{"id":4841,"date":"2018-02-02T19:22:38","date_gmt":"2018-02-03T03:22:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/?p=4841"},"modified":"2018-02-02T19:22:38","modified_gmt":"2018-02-03T03:22:38","slug":"things-glen-found-interesting-volume-137","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2018\/02\/02\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-137","title":{"rendered":"Things Glen Found Interesting, Volume 137"},"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><a href=\"http:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/ct\/2018\/january-web-only\/rachael-denhollander-larry-nassar-forgiveness-gospel.html\">My Larry Nassar Testimony Went Viral. But There\u2019s More to the Gospel Than Forgiveness.<\/a> (Morgan Lee interviewing Rachael Denhollander, Christianity Today): \u201cOne of the areas where Christians don\u2019t do well is in acknowledging the devastation of the wound. We can tend to gloss over the devastation of any kind of suffering but especially sexual assault, with Christian platitudes like <i>God works all things together for good<\/i> or <i>God is sovereign<\/i>. Those are very good and glorious biblical truths, but when they are misapplied in a way to dampen the horror of evil, they ultimately dampen the goodness of God. Goodness and darkness exist as opposites. If we pretend that the darkness isn\u2019t dark, it dampens the beauty of the&nbsp;light.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Want to see a spat between two brilliant theologians?&nbsp;<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.christiancentury.org\/review\/books\/new-testament-strange-words-david-bentley-hart\">The New Testament in the strange words of David Bentley Hart<\/a> (N.T. Wright, The Christian Century): \u201cWhen a theologian of the stature of David Bentley Hart offers a \u2018pitilessly literal translation\u2019 of the New Testament that is \u2018not shaped by later theological and doctrinal history\u2019 and aims to make \u2018the familiar strange, novel, and perhaps newly compelling,\u2019 we are eager to see the result. He promises to bring out the \u2018wildly indiscriminate polyphony\u2019 of the writers\u2019 styles and emphases, converging on their \u2018vibrant certainty that history has been invaded by God in Christ in such a way that nothing can stay as it was.\u2019 But his two main claims (to be \u2018literal\u2019 and \u2018undogmatic\u2019) are not borne out, and the promise of displaying the strangeness of early Christian life disappears behind different kinds of strangeness.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/afkimel.wordpress.com\/2018\/01\/16\/a-reply-to-n-t-wright\/\">A Reply To N.T. Wright<\/a> (David Bentley Hart, Eclectic Orthodoxy): \u201c[A rebuttal] wherein, at long last, our author unburdens himself of a great number of complaints he has long wished to make against that pious man\u2019s earnest but problematic approach to the New Testament, embellished with a few moments of sly mockery, but ultimately intended as a good-natured\u2014albeit inflexible\u2014expression of deep disagreement.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/ct\/2018\/january-web-only\/n-t-wright-david-bentley-hart-bible-translation-debate.html\">Translating the N. T. Wright and David Bentley Hart Tussle<\/a> &nbsp;(Caleb Lindgren, Christianity Today): \u201cWhile the verbal sparring is both sharp and entertaining (and perhaps off-putting to certain sensibilities), there is a valuable point at the heart of this debate\u2014one that is worth noting as these two Bible scholarship heavy-hitters take swings at each other\u2019s work.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/2018\/01\/30\/fake-porn-is-the-new-fake-news-and-the-internet-isn-t-ready\/\">Fake porn is the new fake news, and the internet isn\u2019t ready<\/a> (Nicole Lee, Engadget): \u201cMotherboard recently uncovered a disturbing new trend on Reddit, in which users create AI-generated pornographic clips by swapping other people\u2019s faces onto porn stars\u2026. Needless to say, this has frightening consequences. Not only does this open the door for a horrifying new kind of revenge porn, where a vengeful ex could slap your face on an X\u2011rated video, it also opens a Pandora\u2019s box of fears where nothing on the internet can ever be trusted.\u201d The embedded (non-sketchy) gif is alarmingly realistic. The technology is already good enough that we\u2019re at a tipping point, and it will only get more effective in the future.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/digg.com\/2018\/strava-secret-military-bases-soldier-names\">A Workout-Tracking App Accidentally Revealed The Location Of A Bunch Of Secret Military Bases And Soldiers\u2019 Names<\/a> (Digg): \u201cStrava, a GPS-enabled mobile app that allows users to track their running, biking and swimming workouts, is attracting controversy after observers noticed that its global workout heatmap apparently revealed the location of secret military bases and the exercise habits of individual troops on those bases.\u201d Oops. Technology has consequences. Remember that, you startuppy types.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/02\/01\/opinion\/abortion-democrats-compromise.html\">The Abortion Memo<\/a> (David Brooks, New York Times): \u201cI\u2019m asking us to rethink our priorities. What does America need most right now? One of our talking points is that late-term abortions are extremely rare. If they are extremely rare, why are we giving them priority over all of our other issues combined?\u201d<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/theweek.com\/articles\/749978\/female-price-male-pleasure?utm_source=links&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_campaign=twitter\">The female price of male pleasure<\/a> (Lili Loofbourow, The Week): \u201cBecause if you\u2019re going to wax poetic about male pleasure, you had better be ready to talk about its secret, unpleasant, ubiquitous cousin: female pain. Research shows that 30 percent of women report pain during vaginal sex, 72 percent report pain during anal sex, and \u2018large proportions\u2019 don\u2019t tell their partners when sex hurts.\u201d First, fascinating because I had no idea. Second, because the author is so cocooned in assumptions stemming from the sexual revolution that she doesn\u2019t seem to have considered whether this is a symptom of the whole thing being unhealthy and mistaken on key points.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.stephenwolfram.com\/2018\/01\/showing-off-to-the-universe-beacons-for-the-afterlife-of-our-civilization\/\">Showing Off To the Universe: Beacons For The Afterlife of Our Civilization<\/a> (Steven Wolfram, personal blog): \u201cThere\u2019s a thought experiment I\u2019ve long found useful. Imagine a very advanced civilization, that\u2019s able to move things like stars and planets around at will. What arrangement would they put them in? Maybe they\u2019d want to make a \u2018beacon of purpose\u2019. And maybe\u2014like Kant\u2014one could think that would be achievable by setting up some \u2018recognizable\u2019 geometric pattern. Like how about an equilateral triangle? But no, that won\u2019t do. Because for example the Trojan asteroids actually form an equilateral triangle with Jupiter and the Sun already, just as a result of physics. And pretty soon one realizes that there\u2019s actually nothing the aliens could do to \u2018prove their purpose\u2019. The configuration of stars in the sky may look kind of random to us (except, of course, that we still see constellations in it). But there\u2019s nothing to say that looked at in the right way it doesn\u2019t actually represent some grand purpose.\u201d A long but fascinating essay about how difficult it is to encode a message that unambiguously communicates intelligence. Relevance to natural theology should be obvious (although Wolfram, being an atheist, goes in a different direction).<\/li>\n<li>Some of our students and alumni have published things recently:&nbsp;<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/stanfordreview.org\/the-one-lesson-we-do-not-learn-at-stanford\/\">The One Lesson We Do Not Learn at Stanford<\/a> (Hugh Zhang, The Stanford Review): \u201cIf we fail to develop the type of character needed to resist temptation when the stakes are so low, how can we be trusted to resist them when they are higher? What we do at Stanford <i>is<\/i> less harmful than the failings of the powerful. But it is only less harmful because our power is yet limited. When those in prominent positions act as we do, we rightly fear for society\u2019s well being\u2026. If we truly believe that the duty of a university is to prepare us for our responsibilities in the world beyond these idyllic palm trees, then the most important lesson we can learn here at Stanford is the age old lesson of integrity: the ability to do what is right even when no one is looking.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/reberhardt.com\/blog\/2018\/01\/29\/can-i-help-you.html\">Can I Help You?<\/a> (Ryan Eberhardt, personal blog): \u201cMy friend Arjun committed suicide last September. I\u2019m \u2018over it\u2019 in as much of a functional sense as possible, but I still think about him all the time. I miss him so much. He was among my best friends in high school\u2026. I wish I could tell him about all the things I\u2019m up to these days, brainstorm things for me to pursue after graduation, and ask for his advice. That will never happen again. But here\u2019s the funny thing: I don\u2019t know if I would be so eager to talk to him if he weren\u2019t dead. Death has an interesting way of doing&nbsp;that.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@folutade\/reversing-the-curse-a-spiritual-guide-to-decoding-kendrick-lamars-damn-a24f4a7addae\">Reversing the Curse: A Spiritual Guide to Decoding Kendrick Lamar\u2019s DAMN<\/a> (Femi Olutade, Medium): \u201cFor those of you who are rooted in a faith tradition but can\u2019t understand how a popular, \u2018secular\u2019 rap album can be a faithful witness to Jesus\u2019s life and mission, Kendrick\u200a\u2014\u200aand Jesus for that matter\u200a\u2014\u200amay surprise you. For anyone who is still searching for how truth and justice emerge from the shadow of racism and oppression, I present to you the stories of hip hop and Judeo-Christian scriptures in the hope that you can find in them the kind of transformation that I have experienced.\u201d Femi releasing this free online book bit by bit. Seth, who writes the forward is also one of our alumni.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kevinmd.com\/blog\/2018\/01\/medical-education-systematically-ignores-diversity-medical-practice.html\">Medical education systematically ignores the diversity of medical practice<\/a> (Rebekah Fenton, KevinMD): \u201cMedical education systematically ignores the diversity of medical practice during the classroom phase. Why do we only show rashes on Caucasian patients? Why do we only learn to recognize how men present with MIs? Why do we not address how obesity impacts exam findings? Medical education favors the white, thin, male patient. I\u2019ve seen his chest X\u2011ray, I\u2019ve examined his abdomen, I know his symptoms, and I\u2019ve seen his rashes.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h3>Less Serious Things Which Also Interested\/Amused Glen<\/h3>\n<ul class=\"simple-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=-c9-poC5HGw\">Africa \u2014 Angel City Chorale<\/a> (youTube): a choir covers Toto\u2019s Africa. For the first two minutes they recreate the sounds of a rainstorm by rubbing their palms, snapping their fingers, and slapping their thighs and jumping. It\u2019s uncanny how accurately they imitate the&nbsp;sound.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/seen.everything\/videos\/1507083336062865\/\">A Job Interview With A Millennial<\/a> (Facebook video)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/imgur.com\/gallery\/MXUew\">What Did Angels Actually Look Like Per The Bible<\/a> (Imgur)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/dilbert.com\/strip\/2018-01-27\">Dilbert Won\u2019t Admit He\u2019s Wrong<\/a> (Dilbert)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/i.imgur.com\/NmZYZyz.gifv\">How to thread a needle<\/a> (animated gif)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=q3j6708kzEY\">Alexa For Southerners<\/a> (YouTube) see also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=CnpzkAeqXvM\">The Main Cause Of Traffic Jams In The South<\/a> and also, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ahkuYKI-PUg\">this one especially for the linguists<\/a>.<\/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=\"https:\/\/www.insidehighered.com\/news\/2016\/01\/06\/new-book-reveals-how-elite-phd-admissions-committees-review-candidates\">Inside Graduate Admissions<\/a> (Inside Higher Ed, Scott Jaschick): if you plan to apply to grad school, read this. There is one revealing anecdote about how an admissions committee treated an application from a Christian college student. My takeaway: the professors tried to be fair but found it hard to do, and their stated concerns were mostly about the quality of the institution rather than the faith of the applicant. Troubling nonetheless. (first shared in <a href=\"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2016\/01\/15\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-32\">volume 32<\/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 My Larry Nassar Testimony Went Viral. But There\u2019s More to the Gospel Than Forgiveness. (Morgan \u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2018\/02\/02\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-137\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> \u201cThings Glen Found Interesting, Volume 137\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":"So many good reads this week. This is one of my favorite issues in a while.","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":[121,124,220,195,136,163,147,214],"class_list":["post-4841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links","tag-abortion","tag-apologetically-interesting","tag-bible","tag-gender","tag-pornography","tag-sex","tag-sexual-assault","tag-technology"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-1g5","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4841","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=4841"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4847,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4841\/revisions\/4847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}