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(via Eight Things Your Church Website Must Have - ThomRainer.com)

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Consider that, according to a Brookings Institution study, Cleveland and Seattle led the nation with the biggest percentage increases in high-income households from 2012 to 2013. Yet, research from Rutgers University revealed Cleveland also has one of the largest increases in neighborhoods with concentrated poverty since 2000. This division is further evident when mapping the concentration of Northeast Ohio residents with college degrees. Higher educated areas are centered in downtown, Ohio City, Tremont, Detroit Shoreway and AsiaTown, which have each seen double-digit percentage increases in residents with college degrees since 2000, as well as along the lakeshore, near University Circle and in various suburban and exurban clusters. Meanwhile less educated areas are grouped in the city of Cleveland outside the urban core and in the rural exurbs. Simply, areas of Cleveland that are revitalizing are part of the globalizing Core. The isolate neighborhoods, or those experiencing higher levels of violence and poverty, comprise the Gap. In fact, for a number of quality of life indicators, outcomes in various East Side neighborhoods are below that of developing nations. A recent PolitiFact article showed that infant mortality rates were worse in select East Cleveland neighborhoods than in North Korea, Uzbekistan, Zimbabwe and the Gaza Strip.

Renaissance Fair | Article Archives | Cleveland Magazine - Your guide to the best of Cleveland

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The church, mirroring the liberal establishment, busied itself with charity, multiculturalism and gender-identity politics at the expense of justice, especially racial and economic justice. It retreated into a narcissistic “how-is-it-with-me” spirituality. Although the mainline church paid lip service to diversity, it never welcomed significant numbers of people of color or the marginalized into their sanctuaries.

Chris Hedges: The Suicide of the Liberal Church - Chris Hedges - Truthdig

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If you are a college professor, you can deduct research expenses, including travel expenses, for teaching, lecturing, or writing and publishing on subjects that relate directly to your teaching duties. You must have undertaken the research as a means of carrying out the duties expected of a professor and without expectation of profit apart from salary. However, you can't deduct the cost of travel as a form of education.

Publication 17 (2015), Your Federal Income Tax

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“Nones,” who according to the study now account for nearly 23 percent of all Americans, are made up of people who describe themselves as atheists, agnostics or “nothing in particular.” Within these denominations of the unaffiliated, there are in fact deep theological divisions. Though the survey’s “nones” include those who have little use for belief or the acts associated with it, others in the category “believe in God, pray at least occasionally and think of themselves as spiritual people.”

Thou Shalt Worship None of the Above - NYTimes.com

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Many mainline churches are dealing with the challenge of having a building that was built for a larger congregation than is currently using the building. The housing cost has become a great obstacle to furthering their mission. This article addresses that issue wisely.

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In Cleveland, the Pilgrim Congregational United Church of Christ had sponsored Troop 98 for 90 years, longer than any other church in the city. Through the winter, troop and church leaders hammered out an accord: this troop would pledge not to discriminate. But the area Scout council would not allow it. One day in March, without warning, council leaders entered the church and removed all of the canoes, tents, flags and plaques, stripping the church bare of its Scout troop, the Rev. Laurinda Hafner says. "I feel such a deep loss about this. Now those boys are going to be reinforced with the idea that being gay is bad, and even that standing up for gays is bad," Hafner says.

Scouts Divided (August 5th, 2001)

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Interesting overview of Pilgrim Congregational Church and the role the church took after calling Rev. Dr. Laurinda Hafner as its pastor in 1990. Some of the roles are still held by the congregation, few new ones have been taken on (f.x. Food Pantry). Other tasks or roles have been taken over by others or in some cases deligated to more specialized NGO’s, that might even use the church building to fulfill their tasks.

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“Downtown Cleveland is an amazing turnaround success story,” he says. “The next generation is moving back in and really activating the place in a way that, if you haven't seen it in a long time, it makes it really exciting to go downtown. It's not what you think of when you think of Cleveland from a few decades ago.”

These 2 Maps and 2 Charts Show How Millennials Are Reviving Downtown Cleveland - CityLab

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Interesting article about euthanasia and the need to be in control of every aspect of your own life, driven partly by an atheistic worldview.

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Looking out over the smiling, swaying, overwhelmingly white audience singing in the arena that night, I realized that with the simple act of extending my hand — literally, not even metaphorically — I could offer so many of them a heartfelt feeling of racial unity, the promise of healing. But what can I offer the black men and women I spoke to earlier that day? I can't promise them that things will change, that their sons and daughters will make it to happy, healthy adulthoods,...

http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/06/24/417108714/dispatch-from-charleston-the-cost-of-white-comfort?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20150624

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The completely common and ordinary Elli, is a favorite.

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In a world where some hardline atheists and a vocal cadre of religious conservatives preach a false choice between faith and bigotry, the liberal church-goer is often caught between a political rock and a spiritual hard place. Scorned by the legacy and relentless advocacy of the Religious Right, they fear any affiliation with their conservative cousins, who dismiss their left-leaning beliefs as heretical or “misguided.” (e.g., most Republicans are still convinced President Barack Obama, an avowed Christian, is Muslim “deep down,” whatever that means.) Conversely, liberals sometimes hide their faith when navigating the progressive cultural spaces they call home, wary of triggering the fury of those who are wounded by or critical of religion. (For a sneak peak, check out the anti-religion comments that will inevitably populate the bottom of this post.)

Turns Out, Being Progressive And Religious Is Hilarious | ThinkProgress

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“To move into the upper class, all you must do is throw your wadded-up paper into the bin while sitting in your seat.”

http://www.buzzfeed.com/nathanwpyle/this-teacher-taught-his-class-a-powerful-lesson-about-privil#.iiWMLN8zN