Around the Horn – 6/9/17

At first today is a homerun. It is A Discussion on Church and Race with Dr. Voddie Baucham and Pastor Douglas Wilson. It is refreshing and challenging in many respects. One major concern of mine that it taps into is that there is a sort of litmus test in some circles of evangelicalism about how racially sensitive (read: gospel centered) you are on. I wish I could delve into more of this because I think it is significant and my experience of the last almost 20 years has informed my view. But skip my thoughts for now and listen to it. It’s long (ninetyish minutes) but well worth it. Load it up on your phone and take a walk or two. It has a bit of humor in it, so be warned if you are humorless.

At second is a good article about home plate.  Yes, the 17 inches that every batter from T-ball right on up to the major league stands beside and gets judged on. Oh sure, the umps might miss it here or there (though their view from right behind the plate is better than yours from behind the fence down the first base line so quit yapping and cheer your kids on). Hold yourself and those under you and around you to 17 inches. Don’t widen the plate. But I would add this: Be sensitive to the situation. If Little League umpires used a rigid inches for every single pitch, we would still be out there … from the game two weeks ago.

At third is a collection of interviews and articles about Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse put together by Andy Naselli. Sasse has written a new book entitled The Vanishing American Adult. It looks interesting. The interviews are interesting. It’s worth your time to hear this senator talk about the challenges facing our culture.

The homerun today is Carl Trueman writing In Defense of Educational Administrators. Any one with half a brain is troubled by the atmosphere on college campuses and high schools for that matter. If you are not disturbed, feel free to make an inference from that. Trueman argues briefly that this is not about political correctness, pandering, or cowardice. It is much more sinister: It is what education has become. Education is, to use Trueman’s words, therapeutic rather than transformative. There was a day not so long ago that one went to higher education to learn things he had not yet learned (including the proper use of pronouns). These days, the idea of being challenged to learn something new about the world is considered aggression and hate speech. It might be the dreaded micro-aggression, that aggression that is so small and silly it would not be noticed except for small-minded and silly-minded people. I doubt it will change anytime soon. Never has a college degree cost more and been worth less than it is today. I doubt that will change anytime soon either.