Weekly Meanderings, 5 May 2018

Last updated on: May 5, 2018 at 12:04 am by Scot McKnight

Weekly Meanderings, 5 May 2018 2018-05-04T14:54:56-05:00 Scot McKnight

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Another busy week, but this one — somebody’s gotta do it — in Malibu at Pepperdine University for their well-attended Bible lectures. Now called Harbor. I call it Malibu. I’m so grateful for Mike Cope’s leadership and for all the friends I’ve made in the Churches of Christ including especially Randy and Lorree Johns.

Libertyville’s Finest, Dale Eggert:

Dale Eggert (Libertyville High School, ’74) is a lifelong Libertyville resident known not only for his outstanding wrestling achievements while at Libertyville High School, in college and post-college, but also for his longtime dedication to LHS and his impact as a coach for Wildcat wrestling.

Eggert began wrestling as a freshman at LHS and was a two-time state qualifier. He placed second in state as a senior in 1974. Eggert was named the school’s Outstanding Senior Athlete while competing in football, wrestling and baseball, being named to the All-Conference baseball team twice as a third baseman.

Eggert was active in Greco-Roman and freestyle outside of the high school season, placing in three Junior State Greco-Roman Tournaments and two Junior State Freestyle Tournaments. He earned Greco-Roman all-American honors in 1974 by placing third in the junior nationals.

He continued his wrestling career at Southern Illinois University — Carbondale and was named the team’s Most Valuable Wrestler his senior year in 1978. He graduated with a degree in health education and returned to LHS as a teacher and coach, serving as an assistant wrestling coach for nine years. In 1987 he was named the IWCOA Assistant Coach of the Year. He began his head coaching tenure at Libertyville High School in 1988.

He taught health education, driver education, and physical education at LHS for 33 years and, in 2007, was named the LHS Teacher of the Year.

In the 2017-18 school year, coach Eggert began his 40th year coaching in the LHS wrestling program and his 31st year as the head coach.

Great for Jasmine!

GREENSBORO, N.C.— A Greensboro teen’s hard work paid off in a big way. Jasmine Harrison, 17, was accepted to 113 colleges and universities and awarded more than $4.5 million in merit-based scholarships.

Harrison will graduate from The Academy at Smith on May 24th with an expected 4.0 GPA.

With help from her school’s faculty and her mother, she was able to apply to all those schools for just $135.

Harrison was awarded full rides to three schools: Ed Waters College in Jacksonville, FL, Mississippi Valley State University in Itta Bena, MS, and Bennett College in Greensboro, NC.

All three are Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). In fact, she was able to apply to 53 HBCUs with just one Common Black College Application and got into 26 that way.

“When I got the first couple in the mail, I was like, ‘Okay, this is really happening.’ I didn’t really think I’d be able to do that,” Harrison said.

Harrison also took advantage of the College Foundation of North Carolina (CFNC) College Application Week, where she was apple to apply to a number of North Carolina schools for free.

Then on top of that, the Common Application allowed her to apply to 20 more at once.

Harrison spent hours pouring over each entry making sure it was perfect and called on her faith when she wanted to quit.

I always read Kara Powell, always:

Churches that are “growing young” instead of growing old are the ones that look after parents, according to a Fuller Theological Seminary professor who specializes in family ministry.

Kara Powell, who also serves as executive director of the Fuller Youth Institute, told those gathered at the Orange Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, on Friday that churches thrive when they make an extra effort to help parents.

Powell explained that she and other researchers at the Fuller Youth Institute examined the traits of churches in the United States that were neither declining in numbers nor seeing a graying of their congregation.

“We looked for hundreds of churches around the country that aren’t getting older and getting smaller, instead they’re growing and their engaging young people or they are what we call churches that are ‘growing young,'” said Powell.

“And one of our early surprises in our four years of research was how important it was for parents to be prioritized in these churches. That’s one of the things that set these churches apart from a typical church that was aging and/or shrinking.”

“When these churches gave a disproportionate amount of energy and emphasis and empathy to parents, the church thrived. The church flourished.”

Powell called on attendees to make sure that their congregations make sure that they are not simply asking parents to help the church, but that the church is helping parents.

Mike McRae:

Beyond the Biblical legend of David versus Goliath, historical records concerning a far reaching Israelite kingdom in the 10th century BCE have left plenty of room for debate.

A new archaeological study has found evidence supporting the belief that a monarchy just might have united the lands during this important period, while also serving as a reminder of how biases in archaeology can change how we view the past.

Archaeologists Avraham Faust and Yair Sapir from Bar Ilan University in Israel recently published their radiocarbon dating findings on a dig site at Tel ‘Eton that pushed the date of the site’s establishment to between the 11th and 10th century BCE.

Previous estimates on an elite building known as the governor’s residency had it being built centuries later, only to be destroyed by the end of the 8th century by an Assyrian invasion.

Not only does the evidence suggest an Israeli governor was ruling in a Judean town at a crucial period, it serves as a reminder of the challenges archaeologists face in accurately dating ancient sites.

Are you cutting the cord?

By DAVID Z. MORRIS

April 29, 2018

“Cord cutting” has been a kind of ghost story for cable providers for much of the past decade—a tale that, while foreboding, didn’t seem entirely real. But consumers are abandoning traditional cable for streaming services faster than ever, turning what had been an ominous prediction into a clear and present danger.

Three major pay-TV providers last week reported dramatic declines in subscribers to traditional cable and satellite television packages. Some of the losses were more than double what Wall Street analysts expected, and stocks in major TV providers have fallen off a cliff. Those dismal results followed reports of huge subscriber growth at streaming services like Netflix, leaving would-be defenders of legacy TV with nowhere to stand.

The numbers tell the story in no uncertain terms. Charter Communications, which offers cable service under the Spectrum brand, announced on Friday that it lost 122,000 TV customers in the first quarter of 2018. That massively exceeded Wall Street projections, which the Wall Street Journal said averaged about 40,000 lost subscribersahead of the earnings report. Charter’s stock dropped as much as 15% Friday.

That collapse followed similarly grim reports from other legacy providers. Comcastannounced Wednesday that it had lost 96,000 customers for the quarter, its fourth straight quarter of subscriber losses, and slightly worse than analyst projections. AT&T’s DirecTV satellite service lost 188,000 customers in the same period, driving down video revenue by $660 million despite growth of its own online streaming service. AT&T stock tanked as much as 7% the day after its report. Comcast notched healthy earnings from its increasingly diverse business, but even it couldn’t fight the headwinds, with its stock draining more than 7% by the end of the week.

The reports continue a strong trend away from traditional cable services—total cable subscriber numbers declined 3.4% over the course of 2017, a faster decline than in 2015 and 2016. The fact that the latest numbers so dramatically underperformed even grim Wall Street expectations suggests the dropoff is continuing to accelerate.

At the same time, streaming services, also known as “over the top” or OTT services, are showing gains that are even more dramatic. Netflix, the 800-pound gorilla in the sector, reported earlier this month that it had added a net 1.96 million subscribers in the first quarter. Perhaps even more worrisome for cable providers are services like HBO Now, which deliver what had been exclusive cable content directly to subscribers, and whose growth is also accelerating.

USA Today:

Young people are far more likely than senior citizens to report being lonely and in poor health, a surprising survey of 20,000 Americans released Tuesday shows.

The overall national loneliness score was alarmingly high at 44 on a 20-to-80 scale, but the prevalence of social isolation among those ages 18 to 22 raises even more concern. The younger people, part of Generation Z, had loneliness scores of about 48 compared with nearly 39 for those 72 and older.

The study was sponsored by the global insurer and health services company Cigna, which is concerned about loneliness as a societal problem but also because it’s not just making us sad: It can literally make us sick.

Loneliness actually has the same effect on mortality as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, which makes it even more dangerous than obesity, says Cigna, citing a 2010 report. And while the new findings don’t draw any direct links to increased rates of suicide among teens or the opioid epidemic, Cigna CEO David Cordani says it’s clear addressing loneliness will help solve other problems.

“If their sense of health and well-being is more positive, then less destructive activities transpire,” Cordani says.

The market research firm Ipsos posed questions online between Feb. 21 to March 6 to more than 20,000 people 18 and older in the U.S. The questions were based on UCLA’s Loneliness Scale and used to create the Cigna Loneliness Index.

Claude Mariottini’s retirement, and I miss Claude every day I’m on campus:

As many of you know, I officially retired from Northern Baptist Seminary at the end of June 2018. I taught at Northern Seminary for 28 years. During my tenure at the seminary, I worked with a group of dedicated Christians who love the Lord and are committed to prepare leaders for the church.

The members of the faculty of Northern Seminary are a special group of people. They are scholars, educators, and ministers of Christ who care for their students and make a profound impact in the life of the church through their writings, conferences, preaching, teaching, and mentoring of pastors and students. Any person who chooses to attend Northern Seminary will be blessed by learning and growing with these amazing scholars.

As I transition into retirement, I want to express my appreciation to Dr. Bill Shiell, Northern’s president, and the faculty of the seminary for honoring my years of service to the seminary by appointing me Professor Emeritus. This is a great honor that has been given to me and I will be eternally grateful. This honor will also allow me to continue my relationship with Northern Seminary for years to come.

I want to express a special word of gratitude to my friend and colleague Scot McKnight for announcing at my retirement program that he was dedicating his commentary on Colossians to me. In his dedication, Scot wrote: “To my friend and colleague Claude Mariottini, who reminds me of what Paul said of Epaphras: Ἐπαφρᾶς ὁ ἐξ ὑμῶν, δοῦλος χριστοῦ [Ἰησοῦ], πάντοτε ἀγωνιζόμενος ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν ἐν ταῖς προσευχαῖς, ἵνα στῆτε τέλειοι καὶ πεπληρωμένοι ἐν παντὶ θελήματι τοῦ θεοῦ.” [Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God.]

Scot also wrote: “The commentary is dedicated to my friend and colleague Claude Mariottini upon his retirement after a full career of teaching Old Testament at Northern Seminary. Claude is not just a good friend and wise counselor but a careful scholar, sensitive to theology and church life, and one whose door is always open for conversation. To him and his good wife Donna, Northern will be eternally grateful, but I will sorely miss his kind presence in my life.”

I was greatly touched by Scott’s words and generosity. Scot and I used to sit either in his office or mine and talk about theological issues related to our fields of study. I reviewed his commentary on Philemon in a previous post and soon will review his commentary on Colossians. I have learned much from Scot. His concern for pastors and seminary students is evident to anyone who reads these two commentaries.

I also need to mention the people who work at the seminary. The whole staff are there to serve the students. The staff of Northern Seminary are women and men who are involved in ministry, who serve in their local congregations, and who understand the needs of seminary students. My work at Northern was very satisfying because of their hard work and their willingness to help the faculty in their work. Northern’s staff make the work of the faculty much easier.

One thing that my retirement has affected is the work on my blog. It has been months since I last posted to the blog. During this time I have received dozens of emails from people who are encouraging me to post again. I have also talked to former students who miss reading my posts.

Because my blog has helped so many people, I have decided to post again. I will try to post as often as I can. Since I retired, Donna and I have been traveling, visiting family and friends, and will continue to do so in the coming months. I will try to be regular in writing posts, even though I will probably not be able to post every day.

Since my blog has been dormant for months, I have also been behind in responding to your comments. I am grateful for your comments and I will begin responding to the many comments waiting a response.

Later this week I will begin a series of studies on the golden calf. The narrative of Exodus 32-34 is very familiar to people who read the Bible regularly. However, there are some important issues that need to be emphasized as we study these three great chapters in Exodus. I hope you will enjoy these studies.

Finally, I want to thank you, the reader of my blog, for your support over the years. I hope that you and I will continue our adventure together as we study and learn more about the Old Testament.

Claude F. Mariottini
Emeritus Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Bibliography:

Scot McKnight, The Letter to the Colossians. The New International Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 2018.

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