Sunspots 804

 Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Christianity: (and Politics) John Piper, an important evangelical, explains, without mentioning names, why he won't be voting for Donald Trump.

The editor of Christianity Today, on white male evangelical supremacy, and the history that led us to this point.

Computing: (And Christianity) Christianity Today reports on young TikTok evangelists.

Education: Listverse tells us some interesting facts about mountains.

Environment: Gizmodo reports that a feasible method to break down polyethylene plastic has been found.

Philosophy:  The Society of Catholic Scientists argues that human minds cannot be completely explained by physics and chemistry.

Science: Gizmodo reports on a beetle that can withstand being run over by an automobile.

The Scientist reports that previously unknown salivary glands have been found in us humans.

The Scientist also reports that water (frozen) has been found on the moon.

The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, it is free to use like this.

Thanks for looking!

John Piper on Mr. Trump: morally unqualified, but he's President

John Piper posted, on inauguration day, a good article on Mr. Trump. He claims, first, that the 45th President of the US is morally unqualified for the job. Particulars:

He has openly bragged about committing adultery.
He has mocked others, such as prisoners of war (John McCain, for one) and disabled people.
Some of his ventures, such as Trump University, were a type of con game.
He's more of a demagogue than one who seriously discusses issues.
He's proud, and lies about his accomplishments, saying that he has never done anything that needed forgiveness (!), and that no one reads the Bible more than he does.

Piper goes on to describe some necessary qualifications and characteristics of a good leader, most of which Mr. Trump does not display.

But -- he is now the President of the US, and we need to live like he is that. One way to do so is to pray for him. One thing to pray for, says Piper (he mentions others) is for Mr. Trump to be led to repentance.

Thanks for reading. Read Piper.

Sunspots 553

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:


Christianity: An article in Christianity Today argues that the Star of Bethlehem was a comet.

Recently, the President of Liberty University, Jerry Falwell, jr., urged LU students to carry guns, and be prepared to use them, in case the campus were to be invaded by terrorists. John Piper has posted a detailed, scripture-based response, stating, basically, that that's the wrong attitude for a Christian.

Health: (If you are a fashion model, anyway.) National Public Radio reports that the fashion industry may be going to require that models not be walking skeletons -- really. There have been a few deaths among them, and the super-skinny models are probably inducing anorexia in girls.

Politics: FiveThirtyEight analyzes Republican support for Presidential candidates as correlated with the education of those Republicans, both so far for the 2016 race, and for the 2012 race. Romney was strongly supported by Republicans with college degrees.

The Difference Between differentiates between Marxism and Socialism.

FiveThirtyEight also analyzes, by state, preference for saying "Happy Holidays" vs. "Merry Christmas."

NPR reports on the young Donald Trump, especially in military school.

Science: Christianity Today-related publication, Behemoth, on virgin births. (In animals, not in Bethlehem.)


Image source (public domain)

Sexual slavery in Hollywood

Some recent articles refer to sex in Hollywood (aka the US entertainment industry) productions, and claim that some of this amounts to sexual slavery.

One of these articles, by E. Stephen Burnett, refers mostly to the HBO series "Game of Thrones," which is based on George R. R. Martin's series of novels, collectively called "A Song of Ice and Fire." See here and here for my reaction to the books -- I did not finish the series, for reasons I explain in the posts. My second post discusses and refers to some reaction to Martin's work by Christianity Today and by award-winning author of fantastic literature Elizabeth Moon.

Burnett claims that the HBO series includes pornography. He says that "naked people who act out sexual scenarios in public media in order to get money is porn." He also refers to John Piper, who says, in a post on "Game of Thrones:" "God calls women to adorn themselves in respectable apparel with modesty and self-control (1 Timothy 2:9). When we pursue or receive or embrace nudity in our entertainment, we are implicitly endorsing the sin of the women who sell themselves to this way and are, therefore, uncaring about their souls."

Piper also says that violence on-screen is not real -- no one gets killed. But nudity is real. People really expose their bodies. Further, he says that it is not ever necessary to have nude actresses in order to tell a story.

Piper dealt almost entirely with nakedness in women. There is, of course, also nudity by men on-screen. I don't know the frequency of occurrence of one versus the other.

A Cap Stewart has written two posts, here and here, in which he claims, with some anecdotes to back them up, that women are sometimes coerced into becoming sex objects. He says, with some justification, that some of them are a sort of sex slave.

None of the three authors (all of them wrote about "Game of Thrones," and other things) discussed the pornography film industry. My guess is that there might be some actual full-time sex slavery in that industry, but I have no facts to back that up. None of the authors discussed homosexual sexual activity.

Thanks for reading. Be careful what you watch. Since this post concerns pornography, I expect that it will get more views than most of my blog does, which, in itself, tells us something.