![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/40\/2017\/07\/pexels-photo-192555.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nA week that draws many of us to prayer, to fasting, to yearning, to striving to make things right. I am wearied by the many who ridicule \u201cprayers and thoughts,\u201d as if prayer doesn\u2019t matter, while seemingly suggesting that action without prayer is what we need. We need both prayer and action, and there\u2019s no reason to ridicule one at the expense of the other.<\/p>\n
A big thanks\/HT to JS and Kris for links this week.<\/p>\n
Seven things learned too late<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n 1. IF YOU WANT TO \u2018DO WHAT YOU LOVE,\u2019 YOU HAVE TO WORK THREE TIMES AS HARD AS EVERYONE ELSE<\/p>\n 2. BENEATH ANGER IS ALWAYS FEAR<\/p>\n 3. OUR EVERYDAY HABITS FORM OUR FUTURE SELVES<\/p>\n 4. YOUR EMOTIONS TAKE PRACTICE<\/p>\n 5. EVERYONE HAS HIS OR HER OWN AGENDA<\/p>\n 6. ACHIEVEMENT WILL NEVER BE AS FULFILLING AS THE JOURNEY<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n 7. WORKING HARD AND LAUGHTER ARE NOT MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n So much was written about Billy Graham this week, but Randall Balmer\u2019s was one of the best<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n Billy Graham, by any measure the most famous religious figure of the twentieth century, died today at his home in Montreat, North Carolina. He was ninety-nine years old.<\/p>\n In a career that extended well over half a century, Graham took a simple evangelical message\u2014give your heart to Jesus, and you will be \u201cborn again\u201d\u2014to millions around the world. The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, the organization he founded to facilitate his ministry, boasted that Graham preached to more people than anyone else in history, a claim that probably cannot be verified but is almost certainly true. \u2026<\/p>\n Graham briefly became pastor of small congregation in Western Springs, Illinois, and, at the invitation of Torrey Johnson, hosted a weekly radio program,\u00a0Songs in the Night<\/em>. Shortly thereafter, Johnson recruited Graham to preach at Saturday-night rallies in Chicago\u2019s Orchestra Hall, part of the outreach for a new organization called Youth for Christ. In 1946, Graham joined the staff of Youth for Christ, where he met and befriended Charles Templeton, another itinerant evangelist for Youth for Christ.<\/p>\n Templeton and Graham became known as the Gold-Dust Twins, and many contemporaries regarded Graham as the lesser preacher. Templeton\u2019s intellectual restlessness prompted him to apply for admission to Princeton Theological Seminary, where he was admitted despite the fact that he had never graduated from college. Then, meeting Graham at the Taft Hotel in New York City, Templeton challenged his friend to attend seminary with him in order to deepen his theological understanding.<\/p>\n Graham pondered the possibility at length, troubled by Templeton\u2019s intimations that elements of the Christian faith were not intellectually defensible. For Graham, a turning point in his life\u2014and in the entire revival enterprise of the twentieth century\u2014occurred shortly thereafter while he was staying at the Forest Home Conference Center in Southern California. While hiking and praying there in the San Bernardino Mountains, Graham decided to set aside Templeton\u2019s challenge, to banish his own intellectual doubts, and simply to \u201cpreach the gospel.\u201d<\/p>\n He did just that, descending the mountain to conduct his famous Los Angeles revival campaign of 1949. Abetted by prodigious advance work, which would become the hallmark of Graham\u2019s evangelistic efforts, Graham, billed as \u201cAmerica\u2019s Sensational Young Evangelist,\u201d conducted services beneath a circus tent, dubbed the \u201cCanvas Cathedral,\u201d at the corner of Washington and Hill Streets. Graham\u2019s enormously successful Los Angeles crusade in 1949 brought him national attention, in no small measure because newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, impressed with the young evangelist\u2019s preaching and his anti-communist rhetoric, instructed his papers to \u201cpuff Graham.\u201d From Los Angeles, Graham took his evangelistic crusades around the country and the world, thereby providing him with international renown.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n George Will\u2019s was the worst and heartless<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n Pete Blackburn<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n The last 12 months have been a roller coaster ride for the United States women\u2019s national hockey team, but on Thursday in Pyeongchang, that ride reached its ultimate peak \u2014 an Olympic gold medal.<\/p>\n Team USA defeated Canada, 3-2,\u00a0in a thrilling shootout win in South Korea<\/a><\/span>\u00a0to earn their first gold medal in 20 years. It was the third consecutive Olympics in which the American and Canadian women faced off in the final, and this one came 38 years to the day of the \u201cMiracle On Ice.\u201d<\/p>\n For the American women, there was no miracle necessary. Thursday\u2019s gold medal game was earned on the strength of skill, execution, perseverance, heart and fearlessness. It was a perfectly fitting way to wrap up what has been an incredible last year for the Team USA women, who have earned major victories both on and off the ice.<\/p>\n Last March, just weeks before the 2017 Women\u2019s World Championships were set to get underway in Michigan, members of the U.S. team announced that they planned on boycotting the tournament over a fight for fair wages and equitable support from USA Hockey.<\/p>\n The two sides had privately been in negotiations for over a year and made little progress on a new deal. With Worlds on the horizon, the women saw an opportunity to make a bold statement, and they pounced. \u2026<\/p>\n Just prior to the tournament, the two sides reached a four-year deal that would provide the women with annual salaries around $70,000, with a chance to earn close to $100,000 with added medal bonuses. In addition, USA Hockey agreed to provide accommodations and insurance on par with what the men received, plus more funding and support to the women\u2019s development program.<\/p>\n It was a landmark victory for current and future American women\u2019s players. \u2026<\/p>\n Watching the women celebrate in South Korea, it was hard not to get the feeling that the win was the perfect storybook ending to what has been an amazing and, quite frankly, a badass year for the USA women.<\/p>\n This group was able to put their frustrating past to the side and create a new future through fierce willpower and an ability to capitalize on what was in front of them. They had an unwavering resolve, even in the face of pressure and resistance from their opponent, and they didn\u2019t blink.<\/p>\n As a result, they found a way to become champions in the sport, both in and out of uniform.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Andy Staples, SI, and the NCAA athlete problem<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n What might that new system look like? The most sensible answer is the Olympic model.\u00a0You can read about it in more detail here<\/a>, but these are the basics: Schools would continue to only pay full cost-of-attendance scholarships. Anyone else who wanted to pay the athletes could pay them. This would eliminate any Title IX concerns because every athlete would have exactly the same opportunity to get paid. The market would decide who got how much. Does that mean boosters would pay the players? Yep. (But they already pay them under the table now.) Does that mean agents would pay football and basketball players? It sure would. (They also pay them under the table now.) Would the players have to pay taxes on anything they make? Of course. Would this increase the gap between the haves and the have-nots? Nope. Alabama, Ohio State and the like would still sign the highest rated football recruits. Duke, Kentucky and the like would still sign the highest rated basketball recruits. (But maybe SMU, which thrived when it was paying big under the table, could become good at football again.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Brueggemann and the Mennonite Option<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n The Second Amendment enshrines a distinctly American \u2013 and, some would say, sacred \u2013 freedom: the right to bear arms. How to reconcile that with the need to curb gun violence? Michael Martin, a young Mennonite from Colorado Springs, decided the best way to approach this emotionally charged issue was to tell a different story \u2013 to counter the debilitating stream of tragic news with an alternative narrative of transformation and restoration, one tool at a time.<\/p>\n Martin won\u2019t take away your rights, but if you happen to have a gun you want to be rid of, he\u2019ll be happy to forge it into a garden tool for you.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The idea hatched back in 2009 as Martin watched news coverage of the christening of the USS New York, a battleship with a bow stem made of steel from the fallen World Trade Center. (\u201cNotice how they bring Christ into it.\u201d) Someone needed to counteract this rhetoric and symbolism of revenge, Martin felt. A big fan of\u00a0Walter Brueggemann<\/a>\u2019s approach to the Old Testament, he latched onto Isaiah\u2019s words, \u201cThey shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.\u201d The prophet Micah repeats this refrain and adds, \u201cThey shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid.\u201d So, repurposing weapons to grow food as a way to drive out fear. \u201cThat\u2019s our end goal: to get to the point where we\u2019re not afraid of each other anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n Isaiah of Jerusalem\u2019s signature<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n Excavations in Jerusalem have unearthed what may be the first extra-Biblical evidence of the prophet Isaiah. Just south of the Temple Mount, in the\u00a0Ophel excavations<\/a>, archaeologist Eilat Mazar and her team have discovered a small seal impression that reads \u201c[belonging] to Isaiah\u00a0nvy<\/em>.\u201d The upper portion of the impression is missing, and its left side is damaged. Reconstructing a few Hebrew letters in this damaged area would cause the impression to read, \u201c[belonging] to Isaiah the prophet.\u201d<\/p>\n If the reconstruction stands, this may be the signature of the Biblical prophet Isaiah\u2014the figure we encounter in the Books of 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, and Isaiah. Eilat Mazar of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem announces this exciting discovery in her article\u00a0\u201cIs This the Prophet Isaiah\u2019s Signature?\u201d<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0published in the special March\/April\/May\/June 2018 double issue of\u00a0Biblical Archaeology Review<\/em>.<\/p>\n Mazar\u2019s team found the seal impression in an undisturbed area of Iron Age debris (dated to the eighth\u2013seventh centuries B.C.E.) right outside the southeastern wall of the royal bakery, a structure that had been integrated into the city\u2019s fortifications and had operated until the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.E. All of the excavated dirt from this area of the Ophel was wet-sifted, meaning that it was placed on a sifting screen and washed with water. This process revealed multiple finds\u2014including Isaiah\u2019s seal impression and\u00a0an impression of the Judahite king Hezekiah<\/a>\u2014which had been missed during traditional excavation methods. Since each of these impressions has a diameter of about half an inch and is the same color as the dirt, it is easy to understand why they were not spotted in the field.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n ILYBYGTH<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n Al-Gharbi reviews some of the literature on the futility of culture-war shouting matches. We might think a reasoned, sensible argument will convince anyone who isn\u2019t absurdly prejudiced. It seems the opposite can be true. Studies have found that stubbornness and intractability can\u00a0increase\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>when people are\u00a0more<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0\u201cintelligent<\/a>,\u00a0educated<\/a>, or\u00a0rhetorically skilled<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Why? Intelligent, informed, sophisticated people are more likely to be committed to ideas and ideologies. They are more experienced at the kinds of mental gymnastics that can help justify and rationalize seemingly illogical positions.<\/p>\n What can be done?\u00a0Al-Gharbi suggests<\/a>\u00a0three general suggestions for improving real communication:<\/p>\n #1: LOWER THE PERCEIVED STAKES OF THE DISAGREEMENT OR CONFLICT<\/p>\n #2: APPEAL TO YOUR INTERLOCUTOR\u2019S OWN IDENTITY, VALUES, NARRATIVES, FRAMES OF REFERENCE WHEN POSSIBLE<\/p>\n #3 LEAD BY EXAMPLE. MODEL CIVILITY, FLEXIBILITY, INTELLECTUAL HUMILITY, GOOD FAITH IF YOU WANT OTHERS TO DO THE SAME<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Could these suggestions help creationists and non-creationists talk to each other more productively?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Evangelicals observing Lent?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Digging a bit, I think it\u2019s more accurate to say that American evangelicals have been\u00a0conflicted about Lent for some time now. Here\u2019s how\u00a0Christianity Today\u00a0<\/i>started a March 1960 editorial on the subject:\u00a0(republished online\u00a0<\/i>forty years later<\/i><\/a>)<\/i><\/p>\n Lent constitutes both a challenge and an embarrassment to Protestantism. Each year as the season approaches it brings with it the temptation to equivocate. We do not know where we stand because our feet seem to be stuck in both camps.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n What\u2019s more evangelical, after all, than to be drawn to a time of intentional repentance and renewal \u2014\u00a0and simultaneously to recoil from the merest hint of formalism?<\/p>\n While \u201ca sense of indignation stirs within the Protestant breast, even to the pitch of revolt, at what the Church has done with Lent in the past,\u201d those forty days remained \u201cthe most sacred season in the Christian calendar\u2026 For the minister to ignore Lent\u2026 would seem to be almost as wrong as for the minister to ignore Christmas.\u201d In the end, CT (Carl Henry?) hoped that Lent would again \u201cbecome a time when material things are put again in their proper secondary position\u201d \u2014\u00a0so long as \u201cthe form support, not obstruct, the way of the Holy Spirit of God who brings life to ritual and free worship alike, and who turns ashes into new men.\u201d\u2026\u2026..<\/p>\n\n