Welcome to your Weekend Reading, a roundup of my favorite stories, blogs, videos and more from the past week. If you’re new to the list, what you can expect is a mix of theology, politics, and fun everyday life stuff. Basically, I sort through all the stuff out there so you don’t have to.

Let’s start with a rather fascinating story about how one solitary little college student accidentally found herself in the way of a bunch of big companies working to redefine a political-geographic area for better tax reasons. They were trying to draw new political boundaries with zero voters…unfortunately they missed one. It’s actually quite amusing no matter what your politics are!

No doubt that by now you’re familiar with the news stories surrounding AshleyMadison.com, so I won’t describe it here. But Gizmodo has an interesting breakdown on the data that was leaked, and their conclusion is amazing, “we’re left with data that suggests Ashley Madison is a site where tens of millions of men write mail, chat, and spend money for women who aren’t there.” (h/t Challies)

Video number 8 came out this week revealing more of the sin and corruption behind Planned Parenthood’s sale of human body parts – sometimes for upwards of $75 per body part. And after the protests from earlier this week, John Piper wrote a very thoughtful blog on his observations after attending one such anti-PP protest.

When we moved to our new house in NW Columbus last year, Kate and I often went back and forth about our motivation for moving. We had been living in a very “edgy” neighborhood, had our home ransacked, continually had drugs sold in front/back of our home, and even had gun shots fired in our front yard.  But ultimately we loved our neighbors (Danny had an endless supply of candy and kindness for our kids) and our home (components of which were 47% Lowes, 40% original, 13% unrecognizable), and our move was motivated by wanting to be near our church, and the people we were ministering to every week. This week Kate sent me a very thoughtful blog from Pastor Nick Nye that is worth reading if you’re thinking of moving in the near future.

On the Presidential Election front…John Kasich is now in second place in New Hampshire and building a formidable campaign. James Carville – Dem strategist/political guru – says that Trump has momentum that is basically unprecedented. And Carly Fiorina gave what I thought to be a really good answer this week on climate change. Tangential to all of this, yet somewhat related, is an article the Wall Street Journal did on the different Trump Towers/Buildings, really interesting stuff. Lastly, Kasich received another unconventional endorsement this week…clearly he’s got the election wrapped up…

Remember the Oregon couple who had their business devastated by activist judges after refusing to bake a cake for a gay wedding? Ya, those people are now baking cakes (out of their home, mind you) for dozens of pro-LGBT organizations around the country to show them what love looks like. It’s a pretty cool story. 

In my position as a political operative and christian, devoted to my family and ministering to others, I’m often asked about how politics and religion mix appropriately. One of the questions I get from time to time is, “Is it appropriate for Christians to be involved in politics at all?” or from sort of the opposite end of the scale, “Can we expect christians to actually make effective changes in government?”  This week there was a decent piece of writing from Phillip Holmes on this subject, and I suppose its coming at the matter from that latter perspective. I like that he quotes Nancy Pearcey – find her seminal book here. 

Best of WSJ – a commonsense editorial from the Wall Street Journal on how reaction to Tim Cook’s email re: Chinese sales of Apple products (to Jim Cramer) is overblown. If you’ve been following the news at all, you’ll know that the stock market plummeted on Monday, mostly because of concerns over the Chinese economy. Also, they had an interesting piece on how women’s soccer is taking flight in Iran, of all places.

Wacko Article of the Week: There was a story/radio interview this week with a gay couple on the west coast who are raising their child in a species-less way. That means that they aren’t forcing “humanness” upon the child, but letting “it” identify with whatever it will. This is, of course, revolting, but it is also a real life example of how confusion over gender and sexual identity can lead to actually denying ones own humanity. These view points stand in conflict with the desire by the LGBT community who want to be treated “equal” – which begs the question of how they view themselves ultimately…are they human? How will people answer this question in years to come? We know the answer, of course. They are human, and they are because they were made so by God. In fact, they bear His image, and thus ought to be treated as such. (h/t Derek)

Powerful Article of the Week: Challies linked to a short post by Matthew Holst aimed at addressing men who look and lust at women. As he sits in Starbucks and notices all the men “checking out” women around him, he’s driven to write a few things for men to consider. Check it out here. 

Timely, provoking blog this week, addressed to Christians, on the matter of organic food, essential oils, and all, well, “non-essentials”.  I’m the first to admit that our family buys organic, uses essential oils, and homeschool our kids. So if you’re looking to stereotype us, that ought to help a bit. But the aim of this article is really good, namely it aims at the pride of people who spend all their time and energy evangelizing for what, at the end of the day, are really non-essentials. 

And, in case you hadn’t noticed my obsession with the DG website this week, here’s one last blog post that was worth reading by David Mathis. Mathis writes about Fasting for Beginners. This one really convicted me, and beyond that I found it helpful as well.

I don’t even know what to think about this new offering from Amazon…order TP right from the porcelain throne (h/t Ben F).

Sports lesson of the week: finish the race strong…aka: don’t celebrate prematurely

Finally, check out this hilarious video of a dude who goes into IKEA with his girl and starts clipping together IKEA-puns...laughed until it hurt (h/t Alex W.)

That’s it – go enjoy your weekend!

PJW

PS – If you’re desirous of not getting an email, just ping me.