Zippy Ep 16: Thankful With a Huge Helping of Hope
Like a Thanksgiving Dinner, Jason and I have a bit of everything in this episode of Zippy the Wonder Snail. Need something to listen to as you go over the river and through the woods? Here’s the menu: thankfulness in the difficulties of life, Christmas music, shopping foibles ahead of #BlackFriday and hope from the Epistle to the Romans ch. 2. Also, we turn back to the subject of Spiritual Abuse, Judy Dabler and Peacemaker Ministries “conciliation” that I wrote about last week.
Jason and I would love to have you join us!
Zippy: Big Courts, Big Tech and Big Questions
Are you ready to Zip? This episode the Faithful Snail of Speed, Tim Butler and Jason Kettinger turn to further consideration of the recent #SCOTUS religious freedom ruling, attempts to regulate #BigTech and comfort in #Job. #ZippyTheWonderSnail 🏁🐌🏁
Jason and I are having an awful lot of fun talking about news and culture on the podcast. Love to have you join us!
Being in THE Kingdom is Greater than Our Present Kingdom
This #July4th weekend, I'm thankful for the liberties/privileges of being an American, but unquestionably value my faith more than my nationality
— Joshua Wu, PhD (@joshswu) July 2, 2021
I'm not an outlier#Asian #evangelicals are most likely to value religion>being American, ~3x more likely than White evangelicals pic.twitter.com/m8MwTpRhTk
How sad that just 13% of white Evangelicals say their religious belief is more important than being American. One will pass away, one will not. Hold to Christ first and, only then, with thankfulness to Him, be grateful for the freedoms we celebrate this weekend.
Not the Enemy
Facebook reminded me that I wrote the following 4 years ago today. The point seems even more applicable now than it did four years ago…
Today’s attack against the Republican baseball team by someone apparently angry because of his opposing political ideology is an example of why we need to change our rhetoric. We need to stop acting as if those whom we disagree with are the enemy. At times we may disagree. At times those whom we disagree with might be genuinely wrong, even. The problem is when we take “I disagree” or “I think you are wrong” and turn it into “I think you are evil.”
As Christians, we are called by Christ to lead the way on this: when we interact in the political sphere or anywhere else, we should have our words filled with Christ’s love, even when we must disagree.
Prayer for the Presidents We Like and Don't Like Alike
Barring some surprising twist as key states recount votes, it appears we are going to have a new resident in the White House come January. I am going to write the exact same thing I posted on Facebook almost two weeks ago about Justice Barrett’s confirmation:
If you are celebrating the election of Vice President Biden as the next President, please pray for him (and Sen. Harris, too). If you are upset about the election of Vice President Biden, please pray for him (and Sen. Harris, too). We desperately need to spend more time praying for our leaders than politicking over them.
This is very much what the Bible commanded us to do over the last four years for President Trump and Vice President Pence, and it is what it will continue to command us to do for President Biden and Vice President Harris (1 Tim. 2:2, 1 Pet. 2:17).
Too often, my own heart wants to pray for and respect leaders who are in the party I choose and not “the other party.” I (and I suspect most of us) need to constantly be repenting of that.
Every time the White House switches parties, it is good to do a check to see if we are aligning with the Scripture’s call to give honor to and pray for our leaders. If my intentions about prayer and honor change as the administration changes, I have either been sinning or am about to be sinning (perhaps both!).
We shouldn’t honor and pray for President Trump and then stop when we arrive at President Biden. Likewise, if we’ve been failing to honor and pray for President Trump, we shouldn’t just start with the next administration, we should repent and pray for the forty-fifth president even as the time is fast approaching for a forty-sixth president.
I shared more on these matters in my message for Little Hills this past week, prior to the election. It’s embedded below for anyone interested in digging more into what Scripture says on these things.
A German Take on the NSA
A fascinating op-ed in the New York Times from Malte Spitz:
In Germany, whenever the government begins to infringe on individual freedom, society stands up. Given our history, we Germans are not willing to trade in our liberty for potentially better security. Germans have experienced firsthand what happens when the government knows too much about someone. In the past 80 years, Germans have felt the betrayal of neighbors who informed for the Gestapo and the fear that best friends might be potential informants for the Stasi. Homes were tapped. Millions were monitored.
Those last two, short sentences sound familiar?
Three weeks ago, when the news broke about the National Security Agency's collection of metadata in the United States, I knew exactly what it meant. My records revealed the movements of a single individual; now imagine if you had access to millions of similar data sets. You could easily draw maps, tracing communication and movement. You could see which individuals, families or groups were communicating with one another. You could identify any social group and determine its major actors.
All of this is possible without knowing the specific content of a conversation, just technical information ”” the sender and recipient, the time and duration of the call and the geolocation data.
The Whistleblower
The whistleblower, who revealed the shockingly disturbing surveillance techniques that the National Security Administration has been engaging in, has revealed himself as Edward Snowden.
For him, it is a matter of principle. “The government has granted itself power it is not entitled to. There is no public oversight. The result is people like myself have the latitude to go further than they are allowed to,” he said.
I'm sure the government will go after him. I hope the public makes it clear it won't tolerate the government doing so.
Why Aaron's Law is Needed
The tragic case of Aaron Schwartz keeps getting more tragic and infuriating:
Middlesex County's district attorney had planned no jail time, “with Swartz duly admonished and then returned to civil society to continue his pioneering electronic work in a less legally questionable manner,” the report said. “Tragedy intervened when Ortiz's office took over the case to send 'a message.'”
Ortiz's clearly self-promoting motives come into clearer focus as the article goes on to describe another one of her current cases:
Ortiz, 57, also came under fire this week for her attempt to seize a family-owned motel in Tewksbury, Mass., for allegedly facilitating drug crimes, despite ample evidence that the owners worked closely with local police. In a stinging rebuke, U.S. Magistrate Judge Judith Dein tossed out the case yesterday, siding with the motel owners — represented by the public-interest law firm Institute for Justice — and noting that prosecutors had alleged a mere “15 specific drug-related incidents” over a 14-year period during which “the Motel Caswell rented out approximately 196,000 rooms.”
We need to reform our technology laws and ensure that they protect innovation, but with an eye to protecting people first. It might not be the sort of thing that gets people motivated to go to the polls, but we desperately need copyright and patent reform to end situations like the one that apparently convinced Schwartz he had no better alternative than to kill himself.
Politically Savvy
Conor Friedersdorf reports:
Asked who won the town hall between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama, Los Angelenos were emphatic. The problem: The event hadn't yet happened.
Frightening and yet seemingly completely in agreement with my own experience discussing candidates with people.
Confirms My Polling Thoughts...
I've been rather surprised to see numerous comments this election cycle about Rasmussen's alleged Republican bias in polling data. This was a surprise to me, since I've always found Rasmussen's polling rather accurate, probably in no small part because of Rasmussen's finely tuned robocalling strategy. The rationale for the alleged bias — other than the higher numbers Republicans sometimes receive in Rasmussen's polling — seems to be two-fold: Scott Rasmussen provides analysis for Fox News and is known to be a Republican.
The first issue is circular, since Rasmussen's alleged bias factors into the analysis of Fox News's own bias. Is Alan Colmes biased towards Republicans, too? The second issue is a red herring. Every pollster is biased, but that doesn't really have anything to do with his data unless his data is shown to be inaccurate. A Fordham University professor looked at 20 major polls to see which one most accurately reflected the actual results of the 2008 Presidential Election and found Rasmussen and Pew to be the only ones to match the real results. Rasmussen consistently showed McCain-Palin as stronger than the other polls did, but that wasn't a bias — it was an accurate prediction of how actual voting would go.
I personally don't follow pollsters because I agree or disagree with them, but because I think this or that one gives me better data. Isn't that what most folks (other than a politicos looking to gain momentum) want from polling data?
