This is a rare Sunday edition of A La Carte, just to keep everyone on their toes. It’s an indication of how much good material I dug up this week.
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On a personal note, I will be speaking next weekend at Makakilo Baptist Church in Honolulu, Hawaii. If you’re in the area, I’d love to meet you at their Spring Bible Conference where I will be speaking about families and technology.
The Poison We Pick
This longform essay by Andrew Sullivan dives deep into the opioids crisis ravaging America today. “It’s hard to convey the sheer magnitude of what happened. Between 2007 and 2012, for example, 780 million hydrocodone and oxycodone pills were delivered to West Virginia, a state with a mere 1.8 million residents.” He has some interesting insights, like this: “If Marx posited that religion is the opiate of the people, then we have reached a new, more clarifying moment in the history of the West: Opiates are now the religion of the people.”
How to Understand the Jordan Peterson Phenomenon
Writing for TGC, Joe Carter gives some important pointers and cautions for understanding the Jordan Peterson phenomenon. “For all of his toppling of great idols of humanism in our day, Dr. Peterson’s thought, from their presuppositions right through many of his conclusions, is as thoroughly humanist, autonomous, and thus ultimately dangerous, as anything any leftist every said. Christians need to be aware of the depths of this problem in Peterson’s thought, and the implications it has for their discernment of his teachings.”
How It’s Made: Bubble Wrap (Video)
You’re welcome.
Should Non-Christians Lead Worship?
I find it very odd that this is even a discussion or consideration, yet here it is. I align with Matthew Westerholm on it. “So, let us consider the good of both unbelievers and believers alike. Let us warmly welcome all people, believers and unbelievers alike, in our church gatherings (1 Corinthians 14:22–25). But let us clarify that the church belongs to Christ and not the world (2 Corinthians 6:14–7:1).”
New Billy Graham Archive Collections To Be Opened to the Public
“The Billy Graham Center Archives at Wheaton College announced that on March 19, 2018, they will open two new collections that had been embargoed by Graham and the BGEA until his death.” Many of these look interesting, including his correspondence with various popes.