This is my journey from forced attendance at church to avoiding and ignoring all things religious and church-related. It is my long journey back to realizing I was searching for faith, not a church or religious group, but to find my faith. There are doubts about everything along the way. You will encounter daily small miracles, and large and small blessings. My encounter with a Lakota Sioux Shaman for a vision quest for my totem animal/guide. To my discernment for ordination. Along the way...

The doctrine of being born in sin has been adopted by the Catholic and Protestant churchs for centuries. But, why would a loving God send a newborn infant to the world with the handicap of being born in sin? There are many verses which are used to support this doctrine, but there are also other verses in God's Word which seem to be in conflict with it. If Jesus was born in every way as we are, then if we are born in sin, wouldn't Jesus also have had to be born in sin? If He had been, then ...

Genetic manipulation, paradox, alternative histories, and much more are included in this 128-page anthology of hard science fiction and genre stories! From some of the best up-and-coming talent in comics comes a mind-bending look at what makes us human.

Poor data quality can cause major problems for data teams, from breaking revenue-generating data pipelines to losing the trust of data consumers. Despite the importance of data quality, many data teams still struggle to avoid these issues—especially when their data is sourced from upstream workflows outside of their control. The solution: data contracts. Data contracts enable high-quality, well-governed data assets by documenting expectations of the data, establishing ownership of data ass...

NEVERTHELESS WE PERSISTED is the ebook companion to a special audio-first anthology of poems, essays, and stories that explores themes of loss, love, and finding your own power. It's an astonishing collection filled with heart, tears, laughter, and ultimately hope. Pieces include:  A woman's journey fleeing Iraq with her children and how it made her stronger.  A man recovering from his experience in Vietnam and learning empathy. ...

An airliner's controls abruptly fail mid-flight over the Atlantic. An oil tanker runs aground in Japan when its navigational system suddenly stops dead. Hospitals everywhere have to abandon their computer databases when patients die after being administered incorrect dosages of their medicine. In the Midwest, a nuclear power plant nearly becomes the next Chernobyl when its cooling systems malfunction.At first, these random computer failures seem like unrelated events. But Jeff Aike...

This collection of essays explores the significance of practice in understanding American Protestant life. The authors are historians of American religion, practical theologians, and pastors and were the twelve principal researchers in a three-year collaborative project sponsored by the Lilly Endowment.Profiling practices that range from Puritan devotional writing to twentieth-century prayer, from missionary tactics to African American ritual performance, these essays provide a uni...

Much has been written about the economic and political implications of the contemporary process of globalization. Much less has been written about the specific cultural implications.Previously published as a special issue of Globalizations, this book seeks to add to our knowledge of the latter by bringing together researchers from different disciplines with the common goal of exploring the emerging cultural relations among groups and individuals in terms of coherence and h...

Why have neo-liberal economic ideas been so resilient since the 1980s, despite major intellectual challenges, crippling financial and political crises, and failure to deliver on their promises? Why do they repeatedly return, not only to survive but to thrive? This groundbreaking book proposes five lines of analysis to explain the dynamics of both continuity and change in neo-liberal ideas: the flexibility of neo-liberalism's core principles; the gaps between neo-liberal rhetoric and realit...