Worth Reading - 12/3
1. Bethany Jenkins has published a very interesting article about a Christian serving in the US Mint who transformed the culture of the mint by recognizing people's God-given worth. It's a helpful story and may be an aid to those seeking to bring their Christianity to bear on all of life.
2. Penn and Teller are well known entertainers and well-spoken atheists. They have been entertaining people for decades and are, certainly, entertaining to watch. This article at Christ and Pop Culture talks about the wonder they bring to the stage and the enjoyment in their deception, despite their distinctly and vocally anti religious bent.
3. Fred Sanders, an irenic theologian who specializes in the doctrine of the Trinity, has put fingers to keyboard to write an entertaining, humorous, but very critical review of a recent book that claims to be about the Trinity by a Franciscan priest named Richard Rohr. Sanders' essay is significant because he actually marks Rohr's redescription of the triune God as a divine flow as heretical. Coming from someone who is generally very soft-spoken, this is a significant critique. However, Rohr is a popular writer among the spiritual-but-not-religious crowd of Christians, which makes the critique of this book important.
4. There is a big difference between racial bias (which everyone has) and white supremacy. However, in the ongoing identity wars, some on the left have taken to calling any form of bias white supremacy. The trouble is that a minor implicit bias is not the same degree a problem as actually cognitively believing one race is inferior to another. As a result, by trying to kill subliminal bias by classifying it as a horrendous evil (specifically white supremacy), the evil is getting watered down. It is a healthy thing that some on the left are beginning to recognize this, as can be witnessed in this article in Time magazine:
5. Adoption is an important ministry, but we shouldn't ignore the occasions when it goes really poorly. It doesn't always work out like Anne of Green Gables as this family's story shows. Worth a read, though it shouldn't discourage people from considering the ministry of adoption.
6. It should come as little surprise, but casinos are geared to benefit the owners and operators. Whatever surface attempts they make at pacifying conscience they are providing assistance for those with addictions to gambling, they actually enable gambling and destroy the lives of many people who get sucked into their snare. This Atlantic article provides some context for the danger of casinos.
7. This 3 minute video on the study and preservation of archaic Greek language is interesting for those of us who think languages are pretty cool.