I just spent a week hanging out with family visiting from Canada. It was an awesome time! I’m feeling grateful, exhausted, and about five pounds heavier.
What do Canadians do when we get together? We chug maple syrup, feast on poutine, and reminisce about growing up in igloos and tracking polar bears across the frozen tundra. OK, not really. But I’ve found Americans will believe just about anything I say about Canada.
While I’ve never tracked a polar bear, I managed to track down some stories I hope you’ll enjoy. If you don’t, I’m sorry.
A quick recap of what you might have missed this week
Warning: If you skim this post about “Reversing the Damage of Internet Reading” you may die of irony. The author explains how the Internet has conditioned our brains to skim rather than read deeply, and explains how that’s problematic, especially for those of us dedicated to the truths contained in the long read called the Bible. He then shares practices he’s used to counteract the impact of Internet use. “If you want to increase muscle strength in your arms, you have to pick up heavy weights and start pounding out the reps. The same principle applies to serious reading.”
Another warning: this post could ruin a lot of sermons for you. It examines popular sermon illustrations that have dubious (or nonexistent) origins. Pastor and professor Jordan Vale observes, “The preaching tradition has a way of handing down captivating illustrations like they are family heirlooms, without asking where they came from.” You know that one about low gate in the Jerusalem wall called the “Eye of a Needle,” the ones camels had to kneel to get through? Turns out no such gate existed in the first century. Bummer. That was a good one. Vale exposes “seven popular sermon illustrations that dissolve on contact with a footnote.”
There are many causes for the country’s falling birthrate: the high cost of living, better access to contraception, even smartphone use. Now a new contender has entered the ring: political identity. A new study found that conservatives average 1.4 children (that 0.4 child is always a little off) while liberal families clock in at 1.09. This Atlantic article explores the reasons behind the divide. Again, the phenomenon is multifactorial; it includes different priorities, contrasting views of parenting, and geographic influences. The author concludes: “Ideology may nudge people into parenthood or childlessness by subtly shaping what they value, what they fear, whom they surround themselves with, and what they want out of life.”
The latest theological dustup on the world wide web
Right wing provocateur Dinesh D’Souza is no stranger to controversy. But this week he took a break from the political beat to start a theological fight on X.com. “If the Calvinist doctrine of pre-destination is right, then atheists are right to reject God, because God has rejected them first.” A flurry of replies followed, with many accusing D’Souza of twisting reformed doctrine. Some Arminians jumped in on D’Souza’s side. In the end, no minds seemed to change. As Daniel Darling commented, “You are probably not going to solve a 2,000-year-old soteriology debate online.”
If you find a 3,000-year-old-trumpet, you might not want to blow it. That’s what happened when archeologists unearthed King Tutankhamun’s ancient trumpet and decided to play it for the first time in millennia on live radio in 1939. The result? The fragile artifact cracked and fueled rumors of the “pharaoh’s curse” just before World War II.
While we’re talking history, check out Thomas Aquinas’ funky handwriting. It’s heavily abbreviated and super sloppy; like a chicken stepped in ink and walked across the page. As one person commented, “No wonder they called him a ‘doctor’ of the church.”
Feel-good stories to lift your mood.
Here’s a back-to-school rite of passage I’m hoping sweeps the nation. At Bishop Kelley High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, freshman students are forced to kiss their mothers goodbye on the first day of school. Senior students surround the freshmen’s cars and refuse to let them exit until they’ve given their mothers a farewell kiss. I have a freshman who’s going to school in a few days. Maybe we’ll make him pucker up.
On the Holy Post, the team discussed radical hospitality and America’s love of privacy.
On Curiously, Kaitlyn, Kaitlyn addresses the question, “Why did Jesus ascend to heaven instead of staying on earth?”
On the SkyePod, Skye asks whether we’ve accepted a lesser gospel of resuscitation rather than a transformation through Christ’s resurrection.
Fresh updates across the religious landscape
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