Terminology

• Indeed, programs like ChatGPT, that can produce a sermon in seconds, might seem attractive to busy clergy.
• But several religious leaders, including rabbis serving Jewish congregations as well as Christian Protestant pastors, have conflicting feelings about utilizing chatbots in preparing sermons.

Historical practice

• In the early centuries of Christianity, preaching was largely reserved for bishops, considered to be the successors to Jesus’ apostles.
• In some religious orders, priests became famous traveling preachers, although much of the time they were preaching in other settings, not during Mass.
• During the next few centuries, preaching brief sermons or homilies became increasingly important during the celebration of Sunday Mass.

Insight and inspiration

• In the decades since Vatican II ended in 1965, preaching in the Catholic tradition has been emphasized as a “primary duty” of all priests.
• The sermon is meant to inspire people in their ordinary lives of faith.
• It must also be shaped by an awareness of the needs and lived experience of the worshipping community in the pews.

Use with caution

• Chatbots have been known to make some factual blunders or invent sources completely.
• Above all, I believe chatbots, as of now, are not capable of preparing a text suitable for being offered as a sermon.
• Perhaps Baptist pastor Hershael York, Dean of the School of Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has put it best.

• Who told you to train that way – coach, a personal trainer, an online exercise guru?
• These peak bodies often release “consensus statements” on what works when it comes to resistance training.
• My colleagues and I wanted to take a closer look at these statements, and the studies on which they’re based.

What we did

• Sex is a biological construct, whereas gender refers to the roles and traits society often assigns to men and women.
• It is important to note neither sex nor gender are binary.
• However, data are typically presented in research in a binary manner.

What we found

We found:
• In the 1980s and before, weight training was seen as a masculine pursuit.
• All this matters because a growing body of evidence suggests physiological differences between sexes in response to exercise.
• And recent research has shown strength differences appear to still be present, even when muscle size is matched between sexes.

We don’t know what we don’t know

• At the moment, however, we don’t know if we are disadvantaging half the population by knowing too little about how best they should do it.
• Due to the longer time course for recovery mentioned above, should females have more rest days between high intensity sessions?
• Unfortunately, we don’t yet know.

What now?

• In other fields of medical research, the proportion of women authors is linked to greater enrolment of female participants in research studies.
• Women authors are also more likely to present data by sex or gender, making this data more useful for real world interpretation.
• We need more research evidence examining sex differences during exercise, and methodologically rigorous studies focused solely on female cohorts.

• The words nationalism and patriotism are sometimes used as synonyms, such as when Trump and his supporters describe his America First agenda.
• But many political scientists, including me, don’t typically see those two terms as equivalent – or even compatible.
• There is a difference, and it’s important, not just to scholars but to regular citizens as well.

Devotion to a people

• A nation is a group of people who share a history, culture, language, religion or some combination thereof.
• A country, which is sometimes called a state in political science terminology, is an area of land that has its own government.
• A nation-state is a homogeneous political entity mostly comprising a single nation.
• Some of those groups are formally recognized by the federal government, such as the Navajo Nation and the Cherokee Nation.
• Scholars understand nationalism as exclusive, boosting one identity group over – and at times in direct opposition to – others.

Devotion to a place

• In contrast to nationalism’s loyalty for or devotion to one’s nation, patriotism is, per the same dictionary, “love for or devotion to one’s country.” It comes from the word patriot, which itself can be traced back to the Greek word patrios, which means “of one’s father.” In other words, patriotism has historically meant a love for and devotion to one’s fatherland, or country of origin.
• Patriotism encompasses devotion to the country as a whole – including all the people who live within it.
• Nationalism refers to devotion to only one group of people over all others.

Nationalism vs. patriotism

• Adolf Hitler’s rise in Germany was accomplished by perverting patriotism and embracing nationalism.
• After World War II, President Harry Truman signed the Marshall Plan, which would provide postwar aid to Europe.
• Rather, he viewed the “principal concern of the people of the United States” to be “the creation of conditions of enduring peace throughout the world.” For him, patriotically putting the interests of his country first meant fighting against nationalism.

• With these opening words, Ian Fleming (1908-64) introduced us to the gritty, glamorous world of James Bond.
• Fleming’s first novel, Casino Royale, was published 70 years ago on April 13 1953.
• British readers, still living with rationing and shortages after the war, eagerly devoured the first James Bond story.
• It had expensive liquor and cars, exotic destinations, and high-stakes gambling – luxurious things beyond the reach of most people.

Ian Fleming, Agent 17F

• He only lasted a year at military college (where he contracted gonorrhoea), then missed out on a job with the Foreign Office.
• The director of British Naval Intelligence, Admiral John Henry Godfrey, recruited Fleming as his assistant.
• Fleming excelled, under the codename 17F.
• They would obtain a German bomber, dress British men in German uniforms, and deliberately crash the plane into the channel.
• Fleming claimed he played against a German agent at the tables, an experience that supposedly inspired Bond’s gambling battles with Le Chiffre in Casino Royale.
• Fleming also pointed to Sidney Reilly, a Russian-born British agent during the First World War.

The changing world of Bond

• Bond novels still sold well, especially after John F. Kennedy listed one among his top ten books.
• From Casino Royale to For Your Eyes Only (1960), Bond battled SMERSH, a real Soviet counter-espionage organisation.
• The early Bond novels were Cold War stories.
• In the novels, Bond drove Bentleys – the Aston Martin was introduced in the 1964 film Goldfinger.
• Their female characters do more than just spend a night with Bond before their untimely deaths.
• But the revised Bond novels will include a disclaimer noting the removals.

Spies After Bond

• Le Carré introduced his readers to a more mundane, morally grey world of espionage.
• He thought Bond was a gangster rather than a spy.
• There’s a little more Bond in Mathews’ books than in those of le Carré or Rimington.
• The more tedious and banal aspects of spycraft – brush passes, broken transmitters, and dead drops – accompany the glamour and romance.

The wilderness of mirrors

• The real world of espionage is so secret that most of us only ever encounter it on pages or screens.
• We don’t usually look to Bond films for accurate representations of espionage.
• But the influence of Fleming’s spy and the general aura of secrecy surrounding intelligence work lend some glamour and excitement to the work of real spies.
• This is why the CIA invests time and money into fictionalisations dealing with its work.