Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. Rachel and Kristin (and Babs) (September 17) "This uppity woman was asking questions the gatekeepers did not want asked, and she was becoming more popular than they were because she’s nicer than they are." 

I'm super-interested in reading this book, "Live Laugh Love: The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made."

2. Jehovah’s Witnesses just gutted their deadly blood transfusion policy (September 19) "That will almost certainly prevent deaths. But it also raises an important question: How many people suffered or died because the same men previously insisted that accepting those components violated God’s law?"

3. Ms. Rachel has entered her album era, and she is so happy about it (September 18) Oh my toddler will be so excited about this. The other day she was very earnestly telling me all about how Ms. Rachel sings a song that says frogs say "dadi dadi."

"As her audience has grown, so has the public role Ms. Rachel has to take on. She has increasingly used her platform to advocate for children affected by war and humanitarian crises, including in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan. She said she sees that advocacy as part of the responsibility that comes with reaching millions of children and families."

4. Canada First Nation Leaders Announce They Won’t Comply With Alberta Trans Care Ban (September 12) "'We are asking Canadians, Treaty people, Indigenous Nations, health professionals, human-rights advocates, allies and people around the world to stand with us,' it continued, vowing to be a 'safe haven' for trans youth."

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. Trump’s Kennedy Center tantrum — and the value of Beatty fighting back (September 17) "Trump is seeking to destroy a memorial to a man because that man is not him."

And related: Thousands Protest At Kennedy Center Singing A Song Of Angry Men (September 20)

2. EU offers Canada 'associate member' role; Trump calls it 'laughable' (September 16)

3. Gov. Josh Shapiro calls on CDC to recognize measles-associated deaths in Pa. outbreak (September 17) "Two more people have died in Pennsylvania’s growing measles outbreak, bringing the total number of measles-related deaths to four — but, a public federal dashboard still shows no measles deaths so far this year."

4. ICE agent appears in Minnesota court to face charges in the shooting of a Venezuelan immigrant (September 17) "On Jan. 14, Castro allegedly shot through the front door of a house Sosa-Celis had entered while fleeing. The bullet passed through Sosa-Celis' leg and lodged into the wall of a child's bedroom, state authorities say."

5. U.N.-backed experts cite possible U.S. war crimes in Iran, including a school attack (September 17)

6. Pediatricians raise the alarm on the effect of Trump's immigration crackdown on kids (September 17) "There wasn't room for her on the helicopter. She was told to meet them at the hospital. 'And now I'm wondering whether I will be safe in an Uber. If my whole family drives, what happens if we get stopped. Do ICE agents board public transportation?'"

7. CNN, MS NOW and Politico sue Trump administration over White House access (September 21) "'This ban could not be a more direct assault on the First Amendment nor a more blatant violation of our most fundamental constitutional principles,' the outlets said in their lawsuit, which is asking the court to act immediately to revive their journalists’ access to the White House."

8. Federal immigration agent shoots and injures man in Austin, Texas (September 21) "'We were told that he was at this hospital, so we came back and they have run us off the property,' she said, referring to Dell Seton Medical Center in Austin. 'We have been informed that if he's in ICE custody, they will decline to confirm that he's here. And no one has updated her about his status.'"

9. Trump says his D.C. arch will serve as 'military complex' with snipers and drones (September 20)

Well I believe in God and evolution but I don't call it "theistic evolution"

A group of zebras. Image source.

So I wrote my review of "The Language of God" but I decided to make a whole separate post about theistic evolution because I have a lot to say about it.

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How the book defines theistic evolution

Here's a quote from pages 200-201:

There are many subtle variants of theistic evolution, but a typical version rests upon the following premises:

1. The universe came into being out of nothingness, approximately 14 billion years ago.
2. Despite massive improbabilities, the properties of the universe appear to have been precisely tuned for life.
3. While the precise mechanism of the origin of life on earth remains unknown, once life arose, the process of evolution and natural selection permitted the development of biological diversity and complexity over very long periods of time.
4. Once evolution got under way, no special supernatural intervention was required.
5. Humans are part of this process, sharing a common ancestor with the great apes.
6. But humans are also unique in ways that defy evolutionary explanation and point to our spiritual nature. This includes the existence of the Moral Law (the knowledge of right and wrong) and the search for God that characterizes all human cultures throughout history.

If one accepts these six premises, then an entirely plausible, intellectually satisfying, and logically consistent synthesis emerges: God, who is not limited in space or time, created the universe and established natural laws the govern it. Seeking to populate this otherwise sterile universe with living creatures, God chose the elegant mechanism of evolution to create microbes, plants, and animals of all sorts. Most remarkably, God intentionally chose the same mechanism to give rise to special creatures who would have intelligence, a knowledge of right and wrong, free will, and a desire to seek fellowship with Him. He also knew these creatures would ultimately choose to disobey the Moral Law.

This view is entirely compatible with everything that science teaches us about the natural world. It is also entirely compatible with the great monotheistic religions of the world. The theistic evolution perspective cannot, of course, prove that God is real, as no logical argument can fully achieve that. Belief in God will always require a leap of faith. But this synthesis has provided for legions of scientist-believers a satisfying, consistent, enriching perspective that allows both the scientific and spiritual worldviews to coexist happily within us. This perspective makes it possible for the scientist-believer to be intellectually fulfilled and spiritually alive, both worshiping God and using the tools of science to uncover some of the awesome mysteries of His creation.

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BioLogos

In the book, Francis Collins says the name "theistic evolution" isn't that great, and he wants to rebrand it as something different. He calls it BioLogos. "Bio" from "biology", and "Logos" which is a Greek word meaning "word" or "reason." As in, John 1:1, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Christ is the logos of God. So Collins has invented this word, BioLogos, which combines biology and following God in a logical way.

So as I'm reading this, I'm like, wait a minute, I know a website called BioLogos. I've read articles from this site before. I never really got a sense of what their overall position is- is it theistic evolution? If you asked me to describe the BioLogos site, I would say it's articles about the topics of creation and evolution, from a Christian perspective, and they're pretty good, and very noticeably are *not* the typical creationist talking points.

Well I just did some googling, and here's what it says on the "history" page of BioLogos: 

BioLogos began with Francis Collins, one of the world’s leading scientists.

In 2006, Collins wrote The Language of God (2006), the best-selling book that told the story of his journey from atheism to Christian faith, showing that science is not in conflict with the Bible, but actually enhances faith.

The outpouring of response to the book showed the need for virtual and actual meeting places to ask questions, discuss issues, and learn from the top Christian minds in the sciences and theology.

Wow, I had no idea. Pretty cool that this organization was started by him.

(But again, it goes to show: I've heard plenty of Christians claiming Francis Collins as a symbol, like "oh people say you can't be smart and be a Christian, but look, we have Francis Collins on our side!" Like, score a point for our side as we argue with the atheists. But I have very rarely heard Christians actually being interested in what Collins has to say.)

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Did God use evolution?

Theistic evolution, as I understand it, is the idea that "God used evolution." I don't buy this. I can't buy this. Evolution is a heartless process that generates more complex and better adapted creatures by ruthlessly letting the less-adapted ones die.

Yeah sure, the book says evolution is "elegant." Okay, it's elegant. Something as simple as natural selection, choosing among variations in a species, producing the amazing variety of life we see in our world today. Yeah it's "elegant," I'll give you that. But what about all the animals that die? What about the species of animals that have a ton of offspring, because that's a good evolutionary strategy, and then the majority of the offspring die very quickly? What about the little baby sea turtles struggling to get to the ocean, being eaten by seagulls? What about the male lions killing other lions' cubs? Did God want it to be this way?

The idea that "God used evolution" makes it sound like everything is just fine, with one's religious beliefs and the reality of evolution. It's not fine! This is basically the same thing as the Problem of Evil. How could a good God allow this? And the claim is not only "God allowed this", but that God chose to use the mechanism of natural selection to create all the animals, including humans. God chose that? Really? Y'all are fine with this?

So my position is like... I believe in a God who is all-powerful and good, and I believe in evolution, and this is a problem. This is a problem! Just like how the Problem of Evil is a problem. It's not just "oh, God used evolution" and that's all there is to say.

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The last will be first, and the first will be last

The entire point of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection is that love triumphs over power. (Okay, that's my take, but Christians have a lot of different opinions on what's "the entire point of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection.") He came to bring the kingdom of heaven to this earth- a new kind of kingdom where the last will be first, and the first will be last. Blessed are the poor. The meek will inherit the earth.

It might look like power is winning. It might look like the strong can oppress the weak and get away with it. But this is not the end of the story. This is not how God wants it to be. He came preaching a message of love and acceptance, challenging the power structures that existed in society, and He was killed for it. But that is not the end of the story. He lives!

But how can that be the case, if "God used evolution"? Does God want the last to be first, or does God want survival of the fittest? The first will be first. The last get removed from the gene pool. If the last were first, humans never would have evolved.

This heartless process, which is the total opposite of the message of Jesus, is the mechanism God used to create humans? And you all are fine with that?

And this isn't just about Jesus. The Old Testament also talks about how it will be in the kingdom of heaven. The prophet Isaiah said, 

The wolf will live with the lamb,

    the leopard will lie down with the goat,

the calf and the lion and the yearling together;

    and a little child will lead them.

The cow will feed with the bear,

    their young will lie down together,

    and the lion will eat straw like the ox.

The infant will play near the cobra’s den,

    and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.

They will neither harm nor destroy

    on all my holy mountain,

for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord

    as the waters cover the sea.

The wolf will live with the lamb. The cow with the bear. The child will put his hand in the viper's nest. This is how God wants it to be, in the kingdom of heaven. But if wolves and lambs really lived together peacefully, humans would not exist. The struggle between predator and prey is what made animals evolve such amazing and fascinating complexity. 

Joel Duff has a good post which asks the question: in a young-earth creationist worldview, what would we expect animals to look like before the Fall? Young-earth creationists believe that before Adam and Eve sinned, there was no death- not even animal death. What would animals look like, if the threat of death wasn't something that their features needed to adapt to? That link has a rather terrifying photoshopped image of a rabbit with its eyes on the front of its head. Prey animals have eyes on the sides of their heads because of death. Every single interesting trait that any animal has, it's because if they didn't have that, they would be more likely to die. It's because of survival of the fittest. It's because of power. It's because this world is not the kingdom of heaven, that Jesus came to bring.

If you're an atheist, this is fine. Yeah animals and people were produced through natural selection, which is cruel and heartless, but it's not like anyone *wanted* it to be that way. It's not like it's "supposed" to be that way, in any sense. Sure, that's what how the natural world works, but we can choose to live in more moral and altruistic way instead.

But if "God used evolution" and we have signed on to worship that God, well, what then?

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God changed

If there is an answer to this, it must be something about God changing. Maybe the animal world is meant to be governed by "survival of the fittest," but humans are meant to be different. Or maybe God doesn't value animal lives at all, so it doesn't matter that a huge fraction of them died, in service of the greater good of evolution- but humans bear God's image, and They actually care about that, so now They want to change it and say we have to care for each other and the last will be first. Or maybe God originally used evolution and natural selection, but then changed Their mind and wanted things to be different.

To a large extent, we could say I view the work of Jesus and the message of Christianity as a reaction to the way the world is. Jesus came to preach good news to the poor- but, if God was on their side, then why are they poor in the first place? The God of this kind of religion is not a God who has always been in charge of the whole world, but instead is taking the current state of the world as a starting point, and taking steps to make it better. We hope for the future where God will make everything right- but why do we need to do that? Why didn't God just make it right in the first place? IS IT BECAUSE THEN HUMANS NEVER WOULD HAVE EVOLVED?

Kind of comes across like a religion that isn't true at all, but helps us feel better because we imagine that it means God *will* make things better. But if this was actually true, wouldn't God have already made it better? If religion is about the hope that things will get better- well, what reason is there to think that there would be a significant change, if God has always been totally in charge of the world?

This is why I don't pray. If we really believe that God is gonna intervene and help us in response to our prayers, well why didn't God just intervene earlier and prevent our problems from happening in the first place? Does our world, with all its problems and injustice, look like a world where God is frequently intervening to help people?

And believing the message of Jesus is about bringing the kingdom of heaven to the earth, about our responsibility to do good, right the wrongs, and fight for justice- which is what I believe- doesn't it come across like a religion that's not true at all, and its only value is in inspiring people to do good? God's not actually doing it, so we have to?

(I realize I've just opened a whole can of worms, but yeah there you have it.)

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I'm a Christian because I really do believe in Jesus. His incarnation, his teachings, his message, his resurrection. But that doesn't mean I think this is all fine and my religious beliefs totally make sense. What does it say about God, that They "used evolution" to create all life on earth? Are we really okay with that?

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Related

"The Language of God" (surprisingly I like this book!)

Animals Screw Over Other Animals and Get Away With It

I used to be a young-earth creationist

Ballot Drop Day for Americans Abroad!

Bald eagle and American flag. Image source.

Hi all, if you are a US citizen living outside of the US, and you have registered to vote using the Federal Post Card Application, you should now have received your ballot by email for this year's election. (If you didn't receive it, start investigating what's going on- is it in your spam folder? did you not check the box to receive your ballot by email? are you somehow not registered for this year?) Vote vote vote! My advice is to do it as soon as possible, especially if you are from a state that requires you to mail it.

If you have not registered to vote yet: It's not too late! Go to https://www.votefromabroad.org/ - it will walk you through all the steps.

If you are in Shanghai, China- the US consulate here can mail ballots for us. Bring your US passport, and make sure your ballot is in the correct kind of envelope so it will be mailed for free. (Example envelope here, but you shouldn't need this one because at the download link in the email they should give you the envelope template you need.) You don't need to make an appointment. Probably other US consulates around the world also have this service. (Any questions, if they're about China then I can answer, if they're about somewhere else I can connect you to someone who can.)

Vote vote vote!

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. You Won’t Win the Revolution (September 8) "'Sure,' they seem to think 'the violent breakdown of social order might be bad for some. But I’m built different.'"

I agree with this! Violence is bad!

2. AI Is Already In Dangerous Hands (September 14) "The AI industry wants to frame this as if Anthropic, OpenAI, and Meta discovered some new lifeform rather than having run a volatile kind of machine learning evaluation with poor cybersecurity practices."

The reason I don't take the "super-intelligent AI is going to kill us all" panic seriously is that AI is already being used in ways that make humanity worse off, but they're not talking about that. Spammers are using it to make crap, apparently facebook is flooded with low-quality AI images that your grandma thinks are real, big companies are saying "let's use AI" for decisions that need a higher accuracy rate than what you get from AI (health care, etc)... Big tech companies are using AI recklessly, when it's known that its behavior can be unpredictable- this isn't about "oh what if it someday becomes so intelligent we can't control it"- they are already letting their AI models have access to sensitive data and systems that have effects in the real world, when we all know that AIs are not reliable enough to be trusted with that. Not because "it will become super-intelligent" but because sometimes the AIs screw up in unexpected ways.

And also, the worry that a super-intelligent AI might do things that aren't in the best interests of humanity- powerful people and corporations are already doing things that aren't in the best interests of humanity. To pick one random example, why aren't these people concerned about the "landlord alignment problem"- ie, big companies buying up rental properties and not doing enough maintenance to make them livable, and their renters have no good options? The AI-doom people talk as if "the good of humanity" is a well-defined thing we have all agreed on, and it's just a matter of making sure our AIs are trained to have the exact same beliefs on that.

I use Copilot (an AI tool) to write code at my job, and it's usually very good! It's a useful tool. But obviously as a human you need to look at the code it writes and making sure it's actually what you want, because sometimes it gets it wrong. There have been times when I didn't catch problems in the code that it wrote, and then I discovered those problems weeks later- I wish my job gave us better training about best practices to ensure that the code that it writes is what we actually want. But instead they give us hype about how great it is to make a bunch of different agents or whatever.

3. Pension Paradox: China’s Delivery Riders on a Rocky Road to Retirement (September 17) "'Most of these guys have to eat on credit. How realistic is it to talk to them about paying into a pension fund?' he asks."

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. Lawsuit challenges intimidation of DHS observers across the country (September 10) "The lawsuit describes disturbing encounters seven Common Cause members had with federal officers in Maryland, Minnesota and New Jersey after trying to observe immigration enforcement. They include being photographed, followed, reported to police, pepper-sprayed or threatened with a visit to their home by federal officers. Federal officers did show up at one Common Cause member's Minnesota home."

2. Ballot seizures seemed impossible. But judges and officials are prepping for them now (September 9) "In elections, this is known as breaking the chain of custody. 'They could do so much damage if they did that,' the official said."

3. Cubans are pushed to the breaking point as crises take their toll (September 9, via) "The psychological toll of daily life in Cuba is pushing many to their breaking point on this island of nearly 10 million people, with no relief in sight as a U.S. energy embargo persists and longtime economic and financial troubles deepen."

4. Justice for ICE’s victims requires truth and reconciliation (September 4) "There’s a temptation to try to forget what cannot be forgiven. But preserving the truth of what actually happened, the villainy and the heroism, the hatreds and the kindnesses, is the only way to move forward."

5. Trump asks convention crowd to pledge to him they will vote, ‘cheat like hell’ (September 11)

6. Contractor who worked on Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool takes responsibility for damage (September 14) "The contractor responsible for renovating the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool now blames its own repairs, not vandalism, for the issues that were seen there."

7. The first deportation of the constitutionally suspect Alien Terrorist Removal Court happened weeks ago, following a secret plea deal (September 12) Okay, so in this case, this person was planning a shooting, so if all that is true then it's right that she got deported, *but* why can't they just use the regular court system for this? Why are they using this shady court that doesn't give people their rights? Seems like this could be bad.

8. The Supreme Court rejects Trump's mail voting restrictions for this year's midterms (September 15) "Under the still-blocked USPS plan, which followed an executive order by Trump, states would have had to turn over lists of voters' names and addresses and have certain specific barcodes on ballot envelopes in order to have them delivered by the mailing agency."

Inspiration and Incarnation: The Ten Commandments

The 10 commandments (in English) written on 2 stone tablets. Image source.

I've been blogging about the book "Inspiration and Incarnation" by Peter Enns. We're in the middle of chapter 3 now, and there's a section that talks about the laws given in the bible, and how sometimes they say different or contradictory things. In this post, I'll talk about the Ten Commandments, but there are several other examples in the book, so if you are interested in this, you should buy the book.

The Ten Commandments are listed in 2 different places in the bible: Exodus 20:2-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21. Enns points out that most of the wording in these 2 lists is exactly the same, but there are some differences. A few of the differences are along the lines of, something is worded differently but the meaning is the same, *but* the 4th commandment has an interesting difference in what it says about the motivation:

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. Gloria Steinem, defining symbol of women’s movement and eloquent advocate for equality, dies at 92 (September 4)

2. Flock cameras draw opposition from across the political spectrum (September 5) "Every month, Flock cameras capture billions of license plates, along with other vehicle data. Police say this tool helps them find stolen vehicles and missing people. But the technology has been abused. Officers have used it to stalk ex-partners, for instance."

3. If you weren't on Cohost, you don't have to miss it (September 5, via) "This post is a response to those whose impression of Cohost has been based off the glowing retrospectives by its biggest fans."

4. The U.N. backs a new world map showing Africa in its true relative size (September 4) I don't get why the UN is doing this, seems like not really the best use of their time, but you should definitely go take a look at this map.

5. Wales Gender Clinic In The UK Pauses Surgeries Over Accusations That They Help Too Many Trans Patients (September 2) "However, the impacts on patients have been devastating. Existing gender-affirming surgeries on the books were cancelled for the foreseeable future. Some patients were informed of this mere hours before they, themselves, were scheduled to go under the knife. Some had already been admitted to the hospital when news broke. People who had waited years for this care, rearranged their lives, took time off work, and traveled to the clinic from all over the country are now stuck in a medical purgatory."

Also from Erin in the Morning: 21 States Sue Federal Government To Block Anti-Trans Under-19 Medicaid Ban (September 4) "The lawsuit targets a rule published on Aug. 13 that bars federal reimbursement for puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgery for anyone under 18 on Medicaid or under 19 on CHIP, and which could do significant harm to transgender youth in these states, who currently have that care covered."

And: The Guide To Anti-Trans Democrats In The 2026 Elections, By State (September 8)

6. Seth Moulton lost. Good. (September 3) 

7. The widow of Zarephath and the extra mile (September 9) "But what would it mean for us to have told him that this is what he was obliged to do? What would it mean for us to have insisted to him that this self-sacrifice was compulsory and something commanded of him? That would seem to put us in the same category as the corrupt white cops and klansmen who were also telling Lewis that his duty — his role in life — was to take a beating, turn the other cheek, and then be beaten again. Instead of the world being changed by his radical heroism, we would be locking that world into place, with all of its grievous injustice protected and enshrined."

The question of how much self-sacrifice we are morally obligated to do is something I've been thinking about for my entire life. Maybe the approach in this blog post is reasonable.

8. Dolly Parton Was Political, But Not Partisan (August 31) "Parton’s achievement, then, wasn’t in pursuing nonpartisan politics over partisan politics; simply refusing to be partisan is not a virtue in itself. Rather, the reason she did so much good is that she identified areas where her resources and her carefully cultivated position as a nonpartisan figure would allow her to advance particular causes—LGBT acceptance, children’s literacy, vaccine development, vaccine uptake—in a way few others could. That took decades of unwavering commitment, careful strategy, and moral commitment. Everyone can’t be Dolly, and I don’t think everyone should be Dolly. But everyone can be inspired by a public figure who figured out her path and used it to do so much good."

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. climate.us (via) Site where US climate data is now being hosted without political interference, after what happened with climate.gov.

2. MapQuest app reaches No 1 on US Apple list after defying Trump’s Lake Ontario order (September 1)

3. CBS Just Putting It Out There That Maybe Abdul El-Sayed Secretly Loves Terrorism And 9/11 (September 2) "What kind of questions? What kind of duck? A communist duck? A terrorism-loving duck? A Muslim duck? What sort of quacking and in what direction? This seems like a very weird thing to say if you have a concrete criticism of someone that isn’t 'Well, I don’t like his religion.'"

4. Supreme Court allows Trump to continue building White House ballroom (September 1)

5. Speaking (and singing) of the dead (August 31) "Yes, poor Sisera’s Mama — waiting for her son to return in his fancy chariot and dreaming of all the loot and new slaves he’ll be bringing back for her. Except oops — sorry Mom! — your son isn’t coming home because he’s dead! One of those women he planned to enslave put a tent peg through his skull! [shrug emoji, cry-laughing emoji]"

6. Trump’s 9/11 Lies Are A Moral Failure, Not A Cognitive One (September 9) "In a telephone interview just after the attack, Trump boasted that his property at 40 Wall Street was the tallest building still standing in Manhattan. That was a lie; it was the second tallest. And it was an incredibly fucked up thing to say while the bodies were still being counted."

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. Dolly Parton, Queen of Country Music, Dies at 80 (August 25, via) 

2. Tim Curry, ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’ Star, Dies at 80 (August 26, via) 

3. Catastrophic floods kill over 390 in Nepal and Tibet, with more than 1,400 missing (August 28)

4. Peter Cullen, Voice of Optimus Prime in ‘Transformers,’ Dies at 85 (August 27, via)

5.  Lil Nas X - Jolene (Dolly Parton Cover) in the Live Lounge (2021) 

6. Bruce Banner and (Not) Being the Hulk (August 29) "What frustrates me in all this is not that a bunch of superheroes like having another superhero around. It’s that none of them seems willing to put themselves in Bruce’s shoes and think about how horrible being the Hulk must actually be. Every time Bruce Hulks out, he loses consciousness. When he comes to, he’s often miles from where he was, alone, and half-naked."

7. The bridges of Rwanda open up new worlds (August 29) "'Before, I would have to wait for my grandkids to bring me food every day. Some days I would be very hungry' she says. Now, the children can easily get food to her, and she can cross the river herself to visit them."

8. Celebrities who left (August 29) "So what is a celebrity to do? If they came out as asexual, but no longer identify as asexual, do they just quietly drop the subject and hope it gets memory-holed?"

9. Tracing the Route of ‘Cathay’ (August 25) There's an airline based in Hong Kong called Cathay Pacific. Here's an article about where the term "Cathay" comes from.

Also from Sixth Tone: Behind China’s Unlikely Box-Office Hit, Indie Filmmakers Struggle to Be Seen (September 1) "After grossing just 5,500 yuan ($815) in its first week, the animated film, reportedly made by 34-year-old amateur filmmaker Xin Yumeng using secondhand equipment, experienced an extraordinary box-office turnaround, taking in 50 million yuan ($7.44 million) by Aug. 26. It has since been dubbed China’s answer to “The Room,” Tommy Wiseau’s 2003 drama that began as a box-office bomb before achieving cult status for its notoriously crude production."

And: Remembering Gyirong: The Bustling Port That Vanished in a Flash (September 3) "Frequent visitors to the China-Nepal border crossing wait anxiously for signs of life as rescuers search for those missing in the Aug. 26 mudslide."

And: Two Filmmakers, 1,100 Villages, and a Race to Record Rural China (September 4) "Many of the projects were built more than 60 years ago, and Zhao said it is increasingly hard to find surviving workers who can still tell their stories."

10. How Evangelical Sex Teachings Obscured the Red Flags in Death of a Pastor’s Wife (August 31) "But what this book did was it turned men talking about their struggles with lust into something that we should applaud, not judge."

I think there's a lot to be said here about the evangelical view of "sin", ie, there's so much talk about how we're all horrible sinners, we're all just totally the worst, we shouldn't ever think we're any good, the best we can do is to honestly confess our sins. So then when a man says he "struggles with lust" and teenage girls need to not wear "immodest" clothes (whatever that means), one way this could be interpreted is like, oh it's good that he's being honest, we're all horrible sinners so this is normal. There's not really a concept of your sin having a victim- like when a man says he "struggles with lust" why does the church not take that to mean it's not safe for girls to be around him because he's a creep?

Kinda seems like overall, it's a very flexible view of sin, where any kind of sin can be excused like it doesn't even matter, because "we're all sinners so we can't judge", but also, any kind of sin can be treated like it's such a big deal and that person is disgusting and should be ostracized because don't you know that every sin is an infinite offense against a holy God? Could go either way, depending on *who* the "sinner" is and what kind of hierarchies and power dynamics exist around them.

11. ‘Don’t panic’: How two men were rescued from a flood-stricken Nepali power plant (September 4)

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. In candid interviews, National Guard members speak out about D.C. deployment (August 24) "The guard member from West Virginia said it was the first time he'd ever not had the community in a domestic deployment welcome the help, since the guard usually shows up after floods or natural disasters."

2. Trump directs federal government to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America (August 27) 

And Lake Ontario now called Lake America on Google Maps for US users after Trump ordered name change (August 31) Oh come on.

3. Immigration arrests soar, hitting 50,000 in July (August 26)

4. Trump administration deports relative of Afghans who helped US military to Central African Republic (August 30) "The deportation flight which landed in Central African Republic's capital Bangui on Saturday, included 12 Afghans and eight Iranians, as well as several people from Nepal and Nicaragua, said Savi Arvey, director of policy, refugee and immigrant rights at Human Rights First."

5. Milo Yiannopoulos, far-right critic of U.S. immigration, is deported from U.S. (August 29)

"The Language of God" (surprisingly I like this book!)

Book cover for "The Language of God"

I recently read The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief by Francis S. Collins (published in 2006) and surprisingly, I really liked it! This is a really good book! It gives Collins's perspective, as a scientist and Christian, and it's just very reasonable. It doesn't come across as "let's fight those atheists" or fearful of science. It's about his own reasons for leaving behind atheism and converting to Christianity, and it's about how evolution is just true and Christians should accept that, and creationism and intelligent design just ain't it, and how science and faith are compatible. 

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Francis Collins

Collins was the director of the Human Genome Project. This was a team that sequenced the entire human genome, billions of DNA base pairs, which is pretty amazing. (The title, "The Language of God" refers to the idea that the DNA base pairs are the "language" that God used to create life.)

I've seen Christians make a big deal about how Collins is a Christian. The argument goes, see, Francis Collins is a Christian, and he's a famous scientist! So, our beliefs *are* legit and compatible with science! The assumption is that Collins holds all the same beliefs that the Christians who claim him as a symbol do. Turns out, this assumption is very wrong! All throughout this book, Collins comes across as thoughtful and reasonable, rather than holding on to dogmatic beliefs that we can't question and we just have to keep saying louder.

Case in point: evolution. A big chunk of this book is about how evolution is true and Christians should accept that. Collins discusses creationism, and talks about why it's wrong. He discusses intelligent design, and why it's wrong. And then he talks about theistic evolution, which is the position he holds.

I was totally surprised. I really had no idea what this book was about; I had no idea that Collins accepts evolution and I had no idea that he was openly advocating for Christians to accept evolution. Really, no idea. All those times that I've heard Christians say "look, Francis Collins" as if that proves that their beliefs are reasonable- wow, I really had no idea that he was out here telling Christians to accept evolution. In the Christian subculture I grew up in, we all knew that of course Christians do not believe in evolution.

Airplane Evangelism

People on an airplane. Image source.

Apparently there have been some recent tiktok videos where Christians preach on airplanes. See these links:

Christian preachers are turning airplanes into unwanted worship services

‘Airplane evangelists’ vs. ‘Sweet Caroline’

Preach the Gospel, but Not on a Plane

My first reaction to this is ugh, I don't like it. 

But, in the first link above, Hemant Mehta says, 

Other Christians have an especially important role here, too. If they believe faith shouldn’t be imposed like this, they should be the loudest people condemning this behavior—in real time if they’re fellow passengers and later if they hear about it.

And I feel like, it's not that easy. I don't know if I would do that- tell these people "hey I'm also a Christian and I don't think you should preach like this."

Oof. I've done this kind of "go up to random strangers and tell them about Jesus" style of evangelism before. Among my Christian friends in college, most of us who did this were really uncomfortable, but we believed we had to. People are going to hell! They need someone to tell them about Jesus! How can you care more about social awkwardness than about people going to hell????

So that's the logic. And I believed the "people are going to hell" part, so there was always that guilt, like, I should do more, I should tell more people about Jesus, but oh goodness it's so awkward and I'm an introvert.

So yeah, I sometimes did what we call "conversational evangelism" (or, one of my friends called it, "evangelism to the randos"). Usually we went in groups of 2, but also there were times I did this by myself. Go up to someone who's just sitting there by themself, ask them if they're okay with talking about religion- we ask first and we leave if they say no- and then ask them what they believe, and try to find a way to "share the gospel" and convince them to believe in Jesus.

It was, oh man, it was a mixed bag of emotions. So terrifying and awkward to go talk to someone who's not expecting it, to say "excuse me" to get their attention, and then draw them into a conversation where they share their personal beliefs- a weird level of emotional intimacy. But it was exciting, to hear about what these random people thought about God, and to have a chance to "share the gospel"- we felt like "God is working" and it was so exciting to be part of that.

It's the kind of thing that you don't want to do, and you psych yourself up by thinking about how God wants you to do it, and all these people are at risk of going to hell, and Jesus did so much for you so can't you do this for him?

The airplane thing, it's more like what my friends called "street preaching," where you just stand up in a public place and talk loudly about God to any passersby, rather than having a one-on-one conversation. (The difference is that on the airplane, people can't walk away.) I never did street preaching. I remember I had a friend who was interested in doing it, and was checking into the rules at our university to see if it was allowed. I don't know if he ever ended up doing it or not.

But anyway, Mehta's suggestion that other Christians should tell this airplane preacher to stop. I have a few things to say about that:

First of all, even though my initial emotional reaction is "I don't like this", can I actually give a logical argument, consistent with my religious beliefs, about why it's a bad idea? I think I could do that now, now that I don't believe in hell, but in the past I couldn't. I always felt guilty... all the people around me are at risk of going to hell, and I'm too scared to say anything about it? What's wrong with me? And now here's someone who's actually taking action and doing something about it. I don't like it, but I'm the one in the wrong. She's doing what I should be doing.

We always *said* we should do more evangelism, but we were too scared to actually do it. Now here's someone who's actually doing it. How can we oppose that?

I guess the best you can do- if you're in that ideology- is argue that this kind of loud public evangelism is not an *effective* way to convert people. You don't believe that respecting people is a good thing *in and of itself* but it's a strategy that will win you more converts in the long run.

And second, oh man, I know how it is, when you finally get up the courage to violate social norms and just go for it. You just focus on your goal, and what God wants you to do, and you block out everything around you that tells you how wrong your behavior is. Imagine if someone interrupts you right then and says "I'm a Christian and I don't think you should do that." You're not in a state where you can reason about it. You've already decided you're doing it, and if anything gets in your way, it's an obstacle that you need to fight back against. (Obviously this naysayer is a fake Christian who cares more about social awkwardness than about people going to hell!) This other Christian who interrupts you to point out that you're violating social norms- you already know all that. You already know all those reasons, you know them very well, and they have held you back, but finally at this moment you've gotten up the courage to push past them, and it's terrifying. And then someone comes and reminds you of all those reasons that you've been working so hard to ignore. You're not in a state where you can be receptive to that feedback at all.

I'm very hesitant to criticize people for how they do evangelism. It's extremely uncomfortable, and they don't want to be doing it, but they're forcing themselves to, out of obedience to God. I empathize with them, and I wish I could tell them the good news that there is no hell and they don't need to tell random strangers about Jesus, but they're not in a place where they can accept that.

It would be a different thing, if the evangelist is totally fine with what they're doing, if they're not hating it internally and forcing themselves to do it despite how wrong it feels. I feel better about criticizing them, if that's the case. And maybe the people who are posting videos of themselves on tiktok, saying "I just love a captive audience," maybe they're different from me, and they actually *like* doing that. 

It's just very hard for me to imagine *liking* to do this kind of evangelism. You stand up on the plane and make an announcement about Jesus, and then you have to wait around at the baggage claim with all these same people, oh so embarrassing. And what if you need to ask someone for help, like "oh that's my suitcase there", they're all gonna try not to make eye contact with you... You've broken the social norms, and now you're you're trying to just slip back into the world of social norms again.

And then posting it on tiktok... I feel like this is the kind of thing that one would share with one's Christian friends, and they'll admire your faith and say "that's so hard, but you did it." Not something that you would post publicly. I wouldn't think you'd want everyone to know you're the kind of person who preaches on airplanes.

But anyway. What I would say now- now that I don't believe in hell- is that as Christians, we want to be known for our kindness and love for others. People don't like being preached at nonconsensually, so we shouldn't do that. If we really want to show Jesus' love, that means getting to know people, valuing them for who they are, respecting that they have their own beliefs and can make their own choices, and they don't need you to convince them to believe in Jesus or whatever. Don't treat them like your personal mission project, like the only thing that matters is whether they're "saved" or not.

But again, this only works if you don't believe in hell. How can you "value people for who they are" if you believe in a God who isn't going to do that on Judgment Day, but will just sort them into "saved" and "unsaved" and send them to hell? Like the only thing that matters is whether they're "saved" or not.

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Related

The things I've never let myself say about evangelism

When Christians Say "We're Sorry"

"My Evangelism Isn't Working" is a Very Creepy Thing to Say

Yep, I Totally Did This Creepy Evangelism Strategy

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. Q&A: Pangram CEO (June 23, via) "There is a social contract between the writer and the reader. If I believe there is an idea worth sharing, I pay a cost by writing a piece of text, and the reader pays a cost by taking the time to read it. In a future where AI content lets you bypass the cost of writing your idea and formulating it, we get into a situation with perverse incentives, where people are posting total slop, and the reader is taking more time to read than the writer put into the text in the first place."

2. The Mystery in the Medicine Cabinet (April) "So, for many years, if I needed a painkiller, I’d try to take ibuprofen rather than acetaminophen. My logic was that if eight grams of acetaminophen could kill my liver, then one gram was probably still hard on it. I’m fond of my liver and didn't want to cause it any unnecessary inconvenience. But guess what? My logic was wrong and what I was doing was stupid."

3. This video of New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani speaking Mandarin Chinese. (August 16) Wow, this is really good! I can understand all of it- it's not like a lot of other videos of actors/beginners trying to say things in Chinese, where they don't even come close to nailing the pronunciation, and I'm like "... I can't even figure out what they were trying to say." He's got the pronunciation totally right- even difficult ones like "ri" and "yu." The way he talks is slow and careful, like he memorized a script and he's trying to get it perfect, rather than just naturally being able to speak the language. So my guess is he has spent time studying Chinese before, especially the pronunciation, but maybe not good enough to just have a conversation whenever. (See also, the blooper reel.) Anyway I'm very impressed, and as a politician you *should* do stuff like this, to connect with the people you represent.

4.  Total Eclipse of the Heart in the Original Klingon - Strange New Worlds (August 8)

5. She Faced a Life-Threatening Miscarriage. Under Arkansas’ Abortion Ban, Even Calls to the Governor’s Office Didn’t Help. (May 26, via) "'This is basic obstetrics,' said Dr. Alison Goulding, a maternal-fetal-medicine specialist in Texas. 'Everyone should know that you have to provide an abortion in these settings or women can die.'"

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. DHS's abuse of power in Minnesota was even worse than we knew (August 18) "What we didn’t know at the time, though, was that the administration had engaged in utterly unprecedented surveillance in service of its theory that somehow everyone in Minnesota was engaged in a vast criminal conspiracy to make ICE thugs feel sad."

2. They grew up with disability rights. Now, they're fighting to keep them (August 20) "'I can't really overstate how significant this change in position is,' said Alison Barkoff, a health law and policy professor at George Washington University who worked on Olmstead enforcement in the Justice Department during the Obama administration. 'It is now the position of the United States government that people with disabilities don't have a right to be part of their communities.'"

3. The system meant to protect ICE detainees has collapsed (August 20) "'I even told them in English: I have a Stage 4 brain tumor. I have to take 1,000 mg of Keppra at 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. I'm supposed to start chemotherapy this week,' he said."

4. “The ICE Agent Behind Me Grabbed the Back of My Shirt and Just Threw Me Like a Sack of Trash” (August 1, via) "Bowe was in shock. “I thought of Alex Pretti, because he was also a nurse, and he was also helping someone who’d been knocked down.” Bowe was treated for a concussion, and for a kneecap fracture. She’s now suing ICE for $500,000."

5. Kings are creepy and weird (August 19) "I’ve been thinking about poor Abishag lately due to the recent attention being given to our own very old, doddering would-be king’s constant companion and non-sexual female attendant."

Chinese Shopping Apps: Giraffe Toy Edition

My son had a giraffe toy, and then I let my daughter play with it and she chewed the legs, so now I owe my son a new one. Let's go to Taobao (a Chinese shopping app) and find one.

Okay, so, first of all, I'm not sure how to search for this. I'm trying to buy the exact same toy that my son had, but like, how to describe it? It's a giraffe with legs that you can extend and they have suction cups at the ends.

Giraffe is 长颈鹿 [cháng jǐng lù] and toy is 玩具 [wán jù] so I guess I'll just search 长颈鹿玩具 and see what we get.

Oh, it's the first result. Huh. Apparently this toy is *the* giraffe toy as far as Taobao is concerned. Okay.

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. On ‘James Talarico and the [white] religious left’ (August 10) "Where the “religious right” is always presumed to be acting out of genuine religious conviction, the “religious left” is always presumed to be just a bunch of Democrats fumbling to close the “God gap” in electoral campaigning."

2. ‘Black Mirror’ and ‘Loki’ Directors Say They Rejected HBO’s ‘Harry Potter’ Due to J.K. Rowling’s Transphobia: ‘Absolutely F—ing Not’ (August 14, via) 

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. More Than 20,000 Unaccompanied Children at Risk of Losing Legal Representation in Immigration Court (August 5) "On Friday, July 31st, the Trump administration ended a critical federal contract with the Acacia Center for Justice providing legal services and representation to children who entered the United States without a parent or guardian. The decision dismantled a network of nearly 100 legal service providers, including Church World Service, and leaves over 20,000 unaccompanied children across the country, many of whom are victims of trafficking or other abuse, without legal representation."

2. El-Sayed blasts Trump over ‘Two VERY DIFFERENT America’s’ post (August 9, via) "'Yeah, he’s right,' El-Sayed said. 'One in which your overlords are two people who don’t like each other but joint in the interest of making billions of dollars off of you, or two people who genuinely love each other, enjoyed some pancakes together, want to come together to build the kind of America where they can raise a family, and know that that family is going to have the good things.'"

3. ICE plans to outfit officers with electric shock gloves (August 12) "'My immediate reaction was, why would you give this kind of novel dangerous technology that's hard to train people on to agency personnel who have a track record of abuse and even cruelty?' Shah says."

4. 'What are we going to do?' The mom of a trans teen grapples with Trump's Medicaid move (August 16) "She says the narrative advanced by the Trump administration — that families are being tricked into gender-affirming care by doctors and hospitals driven by greed — is completely off base."

5. They fought for the U.S. in Afghanistan. Now they worry about losing their green cards (August 15) "'We are trying to work, study, raise our children and build a normal life in the U.S,' said M., who asked NPR to refer to him by his first initial because he's concerned that speaking to the media could affect his green card. 'But now we are also trying to find lawyers, contact congressional offices and understand what may happen to our green cards. It is very stressful because even immigration lawyers give different opinions.'"

6. Families of USS Lincoln crew say Trump should be 'ashamed' of conditions on board (August 15) "His comments come amid reports of food shortages, plumbing problems and declining mental health among crew members."

7. Suing Stephen Miller (July 20, via) "You shouldn’t be able to order the military to carry out extrajudicial executions of fishermen and/or low-level drug runners that violate both domestic and international law, and then simply return to your job as a weekend cable news host once the other party retakes the White House. You should not be able to lie to the courts about sending immigrants to an overseas torture prison with zero due process and then live out your days with the lifelong job security of a federal judge. You should not be able to write a bullshit, meritless, bad faith legal memo while working at the Office of Legal Counsel that authorizes immigration officers to ignore the Fourth Amendment and batter down the doors of private homes without a warrant, then go on to make millions as partner at a white shoe law firm."

Inspiration and Incarnation: Wisdom Literature

Image text: Ecclesiastes 1:2 "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless." Image source.

I've been reading "Inspiration and Incarnation" by Peter Enns. Chapter 3 is called "The Old Testament and Theological Diversity." There are diverse viewpoints within the Old Testament- one passage says one thing, and another passage says another thing which is inconsistent with the first passage. 

There's a lot of fascinating stuff in this chapter, so I'm breaking it down into several blog posts. This post will cover the part about the wisdom literature in the bible. Specifically, the books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job.

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Proverbs

Proverbs is a book of wise sayings. These are useful guidelines for how to live your life, but it doesn't mean you're *guaranteed* to have good results if you follow them. That's why I never really liked the book of Proverbs when I was evangelical- it's a bunch of generalizations, all of which have exceptions so you can't take them too seriously. Unlike the rest of the bible, which was Absolute Truth [so I thought].

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. They're Made Out of Weights (June 3, via) "Omigod. You're serious then. They're made out of weights."

2. Your Book Review: Breakdown In Pakistan (July 24) This is about the phenomenon of foreign NGOs coming in and transforming local community-led organizations, giving them money but making them no longer able to connect with and raise support from their community.

3. Antiques Roadshow (August 5) From xkcd. 

4. Furiosa’s Cat Feeder (2016, via) About a cat who keeps finding ways to get extra food out of the cat feeder, and the owner's continued attempts to prevent it. "Her next move was to lie on her back in the bowl, and stick her paw up the chute. She could paw the conveyor belt itself, getting it to move. This was very effective, netting an extra meal or more." 

5. Jonathan Haidt is wrong about age-gating the internet (July 13) "I wish everyone giving this parenting advice were first required to actually try, for an hour, to configure a computer such that it gives a user the ability to meaningfully interact with the web without bombarding them with content selected to make them hooked and miserable. It can’t be done. I have tried a wide range of parental control tools, and none of them even seem to comprehend it as an aspiration."

6. Sheep and Goats and ‘Hell’ (August 4) "So they need the Sheep and the Goats to support the claim of a 'literal' Heaven and Hell, but cannot acknowledge or accept what that parable has to say about who is going to 'Heaven' and who is going to 'Hell' and why. That parable, like the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, is explicit, emphatic, and categorical. 'Heaven' is for the poor and for those who feed the poor. 'Hell' is for rich people who neglect the poor. Full stop."

Also from the Slacktivist: No sign will be given except the sign of Jonah (August 7) "And then it struck me that I was sitting there earnestly asking myself one of the most pernicious, corrosive, damnable questions one can ever wind up asking oneself: Who does and does not count as 'our' people?"

7. Why Rachel Held Evans Still Reads Like a Prophet (August 10) There's a new book called "Braving the Truth" which is a collection of Rachel Held Evans's writings. Definitely worth reading. See also, this link roundup I posted in 2019: Link Roundup of Posts Honoring Rachel Held Evans

8. Niagara Falls and the Limits of the Design Inference (July 25) "In its cosmology, then, [intelligent design] finds design in the very law-structure of the universe. In its biology, it finds design in the failure of that law-structure to account for some feature. These are opposite arguments."

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. Justice department moves to dismiss its charges against Olympian over reflecting pool (July 31, via) "The documents 'indicated a rushed and flawed installation process, with repeated failures of the lining during the installation process, and extensive peeling of the lining throughout the Reflecting Pool,' the motion said."

2. The Assault On Science Funding Continues (July 23, via) "But I mean what I say and I am trying my best to say what I mean: The Trump administration hates academic science funding, full stop. They hate where that money goes, and they hate who it goes to. They want to keep all that money for themselves, to hand out to favored cronies who can help them get elected and to steer yet more money and more power back into their hands."

3. Truth Social’s Audacious Plan to Sell Banks Early Access to Trump’s Posts Goes Live (August 3, via) "This story has captured our attention because it compounds the corruption that has become endemic throughout the executive branch with a new, ridiculous feature of our economy — Trump manipulating the markets through his bespoke social media platform, prompting sell-offs and rallies with his statements about the status of such things as tariffs or the Iran war, regardless of those statements’ grounding in fact."

4. They lost their work permits and their legal status. Returning to Haiti is still 'unimaginable' (August 5) "Approximately 350,000 Haitians and Syrians who have remade their lives in the United States are now at a crossroads. Their work permits and legal status have expired, yet their home countries haven't recovered from the crises that drove them to seek Temporary Protected Status protections."

5. Trump signs new orders targeting birthright citizenship, weeks after Supreme Court ruling (August 7) The wording of this one is different than the previous one- I would be interested in reading an article explaining those differences and to what extent they matter.

6. Federal funds can't be used to give test strips to drug users, raising overdose fears (August 8)

"The Strangest Thing in the Sea" (kids' book review)

Book cover for "The Strangest Thing in the Sea."

Here's a book that my son loves, because it's about weird sea creatures: The Strangest Thing in the Sea by Rachel Poliquin, illustrated by Byron Eggenschwiler.

On every page, it has a little hint on the left side, about what kind of creature it is, plus part of a picture of it. And then the right side page has an artistic representation of what kind of thing it might be. Like what you might imagine it is, just hearing a partial description. And then you flip open the right page and it shows the rest of the picture of what it really looks like, and it has all the information about what it is, what it eats, what kind of ocean environment it lives in, special abilities, etc.

Here's an example. On this page we see part of the creature, and we're told it's like a moon, so the right side page shows an artistic representation of a moon face:

And then you flip it open and you see it's actually an ocean sunfish!

This is really cool- every page is like this. It has an artistic image of what you might imagine it looks like, and then you flip open the page and see what it really is. (Apparently this is called a gatefold.) And there's a good variety of weird sea creatures. My son loves this because he loves weird animals.

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Related

Reviews of Kids' Books

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. Famous Science YouTuber Admits He Has Unhealthy Relationship With AI After Facing Backlash Over Recent Video (July 31, via) "Longtime YouTuber and science content creator Hank Green has announced that his main channel will likely be “paused” as he deals with his admitted overreliance on ChatGPT and other AI tools after some fans claimed a recent video included him reading AI-generated language."

2. The Underlying Misogyny of Grand Romantic Gestures (July 27, 47-minute video) "If you meet your best friend's fiance and all you can think is, 'oh man, she's so hot, let me film intense close-ups of her, then go home and edit them into a weird montage that I will keep in a VHS tape to fantasize about in my house', you're just weird."

Another good line from the video: "It is only by doing the little things, the daily, mundane work, that you can build to a place where your relationship is healthy enough to also accommodate fun gestures and surprises."

And: "No matter how much women say, stop, leave me alone, I don't want to be with you, we'll never be together, the grand romantic gesture argues that it's all just all just pretense. It's this fake defense that women use, almost as a filter to weed out the guys who aren't romantic enough to keep pursuing them."

3. How China Delivers a 14-Yuan Bouquet Over 2,000 Kilometers (August 3) "On China’s major e-commerce platforms, a bouquet of fresh-cut roses from the southwestern Yunnan province sells for just 14 yuan ($2), with free delivery to most parts of the country."

Also from Sixth Tone: Check in, Log on, Stay for Months: Life at China’s 9-Cent Internet Café (August 5)

4.  Is Captain Pike's Tragic Fate Actually a Happy Ending? (July 22, 31-minute video) An analysis of Captain Pike's disability in "Star Trek": how it is viewed in different ways in different "Star Trek" series (the 1960's vs now), and the parallels between Captain Pike and the lives of disabled people in the real world.

5. Works of culture from age to age (July 28) "But the other thing Card does here also seems utterly alien to contemporary MAGA worship and MAGA religion: He identifies God through the eyes of Hagar, the abused and discarded concubine, the refugee."

6. The Pastor No One Can Correct (July 11) Posting this because it's related to the question of whether or not children can/should take communion in church, which we were talking about when we read "The Kingdom of Children." Apparently Doug Wilson said "we commune children", and first of all, I have never heard "commune" used as a verb meaning "give communion to", and second, this is definitely a different thing than what "The Kingdom of Children" was talking about. (If you don't know who Doug Wilson is- he's a pastor who is so extremely racist and sexist, like, I didn't even know there were people who were that racist and sexist.)

I guess you can imagine a spectrum going from "we make infants/children/everyone eat communion, whether they want to or not" (is this Wilson's position?) to "we let everyone (children and adults) take communion if they choose to" to "we have an official vetting process to make sure you're a real Christian before you can take communion, and children cannot pass this vetting process." [Okay maybe this isn't a one-dimensional spectrum, maybe it's several dimensions.] What is the role of choice, and what is the role of "understanding" (understanding what communion means, understanding what it means to be a Christian, understanding the meaning of Jesus' death)? 

"The Kingdom of Children" talks about communion as "the family meal"- like it's about being included as part of the community, rather than about your own individual feelings/understanding about Jesus- to me, this sounds like if you're at church, you take communion, because that's what everyone's doing. It would be weird if you're having a meal, and some people are eating and some people are just sitting there not eating while it happens around them- but that always happens at church during communion. It's totally fine if some people choose not to do it while everyone else does, maybe because they're not Christians, or for any other reason. It's not weird. I *don't* think children should have communion just because "oh, it's time for us all to have communion now"; I think there should be some "understanding" of what it is. I don't think "The Kingdom of Children" addressed that- it was mainly talking about churches which exclude children who *want* to take communion. The main point of "The Kingdom of Children" was that children should be able to make their own choices about religion.

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. Oh turns out I haven't been following the news this week so I don't have any links

"Aces Wild" and my thoughts on queer fiction

Book cover for "Aces Wild"

I read Aces Wild: A Heist by Amanda DeWitt, and here's my post about it~

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Overview

This is a novel about Jack Shannon, whose mom owns a casino in Las Vegas. His mom gets arrested for shady business things, but Jack's take on it is that all the casino owners are doing those kinds of illegal things, and the reason his mom got arrested is that a rival casino owner targeted her. So Jack invites his friends- that he met on an asexual web forum- to come to Las Vegas and help him figure out what's going on/ play illegal blackjack/ etc.

So we have 5 ace characters working together, in this casino-heist-style plot. When we talk about queer fiction, we can say there are 2 kinds: One kind is where the queerness *is* the plot- like, it's about a character figuring out they are queer, or about overcoming obstacles/discrimination related to being queer. The other kind is a plot about something else, where the characters are queer but the story isn't *about* being queer; the queerness is just a background element. "Aces Wild" is the second kind. We need both kinds, so it's good that this exists.

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My opinion

I found this to be a good story, fun to read. And I liked the asexual elements in the background- for example, having online friends that you feel totally understand you, because they are also ace. Meeting ace people "in real life" and feeling so comfortable with them because they *get* that. I've had that kind of feeling in some queer spaces and ace meetups.

Also the line "sometimes you need five aces to win," in the context of asexuals playing illegal blackjack, is just extremely clever. Love that.

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But basically I don't know if I'm interested in queer fiction

Or rather, I guess I'm not really the kind of person who likes to read a lot of fiction. 

I read a lot, and my motivation for reading is I want to learn things. When I see a book about some topic and I think "oh I want to learn about that" then I add it to my wishlist. 

Fiction doesn't necessarily fit into that. Fiction *can* be a way to learn things- some authors use fiction as a way of exploring a topic and getting the readers to think deeply about it, and if the author is skilled then this can be more effective than just directly telling you what their point is. But fiction can also be really formulaic, where readers want to have an enjoyable experience by reading a story that follows a known structure. Where it's fun but you don't really learn anything new from it. And that's fine- I'm not saying it's "better" to read to learn things vs reading to experience a plot structure you already know you're going to like. (I mean, I read dozens of "Nancy Drew" books when I was a kid.)

(And also I'm oversimplifying it; there's a wide spectrum between "learning things" and "formulaic", and also, one reader might read a book and not get anything out of it, while another reader reads the same book and finds it really insightful and illuminating. For one reader, it's near the "formulaic" end of the spectrum, and for another reader it's at the "learning things" end.)

Most of the books I read, I choose them because I want to learn things. But sometimes I just want something easy and fun; I don't feel like learning things. There's a place for both kinds of books! But anyway, my point is, I see people on the internet talking about how important it is to have queer fiction and representation, and sure that's great, but it seems it's not really something I'm interested in myself. Maybe sometimes? But also sometimes I'm like, what's the point of this?

Obviously, since fiction exists, there *should* be fiction books with queer characters. And we need more of that! For people who like fiction, there should be a whole range available to them. There should be books where the plot is about being queer and overcoming problems associated with that, and there should be books where the plot is about something else entirely and the characters are queer just because.

Or, maybe nobody likes to read *all* queer fiction; they only like a small subset of the books, and when we make such a big deal about how "queer fiction is so important" and "representation is so important" it means "a wide range of books should exist, because someone will like to read them, but that doesn't mean *I* am going to read them."

So anyway, that's my opinion on that. I enjoyed reading this book, but I don't really feel like it's something I "need" or something that made a big difference and improved my life or whatever. BUT there have been other fictional stories I've read, with queer characters- fanfics- which did make an impact on me and improved my life. So I'm sure for some readers, "Aces Wild" could be meaningful and helpful to them. Different readers, who are at different places in their lives, will feel differently about reading the same book.

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See also: 

Siggy's review of "Aces Wild"

And this review from Bring On The Pigeons

Related:

Totally Baffled, in an Asexual Way (or, my review of "Let's Talk About Love")

All of My Book Review Posts