A La Carte (May 28)

The God of peace be with you on this fine day.

I know a lot of people were on vacation earlier this week, so here are a couple of articles I wrote that you may have missed: You May Not Need Nearly as Much House as You Think You Do and What Does It Mean to Be Discerning?.

Sales & Deals

Today’s Kindle deals include one of the helpful God’s Word for You books, as well as its companion study guide. There’s also a MacArthur book I don’t think I have ever seen on sale before.

Over at Westminster Books you’ll find a good deal on some classic Turretin.

Recommended Reading

Stephen Colbert Didn’t Get Cancelled — Mass Culture Did. Aaron Renn explains why Stephen Colbert didn’t really get cancelled, but is rather simply part of a wider phenomenon. “The cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s ‘The Late Show’ TV-talk show on CBS drew a lot of coverage and discussion, but mostly for the wrong reasons. Rather than being a story about Colbert and President Trump, it’s really about the disappearance of the media and cultural landscape that made the TV late night talk show possible in the first place.”

Raising Kids in a World That’s Changing Faster Than You Are. Every parent is battling with these same realities. “Don’t think that I’m the dad who has it all figured out. I grew up with Grand Theft Auto, Playboys under my stepdad’s bed, unmonitored phone usage, and questionable movies in the house. But, now all of it feels more constant for our kids. The world seems to press on them earlier than it pressed on us, indeed we’re all aware that it reaches them easier.”

The Twin Fallacies of Christian Nationalism and AI Maximalism. Samuel James: “Here are two questions I think about a lot: How does Christianity restrict someone’s use of technology? How does Christianity restrict someone’s stratagems in politics? These questions come from a conviction that the claims of Christ in Scripture are of such a nature that one cannot believe and obey them without experiencing some kind of limiting principle on their technology and on their politics.”

The Indoor Childhood Is Bad for America. Ben Sasse channels some Jonathan Haidt here, showing once again how parents tend to overprotect their children in the real world and underprotect them in their technology. “The digital revolution is remaking nearly every aspect of modern life. A top concern of parents, educators and sociologists is screen time. How much is too much? The question points to a larger problem: American children are weirdly held hostage indoors.”

You Should (Try To) Get Married. “I know that what I am about to say is extremely context dependent. I am attempting to argue that our culture is tilted ‘away’ from marriage, so I am trying to push in the opposite direction.” I suppose some people may take offense at this article, but it’s probably worth hearing out Marc Sims, even if you disagree with some of what he says.

AI and the Deformation of the Student’s Soul. David M. Shaw wants students (and teachers and everyone else) to consider some of the moral consequences of using AI to learn—or in place of learning. “Learning really is a spiritual discipline that AI cannot replicate. By short-circuiting the process of learning, one short-circuits their soul. One cannot experience transformation —at least not in the positive sense of the term.”

Father’s Day

I began putting together an article on good gift ideas for Father’s Day, but then thought it might be nice to crowdsource it. So I’ve got a form here for you to fill out. It simply asks two questions: Are you a dad, and what would be a great Father’s Day gift? It’s completely anonymous, so you can be as honest as you have always wanted to be. I will share the results sometime next week.

(If you are reading through an email app, you will probably need to click here to see the form.)

Flashback

What God Forbids You To Judge. God calls us to be discerning, and discernment necessarily involves judging what is true and what is false. Yet there are two broad categories in which judgment is sinful and forbidden by God.