{"id":4732,"date":"2017-10-20T10:01:13","date_gmt":"2017-10-20T18:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/?p=4732"},"modified":"2017-10-20T05:17:31","modified_gmt":"2017-10-20T13:17:31","slug":"things-glen-found-interesting-volume-123","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2017\/10\/20\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-123","title":{"rendered":"Things Glen Found Interesting, Volume 123"},"content":{"rendered":"

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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.<\/p>\n

Things Glen Found Interesting<\/h3>\n
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  1. Meet The \u201cYoung Saints\u201d Of Bethel Who Go To College To Perform Miracles<\/span><\/a> (Molly Hensley-Clancy, Buzzfeed): \u201cBehind Bethel\u2019s rise is the enormous talent and ambition of the church\u2019s magnetizing leaders, Bill Johnson and Kris Vallotton, who cofounded BSSM in 1998. Depending on who you ask, Vallotton and Johnson are geniuses, false prophets, or both. What\u2019s undeniable is that with Vallotton at his side, Johnson, a fifth-generation pastor, has transformed a small, unremarkable local church into what Christianity Today called \u2018a hub of a global revival movement.\u2019\u201d Fair and interesting \u2014 much better than other stories I have seen. I know a lot about Bethel and I learned several things from this piece.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. A Letter to Jamie Dimon (and anyone else still struggling to understand cryptocurrencies)<\/span><\/a> (Adam Ludwin, company blog): this is a genuinely helpful explanation of what Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are good for. \u201cThey\u2019re a new model for creating, financing, and operating software services in a way that is decentralized top-to-bottom. That doesn\u2019t make them <\/span>better <\/span><\/i>or <\/span>worse<\/span><\/i> than existing software models or the corporate entities that create them. As we\u2019ll see later, there are major trade-offs. What we can say is simply that they are <\/span>radically <\/span><\/i>different from software as we know it today and <\/span>radically <\/span><\/i>different from the forms of organization we are used to.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Meeting Middle East Christians is where Western stereotypes go to die<\/span><\/a> (John Allen, Crux): \u201cSpending time among the Christians of the Middle East is always an edifying experience, but for Westerners it packs a special punch. That\u2019s because the Christian population of this perennially troubled region often is where Western stereotypes about the Middle East go to die.\u201d The more you follow global news the more surprising you will consider the author\u2019s claims to be.<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. Chinese House Church Leaders and Toddler Arrested After Singing in Public Park<\/span><\/a> (Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra, Christianity Today): \u201cOther provinces have been coming down especially hard on religious education for children. In Zhejiang province\u2014where hundreds of crosses were torn off churches over the past several years\u2014elementary and middle school children weren\u2019t allowed to attend church or Sunday school this summer.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. 4 Specific Things You Lose When You Leave Christianity<\/a> (Kristi Harrison, Cracked) \u2014 this is well-written and heartbreaking. \u201cI have no idea why anyone thinks church is boring. In my experience, church was not a slog through old songs, tired rituals, or heavy-handed sermons; it was an addictive, engaging experience where I felt like I had a seat at the table with the creator of the Universe.\u201d<\/li>\n
  6. Science v. Science+<\/span><\/a> (David Heddle, personal blog): \u201cSo scientifically, at least, science and faith are not incompatible\u2013unless you devise a way to measure\/detect the incompatibility. I have proposed two experiments: 1. I\u2019ll give you ten papers from tier\u20111 peer-reviewed journals. Five from atheists, five from theists, with the names redacted. Detect the incompatibility and accurately separate the papers into the two groups. 2. Design an experiment that can be done by an atheistic scientist and not a theistic scientist.\u201d The author is a physics professor at Christopher Newport University.<\/span><\/li>\n
  7. Freedom not to choose is a faith worth believing in<\/span><\/a> (David Mitchell, The Guardian):  \u201cI always say I\u2019m agnostic because I\u2019d like there to be a God \u2013 a nice liberal one \u2013 but I can\u2019t be sure there is and the idea of regular religious observance unnerves me because it would be unusual in my peer group. Not a very well thought-through philosophy, I know. But in the absence of family or societal pressures, in a context of almost complete religious freedom, many of us rely on similar back-of-an-envelope answers to eternal questions, because adopting the answers thousands of full-time ponderers have come up with over thousands of years feels like squandering that freedom.\u201d David Mitchell is a British comedian\/public intellectual (sort of) \u2014 if you\u2019re unfamiliar with him, watch some clips from the British game show Would I Lie To You? A good first clip is <\/span>David Mitchell\u2019s Code For Noteworthiness<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Things Glen Found Entertaining\/Amusing<\/h3>\n