morals/values

Some wisdom for us this week

On 04/15/2026, in Daniel S. Christian, faith, global / globalization, hearts -- matters of the heart, morals/values, relationships, religion, society, youth, by Daniel Christian

1 John 3:16

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.

[From DSC: It’s been hard for me to get my arms around the love of Christ. He loves like no other. May I love a small fraction of the way He loves. In the period of Lent that we recently finished…as I was thinking of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, I wanted to focus on His love for us…not just His incredible courage.]

Psalm 30:10

Hear, Lord, and be merciful to me;
Lord, be my help.

Psalm 31:1-3
For the director of music. A psalm of David.

1 In you, Lord, I have taken refuge;
let me never be put to shame;
deliver me in your righteousness.
2 Turn your ear to me,
come quickly to my rescue;
be my rock of refuge,
a strong fortress to save me.
3 Since you are my rock and my fortress,
for the sake of your name lead and guide me.

Romans 10:9-10

9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.

Lamentations 3:22-26

22 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.”
25 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;
26 it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.

The Campus Crisis No One’s Talking About — from linkedin.com by Jeff Selingo

Sports Betting Is Now a Campus-Wide Habit

The headline number: About 60% of 18-to-22-year-olds are engaging in sports betting, a figure that climbs to two-thirds among college students specifically, according to an NCAA-commissioned study.

“It’s sort of a learned behavior for them at a very young age,” Clint Hangebrauck, the NCAA’s managing director of enterprise risk management, told us on the latest episode of Future U. “I do think this could be the next big public health crisis that we’re facing as a country and particularly within higher ed.”
College-age individuals are 3x more likely to develop problematic gambling behaviors than the general population. Gambling often co-exists with other behaviors now prevalent in colleges, such as sleeplessness, binge drinking, drug use, anxiety and depression.

Gambling among college students isn’t confined to athletes. Rather, it’s embedded across campus life, and with athletes often most visible in Division III, where oversight is lighter. Gambling often coexists with—and can exacerbate—other student challenges, from mental health struggles to substance use. If this is the next public health issue on campus, it’s arriving without the same level of attention.

From DSC:
I don’t mean to be self-righteous here. But shame on the older adults who are promoting gambling in any fashion — marketing, advertising, sales, and/or whatever. It’s a cancer in our society, and it’s impacting our youth in a big way (and also older folks as well). I’m not a gambler, but I’m well acquainted with weakness. And the Bible confirms that we all are acquainted with weakness:

Isaiah 53:6

We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

The adults out there know it. We are well acquainted with our sins and shortcomings.

Parents want the best for their kids. They don’t want dangerous habits being formed in their children. “Coping skills” that are majorly busted, and can lead to incredibly negative events. And the parents don’t want these habits to be formed at colleges and universities across the nation.

I wish those involved with promoting gambling could be at the dinner tables, or in the bedrooms, or in the living rooms, or in the vehicles out there when a spouse finds out that the other spouse (or significant other) has gambled away a significant amount of the couple’s savings. They no longer have rainy-day funds. They can no longer pay their bills. They no longer have the college funds for their other kids. Emotions erupt, fights begin. Relationships are threatened — and divorces sometimes occur because of this issue/habit.

So if you are involved with promoting gambling, consider reading this article from Jeff Selingo…then go take a long look in the mirror.

Some Scripture for us during this Holy Week

On 03/31/2026, in Emotion, ethics, faith, global / globalization, hearts -- matters of the heart, morals/values, relationships, religion, society, youth, by Daniel Christian

1 Timothy 2:5-6

5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time.

John 1:29

John (The Baptist) Testifies About Jesus
29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

Isaiah 53:3-6

3 He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
4 Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

Luke 19:38

“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

Matthew 20:28

“…just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Matthew 20:17-19

Jesus Predicts His Death a Third Time
17 Now Jesus was going up to Jerusalem. On the way, he took the Twelve aside and said to them, 18 “We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death 19 and will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!”

Building a Thriving Organizational Culture: Strategies for Succes [Caplette]

On 03/30/2026, in collaboration, communications, corporate / business world, culture, ideas, morals/values, organizational change, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Building a Thriving Organizational Culture: Strategies for Success — from learningguild.com by Genevieve Caplette

Characteristics of Strong Culture
Although each organization’s culture is unique, strong cultures share several common traits. They communicate openly, maintain trust across all levels, and reinforce their values through daily actions rather than slogans. Recognition is frequent and meaningful. Collaboration is encouraged over competition, and employees feel psychologically safe expressing ideas or concerns. These cultures evolve as the organization grows, ensuring alignment between stated values and lived behavior.
…
How to Strengthen Culture
A thriving environment is built through everyday habits: transparent communication, active listening, constructive feedback, and ensuring employees have the resources to grow. Embedding values into hiring, onboarding, recognition, and decision-making reinforces culture at every level. Sustaining culture requires ongoing attention—listening regularly, adjusting to evolving needs, and ensuring leaders continue to model the behaviors the organization expects.

Some wisdom for us via Scripture

On 03/27/2026, in Daniel S. Christian, ethics, faith, global / globalization, hearts -- matters of the heart, morals/values, relationships, religion, society, youth, by Daniel Christian

Proverbs 17:9

Whoever would foster love covers over an offense,
but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends.

³You will keep in perfect peace
    those whose minds are steadfast,
    because they trust in you.
⁴Trust in the Lord forever,
    for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal.

Psalm 25:11

For the sake of your name, Lord,
forgive my iniquity, though it is great.

Proverbs 17:3

The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold,
but the Lord tests the heart.

Philippians 2:5-11

5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

6 Who, being in very nature[a] God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature[b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

Psalm 25:15

My eyes are ever on the Lord,
for only he will release my feet from the snare.

Meta, YouTube found negligent in landmark social media addiction trial — from by Ian Duncan
A Los Angeles jury awarded $3 million in compensation to a young woman who alleged she had become addicted to the platforms as a child.

A Los Angeles jury found social media giant Meta and video platform YouTube negligent in a landmark trial, awarding $3 million in compensation to a young woman who alleged she had become addicted to the companies’ platforms as a child.

The verdict came at the end of a month-long trial that featured testimony by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and a day after a jury in New Mexico ordered Meta to pay $375 million in penalties for endangering children. The twin verdicts are signs that legal protections which for decades made tech companies seem almost impervious are beginning to crack, as lawyers accuse the platforms of putting addictive or otherwise harmful features into their platforms.

With the armor of Silicon Valley companies fractured, they will now have to size up their appetite for future courtroom battles. There are thousands more lawsuits waiting to be heard, with young internet users, parents, school districts and state attorneys general all seeking to hold the industry accountable.

Some Scripture for us

On 03/23/2026, in ethics, faith, global / globalization, hearts -- matters of the heart, morals/values, relationships, religion, society, by Daniel Christian

Proverbs 3:27

Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due,
when it is in your power to act.

2 Peter 1:5-8

5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Psalm 40:9-11

9 I proclaim your saving acts in the great assembly;
I do not seal my lips, Lord,
as you know.
10 I do not hide your righteousness in my heart;
I speak of your faithfulness and your saving help.
I do not conceal your love and your faithfulness
from the great assembly.
11 Do not withhold your mercy from me, Lord;
may your love and faithfulness always protect me.

“Agentic AI isn’t coming for training programs. It’s coming for the trainers who can’t adapt.” [Martin] + other items re: AI in our learning ecosystems

On 03/23/2026, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, ethics, experimentation, future, game-changing environment, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, morals/values, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, tools, training / L&D, UK, universities, vendors, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Here is Chris Martin’s posting on LinkedIn.com:

Here is Dominik Mate Kovacs’ posting on LinkedIn.com:

The AI ‘hivemind’: Why so many student essays sound alike — from hechingerreport.org by Jill Barshay
A study of more than 70 large language models found similar answers to brainstorming and creative writing prompts

The answers were frequently indistinguishable across different models by different companies that have different architectures and use different training data. The metaphors, imagery, word choices, sentence structures — even punctuation — often converged. Jiang’s team called this phenomenon “inter-model homogeneity” and quantified the overlaps and similarities. To drive the point home, Jiang titled her paper, the “Artificial Hivemind.” The study won a best paper award at the annual conference on Neural Information Processing Systems in December 2025, one of the premier gatherings for AI research.

AI Has No Moral Compass. Do You? — from michelleweise.substack.com by Michelle Weise & Dana Walsh
Why the Age of AI Demands We Take Character Formation Seriously

Here’s something to chew on:

Anthropic, the company behind Claude — a chatbot used by 30 million users per month — has exactly one person (whom we know of) working on AI ethics. One. A young Scottish philosopher is doing the vital work of training a large language model to discern right from wrong.

I don’t say this to shame Anthropic. In fact, Anthropic appears to be the only company (that we know of) being explicit about the moral foundations and reasoning of its chatbot. Hundreds of millions of users worldwide are leveraging tools from other LLMs that do not appear to have an explicit moral compass being cultivated from within.

I raise this because this is yet another example of where we are: extraordinary technical power advancing without an equally strong moral infrastructure to support it.

Why do we keep producing people who are skilled but not wise?

U.S. Department of Labor Defines 5 Key Areas of AI Literacy — from campustechnology.com by Rhea Kelly

Key Takeaways

Department of Labor releases AI Literacy Framework: The framework defines AI literacy as competencies for using and evaluating AI responsibly, with a primary focus on generative AI in the workplace.
Framework outlines five core AI literacy areas: These include understanding AI principles, exploring real-world uses, directing AI effectively, evaluating AI outputs, and using AI responsibly.
Guidance for workforce and education systems: The framework also provides training principles and recommendations for workers, employers, education providers, and government agencies to expand AI education and training.

Some additional Scripture/wisdom for us

On 03/04/2026, in ethics, faith, global / globalization, hearts -- matters of the heart, morals/values, relationships, religion, by Daniel Christian

Psalm 119:4-6

4 You have laid down precepts
that are to be fully obeyed.
5 Oh, that my ways were steadfast
in obeying your decrees!
6 Then I would not be put to shame
when I consider all your commands.

Psalm 119:9

How can a young person stay on the path of purity?
By living according to your word.

1 John 1:8-9

8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Psalm 30:4-5

4 Sing the praises of the Lord, you his faithful people;
praise his holy name.
5 For his anger lasts only a moment,
but his favor lasts a lifetime;
weeping may stay for the night,
but rejoicing comes in the morning.

Psalm 143:8

Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love,
for I have put my trust in you.
Show me the way I should go,
for to you I entrust my life.

Some Scripture/wisdom for us

On 02/21/2026, in ethics, faith, global / globalization, hearts -- matters of the heart, morals/values, relationships, religion, by Daniel Christian

Proverbs 17:7

Eloquent lips are unsuited to a godless fool—how much worse lying lips to a ruler!

Ephesians 3:12

In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.

1 John 4:10

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Psalm 119:64

The earth is filled with your love, Lord; teach me your decrees.

Some further wisdom/Scripture for us

On 02/11/2026, in ethics, faith, global / globalization, morals/values, relationships, religion, society, youth, by Daniel Christian

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Proverbs 15:22-23

22 Plans fail for lack of counsel,
but with many advisers they succeed.
23 A person finds joy in giving an apt reply—
and how good is a timely word!

Proverbs 15:1

A gentle answer turns away wrath,
but a harsh word stirs up anger.

Proverbs 15:32

Those who disregard discipline despise themselves,
but the one who heeds correction gains understanding.

Proverbs 17:17

A friend loves at all times,
and a brother is born for a time of adversity.

Some more scripture and wisdom for us

On 11/22/2025, in ethics, global / globalization, hearts -- matters of the heart, morals/values, relationships, religion, society, youth, by Daniel Christian

Matthew 22:36-40

36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Colossians 3:15

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.

Colossians 4:2

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.

Some scripture/wisdom for us on this day that the LORD hath made. :)

On 10/27/2025, in communications, culture, Emotion, ethics, faith, health, ideas, leadership, morals/values, relationships, religion, society, story, storytelling, by Daniel Christian

Proverbs 10:12

Hatred stirs up conflict, but love covers over all wrongs.

Proverbs 9:10

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

Hebrews 4:12

For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

Proverbs 11:1

The LORD detests dishonest scales, but accurate weights find favor with him.

From DSC:
As a relevant aside, the following article made me think about some of the reasons why the LORD used parables/stories to speak to the people:

The 2-Minute Story That Saved My Career: How Storytelling Can Be The Most Effective Form of Feedback — from techlearning.com by Michael Gaskell
By harnessing the power of story, school leaders can create a culture in which feedback is embraced as an essential ingredient for growth

The Storytelling Approach
Sharing stories is effective because it seems to get around our defensiveness. When information is presented in a story form, people reason about it differently than if it were presented as a list of facts or a direct critique.

Here’s more of why and then how to implement it with success in your school leadership work.

1. Transportation and Distancing: Listening to a story pulls us out of a defensive mode (the “do I agree or do I disagree?” mindset) and into a thoughtful, observant framework. Being transported allows the individual to identify with others in a way that is different from experiencing the situation for themselves. It’s a third-person, objective mindset, a safe zone for people to evaluate a situation from.

2. Shifting Perspective: When individuals consider challenges from the perspective of someone who is not them, it dramatically alters their thinking. They gain the latitude and freedom to consider the available options without feeling personally attacked. That wise sage did this when he shared his story of struggling. Making it safe and helping me to see him as having an objective, difficult experience is why when I was able to take the perspective of a distanced other. It became easier to think about the situation in a wiser way and come up with a better solution.

3. Engaging Different Brain Systems: Fundamentally different pathways are triggered when processing stories compared to facts. Storytelling engages social relevance brain systems–those that help us understand what other people think and feel, such as empathy, another higher order processing mechanism.

Some scripture for us to start this week

On 10/06/2025, in Access to Justice (A2J), communications, ethics, faith, global / globalization, hearts -- matters of the heart, morals/values, relationships, religion, youth, by Daniel Christian

Matthew 7:12

Proverbs 29:25

Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe.

It is not good to be partial to the wicked and so deprive the innocent of justice.

2 Corinthians 13:14

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Acts 4:31

After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

Learning Ecosystems