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
- Transcript of New Orleans Mayor Landrieu’s address on Confederate monuments (Derek Cosson, The Pulse): “To literally put the confederacy on a pedestal in our most prominent places of honor is an inaccurate recitation of our full past, it is an affront to our present, and it is a bad prescription for our future.”
- Rod Dreher’s A Monumental History offers a general agreement with Landrieu’s speech along with a thoughtful defense of Robert E. Lee. “I am only somewhat troubled by the Lee monument’s removal. That’s not because of any sympathy for the Confederacy — it deserved to lose, and the suffering of the South in and after the war was, I believe, God’s judgment on it for the sin of slavery…. [nonetheless] Lee was a far more complex man than many people today seem to realize.” (Dreher is also a Louisiana resident)
- College Freshmen Are Less Religious Than Ever (Allen Downey, Scientific American): “Most of this growth [of ‘no religious preference’] comes at the expense of Catholicism, which dropped from 32 percent to 23 percent, and mainstream Protestant denominations including Baptists (from 17 percent to 7 percent), and Methodists (from 9 percent to 3 percent). At the same time the number of students choosing ‘Other Christian’ increased from 5 percent to 13 percent.”
- UK Muslims Reported Abedi (Rod Dreher, The American Conservative): “What else would you have had these Muslims do? Sounds like they did exactly what they were supposed to do… [On the other hand] what more would you have authorities do? If he had not acted out… what do you do?” Things are complex. And yes, this is the same Rod Dreher as in the second entry on this list. He’s prolific.
- Sexual regret in US and Norway: Effects of culture and individual differences in religiosity and mating strategy (Bendixen, Asao, Wyckoff, Buss and Kennair, Personality and Individual Differences): From the abstract: “Men were significantly less likely to regret having had casual sex than women and were significantly more likely to regret passing up casual sexual opportunities than women… Finally, North Americans and Norwegians did not differ significantly in overall amount of sexual regret nor in patterns of sex differences in sexual regret.” I’m always fascinated by gender differences that transcend cultures.
Things Glen Found Amusing
- Bible College Freshman Provides Pastor With 90 Pages Of Helpful Notes After Sermon (Babylon Bee): I’m not saying you could substitute a Stanford student into this story without changing it, but let the reader understand.
- Stanford Psychology Department Encourages Students To Respond To All Questions Using Week Numbers (Stanford Flipside): “I just respond, ‘Oh, it’s week 7,’ and everyone seems to understand exactly what I mean. It’s utterly brilliant. It has saved my social life.’”
- Christians Beg God To Not Let Male Rompers Catch On Among Worship Leaders (Babylon Bee)
- College Student Tithes Ramen (Babylon Bee)
- Reformed Roasters (an actual thing, from what I can tell): “The Limited Atonement Roast is totally sufficient to appeal to everyone’s tastes… it just doesn’t.”
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).
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.
Archives at http://glenandpaula.com/wordpress/category/links.