On Fridays I share articles/resources about broad cultural, societal and theological issues. Be sure to see the explanation and disclaimers at the bottom.
Things Glen Found Interesting
- The World’s Most Outstanding Medical Missionary (Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra, Christianity Today): the family of God frequently makes me proud.
- ‘Worst Year Yet’: The Top 50 Countries Where It’s Hardest To Be A Christian (Jeremy Weber, Christianity Today): “Persecution rose globally again for the third year in a row, indicating how volatile the situation has become,” stated Open Doors. “Countries in South and Southeast Asia rapidly rose to unprecedented levels and now rank among such violent areas as the Middle East and Sub‐Saharan Africa.”
- When The Brain Scrambles Names, It’s Because You Love Them (Michelle Trudeau, NPR): This is my defense to you all. Also, I found this bit funny — in a family “you are much more likely to be [accidentally] called the dog’s name than you are to be called the cat’s name.”
- It’s inauguration day, so a lot of the articles relate to the newly sworn‐in President.
- How To Live Under An Unqualified President (John Piper, Desiring God): this is good.
- Trump Takes Jezreel (Douglas Wilson, personal blog): “Political factions want everything to be a simple binary choice on the human level. You either are all in for Jezebel or all in for Jehu. What Scripture invites us to is qualified support, or perhaps qualified disapproval. So and so was a good king, but did not remove the high places.”
- The Church’s Integrity in the Trump Years (Mark Galli, Christianity Today): “Our main political task in this new administration is more urgent than ever… we can speak charitably to one another about our disagreements, taking the time to find out what each of us really believes and why.”
- The Politics of Answered Prayer (Peter Leithart, First Things): sure to disquiet and/or offend.
- A Bit Of Context on Trump, NATO, and Germany (Tyler Cowen, personal blog): “I strongly favor NATO and I don’t think you can trust the Russians with just about anything, or for that matter make much of a deal with them.” (this piece is not about the inauguration, but I found it very stimulating)
- Bonhoeffer On Why God Does Not Fill The Emptiness When A Loved One Dies (Justin Taylor, Gospel Coalition): “to the extent the emptiness truly remains unfilled one remains connected to the other person through it.”
- Authoritarians Distract Rather than Debate (Alex Tabarrok, Marginal Revolution): “it has long been assumed that propaganda posts would support the government with praise or criticize critics of the government. Not so. In fact, propaganda posts actively steer away from controversial issues.”
- Men’s Breadwinning Still Matters For Marriage (Christos Makridis, Institute For Family Studies): yes, that’s our Christos. “The college‐educated may embrace egalitarian ideals of family life, but their behavior is more complicated.”
Things Glen Found Amusing
- ‘Religion Is A Parasite,’ Says Guy Living In Mom’s Basement (Babylon Bee): I found this line particularly funny, “At publishing time, Wendler had called religion ‘the opiate of the masses’ before firing up a massive bong in his mom’s car.”
- Recovering After A Surgery (Penny Arcade)
- Letter To Students On Maintenance Of The Stanford Brand™ (The Flipside): “May the winds of freedom blow just exactly the right amount!”
- Gender Diversity Among Superheroes (Texts From Superheroes)
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.