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Wyatt Graham

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Owning Less, But Experiencing More: A Theological Crisis in the Making

January 31, 2022 by wagraham 1 Comment

We are becoming a nation of mobile-renters. We have joined a gig economy. We use ride-shares. We rent office space. We rent housing. We rent mobile offices. We own less and less—we do not even own our e-books and e-media which often revert back to the copyright holder at our death. A video game no longer has a box. It is a digital download. 

The World Economic Forum tells us we will own nothing and be happy. Ida Auken said, “Welcome to 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better.” Or as their marketing said, “You will own nothing. And you’ll be happy.”

Governments have done little to avoid this future. The Canadian government has promised $10 a day of childcare. This makes it easier for both parents to work, which they will have to do in order to pay for the taxes to support childcare. Single-income families will not be able to afford houses. And if both parents work, there is less need to have a standard home. Besides, who can afford one? Renting is the way to go. The USA has likewise pulled back on supporting families through financial support for children or support for longer maternity leave. 

The way in which we work has also contributed to this alienation from home, possessions, and family. For most of history, agricultural workers worked as a family. Everyone worked at home. Husbands and wives with children in appropriate ways supported the family. In the Roman era, many businesses were part of a residence. So a husband might work at the front of the home, a wife inside the residence. They partnered in appropriate ways. 

But now the nature of work, a movement from working with our hands to work with our digits—pressing buttons, digital work—has alienated us from the land, the fabric of the world around us.  [Read more…] about Owning Less, But Experiencing More: A Theological Crisis in the Making

Filed Under: Life Tagged With: conservatism, technology

Don Quixote Christianity: Why Many Heroic Stands of Today Are Like Tilting at Windmills

January 26, 2022 by wagraham 1 Comment

A colleague recently compared (so-called) heroic stands of faith to Don Quixote. Someone thinks they will change the world by a controversial tweet or blog post. They think themselves to be like Athanasius, contra Mundum—against the whole world! Never mind that Athanasius never stood as an individual against the world, but worked with whole teams of peoples and congregations across the Roman World. 

But here the facts do not matter. The point is the heroic stand. And the kind of heroic stand I am talking about often ends up with a knight tilting at windmills, thinking himself to be slaying a giant when he in reality has done nothing at all. Worse, he might have even hurt the cause which he putatively aims to support.  [Read more…] about Don Quixote Christianity: Why Many Heroic Stands of Today Are Like Tilting at Windmills

Filed Under: Life Tagged With: Fundamentalism, Tribalism

The Apologetics Trap: Or Why Showing Why Everything Is Bad Makes Life Boring

January 25, 2022 by wagraham 2 Comments

pen on paper

The art of apologetics often means one’s ability to confirm the truth of the faith against the opinions of non-believers. At times, apologetics can also spill over into a whole system—one worldview against all else. And when this happens, those inclined to apologetics often work hard to show why physics, biology, philosophy, and more besides fails or falls into idolatry.

So then any study of these fields becomes a sort of game of finding the problem, discovering idolatry, showing where it is wrong. While perhaps unintended, the apologist makes the entire field seem bad, twisted. There is nothing useful in biology or physics or philosophy since it is idolatrous. The only thing worth pursuing is the view of the apologist!

The effect is to make these fields of study seem dark, boring, and not worth our time. This, I think, is entirely wrong.  [Read more…] about The Apologetics Trap: Or Why Showing Why Everything Is Bad Makes Life Boring

Filed Under: Life Tagged With: Apologetics, Nature

Three Benefits of Social Media

January 24, 2022 by wagraham Leave a Comment

One beneficial part of social media is that you can ask for prayer and almost instantly the body of Christ across the globe can pray for you.

Another good thing about social media is that you can find someone on here who might be an expert or knowledgeable about something you want to know—and you can ask them a question!
 
A third cool thing about social media is that you can find someone whom you deem trustworthy to deliver news, science, or whatever and follow them or put them on a list. Then instead of letting information just flow to you, you can follow/track trustworthy sources. You control it.

Filed Under: Life Tagged With: Social Media

Mesmerized by The Phone, Missed My Daughter

October 30, 2021 by wagraham 1 Comment

Today, I took my daughter to swimming lessons. With five other parents, I observed the class. I should say: I observed. At one point during the class, I looked around and saw every parent—all five—mesmerized by their phones. No parent watched their child. All watched their phones. 

I am not uniquely virtuous. Last week, I was mesmerized by my phone. I missed my daughter when she dunked her head under water. She told me, don’t look at your phone! I mostly obeyed. I looked at my phone, but not for long. The compulsion to look took over, and I fell into a mania of technology. But I held on to my sanity. I stopped, and here is what I saw. 

I saw a young boy tell my daughter, You are doing great! I watched my daughter swim in the deep end with a life jacket. I walked near her and told her she did great. She looked at me with glee, a smile broken across her face, saying something like, That is my daddy! 

Whatever moment we had, we had because I was not memorized by the screen but by her. She knows I saw. I know I saw. We know that we love each other.  [Read more…] about Mesmerized by The Phone, Missed My Daughter

Filed Under: Life Tagged With: Social Media

Online Media Should Lead to Reading Books

October 24, 2021 by wagraham 1 Comment

Do not exclusively read articles online. Think of online articles as portals to books. Articles may answer an important question, give insight into an issue, and help us to know what to seek and to know.

But books deliver the contemplative ruminations that thinking requires. Online articles are an appetizer. Both are important. And the media of books and the internet are here to stay.

But there is an ordering. First the short article. Then the book. [Read more…] about Online Media Should Lead to Reading Books

Filed Under: Books, Life Tagged With: Books, Contemplation

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Wyatt is the Executive Director of The Gospel Coalition Canada. He enjoys his family and writing. You'll generally find him hiding away somewhere with his nose in a book.

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