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Good morning! I hope you\u2019ll enjoy this Weekend A La Carte collection. It includes some think pieces and longer articles that cover the new software on your phone, the new Narnia films, music, MAiD, and more.<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s Kindle deals<\/a> include some newer and older books. There\u2019s quite a collection of C.S. Lewis today if that\u2019s of interest.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Wirecutter wants to help parents understand some of the refinements to Apple\u2019s parental controls that come with iOS 27.<\/p>\n Apple\u2019s parental controls let you manage everything from screen time to what apps wind up on your kid\u2019s iPhone. But the latest version of Apple\u2019s iPhone software,\u00a0iOS 27<\/a>, refines those controls even further, making setup and management even easier while expanding what\u2019s under your control.<\/p>\n The same updated parental controls are built into iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27, and you\u2019ll need to upgrade to the latest versions across all your devices in your family to take full advantage of the new tools.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been using parental controls for a few years to make sure my teenage daughter is accessing age-appropriate apps and not staring too long at a screen. I spent the summer testing the beta version of Apple\u2019s updated iOS, and I have tips for parents looking to get the most out of it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Read: Apple Has New Parental Controls for Your Kid\u2019s iPhone. Here Are the 6 Settings to Know About.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Griffin Gooch delivered a long article on music this week. He begins it this way: \u201cI don\u2019t really like Christian music.\u201d As he continues, he explains why he doesn\u2019t like most Christian music, and then offers his attempts at a theology of music.<\/p>\n Music is like a therapist for our hurricanes of emotions\u2014our doubt or grief or joy or longings. Which is because, as Jeremy Begbie notes, \u201cMusic is capable of connoting dimensions of God\u2019s character or nature\u2014specifically His \u2018weight\u2019\u00a0and \u2018majesty\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Or, as the Christian philosopher Peter Kreeft put it, \u201cGod is love, and music is the language of love; therefore, music is the language of God.\u201d<\/p>\n And as a gift wrapped with dimensions of God\u2019s character and love, it\u2019s capable of \u201cappealing to the heart\u201d\u2014as if something about its frequencies and vibrations shiver past analytical exteriors, crawling into our inner hiding places.<\/p>\n This is why even non-\u201cChristian\u201d songs that express doubt or incompleteness or faux contentment can resonate with Christians\u2014and why non-Christians can resonate with \u201cChristian\u201d songs.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Unlike Griffin, I do appreciate a great deal of Christian music, but I still enjoyed much of what he writes here.<\/p>\n Read: A Theology of Music.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n If Canada has made one positive contribution to the world as it relates to euthanasia, it\u2019s probably serving as an example of how quickly it can go awry. It seems clear that the U.K. rejected euthanasia in part because of the Canadian example of what it can become. Hopefully other countries also pay attention.<\/p>\n Writing for TGC Canada, Ray Pennings explains how it came to this.<\/p>\n Canada\u2019s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) regime has undergone\u00a0one of the most rapid expansions\u00a0of any assisted dying system in the world since it was legalized in 2016. Originally introduced through Bill C-14, MAiD was limited to competent adults suffering from grievous and irremediable medical conditions whose natural deaths were \u201creasonably foreseeable.\u201d However, successive legislative changes and evolving clinical interpretation have broadened eligibility while reducing procedural safeguards. Today, MAiD accounts for roughly one in every 20 deaths, meaning Canada has the second-highest rate of assisted deaths in the world.<\/p>\n The Netherlands remains the only jurisdiction with a higher proportion of deaths resulting from euthanasia, but it reached that level after more than two decades of legalization. Canada surpassed 3 percent of all deaths within just five years of legalizing MAiD, making it the fastest-growing assisted dying program on record.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Read: Canada\u2019s MAiD Regime: How We Became a World Leader in Assisted Death.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n We have all heard that Eastern Orthodoxy is growing and that it is drawing many of its new adherents from Protestant churches. We have probably also heard that many of these new adherents are young men. Trevin Wax did some research and gave this some thought, and his thoughts are worth reading.<\/p>\n Not long ago, a friend asked me about an article he\u2019d come across online, one of those stories combining news and analysis that makes the rounds on social media and stirs up conversation among the Twittering class. The gist went something like this: There\u2019s a gender gap in Baptist youth groups (they skew overwhelmingly female), while the Eastern Orthodox are attracting young men who are fed up with the effeminate nature of evangelical worship songs and teaching style.<\/p>\n Analysis like this shows up on a regular basis, often backed by a few anecdotes and hastily assembled statistics. Claims like this frustrate me, not because there\u2019s nothing true in the anecdotes but because the narrative being presented isn\u2019t borne out by the statistics, and because I suspect writers who\u00a0want\u00a0<\/em>a certain narrative to be true will cobble together whatever fits to give their pet project or pet peeve a kind of propulsive power.\u00a0Don\u2019t you know things are moving in this direction? So get with the program!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n I think this statistic is especially interesting: \u201cThere are four times as many Baptist churches in Tennessee as there are Orthodox churches in the entire country.\u201d<\/p>\n Read: Are Evangelical Worship Songs Driving Young Men to Eastern Orthodoxy?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n For months now, there have been rumors that in the forthcoming film adaptations of the Narnia books, Aslan will be voiced by Meryl Streep. Sure enough, this week the rumors were verified. I may have something to say about this in the future, but for now, here is Samuel James with an open letter to Greta Gerwig, who is directing them.<\/p>\n There are a fair number of Narnia-loving fans who are a bit put out by the decision to cast Meryl Streep as the voice of Aslan. Full disclosure: I am one of them. I think this was a mistake, but not a devastating one. I think good faith people can disagree about art without such disagreements poisoning our capacity to hear one another, or even worse, becoming instruments of self-righteousness to assure ourselves we are Better Than Them (the writer Scott Alexander calls this the \u201cscissor\u201d effect, and I pray it stays far away from your movie).<\/p>\n In the spirit of resisting this, then, I want to make a winsome and respectful case that it would have been better to cast a revered, gifted male actor to voice Aslan. You\u00a0told Empire magazine<\/a>\u00a0that you selected Ms. Streep because she is \u201cprofound but not pretentious\u201d and had \u201cgravitas but not morose self-seriousness.\u201d You said you needed someone who \u201ccould communicate depth and pathos as well as joy and delight.\u201d This is right-on. And Ms. Streep certainly seems more than able to deliver on this.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Read: An Open Letter to Greta Gerwig.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Also read Murray Campbell: Meryl Streep Is the New Aslan.<\/a><\/strong> <\/p>\n Writing for National Review<\/em>, Noah Rothman writes about some of the craziness that was \u201cWoke 1,\u201d while urging that we don\u2019t think wokeness has gone away or been defeated. In fact, \u201cWoke 2\u201d could be quite a lot worse.<\/p>\n Even though it was a movement in which she took a starring role, Ocasio-Cortez tried to blame everyone else for the excesses of wokeness.<\/p>\n You see, \u201cduring Covid, there was a huge opening of the Overton window,\u201d she explained to Karl \u2014 as if she hadn\u2019t used her own muscle to open it. When there was no stigma associated with it, AOC eagerly cast herself as an avatar of wokeness. She joined her fellow radicals in calling for the abolition of federal immigration enforcement, the erasure of offensive American holidays, and \u201cprison abolition\u201d \u2014 all long before lockdown.<\/p>\n But the New York Democrat was only racing to the front of a parade already in procession. Well before the pandemic, the voters with whom Ocasio-Cortez tried to ingratiate herself booed Bernie Sanders when he endorsed the civil rights movement\u2019s approach to dealing with \u201cwhite supremacists.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Read: The Future of Woke.<\/a><\/strong> (I believe you should be able to read the article without having an account.)<\/p>\n Earlier in the week I asked what you are enjoying these days and therefore what you recommend. Here are some of the replies.<\/p>\n Colleen<\/strong> recommends Rosaria Butterfield\u2019s book, Five Lies of Our Anti-Christian Age<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n James<\/strong> has been listening to James White\u2019s free church history series<\/a> and says, \u201cI have found it very helpful for apologetics and also for my own walk.\u201d<\/p>\n Rebecca<\/strong> recommends gardening. \u201cI\u2019m in the middle of harvest season, and every day as I harvest I am reminded of the way God created the world to provide a bounty of tasty foods for his creatures. Most people won\u2019t be able to start a garden right now, but you might be able to start planning for one next year, even if it\u2019s only a pot or two of veggies on a balcony.\u201d<\/p>\n Bob<\/strong> enjoys the \u201cFoundations by ICM<\/a>\u201d app. He says, \u201cit\u2019s basically a Genesis to Revelation study of the Bible in 180 (25 minute) audio lessons done by pastor Dick Woodward.\u201d He and his wife listen to it together most evenings.<\/p>\n Lizzy<\/strong> suggests you consider Courage: Fighting Fear With Fear<\/a><\/em> by Wayne and Joshua Mack. \u201cThis book has helped me so much with fighting the fear of man and growing in the fear of God! It is extremely thorough, Biblical and practical.\u201d<\/p>\n Michael<\/strong> is being greatly challenged by Glen Scrivener\u2019s book, The Air We Breathe<\/a><\/em>. He says this book can make even more of an impact for those who live in a non-western culture. (See my review of this book here<\/a>.)<\/p>\nRecommended Reading<\/h2>\n
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This Week\u2019s Top Links<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
Reader Recommendations<\/h2>\n