College Presidents, Canada's Cost of Living & Common Sense
Here’s your weekly(-ish) roundup of everything I’ve curated or created online, December 10–December 16, 2023.
Thought-Provoking Content
FIRE to Congress, University Presidents: Don’t Expand Censorship. End It. by Nico Perrino at FIRE:
And as frustrating as it is to hear the college presidents’ appeals to “context” in yesterday’s hearing, particularly when it doesn’t seem to matter to them when other speech is at issue, the truth is that context does matter.
Canada's Surging Cost of Living Fuels Reverse Immigration by Wa Lone in Reuters:
On average in Canada about 60% of household income would be needed to cover home ownership costs, a figure that rises to about 98% for Vancouver and 80% for Toronto, RBC said in a September report.
Lessons on Limiting Liberty from Hannah and Burley Coulter by Isaac Wood in Front Porch Republic:
Some of the greatest challenges of today—pervasive loneliness, division, and isolation—come down to valuing personal liberty over relational obligations.
Religion and the Green Lumber Fallacy: Common Sense and Basic Decency are Underrated by Intellectuals by Zohar Atkins in What Is Called Thinking?:
From a trading point of view, it doesn’t matter if the lumber is [literally] green or not; what matters is the price action. Similarly, a person who offers a sincere, heartfelt and efficacious prayer needn't know anything about the ontology of prayer.
Music
Oh lift me up from this hell called home
where the blood of children speaks
of the wars we've made
of the lives we trade
for this desert of prosperity
That we may see what we could not see
And touch what was out of reach
And we may know what we could not know
And hold what we could not hold
Devotional
Whiter Than Snow
By Pastor David Hamstra
When I lived in Australia, people, hearing from my accent that I was from North America, would often ask me, "Have you been to the snow?"
My standard reply was, "Where I'm from, the snow comes to you!"
In warmer climates snow is an exotic substance, rarely encountered and having an aspect of mystery and wonder. While snow does fall on Jerusalem every decade or so, for the people to whom the Old Testament was originally written, snow would have mostly been viewed from a distance. Gleaming in the sun and visible from the northern bounds of the Galilee region, the snow-capped peaks of Mount Hermon in southern Syria would have been among the brightest hues they might ever witness.
Thus, when the Hebrew writers wanted to emphasize that something was extremely white, they would compare it to snow. This sort of uncanny whiteness could be the sign of the dreaded skin disease (not exactly the same as modern leprosy) that resulted in exclusion from the shared life of God's covenant community due to the ritual impurity it conferred (for example, Numbers 12:10). But this sort of extraordinary whiteness, comparable only to gleaming snow, could also be a hallmark of the glory that set apart God and his holy things (Daniel 7:9; Lamentations 4:7, respectively).
You might think that the opposite of white is black, but in the Old Testament, the opposite of white is red:
"Come now, and let us reason together," Says the Lord, "Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool" (Isaiah 1:18).
Here, red is the color of wrongly shed-blood demanding justice (Genesis 4:10)—a symbol of the worst sorts of sins one can commit (Leviticus 17:4). Yet, as with white, red can also have a positive symbolic meaning, as when blood was applied to purge and cover the guilt of sin. The ritual of the red heifer brings together a number of red objects in addition to the cow—blood, cedar, hyssop, and crimson dye—in order to purify the bodies of those defiled by contact with the dead (Numbers 19).
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow (Psalm 51:7).
When our consciences are burdened by guilt, shame, and fear, who can remove the stain of blood-guilt and the awful whiteness of impurity? Where do we find the blood of purification that can make us white with the glory of God?
Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?”
And I said to him, “Sir, you know.”
So he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb (Revelation 7:13–14).
The Lamb is none other than Jesus Christ, who by his self-sacrificial death, takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). And if you accept his sacrifice on your behalf, he will take away our sin as well.
Fragment
The Concept of the Investigative Judgment in 50 Words
The parable of the unforgiving servant teaches that God may withdraw forgiveness if we do not live as those who have been forgiven. The investigative judgment is when God shows the heavenly council that he will never withdraw our forgiveness because we are allowing the Holy Spirit to transform us.