Coptic churches in America on mission
I enjoyed this story by Shira Telushkin about the Coptic Church in America adapting culturally. Growing up in the church and working overseas, debates about how to adapt to “the culture” are usually about European or Western traditions either trying...
the public health promise of vaping
Smoking is very, very bad. It’s in everyone’s interest to cut it back. And it looks like e-cigarettes might be helpful as smokers try to quit! And then the kids started doing it… and then the kids found the juul. Cigarette...
friendship, families, and the celibate
I am a bit biased because Wes Hill is a dear friend, but man! This essay of his in Comment about breaking up with a friend and choosing to build deep, intimate friendships with families is so good: I spent my...
sex robots: not just about sex anymore… or ever!
Everyone loves a good read about the history of sex robots, right? “Sex robots,” therefore, have always been about more than sex. They’ve been a cultural repository for wider uncertainties in times of social change: a literalization of the fear...
it’s all about governance and trust
Shadi Hamid, Vanda Felbab-Brown, and Harold Trinkunas share an excerpt from their new book on governance and trust, a subject that I’ve been banging on about for quite a while now: The Taliban claims to adhere to a strict interpretation of...
what kind of diet should we eat?
I’ve never seen a better, more succinct Q&A on what a good diet means, so I’m sharing this one: I feel smarter, but what happens when new information comes out, like, tomorrow? How can I stay up to date? It seems...
racism in, racism out
This article about Palantir is something else: “The world changed when it became clear everyone could be targeted using Palantir,” says a former JPMorgan cyber expert who worked with Cavicchia at one point on the insider threat team. “Nefarious ideas...
the history of capitalism and the glory of man
Note: I am sorry for the inconsistent posting schedule. Our family moved two weeks ago to our new field of service and the internet here is so inconsistent that I have been unable to connect every time that I sat...
when churches commodify diversity
Duke Kwon allows the text to speak for itself in his review of The Urban Church Imagined: Religion, Race, and Authenticity in the City: This consumer orientation also has implications for the way the church relates to racial diversity and its members...
more questions than answers in the death of a journalist in South Sudan
It’s always painful to lose a colleague in the line of duty, but rarely does one find a remembrance like this one that at once carries on the work of that colleague while examining the factors that contributed to the...