Odds and (Week)ends — June 14, 2025
Recommendation Roundup
Things that grabbed my attention and made me think.
On Original Sin
Aaron Lewis writes about how it is possible to believe in original sin without buying into the concept of original guilt.
Augustine’s doctrine of original sin led to the belief that infants were condemned to eternal hell as a result being born sinners. How can a person be held accountable for an act they have not yet performed or for something someone else did? That goes against logic.
I Empathize With This
Dr. Beth Felker Jones from Northern Seminary weighs in on the fray about empathy.
To speak of “God’s design” is an enormous, weighty theological claim, and if someone is going to make it, they’d better bring receipts.
I also saw this excellent video responding to the whole kerfuffle:
Ghorman
The writers of season 2 of Andor weren’t just talking about events a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Chris Cillizza looks at the recent events in Los Angeles:
Ask yourself this. If you are Trump would you rather have the big national story be:
1. Your fight with Elon Musk
2. The ongoing struggles to pass the “One Big Beautiful Bill” through Congress (and all the stuff that’s actually IN the “OBBB”)
3. An immigration fight where the dominant images are protesters lighting cars on fire and clashing with the police.
Eerily reminiscent of happenings on Ghorman and imperial propaganda.
What If I Stumble?
Fellow Substacker Kelsey Kramer McGinnis writes:
Unfortunately, fandom is never safe from the moral failings of its object. The Christian music industry has tried to let artists play two roles: entertainer and spiritual guide. Again and again, the artists trying to navigate this faith-based entertainment world have flamed out. There have been struggles with addiction, murky stories of inappropriate behavior, and outright abuse.
Quote of the Week
I don’t want to be a liberal who bashes conservative Christians. Because I mostly live with liberal Christians, and most liberal Christians I know are very good about social justice, as long as it does not critique the system. Because very many liberals are really well off, and have a great stake in the system. So our thinking about justice basically has to do with rearranging things in the capitalist system, rather than doing a neighborly critique of the system.
— Walter Brueggemann —
Memewhile
InDeed
I get the sentiment: God can supernaturally put you before the right people.
But this kind of fortune cookie theology simply overlooks too many facts from the biblical story.
First, Saul didn’t submit a résumé either. God told Samuel to anoint the son of Kish as the first king of Israel as the period of the judges was ending and the people clamored to be like the surrounding nations, having a central ruling figurehead.
Secondly, there wasn’t a classified ad in the Jerusalem Gazette announcing there was a vacancy to be filled at the royal palace. As we all know, Samuel anointed David many, many years before Saul died and actually vacated the throne. One could reasonably say that David’s faithfulness over all those years, and refusal to harm King Saul and take the kingship by force or intrigue when given the chance, was actually him writing his résumé over time, so that when Saul died, the people knew David would be a good king, and willingly ratified David’s earlier anointing by Samuel.
It’s Kinda My Thing
Could Have Been Worded Better
I love Keller’s work, and have always had a lot of respect for him. And I get the point he was trying to make. It just seems the thought could have been worded better, because, after all, indeed, “he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep” (Psalm 121:4).
Hiatus
There likely won’t be an Odds and (Week)ends on the 21st of this month, as I’m visiting family and don’t want to rush to put one together. But there is a Monday Memory post scheduled for the 23rd.