Welcome to a new edition of A La Carte. These weekend editions focus on long-form content and think pieces. There’s a lot of good material here, so I’m sure you’ll find something that’s of interest.
For some of the articles, I have provided gift links, which should get you around any paywalls. However, these gift links may expire in a few days or weeks, so they may not be useful for long. Click while the clicking is good!
In case you missed it yesterday, I reviewed a book that I found gripping: Shooting Up by Jonathan Tepper. It’s worth a look!
Sales & Deals
Today’s Kindle deals include a selection of newer and older books. Be sure to scroll back through the week since there were lots of good options.
General Links
Here is a collection of links that covers a variety of topics.
Lessons From the Hidden Vault of Thomas Kinkade. Michael Wright covers the perplexing case of Thomas Kinkade. “I’ve known of the ‘Painter of Light’ since I was a teenager, carefully averting my eyes in the Christian bookstore to keep from seeing the fluorescent cottage scenes, scoffing at the mall-goers ducking into his darkly lit galleries. He held a symbolic role in my teenage years, a creative leader whose paintings evoked a blend of art and faith that frustrated me. I shadowboxed him often. When he died from an overdose in 2012, estranged from his family and living in a mansion with a girlfriend, I remember reading the news reports and feeling vindicated. ‘See? This is where Christian kitsch can lead! It hollows you out, falsifies what’s real. He was an artist living a lie!’”
How to Crash. I don’t know that there is any great benefit in reading this article, except that it is an enjoyable piece of writing, despite the subject matter. “A mile short of the church, on a roundabout, moving around twenty miles an hour, the chatter was replaced with screaming. For the van door had rattled open and I had fallen out. Calamities seem to happen in slow motion, then very fast. I remember sliding along smooth white leather as the van banked in the turn, then feeling the door give way and swing open, and then falling backwards out of it as though I were a figment in someone else’s dream. My head smashed into the road. After that there is a gap in my memory.”
Do I Choose an Old or New Church? Murray Campbell has a long article meant to help young Aussies choose a church, but it will apply to people from other countries as well. One of his purposes is to dispel some of the myths related to Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches that may seem to make them more attractive. “The dilemma is real enough. Should I try out a church that looks and feel old, or a church that is current and on trend? Is contemporary the way to go or is tradition? Behind these questions is a desire to figure out what is authentic Christianity. Which tradition delivers a genuine Christian experience?”
Gaming and Godliness. This article begins with a thorough look at what gaming is and many of the variations it can take. It then lays out many of the arguments for and against gaming, before providing some biblical principles to evaluate it. Overall, it’s helpful, I think.
The Hunger for the Real. This article explains how Gen Z may be turning away from gaming and other forms of electronic entertainment/distraction. Even if they aren’t turning away from them altogether, they are attempting to develop a new and healthier relationship with their devices and technologies. “Still, Gen Z’s efforts to take a more intentional approach to technology use is not only laudable but often overlooked in the ongoing debates about age limits for social media and state and federal government regulation of technology platforms.”
Can Turning Off Your Phone Bring You Closer to God? The Atlantic ran a feature on John Mark Comer. The journalist asked to interview me, but I declined since I was traveling. I suggested she speak to Kevin DeYoung, which it seems she did. But for all of DeYoung’s (valid!) concerns, the journalist seems quite taken with Comer. “Because of this approach, Comer can seem more like a wellness personality, such as Andrew Huberman, than a pastor. Like Huberman, Comer offers a concrete regimen that’s attractive to people who feel unmoored in contemporary society. Comer’s skeptics, when remarking on his rapid ascent, point to these similarities and wonder if what he’s offering is simply baptized wellness, a pop spirituality tailored to the tastes and frustrations of affluent young people. But sitting among his followers, I wondered: Could Comer’s practices actually bring them closer to God?“
How Short-Form Clips Took Over the Internet (Video). I found this a really interesting and illuminating article. It explains why we see so many short-form video clips these days. The answer is basically that more people watch clips from their favorite shows or podcasts than the full content.
Transhumanism & LLMs
Here are a few articles that provide a perspective on transhumanism, Large Language Models, or both.
The Trans War Is Not Over. It has been heartening over the past year or two to see trans ideology begin to lose some of its grip over society. However, Carl Trueman thinks it’s important to acknowledge that winning a battle is not the same as winning the war. He believes the front has now shifted from LGBTQ matters to transhumanism.
Creating Baby Geniuses to Thwart the AI Threat? I’m quite sure this is the first time I’ve ever linked to an article at Mother Jones. While it’s written from a very different perspective than my own, it overlaps with my concerns in some important ways. The author explains that many technologists are concerned with the rise of AI and its growing abilities. They believe the solution is to use eugenics to create human beings who are smarter than AI. This kind of thing is being funded by some of the wealthiest individuals on the planet, so expect to hear more about it.
Understanding Why LLMs Are Sychophantic. Anyone who has used a large language model has probably observed that it is sycophantic. Writing for Mere Orthodoxy, Drake Osborn explains that this is a feature of the technology rather than a bug. “The question is: if we are so used to giving into the temptation of alluring technology, what is to stop us from giving into the temptation of Satan? While right usage of LLMs is a real concern Christians should have, we should also be concerned about what exposure to LLM’s is doing to us, regardless of the use case. The issue is not primarily an ethical one, but a discipleship one.”
Silicon Valley Has Forgotten What Normal People Want. I found this an especially helpful insight: “Within recent memory, people who made software and hardware understood their job was to serve their customer. It was to identify a need, and then fill it. But at some point following the financial crisis, would-be entrepreneurs got it into their heads that their job was to invent the future, and consumers’ job was to go along with that invented future. My guess is that they’re aping what they thought Steve Jobs was doing when he, for instance, got rid of the optical drives on the MacBook Air.” Today, though, it seems like many technologies are created for other purposes.
Coming Soon
Here’s a reminder that my new book God’s Great Big Global Church is set to be released next month. Written for younger readers, it invites them to visit 10 kids and their churches all around the world. The hope is that kids will gain enthusiasm for going to church on Sundays as they discover that they and their local fellowship are part of something much bigger: a family of people worshiping God all around the world! The publisher is eager for people to pre-order it since that helps Amazon and other retailers take notice. You can do that here: Amazon or Westminster Books.
Flashback
Being the Answer to Prayer. True faith and true submission are not praying and wishing, not praying and hoping, not praying and sitting, but rather, praying and acting. We must be willing to labor toward the granting of the requests we have brought before God, whenever it is possible for us to do so.
If your view of the cross could not be taken as a scandal and an offense, you’ve lost the plot.
—Jared Wilson
