Sundry Dinner, Christmas Eve Edition

by Tom Goodman

Behind Guaraldi's Timeless Holiday Soundtrack behind A Charlie Brown Christmas.


You'll like this Houston Chronicle story about a homeless man, Tony Romo, and God.


11 Essential Gifts for the Self-Driving Car Passenger of the Future.


Don't miss the rare full moon on Christmas. How rare is a full moon on Christmas? It hasn't happened since 1977 and the next one won't occur again until 2034.


"Sometimes, this act of falling is a response to tragedy or cruelty. But sometimes, it is awe. These are the knees of “O Holy Night”: wonderstruck, joyous, and yes, a little wobbly. Fall on your knees, the song commands. Jesus has been born, and even the angels are singing. A thrill of hope; the weary soul rejoices. For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn. This is no normal night. It’s a time to brace, to get close to the ground. Oh, night divine. It’s this physicality that makes “O Holy Night” so fascinating." Emma Green for The Atlantic


"I wish more TV shows considered [baptism] with as much care as The Americans. Paige, the daughter of two Soviet KGB spies posing as an American couple in 1980s Virginia, revolts against the secretive environment her parents created and runs into the arms of a nearby church. Her baptism wasn’t just about a fresh start—it was about becoming a part of something new, something foreign, something strange. 'Paige, this is your most defiant act of protest yet,' Paige’s pastor tells her. And although the rhetoric is a bit dramatic, he’s not wrong. Baptism is a protest against every other way of living that would lay claim to a person’s life—against materialism, individualism; against fear; against the notion that we will ever be enough on our own, apart from God." Laura Turner for Slate writes about the mysterious power of baptism and how TV shows get it wrong--and, in the case of The Americans--right.


There are two heresies about Jesus to avoid this Christmas. You probably aren't at risk for operating out of the Arian heresy, but examine yourself for the Nestorian heresy.

Sundry Dinner, New New Hope Edition

by Tom Goodman

Forrest Wickman for Slate:"Star Wars is a Western. Star Wars is a samurai movie. Star Wars is a space opera. Star Wars is a war film. Star Wars is a fairy tale. A Jedi craves not such narrow interpretations. In fact, Star Wars­­­—the original 1977 film that started it all—is all these things. It’s a pastiche, as mashed-up and hyper-referential as any movie from Quentin Tarantino. It takes the blasters of Flash Gordon and puts them in the low-slung holsters of John Ford’s gunslingers. It takes Kurosawa’s samurai masters and sends them to Rick’s Café Américain from Casablanca. It takes the plot of The Hidden Fortress, pours it into Joseph Campbell’s mythological mold, and tops it all off with the climax from The Dam Busters. Blending the high with the low, all while wearing its influences on its sleeve, Star Wars is pretty much the epitome of a postmodernist film."


The Star Wars Guide to Bowl Season. As the college-football postseason awakens, the WSJ assigns this year’s games their equivalent scene or character from the blockbuster franchise


Michael J. Svigel:

Two books lie on display on a tiny table in my office. The first, The Force of Star Wars (1977), allegorizes the original film and suggests it mirrors specific events of biblical end-time prophecies. The author calls readers to faith in Christ and promotes a clear Christian redemption narrative. The second, Religion of the Force (1983), exposes the allegedly heavy-handed New Age religious propaganda of Lucas’s universe. It suggests Star Wars promotes a false religion, that the “Force” is pantheism, and that Christians should flee from all things Star Wars before they damage their souls. So which is it? Was Lucas a reluctant prophet of God’s story who spoke better than he knew? Or was he a sinister antichrist who continues to lure dupes into the pit of hell? Is Star Wars an allegory conveying the gospel of Jesus, or a drama promoting doctrines of demons? Clearly, the two books represent antithetical approaches to engaging popular culture. And in my view, both veer too far in their perspectives. Let me suggest a middle-of-the-road alternative—one that appreciates the underlying “truths” of the Star Wars narrative without confusing metaphorical fiction with spiritual fact. Read the rest.

This Is the Smartest Netflix Trick We’ve Ever Seen. Build a different profile for every mood.


Fast Company discovered that Donald Trump can post hate speech to Facebook but you can't. Related: I don't think the Atlantic had Facebook's restrictions on free speech in mind when they posted this piece on Christopher Hitchens, but it fits. "The right of others to free expression is part of my own....I have never met nor heard of anybody I would trust with the job of deciding in advance what it might be permissible for me or anyone else to say or read. That freedom of expression consists of being able to tell people what they may not wish to hear, and that it must extend, above all, to those who think differently is, to me, self-evident.


Aiding the Christians Targeted by ISIS for Extermination. ‘We know Washington is aware of the realities,’ says John Eibner, asking why the West is so slow to help. (To get the full article, you may need to type the article title into Google.)

Sundry Dinner

by Tom Goodman

Mockery Isn't Fixing This. Related: God Responds to the New York Daily News


"One brother..., moved by what he saw as his patriotic duty, he enlisted in the Navy and received two medals recognizing his contributions to 'the global war on terror.' The other was deeply religious and became increasingly intolerant, ultimately nursing a growing hatred that led him, along with his wife, to open fire on a San Bernardino holiday party last week. Reuters


A Crash Course on the Muslim Worldview and Islamic Theology


Loving Our Pro-Choice Neighbors in Word and Deed


Crybullies Aren’t Just for College: On Corporations and LGBTQ Political Correctness


What to Do in an Active Shooter Situation


This App Promises To Provide The Care For Depression Patients That Their Doctors Don't

Sundry Dinner

by Tom Goodman

Jacob Brogan's Slate piece: "The Shame of Finding Your Younger Self Online." Whether your politics have changed or you’ve simply become more cynical, confronting your digital past can be cringeworthy.


"The Ethics of Killing Baby Hitler." Fascinating Atlantic piece on whether time-traveling back to kill baby Hitler would be a moral--and even an historical--good.


"Some have questioned why Christianity, which would have formed a central part of the lives of the aristocracy in the early 20th century, is largely absent from [Downton Abbey]. Now the man tasked with ensuring the historical accuracy of the series has revealed why Downton does not do God. Alastair Bruce, who serves as the show’s historical advisor, said that executives in charge of the series had ordered producers to 'leave religion out of it', for fear of alienating an increasingly atheistic public." The Telegraph


Ghosts, or at least belief in them, have been around for centuries but they have now found a particularly strong following in highly secular modern countries like Norway, places that are otherwise in the vanguard of what was once seen as Europe’s inexorable, science-led march away from superstition and religion....Arild Romarheim, a Lutheran priest and recently retired theology lecturer, described the conviction of well-educated atheists and agnostics that ghosts exist as “the paradox of modernity” — a revival of old beliefs to slake an innate human thirst for a spiritual life left unsatisfied by the decline of the church." (NYT)


This is an excellent post on weighing the words we use when engaging pro-choice people in conversation. 

Sundry Dinner, Thanksgiving Edition

by Tom Goodman

6 Things Everyone Believes About Thanksgiving That Are Absolutely Untrue


This Desktop Edible Insect Hive Grows Your Daily Protein At Home. If you can stomach the whole mealworm-eating part, it's a lot easier than raising chickens.


Impregnated by a Speeding Bullet, and Other Tall Tales. How science’s craziest stories get passed from one generation to the next


I love this photographer's messages she posts on abandoned marquees around the country


To many Christians, denominationalism seems pretty old-fashioned. Not “vintage” old-fashioned, like vinyl records and safety razors, but “outdated” old-fashioned, like phone books and VHS tapes. Have denominations gone the way of the buffalo? Does denominational identity matter anymore? Nathan Finn explains why identifying with a denomination still matters.

Sundry Dinner

by Tom Goodman

English is not normal


The actual woman behind Charlie Brown's little red-haired girl


Updated "Ironic" Song:




Slate explores "the confusing, complicated desire of parents with no religion to raise their kids with faith."


Resettling Syrian Refugees: An Alternative. Reihan Salam says economic opportunity closer to home is better than a struggle to integrate abroad.


Denny Burk's "Some Provisional Reflections on the Refugee Situation"


"I had only just earned the PhD and was on the job market when my department’s graduate chairman took me aside, and in the kindliest terms, said, 'I wish I didn’t have to say this, but you should know that the slightest hint of religion on your résumé is the kiss of death.' In the years since I was given that advice, the shadows have only grown longer in the academic world. What we believe is now no longer merely odd, but discriminatory, and therefore fair game to be discriminated against....[This] is the death of ostracism, the death of contempt, the death of unemployability and poverty and incessant self-accusation for being so silly." (The Illusion of Respectability)

Sundry Dinner

by Tom Goodman

Why Self-Driving Cars Must Be Programmed to Kill. Self-driving cars are already cruising the streets. But before they can become widespread, carmakers must solve an impossible ethical dilemma of algorithmic morality.


Sermon Illustration Alert: Submerged 400-Year-Old Church Resurfaces from the Waves


"If pressed to identify a villain in my family’s story, I would have pointed to God." Amy Simpson writes about how a complex relationship with a schizophrenic mom led to a complex relationship with God. Part 1. Part 2.


Summarize the storyline of the Bible in one sentence. Ready? Go.


A Boy’s Discovery Rebuts Temple Mount Revisionism. Palestinians deny Jewish roots at the holy site, but a newly unearthed artifact confirms historical truths. "A 10-year-old Russian boy, Matvei Tcepliaev, recently made an extraordinary discovery in Jerusalem. Working as a volunteer in the Temple Mount Sifting Project, he found a 3,000-year-old seal—engraved limestone about the size of a thimble, with a hole at one end so it could be hung from a string—from the time of King David....The seal confirms the ancient Jewish presence in Jerusalem—more than a millennium before the Muslim Dome of the Rock was built above the ruins of the ancient temples."

Sundry Dinner

by Tom Goodman

47 Comedians Confess the Jokes That Crack Them Up Every Time


"Thou shalt commit adultery." This 17th century "Sinner's Bible" with the misprinted Commandment is now up for auction. 


Favorite American accent for Brits? Southern, of course.


Do you think you're a good person? You're probably 'morally overconfident.'


“'Train up a child.' Rarely is a proverb so often quoted and so often misunderstood. It has become the slogan of parenting seminars. It gets referenced as a surefire promise – a divine reward for our toil and sweat as parents. Young parents latch onto the proverb with the hope that their training will ensure the faithfulness of their children. Older parents feel the proverb’s implicit judgment, weary from watching a child or two depart from 'the way,' and wondering whether their children’s disobedience points backward to their own failure in 'training.'" Trevin Wax explains how people misunderstand this parenting proverb--and what we need to get out of it.


America has had 2 Democratic presidents who were Baptist, but the first Baptist president was  Republican Warren G. Harding. Timothy George recaps his controversial life.


"Right now, for every dollar that the federal government spends on medical research through the National Institutes of Health, 15 cents goes to HIV/ AIDS, 10 cents goes to cancer, 2 cents go to heart disease and less than one penny goes to all mental illnesses combined" (HuffPo)


Planned Parenthood’s problems go far beyond whether it sells organs



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Sundry Dinner

by Tom Goodman

50 Jokes for 50 States


This week's "Painfully-Honest Onion Article" award goes to: There’s No Greater Bond Than The One Between A Mother And Her Child’s Accomplishments


The Definitive Ranking of Insanely Awesome Christian Album Covers. Like this one:

Early warning signs of Adult Onset Calvinism. Calvinism as a set of beliefs is beautiful; Calvinism as a cultural pose is ugly.


God calls us to share the gospel, not just talk about it.

Sundry Dinner

by Tom Goodman

What people in 1900 thought the year 2000 would be like.


If you're in this apartment, no need to pack up when you need to move. A truck will transport the entire apartment to another city and slot it in their frame. Starting in Austin in 2016.


The new Muppets aren’t particularly muppet-y.


"Many American workers are actually poorer today than four decades ago. They may be earning more money. But, in real terms, they're getting less for it." Read here.



Making Guitars:


Take 11 minutes with this video of John Oliver discussing our culture's dismal record on dealing with mental illness. Oliver is occasionally crude and he drifts into the gun control issue, but don't let that keep you from hearing his main thrust: There are ways to take care of our community's neighbors who have mental illness, and these ways are mostly left untried.


"The government should march off to jail scientists and others who don’t support man-made global warming theories, according to 20 climate scientists from several universities and research centers." World


In the latest PP expose video, Amna Ibrahim Dermish, a Planned Parenthood abortionist describes how she tears away preborn babies’ 'lower extremities' in an effort to get at their torsos. This abortionist works for PP Greater Texas, which operates in Austin among other cities. “I’m the only Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas clinic who goes up to 24 weeks,” brags Dermish. She has yet to procure an aborted baby’s brain with both hemispheres intact. “This will give me something to strive for,” Dermish adds in the video, chuckling.


Mollie Hemingway – A Quick and Easy Guide to the Planned Parenthood Videos. Trevin Wax says this is the best one-stop place for seeing summaries for the videos and the videos themselves. Share widely. Don’t look away.

Sundry Dinner

by Tom Goodman

Stephen Colbert on being a "Fool for Christ."


Whale vomit goes for $17,000 at auction. It was the basis of perfume in days past.


Megan Hill explains what's deficient about asking your contacts on social media to "send out good vibes" for you when what you really need is prayer.


"The Salvation Army’s history makes it clear: Evangelism and social uplift belong together." Read it here.


Eleven Takeaways from the Tenth Planned Parenthood Video. Trevin Wax: "It is frustrating to watch the New York Times and other news outlets ignore this most recent video, which clearly shows Planned Parenthood operatives worried about the kind of news coverage (“Imagine the New York Times headline”) they might get if their organ harvesting scheme were to be investigated."


Bill Nye the Science Guy "claims that laws against abortion reflect 'a deep scientific lack of understanding.' But it turns out that it is Nye himself who doesn’t understand the science. 'I really encourage you to look at the facts,' he says. But then he misrepresents the facts from top to bottom in an embarrassingly transparent effort to hijack science in the cause of pro-abortion ideology." Read more from Princeton's Robert P. George.


"Christian leaders should be wary of mistaking an enthusiastic reaction for a sign of evangelistic success or incipient conversion; sometimes the enthusiasm is just a sign that the world thinks that it’s about to succeed in converting you." In the middle of Ross Douthat's NYT piece explaining why enthusiasm for Pope Francis' visit is an encouraging sign, he concedes a point that may collapse his entire argument.

Sundry Dinner

by Tom Goodman

Sundries for your noontime reading (most every) Thursday


What Your Pastor’s Jeans Say About Their Theology:12 types of jeans and their important spiritual implications.


"Austin should prepare for an almost 19 percent increase in population, rising from an estimated 1.9 million in 2014 to 2.3 million in 2020." Austin CultureMap


Wired provides a quick lesson to get you culturally literate. Interesting stuff.


Sermon Illustration Alert: ""I started questioning where value lies in an object. . . . It does not matter what it's made from; what matters is what you do to own it and make it precious, the time you spend exploring its transformative qualities, and enable a dialogue with it through a trial-and-error process. Preciousness lies in the process, not in the material." From the Fast Company article, "This Jewelry Is Trash, Literally—It's Jewelry Made From Trash."


"I was struck anew by a powerful reality of houses of worship: They remain that rare place in American society where people of different ages sit together in common cause. Yes, people gather at a sports arena or concert, but that is to watch, not to participate. Besides, the baby in the stroller and the 93-year-old are not usually found at the same concert. In a world where community is increasingly difficult, and atomization is becoming the norm, Prayer is a moment of togetherness." Rabbi David Wolpe for Time


"Our society is quickly becoming comfortable with the notion of death on demand rather than life in all its complexity....As Christians we cannot expect our nation’s laws to fully align with our beliefs. But in the church, we have many teachings that oppose the 'right to die' rationale." Take time to read "Assisted Suicide and Real Death with Dignity" in CT.

ICYMI Thursday

by Tom Goodman

The pain of Dad Jokes is real for these kids:

Dad Joke Survivors
Posted by Nickelodeon on Thursday, September 3, 2015

You’re Hanging Your Toilet Paper Wrong, And Here’s The Patent To Prove It


Obamas Decide To Stay In White House Until Daughters Finish High School. I don't think it works that way.


See how dramatically Austin's skyline has transformed since 2007. Cool visuals.


How marginalization can empower Christians on mission. How InterVarsity handled mistreatment on California campuses can show us how to stay on mission.

ICYMI Thursday

by Tom Goodman

David Oyelowo: The blockbuster actor is storming Hollywood with unflinching faith and a fresh vision for Christianity in film.


"I think I must have been the world’s most astonished atheist.” On Joy Davidman, C.S. Lewis's late-in-life wife. 


This may be the best short summary of Southern Baptist beliefs and practices I've seen.


"The bobbleheads on his bookshelves include theologian C. H. Spurgeon, former president Thomas Jefferson, evangelist Billy Graham, and musician Hank Williams. Together they symbolize Moore’s vision of mixing theology, religious liberty, evangelism, and culture to guide SBC public policy." Here's a nice profile piece on Russell Moore. I'm glad he's the public face of our denomination.


Sermon Illustration Alert: "I’m not sure that as a species as a whole we are any better than we were 100 or even 10,000 years ago." Good essay expressing doubt to the question "Can We Improve?"


"You are either for women’s well-being and empowerment, or you are pro-life. This is a false dichotomy—one that women in particular need to dismantle." The Power of Pro-Life Women

ICYMI Thursday

by Tom Goodman

The Oldest Message in a Bottle Ever Found


"The notes of alienation, loneliness, and violence yielded to love, companionship, and redemption." Springsteen continued to perfect "Born to Run" before releasing it 40 years ago. 40 years ago.


Pastor welcomes birth of second sermon illustration


"In Starhill we are practicing how to die well here, and in so doing, we are also practicing resurrection." Beautiful post by Rod Dreher about the vigil beside his dying father's bed.


Christianity and "The Good Wife"


Can Russell Moore Ignite the Religious Right? Not sure I like the title (I mean, is this a hope or a goal for anyone anymore?), but the article is useful.


"The Psalms teach us, according to Wright, to embrace the paradox of living in the “now” and the “not yet”—a world where the King has come, lived, suffered, died, and was resurrected and yet friends are still debilitated by cancer and whole nations flee from genocide." Inhabiting the Psalms

ICYMI Thursday

When Hollywood Goes to Church: 18 Stereotypes. A lighthearted look at what we've all learned about church and the ministry from TV and movies.


What Tolkien and Lewis teach us about surviving dark times


Sick of all the articles about the younger generation? Popular browser extension changes the word ‘millennial’ into ‘snake person.’ I'd like it to change the phrase "science says" to "thus spoke Zarathustra."


78729: One of the hottest ZIP Codes in America


Well, now there's a provocative title: One Shortcut to a Happy Marriage: Vote Republican

ICYMI Thursday

By Tom Goodman

Extrovert? Introvert? How about Ambivert?

What’s The Actual ‘Oldest Joke in The Book?’
We Just May Have Found It.

David Skeel in the WSJ says Now Isn’t the Time to Flee the Public Square: "At a time when religious freedom is viewed by many as expendable, and appears in scare quotes or their equivalent in major U.S. newspapers for the first time in American history, the practical consequences of reduced engagement could be considerable."

Good quote in Gerard Alexander's NYT op-ed on the departure of Jon Stewart from The Daily Show:

Many liberals, but not conservatives, believe there is an important asymmetry in American politics. These liberals believe that people on opposite sides of the ideological spectrum are fundamentally different. Specifically, they believe that liberals are much more open to change than conservatives, more tolerant of differences, more motivated by the public good and, maybe most of all, smarter and better informed.

The evidence for these beliefs is not good. Liberals turn out to be just as prone to their own forms of intolerance, ignorance and bias. But the beliefs are comforting to many. They give their bearers a sense of intellectual and even moral superiority. And they affect behavior. They inform the condescension and self-righteousness with which liberals often treat conservatives.

Rachel Larimore at Slate, on the claim that abortions make up only 3 percent of the services that Planned Parenthood provides: "It might not be a technically incorrect number, but it is meaningless—to the point of being downright silly....Planned Parenthood gets at least a third of its clinic income—and more than 10 percent of all its revenue, government funding included—from its abortion procedures. Ask anyone who runs a for-profit business or nonprofit charity if something that brings in one-third of their revenue is "central" to their endeavor, and the answer is likely to be yes. So yes, abortion is central to what Planned Parenthood does.

Philosopher Peter Kreeft says that there are only four options to the question of whether a fetus is a person, and there are legal implications that follow should one abort a fetus:

The fetus is a person, and we know that: Aboriton is murder

The fetus is a person, but we don’t know that: Abortion is manslaughter

The fetus isn’t a person, but we don’t know that: Abortion is criminal negligence

The fetus isn’t a person, and we know that: Only in this case is abortion reasonable, permissible, and responsible choice.

The Washington Post "The Cities" series recently focused on the joy and challenges of Austin living:

 

 

 

 

ICYMI Thursday

by Tom Goodman

From Grandmother to Granddaughter, Passing Along Religious Traditions. When parents are absent or uninterested in spirituality, a grandparent often steps in.



“Baylor sociologists have found that the much-touted rise of the "nones" may not be all it is cracked up to be. Many people who indicate that they have "no religion" on a survey will then go on to name a specific congregation which they attend! A number of evangelicals have grown up with the idea that they do not have a "religion," but a personal relationship with Jesus. Others do not know what denomination to which their church belongs. These findings undercut some of the supposed ascendancy of unbelief.” Thomas Kidd


I completely agree. WSJ:

On Wednesday Senate Republicans…introduced a bill that would defund Planned Parenthood while providing the same dollars to alternative women’s health-service providers….The bill states that nothing in its language ‘shall be construed to reduce overall Federal funding available in women’s health.’ Instead of going to Planned Parenthood, the money would go to health centers, hospitals and other organizations that provide non-abortion services for women’s health.

The leaders on the cultural left are shouting as usual about limiting health care for women and denying their right to choose. But no such right is in jeopardy. Planned Parenthood can finance all the abortions it wants, but it would have to raise other funds to do it. Surely there are enough rich progressive donors in Greenwich and Silicon Valley.

…

In its political ascendancy, the cultural left has become even more intolerant of dissenting views. On gay marriage, opponents must be silenced and are obliged to provide services regardless of their religious objections. And the right to have an abortion isn’t enough; opponents must be forced to pay for it. By all means let’s have a vote about taxpayer funding for fetal organ harvesting.

ICYMI Thursday

by Tom Goodman

The 4 people in North Dakota who create all our fake national holidays

 

Joe Rigney at DesiringGod explains when to baptize our believing children: “Embrace the professions, wait on the water.”

 

Thomas Kidd explains that “there are at least four types of Christians who often get cast as evangelicals who really are not evangelicals, if that term has any meaning.” You might be surprised at those who “might well affirm evangelical distinctives when asked, but they put other emphases [from those evangelicals would hold] at the center of their public message.”

 

More Americans Oppose Obergefell-v-Hodges Than Support It

 

“As my friend and former Obama White House staffer Michael Wear tweeted, ‘It should bother us as a society that we have use for aborted human organs, but not the baby that provides them.’” You should read Kirsten Powers’ USA Today piece on the Planned Parenthood controversy.

ICYMI Thursday

by Tom Goodman

Why Do Americans Drink Coffee?

 

How about taking church attendance using facial recognition software, eh?

 

A Guy Got Struck by Lightning Twice, and His Name Happens to Be Rod

 

“Progressives grew up in an era in which big money corrupted politics, large corporations dominated the economy, and environmental crises threatened the natural world – forces that might rouse the ire of those on the ‘blue’ side of the spectrum today. But the situation was a call to arms for those who were steeped in the Calvinist demand for a righteous society, a kind of moralizing that might be more considered on the ‘red’ side of the current spectrum.” An interesting article by Texas Tech’s Mark Stoll on Teddy Roosevelt and how essential Roosevelt’s Presbyterian Calvinism was to understanding his motivations. “Some recent biographers go so far as to overlook this element of his character completely, but Roosevelt’s friends and colleagues recognized in him, in the words of one friend, ‘the greatest preacher of righteousness in modern times.’”

 

The top 10 religious liberty threats for Christian higher education