W4YW: Murder on Social Media, Duke’s Summer Reading, & 30 Truths about Emotions

Wisdom For Your Weekend: your weekly installment of things we’ve been reading (and watching) around the web.

Video of the Week

How to Survive World Religions 101, Michael Kruger. Student ministries often focus on preparing their students for college morally, making sure that when they leave home, they continue to live out the Christian faith in a new environment. But they too often fail to prepare students to consider the intellectual implications of their faith. Dr. Kruger offers some very tangible help for Christians entering an atmosphere in which their faith is considered intellectually indefensible.

Articles of the Week

30 Things I’ve Learned About Emotions, Paula Hendricks. If you haven’t yet seen Inside Out, several angels have lost their wings on your account. Go out and watch it. The movie, all about emotions, raises a lot of insightful questions—and answers many of them rather well. Hendricks adds a few helpful reflections about what she’s learned about emotions over the years. I (Chris) really appreciated 3, 4, & 16 (though I’m suspicious of 24 & 26).

Seven Reflections from the Planned Parenthood Protest, John Piper. “This morning [August 22] I was one of several thousand people who gathered in St. Paul, Minnesota, to say to Planned Parenthood that killing children is not an acceptable response to crisis pregnancies. And to say to our government that killing children should not be funded by tax dollars. Among other things. Here are seven short reflections on the morning.”

I’m a Duke Freshman; Here’s Why I Refused to Read ‘Fun Home,’ Brian Grasso. Duke University has, for some years, asked all incoming freshman to read the same book prior to arriving on campus. I (Chris) vaguely remember this little exercise from my own experience there. Our book was rather dry, and had to do with plagiarism, if memory serves me. This year, however, the chosen book was much more controversial. It was a graphic novel (think, comic book for grown-ups) depicting the life of a young person growing up and questioning her sexuality. Many Christians and Muslims have refused to read the book, causing a bit of a dust-up. Grasso’s article explains their reasoning with eloquence and fairness.

Should We Watch Murders on Social Media? Russell Moore. “I watched a video this morning that I’m ashamed to say I viewed. No, it wasn’t pornography—at least not pornography we typically think of. … When I watched the clip, I assumed there were gunshots around them and that the journalist and her interviewee had ducked for cover. It wasn’t until much later that I learned that what I had seen was a cold-blooded murder, streaming across my Twitter feed.”

On The Lighter Side

First GOP Debate – Kids REALLY Bad Lip Reading, Momma Pop. You may have missed the first Republican debate. (Or, in the words of Office Space, “I wouldn’t say I missed it…”) The lip-reading gurus made their own spin-off, which is certainly worth your time. But one of the Summit’s own decided to have her kids do a lip reading. It’s remarkable how much these candidates talk about food…

Wisdom For Your Weekend is presented to you by Chris Pappalardo, with occasional guidance from J.D. Greear. This is our attempt to reflect Proverbs 9:9: “Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.”