{"id":4886,"date":"2018-03-16T20:02:23","date_gmt":"2018-03-17T04:02:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/?p=4886"},"modified":"2018-03-16T20:02:23","modified_gmt":"2018-03-17T04:02:23","slug":"things-glen-found-interesting-volume-143","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2018\/03\/16\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-143","title":{"rendered":"Things Glen Found Interesting, Volume 143"},"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<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ol class=\"simple-list\">\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/first-person\/2018\/3\/12\/17109306\/prosperity-gospel-good-evil-cancer-fate-theology-theodicy\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019m a scholar of the \u201cprosperity gospel.\u201d It took cancer to show me I was in its grip.<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (Kate Bowler, Vox): \u201cEvery day I pray the same prayer: <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">God, save me. Save me. Save me. Oh, God, remember my baby boy. Remember my son and my husband before you return me to ashes. Before they walk this earth alone.<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> I plead with a God of Maybe, who may or may not let me collect more years. It is a God I love, and a God that breaks my heart.\u201d The author is a professor at Duke Divinity School.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Two intriguing articles on the transgender movement in America:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commentarymagazine.com\/articles\/the-disappearance-of-desire\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Disappearance of Desire<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (Sohrab Ahmari, Commentary Magazine): &nbsp;\u201cSexuality is a bodily experience. It stretches credulity to suggest that a trans person\u2019s decision to alter his or her sexed body has nothing to do with what he or she wishes to do with that body\u2014and whom he or she wishes to attract. Yet, as with gender itself, the trans activists treat sexual desire as an abstract and disembodied thing.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.tabletmag.com\/scroll\/257446\/divorcing-the-transgender-community\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Divorcing The Transgender Community<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (Gretchen Rachel Hammond, Tablet Magazine): the language in this one is uncouth. \u201cIt was then that I began to notice that those transgender people who started to speak out as an activist, journalist, celebrity, organizer, commentator or even via a social media post were coming under attack, not just from the usual crowd of Evangelical Conservative hysterics, but increasingly and unnervingly from their own community.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For the lawyers:<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/papers.ssrn.com\/sol3\/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3136750\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Disagreement is Not Always Discrimination: On Masterpiece Cakeshop and the Analogy to Interracial Marriage<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (Ryan Anderson, Georgetown Journal of Law and Public Policy): \u201cColorado is part of a larger national trend in which authorities are using antidiscrimination statutes as swords to punish already marginalized people (such as supporters of the conjugal understanding of marriage), rather than as shields to protect people from unjust discrimination (such as African Americans in the wake of Jim Crow and today).\u2026 support for marriage as the union of husband and wife is essentially different from opposition to interracial marriage, and that the status of African Americans is importantly different from that of Americans who identify as gay. As a result, First Amendment protections for people who act on the belief that marriage unites husband and wife differ in critical ways from hypothesized First Amendment protections for racists\u2014and the courts can distinguish the two cases\u2026. protections for citizens who support the conjugal understanding of marriage bear much more similarity to protections for pro-life citizens.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.firstthings.com\/article\/2018\/04\/the-ignoble-lie\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Ignoble Lie<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (Patrick Deneen, First Things): \u201cThis helps explain the strange and often hysterical insistence upon equality emanating from our nation\u2019s most elite and exclusive institutions. The most absurd recent instance was Harvard University\u2019s official effort to eliminate social clubs due to their role in \u2018enacting forms of privilege and exclusion at odds with our deepest values,\u2019 in the words of its president. Harvard\u2019s opposition to exclusion sits comfortably with its admissions rate of 5 percent (2,056 out of 40,000 applicants in 2017). The denial of privilege and exclusion seems to increase in proportion to an institution\u2019s exclusivity.\u201d The author is a professor of Constitutional Studies at Notre&nbsp;Dame.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/providencemag.com\/2017\/12\/sex-lies-spies\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sex, Lies, and Spies<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (Darrell Cole, Providence): \u201cOnce the case for employing a spy in the first place has been made, the question of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">how <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to spy comes into focus, and thus one of the major moral problems for spies is trying to make a case that lying and sex are just (combat) tactics\u2026. We can make a clear and convincing case that the Christian tradition may support the idea that lies told for the public good are justifiable. When spies tell such lies in the line of duty, their deceptions fall into that category and, so, are justifiable. Can the same be said for sex in the line of duty? Can manipulative sex for the public good be justifiable?\u201d A fascinating discussion of a question that had never crossed my mind. The author is an ethics professor at Drew University.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/magazine\/archive\/2018\/04\/the-last-temptation\/554066\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Last Temptation<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (Michael Gerson, The Atlantic): \u201cIn a remarkably free country, many evangelicals view their rights as fragile, their institutions as threatened, and their dignity as assailed. The single largest religious demographic in the United States\u2014representing about half the Republican political coalition\u2014sees itself as a besieged and disrespected minority. In this way, evangelicals have become simultaneously more engaged and more alienated\u2026. It is true that insofar as Christian hospitals or colleges have their religious liberty threatened by hostile litigation or government agencies, they have every right to defend their institutional identities\u2014to advocate for a principled pluralism. But this is different from evangelicals regarding themselves, hysterically and with self-pity, as an oppressed minority that requires a strongman to rescue it. This is how Trump has invited evangelicals to view themselves.\u201d The author worked in the Bush White House and describes himself as an evangelical.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In response:<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/2018\/03\/evangelicals-support-donald-trump-political-realities-2016-election\/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The True Sin of American Evangelicals in the Age of Trump<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (David French, National Review): \u201cit matters exactly how Evangelicals arrived where they are today. It wasn\u2019t the hysterical reaction of a self-pitying people. For most it was the sad result of a series of tough choices \u2014 made in response to difficult and unreasonable challenges. Even today there are millions of Evangelicals \u2014 people who still count themselves reluctant Trump supporters \u2014 who are deeply uneasy with the president and the state of their own religious movement. It serves no one\u2019s interests to minimize the legitimacy of their deep political concern.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My take: Gerson\u2019s essay is very good and French adds a needed perspective.&nbsp;<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bonus quote from Gerson\u2019s essay: \u201cThe banishment of fundamentalism from the cultural mainstream culminated dramatically in a Tennessee courthouse in 1925. William Jennings Bryan, the most prominent Christian politician of his time, was set against Clarence Darrow and the theory of evolution at the Scopes \u2018monkey trial,\u2019 in which a Tennessee educator was tried for teaching the theory in high school. Bryan won the case but not the country. The journalist and critic H. L. Mencken provided the account accepted by history, dismissing Bryan as \u2018a tin pot pope in the Coca-Cola belt and a brother to the forlorn pastors who belabor half-wits in galvanized iron tabernacles behind the railroad yards.\u2019 Fundamentalists became comic figures, subject to world-class condescension.<\/span><b> It has largely slipped the mind of history that Bryan was a peace activist as secretary of state under Woodrow Wilson and that his politics foreshadowed the New Deal. And Mencken was eventually revealed as a racist, an anti-Semite, and a eugenics advocate.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d Emphasis mine. I consider myself fairly well-informed about American religious history and found the bolded details surprising.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/whats-the-real-down-syndrome-problem-the-genocide\/2018\/03\/14\/3c4f8ab8-26ee-11e8-b79d-f3d931db7f68_story.html?utm_term=.14ceeb2d110c\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The real Down syndrome problem: Accepting genocide<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (George Will, Washington Post): \u201cIceland must be pleased that it is close to success in its program of genocide, but before congratulating that nation on its final solution to the Down syndrome problem, perhaps it might answer a question: What is this problem? To help understand why some people might ask this question, meet two children. One is Agusta, age 8, a citizen of Iceland. The other is Lucas, age 1, an American citizen in Dalton, Ga., who recently was selected to be 2018 \u2018Spokesbaby\u2019 for the Gerber baby food company. They are two examples of the problem. Now, before Iceland becomes snippy about the description of what it is doing, let us all try to think calmly about genocide, without getting judgmental about it. It is simply the deliberate, systematic attempt to erase a category of people. So, what one thinks about a genocide depends on what one thinks about the category involved. In Iceland\u2019s case, the category is people with Down syndrome.\u201d<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Related: a Facebook post from one of our sophomores (shared with his permission): \u201cMy parents were told that I would be born with down syndrome and advised to abort me. In response my father pulled us out of the hospital\u2019s mandatory counseling program, spent a lot of time in prayer, and decided emphatically that I would be born. I had no say in the matter, as I was too small to communicate or understand. I couldn\u2019t cry or plead for my life. I couldn\u2019t even look the people in the eyes who wanted to kill me. 20 years later, I have my God and my parents to thank for defending me, defending an unborn child wrongly accused of a crime that carried a death sentence: a defect. My parents had no idea exactly where God wanted to take me, but because of their defense, I\u2019m here, down syndrome free, sitting in a classroom at Stanford University.\u201d (<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/permalink.php?story_fbid=495837887479780&amp;id=100011607189104\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">source<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) By the way, he was was not only admitted to Stanford.<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mcall.com\/news\/local\/allentown\/mc-allentown-schools-senior-nathaniel-stuart-20160607-story.html\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He was admitted to every single Ivy League school<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/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 style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=BX_0-SoMDcg\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Trying To Find a Church on Vacation<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (YouTube)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/funny\/comments\/821s9r\/wise_words_from_a_purdue_university_student\/?st=jedolkho&amp;sh=1a20e6ac\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wise Words From A Purdue University Student<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (Reddit)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/babylonbee.com\/news\/harvard-now-offering-four-year-degree-in-feeling-oppressed\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Harvard Now Offering Four Year Degree In Feeling Oppressed<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (Babylon Bee)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/textsfromsuperheroes.com\/post\/171813693582\/batmankill\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Why Batman Doesn\u2019t Kill The Joker<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (Texts From Superheroes)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/babylonbee.com\/news\/furiously-spinning-white-house-revolving-door-causes-category-5-hurricane\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Furiously Spinning White House Door Causes Category 5 Hurricane<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (Babylon Bee)&nbsp;<\/span><\/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&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/view\/articles\/2016-08-12\/every-place-has-detractors-consider-where-they-re-coming-from\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Every Place Has Detractors. Consider Where They\u2019re Coming From.<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(Megan McCardle, Bloomberg View): \u201cThere is grave danger in judging a neighborhood, or a culture, by the accounts of those who chose to leave it. Those people are least likely to appreciate the good things about where they came from, and the most likely to dwell on its less attractive qualities.\u201d Bear this in mind when listening to conversion testimonies (both secular and religious). (first shared in <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2016\/08\/12\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-62\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">volume 62<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">)<\/span><\/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>If this was forwarded to you and you want to receive future emails, sign up <a href=\"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/\">here<\/a>. You can also <a href=\"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/category\/links\">view the archives<\/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 &nbsp; I\u2019m a scholar of the \u201cprosperity gospel.\u201d It took cancer to show me I \u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2018\/03\/16\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-143\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> \u201cThings Glen Found Interesting, Volume 143\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":[121,131,139,113,117,162,137],"class_list":["post-4886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links","tag-abortion","tag-academia","tag-law","tag-lgbtq","tag-politics","tag-theology","tag-thinking-clearly"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-1gO","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4886","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=4886"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4888,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4886\/revisions\/4888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}