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, with 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.” While we do not always agree with everything these authors post, we share these resources because we find them challenging and enriching. As we often say around the Summit, when it comes to reading, “Eat the fish and spit out the bones.”
Interview of the Week
How Has Social Media Changed Bible Reading? Jen Wilkin. Here’s a hint: It certainly hasn’t made us better readers. But there’s more to this interview than the stock-in-trade warnings about social media’s deceits and dangers. Jen offers a wise approach to Instagram (the last bastion of social media optimism) and reminds us what the Bible is actually about.
Articles of the Week
My Hope for Spiritual Friendship and Revoice, Gene Burrus. “I hope Christians will learn to disciple and care for their own with greater sensitivity. I hope churches will have thriving evangelistic ministries to secular LGBT communities. I hope Spiritual Friendship and Revoice will take good-faith criticism seriously. Lastly, I hope the stakeholders in Revoice will one day find churches so full of love and truth that they see no compelling reason to keep offering this conference. Until then, denominations, churches and para-church ministries have a significant and rewarding work ahead of them.”
Your Husband’s Porn Problem Is Not About You, Melissa Edgington. Like all sin, pornography is simultaneously simple and devious. It is simple in that Satan’s tactics have not changed since the Garden of Eden: Question the goodness of God; minimize the consequences; make false promises about sin’s allures. But it is endlessly devious, drawing us into an endless web of self-justification. For women whose husbands are using porn, perhaps the most pernicious lie they struggle with is that their husband’s sin is about them. Yes, it affects you. Yes, you can help. But don’t believe for a second that this is your fault.
The FAQs: The Pennsylvania Report on Child Sexual Abuse by Catholic Clergy, Joe Carter. Last week a grand jury in Pennsylvania released a report documenting systemic child abuse, naming hundreds of priests, in dozens of dioceses, over the course of 70 years. The language of the report is scathing, and rightly so. “Priests were raping little boys and girls, and the men of God who were responsible for them not only did nothing; they hid it all. For decades.” Carter provides helpful context and information about this terrible news.
The Humanities Are in Crisis, Benjamin Schmidt. When a rumor circulated that Mark Twain had died (when had not yet), Twain quipped, “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” The same might be said for the humanities, as experts have been falsely eulogizing their demise for the better part of a century. It seemed that the humanities just wouldn’t die. The past decade, however has changed things. Interest in the humanities remains as high as ever. And job prospects haven’t changed, either. But students have finally bought the cockamamie narrative that there’s no profit to studying philosophy, history, or English. That’s a loss for all of us.
On the Lighter Side
The One Moment, OK Go. I (Chris) have been watching this video on repeat for about the past month. Here’s to having it lodged in your noggin as well. (PS – If any of you know how to get me involved one of these videos, I will be eternally in your debt.)
