Don't Let Me Die In The Desert (Weeks 1-2)

Christians and contraception, peace without quiet, science & cooking & book-flavored food, enjoying being mortal, chocolate sin

Reading

Books

Genesis (The Message)

John and I have undertaken, upon encouragement from his dad, to read the Bible in a year. We’re reading through a historical/chronological plan curated by YouVersion, and we’re reading it in the Message. It’s been fun to read the familiar verses in unfamiliar words; it’s helped us to notice things we never have before, and even question whether certain things are in the Bible. It pushes us back to the more familiar translations, causing us to dwell a bit more richly in the Scriptures. We’re deeply enjoying it. Hopefully this Substack will help hold me accountable so I don’t die in the desert with the Israelites.

The Summer of the Great-Grandmother, Madeleine L’Engle (still reading — this is my “midnights book,” which I’m reading as I nurse Virginia in the night)

Waiting on the Word, Malcolm Guite (still reading, though I should have been done on Epiphany… oops)

Articles / Essays

Christians and the Contraception Culture: How Dobbs provides an opportunity for reflection, C. Ben Mitchell, ERLC Light Magazine

I deeply appreciate Dr. Mitchell (my Ethics professor at Union University!) for writing on contraception, as well as the growing number of Protestants writing and thinking about whether contraception is licit for Christian use. It’s one of my favorite things to think about, and I appreciate thoughtful takes on both sides of the argument. I just haven’t heard an argument strong enough to convince me that it is licit for Christian use, so if you want to try your hand at convincing me, please be my guest. I’d love to be convinced.

“Christians mostly avoided contraception until recently, welcoming children as a gift from the Lord and realizing that widespread use of contraceptives would inevitably lead to promiscuity… Additionally, Mary Eberstadt’s volume, Adam and Eve After the Pill: Paradoxes of the Sexual Revolution, makes a convincing argument that widespread availability of contraception fueled the sexual revolution and its toxic aftermath of social pathologies such as abortion, divorce, cohabitation, and pornography… it’s time for evangelicals and other Christians to rethink their understanding of the relationship of marriage and procreation and what that means for being complicit in an anti-natal (against procreation) culture of contraception.”

In Memoriam: Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, Luke Stamps, Mere Orthodoxy

“For his doctrinal and ethical stands, Benedict won the respect and admiration of many evangelical Protestants. He has, indeed, sometimes jokingly been referred to as a “Protestant pope.” But, of course, he remained firmly committed to Roman Catholic dogma on those seminal controversies that marked the Protestant Reformation: justification, Scripture and tradition, the sacraments, Mariology, and so on.”

Hail and Blessed, Clare Coffey, Plough

“Hail and blessed be the hour, and the moment, in which the Son of God was born of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in the piercing cold. All the failure piling up over time, of a novena, of a year, of a lifetime, is irrelevant. There was an hour, and a moment, that moved the lever for us. In that hour, nothing is impossible.”

Poetry

Peace, Not Quiet, Lyndsay Rush

I’m not here for a quiet time I’m here
for a resounding one
I’m here to grate fresh parm all over my life
and never say “when”

Audio 

Science and Cooking: Physics Meets Food, From Homemade to Haute Cuisine; Michael Brenner, Pia Sorensen, & David Weitz

If I’m going to have grandchildren someday, I better get a move-on on my cooking skills. 2023 is the year I become a good cook. Not a great cook, but a good one. We’re taking this in phases. And this book has me off to a very sciency start. I’m not super keen on using equations and food-specific coefficients to determine my own cook-times, but if I were, this would be the book I’d turn to. I was interested to learn, however, that one cook literally made an “old book” flavor by treating and soaking an old book from the library! I’m not sure if I’d want to taste that.

Being Mortal, Atul Gawande (just finished)

I highly recommend this book, my first finished in 2023. It’s the momento mori we all need, and I’ve thought about it every day since I’ve finished. As my mother-in-law said, it’s a “perspective-altering book.” That it is. I listened on audiobook, and the end, the reader said, “We hope you have enjoyed being mortal.” I couldn’t help but laugh. But really, that’s kind of the point of the whole book — that enjoying life and living to the full is more important than the length of your days.

Writing

Abortion is Not Healthcare: The Historical and Biblical Understanding of a Doctor’s Obligation, Katelyn Walls Shelton, ERLC Light Magazine

“Biblical healing is always about restoration: sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and strength to the weak and crippled. In fact, the whole biblical story is about healing: of a fall that took place in our bodies, cursed our bodies, and ultimately of a healer who will restore us to our bodies in glory. Restoration is an affirmation of the goodness of God’s original creation and a sign of our ultimate destiny as human beings with God in eternity… This is what healthcare is: the practice of healing, the restoration of the body’s integrity and wholeness, a recognition of and reprieve from the curse of sin, which separates our bodies from our sense of self, and ourselves from God.”

Author’s page, WORLD Magazine

New articles coming soon — keep an eye out for commentary on the FDA’s new rule on the abortion pill and why Philip Pullman failed to write an anti-Christian story. As the kids these days say, “WATCH THIS SPACE.”

Loving

The Pancake Pantry in Nashville. This dish was called “Chocolate Sin” and it was certainly more indulgent than was good for me. And of course, hashbrowns.

Remembering

This Week

Last Year