What small churches can teach dog rescue groups.

Check this out. My friend Chuck Warnock turns up the most interesting articles on small church development and posted this link on Facebook. Contrast this pastor's experience at Chik-Fil with the dynamics in most rescue groups. How often do you feel YOUR group -- rescue, church, or whatever -- is this happy to see you?

http://trc.divinity.duke.edu/2009/12/why-chick-fil-may-love-my-daughter-more.html

http://trc.divinity.duke.edu/2009/12/why-chick-fil-may-love-my-daughter-more.html

Empathy and rescue: science

I need to start following my own advice. I tend to wait until I have a well-thought-out long blog post that's been through multiple rewrites rather than posting the shorter notes that occur to me more often. 

The "uncanny valley" -- saw a post by David Hinson on Facebook and spent some interesting time wikitrailing it. The more robots resemble humans, the stronger the positive reaction to them -- UNTIL they look human enough to look wrong. Then there's a strong negative reaction. But THEN, as "humanness" is increased even further, a strong positive reaction reemerges. Has implications for rescue groups and community in developing empathy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley

And interesting stuff on the effect of luxury goods -- among other things -- on empathy.

http://www.nationalaffairs.com/blog/detail/findings-a-daily-roundup/leader-board


And here: the chemical basis for empathy. http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2008/01/men_women_and_empathy.php