Fascinating Finds

The Iranian Church Persists by David Yeghnazar  A very helpful overview of what Christians there are currently facing.

10 Things You Should Know About Critical Theory by Bradley Green This is a great overview of Critical Theory.

Country diary: It is our duty to delight in the dandelion by Josie George A very short and interesting refleciton on dandelions - I think it is especially interesting for us as Christians.

The Book of Concord Explained in 8 Minutes - It's a video that does exactly what the title says! 

Is Once Saved, Always Saved Biblical? Pastor Wolfmueller and I answer this important question.

Why Aren’t Christians Funny? by Michael Jensen  This is really interesting.

The Normalization of Female Sexual Degeneracy: The Porn Nobody Calls Porn by Michael Foster  This is an extremely important one for women to read and consider.  The culture has normalized "porn" for women and since it does not look just like the porn for men, it is often deemed to be "ok".  

Five Things I Love about Lutheranism by Nathan Greeley A concise and delightful read.

Why Rationalists Are Asking AI to Read Their Future by Joe Carter  "It dismisses astrology and tarot as outdated, then immediately promises the same thing they promise: hidden knowledge about your soul, destiny, and future. While the occult vocabulary is right there on the surface (“unlock your soul”), it’s been dressed up in the language of technology. Out with the star charts, in with the chatbots. Mysticism rebranded for the age of AI..."

AI and The Myth of the Machine by Conor McGlynn "Regardless of where they fall on this spectrum, those who regard the AGI future as a potential “promised land” tend to argue that their predictions have an entirely rational basis. They are, they tell us, merely making logical extrapolations from observable trends. The work of Lewis Mumford, one of the twentieth century’s most caustic critics of technology, offers an alternative perspective: that such assumptions are rooted in a secular faith that lies behind the modern embrace of technological development."

Recovering the Christian Family with Pastor Scott Keith - This is a really fantastic discussion that every family should listen to. 

Here they come  Elite media actively celebrate throuples, polyamory, and polycules by Glenn Stanton  "When so many of us were fighting against the redefinition of marriage and family by gay “marriage” advocates, everything we warned would come to pass was laughed off as if we were crazy fearmongers. Of course, if marriage is no longer about bonding male and female, children are denied their mother and father and group pairings arise because monogamy becomes optional. Well guess what? That is exactly what happened, and elite publications like The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times are celebrating polyamory, throuples, and polycules with gushing features..."

BREAKING: Finland’s Supreme Court Acquits Parliamentarian on Bible Tweet, Convicts Her for “Insult” in 20-Year-Old Church Pamphlet on Separate Charge - Continue to pray for her! 

A tool for good, if used wisely  AI won’t save education—but it won’t ruin it either by Jennifer Burns "Aristotle called this a thing’s telos—its ultimate purpose or end. Before deciding how AI belongs in education, we must first understand what education itself is meant to accomplish. AI is a powerful tool—but a tool nonetheless. And like every powerful tool that came before it, its capacity for good is immense, but so is its potential for harm when wielded without wisdom."

Peter Kreeft on C.S. Lewis’s “Till We Have Faces”  by Louis Markos This is a great overview of a new book that explains one of CS Lewis' masterpiece.  

Confronting the Unman by Jake Meador "One of the persistent themes that C. S. Lewis addresses in his space trilogy is that humanity has a capacity to unmake itself. Indeed, there is some sense in which Lewis sees sin as being the unmaking of the person and the Last Judgment as being a kind of non-reversible unmaking..."

Theology Q and A with President Harrison You can start watching the individual episdoes with President Harrison answering questions today. The full episode with all the questions in one video will be out on the 19th. 

Resources for the Family  LCMS Family Ministry supports the Christian estate of the home with resources and programming to assist families in their calling to pass down the faith to the next generation, equip them to nurture the spiritual formation of their children, and embolden them to be Christ-bearers to the culture at large and to their local communities.

We Are All Dwight Schrute Now: The Rise of the Facebook Deputy by Justin Detmers T"he cynic in me asks: Who appointed you? Who authorized you—doomscroller, catechized by cable news—to determine when immigration becomes immoral, how election security is assessed, which historical narratives deserve canonization, or which media outlets are to be labeled heretical? What, exactly, qualifies someone for this level of cultural adjudication? One possible answer: Dwight K. Schrute..."

Be Angry And Sin Not "What do you want to be angry about today? There are plenty of rage-bait conspiracy theories that, many times, contain elements of truth. Some, of course, are wildly untrue, but people throw them out there because engagement farming is a revenue stream for many posters. This was true before social media. In traditional media, “if it bleeds, it leads.” People are attracted to the sensational, especially that which threatens an apocalypse. Al Gore did this with global warming and the rising seas years ago. But he is only one in a long line that threatened catastrophe, trying to keep everyone in a dither and focused on those who had the answers … or, at least, claimed to have the answers but did nothing but keep people anxious and angry..."

How Marriage Actually Refers to Christ and the Church by Chase Krug This article does a fantastic job of showing how marriage - every marriage! - is a reflection of CHrist and the Church.

AI Can’t Beat What We Learn in the School of Our Senses by Brett McKracken In a world where AI is making nearly everything, how do you stay connected to what is real?