Good morning, and welcome to the (holiday!!!) weekend! Here’s what I thought were the most important and relevant items to check out. It’s supposed to rain where I am (Dublin Ohio) today, so if your day is like mine, sit back and scan through some good articles!

Let’s start with some news. James Hohmann had a really helpful and interesting column about how young this electorate is.  Meaning this: there are a ton of people who will not really know much about the Clinton era and the 90’s. The youngest voters this year will have been born in 1998…does that not blow your mind?  So, what that means is that a lot of the Clinton era scandal is completely foreign to younger voters (and reporters).  I still remember where I was the morning Vince Foster was reported dead…I guess I’m getting old!  The consequences of this younger electorate having missed out on the Clinton scandals, can be seen on both sides of the aisle – that’s what Hohmann discusses. BUT – if you read that column, be sure to scroll down to see this headline ‘The superbug that doctors have been dreading has reached the U.S.‘ It’s like the fourth story down…interesting and terrifying stuff.

This was really thought-provoking:  Why I Don’t Use an Ad Blocker. 

More on where culture meets politics…Egypt: Muslim mob attacks Christians, parade naked woman…..AND, from a Weekend Reader, ‘The Spiritual Dangers of a Trump Presidency’ – this is pretty harsh stuff.  They key quote might be:

When much of the “evangelical vote” in some Republican primaries goes to a man so palpably misaligned with the character of the man we call “Savior,” it tells the world we’re not serious about holiness, or even minimal standards of civic decency. It sends the message that for us, the end justifies the means. It supports the world’s belief that hatred is a Christian value after all.

What made this an interesting column to me was that if one considers what folks in the Middle East must think of our culture here in America (if you care), then there are some relevant themes here. I think its probably a mistake to overestimate the number of evangelicals – true followers of Christ – here in America, no matter what the perspective of those around the world might be.  I’m off topic a bit from where that guy was headed – but I begin to wonder what the more global consequences of a Trump Presidency would be in terms of how America is seen in the world. Have you pondered that? Do you care? (I’m not saying you should, just asking the question…)

And…because that isn’t enough controversy for one morning, check this one out: Why Your Pastor Should Say “No More to Beth Moore”  I like to keep track of this kind of thing.  This was linked off of Challies’ blog this week, and its worth scanning. What I found interesting was the premise laid out in the second graph:

For many years, Beth Moore’s teaching has raised eyebrows among pastors and leaders in conservative circles.  Although concerns have been raised through the years, Beth Moore continues to be welcomed into the study groups within local churches where women read her books, study guides, and watch her videos with limited, if any, oversight from the pastoral staff

That is the quote that provoked me to say “umm, ya, what is the deal with that anyway?”  NOW……..I am definitely not charismatic, but I didn’t care for how the author lumped in that descriptor in his third bullet point when discussing Moore’s ecumenicalism. To lump Olsteen and Joyce Meyer in with Christians who consider themselves charismatic isn’t fair. In today’s vernacular, one can be a Bible believing evangelical Christian and consider themselves charismatic. Meyer and Olsteen aren’t really preaching the gospel, so to consider them Christians or Christian ministers is a MAJOR stretch.  That being said, the author makes many other relevant points worth considering.

Let’s keep walking down that line of difficult topics in the church: Singing Songs from Questionable Sources.  Very thoughtful blog post by Bob Kauflin about an interesting topic.

One of the big political stories of the week was that in New Mexico Donald Trump held a rally where he lambasted the popular GOP hispanic Governor. Here’s the news story on that one. That story almost overshadowed the stories about him actually clinching the GOP nomination (from a delegate count perspective).

If you haven’t been watching the NBA playoffs, then you need to speed read this one: Draymond Green fined but not suspended for kick to groin.  I was actually on the golf course this week listening to a guy use Draymond Green as an adverb(???), “I just got Draymond Greened by that (golf) hole.”  So ya, that’s when I knew the story might have taken on more than a niche audience.

This was something out of a Sean Connery flick: Best Buy Bandits hit Alabama, tunnel in like movie villains, take $100k worth of electronics.

VIDEO: Interesting perspective and insight into Calvin and Hobbes. 

Also interesting: Obama visits Vietnam, eats with the only available expert on Vietnamese food, Anthony Bourdain

Read this a finally, and thought it was really interesting: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Islamic State

Hilarious: Everything Local Man Feels Led To Do He Coincidentally Really Likes

This one is longer than it should have been, but I found myself commiserating big time with this guy: Apple Destroyed My Will to Collect Music

Some interesting stuff here – with graphics that are the main attraction of the article: The Changing American Diet…(do I really believe Americans eat so much veggies???)

And….if you haven’t seen this yet, you should.  Looks pretty incredible: Life-Size Noah’s Ark

The hits keep on rollin with Target: Target Is Suing Man After Saving A Young Girl From Being Stabbed To Death

Jon Bloom doing what he does best: Child-Like Humility Produces Peace

Thoughtful little piece from Tim Challies: 3 Priorities for Christian Parents

WHOOPS: Fitbit Trackers Are ‘Highly Inaccurate,’ Study Finds

The man who represents all the corruption of the Clinton machine is under federal investigation: Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe under federal investigation for campaign contributions

Whether you agree or disagree with the conclusions here, this is a fascinating article (h/t Alex W.): This Is What the Future of American Politics Looks Like

The 2016 race is a sign that American politics is changing in profound and lasting ways; by the 2020s and 2030s, partisan platforms will have changed drastically. You may find yourself voting for a party you could never imagine supporting right now. What will that political future look like?

NEXT UP: Corruption in the NFL??? NO!!  NEVER!!!

Also – be sure to check this out.  I really found it interesting: Is Rush Limbaugh in Trouble?  Of course the mainstream media has been asking this question for a long time, and they’ve been continually, well, wrong.  But its still an interesting look into the world of big time radio – a world that has drastically shrunk!

Finally, you might enjoy: 5 Themes on Providence from the Psalms

That’s it!  Enjoy your EXTRA LONG WEEKEND!!!

PJW

Welcome to the weekend, and an abbreviated version of the Weekend Reading!  Why not too many articles this week? I guess I simply didn’t read a lot that was worth passing along.  But here is what you might find interesting…

Donald Trump released a list of folks he would consider appointing to the Supreme Court if he were elected in the fall. The Wall Street Journal seems impressed…

Nothing is certain with Mr. Trump, but that’s far preferable to the certainty that Hillary Clinton would nominate a down-the-line liberal. The direction of the Supreme Court for a generation is up for grabs in November, and Mr. Trump’s list makes him far superior to Mrs. Clinton on that score.

This is sort of what I brought up last week, and what I think the dialogue needs to be around. I’m not certain I can pull the trigger on voting for Trump, nor am I saying you should vote for him, I am just saying that Christian conservatives need to wrestle with whether it is conscionable to vote for Trump based on the Supreme Court situation. That may seem overly pragmatic, but I think its at least worth wrestling with.

Speaking of the White House, someone was shot by the police this week while attempting to enter the secure building. Maybe I’ve watched too many Sean Connery/Harrison Ford/James Bond style action flicks, but I don’t think any of their daring break-ins to high security buildings involved forcing their way into the building in broad daylight…

This was new to me: ‘Why Do Old Books Smell So Good?’  – Maybe you’ll disagree with the “good” part, but at the very least you may find it interesting how scientists use book odor to determine its age.

There was a story on the BBC this week about how the biggest bank in China bought a place to story a bunch of gold in London. So what, right? Typical headline you might see in the financial section. But for some reason, this story struck me as pretty interesting. The adjectives “massive”, and “secret” were tossed around pretty liberally…

Were you worried about what might happen to the country if Hillary Clinton is elected President? Oh don’t sweat it! Turns out Bill will run the economy, so no worries…Sort of separately, Karl Rove had a column this week that wasn’t worth linking to, but asked the question “what if Clinton is indicted?” His answer is basically that the DNC will have to appoint Biden or someone in her place. No great revelations there…

Funny: In Effort To Woo Moderates, Trump Considers Not Building Wall Until Second Decade Of Presidency

One of the pleasures of being a dad of three small kids is that they ask great questions. This week one of them was ‘What’s the fastest car in the world dad???‘ Here’s what we stumbled upon. 

And what is the deal with this…it sort of reads like the Onion, but strangely enough I don’t think its a satire! ‘Jeopardy and Canadians: Lawyers stumped on reasons for ban’

Jonah Goldberg: Millennials embrace socialism, but do they know what it is? The answer? Obviously NO

Just a few headlines about this little Oklahoma situation: Oklahoma passes bill making performing abortions a felony. I’m not legal scholar, but I’m pretty sure that this comes into conflict with that whole federal law dealeo.  Hopefully this provides some kind of president which gets the ball rolling on overturning Roe V. Wade…but again, I’m no legal scholar…

Despite the condescending headline, I enjoyed this story: Golfers Join the Rest of World, Use Data

Probably the best blog I read this week was from Tim Challies called, ‘There Is No Place for Regret’. He’s quoting from A.W. Tozer, and here’s a good one:

The desire to be pleasing to God is commendable, certainly, but the effort to please God by self-effort is not, for it assumes that sin once done may be undone, an assumption wholly false.

That’s it for today!  As I said, a short read, but I hope you enjoy it, and enjoy the rest of your weekend!

PJW

Good morning to you all!  I apologize for this being later than usual, but I’m under the weather. If you’re new to this email/blog post, then what you’re reading is a summary of my favorite articles, books, videos, blogs and more from this past week. Let’s face it, I’m a nerd who reads a lot so you don’t have to. The way to read this is to scan the whole thing and just pick out what you find most interesting. Okay? Let’s go…

BATHROOMS! There was more heated debate over the North Carolina bathroom bill, and the King…errr…President decided to issue a decree throughout the land re: the bathrooms in schools. From the post above:

In 1972 when Congress passed Title IX of the Education Amendments, no one thought that “sex” meant “gender identity.” It didn’t mean it then, and it doesn’t mean it now. The Obama administration is unlawfully rewriting federal law. The term “sex” is not ambiguous, and is not subject to executive branch agencies redefining to now mean “gender identity.”

Furthermore, there was this headline: ‘Justice Dept. to N.C. universities: Break transgender bathroom law or lose millions in funding’  And…here’s the target CEO saying he’s standing by his decision. I’m not a huge fan of boycotting stuff. It usually doesn’t seem to work.  But in this case I’m seriously thinking about it because these people don’t ever seem to learn – maybe they’ll learn from the pocketbook…By the way – here’s the Gov. of North Carolina on FoxNews Sunday discussing the issue…

Shocking Stuff: ‘An Indian teen was raped by her father. Village elders had her whipped.’ – this is a longer story, and it doesn’t just involve the one situation from the headline, but gives some interesting perspective into the nature of the government structures, and the local battle for control over decision making on disputes and legal/social matters. In America, where culturally we have a history of understanding Christian morality (until recently), local control of social issues (schools, taxes, judicial disputes etc) has been seen as a good thing – a guard against government tyranny (see the story above!). But here, you start to see how superstition actually makes that a dangerous thing for individuals who are weaker in their society.  I’m not making generalizations – just find it interesting how topsy-turvey this is.

On a more encouraging note…A fellow named Geoffrey Thomas has a thoughtful post on Ligonier this week called ‘Growing in Humility’. There wasn’t a lot of gospel application in here, but what I did like was the awe and wonder factor – lots to contemplate about what Christ has done.

NERD ALERT: I was enjoying this summary of N.T. Wright’s latest book on Paul – this time the book focuses on the landscape of thought…what my buddy Jay knows we call “a commentary on the commentaries!”

Best News of the Week!!!  Benny Hinn Miraculously Removes Lump From Woman’s Purse

I don’t care if you like the NBA or not, this was saaweeet: Stephen Curry’s ultimate career mixtape – I really couldn’t look away. In fact, I got interrupted by a call or something in the middle, and I found myself angry that I had to pause the video!

Perhaps the biggest stories of the week on the GOP side of politics were 1. The meeting of Trump with Speaker Ryan (too boring to link to) and 2. The back and forth between Russell Moore and Donald Trump. Time captured the back and forth here. NewsMax Headline: Russell Moore on Trumpism: It’s an Embrace of ‘Reality TV Moral Sewage’….some of the twitter back and forth here.  And below is the tweet from Trump that I saved from earlier in the week…

One of the things that struck me this week about Trump was how revolting some of my non-Christian friends found him. In other words, they don’t even have the Spirit of God living within them, but were brought up by good parents, had certain ethical standards etc. and they can’t vote for him in good conscience. To you Christians who are over the moon for him – that ought to shame you a bit. What is missing in the discussion since Sen. Cruz dropped out of the race is whether or not voting/supporting trump can be morally defensible as a pragmatic way to try and keep the Supreme Court in the hands of (hopefully more) reasonable people and not activist judges. To me, that is the thing conservatives need to grapple with more than anything else….of course Russell Moore might disagree. My perspective is a little different, and its not firmly set, but I think there are likely moral ways to engage in the general election as a political operative or activist, without saying (in affect) “I agree with what Trump says and does”.  Some of you might disagree – some of you don’t work in politics. Admittedly, I’m still working through the matter mentally…

Some levity…The Simpsons on Two Party Systems!  (h/t Alex W.).

Speaking of Trump, I am willing to bet my libertarian friends were a little peeved at this monetary policy revelation. 

On the Democratic Side, the top headline came from the Wall Street Journal: Clinton Charity Aided Clinton Friends. When people refer to the “corruption” of the Clintons, this is the kind of thing they’re talking about (in case you were wondering haha!). One friend called this the ‘Clinton Crime Syndicate’ on his Facebook wall.

Also, on the Presidential front, and also from the WSJ, there’s an article about how Trump might be polling better in the key swing states than folks originally had thought. (h/t David B.) It’s still really early to bank on these numbers, but they are at least a little encouraging to those who’d rather elect anyone but Hillary.

Worth Considering: Carl Trueman has some thought-provoking items over at First Things. What really hit home to me was this line, “Thus democracy still exists—we thankfully still live in a democracy—but it is clear that we no longer have a democratic culture.” (emphasis mine)

This could be a thriller movie someday: The day we discovered our parents were Russian spies

Also for consideration, from WaPo: Unlike alcohol, it’s tough to set DUI limits for marijuana

This made the rounds on every social media platform BUT Facebook (I jest, I jest): Former Facebook Workers: We Routinely Suppressed Conservative News

What I didn’t get to read but will (hopefully) today: A Black Man’s Hope for Complementarians – big props to Taelor for making it to the big time with a post on DG!  Also, ‘What we know about the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails‘. And for you counselors and just normal peeps out there, Challies linked to this (hopefully helpful) post, ‘Should I Tell My Spouse about Struggles with Sexual Purity?’

From the Islands: Manny Pacquiao all but locks up seat in Philippines senate

Seriously??? category: VIDEO: Bernie Sanders Praising Bread Lines and Food Rationing. Dude…move to Russia or something.  And then there’s this pearl, ‘Serena Williams got really sick after sampling her dog’s food‘…are people really THIS bored? Oh – also there’s this gem from the NY Times, ‘Hillary Clinton Gives U.F.O. Buffs Hope She Will Open the X-Files’.  And then there…is this…‘Deputies: Deltona man finds bullet hole 3 days after shooting himself’ I bet that Deltona man was relieved to learn that at least Serena Williams doesn’t have his IQ – but what surprised me most about this story was how long it took him to CHANGE HIS CLOTHES!!!

Cool Stuff here: The Bible Project has a new video – this one’s on Proverbs. 

FANTASTIC:  Say Hard Things…from the blog…

Sometimes the most loving thing someone can do for us is point out an error or inconsistency in the way we think or live

One of my Favorite Articles of the Week:  Multitasking and Stewardship of the Mind – I really enjoy any article or book on how to get things done more effectively and efficiently.

Also from Desiring God (they had a lot of good ones this week): Do You Think About Your Death?  —- This is probably Francis Chan at his best. From the article, “The wise man doesn’t quickly move past funerals. His heart lingers in a state of mourning. The fool tells jokes as soon as the funeral ends, not realizing the damage it does to his soul. Fools do whatever is easiest.”

Last but not least, I want to thank many of you who read what I post, then engage (and correct and sharpen) me thoughtfully on the issues. To that end, I wanted to revisit an article I posted a week or so ago: In an Age of Privilege, Not Everyone Is in the Same Boat

The topic was income inequality. My good friend Ben F. pointed out that when it comes to income inequality, we are asking the wrong questions. He responded to the article I posted by saying that we need to approach this issue by asking the following questions (and I am paraphrasing some of his wording):

1. Does an American in this day and age, have opportunity to freely pursue and acquire wealth?  (It’s all about opportunity) 
2.  Does our system keep people down or enable them to move up, without regard to their birth situation (abroad, race, socioeconomics of their parents, school district and so forth) And what he’s getting at here is this: Are the rich wealthy at the expense of the poor?  Are they to blame?
3. What does “good” look like in terms of optimum income distribution? We have to ask, “Would it ever really look more ‘equal’?”
4. Are we hoping to attain an outcome of equal opportunities or equal outcomes?

And finally, he sent a helpful link to an interview with Thomas Sowell on the matter, which I commend to you now.

What an amazing privilege to learn from people who have thought these issues through, and can offer constructive and thoughtful responses to the articles I post!

That’s it – I hope you have a great weekend!

PJW