Worth Reading - 9/13/24
Here are some links worth following this week:
1. Patrick Miller argues that Christian parents should resist screens in school based on the moral danger and cognitive problems they create:
“Always remember this: Despite your school’s most sincere efforts, updates break filters. And kids are smart. When Apple or Google updates their devices, filters fail. Kids know this, even if parents don’t. Even when filters function (and given the story about John and Jordan, I use “function” loosely), there are easy workarounds. The internet is chock-full of guides for students wanting to jailbreak their devices. Even if your child chooses not to break the rules, her “filtered” device will still show her YouTube ads and banner ads littered with softcore-pornographic and highly suggestive material.”
2. Alan Jacobs writes about the problems with pursuing an “enchanted” world without asking what is enchanting it:
“Is the cosmos enchanted? Is it disenchanted? . . . It’s not something I’m inclined to think about much, because for me — YMMV, and it really and truly may vary, you may be aided enormously by such reflections — it’s just another way to avoid thinking about Jesus. I already have a thousand of those, I don’t need a thousand-and-one. ”
3. Over at Mere Orthodoxy, Matthew Arbo argues that there is a real need and also space for better Protestant theological ethics. He also discusses some of the reasons why we are struggling to have meaningful ethical discussions as Protestants.
“It is anecdotal, but I think this is a decent example of why protestants will not listen to what their ethicists have to say: They often simply reject overtly Christian ethics in favor of personal preferences or prevailing conventions. I needn’t even go into the ridiculous claims offered as justification. It happens with other topics, too: warfare, poverty, assisted suicide, the list goes on and on. I’m essentially convinced at this point that the protestant moral imagination is more secular than Christian, which helps explain the lack of moral differentiation between Christians and society that Trueman highlights.”
4. Robert Caro is an excellent writer. This engagement with his 50 year-old biography of Robert Moses is delightful reading:
“Caro sometimes wondered if he should abandon the project and go back to reporting, but he got a second chance when the editor who initially bought the book at Simon & Schuster left the publishing house, freeing him up to sell it elsewhere.
In 1971, Caro found a literary agent, Lynn Nesbit, who assured him that money wouldn’t be a problem.
’I could see that it was a work of genius,” Nesbit said in an interview. “I’d never heard of Robert Moses, and I was completely mesmerized.’”
5. A new documentary is releasing on Robert Putman, following up on his 2000 book, Bowling Alone. Brett McCracken reviews the film and reflects on the message it conveys for Christians:
“We live in a “scrolling alone” world where we listen to the voices and ideas that resonate and mute those that don’t. In this world, each of us is ever more conditioned to subject all things, including relationships and religious beliefs, to the transactional, hypersubjective logic of swiping, scrolling, subscribing, and unsubscribing. This scrolling alone world naturally becomes the believing alone world. But that comes with great risk for our overall spiritual health.”
6. Collin Hansen interviews James Davison Hunter about his new book, Democracy and Solidarity. It’s worth an hour to watch or listen to the interview.
Just a reminder for those who keep track of such things: September 22nd is Frodo and Bilbo’s birthday. It’s a great time to gather some friends to celebrate the day and the destruction of the One Ring.
Do you think Christians should care for the environment but are worried about getting caught up in progressive politics or liberal theology? Consider my book, Hope for God’s Creation, where I work through an orthodox theological foundation for creation care.
“Online church” is a temporary patch on a leaky roof. It can get someone through a rainy season, but it was never meant to last for decades. We should never try to argue that watching a livestream is a worthy substitute for church attendance. To do so is to reduce the church to something we subscribe to rather than a community we belong to.