Links To Go (January 17, 2018)

The story of a body lost and a soul saved

Desperate people fighting their demons. And losing. Caring family who shared stories of Jesus.
A body lost but a soul saved. Because someone cared enough to share a Jesus story with someone.


The Peculiarity of Early Christian Worship (or How Early Christians Managed to Offend Just about Everybody)

So, Christian worship managed to irritate just about everyone. The Romans were agitated. The Jews were upset. Christianity was seen as a subversive threat.
But, here’s the key. Christians did not, for these reasons, decided to abandon, change, or modify their worship. Despite the opposition, they stayed true to their practices and true to their Lord.


Have Bible Quoters Replaced Bible Readers?

Here’s the end-result according to Nienhuis: “They have the capacity to recall a relevant biblical text in support of a particular doctrinal point, or in opposition to a hot spot in the cultural wars, or in hope of emotional support when times get tough. They approach the Bible as a sort of reference book, a collection of useful God-quotes that can be looked up as one would locate words in a dictionary or an entry in an encyclopedia.”
He continues: “What they are not trained to do is to read a biblical book from beginning to end, to trace its narrative arc, to discern its main themes, and to wonder how it shapes our faith lives today.”


More churches are opening their doors to undocumented immigrants facing deportation

The sanctuary movement has its modern roots in the 1980s, when civil wars in Central America sent hundreds of thousands of political refugees into the U.S. seeking asylum.
Church leaders sheltered them and were later prosecuted and convicted, though received no jail time. The movement was revived under President Obama, who critics called the deporter-in-chief for the record-high removals that happened under his watch. And since President Trump took office, the number of churches that have joined this movement, saying they’re willing to shelter people or help do so, has grown from 400 to around 1,000.


Give me your tired, your poor…and they will create jobs for us

First, the extent to which migrants take over the jobs of natives relates to whether migrants and natives are competing for the same jobs or not. Economists have found, however, that for the most part, migrants (low- and high-skilled) compete with other incumbent migrants, not with natives.
In fact, the same study shows that, between 1990 and 2006, immigration had a small positive effect on the wages of American-born workers, as the presence of migrants encourage natives to specialize in better jobs. Reducing immigration is not protecting the salaries of the American workers.


Preparing For Winter

Thus, for Christian educational institutions, the way ahead may be very hard. It will not simply be a matter of budgeting without federal loans. It could easily become a matter of budgeting without not-for-profit status. That double whammy is likely to annihilate many of those institutions which refuse to accommodate themselves to the dominant sexual culture. And that means that educators may need to look to new models of pursuing their callings.


The complicated ‘science’ of individual Communion cups

In other words, you’re more likely to contract germs on the door handle leading into church or shaking someone’s hand after the service than on the lip of a Communion cup.


Fake wasabi

Creatures don’t like change, up or down. We like what we like.


Why Do Cartoon Villains Speak in Foreign Accents?

The most wicked foreign accent of all was British English, according to the study. From Scar to Aladdin’s Jafar, the study found that British is the foreign accent most commonly used for villains. German and Slavic accents are also common for villain voices. Henchmen or assistants to villains often spoke in dialects associated with low socioeconomic status, including working-class Eastern European dialects or regional American dialects such as “Italian-American gangster” (like when Claude in Captain Planet says ‘tuh-raining’ instead of ‘training.’) None of the villains in the sample studied seemed to speak Standard American English; when they did speak with an American accent, it was always in regional dialects associated with low socioeconomic status.


Bad design in action: the false Hawaiian ballistic missile alert

Instead of selecting “DRILL – PACOM (CDW) – STATE ONLY” from what looks more like a list of headlines on The Drudge Report than a warnings & alerts menu, the operator chose “PACOM (CDW) – STATE ONLY” and sent out a real alert.
The design for this is obviously terrible. As others have noted, there are better interfaces for confirming much more trivial actions on our phones.


How to Dramatically Improve your Public Speaking Skills

  • Make every word count
  • Start strong
  • Know your through-line
  • Rehearse like your life depends on it
  • Fewer slides, better slides
  • Tell stories
  • What is your body saying?

When 20,000 American Nazis Descended Upon New York City
In 1939, the German American Bund organized a rally of 20,000 Nazi supporters at Madison Square Garden in New York City. When Academy Award-nominated documentarian Marshall Curry stumbled upon footage of the event in historical archives, he was flabbergasted. Together with Field of Vision, he decided to present the footage as a cautionary tale to Americans. The short film, A Night at the Garden, premieres on The Atlantic today.

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