Philosophical Fragments
Christian and secular news and commentary that one Christian found important or interesting this morning:
1. ADOPTED SONS AND DAUGHTERS. Christianity Today‘s “210 Million Reasons to Adopt” is well worth your time. I would rather that Christian families, who often say they do not feel called to adopt, feel as though they need a calling not to adopt, in the face of such extraordinary need and such a clear biblical mandate to care for the orphan. There are many ways to care for an orphan, even for those who cannot adopt. Don’t get me wrong. But American Christians in particular have such wealth and opportunity, relative to the rest of the world, that every American Christian family should seriously consider adoption and whether they have good reason not to.
Also, cited in the article is Jedd Medefind, a member of our Cross Examinations group.
2. SAVE YOURSELF. Abstinence-focused approaches to sex education are coming back in fashion, at least partly due to a recent study showing their impact. Critics of abstinence-based approaches are angry that funding for such programs was inserted into the health care bill at the last moment — and remained largely unnoticed until now.
3. EASTER MORNING. Bill Hybels and Joel Osteen were among those who joined the President for an Easter breakfast at the White House last Sunday, and Obama spoke in personal terms of what the crucifixion story means to him. I wonder – I do not mean this rhetorically; I am genuinely curious – what the President said, if anything, about the resurrection?
4. RAVING. Lamentably, rants like this are becoming the typical fare at Huffington Post Religion.
5. NUANCE. Is there any legitimacy to the claim by the Catholic church that there is, in addition to the systematic wrongs perpetrated by a small proportion of its priests, and (more damagingly) the systematic wrongs committed by Bishops who were more eager to save face than confront the full depth of the problem — that there is also a strain of anti-Catholicism driving the condemnations of the Pope and the Catholic Church as a whole? Is it possible to say on the one hand that the priests and the Bishops failed and sinned and stand in desperate need of penitence and reform, and on the other hand that this material becomes convenient ammunition in the hands of those who despise the Holy See’s stances on abortion, homosexuality and women?
Note that I do not ask whether these both might be true. The world is a complicated place. Of course they can both be true. From my standpoint, they both plainly are true. The question is whether one can say both at the same time — or whether saying the second part (that this has become fuel for an anti-Catholic fire) so overshadows or undermines or detracts from the first part that one cannot say them both simultaneously.
6. PLEASE. Pray for this American soldier held captive by the Taliban.
7. EMERGENGY FUNDING. Let’s see…charging people for 911 calls…how could that possibly be a bad thing? What sort of activity is being encouraged or discouraged? I can understand charging those who call 911 and activate emergency services for issues they know are frivolous. But even if they chose to apply the “crash tax” only to the drivers who are at fault, won’t it discourage the person at fault (who may be the only person conscious) from calling 911?
8. OUT OF LUCK. Initial jobless claims rose last week, yet another sign that the labor market is not yet in recovery mode. And GM is still hemorrhaging money, largely due to its massive pension obligations.
9. TURNING CHINESE. The physiognomy of our global future will depend in disproportionate measure on the relationship between the United States and China. Martin Wolf considers China’s currency manipulation and its effect on the global marketplace. Wolf, who is one of the great writers today on issues of economics, writes for the Financial Times. Also worth considering, though I believe he overstates the case (fearful westerners tend to exaggerate the strengths of China and underestimate its challenges), is Niall Ferguson’s argument that the United States is on an inexorable collision course with China as the latter rises to superpower status.
One of the key questions here is: What about India? Will India side with the United States and the west, and serve as a regional and global counterweight to China? Or will it wilt under the shadow of its neighbor’s growing might? Although India does not have the strong centralized government China has, which enables China to coordinate its growth in ways India cannot, India has a very large workforce, including a large number of educated workers, and a thriving culture of innovation and entrepreneurship.
10. TODAY’S TWO SIDES. On the value of the Obama administration’s new nuclear-arms pact with Russia. Hillary Clinton for the Left, and Tunku Varadarajan for the Right.
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