Links to Your World, Tuesday October 1

Man Experiencing First Real Moment Of Peace In Years Resuscitated (The Onion)

 

For the love of Myst

 

Great a capella arrangement:

A four-year-old British boy survived the bloody Kenyan shopping mall attack after standing up to a terrorist gunman and telling him: “You’re a very bad man.” Time. The gunman released them saying, "Forgive us. We're not monsters." What's this guy's definition of "monsters"?

"Pastor Saeed is not the only Christian in chains for the Gospel," David French of ACLJ wrote Sept. 16. "He's not the only Christian who faces mortal peril simply because of his faith.... Go to Be Heard, write a letter for Pastor Saeed, then stay and learn about the plight of Christians in Iran, Egypt, Pakistan, and beyond."

 

Wait...Buddhist persecution of Christians? That doesn't fit the Western fable of Buddhism

 

CT: "According to a study of more than 100 nations, changes in the percentage of Christians—especially evangelicals—in a given country have a direct correlation to economic well-being."

Sure, you can wish Michael Goodman a happy birthday today.

 

Amy Simpson, in her post, "Evangelicals, You're Wrong About Mental Illness"--

Stop telling people they can cure their mental illness with only prayer....One sure way to drive people closer to despair is to tell them their mental illness is simply a spiritual problem, tell them to pray it away, then when it doesn’t work, just tell them to pray harder. Laying a heavy spiritual burden on people suffering from serious mental illness is a way to encourage suicide, not to prevent it....Mental illness, like other diseases, is a reality of life in a world where parts of our body–including our brains–get sick and malfunction. We don’t consider it acceptable to prescribe prayer alone for diseased livers, hearts, and pancreases; why prescribe it for disordered brains?

 

For those of you who followed five seasons of Breaking Bad right through the finale Sunday, here's James Poniewozik:

No, we’re not all Walter White. Most of us would never do what he did even in his circumstances. But have none of us ever done the wrong thing in the name of pride, expedience, or “the children”? Isn’t the world full of people who make selfish choices because they tell themselves they need to look out for their own families first (never mind what other families are indirectly affected)? To disassociate yourself from Walt is to tell yourself that your ordinary impulses–It’s not fair! I deserve this! My kids deserve this!–could never lead you to a bad place. You don’t have to kill to compromise, and Breaking Bad is all about how one moral compromise makes the next one easier.

And don't miss this Breaking Bad observation by Chris McNerney and Daniel Lee:

Walt didn't become broken—Walt was already broken. Broken on the inside by pride, lust for power and greed, all of which was neatly hidden away until circumstances brought the inner being to light. So Walt wasn't a bad person because he manufactured narcotics; he manufactured narcotics because he was a bad person, and the long-term effects of unrepentant sin gradually harden him into a ruthless psychopath....What starts off as an instinct to provide for his family mutates into a monstrous obsession to preserve the empire that Walt has established with his own two hands. Walt has been so engulfed by the darkness that he is no longer fully human. And that's because sin is a force that refuses to let up; like gravity, it relentlessly pulls us inward into itself. As Walt himself says, "If you believe that there's a hell...we're already pretty much going there. But I'm not gonna lie down until I get there" (from episode 5.07, "Say My Name").

But I didn't watch the much-ballyhooed program and I'm not sure I'll binge-watch the five seasons to catch up. A couple of years ago Diane and I thought we'd keep up through Netflix, but the first three episodes of the first season were so dark and brutal. Besides, I know something about the family heartbreak of drug abuse (another story for another day), and we didn't need further sorrow from our entertainment. In the end, Lily Rothman's reasons she doesn't watch the show are good enough for me, too.

 

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