23 Lessons Coffee Taught Me About Reaching the Unchurched

by Brian Dodd

Many people with no church
background likely process their 
church experience they way 
I did with my first coffee.

I am an anomaly in America culture. At 47 years old, I had never had a cup of coffee until I attended a coffee cupping last week.

Coffee cupping is similar to wine tasting in that you smell the aromas, identify flavors, test texture and then drink different types of coffee.

It is not because of religious reasons that I have not had a cup of coffee. I simply do not enjoy hot drinks. Like many people who have no religious background, I have no coffee background. I was truly an outsider in this group of about 15 people at the event.

Within moments, I began to realize that many people with no church background likely process their church experience in the same fashion I, with no coffee background, was experiencing the coffee cupping.

Why Sex Doesn’t Gross You Out When You’re Aroused

Getting turned on overrides women's natural disgust response, a study suggests, making them more willing to do things they otherwise wouldn't

By ALEXANDRA SIFFERLIN | @acsifferlin

If you think about it, sex is actually sort of disgusting, what with all the sweat, saliva, fluids and smells. So much so that a group of researchers from the Netherlands got to thinking, How do people enjoy sex at all?

According to their small new study, people — at least women — may be able to get over the “ick” factor associated with sex by getting turned on. Sexual arousal overrides the natural disgust response, the researchers found, and allows women to willingly engage in behaviors that they might normally find repugnant.

The study, conducted by scientists at the University of Groningen, involved 90 women who were randomly assigned to one of three groups. One group watched a “female friendly” erotic video; another watched a video of high-adrenaline sports like skydiving or rafting, designed to be arousing but not sexually so; and the third group watched a neutral video clip of a train.