Blogaround

A candy heart that says "Remember U R Dust" with caption "Ash Wednesday is on Valentine's Day. You can't spell Valentine without Lent. United Methodist Churches of Indiana." Image source.

1. Differing Weights And Differing Measures (January 31) "So if, for example, you’re trying to show that 'evangelical Christians' are a fearsome voting bloc that politicians are compelled to show deference to, then you want the largest, most expansive definition of 'evangelical Christians' that you can find. That’s going to include everybody you can plausibly toss into the category, including both Pentecostals and anti-Pentecostal fundamentalists, including every faith-healer and magician, snake-handler and tent-revival charlatan you can find. It’s even going to include evangelical Christians who aren’t even white." This is SPOT-ON.

2. ‘Rage’ abortion donations dry up, leaving funds struggling to meet demand (January 28, via) "But now, the fund needs to spend between $1000 to $1500 just for people who need an abortion before 12 weeks’ gestation. If they are further along, the costs are significantly higher."

There's a time and place for one-off donations because you see something in the news and have feelings about it. Yes, that should be part of one's donation budget. But more important is to give recurring donations- make a rational decision about which organizations you feel it's important to support, and then set up automatic monthly payments to them. This helps the charities plan their budgets much better.

Also from The Hill: The dangers of spotlighting the ‘perfect’ abortion patient (January 31, via) "Unfortunately, all too often only the most extreme stories with 'good' reasons for abortion — the horrific cases of sexual violence, life endangerment or fetal abnormalities — enter public discourse to highlight the 'perfect patient' whose story is easiest to sympathize with."

3. Florida barring gender changes on driver's license puts trans residents at risk, critics say (January 30) This is really bad.

4. Study: Abortion Bans Creating OBGYN Crisis (February 2) [content note: it's about the trauma that obgyn doctors are experiencing when they're not legally allowed to give patients the healthcare they need. This is hard to read.] "You have somebody hemorrhaging with an intrauterine pregnancy with a heartbeat…I [didn’t yet] have legal coverage for that, but there’s only so many times you can transfuse somebody and they’re begging for their life before you say, ‘This is unconscionable.’"

5. “It Was the Most Violent Thing I’ve Ever Seen” (February 1) [content note: death penalty] An interview with the Rev. Jeff Hood, spiritual advisor to Kenny Smith and other death row inmates.

6. Who is Alistair Begg, and why are American fundamentalists so upset with him? (February 1) A detailed article about why evangelicals want to "cancel" pastor Alistair Begg for not being mean enough to queer people.

7. Religious trauma still haunts millions of LGBTQ Americans (January 29)

8. Outdated Jackets Get a Second Life (February 5) 1-minute-37-second video. Making old down jackets into comforters in China.

Also from Sixth Tone: AI Game Mimicking Nosy Relatives Takes China by Storm (February 5)

9. An Ohio pastor was punished for opening his church to the homeless. He deserves it. (January 23) Okay so maybe this story is more nuanced than what I initially thought. "Imagine if there was an actual emergency in the building. A place like this would jeopardize the lives of the people inside because of these kinds of deficiencies. The Fire Chief gave Avell well over a month to fix the most serious of these problems, but follow-up checks on January 9 and 16 found '5 violations that had not been properly corrected.'"

10. Breaking bread: Houston tries to punish feeding the homeless—and fails (February 2, via) "So far, no matter how many tickets the city writes, they can’t find a jury willing to convict anyone over it."

11. Leonard Nimoy The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins FULL VERSION best quality (via) Wow, I can't believe I never knew this existed.

12. Relationship Advice (February 5) xkcd comic. !!!!! Oh my goodness, this is so real! I side-eye anyone who makes a big deal about "marriage is hard."

13. VeggieTales' cucumber star LarryBoy to get his own faith-based feature film in 2026 (February 6)

Here's what Phil Vischer has to say on it:

Apparently there's a new LarryBoy movie in development? Somewhere? By... someone? No idea who, where or how. https://t.co/62SRaYSoaL

— Phil Vischer (@philvischer) February 6, 2024

Not sure what to think of this- is it even real VeggieTales if Phil Vischer is not involved?

14. Tracy Chapman & Luke Combs Perform Fast Car at the Grammys (February 6) 

UPDATE: Here's the full video: Tracy Chapman & Luke Combs Deliver Gripping Performance Of "Fast Car" | 2024 GRAMMYs