{"id":5827,"date":"2020-01-03T22:55:11","date_gmt":"2020-01-04T06:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/?p=5827"},"modified":"2020-01-03T22:55:12","modified_gmt":"2020-01-04T06:55:12","slug":"things-glen-found-interesting-volume-232","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2020\/01\/03\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-232","title":{"rendered":"Things Glen Found Interesting, Volume 232"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/issachar-update-logo-wordswag\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" 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 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>     On Fridays I share articles\/resources about broad cultural, societal and theological issues. Be sure to see the explanation and disclaimers at the bottom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ve missed sending this email due to holiday travels for a while, and I\u2019ve got nothing on Iran yet. Too much is happening and I\u2019m in a remote place with limited internet access. Anything you find great please send my&nbsp;way.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Things Glen Found Interesting<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"simple-list wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"http:\/\/scholars-stage.blogspot.com\/2019\/12\/the-problem-isnt-merit-its-ocracy.html\">The Problem Isn\u2019t the \u2018Merit,\u2019 It\u2019s the \u2018Ocracy\u2019<\/a> (Tanner Greer, personal blog): \u201cThe American system of government was built on the assumption that the most salient political divides would reflect geography, not ideology or class. The senator from Massachusetts would share bonds in common with the lay citizenry of Boston that he did not share with a senator from South Carolina. On the national sphere this would allow him to represent the interests of his constituents as if they were his own. This has proven more true at some times in American history than others; yet because of the way American politicians are elected, this sense of representing the interests of a geographically bounded group of people is more true in the political arena than in most others.\u201d Highly recommended.<\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/opinion\/2020\/01\/01\/decade-same-sex-gay-marriage-timeline-transgender-consequences-column\/2776564001\/\">Decade in review: Marital norms erode<\/a> (Ryan T. Anderson and Robert P. George, USA Today): \u201cLaw shapes culture; culture shapes beliefs; beliefs shape action. The law now effectively teaches that mothers and fathers are replaceable, that marriage is simply about consenting adult relationships, of whatever formation the parties happen to prefer. This undermines the truth that children deserve a mother and a father \u2014 one of&nbsp;each.\u201d&nbsp;<ul>\n<li>Follow-up by Rod Dreher: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericanconservative.com\/dreher\/family-memory-fight-against-power\/\">Family, Memory, Power<\/a> (Rod Dreher, The American Conservative): \u201cIf you\u2019re one of those people with a habit of saying, <em>nobody has ever explained how all this is going to hurt heterosexual me<\/em>, this is a good basic place to start. Morality is an ecology. This is the equivalent of injecting something into the groundwater. It may be a good thing, or it may be a bad thing, but it does affect everybody. People who say it doesn\u2019t are lying \u2014 perhaps to themselves.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>That follow-up inspired Professor George to reply: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericanconservative.com\/dreher\/shame-of-the-conformists-christians-marriage\/\">The Shame Of The Conformists<\/a> (this is on Dreher\u2019s blog): \u201cSomeone might say, \u2018this is no time for recriminations.\u2019 Well, I don\u2019t agree. This is precisely the time for recriminations. Indeed, there was never a better time. Standing boldly for what is true and good and right and just is everybody\u2019s job. It\u2019s not just \u2018other people\u2019s\u2019 job. Especially to my fellow Christians I say, it is OUR job. It comes with the Gospel territory. You say \u2018it\u2019s hard\u2019? Of course, it\u2019s hard. But who ever told you that Christian discipleship was not going to be hard? Or risky? Or costly? Not Jesus, that\u2019s for sure. He told us\u2013in the most explicit terms\u2013that it was going to be hard\u2013very hard\u2013and risky, and costly.&nbsp;\u201c<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/relevantmagazine.com\/current\/yes-jesus-was-a-refugee-he-still-is\/\">Yes, Jesus Was a Refugee. He Still Is.<\/a> (Tyler Huckabee, Relevant): \u201cWhen most people talk about Jesus being a refugee, they\u2019re not talking about Bethlehem but the family\u2019s flight to Egypt. Some time after his birth, Herod got panicky about rumors of a new king and sent soldiers to kill all the newborns in Bethlehem. An angel warned Joseph and Mary to hightail it to Egypt where they could safely lay low. Egypt made for an ideal hiding place, connected to Judea via a well-traveled and relatively safe trade route known as the Via Maris. The argument for Mary and Joseph\u2019s refugee status here is about as strong as it could be under the circumstances.\u201d<\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/news\/2019\/december\/biblical-archaeologys-top-10-discoveries-of-2019.html\">Biblical Archaeology\u2019s Top 10 Discoveries of 2019<\/a> (Gordon Govier, Christianity Today): \u201c\u2026many of the mainstream media stories announcing these discoveries acknowledged that the Bible was right all along or right after all in these instances. Archaeologist Nelson Glueck\u2019s declaration that \u2018no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a Biblical reference\u2019 still stands.\u201d<\/li><li>Some follow-ups to the Christianity Today article I shared last time calling for Trump\u2019s removal from office:&nbsp;<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/ct\/2019\/december-web-only\/trump-evangelicals-editorial-christianity-today-president.html\">The Flag in the Whirlwind: An Update from CT\u2019s President<\/a> (Tim Dalrymple, Christianity Today): \u201cIn a political landscape dominated by polarization, hostility, and misunderstanding, we believe it\u2019s critical for Christians to model how to have a firm opinion and host free discussion at the same time. Evangelicals of different stripes cannot continue to shout one another down, bully those who disagree, or exclude one another and refuse to listen. We hold fast to our view that the wholehearted evangelical embrace of Trump has been enormously costly\u2014but we are committed to irenic conversation with men and women of good faith who believe otherwise.\u201d&nbsp;<ul>\n<li>Side note: the author was a gymnast at Stanford who was actively involved in campus ministry while here (his time preceded my tenure at Chi Alpha, to my knowledge we have never met or even been in the same ZIP code). There\u2019s an article about his story back in <a href=\"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2019\/02\/22\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-191\">volume 191<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/news\/on-religion\/what-it-would-take-for-evangelicals-to-turn-on-president-trump?verso=true\">What It Would Take for Evangelicals to Turn on President Trump<\/a> (Michael Luo, New Yorker): \u201c\u2026though greater religiosity is correlated with Christian-nationalist beliefs, once those beliefs are accounted for, Americans who engaged in more frequent religious practice\u2014church attendance, prayer, and bible reading\u2014were less likely than their less observant peers to subscribe to political views normally associated with Christian nationalism, such as believing that refugees from the Middle East pose a terrorist threat to the United States, or that illegal immigrants from Mexico are mostly dangerous criminals. In other words, Whitehead and Perry find that the threat to democratic pluralism is not evangelicalism itself but the culture around evangelicalism.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/politics\/archive\/2019\/12\/leith-anderson-silence-moderate-evangelicals\/604120\/\">Evangelicalism\u2019s Silent Majority<\/a> (Emma Green, The Atlantic): \u201cOne of my big takeaways from reporting on evangelical communities is that, contrary to some stereotypes, evangelicals are some of the most globally minded people in America. They donate to charities that do extensive aid work overseas. They\u2019re exposed to other countries through mission work or humanitarian trips.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/townhall.com\/columnists\/waynegrudem\/2019\/12\/30\/trump-should-not-be-removed-from-office-a-response-to-mark-galli-and-christianity-today-n2558657\">Trump Should Not Be Removed from Office: A Response to Mark Galli and Christianity Today<\/a> (Wayne Grudem, Townhall): \u201cIf evangelicals fail to support Donald Trump after he has delivered on so many issues important to Christian values, many people will conclude that we really do not care about conservative judges, the protection of the unborn, the protection of gender distinctions, religious freedom, conscience protections for Christians in the workplace, a strong enough military to protect us against threats from China, North Korea, Russia, and Iran, jobs,wages, economic opportunities for minorities, a secure border, Israel, affordable energy (especially for the poor), energy independence, the protection of property rights, expanding parental choice for schools, revitalizing NATO, protecting freedom of speech on campuses, and many other things. Galli dismisses these concerns with the label \u2018political expediency,\u2019 but all of these issues affect people\u2019s ordinary lives. These issues really do matter. On issue after issue, President Trump is changing the direction of the country for the better. When I weigh these results against his sometimes imprecise and coarse speech, there is no comparison.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/dougwils.com\/books-and-culture\/s7-engaging-the-culture\/where-cain-got-his-wife-and-other-issues-related-to-the-2020-election.html\">Where Cain Got His Wife, and Other Issues Related to the 2020 Election<\/a> (Douglas Wilson, personal blog): \u201cAs mentioned above, I did not vote for the president in 2016. I did not vote for him because character matters, and because I did not <em>trust <\/em>him to do what he was promising to do\u2026. And with that said, I have to acknowledge I was wrong\u2026 If anything, the great mass of evangelical voters have demonstrated that they actually have a better set of political instincts than their leaders, me included.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/gen.medium.com\/my-semester-with-the-snowflakes-888285f0e662?\">My Semester With the Snowflakes<\/a> (James Hatch, Medium): \u201cIn May of 2019, I was accepted to the Eli Whitney student program at Yale University. At 52, I am the oldest freshman in the class of 2023. Before I was accepted, I didn\u2019t really know what to expect. I had seen the infamous YouTube video of students screaming at a faculty member. I had seen the news stories regarding the admissions scandal and that Yale was included in that unfortunate business. I had also heard the students at Yale referred to as \u2018snowflakes\u2019 in various social media dumpsters and occasionally I\u2019d seen references to Ivy League students as snowflakes in a few news sources.\u201d (there\u2019s an interesting <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2019\/12\/30\/792456855\/52-year-old-former-navy-seal-james-hatch-on-his-first-semester-at-yale\">follow-up interview with him on NPR<\/a>)<\/li><li>Two academic things I found interesting:&nbsp;<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41562-019-0787-z\">Comparing meta-analyses and preregistered multiple-laboratory replication projects<\/a> (Amanda Kvarven, Eirik Str\u00f8mland &amp; Magnus Johannesson, Nature Human Behavior): \u201cWe compare the results of meta-analyses to large-scale preregistered replications in psychology carried out at multiple laboratories. The multiple-laboratory replications provide precisely estimated effect sizes that do not suffer from publication bias or selective reporting. We searched the literature and identified 15\u2009meta-analyses on the same topics as multiple-laboratory replications. We find that meta-analytic effect sizes are significantly different from replication effect sizes for 12 out of the 15\u2009meta-replication pairs. These differences are systematic and, on average, meta-analytic effect sizes are almost three times as large as replication effect sizes.\u201d uh-oh.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/quillette.com\/2019\/12\/21\/the-many-faces-of-scientific-fraud\/\">The Many Faces of Scientific Fraud<\/a> (Nicolas Chevassus-au-Louis, Quillette): \u201cIs every scientific article a fraud? This question may seem puzzling to those outside the scientific community. After all, anyone who took a philosophy course in college is likely to think of laboratory work as eminently rational. The assumption is that a researcher faced with an enigma posed by nature formulates a hypothesis, then conceives an experiment to test its validity\u2026. However, as every researcher knows, it is pure falsehood. In reality, nothing takes place the way it is described in a scientific article. The experiments were carried out in a far more disordered manner, in stages far less logical than those related in the article. If you look at it that way, a scientific article is a kind of trick.\u201d The author has a Ph.D. in biology and this is an excerpt from a book he is publishing with Harvard University Press.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Things Glen Found Interesting A While&nbsp;Ago<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Every week I\u2019ll highlight an older link still worth your consideration. This week we have <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vox.com\/2016\/1\/13\/10759874\/republicans-democrats-different\">This Is What Makes Republicans and Democrats So Different<\/a> (Vox, Ezra Klein): the title made me skeptical, but there are some good insights in this article (first shared in <a href=\"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2016\/01\/15\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-32\">volume 32<\/a> back in&nbsp;2016).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><b>Why Do You Send This&nbsp;Email?<\/b><\/h3>\n\n\n\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\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><b>Disclaimer<\/b><\/h3>\n\n\n\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). And to the extent you can discern my opinions, please understand that they are my own and not necessarily those of Chi Alpha or any other organization I may be perceived to represent.\n\nAlso, 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 it.\n\nIf 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\u2019ve missed sending this email due to holiday travels for a while, and I\u2019ve got nothing on Iran yet. Too much is happening and I\u2019m in a remote place with limited internet \u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2020\/01\/03\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-232\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> \u201cThings Glen Found Interesting, Volume 232\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":"After a holiday hiatus, the roundup of links is back. Enjoy!","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":[131,124,140,160,113,112,117,137],"class_list":["post-5827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links","tag-academia","tag-apologetically-interesting","tag-culture","tag-how-the-church-is-perceived","tag-lgbtq","tag-marriage","tag-politics","tag-thinking-clearly"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-1vZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5827","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=5827"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5830,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5827\/revisions\/5830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}