This Week’s Good Reads

Here were some of the more interesting pieces I read around the web this week:

1) “It Takes a Village (of Time-Traveling Dinosaurs)” by Erin Newcomb

This thoughtful, reflective piece touches on a wonderful children’s programs and the ways in which the parenting limiations of its characters should help us to think carefully about our own parenting limitations. I really wonderful piece.

2) “My Cancer Scare – Part 2” by Matt Rawlings

I’d encourage you, as you remember, please continue to pray for our senior pastor. We are grateful to God for the good test results.

3) “Deception’s Darkness” by Nick Olson

My pal Nick has written a great piece for Christianity Today on deception and light. He looks at the breadth of Chris Nolan’s filmography and analyzes the ways in which deceit and belief interplay throughout them. This is a compelling read and a good example of how intelligent Christian pop-cultural analysis can be done.

4) “Big Data on Campus” by Marc Parry

This fascinating report on new software being used at Universities draws out some concerns for me. Some new software being used by universities maps out a students course to graduation based on some simple algorithims. My concern is that by taking these decisions away from students I am not sure that we are actually helping them grow and develop at all. Interesting read, though.

5) “Sisters and Daughters: Facing the Faces of Porn” by John Stonestreet

This thoughtful reflection on the real harm that pornography does to women seeks to overturn the dehumanizing effect by reminding readers that these woman are someone’s daughter. It’s sad and yet important reminder. I am not personally persuaded that the petition to get hotel owners to remove pornography from their televisions is going to be effective (ultimately you’re trying to get them to buy into a worldview that they don’t accept), but I appreciate the thought behind it.

6) “Your Morning Caffeine Shot, Up Close” by Jamie Condliffe

This is actually a crazy photo of a caffeine up close…it doesn’t look as good as coffee tastes.