Tough Topics

Will there be sex in heaven? Are miraculous gifts for today? Does God ever change His mind? Such difficult questions often intrigue us, readily confuse us, and sometimes disturb us. Drawing on nearly 40 years of teaching and ministry experience, pastor-scholar Sam Storms answers 25 challenging questions Christians are often too afraid to ask, addressing thorny issues ranging from the eternal destiny of infants to the roles of demons and angels. The robust, thoughtful answers provided in this book offer a helpful alternative to relying on simplistic explanations, and will encourage you in the search for truth and clarity on such tough topics.

Teaching Tough Topics shows teachers how to lead students to become caring citizens as they read and respond to quality children’s literature. It focuses on topics that can be challenging or sensitive, yet are significant in order to build understanding of social justice, diversity, and equity. Racism, Homophobia, Bullying, Religious Intolerance, Poverty, and Physical and Mental Challenges are just some of the themes explored. The book is rooted in the belief that by using picture books, novels, poetry, and nonfiction, teachers can enrich learning with compassion and empathy as students make connections to texts, to others, and to the world.

This collection of provocative discussion questions is guaranteed to get teenagers talking, thinking, and debating. It follows in the footsteps of the best-selling Would You Rather—?, What If—?, and Unfinished Sentences. Each set of questions is followed by thought-provoking ideas, facts, and verses to think about. Adaptable content makes the book an easy-to-use resource for large or small groups—at youth meetings, retreats, small group discussions, mission trips, and more. With its compact size, it’s convenient to carry along wherever you go.Examples of questions include:• Which would be better? To have your prayers answered or to be constantly full of joy?• Which would be worse? To eat what you don’t like or to crave what you can’t have?• Which would be better? Fresh-baked, soft, chewy cookies or a nice thick, juicy steak?• Which would be worse? To have a parachute fail or to ski into a tree?

Tough topics. They stare young adults in the face every day. Racism. Crack cocaine. Babies having babies. Gansta rappers glorifying mindless violence and loveless sex. These are just a few of the pieces of a shattered society--pieces sharp enough to cut the young people you work with. Reverend Chris Jackson knows about the touch topics youth face. For over a decade, he's helped young African-American adults work through the temptations, decisions, heartbreaks, and obstacles posed by today's culture. In Straight Talk on Tough Topics, he gives frank answer that can make the difference in young lives. Packed with pointed information, questions to get your young people thinking and talking, and Scripture references that will help them build a solid foundation on God's Word, this is a handbook for wise, fruitful, and satisfying living. Turn to it when the topic your kids are dealing with is tough--for wisdom you can count on to steer them in the right directions.

Written by Dr. Steve Albrecht, a battle-hardened trainer who has spent much of his professional life taking assignments most trainers would rather avoid, this vital resource presents Albrecht’s proven approach for surviving the really tough training topics. Tough Training Topics covers a wide-variety of thorny issues including sexual harassment prevention, drug and alcohol policies, workplace violence prevention, hostile terminations, stress management, safety and security education, employee orientations, conflict resolution, and many more.

With considerations for students, faculty members, librarians, and researchers, this book will explain and help to mitigate plagiarism in higher education contexts. Plagiarism is a complex issue that affects many stakeholders in higher education, but it isn't always well understood. This text provides an in-depth, evidence-based understanding of plagiarism with the goal of engaging campus communities in informed conversations about proactive approaches to plagiarism. Offering practical suggestions for addressing plagiarism campus-wide, this book tackles such messy topics as self-plagiarism, plagiarism among international students, essay mills, and contract cheating. It also answers such tough questions as: Why do students plagiarize, and why don't faculty always report it? Why are plagiarism cases so hard to manage? What if researchers themselves plagiarize? How can we design better learning assessments to prevent plagiarism? When should we choose human detection versus text-matching software? This nonjudgmental book focuses on academic integrity from a teaching and learning perspective, offering comprehensive insights into various aspects of plagiarism with a particular lens on higher education to benefit the entire campus community.

The Psalmist declares in Psalm 11:3, “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” There has been a foundational shift in our culture from God’s Word as the authority to man’s. Here is a resource to help clearly and vividly demonstrate truth to those seeking to better understand and for those who have been misled by secular voices claiming to be the voice of reason. Within this book you will find mini answers to help people better understand some of these big issues. Don’t have time to read a big manual? Get your answers fast to touch questions with an info graphic style book. Why do Bible-believers believe creation? Could Noah hold all those animals on the Ark? What is evolution and where did it come from?

Discussions of gender and sexuality have become part of mainstream conversations and are being reflected in the work of more and more writers of fiction, particularly in literature aimed at young adult audiences. But young readers, regardless of their sexual orientation, don’t always know what books offer well-rounded portrayals of queer characters and situations. Fortunately, finding positive role models in fiction that features LGBTQ+ themes has become less problematic, though not without its challenges. In Representing the Rainbow in Young Adult Literature: LGBTQ+ Content since 1969, Christine Jenkins and Michael Cart provide an overview of the literary landscape. An expanded version of The Heart Has Its Reasons, this volume charts the evolution of YA literature that features characters and themes which resonate not only with LGBTQ+ readers but with their allies as well. In this resource, Jenkins and Cart identify titles that are notable either for their excellence—accurate, thoughtful, and tactful depictions—or deficiencies—books that are wrongheaded, stereotypical, or outdated. Each chapter has been significantly updated, and this edition also includes new chapters on bisexual, transgender, and intersex issues and characters, as well as chapters on comics, graphic novels, and works of nonfiction. This book also features an annotated bibliography and a number of author-title lists of books discussed in the text that will aid teachers, librarians, parents, and teen readers. Encompassing a wider array of sexual identities, Representing the Rainbow in Young Adult Literature is an invaluable resource for young people eager to read about books relevant to them and their lives.