Wisdom for Your Weekend is your regular installment of what we’ve been reading (and watching) around the web. Presented to you by Chris Pappalardo (and Allison Dolbeer, filling in this week), with occasional guidance from Pastor J.D., 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.”
Articles of the Week
The Power of Deconversion Stories, Michael Kruger. “Christianity has never had a shortage of people who were once in the fold and then left. In recent years, however, these de-conversion stories seem to have taken on a higher profile …. due to the fact that many of those who de-convert have realized a newfound calling to share their testimony with as many people as possible. Rather than just quietly leaving their old beliefs and moving on to new ones … a new guard seems to have made it their life’s ambition to evangelize the found.”
How to Teach Boys to Respect Women, Russell Moore. “Fathers and male teachers, especially, can highlight the ways they learn from and are sharpened by godly, strong women …. If you are married, men, pay attention and give respect to the counsel of your wife. If you are a pastor, do not patronize women in your sermon illustrations or introductions. Highlight the creation and eschaton callings of women bound up in our common inheritance.”
The Phantom Tollbooth and Redeeming the Power of Words, Abby Perry. “Christians should be the first ones to say that words matter—we are people of the Book and those who were saved by the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us. The words we use each day serve as the building blocks of ideas, beliefs, and stories. They form us and our cultures. And yet, we so often find ourselves lured by words that tickle our ears—in advertising, on our preferred news network, sometimes, tragically, in our churches—by appealing to what we already think and failing to challenge us to see beyond ourselves.”
Salvation in the Slums: A Family Legacy, Andrew Mathieson. “We need people who will give up their time, comfort and lives to bring the Gospel to the schemes—people who recognise the greatest need, not just the physical ones. We need people who recognise that real evangelism isn’t merely social care and social concern but is the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; people who, like Spurgeon, know they are just beggars telling other beggars where to get bread.”
Repenting of Confirmation Bias Christianity, Jared C. Wilson. “The reason we fall into confirmation bias politically is not essentially a political problem. It is a human problem, which is to say, it is a sin problem—which is to say, it is a problem of self-interest and self-worship. The truth is, you and I are prone to conducting our entire lives along the narratives constructed from confirmation bias.”
On the Lighter Side
Why It’s Almost Impossible to Do a Quintuple Jump, WIRED Magazine. “At this year’s Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, we may see quad corks in Big Air Snowboarding or in Freestyle Skiing—and we’ll see quad twists and quad jumps in Figure Skating. But have we reached the limit of what’s possible? To do a quad, a skater’s got less than a second to turn their body four times in the air. WIRED’s Robbie Gonzalez set out to find out why five … is almost impossible.”
