Mark Driscoll » Marriage Mission Church Worldviews Wisdom Culture

In the weekly Resurgence Roundup, I compile some of the most interesting content I find online, as it pertains to the church and the people God has called us to reach. Keep in mind, I don’t endorse or agree with everything you’ll see included in the roundup.

Cultural trends

They loved your G.P.A. Then they saw your tweets.

The New York Times:
As certain high school seniors work meticulously this month to finish their early applications to colleges, some may not realize that comments they casually make online could negatively affect their prospects. In fact, new research from Kaplan Test Prep, the service owned by the Washington Post Company, suggests that online scrutiny of college hopefuls is growing.

 

A guy thing: Eating disorders increase in men

USA Today: 
Though eating disorders are commonly considered female conditions, a study released last week indicates that many young men suffer from undiagnosed eating disorders and distortions of body image. . . . The results indicated that 17.9% of teenage males were extremely concerned about their physique—and more likely to engage in dangerous behaviors such as alcohol and drug abuse.

 

Why the gay rights issue is not like Prohibition

The American Conservative: 
The tide change on homosexuality is no roll-back of a temporary experiment, as was the case for making alcohol a controlled substance. Instead, it has been absorbed into a powerful progressive narrative about the way that “history bends” (in [President] Obama’s formulation), and thus has been joined strongly in Democratic rhetoric to causes (like slavery and civil rights) that don’t (and logically can’t) stop at simple mockery. Racial supremacists today aren’t just silly and ignorable; they’re evil, and need to be aggressively denied any chance to participate in public life, ever.

 

My abortion: 26 women share their abortion stories

New York Magazine:
Heather, 32: I’ve had two abortions, and if my family knew, my relationship with my family would be gone. . . . I’m crazy in love with my daughters—imagine if I did that to them? It’s almost too much to open the door of guilt and shame because it’ll all overcome me. In the waiting room, there was a dead silence that’s hard to describe. Everyone was holding in her emotions to a heartbreaking degree. Truly pro-life people should go light on the judgment, because shame motivates abortions.

 

(No) condom culture: Why teens aren’t practicing safe sex

TIME:
A recent study released by the Sex Information and Education Council of Canada found that nearly 50% of sexually active college students aren’t using condoms. . . . “People don’t have the fear of death from sex like they had 15 years ago.”

 

Homeschooled children seized by German officials now attending government school

Christian News Network:
Four homeschooled children who were seized by German officials earlier this year are now attending government schools after their parents agreed to the condition in order to have them returned home. . . . “We feel ravaged by the government. We don’t want our children in school but we have no choice—we can’t leave and if we don’t comply they will take our children away.”

 

Americans’ participation in labor force hits 35-year low

CNS News:
The percentage of American civilians 16 or older who have a job or are actively seeking one dropped to a 35-year low in October, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In September, the labor force participation rate was 63.2 percent, but in October it dropped to 62.8 percent—the lowest it has been since February 1978, when Jimmy Carter was president.

 

American church news

Christian organization cancels ‘Duck Dynasty’ event because Robertsons have wine deal

Fox News:
Despite his devotion to dinner time prayers and Christian values, “Duck Dynasty” star Willie Robertson has been axed from speaking at a benefit in Bristol, Tenn. for the faith and Bible-driven organization, Family Ministries [after] the famous family announced its latest business venture last week: Duck Commander Wines.

 

A lesbian lawmaker for religious liberty

The American Conservative:
Hawaii state Rep. Jo Jordan, [a] Democrat and out lesbian who is not part of a church community . . . opposes the state’s marriage equality bill as currently written because in her view, it doesn’t protect religious liberty strongly enough. . . . “I am not part of any faith-based group, so I walked in thinking those were going to be the ones going, grrrr, grrrr. But unfortunately, it’s been coming from my community during the hearing. I was like, ‘Wow, so much for minorities that have been suppressed.’”

 

Retired police officer arrested for sharing gospel in New Jersey mall

Christian News Network:
A retired police officer was arrested and charged with trespassing this week for witnessing to patrons of a New Jersey mall. . . . “I simply approached individuals and asked them if I could ask them a question. If they said no, I left them alone,” Wells explained. “If they said yes I simply asked, ‘Are you going to Heaven?’ How I responded was based on how they answered that question.”

 

Atheist ‘mega-churches’ take root across US, world

Associated Press:
Nearly three dozen gatherings dubbed “atheist mega-churches” by supporters and detractors have sprung up around the U.S. and Australia—with more to come—after finding success in Great Britain earlier this year.

 

International church news

Typhoon Haiyan ravages the Philippines

Daily Mail:
Thousands of bodies are being piled up on the streets of the Philippines after the devastating Typhoon Haiyan, as aid agencies warn the death toll will ‘rise sharply’. Authorities say in the city of Tacloban, Leyte, alone, 10,000 could be dead and ‘two out of five bodies’ are children.

 

Pope Francis won the Internet. Literally.

CNN Belief Blog:
It’s official: Pope Francis is the most talked-about person on the planet. More folks have been chatting about the popular new pontiff online this year than Edward Snowden, Kate Middleton or even the Internet’s favorite bad girl, Miley Cyrus. . . . Besides being the Internet’s top name, the Pope’s Twitter handle, @Pontifex, was the fourth most talked about word thus far in 2013.

 

Are there really 100,000 new Christian martyrs every year?

BBC News:
To some extent this number crunching is besides the point for author John Allen. “The truth is two thirds of the 2.3 billion Christians in the world today live . . . in dangerous neighbourhoods. They are often poor. They often belong to ethnic, linguistic and cultural minorities. And they are often at risk.“

 

Bible drop: Christian group takes to sky to sneak gospel into North Korea

Fox News:
On a rainy afternoon last Spring, American pastor Eric Foley and his wife stood in a muddy field near the North Korea border and prayed—their hands clasped to a 40-foot homemade balloon that would carry Bibles to the communist dictatorship’s underground Christians. . . . Foley and members of his Christian mission group, Seoul USA, use GPS technology to help direct where the Bibles land. Around 50,000 of them have dropped from the skies in the last year.

 

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