WeeklyTech #146

Right Actions, Not Just Right Beliefs

In recent years, evangelicals have unapologetically stood upon the inerrant Word of God and sought to rightly order our lives around the rich theological truths found in the pages of this sacred revelation. Our focus on orthodoxy and the propositional truths of our faith is laudable and needed amid massive theological drifts inside the church as well as the shifting sands of culture that influence everything about our lives.

But an unfortunate by-product of this rootedness is a failure to consider the fullness of our calling to faithful orthopraxy as well. We need an emphasis on right actions, not just right beliefs. We often diminish the task of Christian ethics to the mere application of theological beliefs rather than seeing the beautiful and inextricable relationship of theology and ethics as the two primary disciplines of the Christian life.

We see this imbalance play out today in our churches and classrooms—and even the public square. But to retrieve the proper relationship between these disciplines, we must be reminded that our actions (ethics) reveal what we truly believe (theology), just as our beliefs equally inform our actions (175).

This rightly ordered vision of theology and ethics as central to the Christian life undergirds Ethics as Worship: The Pursuit of Moral Discipleship by Southern Baptist ethicists Mark D. Liederbach (professor of theology, ethics, and culture at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary) and Evan Lenow (director of church and minister relations at Mississippi College). This book serves as a helpful introduction to the Christian ethic as a form of worship centered on our love of God and neighbor.

The Rundown

The tyranny of academic mediocrity by Nathan A. Finn | WORLD

The kids are not all right. This is true in at least two senses. First, the quality of higher education has declined over the past generation. Educators regularly lament deteriorating academic standards in America’s colleges and universities. This is a topic of perennial conversation in the faculty lounge, at departmental meetings, and among academics on social media.

Exhibit aims to present AI images as real art by Ina Fried | Axios

A new art exhibition in San Francisco showcases some of the unique ways that artists have begun to incorporate Dall-E 2, GPT-3 and other AI systems into their work — efforts that go well beyond just typing some text and seeing what pops out.

Fake and famous by Amy Lewis | WORLD

Akihiko Kondo wore a white tuxedo to his wedding. Guests clapped and snapped phone-photos as he walked down the flower-festooned aisle. But none of those images would appear in a family photo album because none of Kondo’s relatives or co-workers agreed to come to the ceremony. They had—well, concerns—about the bride. 

Why you should be involved in your local association by Matt Henslee | ERLC

A little over a year ago, I plucked my family out of the Land of Enchantment (New Mexico) to return to the great state of Texas. I was having the time of my life as the pastor of a small, thriving church in the middle of nowhere, but as my dad’s health deteriorated, I reached out to a pastor in Texas and said, “Help me find me a church, any church in Dallas/Fort Worth.”

9 Things You Should Know About Chinese President Xi Jinping by Joe Carter | The Gospel Coalition

On Sunday, Chinese President Xi Jinping increased his control over China by breaking with tradition and having himself named as head of the Communist Party for a record third term. The move consolidates Xi’s status as “ruler for life” and makes him the most powerful Chinese leader in modern history.

Scoop: Musk team working to reboot Vine this year by Sara Fischer and Dan Primack | Axios

Elon Musk has instructed Twitter engineers to work on a Vine reboot that could be ready by year end, multiple sources tell Axios.