Your weekly installment of things we’ve been reading (and watching) around the web.
Video of the Week
“The Great Porn Experiment,” Gary Wilson, TEDx Talks. The trouble with contemporary research on pornography is that it becomes difficult (if not impossible) to compare porn use to non-use…because the number of young people not exposed to pornography is tragically low. (“Imagine if all young men started smoking at age 10. We’d think lung cancer is normal.”)
As far as I know, Wilson isn’t a Christian. But the research he presents here reinforces a lot of the dangers that Christians should already know about porn. And the science behind this helps explain internet porn addiction (internet porn rewires your brain) and the benefits of walking away from it (even just a few weeks without internet porn begins the rewiring process). There are reasons to hope.
Articles of the Week
Three Reasons You Need to Sing, Michael Kelley. Evangelicals don’t usually put “singing” in the spiritual discipline category. We’re much more into Bible reading and prayer (in theory, if not in practice!). But Scripture is full of exhortations to sing. Kelley gives us three reasons that spiritual singing belongs in our lives.
12 Questions to Help You Know When to Overlook a Fault, David Murray. Depending on your temperament, you’re likely to confront people either too often or too rarely. Murray offers some helpful diagnostic questions to determine whether it’s time to confront or look the other way. Both convicting and helpful.
Biblical Reasons to Doubt that Genesis 1 Describes 24-Hour Periods, Justin Taylor. If you want to stir up a hornet’s nest, there are few better ways than to make a strong public claim about the interpretation of the Genesis 1 creation account. Bonus points for pluck if you both (1) claim the Bible is inerrant and (2) doubt that Genesis 1 is talking about literal days. Taylor’s got some spine.
5 Ways to Win Every Online Argument Ever, Chris Martin. Step 1: Assume your opponents are classless fools (at best) or malevolent fiends (at worst). Okay, not really. The internet is already far too full of passionate and harmful attacks. But as Martin points out, winning people over online is much like winning people over in person: it requires that we actually interact with compassion.
On The Lighter Side
A New Level of Archery, Lars Andersen. This is for any of you who have ever seen archery tricks in movies and thought, “Yeah, right. As if that’s even remotely possible.” Well, here is a guy doing things with a bow and arrow that put most movie tricks to shame. It’s absurd.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEG-ly9tQGk
Wisdom For Your Weekend is presented to you by Chris Pappalardo, with occasional guidance from J.D. Greear. This is our attempt to reflect Proverbs 9:9, “Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.”
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