A photo of Roddy Ricch in the desert.

Social media has been a mixed bag since it came on the scene; it has been a force for immense good and a home for some of the most harmful interactions.

Process exposure refers to social media activities where influencers and users consistently reveal the creative process behind their successes and outcomes to their audience.

Social media has frequently been used by millions of influencers and celebrities as a way to show off the good life and flaunt their successes. While celebrities flaunted their Grammys and Oscars, their followers were usually left with an insatiable hunger for the same results without understanding the process behind it.

This gross lack of process exposure has tainted the legacy of the biggest social media platforms and made them a purveyor of insecurities rather than a powerful tool for education and inspiration. However, a lot of positive change has gone unnoticed.

Since 2011, when YouTube introduced its live streaming function, Live video has exploded on the scene and become the favorite content consumed by most social media users. Statistics show that people spend three times longer watching a live social video than a prerecorded one.

The unintentional effect of this shift towards live video has been a drastic increase in process exposure. Going live as opposed to creating videos has dramatically increased the ability of content creators, influencers, and celebrities to bring their viewers along through every step of the journey. It has become the reality TV of social media.

Grammy Award-winning, and Forbes 30 Under 30, artist, Roddy Ricch, has not just observed this shift towards live video; he has also observed the craving among the average social media user for more process-inclined content in general.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JANUARY 26: Roddy Ricch (R) and guest attend the 62nd Annual GRAMMY Awards ... [+] at Staples Center on January 26, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images)

After making his mark in the music industry with his multiple awards ranging from the Grammys, BET, and the American Music Awards, amongst others, Ricch decided to venture into the tech space and build his brand portfolio. Ricchs search for the next big tech disruptor has led him to the team at Roll, a new digital platform that promises a new and unique connection experience between celebrities and their followers.

Ricch explained why he instantly saw the potential in the Roll project; "Being invited to be part of the creative process of developing the Roll app, was a big eureka moment for me, because it put in action, what I have been feeling for so long; people are tired of watching the outcome of all our hard work on social media, they want to see all the steps that led us there. This is the only way people can leave educated and inspired.

There have been far too many aspiring artist who thought they could just jump, pick up a mic, and start rapping because they were inspired by one of my songs, they didn't know the process behind the outcome. That's what Roll is showing".

The digital platform is designed to allow artists, creators and celebrities to share an inside look at their personal lives as well as the process of creating content and music with their fans and followers. With Roll, users can access the insights of making an album, from the late nights to the early mornings, building beats, laying verses, and the music video shoot. Roll's vision speaks to the larger benefits of process exposure.

Ricch is adamant that process-oriented content is the future of social media content. According to Ricch, process exposure will turn followers into leaders by providing direction, education, and inspiration.

Direction

Today's youth are heavily inspired by social media creators, celebrities, and influencers, sometimes more than other influences. However, loving a person or art does not automatically translate to possessing the ability to replicate the person's art or results. As process exposure becomes mainstream, young people will likely make more informed decisions after being exposed to the processes behind what they admire.

Education

From academics like Jordan Peterson to athletes like LeBron James, today's social media users are exposed to a wide gamut of solid influences.As process-inclined videos and content continue to explode, users can gain more step-by-step education in many areas of interest.

CAMBRIDGE, CAMBRIDGESHIRE - NOVEMBER 02: Jordan Peterson addresses students at The Cambridge Union ... [+] on November 02, 2018 in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire. (Photo by Chris Williamson/Getty Images)

The number of Americans choosing to go to college is steadily declining; perhaps process-inclined content can become a source of quality informal education.

Inspiration

Ricch stated, the most significant impact of the Roll app is its inspirational value. In his words, "It is one thing to know if you should do it, it is another thing to know how to do it, but inspiration is the most powerful part of what we are doing. Exposing an audience to both the highs and the lows of process inspires them to know that the best of men are just men at best and that if anyone can do it, certainly they can too."

It may be impossible to lower the internet's amount of unprofitable content being released, but the gradual push for more process exposure does hold some promise. Perhaps, social media might finally fulfill its true potential.

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How Roddy Ricch Is Impacting The Tech Landscape - Forbes

Mom, why did you and Dad get divorced? I asked for the hundredth time. I was accustomed to hearing her respond, We just couldnt live together anymore. But this time she did not say that. We were on the way to the laundromat, and I can remember exactly where we were when she answered.

Because your dad is gay.

Oh, I know that, I lied, trying to cover my shock. I didnt know that. I was 9.

I didnt know that.

Although my parents had raised me with a Christian worldview and I knew the Bible well, my world began to shift radically after my father explained why he was sleeping with men. Before long, both my dads apartment and our visits began to change. A calendar of mostly nude men appeared in the bathroom, along with some revealing art. It was very uncomfortable to visit, but I tried not to let it bother me.

On the weekends when I visited, Dad and I would head to Castro Street in San Francisco. It was a colorful place, and I quickly found that I had to be careful where I looked, lest I would see more than I bargained for. I learned my way around the neighborhood, knowing which were the gay bars and which were the lesbian bars. I even attended the gay Olympics to cheer on a family member.

I was hip. I was open-minded. I was enlightened.

But I was also torn. When someone in authority, especially someone who is trusted, tells a child something is true, that child will believe them. In fact, that child may build his or her worldview on that foundation. I did. This is why Pride parades, drag queen story hour, and teaching gender as a social construct are so insidious.

Out of loyalty to my father, I would never have shared my instinctive doubts about his lifestyle, but I distinctly remember being unsettled by it. And yet I shrugged off my feelings and ignored my discomfort so that I could be a supportive daughter. As I got older, I became a good social justice warrior at my school. I learned to put condoms on bananas and the importance of safe sex, regardless of whom your partner happened to be. I certainly wouldnt judge.

My dad died of AIDS when I was 17, on the morning of my senior prom. I watched him suffer his last months without a partner, and I listened to him voice his regrets.

Shortly before my mom remarried, she and I became Catholic. But at our ultra-liberal California parish, there was very little accurate catechesis on what the Catholic Church taught on these issues. However, I certainly embraced what I heard the Church taught on sexuality: open-mindedness, tolerance, acceptance. I was desperate for a way to explain away what the Bible said so clearly, and the progressive wing of the Catholic Church was eager to help me.

My Jesuit university did a fantastic job of not just excusing but celebrating the behavior of my by-then deceased father by wholeheartedly embracing and validating the homosexual lifestyle. In my Theology of Marriage class, rather than have a heterosexual couple speak, the instructor had a gay couple come to talk about the sacredness of their marriage. At the time, I said I was so glad that the Church was changing their backward views on homosexuality; however, deep inside, such an idea left me unsettled.

This illusion of the changing Church continues today. In his recent essay at Outreach, Fr. James Martin, S.J., explains why Pride and the month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus are not just compatible but complementary. He argues that Our Lord loves everyone, which is certainly true. But his slippery case that Pride Month is something Catholics should celebrate is filled with implied approval for homosexual relationships. First, he says, Imagine a young LGBTQ person who is not in any sort of sexual relationship but simply wants to be accepted.Where is the sin?Second, it ignores the fact that all of us are sinful. Who among us has not sinned?

Of course, a chaste person who struggles with same-sex attraction is not sinning. But then Fr. Martin pivots to the argument that we are all sinners. Well, yes. But we are also supposed to try to stop sinning. This sort of you-hate-chaste-LGBTQ-individuals gives way to we-are-all-sinners, and then the reader is able to fill in the blank as he is inclined: but God loves me anyway; or, so the Church is wrong; or maybe, so we should never judge the actions of anyone else.

This type of article is exactly the type of evidence I clung to in my progressive, liberal days when I was trying to justify not just the homosexuality around me but my own sinful choices. While Fr. Martin is correct that we are called to love everyone, sometimes the most loving thing we can do is call others out of mortal sin.

After I had my own children, I was befriended by several traditionally-minded Catholic women who took the time to educate me on the Churchs teaching on homosexuality. What made them so effective was that they shared the truth in the context of our larger relationship. Even though our family did not homeschool, these homeschooling moms welcomed me. We had monthly dinners out and occasional stump the priest nights when we could ask questions and discuss the Faith freely. It was through these encounters that we were able to discuss and debate, but only after we shared our favorite recipes and lamented the sleepless nights up with our babies, and before we arranged the next park day for our kids to play together.

These sometimes-heated discussions on homosexuality did not define our friendship. They were just one facet of our relationship, and these women cared about me even when I was a relativist. That we could move on to other topics on which we shared common viewpoints gave me the space to reflect on their words and let down my guard. What I said as we argued was often no longer what I thought to be true. Sometimes, even as I believed what they were telling me, I felt I had to make every argument to the contrary.

Through the influence of my friends and by the grace of God, our family began to conform ourselves to the teaching of the Church. But without their courageous truth-telling, I wonder if I would have changed.

On Rod Drehers blog, he recently described the experience of a progressive artist he called Jane. One night, in the throes of depression, and in the clutches of transgenderism, she happened to click on a Jordan Peterson video that was in her social media feed. She was shocked to find that she agreed with everything Peterson said. His lone voice amidst the sea of insanity into which she had been swept, just like the courageous voices of my friends, gave her permission to pull herself out. She gave up her art career because she realized that the wokeness it required was not worth it.

Hearing the truth mattered to Jane, and it mattered to me. For those who are in the position of teaching others the truth on homosexuality, marriage, or transgender ideology, please do speak up. Share the beauty of the truth fearlessly because yours may be the only sane voice that your friends and family hear. Know that people may be angry. They might feel attacked. They could be defensive. But in a world where the schools, media, corporations, and even many within the Church (such as Fr. Martin), are teaching half-truths or outright lies, how will anyone find the truth if we do not show them? The fruits of wisdom and counsel are often unseen, but that does not mean that the seed of truth you sow will not grow.

Eventually, I was able to accept that the people who told me the truth and who defended the actual teachings of the Church were the people who cared about me. They were the ones who loved me and who wanted me to know of the plan God has for human sexuality. I did not always react with grace to their correction, and there were many arguments and disagreements, but my friendsmy real friendsalways patiently met my arguments with the truth, delivered compassionately. They neither backed down nor did they ostracize me when I was in the throes of my ignorance. They spoke the truth in charity and, over time, softened my hardened heart.

[Photo Credit: Shutterstock]

Continued here:

How Having a Gay Father Showed Me the Lies of Progressive Catholicism - Crisis Magazine

Comic artist Cline Keller explains complex climate problems - such as the Energy Charter Treaty - ... [+] in graphic form.

Climate experts are worried: the urgency of climate change isnt getting through to the general public. Increasingly dire warnings and the growing ferocity of extreme weather events seem to elicit little more than a shrug of the shoulders.

Perhaps this isnt surprising: the scale of the climate crisis can seem too huge, and far beyond our control. In many ways, simply switching off is a rational response.

In the face of news fatigue and its byproduct of indifference, visual artists are turning to alternative methods to spread climate awareness where news stories have failed.

I try to show that while this stuff is complicated and super important, its much easier to understand if you get the context, says German comic book artist Cline Keller. Explaining a topic is much easier if we tell stories. And the stories are there, if you look.

As it turns out, graphic novels and comics are becoming an important tool in the climate communicators arsenal. From the sci-fi of Dark Horse comics Shifting Earth to Philippe Squarzonis Climate Changed, an all-in-one crash-course on the subject, theres something for everyone.

Keller has just released Dawn of the ECT, a self-published comic that deals with the fiendishly complex Energy Charter Treaty. In the West it might seem unconventional to see such weighty topics dealt with in a comic format. But in Kellers view, the more complex the problem, the more valuable the graphic artform becomes; narrative images, she thinks, have a way of cutting through that news headlines and social media no longer can.

In these times, with one scandal chasing the next, its important to arrange stuff in relation to its history. I think comics are great for that, she tells me. Getting activists and communities up to speed on a topic with a comic instead of a pile of articles can help.

In Dawn of the ECT, Keller narrates the story of an international agreement so obscure that most mass media outlets have avoided discussing it. Yet the ECT is important: it enables companies such as oil firms to sue countries for billions of dollars in compensation in secret tribunals, often in response to government attempts to pass climate legislationlike, for example, when Italy tried to ban offshore drilling near its coastline.

Legal advocacy groups such as ClientEarth have called for the EU to abandon the ECT, saying it jeopardises Europes climate goals. Whistleblower and climate researcher Yamina Saheb, who initially worked at the body overseeing the ECT, has described it as an ecocide treaty.

In Kellers version of the story of the ECT, the heroine, a personification of the European Green Deal, exclaims either we kill this treaty, or the treaty will kill us, as a zombified monstrosity representing the energy firms looms overhead. Corporate lawyers in the guise of Mafia-esque hoodlums explain how, by using a mechanism called an investor state dispute settlement, they intend to exert a chilling effect on climate action by challenging any decision that affects an investment by the energy sector.

The complexity of the subject-matter didnt discourage Keller from illustrating it. In fact, it rather appealed to her.

Keller's Discourses of Climate Delay, released in 2021.

It was super stressful but exciting, she says. I love deep-diving into something and trying to figure out how to make it work as a story. Dawn of the ECT, Keller says, is a collage of research and bits of articles I put together in a way that hopefully make up a story that draws you in.

Its not the first time Keller has dealt with a complex climate topic: in 2021 she released Discourses of Climate Delay, a comic based on an influential academic paper of the same name. That research looked at a shifting of the fossil fuel industrys climate strategy, from simply denying the existence of climate change, to introducing delaying tactics intended to justify climate inaction. The comic version offers a visually striking breakdown of the key takeaways from the report, telling the story of how the oil industry and complicit politicians do everything in their power to prevent meaningful change.

Though largely ignored by the mass media, Discourses of Climate Delay made waves among numerous academics and activists, with university and high school climate educators employing the comic to help explain why climate inaction persists.

A freelance artist and animator, Keller, 45, is self-taught. I did apply to art school, but none wanted me, she says. She dabbled in theology for a time, but realized thats not where a queer person should be. She found associating pictures with information to be a useful memory aid, and a way to organize her ideas. Then, a story about sea level rise threatening Miami threw a switch, and she got involved with climate activist group Extinction Rebellion.

A couple years ago I still thought tech billionaires and their fearmongering about the Singularity were the biggest threat. I didn't know much about climate change, she recalls. She reveals she has a comic still in the works (already over 60 pages long) about Elon Musk, Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson and social Darwinism ... it turns out, even if the topic changes, its still the same billionaires getting on my nerves.

As for her influences, Keller namechecks Jessica Abel, author of Out on the Wire, a graphic novel about radio and podcasting, and Swedish illustrator Liv Strmquist. Shes also greatly influenced by U.S. author Mary Annase Heglar and the investigative journalist Amy Westervelt, who has pioneered the narrative podcast in the climate space, taking the format of non-fiction true crime and applying it to the fossil fuel industry.

Much like podcasts, Keller believes, comics can help non-specialist audiences access otherwise challenging topics in a way that seems less like hard work. But shes also found that academics have responded positively to having their work reflected back at them in a visual medium.

I don't write for a special audience, she says. But apart from activists and curious people, I think comics might be a good way for academics to give an overview of their field, or communicate it with other academics, who might be inclined to read something other than a paper in their free time. It could make interdisciplinary research fun.

Nevertheless, Keller understands her core mission as something more practical.

I hope to inspire action, she says, and understanding the problem is the first and most important step for action. I wish more creative people would start thinking about how to use accessible ways to spread the info people need in this fight for climate justice and human rights.

We have to hang in there, because none of the fights will be short or easy.

Read the original:

Why Comic Books Could Be A Powerful Weapon In The Climate Fight - Forbes

In the wake of the Uvalde, Texas, school shootings, Fathers Day feels different this year. As the national conversation has again turned to the intersection of gun access and troubled young men, we are wondering what is driving this streak of nihilism. Are boys and men in crisis? Is there something uniquely worrisome about American masculinity?

These were some of the questions bouncing around my mind when I spoke with scholar and author Warren Farrell about masculinity. Before his foray into boys and mens issues, Farrell, 78, was the only man elected to the board of the National Organization for Women three times. His commitment to feminist issues earlier in his career informed his passion to understand the experiences of men later in life.

Farrells 2018 book The Boy Crisis, which he co-wrote with John Gray, looks at why boys are falling behind girls, with an eye on the impact that absent fathers and male role models have. His work has been featured on the Dr. Phil show and Andrew Yangs podcast, and he has been a repeat guest on Jordan Petersons podcast, most recently on June 13.

We originally met months ago in his neighborhood in Mill Valley, California, just north of San Francisco, across the Golden Gate Bridge. On a balmy February afternoon, we walked alongside a meandering stream which cuts through the residential hillside bordering Muir Woods National Monument and the Pacific Ocean. Farrell took me to his church, the forest where he does some of his best thinking, and we walked under the canopy of 100-foot-tall redwoods. Here we discussed what issues are plaguing boys today and what can be done to help them.

This Q&A is a synthesis of that conversation and a recent phone interview. It has been edited for length and clarity.

Ari Blaff: Im curious to get your reaction to the recent mass shootings committed by young men. Are they connected to what you have called the boy crisis?

Warren Farrell: Weve been blaming access to guns, violence in the media, violence and video games, family values, replacement theory-style hatred (for mass shootings). And yet our daughters are exposed in the same homes with the same family values, the same access to the same guns, the same violence and the same media, the same violence and the same video games. They have similar mental illnesses, and our daughters have not been doing the killings.

Whats happening with boys is that there is a global boy crisis: boys committing suicide far more often than girls five times more often in their 20s dropping out of high school, dropping out of college more, dying from opioid overdose. All these are more than the 70 different ways that boys without fathers mostly do worse.

The difficulty is not just with boys. When boys dont do well, girls cant find good fathers (for their children) and that leads to children being raised by single mothers or divorcees.

The boy crisis resides where dads do not reside. There are about 10 causes of the boy crisis but fatherlessness, or dad deprivation, is the single biggest cause of it.

AB: You wrote an op-ed a couple of weeks back reflecting on the mass shooting in Uvalde. Is there something happening with American boys in particular? Obviously, there are instances of mass violence in Europe and even in Canada, but it doesnt seem to be the same rate or at the same frequency. Is there something about American masculinity, or a broader social crisis in American society, which is impacting boys?

WF: Well, I think theres two big things. One is the fatherlessness issue is the biggest here and in the United Kingdom. But the mass shootings are not as much in the U.K. as they are here. So it has to be more than just a fatherlessness issue. I believe that in the United States we have an addiction, and that addiction is to guns.

We also have very lax laws that a boy on his 18th birthday, without having any type of background check, was able to pick up a gun, despite having put threats on social media and showing many worrying signs of having significant problems, and none of that was detected or checked for.We have more guns in the United States than we have people. We dont have mass stabbings. We have mass shootings. The more powerful the gun, the more the boy has an ability to express his anger, and behind almost all anger is vulnerability. What we need to understand is that boys who hurt us are almost always boys who hurt.

When youre talking guns, you alienate the conservative community. However, when youre talking dads and fathers, the liberals are not very responsive. Were caught between a liberal and a conservative rock and a hard place. Very few peoples minds are opened to both issues.

Girls are not doing the mass shootings. And not all boys are the problem. It is more frequently the fatherless boys more than any other group of boys.

We need to pay attention to to three things. One is the boy crisis. No. 2 is the fatherlessness issue. And No. 3 is guns as the magnifying issue.

AB: How do you find your message is being received?

WF: Well, the people that interview me, if they are conservative, they want me to either minimize or leave out the gun issue. They are OK with my saying that guns are the third thing down the list and serve as a the magnifier for underlying issues. But if I start to talk about it in a more in-depth way, then they begin to get nervous. They get me back to families and fathers.

With liberals, I went out to interview the Democratic presidential candidates (in 2019) and there were a few people, like Andrew Yang and John Hickenlooper, who really understood. The campaign managers were not interested in having the candidates make boys and mens issues a feature of the campaign because they were afraid of alienating their feminist bases. They were also afraid that saying the father is important would alienate and offend single mothers.

AB: With Fathers Day upon us, what message do you have for parents?

WF: We really need to understand what I discussed in The Boy Crisis about the nine differences between dad-style parenting and mom-style parenting. Children do best when they have what I call checks-and-balance parenting which recognizes both mother and father communicating in a loving and respectful way.

Both mother and father bring unique parenting styles. Mom-style parenting focuses on protecting the child and being sensitive to the childs needs. The importance of the dad-style parenting is enforcing boundaries. From that, children learn to postpone gratification, to fulfill their dreams.

AB: I find it fascinating that your background complements the journey of gender equality. You began as an advocate for feminist issues in the 50s and 60s when it wasnt popular by any means and then expanded to mens rights and the importance of fathers. But for that, you get a lot of flak. Unlike feminist activism, mens rights activism appears to be a thankless pursuit. Does that surprise you?

WF: When I started speaking at colleges and universities, Id hand out these yellow pads throughout the audience. This was before computers and people would sign up to see whether they would want to join either a mens group or a womens group. I would get together with all the people that were interested, often until 1 in the morning. Id teach them how to run mens groups and womens groups and then keep in contact with them afterwards.

As I started paying attention to both of the mens group in New York, and then also to the feedback from the other mens groups and womens groups, I began to incorporate some of their insights into my presentations. It was at that point that my standing ovations became mixed standing and sitting. Then they became not mixed at all. Just sitting.

At the beginning, when I was just speaking from a feminist perspective, I got about four or five speaking engagements in referrals per event. Whereas after I started incorporating the male point of view, I would get one or zero referrals. I started to see that if I spoke about the male experience, or what was happening with boys, that I would soon be more and more unpopular.

AB: Fatherlessness is a big issue but does flow downstream from our cultural values. How would you reverse that trend?

WF: First, it involves getting women to understand that were all in the same family boat; when you focus on only one sex winning, both sexes lose. As parents, we want our daughters to have a man who is worthy of her love and respect. Someone who is able to have his act together enough to be able to take care of her and do his part in taking care of the children.

Historically speaking, every generation has had its wars, and during those wars, if Uncle Sam said, We need you. You are necessary to kill off Nazis, men signed up and came forward when they were told they were needed.

We have had to tell males now that they are no longer needed so much to kill and be killed, but to love and be loved. Women need their support, their skills, their checks, their balances to help with protecting and raising children. We need them to be father warriors now. The real warriors in the future are the ones who share the responsibilities and joys of raising children.

Original post:

What does fatherlessness, boy crisis have to do with mass shootings? - Deseret News

University of Ottawa law and epidemiology professor Amir Attaran is facing international backlash for shaming a maskless United Airlines flight attendant on social media.

On Saturday, Attaran posted a picture of a flight attendant on a United flight from Ottawa to Chicago and accused the airline of breaking the law because masks are required on all flights out of Canada.

Transport Canada says masks are mandatory on all flights to and from Canada, a policy that has created confusion given that masking is not required on planes in America.

Canada is not the USA, you f***ers, said Attaran, who added that United should be banned from operating flights to Canada for not following the Trudeau governments mask mandates.

Attarans online conduct was quickly criticized by Canadian and international figures from all sides of the political spectrum.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis spokesperson Christina Pushaw called the University of Ottawa professors actions creepy, and suggested he should not fly if he cant handle seeing someones face.

Pushaw also called out Uniteds response to Attaran and accused the airline of throwing its employees under the bus. United had thanked Attaran for bringing the issue to their attention.

Fox News personality Greg Gutfeld and BlazeTv podcast host Elijah Schaffer also reacted to Attarans tweets.

Progressive personalities including Huffington Post contributor Yashar Ali and former The Young Turks correspondent Emma Vigeland also criticized Attarans actions.

Meanwhile, former University of Toronto professor Jordan Peterson reacted to Attarans tweets by calling him a pathetic ranfink and a horrible piece of work.

Attaran responded to Petersons criticism by claiming he was a baby. He also challenged him to a public debate in Ottawa.

This is not the first time that the University of Ottawa professor has caused controversy for his conduct on social media.

Attaran, whose Twitter bio states that he wrecks grifters, anti-vaxxers & scientific illiterates, has also come under fire for comments he made about unvaccinated people.

Attaran previously called those who do not believe in Covid vaccinations racist, low life trash, losers, stupid, villiage idiots, homophobic and anti-Semetic.

Were asking readers, like you, to make a contribution in support of True Norths fact-based, independent journalism.

Unlike the mainstream media, True North isnt getting a government bailout. Instead, we depend on the generosity of Canadians like you.

How can a media outlet be trusted to remain neutral and fair if theyre beneficiaries of a government handout? We dont think they can.

This is why independent media in Canada is more important than ever. If youre able, please make a tax-deductible donation to True North today. Thank you so much.

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University of Ottawa professor faces international backlash for shaming maskless flight attendant | The - The Paradise News

Deciding what to wear is hard enough. But try doing it while fighting breast cancer at the same time.

Yet thats the reality for so many women and its hardly easy. Thankfully, one organization has stepped up to provide a little bit of help.

The Evening Star Quilters, a Mineola-based not-for-profit quilting organization, donated 50 seatbelt covers to Dress for Recovery a clothing bank at the Chabad Center for Jewish Life, which serves an area that includes Merrick, Bellmore and Wantagh.

Dress for Recovery was founded by Loraine Alderman of East Meadow back in late 2020. She had been diagnosed with breast cancer the year before, and found that when patients faced cancer treatments like mastectomies, they often must wear surgical drains to aid recovery.

Dress for Recovery provides large shirts with ample space for the drains, as well as various zippers for doctors and nurses to access chest ports for chemotherapy.

Theres not one store in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut where you can walk in and buy this type of clothing, Alderman said. Theyre only available online, and theyre expensive. We are the only place where people can come and get everything free of charge.

You need the shirts that open up in the front and have the pocket for the drains. When you go into treatment, if you have a port, its helpful to have shirts that have a zipper for the port opening to allow access to treatments.

But its not just clothes cancer patients have to worry about. Its wearing just about anything including seatbelts.

While theyre great for keeping drivers and passengers safe in a car, seatbelts tend to rub against a patients torso, Alderman explained, which can cause pain and discomfort on surgery wounds, radiation burns, and raw chemotherapy ports. Seatbelt covers usually a small, fabric wrap that goes around a seatbelt offer protection.

Chemotherapy ports are normally found on someones chest, and are the approximate size of a nickel. Because they are attached to the main artery, Alderman says these ports require a lot of protection.

Most of them are under the skin theyre inside of you, added Aldermans husband, Bill. So, if (a seatbelt) pushes on it, it really, really hurts.

Catherine Peterson, a member of Evening Star, developed the quilting pattern for the seatbelt covers that could be completed by any of its members. From that, 50 of these covers were made.

They really picked out beautiful material, Alderman said. The craftsmanship was just amazing, I was blown away by what they did. It just shows the person thats receiving it that care went into it.

Petersons quilters kept in mind personal preferences when making the covers, using a number of colors and patterned fabrics.

I was thinking, when we were making these, you want to have something that appeals to a wide variety of people, she said.

When someone seeks out Dress for Recovery for help, Alderman stops to take the time to meet with them.

We let people choose what they feel most comfortable with, she said. Theres so many things that are out of your control when youre going through this whole process. Its all these little things that can chip away a little bit of the stress.

Since founding of Dress For Recovery, Alderman has seen the impact the clothing bank has had on those making the long journey through cancer.

When youre going through treatment, you sit there for many hours and you have a lot of time on your hands, Alderman said. We believe that you have to pay things forward, and we couldnt believe that there wasnt one store where you can walk in and buy this clothing. We tried to figure out how to make something good out of what was going on.

Dress for Recovery is part of the Chabads Circle of Hope initiative, which helps individuals and families coping with breast cancer and other illnesses. Services are offered to everyone, regardless of religious beliefs.

Both groups also provide counseling, wigs, food and financial assistance for those facing breast cancer treatment.

With the donation of the seatbelt covers, Dress For Recovery can allocate resources to getting more shirts and other items. Working toward raising $20,000 for its own, designated workspace at the Chabad Center, every donation helps.

I wish this was around when I was going through treatment, Alderman said of her program Dress for Recovery. We want to let people know that were here and everything is free of charge its really about paying things forward and just trying to help other people.

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Dress for Recovery, which helps women with breast cancer, gets useful donation - liherald.com

Former University of Toronto Professor of Clinical Psychology Jordan Peterson recently received a flurry of condemnation for a tweet in which he criticizedSports Illustrated's choice to put plus-size model Yumi Nu on the magazine's cover. His tweet (below) not only criticized her looks, but also suggested that her appearance was an authoritarian attempt by the left to force people like him to appreciate her beauty.

The backlash to Peterson's comments was swift and broad, and included social media influencers; online political commentators (likeHasan Piker andVaush); independent news outlets (like The Young Turks); mainstream news sources (NBC News, New York Post); and even international news outlets (The Independent, and Toronto Sun). In America's current political climate, incidents like the one caused by the aforementioned tweet are becoming more common as culture war issues are at the forefront of the public mind. Popular intellectual figures like Peterson have built their careers off of stoking these hot-button issues and then claiming that they are being persecuted when others disagree with them.

Interestingly, much of the blowback ignored Peterson's follow up tweet (above), in which he justifies his position by linking to scientific articles that purportedly validate his opinion. Peterson raises an interesting question: Can science be used to measure whether or not someone is attractive? While some recent studies have tried to do just that, far more studies refute these claims.

The sociology of human sexuality and race has long held that concepts like beauty and race are social constructions determined by a range of cultural, biological, and other complex social factors. On some innate level, just about everyone recognizes this truism; famously, it was embodied in the classic The Twilight Zone episode "Eye of the Beholder," whose lesson is that beauty is a local characteristic rather than a universal one. Yet, the intellectual dark web (of which Peterson is an adherent) and practitioners of this kind of "science" try to apply their model to nearly everything linking and reducing all kinds of aspects of human behavior as serving an evolutionary function.

The crowd that engages in this type of oft-sophistic debate over beauty should be familiar to anyone who follows the machinations of this latest iteration of the culture wars. Sometimes dubbed the Intellectual Dark Web (or IDW for short), they constitute a group of disgraced academics and other pseudo intellectuals (including podcaster Joe Rogan, and conservative commentator Dave Rubin) who claim that their voices are being silenced by traditional institutions who have become overly concerned with political correctness or "wokeness."

Peterson's claims run the full spectrum of biological determinism, from justifying social hierarchies as natural to claiming patriarchy should be the preferred organizing principle in societies.

However, researchers in the field of evolutionary studies (an area which focuses on how much of our behavior is a product of our biology) whose work is well-regarded tend to be far more cautious than Peterson and his ilk in their claims as to what we can definitely say about the so-called science of beauty. Against the overly deterministic model posed by the IDW, current consensus among scholars in this field is that human "nature" is a complex combination of biology and other social factors. These researchers are quick to note that they can't tell us with any great deal of precision what their findings necessarily mean for society at large.

The kind of model advocated by the IDW more closely resembles that of the 18th and 19th century biological determinism the kind that served as the basis for eugenics programs in Nazi Germany and even here in the United States. Peterson's claims run the full spectrum of biological determinism, from justifying social hierarchies as natural to claiming patriarchy should be the preferred organizing principle in societies. He also appears, at points in his book, to vindicate violent men like the Buffalo shooter or the Uvalde shooter by asserting that young men have to endure an unfair burden. To say that the ideas espoused by Peterson and the IDW connect to white supremacist ideology is more than just conjecture, as their ideas are observably trickling down from academia to far-right groups online.

RELATED:How the far right co-opted science

Indeed, the parallels between the rhetoric of the Buffalo shooter, and of the rhetoric espoused by Peterson and the like, are eerily similar. Far-right groups rejoice in Peterson's claims that hierarchies are natural and good for society, as they serve as a "legitimate" scientific basis for promoting racist ideologies. Laced throughout the manuscript left behind by the Buffalo shooter are references to a range of claims espoused by race scientists. These include tweets, memes, and links to prominent thinkers in this field like Steven Pinker and his colleagues who have published and espoused flawed literature directly cited by the shooter. The most infamous of these models is Charles Murray's book "The Bell Curve," in which he argues that intelligence and race are correlated the implication being that most people of color are "naturally" somehow less intelligent.These models continue to be invoked by prominent academics like Stanley Goldfarb, a former Dean of Medicine and current faculty at the University of Pennsylvania's medical school, who also opposes anti-racist efforts in medicine.

Taken together, these events suggest that biological determinism has permeated the ivory tower of academia more than many realize. While some of the examples mentioned here are explicit in their bigotry, there are far more cases of miscommunicated or poorly communicated scientific research being co-opted by far-right groups.

Some anti-racist academics in genetics have criticized their colleagues (above) and called for change from within. They emphasize that scientists can and should protect against the exploitation of their work in recognizing the importance of clearly communicating their findings.

When scientists fail to consider the ways their ideas might be used, for good and for bad, the results can be disastrous. Such was the case when some sociologistslevied a social constructionist critique of the use of the psychiatric system, which was subsequently used by conservatives to justify dismantling the state public health system in the United States. Scientists must use caution when trying to convey their ideas lest they be used to justify heinous acts, including terrorism.

The radicalization of the Buffalo shooter should serve as a warning to other scholars, as he was one in a long line of domestic terrorists who relied heavily upon "race science" to justify their actions.

The radicalization of the Buffalo shooter should serve as a warning to other scholars, as he was one in a long line of domestic terrorists who relied heavily upon "race science" to justify their actions. The same kinds of logic have also motivated people to commit heinous attacks against the LGBTQ+ community.

While the Buffalo shooter may have lacked the scientific literacy necessary to understand the studies he cites, researchers must work to not be complicit in this process. Whether it be scientific racism to justify one's beliefs, or a lack of full consideration as to the larger impact of one's findings, scientists need to better understand how working in science is a social activity. Science itself is a powerful tool when used in pursuit of helping lead the way towards the betterment of society, and it is equally a tool for harm when used to naturalize hierarchies and inequality found throughout society.

Frankfurt School philosopher Max Horkheimer famously wrote a critique of instrumental reason, in which Horkheimer argued that science could be co-opted if it was not consciously guided by those practicing it. This was the focus of his classic work, "The Eclipse of Reason," in which he showed how the Nazi party weaponized science by treating it as an end to itself, rather than a tool to be harnessed in pursuit of an goal. Today we face the same issues and problems in science, and for our collective good we must decide to what ends these tools are used and what we as a society wish to prioritize.

Read more on race and pseudoscience:

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Discriminating tastes: Why academia must tackle its "race science" problem - Salon

This is an opinion editorial by Aleks Svetski, author of The UnCommunist Manifesto, founder of The Bitcoin Times and Host of the Svetski Wake Up Podcast.

Part 3, Chapter 4 of the JBP series.

Tyranny cannot feed on truth, for it is poison to its system of lies. In that sense, Bitcoin is poison to the rat known as the state. Warren Bitfet, the Bitcoin alter ego of Warren Buffett

The series continues. If youve not yet read chapters one through three, you can find them here, and of course read Part One and Part Two of this chapter.

Quotes with no source underneath are attributed to Dr. Jordan B. Peterson.

In Part Two, we explored how Bitcoin helps one enhance their aim and focus their attention on that which matters. This is the only real and lasting antidote to the hopeless helplessness of nihilism.

In Part Three, were going to discuss truth, tyranny and the moral obligation we as sovereign individuals have to speak up, as we emerge from this nihilistic world.

In chapter four of 12 Rules for Life, Peterson informs us of an evil psychological triad that were subject to as humans: arrogance, deceit and resentment.

When an individual operates within such a paradigm, or exhibits behavior fuelled by these emotions, their results and their individual orientation are suboptimal.

Its part of an evil triad: arrogance, deceit, and resentment.

They may feel as though theyve succeeded in the moment, but on an extended timescale, theyve compromised their position, footing, integrity or their moral compass.

As outlined in Part Two, because we are largely blind, we cannot know what demons or monsters lurk downstream of each such decision or action.

This meta-idea applies to the macro scale. The State is an apparatus who is more blind than the individual, but has more impact on more peoples lives than an individual ever can.

Its Unholy Trinity consists of the:

Combined, this evil triad ensures that a territorial operator is insulated from market feedback and thus oblivious to the consequence of their actions and behavior.

Such an ignorant and static structure will slowly but surely transform a territory or society into a tyranny, just like deceit, arrogance and resentment will transform a person into a tyrant toward themselves and those around them.

How does one confront this unholy trinity?

By speaking truth.

To speak up requires courage, and to have courage requires faith.

Knowing when to speak up requires wisdom, and wisdom requires maturity.

The path to becoming mature requires one to be responsible.

Bitcoin is responsibility go up technology.

Resentment always means one of two things. Either the resentful person is immature, in which case he or she should shut up, quit whining, and get on with it, or there is tyranny afoot in which case the person subjugated has a moral obligation to speak up.

Bitcoin is our way of speaking up.

We are no longer content with the lot prescribed to us by the State. As free, mature individuals we seek to bear the responsibility of life upon our own shoulders. We seek to be sovereign.

We are mature enough, technologically speaking, to no longer require large-scale bureaucratic nation-states to tell us what we should think, do, eat, believe or say. As a diverse species, we have the capacity to solve problems that no bureaucrat or committee could ever hope to solve if we are left alone to solve them.

The computer I am writing on is one such example. Think about the complexity required for the circuits firing inside the hardware of this device to not only visually represent the thoughts I have in my head by virtue of me tapping plastic buttons on a keyboard, but to transmit them across time and space on an ephemeral network we call the internet. Its just mind-boggling.

None of this came from the state apparatus. It emerged despite it. There was no central planner, organizer or panopticon. It happened because we were all aiming at things we individually valued.

Humans are capable of so much more when were not treated like imbeciles in a cage or rats in a maze.

Its the moral obligation of those of us who understand this, to speak up, and Bitcoin is that voice in action.

Tyranny feeds on lies.

Tyranny is a map that ignores the territory and when reminded as much, the tyrant first ignores, then actively censors the signal.

Tyranny is a pilot removing the altimeter of the plane when its warning of low altitude or imminent danger.

Tyranny is the obfuscation and renunciation of economic consequences resultant from central planning, and their placement onto the populace by means of overt and covert theft (taxation and inflation).

Tyranny is the systematic theft by central planners and bureaucrats bailing each other out with the wealth of the people they purportedly represent.

Tyranny is wilful ignorance and coercion despite market feedback.

Tyranny wants silence. It develops mechanisms to censor signals, speech and action so it can have it.

Because the consequence of remaining silent is worse. Of course, its easier in the moment to stay silent and avoid conflict. But in the long term, thats deadly. When you have something to say, silence is a lie and tyranny feeds on lies.

Holding fiat money, cryptocurrency or any other form of permissioned and approved monetary asset or wealth issued by the State and their appendages is simply participation in their game.

It is a form of compliance, and therefore silence. Tyranny feeds on this.

Bitcoin is the antidote.

Tyranny cannot feed on truth, for it is poison to its system of lies.

Bitcoin is that poison.

Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger are right when they said Bitcoin is rat poison, only they don't realize the rat it poisons is the tyrannical persona and the tyrannical state.

Both need to be cleansed.

#BitcoinFixesThis

Peterson makes the case that the quality of our values and morality are indicators of our sophistication.

Im here to make the case that a Bitcoin standard may increase our level of interpersonal and social sophistication by enabling the organization of individuals and the world around us in accordance with more clear, precise and functional priorities.

In other words, Bitcoin may help us elevate the maturity of the human race.

This is why I believe its the most important invention (or discovery) of our lifetimes, and perhaps for centuries.

Our values, our morality they are indicators of our sophistication.

Bitcoin will bring forth the fusion of the studies of matter and what matters.

We covered this in chapter two of the series.

It will open the door once more to the now-taboo non-empirical domain of value and quality. It will give us a chance to enhance and elevate our moral sophistication and thereby become better human beings.

And no that will not happen in a straight line either. As humans, we shall make mistakes along the way, many of them. But fortunately, on a Bitcoin standard, we are subject to faster feedback loops and a stronger signal, so can more accurately course correct.

In the absence of a controlled money-issuing apparatus, the difficulty (cost) to hide or socialize losses is too great. One must learn the lesson, and in the future be more prudent or more accurate in their aim.

Which brings me to my next point, and one which well explore further in Part Four of this miniseries.

Bitcoin enables honest feedback in the game that 8 billion hairless apes are playing on a pale blue dot floating around in space.

A perfect Utopia will never exist and what Bitcoiners, at least those whose words are worth a damn, mean when they talk of a better world is not some panacea to all ailments such that everything is good for everyone all the time.

This isnt some Marxist fantasy with Ethereum unicorns.

In fact, Bitcoins most important impact on society is the reintroduction of economic consequence. This will more often than not be painful and ugly but necessary.

We cant just get the one particular thing we especially just want now, along with everything else we usually want, because our desires can produce conflict with our other desires, as well as with other people, and with the world.

On a Bitcoin standard we will get a blend of what we want, and more importantly, what we actually need, which are often two different things.

We will have conflict, but well have no choice but to work it out on a more level playing field. At the very least, the systemic possibility of cheating by one player to the detriment of the others, without their knowledge or consent, dissolves. That alone is worth fighting for.

These conflicts will force us to prioritize, and take into account the market of values, which reminds me of John Valliss masterpiece Money Messiah in which he makes the case for:

Hierarchies as a prioritization and aggregate of values.The market as an aggregate and prioritization of hierarchies.

This rings profoundly true for me, and I suggest you read that piece once youve finished this one.

In a social sense, we are playing a game with a score, and that scorecard is determined to a large degree by how well you play in the market.

I dont just mean the quantum of money. Winning occurs across multiple dimensions. A stay-at-home mom can win the game of life with a lot less money than a stressed out, childless female millionaire CEO with menopause can, after she traded her youth for the illusion of career success.

Therefore the game of life is like an aggregate of aim, focus, attention, consequence, feedback and adaptation within the context of internal and external value hierarchies.

Its complex, but the more sophisticated you become at playing, the better your results, or the better your overall score.

We succeed when we score a goal or hit a target. We fail, or sin, when we do not (as the word sin means to miss the mark). We cannot navigate, without something to aim at and, while we are in this world, we must always navigate.

For this sophistication to enhance and not distort and confuse the system, it is critical for a society to have a rules that the participants are all subject to, with a functional, scoring mechanism (unit of account) that is transparent and un-fuck-with-able.

This is the case for Bitcoin.

On that foundation, on that standard of truth, we will become better through each successive generation. Ill see you in Part Four to close this chapter out.

This is a guest post by Aleks Svetski, author of The UnCommunist Manifesto,, founder of The Bitcoin Times and Host of The Wake Up Podcast. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

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Bitcoin, Personality And Development Part Three: Bitcoin Truth And Speech - Bitcoin Magazine

On Tuesday, HarperCollins will publish my new book,San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities. Interest in the book is high. On Monday I recorded interviews with Jordan Peterson and Dave Rubin. Yesterday I recorded an interview with Joe Rogan. AndThe New York Timeshas told HarperCollins that it will publish a review of it.

Pre-publication sales ofSan Fransickoare four times higher than the ones forApocalypse Never, but that is no guarantee the book will become a best-seller, likeApocalypse Neverwas. So pleasetake a moment now to pre-ordera copy for yourself, and a few copies for friends and family. If youd like me to sign, dedicate, and mail a copy to you, pleasedonate$100 to Environmental Progress, and we will get one out to you today.

If you likedApocalypse Never, I promise you will loveSan Fransicko. The books are of equal quality and length.San Fransickois darker thanApocalypse Never. But likeApocalypse Never,San Fransickodelivers a big argument through compelling characters and dramatic stories. The two together constitute a sturdy foundation for Environmental Progress and the grassroots movements we are building.

The publication ofSan Fransickois a spotlight moment for me, literally and figuratively. In the 2015 film, Spotlight, there isa powerful scenewhere the journalist character played by Mark Ruffalo makes a highly emotional demand of his editor boss, Michael Keaton, that they publish their bombshell findings that Catholic priests had been molesting children for decades. We see for the first time how impacted personally the taciturn Ruffalo has been by his reporting. The Keaton character says no they arent ready. Im not going to rush this story Barrett told us to get the system, he says, referring to another senior editor. We need the full scope. Thats the only thing that will put an end to this.

The dramatic scene ran through my mind many times while reporting on and gathering the evidence my colleagues and I have assembled inSan Fransicko.I was emotionally shattered at various moments reporting on the drug death, poisoning, and addiction crisis. I saw a young and frail mentally ill woman, alone, and vulnerable to rape on Skid Row, with a hospital band still on her wrist. I saw a psychotic man shooting drugs into his bare foot in the Tenderloin. I heard stories that were so depraved and sickening that I chose to keep them to myself.

But doing so had an impact. Invariably, after visiting Venice Beach, Tenderloin, or Skid Row, the following day I would need to take a long nap out of sheer emotional exhaustion. Its time! shouts the anguished Ruffalo character. They knew! And they let it happen! To kids! The same can be said of the architects of Americas ever-worsening drug death disaster, which is not onlykilling kids in the streets but also in their bedrooms.

But the Michael Keaton voice in my head kept me from publishing the results of my research until I had what I felt was the full scope. Once I had it, I started publishingexcerptsofSan Fransicko, with the kind permission of my publisher, HarperCollins. Ive also been supporting parents of kids killed by, and addicted to, fentanyl, to protest political officials, Snapchat, and everyone else with the power to do something to address the problem. But with the publication ofSan Fransicko, the whole world will get to see just how deep the problem goes.

I am proud of the many blurbs for the book from people I highly respect. But the word ofpraisethat I feel most accurately describes the book comes from Michael Lind: Devastating. Im proud that the book is as devastating to read as it was to write, because thats what will be required to take down the system that is perpetuating the horror show of what we euphemistically call homelessness, and the broader drug crisis, which I believe are two of the greatest threats to our shared humanity, dignity, and integrity as a nation.

Will it? Not alone. Not long after I began my research, I read what I felt then, and still feel now, were the three best books on homelessness, all published in the early 1990s, and all authored by liberals or progressives. At first the books inspired me. I felt as though three wise elders had reached forward through time to pass along essential truths. But then it dawned on me that, despite those three books having been widely reviewed and well received, including by Americas most influential newspapers, the crisis of untreated mental illness and addiction, as well as what we call homelessness, had grown worse, not better. What would preventSan Fransickofrom suffering a similar fate?

That night, I confessed to my wife, Helen, that all I might be able to do was write a book that warned other places whatnotto do. She grew quiet and looked away. After I asked her what was the matter, she said, Welivehere. I needed to be as constructive as I was critical, she felt. And so at the heart ofSan Fransickois a positive proposal for how to restore human dignity, not just law and order, to progressive West Coast cities. At both philosophical and policy levels it will, I hope and believe, resonate with the heads, hearts, and guts of reasonable conservatives and reasonable progressives. Will it? I dont know. But I promise to use every ethical means available to me to end the horror show unfolding every day in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and other progressive cities around the U.S. That includes working with parents, recovering addicts, and community leaders who co-founded theCalifornia Peace Coalitionto demand change.

Because she has been my moral compass on this and so many other things, I have dedicatedSan Fransickoto my compassionate, tough, and pragmatic wife. I am not the easiest person to be married to. I am thus especially grateful to Helen for her patience, intelligence, and love. And I am grateful to all of you for the support you have given me over the years. I couldnt have written these books without your love and belief in me. I have some big, tough things to say, and am happy the day has finally arrived for me to say them. Progressives, including the people who write book reviews forThe New York Times, arent likely to find them easy to hear. But they need to hear them.

So get ready for a rumble.

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My Moment In The 'Spotlight' OpEd Eurasia Review - Eurasia Review

River of Hope has something to celebrate. It has called its third full-time pastor and he has accepted. The local Lutheran church is introducing the Rev. Hans Peterson at a special public event titled Celebrate Today Hope for Tomorrow 3-5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 9, in Library Square in downtown Hutchinson. Admission is free.

According to Jim Nelson, worship and music curator, free root beer floats will be served, plus bring a lawn chair to enjoy live music by the duo Dakota Road, which features Peterson and his longtime performance partner Larry Olson. Joining them will be members of the River of Hope Beer & Hymns Band.

Becoming a minister is a second career for Peterson. He was born and raised in Alaska. When it came time for college, he headed to Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. His first career spanned 25 years running Dakota Road Music, a grassroots performance, publishing company. He also put together music gigs to do what he loves getting people singing.

Joining River of Hope as its pastor begins a new journey for Peterson. When it comes to adventures, he has had many.

My oldest son and I hiked over 200 miles in Spain on the Way of St. James (el Camino de Santiago), he wrote in his congregational letter. Heidi and I hiked for about four weeks on the Appalachian Trail after we were married. We also canoed about 250 miles from EarthRise Farm in Madison, Minnesota, to the farm where we currently live in Belle Plaine. I carried a few seeds with me from that place where we interned all the way to Heidis grandparents old dairy farm. There we got out of the canoe and spent the next 21 years raising two boys, sheep, chickens, cattle, fruits and vegetables to eat and sell.

Peterson is making a symbolic journey into Hutchinson on Saturday. He is biking from Hope Lutheran in Jordan, where he interned and was the site of his ordination on Oct. 23, to Hutchinson. Its a ride of 50 miles. The culmination will be the party in Library Square where Peterson will meet and greet his new community.

I am excited and truly humbled to join a community that believes there is absolutely nothing that we can do to earn Gods love, Peterson said. This radical grace is at the heart of a community that continues to do joyful intergenerational worship well, welcomes all people without exception, and throws love into the world by going out to transform lives through Jesus Christ.I am honored and thrilled to begin my ordained ministry in such a community as River of Hope.

In addition to biking, the new pastor has a passion for ultimate Frisbee, hiking, cooking, and he has a soft spot for ice cream and most brands of chips. He also enjoys hanging out with his spouse, Heidi Morlock, and his boys, Nelson, 23, and Simon, 17.

River of Hope worships 10:30 a.m. Sundays at the Hutchinson Event Center, 1005 State Highway 15 S. For more information, call the church office at 320-587-4414 or Peterson at 952-452-4988.

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Get ready to party with River of Hope of Saturday - Crow River Media