Worth Reading - 3/13

1. Nathan Finn of Southeastern Seminary and First Baptist Durham Fame, writes about how Chuck Colson helped shape the way he thinks. To be clear, for Nathan, this occurred on the college campus not from experience in prison.

“I was raised in Southeast Georgia, close to the buckle of the Bible Belt. I came of age in the mid-1990s, when the Christian Coalition was at the height of its influence, Newt Gingrich was making contracts with America, and it seemed like national revival was closely tied to the fortunes of the Republican Party. Those were heady days for politically conservative evangelicals, Bill Clinton’s presidency notwithstanding. I was a proud member of the College Republicans and listened regularly to D. James Kennedy and James Dobson on American Family Radio.

I was also what my friend Bruce Ashford calls a “cultural anorexic.” To my thinking, American culture was decadent and should be avoided by believers—with the exception, of course, of voting for Republican politicians. I didn’t listen to secular music for a couple of years. I didn’t watch any R-rated movies and avoided most PG-13 movies. I even avoided G-rated movies (at least the ones made by the Walt Disney Company). I wore a lot of Christian t-shirts and rocked a “What Would Jesus Do?” bracelet. As I have reflected on those years, I think I meant well. I really wanted to honor God. But I was an arrogant, condescending, and pretty ignorant religious reactionary.

All this began to change the summer between my junior and senior years of college. Simply put, I discovered Chuck Colson. Previously, I had listened to the “Breakpoint” radio program, so I knew Colson’s name. But that summer, I read his book How Now Shall We Live?. Next, I read The Body: Being Life in Darkness. I started subscribing to Christianity Today, and Colson’s columns became a monthly highlight. I started reading every essay of Colson’s that I could find on the internet. By the time I graduated from college, by God’s grace—and with Chuck Colson’s help—I was no longer a religious reactionary.

Through his writings, Colson taught me three lessons that have continued to shape how I think about the relationship between faith and culture.”

2. Joe Carter from Acton Institute evaluates a recent OpEd that calls for government bailouts of students who went deeply into debt for low-value and low-opportunity degrees:

“In reality, though, student loan forgiveness would make the economy worse off. Mr. Hopp doesn’t seem to care about the “corporations doing the lending” because he fails to recognize that corporations are just people. The money was lent by people who expected to get repaid so that they could spend the money on “things like houses, cars, plane tickets”—or expensive private colleges for their kids. If they don’t get paid they are much worse off.

Why not just have the government pay the loans? Because, again, “government” in this case is just another word for “American taxpayer.” Every dollar that the American taxpayer gives to pay off someone’s student loan debt is one less dollar they can use for “things like houses, cars, plane tickets.”

What Mr. Hopp’s is really asking for is a redistribution of income from people who didn’t make bad educational decisions to people who feel entitled not to pay their debts. Mr. Hopp is making the case that he and millions of other Americans should be freeloaders. They want the taxpayer equivalent of moving into their parent’s basement and living rent-free.

The one thing I agree with Mr. Hopp about is when he says, “We need to have a serious conversation about student loan debt.” Indeed, we do. The main thing that needs to be said is that if you take out a loan to buy luxury goods (like expensive colleges) you have a moral obligation to repay it. It’s time we start expecting that all Americans—especially those who want to lead our churches— to start acting like adults instead of whiny, entitled children.

There are many issues of economic and social justice that should be of concern for Christians. Paying back the student loans of middle-class snowflakes who feel “called” to make bad decisions is not one of them.”

3. From First Things, the importance of keeping Catholic schools Catholic:

“This has been the issue in the U.S. bishops’ contest with the Obama administration over the HHS contraceptive/abortifacient mandate in Obamacare: Will Catholic institutions and Catholic employers be able to conduct their affairs according to the Church’s settled convictions, protected by the robust definition of religious freedom contained in the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act? Or will the government attempt to coerce those institutions and businesses into becoming de facto extensions of the state insofar as the delivery of certain “reproductive health services” is concerned? That question of identity, or integrity-in-mission, will be the issue in other culture-war assaults on Catholic life; one of the next lines of battle involves employment practices in Catholic schools. Will the Church be allowed to staff its schools with teachers who teach and live what the Catholic Church believes and teaches, hiring those who meet those criteria and declining to employ those who don’t? Or will the state try to coerce Catholic schools to employ teaching staff according to other criteria?

This is going to be a nasty fight, given that “tolerance” has become the all-purpose bludgeon with which the sexual revolution, in all its manifestations, beats its adversaries into submission or drives them into catacombs. All the more reason, then, to be grateful for the courageous leadership shown by Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, whose San Francisco archdiocese is arguably ground zero of the culture war that cannot be avoided—and that must be fought if Catholic institutions are to remain free to be themselves.”

4. Why the university is not (or should not be) a complete free for all. On order and tension in the academy:

“Universities were founded to sustain faith by reason—to maintain order in the soul and in the commonwealth. My own university, St. Andrews, was established in the fifteenth-century by the Scottish Inquisitor of Heretical Pravity to resist the errors of the Lollards, the levellers of that age. The early universities’ teaching imparted both order and freedom to the intellect: that was no paradox, for order and freedom exist necessarily in a healthy tension.

But in our day, as in various earlier times, many universities have lost any clear general understanding of either freedom or order, intellectually considered. So it seems worth-while to review here the relationship between order and freedom, and the part of a university in maintaining the tension between the two.

Indulge me first in some observations concerning the connection between faith, order, and freedom, all of which are intertwined in university studies. In recent generations, many professors have failed to apprehend the connection. Let us commence with that popular but vague term “freedom.”

Freedom is normal for mankind. I mean that ordered liberty is natural for truly human persons. Yet, human freedom, like much else in human normality, is denied at least as often as it is affirmed.”

5. 40 motivational speeches in 2 minutes, in honor of the last day of my final PhD seminar:

Worth Reading - 3/12

1. Charlie Self shares how we can find joy and meaning in our work:

“One of our favorite coffee shops when we lived in Washington, D.C. in the 1980s was The Daily Grind. The name’s humorous wordplay about everyday work and the delicious fresh-roasted coffee made us smile.

But too many of God’s people are not smiling as their alarms sound and they head to their daily tasks. Recent surveys reveal their deep dissatisfaction in their jobs, with few finding joy and significance in their efforts. Last year, Barna Group reported 75 percent of American adults long for meaning, while less than 20 percent say they’re extremely satisfied with their current work.

Young adults in their 20s and 30s are unhappy about the disconnect between their educations and expectations and the scarcity of some jobs. Many are working two or three part-time jobs and waiting for their “destiny” and their “dream” opportunities.

It makes one wonder: Can work be purposeful when it is often boring, repetitious, and sometimes unjust, with nasty bosses and challenging work conditions? Is it truly possible to derive joy and meaning from a job?”

2. Craig Blomberg responds to three critiques of inerrancy:

“In Can We Still Believe the Bible?, Craig Blomberg offers some observations on critiques of inerrancy and the idea that inerrancy “dies the death of a thousand qualifications” (pp. 126-130).
He first employs Paul Feinberg’s definition: “Inerrancy means that when all facts are known, the Scriptures in their original autographs and properly interpreted will be shown to be wholly true in everything that they affirm, whether that has to do with doctrine or morality or with the social, physical, or life sciences.”
Blomberg says that inerrancy, then, actually has far less qualifications than most major doctrines like the Trinity or various schools within soteriology and eschatology. Feinberg’s definition has only four qualifications, all of which are left to hermeneutical and exegetical debate within these caveats.”

3. Some interesting thoughts on leadership from a former submarine captain. I think some of these things might work better in that environment, but empowering employees is important:

Worth Reading - 3/11

1. One of the biggest differences between Eastern and Western cultures has been the emphasis on guilt vs. shame as a mechanism for social correction. Andy Crouch notes we are moving toward a shame culture and provides some thoughts on how to deal with that:

“The beauty of the gospel is that it acknowledges guilt and shame, covering both with the shame- and guilt-bearing representative Son. What honor–shame cultures are offering to missionaries, our own fame–shame culture may offer as well: a chance, in the depth of both our guilt and our shame, to discover just how completely good that news can be.”

2. With all the emphasis on vocational training and being prepared for the workforce, you would think Americans would be near the top of the heap, but a recent study shows otherwise:

“There was this test. And it was daunting. It was like the SAT or ACT — which many American millennials are no doubt familiar with, as they are on track to be the best educated generation in history — except this test was not about getting into college. This exam, given in 23 countries, assessed the thinking abilities and workplace skills of adults. It focused on literacy, math and technological problem-solving. The goal was to figure out how prepared people are to work in a complex, modern society.

And U.S. millennials performed horribly.

That might even be an understatement, given the extent of the American shortcomings. No matter how you sliced the data – by class, by race, by education – young Americans were laggards compared to their international peers. In every subject, U.S. millennials ranked at the bottom or very close to it, according to a new study by testing company ETS.”

3. David Brooks on the cost of relavtivism:

“One of America’s leading political scientists, Robert Putnam, has just come out with a book called “Our Kids” about the growing chasm between those who live in college-educated America and those who live in high-school-educated America. It’s got a definitive collection of data about this divide.

Roughly 10 percent of the children born to college grads grow up in single-parent households. Nearly 70 percent of children born to high school grads do. There are a bunch of charts that look like open scissors. In the 1960s or 1970s, college-educated and noncollege-educated families behaved roughly the same. But since then, behavior patterns have ever more sharply diverged. High-school-educated parents dine with their children less than college-educated parents, read to them less, talk to them less, take them to church less, encourage them less and spend less time engaging in developmental activity.”

4. One Pastor/Blogger shares how he reads so much:

“The other day I was eating with another pastor and we were talking about books and reading. I had mentioned several books I had finished recently and he said something like this, “Tim, you’re a husband, father of five young children, and a busy solo pastor. How do you find time to read so much?” The question literally surprised me and struck me as a bit odd, since I really don’t consider myself a true book-devourer. I recently heard Don Carson at a conference and he mentioned that he typically reads somewhere between 300 and 500 books a year (gad-zooks!!!). If you take those numbers and lop off a zero from each, that’s about how many books I typically read annually. I consider myself very much a person of average intelligence with probably a slightly below average reading speed who needs around eight hours of sleep a night.

I have gathered, however, that many pastors hardly read at all. Not including what’s absolutely necessary for sermon and lesson prep, I get the impression that many pastors might read three or four books a year, none of which are serious academic books. I believe this is unfortunate and likely a contributing factor in the overall weakness and ineffectiveness of the evangelical church in America today (especially since we have such easy access to so much good stuff).

I want to help remedy this situation. So today and in the next two posts I’ll be giving you nine recommendations for reading more and better in pastoral ministry.”

Worth Reading - 3/10

1. Matt Emerson argues that leaving the low church isn't necessary to get liturgy. This is important as many young Baptists are abandoning biblical doctrines over worship style by heading to Anglicanism:

“Increasingly, I hear of younger Southern Baptists leaving for the Anglican Church. Two of my friends (along with two acquaintances) in seminary and doctoral work made the shift from the SBC to the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). I have met others who have made the same jump, as one friend put it, “from Nashville to Canterbury.” In my conversations with these men, two factors were mentioned time and again: the aesthetic and theological beauty of the liturgy and the principled evangelical ecumenical spirit of the Anglican church planting movements in North America. More recently, Preston Yancey expressed much the same sentiments, as did Bart Gingrich over a year ago in an American Conservative article on millennials and liturgy.

As a younger Southern Baptist who is also drawn to liturgical worship forms, I have to ask – is this move necessary? Is the only option for SBCers who feel affinity with liturgy and principled ecumenism to leave, for Canterbury or Geneva or Wittenberg?

I believe the answer is no. Younger Southern Baptists, if you are drawn to liturgical forms, if you find attractive the principled evangelical ecumenism of other manifestations of Christ’s body, you can have that in Nashville. You can stay in the SBC.”

2. The "Black Dog" of depression; it strikes in males, too. This is an important series by Art of Manliness:

“Depression runs in my family. I grew up hearing stories and seeing family members sink into low moods for extended periods of time.

When I was in high school, the “black dog,” as Winston Churchill called it, finally paid a visit to me. It was the spring semester of my senior year. (Between 20 and 30 years old is when most people experience their first major depressive episode; at 18, I was about on schedule.) I had been super busy balancing AP classes, student council, church youth activities, and work. I guess all the stress caught up to me (research shows that prolonged periods of intense stress can set off a depressive episode). At first I thought it was just burnout, something I had experienced and recovered from before. But as the weeks passed, I started feeling more and more down. There came a point when I just felt emotionally numb. I didn’t feel sad or happy — just gray from the time I woke up to the time I went to bed. Motivation was non-existent. Simply going through the motions of school and work was an exercise in pure will. I just wanted to stay in bed and not do anything.

After a few months, this pervasive, impenetrable fog of grayness started to really get to me. I would have done anything just to feel something different — to feel anything, really. “Why can’t I be happy?” I kept asking myself. I figured I could just snap out of it and get back to normal. But no matter how much I tried, nothing changed.”

3. As proposals for "universal" child care are taking center stage, Trevin Wax considers a prior debate on this subject between Bertram Russell and G. K. Chesterton:

“Now, we can’t deny there are difficulties inherent in the discussion; neither can we leave any room for self-righteous snobbery. But Chesterton was right to press us toward ideals, without which we have no real guide or purpose. In this case, Chesterton found that ideal in the ancient notion of children at home, raised at their mother’s knee, father providing and protecting, both parents tied intrinsically to the home and the children for which they are responsible.

It’s not necessary to appeal to Scripture for such an idea, nor even claim that such an ideal is the right course of action in every circumstance. But the painful failure in achieving the ideal should not lead us to abandon or alter it. Instead, the idea needs to be upheld as beautiful and true. We are better off when we pursue it, even if we stumble on the way. After all, the story of the world centers on the family: holy mother, father, and Child, in a starlit stable that became a home.”

4. A sixteen year old Harvard "drop out" has learned some significant lessons by working at a startup:

“It’s an extraordinary academic achievement to be admitted to Harvard University. It’s arguably an even bigger accomplishment when you’re only 15 years old.

When he entered Harvard, Patrick Pan was a 16-year-old student from Texas, armed with a 2400 SAT score and a plan to graduate in four years with a degree in biomedical engineering. Among his other accomplishments was graduating fifth out of 568 students at Clear Lake High School and being named a 2014 US Presidential Scholar, one of only two in the state.

Now, he’s taking time off from the Ivy League university to be a founding team member and the third employee at GIFYouTube, a San Francisco-based website that allows users to convert their own uploaded videos into GIFs.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the startup was founded by two other Harvard dropouts — brothers Rory O’Reilly, formerly Harvard Class of 2016, and Kieran O’Reilly, formerly Harvard Class of 2017.”

Worth Reading - 3/9

1. In search of a civil public square. Some thoughts on contemporary etiquette from David Leonard:

“In my experience, people tend to have rather passionate convictions about a range of social issues, which makes it extremely difficult to separate emotion from reason, when discussing them with others. But of course, at least one component of the good life is to be intellectually virtuous, to love God with your mind. Among other things, this requires the ability to objectively analyze the pros and cons for a particular issue. To be sure, complete objectivity is an impossible ideal. Our experiences and assumptions will always be influencing, to some degree, how we approach any important subject matter. Nevertheless, I do believe that we have an obligation, especially as Christians, to diligently strive to achieve that ideal, and be willing to follow the evidence wherever it may lead us. Very simply, our chief devotion isn’t to dogma, but to the truth. And since we don’t create the truth, but rather we merely respond to the truth, it follows that we must rigorously seek after it, and be willing to submit our lives to it. ”

2. Katherine Paterson, renowned children's author, has written an autobiography. If you enjoyed Jacob have I Loved, Bridge to Terebithia, or any of her books, you'll be interested in this review of her life story:

“Among the books my parents were pleased to see me returning to were those by Katherine Paterson. My favorite, then and now, was Jacob Have I Loved, the story of Sara Louise “Wheeze” Bradshaw, who lives on a fictional island in the Chesapeake, and in the shadow of her tremendously gifted and beautiful twin, Caroline, struggling to make her own way in a world where her options seem to be narrowly circumscribed. Sara Louise stops praying and stops going to church; at one point, she says, “if I had believed in God I could have cursed him and died.” She doesn’t curse God, and when at last she finds her calling, God’s grace and providence are subtly invoked.

At the time I had no idea that Paterson was a pastor’s wife, and that she had been a Presbyterian missionary in Japan; the daughter of missionaries, Paterson was born in China in 1932. Her books did not appear on the shelves of our church library or upon those at the Christian bookstore. They are full of irreverence and doubt, cussing and bad attitudes. Indeed, Paterson’s most highly acclaimed books—including Jacob Have I Loved and also Bridge to Terebithia and The Great Gilly Hopkins—have been among her most frequently banned and challenged, not least by Christians fearful, for example, of the supposedly pagan dabbling in certain passages in Bridge to Terebithia that most readers would probably be inclined to describe as “children playing imaginatively in the woods.””

3. How much does it take to keep a college going? What is going on with liberal arts? A women's only, liberal arts college is closing while it still owns a $94 million endowment:

“Sweet Briar College — located near Lynchburg, Virginia — will close “as a result of insurmountable financial challenges,” the school said in a statement.

Sweet Briar administrators cited several trends that informed the decision to close, including the declining number of female students interested in all-women colleges and the dwindling number of students overall interested in small, rural liberal arts colleges.”

4. What is the relationship between nature and grace? Bruce Ashford helps us explore the options with a little help from Abraham Kuyper:

“The relationship between “nature” and “grace” is one that can be answered only by looking at the overarching biblical narrative, discerning the meaning of creation, fall, and redemption, and the relation between those three plot movements. How one conceives of the relationship between these various plot movements shapes one’s worldview, theology, and spirituality. It determines one’s view of theology and culture, Christianity and politics, and church and state.

The four views I present here each have proponents that represent the view well and others that represent it poorly. The healthiest members of any category will, in many ways, look more like one another than the other members of the category I have created for them. Thus while adjudicating between these views, it is helpful to see those of other views as fellow travelers toward right belief and practice rather than dismissing them as opponents.”

Weekend Reading

1. From Smithsonian, how a Norwegian company is creating a garden in the desert:

“In 2011, the Sahara Forest Project signed agreements with influential chemical companies and agribusinesses in Qatar to kick off a pilot program there in 2012. While that project continues, SFP has also been working on plans for its “launch station” in Aqaba, Jordan, a 49-acre test run located seven miles from the sea to demonstrate the economic viability of the concept using all its core components. In June 2014, the SFP signed an agreement with the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Amman, with $1.9 million of funding for the launch station provided by the Norwegian Ministry of Climate and Environment, the Grieg Foundation and other philanthropic sources.”

2. Here is more information on what "the least of these" may mean in Matthew 25:

“MostChristians agree that caring for the poor and marginalized is a central tenet of the gospel. And what better passage to reinforce this principle than Matthew 25:40, where Jesus commands us to care for “the least of these.” Many of us readily assume that “the least of these” refers to the poor and marginalized. But are those who Jesus is really talking about?

That question might seem trivial, but its importance can hardly be overstated. After all, Jesus ties our eternal destiny to how we treat “the least of these brothers of mine.” In the broader context of the passage (Matt. 25:31–46), the sheep and goats represent salvation criteria—who is in and who is out. It’s a stark picture, with the only outcomes being salvation or damnation. In a breathtaking scene, the Son of Man sits on a heavenly throne surrounded by angels and renders his verdict: “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life” (v. 46). One’s eternal security is tied to caring for “the least of these,” whoever they are.”

3. Robert Miller at Public Discourse argues that complying with an unjust law does not make one complicit in injustice. Well worth the time to read:

“Indeed, a person is under an obligation to disobey an unjust law only if obeying would involve him in moral wrongdoing, which is often not the case. A tax law may impose an unjust confiscatory tax, but a man does not usually sin if he pays the tax. “Offer no resistance to injury. If anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give him your cloak as well” (Matt. 5:39-40). Similarly, generations of African Americans who complied with manifestly unjust Jim Crow laws did nothing wrong by complying even though they were not morally obligated to do so. The reason is that there is nothing immoral in sitting in the back of the bus. When African Americans complied with such laws, they suffered injustice; they did not commit it.”

4. A reflection on the Reformed African American Network about whether being an orthodox Christian disqualifies someone from public service:

“On Thursday, January 10, 2013, Atlanta pastor Louie Giglio withdrew from offering the benediction at President Obama’s second inaugural ceremony. The reason? A sermon had been discovered—delivered some 20 years prior—in which Giglio called homosexuality a sin. In a statement following the withdrawal, the Presidential Inaugural Committee offered regrets for having invited Giglio and assured an alternate with more accepting views.

Fast forward two years later to Tuesday, January 6, 2015 and the dismissal of Atlanta Fire Chief, Kelvin Cochran. Cochran, a 30-year firefighting veteran, was discharged by Mayor Kasim Reed for sharing a book with three city workers. The book, “Who Told You That You Were Naked?”, was written by Cochran and shared with men he considered fellow Christians. The issue? The book calls homosexual behavior—along with all sexual activity outside of traditional marriage—vile and inappropriate.

Apart from the writing and distribution of the book, there is no evidence of Cochran ever mistreating an employee on the basis of sexual orientation. However, this seems to be a moot point. The New York Times states in its article on the subject, “God, Gays and the Atlanta Fire Department”: “It should not matter that [an] investigation found no evidence that Mr. Cochran had mistreated gays or lesbians. His position as a high-level public servant makes his remarks especially problematic…” In other words, simply holding to his views is support enough for his expulsion.”

Worth Reading - 3/6

1. A satirical article from the New Yorker on the standing desk movement and why YOU should switch from sitting to standing:

“Do yourself a favor and take a moment to think about who stands up: George Washington (to the British); hilarious comedians who hold a mirror up to society; Bob Marley. Now think about who sits: Caligula on his throne; Jabba the Hutt; men at strip clubs; dogs. Which group would you rather belong to?

For me, the choice was easy. Until somebody describes a WebMD article that changes my mind, I will use a standing desk. In a few months, I even plan to switch to a treadmill desk, which is a great way to prepare for eventually using a swimming desk. By this time next year, I will hopefully be dangling from a ceiling-mounted rock-climbing desk, my body swollen to twice its original size from all the extra L.P.L. I’m producing.

Unfortunately, by this time next year—unless you’ve made the switch from sitting to standing—you will almost certainly be dead.”

2. Micah Fries on the importance of friendship for the advance of the gospel:

“Jesus was a friend of sinners. This is clearly established throughout the gospels. Jesus was among them, in relationship with them, respected by them and evidently they enjoyed his company enough that they continued to seek him out. In all of this Jesus didn’t sacrifice the content of his character or the clarity of his gospel message. Yet, it seems as though many of us in the church today find this oddly challenging – and some even argue that it’s not possible for strong believers to be in these kinds of consistent social settings, and even authentic friendships, with non-believers. So, which is it? Well, given the priority of scripture, and specifically the life of Jesus, I would prefer to come down on the side of being a friend of sinners. How do we do that, though, in a way that is faithful to his word, and honors God all the while? Consider these principles, and weigh your own life against them.”

3. The Intercollegiate Review discusses the decline in religious identification and the rise of intolerance in the public square:

“The question of secularization—or how it is that societies once markedly religious become less so, particularly the societies of what’s known as Western civilization—has been much studied in modern times. Urbanization, rationalism, higher education, industrialization, feminism: these are just some of the possible causal agents debated by sociologists when they try to figure out why some people stop going to church.

Yet one highly significant social fact that rather obviously bears on the question of secularization has gone unnoticed. That is the relationship between the well-documented decline in Western churchgoing, especially among Millennials, and the simultaneous rise of a toxic public force on campuses across the Western world: the new intolerance.”

4. People must love the "pictures of amazing libraries" posts, because they keep showing up. As a bibliophile, I like them, too. So.....here is a link to a gallery of beautify libraries:

Worth Reading - 3/5

1. An opinion piece from the New York Times explaining why many children don't think there are moral facts. According to the author it has more to do with lazy thinking than evil intent:

“Our schools do amazing things with our children. And they are, in a way, teaching moral standards when they ask students to treat one another humanely and to do their schoolwork with academic integrity. But at the same time, the curriculum sets our children up for doublethink. They are told that there are no moral facts in one breath even as the next tells them how they ought to behave.

We can do better. Our children deserve a consistent intellectual foundation. Facts are things that are true. Opinions are things we believe. Some of our beliefs are true. Others are not. Some of our beliefs are backed by evidence. Others are not. Value claims are like any other claims: either true or false, evidenced or not. The hard work lies not in recognizing that at least some moral claims are true but in carefully thinking through our evidence for which of the many competing moral claims is correct. That’s a hard thing to do. But we can’t sidestep the responsibilities that come with being human just because it’s hard.

That would be wrong.”

2. The history of "knock knock" jokes, from NPR:

“The knock-knock joke has been a staple of American humor since the early 20th century. With its repetitive set-up and wordplay punchline, the form has been invoked — and understood — by people of all ages and sensibilities.

But knock-knock jokes have not always been universally appreciated. In fact, in the heyday of the knock-knock’s popularity, certain critics railed against it.

Somehow — knock on wood — it has endured.”

3. Jonathan Parnell places resistance from Satan among the difficulties of parenting. As we live in a world that often neglect the supernatural (even the Christian world sometimes forgets about the reality of Satan), Parnell's post makes a case for not neglecting the enemy's fight against us:

“Whether we look back over the pages of world history, or just around us today, the point bears true. Children are so often caught in the crossfire, so often hurt, so often the victims of a larger conflict in which they have no say, no influence, no responsibility. It happened back when primitive peoples thought slaying their children would appease the gods, and when war meant burning homes and sacking villages. And it happens still today when deranged citizens carry guns into elementary schools, and when abortion clinics welcome terrified teenagers with open arms, or when Boko Haram pillages another Nigerian village, or a young couple decides Down syndrome will disrupt their life plans. Moore writes,

The demonic powers hate babies because they hate Jesus. When they destroy “the least of these” (Matthew 25:40, 45), the most vulnerable among us, they’re destroying a picture of Jesus himself. . . . (63–64)

There is a war on children, and we are all, in one way or another, playing some role in it. Every time we move forward as faithful parents (or care for kids in any capacity, including advocating for the voiceless not yet born, and volunteering for nursery duty on Sundays), we are wrestling demons — because there is little the demons hate more than little children.”

Worth Reading - 3/4

1. Aaron Earls writes about how a progressive writer's recent conversion has received a mixed response from Christians. Some who seem to expect sanctification to be instantaneous:

“Our relationship with Jesus should govern our political views, but the inverse is not true. Our political views do not govern or define our relationship with Jesus.

I understand that most of the people using her profession of faith as a means to attack Cox are not pastors or church leaders, but they’ve learned to value their political allegiances over their faith family from somewhere.

With our rhetoric, perhaps we have inadvertently taught the average Christian sitting in the pew that it is acceptable to mistreat someone from a different political perspective. The way many react to politics, they do, in fact, place their trust in the princes of our day—the political leaders and commentators.

Church leaders can (and should) make clear where they stand on social and political issues. But even more than that, we should leave no doubt as to where our ultimate allegiance lies and with whom we will spend eternity. We follow Christ and will forever worship Him with others who have done the same, not necessarily those who share our party affiliation.

As with anyone else, we should rejoice that Ana Marie Cox has professed faith in Christ and a desire to follow Him with her life. And as with anyone else, we should pray that God would bring those into her life who can help her grow into the likeness of Christ. We also should trust the Holy Spirit to do His job in the heart of Cox, primarily using His word and a local body of believers who know and love her.”

2. Carl Trueman's reaction to a recent P.C. scandal at Georgetown University. As is often the case, Trueman's reaction is somewhat stronger than it may need to be, but his point freaking out about every perceived slight and its power to kill moral discourse is right on:

“In fact, those who deploy language of extreme outrage for any apparent slight, fumble or misstep, are complicit in the linguistic and moral manipulation of society. In effect, they deprive themselves and indeed the rest of us of the language we need to articulate appropriately calibrated responses to real acts of oppression. As a result, we who oppose the kind of political righteousness which the Georgetown incident embodies need to be careful that we do not fall into the same pattern.

It is tempting to reply to the Georgetown nonsense by making a more or less univocal connection between the public humiliation and penitential obeisance of the enemies of the people and the carefully-scripted confessions of the victims of Stalin’s show trials. And the very title ‘Free Speech and Expression Committee’ is so rhetorically close to the ‘Committee of Public Safety’ that some reference to the likeness is irresistible. But to keep our own moral compass we need to make such comparisons with a certain irony. After all, I assume that nobody at Georgetown is going to be shot in an underground cell or enjoy the favor of Mme. Guillotine. That the hard left lacks irony is perhaps one of its most egregious—and most dangerous—traits.”

Here is the original Forbes.com article that covers the story Trueman is talking about.

3. Aside from the overreaction over a cartoon at  Georgetown, there has also been a recent call for more honesty in public debate over GMO foods in the UK, as it has become apparent that much of the resistance to GMO is ideological, not scientific. This is not to promote or denigrate their potential benefits, but a call for realistic and honest dialogue instead of a concern about "winning" the debate no matter what happens to truth.

“The committee makes several points in its conclusion, but I want to focus on just a couple. GMOs won’t necessarily solve any and all global food problems, but rather “a diversity of approaches–technological, social, economic, and political–will be required to meet the challenge of delivering sustainable and secure global food production. However, advanced genetic approaches do have a role to play.” It accuses the EU and U.K. government of misleading the public by consistently “framing genetic modification alongside other novel, controversial, or potentially harmful technologies…shut[ing] down opportunities for wider debate.”

Genetically modified organisms may help developing nations improve their crop yields thereby greatly reducing world hunger; they could help farmers devastated by natural disasters to quickly get back on their feet; they could cause significantly less damage to the environment than other technologies and methods of growing crops, and more. There may real risks with GMOs, but until the debate is open and honest we may never really understand what the actual risks are and what GMOS contribute to the global food economy.This technological innovation has the potential to greatly improve the prosperity of millions of people and yet the debate has been hijacked by emotions and fears.”

4. David Platt discusses part of his intention in writing Counter Cultural, which is to help people to overcome the paralysis that comes from being overwhelmed by the gospel needs in culture:

Worth Reading - 3/3

1. Bruce Ashford shares 11 books that are helpful for understanding Christian perspectives on cultural engagement:

“If ever in history there were a non-event, this is it: my top eleven books on cultural engagement for an American Christian to own (and read). A few weeks ago, a friend of mine requested that I recommend a list of five books on Christian cultural engagement and it “got me to thinking.” Although I tried to limit myself to a list of five, I failed miserably, and thus you have before your eyes a list of eleven. So here’s the list, but before we proceed, allow me to make several comments.

First, “cultural engagement” is a very broad term, encompassing many things, and a short list like I am providing only scrapes the surface. Second, I’ve tried to include a mixture of beginning, intermediate, and advanced books in order to provide recommendations for every type of reader. Third, although I don’t agree with everything that is said in any of the books I recommend, I do think each of the books I recommend provide helpful guidance in how to engage our 21st century Western context.”

2. Anne Bradley asks whether everything needed for human flourishing was contained in the Garden of Eden:

“We were given all of the resources we need in the Garden of Eden. We were placed into an environment with just the resources we needed and a mind designed to mirror the creativity of our God.

Only he can create something out of nothing, but we reflect his creative capacity through our ability and responsibility to create something out of something.

As we use our resources and our minds, we are called also to help those around us to do the same. When we are unable to work and exercise creativity, we suffer, and those around us suffer. When we do exercise creativity and produce valuable items, we flourish and so do our neighbors.

If we truly want to help the least of these, let’s reflect on the Garden and revel in the ways that God is making new what was broken by the Fall.”

3. Using his characteristically irreverent humor, Dave Barry writes about how previous generations had more fun because they didn't worry so much about being parents:

“My mom, like my dad, and millions of other members of the Greatest Generation, had to contend with real adversity: the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, hunger, poverty, disease, World War II, extremely low-fi 78 r.p.m. records and telephones that—incredible as it sounds today—could not even shoot video.

They managed to overcome those hardships and take America to unprecedented levels of productivity and power, which is why they truly are a great generation. But they aren’t generally considered to be a fun generation. That was supposed to be their children—my generation, the baby boomers.”

Worth Reading - 3/2

1. From David Mills, five rules for your child's reading. Some thoughts on helping choose good children's books:

“Kids want to read. Even with the web and video games, they want to read. Which means they want to read books they shouldn’t read as well as books they should: books everyone is talking about, including their Christian friends, books they see advertised all over the place — books you have to read or be the weird kid who hasn’t read them. Let me offer a few suggestions for parents whose children may want to read these books, if for no other reason than that other children are reading them.

First, do not assume, as I once did, that the average children’s or young adult book may be secular but is at least respectful of the moral law and of parental authority. It likely is not.

The back cover of one featured by a local chain bookshop, to take an example almost at random, includes in its description of the major characters: “Zach: Sophisticated college boy, wise in the ways of French painting as well as other French things.” The narrator has the usual life problems of a teenager, at least the teenagers in these stories. She loses her virginity to Zach, and this is treated as part of growing up, of becoming a better, more mature person — someone assertive, confident and clear-headed. This idea of the child’s good life is typical of this kind of book, even the ones without any mention of sex, the ones that would be rated PG if they were movies.”

2. Some thoughts from Titus 3:14 on how God works though ordinary means in our lives:

“As we go about our lives and routines, entering into this interdependent community, you may think your actions go unnoticed.

However, we stand out by faithfully and obediently living into our ordinary lives. When we approach our work with the greater mission of glorifying God, things change.

Our attitudes are more positive, our work is more efficient, our daily lives are more significant, and we feel fulfilled because we are living for Christ. These changes will be noticed by those around you, and this will be a testament to how awesome and important God is to us.”

3. Linguistics are always entertaining, because so much that seems so natural to us is really quite obscure to those outside our language. Here is a recent article from the New York Times on how "You're Welcome" became a gloat:

“Why is it that “you’re welcome,” a phrase that is meant to be gracious, is often tinged with gloat? It wasn’t always so double-edged. The saying stems from the Old English “wilcuma,” which wedded the words “pleasure” and “guest” to allow hosts to express their openness to visitors. According to the journalists Patricia T. O’Conner and Stewart Kellerman, “welcome” was being recast as a response to “thank you” as soon as 1603, in Shakespeare’s “Othello.” By the early 1900s, “you’re welcome” had emerged as a reflexive retort to “thanks.” What began as an invitation was now a nod to your own generosity. Think of the exchange of trains across the Atlantic, and the subtext becomes clear: I sent you a train, so you sent me a train, so I sent you another train, and now you . . . kind of owe me a train. In “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion,” Robert Cialdini, a marketing and psychology professor, cautions that the reciprocal sheen of the “thanks, you’re welcome” contract belies a power struggle: Even “a small initial favor can produce a sense of obligation to agree to a substantially larger return favor.” In the conversational volley, the person who says “you’re welcome” gets the last word.

Perhaps it was inevitable that “you’re welcome” would break free from the realm of etiquette to assert itself as a stand-alone expression. These days, it has become commonplace to say “you’re welcome” apropos of nothing, signaling, roughly: “No need to thank me. I already know how great I am.””

4. From the Smithsonian, the science of how "slurpee" waves formed off the coast of Nantucket:

“When my fiancée and I left snow-entombed Boston last weekend for the relatively balmy isle of Nantucket, we thought we were putting this winter’s outlandish weather behind us. “It’s warmer here,” one of our island-dwelling hosts promised. “Very, very slightly.”

Our first morning on the island, we all strapped on Nordic skis and set out on what proved to be a desultory session, spoiled by bare earth poking through the trail. Shrugging, we carried our skis over the dunes to the beach, where we were surprised to find a wide, white field hugging the coastline in either direction. It looked like untrammeled snow—except snow doesn’t move like that. The Atlantic had become roiling, undulating slush. ”

5. From the Economist, the history and allure of the smartphone:

“THE dawn of the planet of the smartphones came in January 2007, when Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, in front of a rapt audience of Apple acolytes, brandished a slab of plastic, metal and silicon not much bigger than a Kit Kat. “This will change everything,” he promised. For once there was no hyperbole. Just eight years later Apple’s iPhone exemplifies the early 21st century’s defining technology.

Smartphones matter partly because of their ubiquity. They have become the fastest-selling gadgets in history, outstripping the growth of the simple mobile phones that preceded them. They outsell personal computers four to one. Today about half the adult population owns a smartphone; by 2020, 80% will. Smartphones have also penetrated every aspect of daily life. The average American is buried in one for over two hours every day. Asked which media they would miss most, British teenagers pick mobile devices over TV sets, PCs and games consoles. Nearly 80% of smartphone-owners check messages, news or other services within 15 minutes of getting up. About 10% admit to having used the gadget during sex.”

Weekend Reading

1. A blogger retired at 30-years old. While that isn't a goal we should necessarily aspire to, his perspective on managing his money is informative.

“When do you hope to retire? 65? 60 if you really get frugal? Mr. Money Mustache left the working world at 30, and he wants you to, as well. The popular personal finance blogger (who only reveals that his first name is Pete) has gained a loyal following by insisting that early retirement is really pretty easy, if people only shake off their wasteful attitudes about debt and consumerism. He spoke with Vox via email about how people can amp up their saving and investing and quit their jobs a few years earlier.”

2. How to protect the poor from payday lending:

“Near the top of the list of things I despise is companies that take advantage of the plight of the poor and desperate. But just above that on my list is something I hate even more: being poor and desperate. That’s why I loathe payday lending companies that charge usurious interest rates—and why I’m not yet ready to see them abolished.

Here’s how payday lending works. If you have a job (and pay stub to prove it), a payday lending company will allow you to write and cash a post-dated check. For this service the company will charge an absurd interest rate. A typical two-week payday loan with a $15 per $100 fee equates to an annual percentage rate (APR) of almost 400 percent. So if you need $100, you write the check for $115 and they’ll give you $100 in cash. Two weeks later they cash your check or you can renew or “rollover” the amount—for an exorbitant fee.”

3. The International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention is creating a new strategy designed to overcome the limitations of the traditional mobilization models.

““We want to empower limitless missionary teams to make disciples and multiply churches among unreached people,” Platt said. “We need a strategy that doesn’t cap our number of missionaries merely based upon how much money we have.”

Platt noted the IMB operated “in the red” last year, with the agency’s operating expenses exceeding income by nearly $21 million.

”Right now our funnel is really small ... such that we’re turning people away,” Platt said. “And what I’m saying, what we know, is that we need to blow open this funnel and create as many pathways as possible for Christians and churches to get the Gospel to unreached people.””

4. An essay on sympathy for politicians, and a call to pray for them this Lenten season:

“I have a lot of empathy for politicians, which is not on the whole a dishonorable profession except for the dishonor some individuals bring to it. Always, their actions or inactions aid some while undoubtedly producing possible hardship for someone else, and politicians are often faced with intractable interests that cannot be reconciled.

Tell you what: As part of your Lenten discipline, pray for your least favorite public office holder. Just a couple times, perhaps, until you get the hang of it, then with more regularity. It may do him or her some good, but I think it might be of more benefit to the rest of us.”

5. Why Dorothy L. Sayers began with herself when seeking societal change:

“Sayers knew that the words of Chesterton had changed the face of her own world. As she explained in a 1954 letter, “If I am not now a Logical Positivist, I probably have to thank G. K. C.” Sayers’s attraction to logical positivism, a philosophy that held that only empirically verifiable facts can ground truth, explains why, in 1947, she dismissed Begin Here as “a very rush job, undertaken much against my will,” with factual “errors and omissions.”

Little did she know that Begin Here would foreshadow our eventual attack on the “just the facts, ma’am” attitude. One day postmodernists would echo her insight that “with the abandonment of an absolute Authority outside history, the seat of absolute authority within history tends to become identified with the seat of effective power.”

Thanks largely to Chesterton, Sayers’s solution to the arbitrary absolutes and power of secular culture was the divine authority of Christian orthodoxy: an absolute transcending all culturally contingent dogmas. She would have reminded us that the creative work of contributing to culture, as an expression of the image of God, the imago Dei, must therefore always begin here, with these words: “In the beginning, God created.” ”

Worth Reading - 2/27

1. From Joe Carter, some time tested methods for memorizing almost anything:

“Before we learn to memorize the narrative of Bible, though, let’s practice using the tips mentioned in this series to memorize another list of item. Choose a list that suits your particular interest. For example, a movie buff can practice by memorizing all of the Best Picture Oscar winners for the past 20-30 years; history buffs can memorize the U.S. Presidents or the monarchy of Britain; literature buffs can memorize the titles of Shakespeare’s plays, etc. The key is to choose a list that you have an interest in rememmbering and that have between 25-50 times. It may take 30-60 minutes to come up with the images and put them in your memory palace. Then you’ll want to practice by going through your memory palaces and reciting the items in order.

If you do a practice run like this over the weekend, you’ll be completely prepared next week to quickly and easily memorize the events of Genesis.”

2. Read Trevin Wax's critique of H. Richard Niebuhr's classic work, Christ and Culture. It's a book you should read if you have not already:

“What should we make of such a landmark work? First, Niebuhr is to be commended for laying out various historical postures Christians have adopted toward culture. These approaches are so memorable that, more than a half century later, scholars who consider the task of Christian ethics feel they must interact with them in some measure. Niebuhr’s breadth of knowledge is on display in his attempt to summarize and point out the strengths of each position, as well as his decision to illustrate his work with biblical or historical examples.”

3. Writing and mothering as a vocation. It's all meaningful work according to Courtney Reissig: 

“We elevate at-home motherhood because we want to show the watching world that we matter, too, in the same way that Hatmaker makes the argument that her kids need to see her doing meaningful work elsewhere. Both are coming from the idea that this work is mundane, needing validating or escape. But God provides us with another way. It’s all meaningful, from wiping bottoms to writing sentences. We can all work, mothers and non-mothers, and find great meaning in what we do on any given day—not because the world tells us it is meaningful work, but because the God who created work tells us so.

So write on, fellow writers, there is meaning in your work. But let’s not forget there is meaning in doing the dishes, too”

4. Along with the llamas on the loose, which enlivened the internet yesterday, there was also a raging debate over the color of a dress. Here is the science on why that controversy was possible:

“Not since Monica Lewinsky was a White House intern has one blue dress been the source of so much consternation.

(And yes, it’s blue.)

The fact that a single image could polarize the entire Internet into two aggressive camps is, let’s face it, just another Thursday. But for the past half-day, people across social media have been arguing about whether a picture depicts a perfectly nice bodycon dress as blue with black lace fringe or white with gold lace fringe. And neither side will budge. This fight is about more than just social media—it’s about primal biology and the way human eyes and brains have evolved to see color in a sunlit world.

Light enters the eye through the lens—different wavelengths corresponding to different colors. The light hits the retina in the back of the eye where pigments fire up neural connections to the visual cortex, the part of the brain that processes those signals into an image. Critically, though, that first burst of light is made of whatever wavelengths are illuminating the world, reflecting off whatever you’re looking at. Without you having to worry about it, your brain figures out what color light is bouncing off the thing your eyes are looking at, and essentially subtracts that color from the “real” color of the object. “Our visual system is supposed to throw away information about the illuminant and extract information about the actual reflectance,” says Jay Neitz, a neuroscientist at the University of Washington. “But I’ve studied individual differences in color vision for 30 years, and this is one of the biggest individual differences I’ve ever seen.” (Neitz sees white-and-gold.)”

5. In the press of the here and now, we can often get distracted from the weight of history. Recently the 70th anniversary of the battle of Iwo Jima was celebrated. Here are pictures from the Smithsonian Magazine of that monumental battle:

“Seventy years ago, U.S. Marines secured Mount Suribachi on the island of Iwo Jima, beginning a long and bloody fight for control of the World War II Japanese outpost. Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal’s image of soldiers planting an American flag atop Mount Suribachi has lived on as a symbol of the battle, winning the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for photography and inspiring the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia.

The United States eventually secured the 8-square-mile island, located approximately 760 miles south of Tokyo, but not without sacrifice. American troops would fight for a month more after taking Mount Suribachi and the first of two Japanese airfields. Capturing Iwo Jima was of strategic importance to B-29 air raids on mainland Japan. It also demonstrated to the Americans that the Japanese army would defend their lands at all costs, something which influenced United States’ decision to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki later that year.”

Worth Reading - 2/26

1. From Bruce Ashford. How a Man Named Lesslie Changed the Way I Think:

“As a Christian citizen of the United States, it is clear to me that I am living in an increasingly post-Christian society. The majority of Americans no longer consider traditional Christian doctrine (e.g. original sin) or traditional Christian ethics (e.g. sexual morality) plausible in the modern world. Christians who do not abandon these beliefs are increasingly considered morally inferior or even hateful.

Given the fact that the United States is a democratic republic, the beliefs of citizens affect the lives of other citizens socially, culturally, and politically. This reality makes it increasingly important for us as Christians to figure out the best way to comport ourselves in the public square. I consider three thinkers especially helpful for this task: Richard John Neuhaus, Lesslie Newbigin, and Abraham Kuyper. In this post, I wish to articulate what it is about Newbigin’s life and writings that is helpful for us in our 21st century American context.”

2. Do students have the resources to consider the nature of vocation? How can higher education help fill the void?

“After ten years of teaching in higher education and interacting with students from a wide range of backgrounds, I’ve come to realize that most young people lack the resources for thinking clearly about their vocations.

Unfortunately, this is also true at Christian universities and colleges.

The purpose of Christian institutions of higher learning is multi-faceted. At the very least, they ought to teach students how to think critically and how to love God with their minds.

They should also equip students to apply their faith with authenticity, to all spheres of their lives.

Given that the successful completion of a college degree ideally results in students acquiring a job in their area of emphasis, it follows that Christian universities and colleges should also be passionately instilling in students a biblical vision for their future careers.”

3. Do learning style's really exist? Anna North questions the application (and misapplication) of the teaching tool:

“Students do have preferences when it comes to receiving information visually or verbally, said Mark A. McDaniel, a psychology professor at Washington University and a co-author of the book “Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning.” But to prove that designing lessons to fit students’ preferred learning styles actually helps them learn better, you’d have to randomly assign students to receive, for instance, either a visually or a verbally based approach. If teaching to students’ learning styles works, said Dr. McDaniel, “what you should see is visual learners do better on the visual than the verbal instruction, and verbal learners do better on the verbal than the visual instruction.”

Not many studies have actually done such a random assignment, and of those that Dr. McDaniel and his co-authors examined in a 2009 paper, “none of them showed that kind of interaction.” And, said Harold Pashler, a psychology professor at the University of California, San Diego, and one of Dr. McDaniel’s co-authors on the study, no compelling evidence for teaching to students’ learning styles has emerged in the years since: “There’s one or two somewhat oddball studies,” he said, “but there’s a number of new negative findings that are more substantial.””

4. Roger Olson presents the case against the liberal drift among so-called moderate baptists. I disagree with his assessment of the SBC conservative resurgence being over "secondary issues" (like inerrancy!!!), but it is an insightful article and reveals the unorthodox drift that the conservative Southern Baptists anticipated:

“This post is intended primarily for Southerners among Baptists who consider themselves “Moderate.” For those of you outside that movement, I’ll explain briefly.

Throughout the 1980s and until today many churches and individuals affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention (the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S.) felt excluded by the SBC’s leadership because of their embrace of egalitarian beliefs and their denial of “biblical inerrancy.” They considered the new SBC leadership too conservative. The presidents and professors of the SBC-related seminaries were ousted and replaced by people they considered “fundamentalists.” Almost two thousand formerly SBC-related churches throughout the South separated from the SBC and together founded a network of “moderate” Baptist churches called the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF) (1990). (The CBF, however, does not include all moderate Baptists. There are other groups of Southern moderate Baptists.)”

5. A thoughtful assessment of natural rights, the imago Dei, and the moral economy of sex from First Things. This is worth a read:

“Properly understood, then, the American founding principles of natural rights, and contemporary notions of “autonomy” as the basis of rights, are not allies but adversaries. Natural rights entail obligations, of a due respect for others, and a due respect for ourselves. This respect is otherwise known as responsibility, ultimately to the Creator who endowed us with our rights. Like the centurion in the Gospel of Matthew, we are persons under authority (Matthew 8:9). Rights and obligations are brother principles, both owing their existence to the God who made us creatures of equal dignity, possessing the logos that makes our self-government possible.

Contemporary notions of autonomy, by contrast, reject all authority, all obligations outside the individual will. The joint authors of the Supreme Court’s opinion in Planned Parenthood v. Casey stated this view succinctly, in their notoriously false claim regarding the individual liberty protected by the Constitution: “At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.” The authors seemed not to realize that this notion of liberty is wholly unmoored, not only from the Contitution, but also from any intelligible teaching of natural rights. Indeed, as a statement of purest narcissism and solipsism, it fails even to assert an intelligible basis for a positive right in the laws we human beings make. The right announced in Casey presents itself as a bulwark against the tyranny of the majority or of any unjust authority, but it cannot give an account of itself as such. If every individual may live according to his own “concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe,” then the concept shared by the greatest number, or by the most powerful of wills, will be the basis of any law we are capable of making. A mass of untrammeled wills can only be governed by raw force. And so the notion of an unfettered autonomy of the individual is self-devouring, resulting only in tyranny.”

Worth Reading - 2/25

1. What of the SBC and racial-integration? Recognizing the problems with a lack of diversity, the SBC is making a concerted effort to represent the communities in which the churches are located. For one author, this is cause for skepticism. This post was picked up by Sojourners and some other state Baptist papers. The cause is a worthy one, but the doubt in the article belies the reality that the SBC is doing more to address diversity than any other denomination.

“One reason most churches are segregated is that racial reconciliation has meant whites expecting African-Americans and Latinos to worship with them, De La Torre said, perhaps throwing in a “Taco Tuesday” as an attraction.

“For me to worship at an Anglo church, I must accept white theology, pray in a white manner, sing white German songs and eat meatloaf at the potluck,” he said.

De La Torre said it’s far more useful for whites to come to African-American and Latino churches, hear the reflections of religious thinkers from those cultures and take those lessons home.”

2. Justin Taylor provides a concise introduction to Karl Marx:

“Marxism is not the most important, the most imposing, or the most impressive philosophy in history.

But until recently, it has clearly been the most influential. In just two generations, Marxism inundated one-third of the world—a feat accomplished only twice in human history (by early Christianity and by early Islam).”

3. From the Acton Institute, a post discussing the impossibility of a completely libertarian and egalitarian society. This builds off a recent interview of Pope Francis:

“On religious liberty, the pope said religion must be practiced freely but without offending, imposing or killing, saying that killing in the name of God was “an aberration.” No modern pope would say otherwise, but it is not entirely correct to say that no true believer has ever killed in the name of God (the Old Testament is full of such acts); I wonder if any religion has ever avoided doing so. So long as religions have different understandings of God, man and the world, they will necessarily risk offending or imposing the “truth” of their beliefs on others. The easiest way to avoid these problems would be to make all religions the same, which is also known as syncretism. Those who promote syncretism usually do so in the name of peace or religious indifferentism.

In defending the freedom of expression, Francis said each person has not only the right but the “duty to say what he thinks will help the common good” but once again, without offending. He then explained that it is “normal” for someone to react violently if his mother or faith is insulted, adding that the Enlightenment sought to treat religion as something that need not be taken seriously (“poca cosa”). “Each religion has dignity, each religion that respects human life, the human person, and I cannot make fun of it,” he said to define clear limits to free speech about religion. He didn’t say whether religions that do not respect human life deserve equal respect.

Francis’s limits rankled free-speech advocates, as it should have: What good is free speech if one can’t discuss certain topics such as religion? Who’s to say what is respectful or not? Aren’t such limits used to shut down dissent rather than respect the feelings of others? It seemed as though what the pope defended was not free speech as much as the desire to keep people in their place by not questioning authority, especially his own and other religious leaders.”

4. How large is the Christian population in the world? This recent post at First Things presents World Christianity by the numbers:

“The annual “Status of Global Christianity” survey published by the International Bulletin of Missionary Research is a cornucopia of numbers: Some are encouraging; others are discouraging; many of them are important for grasping the nature of this particular moment in Christian history.

This year’s survey works from a baseline of 1900 A.D., and makes projections out to 2050. Within that century and a half there’s some good news about the global human condition that ought to be kept in mind when remembering the bad news of the twentieth century and the early twenty-first. For example: In 1900, 27.6 percent of adults in a world population of 1.6 billion were literate. In 2015, 81 percent of the adults in a global population of 7.3 billion are literate, and the projection is that, by 2050, 88 percent of the adults in a world of 9.5 billion people will be literate—a remarkable accomplishment.

Of the 7.3 billion human beings on Planet Earth today, 89 percent are religious believers, while 1.8 percent are professed atheists and another 9 percent are agnostics: which suggests that Chief Poobah of the New Atheists Richard Dawkins and his friends are not exactly winning the day, although their “market share” is up from 1900.”

5. An interview between Keith Whitfield and Don Carson about how the next generation of pastors should prepare for ministry:

Worth Reading - 2/24

1. An article from the Washington Post on why many digital natives prefer reading in print:

“Frank Schembari loves books — printed books. He loves how they smell. He loves scribbling in the margins, underlining interesting sentences, folding a page corner to mark his place.

Schembari is not a retiree who sips tea at Politics and Prose or some other bookstore. He is 20, a junior at American University, and paging through a thick history of Israel between classes, he is evidence of a peculiar irony of the Internet age: Digital natives prefer reading in print.

“I like the feeling of it,” Schembari said, reading under natural light in a campus atrium, his smartphone next to him. “I like holding it. It’s not going off. It’s not making sounds.”

Textbook makers, bookstore owners and college student surveys all say millennials still strongly prefer print for pleasure and learning, a bias that surprises reading experts given the same group’s proclivity to consume most other content digitally. A University of Washington pilot study of digital textbooks found that a quarter of students still bought print versions of e-textbooks that they were given for free.”

This touches on Naomi Baron's recent book, which I reviewed previously.

2. A recent edition of Christianity today has an article about Hannah More by Karen Swallow Prior. It is worth reading:

“Imagine yourself seated at a fashionable London dinner party in 1789.

The women are wearing hoops several feet wide, their hair dressed nearly as high and adorned with fruit or feathers. In between hips and hair, bosoms overspill. The men sport powdered hair, ruffled shirts, embroidered waistcoats, wool stockings, and buckled shoes. Politeness and manners reign around a table laden with delicate, savory dishes.

As guests wait for the after-dinner wine to arrive, a handsome but demure woman pulls a pamphlet from the folds of her dress. “Have you ever seen the inside of a slave ship?” she asks the natty gentleman seated next to her. She proceeds to spread open a print depicting the cargo hold of the Brookes slave ship. With meticulous detail, the print shows African slaves laid like sardines on the ship’s decks, each in a space so narrow, they can’t lay their arms at their sides. The print will become the most haunting image of the transatlantic slave trade—as well as a key rhetorical device used to stop it.

The woman sharing it is Hannah More.”

My review of Prior's book can be found here.

Also, she is speaking tonight (2/24) at SEBTS, with free tickets still available.

3. Timothy George discusses the selectivity of social concern. Leaders march for solidarity in Europe, while Africa sees similar violence and gets much less attention:

“Seldom in recent memory has the Western world seemed more united than on January 11, 2015, when an estimated 1.5 million people, including forty-four world leaders, flooded the streets of Paris to protest the atrocities carried out by Islamist terrorists at the offices of the French weekly satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. Who can forget the impressive show of unity—with the notable absence of the top constitutional officers of the United States—as Christian, Jewish, and Muslim leaders locked arms and marched side by side in an anti-terrorism rally along the Boulevard Voltaire?

Yet while masses marched in Paris to protest the vicious murders of seventeen persons, including twelve journalists, a catastrophe of far greater proportion was unfolding on the “dark continent” of Africa. On January 3—just four days before the Paris attacks—in the fishing towns of Baga and Doron Baga on Lake Chad in northeastern Nigeria, the jihadist terror group known as Boko Haram carried out its deadliest attack to date. The soldiers defending the area could not repel the incoming insurgents, who burned Christian churches to the ground and slaughtered more than 2,000 people, including children and women. Some of those fleeing the surprise attack drowned in Lake Chad as their overcrowded boats capsized and they tried to swim away from the melee.”

4. Elise Amyx from the Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics, writes that economic freedom is not enough. We must also demonstrate a strong concern for human flourishing.

“Economic freedom may be our world’s more powerful poverty relief system, but it’s not enough for human flourishing.

It is the reason why economists report 80 percent of the world’s abject poverty has been eradicated since 1970, thanks to open trade, entrepreneurship, and free enterprise. In China alone, small market reforms since 1978 have raised 600 million people out of extreme poverty.

Economic freedom also correlates with higher life expectancy, lower levels of child mortality, cleaner environments, higher incomes for the poor, better protected civil liberties, less child labor, less unemployment, and higher per capita income.

Christians are called to care for the poor (the Bible mentions the words poor and poverty 446 times!) and economists have shown us that economic freedom is a powerful way to make that happen.

But, if you’re someone like me who is convinced that economic freedom is responsible for lifting millions out of poverty, it’s easy to forget that freedom is not enough on its own.”

5. Social Media has made it easy to organize social movements, but hard to win according to a recent TED talk:

Worth Reading 2/23

1. From Derek Brown, nine possible reasons for a spiritual drought:

“If you have been a Christian for any amount of time, you know that spiritual passion, sight, and affections ebb and flow. At times our sense of spiritual realities can be strong and vibrant; other times, our hearts feel like lead weights and we find ourselves longing for God to visit us once again and bring refreshment (Psalm 85:4-7). These seasons are usually referred to as times of “spiritual drought” or “spiritual dryness,” and find intimate expression in many of the Psalms. David often cried out to God in times where his soul seemed like dust, and he yearned to be refreshed by the presence of the Lord (Psalm 13; Psalm 63). Other Psalmists expressed their longing to have their parched souls to be replenished by the Lord (Psalm 42). Those who have tasted of the goodness of Christ know what it means to be without that taste; it leaves us pleading, “light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death” (Psalm 13:3)

Spiritual drought, though a persistent and unwelcome visitor, is not something with which we must constantly live. There are Biblical means by which we can, by grace, put ourselves in the way of refreshment; we can be restored to once again feel the joy of our salvation. But this can only happen if we are able to discern why we might be experiencing spiritual dryness so we can take the appropriate action. With this in mind, I would like to suggest a few reasons we may be experiencing a season of spiritual drought and provide the correlating remedies.”

2. Why churches should be involved in Social Media:

“Throughout history, people of all generations have gathered in town squares—public spaces where the local community gathers for social and commercial purposes. In the old days, it used to be a literal “town square,” and it still is in some places. Until social media came around, town squares were shopping malls and other social areas. Social media is the 21st century town square.

The Apostle Paul preached in open squares where the people gathered. In Acts 13 it was to the Jews at Antioch in Pisidia. In Acts 17, it was to the literal town square of conversation—Mars Hill.

People today aren’t sitting around in debate clubs. They aren’t going to the town squares in the middle of cities. Instead, they’re having discussions on social media. It’s where people are gathering, debating, discussing ideas and connecting with others. Why wouldn’t you want to be there?

If churches truly want to see the Gospel impact and influence a community, they should go to the place where the most significant conversation is actually taking place right now. Today, that’s on social media.”

3. An article from last year about a tower that draws water from the air to provide drinking water where it is needed:

“In n some parts of Ethiopia, finding potable water is a six-hour journey.

People in the region spend 40 billion hours a year trying to find and collect water, says a group called the Water Project. And even when they find it, the water is often not safe, collected from ponds or lakes teeming with infectious bacteria, contaminated with animal waste or other harmful substances.

The water scarcity issue—which affects nearly 1 billion people in Africa alone—has drawn the attention of big-name philanthropists like actor and Water.org co-founder Matt Damon and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who, through their respective nonprofits, have poured millions of dollars into research and solutions, coming up with things like a system that converts toilet water to drinking water and a “Re-invent the Toilet Challenge,” among others.”

4. An accounting of the life of someone who persevered in truth despite difficult times, from First Things:

“Alice’s perseverance, bolstered by faith in her vocation and by the loyalty of her students, eventually prevailed: she finally received her long overdue tenure, and when Hunter’s students acquired the right to evaluate their teachers, they repeatedly rated her among their best professors.

In 1980, when Donna Shalala became President of Hunter, she introduced an award for the professor who had earned the highest student evaluation. Four years later—the year of her retirement—Alice von Hildebrand was voted the top professor, out of eight hundred teachers, and a student body of 25,000. She received her award at a ceremony at Madison Square Garden, with the very liberal President Shalala commending her.

Since then, Alice has continued to teach and lecture about the beauty of truth, drawing on the work of her husband, always rooted in the teachings of the Church. Memoirs of a Happy Failure is a story of true patience and faithfulness—of apparent failure giving way to a lasting triumph.”

5. The question of stockholder activism, particularly through the divestment from fossil fuels remains. A new, lighter approach is being used by some activists:

“Your faithful correspondent last week exposed the fossil-fuel divestment endgame of religious shareholder activists. As You Sow President Danielle Fugere sees her group’s activities as awareness-raising exercises for climate change, but AYS’s alignment with environmentalist and divestment firebrand Naomi Klein suggests they’d settle for nothing less than nationalizing oil companies. This week, I’m happy to report another group frequently called to task in this space, the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, opposes the AYS divestment onslaught.”

Weekend Reading

1. One writer protests the architectural designs intended to eliminate displays of poverty by moving the homeless along. Something that deserves deeper consideration:

“More than 100 homeless people are “living” in the terminals of Heathrow airport this winter, according to official figures – a new and shameful record. Crisis and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation have warned that homelessness in London is rising significantly faster than the nationwide average, and faster than official estimates. And yet, we don’t see as many people sleeping rough as in previous economic downturns. Have our cities become better at hiding poverty, or have we become more adept at not seeing it?

Last year, there was great public outcry against the use of “anti-homeless” spikes outside a London residential complex, not far from where I live. Social media was set momentarily ablaze with indignation, a petition was signed, a sleep-in protest undertaken, Boris Johnson was incensed and within a few days they were removed. This week, however, it emerged that Selfridges had installed metal spikes outside one of its Manchester stores – apparently to “reduce litter and smoking … following customer complaints”. The phenomenon of “defensive” or “disciplinary” architecture, as it is known, remains pervasive.”

2. 19th century, anti-Catholic bias is impacting contemporary discussions of religious freedom. This illustrates why seeking justice in principle, not favorable policies, is the best course of action. The ruling party may not always be in charge to stop the 2nd order effects of their policies:

“Eleven years ago this week, the Supreme Court handed down a ruling in Locke v. Davey that continues to have a detrimental impact on religious liberty. But the seeds for that ruling were planted 140 years ago, in another attempt to curb religious liberty.

When James Blaine introduced his ill-fated constitutional amendment in 1875, he probably never would have imagined the unintended consequences it would have over a hundred years later. Blaine wanted to prohibit the use of state funds at “sectarian” schools (a code word for Catholic parochial schools) in order to inhibit immigration. Since the public schools instilled a Protestant Christian view upon its students, public education was viewed as a way to stem the tide of Catholic influence.”

3. On the importance of choosing words wisely and not exaggerating rhetoric. This is an important and timely piece by Aaron Earls:

“For those of us who write, we definitely have a responsibility to monitor the topics and themes of our writing. We must make sure we are delivering more than online bickering and finger pointing.

For all of us who read, think before you click or share. Rewarding clickbait headlines and controversy-stirring posts serves only to perpetuate more of the same. Look for something more positive to read, like and retweet.

Both writers and readers working together can change the way online content is presented and consumed. In particular, Christians can and should be seeking to build others up.

Hate and heresy clearly exist, but we are not combating them by misidentifying them.”

4. How can you prepare your children for suffering?

“In my youth ministry experience, I have found that the best way to tackle the hard truths is simply to teach exegetically through entire books of the Bible. Given the choice, most of us would love to bounce around from Romans 8 to John 10 and over to Galatians 2 and Revelation 21. It would be tempting to let Romans 9, 2 Thessalonians 2, and Luke 16 sit out a few plays at small group. But dodging the difficult texts robs us of the opportunity to prepare students for the suffering that certainly awaits them.

May God help us to teach the Scriptures completely and accurately with the hope that the seeds of truth planted may grow into foundations of hope and assurance when the day of suffering comes.”

5. My post yesterday at the Institute for Faith, Work and Economics deals with a recent trip we took to see how some old fashioned work was done:

“Understanding the connection between the product on the shelf and the process that made it, especially the historical, labor intensive process, is becoming more important in a world of specialization where many of us never see a tangible result from our work.

I’m hopeful that our latest adventure, and future trips like it, will cement those images in my children’s minds and help them value the miracle of contemporary society.”

Worth Reading - 2/20

1. Why is Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem instead of in Wake Forest?

“Before it became a university in 1967, Wake Forest was a college, and sure enough, it was located in the bucolic town of Wake Forest.

“The college was such a size and the town was such a size that everybody knew almost everybody else,” says Wilson, who was a student there from 1939 to 1943. “You felt always as if you were walking and living among friends.”

The town’s charm endures to this day, but during a period of great national transition in the 1930s and ’40s, a lot more than quaint storefronts and quiet streets was required of a community for it to support and sustain such an institution, especially one tight on cash.”

2. Remember a few months ago when violence in Ukraine was a big concern? The trouble still hasn't gone away. Here is a view from the inside:

“Ukrainian soldiers remember the onslaught that rained down on their positions from the middle of July 2014 onwards. Time and again they came under fire from Grad missiles and artillery shells. Now it appears that at least some of those attacks were carried out from across the Russian border.

Denys, a former fighter of the 72nd Mechanized Brigade and resident of the Kiev region, spent more than a month between July and August at a Ukrainian army stronghold near the city of Chervonopartyzansk in the Luhansk region, near the Russian border.

He says he knows for sure that out of about 500 soldiers who were together with him there, about 10 were killed. “In fact all of us had wounds of various degrees of severity,” he says. He believes total casualties in his brigade over that period amounted to hundreds of people.”

3. Economic freedom leads to prosperity. The Daily Signal provides 13 graphs that show how free particular countries are:

“The annual index, now in its 21st year, is a guide for measuring improvements in 186 countries’ economic freedom. This year’s index put the United States 12th on the list.

According to Anthony B. Kim, the Index’s co-editor, the index tracks four primary areas:

1. Rule of law (property rights, freedom from corruption)

2. Government size (fiscal freedom, government spending)

3. Regulatory efficiency (business freedom, labor freedom, and monetary freedom)

4. Market openness (trade freedom, investment freedom, financial freedom)”

4. The window for freedom of conscience in the medical profession, including the practice medicine according to the HHippocratic oath, is diminishing, according to First Things: 

“Hippocratic-believing professionals, such as faithful Catholics and Muslims, are increasingly being pressured to practice medicine without regard to their personal faith or conscience beliefs. This moral intolerance is slowly being imbedded into law. Victoria, Australia, for example, legally requires all doctors to perform—or be complicit in—abortions: If a patient requests a legal termination and the doctor has moral qualms, he is required to refer her to a colleague who will do the deed.

Such laws are a prescription for medical martyrdom, by which I mean doctors being forced to choose between adhering to their faith or moral code and remaining in their profession. Some have already suffered for their beliefs. During a speaking tour of Australia in 2010, I met doctors who had moved from their homes in Victoria to escape the abortion imposition. I asked them what they would do if Victoria’s law were to go national. “Quit medicine,” they all said, or move to another country.”

5. Elise Hilton provides some advice for stopping human trafficking before it starts:

“Human trafficking is increasingly gaining public awareness. Law enforcement, social workers, first responders – all are beginning to receive training regarding human trafficking. And that’s all very good.

But it’s hardly enough.

It is much easier to help a person in a high-risk situation avoid trafficking than to try and put a human being back together after they’ve been brutalized by traffickers. Individuals, communities, church and charitable organizations must all learn what situations in their own areas put people at risk for trafficking, and work to correct those situations.”

Worth Reading - 2/19

1. John Calvin and the right use of the present life:

“Just as Scripture points us to heaven as our goal, so it fully instructs us in the right use of earthly blessings, and this ought not to be overlooked in a discussion of the rules of life.

[A]s we run the danger of falling into two opposite errors, let us try to proceed on safe ground, so that we may avoid both extremes. For there have been some people, otherwise good and holy, who saw that intemperance and luxury time and again drive man to throw off all restraints unless he is curbed by the utmost severity. And in their desire to correct such a pernicious evil, they have adopted the only method that they saw fit, namely to permit earthly blessings only insofar as they were an absolute necessity. This advice showed the best of intentions but was far too rigid. For they committed the dangerous error of imposing on the conscience of others stricter rules than those laid down in the Word by the Lord.”

2. Learned deafness, or muffling the sounds around us, may be encouraging noise pollution to increase and creating processing problems:

“Unsurprisingly, urban areas are the noisiest, while those questing for quiet can find it on pre-European colonization levels in large swaths of the west.

But one scientist is now warning that all that sound and our efforts to avoid it might actually be allowing noise pollution to get worse—and could cause a phenomenon he’s calling “learned deafness.” To control the sounds in our own personal worlds, we might resort, for instance, to wearing headphones that blare our favorite music in our ears. (It can make the day nicer, not having to listen to that bus chug by or the cabbie screaming out his window.) Or we might just close our ears off and ignore the auditory stimuli of the world around us.

Kurt Fristrup, a senior scientist at the U.S. National Park Service, spoke this week to a group of scientists about the country’s rising level of background noise and the resulting tune-out of natural sounds, the Guardian reports. “This learned deafness is a real issue. We are conditioning ourselves to ignore the information coming into our ears,” he said.




Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-learned-deafness-might-be-letting-noise-pollution-win-180954343/#hXODQ18ZoBD1tTQR.99
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3. Last year, Micah Fries considered whether families should recognize Lent. This is a helpful read in light of the ongoing internet drama:

“If your observance of Lent is a momentary spiritual exercise, and it doesn’t spur you to intimacy with Christ all year, you should reconsider your observance of Lent. For too many, Lent, along with many other practices, may be an attempt to assuage their souls by engaging in a momentary Christian exercise. This is abundantly dangerous. Your faith is intended to be a daily faith; a faith that’s experienced moment-by-moment, day-by-day. When Lent is a time that encourages and strengthens that daily faithfulness, that’s fantastic. However, if it’s a means of applying a spiritual bandage to your soul, beware. It may actually serve to push you away from the experience of committed faith.

So should you observe Lent? Ultimately, Lent isn’t the issue. Lent isn’t inherently valuable, nor does it personally add spiritual value to you. It’s little more than a tool — an observance — to point you toward Jesus or away from Him.”

4. From Joe Carter at Acton, an argument that manual labor deserves a place in our discussion of work:

“For far too long, we’ve downplayed or dismissed manual labor because it is toilsome. Toilsome labor—work that is often associated with the hands rather than the head—is work that is incessant, extremely hard, and exhausting. Yet as Scripture says, we can find satisfaction in toilsome labor (Ecclesiastes 5:18).

We must ensure there’s a place for manual work and toilsome labor in the faith and work conversation. We’re failing in our efforts if we aren’t showing people how through such labor they are participating in God’s own work.”

5. A humorous but informative talk by Mike Rowe on work: