{"id":7618,"date":"2025-01-31T18:47:49","date_gmt":"2025-02-01T02:47:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/?p=7618"},"modified":"2025-01-31T18:47:49","modified_gmt":"2025-02-01T02:47:49","slug":"things-glen-found-interesting-volume-489","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2025\/01\/31\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-489","title":{"rendered":"Things Glen Found Interesting, Volume 489"},"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=\"wp-block-list simple-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mereorthodoxy.com\/to-hate-the-vulnerable-roe-at-52\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">To Hate the Vulnerable: Roe at 52<\/a> (Nadya Williams, Mere Orthodoxy): \u201cDo we as a society realize that we tell some people outright: Your life is not worth living.&nbsp; You do not deserve to live. Your child does not deserve to live. What kind of monsters does this make&nbsp;us?\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/highercode.substack.com\/p\/winning-the-lottery\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Winning The Lottery<\/a> (Kasen Stephensen, Substack): \u201cUltimately, what I learned at Stanford was how to think for myself. Confronted with a culture foreign to my own upbringing and desperate to belong, I looked to my fellow students for guidance and at times lost sight of the lessons I learned from my family and on my mission. While I appreciate my new analytical skills and blossoming ambition, I reject the premise implicit at Stanford: that your worth is measured by your income, the prestige of your job, and your family\u2019s connections. I rediscovered the key lessons from my mission: happiness, for me, is found in intellectual curiosity, acts of service, and genuine relationships with others, whether with friends, team-mates, family members, or the woman I would&nbsp;marry.\u201d&nbsp;<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Recommended by an alumnus.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/2025\/01\/what-it-means-protestant-case-always-reforming-church-gavin-ortlund\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Best Argument for Protestantism Is Its Catholicity<\/a> (N. Gray Sutanto, Christianity Today): \u201c\u2026Ortlund highlights how the Reformers defended their overarching theology in a surprising way. Not only, they argued, were Protestant positions more biblical than their non-Protestant counterparts; they were also more <em>catholic<\/em>\u2014in the sense of furthering the goal of a unified church. In their view, Catholic theologians were the ones departing from apostolic and patristic, or early-church, teaching. As Ortlund notes,\u2019\u201cthe early Protestants argued on <em>catholic and historical grounds<\/em>,\u2019 not merely theological grounds, against a host of Roman Catholic doctrines.\u201d&nbsp;<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A solid review of an excellent book (<em>What It Means To Be Protestant<\/em> by Gavin Ortlund).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalgeographic.com\/culture\/article\/faith-religion-happiness-spirituality\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Can religion make you happy? Scientists may soon find out.<\/a> (Julia Flynn Siler, National Geographic): \u201cA team of scholars, in partnership with polling firm Gallup, has begun a five-year study of over 200,000 participants from 22 countries, to figure out what leads to what researchers call flourishing. To flourish is to be more than merely happy; it\u2019s a metric meant to show if people are \u2018living in a state in which all aspects of a person\u2019s life are good.\u2019\u2026 That data isn\u2019t in yet. But the results obtained so far back up what Pew and other researchers have found. The average flourishing score was 0.23 points higher for someone who says that religion is an important part of their daily life than for someone who does not \u2013 and 0.41 points higher for someone who attends a religious service at least weekly.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6035757\/2025\/01\/08\/jim-crutchfield-nova-southeastern-dii-basketball\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">NBA greats think this D\u2011II coach is a basketball genius. So why don\u2019t you know who he is<\/a>? (CJ Moore, The New York Times): \u201cCrutchfield, a former math teacher who never played college basketball and coached tennis before getting his big D\u2011II break at West Liberty University, sees the game like a math problem and has created his own calculations.\u2026 When he graduated from West Virginia in 1978, Crutchfield wanted to be a high school basketball coach. A year later, he had given up, returning to his alma mater to go to law school. \u2018Too big a dream,\u2019 he thought. He passed the LSAT and rented an apartment in Morgantown. Then he got a call out of nowhere, offering him the boys basketball coaching position at a small school in the state\u2019s northern panhandle. He\u2019s not even sure who recommended him. Crutchfield sold his law books, lost the deposit on his apartment and moved to Cameron, W.V.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.persuasion.community\/p\/the-case-against-drinking\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Case Against Drinking<\/a> (Sam Kahn, Persuasion): \u201cFrom as far back as I can remember, my plan had been to be a kind of low-intensity alcoholic. I hoped that it wouldn\u2019t make me beat my family or wet myself at work, and that it wouldn\u2019t lead to organ failure in the end\u2014always the question, isn\u2019t it?\u2014but it seemed a gamble worth taking. The social life of the West is built almost entirely around the copious consumption of alcohol, with its professional life closely adjacent to&nbsp;that.\u201d&nbsp;<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A solid essay that (correctly) defends Prohibition and makes many good points. I do not think drinking is always a sin, but I do not drink myself and am happy to encourage you not to, either.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/stanforddaily.com\/2025\/01\/30\/i-used-to-think-my-peers-were-antisemitic\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">I used to think my peers were antisemitic. Now, I\u2019ve changed my mind.<\/a> (Julia Segal, Stanford Daily): \u201c\u2018How many of you have heard about this before?\u2019 I ask the wide-eyed cluster of Stanford students in our hotel conference room. A few seconds of silence go by as eyes dart around the room. Finally, scattered hands go up \u2014 approximately half the room. The thing I was asking if they\u2019d head about? Oct. 7. The massacre of roughly 1,300 people in Israel, in the small farming villages and at a music festival. The deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. Earlier this year, I would have been surprised that half the Stanford students in the room had never heard about Oct. 7. But I was coming off the tail-end of dozens of interviews for a trip to visit the Nova Exhibition in L.A., where the typical answer to \u2018What have you heard about Oct. 7?\u2019 was \u2018to be honest, not much,\u2019 and sometimes even, \u2018I hadn\u2019t heard about it until I saw your email and googled it.\u2019\u201d&nbsp;<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>I\u2019m genuinely shocked and it puts some of last year\u2019s campus activism into perspective.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/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=\"wp-block-list simple-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.smbc-comics.com\/comic\/dd\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Mascot<\/a> (SMBC)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=VbV1-qJIh0s\"> The Top 3 Reasons It\u2019s Ok To Knock Out A Dog.<\/a> (Shayne Smith, YouTube): five hilarious minutes. If you watch and enjoy it, follow it up with his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=VDuzdATat4k\">Banned From Karate. <\/a> (Shayne Smith, YouTube): thirty-three minutes. Guys in particular have found this one hysterical. Some gals like it, some do&nbsp;not.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\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:\/\/theglendavis.substack.com\/\">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 Less Serious Things Which Also Interested\/Amused Glen Why Do You Send This&nbsp;Email? In the time \u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2025\/01\/31\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-489\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> \u201cThings Glen Found Interesting, Volume 489\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":[121,143,259,124,153,167,202,135],"class_list":["post-7618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links","tag-abortion","tag-alcohol","tag-antisemitism","tag-apologetically-interesting","tag-catholicism","tag-euthanasia","tag-sports","tag-stanford"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-1YS","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7618","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=7618"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7619,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7618\/revisions\/7619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}