Compassion, science says, is good for you.

It’s always nice when science backs up the Bible’s teachings… Neuroscience is just discovering that compassion could be the key to better health, happiness and longer lives. “Brain imaging reveals that exercising compassion stimulates the same pleasure centres associated with the drive for food, water and sex. Other studies show it can be protective against disease and increase lifespan.” Read the news here.

The Moral Bucketlist
How do we define ‘goodness’ and ‘virtue’ today? Is it the “résumé virtue”-the “skills you bring to the marketplace” -or is it the “eulogy virtue”, the ones that are talked about at your funeral — whether you were kind, brave, honest or faithful. Were you capable of deep love? This piece from the New York Times looks at the way our society is moving us away from goodness and virtue, and seeks to reclaim those things in the cultivation of character-forming experiences. Read the whole thing here.

Do you know all the apps your kids use?

To the well intentioned but ignorant parents of teenagers
One for the parents out there: don’t be naive about the dangers of the internet, writes this American high school teacher. “You know those tiny feelings you get every day but you cope nicely because you’re an adult? Feelings like insecurity, boredom, even the loneliness of being at home when your friends are all going out – well these feelings are massive to teenagers. A combination of hormones and inexperience create a veritable powder keg of unpredictable behavior.” Read her reflections here.

How Christians turned against gay conversion therapy
Jonathan Merritt of The Atlantic on the decline of gay conversion therapy. “Alan Chambers, who once ran America’s largest ex-gay ministry… once claimed he knew ‘tens of thousands of people who have successfully changed their sexual orientation.’ But last week, he told me ‘99.9 percent of people I met through Exodus’ ministries had not experienced a change in orientation.’” Read the piece here.

Image credits: Aaron Alexander and Summer Skyes 11 via Creative Commons on Flickr.