Purewow for the week:
Ethnocentrism, Babylon, Xbox religion: This is the best criticism we’ve read yet on the “War on Christmas,” or what Jon Stewart hilariously calls World War C. (Another good blog from Richard Beck, “Advent: A Prison Story“)
Sometimes, while woolgathering at our slightly larger than average cubicles, wearing jeans that are not custom-tailored but are in season Gap, our middle-class imaginations wander to the question, “What are 20 things the rich do every day?” Hm. This week Tim Corley spelled out just that on Dave Ramsey’s blog. However, Rachel Held Evans suggests that they not only get it wrong with the article, which as it turns out is more about what the rich do compared to what the poor do not do, but she also addresses the error of the wealth-faith correlation inherent in much of Ramsey’s material. Further reading: a good and necessary corrective “20 things the poor really do every day,” and this timely article by the Atlantic, “Your Brain on Poverty.”
This life is a discovering one, and scientists have recently found a new body part! But even more than we loved the related “The Secrets Inside Us” op-ed in the NYT, we loved Paul Elie’s commentary around it. What is an essay in disguise? And is everything an opportunity to draw people into a story? (attn: writers, pastors, conversationalists, artists, YOU.)
NPR Books knows that at this time of the year we are list central, list-crazed, list fatigued . . . listless? So, instead, they’ve created a 2013 genre-organized book concierge. We all agree that it’s very polite of them to resist enumerating.
Friend of The House, Gabriel Salguero, wrote a brief piece for The Washington Post Blog on Advent and his participation in a public fast for immigration reform. We’re following his story, and there will be more from him in the future!
That reminds us, it’s not too late to draw inspiration from the creative Advent calendar coming out of Biola’s Center for Christianity, Culture & the Arts. Beautifully done.
Mandela. We’ll pay tribute. Commit to memory his words. And some believe we will also try to shape him into something he is not.
Some common stereotypes “7 Lies About Christianity–Which Christians Believe”
Lastly, puresight: The documentation of God’s granular attention and spendthrift. Certainly one look at a snowflake puts all of our kindergarten projects to shame. In honor, we recall Annie Dillard:
You are a man, a retired railroad worker who makes replicas as a hobby. You decide to make a replica of one tree, the longleaf pine your great-grandfather planted — just a replica — it doesn’t have to work. How are you going to do it? How long do you think you might live, how good is your glue?
