{"id":5111,"date":"2018-08-10T16:41:25","date_gmt":"2018-08-11T00:41:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/?p=5111"},"modified":"2018-08-10T16:41:25","modified_gmt":"2018-08-11T00:41:25","slug":"things-glen-found-interesting-volume-164","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2018\/08\/10\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-164","title":{"rendered":"Things Glen Found Interesting, Volume 164"},"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>Two contrasting perspectives on who is really winning in America, both independently published by smart people in the same high-profile magazine:&nbsp;<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/politics\/archive\/2018\/08\/why-the-left-is-so-afraid-of-jordan-peterson\/567110\/?utm_source=feed\">Why the Left Is So Afraid of Jordan Peterson<\/a> (Caitlin Flanagan, The Atlantic): \u201cThere are many legitimate reasons to disagree with him on a number of subjects, and many people of good will do. But there is no coherent reason for the left\u2019s obliterating and irrational hatred of Jordan Peterson. What, then, accounts for it? It is because the left, while it currently seems ascendant in our houses of culture and art, has in fact entered its decadent late phase, and it is deeply vulnerable.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/politics\/archive\/2018\/08\/social-conservatives-kavanaugh\/566513\/\">Conservatives Are Scared, Even Under Trump<\/a> (Emma Green, The Atlantic): \u201cWhile liberal activist groups paint President Donald Trump\u2019s Washington as an unmitigated forward march of conservative victories, conservative activist groups\u2014including Weber\u2019s\u2014don\u2019t necessarily perceive things the same way. Rather, some of these groups see the next few years under Trump as a brief window of opportunity to create defenses against a culture that is moving away from them. In parts of the conservative movement, the long-game strategy is to defend their position by devolving power away from the federal government and the Supreme Court, using the momentum of the Trump years to batten down the hatches against the inevitable cultural storms ahead.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/final-text-of-jewish-nation-state-bill-set-to-become-law\/\">Final text of Jewish nation-state law, approved by the Knesset early on July 19<\/a> (Raoul Wootliff, Times of Israel): \u201cThe law for the first time enshrines Israel as \u2018the national home of the Jewish people.\u2019 The law becomes one of the so-called Basic Laws, which, like a constitution, guide Israel\u2019s legal system and are usually more difficult to repeal than regular laws.\u201d Unlike most articles, this includes the full (translated) text of the law, and it is worth reading if you\u2019ve only seen it excerpted. It\u2019s not&nbsp;long.&nbsp;<ul>\n<li>I believe this is the Israeli law that infuriated Stanford student Hamzeh Daoud (see <a href=\"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2018\/08\/03\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-163\">last week\u2019s installment<\/a> for details).<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/providencemag.com\/2018\/07\/israels-new-law-a-tale-of-two-nation-states\/\">Israel\u2019s New Law: A Tale of Two Nation-States<\/a> (Robert Nicholson, Providence): \u201cThe Palestine Basic Law (2003) defines Palestine as part of the Arab world and Arab unity as a singular goal of the Palestinian people. The law also defines Arabic as Palestine\u2019s official language, Jerusalem as its official capital, and Islam as its official religion. This basic law serves as a temporary constitution for the Palestinian Authority until a sovereign State of Palestine is established. In the meantime, the law governs daily life inside the West Bank and to some extent Gaza. On July 19 the Israeli Knesset passed a similar basic law.\u201d This was incredibly helpful context to&nbsp;me.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/news\/2018\/july\/israel-jewish-nation-state-basic-law-christians-messianics.html\">Under the Law: Israeli Christians Worry About Secondary Status in Jewish Nation-State<\/a> (Jayson Casper, Christianity Today): \u201c\u2018This law outlines that Israel\u2019s democratic values are secondary for non-Jews,\u2019 said Shadia Qubti, a Palestinian evangelical living in Nazareth. \u2018It sends a clear message that my language is not welcome and consequently, neither is my cultural and ethnic identity.\u2019\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/08\/07\/opinion\/alex-jones-infowars-facebook.html\">A Better Way to Ban Alex Jones<\/a> (David French, New York Times): \u201cThe good news is that tech companies don\u2019t have to rely on vague, malleable and hotly contested definitions of hate speech to deal with conspiracy theorists like Mr. Jones. The far better option would be to prohibit libel or slander on their platforms\u2026. Private corporations can ban whoever they like. But if companies like Facebook are eager to navigate speech controversies in good faith, they would do well to learn from the centuries of legal developments in American law. When creating a true marketplace of ideas, why not let the First Amendment be your&nbsp;guide?\u201d&nbsp;<ul>\n<li>His follow-up: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/corner\/first-amendment-solution-twitter-wars\/\">A First Amendment Peace Plan for the Twitter Wars<\/a> (David French, National Review): \u201cAs I dug down into objections to my proposed First Amendment framework, I often found that the objections were ultimately based on a desire to discriminate on the basis of viewpoint, on a desire to use the power of the platform to privilege some voices and suppress others.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/religionandpolitics.org\/2018\/08\/07\/a-kind-of-homelessness-evangelicals-of-color-in-the-trump-era\/\">A Kind of Homelessness: Evangelicals of Color in the Trump Era<\/a> (Melani McAlister, Religion &amp; Politics): \u201cYet the headlines about \u2018evangelical\u2019 support for the president and his agenda mean that evangelicals of color can seem to be an invisible community\u2014rarely acknowledged by journalists even when they go to the same churches or claim a similar theology. White evangelicals are numerically dominant\u2014although declining\u2014but their opinions disproportionately dominate U.S. media reporting on how theologically conservative Protestants think, vote, and believe. At one level, the racial difference is eminently predictable. Surely the whiteness of white evangelicals is crucial to understanding their political beliefs and their voting patterns. As Janelle Wong shows in her new book, <em>Immigrants, Evangelicals, and Politics in an Era of Demographic Change<\/em>, although evangelicals of any given race are more conservative than the general population of that race, evangelicals of color overall are far less conservative than white evangelicals. Indeed, they are less conservative than white people overall.\u201d The author is a professor of American Studies and International Affairs at George Washington University.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/amp\/article\/565772\/?__twitter_impression=true\">How Trump Radicalized ICE<\/a> (Franklin Foer, The Atlantic): \u201cBy the beginning of Barack Obama\u2019s second term, immigration had become one of the highest priorities of federal law enforcement: Half of all federal prosecutions were for immigration-related crimes. In 2012, Congress appropriated $18 billion for immigration enforcement. It spent $14 billion for all the other major criminal law-enforcement agencies <em>combined<\/em>: the FBI; the Drug Enforcement Administration; the Secret Service; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; and the U.S. Marshals Service.\u201d ICE is much, much bigger than I realized. This is a really important article.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/08\/08\/opinion\/oh-the-humanities.html\">Oh, The Humanities!<\/a> (Ross Douthat, New York Times): \u201c\u2026the years since the Great Recession have been \u2018brutal for almost every major in the humanities.\u2019 They\u2019ve also been bad for \u2018social science fields that most closely resemble humanistic ones \u2014 sociology, anthropology, international relations and political science.\u2019 Meanwhile the sciences and engineering have gained at the expense of humanism\u2026\u201d<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/news\/2018\/august\/bethel-church-carr-fire-redding-social-media-theodicy.html\">Bethel Church Survives Redding Carr Fire, But Still Faces Heat<\/a> (Griffin Paul Jackson, Christianity Today): \u201cFor Bethel\u2019s part, staff said the church could not act as an evacuation zone because of its proximity to the blaze and because there is a single entry and exit point to the campus, which is itself surrounded by brush. The Red Cross said Bethel offered to be an evacuation site, but was turned down because of the campus\u2019s nearness to the fire\u2026. The church has, however, flexed its considerable ministry muscle and financial resources, encouraging donations to aid relief efforts. Bethel is also partnering with the Red Cross and the Salvation Army in response to the Carr fire, Farrelly said.\u201d&nbsp;<ul>\n<li>Related: Osteen\u2019s church was similarly criticized after Hurricane Harvey, also with what seem to me to be scant factual grounds. Discussed back <a href=\"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2017\/09\/01\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-116\">in volume 116<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Also (tenuously) related: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/chuckdevore\/2018\/07\/30\/californias-devastating-fires-are-man-caused-but-not-in-the-way-they-tell-us\/#20f75dcc70af\">California\u2019s Devastating Fires Are Man-Caused \u2014 But Not In The Way They Tell Us<\/a> (Chuck DeVore, Forbes): \u201c In the 1850s and 1860s, the typical Sierra landscape was of open fields of grass punctuated by isolated pine stands and a few scattered oak trees. The first branches on the pine trees started about 20 feet up\u2014lower branches having been burned off by low-intensity grassfires. California\u2019s Native American population had for years shaped this landscape with fire to encourage the grasslands and boost the game animal population. As the Gold Rush remade modern California, timber was harvested and replanted. Fires were suppressed because they threatened homes as well as burned up a valuable resource. The landscape filled in with trees, but the trees were harvested every 30 to 50 years. In the 1990s, however, that cycle began to be disrupted with increasingly burdensome regulations. The timber harvest cycle slowed, and, in some areas, stopped completely, especially on the almost 60% of California forest land owned by the federal government.\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=gkllFaRbGxc\">Erik Tait performs a ridiculous card trick<\/a> (Penn &amp; Teller Fool Us, YouTube)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=-qkyOuj5TF4\">Rebecca Herrera with a very clever mentalism trick<\/a> (Penn &amp; Teller Fool Us, YouTube)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/xkcd.com\/2030\/\">Voting Software<\/a> (xkcd)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.smbc-comics.com\/comic\/to-vote-or-not-to-vote\">To Vote Or Not To Vote<\/a> (SMBC)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/imgur.com\/a\/ThqetuP?ref=hvper.com&amp;utm_source=hvper.com&amp;utm_medium=website\">A funny face competition<\/a> (imgur) \u2014 wait for it. Totally worthwhile. About 1 minute long.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/babylonbee.com\/news\/study-humanity-just-a-few-more-bans-away-from-only-having-good-opinions-on-the-internet\/\">Study: Humanity Just A Few More Bans Away From Only Having Good Opinions On The Internet<\/a> (Babylon Bee)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=uJv2nxh1ECA\">The Ultimate Southern Competition<\/a> (It\u2019s a Southern Thing, YouTube)<\/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.asa3.org\/ASA\/PSCF\/2003\/PSCF12-03Hill.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Making Sense of the Numbers of Genesis<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> [pdf link] (Carol Hill, Perspectives on Science and the Christian Faith): \u201cJoseph and Joshua were each recorded as dying at age 110\u2014a number considered \u2018perfect\u2019 by the Egyptians. In ancient Egyptian doctrine, the phrase \u2018he died aged 110\u2019 was actually an epitaph commemorating a life that had been lived selflessly and had resulted in outstanding social and moral benefit for others. And so for both Joseph and Joshua, who came out of the Egyptian culture, quoting this age was actually a tribute to their character. But, to be described as \u2018dying at age 110\u2019 bore no necessary relationship to the actual time of an individual\u2019s life span.\u201d You will not agree with everything in this article, but it is full of fascinating insights. (first shared in <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2016\/05\/27\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-51\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">volume 51<\/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 Two contrasting perspectives on who is really winning in America, both independently published by smart \u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2018\/08\/10\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-164\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> \u201cThings Glen Found Interesting, Volume 164\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":"Why the left and the right both feel like they're losing, some news on Israel, and free speech. Plus magic tricks.","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":[131,152,160,227,148,117],"class_list":["post-5111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links","tag-academia","tag-free-speech","tag-how-the-church-is-perceived","tag-immigration","tag-israel","tag-politics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-1kr","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5111","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=5111"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5117,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5111\/revisions\/5117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}