Things Glen Found Interesting, Volume 175

On Fridays I share articles/resources about broad cultural, societal and theological issues. Be sure to see the explanation and disclaimers at the bottom. I welcome your suggestions. If you read something fascinating please pass it my way.

Things Glen Found Interesting

  1. Fewer Sex Partners Means a Happier Marriage (Olga Khazan, The Atlantic): “Nicholas Wolfinger, a sociologist at the University of Utah, has found that Americans who have only ever slept with their spouses are most likely to report being in a ‘very happy’ marriage. Meanwhile, the lowest odds of marital happiness—about 13 percentage points lower than the one-partner women—belong to women who have had six to 10 sexual partners in their lives.”
    • This article was inspired by the longer and even more fascinating Does Sexual History Affect Marital Happiness? (Nicholas Wolfinger, Institute for Family Studies): “For a combined sample of men and women, spouses reporting only one lifetime sexual partner are 7% more likely to be happy than are those with other partners in their past. This is larger than the five-percentage-point difference associated with a four-year college degree, larger than the six-point difference that comes with attending religious services several times a month or more, and larger than the boost that comes with having an income above the national median.”
  2. Eat, Pray, Code: Rule of St. Benedict Becomes Tech Developer’s Community Guidelines (Kate Shellnutt, Christianity Today): “SQLite—a database management engine used in most major browsers, smart phones, Adobe products, and Skype—adopted a code of ethics pulled directly from the biblical precepts set by the venerated sixth-century monk.” This article blew my mind.
  3. Finding ‘Common Good’ Among Evangelicals In The Political Season (Sarah McCammon, NPR): “On a recent evening in Houston, under the heavy branches of live oak trees, Doug Pagitt stood before a couple dozen people gathered on blue folding chairs on the Rice University campus. ‘You’ve heard it said that to be a true Christian, you must vote like a Republican,’ he said. ‘But we are here to be reminded that just ain’t so.’”
    • Related: Cory Booker could be a candidate for the ‘religious left’ (Jack Jenkins, Religion News Service): “Questions about religion can paralyze some politicians, but not [Democratic Senator] Cory Booker. If anything, the topic seems to relax him. Sitting in his spacious but spartan office on Capitol Hill in early October, the senator propped his sneakered feet up on his desk and waxed poetic about spiritual matters, bouncing between discussions of Jesus’ disciples, housing policy and his own religious practices.”
  4. The White House Says Socialism Is a Threat. It’s Right. (Tyler Cowen, Bloomberg Opinion): “Who would have thought that an attack on socialism would be so controversial? But these days it is. The White House’s Council of Economic Advisers issued a report called ‘The Opportunity Costs of Socialism’ to a scathing reception on social media: ‘dreck,’ said the economist Justin Wolfers, while Paul Krugman referred to it as ‘amazingly dishonest.’ I’m here to tell you that I have read the entire report, and many of the sources it cites, and most of it is correct.” FYI: one of our alumni helped to write the report in question.
  5. The Caravan Is a Challenge to the Integrity of U.S. Borders (David Frum, The Atlantic): “If liberals insist that only fascists will defend borders, then voters will hire fascists to do the job liberals will not do.” That sentence is one of the most honest things I’ve heard in the recent immigration debate. When deciding what immigration policy you deem best, recognize that you have to factor in how passionately otherwise apolitical people feel about this.
  6. A Christian Man Receives Justice (David French, National Review): “government officials demonstrated substantial intolerance in the name of ‘inclusion’ and rather than seeking solutions that allowed each member of the community to exercise their liberty (to enjoy rights to cakes and conscience, for example), they took sides against Christians, using their power to send a clear message: Traditional Christianity is incompatible with the progressive state. That is not a decision the Constitution empowers them to make.”
  7. The midterms are already hacked. You just don’t know it yet. (Benjamin Wofford, Vox): “The security expert at a big tech corporation, who spoke on background in order to speak frankly about election vulnerabilities, put it this way: ‘On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the Pentagon’s [security measures], elections have probably moved from a 2 to a 3.’” Very alarming.

Less Serious Things Which Also Interested/Amused Glen

Things Glen Found Interesting A While Ago

Every week I’ll highlight an older link still worth your consideration. This week we have Letter To My Younger Self (Ryan Leaf, The Player’s Tribune): “Congratulations. You officially have it all — money, power and prestige. All the things that are important, right?… That’s you, young Ryan Leaf, at his absolute finest: arrogant, boorish and narcissistic. You think you’re on top of the world and that you’ve got all the answers. Well I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but the truth is….” Such a gripping letter. Highly recommended. (first shared in volume 99)

Why Do You Send This Email?

In the time of King David, the tribe of Issachar produced shrewd warriors “who understood the times and knew what Israel should do” (1 Chron 12:32). In a similar way, we need to become wise people whose faith interacts with the world. I pray this email gives you greater insight, so that you may continue the tradition of Issachar.

Disclaimer

Chi Alpha is not a partisan organization. To paraphrase another minister: we are not about the donkey’s agenda and we are not about the elephant’s agenda — we are about the Lamb’s agenda. Having said that, I read widely (in part because I believe we should aspire to pass the ideological Turing test and in part because I do not believe I can fairly say “I agree” or “I disagree” until I can say “I understand”) and may at times share articles that have a strong partisan bias simply because I find the article stimulating. The upshot: you should not assume I agree with everything an author says in an article I mention, much less things the author has said in other articles (although if I strongly disagree with something in the article I’ll usually mention it). And to the extent you can discern my opinions, please understand that they are my own and not necessarily those of Chi Alpha or any other organization I may be perceived to represent.

Also, remember that I’m not reporting news — I’m giving you a selection of things I found interesting. There’s a lot happening in the world that’s not making an appearance here because I haven’t found stimulating articles written about it.

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