- Sudhir Venkatesh has a nice account on the Freakonomics blog about the weekend conversations between Michael the “blue blood New Yorker” and Curtis the Chicago “squatter”. Curtis then took out a cigarette. “See this? Always have a loose cigarette. You can always use a bathroom in somebody’s house — maybe even get a shower — for one. Maybe your kid took a dump in his pants. Maybe you need some toilet tissue. Always keep a cigarette for emergencies.” (via Culture Making)
- We can all breathe easier. According to Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins of Left Behind fame, Barack Obama isn’t the antichrist. “I can see by the language he uses why people think he could be the antichrist,” adds LaHaye, “but from my reading of scripture, he doesn’t meet the criteria. There is no indication in the Bible that the antichrist will be an American.” (via Edward Gilbreath)
- Just in time for the Olympics, a new report from The New America Foundation on China’s role in supplying the government of Sudan with weapons and ammunition. Chinese equipment used in Darfur has not been limited to guns and ammunition. For example, as documented by Amnesty International, during the 2004 massacres in Darfur, Chinese-supplied trucks were used to round up 168 people from the village of Wadi Saleh. The villagers were then blindfolded and shot dead “by a large force of soldiers, military intelligence officers, and Janjaweed militiamen.” China has also been a significant exporter of major weapons systems to the Sudan, ranging from tanks to fighter planes.
- This CNN article popped up all over the place last week, “Why Many Americans Prefer their Sundays Segregated”. But interracial church advocates say the church was never meant to be segregated. They point to the New Testament description of the first Christian church as an ethnic stew — it deliberately broke social divisions by uniting groups that were traditionally hostile to one another, they say...DeYoung, the “United by Faith” co-author, says the first-century Christian church grew so rapidly precisely because it was so inclusive. He says the church inspired wonder because its leaders were able to form a community that cut across the rigid class and ethnic divisions that characterized the ancient Roman world.
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2 responses to “links”
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B”H
Hey Dave,
I found the CNN article very interesting, but also somewhat disappointing. I was disappointed for the same reasons I usually am in these types of discussions, shallowness, or perhaps better would be to say, ‘an incomplete assessment.’ Race relations in the Church is one of my majors interests, but I think that I often scare people away because I am too heavy on the issue. I hold to the position that positive race relations are not only possible, but they are part of the Biblical mandate we are called to express. The call to live out the ideals of the Biblical Vision is high and lofty and humanly impossible. It’s hard and most people don’t want to hear that message. “Why can’t we all just get along?” is a constant refrain one hears from both black and white believers.
Over on my site I have decided to take up this issue again, in greater detail. I started to share a lot more here, but it seems to me to be rude to write a long and extended comment on a friend’s site, uninvited.
I hope that you, and some of your readers, will check out the new post on this topic tomorrow ( Friday August 15th).
Blessings,
Shlomo
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Thanks for the comments Shlomo. I’ll be watching for your post. I seriously doubt it will be “too heavy”… more likely it will be spot on.
David W. Swanson 
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