• We’re constantly learning more about life in “biblical times,” all of which can enrich our understanding of the Bible itself. This new find from a 7th-century BCE site in Jerusalem is from a time and a place that surely counts as “biblical archaeology,” but even though it tells us quite a bit about what daily life was like for people in “biblical times,” it’s hard to imagine this knowledge working its way into many sermons:
When Langgut’s team collected the samples from the pit and reviewed them under the microscope, they found some remains of parasitic worms and loads of their eggs, which meant that they were thriving and procreating in the palace occupants’ intestines. Altogether, she found four different types of parasitic worm eggs: Ascaris lumbricoides (roundworm), which can produce cramps and vomiting; Trichuris trichiura (whipworm), which can make bowel movements painful, Taenia (beef and pork tapeworm), which can trigger pain and weight loss, and Enterobius vermicularis (pinworm), which causes anal itching. The palace residents certainly had many miserable moments when it came to their daily intestinal functions. Worse, in children, these infections can lead to malnutrition and stunted growth.
The four parasites of Jerusalem sound worse than the 10 Plagues of Egypt. So I suppose one takeaway from this is that we ought to have a greater measure of charity when we read about the misdeeds of the people who lived around, roughly, the time of the prophet Nahum.
• This is an important discussion, from Daniel King at MoJo, “ThE sTaFf oF mOtHeR jOnEs iS vErY dIvIdEd OvEr CoViD cApItAlIzAtIoN. HeLp.” King provides this chart, showing how COVID/Covid/covid style varies from publication to publication:
“COVID” is an acronym, and the rules say that acronyms should be capitalized. Well, most of the time. Some acronyms, like “laser,” eventually just become words due to frequency, familiarity, and the passage of time. (If you write about Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation you’re more likely to confuse than to communicate.) That’s part of why “COVID” has, for many, begun to be written as a proper noun rather than an acronym.
King contrasts this with another acronym referring to a deadly disease that massively affected the entire world: AIDS. Why should one acronym retain its capitalization while the other doesn’t? I think part of the answer there is due to clarity and ambiguity. “Covid” clearly refers to “COVID” — to COrona VIrus Disease — because it’s not going to potentially confuse readers as meaning anything else. “Aids” would be ambiguous, potentially referring either to Acquired ImmunoDeficiency Syndrome or to the unrelated verb. That’s why we write “laser” but not “led” — the latter word is already taken, and thus wouldn’t clearly refer to a Light-Emitting Diode. LEDs are going to have to remain LEDs.
I’ve been erratic and inconsistent here, but I don’t see any harm in evolving from “COVID” to “Covid.” But, as King says, “HeLp” — what do you think?
• It is not the most important reason to support local journalism, but one reason we need quality, sustainable local journalism is because national cable news and prestige national papers of record will never be able to supply our need for stories about Large Animals Where They Don’t Belong.
• “Thou shalt not share false witness.” Steven Waldman’s RNS column includes this passage from the Quran: “If a wicked person comes to you with any news, ascertain the truth, lest you harm people unwittingly, and afterwards become full of repentance for what you have done.”
• “Princeton Theological Seminary removes name of heretic from chapel.” A seminary chapel really shouldn’t be named in honor of a notorious heretic, so no one should be alarmed or otherwise consternstipated by new of this utterly reasonable and impossible-to-describe-as-“controversial” decision. The only reasonable response is something like, “Ah, OK, should’ve been done sooner, but good.”
But that won’t be the response because the actual headline above reads “Princeton Theological Seminary removes name of slaveholder from chapel.” And that means that the white Christian leaders of white Christianity will be shrieking about this in fundraising letters for years to come.
• Years after receiving an official “Farewell” from the gatekeepers of white evangelicalism, Rob Bell seems to be doing well. This Los Angeles piece by David Gardner is structured like a glossy-magazine celebrity profile, but it’s really just two guys helping each other work through some stuff they’ve had to unlearn from their childhoods.
• It is, for now, still legal for voters in Wisconsin to put their ballots into ballot boxes, but Wisconsin Republicans are still vowing to forbid the practice. Yes, they’re literally trying to outlaw ballot boxes.
• People like me, who believe that abortion should be legal, think it is immoral to restrict access to abortion based on a person’s GPA. But then most people who argue that abortion should be illegal would also agree that someone’s GPA has absolutely no bearing on the matter. So I have no idea what this bonkers Florida judge imagined he was getting at.
• I’m equal parts delighted and appalled to learn that some of the music videos produced by the disturbing Rapture cult Family International are now on YouTube. Here’s the delightfully appalling and appallingly delightful “Cathy Don’t Go,” which is as bonkers as it is catchy:
Unlike the World’s Worst Books, this has just enough enthusiasm and misapplied talent to qualify as “so bad it’s good.” It’s a train wreck, but it’s an entertaining train wreck.
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