Matthew Tyler @MatthewTyler674

A pastor friend ends each day by asking his children, "Have I sinned against you in any way? Is there anything that I need to ask your forgiveness for?" Imagine how healthy churches could be if all members treated each other like that. Lord, teach us humility, charity, and love.

An incredibly good piece on Slate talking about Wilson's reaction to Nolan's Odyssey. The whole thing is worth reading, but as someone who keeps looking with bafflement at people complaining about Agamemnon's portrayal, seeing this paragraph gave me hope that I'm not alone.

I know Emily Wilson is viral for savaging Nolan's Odyssey but give some attention instead to reading the superb review of the film by the great USC classicist (& my friend) Prof. Stefano Rebeggiani, who sees in it a legitimate & beautiful narrative logic! angelusnews.com/arts-culture/o…

I'm a huge Emily Wilson fan She taught me ancient Greek. I've assigned her translations to my students. I interviewed her about translating the Odyssey a few weeks ago for my YouTube I'm not a fan of this review. And for what, I think, are good reasons (SPOILERS) /1

I am, honestly, very happy to take the L on this one. $117M for an R-rated, three-hour, sword and sandal movie is an astronomical figure. If it has even average holds for a Nolan movie, it could get to $400M domestic. That's ... insane.

Sonny Bunch @SonnyBunch

3 weeks ago

A 95% chance above $105M domestic? That's overly aggressive. A *65%* chance above $115M? Strikes me as way too high. I just don't think there's enough IMAX inventory to hit anywhere close to that, and people will wait a few weeks if they have to.

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Finished The Odyssey today— just in time to see the movie tonight.

Homer would have been perfectly justified in focusing exclusively on men—it is actually allowed, in case we’ve forgotten, to tell stories about men and be interested first and foremost in men. That is still legal in all fifty states and parts of Europe. But as it happens the Odyssey, of all classic texts, can fairly be described as obsessed with different kinds of women, with their psychology, their subjectivity, the ethics of their actions and their roles in world affairs. Not only is the whole plot occasioned, as many have noted, by the decisions of the woman *that Lupita herself is playing*, it’s also driven by Odysseus’s devotion to his wife, Penelope, who shows up before he does in the plot and whose unique personality is the whole reason he can’t just give up his journey home. He is the most famous wife guy in history. In the very first sequence where Odysseus speaks, the goddess Calypso is exasperated that he won’t just give up already and let her make him immortal, which by any objective measure is a better deal than schlepping back home through *yet more* storms, loss, sleeplessness, violence, and agony. He replies that yes, by all accounts no mortal woman can hold a candle to a goddess, but Penelope is *his* wife, and he is willing to leave the bliss of the divine bed specifically because of *the person that Penelope is* and what she means to him. In other words the theme and focus of the poem, set up quite explicitly by Homer at the outset of the hero’s journey, is the particular uniqueness of Penelope as a character: *her* virtues, *her* wits, the match she makes for Odysseus and everything their shared history means to him and to her. Not to mention that of course this is all given texture by being set against the really quite astonishing number of *other* female characters and the rounded humanity (or deity) they present. Besides Calypso, Helen, and Penelope there’s Athena, the terrifyingly relentless and inscrutable power upon whom both Odysseus and his son Telemachus depend to achieve their aims. Hera, the jilted codependent, Eurycleia, the devoted model of resolve and care, Arete, the canny power behind the throne of Phaeacia, Circe, the scheming enchantress, and Clytemnestra, whose negative example as an unfaithful wife obsesses almost every character, serving as the foil and anti-type to Penelope’s heroic patience. I haven’t even come close to exhausting the list. Then there’s the Iliad, which despite taking place very much in a man’s world still gives us unforgettable women: Andromache, tragic hostage of fortune, Hecuba, regal model of dignity in disaster, Thetis, formidable tiger mom, Aphrodite, petty princess of the gods…the poem closes with women’s words, words of lament for the fallen hero Hector. I maintain that Lupita is a hugely talented and very beautiful actress who has been treated to extremely unfair and ungentlemanly talk in the press cycle around this movie. Her silliness here doesn’t mean her performance will be bad. But it’s sad that she defaults into this Disney Princess press junket pablum. It speaks to the surpassing shallowness and boring ignorance of Hollywood’s fashionable assumptions. Homer is so, so much more than this.

George Alexopoulos @GPrime85

4 weeks ago

"Very little time in the Odyssey is spent in the perspective of a woman" O illiterate founder of Greece, the goddess Athena (a female) drives the entire story from start to finish. Her fingerprints are on every page. The entire point of the story is that mortals, in spite of

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If you love Jesus you should love what Jesus loves, and that ultimately means you should be an official, active, and serving member of your local church (Eph. 5:25). Church membership should be normal for Christians. Lives lived in regular accountability demonstrate the gospel’s reality to the world, particularly through the mutual love that Jesus identified as the mark of his followers. This is both biblical and strengthens evangelistic witness. Weaker and newer Christians gain feeding and accountability through membership, and mature and seasoned believers demonstrate authentic Christian living. Hebrews calls believers to “consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works,” explicitly warning against forsaking assembly “as the manner of some is” (Heb. 10:24–25). This suggests participation isn’t optional but essential to spiritual health. Church membership preserves biblical truth by establishing who bears responsibility for rooting out false teaching and protecting the gospel when leadership itself becomes compromised. Paul’s letter to the Galatians exemplifies this. I say this as a positional elder in my church — Paul appealed to the whole congregation rather than leadership alone to address doctrinal corruption. Think about it: how are you to “bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal 6:2), which positions mutual care as a central Christian obligation, if you’re not actively in a membership role? Thessalonians similarly exhorts believers to “encourage one another and build one another up” (1 Thess 5:11), framing encouragement as a reciprocal responsibility that requires presence and investment. Healthy membership equips believers to recognize heresy when taught or communicated and transforms them from passive consumers into active defenders of the faith. Acts depicts the early church persevering in apostolic teaching, communion, and gathering daily, with believers holding possessions in common (Acts 2:42–47), a portrait of intensive communal engagement rather than individual isolated devotion or nominal affiliation. Ultimately, practicing membership glorifies God as Christians gather to form his body, living under the life giving words of scripture, fellowshipping with one another sacrificially, and reflecting his character.

I don’t see how you can effectively shepherd people without one.

Josh Barzon @JoshuaBarzon

a month ago

Should a church interview people before membership?

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This seems accurate to me.

Conley Owens 🦡 @SiliconConley

2 months ago

One of the last classes I took in seminary required a few missiology books. All my former studies felt anchored in the word, but I felt like suddenly every author I was reading was flying by the seat of their pants. I think the whole field is due for a rehaul.

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We are right now in the middle of our post-Easter secular holiday calendar during which all supposed Easter momentum seems lost and the Lord’s Day gets crowded by Mother’s Day School’s Out Memorial Day Father’s Day Juneteenth Independence Day Pastor—Don’t compromise your preaching calendar but preach the next text next. And don’t be discouraged by wavering weekly headcounts during this transient season, but keep doing your best to shepherd your flock.

Just received a phone call from nearby faithful pastor who I’ve known for a long time and with whom I share secondary disagreements on ecclesiology. He said, “Jeff, I’ve got a family here who is conscientiously convinced contrary to our polity, and after many discussions, I’m sending him your way. A great family and a blessing to any church they’re a part of.” Then we shared stories of God’s faithfulness in our lives and ministries, and committed to seeing each other again soon. This is how local, cheerful, “for-Christ’s-kingdom-above-all”catholicity is done, folks.

I'll probably get clobbered for this, but here goes: Please, can everyone, right or left, MAGA or anti-MAGA, Republican or Democrat, stop catastrophizing and trying to get everyone on your side worked up into a rage? It's not Flight 93. We're not on the verge of fascism. We do not need to take desperate measures. Our fellow citizens with whom we disagree are not devils incarnate or personifications of evil. We need to argue with our political adversaries--passionately perhaps--but with respect for their humanity and dignity. We don't need to destroy them. That mustn't be our aim. We all say we believe in democracy. Good! But democracy is all about persuading, giving reasons, engaging one another as fellow citizens, despite our disagreements. Let's rebuild civic friendship. We can do this. (Thank you for your attention to this matter.)

I'm reading "Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor" about Tom Carson (DA Carson's Father). He was done wrong by TT Shields, the most famous pastor of his era and area. (He ministered as a missionary pastor in Quebec). Shields' actions were so egregious that it caused a huge rift in the Union Baptists and ended up starting a new seminary where most of the students went. But DA Carson never heard of it. In fact, despite the personal slight, his parents praised Shields to their children , shared his books with them and recounted the good things he had done. Carson had to learn of the truth of his own father for the first time studying Canadian Baptist history in college. Oh to have that grace for the people who have wronged us.

Principal Kirk Moore, who tackled the school shooter, walked into prom a few days later to a huge celebration from the students and was named prom king.

Of course, work towards a culture in your church where it’s normal for people to rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn. And in your preaching, when the Scriptures speak to mothers/fathers/barren/singles/whoever else, address them from the pulpit then.

One solution to this debate- and I realize it will be hard for people to understand this position- is for churches to not even create special services around “Mother’s Day” or “Father’s Day.” Just stick to your normal Lord’s Day services.

Ryan Visconti @ryanvisconti

4 months ago

Mother’s Day seems emotionally complex because churches haven’t pastored modern women well. This is worldly thinking in disguise and the byproduct of toxic empathy culture (which ladies are especially prone to). There are 51 other weeks of the year to talk about all the people

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My 7 year old is reading Sorcerer’s Stone and my 8 year old is reading Chamber of Secrets. Meanwhile, I’m about to finish reading Half Blood Prince out loud to them. Thank you @jk_rowling! (They’re sharing a bed because we’re on vacation).

🤣This is so true.

Reboot Harry Potter? Yes. Reboot LOTR? No.

IGN @IGN

4 months ago

Rather than move forward with spinoffs that cling to the original The Lord of the Rings movies, maybe the time has come to give the franchise a full, Harry Potter-style reboot. bit.ly/4rY74wY

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