{"id":6369,"date":"2020-10-30T21:42:52","date_gmt":"2020-10-31T05:42:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/?p=6369"},"modified":"2020-10-30T21:42:52","modified_gmt":"2020-10-31T05:42:52","slug":"things-glen-found-interesting-volume-274","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2020\/10\/30\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-274","title":{"rendered":"Things Glen Found Interesting, Volume 274"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<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>\n\n    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\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=\"https:\/\/religionnews.com\/2020\/10\/26\/white-christian-america-built-a-faith-based-safety-net-what-happens-when-its-gone\/\">White Christian America built a faith-based safety net. What happens when it\u2019s gone?<\/a> (Bob Smietana, Religion News Service): \u201c\u2018The average American doesn\u2019t realize all the things that churches do to make society less awful,\u2019 [professor Burge] said. Churches and other religious groups tutor kids, feed hungry people, shelter the homeless and do a great deal of good, often under the radar, he said. As religious groups shrink, those services could be lost. Burge fears younger Americans, in particular, don\u2019t see organized religion as useful. But \u2018it\u2019s one of those things where you don\u2019t know what you had till it is&nbsp;gone.\u2019\u201d<\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.firstthings.com\/web-exclusives\/2020\/10\/the-sins-that-cry-out-to-heaven\">The Sins That Cry Out to Heaven<\/a> (Eduardo Andino, First Things): \u201cThe Christian tradition speaks of four <em>peccata clamantia<\/em>, or sins that cry out to heaven for vengeance: murder, sodomy, oppression of the poor, and defrauding workers of their wages\u2026. This is not an arbitrary collection of&nbsp;sins.\u201d<\/li><li>Voting &amp;&nbsp;Faith&nbsp;<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/news\/2020\/october\/evangelical-nonvoters-politican-engagement-election.html\">Meet the Evangelicals Who Won\u2019t Vote for Trump, Biden, or Anybody at All<\/a> (Megan Fowler, Christianity Today): \u201cLike many Christian nonvoters before her, she saw the act of casting a ballot as a sign of approval for a political power structure that in many ways opposed the way of Christ. She couldn\u2019t do it. If Jesus brought about his kingdom by laying down his rights and spurning political power, Kennedy wanted to follow his example.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/edstetzer\/2020\/october\/of-course-evangelicals-should-vote-for-trump.html\">Of Course Evangelicals Should Vote for Trump<\/a> (Paula White-Cain, Christianity Today): \u201cI\u2019ve seen [Donald Trump] firsthand as a father, a husband, a leader, a businessman and now the President of the United States of America. I also recognize most people have secondhand information that mischaracterizes the man I&nbsp;know.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/edstetzer\/2020\/october\/christian-case-for-joe-biden.html\">The Christian Case for Joe Biden<\/a> (Josh Dickson, Christianity Today): \u201cAs the National Faith Engagement Director for the Biden Campaign, I spend my days talking to people of faith about why I believe Joe is the clear moral choice in this election. But I haven\u2019t always been a Democrat. Like many Christians, I grew up Republican.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/breakingground.us\/a-tale-of-two-evangelicalisms\/\">A Tale of Two Evangelicalisms<\/a> (Joel Halldorf, Breaking Ground): \u201cIn the story of Swedish modernity, the democratic welfare state transformed an unjust and elitist society into a more just one. But the founding myth of United States is not a story about freedom <em>through <\/em>the state, but freedom <em>from <\/em>the state.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li><li>On the&nbsp;media:&nbsp;<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=hcTXPT5LrL8\">What Do Foreign Correspondents Think of the U.S.?<\/a> (The New Yorker, YouTube): thirteen minutes. I found the first half more interesting than the last half. It picked back up in the last two minutes.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/religionunplugged.com\/news\/2020\/10\/15\/what-i-wish-my-christian-friends-knew-about-the-news-media\">What I Wish My Christian Friends Knew About the News Media<\/a> (Rob Vaughn, Religion Unplugged): \u201cAre my friends wrong to see the mainstream media as rotten and ridden with \u2018fake news\u2019? Yes. At least in significant ways, they have that wrong. Sure, we make mistakes. We have blind spots and faulty assumptions. But many of the criticisms are off the mark: they misunderstand what journalism is about; they feed a growing sense that there is no agreed upon reality and set of facts to which we can all refer; and, as a Christian I fear they reflect poorly on people who say they love the&nbsp;truth.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/greenwald.substack.com\/p\/my-resignation-from-the-intercept\">My Resignation From The Intercept<\/a> (Glenn Greenwald, Substack): \u201cToday I sent my intention to resign from The Intercept, the news outlet I co-founded in 2013 with Jeremy Scahill and Laura Poitras, as well as from its parent company First Look Media. The final, precipitating cause is that The Intercept\u2019s editors, in violation of my contractual right of editorial freedom, censored an article I wrote this week, refusing to publish it unless I remove all sections critical of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, the candidate vehemently supported by all New-York-based Intercept editors involved in this effort at suppression.\u201d This is&nbsp;sad.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/quillette.com\/2020\/10\/30\/how-the-intercept-abandoned-its-truth-seeking-mission-and-lost-its-best-journalist\/\">How The Intercept Abandoned Its Truth-Seeking Mission\u2014And Lost Its Best Journalist<\/a> (Zaid Jilani, Quillette): \u201cGreenwald is a controversial figure, but my sense of him is that he\u2019s extremely principled. Although he\u2019s unabashedly a man of the liberal-Left\u2014having spent years advocating for left-wing causes from animal rights to anti-war activism\u2014he has developed an impressive (some would call it inflexible) commitment to what he sees as basic fairness. He doesn\u2019t care about the letter next to a politician\u2019s name: Greenwald believes everyone in power should be held accountable at all&nbsp;times.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/10\/28\/insider\/religion-reporters.html\">Two Religion Reporters Cover Where Faith and Politics Meet<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/by\/will-dudding\">Will Dudding<\/a>, New York Times): \u201cI think [religion and politics] seem inseparable partly because it\u2019s election season, and as journalists we tend to view things through that lens ourselves. For ordinary believers, the connection is not always so clear. Some people clearly draw a connection between their faith and their views on national politics; others definitely don\u2019t. I try to keep that in mind as a reporter and not force every story into a political frame.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.collaborativefund.com\/blog\/lots-of-overnight-tragedies-no-overnight-miracles\/\">Lots of Overnight Tragedies, No Overnight Miracles<\/a> (Morgan Housel, The Collaborative Fund): \u201cAn important thing that explains a lot of things is that good news takes time but bad news happens instantly.\u201d Recommended by the parent of an alumnus.<\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/archive\/2020\/10\/americans-have-lost-sight-what-fascism-means\/616846\/\">Americans Have Lost Sight of What \u2018Fascism\u2019 Means<\/a> (Shadi Hamid, The Atlantic): \u201cWords matter because they help order our understanding of politics both at home and abroad. If Cotton is a fascist, then we don\u2019t know what fascism is. And if we don\u2019t know what fascism is, then we will struggle to identify it when it threatens millions of lives\u2014which is precisely what is happening today in areas under Beijing\u2019s control.\u201d Recommended by a student.<\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/money\/2020\/oct\/29\/dave-ramsey-debt-financial-guru\">The man who wants to help you out of debt \u2013 at any cost<\/a> (J Oliver Conroy, The Guardian): \u201cRamsey has made clear that he regards people like me as over-educated, pencil-necked idiots. From a financial point of view, I am in some ways his worst nightmare. I have more than $80,000 in student debt, most of it from a master\u2019s degree in journalism. I work at a famously liberal newspaper whose columnists like to advocate for all the sorts of bleeding-heart economic policies he hates.\u201d I\u2019m always fascinated by newspaper articles about high-profile Christians.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Less Serious Things Which Also Interested\/Amused Glen<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"simple-list wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/dutchreview.com\/news\/break-in-at-escape-room-thieves-crack-safe-but-find-only-riddles\/\">Break in at Escape Room: thieves crack safe but find only riddles<\/a> (Emily Burger, Dutch Review): hahahaha<\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/imgur.com\/gallery\/v2GSa4m\">Going To Bed Early<\/a> (Imgur)<\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=SyX9w05JHuQ\">A Unique Card Trick<\/a> (Penn &amp; Teller Fool Us, YouTube): eight minutes<\/li><\/ul>\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=\"https:\/\/stanfordreview.org\/jason-spyres-shares-his-inspiring-story\/\">From Midwest Drug Dealer to The Farm: Jason Spyres Shares His Inspiring Story<\/a> (Yasmin Samrai, Stanford Review): \u201cTo justify his criminal behaviour, he told himself that though selling pot was illegal, it wasn\u2019t immoral. This theory came crashing down when two gangs broke into his house, split his head open, and robbed him. When Spyres discovered that the burglars had nearly mistaken his house for his neighbor\u2019s, he realized that selling drugs put other people\u2019s safety in jeopardy. \u2018I was shocked and sickened with myself,\u2019 he recalled. \u2018I was part of a black market and my actions had unintended consequences.\u2019\u201d What a wild story. First shared in <a href=\"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2019\/05\/24\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-204\">volume 204<\/a>.<\/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>I\u2019d be happy that this is the last week I\u2019ll share \u201chow to think about voting\u201d articles, except next week I\u2019ll have to share election thinkpieces.&nbsp;<\/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":"I'd be happy that this is the last week I'll share \"how to think about voting\" articles, except next week I'll have to share election thinkpieces. 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