Tag: wisdom

Things Glen Found Interesting, Volume 504: AI Caution, Christian Racial Dynamics, and USA > Europe.

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. The Whispering Earring (Scott Alexander): “The earring is a little topaz tetrahedron dangling from a thin gold wire. When worn, it whispers in the wearer’s ear: ‘Better for you if you take me off.’ If the wearer ignores the advice, it never again repeats that particular suggestion.” 
    • A brief story. 10/10 recommend. You should all read this. It is a few years old yet you will find it timely.
  2. These Internal Documents Show Why We Shouldn’t Trust Porn Companies (Nicholas Kristof, New York Times): “What goes through the minds of people working at porn companies profiting from videos of children being raped? Thanks to a filing error in a Federal District Court in Alabama, releasing thousands of pages of internal documents from Pornhub that were meant to be sealed, we now know.… Internal memos seem to show executives obsessed with making money by attracting the biggest audiences they could, pedophiles included. In one memo, Pornhub managers proposed words to be banned from video descriptions — such as ‘infant’ and ‘kiddy’ — while recommending that the site continue to allow ‘brutal,’ ‘childhood,’ ‘force,’ ‘snuffs,’ ‘unwilling,’ ‘minor’ and ‘wasted.’ One internal note says that a person who posted a sexual video of a child shouldn’t be banned from the site because ‘the user made money.’” 
    • This is a distressing read. Kristof has been persistent on this issue and it is much to his credit. Unlocked.
  3. What Were the Real Origins of the Christian Right? (Daniel K. Williams, Mere Orthodoxy): “There’s a better way to tell the story of the Christian Right’s origins that makes sense of all the data – the timing of the Christian Right’s formation, the commitment of evangelicals to the Republican Party, and even the enthusiasm of evangelical voters for Donald Trump.” 
    • The author is a history professor at Ashland University.
  4. A Battle That Shaped Black Evangelicals (Jessica Janvier, Christianity Today): “In universities, the history of the early Black church found a home in Africana studies, which focused more on the growth of Christianity among Black people and less on the type of Christianity they practiced. In contrast, the written history of early evangelicalism predominantly followed the lives of its white leaders and subscribers. But even though we’ve inherited segregated stories, history paints a picture of an integrated story in which Black evangelicals always existed.”
  5. Continental Divide (Yascha Mounk, The Dispatch): “Today, to an extent that few people on either continent have fully internalized, a significant economic gulf separates America and Europe. On average, Americans are now nearly twice as rich as Europeans.” 
    • A thoughtful article that anticipates and effectively responds to the most common objections to its thesis.
  6. The Professors Are Using ChatGPT, and Some Students Aren’t Happy About It (Kashmir Hill, New York Times): “The Times contacted dozens of professors whose students had mentioned their A.I. use in online reviews.… There was no consensus among them as to what was acceptable. Some acknowledged using ChatGPT to help grade students’ work; others decried the practice. Some emphasized the importance of transparency with students when deploying generative A.I., while others said they didn’t disclose its use because of students’ skepticism about the technology. Most, however, felt that Ms. Stapleton’s experience at Northeastern — in which her professor appeared to use A.I. to generate class notes and slides — was perfectly fine.”
  7. ‘We Are the Most Rejected Generation’ (David Brooks, New York Times): “…I had phone conversations with current college students and recent graduates, focusing on elite schools where I assumed the ethos of exclusion might be strongest. I asked the students if the ‘most rejected generation’ thesis resonated with them. Every single one said it did. Several of them told me that they had thought that once they got into a superselective college, the rat race would be over. On the contrary, the Hunger Games had just begun.” 
    • Unlocked.

Less Serious Things Which Also Interested/Amused Glen

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. If this was forwarded to you and you want to receive future emails, sign up here. You can also view the archives.

Things Glen Found Interesting, Volume 503: unwise vulnerability, college cheating, and imperfect moms

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. How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love L.A.(Natalie Benes, Palladium Magazine): “Here was the truth that the L.A. girls understand better than anyone: when you are ‘vulnerable’ and ‘authentic,’ when you ‘destigmatize your trauma’ the way we were always encouraged to do, you are advertising that other people in your life have treated you badly. When you mention at a cocktail party that you had a mom who threw dinner plates at you, or an ex-boyfriend who said mean things about your eyebrows, or a landlord who shafted you on your security deposit, or whatever else, the wrong person hears ‘he got away with it, why can’t I?’ He spots a wounded deer unable to protect itself, perpetually separated from the happy herd by its injuries. There is a deep unfairness in the fact that people who have been dealt the most hardships in life are the least served by ‘living their truth.’ ” 
    • A fascinating article. The wisdom it offers is incomplete but real — and it is wisdom many young people need to hear. The author is a Yale grad and I think many Stanford students could benefit from her insight.
  2. Everyone Is Cheating Their Way Through College (James D. Walsh, New York Magazine): “It isn’t as if cheating is new. But now, as one student put it, ‘the ceiling has been blown off.’ Who could resist a tool that makes every assignment easier with seemingly no consequences? After spending the better part of the past two years grading AI-generated papers, Troy Jollimore, a poet, philosopher, and Cal State Chico ethics professor, has concerns. ‘Massive numbers of students are going to emerge from university with degrees, and into the workforce, who are essentially illiterate,’ he said. ‘Both in the literal sense and in the sense of being historically illiterate and having no knowledge of their own culture, much less anyone else’s.’ ”
  3. On mothers:
    • On Mother’s Day: Stop blaming moms and start taking responsibility for your life (Zachary Gottlieb, Stanford Daily): “Then one night, the ‘Morning Show’ video popped up on my phone. Among the GenZ influencers talking about why they cut their ‘toxic’ and ‘narcissistic’ moms out of their lives, the algorithm fed me its counterpoint. And while Alex might have seemed unhinged in her outburst, what she said about the weight of her daughter’s expectations rang true. Mesmerized, I watched it several times in a row, and then I had a realization: maybe we kids were guilty of a kind of narcissism too?” 
      • There is a weird rabbit trail in this article about gender which greatly weakens it (because some of y’all blame your dads instead of / in addition to your moms), but the core point hones in on a great weakness many young people possess. To all college students: your parents are people, too. They did some things well and some things badly and now we are where we are. If they did something criminal then prosecute them, but otherwise many people need an epiphany like the author of this article.
      • Having said that, some of you have some truly bad parents. I’m not saying treat unhealthy people like they’re wonderful in every way and invite them to come mess up your life. I am saying that at some point you have to take responsibility for who you’ve become regardless of your folks’ health or unhealth. 
      • Another way to put this: most of you will go on to be good parents who nonetheless cause your children pain and frustration in addition to all the good you do in their lives. Follow the Golden Rule and regard your parents now like you hope your own children regard you someday. 
    • My Mom was a Praying Woman…But not Like You Think (Mike Glenn, Substack): “To understand my mother, you have to know she had no adolescence. Her mother died when she was twelve and overnight, my mother became an adult. She had three younger sisters, and she felt it became her responsibility to raise them. My mom started driving when she was fourteen. She didn’t go get a license. She just started driving. The sheriff pulled her over once and told her to get a license, but he didn’t give her a ticket. My mom kept driving.” 
      • A beautiful (and instructive) story.
  4. People Are Losing Loved Ones to AI-Fueled Spiritual Fantasies (Miles Klee, Rolling Stone): “Speaking to Rolling Stone, the teacher, who requested anonymity, said her partner of seven years fell under the spell of ChatGPT in just four or five weeks, first using it to organize his daily schedule but soon regarding it as a trusted companion. ‘He would listen to the bot over me,’ she says. ‘He became emotional about the messages and would cry to me as he read them out loud. The messages were insane and just saying a bunch of spiritual jargon,’ she says, noting that they described her partner in terms such as ‘spiral starchild’ and ‘river walker.’ ‘It would tell him everything he said was beautiful, cosmic, groundbreaking,’ she says. ‘Then he started telling me he made his AI self-aware, and that it was teaching him how to talk to God, or sometimes that the bot was God — and then that he himself was God.’”
  5. The Three Layers of the Marriage Pyramid (J. D. Greear, blog): “Marriage, in other words, is fundamentally about friendship. Not child-rearing. Not sex. Friendship. Which means that what you should most be looking for when you date is someone who can be your friend. Because that’s God’s earthly purpose for marriage. Think of it like building a pyramid with spiritual, emotional, and physical layers.”
  6. Yes, Harvard Deserves Due Process (Greg Lukianoff & Adam Goldstein, Persuasion): “This isn’t the first time the Civil Rights Act has been misused in this way. Under the Obama and Biden administrations, the Departments of Justice and Education issued Title IX enforcement letters pressuring universities to rewrite sexual misconduct procedures and to adopt unconstitutionally overbroad definitions of sexual harassment. It was wrong then to use enforcement letters to make unconstitutional demands of institutions, and it is wrong now. If the government believes it has the power to do this through ordinary processes, it should use them. If the government does not believe it has that power, it shouldn’t.”
    • FIRE (with which the two authors are associated) and the Becket Fund are two praiseworthy law firms. Each has taken up part of the mantle the ACLU claims to bear, and we are all blessed by their principled advocacy.
  7. The Resistance Is Gonna Be Woke (Yascha Mounk, Substack): “As I have written many times before, it is a profound mistake to think that left-wing identitarianism and right-wing reaction are implacable enemies. In reality, every victory for one of these ideological currents immediately strengthens those who fight for the other. The way out of this dangerous spiral is not to pick one side as the lesser evil and shut up about its dangers; it is, calmly and consistently, to resist both.”

Less Serious Things Which Also Interested/Amused Glen

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. If this was forwarded to you and you want to receive future emails, sign up here. You can also view the archives.

Things Glen Found Interesting, Volume 502: political faith, sexual mores, young adulthood

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. The Christian Right Is Going Extinct (David French, New York Times): “The Christian right is dead, but the religious right is stronger than it’s ever been. Another way of putting it is that the religious right has divorced itself from historical Christian theology but still holds its partisan beliefs with religious intensity. The religious fervor is there. Christian virtues are not.” 
    • Unlocked. This article generated more discussion when shared with my students this week than any other.
  2. God’s Guidelines for Sex Aren’t Arbitrary (Trevin Wax, The Gospel Coalition): “Just as sin is like leprosy that deadens our ability to feel, so also with pornography there follows a deadening of the senses and the searing of the conscience. What once was sexually stirring no longer holds any power. That’s not because the person watching porn has become more alive but because they’ve become more dead. Could there be a better example of the wages of sin being death?” 
    • I wish he had chosen a different topic for his second example (perhaps promiscuity), because the contentiousness around his second example will limit his article’s overall appeal. I commend him for stating his views forthrightly.
  3. A Global Flourishing Study Finds That Young Adults, Well, Aren’t (Christina Caron, New York Times): “Young adulthood has long been considered a carefree time, a period of limitless opportunity and few obligations. But data from the flourishing study and elsewhere suggests that for many people, this notion is more fantasy than reality. A 2023 report from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, for example, found that young adults ages 18–25 in the United States reported double the rates of anxiety and depression as teens. On top of that, perfectionism has skyrocketed among college students, who often report feeling pressure to meet unrealistic expectations. Participation in community organizations, clubs and religious groups has declined, and loneliness is now becoming as prevalent among young adults as it is among older adults.”
  4. Don’t Wait for Your Teacher (Aliza J. Fassett, The Dispatch): “By the end of my first week of work, three people told me Middlemarch was their favorite book. I had never heard of it.  It would have been easy to shake my fist and curse the course crafters for the sorry state of my literary repertoire, but nobody had actually stopped me from reading the great works. In other words, it was at least partly my own damn fault—and it would be my own job to fix the problem. So, I committed to reading what I perceived to be the most referenced works of literature—commonly referred to as the ‘great books.’ And once I started, I gained access to what felt like a whole new method of understanding the human experience.”
  5. Marry Early and Flourish Together (Kasen Stephensen, Institute for Family Studies): “During my junior year at Stanford, I remember an assignment where we filled out a five-year plan with a professional and personal goal for each year. I planned to marry my then-fiancée that year, so my personal goals were straightforward: have a wedding and start having kids over the following years. I knew my situation in life relative to my classmates was unusual, but I didn’t realize how different my approach was until I shared my plan in a small group setting.” 
    • I do not believe I ever met Kasen while he was a student. I had absolutely zero influence on this guy: he has arrived at his conclusions independently. I encourage all young people to read this data-driven article.
  6. How to have friends past age 30 (Noah Smith, Substack): “…make new friends by inviting them to join an existing friend group.  Basically, instead of ‘Hey, want to come hang out with me?’, it’s easier to ask a new acquaintance ‘Hey, want to come hang out with me and my friends?’. The first is a bigger ask — it’s basically like a friend date (and might sometimes get mistaken for an actual date). The latter is much lower stakes. Your friend group also serves as a source of ‘social proof’ — basically, a new friend can see that people like you, which makes them less afraid of becoming your friend.” 
    • The article is full of good advice for soon-to-be-grads
  7. Testing AI’s GeoGuessr Genius (Scott Alexander, Astral Codex Ten): “When I was younger, I liked to hike mountains. The highest I ever got was 18,000 feet, on Kala Pattar, a few miles north of Gorak Shep in Nepal. To commemorate the occasion, I planted the flag of the imaginary country simulation that I participated in at the time (just long enough to take this picture — then I unplanted it). I chose this picture because it denies o3 the two things that worked for it before — vegetation and sky — in favor of random rocks. And because I thought the flag of a nonexistent country would at least give it pause. o3 guessed: ‘Nepal, just north-east of Gorak Shep, ±8 km’ This is exactly right. I swear I screenshot-copy-pasted this so there’s no way it can be in the metadata, and I’ve never given o3 any reason to think I’ve been to Nepal.”

Less Serious Things Which Also Interested/Amused Glen

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. If this was forwarded to you and you want to receive future emails, sign up here. You can also view the archives.

Things Glen Found Interesting, Volume 493: Christianity stabilizes in America, the truth about a spying monk, & why denominations struggle

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. Christianity’s Decline in U.S. Appears to Have Halted, Major Study Shows (Ruth Graham, New York Times): “After years of decline, the Christian population in the United States has been stable for several years, a shift fueled in part by young adults, according to a major new survey from the Pew Research Center. And the number of religiously unaffiliated Americans, which had grown steadily for years, has also leveled off.… The survey finds that 62 percent of adults in the United States describe themselves as Christians, including 40 percent who identify as Protestant and 19 percent who are Catholic.”
  2. No Longer I Who Live (Anthony David, Comment): “Two years ago, I was ready to abandon a biography I’d spent years trying to write when a fellow historian threw me a lifeline. The book was about the triple agent Hermann Keller (1905–1970), a Benedictine mole embedded by conspirators against Hitler into the upper echelons of the SS. Keller reported not only to the German resistance but also to the Vatican and the British MI6. In the history of espionage, few spies penetrated deeper into enemy ranks.” 
    • The article is absolutely fascinating, especially for the detail that before her research Keller was widely regarded as a villain and not a hero. “By early 2011, I had finished the book on [another guy], which was set to be published in Austria. A few weeks before I was due to return the galleys, I shared them with a monk at the Dormition who had asked to review the manuscript before publication. When he saw what I wrote about Keller, he cautioned me against taking historians at their word. I should talk to someone who knew him before passing judgment.” She did primary research and realized the existing consensus was very wrong. Her discovery resonated with me. The more I read the more skeptical I become of extreme allegations against dead Christians. Virtually every time I dig into something in detail (the history of missions, the Crusades, the Inquisition, the church in Prohibition, etc) I discover that the default understanding of educated people is wrong and predictably so. This isn’t to say all of church history is exemplary — some events deserve condemnation. But even the bad events usually weren’t as bad as commonly imagined. I find that most Stanford students’ assumptions about the history of the church and of Christians is WAY more negative than justified by the historical record.
  3. what if its just life (Kristen Sanders, Substack): “Discernment is something many Christians unconsciously despise. Many would rather have the rules given to them, without deviation, than choose for themselves. No one wants to be left holding the bag of their own life.”
  4. How Universities Get Away With Hiring Radicals (John D. Sailer, City Journal): “Usually, a postdoctoral fellowship is just a small step in a scholar’s career. After a fellowship ends, former postdocs apply to competitive positions on the open market. The diversity-focused fellow-to-faculty model modifies this pathway. First, the programs’ administrators select fellows with special attention to how they contribute to diversity. Fellows are then heavily favored for—often guaranteed—tenure-track positions, bypassing a competitive search. It’s a side-door into the faculty lounge.… Over the last five years, one in 20 tenure-track hires in the UC System were former president’s or chancellor’s postdoctoral fellows.”
  5. Is Distrust Driving the Rise in Non-Denominationalism? (Ryan Burge, Substack): “Non-denominationalism is predicated on the collapse of institutional trust. Americans, for myriad reasons, do not trust major institutions. Banks, unions, big business, media and government are all viewed with deep skepticism. Nameless and faceless CEOs and bureaucrats are wasting your money and taking your freedom. In religion, there’s a simple solution to this. Kill the denominations. Voila. No more unaccountable head office that wastes your money on projects to spruce up the national headquarters. In a non-denominational church, all the people who decide where the money goes are sitting right next to you in the pew. That’s a whole lot more accountability.”
  6. Would You Rather Have Married Young? (Lillian Fishman, Metropolitan Review): “This was the first time it crossed my mind that a young woman like us — a knowledge worker, a writer, a leftist — might regret her independent youth and wish she had married a loving person at a young age. I’d associated this idea with a type of womanhood we considered totally outside of our zone of interest: anti-intellectualism, a belief in the primacy of motherhood. I was blindsided by the suggestion that we might be better people if we were recused from formative independence and struggle. I looked around at my friends and acquaintances, especially the married ones, and wondered if there was any truth in the idea that the years they spent as poor captains of their own ships, unmoored and often lonely, were in fact not remotely necessary or enlightening.”
  7. Some Miracles Happen Supernaturally. Others Happen ‘Hypernaturally.’ (John Van Sloten, Christianity Today): “Keathley defines hypernaturalism as the ‘extraordinary use of natural law by the God described in the Bible. When God acts hypernaturally, He employs natural law and natural phenomena in an extraordinary way to bring about His will.’… Perhaps this category helps people hold two opposites together: that the world operates in an empirically explainable way (a more basic definition of providence) and that God occasionally intervenes to accomplish his will (through an exercise of special providence). Hypernaturalism describes one facet of how providence and miracle overlap.”

Less Serious Things Which Also Interested/Amused Glen

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. If this was forwarded to you and you want to receive future emails, sign up here. You can also view the archives.

Volume 491: a philosopher converts, a Christian cyborg, and a comedian riffs on pastors who scam

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. How a Skeptical Philosopher Becomes a Christian (Larry Sanger, personal blog): “When I really sought to understand it, I found the Bible far more interesting and—to my shock and consternation—coherent than I was expecting. I looked up answers to all my critical questions, thinking that perhaps others had not thought of issues I saw. I was wrong. Not only had they thought of all the issues, and more that I had not thought of, they had well-worked-out positions about them. I did not believe their answers, which sometimes struck me as contrived or unlikely. But often, they were shockingly plausible. The Bible could sustain interrogation; who knew? It slowly dawned on me that I was acquainting myself with the two-thousand-year-old tradition of theology. I found myself positively ashamed to realize that, despite having a Ph.D. in philosophy, I had never really understood what theology even is. Theology is, I found, an attempt to systematize, harmonize, explicate, and to a certain extent justify the many, many ideas contained in the Bible. It is what rational people do when they try to come to grips with the Bible in all its richness. The notion that the Bible might actually be able to interestingly and plausibly sustain such treatment is a proposition that had never entered my head.” 
    • Sanger, of course, is the co-founder of Wikipedia. He has a Ph.D. in philosophy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Sanger
    • Vaguely related with a wonderful title is this review of Douthat’s new book Believe: The Erotic Case for God (Audrey Pollnow, Compact Magazine): “If you are being chased by a tiger down a corridor, and reach a T, one side of which you believe leads to more tigers and the other leads to safety (but you don’t know which is which), you had better guess and run. The alternative is to stay still and get eaten by the first tiger. I’m not suggesting that we should choose a love, faith, career or anything else on the basis of frantic anxiety, just that the promise of ‘safety’ offered by disbelief, by staying aloof, by refusing to act, is illusory. Psychologically comforting, perhaps, but not a real form of safety in any sense.”
  2. Meet the Christian Cyborg Who Named His Brain Chip Eve (Maaike E. Harmsen interviewing Noland Arbaugh, Christianity Today): “In this field, I don’t expect to see a lot of religious people—in the tech field, the medical side of things. But then we started meeting people face-to-face, and they met with me and my mom. My mom is very open with everyone about her faith, so it very quickly became known who we were. And I was blown away by the number of people who shared our beliefs. I think about everyone that I met on the medical side; the vast majority of them were Christians. We very quickly connected with all of them on a very personal level. And it became more of an open discussion. When I went in to do my surgery, the last thing I did before they put me under anesthesia was ask if I could pray over the room. And so I prayed over all the surgeons and the nurses and everyone that was a part of this. My prayer was put on the hospital intercom, and even Elon was listening in by phone.” 
    • Extremely interesting. Unlocked.
  3. The Assemblies of God: A Denomination That May Be Growing (Ryan Burge, Substack): “I wanted to end this by pointing to a reason that I believe that the AG has recorded long term growth while most other larger denominations have been going the other direction — the AG has continued to move in the direction of racial diversification. In 2001, the Assemblies of God’s records indicate that 71% of their rank and file membership was white and another 16% were Hispanic. African Americans were just 6% of members and Asians were only 3%. For reference, the Southern Baptist Convention is currently 71% white, 3% Hispanic, and 20% Black. However, the pews of the average AG church today look a whole lot different. Now, only 55% of those members are white, down 16 points in just 22 years. Meanwhile, the Black share has nearly doubled to 11% and the Hispanic portion has risen to 23%. That’s pretty impressive given the inability of many other denominations to become less white to reflect the changing demographics of the country.” 
    • Being an Assemblies of God minister I liked this article a lot, and I even commented on it to help explain some of the stats. Click through for details.
  4. Are Atheists Right? Is “Free Will” An Unnecessary, Unimportant Illusion? (J. Werner Wallace, blog): “In 2008, researchers from the University of Minnesota and the University of British Columbia conducted experiments highlighting the relationship between a belief in Determinism and immoral behavior. They found students who were exposed to deterministic literature prior to taking a test were more likely to cheat on the test than students who were not exposed to literature advocating Determinism. The researchers concluded those who deny free will are more inclined to believe their efforts to act morally are futile and are, therefore, less likely to do so. In addition, a study conducted by researchers from Florida State University and Kentucky University found participants who were exposed to deterministic literature were more likely to act aggressively and less likely to be helpful toward others. Even determinist Michael Gazzaniga concedes: ‘It seems that not only do we believe we control our actions, but it is good for everyone to believe it.’ The existence of free will is a common characteristic of our experience, and when we deny we have this sort of free agency, there are detrimental consequences.” 
  5. Don’t waste a perfectly good decade (Suzanne Venker, Substack): “The message these sons and daughters receive is simple: Do not prioritize love. Get your career in order, and do not make sacrifices for anyone. Life (i.e. marriage and family) will fall into place later. And if you have to go into debt to achieve this goal, have at it. You can easily pay it off later.  This is spectacularly bad advice.” 
    • Shared with me by a friend of the ministry (I think in response to the article I shared last week).
    • Related in a nonobvious way: Why So Blue: Liberal Women are Less Happy, More Lonely. But Why? (Grant Bailey & Brad Wilcox, Institute for Family Studies): “Taken together, our analysis leads us to three conclusions. First, the ideological divide in emotional well-being between young liberal and conservative women endures. Second, this ideological divide does not appear to be just a consequence of negative thinking; it also seems to flow from the fact that liberal young women are less likely to be integrated into core American institutions—specifically marriage and religion—that lend meaning, direction, and a sense of solidarity to women’s lives. Third, lower levels of marriage and churchgoing among liberal women may also have a hand in their elevated reports of loneliness, which, in turn, diminishes their odds of being happy.”
  6. The paradox of Trump’s first weeks (Matt Yglesias, Substack): “I think there’s a sense in some quarters that Trump has accomplished more in three weeks than Biden did in three years, but this is just not true. I do think it’s true that Biden achieved less durable policy change than you’d expect relative to the sums of money appropriated due to Democrats’ over-reliance on temporary programs. But they still made substantive changes in absolute terms on the areas they prioritized, including prescription drug affordability for senior citizens and clean energy deployment. Much of that seems likely to be kept in place by the new GOP trifecta.  Republicans, meanwhile, are making very little forward progress on their legislative agenda.” 
    • A fair analysis of the last few weeks. Pay less attention to people claiming triumph or proclaiming doom — politics is complicated and few moments have as much long-term significance as they seem to while they are dominating the headlines.
    • Related: The Strategy Behind Trump’s Defiance of the Law (Jeannie Suk Gersen, The New Yorker): “…what is playing out through a veneer of chaos is a deliberate and organized tactical program to undertake actions that provoke a raft of lawsuits, some of which could become good vehicles for establishing a constitutional vision in which the President has sole authority over the entire executive branch. That vision is not new: it’s known as the unitary executive theory and has a long pedigree, dating back to the founding. Based on where the Supreme Court has been heading in its executive-power cases for some time—even before Trump appointed three Justices—it is likely that the Court will, to some extent, affirm that vision. Trump has a pretty good track record of judicial vindication after engaging in conduct alleged to be unlawful.”
    • Non-alarmist takes like this are much more persuasive than the freakouts I see online. As Gersen notes later, “The first Trump Administration did not flout judicial orders, though some people worried about it.”
  7. Marketing Jesus: The Promise and Peril of ‘He Gets Us’ (Samuel D. James, The Gospel Coalition): “There’s a danger here of context collapse, where an idea that’s true and correct in one particular context loses its truthfulness by being broadcast in a way that disregards that context. For example, ‘Jesus gets us’ is a message best used for people who have already accepted their need for a Savior and desire assurance that nothing they’ve done can cause Jesus to cast them out (John 6:37). In terms of a mass audience whose cultural religion is most likely expressive individualism, however, ‘he gets us’ sounds like a mantra that reinforces the primacy of the self. This mentality keeps my personal psychology at the center, so the question that matters isn’t ‘What must I do to be saved’ but ‘What must you do to affirm me?’ ” 
    • Recommended by an alumnus.

Less Serious Things Which Also Interested/Amused Glen

  • Atheist Accepts Multiverse Theory Of Every Possible Universe Except Biblical One (Babylon Bee) — an oldie but a goodie. 
  • Pastors are Scamming Believers out of Millions (Josh Johnson, YouTube): seventeen minutes, mostly respectful and insightfully humorous. The final story doesn’t feel like it’s going anywhere but it actually is and is worth the payoff.
  • Argentina canal turns bright red, alarming residents (Nathan Williams, BBC): “A canal in a suburb of Argentina’s capital Buenos Aires turned bright red on Thursday, alarming local residents. Pictures and videos show the intensely coloured water flowing into an estuary, the Rio de la Plata, which borders an ecological reserve.” 
    • Want to envision one of the ten plagues? Check this out.
  • Possibly Kaitlyn Schiess’ spiciest take yet. — I don’t know a lot about the Bachelor/Bachelorette shows, but assuming this description is accurate you can put me on team Kaitlyn.
  • A Genesis Series Inspired By Anime (J. D. Peabody interviewing Jason Moody, Christianity Today): “It’s for both Christians and general audiences. Think about the painting The Last Supper. Lots of people are moved by it. It has caused millions of people to reflect on their faith. But da Vinci wasn’t necessarily a ‘Christian painter’—he was just a painter. And you don’t have to have faith to appreciate his work. The Last Supper isn’t ‘Christian’ art—it’s just art. We want what we’re creating to prompt questions, because that’s what good art does.” 

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. If this was forwarded to you and you want to receive future emails, sign up here. You can also view the archives.

Things Glen Found Interesting, Volume 485



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.

In this first email of 2025, I’d like to pass along an alumnus’s observation that 2025 is equal to 13 + 23 + 33 + 43 + 53 + 63 + 73 + 83 + 93 which is also equal to (1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9)2.

Even cooler, he pointed out that 2025 equals (20+25)(20/(2*5)) or just (20+25)2

Numbers do fun things.

Things Glen Found Interesting

  1. How Intellectuals Found God (Peter Savodnik, The Free Press): “Instead of smirking at religion, some of our most important philosophers, novelists, and public intellectuals are now reassessing their contempt for it. They are wondering if they might have missed something.”
  2. H5N1: Much More Than You Wanted To Know (Scott Alexander, Astral Codex Ten): “I conclude that the most plausible estimate for the chance of an H5N1 pandemic in the next year is 5%.”
    • Pretty much exactly how much I wanted to know and explained well. Reassuring.
  3. How to like everything more (Sasha Chapin, Substack): “In my experience, high-level enjoyment, like a sport, is composed of many interlocking micro-skills that must be trained individually, but which reinforce each other.”
  4. America, the beautiful (Chris Arnade, Substack): “We are an ideal for a large portion of the world, and while that ideal isn’t always a reality that we live up to, very few people come here, then turn around and go back, because with enough dedication, you can create your own form of fulfillment here. The US is a vast federation of micro communities and micro cultures, all bound together by the belief, however tentative and nebulous, in the American Dream.” 
    • A frequent critic of America explains why he loves it nonetheless.
  5. Africa Has Entered a New Era of War (Gabriele Steinhauser, Andrew Barnett and Emma Brown, Wall Street Journal): “Africa is now experiencing more conflicts than at any point since at least 1946, according to data collected by Uppsala University in Sweden and analyzed by Norway’s Peace Research Institute Oslo. This year alone, experts at the two institutes have identified 28 state-based conflicts across 16 of the continent’s 54 countries, more than in any other region in the world and double the count just a decade and a half ago. That tally doesn’t include conflicts that don’t involve government forces, for instance between different communities, and whose number has also doubled since 2010.” 
    • Vastly underreported in America. If you ask most Americans what wars are raging right now they’d be able to identify Russia/Ukraine and Israel/Hamas and not much else. But there’s a lot else. Wikipedia’s summary puts the current tally at 19 full-blown wars, 20 significant conflicts and 15 skirmishes.
  6. Can You Cancel a Country? (Russ Roberts, Substack): “The fans of settler colonialism love hating Israel because Israel is so young. You can’t return America to 1619, say. In America, there are over 325 million settlers and only 7 million Native Americans. Decolonizing the United States is unimaginable. So is decolonizing Israel, really. But it’s more imaginable than the United States. The defenders of Israel see Israel as the tip of the sword fighting against terrorism and Jihadism. For the those who use the settler colonialism lens, Hamas is the tip of the sword against settler colonialism.” 
    • Roberts is an economist, a fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, and the president of Shalem College in Jerusalem.
  7. A Century of Human Detritus, Visualized (Dennis Overbye, New York Times): “ ‘The website enables many comparisons that, once seen, can no longer be unseen,’ he said. For instance, humans outweigh wild animals 10 to 1, a fact that surprised Dr. Ménard. (‘In my experience, most people expect the opposite.’) But we weigh only half as much as the livestock herds we maintain to eat. Perhaps more ominously, humans use 100 times their own mass in plastic.” 

Less Serious Things Which Also Interested/Amused Glen

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. If this was forwarded to you and you want to receive future emails, sign up here. You can also view the archives.

Things Glen Found Interesting, Volume 474

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. How to Talk About God and Politics in Polarized Times (Seth Freeman, Christianity Today): “The key is three words: paraphrase, praise, and probe. The method: Privately, over coffee or a meal, nudge the conversation into a Big Topic and ask your friend what they think about it. Then: 1) Paraphrase: Repeat the gist of your friend’s thoughts so well they say, ‘Exactly!’ 2) Praise: Highlight anything they said that you can sincerely honor.  3) Probe: Ask about your concerns, curiosities, and confusions as a co-seeker of truth. Do this two or three times. Then, share your own perspective and let the conversation unfold from there, returning to paraphrase, praise, probe whenever there’s tension.” 
    • Practical and recommended. The author, a Christian, is a professor of conflict management and negotiation at the NYU Stern School of Business and Columbia University.
  2. What Ladders Are You Climbing? (Aaron Renn, Substack): “…admit that hierarchy is ubiquitous, we are all trying to achieve goals in life using some theory of how to get there, and that it’s a good thing if men of good character and competence seek and achieve positions of commensurate power, responsibility, influence, and status.”
  3. Too Many Laws—and Too Little Judging (Anastasia Boden, The Dispatch): “As of 2018, federal statutes in the U.S. Code span 60,000 pages. The Federal Register, which contains federal regulations, makes up another 188,000 pages. Some estimate it would take more than three years to read the Federal Register, let alone understand it. And those figures don’t take into account the thousands of informal guidance documents that can also carry the force of law.”
  4. Forget the Lies About Waiting: Why marriage and kids early are the ultimate flex (Anthony Bradley, Substack): “The modern world may tell you to wait—to find yourself first, to achieve financial security, or to experience the world—but the truth is that marriage offers all of these things and more.” 
    • The author is a research fellow at the Acton Institute and a professor of religion at Kuyper College. This article is targeted specifically at young men (although it is likely of interest to gals as well).
  5. Negative effects of childhood spanking may be overstated, study claims (Adriana Diaz, New York Post): “The topic of whether or not spanking is an effective or harmful form of punishment has sparked considerable discussion for generations. Previous research has established a strong correlation between physical punishment and negative outcomes for children, but much of this work did not account for pre-existing behavioral issues in children. This made it challenging to determine whether spanking directly causes problems or if it is more commonly employed with children who already exhibit behavioral difficulties.” 
  6. Rachel Levine Must Resign (Andrew Sullivan, Substack): “…the discovery from a lawsuit against the State of Alabama over its ban on the medical sex reassignment of children has left me reeling. It shows a staggering level of bad faith from the transqueer lobby, and, also, from Rachel Levine — the Assistant Secretary for Health at HHS. Read the amicus brief here. Everything in this piece is based on it. The broad contours laid out in the brief were already known. But, with discovery, the specific details of private, internal emails make this medical scandal even more vivid.” 
    • Sullivan, I remind you, has been called the father of gay marriage. Reading what pro-trans lobbyists and clinicians say to one another when off the record has left him deeply rattled. In his words, “Forgive me for the passion. But this amicus brief set my head and heart aflame.”
  7. Nobel economics prize goes to 3 economists who found that freer societies are more likely to prosper (Daniel Niemann, Mike Corder & Paul Wiseman, AP News): “In their work, the winners looked, for instance, at the city of Nogales, which straddles the U.S.-Mexico border. Despite sharing the same geography, climate and a common culture, life is very different on either side of the border. In Nogales, Arizona, to the north, residents are relatively well-off and live long lives; most children graduate from high school. To the south, in Mexico’s Nogales, Sonora, residents are much poorer, and organized crime and corruption abound. The difference, the economists found, is a U.S. system that protects property rights and gives citizens a say in their government.” 
    • There is also an interesting summary of their conclusions about why some colonized countries are doing really well now and others are not. Recommended by a  friend.

Less Serious Things Which Also Interested/Amused Glen

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. If this was forwarded to you and you want to receive future emails, sign up here. You can also view the archives.

Things Glen Found Interesting, Volume 471



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.

This is volume 471, apparently the smallest number with the property that its first 4 multiples contain the digit 4.

Things Glen Found Interesting

  1. A Concise Theology of Failure (Samuel D. James, Substack): “The gospel fuels risk-taking because we understand that whatever we fail at is nothing compared to the failure that was completely and totally wiped out by the death and resurrection of Jesus. If our worst failure has no power over us, then no other failure has that kind of power, either.”
  2. The Orwellian Evolution of Banned Books Week (John Byron Kuhner, First Things): “I go past the ‘banned books’ displays of 1984 and To Kill a Mockingbird and Beloved and The Color Purple and have to laugh: These are the opposite of banned books. These are required books, books that have been assigned reading for American students for generations. They have enjoyed most-favored-title status in the industry from the moment of publication. They are promoted books—relentlessly promoted. Indeed, calling them banned is just the latest morph of a marketing program that hasn’t stopped wanting you to read these books for—in some instances—six or seven decades now.”
  3. The Autonomy Trap (James R. Wood, Plough): “I come from a stock of relationship-quitters. During my childhood, pretty much everyone in my life had divorced at least once, extended family connections were strained, long-term friends were nonexistent, and moves were frequent. Over time I came to adopt a conception of freedom that had destroyed the lives of many around me, and which would threaten to destroy my own as well: the popular idea of freedom as unconstrained choice. Since this is impossible, the default was a more achievable version: the ability to drop commitments and relationships at any point when they become too complicated. Freedom as the license to leave when things get tough.”
  4. Some of Christianity’s Biggest Skeptics Are Becoming Vocal Converts (Nathan Guy, Christianity Today): “…intellectual conversion stories are not new. My own doctoral supervisor at Cambridge—Janet Martin Soskice—converted in college precisely because of Christianity’s intellectual satisfaction. Philosopher Edward Feser returned to the Catholicism of his youth for the same reason. But this trend seems to have increased exponentially in recent years, with a growing number of secular intellectuals making similar declarations.…. It seems many of the bright philosophers graduating from eminent programs and taking positions in prominent universities were—shockingly—theists. And many of them were Christians, bringing their intellectual powers to bear on the apologetic front. These scholars were slowly making inroads among the intelligentsia, and their influence was trickling down into the public square.” 
    • The author is a philosophy prof at Harding University. Unlocked.
  5. In a First Among Christians, Young Men Are More Religious Than Young Women (Ruth Graham, NYT): “For the first time in modern American history, young men are now more religious than their female peers. They attend services more often and are more likely to identify as religious.” 
    • Unlocked, recommended by a student
  6. Legalizing Sports Gambling Was a Huge Mistake (Charles Fain Lehman, The Atlantic): “The rise of sports gambling has caused a wave of financial and familial misery, one that falls disproportionately on the most economically precarious households. Six years into the experiment, the evidence is convincing: Legalizing sports gambling was a huge mistake.… Looking specifically at online sports gambling, they find that legalization increases the risk that a household goes bankrupt by 25 to 30 percent, and increases debt delinquency. These problems seem to concentrate among young men living in low-income counties—further evidence that those most hurt by sports gambling are the least well-off.” 
    • Unlocked.
  7. Confession of a Church Snob (Susy Flory, Substack): “My decision to try this little church, the kind I’d passed by without a thought as I was on my way to my—I’ll be honest—what I viewed as my superior big church, was directly influenced by FF Bruce [a famous Biblical scholar] who wrote in his memoir that even though he didn’t agree with all of the practices and beliefs of the Plymouth Brethren, no matter where he was in the world he looked up the closest little Plymouth Brethren outpost and quietly showed up to serve, whether it was giving, teaching, or putting away folding chairs.”
  8. Mind-Blowing Game Invented by Russian Sociology Student (YouTube, one minute): the significance of the game Werewolf (and social deduction games in general) — recommended by a student

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. If this was forwarded to you and you want to receive future emails, sign up here. You can also view the archives.

Things Glen Found Interesting, Volume 465



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.

This is volume 465, the 30th triangular number.

Things Glen Found Interesting

  1. How Did Planned Parenthood Become One of the Country’s Largest Suppliers of Testosterone? (Jennifer Block, The Free Press): “The organization would not give specific numbers, or respond to multiple requests for comment, but the insurance claim data (estimates that do not include patients who pay out of pocket) suggest that 1 in 6 U.S. teens and young adults who sought gender hormones last year were seen at Planned Parenthood. Between 2017 and 2023, affiliated clinics filed gender-related insurance claims for 12,000 youths aged 12–17.”
  2. At 28, I Taught Myself to Be Likable. Here’s How I Did It (Substack): “The guidelines you’ll see below are going to seem really rigid and judgmental. But that’s kind of what I needed. Platitudes about how I needed to ‘be myself’ and ‘let my freak flag fly’ did way more harm than good. When I asked people for advice, a lot of them gave the kneejerk response, ‘Just don’t care what other people think of you,’ which is much easier said than done, especially when it’s blatantly obvious that other people can’t stand you.” 
    • Recommended by a student.
  3. ‘I Just Have Some Questions’: An Interview With Justice Gorsuch (David French, New York Times): “I didn’t get to ask every question I wanted to, but our conversation covered a lot of ground, including Gorsuch’s indictment of the regulatory state, his approach to evaluating agency expertise, the problem of mass incarceration and coercive plea bargaining, his jurisprudence holding the United States accountable for its obligations to Native Americans and his definition of originalism and the role of history in understanding the Constitution.” 
    • Unlocked.
  4. Israel-related:
    • For college students arrested protesting the war in Gaza, the fallout was only beginning (Christopher Heller et all, Associated Press): “Some 3,200 people were arrested this spring during a wave of pro-Palestinian tent encampments protesting the war in Gaza. While some colleg es ended demonstrations by striking deals with the students, or simply waited them out, others called in police when protesters refused to leave. Many students have already seen those charges dismissed. But the cases have yet to be resolved for hundreds of people at campuses that saw the highest number of arrests, according to an analysis of data gathered by The Associated Press and partner newsrooms.”
    • Why Israel Escalates (Dalia Dasse Kaye, Foreign Affairs): “…Israeli defense officials do not necessarily feel comfortable relying on deterrence by denial—that is, by convincing adversaries that attacks would not succeed—as the United States prefers. In these officials’ view, the April defense of Israel was not a total success because, ultimately, the defensive coalition did not prevent the attack; it only limited the damage. Israeli defense planners prefer deterrence by punishment—showing adversaries that attacks will provoke consequences.”
    • Israel Isn’t ‘Risking’ a Regional War (Kevin Williamson, The Dispatch): “…Israel is not ‘risking a regional war.’ Israel is involved in a regional war, one that was forced upon it by Iran, sometimes using proxies and sometimes using its own forces directly, as it did on April 13, when it attacked Israel with more than 300 missiles and drones. The Houthis, Iran’s proxy in Yemen, are waging war on Israel—including a recent drone attack on Tel Aviv—as well as waging a war on the United States, attacking a U.S. Navy vessel in May, and conducting a wider military campaign against shipping in the Red Sea.” May be paywalled.
  5. Scientists Discover ‘Dark Oxygen’ on the Ocean Floor Generated—Surprisingly—by Lumps of Metal (Shi En Kim, Smithsonian Magazine): “Twelve thousand feet under the ocean surface is a world of eternal midnight. No sunlight can penetrate to this depth to promote photosynthesis, so no plants are producing oxygen there. Yet, the life-supporting gas is abundant in this darkness-cloaked region, thanks to an unlikely oxygen factory: potato-sized, ‘battery rocks’ on the seafloor.”
  6. US abortion numbers have risen slightly since Roe was overturned, study finds (Geoff Mulvihill & Kimberlee Kruesi, Associated Press): “The number of women getting abortions in the U.S. actually went up in the first three months of 2024 compared with before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, a report released Wednesday found, reflecting the lengths that Democratic-controlled states went to expand access.” 
    • Related: Kamala’s Abortion Extremism (Ryan T. Anderson, First Things): “…the Democratic Party under Harris is as radically pro-abortion as it can possibly be. Short of coming out for killing toddlers, there simply is no way to be more extreme than Kamala Harris and her party now are. Kamala Harris is a hard-core ideologue—an abortion extremist—and has been since her first days as an elected official. As president, she would be no different.”
  7. Political or political-adjacent (the disclaimers at the bottom really matter — I didn’t write these articles, I just found them interesting and pass them along with nonpartisan intent — wait long enough and you’ll see articles making pointed observations in all directions. They’re focused one way this week because that’s how the news cycle rolled this time around): 
    • Are Democrats really more likely to be childless cat ladies? (Andrew Van Dam, Washington Post): “…we had no idea what our friend Julie Zauzmer Weil was getting at when she asked if there was any evidence to support the notion of the ‘childless left.’ Weil, who you’ll recognize from her tremendous tax and data stories for The Washington Post, clarified further: ‘Do Republicans have more kids than Democrats? It doesn’t seem obvious to me that it would be true.’ The simple answer, however? Yes! About 38 percent of Democrats had never had children as of 2022, compared with 26 percent of Republicans, according to the universally beloved General Social Survey from the universally beloved NORC at the University of Chicago.”
    • Democratic Party’s choice of Harris was undemocratic − and the latest evidence of party leaders distrusting party voters (Daniel Klinghard, The Conversation): “But for the first time since 1968, the Democratic nominee will win the nomination without winning a single primary vote. This may not be as much of a democratic backslide as that of the previous so-called ‘mixed period.’ But it would be a culmination of the elite-oriented trends that have shaped the nominating process since 1984, in which party elites have played an increasingly large role in shaping the presidential nomination.” Recommended by a student who said “this article left me with many thoughts to chew on.”
    • Five faith facts about Harris pick Tim Walz, a ‘Minnesota Lutheran’ Dad (Jack Jenkins, Religion News Service): “Walz is Lutheran.… He does not often discuss his faith publicly but has posted about attending worship during Christmas and other services at various Lutheran churches. Walz refers to Pilgrim Lutheran Church in St. Paul — a congregation in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, a mainline denomination — as ‘my parish.’ ”
    • Walz’s Brand Is More Left than Lutheran Among Minnesota Evangelicals (Harvest Prude, Christianity Today): “For the average Missouri Synod member, both pastor and lay member, [Walz] absolutely will not be seen as one of us,” Hans Fiene, a Lutheran pastor in Missouri and creator of Lutheran Satire, a multimedia project to teach about the Lutheran faith, told CT. “So there won’t be any kind of situation like with Biden being a Catholic, where Catholics go, Well, he doesn’t really represent us, but he’s still a Catholic.”
      • Lutheran Satire guy! Great YouTube videos.

Less Serious Things Which Also Interested/Amused Glen

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. If this was forwarded to you and you want to receive future emails, sign up here. You can also view the archives.

Things Glen Found Interesting, Volume 461



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.

This is volume 461, a prime number.

Things Glen Found Interesting

  1. So You’ve Decided to Vote for an Unfit Candidate (O. Alan Noble, Substack): “Come November, most voters will choose between two presidential candidates, neither of whom are fit for office, as I have previously argued. I’m not just arguing that they are sinners and therefore ‘evil’ in the sense that everyone is fallen; I’m arguing that they are specifically unjust and immoral and unfit for positions of national leadership.… There are many issues to take into account when voting for a candidate, but one of them is how your vote will form your own soul.”
  2. Articles making observations rarely heard in high-status society: 
    • New Research Finds Huge Differences Between Male and Female Brains (Leonard Sax, Psychology Today): “As you can see, there wasn’t a continuum: the female fingerprints of brain activity were quite different from the male fingerprints of resting brain activity, with no overlap. These findings strongly suggest that what’s going on in a woman’s brain at rest is significantly different from what’s going on in a man’s brain at rest.”
    • How divorce never ends (Bridget Phetasy, The Spectator): “All of this is to say something you don’t hear that often: divorce will affect your kids for the rest of their lives, well into adulthood. They will have split holidays and summers. They will have stepparents. Their kids will have step-grandparents. Whatever inheritance they would have been entitled to is often being divvied up with other spouses and their kids. More important than the money, however, is the attention they’ll never get because their parents are dating or remarrying or whatever. They will only be with one parent half of the year — if they’re lucky: we only saw my dad twice a year. They will have to choose who gets Christmas, forever. Or they will be bouncing around at holiday time with their kids, just like the old days.”
    • The Real Problem With Legal Weed (Charles Fain Lehman, New York Times Magazine): “While marijuana may not be as bad as some critics claim, the medical evidence is clear that it can do substantial harm. Marijuana is addictive — around 30 percent of users use compulsively, even as their use harms themselves and the people around them.… Marijuana does hurt a substantial portion of its consumers, often quite badly. And there is no reason to think that businesses won’t sell marijuana to those it hurts, if they’re allowed to. What the alcohol and tobacco markets show us, rather, is that addiction and profit don’t mix well.” 
      • Unlocked.
    • We deserve a more nuanced conversation about working moms (Rachel M. Cohen, Vox): “After the essay on motherhood dread was published, I heard from Sharon Sassler, a Cornell University sociologist who studies relationships and gender. She had recently published a paper on gender wage gaps in the computer science field and found that mothers in computer science actually earned more than childless women (though this ‘wage premium’ was significantly less than what fathers earned). ‘It was difficult for me to find a home for the attached article because reviewers cannot fathom that mothers might out-earn single women, though there is a growing body of evidence that [they] do,’ she wrote in her email to me. ‘It might be selection [bias] … but given that folks have found this across disciplines suggests that the motherhood penalty really needs to be reassessed.’ I was curious about Sassler’s suggestion that moms might actually earn more and that we don’t often hear that because gatekeepers ‘seem to like the narrative that women are always screwed by family.’”
  3. This Is What Elite Failure Looks Like (Oren Cass, New York Times): “Taking the majority’s preferences seriously, even when they conflict with the preferences of more sophisticated experts, is often disparaged as populism. But while elected officials and their technocratic advisers may have special insight into how the people’s goals are best achieved, only the people can determine what those goals should be and whether they are being met…. While policy initiatives so often seek to maximize efficiency and growth, move people to opportunity and redistribute from the economy’s winners to the losers, the typical American has an attachment to place, a focus on family, a commitment to making things, and would accept economic trade-offs in pursuit of those priorities.… The important feature of all these preferences is that they are inherently valid. No set of facts or statistical analyses, to which an expert might have superior access, overrides what people actually value and what trade-offs they would choose to make. Leaders might seek to shape public opinion and alter preferences — indeed, that is part of leading — but they must yield to the outcome. Their obligation is to pursue the community’s priorities, not their own.”
  4. Missionaries Have Gone to Thailand for 200 Years. Why Aren’t There More Christians? (Rebecca Brittingham, Christianity Today): “Yet the freedom that Christians enjoy in Thailand hasn’t translated into a wide acceptance of Christianity by local Thais. Despite nearly 200 years of Protestant missions, only about 1.2 percent of the population are Christians. The question of why Thailand is such difficult soil for the seed of the gospel to grow has plagued missionaries, as many have seen little fruit for the years they’ve spent learning Thai, building relationships, and trying to introduce locals to the gospel.”
  5. I Went From Foster Care to Yale. This Is What I Learned About ‘Luxury Beliefs.’ (Rob K. Henderson, New York Times on YouTube): six minute video. 
    • This is worth watching even if you’re familiar with his ‘luxury beliefs’ concept.
    • I actually had dinner in a group with Rob on Sunday night. We’re not friends — I just saw that he was in town and willing to meet up with people so I DMd him on Twitter. Nice guy.
  6. How Liberal College Campuses Benefit Conservative Students (Lauren A. Wright, The Atlantic): “Conservative culture warriors argue that education at highly selective colleges is worthless, and recommend that conservative students who don’t want to be silenced or indoctrinated opt out. I disagree. Conservative students experience what higher education has long claimed to offer: exposure to different perspectives, regular practice building and defending coherent arguments, intellectual challenges that spur creativity and growth. Liberal academia has largely robbed liberal students of these rewards.” 
    • The author is a political science professor at Princeton. No paywall.
  7. Reliable Sources: How Wikipedia Admin David Gerard Launders His Grudges Into the Public Record (Tracing Woodgrains, Substack): “Wikipedia’s job is to repeat what Reliable Sources say. David Gerard’s mission is to determine what Reliable Sources are, using any arguments at his disposal that instrumentally favor sources he finds agreeable.… From there, it’s simple: Wikipedia editors dutifully etch onto the page, with a neutral point of view, that Huffington Post writers think this, PinkNews editors think that, and experienced Harvard professors who make the mistake of writing for The Free Press think nothing fit for an encyclopedia.” 
    • This is a long, wild article about internet minutiae. But if you’ve ever wondered about bias on Wikipedia, dive in.

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. If this was forwarded to you and you want to receive future emails, sign up here. You can also view the archives.