Your weekly installment of things we’ve been reading around the web.
Articles of the Week
Some Thoughts on Pope Francis, Russell Moore. “It’s another week and thus another interview with Pope Francis. This one, I’m sorry to say, is more than just confusing. It’s a theological wreck.”
The Cultural Revolution on the College Camps: Why it Matters to You, Albert Mohler. When it comes to cultural influence, universities are something like the opposite of Las Vegas. In Mohler’s words, “What happens at Yale doesn’t stay at Yale.”
A Global Slaughter of Christians—Do Americans Know . . . Or Care? Kirsten Powers. “Christians in the Middle East and Africa are being slaughtered, tortured, raped, kidnapped, beheaded, and forced to flee the birthplace of Christianity. One would think this horror might be consuming the pulpits and pews of American churches. Not so. The silence has been nearly deafening.”
Breaking Bad and Original Sin, Chris McNerney & Daniel Lee. The hit TV show Breaking Bad depicts the corrosive effects of sin more than anything else on television. In a sense, we are all Walter White. It is a testament to the old adage: “There, but for the grace of God, go I.” (Warning: some spoilers included—though nothing from the finale.)
Richard Dawkins Sees No Connection Between Religion and Morality, Jason Miks. This is an intriguing (and brief!) interview with one of the more dogged anti-religious thinkers of our day, Richard Dawkins. What I find most interesting here is that Dawkins correctly identifies the attitude of a lot of Americans when it comes to morality: take what you like from the Bible, and leave the rest out. Even for professed Christians, our morality may be shaped more by our culture than by Scripture. The answer to this tension, however, is not to abandon the Bible (as Dawkins suggests), but to allow the Bible to shape and critique our modern milieu.
On The Lighter Side
Who Needs to Cite All of Their Sources?
“If I knew how I knew everything I knew, then I would only be able to know half as much.”
