Should Christians celebrate Halloween?
If we do, we should definitely do it differently.
Whatever its historic origins, Halloween today has become a celebration of, and the commercialization of, death, the demonic and all things creepy – 5-foot spiders and 8-foot skeletons are on sale now at your local Walmart! Your kids want to dress up as a cute puppy dog or a princess? Downright counter-cultural! Shucks, while trying to find a stock picture for the topic of Halloween, I discovered 99% of the Halloween pictures had skeletons, ghosts, devils, witches, vampires, or the like. Photos of kids dressed up in clever or cute costumes could hardly be had.
The most compelling case against tech in schools (10-minute read)
This is on “the mounting evidence that computers and tablets on students’ desks are interfering with their education because the distraction effects almost always outweigh whatever educational benefits were promised.”
As Jonathan Haidt (author of The Anxious Generation) writes, “I banned the use of all screens in all of my classes at New York University several years ago, because it became clear that many college students can’t stay present in class when there’s a laptop or phone on their desk.”
National Post article highlights the case against term limits and for small, teeny tiny government
Citizens, frustrated with politicians who don’t deliver on their promises, might well raise the notion of term limits, to ensure that we can at least sweep out the disappointing mass of them every couple of terms or so. But what good is it, if we get rid of the figureheads and not the powers behind the throne? “Nearly one-quarter of Ontario’s senior managers appear to have progressive leanings” – so reads the headline. We can debate how conservative Ontario’s current government may or may not be, but even if it was headed by the most stalwart of Christian conservatives, it might not make any difference if its bureaucracy – the folks who actually decide how government decisions will be implemented – was run by radicals.
So a case could be made then, that if an elected official is ever going to have a chance at draining the swamp, he’s going to need to have some time on the job to figure out where exactly the drain is situated. Term limits might just ensure that no one ever has enough experience to take on the swamp.
Of course, we already have politicians with plenty of experience, and they haven’t righted the wrongs. But what an article like this shows is that our priority shouldn’t be to bring in a new batch of politicians, but to just start whacking away at the bureaucracy. If we were to elect some good men, the only chance they’d have against an entrenched bureaucracy is if it were quickly reduced and rooted out.
Sports gambling ads are overrunning the airwaves
It’s called the gambling industry, but there’s nothing industrious about it. In true industries, everyone benefits. A farmer grows grain, a builder creates a home, a barista serves up a cappuccino – in each case provider and purchaser are both better off, such that everyone involved can say “thank-you.”
But in gambling, the only way someone can win is for others to lose – there is no mutual benefit. The government and the gambling industry know the odds are always against the betters. Even the winners, if they keep gambling, are sure to lose in the long run – that’s how the odds are stacked. In other words, our government and the gambling “industry” they’ve partnered with are making their money by encouraging their citizens to do something stupid with their money. This is evil undisguised.
Let kids read dangerous stories
This is about the rise of “cozy stories” – the Hallmark-movie versions of middle school novels, that don’t have grit, chills, or tension – and why we need to steer our kids away from reading too many of these.
What is the unbeliever’s most compelling argument?
Jeff Durbin, on how even the most emotionally powerful argument from an unbeliever has to have power from the Christian worldview to have any power at all.
