Twenty years have passed since American went to war in Iraq, Saddam Hussein was indeed a wicked dictator, but there were no weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Supposedly reliable sources insisted that Iraq had WMDs; Christopher Steele must have had a forerunner. David Smith at The Critic Magazine considers the war and how we still feel the consequences.
I’ve learned that the Bible translations I use follow what churches I attend. Confirmation in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod resulted in a gift of my King James Version. Becoming a Christian in college provided me with The Living Bible. I was baptized as an adult in a non-denominational church in Houston and given the New American Standard Bible. When we moved to St. Louis, we started with the NASB and then moved to the newly published New International Version, available at the time only for the New Testament. I stayed with the NIV for the next almost 40 years, until my Presbyterian church embraced the English Standard Version. And that’s where I am now. The world’s most popular Bible, as it turns out, is the NIV, writes Mark Strauss at Logos, who gives a brief history of the translation.
Kept under house arrest by Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots turned out to be a prolific letter writer – and conspirator. She wrote a lot of letters in cipher or code. Recently, 50 of those letters have been deciphered, and Jade Scott at History Today explains what they tell us.
More Good Reads
Life and Culture
The Library of Blather: A.I. writing programs promise to make the internet unusable – Lincoln Michel at Counter Craft.
Amish Imagination – Andy Stanton-Henry at Front Porch Republic.
The World That Money Makes Go Round – Rhys Laverty at Mere Orthodoxy.
Censorship: The Tip of the Iceberg – Patrick Garry at The Imaginative Conservative.
The Joys of Agonistic Life: A son's enjoyment of 'Calvin and Hobbes' – Andrew Hubbard at Mere Orthodoxy.
Poetry
The Last Night We Met – Tiree MacGregor at Society of Classical Poets.
Old Orphan – Jeffrey Essman at Society of Classical Poets.
The Temple: Poems by George Herbert - A Reader’s Guide to a Christian Classic – Stephen Witmer at Desiring God.
Faith
Church is Essential – Robb Brunansky at The Cripplegate.
Writing and Literature
Learning in Writing – Dean Wesley Smith.
The Platform Problem – Pierce Taylor Hibbs.
The Casual Villainy of Greek Heroes – Claire Heywood at The Millions.
Ray Bradbury’s First 33 Years – Bradley Birzer at The Imaginative Conservative.
To All the Novels I Never Published – Bryan Van Dyke at The Millions.
Life and Culture
The ghost of Ancient Rome haunts America: Its great cities are on the path to decay – Joel Kotkin at UnHerd.
American Stuff
Hearing History: The Deal March from ‘Saul’ – Sarah Kay Bierle at Emerging Civil War (see video below).
Plymouth Church Brooklyn, Henry Ward Beecher and the Civil War Photo Tour – Patrick Young at The Reconstruction Era.
Ukraine
Ukraine Is Successfully Using a 140-Year-Old Machine Gun Against Russia – Matthew Gault at Vice.
China is already bankrolling Putin’s war in Ukraine – Ian Williams at The Spectator.
Dead March from Saul – Royal Air Force Brass and Wind Bands
Painting: Young Man Reading a Letter, oil on canvas (circa 1680) by Gerard ter Borch (1617-1681).
I used the NIV for I don't know how many years. Around 2002 or 2003 I started using the ESV. I used it until 2022 when I used the NASB2020 for a year. I have gone back to the ESV for this year. I'm glad when people just read the Word no matter the version.
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