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More Pastors are Struggling

Emotionally, Mentally, Spiritually

Pastors have experienced a significant decline in their emotional, mental and spiritual health, according to new polling.

"Overall quality of life, having true friends and even the respect pastors say they receive by those in their community have all dipped lower," Barna Group reported.

Barna polled between 500-600 senior Protestant pastors the same questions in 2015 and 2022. Among the findings:

• 37% of pastors reported their spiritual well-being as "excellent" in 2015, but that dropped to only 14% in 2022.
• 39% of pastors reported their mental and emotional health as "excellent" in 2015, but that dropped to only 11% in 2022.
• when asked if they ever felt lonely or isolated from others in the last 3 months, 52% answered either "frequently" or "sometimes" in 2015, and that jumped to 65% in 2022.
• in 2015, 21% of pastors said they were "frequently" emotionally or mentally exhausted and that jumped to nearly 1 in 3 (32%) in 2022.

Are you a pastor or do you know a pastor experiencing these types of difficulties? AVC would like to help. We have several future projects in the works, so make sure you're signed up on our pastors list to receive information.

‘The Great Dechurching’

NYT columnist Jessica Grose wrote about a new book, The Great Dechurching, by Jim Davis and Michael Graham with Ryan Burge.

“We are currently in the middle of the largest and fastest religious shift in the history of our country,” they postulate, because “about 15 percent of American adults living today (around 40 million people) have effectively stopped going to church, and most of this dechurching has happened in the past 25 years.”

Chris Christie Booed, but Also Cheered, at Christian Conference

There were many headlines about GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie getting booed after critiquing front-runner Donald Trump at the Faith and Freedom Coalition's annual "Road to Majority" conference. The boos didn't surprise me. What surprised me was to hear a significant part of the audience cheering. Attendees at this conference tend to be the most politically motivated MAGA-type evangelicals. So, who was cheering?

Well, The xxxxxx reporter Joe Perticone took this photo backstage after the speech:

Apparently there were a contingent of young Christian conservatives who were big fans of Christie's message. Could this signal an age-based split among politically conservative evangelicals?

Kari Lake Sued for Defamation

"As a result of Defendants' Knowing and malicious falsehoods, Richer and his family have been the target of threats of violence, and even death and have had their lives turned upside down," the lawsuit adds, which also names Lake's campaign, Kari Lake for Arizona, and her political action committee, Save Arizona Fund, as defendants.

SCOTUS Saves Democracy from MAGA

David French:

The implications are profound. In regard to 2020, the Supreme Court’s decision strips away the foundation of G.O.P. arguments that the election was legally problematic because of state court interventions. Such interventions did not inherently violate the federal Constitution, and the state legislatures did not have extraordinary constitutional autonomy to independently set election rules.

In regard to 2024 and beyond, the Supreme Court’s decision eliminates the ability of a rogue legislature to set new electoral rules immune from judicial review. State legislatures will still be accountable for following both federal and state constitutional law. In other words, the conventional checks and balances of American law will still apply.

Liberals Better at Spotting Fake News but Worse at Spotting Bias

PsyPost reported on a study finding that liberals are better than conservatives at spotting false information in the news but they're worse than conservatives at spotting ideological biases in the news.

Enjoy a classic Lincoln quote (that often leaves off the last two words)... on a classic 16 oz. pint glass. All proceeds benefit AVC's vital work.