stillhaventfound.org

International Development:

1) Books & Culture: Why the World Bank is vitally needed despite its flaws.

2) International Herald Tribune: The Chinese footprint growing across Africa.

3) Financial Times: Doing well or doing good, or both?

4) New Left Review: Clive Hamilton’s critical assessment of George Monbiot’s scheme for a 90 per cent cut in carbon emissions and Monbiot’s reply.

5) Financial Times: Dinner with Tim Flannery.

Politics & Economics:

6) The Nation: For Liberal Internationalism.

7) Prospect: My Brother the bomber.

Progressive Christianity:

8) Christianity Today: Seeker Unfriendly.

9) Evotional.com: 10 Thoughts on Vulnerability in Ministry.

Others:

10) The Huffington Post: Richard Rorty and the Riches of Progressive Argument.

America has nearly 115,000 orphaned kids in foster care waiting to be adopted. Some wonder how this is possible in a country with Christian families. Surely, there are 115,000 missional families in America, right? Missional families, for example, embrace the redemptive mission of God and practice “true religion” in their local communities (James 1:27). Missional Christians in America could eliminate the foster care system tomorrow if we would stop “shootin’ up” with the American Dream (heroine) in order to get high on a lame life lived for the sake of comfort and ease.

…The Washington Times reports that there are about 65 million evangelicals in America. So, again, why are there 115,000 orphans in America’s foster care system? Does this mean that there are 65 million people missing huge sections of their Bibles? Would someone please alert Crossway and Zondervan!

Historically, the early church was known for taking in their culture’s orphans and the needy. This is such an ancient tradition of the church (except for post-1960s American evangelicals) that Pope Benedict XVI even talked about it in his first encyclical “God is Love.” He writes, “the Church cannot neglect the service of charity any more than she can neglect the Sacraments and the Word. . . Justin Martyr in speaking of the Christians’ celebration of Sunday also mentions their charitable activity, linked with the Eucharist as such. Those who are able make offerings in accordance with their means, each as he or she wishes; the Bishop in turn makes use of these to support orphans, widows, the sick and those who for other reasons find themselves in need, such as prisoners and foreigners. The great Christian writer Tertullian relates how the pagans were struck by the Christians’ concern for the needy of every sort.”

…While not all Christians are gifted or equipped for taking in orphans it’s pretty convicting that 65 million American evangelicals can’t rescue 115,000 kids from an unstable hell. If the pagans in our neighborhoods aren’t struck by how our churches are applying the Word of God to the needy it’s possible that we aren’t the real deal yet.

(Orphans vs. American Dream)

I would agree wholeheartedly that we’re not doing everything that we can or should for the poor, and that hurts us.

The poor will save our souls. It’s the story of Lazarus and the rich man.

I mean, and that story haunts me because it’s a story about us today. You know, Lazarus is a poor man laid at the rich man’s doorstep and even has sores that dogs lick. And the rich man walks out gaily by him every day, dressed in purple.

And he doesn’t even give - and all Lazarus wants is the crumbs from his tables, and they both die. Lazarus goes to the bosom of Abraham, and the rich man goes to hell. And he says, Lazarus, help me out. Well, I can’t.

And I just look at that, and I just go, if we just engage the poor, they’ll save our souls. And that’s what I look at when I see–and go into Africa or poverty situations here, or even in prisons, and you actually talk with people.

(The poor will save us, Sam Brownback)

International Development:

1) Los Angeles Times: Africa fooled us again.

2) The Washington Post: ONE Campaign investing US$30 million to pressure the presidential candidates to focus on the international development as a national security issue.

3) TCS Daily: Douglas North and the importance of institutions.

4) Charles Kenny: Is Africa a Failure?

5) Pascal’s Wager on the existence of human-induced Climate Change.

Politics & Economics:

6) Tony Blair on the lessons of his decade as Britain’s Prime Minister.

7) Does a stressful childhood equate to a ‘liberal’ adulthood?

Progressive Christianity:

8) The pope’s half-hearted apology to indigenous groups in the Americas shows he has a long way to go in understanding history.

9) First Things: New Theology, Old Economics.

Others:

10) Is personality a lot more malleable than previously thought?

Without the poor there is no way to give directly to Christ…

Without the poor we cannot lend to God…

Without the poor moth, rust and thieves ruin all that we count dear to us…

(Why We Need the Poor)

International Development:

1) Is there such a thing as ethical coffee?

2) The Wilson Quarterly on the Millennium Villages Project.

3) Vanity Fair’s Africa Issue: Jeffrey Sach’s $200 Billion Dream & Bono’s (Red) Dream.

4) How Bono made Africa the focus of several Vanity Fair covers.

5) Design for the other 90% at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.

Politics & Economics:

6) The New York Times: Redefining liberalism.

7) The economics of laziness: Why a socialist society would produce a flowering of universal creativity.

Progressive Christianity:

8) The legacy of the “Social Gospel” - 100 years later.

9) Christianity Today: Christian Colleges’ Green Revolution.

Others:

10) The art of letting go.

I thought to myself that if sola scriptura can result in everything from the philosophical theology of Calvinism to the Open View of God, from Nicean Trinitarianism to social trinitarianism to Oneness Pentecostalism’s rehabilitation of Sabellianism to 19^th-century Unitarianism, then sola scriptura is not a sufficient bulwark for sustaining Christian orthodoxy. (Francis Beckwith)

International Development:

1) NewScientist: 26 most common climate change myths and misconceptions.

2) Saving globalization from itself.

3) The mysterious case of female protectionism: gender bias in attitudes towards international trade.

4) A video debunking the documentary “The Great Global Warming Swindle”.

5) How business is starting to tackle climate change, and how governments need to help. See also here.

Politics & Economics:

6) Foreign Policy: 21 solutions to save the world.

7) Zygmund Bauman proposes two defining principles for the left, and argues that these principles will always need to be battled for.

Progressive Christianity:

8) Christopher Hitchens and Douglas Wilson engage in a 6-part debate on “Is Christianity Good for the World?”.

9) Is There a Historical Right to the Land of Israel?

Others:

10) What exactly is Montessori education?