— Recommendations —     

Kids Bible Stories Podcast 

— In Show References — 

Glen Scrivener’s Twitter Thread 

Segment 1- The Midterms: what should our priorities be?

“Driving the recent re-think: the durability of inflation concerns among key voting groups, and trouble fighting Republicans’ message across several campaigns that Democrats’ support for criminal justice and policing reform means they are soft on crime, administration officials said.”

Reuters

“Across the country, Republicans are flooding the airwaves with bleak warnings — trying to link their opponents to murderers, child abusers and opioid overdoses. Democrats are countering that their rivals would imprison women who seek abortions. That’s in addition to vulnerable Democrats hyping their own work to fund and support law enforcement to answer GOP attacks in a two-year rhetorical clamor over progressives’ now-muted call to “defund the police.”

Politico

Segment 2- The National Report Card Illuminates Terrible Drop in Academic Achievement

“U.S. students in most states and across almost all demographic groups have experienced troubling setbacks in both math and reading, according to an authoritative national exam released on Monday, offering the most definitive indictment yet of the pandemic’s impact on millions of schoolchildren.”

The New York Times

“But the nation’s Catholic schools either held the line on their previous N.A.E.P. scores or lost substantially less ground than both public and charter schools. On eighth-grade reading scores, Catholic schools even managed to score a one-point improvement while charter and public schools each lost three points.”

America Magazine

Segment 3- Controversy over Virginia’s New Policy Guidelines on Trans Students in Schools

“The model policies will require parental approval of changes to a student’s name, along with any nicknames or changes in pronouns, and require student participation in school athletics and activities to be based on ‘biological sex’.” 

The Roanoke Times

“Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco)’s legislation to provide refuge for trans kids and their families, Senate Bill 107. It will take effect on January 1, 2023. SB 107 will protect trans kids and their families if they flee to California from Alabama, Texas, Idaho or any other state criminalizing the parents of trans kids for allowing them to receive gender-affirming care. If these parents and their kids come to California, the legislation will help protect them from having their kids taken away from them or from being criminally prosecuted for supporting their trans kids’ access to healthcare.”

Press Release

“When minors are in the state for gender-affirming care they cannot receive elsewhere, the bill says that the situation falls into an existing category of ’emergencies’ that give California courts clear jurisdiction: ‘a court of this state has temporary emergency jurisdiction over a child if the child is present in the state because the child has been unable to obtain gender-affirming health care or gender-affirming mental health care.'”

Reuters

Segment 4- Stories of the Week

“Science is being made subservient to religious values and immaterial claims because every worldview is a kind of faith. As the epistle of James warns, demons, too, believe, which is why we should all tremble when we consider where this “woke” religion is taking us. Even more, we can offer the world the true faith of One whose claims make science possible instead of laughable.”

Breakpoint

“The question is never whether politics will operate from worldview assumptions, but which worldview it will operate from. Systems that value work, protect human life, and allow for dissenting voices instead of silencing them will always be superior to systems that don’t. Therefore, Christians should engage the political “lane” as a way to love God and to love our neighbors. ”

Breakpoint

“Watching [Dahmer] won’t make every viewer a serial killer, but it won’t help us love our neighbors either. As Marshall McLuhan observed, we become what we behold. And eBay is reporting an influx of ‘Jeffrey Dahmer Halloween costumes’ listed for sale.”

The Point

“But the Church’s failures to do that don’t change that marriage was put into the world at creation, that the story of Scripture begins and ends with a wedding, that marriage is the relationship God uses to describe His relationship with His people, and that in our culture, marriage and family are under direct assault. ”

The Point