Welcome to the weekend!  It’s a beautiful day in Columbus, OH and I’m going to spend most of my day shuttling around kids from birthday parties to soccer games, but before I turn on the meter, I wanted to pass along some stories and books I found enjoyable this week.  Here we go…

The big News Item this morning: Dozens of countries hit by huge cyberextortion attack

The attack infected computers with what is known as “ransomware” — software that locks up the user’s data and flashes a message demanding payment to release it. In the U.S., FedEx reported that its Windows computers were “experiencing interference” from malware, but wouldn’t say if it had been hit by ransomware.

I’m not sure there are any words that do this justice, but here’s a story you need to be aware of: The Horror of Human Embryo Jewelry. There are many times when I read a story about IVF, or surrogacy, (or something in the field of fertilization for parents hoping to have kids) and I really hesitate to write anything at all. Sometimes I think science goes too far.  Other times I think parents go too far.  Still, many times I’m awed by the breakthroughs that have saved lives and helped improve pregnancies and opportunities. So much is left to discernment, and often I hesitate to hoist my opinion on anyone else who may have a more intimate understanding of things.  That said, this isn’t one of those stories where you’re left wondering if they’ve gone too far. It’s the most sinister thing I’ve read about all week – and that includes a pretty wide patch of content.

The biggest political story of the week was the firing of James Comey.  I try not to litter my these posts with news you already know. But the fallout and commentary have been interesting.  After the firing, the White House put together their defense, which pretty much made sense, even if the optics weren’t awesome.  BUT then, the President decided that he couldn’t let it go. I have to agree with Erick Erickson that it would have been better to simply not say anything:

He does himself and those around him absolutely no favors. He has done more harm than good. And the kicker is I think he is lying to boot. Donald Trump has an overwhelming need to make it all about himself. And if he fired Comey based on someone else’s advice, it would not be about him and his brilliant skills.

Then, President Trump decided to get on Twitter and threaten Comey:

So there is some critique from the left, from the right, and here’s one from the center-right: Trump Gets Himself in Hot Water‐‐Again (Fred Barnes).  Barnes isn’t as harsh in his commentary and reminds us the facts as they are available, and the rights and prerogatives of the President.

Now, add in this one that flew under the radar (no pun intended): Our Luddite-in-Chief Wants ‘G-D Steam’ Not Technology For The Navy.

What do we get when we put all this together? Comey probably needed sacking (see this: Comey called Trump ‘crazy’ after Obama wiretapping claims: report) – even the Democrats wanted him gone. But our President, in speaking quickly and with such bravado, has shown himself amazingly adept in stepping in it. I don’t question the heart of the man, or that his intentions are good – we all want him to succeed!  But his mouth and his ego have continually gotten him in trouble. If I were advising the President, I would have him read Proverbs every day before signing into Twitter or giving interviews. Proverbs tells us that “The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouths of fools pour out folly” (15:2), that “A fool’s mouth is his ruin, and his lips are a snare to his soul” (18:7), and of course (and perhaps most famous), “Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent” (17:28).

Why do I even bring this to your attention? Not really for policy reasons, which we might agree with the President on, but for the purposes of increasing discernment.  There have been some who have asked, “Do you think that Dobson was right and that Trump is really a Christian?”  No one can judge a man’s soul but God, but I do know that the words of our Savior, “You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?” (Matthew 7:16).  Zero fruit here, only nasty tweets…errr…thorns.  Here’s the point:  It’s crucial to be praying for the President, and it’s wonderful to politically engage your mind and support, defend etc good policies he promotes.  Yet don’t be fooled and don’t think he is something he is not. If indeed he were a Christian, my words would be even harsher, for then I could judge him as a brother in Christ, and chastisement would be more appropriate. Yet, I see him for what he likely is and provide him the grace of knowing his motives, his mind, and his words will not look like our Lord’s.

Here’s a good example of some policies the President ought to be praised for: China to allow US beef exports after deal on trade issues with US

The latest in the sexual revolution: Knox County judge grants woman rights of ‘husband’ in Tennessee’s first same-sex divorce

And since controversy seems to be the order of the day here in this post, why not continue? ha!  Here’s a thoughtful blog re: Jen Hatmaker.  She and her allies have been decrying all the “character assassination” taking place out there due to her taking an un-biblcal stand on gay marriage.  Good summary here:

The church has failed to love those who identify as gay and lesbian and transgender in a great many ways. As Rosaria Butterfield said, the Gospel is on a collision course with these issues. More and more, those who claim Christ and have large platforms, like Hatmaker, are falling in step with our culture’s failing moral compass and are willing to compromise the truth of the Gospel on the Altar of Nice. I can see how it may be tempting to do the easy thing, but lying is sinful. Lying about the Law of God is shameful. To encourage those in their sin is abhorrent. It is the opposite of love.

For you golf fanatics out there, Phil Mickleson’s caddy “bones” has 10 tips for us for reading greens (h/t Alex W.)

Crazy Video: Cabin Swept Away in Rain (by the way…what is the deal with the Weather Channel and all their videos? It’s like they have nothing else going on, so why not just post up a bunch of videos…or what?)

This was helpful this week: You Can Defeat Distraction

Talk about a controversy, this is one that has wracked the church for eons: If God is good, how could he command a holy war? 

TECH: The Future of Trucking When Machines Take the Wheel (from Wired) 

Foreign Policy…from the Economist: Emmanuel Macron has a history buff’s view of Islam and religious strife

Books: This week I read Sinclair Ferguson’s short profile on John Owen, which was really enjoyable and helpful. He summarized the theology and the focus of Owen, and give a snapshot of the man himself – a man I didn’t know much about.  Owen was politically connected and was a spiritual advisor to Oliver Cromwell. A fascinating time in England’s history to play a prominent role in public life!  Owen, so it seems, was a very good-natured man, and his theology was intensely focused on the Trinity.  I also downed J. Gresham Machin’s classic ‘Christianity and Liberalism‘ – amazing how prescient he was…scary.  Additionally, I’ve been working through the complete Sherlock Holmes collection, which means that I’ve been going through 5-7 short stories and novels of his a week.  My favorite from this week was ‘The Valley of Fear’, which is a two-part story spanning several continents, and is very creative!   I’m slowly nibbling my way through Roger Christian’s ‘Cinema Alchemist’.  It’s really insightful and holds all manner of little-known information about set dressing for movies, and how the original Start Wars movie got made. That said, it’s one of the most poorly written books I’ve ever read!  It’s like the guy didn’t bother to do any editing…at all. Yet for the Star Wars junkie, it’s a must-read.

That’s it!  Enjoy your weekend.

Welcome to the weekend!  It’s been an active news week, and I have several interesting articles, books, and videos etc for you to consider…here we go…

The big news of the week was the healthcare bill passage in the House of Reps. Still, a lot of politics left here – the bill moves to the Senate, where things are sure to change a bit.  Aside from the coverage debate, I hadn’t noticed the pro-life aspects of the bill until I saw a release from Susan B. Anthony List, which pointed out the following:

First, the legislation stops the Obamacare abortion expansion by preventing taxpayer funding of health care plans that cover abortion on-demand. Second, the bill redirects taxpayer dollars away from Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion business, to health care centers that provide comprehensive primary and preventative care to women and girls.

ALSO…The President signed an order on religious liberty this week. But as Joe Carter sums up, it’s not like it will change a whole heck of a lot...excerpt:

The scope of the order is so limited that even opposition groups are shrugging at the news. For example, earlier today the ACLU said they would be suing the Trump administration over the order. But after they read the text of the order they announced on Twitter: “We thought we’d have to sue Trump today. But it turned out the order signing was an elaborate photo-op with no discernible policy outcome.”

On the religious liberty front, you might have missed this story: A Court-Martial for a Bible Verse. This is an opinion piece from WSJ, and sets the scene pretty well.

Continuing on that theme…Fox Headline: Bible reading not allowed before class, professor tells student (h/t Rod K.). In my own experience, this isn’t surprising whatsoever. Many of my profs in undergrad were so anti-Christian that they didn’t even bother hiding it – and that was 15 years ago.

Since there is some talk among the liber elites about Mark Zuckerberg possibly running for President, I thought it a good idea to revisit an article on his worldview – specifically as it relates to Facebook‘s role in human history.  It’s hard to glean much unless you pay close attention, but the key is his worldview is formulated by the idea that history sees men as continually striving for unity – of course, he wants to provide that unity online. That hasn’t worked out quite how he’s hoped (and he knows this). Normally, this would be when you would check your worldview assumptions, but not so here, I’m afraid. Pay close attention to him in the coming year…

Along similar (and more recent) lines: Facebook Hiring 3,000 People to Monitor Live Video for Violence

Interesting history: The Nazi Who Infiltrated National Geographic

PRIVACY ALERT: NSA collected Americans’ phone records despite law change: report.  I mean…are you kidding me?

Some interesting photography here: Get a Skewed View of the American West Through These Bent-Horizon Photos

For Parents of tweens and teens: Educators and school psychologists raise alarms about ‘13 Reasons Why’

THE FUTURE: You’ve likely been hearing about Elon Musk’s tunneling project in California, but this week one of his companies released a vision for what this tunneling actually ought to lead to (at least in his mind).  There’s an interesting video as you scroll down in the piece that is really all you need to watch to get the idea…anyway…there’s a highway expert that is quoted in the article as well to balance out the fawning.

In Case you Missed it: The Tiffany Way: CBS, John Dickerson Silent on Stephen Colbert’s Profane, Gay-Baiting Attack on Trump

And – in the “I’m sure you missed it” category: Feds in Florida: Burlington College Probe Goes the Distance. This is about the wife of Bernie “Socialist” Sanders.

From the Weekly Standard: Oh, the Irony of the Backlash Against Bret Stephens.  Their subtitle helps explain everything and reads “All he did was warn liberal elites against the danger of hubris. What could possibly go wrong?”  If you read through this, you’ll quickly understand why I found it interesting, and why the writers at the Standard did as well. We all have to take a lesson here from the knee-jerk reaction of the liberal elites and ask ourselves this question: when someone questions my theory of things or my opinions, how do I react? Do I have enough humility to explore their critique honestly? Where are they coming from? What sorts of things might be influencing their writing or their opinion of my writing?

TRUMP: One of the difficult stories to read about (at least for me) this week was this situation where the President mistakenly spoke of Andrew Jackson as being upset about the Civil War (Jackson was dead before the Civil War took place). Trump subsequently talked about the Civil War as if it was something that could have been easily avoided had Jackson been in charge. The hubris of the statement is found in the fact that Trump sees his Presidency as analogous to that of Jackson’s. In his mind, he Jackson reincarnated.  Now, I often find that arrogance and ignorance, when combined, make for a very nauseous combination. Interestingly, and unfortunately, it’s been my experience that they often go together. Such is the case here, it would seem. Of course, many Presidents make mistakes, often because they are having to talk about such a variety of things, and people, and situations that it’s impossible to be right 100% of the time. You really have to rely on your staff to help inform you of a great deal. However, in this (and other) instance I think we’re dealing with a man who simply doesn’t know his history very well. So woefully ignorant of history is this President, and so confident in his pronouncements, that I doubt we’ve seen the last of these types of remarks. As a student of history, I know that there is so much I don’t know, that to speak confidently about something or someone in history that I haven’t really read much on, is tantamount to factual suicide.

So how do we react to this kind of thing? George Will (old guard conservative) was aghast, The NYTimes (liberal elites) was baffled.  My reaction was (initially) to just shake my head. I guess I’m not surprised.  But it’s my hope and prayer that the advisors surrounding the President are able to fill in the knowledge gaps, and provide him with the historical picture he needs to make the proper decisions.  I think Will has overreacted here. The first thing that intellectual elites (on both sides) run to is “oh no! this man has the nuclear codes!”  But, in truth, those war decisions (ESPECIALLY) are made with a room full of bright counselors, and it has been Trump’s modus operendi to listen to folks like that carefully. So I’m not as concerned about those decisions as others. A good leader surrounds him/herself with smart people and then makes decisions based on what they say. It’s the inability to make decisions or making decisions in cowardly and craven ways, that has been the hallmark of Presidents like Obama and Carter. I don’t think we have that kind of situation here.

FYI – for you anglophiles: Buckingham Palace Says Prince Philip Will Stop Carrying Out Engagements

TECH: Keep an eye on this! Should be really interesting development in the coming months…Hulu Just Launched Its Live TV Streaming Service

The Politics of Abortion: Dems face abortion divide in debate over party’s future. Keep an eye on this.  There is a battle brewing in the Democratic Party over how focused they should be on abortion, and whether or not being “pro-choice” ought to be a litmus test for Dems in primary contests. Perez, the new DNC chair, says “ya” that’s how it ought to be – he thinks that any Dem who is pro-life ought not to be included in the party.  Perez is a dolt., and Nancy Pelosi, the queen of abortion rights, even realizes this. That’s what prompted the story I posted above. She knows that Dems rely on African-Americans, Hispanics, and Catholics as major components of their political coalition, and many people in these groups are pro-life. Some have estimated that Perez would essentially be telling 1/3 of Democratic voters “we don’t want you.”   On a very similar front, Hillary Clinton won a big award from Planned Parenthood this week, and during her speech, she had some thoughts on the Handmaid’s Tale (from Vanity Fair, so read with a grain of heavily seasoned salt).  I have never seen or read this show/book, but I know it’s a dystopia about the future and the government’s control of reproductive rights. How is it that the left doesn’t see the irony in all of this?  Have they never read Huxley or Orwell?  Have they no sense in which the culture is actually heading? Of course they have and do! They aren’t living in another reality (I don’t think), but Clinton and Planned Parenthood are using bad dystopian fiction as a crop to beat their opponents. Women’s rights and reproductive rights aren’t the same things, even if they are being used analogously. This is why: “rights” only extend to a certain point. No one, woman or man, has the “right” to kill another person simply out of convenience. What about the “rights” of that baby?

Interestingly, the argument extends beyond abortion to the rights of all people as well.  And this Vanity Fair article is helpful in examining what the left really thinks.  Here they all were – the leftist elites celebrating the culture of death at a Planned Parenthood gala, where their views were not all couched in political jargon.  Here’s an example we need to examine:

The night’s other honoree was Shonda Rhimes, one-woman television hit maker, who had Meryl Streep on hand for an introduction. (Rhimes also directed Clinton’s Democratic National Convention video.) Streep praised Rhimes’s indefatigable work ethic at ABC and with Planned Parenthood, and highlighted how Rhimes handled the backlash to an abortion plot line in Scandal:

In Rhimes’s speech, which followed, she laid out some guiding principles of Shondaland, the shorthand for her television empire. “Some people say that’s not reality, the world doesn’t run that way, and I say it’s Shondaland. It’s my world. I run it how I want to.” she said. “And maybe that’s my goal. It’s not to reflect the world, it’s to show you how a world works when a woman runs things. Women really should be running things. But we aren’t, not yet. But there’s so much work to be done and not a lot of time to do it.”

The militancy of the feminist left is almost on par with the militancy of the LBGT community.  This calls for discernment. In the workplace, people should be valued for the contributions they make on the job, and not simply for their skin color or their gender.  That women were held back for a long time had to do with many giant social factors (war, manufacturing booms, personal prejudices, less time for the workforce, less education), some of which were very ugly and sinful- no doubt. But as we seek a way forward in this country, we ought to be treating people as valuable for what they do and respecting them for who they are. If who they are and what they do is disgusting, unproductive, and harmful (or if they simply don’t add value), then they don’t deserve elevation or promotion.  We can’t pull others down simply to elevate people for the sake of their skin, or gender, or who they are sleeping with. That’s reverse discrimination, and it’s not going to help build a stronger society.

Uh Oh….Uber Under Criminal Investigation For Avoiding Regulators

Speaking of legal issues: Comey: Huma Abedin regularly sent classified info to Anthony Weiner

Foreign Policy FYI: Russian bombers, fighter jets fly near Alaska, prompting Air Force escort. Looks like the Russians are testing our response times…

Sign of the Times: Report finds skyrocketing rate of babies going through opiate withdrawal. This is a sad read.

Books

This week I finished the well-known Sherlock Holmes book ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ and really enjoyed it. Many of Conan Doyle’s Sherlock stories are quite a bit shorter, and I enjoyed this one a great deal, and I think the length had something to do with it. He kept the narrative going, and it was enjoyable to focus on just one plot for a longer period of time than is usual with his stories. Normally it seems like just when you’re beginning to get into the plot, things wrap up super fast.

I also finished ‘The Sampson Option: Israel’s Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy’ There are some absolutely fascinating insights here. I especially enjoyed learning about the different ways in which American Presidents interacted with Israel’s leadership.

Additionally, I finished Phil Knight’s biography, ‘Shoe Dog’.  This was one of the best business-bios I’ve read. As a native of Portland, I was interested to read this but was pretty sure at the outset that it would detail the relationships with superstar athletes and Phil Knight’s glorious star-studded life. It was nothing of the sort, which made it wonderful. Not only was this one of the most engagingly written books of my year thus far, but it was absolutely fascinating. There’s a lot about his supply chain issues, his travels, his thinking, his failures, and his family. All of it interesting. Highly recommend.

I’m currently reading ‘The Search for God and Guinness: A Biography of the Beer that Changed the World’, and ‘The Titanic’s Last Hero: A Startling True Story That Can Change Your Life Forever’ among other things (my book list is here). Both of these are interesting, though the former is quickly rising to a top 10 of the year type of book. It details the Guinness family and some of the history surrounding beer as well. Absolutely fascinating stuff so far.

That’s it!  Have a great weekend!

PJW

Good morning and welcome to the weekend!  Let’s get right to it…

First off, there was a major story that many might have missed this week about the way in which Obama administration officials (read John Kerry) dealt our country a serious blow during the Iranian nuclear negotiations.  Namely, they released many folks back to Iran that we were detaining for terrorism-related reasons. Apparently, over the last 15 months, the release of these people has had further reverberations inside the intelligence community.  Politico’s in-depth investigation can be found here, and I’ll warn you that it is LONG.  So you might want to grab another cup of coffee before you pull that one up…

Continuing on with the foreign policy theme, there’s a story by Bloomberg out there that details how the fleet we’re sending into the Korean theater isn’t equipped with the capability to shoot down their missiles.  This seems…odd. But we DO have such firepower sitting pretty close to Japan, which can be mobilized pretty quickly I’d imagine. The reason I link to this is not to highlight some policy blunder (I’m not pretending to question a strategic military decision), but because the story has a lot of useful information about what kinds of weaponry we have in the region, and what our capabilities are.

Science…(sort of)…lots this week about Bill Nye. He’s (again) saying controversial things.  I suppose to just get attention? Well, just an FYI, I think it’s helpful to keep an eye on these kinds of popular debates over science.  I saw that Justin Taylor over at Gospel Coalition also wrote up something on the nature of arguments and how to disentangle them – and he used the global warming argument (that Nye has highlighted again) as an example.  It’s not interesting enough to link to, just know that Nye is creating enough waves that it’s sparking a wider dialogue out there…

Oh NO!  Jaws Of Life Needed To Remove Worship Leader’s Skinny Jeans

TECH: Is this creepy, or is it just reality? (h/t Lisa W.)

Tech/Science that was buzzing around social media this week: This Fluid-Filled Bag Lets Lambs Develop Outside the Womb. Humans Are Next. (h/t Katie W.) I’m unsure what to think of things like this without extensive thought. We should obviously be excited about any opportunities to save the lives of babies. Yet on the other hand, the more we dig into stuff like this, the more we are challenged by tough ethical questions. What amazes me the most is how many Christians simply skip over the latter assume that the ends justify the means.  And, maybe they do in this case. I’m still noodling this. But we need to be thinking carefully about how we approach these kinds of issues – not only for ethical concerns but because many of us have had situations where this tech could have saved a lost child.  I believe we can be both thoughtful, and sensitive at the same time, so long as we are committed to the fundamental principles of loving our neighbor, and not working to displace God from His sovereign creative work.

And then there’s this: 911 call: Man wants police dog to search for stolen heroin…oh man…

Politics….from the New York Times:  At a ‘Unity’ Stop in Nebraska, Democrats Find Anything But.  This is an interesting look inside the Democratic Party right now. There are a ton of lessons to be gleaned from this, not only if you’re a Republican, but also if you’re a Christian considering worldview implications.

History: Ten Common Misconceptions About George Washington

MORE History: Why Did People Stick One Hand in Their Jackets in Old Photographs?

Good Stuff: God Plans for the Unexpected and Inconvenient.  Tasty excerpt:

I don’t have resident in me the resources to meet the needs around me. Our lack tempts us to avoid others’ needs rather than expose our insufficiency.

Theology: Implications of Definitive Atonement.   This is from Jonathan Gibson, who has already compiled a massive book on this topic (which I have enjoyed for a few years now).  It’s more of an anthology than a book you’d read straight through. Nonetheless, it’s really thought-provoking, and for you theology nerds it’s probably worth getting.

Books…In case you hadn’t noticed, I may have spent more time on reading books this year than reading articles. At least that’s the way it feels to me. This week I’ve been continuing to work through Bronte’s ‘Jane Eyre’, and finished David McCullough’s ‘Mornings on Horseback’, which is a biography of the first half/part of Teddy Roosevelt’s life. It doesn’t get into his Presidency, but it does give a good sense for his family, who he was, what he was all about. It is especially helpful in understanding what were the major shaping forces in his life. Very fascinating and well worth it.

I’m also probably 40% into Phil Knight’s autobiography ‘Shoe Dog’ and am really enjoying it thus far. He really started this shoe business from scratch. His exploits are the kinds of things entrepreneurs will eat up. I finished another time through Rutherford’s ‘The Loveliness of Christ’, which is a small book, and is essentially a compilation of quotes from his letters, and is highly worthwhile.  I don’t recall mentioning before that I read ‘The Way of the Dragon or the Way of the Lamb: Searching for Jesus’ Path of Power in a Church that Has Abandoned It’.  It was well worth the read (h/t Nick N.)! These two young guys spend a lot of time interviewing older, wiser men and women who describe their journey in ministry – they are essentially exploring what J.I. Packer terms ‘Weakness is the Way’ (and they interview him about this book in the first chapter!) It’s really good. 

That’s it!  I hope you enjoy your weekend!

PJW

Welcome to the weekend!  Here’s what I read, watched, and listened to this week that you might find informative or enjoyable.

It’s Masters week at Augusta, and Jason Gay at the Wall Street Journal has a very tongue-in-cheek article you might enjoy, highlighting 15 “well-kept secrets of the Masters.” They also have a neat story called, ‘Green Jacket Winners Include Every Masters Champion and This 55-Year-Old Attorney’

Additionally, the editor in chief over at Convivium (which is a Canadian think-tank/magazine/ministry) Father Raymond J. De Souza wrote ‘Tiger’s Twisting Moral Tale’.  It’s not every day you see a theologian or pastor/father write this kind of piece, which is part of what makes it unique.

On a more serious note, the U.S. Senate approved Neil Gorsuch’s nomination to the Supreme Court. In an historic move, Republican leadership decided to make the long-discussed rules change that allowed a confirmation based on a simple majority vote.  From everything I can tell, Gorsuch is going to be a fantastic judge, so hopefully this was the right thing to do. Certainly there was no reason (other than politics) for Democrats to block his nomination.

Flashback from Joe Carter: 9 Things You Should Know About Neil Gorsuch and Supreme Court Confirmations

The other big story of the week is that American ships launched 59 Tomahawk missiles into Syria, effectively knocking out the airbase used just days prior by President Bashir al-Assad to gas his own people.  This was not the first time Assad had gassed his own people, it was simply the first time it happened under the watch of President Trump.  Here’s a link to Al Mohler’s briefing about this, the Gorsuch vote, and a highly interesting remembrance of the anniversary of U.S. entrance into WWI. 

Writing for WSJ, Yaroslav Trofimov does a good job of dissecting how this strike on Syria differs contextually from what President Obama was facing during his reign…errrr….presidency.

I read/examined a sobering photo-essay this week about the starvation going on in the Horn of Africa that you might want to take a moment and see.

TECH: over at Gizmodo they’re looking at the effects of the new law President Trump signed allowing ISP’s to sell browsing history: Want to Stop Your Internet Provider From Selling Your Browsing Data? It Ain’t Easy

Crazy Story….Over at the New Yorker: DOOMSDAY PREP FOR THE SUPER-RICH.  I didn’t get to read the whole thing, but its the second such story that I’ve seen about this topic in as many weeks – here’t the one I saw a week ago. (h/t Ben F.)

Interesting: The Surprising Role of Guardian Angels

More Tech: This Video Made $4,215 at Auction. How Ads Work on YouTube.

What is stirring out there on the interwebs: Top Obama Adviser Sought Names of Trump Associates in Intel

Hilarious: Comedian Ed Wiley standup ‘If Trump were on staff at your church…‘ (h/t Alex W.)

For those watching the evolution of the Amazon business model: ‘I Went to Amazon’s Physical Bookstore And…’

Best books I read this week: Sherpherding a Child’s Heart (Tedd Tripp) and Inventing Russia (Arkady Ostrovsky)

Worst book I read this week: Truman (David McCullough) – I will probably write more about this at a later date.  It’s not entirely the writing or the author, I like David M.  It’s that 250 pages in I absolutely have zero respect for his subject.

I know that’s short, right?  But that’s what I have!  I hope you enjoy the weekend!

PJW

Welcome to the weekend – I hope its a good few days for rejuvenating reading and renewing your mind before Monday comes for you!  I’ve been traveling all week, only getting back last night at 1am. So I’m personally looking forward to some rest.

I have just a few stories for you today, but before I get to those, I want to take a moment up front and ask for your prayer for the family of Nelson Penn, who suddenly lost his wonderful wife Robyn this week to cancer. They were a part of our last church family here in Ohio, and have young kids who are undoubtedly going to be hurting.  Though you may not know them, please take a moment and lift them up before continuing.

On to a few stories I found thought-provoking…

Often we have discussions politically about China, and sometimes the nature of its horrid civil rights record pops up. As much as China wants to be like the west economically, the freedom we currently have in America to educate our children how we think is best is not afforded to parents over there – as a new story out of China details (h/t Kate W.).

The Chinese education story is interesting if you consider that in Russia, it was largely the press that was used to either prop up communism, or promote glasnost.  This is something detailed in a new(er) book by Arkady Ostrovsky called ‘The Invention of Russia’ that I’ve found pretty interesting thus far.

The New York Post, often sensational in its headlines and news coverage, has an interesting opinion piece this week from John Crudele bashing rival NY Times, ‘The New York Times’ ongoing dishonesty only helps Trump‘. Though we have to take all of this with a grain of salt, considering the source, Crudele makes some good points in his documentation of the Times’ dishonestly.  Personally, I find it fascinating how much mainstream media outlets are struggling to do their work in the world of a President Trump. Perhaps if they’d been more pure in their journalistic principles, and stuck to a truly non-partisan form of reporting in the first place, they’d not have even had to wrangle with this President…perhaps…

Speaking of the media, and how it intersects with the Trump administration, this week Fox restored Judge Andrew Napolitano to his role of on-air commentator. Napolitano, you might recall, had stated on air that he had three sources who informed him that President Trump’s claim of being surveilled by the Obama Administration was true, and that it was done by the British at the behest of the American President (Obama) through a sort of wink and nod agreement. This type of agreement is apparently used from time to time to get around the legal issues of spying on one’s own citizens without a warrant.  During the last two weeks, House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes made a trip to the White House to say he had seen evidence to support Trump’s claim. This caused all manner of outrage, most of which took the form of accusations that Nunes didn’t share this information with the ranking Democrat(s) on the committee (eye roll).

Of course all of this controversy and political correctness misses the point. In a world where we all generate countless points of data throughout our day, how that data is collected, sold, and utilized by companies and governments is more and more important – and concerning. The supreme irony of this is that for all the Democratic bluster over President Trump’s alleged ties to Russia, it is looking as though President Obama’s actions more closely mirrored what Vladimir Putin would do to a political opponent. He did stop shy of the Putin style of treatment; Trump lived to see Election Day, after all.

Can you imagine Hillary Clinton having had this kind of power? 

Speaking of power and its abuses, Ivanka Trump has (rightly) decided to take an official role in the White House. I think this is good because, as I commented last week, if you’re going to have an official cell phone, office, security clearance, and get to sit in on all the important meetings, then you should be saddled with the responsibility of being an official employee. It’s only right – whether you think this is nepotism or not.  For me, that’s not the issue. It’s a matter of operating within the chain of command and under the responsibilities of the laws associated with positions of power of this kind.  She has graciously declined any salary for her position – which makes the move to rectify her earlier course, much more palatable to anyone examining the situation (at least from a political perspective).

What is the Roman Catholic view of justification, and how does that differ from the Protestant view?  I appreciated R.C. Sproul’s short discussion on this topic this week.  He takes some time to tear down a few straw men arguments that Protestants often use, and gives some background as to why and how Catholics view of salvation came to be what it is today.  Being that this is the 500th anniversary year of the Protestant Reformation, I’m going to continue to come back to some of these themes throughout the year, in an effort to discuss why the Reformation took place, and why its important even in our day.

Making the rounds on social media this week: Children who eat too much sugar are developing diseases that only alcoholics used to get

Some satire: Stone-Hearted Man Scrolls Past Jesus Meme Without Sharing It

Not Satire…though perhaps it should be: Alone in the Wild for a Year, TV Contestants Learn Their Show Was Canceled

Interesting Take…from WaPo: How Trump’s presidency is succeeding

Foreign Affairs: Erdogan’s International Network of Muslim Cleric Spies

More….From the New York Times (ironically): The Jihadi Who Turned to Jesus

Tech:  Uber to Suspend Autonomous Tests After Arizona Accident

Off the beaten path….The Broomway: A perilous medieval road leading right into the sea. 

That’s all I have for now!  There are probably 10 more stories and books (including items some of you sent me) that I still have yet to digest. Hopefully I’ll have more time next week for that!  Until then, have a wonderful weekend!

PJW

Good morning and welcome to the weekend!  It was a busy week in the world of news. The two big political items were the defeat of the GOP healthcare replace/repeal bill (although no actual vote was taken), and the continuing (although now more serious) saga of stories about high level Trump campaign operatives having been in strategic communications with Russian officials during last year’s campaign.

Now, I’m sure you’ve heard a LOT about all these stories, and there are many other interesting items to get to. But in case you haven’t, there are a few good ones you may have missed. First, reporter Bob Costa jotted down his conversation with the President over the phone after the Healthcare Bill failed – I found this interesting because it gives you a window into how Trump is going to spin this defeat.

The next is a column from Fred Barnes. Fred doesn’t hide his contempt for the Freedom Caucus (the small group of conservative Congressmen who successfully blocked the bill), but he also gives them some props for understanding some of the flaws of the bill and standing tenaciously on principle. The Dems also stood against it – as you’ll read in the Costa piece, not one of them switched sides to vote with Speaker Ryan.

During it all, I guess the siren call of the slopes couldn’t be resisted by top White House advisor (and Trump son in law) Jared Kushner: Trump unhappy Jared Kushner took a powder on the ski slopes as health care bill floundered.  Now, this was reported by CNN, so take it with a grain of salt. But again, interesting dynamic there.

Sort of along similar lines: FIRST DAUGHTER IVANKA TRUMP GETS WEST WING OFFICE.  At first I read this story about Ivanka with indifferent amusement – it brought me back to my own days at the White House, and how cool the West Wing was (it never got old!), and how special it must have been to have an office there. Most of the staff is dispersed across three other buildings near the White House, and only the top echelon get to actually have an office IN the West Wing. But as I read along, I became bothered by the thought that someone not employed by the government and therefore not accountable to those standards, has an office in the West Wing of the White House. I think its great that Ivanka can advise her father on some issues – that must be a really special relationship. But if you’re going to have security clearance, a special phone, and a special office next to the most powerful man in the world, then it stands to reason that you should also have the responsibility that comes along with those perks.

Now I want to give you two pieces that are a bit older, but are pretty interesting and will get your mind churning.

The first has a title as long as a Puritan sermon and is called ‘Welcome to the Dark Net, A Wilderness Where Invisible World Wars are Fought and Hackers Roam Free’ (seriously, that’s the title).  You’ll enjoy this one if you have even a passing interest in what goes on behind the scenes on the interwebs.

The second is from the Atlantic, so understand that its coming from the quasi-intellectual bastion of the left. It’s called ‘How Casinos Enable Gambling Addicts’.  I am unsure that I agree with the conclusions in this article, but there are some interesting items in here, and especially interesting insights into how slot machines are made to function these days. My view on gaming is that if you walk into a casino with $200, a reasonable (and sane) position to hold is that you’ll not be walking out with it. It’s entertainment, and its expensive entertainment at that. If that’s how you get your kicks, then go for it. But what is at issue here (at least in my mind) is the predatory nature of the gaming industry, and how far they’re willing to go to get more money – the article paints them as overtly greedy, which differentiates them from most fortune 500 companies who at least try and appear (or pretend to be) interested in the social implications of their products/work/influence. There’s also an apparently growing amount of evidence that the areas surrounding casinos (for instance) increase in crime, and even some opponents who say that politicians aren’t getting all the money from the deal they had hoped when negotiating casinos in their states, due to the crime costs – its not a net victory, some say.  Though I don’t know if these are verifiable stats, they are items of concern mentioned in the article as well.  Good food for thought here.

Did anyone else see this?  ‘In Cold Blood’ Killer’s Never-Published Memoir Raises Questions About His Motive.  I thought it was pretty interesting, especially after having slogged through Capote’s original hit book on the matter just this year.

This was funny: O NSA, You Have Searched Me and Known Me

Now, let’s get to the Russian stuff…First, from the Denver Post, ‘Fox pulls legal analyst Andrew Napolitano from air after Trump report’.  And then…from the Associated Press, ‘Before Trump job, Manafort worked to aid Putin.’  Manafort seems to have been an international “gun for hire” (says the AP’s Horowitz).  This is all new information, but it also all happened a decade ago (which the AP acknowledges).

That’s interesting stuff, but not really super relevant since Manafort has long since been at a distance from the Trump orbit.  What seems to be a lot more relevant is this story from CNN: US officials: Info suggests Trump associates may have coordinated with Russians.  This is all emanating from Monday’s revelation from FBI director Comey’s testimony before Congress.  Heck, all of this may be nothing at all. But there’s a lot going on here on multiple fronts, and we may never know if its anything legit or not. Usually in politics, where there’s smoke, there’s fire. But we’re living in a world right now where news organizations that used to be legitimate have been going out of their way to ruin politicians from opposing political factions irregardless of how flagrant their bias appears.  Mike Allen concluded as follows,

Watergate was a coverup of a burglary. This could be the coverup of a nuclear-armed U.S. nemesis that infiltrated our politics with the specific aim of disrupting the very foundation of our democracy — a presidential election — and did so, possibly, in a manner that elected its preferred candidate and locked in all party control that could decimate the opposition party for years.

My CONCLUSION…In days like these, we must be extra discerning before we jump to partisan sounding conclusions, and weigh everything we hear with wisdom. Mouthpieces on the tube and the twitters all have agendas and perspectives to justify – this goes for folks on the right and left alike.

Speaking of the Twitters: Why Even Donald Trump Can’t Save Twitter

DID YOU KNOW…that during all this hubbub about Russia and healthcare, there’s been a Supreme Court nomination in progress?  Here’s a funny moment from the hearings this week. 

OOOOOPS: Authorities: Man errantly texted prosecutor about drug swap

Also happening in the midst of our American political mess, was a terrorist attack in London. The Bobbies have two in custody (the attacker was dead on the scene). Apparently this attacker was operating as part of a wider group/plan.  These are the kinds of things that happen and you shake your head and wonder ‘what can I do about this?’  It all seems so far away, doesn’t it?  Possibly the best thing to do would be to pray for the family members of the victims, that their lives would be protected, and that they’d find more ultimate salvation and comfort spiritually.

Physics Lesson? From the Wall Street Journal: How a 145-Pound Golfer Became One of the Game’s Longest Drivers

Lastly, I wanted to bring some items to your attention this week that were really fascinating and sad. The first is on how secularization is letting us down. The Atlantic (again) talks about how there was this great promise of secularization sweeping away all the tension and strife and polarization in society, and how that promise was wrong.  The second is how Tim Keller, one of the most popular and helpful and conservative preachers/theologians in America is now being denied some snooty award from Princeton, after Princeton initially offered him the award. The reason seems to be that (all of a sudden?) there has been an uproar over Keller’s views on the role of women in the church. Keller believes women ought to have a prominent and important role in the life of the church, but unlike the liberals at Princeton, he doesn’t believe women should be ordained to preach, nor does he believe that people of an LGBTQLMNOPQRSTUVWZYZ (just wanted to cover all my alphabetical bases there) persuasion ought to be ordained ministers. In other words, he holds to the Bible.  Al Mohler covers both items really pretty well in his briefing here.  Of course the sad thing about the Keller situation is that Princeton used to be a great bastion of conservative intellectual thought, and produced some of the great defenders of orthodoxy a hundred years (and longer) ago. The institution has teetered on liberalism many times and was rescued in the past by towering conservative intellects like Gerhardus Vos. This was once the home of the great B.B. Warfield. It’s sad to see it degenerate into theological heresy/liberalism.

That’s it – that is all I have in terms of news and such.  It was a sobering and not a super uplifting group of stories from the week. Corruption/compromising of prominent institutions (both state and religious) is discouraging. So what are Christians supposed to think and do? Do we cynically say “well that’s just the way the world is”?  I think we have to acknowledge that we’re living in a fallen world, certainly, and that all of us (even those of us who have been rescued and redeemed by the Lord) are sinners whose mess gets on everything.

But Christians are also called to take the word of Truth, the Bible, notjust  the opinions of the church or of man, but the Bible, and shine the light of the Gospel through word and deed. More often than not, this means individual conversations. Corruption in the public square ought only to serve as a ratification for all we know about the human heart, and what we know of the solution.

That same Bible says that Jesus lived during a time of extreme corruption and violence. Not only were the Romans violent oppressors of the populace, but in the case of the Jews of Palestine, even their own people sold them out for money.  But I am hopeful – even for our own times – because I remember men like Matthew. He was a tax collector, one of these turncoats who sold his own people down the river, extorting hefty sums from them so he could live in opulence. His situation, his influence created a social and political problem – the kind we read about in the stories I posted above – and it was solved. It was solved in his life and sphere of influence when he was ransomed by Christ. He was drawn to a much more desirable kingdom.

The gospel changes lives; Christ still changes lives. And for those of us involved in the world of politics, it would be good to remember that – even when the headlines, and the people we know, seem to be gradually succumbing to and reflecting a greater tide of corruption and polarization.

PJW

Welcome to the weekend everyone!  There are some interesting stories out there to check out…ready? Here we go…

Society: The NYTimes has a story about the ‘Decline of Men’ and its significance that is worth skimming. It’s sort of a cultural and educational gut check.  One of the things that seems to be a significant takeaway is the importance of the family:

Among children raised in single-parent households, however, boys performed significantly less well than their sisters in school, and their employment rate as young adults was lower. “Relative to their sisters,” Autor and his collaborators wrote, “boys born to disadvantaged families” — with disadvantage measured here by mother’s marital status and education — “have higher rates of disciplinary problems, lower achievement scores, and fewer high-school completions.”

It’s not surprising to me that what shows up in the studies is what most folks held as common sense for years: family (traditional family with a man and a woman as the parents) is a good thing for kids.

Society Con’t………The Boston Globe as interesting article, ‘Paltering,’ a New Way to Not Tell the Truth, in which fellow weekend reader David Clementson is quoted using the word “diabolically”, so it must be good!

Should we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day?  Stephen Nichols has a great little article about the day and its origins.  Of course the Babylon Bee reports Nation Celebrates Devout Christian Missionary by Getting Totally Hammered.  

This was really good……from R.C. Sproul ‘What is Free Will’?  Dr. Sproul has a talent for taking complex issues and sorting through them winsomely and helpfully.

Spies and Such: The Graveyard of Empires and Big Data.  I am not sure what the takeaway on this one is. It ended in a sort of odd way, but its pretty fascinating nonetheless. Speaking with my brother about it afterwards, he pointed out that it brings up the familiar dilemma between data, its maintenance, and our freedoms.

Along similar lines, former Congressman Pete Hoekstra had an Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal that is worth scanning:  Can Americans Trust Their Spies? “If intelligence agencies can’t keep their secrets, they can’t credibly assure us they follow other rules.”

Culture and Religion: So there’s a guy named Rod Dreher and he’s got a new book out called ‘The Benedict Option’ and its causing a lot of buzz, some good and some bad (I guess).  The book is less important than the discussion it brings to the fore, namely the changing society we live in, and how its becoming less and less Christian. Some have put it this way: cultural Christianity is going away (others have tacked on “good riddance” – and I tack onto their tack on “amen”!).  The election of Donald Trump was a flash point I think, not really because of who he is or the political dynamic, but for what it revealed about the culture as a whole and its pastors. When I say “revealed”, I’m not talking about an analysis of the ballot box results or who people ended up voting for, but rather the things they were saying about their choice, and the reasons we were given by leading pastors and Christian advocates for supporting Trump.  It opened up the hood on the thought process of Christians in America. That thought process, the morals that govern the country, are said to be on the decline. I think that’s a fair statement, with some caveats. First, we haven’t acted like a “christian nation” in several decades at least…and 2. even when we did act like a Christian nation (scratching around for examples here…maybe the nuclear family and values pre-television era?) those were inherited social mores created by a tradition of christian foundation, not personal christian morals sprung from a heart changed by God. 

There are a few articles to tease this out a bit that deal with the Dreher book, but also take on the topic of christianity and morality in America and where we’re going.

Moral Minority – Patrick Deneen, a prof. at Notre Dame takes an extensive look at this and contrasts the Jerry Falwell ‘Moral Majority’ from the 80’s with the situation we have now. I think this is an insightful article, and I agree with most of his assessment of the culture, BUT he is Catholic, and though I agree with much of what he has to say in analysis, when it comes to solutions he’s all bandaids. This is where the rubber meets the road, and if you have no gospel-based solution you will never have any hope to change lives. This shows up in places where Deneen seems to think it odd another Catholic author would advance the notion of the Bible and the church actually having the power to change the culture. This is typical of a tradition that doesn’t read their Bible, and doesn’t hold to Sola Scriptura. True Christians believe that the Word of God actually changes people and institutions, because its a living and powerful and inspired truth that God’s Spirit uses to change the minds and hearts of men. So keep all that in mind as you read this article.

Jamie Smith over at Cardus has a pretty good response to the book called ‘The Benedict Option or the Augustinian Call?’ the sum of which is a call to be in the culture and not of it.  On of his summary graphs:

Dreher’s Benedict is one option the church could take in the twenty-first century. As I argue in Awaiting the King, my hope is that instead we’ll answer an Augustinian call: centring ourselves in the life-giving practices of the body of Christ, but from there leaning out boldly and hopefully into the world for the sake of our neighbours.

Andy Crouch breaks down the book by percentages

D.A. Carson did an interview with Desiring God guys on this Benedict Option.  “Scripture stands over against all parties.” More:

There is a sense in which instead of having a Judeo-Christian heritage all around us in which we’re playing a slightly more righteous part and preaching the gospel, we’re increasingly dealing with, especially in the most secular parts of the country, an essentially alien society. Then, it’s important for not just the individual Christian, but for the Christian church, the Christian community to live differently. That needs to be thought through and worked out much more systematically than it has been.

This is getting soooooo old: Could Southern Baptist Russell Moore lose his job? Churches threaten to pull funds after months of Trump controversy.  But again, its another outgrowth of the stuff above and how some mega church baptist pastors would rather have their guy in DC go along to get along so he can have “influence” with the White House, rather than helping the church fulfill its prophetic role in society.

I know many people saw the McDonalds tweet bashing the President. The tweet said that Trump was ‘actually a disgusting excuse of a President and we would love to have Barak Obama back, also you have tiny hands’……what?!   They claim their account was hacked, but then didn’t really feel like removing the tweet – maybe its finally down now? Who knows…all I know is that its pretty ironic for McDonalds to call anything “disgusting”.

Tim Challies wrote this week on Suburban Sprawl and the Dying Dream of Community Churches.  I’m not entirely sure he’s correct on this, that is to say that I think his assessment is probably correct, but I’m still pondering his conclusions. He admits at the end that he has much more to say on the matter.  So its worth pondering and thinking about how and why it is that we choose our churches.

Fascinating stuff here: ‘Don’t be so quick to laugh at Trump’s wiretap claims’ – maybe “wiretap” is the wrong vocab, but the right idea. How our government works with other governments to illegally spy on our own citizens is scary stuff. (h/t Alex W.)

Oh WAIT! What?  ——- Putin Spokesman: Russian Ambassador Met With Clinton’s Aides During The Presidential Campaign

Books….

This week I finished a few books, you can find my complete list here.  This week’s books were ‘Einstein’ by Walter Isaacson (interesting insight into his personal life here), Biblical Theology in the Life of the Church, by Michael Lawrence (very helpful book for preachers and teachers), Tempted and Tried, by Russell Moore (definitely worth reading for anyone going through difficulties or wanting to learn more about Jesus’ temptation in Matthew 4), The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde (a creepy, cynical, and dark classic that is instructive in several ways, if accidentally), The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution, by Joseph Ellis (an invaluable book on the formation of the country’s constitution and bill of rights and government structure etc.). I also read a few Sherlock Holmes adventures, which was enjoyable. I’ve been making my way through these when I have time, and find them a nice distraction from the norm.

That’s it!  I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

PJW

 

 

 

 

Happy weekend to you from Orlando!  Kate and I have been enjoying the Ligonier National Conference. The central theme of the conference is the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. You can find video from talks already given along with the live stream on their Facebook page. 

Let me talk a bit about why I’m here in Orlando, and what it is that these people are celebrating. Ligonier’s celebration of the Reformation has not simply been a look back in time, but a look forward. With the Roman Catholic church, and some top Anglican church leaders, calling for more and more ecumenicalism (in attitude, though not in doctrine, it would seem), its important to note that the reason for the Reformation still stands today. The Catholic church organization, along with many other so-called Christian churches throughout the world, are still mired in the darkness of the dark ages. Rome still lives in the dark ages – they still abide by the Council of Trent and Vatican I, though with the attitude of Vatican II, one might say. There’s some irony in this, but you might rightly say that their theology isn’t old enough!  For they have forsaken the Bible’s teachings for centuries leading up to the Reformation, and still do so today. This grieves any Christian who reads Francis, or the 1993 catechism, or the pronouncements of Popes for the last few hundred years. Reformation is needed more than ever, and I pray that some of the light spoken from this conference and others throughout this anniversary year will vanquish the darkness of ignorance and pride and superstition that still inhabits many churches today.

Now, perhaps you think that I’m being melodramatic, or over-hyping the importance of these issues. But I think these are issues of vital importance – especially as someone with many close Catholic friends whom I dearly love. I’d challenge you to take a little time travel trip back to the days before Luther.

500 years ago, the church was a sham living in and propagating utter darkness. The one institution supposed to bring hope, joy, and truth to the earth, was preaching superstition and lies to the poor, and acting as a footstool (or worse) for the rich and powerful. Life dramatically changed all over the world for the better thanks to men like Luther, Calvin, Knox and others. How did it happen? They read the Bible. They preached the Bible. They believed the Bible, and they did so over against the opinions of men in the church who had created their own rules – their own doctrines and traditions. These non-sensical traditions and superstitions still reign in the Catholic Church today, and I’d urge anyone who doubts this, to read. Read and discover the sad truth of that situation. But most of all, read the Bible, and discover THE truth.

Where are we today? Doctrinally, nothing has changed in the Catholic Church. They never reformed their waywardness. They never recovered the gospel, and therefore ceased to be much more than a social club long ago.

That’s why we’re here in Orlando. Because theology matters, and we’d like to see truth reign on this earth.  If you’d like to listen to a few messages from the conference, then I’d recommend elders and pastors hear some encouragement from Steve Lawson on the preaching of the reformation, and that everyone listen to John MaArthur on the “non-negotiable gospel.”

If you’re of the Catholic Faith, and think that perhaps we ought to find common ground, I’d encourage you to read R.C. Sproul’s book ‘Are We Together?’. This will talk eloquently, fairly, and plainly about the differences between Protestantism and Roman Catholicism.  There are significant differences, indeed. Life and death differences.

Now…Some Articles…

While we’re on the topic!  The Pope himself made some news this week by saying he may allow priests to marry. My first thought was that perhaps the Pope read 1 Corinthians or something, but it seems that the impetus (according to news reports) has more to do with a declining clergy, and the need to expand into the pool of non-celibate folks. Generous of the Pope to (after hundreds of years) consider giving his stamp of approval on something God in his divinely inspired Word already gave approval to.  Heck, the next thing he might say is that the God’s Scriptures carry as much authority as his papal pen……..but I’m not holding my breath!

Since we’re sort of on a theology kick here, I want to draw some attention to what John MacArthur said in his sermon at this Ligonier conference last night about N.T. Wright. If you connect these dots, he’s calling Wright a false teacher. He’s not the first to bring up issues with Wright, just the latest. My friend Jack J. reminded me that Dr. Tom Schreiner had written an easy to understand refutation of Wright’s incorrect view on the imputation of Christ’s righteousness which (ironically) was posted on Ligonier’s site a few years back.  This is stuff worth considering because of how many people really admire and enjoy Wright’s past teaching.

MORE FOR THE CHURCH: Tim Keller Stepping Down as Redeemer Senior Pastor (h/t Jim B.) This is a pretty big deal, though I think Keller’s literary output is not going to slow down an iota.

Mohler spoke out on the ‘The Shack’ and the lost art of evangelical discernment. 

SATIRE: and oh, is this perfect timing: Washed-Up Actor Excited To Begin New Career In Christian Films

CULTURE: And since I have Mohler on my mind, he linked to this little piece worth tumbling around in your cranium: No, Stay At Home Moms Don’t ‘Waste’ Their Education

ART- Thank goodness for Craig’s List? The American Government Is Searching For Its Own Lost Art.  The whole time I read this I kept thinking Carl Hanratty would make a surprise appearance.

Wha??? Say it isn’t so! – The Flag Office elevator goes up and down, flying American flags in bulk “over the U.S. Capitol.” 

MILITARY: To keep an eye on: US COMMANDER SIGNALS LARGER, LONGER US PRESENCE IN SYRIA…..AND…GENERAL SAYS NO BAD DECISIONS IN YEMEN RAID, PROBE IS OVER. This was in follow up to this disappointing story: Slain SEAL’s dad wants answers: ‘Don’t hide behind my son’s death’

NOT SATIRE:  ‘Rent is Too Damn High’ Leader Running for Manhattan Council Seat as a Republican

Kinda Gross: Vets remove 915 coins from stomach of turtle named ‘piggy bank’

From the department of ‘Put that in your pipe and smoke it’: Trump Tells Planned Parenthood Its Funding Can Stay if Abortion Goes

I know this will shock you: Rapport Between Donald Trump, Barack Obama Crumbles

Somehow I forgot to post this last week, but its just too funny not to:  Which Character Are You In The Story Of David And Goliath? Take The Quiz!

That’s it for now – I hope you enjoy your weekend. And if you have any questions or thoughts about my post, or the Reformation, please send me a direct message and we’ll discuss!

PJW