Word: point
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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This culture is now getting to the point where everything that can be regarded, however distantly, as a work of art is primarily esteemed not for its ability to communicate meaning, or its use as historical evidence, or its capacity to generate aesthetic pleasure, but for its convertibility into cash. The exoticism of high price generates curiosity, and this curiosity fills the museum, turning it into a low-rating mass medium. But there it collides with an older American tradition, the 19th century reformist belief that contact with works of art is morally elevating and that museums are, in spirit...
...rulings that triggered such growth were three 1976 U.S. Supreme Court decisions holding new discretionary capital punishment statutes-in Georgia and in two other states-to be constitutional because they provided adequate guidelines to prevent arbitrariness. At that point, almost a decade had elapsed since a convict had been put to death. Since then, three have been executed, two of whom refused to cooperate in lawyers' efforts on their behalf. As appeals for others run their course, there could be more executions...
...disciplining of Küng for "contempt" of church doctrinal authority came only three days after the Vatican had questioned another top theologian, Edward Schillebeeckx of The Netherlands. Panciroli said the juxtaposition of the two events was coincidental, but that sidestepped the main point. As one Vatican official put it privately, "John Paul II is cracking down, and he is picking the big ones first." To other observers in Rome, the only question is: Who will be next...
Many preachers devote far too little time to research, reading and writing in sermon preparation. As a result their poorly constructed, poorly thought out addresses wander from point to point, and listeners' minds wander too. Lack of effort is not necessarily a sign of sloth. Ministers increasingly are expected to bear heavy loads of counseling and administration that nibble away their time. One rule of thumb is to spend "an hour in the study for each minute in the pulpit." But many modern preachers say they are lucky to manage half that...
...always insisted on an open membership policy, though First Baptist says it has no record of how many members are black. Pollard sees the U.S. in trouble, and one of his persistent themes is how to save American democracy in a hostile world. He is likely to point out that "the best in vestment of all is the missionary investment," after citing figures snowing that the average "overseas conversion to Christianity costs just $654 per convert - as opposed to the cost of $200,000 to kill a single enemy soldier in World War II or $500,000 per kill...