Category Archives: Popular Culture

Run, Howard, Run

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The former CEO of Starbucks, Howard Schultz, seems to be testing the waters for a possible presidential run in 2020. See here and here.

I hope he returns to the Republican party and seeks the Republican nomination for President in 2020.
 
But if he runs as a Democrat, I may have to take back everything I have ever said about never, ever voting for a Democrat.
 
But the vetting process hasn’t even begun yet.
 
Who is Howard Schultz? I’m anxious to find out. Random House has my interview request.

David Stokes fills in for Paul

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Rev. David Stokes will fill in for me on Monday and Tuesday of this week.

David Stokes has been a friend of my family for nearly 40 years. He grew up in my hometown of Taylor, graduated from high school with my older brother, and is still good friends with him (and me).

David is a pastor, blogger, historian, and author. He is a prolific thinker. This is a great mix for talk radio that is engaging and intelligent.

I’m very proud to leave my audience in his capable hands. Please don’t miss him!

Creed frontman Scott Stapp on The Paul Edwards Program

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Scott Stapp is coming to Detroit on Friday, April 8 to sing “God Bless America” during the 7th Inning Stretch of the Detroit Tigers’ Home Opener. He will also perform later that night at the Motor City Casino.

I talked with Scott about his controversial past and his radical recommitment of his life to Jesus Christ. I asked him why we should believe him when he says he has undergone a radical transformation:

Well, I’ll tell you what, I don’t think you should believe anything I say. I think it should all be about my actions, and the way that I live my life, and the things that I do that you can see….for those who follow me and my career, for the fans that have followed me, and for the fans that have turned away from me because of my fall into sin, you know, it just takes time, and all I can say is that my actions, to the best of my ability, God willing, will speak to that. At this point in time my words are empty promises.

Will Creed’s music change because of the spiritual change in Scott Stapp?

One thing I never did, no matter how far I was away from God, was quit talking to God, quit praying to God. I never turned my back on that, it’s something that’s part of the core human being that I am. And even though my life did not reflect one of a Christian, behind closed doors I would still pray.  I think how that effects my music, the music has always had expressions at various times of my love for God, and my faith in God, and then it also has been the story of the dark places, the valleys.

You can’t help but sing of your love for God when you love God, it’s a natural thing, it just comes from your soul as you worship. So as the world may interpret some of these songs, the new material that I have that are talking about love and my love for God, they may interpret them as a love for another human being, but I’m here to tell you today that they’re talking about my love for Jesus Christ and my love for God because I am only here today because of the grace of God.

Scott Stapp Interview Part One:

Scott Stapp Part One

Scott Stapp Interview Part Two:

Scott Stapp Part Two

Haven’t we heard this before…?

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Religion may become extinct in nine nations, study says

“The idea is pretty simple,” said Richard Wiener of the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, and the University of Arizona.

“It posits that social groups that have more members are going to be more attractive to join, and it posits that social groups have a social status or utility.

“For example in languages, there can be greater utility or status in speaking Spanish instead of [the dying language] Quechuan in Peru, and similarly there’s some kind of status or utility in being a member of a religion or not.”

Dr Wiener continued: “In a large number of modern secular democracies, there’s been a trend that folk are identifying themselves as non-affiliated with religion; in the Netherlands the number was 40%, and the highest we saw was in the Czech Republic, where the number was 60%.”

The team then applied their nonlinear dynamics model, adjusting parameters for the relative social and utilitarian merits of membership of the “non-religious” category.

They found, in a study published online, that those parameters were similar across all the countries studied, suggesting that similar behaviour drives the mathematics in all of them.

And in all the countries, the indications were that religion was headed toward extinction.

Here’s the punch line…

However, Dr Wiener told the conference that the team was working to update the model with a “network structure” more representative of the one at work in the world.