Author: Excerpts

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Books, Culture

“Modern Technology” Book Argues That Technology Diminishes Us

While our technologies can apparently empower us to become more of ourselves, they can also permit us to become less, diminishing us even as they purport to deliver “more” and “better,” “faster” and “easier.” A large and growing body of evidence suggests that the impact of modern technology—in particular, the impact of automatic machine technology—upon us is not altogether beneficial. The trajectory of modern machine development appears now to be diverging away from and not toward the enrichment of ordinary embodied human being.

My concern is that we are allowing ourselves to be diminished by our own technologies. This, I will argue, is something that we should resist.

Books, Culture

Fearless Prayer is a Book About the Purpose of Prayer

Even a spiritual luminary and scholar like J.I. Packer wrote that “we are all…poor strugglers in our experience of praying.” So if you’re new to prayer, or have crashed and burned many times over in your attempts at meaningful prayer, be of good cheer. You certainly are not alone. And just in case you think that because I am writing an upbeat book on prayer that I don’t struggle, that would not be true. I struggle along with the rest. It just comes with the territory. The occasional struggle, though, is well worth it.

Books, Culture

“The Seven Deadly Friendships” Offers Practical Wisdom for Finding Healthy Friendships

What does the Bible say [about predatory friends]?

Someone who joyfully pursues Christ has good, discernible fruit. Someone who consistently harms people, although they use all the correct Christian language and attend church like the rest of us, does not produce good fruit. Maybe it’s time we stop giving people who say all the right words a hall pass for predatory behavior. Instead, let’s be cautious when we meet someone with big words accompanied by bad actions.

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Books, Culture

What Does It Mean to be Welcoming to LGBT Christians?

While both sides have their narrow-minded, acrimonious crusaders, this debate is usually between people with good hearts. Faithful followers of Jesus who hold progressive views on same-sex matters are motivated by compassion and an admirable desire for fairness (often referred to as “justice”). They are compelled by a passion for equal and nondiscriminatory treatment of everyone. I know stories of people whose watershed moments came while facing the awful reality of racial discrimination and who want to be sure we do not make the sinful mistake of discriminating against same-sex attracted people.