Although I generally avoid the topic of religion for English lessons, my advanced student A. specifically asked about the differences between the branches of Christianity. Reading about the rise of evangelicalism in Latin America and the USA in Time Magazine sparked my curiosity. How does evangelicalism differ from other branches of Christianity?
The wide variety of differences started to overwhelm me. Wouldn't it be great to visualize these differences in charts? The Pew Research Religion and Public Life Project compares the religions. Ask the student to compare the frequency of prayer, the frequency of attendance of religious services, and the frequency of receiving answers to prayers of the respondents of the different religions. What's the general impression about how the Evangelical Churches differ from the others?
After discovering the general distinction, wouldn't it be fun to listen to the personal story of an individual? This American Life tells the story of Reverend Carlton Pearson, an evangelical pastor in Tulsa, Oklahoma, who becomes a heretic after he abandons the idea of Hell.
Read the transcript while listening. Listen for the answers to these questions:
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The wide variety of differences started to overwhelm me. Wouldn't it be great to visualize these differences in charts? The Pew Research Religion and Public Life Project compares the religions. Ask the student to compare the frequency of prayer, the frequency of attendance of religious services, and the frequency of receiving answers to prayers of the respondents of the different religions. What's the general impression about how the Evangelical Churches differ from the others?
After discovering the general distinction, wouldn't it be fun to listen to the personal story of an individual? This American Life tells the story of Reverend Carlton Pearson, an evangelical pastor in Tulsa, Oklahoma, who becomes a heretic after he abandons the idea of Hell.
- What happens when a religious leader changes his beliefs?
- Why does the religious community divide over these differences?
Read the transcript while listening. Listen for the answers to these questions:
- What does Reverend Carlton Pearson believe in the beginning?
- What does an evangelical revival involve?
- What do televangelists do?
- How do the evangelical and secular religious communities come together?
- How does Reverend Carlton Pearson integrate the black and white church congregations?
- How do Reverend Carlton Pearson's beliefs change?
- Why does he begin to doubt his beliefs?
- What's happening in Rwanda? How does this look like 'Hell on Earth'?
- What happens when Reverend Carlton Pearson announces his change of belief to his religious community?
- Who joins Reverend Carlton Pearson's new congregation?
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- angel
- compassion
- divinity
- good deed
- heaven
- holy
- include, inclusive
- minister to
- sanctify
- trailblazer
- worship
- assault
- burn
- butt heads
- convict
- damnation
- demon
- devil
- embezzle
- hell
- heretic, heresy
- infidel
- nemesis
- pariah
- piss off, tick off
- plight
- scandal
- sin, sinner