Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. Well most of the links this time are depressing news, but I found a fun song for you guys to listen to:

Six13 - Uptown Passover (an "Uptown Funk" adaptation for Pesach) (2015)

2. Three Model Organisms For Taste (May 8) "Young children aren’t going to object to having to draw a lion with wings. Young children love drawing lions with wings. No child has ever said 'I hate lions with wings, I wish my country’s flag was something cool, like a red square on top of a white square.'"

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. Tennessee Republicans pass a map to break up the state's lone Democratic House seat (May 7) "Tennessee Republicans on Thursday passed a new congressional map that would crack Shelby County — home to majority-Black Memphis — into three different districts, in an effort to eliminate the state's lone remaining Democratic-held seat."

TN Democrats Burn Confederate Flag in Dramatic Walkout Over Redistricting (May 8)

And more bad news from Virginia: Court rejects Virginia redistricting in a blow to Democrats' counter to Trump, GOP (May 8)

2. Stuck in limbo: millions of professionals risk losing legal status under Trump pause (April 28) "'Many of these people did everything they could to be on the right side of the law,' Bier said. "And simply because the government just decided one day that they're not going to process their applications and not give them a decision they have no idea, 'Should I leave the country? Is my status expired?''"

3. Republicans want to add $1 billion for Trump's ballroom security to ICE funding plan (May 6) 

4. Kids Are Being Harmed by Tear Gas, Pepper Spray Under Trump. There Could Be Long-Term Consequences. (May 7) "Families who live near an ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois, felt the effects inside their homes when officers tear-gassed the protesters who routinely gathered there. ... Each time the tear gas seeped in, the kids coughed, and their throats often burned. The eldest, a high school senior with asthma, would hide out in his second-floor bedroom."

5. Babies Are Bleeding to Death as Parents Reject a Vitamin Shot Given at Birth (May 6) "In almost every case, the babies’ deaths could have been prevented with a long-standard vitamin K shot. But across the country, families — first in smatterings, now in droves — are declining the single, inexpensive injection given at birth to newborns to help their blood clot." !!! Definitely get the vitamin K shot for your newborn baby! Hospitals all give this to newborn as a standard procedure, but now because of all the misinformation about vaccines, some parents are refusing it.

6. FBI Director Kash Patel sues the Atlantic claiming false reporting about drinking, absences (April 20) Wow pathetic.

7. 'Don Colossus' statue of Trump not a 'golden calf,' pastor insists (May 11) 

Sunday reading (May 10) "As soon as you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe and all kinds of music, you must fall down and worship the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up."

This Is Not A Golden Calf! (May 12)

"P is for Passover" (kids' book review)

Book cover for "P is for Passover"

Here's a nice little book about Passover: P is for Passover by Tanya Lee Stone. I read this to my son recently. I think this is a good book for giving kids a basic introduction to what Passover is, and some of the modern traditions associated with it.

We're not Jewish, but I wanted to teach my son about Passover because I'm a Christian and Passover is in the bible, and also it's good for him to learn about different religions. 

This book goes through the letters of the alphabet, and lists something related to Passover for each one of them. Each one is just a short description, so the book is useful as a simple overview of different aspects of it, and my son asked lots of questions, wanting to know more details. 

Some of them are elements of the Exodus story from the bible. ("B is for burning bush / Flames Moses saw / God sent him a message / He listened in awe!") I know this story, so I was able to explain all those ones to him. Some of them are traditions that modern Jewish people have, for celebrating Passover, and most of these I don't know. ("A is for afikomen / The search will be fun / The broken matzah is hidden / And our story's begun!") I had to tell my son "we'll have to google it." I bet the experience of reading this book is different if you're a Jewish family and your kids are already familiar with these traditions.

I guess I should warn you that if you teach your kid about the story of Passover, it means you have to explain slavery to your kid. (Also infanticide...) But I don't think we should avoid it for that reason. It's an important story. 

Anyway, in summary, I recommend this book as a good introduction for kids who don't know about Passover.

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Related

Reviews of Kids' Books 

Figuring Out What I Believe About "The Prince of Egypt"

Retconning the Old Testament

Retconning the Old Testament

Text written in Hebrew. Image source.

The Christian bible is divided into 2 parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament. The New Testament is the part about Jesus- but, you know Christians, we try to make everything about Jesus. We try to make the Old Testament about Jesus too.

In this post, I'm going to call it the Hebrew bible, instead of calling it the Old Testament, because I want to make the point that it belonged to Jewish people first. It was already a thing, even before Jesus was born. It already meant something and could stand on its own- it wasn't incomplete, waiting for Jesus to come along so it could finally make sense.

The way Christians tell the story, though, is that the Jewish people were waiting for so long, looking forward to when the messiah would come. There were prophecies, there were signs that pointed forward to Jesus. And finally Jesus came, and lived and died and rose again, and this ties the whole story together. Now it finally makes sense, and the whole bible is about Jesus.

This is a retcon. As originally written, the Hebrew bible is not about Jesus. Christians read it through the lens of Jesus' life- and yes, I'm a Christian and I do this- but that's putting our own spin on it, and we shouldn't forget that. Our Christian take on the Hebrew bible is not its "real meaning."

Blogaround

1. Taobao Plans to (Finally) Allow Users to Pay Via WeChat Pay (September 5) Well I guess this is only relevant to people who do a lot of online shopping in China, but it's going to make *my* life more convenient so I'm posting it here.

2. A Defense of Delilah (March 4) "The only difference between Delilah's actions and those of the women we laud is that she wasn't playing for the team the Bible roots for."

3. "criticizing AI is racism," says AI-backed writers group 😐 (September 5, via) 24-minute video from D'Angelo about the drama with NaNoWriMo and AI.

4. The Chosen Doubles Down (August 18) Laura Robinson continues to write about this bible-related urban legend about anointing the Passover lamb, and I am so here for it.

Also from Laura Robinson: The Ethical Problems with the Something Was Wrong Podcast (September 3) This is a really good analysis of the ideas "don't blame the victim" and "believe victims" which you always hear feminists saying. What does it actually mean to "believe victims" and how should that look different depending on what your role is? Particularly interesting is how the statistics about "false rape allegations are extremely rare" are specifically about rapes that are reported to the police. In that context, false allegations are extremely rare because there is little incentive for people to lie. But in other situations, it might not be so unlikely that someone claims to be a victim of rape when they are actually not.

5. This Sudoku Is Astonishing [MUST WATCH] (September 7) 22 minutes in, not one single digit placed, "This is the sort of thing that should be, just, taught in schools as an example of what human beings are capable of." (59-minute sudoku solve video.)

6. The Bell Riots: What Should Happen When History Catches Up to Star Trek? (September 2) 16-minute video. "Some of you might say, but wait, doesn’t Star Trek need to resolve these inconsistencies between its fictional history and our real history in some explicit, in-story way, so that creators of future Star Trek projects can refer to those fictional historical events without contradicting real history? Good question. No."

7. Dick Cheney says he will vote for Harris (September 7)

8. James Earl Jones, voice of Darth Vader, dies aged 93 (September 10) I was a huge fan of "The Lion King" when I was little. (Okay who am I kidding, I am still a huge fan of "The Lion King.") I remember one time, my parents were watching "Star Wars", and they explained it to me by saying "that guy is the same voice as Mufasa."

9. The Word of the Week: Sanewashing (September 9) "Why isn’t Trump being covered the same way? When Trump says something insane or incoherent that should be the news. It’s not just smoke that a reporter needs to blow away to reveal some underlying policy point that may or may not actually exist."

10. cohost is shutting down (September 10) Cohost is a social media site. The link I'm sharing here is a Pillowfort post discussing it, because I've only heard about Cohost through Pillowfort. Sad to hear they're shutting down.

Blogaround

1. This tweet

veggietales taught me not to bow down to a giant chocolate bunny. which is why i’m not a christian nationalist

check out my new youtube video about christian nationalism! https://t.co/8ip94pkbX0 pic.twitter.com/zkdJe6n4jX

— Mason Mennenga (@masonmennenga) April 22, 2024

Also related to VeggieTales: ‘VeggieTales’ Co-Creator Phil Vischer Shares Sneak Peek of New ‘Phil & Mike Show’ Idea (April 23)

2. This thread from Amanda Held Opelt. It's been 5 years since Rachel Held Evans died. I still miss her writing. Her blog was a big influence on me.

May 4th will mark 5 years since Rachel died. That is the day her death certificate was signed, the day we started planning her funeral…

(A thread 🧵) pic.twitter.com/aTMUWMxuL6

— Amanda Held Opelt (@AmandaHeldOpelt) April 25, 2024

In 2019 I rounded up all the posts I could find that people wrote to honor Evans: Link Roundup of Posts Honoring Rachel Held Evans

3. Uncovering of mass grave at Gaza’s Nasser Hospital: What you need to know (April 24, via) [content note: genocide] Wow this is really bad.

4. Fare Game: Why China’s Ride-Share Boom Is Leaving Drivers Behind (April 25) "Another screenshot, this one from Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport the same month, showed an even starker disparity: 868 vehicles competed for just 39 passengers. 'Getting even one order feels like amazing luck,' he says."

Also from Sixth Tone: In China’s Array of Dialects, Emerging Writers Find a New Voice (April 19) "With over 10 million speakers, the Shanghainese dialect is widely used in the metropolis and surrounding areas, and has a unique vocabulary that led to the creation of the official Shanghainese dictionary in 2008." Please note, these Chinese languages are called "dialects" but they're actually different languages. I understand Mandarin but I don't understand Shanghainese. A few words here and there which are similar to Mandarin, but overall no I don't understand it.

5. This thread [via] about the Passover sedar at the pro-Palestine protest at Columbia University:

Explaining the seder plate at the Columbia encampment. These students truly embody the meaning of Passover in their provisional seder and their commitment to liberation. pic.twitter.com/5dOT46IeF1

— Arielle Angel (@ArielleLAngel) April 22, 2024

6. Ohio May Soon Jump On Hot Trend Of Making It Illegal To Rape Your Spouse! (April 25) "I’m sorry if any of this sounds flip, but I really am just trying to pull my jaw up off the floor here as I try to imagine the thought process that went into carving out those exceptions in the first place."

Also from Wonkette: That Nex Benedict Died By Suicide Doesn't Let Anyone Off The Hook (April 25) [content note: anti-trans violence, suicide] "Prominent Oklahomans have chosen again and again and again and again and again to spread the lies that trans children are morally inferior, lying about who they are, or less valuable, or constitute a threat to fellow students."

Blogaround

Image source.

1. Why Christians Should Not Host Their Own Passover Seders (posted 2014) "Because Jewish people do not believe this interpretation of their holy texts and given the atrocities committed by members of our own faith because of this difference in belief, it’s like adding salt to the wounds of history for a Christian family to take one of the most sacred Jewish celebrations and twist it to reflect our own beliefs."

2. 10 Situations Where Christian Bakers Should Refuse To Bake Wedding Cakes (posted March 30) "If one is a Christian and one is not (or say, if one is a real Christian but the other is a fake Christian like an Episcopal), you need to boldly say “no cake for you!” — and should probably throw in a solid “repent ye!” as well."

3. Nine-Year-Old Sluts and Masturbating Dinner Guests (posted March 30) "It is not normal for a dinner guest to go into your bathroom and masturbate. Period. Dinner guests come to spend time with the hosts and the other guests, not to masturbate in their bathrooms. Seriously, who does that?!"

4. Why Christians Should Kiss the Courtship Debate Goodbye (posted March 31) "I was afraid of messing up. I was afraid of divorce. I was afraid of taking my life into my own hands." Well a-freakin-men to this.

5. Should Mom-and-Pops That Forgo Gay Weddings Be Destroyed? (posted April 3) "But I also believe that the position I'll gladly serve any gay customers but I feel my faith compels me to refrain from catering a gay wedding is less hateful or intolerant than let's go burn that family's business to the ground."

6. Gethsemane: The Most Troubling Story in the Bible? (posted April 2) "The divine nature served, supposedly, as a kind of emotional backstop to keep Jesus from becoming too wimpy and weepy."

7. God’s Not Dead 2: American Revolution (EXCLUSIVE FIRST LOOK!) (posted April 5) "JOSH picks up his history textbook in one hand and his Bible in the other. He looks back and forth between the two as an AUDIO ADRENALINE song plays. Finally, Josh throws the history textbook through his dorm room window. It explodes on the lawn outside."

8. Loveless ethics and the enormous, mendacious, disembodied anus (posted March 31) "Yes, the giant, invisible anus demands that its followers be nice, courteous, helpful and charitable, and its dictates will therefore probably produce in them some simulacrum of those things, but this kind of system can never produce the genuine article. It can only provide a counterfeit."

9. Jewish A Capella Group Releases Passover Parody of ‘Uptown Funk’ (posted March 25) This is fantastic.