Chasing

This weekend Mark and I will be going out to Chapman University in California to take part in the Association for the Society of Religion, Economics, and Culture. The name is a mouthful so it will be ASREC from now on. The program looks really good. Check it out. If you see a project you're interested in I'll check it out and do a write up on the blog.

You might notice that Mark and I are both on the program. He is presenting our out-of-the press research regarding the Parable of the Yeast and I am presenting our research on the Parable of the Great Banquet (I'll let everyone know when they can get a copy off my website).

The crux of the Great Banquet research is that all of us are modern invitees to a banquet, what would cause us to accept or reject an invitation to the banquet? We believe it comes down to how a person values the banquet. In the lab we manipulate how uncertain they are about the value of the banquet. We also manipulate how much they desire other things besides the banquet. One of these "other things" we can desire is social status. We have a desire for recognition, to be the best, and known as the best. Excellence is a good thing, egoism is not.

I do not know if our readers like rap music but I have embedded a music video of my favorite rapper (and he's a committed follower of Christ) Lecrae's rap song called "Chase That" (lyrics here if you prefer not to listen)

Also, congratulations to my friend Brandon Vogt who will be appearing on NPR's interfaith voices segment. You can check his blog Thin Veil here.