1. Kicking off this week we take a bit of a deep dive into all the Jesus articles that appeared over the holiday season, which featured no small amount of controversy. On Christmas Eve, Peter Wehner wrote in the New York Times of “The Forgotten Radicalism of Jesus,” assembling a variety of gospel narratives to argue […]
Google’s Search to Know Me: Social Media Algorithms and Being Known by God
“You Search Out My Path And My Lying Down And Are Acquainted With All My Ways.”
A Pandemic of Shame: Seeking Refuge From Online Anger
“How Much More Grievous are the Consequences of Anger than the Causes of It.”
The Parable of the Wheat (Beer) and the Weeds: Judgment and Grace
Judgment is a Weapon that No One Can Wield Properly, Something Well Illustrated by Our Lives on Social Media
Deprive Them of Their Pathos: Partisan Politics, Social Media, and Karl Barth
“A Game that is Played in Full and Vigilant Awareness of its Relativity”
Another Week Ends: Justin Bieber, the Tyranny of Meritocracy, Accidentally Going Viral, Pandemic Show Tunes, and More Strange Rites
1. Leading off this week, the philosopher Michael Sandel has some hefty critiques of the idea of meritocracy, specifically its disastrous effects on social and individual wellbeing in a global capitalist economy. Within a meritocracy, success becomes the law to live by that ruthlessly judges personal failure, dividing the self-righteous deserving from the unrighteous lazy. […]
Social Media and Choosing Your Own Narrative
Does Anyone Hear the Pangs of Identity-Seeking Underneath all that Noise?
Another Week Ends: WEIRDos in the West, Feigning Wack-Jobs, the Twittering Machine, Enduring Work, and Lana Del Rey Talks to Jesus
1. A happy ending for a recovering alcoholic who was rescued from drowning by Paulist priests sailing by on a tiki bar pontoon. Not everything about 2020 is awful, folks! 2. In the first of two book reviews for your consideration this week, Judith Shulevitz reviews The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West […]
Pick up the Phone, It’s Your Long-Lost Friend Jeanette with an Urgent Message about Your Terrible Relationship with Social Media
“Your Relationship with Social Media Sucks. First of All, My Dear, He is a Liar.”
Therapy Time with Davie504
If you are not familiar with famous YouTuber Davie504, just ask one of the youth in your life and chances are they will know who you’re talking about. Davie504 is the smartest bass player in the world. Although the bass is not an instrument that gets a lot of attention, somehow Davie504 has created a […]
