Blogaround

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1. For battered NFL wives, a message from the cops and the league: Keep quiet (posted October 17) "Token suspensions and resignations do nothing to solve the problem and may even worsen it, because players who are abusive... use the threat of punishment to keep their partners quiet, the wives say."

2. Risen Again: China’s Underground Churches (posted October 21) "But having survived the ravages of the Cultural Revolution, the faith is now flourishing: a 2010 study by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences estimated there are 23 million Christians in China. In 2011, Pew Research put the figure closer to 67 million, or 5% of the population."

3. What’s a Dad to Do When His Daughter Wants to Dress as Han Solo? (posted October 21) "...put on a Princess Leia costume, of course."

4. What the World Eats. Really sweet graphs here, and check this out: Americans get 37% of their daily calories from sugar and fat, Chinese get 11%. This is EXACTLY my problem. It is SO HARD to get decent desserts in China. Drives me crazy.

5. The Religious Right’s ‘Just Lie’ Strategy Is Finally Starting To Backfire (posted October 22) "When a conservative professor of theology in one paragraph uses the phrase 'radical and aggressive LGBT activists trying to advance their agenda against all morality,' and then several paragraphs later has to call bullshit on the very legal group opposing said 'radical and aggressive LGBT activists,' then the religious right has a big problem!" Yeah, every word that Focus on the Family and ADF ever said about LGBT issues was all BULLSHIT. And they claim they're fighting to protect "the family" and Christianity. If that's not taking the Lord's name in vain, I don't know what is.

6. Mark Zuckerberg speaking Chinese (posted October 23) Wow, nice! 真厉害！ Keep practicing your pronunciation.

7. Public NYC Taxicab Database Lets You See How Celebrities Tip (posted October 23) This article is way more interesting than the title implies. About tons of data about taxis being processed.

8. Mike Brown’s shooting and Jim Crow lynchings have too much in common. It’s time for America to own up (posted August 25) "Images and stereotypes built into American culture have fed prevailing assumptions of black inferiority and wantonness since before the time of Jim Crow. Many of those stereotypes persist to this day and have mutated with the times. Last century’s beast and savage have become this century’s gangbanger and thug..."

9. I'm Angry (posted October 22) "I’m angry that defenders of the system want to talk in dry language about defending the reputation of Christ (as if they had even a tiny chance of doing such a thing), rather than having the compassion to show love to a victim of abuse."

10. Evangelicalism’s Poor Form (posted September 5) "There is a sort of evangelical folk religion, most of which is largely unauthorized by pastors or elders, a folk religion driven and populated by TV preachers, purity culture, uninformed theological speculations in democratic Bible studies, Chick tracts, evangelistic bumper stickers and T-shirts, Thomas Kinkade paintings, VeggieTales, Kirk Cameron movies, Amish romance novels, the Left Behind series, Focus on the Family literature, Christian bloggers, CCM, Christian dating guides, Answers in Genesis books, sappy mass-produced devotional literature, study Bibles for every conceivable niche market, and much else besides. Unsurprisingly, many presume that this all passed quality control and received the imprimatur of Evangelical Central Headquarters." Amen to that.

11. Rethinking the Stumbling Block: Christian Culture as a Barrier (posted 2009) "Second, even when the new believer or nonbeliever understands that to follow Christ he or she does not need to wear a Christian tee-shirt, think Fireproof was the best film of 2008, or enjoy Christian stand-up comedians, this person could still feel alienated if he or she is lead to believe that Christian community is Christian culture."

12. The Chinese like capitalism more than Americans (posted October 14) Yep.

13. Dobby is a free elf! (posted October 26) A little doggie's adorable Halloween costume.

14. Just take everything down to Highway 61: Obedience is always about epistemology (posted October 23) "I’ve got it backwards, they say. The story isn’t about Satan pretending to be God. It’s a story about God pretending to be Satan. I don’t think that helps." The BEST post I have read this week.