{"id":4826,"date":"2018-01-12T09:00:06","date_gmt":"2018-01-12T17:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/?p=4826"},"modified":"2018-01-12T08:36:39","modified_gmt":"2018-01-12T16:36:39","slug":"things-glen-found-interesting-volume-134","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2018\/01\/12\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-134","title":{"rendered":"Things Glen Found Interesting, Volume 134"},"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. \u2018Walking a line\u2019: The shrewd tactics of the White House\u2019s evangelical gatekeeper<\/span><\/a> (Michelle Boorstein & Sarah Pulliam Bailey, The Washington Post):  \u201cThe Senate race in Alabama and Christian nationalist Roy Moore? \u2018I\u2019m not involved.\u2019 Trump\u2019s penchant for lying? \u2018I don\u2019t want to get into it. Because I don\u2019t focus on those things.\u2019 The GOP tax law that bitterly divided religious leaders? \u2018I don\u2019t think there\u2019s an answer.\u2019 \u2018For me, that\u2019s all noise,\u2019 he said. \u2018It\u2019s not that it isn\u2019t important, but I don\u2019t have time for all that\u2026 If I did dig into it, I might have stronger opinions, and that would be a distraction for me.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. The Top 50 Countries Where It\u2019s Most Dangerous to Follow Jesus<\/span><\/a> (Sarah Zylstra, Christianity Today): \u201cFor decades, North Korea has clearly been the world\u2019s worst persecutor of Christians. But now, another nation nearly matches it.\u201d Spoiler alert: Afghanistan.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Classical Liberalism Strikes Out<\/span><\/a> (Rod Dreher, The American Conservative): \u201c<\/span>Thus, the irony: individualism and statism are not opposites, but grow together in tandem. In our daily partisan politics, we have tended to pit individualism against statism \u2013 Ayn Rand against Karl Marx \u2013 with conservatives claiming to be individualists and progressives claiming to support an expansive state. But what we have witnessed is the simultaneous growth of both the state and the rise of individualism, not as opposites, but as necessary partners. The world has never seen a more individualistic society nor a more encompassing state. The state has empowered itself by claiming to empower the individual.\u201d This is a very stimulating interview with Notre Dame professor Patrick Deneen. Highly recommended.<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. Higher Education Is Drowning In BS<\/span><\/a> (Christian Smith, Chronicle of Higher Education): \u201cIdeas and their accompanying practices have consequences. What is formed in colleges and universities over decades shows up for better or worse in the character and quality of our public servants, political campaigns, public-policy debates, citizen participation, social capital, media programming, lower school education, consumer preferences, business ethics, entertainments, and much more. And the long-term corrosive effects on politics and culture can also be repaired only over the long term, if ever. There are no quick fixes here.\u201d Side note: I\u2019ve met Dr. Smith, who is a sociologist at Notre Dame, before. He\u2019s a smart cookie. <\/span><\/li>\n
  5. Oprah: Prophet, Priestess \u2026 Queen?<\/span><\/a> (Ross Douthat, New York Times):  \u201cAmerican culture is divided between three broad approaches to religious questions: one traditional, one spiritual and one secular. The traditional approach takes various forms (Catholic and Protestant, Muslim and Orthodox Jewish) but its instincts are creedal, confessional, dogmatic; it believes in a specific revelation, a specific authority and a specific holy book, and seeks to conform itself to teachings handed down from the religious past. The secular approach is post-religious, scientistic, convinced that the laboratory and the microscope will ultimately account for everything that matters, while hopefully justifying a liberal society\u2019s still-somewhat-Christian moral commitments along the way. But in between secularism and traditionalism lies the most American approach to matters of faith\u2026.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n
  6. Can We Teach Ourselves to Believe?<\/span><\/a> (Agnes Callard, New York Times): <\/span>\u201cPascal seems to concede that <\/span>trying to believe<\/span><\/i> is a matter of wishful thinking, self-deception or self-manipulation. He thinks we should do it anyway. But I think our hope of becoming better people \u2014 whether in respect of religion, friendship or justice, or in any number of different ways \u2014 rests on the possibility that there is a more straightforward and less self-abasing way to try to believe.\u201d The author is a professor of philosophy at the University of Chicago. <\/span><\/li>\n
  7. The Legion Lonely<\/span><\/a> (Steven Thomas, Hazlitt): \u201cFriendship in adulthood is a challenge for a lot of people. On average, both men and women start to lose friends around age 25, and continue to lose friends steadily for the rest of our lives.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Less Serious Things Which Also Interested\/Amused Glen<\/h3>\n