Weekend A La Carte: Your recommendations, long-form articles, and think pieces

Welcome to Weekend A La Carte. Today, you will find some long-form content and think pieces. Below these, you’ll find recommendations that come from readers of this newsletter. I found that feature a whole lot of fun to put together, so I hope you’ll scroll down and enjoy it too.

For some of the articles, I have provided gift links, which should get you around any paywalls. Note, however, that these gift links may expire in a few days or weeks.

Sales & Deals

Today’s Kindle deals include some good deals on a variety of books. Pastors may want to take a look since a few are geared specifically for them.

Recommended Reading

Christianity Today featured doctor-missionary Peter Stafford who made international headlines when he contracted Ebola.

Before the outbreak, the Staffords’ days usually revolved around work, a mix of local schools and homeschooling for their children, soccer practice, and making time to be together.

In the weeks leading up to the May 15 announcement of the Ebola outbreak, there were a series of unexplained deaths in the town of Mongbwalu, 35 miles north of Nyankunde.

The Staffords always had plans for the possibility of Ebola. They were vaccinated for the known strains. They had decided that, were there an outbreak, one of them would stay home with the children while the other worked in the hospital.

They never got to put their plan into action.

Read: Peter Stafford Trusted God. He Was Still Afraid to Die of Ebola.

Randy Alcorn tells some of his story as background to considering the importance of advocating for the unborn.

I was involved in nine rescues and was arrested seven times, one of which resulted in a few days in jail. I was also sued by a Portland abortion clinic. One court judgment against us was the largest against pro-lifers in history: $8.2 million.

I believe in paying every debt, but I could not pay people who would use the money to kill children. As a result, the clinic came to the church to garnish my wages. To prevent the church from either having to pay the clinic or defy a court order, I resigned. It was painful, having been a pastor there from its beginning, but what the abortionists intended for evil, God intended for good, and he has accomplished his purposes (Genesis 50:20; Romans 8:28). Nanci and I began a nonprofit, Eternal Perspective Ministries, so we could pursue the causes closest to our hearts—primarily missions and pro-life work.

See: If We Don’t Speak for the Unborn, Who Will?

David Oks likes to consider big questions related to people and their cultures. In this article, he looks at kinship societies and tries to answer why they can have an increased incidence of killing their old. Here’s his answer:

Kinship societies are redistributive societies: they redistribute from the young, productive, and healthy to the old, unproductive, and sick. Of course, all societies have some sort of redistribution. But in kinship societies, that redistribution occurs within the household: and—particularly in bad years, when households are close to scarcity—amounts to a zero-sum choice between feeding the young and feeding the old. The young, productive, and healthy would like some way to escape these obligations: but they can’t do that without violating the fundamental norms of kinship.

So witch killings are a way out: they allow you to repudiate kinship obligations while publicly reaffirming your commitment to them. By accusing your grandfather of witchcraft and killing him, you can dispose of an unwanted dependent without ever admitting that you wanted him gone.

It’s an interesting theory and one worth considering. What I’d find even more interesting would be a consideration of how the acceptance of euthanasia in Western societies will lead to a different way of the young killing the old.

See: Why Kinship Societies Kill their Old.

For the past few decades, we have heard a lot about the risk of overpopulating the earth. Ironically, many people are now even more concerned with underpopulating the earth through plummeting birth rates. Creation.com takes this on:

God was not giving a suggestion when He told mankind to multiply. Yet many in the Church today question God and conclude that the command was okay when the earth was empty, but that it surely does not apply today. This kind of thinking suggests that God did not anticipate the ‘problems’ we might experience with a large population. God did actually mean for this command to be followed throughout the entire time that mankind is on the earth. Nowhere in Scripture has God repealed this command.

God has provided more than sufficient natural resources to meet all of our needs, and the needs of a much larger population than today’s. The resources will not run out during the time God intends for us to inhabit this earth, until Christ returns. In addition, even if particular resources become scarce, we will find ways to use resources more efficiently or use substitutes.

Read: Dispelling the Overpopulation Myth.

When we speak about AI, it is inevitable that someone will soon use the term “slop.” While we can acknowledge many legitimate uses for AI, we can’t deny that much of what it creates is, indeed, slop.

The term ‘slop’, which many use to characterize AI, is worth considering. ‘Slop’ is uniform, formless, tasteless food, produced in great quantity, with low nutritional value, designed for swift mass delivery to and consumption by large groups for whose specific members one holds no meaningful regard and with whom one desires no sustained interactions. ‘Slop’ is typically served to animals, to prisoners, and to other institutionalized persons, to groups that are entirely dependent, to those who have no other choice or alternative, and to those who have appetite but no taste. ‘Slop’ has much less value when there are realistic alternatives on the menu, or a menu in the first place.

Read: Slop.

They don’t make them like they used it! That definitely applies when we talk about the venerable Boeing 747. It’s quickly disappearing, especially from North American skies, but I’m glad I got to fly it a few times. My favorite experience was when I flew Lufthansa from Johannesburg to Frankfurt. They unexpectedly upgraded me to first class, then very apologetically downgraded me to business class due to a broken seat. Due to EU regulations, they had to hand me a €2,000 check for my trouble. That’s one of the few trips I’ve taken where I came out ahead! Anyway, none of that is relevant to this story from The Atlantic.

I was arriving at this desolate site north of Tucson, where airplanes go to die, to mourn the 747, the original jumbo jet—a.k.a. the Whale, the Longreach, the Sky Cruiser, the Mother of All Airliners, the Queen of the Skies. For 50 years, the aircraft was the principal host of Important Journeys: a young student’s trip to study abroad in Paris, a first-generation American’s pilgrimage to their ancestral home in Hungary, an Iranian family fleeing the 1979 revolution. Combining the immensity of an ocean liner and the elegance of a swan, the 747 is the only commercial jet that deserves to be called beautiful. Over the past two decades, airlines have stopped using it as a passenger plane and replaced it with smaller aircraft that are more efficient, but far less majestic and memorable. The 747 was once a symbol of American might, invention, progress, and populism. Now it embodies the decline of all of those values.

The Boeing 747 Begins Its Final Descent.

Canadian news has been buzzing about bill C-34, the Safe Social Media Act. The Association for Reformed Political Action analyzed it and, not surprisingly, determines that it is a mixed bag.

Ideological censorship is also a concern for the category “content that foments hatred.” Social media operators may deem something harmful or hateful simply because they disagree with it or want to avoid trouble for not addressing it. Companies may flag controversial content to avoid potential liability.

According to the bill, content likely to foment hatred means “content that expresses detestation or vilification of an individual or group of individuals on the basis of a prohibited ground of discrimination.” The bill also clarifies that “content does not express detestation or vilification solely because it expresses disdain or dislike or it discredits, humiliates, hurts or offends.”

See: Will the Safe Social Media Act Make the Internet Safer?

Earlier this week, I asked the people who read this newsletter to send along their recommendations—recommendations for just about anything. I cannot possibly share all that were submitted, but I did want to share a substantial and varied list. Enjoy!

Dean began making his way through Calvin’s Institutes and then, well into his reading, discovered the John Calvin’s Institutes In a Year podcast. He recommends it!
Sam recommends Spiritual Depression by Martin Lloyd Jones, specifically chapter 8, Feelings. He says it’s the most helpful writing he has found on a Christian’s relationship with their emotions and temperament.
Dwight appreciates MasterWorks Festival, an intensive four-week Christian music camp for serious young classical musicians in high school or college.
Randy loves the Puritan Treasures for Today series of books from Reformation Heritage Books. They are short and lightly edited for easy reading, and therefore ideal for people who may be new to the Puritans and their writing.
Garrett thinks the Literal Word Bible app is underappreciated and wants others to get to know it.
Linda gathered a few friends to read and discuss Beauty and Justice by Haejin and Makoto Fujimura throughout the summer. The age span is 29-75 and the vocations have been widely varied. She says the discussion has been rich.
Jake has enjoyed Malcolm Guite’s epic poem Galahad & the Grail, which he describes as “beautiful, biblical, and shockingly engrossing!”
Lydia recommends the Theologically Driven podcast by the Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary, especially episodes interviewing John Aloisi.
Brandon thinks you should consider reading The Wide Wide Sea by Hampton Sides, a historical work about eighteenth century British exploration and a certain famed explorer named Captain James Cook. I have read it and recommend it as well!
Several people recommend Theo of Golden.
Jason says “About 15 years ago my wife gave me an Elite Embosser. I still use it any time I get a new book (which is quite often) and it still works just as well as the day I got it. It remains one of the best gifts I have ever received.”
Michael recommends Nor Scrip by Amy Carmichael (readable for free online—scroll down to find it). It is “about all the miraculous answers to prayer they received in the early years of Dohnavur Fellowship, especially with regard to their financial needs.”
Maria says a friend recently gave her Single and Satisfied by Nancy Wilson and she read it in two days. “What a rich little gem and delightful encouragement for those of us who are unmarried daughters.”
Marilyn says, “I’m reading through the Chronicles of Narnia again. So many layers, so much pure fun!”
Audrey is enjoying grandparenting. “This past weekend we had two of our grandchildren come for a visit. It is so sweet to hear their little voices and to watch my daughter be such a good mommy. I highly recommend grandparenting!”
Rebecca enjoys the New York Times cooking app. “Summer has the potential to allow for unhurried cooking, experimenting and trying new things. There are recipes in abundance and short ‘Inspiration’ videos.”

Flashback

When the Sermon Fizzles Instead of Sizzles. What if preaching is powerless not because of the pastor’s lack of preparation but because of the church’s lack of prayer? What if poor preaching is not the consequence of any failure on the pastor’s part but on the congregation’s?