Weekly Meanderings, 27 July 2019

Last updated on: July 27, 2019 at 12:07 am by Scot McKnight

Weekly Meanderings, 27 July 2019 2019-07-26T08:06:20-05:00 Scot McKnight

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I begin a series of four week-long intensives next week, a week between each. The students are our best even if the days can get a bit long.

What do the Registrars and Deans have to say about this?

Dear Registrar,

As we wind up the school year, I would like to appeal my course grade for “Marriage and the Family,” which I took in 1971–72.

Asking for a grade change so many decades later may seem unorthodox, but I have some compelling evidence. My husband, David, and I will be celebrating 45 years of marriage this month. I believe that fact alone shows my command of the subject matter — far more than the C on my transcript would indicate.

Put me in front of any academic committee and I will prove that I am better than mediocre. In addition to having the same spouse, I’ve occupied the same house and same job for 30 years — 25 of which were spent at the same newspaper (no small feat, in a crumbling industry). We simultaneously raised two children and buried four parents — an exercise in both hanging in and letting go.

Back in the early ’70s, much of the curriculum was devoted to personal finance: applying for a mortgage, buying insurance, shopping for appliances and furniture, and never incurring a penny in late fees or interest charges. I’m confident that I have aced this material as well — although I’m still unclear on whether I can legally remove the “under penalty of law” tag from the couch cushions without a SWAT team bursting through the door.

As I recall, the class also focused on running a household — which I’ve managed to do without too many complaints. Somehow, groceries got bought, food got made, laundry got done. True, I still have no idea how to remove mustard or grass stains, but I’m pretty sure it involves baking soda and/or cider vinegar.

So, given my obvious mastery of the subject matter, where did it all go south? I flunked a pop quiz on meat.

Aggressive roosters. HT: DM

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Leaders of a small Arkansas city are planning to draft an ordinance next month addressing a problematic rooster that has been attacking pedestrians.

Jasper Mayor Jan Larson said something has to be done about the rooster that chases people as they walk in the street.

“He attacks them and scratches,” she said. “It would be all right if you were young enough that you could kick him. But some people are older and could fall.

“We can’t let people get hurt because of an errant rooster.”

The rooster Larson called “vicious” began patrolling the sidewalk and street in front of a house nearly a month ago, chasing people who walked by.

One woman fell while fleeing the rooster, which also went after a small boy, Larson noted.

“That’s the sad part of it, especially if you’re a 3-foot-tall person or a doddering lady like me who can’t run,” Larson said.

Larson said chickens and roosters are permitted in Jasper.

“We are a small town,” she said. “People have chickens here. That’s not a big deal really. But we are also a city. We can’t let our animals attack people.”

Whales with feet!

An ancient four-legged whale with hooves has been discovered, providing new insights into how the ancestors of the Earth’s largest mammals made the transition from land to sea.

The giant 42.6m-year-old fossil, discovered in marine sediments along the coast of Peru, appears to have been adapted for a semi-aquatic lifestyle. Its hoofed feet and the shape of its legs suggest it would have been capable of bearing the weight of its bulky four metre long body and walking on land. Other anatomical features, including a powerful tail and webbed feet similar to an otter suggest it was also a strong swimmer.

“Whales are this iconic example of evolution,” said Travis Park, an ancient whale expert at the Natural History Museum in London, who was not involved in the latest study. “They went from small hoofed mammals to the blue whale we have today. It’s so interesting to see how they conquered the oceans.”

Older and smaller whale ancestors with four limbs had been discovered previously, but the latest specimen fills in a crucial gap in knowledge about how the creatures evolved and spread throughout the world’s oceans.

“Other examples from this time were more fragmentary, less complete specimens,” Olivier Lambert, a scientist at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences and first author of the study published in the journal Current Biology. “We didn’t have a clear indication about their swimming and walking abilities.”

The latest specimen proves that early whales could swim for days or possibly weeks at a time while retaining their ability to rove around on land.

Remember those Sunday Assemblies, church without God, with religion? They’re fizzling faster than wet firecrackers.

Arlie Hochschild: Dems or GOPs?

In a surprising new national survey, members of each major American political party were asked what they imagined to be the beliefs held by members of the other. The survey asked Democrats: “How many Republicans believe that racism is still a problem in America today?” Democrats guessed 50%. It’s actually 79%. The survey asked Republicans how many Democrats believe “most police are bad people”. Republicans estimated half; it’s really 15%.

The survey, published by the thinktank More in Common as part of its Hidden Tribes of America project, was based on a sample of more than 2,000 people. One of the study’s findings: the wilder a person’s guess as to what the other party is thinking, the more likely they are to also personally disparage members of the opposite party as mean, selfish or bad. Not only do the two parties diverge on a great many issues, they also disagree on what they disagree on.

This much we might guess. But what’s startling is the further finding that higher education does not improve a person’s perceptions – and sometimes even hurts it. In their survey answers, highly educated Republicans were no more accurate in their ideas about Democratic opinion than poorly educated Republicans. For Democrats, the education effect was even worse: the more educated a Democrat is, according to the study, the less he or she understands the Republican worldview.

“This effect,” the report says, “is so strong that Democrats without a high school diploma are three times more accurate than those with a postgraduate degree.” And the more politically engaged a person is, the greater the distortion.

What could be going on? Bubble-ism, the report suggests. Even more than their Republican counterparts, highly educated Democrats tend to live in exclusively Democratic enclaves. The more they report “almost all my friends hold the same political views”, the worse their guesses on what Republicans think.

So do they believe in sticking with their own? No. When asked in a Pew survey whether it’s important to live in a place “where most people share my political views”, half of conservatives and only a third of liberals agreed. Although in principle more tolerant of political diversity, highly educated – and mostly urban – Democrats live, ironically, with less of it.

Aaron Judge pulled up his socks to get better strikes called:

Aaron Judge, being the absolute behemoth that he is, is often prone to falling victim to the low strike three call.

Well, the Yankees slugger had a great way of combatting that problem on Friday. Judge actually raised his socks higher following a low called strike, giving the umpire one less excuse for an errant call.

Did Aaron Judge raise his socks higher after getting rung up on a ball below his knees, an investigative report.

Yes, yes he did. pic.twitter.com/n3mCzEVzLu

— Jomboy (@Jomboy_) July 20, 2019

Talk about getting creative. Judge was not about to go down looking on a pitch near his shins again, so he took matters into his own hands.

Clearly things paid off for the slugger too, as he hit a two-run blast in his next AB, with the socks lifted a bit higher than normal.

ALL RISE! Yankees lead 8-2 thanks to a two-run home run by Aaron Judge in the bottom of the sixth. pic.twitter.com/05t72NKzoQ

— YES Network (@YESNetwork) July 20, 2019

If that’s what it takes for umpires to make the right call when Judge comes into the box, then so be it. The slugger doesn’t mind sacrificing a couple inches of real estate on his uniform in order to buy some extra strike zone.

Frank Beckwith:

Your new book makes several provocative claims. One chapter, for instance, is titled “Aquinas as Protestant.” Folks will have to read the chapter to get your full case, but maybe whet their appetites by giving us a sense of what is going on here?

I wish I could take credit for those clever chapter titles. But all the credit goes to Carey Newman, the former director at Baylor University Press. They are his idea. As for the “Aquinas as Protestant” chapter, I explain how much of the Protestant criticism leveled against Aquinas’s use of natural law and natural theology is consistent with Thomas’s own understandings of both. Thus, in an ironic sense, I am making the case for “Aquinas as Protestant,” though I am also saying that his critics are more Thomistic than they realize. I am, of course, not saying that there are no real disagreements or differences. But, as I argue in the chapter, they are just not as deep or unbridgeable as many have supposed.

Having a friend who worked there makes this even more sad and revolting:

Three weeks ago, the Syrian antiquities directorate released new photos showing another devastated archaeological site. Outside Syria the news has received fairly limited press attention, except in France, where Mari, the site in question, is much better known. French archaeologists have been excavating at Mari since 1933, the most recent expedition running until 2010 when the Arab Spring and growing unrest made the site inaccessible. In light of the level of damage which is now evident, perhaps it’s worth sparing a moment to look at why Mari matters to archaeologists, historians and the cultural heritage of Syria.

When Islamic State emerged, the part of Deir ez-Zor province in which Mari lies was one of the first areas to fall under its control in early 2014. Under IS, the site suffered an immediate explosion of looting; satellite images revealed the change from archaeological site to lunar landscape in a matter of months. More than 1,500 new looting pits were recorded at Mari between 2013 and 2015, likely representing the removal of a huge quantity of ancient objects, sold into the illegal antiquities market to fund Isis and its war.

A case of too many (claiming to be) prophets and not enough of the right kind?

One was a court prophet and the other a wilderness prophet. One was welcome in the precincts of power. The other was not. What does this have to do with us today?

Some of our readers voted for Trump, in enthusiastic support or in reluctant pragmatism. Others rejected him. Christianity Today should be a place where brothers and sisters in Christ reason with one another passionately and charitably. Let’s seek to understand as much as we seek to be understood.

As for me, I wonder if we have too many court prophets in an era when wilderness prophets are needed. I also wonder if our court prophets are willing to call out sin when they see it. Whether you view Trump as a David or an Antipas, whether you serve at the court of the resplendent king or stand over against the court from the wilderness, one thing Nathan and John the Baptist held in common was that both were willing to condemn unrighteousness in their rulers—even if it cost them everything.

The racial inflection of our political drama adds deeper significance to the moment. White Christians have a long and lamentable history of silence (or worse) when people of color are under attack. On the one hand, I sense today an authentic desire among white Christians to build bridges of relationship and reconciliation with their friends and neighbors of other ethnicities.

On the other hand, I sense a profound frustration among non- white Christian friends that their white brethren keep silent as the president aims ugly and demeaning statements at people of color. These friends don’t like what the silence of the white church is saying, and neither do we.

If white Christians wish to stand on the bridge with brothers and sisters of other colors and backgrounds, they need to stand with them first in the foxhole. We should all stand so close that attacks on “them” are attacks on “us,” until there is no longer a distinction between “them” and “us” remaining. If we abandon our sister in the foxhole, we cannot expect her to attend our potluck.

How best to explain the Christian pseudo-apologies?

Too often the words “We are sorry” are casually offered and easily accepted as if they possess a supernatural power to resolve every grievance and heal any wound. Yet, in my experience working with abuses in organizations, this short statement, offered as a bridge of reconciliation, is often surrounded by other messages that serve a very different purpose. Above, underneath, and all around this single bridge are numerous walls of defense. These walls are established to repel the shame that threatens from without and to protect the legitimacy hoarded within, ensuring that the bridge of apology allows no shame to enter and no legitimacy to exit.

Sadly, the institution in the wrong might ask their victims to carry their shame so they can retain legitimacy in the eyes of their followers, unwilling to fully acknowledge that the shameful behavior belongs to them and the legitimacy belongs to the ones speaking the truth about their behavior.

Why are authentic apologies so feared? Perhaps because the shame would expose their illegitimacy, and they would lose what is no longer their right to have: following, influence, power, status, (and what is often most important to them): money. And so they fearfully run from public shame, like thieves anxiously running down the street with bags of money clutched over their shoulders, knowing the fabric of those bags are tearing apart and their money might soon be scattered by the wind.

The simple truth is that many organizations will not apologize as they ought because their leaders fear being seen as unqualified (an identity crisis), and because they fear costly lawsuits or loss of a following (a monetary crisis). Out of that fear emerges the following non-apologies.

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