Worth Reading - 2/18

1. How to survive winter in Antarctica, from the Atlantic:

“The U.S. Antarctic Program doesn’t fly over Antarctica during the winter, even between bases, because temperatures get below -50 degrees Fahrenheit, the point at which gasoline freezes. In the depths of winter, around the beginning of July, temperatures can drop below -100 degrees Farenheit. Compounding the cold is the altitude—the South Pole station is nearly 10,000 feet above sea level. In such conditions, even breathing can be painful. Many who attempt to join the 300 Club—a group that endures a 300-degree temperature change by heating themselves in a 200-degree sauna and then streaking naked to the pole and back in sub-negative-100-degree weather—will often wear a scarf, if nothing else.”

2. Fifteen truths about internet trolls:

“As long as there have been online communities, beginning with bulletin board systems, there have been trolls. According to Whitney Phillips, a New York University lecturer, Usenet users first used “the word ‘troll’ to describe someone who deliberately disrupted online discussions in order to stir up controversy.” Whenever 4chan rose to prominence in the mid-2000s, users began to proudly describe themselves as trolls.

Since then, Internet users have had to deal with trolls in a number of ways, in nearly every corner of the internet. What have we learned from these experiences over the years? Here are 15 of these lessons.”

3. College sports afficianados are now evaluating and ranking 6th grade athletes:

“I grew up playing and, in some cases, excelling at sports. Whether it was Park District soccer, Little League baseball, or street hockey with my friends (who had also screened D2: The Mighty Ducks one too many times), you could not keep me off of the field (or cement rink).

As young as the 4th grade, football was definitely my game. Growing up in the Chicago-land area, football was a big deal. As I’ve learned from folks who hail from states like Texas and Alabama, football was an even bigger deal down there. My good friend Matt who lives and dies with the Crimson Tide recently informed me that other than myself and a couple of family members, the only people he follows on Twitter are University of Alabama football high school recruits. That’s intense.

What would be more intense (and more than a little creepy)? For football scouts and college recruiters to be monitoring 12-year-old players.”

4. For some reason, some folks have taken to arguing about the faith of the Egyptian Christians that were martyred by ISIS. Here is Scott Hildreth from SEBTS to bat that foolishness down:

“As Southern Baptist leaders expressed Christian solidarity and outrage over the murder of 21 Coptic Christians in Libya, others began raising questions about the validity of calling these men Christian martyrs. Some of the confusion comes from the fact that the International Mission Board listed the majority of Egyptians (which would include many Coptic communities) as an unreached people group, those needing missionary focus. The question they raised was, “How can unreached peoples be considered Christian martyrs?”

To be honest, when I first heard this question I wondered why anyone could respond this way to an act the entire world was condemning. However, upon further reflection I thought that perhaps the question deserved a response from a Southern Baptist theologian and missiologist. I cannot judge the motive of those asking the questions. If anyone has less than honorable intentions, they may never be convinced. But those who are legitimately curious have a right to expect a theological and missiological answer from one who has ascribed martyrdom to the men.”

5. A video of a Wisconsin driver who hits 9 cars in a parking lot in less than a minute.

Worth Reading - 2/17

1. Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary polled their faculty to find the most common recommendations for books to read before coming to seminary:

“Seminary is (or should be) a time of intense study, filled with lots of interesting reading. Yet, in order for seminary students to make the most of their time, they ought to have a good grasp of the academic and, especially, spiritual skills and disciplines required to succeed in seminary. ”

2. From the Atlantic, a tough, but significant read about what ISIS really wants:

“What is the Islamic State?

Where did it come from, and what are its intentions? The simplicity of these questions can be deceiving, and few Western leaders seem to know the answers. In December, The New York Times published confidential comments by Major General Michael K. Nagata, the Special Operations commander for the United States in the Middle East, admitting that he had hardly begun figuring out the Islamic State’s appeal. “We have not defeated the idea,” he said. “We do not even understand the idea.” In the past year, President Obama has referred to the Islamic State, variously, as “not Islamic” and as al-Qaeda’s “jayvee team,” statements that reflected confusion about the group, and may have contributed to significant strategic errors.”

3. From Bruce Ashford, a tribute to John Richard Neuhaus's impact on his thinking:

“I am grateful for my encounters with Richard John Neuhaus. From him, we can learn the value of reading widely and leveraging that knowledge in an appropriate manner in the public square. We can learn to build coalitions and communities that sustain and enhance our cultural engagement. We are reminded by Neuhaus to avoid the twin errors of naked public squares, on the one hand, and theocracies, on the other. We remember, and learn from, his warm and gracious interaction with ordinary people. In short, Neuhaus’ life and writings remind us of the value of cultivating a public theology and of raising up public theologians who can speak and act in the public square for the common good.”

4. The Gospel Coalition considers whether language makes humans unique:

“So what does language have to do with the Christian doctrine of the imago Dei? Quite a lot, as it turns out. Scripture never provides an explicit definition of the image of God, but it does provide a number of contextual clues. In Genesis 1-2, we read that humans are created in the context of a covenant. Broadly defined, a covenant is a solemn relationship between two parties, with mutual promises and obligations. Other elements of a covenant often include a historical prologue and threats for covenantal breach. In all of these respects, a covenant relationship requires language. Language is what enables us to recount history, make commands, offer promises, issue threats, and so forth. Further, the ability to reflect on the covenant relationship itself requires the capacity for recursive thought. If image-bearing implies a covenant relationship, and if a covenant relationship requires language, then we must conclude that language is an essential part of our identity as human beings.”

5. Smithsonian Magazine seeks to explain why footbinding lasted so long in China:

“Foot-binding is said to have been inspired by a tenth-century court dancer named Yao Niang who bound her feet into the shape of a new moon. She entranced Emperor Li Yu by dancing on her toes inside a six-foot golden lotus festooned with ribbons and precious stones. In addition to altering the shape of the foot, the practice also produced a particular sort of gait that relied on the thigh and buttock muscles for support. From the start, foot-binding was imbued with erotic overtones. Gradually, other court ladies—with money, time and a void to fill—took up foot-binding, making it a status symbol among the elite.”

Worth Reading - 2/16

1. With the world in a tizzy of Scott Walker's non-answer to a question about evolution, Justin Taylor takes the opportunity to demonstrate the wide variety of definitions for the term:

“David Harsanyi points out that “the same journalists who fixate on ‘science’ that makes the faithful look like slack-jawed yokels almost inevitably ignore science that has genuine moral and policy implications.” He provides a good list of questions that liberals are rarely asked about science (e.g., does human life begin at conception? is a 20-week old unborn child a human being?). When Barack Obama was a candidate for president he famously said that the question of when a human is entitled to human rights was a question “above his pay grade.” And when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was asked “what is the moral difference between what [serial late-term abortionist] Dr. Gosnell did to a baby born alive at 23 weeks and aborting her moments before birth?” she likewise refused to answer, accusing the reporter of having an agenda. To my knowledge, Time magazine did not track down Obama or Pelosi’s high-school biology teacher to reprimand them on their non-answers, as Time recently (and bizarrely) did with Scott Walker.”

2. Joe Carter at the Acton Institute provides an explanation for the recent slaughter of 21 Christians in Libya:

“Islamic State (IS) released a video on Sunday that appeared to show the beheadings of 21 Egyptian Christians in Libya. The footage showing the deaths of the Egyptian martyrs appeared on the Twitter feed of a website that supports IS.

In the video, militants in black marched the captives, dressed in orange overalls, to a beach the group said was near Tripoli, the capital of Libya. The victims—all men—were forced down onto their knees and then beheaded.

A caption on the five-minute video read: “The people of the cross, followers of the hostile Egyptian church.” Before the killings, one of the militants stood with a knife in his hand and said: “Safety for you crusaders is something you can only wish for. . . The sea you have hidden Sheikh Osama Bin Laden’s body in, we swear to Allah we will mix it with your blood.””

3. A video on sloth, for when we don't become what God wants us to be:

A reminder for when we've spent too much time hitting the "bottles" of productivity, efficiency, usefulness, staying "busy," thinking they'll make us whole. A reminder of our first call: to behold. Music. "Shades of Spring" and "As I Figure" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Original music from Episode 6: The Economy of Wonder by Kyle Calvin Campbell.

4. The Economist covers the sluggish recovery of the tsunami ravaged areas of Japan. It turns out, the worst part of the recovery has nothing to do with the nuclear plants:

“NEARLY four years after north-eastern Japan’s huge earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown on March 11th 2011, more than 170,000 people are still stuck in temporary housing along the ravaged coast. One of them is Sumiko Yoshida, a woman in her 70s who lives with her husband in cramped, mouldy quarters in Rikuzentakata, a fishing port that was washed away by the tsunami. More than 1,750 people died there, including the Yoshidas’ son, Isao, a city official who was helping others to get to higher ground. With no place to call home and no butsudan (household altar) for her son, Mrs Yoshida says she cannot properly mourn him—a photograph on a makeshift table has to do. She has suppressed her grief for so long, she says, that the tears will not come.”

5. The speech given by a judge in Mississippi who just sentenced three white men to life in prison for the racially motivated killing of a black man. This is from NPR and has been reproduced in full. It isn't a pleasant read, but it has power:

“Mississippi soil has been stained with the blood of folk whose names have become synonymous with the civil rights movement like Emmett Till, Willie McGee, James Cheney, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, Vernon Dahmer, George W. Lee, Medgar Evers and Mack Charles Parker. But the blood of the lesser-known people like Luther Holbert and his wife, Elmo Curl, Lloyd Clay, John Hartfield, Nelse Patton, Lamar Smith, Clinton Melton, Ben Chester White, Wharlest Jackson and countless others, saturates these 48,434 square miles of Mississippi soil. On June 26, 2011, four days short of his 49th birthday, the blood of James Anderson was added to Mississippi’s soil.”

Weekend Reading

1. Robert Smith writes of seeing his son's murderer. A meaningful expression of a desire to authentically forgive:

“I asked prayer warriors to pray for me as I prepared to write the young man and to pray that he would respond affirmatively and ultimately add my name to the visitors list so that I could come and tell him in person—“Jesus loves and forgives you and so do I.” After nearly two years, in September 2012 I finally mailed that letter.

He added me to his visitors list in 2014. Soon by God’s grace I will see the young man whose face was the last face our son saw before standing in the presence of the Lord. I will offer the young man the forgiveness that Christ offers to me and to all who will believe.”

2. The temptation to star in someone else's story. Another gracious but critical take on the Brian Williams saga:

“It was inevitable that Brian Williams would become the punch line of so many bad jokes once his fellow journalists learned that he had lied about his experience covering the Iraq War in 2003. Specifically, he claimed to be riding in a Chinook helicopter that took heavy fire. This was not true, and Williams’ weak attempt to explain it away as the fog of memory launched the mocking Twitter hashtag “BrianWilliamsMisremembers.” A number of news sites have covered this Twitter-fest. How heartening that so many of us still care about the truth.”

3. On parenting, remembering what you signed up for:

“There’s something misplaced about being exasperated when our children struggle with anger or selfishness or disobedience. “If I hear one more word from you...” Our children are these little people who are learning how to live life; of course they’re going to struggle to do what’s right at times. In the moment, sometimes all we want to do stop the annoyingness. But parenting isn’t about just stopping annoying behaviour so we don’t have to listen to it; parenting is about guiding, teaching, disciplining, nurturing, and helping our children when they fail, as they inevitably will.

Last week my 3 year old daughter, after eating a snack of crumbly, messy seaweed, came to me and said, “Mom, do you know why I make messes? Because I’m a little kid. And little kids make messes.”

She’s right. Little kids make messes.

And us parents, well, cleaning them up is kind of what we signed up for.”

4. Justine Sacco: One stupid tweet, one ruined life:

“The furor over Sacco’s tweet had become not just an ideological crusade against her perceived bigotry but also a form of idle entertainment. Her complete ignorance of her predicament for those 11 hours lent the episode both dramatic irony and a pleasing narrative arc. As Sacco’s flight traversed the length of Africa, a hashtag began to trend worldwide: #HasJustineLandedYet. “Seriously. I just want to go home to go to bed, but everyone at the bar is SO into #HasJustineLandedYet. Can’t look away. Can’t leave” and “Right, is there no one in Cape Town going to the airport to tweet her arrival? Come on, Twitter! I’d like pictures #HasJustineLandedYet.””

Worth Reading - 2/13

1. No one plans to be a widow at 23. A powerful piece by Kevin DeYoung:

“No one plans to be a widow at twenty-three.

Tomorrow I will preach at the funeral of Elliott Preston Orr, a young man from our congregation who died of cancer last Friday. Elliott grew up in North Branch, a small town in Michigan’s Thumb. He came to Michigan State University in the fall of 2010. At the end of his freshman year he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, cancer in the bone. After months of chemotherapy and radiation, he was cancer free.

For a time.

In the summer of 2013 doctors discovered the cancer had come back, and was worse than before. Not knowing what the rest of his life would be like, except that it would almost immediately include another battery of grueling treatments, Elliott and his childhood sweetheart decided to move up their wedding so they could find out together what “for better, for worse” really meant.”

2. President Obama's Niebuhrian theology. One of the mistakes we often make is assuming that our brand of Protestant Evangelicalism is the only way people can theologize--that others are dealing with a great deal more congitive dissonance. In truth, others have come up with answers that seem satisfactory and they are operating out of different paradigms. This is how our president can claim to be a Christian and have a vastly different understanding of what Christianity is than most conservative Evangelicals. In this article, Ross Douthat of the New York Times picks up themes from President Obama's public theology to show connections with earlier public theology of Reinhold Niebuhr. This piece has explanatory power:

“President Obama, like many well-read inhabitants of public life, is a professed admirer of Reinhold Niebuhr, the famous mid-20th-century Protestant theologian. And more than most presidents, he has tried to incorporate one of Niebuhr’s insights into his public rhetoric: the idea that no society is innocent, and that Americans in particular need to put aside illusions about our own alleged perfection.

The latest instance came at last week’s National Prayer Breakfast, when the president, while condemning the religious violence perpetrated by the Islamic State, urged Westerners not to “get on our high horse,” because such violence is part of our own past as well: “During the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ. In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ.”

These comments were not well received by the president’s critics — as, indeed, his Niebuhrian forays rarely are. In the past, it’s been neoconservatives taking exception when Obama goes abroad and talks about our Cold War-era sins. This time, it was conservative Christians complaining that the president was reaching back 500 or 1,000 years to play at moral equivalence with people butchering their way across the Middle East.

From a Niebuhrian perspective, such complaints are to be expected. “All men,” the theologian wrote, like to “obscure the morally ambiguous element in their political cause by investing it with religious sanctity.” Nobody likes to have those ambiguities brought to light; nobody likes to have the sanctity of his own cause or church or country undercut.”

3. From the Smithsonian Magazine, what do we know about the history of chocolate? Just in time for valentine's day:

“In their raw state, plucked from tangy-sweet, gummy white flesh lining a large pod shaped like a Nerf football, cacao seeds are bitter and unrecognizable as chocolate to a modern American palate. “How would you think to take the seed, harvest it, dry it, let it ferment, and roast it? It’s not something you would normally think to do,” Lavis said. Perhaps, one theory holds, someone was eating the fruit and spitting seeds into the fire, and the rich smell of them roasting inspired the thought that “maybe there’s something more we could do with this.”
”

4. What science can't prove. A short apologetic-style post that undermines some of the silly arguments used against scientism, but which points toward the real limits of the scientific method:

“I often hear the comment, “Science has proved there is no God.” Don’t ever be bullied by such a statement. Science is completely incapable of proving such a thing.

I’m not saying that because I don’t like science, but rather because I know a little about how science works. Science operates on induction. The inductive method entails searching out things in the world and drawing generalized conclusions about those things based on observation. Scientists can only draw conclusions on what they find, not on what they can’t find.

Science, by its very nature, is never capable of proving the non-existence of anything.”

5. Physicist Richard Feynman speaks about the scientific method. This is both engaging and enlightening:

Physicist Richard Feynman explains the scientific and unscientific methods of understanding nature.

Worth Reading - 2/12

1. Things to think about before you click "send" on your next e-mail:

“I stopped counting how many times I’ve had the email etiquette conversation, both in regards to emails I’ve sent, and ones I’ve received. It’s something we’ve all experienced. So much so that we regularly chalk it up to the idea that, “something just gets lost in email conversation.” And it’s not only on email! We regularly miscommunicate and/or misinterpret conversations on social media platforms as well.”

2. Nathan Finn on the dangers and possibilities of denominationalism:

“Near the end of my time in college, I was a history major who knew I wanted to be a professor. However, I also felt a keen sense of calling to full-time ministry. I wrestled with two different paths. The first was to attend seminary, earn the M.Div., and then pursue Ph.D. work in church history. The second was to attend a university and pursue the M.A. and Ph.D. in history. I knew I could write the same dissertation in either setting; it was more a question of vocation. After seeking advice from pastors and professors, I opted for the first path. I haven’t regretted it.

Almost fifteen years later, I now teach church history in a Southern Baptist seminary. But unlike my colleagues with specializations in Patristics or the Reformation era, my doctoral studies focused upon modern fundamentalism and evangelicalism. Furthermore, most of my writing thus far and about half of my teaching responsibilities relate to the history of the Baptist tradition. Contrary to the direction of the wider historical academy, I find myself engaged in that most outdated form of religious history. Hello, my name is Nathan Finn, and I am a denominational historian.”

3. In an interesting twist, the online magazine Tablet has begun charging for people to comment. This is designed to keep down the number of trolls:

“Tablet magazine announced in a blog post yesterday that they’ll be taking an unusual step to deal with sometimes unruly commenters: charging readers who want to submit — or even view — comments on their site.”

4. Reading as a central part of parenting:

“When we think about parenting, the word “books” probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. But reading to our children is a fundamental aspect of parenting little people, though we rarely talk about it in the context of raising children.

Most of us are already reading to our children. It is something that mothers in particular already do, whether it’s the classic bedtime story or another scenario. Thinking carefully about reading to our kids can help us do it better in a way that will help us and them better steward the gift of intellect that God gives each one of us. John Stodt said that “the secret of holy living lies in the mind.” Books help us steward our children’s minds because it is what we know and understand that drives and directs how we feel and what we do. Reading out loud to our children is a potentially a powerful parenting tool when it is done intentionally and biblically. Here are five reasons to read out loud to our kids.”

5. Southeastern will be conducting a free online course to help people connect work and worship. Here is a promotional video:

Worth Reading - 2/11

1. From the Art of Manliness on Backhanded compliments. This is a good read for either gender:

“A friend of mine told me about a compliment she received the other day from a co-worker. “Bridget,” he said to her, “you look like you’ve lost a lot of weight! You’ve still got a ways to go, but keep it up!”

The colleague clearly intended for the comment to come off as praise, but it instead had the very opposite effect. Rather than hearing “Congrats on the weight loss!” all my friend heard was, “You’re still fat.”

Bridget had been the recipient of what’s called a “backhanded compliment.” It’s a bit of praise laced with an insult — a rose with a thorn.”

2. David Brooks from the NY Times on the importance of forgiveness. In other words, let's get over the Brian Williams thing:

“There’s something sad in Brian Williams’s need to puff up his Iraq adventures and something barbaric in the public response.

The sad part is the reminder that no matter how high you go in life and no matter how many accolades you win, it’s never enough. The desire for even more admiration races ahead. Career success never really satisfies. Public love always leaves you hungry. Even very famous people can do self-destructive things in an attempt to seem just a little cooler.

The barbaric part is the way we respond to scandal these days. When somebody violates a public trust, we try to purge and ostracize him. A sort of coliseum culture takes over, leaving no place for mercy. By now, the script is familiar: Some famous person does something wrong. The Internet, the most impersonal of mediums, erupts with contempt and mockery. The offender issues a paltry half-apology, which only inflames the public more. The pounding cry for resignation builds until capitulation comes. Public passion is spent and the spotlight moves on.”

3. Justin Taylor writes about reading Scripture literally:

“I am also thinking about intramural Christian debates about interpretation—whether we are talking about Bible translation or the days of creation or the fulfillment of prophecy—where one side will insist that they interpret the passage “literally.”

I am not a fan of linguistic legalism and I recognize the need for terminological shortcuts, but I am an advocate for clarity, and the use of an ambiguous term like literal can create confusion. It’s a single term with multiple meanings and connotations—which is true of many words—but the problem is that many assume it means only one thing.

So my proposal is that if we have a moratorium on this word, we have a chance of speaking and hearing with greater understanding.

Since I have no real authority to call for an actual moratorium and it has little chance to succeed, my alternative proposal is that when someone asks you if you take the Bible “literally” or a passage “literally,” you ask what they mean by the word and then proceed to answer in accordance with the definition they provide.”

4. Joseph Sunde at Acton Institute unpacks Mike Rowe's latest discussion on good vs. bad jobs:

“When Rowe says “there’s no such thing as a bad job,” he doesn’t mean that work won’t sometimes be hard and difficult and toilsome and unfair. He means that through each season, work orients our hearts and hands in healthy, formative, sacrificial, and productive ways, and we best not trample over the crucial components that such a process provides. By tinkering with and bickering over the byproducts (the numbers, the paychecks, the contracts), we do nothing to improve the source. “Doesn’t matter how well-intended the policy,” Rowe concludes. “The true cost a $20 minimum wage has less to do with the price of a Big Mac, and more to do with a sound of thunder.”

As we put our hands to the plow and train up the next generation to do the same, let our attitudes and goals not be determined or driven by the price of a paycheck or Big Mac, but grounded in the service and sacrifice it represents. Less thunder. More flourishing.”

5. Another helpful parenting post from Aaron Earls. This one is about viewing children as humans, not as machines.

“What annoys you the most? For me, it’s inanimate objects—machines, technology and the sort.

While it’s not to say I never get angry at others, I tend to think people mess up all the time. It’s kinda what we do. But machines … they’re supposed to work.

When I push the button on my laptop, it should start up. If it doesn’t, it can’t blame its nonexistent emotions. It should respond immediately and appropriately because that’s what it has been created to do.

In evaluating my parenting, I realized much of my anger with my children arose from my having the wrong perspective about them. I was viewing them as if they were machines.

You may be doing the same. Here are six questions to see if you fall into the same temptation of treating your children like robots.”

Worth Reading - 2/10

1. Trevin Wax on the danger of assuming evangelism:

“Let me say at the outset that individualistic Christianity which is only about “me and Jesus” and my personal ticket to heaven is inadequate as a presentation of Christianity. It minimizes the importance of the local church, the Old Testament narrative, and misses the world-transforming power of the gospel here and now. I sympathize with authors and pastors who want to help Christians to understand salvation holistically.

That said, there is a danger is saying something like, “Of course, evangelism and missions are important, but let’s not forget…” and then continuing with all sorts of other good Christian responsibilities. As a corrective to myopic visions of salvation, this kind of statement can be helpful. But if we want to put forth a Christian worldview that is truly comprehensive, we can’t simply assume the existence of personal evangelism with an “of course!” before giving most of our attention to all the other good deeds a Christian may do in the world.”

2. Some really cool photos from Smithsonian magazine from space and of celestial objects:

3. Technology can be a very good thing, but should we adopt technology simply because it is available? Shouldn't we evaluate it's consequences carefully? This is the argument of a post at the Imaginative Conservative:

“Technology and the written word are both here to stay, but we should heed Plato’s warning that inventions can, if used wrongly, take the place of learning to read well—and submit to—books. There will always be the danger of mistaking an achievement in innovation for real wisdom. No matter how convenient an opportunity may be, or how badly you need to write your next research paper, nothing should reduce the value of knowing a work. I offer you the challenge to do this always, by humbly submitting yourself to books.”

4. The importance of writing as if history actually happened. This is an insightful piece on being truly counter-cultural Christians in an age that strongly demands it:

“But I am interested in writing as though the past happened, and that means acknowledging the limits of such ‘declinist’ discourse. I don’t begrudge my peers for looking a bit squinty-eyed at the anxious rallying cries we’re hearing about gay marriage within the church. I wager few of today’s college students know the Religious Right ever happened, and sometimes I’d like to forget about them myself. But they did. And like it or not the image—regardless of its accuracy—of the fearful evangelical leader shouting about decline still pervades our media world. ”

5. Have you ever seen someone go 207 mph on a rocket powered bicycle?

Worth Reading - 2/9

1. Energy Efficiency measures have improved significantly in recent years, such that in some cases, investing in improved efficiency measures may be economically worth it in the short term:

“The idea that money is available for the taking defies economic logic. But sometimes it’s true. That’s the case with a vast opportunity that’s routinely overlooked by institutions across the country — from universities to hospitals, companies to governments.

The opportunity is investing in energy efficiency. “The returns are tremendous, and there’s virtually no risk,” said Mark Orlowski, the founder and executive director of the Sustainable Endowments Institute, an organization that is building a network to advance research, education and practical tools to help institutions, primarily universities and colleges, make investments that mitigate climate change.”

2. A pretty cool story from CNN about a Target employee giving assistance to a young job-seeker. This is from the North Raleigh area, not too far from my home:

“Turns out, talking to strangers is not so bad after all.

At least for a North Carolina teen, who went to Target to look for a clip-on tie for a job interview. Instead, he became the subject of a touching moment and a viral photo.

Audrey Mark told CNN affiliate WTVD she was shopping at a store in Raleigh on Wednesday when she noticed something unusual.

”I see this young teen being hovered over by this Target employee,” Mark said.

Curious, she got closer to see what was going on. The employee was not just tying the teen’s tie, he was imparting some wisdom as well.”

3. Hugh Welchel at The Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics differentiates between faith and works righteouness:

“Works righteousness is a form of self-righteousness that believes that our salvation can be earned and/or sustained by doing good works. It says we can make ourselves righteous before God by our obedience.

This is epitomized in the New Testament by the Pharisees for whom Jesus reserved his harshest criticism, calling them whitewashed tombs and hypocrites.

The Bible makes it clear that salvation comes through unmerited grace. It does not come because of our works, but because of the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf.”

4. Aaron Earls at Facts and Trends shares five ways to teach your kids theology:

“Teaching your kids math can feel daunting. But teaching your kids theology can feel downright terrifying.

Some parents feel overwhelmed with a lack of time. They just don’t see how they can fit something else into their day. Others may not feel as if they have adequate theological training. They don’t feel comfortable going much beyond, “Jesus loves you.”

So how can you weave theological teaching into their daily lives, without necessarily setting them down for an in-depth family sermon (though there is nothing wrong with that)? How can you impart good theology into the lives of your children, without possessing a theological degree?

You don’t need to feel like you’re trying out the latest parenting fad or complicated system. Instead, here are five simple ways to teach your kids theology virtually every day.”

5. How a brain tumor can unlock a deeper walk with Christ:

“How could this happen? I was 22 years old and the epitome of health. I was a competitive dancer and avid runner. People like me do not get brain tumors, or so I thought. When you are young, you tend to think you are invincible. Yet I was given the gift of a life shattered for my good and God’s glory. In trial our dreams sometimes die. Then we are forced to consider what really matters and what is really important.

After I ingested all the information of my predicament, we decided to go into a six-month waiting period. The tumor was in a place that was not ideal for a successful operation. We decided to wait six months and see what happened.”

Worth Reading - 2/6

1. The importance of roughhousing with your kids, from the Art of Manliness:

“Psychologist Anthony Pellegrini has found that the amount of roughhousing children engage in predicts their achievement in first grade better than their kindergarten test scores do. What is it about rough and tumble play that makes kids smarter? Well, a couple things.

First, as we discussed above, roughhousing makes your kid more resilient and resilience is a key in developing children’s intelligence. Resilient kids tend to see failure more as a challenge to overcome rather than an event that defines them. This sort of intellectual resilience helps ensure your children bounce back from bad grades and gives them the grit to keep trying until they’ve mastered a topic.

In addition to making students more resilient, roughhousing actually rewires the brain for learning. Neuroscientists studying animal and human brains have found that bouts of rough-and-tumble play increase the brain’s level of a chemical called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). BDNF helps increase neuron growth in the parts of the brain responsible for memory, logic, and higher learning–skills necessary for academic success.”

2. Russel Moore discusses his understanding of what evangelicals will be looking for in the 2016 election:

“Jefferson won over the Baptists and evangelicals without pretending to be one of them. After all, he was derided as an infidel by his critics. Jefferson and the Baptists came to religious liberty from two very different starting points. He based it on an Enlightenment understanding of natural rights. They based it on a gospel in which consciences must be free if they are to stand in judgment on the Last Day. The Founding-era evangelicals, such as fiery Virginia Baptist revivalist John Leland, didn’t care about motives, but about who would work to secure freedom. That’s a good model for the next election.

In recent years candidates have assumed that they can win over evangelicals by learning Christian slogans, by masking political rallies as prayer meetings, and by basically producing a long-form new birth certificate to prove they’ve been born again. This sort of identity politics is a luxury of a past era when evangelicals were part of a silent majority in the U.S., with our First Amendment freedoms assumed and guaranteed. That is not the present situation.”

3. From Desiring God: You can't serve God and Theology:

“Jesus himself says, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money” (Matthew 6:24; see also Hebrews 13:5). The God of Christianity and the god of money are irreconcilably opposed. They cannot room together in the human heart. If you find yourself serving money — consuming yourself with earning, gathering, and spending — by definition you are not serving God.

But is money more spiritually dangerous than theology? The answer may be trickier than we think, especially within the numbing comfort of a proudly affluent and educated American Church. Money is a tangible, countable, often visible god. Theology, on the other hand — if it is cut off from truly knowing and enjoying God himself — can be a soothing, subtle, superficially spiritual god. Both are deadly, but one lulls us into a proud, intellectual, and purely cosmetic confidence and rest before God. Theology will kill you if it does not kindle a deep and abiding love for the God of the Bible, and if it does not inspire a desire for his glory, and not ultimately our own.”

4. An article with lots of pictures about some of the most beautiful and most visited castles in the world:

“While castles, palaces and châteaux naturally pique such curiosity, not all have Neuschwanstein’s European fairy-tale looks. Some of the world’s most-visited castles, found across Asia, feature red exteriors, pagodas and gates.

Consider Bangkok’s gold-spired Grand Palace, where Thai kings lived for 150 years, and where 8 million annual visitors now traipse through ornate rooms, manicured gardens and temples, including one that houses a revered Buddha carved from a single block of jade.”

5. You can't separate stewardship from economics, from Greg Forster at the Acton Institute:

“As Forster indicates, for the bulk of human history, the type of collaboration, exchange, and reconciliation we see today was outright prohibited, leading not only to widespread material poverty, but significant social/spiritual division, isolation, and disconnect. Even now, as projects like PovertyCure seek to highlight, the world’s poorest suffer not for lack of initiative, creativity, or love for neighbor, but because they have been cut off from circles of entrepreneurial exchange and collaboration.

On this, Forster offers a simple but healthy reminder: economics matters, for orienting our hearts, hands, and imaginations, yes, but also for the cultivation and preservation of the broader political/social/economic order.

As we continue to refine our thinking about the shape and arc of Christian stewardship, let’s not forget or neglect the role of economics in unleashing it for “love, justice, and reconciliation” across society.”

Worth Reading - 2/5

1. A longish article on the trouble with consumerism, from Acton Institute:

“The Anglican Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, made a number of very good points about the moral and spiritual dangers of consumerism in a recent talk. And from a certain perspective he’s right when he says that consumer society is a “mechanism for distributing unhappiness.” As he says, “When money rules, we remember the price of things and forget the value of things.” Sentamu is on less sure ground in his assertion that “The whole of consumer society is based on stimulating demand to generate expenditure to produce economic growth.”

Economist George Riesman observes that Adam Smith and other 19th century British economists see the basis both of “economic activity and economic theory in the fact that man’s life and well-being depend on the production of wealth.” He goes on to compare this view, unfavorably, with Mercantilism which, thanks to “the influence of Lord Keynes,” has come to dominate how many people, including many Christians, think spontaneously about our economic not in terms of “the production of wealth, but the production of consumption.””

2. My article on the difference between markets and consumerism at the Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics:

“In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ urges the crowd to “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33) Again, the message is not the renunciation of the material world, but pursuit of God in all of life.

Greed is a pursuit of personal gain that neglects the common good and places ultimate value on the material prosperity. It results in serving money as a master and excessively valuing possessions on earth, which Christ cautions against (Matthew 6:19–24).Greed and contentment cannot coexist.”

3. Today a Federal Court broadened the exception for morality in hiring and firing for ministers:

“According to the court opinion, Alyce Conlon worked at InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA (IVCF) in Michigan as a spiritual director, involved in providing religious counsel and prayer. She informed IVCF that she was contemplating divorce, at which point IVCF put her on paid—and later unpaid—leave. Part of IVCF’s employment policy is that “[w]here there are significant marital issues, [IVCF] encourages employees to seek appropriate help to move towards reconciliation” and IVCF reserves the right “to consider the impact of any separation/divorce on colleagues, students, faculty, and donors. ”

4. A Parable for the unemployed and underemployed:

“The theme of work recurs and reverberates throughout the Christian scriptures. We see it from the very beginning in Genesis 1, where human beings are created in God’s image and blessed with the call: “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.” The call to work appears again in a more specific form with the creation account of Adam and Eve, in which Adam is “placed in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it” and Eve is created to be Adam’s co-laborer (Ge. 2:15, 18). The import of these early accounts for our understanding of work is of foundational import: work is not a result of the Fall into sin, but an aspect of God’s created purposes for human beings.”

Worth Reading - 2/4

1. From Aaron Earls, 3 important times to teach your kids theology:

“For me, it’s when I cry.

When I start to tear up, I know the moment I’m in with one of my children is hugely important in their theological education. This is because I am most likely to shed tears in three different situations: when they’ve sinned, I’ve sinned, or we’re facing a tragedy.

It is in those three types of moments that you and I need to be most mindful of the theology we are teaching our children, be it intentional or not. As I’ve said before, I think we make the theological education of our kids harder than it needs to be, but that does not negate the importance of it, especially in these pivotal moments.

The three most important times to teach theology to your kids is when they mess up, when you mess up, and when the world is messed up.”

2. The problem of turning inward. A look at why Dutch Reformed Christianity hasn't grown, despite a mandate to take the gospel to "every square inch"

“A religious community focused only on its own survival in a hostile environment may already have lost the battle, and this is where the efforts of Kuyper’s followers perhaps fell short. If we genuinely believe that the redemptive story contained in the Bible is not just our story but the world’s story, then we have reason, not to keep it to ourselves, but to proclaim that news with urgency and enthusiasm and to live accordingly. A political ceasefire may serve the proximate good of intercommunal peace, but it can never be a substitute for the biblical command to preach the Gospel to the world, whose salvation ultimately depends on it. Different confessional groups may agree to disagree for the present, but the followers of Jesus Christ must manifest a confidence that the truth that sets us free is everyone’s truth, and not just a subjective truth peculiar to our own community. We should, in short, not be content to turn inward defensively but ought always to reach out to the larger world. If we lose confidence in the transforming power of the Gospel, we run the risk of losing ground in a conflict we may forget is still being waged, even under formal conditions of a political ceasefire.”

3. An article from the Economist on why sometimes sports teams have perverse incentives to lose:

“DANNY BLANCHFLOWER, the eloquent captain of the all-conquering Tottenham Hotspur side of 1961, famously remarked that “the great fallacy is that the game is first and last about winning. It is nothing of the kind. The game is about glory.” He was probably wrong: at least when it comes to the boardroom, the game is first and last about money.”

4. Voices from the left side of American politics often complain about "Big Oil" and other political interests contributing to political causes. Notably, this is only when the contributions are not in their favor. There is some evidence that outside interests are playing into the political left's war on fossil fuels:

“The Environmental Policy Alliance, a Washington-based group that researches funding and agendas of environmental activist groups, reports that “one of the founders of Marcuard is also the chair of Russian-owned giant Rosneft.” Not only is Rosneft a “giant,” it also is the world’s largest oil company. Rosneft, readers will recall, benefited greatly from the Russian government’s auctioning of the privately owned Yukos oil company after Yukos’ billionaire owner Mikhail Khodorkovsky was arrested and placed in a Russian prison for 10 years. The chairman of Rosneft’s audit committee is Hans Jorg Rudloff, the aforementioned founder of Marcuard who also serves as its director and president. Additionally, Marcuard’s website lists Hoskins as a director and vice president.”

5. More money for public education is no more than part of the solution. In fact, it may not be the biggest part of the solution.

Worth Reading - 2/3

1. Can students have too much tech? There appears to be a negative correlation between the availability of technology to lower income students and their success rates:

“More technology in the classroom has long been a policy-making panacea. But mounting evidence shows that showering students, especially those from struggling families, with networked devices will not shrink the class divide in education. If anything, it will widen it.

In the early 2000s, the Duke University economists Jacob Vigdor and Helen Ladd tracked the academic progress of nearly one million disadvantaged middle-school students against the dates they were given networked computers. The researchers assessed the students’ math and reading skills annually for five years, and recorded how they spent their time. The news was not good.”

2. Teaching in college has become wild and woolly as only challenging previously held positions seems to be acceptable:

“When I was in Wichita the other weekend, I gave my talk about how Dante saved my life, and then took questions from the audience. A young woman who looked like an older undergraduate, or perhaps a young graduate student, asked me why I trusted anything Dante said, since he used his poem to get revenge, of a sort, on the people who had wronged him in life. She called Dante a “sociopath.”

I didn’t understand her question. It seemed so … ridiculous that I didn’t know how to answer it. I had just spent an hour talking about the spiritual grandeur and moral depth of the Commedia, and how it transformed my life, and she wanted to know how I could take any of that seriously because Dante was cross with the people who exiled him. Where do you even begin with that?”

3. The issue of pollution is still with the developing world, and there is little being done about it:

“This year, industrialized countries will spend $10.4 billion helping poor countries cut carbon emissions and brace for the impact of climate change. Meanwhile, the world shells out tens of billions a year combating infectious diseases like HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis,spending which continues to rise.

What hardly anyone’s spending on is pollution—even though it’s the most lethal force on the planet, killing nearly 8.9 million people in 2012, the last year for which there was data.”

4. 10 Ways you can fight human trafficking:

“I didn’t hear the phrase “human trafficking” until well into my 20s. (I’m now in my mid-30s.) Initially, I brushed it off because I could not bear to carry in my mind the reality of such atrocities. But awareness is the most important step to engagement, and it’s this first step where many of us get stuck.

The words of Dr. Diane Langberg, member of Biblical Theological Seminary’s Global Trauma Recovery Institute, are instructive here: “The things we cannot bear to hear about are the atrocities that he/she has had to live through.”

When this sinks in, we have no choice but to repent of our passivity and beg God for the strength to engage in what is close to his heart. Often the next question becomes, where do I begin? ”

5. Term of respect or sexist hegemony? CUNY bans the use of titles because they infer gender:

““Mr.,” “Mrs.” and “Ms.” are being shown the door at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

In a new policy that has sparked debate among academics, school staffers have been advised to refrain from using gendered salutations in correspondence with students—and instead use a student’s full name, according to an internal memo sent out earlier this month.

The directive pertains specifically to administrators’ written interactions with students and prospective students, said Tanya Domi, a school spokeswoman. But the memo says the policy should be “interpreted as broadly as possible” and was sent to all faculty at the Graduate Center.”

Worth Reading - 2/2

1. At First Things last week, John Murdock examines the link between misanthropic beliefs and some forms of environmentalism:

“As I was rallying for life with several thousand other Texans at our state capitol, a few dozen pro-choicers insisted on parading through with “Abortion on Demand and Without Apology” banners while screaming “Keep Your Rosaries, Off our Ovaries!” That’s pretty standard irreligious stuff, but at the West Cost March for Life, marchers were subjected to a chant with a different wrinkle: “Save the Earth, Don’t Give Birth!” It’s a particularly unfortunate slogan, for it risks obscuring the connections between welcoming the unborn and caring for creation—connections long noted by heroes of the pro-life movement and well worth remembering today.”

2. A modest proposal that would allow conservatives to steal the march on maternity leave from fiscal liberals:

“You will almost always hear someone intone that America is the only advanced country that doesn’t “have” maternity leave, when, in fact, that’s not true: many companies offer paid maternity leave. To conservatives it is frustrating — and even scary — when progressives do not seem to grasp the difference between something existing and something being made mandatory.

The main problem with the idea of mandatory paid maternity leave is basic economics: Maternity leave of any kind is basically a tax on hiring women, paid leave even more so. And more generally, all labor regulations make hiring people more expensive, depressing employment, as is evident in my home country of France.”

3. The Wall Street Journal shares an opinion about what to do about climate change. The best way to reduce impact, they say, is to decrease poverty:

“In short, climate change is not worse than we thought. Some indicators are worse, but some are better. That doesn’t mean global warming is not a reality or not a problem. It definitely is. But the narrative that the world’s climate is changing from bad to worse is unhelpful alarmism, which prevents us from focusing on smart solutions.

A well-meaning environmentalist might argue that, because climate change is a reality, why not ramp up the rhetoric and focus on the bad news to make sure the public understands its importance. But isn’t that what has been done for the past 20 years? The public has been bombarded with dramatic headlines and apocalyptic photos of climate change and its consequences. Yet despite endless successions of climate summits, carbon emissions continue to rise, especially in rapidly developing countries like India, China and many African nations.

Alarmism has encouraged the pursuit of a one-sided climate policy of trying to cut carbon emissions by subsidizing wind farms and solar panels. Yet today, according to the International Energy Agency, only about 0.4% of global energy consumption comes from solar photovoltaics and windmills. And even with exceptionally optimistic assumptions about future deployment of wind and solar, the IEA expects that these energy forms will provide a minuscule 2.2% of the world’s energy by 2040.”

4. An old blog from Carl Trueman, discussing the trouble with the internet and the democratization of knowledge:

“This is where the democratization of knowledge which the web has fuelled is so damaging. Now anybody can spout on anything and find an audience, no matter how hateful or inept or ignorant they are. After all, cyberpsace dissolves the difference between a large, credible denomination, say The Presbyterian Church in America, and some survivalist nutcase out west who gathers with his wife and kids every Sunday and has a webpage entitled `The Presbyterian Church in America (Reconstituted).’ In webworld, both apparently have an equally legitimate existence and an equally legitimate right to be heard. On a more prosaic, and less harmful level, webpages and blogs allow any Tom, Dick or Harriet, regardless of qualification, to hold forth on just about anything. And this is where it all gets so incredibly messy and even, in the technical sense, deconstructive.”

5. A thought-provoking book review from Trevin Wax dating to October 2009, which discusses how the German people could have supported the horrors of the holocaust:

“The Enlightenment myth is dying a painfully slow death, painful because it is taking so long for people to figure out that it is a sham. The idea that humans are progressing in a continually upward ladder of freedom and power marches on in the 21st century, much like it did at the beginning of the 20th.

Two world wars and the slaughter of millions of innocent civilians have still not eradicated the Enlightenment myth. We continue to believe that now, at the dawn of the 21st century, civilized people are incapable of the atrocities committed during World War II.

But we are wrong. We deceive ourselves.”

Worth Reading - 1/30

1. Four things you should do if you make a mistake at work:

“I’ve messed up at work plenty of times and have had to pay a price to make things right. I’ve had to make amends with coworkers, call customers, or stay late at night to fix my errors.

No one, however, has had to pay the price quite like Washington, D.C. meteorologist, Tucker Barnes. The WTTG-TV weather man predicted a monster spring storm would hit the capital. Instead, the area just got just a dusting of snow and rain.

Barnes’ punishment was played out on live TV the next day, as he was forced to take a “timeout” in the corner of the studio. “Finally, someone takes responsibility for their actions,” boomed the voiceover. The hilarious stunt was further enhanced by Barnes’ calls from the corner. “I don’t know why you guys have to do this to me,” he said. And, “How long do I have to stay here?”

You might not have to sit in a corner, but the results of your mistakes are often no less publicly humiliating. Loss of position, pay, or prominence are all common results of getting it wrong. Paying a price for mistakes is a long-standing principle in the workplace.”

2. The challenge of work-life balance from Joseph Sunde:

“So let us be wary of over-working, yes, but let us be just as wary of cramping the scope of our service with arbitrary divides and misaligned attitudes. This will require hard work and careful discernment, but it will also demand an economic imagination not limited by the various legalisms, expectations, and entitlements now promoted by law, culture, and the raw forces of individualism.

Let us pursue “balance,” yes, but one born first and foremost by obedience to God and submission to the profound mystery of his call over our lives.”

3. Joe Carter from the Acton Institue shares some thoughts and a video that question whether some slave redemption programs are effective:

4. Over at The Gospel Coalition, Richard Mouw considers whether government is a result of the fall:

“The Kuyperian insistence that the political sphere was a part of the creational design is especially interesting in this regard. Like any Calvinist, Kuyper insisted that under sinful conditions governments have a God-ordained ministry of the sword. In a fallen world, political authority has a remedial function. For one thing, it holds our sinful impulses in check with the threat of punishment. I might be inclined to drive ten miles per hour over the speed limit, but the awareness that I might have to pay a fine if caught by a patrol car keeps me in line.

But government also exercises the ministry of the sword. It doesn’t just threaten punishment—sometimes it actually punishes. The police and military arms of the state are empowered to apprehend criminals and administer justice by the use of force. Thus the apostle’s admonition: “If you do what is wrong, you should be afraid, for the authority does not bear the sword in vain! It is the servant of God to execute wrath on the wrongdoer” (Rom. 13:4). ”

5. My latest post at the Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics about bringing back rest and recreation in our theology of work:

“We can rest from our work because we know that God will meet all of our needs, and that a pattern of rest is woven into the fabric of the created order.

Confidence in God’s providence should encourage us to rest and to enjoy our recreation for the glory of God. It is this assurance in God’s goodness that allows us to set boundaries around our work, so that we do it for the glory of God, but we don’t do it restlessly as if everything depends on us.

Our faith in God’s sustenance of our well-being permits us to restfully play to the glory of God, just as we can work to the glory of God.”

Worth Reading - 1/29

1. Richard Mouw discusses the importance of grace in public debate and relates the tragedy of Christians failing to be gracious:

“The real issue for me has to do with the proper weapons for intellectual warfare. As a participant in many dialogues—ecumenical and interfaith—I have often encountered criticisms from fellow evangelicals who tell me that we do not have the leisure for the “niceties” of polite discussion with people with whom we disagree. Not infrequently I have been told that we have to get on with the urgent “battle for the truth.” What I find ironic about those preachments is that if we are genuinely contending for the truth, then we must pay careful attention to whether we are being truthful in our characterizations of people with whom we disagree. It seems odd to be willing to distort the truth out of a concern to score points in a contest for truthfulness!”

2. Studies continue to reinforce the significance of reading to children of all ages for future reading skills:

“‘A lot of parents assume that once kids begin to read independently, that now that is the best thing for them to do,’ said Maggie McGuire, the vice president for a website for parents operated by Scholastic.

But reading aloud through elementary school seemed to be connected to a love of reading generally. According to the report, 41 percent of frequent readers ages 6 to 10 were read aloud to at home, while only 13 percent of infrequent readers were being read to.”

3. An argument that making Community College "free" will simply extend high school by two years:

“No, if we are earnest about setting students up for success, we should focus on reforming K-12 education, returning the responsibility of funding and management wholly to the state and local governments, empowering communities to offer better, more efficient education and to rise to higher standards, to ensure their children will graduate with at least the basic skills they need to get a good job and support themselves.

They say the best things in life are free; but this isn’t true. The best things, the most valuable things, are the ones you work and pay for on your own. Free community college will rob future generations of not just a quality education, but the underrated yet lasting satisfaction of earning it themselves.”

4. An article from the Harvard Business Review on seeking a solution to poverty that works:

“Ending extreme poverty by 2030 is the BHAG – the big, hairy audacious goal – of our generation. While skepticism abounds, momentum is on our side, with poverty rates falling in every region of world.

Unfortunately, these trends still have little to no impact on the lives of a critical and chronically marginalized subset of the extreme poor around the world, those living on less than 60 to 70 cents per day. At BRAC, where I work, we call this subset the “ultra-poor.” Microfinance and other market-based interventions don’t generally reach them. Predominantly women, they face chronic food insecurity, malnutrition, gender discrimination and often abuse. They also bear the brunt of climate change— especially in rural areas where inclement weather and the increasing frequency of storms can hurt agricultural yields and contribute to malnutrition — not to mention countless other external challenges.”

5. Why do we tolerate the SAT and ACT? There is growing opposition to these exams as college entrance requirements:

“I don’t need more reasons to loathe the SAT and the ACT, America’s sorry excuses for college entrance exams. They are scary, narrow time-wasters. But thanks to Emory University professor Mark Bauerlein, I now know those tests are expressly designed to keep every bit of wonder, humor, passion and religion out of the learning process.”

Worth Reading -1/28

1. I am the chief of sinners in this regard, but there is evidence that productivity at work is actually increased when people take vacations:

“If you’re thinking about workplace productivity, vacations and naps probably don’t come to mind. In fact, they may seem to be the very definition of “counterproductive.”

But research shows that taking a break from work—whether it’s a noontime snooze or a week or two off—makes you more refreshed and productive when you come back.

The problem is getting Americans to believe it.”

2. Your expectations as to what you will be expected to remember strongly impact your ability to remember, according to a recent study:

“We found that in some cases, people have trouble remembering even very simple pieces of information when they do not expect to have to remember them,” said Brad Wyble, assistant professor of psychology at Penn State.”

3. If you didn't see it on Monday, consider taking a look at my post on the concerns Christians should consider when using Social Media:

“One of the main limitations of electronic communication is the lack of tone. This means that e-mails between people who are generally unfamiliar with each other have a strong potential to be misread and misinterpreted.

It is no mystery that losing the facial expressions, body language that you get with a face to face conversation. Even the cue of a tone of voice is missing from electronic communication. These make communicating electronically a perpetual danger.”

4. An interesting article (with lots of pictures) about National Geographic's continued efforts in cartography:

5. A video of a lecture discussing C.S. Lewis on Mere Liberty and the Evils of Statism. It is long, but from what I've watched so far, well worth the time to finish:

H/T @joecarter and @ActonInstitute

Worth Reading - 1/27

1. How hard is it not to tell a lie? Here is an account of someone who stopped telling all lies, even little white ones. This is worth reading:

“I didn’t realize how often I lied until I stopped lying completely.

It wasn’t an intentional decision. Two summers ago I did my first ten-day silent meditation retreat, and we were required to sign five vows to join the program, including a vow of honesty. I didn’t know this until I arrived. But when you’re about to begin ten days in silence, signing your name on a vow not to lie does not feel like a bold step. At the end of the retreat, however, we were told the vows, which also include no killing and no stealing, now apply to the rest of our lives.

I’ve always been a literal person, often to a fault. I have the opposite curse of a flaky person – if I say I’m going to do something, I’ll do it, even if it no longer serves my interests. Having learned that I just agreed not to lie for the rest of my life, I decided to give it a try.”

2. There is a close tie between human trafficking an online pornography usage. Here is a brief video that highlights the link and encourages people not to use internet porn:

3. A long-ish piece, but an interesting perspective on the benefits of working in an office. It may be there is a future for traditional employment patterns and office work:

“For decades now, the office has suffered a lousy reputation. It’s a cubicled Hades of demoralized proletarians; it’s a glassed-in pasture of innocent cows that at any moment could get carted off to the abattoir. We saw this dim view played out over and over again in the pop culture of the last half of the 20th century, whether in The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit or “Dilbert” cartoons or Office Space, the cult film from 1999 that culminated in Ron Livingston taking a baseball bat to a fax machine. (And in this century, of course, we have Dwight Schrute’s stapler entombed in a Jell-O mold.) Saval chronicles these visions and dozens more in Cubed, ultimately implying there’s an irresolvable tension between white-collar workers and management: You may love your work, but the company you work for will never love you back; your office may be designed for maximal autonomy and self-determination, but you are not, in the end, autonomous and self-determining. Offices are factories in drag, their indifference to your life reflected in their most basic unit of design, the cube. Even if management is experimenting with the latest design fads (volleyball pits between desks! Workbenches! No assigned workstations at all!), its efforts will inevitably regress back to the cube. No matter how much lipstick you put on it, the cubicle, with its burlapped walls and push-pinned art, will inevitably be the office pig.”

4. SEBTS professor Nathan Finn writes about his views on the recent movie, "Selma":

“As a historian, I appreciate the sympathetic, but not hagiographical portrayal of King. “Selma” depicts King as a man driven by faith, but struggling with personal doubts. He is a man whose life was saturated with the biblical worldview, but was also marred by moral failure. In both of these respects, he was not unlike many biblical figures such as Moses, Abraham, David, and Paul. Furthermore, the movie helpfully shows that King was not a solitary prophet; others surrounded him and played crucial, if lesser-known roles in the movement. Coretta King, Ralph David Abernathy, and especially John Lewis receive well-deserved attention in this movie.

I also appreciate that the movie does not depict a uniform Civil Rights Movement. As Walter pointed out in his earlier review, there was tension and competition between groups like King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and other organizations not mentioned in the film. The Civil Rights Movement further fractured in the years following the March on Selma and especially King’s murder three years later, and not all of the fractures were as influenced by Christianity as the SCLC was during King’s lifetime.”

5. Last week some of the faculty at Southeastern participated in a casual conversation about the Church and the issue of marriage and divorce. It is worth the time to watch  this video, recognizing that every question could not be answered fully in this forum.

Worth Reading - 1/26

1. Peter Leithart reflects on the importance of paper books and the advantages they have over e-readers:

“Naomi Baron’s Reading Onscreen argues that the value of digital reading depends on the kind of reading you’re doing: “digital reading is fine for many short pieces or for light content we don’t intend to analyze or reread.” But “eReading is less well suited for many longer works or even for short ones requiring serious thought.”

In part, Baron’s point is simply empirical. She cites many studies that indicate how people distinguish reading onscreen from reading a book. For instance, “Ziming Liu at San Jose State University compared reading behavior onscreen versus in hardcopy. Study participants (graduate students and working professionals) devoted more time to browsing and scanning, and to reading selectively, when working onscreen than when reading print. Subjects also reported that their onscreen reading was less in-depth than with hardcopy.””

2. Some tips on studying, based on a study that indicates simple re-reading is insufficient:

“The majority of students study by re-reading notes and textbooks — but the psychologists’ research, both in lab experiments and of actual students in classes, shows this is a terrible way to learn material. Using active learning strategies — like flashcards, diagramming, and quizzing yourself — is much more effective, as is spacing out studying over time and mixing different topics together.”

3. Bit by bit, monks are working to preserve Iraq's Christian history. This post is from NPR:

“There have been Dominican monks in the city of Mosul since about 1750. They amassed a library of thousands of ancient manuscripts and say they brought the printing press to Iraq in the early 1800s. Rattling around in a box, Michaeel brings out Aramaic typeset.

As an Islamist insurgency roiled Mosul in 2008, monks smuggled their library out, bit by bit, to the Christian village of Qaraqosh. Last summer, when ISIS was inching closer, Michaeel took action. He prepared everything and put the collection in a big truck at 5 a.m.”

4. An interesting history of the crock-pot and gender roles, from the Washington Post:

“Seventy-five years ago today, an inventor named Irving Nachumsohn received a patent for the first commercially successful electric slow cooker. A few decades later, his device was more than just a beloved accessory in millions of American kitchens. The Crock-Pot was also seen as evidence that consumer goods could no longer be sold just to housewives but also would need to serve the needs of working women as well. Some credit the Crock-Pot and other home appliances with helping increase the number of women in the workforce.

The history of the slow cooker, whose sales have been booming recently, reflects a still-raging debate about how consumer appliances have changed — and failed to change — the gender balance at home as well as at work.”

5. Anne Bradley tackles the thorny question of stewardship and education:

“We often talk about the specific nature calling, and it’s helpful to recall here that each individual is gifted in and inspired by different things. No two students will follow exactly the same path, and it would be a mistake to assume that a single policy can address needs as different as the individuals receiving the education.

Instead of trying to solve the dilemma of education with charity, let’s look at it as an investment in the students and hold them – and ourselves – to a higher standard.”

Worth Reading - 1/23

1. A blogger at the Economist discusses recent assertions that the determining factor for a person's right to religious liberty is whether it impacts someone else. 

“Justice Ginsburg signed on to Justice Alito’s opinion but wrote separately to emphasise that Mr Holt’s demand is fundamentally different from the claim put forward in last year’s controversial Burwell v Hobby Lobby case. In Hobby Lobby, owners of a crafts store sought, and received, by a 5-4 vote, an exemption from the contraceptive mandate of the Affordable Care Act. As evangelical Christians, David Green and his family members asserted that they could not, in good conscience, pay to supply their employees with birth control devices and drugs they considered to be abortifacients.

For Hobby Lobby, Justice Ginsburg filed a fiery, full-throated dissent. Her central contention was that the majority refused to consider “the impact that accommodation may have on third parties who do not share the corporation owners’ religious faith””

2. Justin Taylor shares a time lapse, computer animated video of human development in the womb in honor of the anniversary of Roe v. Wade:

Life is truly wonderful! In fact, the development of human life in the womb is just amazing. Did you know that everything about you - including how tall you would be, the color of your eyes, and the color of your skin-- was all determined at the time of fertilization?

3. Joe Carter at Acton covers the recent case where a baker is being sued over refusal to create an anti-gay cake. This brings into question whether religious liberty is the issue as much as an attempt to promote a worldview is at play:

“It is important to remember that these anti-discrimination laws are exemptions to the general rule. Except for the protected classes, business owners, et al., are allowed to discriminate (i.e., refuse to do business) with people for a variety of reasons. For instance, a landlord is not required to rent to a pornographer or a Klansman. In general, sexual orientation (however it was made known to a business owner) has been one of thousands of factors that are unprotected by antidiscrimination laws.

People who claim that legislation to protect sexual orientation is merely seeking to provide the same protections that are afforded to other people are incorrect: they already have the same rights everyone else has, i.e., the right to be protected against discrimination on the basis of their race, gender, and other protected categories. It is necessary that we are clear that seeking to make sexual orientation a protected class are seeking a special exemption that is not afforded to millions of other criteria.”

4. This video from the International Justice Ministry demonstrates why the rule of law is so important, and why it is so hard for the poor in many countries to get justice:

Uploaded by International Justice Mission on 2013-08-19.

5. How can an imperfect man be a leader in his home? Challies considers on his blog:

“We don’t lead because we are worthy, but because we are called. You don’t lead because you are worthy, but because you are called. And, my friend, you have been called— commanded and called by God himself. If you are a husband, you have been called. If you are a father, you have been called. You have been called to lead—you and no one else. You have been called to lead despite your sin and your failure, despite your fear and apathy. There is no backup plan, there is no one to lead in your absence, no one better suited, no one better qualified.”