The Week in Review and the Song of the Week: "Topeka" by Ludo

by Ben Howard

Happy Saturday everybody! I hope you're all having a good day. Personally, I'm pretty excited since today is the day I officially graduate with my Master's in Theological Studies! However, since I'm not big on sitting in a crowd for hours waiting to hear my name, I'll be spending that time in the studio working on future podcast episodes.

Which reminds me, tomorrow will mark the release of the On Pop Theology podcast with my wonderful co-hosts Leigh Bonner and Sebastian Faust (and various other guests in the future). We did get approval from iTunes so it will be available in the iTunes store for download and subscription. I'll also have links up if you want to stream it directly or download it outside of iTunes. Now for the week in review.

The Week in Review

Monday - On Selling Out and Redemption

"I was grieved because in the piece K’Naan details the advice that led him to change his latest record in the search for a wider audience and more success. He laments how the changes robbed his latest album of the soul and grit of his earlier works, and how he feels like he has lost his voice in a search for success."

Tuesday - Why I Don't Understand Anger and Bitterness

"Yesterday I discovered this amazing Twitter feed. Its handle is @avoidcomments. It’s pretty simple. Once a day or so it tweets out a friendly reminder that you should never ever read the comments online. The comment section is a dark place full of misunderstandings and anger and terrible monsters with nasty, big, pointy teeth."

Wednesday - Ten Actors Who Should Play God (In a Movie)

"I think it’s a given that Morgan Freeman is the voice of moral authority in my generation. Perhaps he’s not the personification of it, but certainly the voice. He’s played the wise President in Deep Impact, the wise inmate in The Shawshank Redemption, the wise narrator in March of the Penguins, and most importantly to our discussion today he played God. Twice."

Thursday - On War and Football by Lyndsey Graves

"To reconcile these two – to discern the time for laughter and the time for mourning – takes more wisdom than I have. All I can really do is put more words to this state of affairs. When you major in theology there is this phrase you hear a hundred times, and I should be tired of it but I never will be. I feel like I can carry my hope and longing and gratitude all in this six-word phrase when I borrow this description of life on Earth: here we live in “the already and the not yet”.

Friday - Lord of the Rings and Anti-Semitism in the Church by Carlee Beatty

"I know that Tolkien himself compared the dwarves in the Lord of the Rings series to the Jewish people, but as I generally try not to fall prey to intentional fallacy, I would argue that isn’t the case. I would argue that there is only one Jewish character in Lord of the Rings, and that is Gollum."

The song of the week this week is from a pop-punk band named Ludo. It randomly showed up on Pandora for me earlier this week and it's been stuck in my bed all week. I hope you enjoy "Topeka".

Peace,
Ben

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