{"id":5447,"date":"2019-05-24T07:31:59","date_gmt":"2019-05-24T15:31:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/?p=5447"},"modified":"2019-06-28T19:58:37","modified_gmt":"2019-06-29T03:58:37","slug":"things-glen-found-interesting-volume-204","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2019\/05\/24\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-204","title":{"rendered":"Things Glen Found Interesting, Volume 204"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/a> 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\n\n\n

This one is coming out extra-early today because my schedule has been and will continue to be absurdly busy for the next bit. Prayers appreciated!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things Glen Found Interesting<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
  1. How lawyers are distorting religious freedom<\/a> (Asma Uddin, Deseret News): \u201cLast summer, the court decided Trump v. Hawaii (the travel ban case) only three weeks after it decided Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, which involved a Christian baker who refused on religious grounds to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple\u2026. The stark contrast in the court\u2019s approach to anti-religious hostility raised the question: Does religious freedom apply equally to Muslims and Christians? But in all the panic and punditry that ensued, Americans overlooked a critical factor: The lawyers challenging the ban left out legal arguments under the Free Exercise Clause that, if not omitted, might have changed the outcome.\u201d This is a very good (and somewhat discouraging) op-ed.<\/li>
  2. Literature as Flattery<\/a> (James McElroy, American Affairs Journal): \u201cContemporary American literature is creatively exhausted because free indirect style places the reader above the characters\u2026. Characters have to be blind to the obvious for the story to work. We are told this style is all about engendering empathy, but in actuality it functions by creating stunted characters. The reader is trained to look down at others, and the writer becomes obsequious to the oh-so-intelligent readers\u2019 egos, always telling them, \u2018Look how smart you are.\u2019\u201d<\/li>
  3. The APA Meeting: A Photo-Essay<\/a> (Scott Alexander, Slate Star Codex): \u201cWere there really more than twice as many sessions on global warming as on obsessive compulsive disorder? Three times as many on immigration as on ADHD? As best I can count, yes. I don\u2019t want to exaggerate this. There was still a lot of really meaty scientific discussion if you sought it out. But overall the balance was pretty striking\u2026. If you want to model the APA, you could do worse than a giant firehose that takes in pharmaceutical company money at one end, and shoots lectures about social justice out the other.\u201d This is funny, rambling, insightful commentary on the American Psychiatric Association\u2019s annual meeting.<\/li>
  4. Two Stanford stories: