1. Today the fourteenth issue of the magazine goes to print, and so it’s only appropriate that we open this weekender with one of our issue’s featured interviewees (and conference speaker!), Alfie Kohn. In our Family Issue, Alfie and I talked about parenting and education, and how kids (and the people who raise them) are […]
Another Week Ends: Unfunded Mandates, Orthosomnia, One-Star Yelp Reviews, Lancaster Love, the Creation of Forky, and the Fastest Growing Religion in America
1. Fresh off the press from this morning, The Atlantic gives us new language to describe the law: “The Unfunded Mandate.” When the federal government requires states to abide by certain rules without providing the funding needed to support that rule, it’s called an Unfunded Mandate. Stay tuned, though — in the same way that […]
Another Week Ends: Pelagian Privilege, Quaker Parents, Reddit Karma, Church of Dataism, Summer Reading, and Search History Repeats
1. Well, file this first one under unexpected. Christianity Today published the transcript of the commencement address that Missouri senator Joshua Hawley gave at Kings College earlier this month, the title of which immediately piqued my interest, “The Age of Pelagius.” Pelagianism has long been a favorite punching bag here at Mbird, though admittedly not […]
Another Week Ends: Nuns and Nones, Work-Work Balance, Lapidation / Outrage, Cures for Depression, A Downward Ascent, and Supernatural Secularism
1. Whosoever is planning a summer vacation should note the following strategy from writer Olga Khazan: “I once made my boyfriend pay me for the hours I spent booking flights and hotels for our vacation.” That’s either evil or brilliant (or tragic); in any case, I’m very impressed! In context, Khazan is investigating “work-life balance” […]
Another Week Ends: Clean Slates, Mock Funerals, Webb's Inspiration, Orthosomnia, Consumer Fugue States, and Purpose-Driven Paper Towels
1. How can we not lead off by talking about Robert Smith’s surprise announcement during his commencement address to the graduating class of Morehouse College last Sunday? A third party who wipes a slate clean, shoulders a burden, absolves a debt, gifts a wholeness–by surprise, without coercion, and at a cost to themselves–whatever language you […]
Another Week Ends: Breakfast of Lutherans, Celebrity Prayer Candles, Junkyard Playgrounds, All the Correct Opinions, and the X-Men Family
1. On this week’s Killing Eve, the morally obscure mastermind Carolyn Martens (Fiona Shaw) refused to eat breakfast, instead taking a pull from a water pipe and saying, “I can’t stand breakfast. It’s just constant eggs. Why? Who decided?” The woman has a point. Whether yogurt, cereal, waffles, or bacon, our breakfast items of choice […]
Another Week Ends: Recovering Small Groups, the Problem with Happiness, Metrics of Judgment, Masculine #Seculosity, Love at L'Arche, and 20 Years of "All Star"
1. In the first slot this week, Christianity Today published Kent Dunnington’s reflections on small groups and AA: Small Groups Anonymous: Why the best church small groups might take their cues from the Twelve Steps. An in-depth look at how AA works and why most small groups fail to transform character and practice, Dunnington’s piece […]
Another Week Ends: The Seculosity of...Work, Pop Culture, Boutique Ice Cream, Even Doing Nothing At All, and the Perils of YEEZter
1. Perhaps it was fated that, as the Seculosity Train pulled into our hometown of Charlottesville, VA, for the book launch, there would be a whole host of articles detailing its newest incarnations. The Seculosity of Work, of Ice Cream, of Kanye, of Happiness, the list goes on. First off, here’s one from The New […]
![Another Week Ends: Good Friday, a Grand Miracle, Boomers' Death Boom, <i>Lazarus Is Dead</i>, Meritocracy, Performance, [chill / lofi / jazzhop], and Oat Milk](https://mbird.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/crucifixion-290x290.jpg)
Another Week Ends: Good Friday, a Grand Miracle, Boomers' Death Boom, Lazarus Is Dead, Meritocracy, Performance, [chill / lofi / jazzhop], and Oat Milk
1. Today is Good Friday, which means, if ever there were a time to consider the brutal instrument of death at the center of a major world religion, that time may as well be now. Off-putting and oft-baffling, the cross carries a multifaceted meaning that can prove elusive for onlookers and skeptics (and, much of […]
Another Week Ends: Ruvolo's Mercy, Hoos Redeemed, Techno-Adulting, Friendseagram and lots of #Seculosity
1. First up, a jaw-dropping story of “forgiveness in a vengeful world,” in the form of an NY Times obituary for Victoria Ruvolo who died this week. Ms. Ruvolo’s widely publicized kindness toward her attacker provided emotional counterpoint to a senseless act that began in the early hours of Nov. 13, 2004. She was returning […]
Another Week Ends: Chutes and Ladders, Sex Recessions, Virtue Signaling, the Final Four, and the End of Goodbyes
1. Adam Grant wrote an op-ed this week in the New York Times about the question thrown at seven year olds everywhere: What do you want to be when you grow up? Grant, who is an “organizational psychologist,” believes that the question should be thrown out, not because no child could possibly know what they […]
Another Week Ends: Shameful Leggings, Artificial Intimacy, Gangs of Ecuador, Obituaries for the Cancelled, and Why We Procrastinate
It’s been #Seculosity Week if you’ve been following us on social media, with interviews and op-eds popping up all over the place. Check out DZ’s interviews with Mbird friend Scott Jones over on the Give and Take podcast, and the 1517 crew’s Banned Books podcast. And in the ICYMI category, #Seculosity made the Washington Post last […]
