couples, religious leaders, and marriage counselors, Riley offers readers an intimate look at this sensitive topic that will shape faith and marriage in America for generations to come.

The U.S. education system is not meeting the needs of all our children, especially those who are economically disadvantaged. For too many families, income level and ZIP code determine the quality of education available to their children. The need to give all children access to a good education, a chance for a better future, has never been greater. Launched in 1998 by philanthropists Ted Forstmann and John Walton, the Children’s Scholarship Fund has offered thousands of low-income children across the country the chance to attend private school, children who would have otherwise never experienced the benefits of a private education. In Opportunity and Hope, prominent journalist Naomi Schaefer Riley chronicles the lives of 10 scholarship alumni who—because of the educational opportunities afforded them—were able to turn less than perfect childhood circumstances into successful lives and careers. The stories of these children, representative of thousands of others and their families, are nothing less than inspirational. They are proof that all any of America’s children need to achieve their dreams is a chance, and someone to believe in them. They are also a testament to the power of private schools, including many inner-city faith-based schools, and they are evidence that given the chance for the right kind of education, anyone can achieve the American dream.

Silicon Valley tech giants design their products to hook even the most sophisticated adults. Imagine, then, the influence these devices have on the developing minds of young people. Touted as tools of the future that kids must master to ensure a job in the new economy, they are, in reality, the culprits, stealing our children’s attention, making them anxious, agitated, and depressed. What’s worse, schools across the country are going digital under the assumption that a tablet with a wi-fi connection is what’s lacking in our education system. Add to that the legion of dangers invited by unregulated access to the internet, and it becomes clear that our screen-saturated culture is eroding some of the essential aspects of childhood. In Be the Parent, Please, former New York Post and Wall Street Journal writer Naomi Schaefer Riley draws from her experience as a mother of three and delves into the latest research on the harmful effects that excessive technology usage has on a child’s intellectual, social, and moral formation. Throughout each chapter, she backs up her discussion with “tough mommy tips”-realistic advice for parents who want to take back control from tech. With the alluring array of gadgets, apps, and utopian promises expanding by the day, engulfing more and more of our lives, Be the Parent, Please is both a wake-up call and an indispensable guide for parents who care about the healthy development of their children.

Why are young people dropping out of religious institutions? Can anything be done to reverse the trend? In Got Religion?, Naomi Schaefer Riley examines the reasons for the defection, why we should care, and how some communities are successfully addressing the problem. The traditional markers of growing up are getting married and becoming financially independent. But young adults are delaying these milestones, sometimes for a full decade longer than their parents and grandparents. This new phase of “emerging adulthood” is diminishing the involvement of young people in religious institutions, sapping the strength and vitality of faith communities, and creating a more barren religious landscape for the young adults who do eventually decide to return to it. Yet, clearly there are some churches, synagogues, and mosques that are making strides in bringing young people back to religion.Got Religion? offers in-depth, on-the-ground reporting about the most successful of these institutions and shows how many of the structural solutions for one religious group can be adapted to work for another. The faith communities young people attach themselves to are not necessarily the biggest or the most flashy. They are not the wealthiest or the ones employing the latest technology. Rather, they are the ones that create stability for young people, that give them real responsibility in a community and that help them form the habits of believers that will last a lifetime.

Silicon Valley tech giants design their products to hook even the most sophisticated adults. Imagine, then, the influence these devices have on the developing minds of young people. Touted as tools of the future that kids must master to ensure a job in the new economy, they are, in reality, the culprits, stealing our children’s attention, making them anxious, agitated, and depressed. What’s worse, schools across the country are going digital under the assumption that a tablet with a wi-fi connection is what’s lacking in our education system. Add to that the legion of dangers invited by unregulated access to the internet, and it becomes clear that our screen-saturated culture is eroding some of the essential aspects of childhood. In Be the Parent, Please, former New York Post and Wall Street Journal writer Naomi Schaefer Riley draws from her experience as a mother of three and delves into the latest research on the harmful effects that excessive technology usage has on a child’s intellectual, social, and moral formation. Throughout each chapter, she backs up her discussion with “tough mommy tips”-realistic advice for parents who want to take back control from tech. With the alluring array of gadgets, apps, and utopian promises expanding by the day, engulfing more and more of our lives, Be the Parent, Please is both a wake-up call and an indispensable guide for parents who care about the healthy development of their children.

If you want to know why American Indians have the highest rates of poverty of any racial group, why suicide is the leading cause of death among Indian men, why native women are two and a half times more likely to be raped than the national average and why gang violence affects American Indian youth more than any other group, do not look to history. There is no doubt that white settlers devastated Indian communities in the 19th, and early 20th centuries. But it is our policies today?denying Indians ownership of their land, refusing them access to the free market and failing to provide the police and legal protections due to them as American citizens?that have turned reservations into small third-world countries in the middle of the richest and freest nation on earth. The tragedy of our Indian policies demands reexamination immediately?not only because they make the lives of millions of American citizens harder and more dangerous?but also because they represent a microcosm of everything that has gone wrong with modern liberalism. They are the result of decades of politicians and bureaucrats showering a victimized people with money and cultural sensitivity instead of what they truly need?the education, the legal protections and the autonomy to improve their own situation. If we are really ready to have a conversation about American Indians, it is time to stop bickering about the names of football teams and institute real reforms that will bring to an end this ongoing national shame.