Weekly Meanderings

Jonalyn Fincher asks: Where are all the women apologists? “There’s a pesky rumor circulating among religions folks that women are more spiritually sensitive than men and therefore don’t want or need intellectual reasons for the Christian faith. “Women are just naturally full of faith, they’ll naturally believe in God.”  But there’s evidence that suggests otherwise.”

Zalman Kastel, an Orthodox rabbi, compares Christian/Jesus’ teaching on nonviolence to his own context: “I wonder if my low tolerance for revenge is the result of Christian influences on me, particularly from a young devout Christian peace builder I greatly admire named Jarrod McKenna. I remember when I first started work as a Rabbi 15 years ago, I was teaching a young adult about divine retribution as one of the themes the Friday night prayers. At the time, I thought this idea of divine justice was quite beautiful, righting the wrongs of the world. My student challenged me, would it not be better if at the end of days no one suffered? I remember reflecting on how different my perspective had been to that of my student who was raised with more exposure to Christian and secular influences.”

Fascinating interview by Tim Hein with Erwin McManus about his creative industry, and Tim has a post on the missional church and the Holy Spirit.

Ted Gossard reflects on one’s calling: “Without that sense of coherence in a calling which brings all of life in the world under the lordship of King Jesus, meaning can be up for grabs. There will be a sense that all is meaningless under the sun, since it all comes and goes without any underlying purpose. Although the sense of calling seems built in us humans as part of our being made in the image of God. Indeed part and parcel of that calling in the beginning was to be rulers and priests of God to and for the world of creation. In Jesus that call awaits fulfillment when the children of God are revealed in a resurrection in which all of creation will share in the new creation through Jesus. But what we do now can anticipate and somehow be taken up into that change which is to come. Even as we seek to point human beings back to God’s story and how this story will at long at last be fulfilled in and through Jesus.”

Frank Viola interviews David Lamb about God Behaving Badly. Jen Wilken sketches some problems with Bible study methods.

Meanderings in the News

You never know what those professors might be doing with their spare time.

Austerity measures rejection in Euro-Elections: “The results in France and Greece came after a tumultuous few weeks in which the Dutch government fell and Britain’s Conservative-led coalition received a licking in local elections. In all cases, front and center was the growing debate over austerity vs. growth, with opponents of strict cuts arguing that they are succeeding only in driving the region’s economies into the ground.” See this? “Some say Hollande is presenting what could emerge as an alternative view to Germany’s message of cut, cut, cut. Hollande, too, agrees with the notion of balanced budgets — a goal he promises to achieve in France by 2017. But he is seeking to shift more of the burden on the rich — proposing a 75 percent tax rate for the wealthiest French citizens. At the same time, he is eyeing a higher minimum wage and a boost in job growth through the hiring of new educators funded at least in part through tax increases.”

Did Stalin kill Lenin? “The note said: “On Saturday, March 17th in the strictest secrecy Comrade Krupskaya told me of ‘Vladimir Ilyich’s request to Stalin,’ namely that I, Stalin, should take the responsibility for finding and administering to Lenin a dose of potassium cyanide. I felt it impossible to refuse him, and declared: ‘I would like Vladimir Ilyich to be reassured and to believe that when it is necessary I will fulfill his demand without hesitation.’” Stalin added that he just could not do it: “I do not have the strength to carry out Ilyich’s request and I have to decline this mission, however humane and necessary it might be, and I therefore report this to the members of the Politburo.” Dr. Lurie said Stalin might have poisoned Lenin despite this assurance, as Stalin was “absolutely ruthless.”

Meanderings in Sports

I remember that famous Broglio for Brock trade.

On Pujols’ slump: “It’s the equivalent of Itzhak Perlman playing elementary school recital quality — for a month straight. It’s Leno bombing his monologue 27 consecutive nights, Kate Upton with a month’s worth of bad hair days and Meryl Streep with a four-week case of stage fright. There are slumps. There are slow starts. And there is this — a story unto itself. The Machine, broken. Derek Jeter once went 0-for-32. Ichiro Suzuki hit .210 in 26 games in May last year. Hank Aaron hit .218 as deep as 32 games into the 1966 season. Ted Williams once went 2-for-29 in 1954. But I can’t recall a hitter this great look this bad for this long.”