A good morning to you from Kris and me, wherever we might be! Kris and I are with Northern Seminary students on our way for a tour of Israel. The protocols for travel have kept us busy. To get on the plane requires being cleared for a Covid test within 72 hours of departure, but our pharmacy couldn’t promise return within 72 hours. Whew, we got cleared about 35 hours after our test.
We will be sending updates daily from Israel, or at least we will try to send updates daily. We are with a bundle of our DMin students from our NT program as well as from President Shiell’s DMin cohort — and we have some guests as well!
Here’s a picture of Capernaum, and the traditional home of Peter is under that Catholic church. Yes, under it!
Photo by Joshua Lanzarini on Unsplash
Please add Beth Felker Jones to your reading list.
The American Booksellers Association has quite the moral dilemma its desk:
Dear Booksellers,
Margaret Atwood said in a recently published interview with Carolyn Kellogg in the Los Angeles Times, "People are deeply worried about the future right now... partly because democratic norms and procedures that we took for granted and believed represented the true, the good and the beautiful, have been tossed out the window." That sentence seemed to capture exactly my ongoing feelings of betrayal and sadness in reaction to the ABA's removal of the ideal of freedom of expression from our ends policies--that they had tossed my most cherished ideal right out the window--a tenet that has seen me through a lifetime of bookselling, standing me in good stead whenever books were censored, edited or outright banned, giving me the tools (both legal and moral) to defend books against such attacks. Isn't the highest and best calling of booksellers and librarians to put books in the hands of readers? Surely not to pick and choose among the books readers should or should not read. Am I wrong?
Herein lies the question. Do we have the right to choose which books to protect and which to throw out the window? The ABA Board would argue that we do. According to them, "ABA does not favor the protection of free expression when it comes to speech that violates our commitment to equity and antiracism, i.e., racist speech, anti-Semitic speech, homophobic speech, transphobic speech, etc." In their recent FAQ on the subject, they explain their need to be in a position to condemn such books (italics mine).
Which raises further questions: Who decides which books to protect and which books not to? What standards do they employ to decide? What does the ABA intend to do with books that they have deemed unfit?
a. Ban them?
b. Burn them?
This might seem an Orwellian sort of reductio ad absurdum. And in one way it is. Because there is no rational answer, at least if one believes in the First Amendment. Either protect all books or throw the First Amendment out the window.
Sure seems to me Richard Land may have created his own false dichotomy. When it comes to Jesus vs. Bible he chooses the Bible vs. Jesus over against those who think Jesus is the portal. He begins with Andy Stanley’s recent statement, ““The Christian faith doesn’t rise and fall on the accuracy of 66 ancient documents. It rises and falls on the identity of a single individual: Jesus of Nazareth.” Here’s Land:
However, in reality, what this sentiment does is set up a false dichotomy between Jesus and the New Testament. When people tell me, “I worship Jesus, not the Bible,” I ask them, “I believe in the Jesus who is the virgin-born, incarnate son of God. Which Jesus do you mean? I believe in the Jesus who said, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me.’” Which Jesus do you mean?
[Then he goes to the Red Letter Christians.]
Given this instruction from Jesus [that more will be given to them by the Spirit], we should use Acts through Revelation to interpret Matthew through John in the same way we use the New Testament to interpret the Old Testament.
In the end, such statements seeking to separate the authority of Holy Scripture from the person and work of Jesus Christ can too easily be used to undermine and confuse both the nature of His person and His work. [Beware the separation in either direction.]
(NEXSTAR) – You’ve heard of Yellowstone, Zion, Great Smoky Mountains, and Grand Canyon, but what if we told you none of these were the most visited of the National Park System in 2021? Would you believe that the most visited national park isn’t really a park?
The National Park System, NPS, recently released visitation numbers for 2021. While 44 of its 423 parks set visitation records last year, numbers throughout the entire system remain below pre-pandemic totals. Visits are, however, up by 60 million over 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic restricted access to most parks.
Despite the records set by many parks – including six that broke records set in 2020 – one remained in the top spot: Blue Ridge Parkway with 15.9 million visits.
(CNN)The American Kennel Club has unleashed its annual list of the most popular dog breeds -- and, for the 31st year in a row, the Labrador retriever has placed "first in show."
Each year, the AKC, a nonprofit purebred dog registry in the US, uses its registration data to compile a list of the most popular breeds. This year, the Lab was joined by the French bulldog, golden retriever, and German shepherd in the top spots, with most dogs maintaining their popularity from 2020.
However, there were some shake-ups in the rankings. The poodle -- a water dog known for its distinctive curly fur -- pawed its way to the top five for the first time since 1997, beating out the bulldog. And the field spaniel, a medium-sized dog, shot up 24 spots to reach #136.
The Biewer terrier, a long-haired toy dog first recognized by the AKC in 2021, debuted in the rankings at #83.
Here are 2021's most popular dog breeds:
Labrador retriever
French bulldog
Golden retriever
German shepherd
Poodle
Bulldog
Beagle
Rottweiler
German shorthaired pointer
Dachshund
(CNN)Justin Blauwet noticed something unusual while working at a construction site in Iowa. At first glance, it appeared to be a block of stone, just under a foot long, covered in ridges.
But Blauwet had a better idea of what it was, thanks to a lifelong interest in pre-historic animals: a wooly mammoth tooth likely dating back tens of thousands of years.
Blauwet was observing a construction site on March 4 on property owned by Northwest Iowa Community College in Sheldon when he spotted the tooth, according to a Wednesday news release from his employer, DGR Engineering.
He said he recognized the tooth thanks to a deep knowledge of fossils and pre-historic creatures. "I'm a 'nerd' like that," he told DGR, adding that his two young sons are also passionate about fossils and dinosaurs.
The issue of the loss, or at least the potential loss of freedom of speech is a very big one. As a South African abroad who grew up under apartheid I fell like 'I have seen this all before.' Even as it related to the more conspiratorial and even 'outragious' claims by some regarding the pandemic. Why ban them? Why muzzle and silence and censor the alternative narrative? If you believe it's as outragious as you say it is then bring it into the public forum where it can be debated and throroughly discredited in public debate. When a group of doctors, virologists and epidemiologists (Barrington declaration) are silenced as kooks, idiots and nutters, it only adds fuel to the fires of the more speculative theories. Banning, censorship and burning has never resolved anything. Have we not learned from history at all? As a non party political person, the extemism I'm seeing from both the left and right frightens me in pretty equal proportion. Christos Kurios...