Second Links — 8.3.10

The Russian Orthodox Church is training an “army” of young missionaries with an “anti-Western philosophy” to convey the Church’s teaching on contemporary issues and “distance young people from drugs, alcoholism, sexual promiscuity.”

In Philosophy and Faith , a Notre Dame philosopher explains what he says to those students who “find religion more a comfort than a burden [and] happily remember that believing means never having to explain why.”

Suffering increasing rates of burn out , Protestant clergy “now suffer from obesity, hypertension and depression at rates higher than most Americans. In the last decade, their use of antidepressants has risen, while their life expectancy has fallen. Many would change jobs if they could.”

One way of dealing with burn out: swear at your parishioners . An Anglican vicar in England “says if Christianity is going to be taken seriously it needs to get ‘streetwise’ and start effing and blinding. ”

Wheaton College’s Timothy Larsen talks about anti-Christian bigotry in secular universities in (to its credit) the website Inside Higher Ed.

Roger Berkowitz explains why we must judge .  ”To judge justly is both the most human and also superhuman of acts, ” he argues.

And a few other things:

A biography of the historian Hugh Trevor-Roper ; an interview with the president of Rwanda , Paul Kagame; an explanation of why African leaders don’t confront Sudan’s president , who’s been accused of genocide; a report that relics of St. John the Baptist may have been found in Bulgaria; another report that Wal-Mart offers a DIY tattoo removing system ; and a review of a museum exhibit on the Impressionists and their gardens .

Thanks to CatholicCulture.org for a link.