Best Articles of the Week

This past week has provided a wide-range of free excellent articles, proving the beneficial side of the internet. A strong body of content has been published that merits the thinking Christian’s attention.

First off, a secular historian is gaining quite a lot of attention for her compassionate, intricate, yet challenging analysis of American evangelicalism. Molly Worthen’s Apostles of Reason: The Crisis of Authority in American Evangelicalism is starting to make some waves in the evangelical world. Here are her interviews with The Christian Post‘s Napp Nazworth and Religion & Politics’ Tiffany Stanley.

As the newest feature in the raucous evangelical world, the Mark Driscoll-Janet Mefferd meltdown regarding plagiarism incited much controversy and introspective analysis. The most constructive and intriguing points for one side of the issue can be found with Carl Trueman’s post at Reformation 21’s blog. While I disagree with his construing of Nietzsche, Trueman observes, “For some time now I have been harping on and on about the corrupting effects of celebrity culture on conservative evangelicalism.  I think I was wrong: we are not dealing these days with mere celebrities; the ethical transgressions we are witnessing would indicate that we are actually dealing with a form of evangelical Nietzscheanism whereby the leaders of the movement are, to borrow a phrase, beyond good and evil.” Trueman foresees two possible paths for the evangelical community to take, both a powerful witness to the world about where the Church stands with regard to integrity and truthfulness.

Speaking of Driscoll, he wrote an excellent piece in the Washington Post that defends having more than two children. Essential to his case is that man is different from the dumb beasts, he is called to be fruitful, and that children are to be seen as a blessing rather than an increased carbon footprint. His parallels to the disordered loves and affections of pet-owners is most striking. “While animals get the human treatment, humans are increasingly denigrated as animals—especially those humans that choose to have more than one or two kids,” Driscoll observes. In the same spirit, a famous ad producer made a moving video about the beauties of motherhood. Scandalous stuff, indeed.

Perhaps the most powerful witness that Christianity could offer the world is genuine male friendship, if this analysis in Acculturated is to be believed. Basically, Brandon McGinley analyzes a very popular Irish whiskey commercial’s appeal. The ideals and longings in this advertisement point to a hunger for strong brotherly love among men (as well as beautiful landscapes, poetry, music, and maturation to adulthood). While JE readers might eschew buying the product itself, the commercial does point to very deep cultural trends–ones that deserve the Church’s answer:

This is essential, because what these four young men represent is a challenge to the common portrayal of male friendship in our popular culture.  It is difficult to find, especially on television, an example of male friendship (outside of the military or law enforcement) that is neither transactional nor idiotic.  For cheap beer, it’s the wingman trope.  In sitcoms, it’s stupid men doing stupid things in stupid attempts at liberation from wives or girlfriends.  Male friendships, we’re taught, are about finding or fleeing women; they are not valuable in themselves.

In the crass parlance of my generation, “Dude, yes!”

Finally, P. J. O’Rourke wrote a side-splitting-yet-troubling examination of the Baby Boomers and their legacy in the Wall Street Journal. With his intricate style and ability to pack many concepts into one phrase, one quote could not sufficiently summarize his point:

We number more than 75 million, and we’re not only diverse but take a thorny pride in our every deviation from the norm (even though we’re in therapy for it). We are all alike in that each of us thinks we’re unusual…Fortunately, we are all alike in our approach to big, broad problems too. We won’t face them. There’s a website for that, a support group to join, a class to take, alternative medicine, regular exercise, a book that explains it all, a celebrity on TV who’s been through the same thing, or we can eliminate gluten from our diet. History is full of generations that had too many problems. We are the first generation to have too many answers.

Happy reading!