{"id":4837,"date":"2018-01-26T17:57:18","date_gmt":"2018-01-27T01:57:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/?p=4837"},"modified":"2018-01-26T17:57:18","modified_gmt":"2018-01-27T01:57:18","slug":"things-glen-found-interesting-volume-136","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2018\/01\/26\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-136","title":{"rendered":"Things Glen Found Interesting, Volume 136"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/issachar-update-logo-wordswag\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-4396\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/issachar-update-logo-wordswag.png?resize=300%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/issachar-update-logo-wordswag.png?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/issachar-update-logo-wordswag.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/issachar-update-logo-wordswag.png?resize=768%2C768&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/issachar-update-logo-wordswag.png?resize=1024%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/issachar-update-logo-wordswag.png?resize=1200%2C1200&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/issachar-update-logo-wordswag.png?w=2048&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/issachar-update-logo-wordswag.png?w=1680&amp;ssl=1 1680w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 85vw, 300px\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>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&nbsp;way.<\/p>\n<h3>Things Glen Found Interesting<\/h3>\n<ol class=\"simple-list\">\n<li>Trump has been president for about a year now. Here are some perspectives (if you only read one, read the one you think you\u2019ll disagree with&nbsp;most):&nbsp;<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/trumps-first-year-was-even-worse-than-feared\/2017\/12\/25\/b0991572-e753-11e7-ab50-621fe0588340_story.html?utm_term=.d9b1919badbd\">Trump\u2019s first year was even worse than feared<\/a> (Eugene Robinson, Washington Post): &nbsp;\u201cMany of us began 2017 with the consoling thought that the Donald Trump presidency couldn\u2019t possibly be as bad as we feared. It turned out to be&nbsp;worse.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/i-wasnt-a-trump-supporter-i-am-now\/2018\/01\/19\/58abd43a-fca2-11e7-a46b-a3614530bd87_story.html?utm_term=.1817eb50ad3c\">I wasn\u2019t a Trump supporter. I am now.<\/a> (Mollie Hemingway, Washington Post): \u201cMy expectations were low \u2014 so low that he could have met them by simply not being President Hillary Clinton. But a year into this presidency, he\u2019s exceeded those expectations by quite a bit. I\u2019m thrilled.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/01\/17\/opinion\/trump-voters-supporters.html?_r=1\">\u2018Vision, Chutzpah and Some Testosterone\u2019<\/a> (New York Times): \u201cGranted we have the most unpresidential president of our time. Crude, rude, clueless dude \u2014 but I believe, with the help of his friends, he\u2019s stumbling through one of the most effective presidencies in memory.\u201d This is from a collection of letters to the NY Times by Trump supporters.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/posteverything\/wp\/2018\/01\/24\/this-one-trick-explains-the-conservative-assessments-of-trumps-first-year\/?utm_term=.0573b0f92d08\">This one trick explains the pattern of conservative praise for Trump\u2019s first year<\/a> (Dan Drezner, Washington Post): \u201cAll of this is consistent with assessments that Trump\u2019s first year, even from a conservative perspective, has been pretty mediocre.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/01\/20\/opinion\/sunday\/trump-so-far-is-more-farce-than-tragedy.html\">Trump So Far Is More Farce Than Tragedy<\/a> (Ross Douthat, New York Times): \u201cA vast gulf between the things Trump says he wants \u2014 which are, indeed, often authoritarian \u2014 and the things that actually happen is the essential characteristic of his presidency\u2019s first year.\u2026 his cabinet looks a lot like a generic Republican administration, whose efforts liberals understandably oppose and sometimes deplore, but which are not remotely like the workings of a fascist cabal circa&nbsp;1935.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/view\/articles\/2018-01-22\/president-trump-s-first-year-in-14-metrics?utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=newsletter&amp;utm_term=180122&amp;utm_campaign=sharetheview\">President Trump\u2019s First Year, in 14 Metrics<\/a> (Mike Nizza, Blomberg View): \u201cLast year our columnists selected a range of conventional and whimsical metrics by which to judge the success of the new president. We revisit them here. Bottom line: By these measures, he\u2019s doing better than his opponents will admit and worse than his supporters believe.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/society\/2018\/jan\/07\/is-everything-you-think-you-know-about-depression-wrong-johann-hari-lost-connections\">Is everything you think you know about depression wrong? <\/a>(Johann Hari, The Guardian): \u201cOnce you settle into a story about your pain, you are extremely reluctant to challenge it. It was like a leash I had put on my distress to keep it under some control. I feared that if I messed with the story I had lived with for so long, the pain would run wild, like an unchained animal. Yet the scientific evidence was showing me something clear, and I couldn\u2019t ignore it.\u201d&nbsp;<ul>\n<li>This reminds me of an article that made an impression upon me back in 2003: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/magazine\/archive\/2003\/08\/the-pursuit-of-happiness\/303096\/\">The Pursuit of Happiness<\/a> (Benjamin Healy interviewing Carl Elliott, The Atlantic): \u201cOn Prozac, Sisyphus might well push the boulder back up the mountain with more enthusiasm and more creativity. I do not want to deny the benefits of psychoactive medication. I just want to point out that Sisyphus is not a patient with a mental health problem. To see him as a patient with a mental health problem is to ignore certain larger aspects of his predicament connected to boulders, mountains, and eternity.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>See also <a href=\"http:\/\/digg.com\/2018\/wake-therapy-depression\">Staying Awake Is A Surprisingly Effective Way To Treat Depression<\/a> (Linda Geddes, Digg): &nbsp;\u201c\u2018Sleep deprivation really has opposite effects in healthy people and those with depression,\u2019 says Benedetti. If you\u2019re healthy and you don\u2019t sleep, you\u2019ll feel in a bad mood. But if you\u2019re depressed, it can prompt an immediate improvement in mood, and in cognitive abilities.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Follow up to last week: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/news\/2018\/january\/bolivia-evo-morales-revokes-evangelism-ban-criminal-code.html\">Bolivia\u2019s President Revokes Evangelism Restrictions <\/a>(Morgan Lee, Christianity Today): \u201cPresident Evo Morales Ayma announced that he will tell the South American nation\u2019s Legislative Assembly to repeal the entire penal code in the wake of recent changes that, among other tweaks, introduced severe restrictions on religious freedom.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/aeon.co\/essays\/how-did-usury-stop-being-a-sin-and-become-respectable-finance\">Of Money and Morals<\/a> (Alex Mayyasi, Aeon): \u201cToday, a banker listening to a theologian seems like a curiosity, a category error. But for most of history, this kind of dialogue was the norm.\u201d I was reluctant to read this piece because I\u2019ve read others that were off-puttingly ill-informed, but I was pleasantly surprised.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/free-speech-issue-tech-turmoil-new-censorship\/\">It\u2019s the (Democracy-Poisoning) Golden Age of Free Speech<\/a> (Zeynep Tufekci, Wired): \u201cThe most effective forms of censorship today involve meddling with trust and attention, not muzzling speech itself. As a result, they don\u2019t look much like the old forms of censorship at all. They look like viral or coordinated harassment campaigns, which harness the dynamics of viral outrage to impose an unbearable and disproportionate cost on the act of speaking out.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h3>Less Serious Things Which Also Interested\/Amused Glen<\/h3>\n<ul class=\"simple-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/imgur.com\/tx6DyU3\">How to turn a balloon into a lid<\/a> (animated gif)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/babylonbee.com\/news\/russian-orthodox-church-accused-interfering-doctrine-election\/\">Russian Orthodox Church Accused Of Interfering With Doctrine of Election<\/a> &nbsp;(Babylon Bee): this is a genius headline<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/imgur.com\/gallery\/tfJeQ\">What Men Are Really Thinking<\/a> (animated gif)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gocomics.com\/pearlsbeforeswine\/2018\/01\/21\">The Six Stages of Marriage<\/a> (Pearls Before Swine)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/imgur.com\/yz57QPQ\">I Would Watch This Show<\/a> (image)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/babylonbee.com\/news\/confirmed-missing-fbi-text-messages-either-huge-scandal-nothing-depending-political-leanings\/\">Confirmed: Missing FBI Text Messages Either Huge Scandal Or Nothing At All, Depending On Your Political Leanings<\/a> (Babylon Bee)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cracked.com\/article_25258_5-movie-stunts-that-looked-even-crazier-behind-scenes.html\">5 Movie Stunts That Looked Even Crazier Behind The Scenes<\/a> (Jim Avery, Cracked)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Things Glen Found Interesting A While&nbsp;Ago<\/h3>\n<p>Every week I\u2019ll highlight an older link still worth your consideration. This week we have <a href=\"http:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2015\/08\/21\/christian-missions-and-the-spread-of-democracy\/\">Christian Missions and the Spread of Democracy<\/a> (Greg Scandlen, The Federalist): This is a summary of some rather wonderful research Robert Woodberry published in The American Political Science Review back in 2012: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.academia.edu\/2128659\/The_Missionary_Roots_of_Liberal_Democracy\">The Missionary Roots of Liberal Democracy<\/a>. If it looks familiar it\u2019s because I allude to it from time to time in my sermons and conversations. (first shared in <a href=\"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2015\/08\/28\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-14\">volume 14<\/a>)<\/p>\n<h3><b>Why Do You Send This&nbsp;Email?<\/b><\/h3>\n<p>In the time of King David, the tribe of Issachar produced shrewd warriors \u201cwho understood the times and knew what Israel should do\u201d (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.<\/p>\n<h3><b>Disclaimer<\/b><\/h3>\n<p>Chi Alpha is not a partisan organization. To paraphrase another minister: we are not about the donkey\u2019s agenda and we are not about the elephant\u2019s agenda \u2014 we are about the Lamb\u2019s agenda. Having said that, I read widely (in part because I believe we should aspire to pass <a href=\"http:\/\/econlog.econlib.org\/archives\/2011\/06\/the_ideological.html\">the ideological Turing test<\/a> and in part because I do not believe I can fairly say \u201cI agree\u201d or \u201cI disagree\u201d until I can say \u201cI understand\u201d) 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\u2019ll usually mention it).<\/p>\n<p>Also, remember that I\u2019m not reporting news \u2014 I\u2019m giving you a selection of things I found interesting. There\u2019s a lot happening in the world that\u2019s not making an appearance here because I haven\u2019t found stimulating articles written about&nbsp;it.<\/p>\n<p>Archives at <a href=\"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/category\/links\">http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/category\/links<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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&nbsp;way. Things Glen Found Interesting Trump has been president for about a year now. Here are some perspectives (if you \u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2018\/01\/26\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-136\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> \u201cThings Glen Found Interesting, Volume 136\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[16],"tags":[128,152,161,126,117,183],"class_list":["post-4837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links","tag-economics","tag-free-speech","tag-global-christianity","tag-persecution","tag-politics","tag-psychology"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-1g1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4837"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4840,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4837\/revisions\/4840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}