ICYMI Thursday

by Tom Goodman

The National Retail Federation estimates that people will cough up $350 million just on Halloween costumes—for their pets. Grand total on all things Halloween: $7.4 billion last year.

 

This Christmas, get your kids the Breaking Bad toy action figures. Wait. What?

 

“At every turn, the writers [of Lost] reinforced the idea that humans are part of a larger narrative, a grand scheme. The crossing of our paths is not accidental. A divine purpose ripples through creation and surprises us in ways the analytical mind cannot fully grasp.” Trevin Wax explores the best and worst of Lost, which debuted 10 Years ago.

You can find my take on the Lost finale here.

Depending on how deep into the rabbit hole you want to go, all my posts on Lost are here.

 

Hillsong says they haven’t “shifted” away from a biblical stance on homosexuality, despite recent headlines. Andrew Walker lists five things other Christian leaders can learn from the recent media moment.

 

“The idea that the atheist comes to her view of the world through rationality and argumentation, while the believer relies on arbitrary emotional commitments, is false.” Crispin Sartwell acknowledges that one comes to belief or non-belief through certain factors that are prior to logical reasoning.

 

“Quite a few students arrived on campus at age eighteen vaguely aware of evangelicalism’s odd position, in which American culture sometimes respects the movement while also ridiculing its sentimentality, defensiveness, and kitsch. This low-level worry increased considerably over four years of college, as students sat under select professors who made plain their disdain or indifference towards conservative Christianity.” Stephen Dilley of Austin’s St. Edwards University has an excellent piece at First Things called “The Problem of Self-Loathing at Evangelical Colleges.” I can testify that much of what he wrote about was my experience in the early 80s at my evangelical university. I like his cautions to parents who are helping their kids choose a school, as well as his recommendations to the colleges themselves.