The Friday Update - Fandom

Happy Friday,

As Jesus rushed to attend to Jairus’s daughter, a woman touched him. He felt power leave his body and stopped to care for someone. I fear I would have raced on. Would you have stopped? Are you interruptible? Do you freely share your time? And while I’m asking questions, do you realize I’ve set you up? It’s not really your time (or mine). It’s God’s. Everything we “own” is on loan from God. We are only stewards, temporarily entrusted with his stuff and expected to use it in ways that reflect his priorities.

America

Americans make up 4% of the global population, generate 26% of the GDP, hold 29% of the wealth, sit on 35% of the debt, manage 39% of military spending and provide 40% of foreign aid.

Jim Bakker

Last week, I was told that rolling out options to support The Friday Update was “entering Jim Bakker territory.”  Ouch. FWIW, the Update remains free, funds raised will be used to cover administrative costs and marketing the newsletter, and I am staying away from selling timeshares in Florida.

I’m a Fan

I really appreciate Wayne Gretzky celebrating Alex Ovechkin breaking Gretzky’s NHL scoring record. The Great One is not perfect, but we all win when heroes act heroically.

I’m NOT a Fan 

A new trend has the bride and groom replacing public vows with silent ones. While music plays, they privately exchange letters promising who knows what. Ugh. It’s not just that marriage is not whatever we want it to be, it’s that a marriage is more than a private contract. The sacred vows made before God are to be witnessed by others who agree to help the couple keep them. It goes without saying that we can’t help the couple keep them if we have no idea what vows they are taking.

WOTW

Honorable mention goes to: restorative niche (i.e., a hobby) and cognitive warfare (the expanding mix of election interference, disinformation campaigning and other psyops quietly unsettling how people think and what they think about). Full honors go to de-extincting, a term being used to describe Colossal Biosciences success in turning DNA from a 13,000-year-old tooth and a 72,000-year-old skull into “healthy dire wolf puppies." Jurassic Park here we come.

Narnia

Dustups are unfolding over a soon-to-be-filmed Chronicles movie. The director is taking liberties with the story – e.g., among other things, she wants a woman to voice Aslan. I suspect the film will be cinematically stunning but quickly forgotten. It’s not just that few have Lewis’s story-telling genius, it’s that not everyone understands it, including directors who think they can improve upon it. BTW, the same can be said about JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. The largely on-script films made by Peter Jackson have enjoyed monster success. But Rings of Power, Amazon Prime’s greatly anticipated and heavily financed television series, is largely unwatchable.

Civil War

Speaking of dustups, the WSJ is reporting on a spitting match between atheists who argue that science does not support morality claims, and those contending it supports a progressive political agenda. Oxford’s Dawkins, Harvard’s Pinker and U of C’s Coyne have all recently resigned from the Freedom From Religion Foundation over the fracas. Coyne explains his thinking here.

Overheard

1) As religion loses influence, one of the things gaining “sacred status” is history. Putin did not appeal to God to justify his invasion of Ukraine, he built his argument on history.

2) Hypocrisy is ugly, but when it’s highlighted you know there are still ideals in play.

3) We come out of the womb looking for someone looking for us, and it doesn’t really change.

4) The last time I trusted the news is when it was being led by Huey Lewis.

5) You can be your kid’s friends when they're small, or when they're adults, but almost never both.

6) A settled heart increases our capacity to navigate chaos.

7) If the church gets discipleship right, it will look like AA.

8) Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I respond to it.

Without Comment

1) Since 2018, the churchgoing population of England & Wales has increased from 8% to 12%, with 18-24 year olds up from 4% to 16%.

2) In the US, 20-24 year old males have replaced middle aged men as those most likely to end their life.

3) Eleven million US households now raise chickens, up 2x since 2018.

4) Young conservative women are 3x more likely to report being “very satisfied” with life than young liberal women.

5) Pepsi has fallen behind Dr Pepper in the soft drink wars.

Resources

Click here to listen to On Good Work, Ben Dockery’s podcast in which I discuss my sabbatical. Click here to listen to my sermon on Mark 13, which explores Jesus’s answer to the question, “When is the world going to end?” Click here to sign up for the May 4^th CS Lewis lecture in Tacoma, WA and here to sign up for the May 5^th Lewis lecture in Bellingham, WA.

Closing Prayer

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will, All I have and call my own. You have given all to me. To you, Lord, I return it. Everything is yours; do with it what you will. Give me only your love and your grace, that is enough for me. Amen. (Saint Ignatius, 1491 – 1556)