Things Glen Found Interesting, Volume 8

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.

To that end, I share articles/resources I have found help­ful recent­ly in think­ing about broad­er cul­tur­al and soci­etal issues (be sure to see the dis­claimer at the bot­tom). May these give you greater insight, so that you may con­tin­ue the tra­di­tion of Issachar. Past emails are archived at http://glenandpaula.com/wordpress/category/links

1. From the unex­pect­ed con­se­quences depart­ment The Col­lege Majors Most Like­ly To Mar­ry Each Oth­er (Wonkblog, Ana Swan­son): pre­sent­ed with­out com­ment as a pub­lic ser­vice.
2. From the pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment depart­ment:
   • Train­ing Young Doc­tors: The Cur­rent Cri­sis (Lara Goitein, NY Review of Books): for the aspir­ing doc­tors
   • On Being a Hap­py, Healthy, and Eth­i­cal Mem­ber of an Unhap­py, Unhealthy, and Uneth­i­cal Pro­fes­sion (Patrick J. Schiltz, Van­der­bilt Law Review): for the aspir­ing lawyers
3. From the cel­e­brat­ing-our-fam­i­ly depart­ment: Under­stand­ing the roles of faith-based health-care providers in Africa: review of the evi­dence with a focus on mag­ni­tude, reach, cost, and sat­is­fac­tion (sev­er­al authors, The Lancet): Michelle Park’s fiance Har­ri­son Hines is a coau­thor. The jour­nal has sev­er­al relat­ed arti­cles in their faith-based health care series. If you pub­lish some­thing, let me know.
4. From the rec­om­mend­ed-by-a-stu­dent depart­ment: How Wide the Divide: Sex­u­al­i­ty at the Fore­front, Cul­ture at the Cross­roads (Ravi Zacharias blog): a reflec­tion on the dif­fer­ences that make us dif­fer. This one was drawn to my atten­tion by one of you. If you find an arti­cle help­ful, route it my way. There’s a good chance I’ll pass it on.
5. From the make-up-your-mind depart­ment: Humans Are Nowhere Near As Spe­cial As We Like To Think and The Traits That Make Human Beings Unique (both by Melis­sa Hogen­boom, BBC): these two arti­cles go togeth­er. It’s an inter­est­ing approach — argue both sides of a case in sep­a­rate arti­cles so that peo­ple can link to the one they like. I’m going to go with Jesus on this one: “you are worth more than many spar­rows” (Matthew 10:31).

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.