Sky Links, 9-27-17

Above all, maintain constant love for one another, since love covers a multitude of sins.

-1 Peter 4:8

These are clips from Darren Wilson's new film, Questions With God.


  

Darren Wilson, Chad Norris, and friends: Questions With God.




Hypocrites who call out heresy

Scot McKnight wrote about hypocrisy vs. heresy.  Today, we have so many Christians who call out other Christians on the heresy charge, when the real issue is hypocrisy.

Put together, Jesus accuses the Pharisees for “hypocrisy” because (1) they had abused their teaching authority by teaching false things, (2) not living according to what they taught, and for (3) their desire for power and control. In addition, (4) their teaching was a focus on minor issues to the neglect of major issues.

They flattened the Torah into a listing of God’s will while Jesus saw love of God and love of others as the center of that Torah. If the Pharisees saw love as one of the commandments, however important, Jesus saw love as central and everything as expressive of that love. This reorients all of the Torah, all of teaching, and therefore all of praxis.

To be “hypocrite” is to be a false teacher who leads both self and others astray from the will of God. The term should not be limited to “contradiction between appearance and reality” (the classic definition of hypocrisy).

Scot McKnight, Heretic vs. Hypocrite





The Deleterious Effect of Smartphone Addiction on Teenagers 

Jean Twinge wrote about the negative effect that the constant use of smartphones & tablets has been having on us:

Rates of teen depression and suicide have skyrocketed since 2011. It’s not an exaggeration to describe iGen as being on the brink of the worst mental-health crisis in decades. Much of this deterioration can be traced to their phones.

Even when a seismic event—a war, a technological leap, a free concert in the mud—plays an outsize role in shaping a group of young people, no single factor ever defines a generation. Parenting styles continue to change, as do school curricula and culture, and these things matter. But the twin rise of the smartphone and social media has caused an earthquake of a magnitude we’ve not seen in a very long time, if ever. There is compelling evidence that the devices we’ve placed in young people’s hands are having profound effects on their lives—and making them seriously unhappy....

...One of the ironies of iGen life is that despite spending far more time under the same roof as their parents, today’s teens can hardly be said to be closer to their mothers and fathers than their predecessors were. “I’ve seen my friends with their families—they don’t talk to them...
Jean W. Twinge, Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?



Hope For Gen. Z

I found this 9 minute film on YouTube by Maggie Fuller, that was optimistic, positive, and inspiring: