Geoff W. Sutton Blog

Precious lives  Children  & Death  & Religion A woman cradles a baby and breathes life into his mouth. On Wednesday 19 February, 2014 Miami traffic halted on a busy highway. Pamela Rauseo held her 5-month old nephew and cried for help. He had stopped breathing. She performed CPR as many travelers sprang into action. The baby lives thanks to Pamela’s quick response and all those good neighbors described in the Miami Herald report . WGNtv.com news linked the event to a Christian text in their headline: “Good Samaritan performs CPR, saves infant’s life on busy highway.” Others spoke of the miracle . Religious language comes easy in American culture—especially when an infant is saved from the clutches of death. ***** Also on Wednesday, a Pennsylvania couple faced prison because they did not seek medical care for their 8-month old son. They come from a Pentecostal heritage. USA Today quotes their beliefs: We believe in divine healing, th...

Premarital     Counseling Boom Good news . People still fall in love and want to marry. Couples want their marriages to last. And many are willing to invest in premarital counseling. Bad news . Marriage rates are at an all-time low and recent divorce rates remain high. And the research on the possible benefits of premarital counseling is not impressive. See post about marriage in 2013 . Breaking news (almost). According to a Fox News story published 21 January 2014, “The Colorado Marriage Education Act would require potential spouses to complete 10 hours of pre-wedding marriage education. Twenty hours would be required for second marriages and 30 hours for third marriages, KDVR.com reported Monday.” Why Do People Think Premarital Counseling Helps? 1. Engaged couples feel satisfied with the programs they attended. Some even think premarital counseling is fun . But some complain about the negativity when programs discuss pitfalls. 2. One ...

Valentine's Day Dance Love   And    Romance 1 “I love you” Who says it first?  Men do but people think women do. Marissa Harrison and Jennifer Shortall (2011) reported that women and men think women fall in love and say “I Love you” first. But men in relationships reported they were the first to say “I love you.” 2 Do young people view interracial dating similarly ? In the U.S., slavery and laws prohibiting relationships between Black and White Americans provide a negative context for relationships between people who appear different based on skin color. There are of course scientific problems with the definition of race and appropriate terms to use. A recent look at mixed race dating showed that young people use the terms Black and White to refer to their own group and members of the other group. In his qualitative study, Todd Schoepflin found the most favorable attitudes toward interracial dating were expressed by black men and white women compa...