“Although [Freire]’s early work was understandably rooted in an almost exclusive concern with class, many of us realized that it had theoretical shortcomings in dealing with the central issues shaping the multicultural debate,” explained Freire’s closest American collaborator, Henry Giroux. “Many of us began to expand the notion of social justice to include a discourse about racial justice. That is, justice could not be taken up solely in terms of the ownership of the means of production, or strictly around questions of labor or the division of wealth. These were very important issues, but they excluded fundamental questions about racism, colonialism, and the workings of the racial state.”

Echoing Marcuse’s redefinition of the proletariat—the white intellectuals united with the black underclass—Freire’s American disciples developed an elaborate framework for categorization and subversion of the ruling order. Their primary pedagogical strategy was to pathologize white identity, which was deemed inherently oppressive, and radicalize black identity, which was deemed inherently oppressed. In the academic literature, this technique is sometimes referred to as “revolutionary pedagogy,” “critical multiculturalism,” or “decolonization,” which entails ridding the education system of the repressive influence of “whiteness” and infusing it with the liberating influence of “blackness.”

Peter McLaren, another Freire disciple who worked in tandem with Henry Giroux, laid out the mechanics of how this new pedagogy of revolution would work in practice. American teachers and students, McLaren argued, must “[break] the imaginary power of commodified identities within capitalism” and “construct sites—provisional sites—in which new structured mobilities and tendential lines of forces can be made to suture identity to the larger problematic of social justice.”

Read it all.

Stalin once said that “the ‘production’ of souls is more important than the production of tanks,” and today we see his words have come to fruition. | @realchrisrufo https://t.co/DSM9ZfcPNx

— First Things (@firstthingsmag) July 18, 2023

…can A.I. invent?

Legal scholars, patent authorities and even Congress have been pondering that question. The people who answer “yes,” a small but growing number, are fighting a decidedly uphill battle in challenging the deep-seated belief that only a human can invent.

Invention evokes images of giants like Thomas Edison and eureka moments — “the flash of creative genius,” as the Supreme Court justice William O. Douglas once put it.

But this is far more than a philosophical debate about human versus machine intelligence. The role, and legal status, of A.I. in invention also have implications for the future path of innovation and global competitiveness, experts say.

Read it all.

AI seems to have a limitless bag of tricks. But can it invent?

A group of legal experts are now pressing patent agencies, courts and policymakers to address that question. https://t.co/zq9yWs8soY

— The New York Times (@nytimes) July 15, 2023

The key questions raised by this majority view are as follows.

First, on what issues are they proposing that it should be possible for those in the Church of England to disagree? Does this, as the context suggests, include the matters that are currently under dispute in the Church of England, namely, the nature of marriage, the proper context for sexual activity, and what patterns of personal life should be expected of the clergy?

If it does include these matters, on what basis do the majority of the bishops hold that it is legitimate for Christians to disagree about them? To use the traditional theological terminology, on what grounds can these matters be said to be adiaphora?

Secondly, what would a ‘generous theological, ecclesial and pastoral space’ mean in practice?

Is this code for saying that the teaching of the Church of England should be altered to officially encompass the view that same-sex marriages and same-sex sexual relationships are in accordance with the will of God, that the Church should provide recognition and liturgical affirmation for same-sex relationships (including same-sex marriages) and that clergy should be allowed to be in same-sex relationships?

Read it all.

We may subjectively dislike what God has said, but true Christian humility lies in accepting what God has said and acting upon it anyway' Martin Davie https://t.co/EUCULJ0Bk1 #anglican #marriage #theology #sexualethics #anthropology #scripture #religion #uk pic.twitter.com/WyjgnobT0k

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) February 10, 2023

Controversial AI theorist Eliezer Yudkowsky sits on the fringe of the industry’s most extreme circle of commentators, where extinction of the human species is the inevitable result of developing advanced artificial intelligence.

“I think we’re not ready, I think we don’t know what we’re doing, and I think we’re all going to die,” Yudkowsky said on this week’s episode of the Bloomberg Originals series AI IRL.

For the past two decades, Yudkowsky has consistently promoted his theory that hostile AI could spark a mass extinction event. As many in the AI industry shrugged or raised eyebrows at this assessment, he created the Machine Intelligence Research Institute with funding from Peter Thiel, among others, and collaborated on written work with futurists such as Nick Bostrom.

To say that some of his visions for the end of the world are unpopular would be a gross understatement; they’re on par with the prophecy that the world would end in 2012. That prediction was based on a questionable interpretation of an ancient text, as well as a dearth of supportive evidence.

Read it all.

AI doomsday scenarios are gaining traction in Silicon Valley, which can deflect from actual harms like algorithmic bias and racism. https://t.co/Y6nJD8xkGl

— Bloomberg (@business) July 13, 2023

Read it all (subscription).

Floods, Heat, Smoke: The Weather Will Never Be Normal Again
Global warming is accelerating, and it’s starting to show.
By David Wallace-Wells https://t.co/QBhqZoInnW

— Stuart Falk (@stufalk) July 13, 2023

In fact we are discovering that the decline of organised religion does not imply the eradication of human irrationality, human tribalism or the human longing for moral certainty. Astrology is — astonishingly — a booming industry. Antivaxers prosper on GB News. Among educated people there is a burgeoning faith in the existence of a quasi-spiritual “personal truth” that trumps objective reality. A fascination with apocalypse afflicts the “doomer” fringes of the climate movement and AI pessimists such as Eliezer Yudkowsky warn that the end of days is near (“everyone will die, including children”). Conspiracies such as QAnon have morphed into quasi-religions promoting visions of a child-sacrificing, blood-drinking elite that would not look out of place in a medieval Doom painting.

Fifteen years ago “new atheists” such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens launched gleeful attacks on religion. It turns out that what they really despised was human nature. Few are capable of living without faith of any kind. “Humankind cannot bear very much reality,” as TS Eliot wrote. The political theorist Samuel Goldman has proposed “the law of the conservation of religion”. All societies have a relatively constant level of religious feeling. What changes is how it is expressed.

It is no accident that the decline of religion has coincided with the outbreak of an age of secular moralising. It seems we cannot get by without the reassurance of absolute moral laws.

Read it all (subscription).

Fascinating (and admirably candid) material from @j_amesmarriott in today’s @thetimes

‘It is no accident that the decline of religion has coincided with the outbreak of an age of secular moralising. It seems we cannot get by without the reassurance of absolute moral laws.’ pic.twitter.com/2mrBpL2TkR

— Andrew Roycroft (@AndrewTRoycroft) July 13, 2023

Many—including a number of leaders of various networks in a letter, subsequently supported by 22 bishops—are arguing the only proper route, given the subject matter, is the usual process of Synodical scrutiny and approval under canon B2. This would require two-thirds support in each of Synod’s three Houses in order to determine the prayers had consensus and were not indicative of a departure from doctrine. This seemingly technical procedural matter raises important questions as to the sort of church we want to be—the update opens by talking about “inclusive participation” (para 1)—and whether any route other than B2 exceeds the powers of non-Synodical bodies on such a contentious matter and is unconstitutional. I have explored these questions in some detail here (with a summary here).

Third, it originally appeared the prayers might be offered for a wide range of non-marital committed relationships. This is now less prominent (although the still undefined and novel category of “covenant friendship” continues to be highlighted) with more focus on same-sex relationships and an emphasis on these being “demonstrably faithful, exclusive, and permanent” (para 12). How a relationship could prove it meets these three criteria remains unclear. Making a legal status act as the gateway is problematic because the service would then appear to be affirming that status and civil partnerships do not require vows. The most contentious matters here are whether they can be used for sexual relationships other than marriage and/or for those in a civil same-sex marriage.

It would appear the bishops originally thought that the prayers, as they are silent in relation to sexual intimacy or the legal status of the couple, had gained sufficient consensus but this now looks less secure. This is in part because while the prayers may be silent and hence ambiguous, to enable their use in such contexts would require a change in teaching relating to sex and marriage. This is something which cannot be so easily camouflaged, which many are unwilling to embrace, and for which there has not yet been sufficient legal and theological justification. The focus of attention has therefore moved from the prayers to the second area of work which was totally undeveloped back in February but where the bishops perhaps should have begun their discernment…’

Read it all (my emphasis).

As part of @churchofengland LLF, Rev Andrew Goddard @goddardaj and our assistant curate Rev Georgina @TechieGeorgina have been having conversations about identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage. View their latest conversation (link below) #LivingInLoveAndFaith pic.twitter.com/Ig3RCrzWON

— St John's Hyde Park (@StJohnsHP) January 31, 2023

The Church Times has seen a letter sent on Wednesday by a group of 22 bishops — including nine diocesans — who have written to their colleagues to welcome the letter from the “alliance of network leaders” and to support its call for the Prayers of Love and Faith to be returned to the Synod under Canon B2.

It is understood, however, that a larger group of bishops, believed to number more than 40, have warned against subjecting the prayers to a long, uncertain, and, they argue, unnecessary synodical process. Instead, they call for the prayers to be approved by the Archbishops under Canon B4.2.

(Canon B4.2 states: “The archbishops may approve forms of service for use . . . on occasions for which no provision is made in The Book of Common Prayer or by the General Synod under Canon B2 or by the Convocations under this Canon, being forms of service which in both words and order are in their opinion reverent and seemly and are neither contrary to nor indicative of any departure from the doctrine of the Church of England in any essential matter.”)

The larger group is also thought to suggest that, if a route is taken that delays the use of blessings, some diocesan bishops might break ranks and commend the prayers for immediate use.

Read it all (registration or subscription).

The Church Times has seen a letter sent on Wednesday by a group of 22 bishops — including nine diocesans — who have written to their colleagues to support calls for the Prayers of Love and Faith to be returned to the Synod under Canon B2https://t.co/A5CRZlViBI

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) July 7, 2023

The report of the Archbishops’ Commission on Families and Households, ‘Love Matters’, was launched by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York on 26th April at Coram’s conference centre in London. This was a very appropriate venue in which to emphasise the importance of supporting children and families.

Over 120 people came to hear about the Commission’s messages and recommendations. It was a joyous occasion, rendered particularly special by the presence and contributions of pupils from four schools representing different faiths and members of the Family Justice Young People’s Board (FJYPB).  These schools and the FJYPB had previously taken part in the Commission’s evidence-gathering activities. Their personal stories and reflections demonstrated the enormous value of listening to and learning from young people. Their contributions at the launch can be heard on the Commission’s YouTube channel.

Read it all.

The concept of “Asian values”, once championed by leaders across the region, went out of vogue after the Asian financial crisis of 1997. The idea that East and South-East Asia’s disciplined governments had a unique economic edge over the decadent West suddenly seemed less compelling. Today in prosperous East Asia a different facet of those ballyhooed values is looking even more parlous. In China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, Asians’ supposed commitment to conservative family life is collapsing. As we report in our Asia and China sections this week, millions of young people are opting for looser, often lonelier and—in the East Asian context—less male-dominated arrangements. In a region that is home to over a fifth of humanity, the socioeconomic and demographic consequences will be vast, potentially destabilising and will shape millions of lives.

In Japan, where the shift first became evident, married couples with at least one child accounted for 42% of households in 1980, and single people 20%. That has flipped. In 2020 couples with children accounted for 25% of households, and singletons 38%. And the decline is continuing. Last year 17% of Japanese men and 15% of women aged 18-34 said they would not marry, up from 2% and 4% in the early 1980s, and China recorded its lowest-ever number of marriages, half as many as a decade ago.

In some ways young Chinese, Japanese, Taiwanese and South Koreans are following a path charted in rich countries elsewhere.

Read it all.

Marriage rates across the region are dwindling and fertility rates are plummeting as a result. Governments’ response to this social change is only making things worse https://t.co/KTwGOdL9Ru

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) July 6, 2023

We all receive scam messages — and I cannot be alone in noticing that they are becoming more frequent. Last month, several UK banks gave warnings about a sharp increase in online fraud.

It disturbs me that anyone will go to such lengths to steal my money; but what has chilled me to the core is learning that the person on the other end of a scam call or message could be a victim of human trafficking — forced into involvement in fraud by the threats of beatings and electrocution.

My colleagues at International Justice Mission (IJM) in Cambodia were some of the first people to respond to this sinister new form of modern slavery, forced scamming. Human traffickers are luring people with false job offers online, paying their transport costs, and then trapping them in heavily guarded compounds in places such as Cambodia, Myanmar, and Laos.

Under the threat of extreme violence, the victims must scam people all around the world. Survivors whom we have helped have shown us bruises the size of watermelons caused by being beaten, and burns from electrocution — the result of not hitting their scamming targets.

Disturbingly, forced scamming is one of the most complex and fast-growing forms of modern slavery in the world.

Read it all.

"It disturbs me that people go to such lengths to steal my money, " @IJMUK CEO @DavidWestlake, writes in the @ChurchTimes, "but what has chilled me to the core is learning that the person on the other end of a #scam could be a victim of #humantrafficking."https://t.co/bq0hY5SsDj

— International Justice Mission (IJM UK) (@IJMUK) June 30, 2023

The mandate was an attempt by the Biden administration to define sex to include “gender identity” for the purposes of Health and Human Services (HHS) regulations. Critics say the rule would have required doctors, clinics, and hospitals to perform procedures to which they object and insurance companies to pay for such procedures.

The Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) president Brent Leatherwood welcomed the news.

“The Biden administration’s decision to back down from the transgender mandate marks a significant victory in safeguarding the rights of medical professionals to operate in a manner consistent with their deepest held beliefs,” Leatherwood said in written comments.

“This is an important development we should take note of because it not only represents a win for conscience rights but also furthers efforts to shield vulnerable individuals who should never become pawns in the sexual revolution.”

Read it all.

As expected, no substantial developments to the Church’s Living in Love and Faith (LLF) programme will be debated at July’s meeting of the General Synod. Bishops have urged patience, saying that they are “on track” to present concrete proposals in November.

Draft Prayers of Love and Faith, which clerics will be at liberty to use to bless same-sex couples in church, were approved in principle at the February Synod (News, 9 February). A revised version will be presented to the Synod next month when it meets in York (7-11 July).

On Thursday afternoon, among the published documents for the July sessions, was an “update” on the implementation of the LLF process.

It reported that, over the past three months, bishops have been meeting with three “implementation groups”, each focused on a different branch of work: revising the prayers; devising updated pastoral guidance for priests and lay readers; and setting out what measures should be put in place for those who oppose the introduction of same-sex blessings (News, 3 May). Only on the first of these issues is something ready to be set before Synod members in July.

Read it all.

As expected, no substantial developments to the Church’s Living in Love and Faith (LLF) programme will be debated at July’s meeting of the General Synod. Bishops have urged patience, saying that they are “on track” to present concrete proposals in Novemberhttps://t.co/B2aCdDe6wu

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) June 23, 2023

Jesus’ view of marriage as between a man and a woman was entirely typical of first-century Judaism, and consistent with the rest of Scripture. All ancient cultures (and many modern ones) recognised that a small minority of the population were different, in having a settled attraction to those of the same sex. In the ancient world, marriage and procreation were seen as key to the survival of society, so such people could be perceived as a threat, but there was often some sort of provision made for them. The Old Testament is unique amongst Ancient Near Eastern texts in not doing so—on the basis of God’s creation of male and female as the basis for sexual relationships. That is why all mainstream, critical scholars agree that the biblical texts and the teaching of Jesus is clear and consistent—though many of them think it is wrong.

Where the Bible mentions homosexual behavior at all, it clearly condemns it. I freely grant that. The issue is precisely whether that Biblical judgment is correct (Walter Wink, “Homosexuality and the Bible”).

The task demands intellectual honesty. I have little patience with efforts to make Scripture say something other than what it says, through appeals to linguistic or cultural subtleties. The exegetical situation is straightforward: we know what the text says. But what are we to do with what the text says?  I think it important to state clearly that we do, in fact, reject the straightforward commands of Scripture, and appeal instead to another authority when we declare that same-sex unions can be holy and good (Luke Timothy Johnson).

It is common to hear people claim ‘Jesus never said anything about homosexuality’. But he did not need to—just as he did not need to say anything about incest, or other specific aspects of sexual immorality, since there was a clear consensus in Judaism on these questions, rooted in the sexual prohibitions in Leviticus. Jesus was concerned about issues of sexual immorality, and his reference to porneia would have been heard by anyone listening to him as including same-sex sex within that category of immorality.

Read it all.

This is a good article from Ian Paul explaining why there's no 'agree to disagree' really possible on this debate. https://t.co/mn7buCOGPf

— Trevin Wax (@TrevinWax) June 26, 2023

The action taken by the British government is the first time a Security Council Resolution has been passed on Freedom of Religion or Belief, and puts in place Recommendation 20 of the Truro Independent Review:

The FCO to use the United Kingdom’s position, as a Permanent Member of the United Nations Security Council, to seek a Security Council Resolution to call on all governments in the MENA Region to:

a. ensure the protection and security of Christians, and other faith minorities, in their respective countries;
b. facilitate the establishment of security and protection arrangements for Christians, and other faith minorities, within the legal and governance structure of their respective countries;
c. permit United Nations observers to monitor the protection and security arrangements for Christians and other faith minorities in their respective countries.

FCO also to consider taking a similar approach for other regions as appropriate.

Read it all.

Bishop of Truro @pmounstephen, is instrumental in the development of a new UN Security Council resolution, in conjunction with UK / UAE governments, on Freedom of Religion or Belief.

Learn more at https://t.co/O1SAuXCVgL.

— The Church of England (@churchofengland) June 19, 2023

There is a lot of pressure to be positive these days. Some people even regard it as a form of wellness treatment in itself and warn of the potential dangers of “allowing negativity into their lives”. But such enforced optimism ignores the realities of our existence. Some patients seem to think negativity will shorten their lives. But researchers in different studies have tested the hypothesis that optimism can impact survival in cancer patients and have found that it does not have an impact. In one of these studies, there was a suggestion that encouraging patients to be positive perhaps even represents an additional burden.

Whether you have terminal cancer or not, believing everything must stay positive just isn’t sustainable. It needs to be balanced with realism. An expectation that outcomes will and must always conclude well can in itself create disappointment and anxiety – because, at some level, we know that we cannot guarantee those wishes will come true.

Being pessimistic or negative on occasion can help, and patients tell me that it is pragmatic and even reassuring to talk about the worst-case scenarios that may lie ahead. When my patients spend more time getting used to the very real possibility that things will work out not so well, it can reduce anxiety considerably over future weeks and month

Read it all.

“Whether you have terminal cancer or not, believing everything must stay positive just isn’t sustainable.”
A #PalliativeCare consultant on the cup not always being half full. Applies to all of life, not only healthcare. https://t.co/W3xfeXDVPW

— Michael Sadgrove 🇪🇺 (@MichaelSadgrove) June 19, 2023

The Black maternal population struggles more than its white counterparts beyond birth, too. In 2020, 35.6% of birthing parents in Massachusetts experienced symptoms of postpartum depression (PPD). Black non-Hispanic birthing parents (16.3%) were more likely to experience PPD symptoms “often or always,” while only 7.2% of White non-Hispanic birthing parents reported the same.

Black maternal health is a public health emergency. In a state rich with medical talent, resources and enlightened leadership, it’s crucial to ask why we tolerate these disparities when we have the means to eradicate them. The answer is embedded in the systemic racism that shapes where we live and our access to green spaces, affordable and nutritious food, and high-quality educational opportunities. The continuum of discrimination in economic opportunity and education that manifests in health treatment and outcomes begins in deep-rooted generational inequity long before Black birthing individuals even become pregnant.

That said, we are beginning to see some progress. Health Equity Compact, a coalition of more than 71 leaders and experts from various racial and ethnic backgrounds representing Massachusetts’ leading health care, public health, business, academic, philanthropic and labor organizations. The Compact plans to promote health equity through statewide policy and institutional reform and introduced An Act to advance health equity on Beacon Hill earlier this year.

Read it all.

“Black maternal health is a public health emergency.” HMS’ Allison Bryant Mantha and Bisola Ojikutu discuss ongoing inequities in maternal health. (via @WBUR) https://t.co/MuRponZxcv

— Harvard Medical School (@harvardmed) June 19, 2023

Cormac McCarthy, who passed away today, ranks among the most important writers of fiction American society has ever produced. There is ample agreement on this point.

When it comes to interpreting the meaning of his work, though, there is much less consensus.

McCarthy handled big themes in his work, and that is true in his most recent novels: The Passenger and Stella Maris. These two books form a single narrative of siblings Alicia and Bobby Western’s extraordinary lives. We find here meditations on meaning and meaninglessness, human knowledge, death, spirituality, and the nature of the material world. Truth and beauty, reason and faith, love and sex: it’s all here. Mingled with these themes is obsessively detailed description of machines and contraptions of all sorts (especially guns and cars)—another perennial McCarthy interest.

Many critics read McCarthy’s novels the way they do so many other art forms: devoid of the possibility of hope, transcendence, and a living God. But this often glosses over the genuinely conflicted character of the art. The Passenger and Stella Maris offer more than just an artistic representation of reality’s inescapable brutality. They forcefully struggle with the greatest questions of human existence. Like any good work of art, these books don’t allow any reader—religious, atheist, materialist, Christian—to walk away feeling perfectly comfortable in their understanding of the world.

Read it all.

Cormac McCarthy and the Possibility of Faith https://t.co/hRDAPhETqs

— Public Discourse (@PublicDiscourse) June 17, 2023

Five years ago, Tiffany Gardner learned she had another father. She already had two.

One had colon cancer and died when Gardner was 4 years old. Her adoptive father taught her to drive and walked her down the aisle at her wedding. At 35 years old, when Gardner received news of a third, “I remember the room spinning,” she said.

Gardner had been in her mother’s kitchen. During the conversation, her mother let go of a long-held secret about the man Gardner had long believed to be her father. He was in an accident, her mother said. He had to relearn how to walk and talk. I couldn’t get pregnant. The doctors said the accident had likely left him infertile. We used a sperm donor.

“I felt I was falling backwards trying to process the moment,” recalled Gardner, a lawyer in the Atlanta area and the mother of three boys. Among her feelings was a desire to meet her newly uncovered biological father. It didn’t take long to find him online.

Read it all.

“There’s nothing comparable to your genetic parent breaking up with you." Amazing journey from @AmyDMarcus on how we're defining family in the age of assisted fertility technologies and DNA testing. https://t.co/bLm7bgMuzo via @WSJ

— Stefanie Ilgenfritz (@stefaniei) June 16, 2023

We, in Gafcon and GSFA had earlier declared unequivocally that we no longer recognise the Archbishop of Canterbury as the head, leader or spokesperson of the Anglican Communion. He has lost every power and authority to dictate to or advise other Primates and Provinces of the Communion who oversee 85% of the Global Communion. It is pertinent to remind Archbishop Welby that Africa is no longer a colony of the ‘British Empire,’ and the Church of England has no jurisdiction over the Anglican Provinces on the continent of Africa. As such, he should stop meddling with the internal affairs of the Anglicans on the continent of Africa.

We stand together in our commitment to the Bible and the essence of the Christian faith. We will stand together with Christ and shall resist all attempts to pollute our faith. The part of Lambeth Resolution I.10 which enjoins non-discrimination against persons who experience or practice homosexuality is not an endorsement of the sinful act, but a call for a normal pastoral approach and the responsibility of Church ministers to offer care and counsel to sinners of all categories.

Therefore, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 NKJV).

Read it all.

https://t.co/V4K8FFW9l7

— Gafcon (@GafconGBE) June 14, 2023

Their elbows, knees and ankles throb.

Their fatigue seems paralyzing at times.

Young and old, male and female, these Christians — like around one-fifth of U.S. adults — deal with chronic pain.

Often, debilitating prognoses make such patients feel all alone, as if no one understands.

But at a monthly meeting in this Oklahoma town, fellow sufferers — some gathered in person, others connecting from afar via Zoom — find support through a ministry called Broken & Mended.

Read it all.

Their elbows, knees and ankles throb.

Their fatigue seems paralyzing at times.

Young and old, male and female, these Christians — like around one-fifth of U.S. adults — deal with chronic pain.

My story with exceptional photos by @Travelers_Lane https://t.co/n1cqCvUSu4

— Bobby Ross Jr. (@bobbyross) June 13, 2023

Hannah Daniel, the ERLC’s policy manager, told Baptist Press, “We believe all people are made in the image of God and possess immeasurable worth and value. Life is precious from the earliest moment of conception to natural death. Those who are struggling physically, mentally or emotionally should be met with the highest quality of care and compassion, not given assistance to end their life.”

The legislation “would have established Nevada as a destination for assisted suicide, and we joined arms with Nevada Baptists in urging Governor Lombardo to veto it,” she said in written comments.

The legislation would have allowed a doctor or advanced practice registered nurse to prescribe a lethal dose of a drug for an adult patient. The proposal gained narrow passage in both houses, 23-19 in the Assembly and 11-10 in the Senate. The majorities were far short of the two-thirds vote required to overturn a veto.

In a written veto message, Lombardo, a Republican, said the bill was unnecessary because of “expansions in palliative care services and continued improvements in advanced pain management.”

Read it all.

"Life is precious from the earliest moment of conception to natural death. Those who are struggling physically, mentally or emotionally should be met with the highest quality of care and compassion, not given assistance to end their life." – @hannahedaniel https://t.co/9Ngp5C5Lcd

— ERLC (@ERLC) June 9, 2023

It felt as if he had always been there, a steady sight on a busy corner in a college town.

Hovering above 6 feet tall with hazel eyes and hair streaked with gray, David Breaux was a graduate of Stanford University and had been an aspiring screenwriter. But such details belonged to a past he rarely spoke of. He had reimagined his purpose, becoming a fixture at the intersection of Third and C Streets in Davis, Calif.

It was there that he held a notebook and offered passers-by a question: Would you care to share your definition of compassion? You, charmed by the interaction, most likely jotted something down. And then maybe you stuck around to talk a little more.

Over the years, Mr. Breaux made countless connections and grew a reputation as a communal therapist of sorts. Business owners revealed their anxieties. Students spoke of finals week. Unhappy mothers divulged marital problems.

“If you’ve ever been through a divorce, you feel like the rug has been pulled out from under you and that you might not make it. I sat down there with him, and he really saved me,” said Kristin Stansby, 54, a shift manager at a local CVS Pharmacy. “You just really felt you could pour your heart out to him.”

Read it all.

After graduating from Stanford in 2009, David Breaux struggled to find his path — until he dove into the idea of selflessness and found his calling as “the Compassion Guy.” But in late April, he was found stabbed to death on a park bench at 50 years old. https://t.co/EYpivrx5Q8

— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 5, 2023

Any decision at the end of the LLF process was going to face challenges but the responses to the bishops’ proposals suggest that there are four particular failures in their approach which have made matters worse. 

Firstly, in contrast to the detailed work of LLF, and failing to draw on that work, the bishops gave minimal explanation or theological justification for their proposals. Secondly, they proposed a liturgical response to different life situations without—as the ten points above demonstrate—offering any account of what pattern of same-sex relationship might be considered fitting within Christian discipleship. When asked about this the Bishop of London said in an answer (to Q163) in February, that we need to wait for the Pastoral Guidance as that “will include setting out unequivocally the necessary qualities for a relationship to be considered chaste, faithful and holy”. Thirdly, although committing to uphold the doctrine of marriage and thus rejecting a change to extend this to include same-sex marriage, the bishops were not clear as to what else—particularly in relation to sexual behaviour—should be considered as part of the doctrine of marriage. Nor were they clear whether they were proposing to change current teaching on sexual ethics. It was, for example, unclear whether what the Bishop of London had stated only in November last year in answer to a Synod question still applied: 

Canon B 30 does indeed continue to articulate the doctrine of the Church, including asserting that holy matrimony is the proper context for sexual intimacy. 

All three of these failings arose because it seems there was not sufficient time to achieve any consensus on them. The problem is that without any clarity and consensus in these areas, the proposals are inherently unstable and arguably incoherent. 

A further cause of instability and incoherence is a fourth feature of the proposals (number 7 above): to justify offering the prayers, including prayers of blessing, to couples in same-sex marriages the bishops, with the support of the Legal Office, offered a novel and contentious argument distinguishing holy matrimony from civil same-sex marriages. The relationship between civil marriage and holy matrimony after the introduction of same-sex marriage was not a question covered within LLF although it produced an invaluable “Brief History of Marriage Law” by Professor Julian Rivers. The answer now being offered represents a complete reversal of all previous legal and theological statements including in the Church of England’s successful case defending the refusal of Bishop Inwood, Acting Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham, to give a licence to Jeremy Pemberton who was in a civil same-sex marriage. There, as set out in the original employment tribunal judgment of October 2015, the employment appeal tribunal judgment of December 2016 and the Court of Appeal Decision in March 2018, a key argument advanced was that the bishops’ actions were necessary because to be in a same-sex civil marriage was incompatible with the doctrine of the Church of England in relation to marriage.

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The Prayers of Love and Faith put the practical cart before the theological horse. What questions do we first need to ask about the pattern of holy life God calls us to before we can discuss the Prayers with any coherence? @theologyethics1 @simonsarmiento https://t.co/i3nHup7SH1

— Dr Ian Paul (@Psephizo) June 2, 2023

But what if ultra-powerful ai develops super-humanoid robots, too? Material needs would almost certainly be met by machine hands. One might then expect humanity to give up on toil, much like in “Wall-E”. Indeed, in 1930 John Maynard Keynes, another economist, penned an essay entitled “Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren”, in which he speculated that a century in the future people would work for less than 15 hours a week. The growth generated by technology would solve the “economic problem”, he predicted, and allow people to turn their attention to activities which are intrinsically pleasurable. Admittedly, Keynes’s 15-hour work week has not arrived—but higher levels of wealth, which reduce the benefit of working an additional hour, have cut working hours. The average number of hours worked a week in the rich world has fallen from around 60 in the late 20th century to under 40 today.

There are, nevertheless, some wants that perhaps only humans can satisfy even in a world of supercharged, embodied ai. It is also worth noting that what is intrinsically pleasurable may include work. Consider three areas where humans may still have a role: work that is blurred with play, play itself and work where humans retain some kind of an advantage.

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Could an AI become your boss? Using economic principles, we predict what might happen if (or when) the technology becomes more capable than the most talented humans https://t.co/XaASCZMvBO

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) May 24, 2023

How do brains learn? It’s a mystery, one that applies both to the spongy organs in our skulls and to their digital counterparts in our machines. Even though artificial neural networks (ANNs) are built from elaborate webs of artificial neurons, ostensibly mimicking the way our brains process information, we don’t know if they process input in similar ways.   

“There’s been a long-standing debate as to whether neural networks learn in the same way that humans do,” said Vsevolod Kapatsinski, a linguist at the University of Oregon.

Now, a study published last month suggests that natural and artificial networks learn in similar ways, at least when it comes to language. The researchers — led by Gašper Beguš, a computational linguist at the University of California, Berkeley — compared the brain waves of humans listening to a simple sound to the signal produced by a neural network analyzing the same sound. The results were uncannily alike. “To our knowledge,” Beguš and his colleagues wrote, the observed responses to the same stimulus “are the most similar brain and ANN signals reported thus far.”

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Some Neural Networks Learn Language Like Humans https://t.co/AH0PeKfCv9 via @QuantaMagazine

— Felix Schlumpf (@Felix3S) May 22, 2023

How shall we understand freedom? Perhaps because I am in a state, South Carolina, where candidates….[not long ago] were running around saying “you are free so vote for me!” this has been much in mind.

There is a lot of sloppy thinking about freedom these days. For too many it only means the ability to choose a candidate or a product. Or it is understood to be the removal of external constraints, as in I need the government out of my—then fill in the blank: my business, my body, and on and on.

Christian thinking about freedom is a totally different animal.

For one thing, in the Scriptures, freedom has an interesting relationship to time. Freedom is something which was present in creation, and which will be fully present again at the end of history when God brings it to its conclusion. But what about the present? The people Jesus spends time with—say, for example, the woman at the well (John 4), or Zaccheus (Luke 19) are not free but constrained, imprisoned, and encased. When Jesus rescues them, freedom begins, but even then it is lived out in the tension between the already of new life in Christ and the not yet of the fullness of the eschaton.

So apart from Christ people who think they are free need to hear the bad news that their perceived freedom is an illusion. One would like to hear more from preachers these days on this score, since they are addressing parishioners who are workaholics or poweraholics or sexaholics and/or addicts to heaven knows what else. Why is it that a group like AA seems to know more about real freedom than so many churches? Because they begin with the premise which says their members are enslaved—that is the first of the twelve steps.

And there is so much more to freedom then even this. In the Bible, real freedom moves in not one or two but three directions.

Freedom from is one piece of the puzzle—freedom from sin, from the demands of the law, from the tyranny of the urgent, from whatever constricts us from being the people God intended us to be.

Equally important, however, is freedom for, freedom for Christ, for service, for God’s justice, for ministry. Paul wonderfully describes himself as a bondservant of Christ Jesus, and the Prayer Book has it right when it says God’s service is “perfect freedom.”

Freedom with should not be missed, however. For Paul in Galatians Christian freedom is not the Christian by herself changed by the gospel. This has too much in common with the individual shopper in Walmart deciding exactly what kind of popcorn or yogurt she wants. No, real freedom is to be liberated to live for Christ with the new pilgrim people of God who reflect back a little of heaven’s light on earth. A real church is one where people enjoy koinonia, fellowship, the richness of God’s life shared into them which they then share out in Christ’s name by the power of the Holy Spirit to the world.

Paul says it wonderfully in Galatians: “For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” Do not settle for anything less than this real freedom, freedom from bondage, freedom with our fellow pilgrims, and freedom for the God who made the heavens and the earth.

–The Rev. Dr. Kendall Harmon is Theologian in residence at Church of the Holy Cross, Sullivan’s Island, SC, and the convenor of this blog

“Behold, I am with you always,
even to the end of the age, alleluia.”
Mt28:20#Easter

As you go about your ‘bits and pieces’ of this day, be conscious that God is very near to you.
So be strong, take courage, and hope in the Lord! pic.twitter.com/keswB9V9gp

— Eamon Martin (@ArchbishopEamon) April 20, 2023

Older ways of thinking about life are more humane. I exist, not as a process or as some immovable modern substance, but as a woman, as a mother, with a certain age and height and history, with a certain store of knowledge and emotional responses. All these qualities are accidents, metaphysically speaking, but that does not make them unimportant. In fact, they are the stuff of my life. The becoming of accidents that come to be in me and pass away, as I enter into new friendships, learn new things, lose loved ones—all this is held in being by me as a personal substance. Accidents give me color and distinctiveness. I give them being.

All of this makes me legible to other human beings and thereby vulnerable to “categorical ­violence.” By allowing accidents—including my femininity—to make me legible, I allow them to delimit me; but they also reveal me to the world, to the community of embodied persons, who know me as formed in certain ways. Through knowing accidents, ­Aquinas writes, the intellect “penetrates to the interior” of the substance. The postmodern world is deathly afraid of being so transparent and vulnerable to others. But it has opened itself to other risks. The loss of the “home” of the stable self perpetually undermines contemporary people, who exist in a permanent, fluid exile. No wonder we, and our culture, are imprisoned within our obsessions with security and safety.

Butler’s trouble with sexed identity arises from her fear that stability opposes the permanent exile that is human life. Rather than being a word read from her body, she prefers to be the unfinished sentence, the perpetual refugee from sexed legibility. Of course, she is right that the intellect sometimes penetrates in order to colonize. But it is also the case that love begins with a true word, spoken and understood. What causes the most ­trouble—the sexed body—also initiates what is most dear.

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"Butler’s trouble with sexed identity arises from her fear that stability opposes the permanent exile that is human life. Rather than being a word read from her body, she prefers to be the unfinished sentence, the perpetual refugee from sexed legibility." https://t.co/LPh4B7PX8c

— Ryan Haecker (@RyanHaecker) April 24, 2023

This bubbling mixture of excitement and fear makes it hard to weigh the opportunities and risks. But lessons can be learned from other industries, and from past technological shifts. So what has changed to make ai so much more capable? How scared should you be? And what should governments do?

In a special Science section, we explore the workings of llms and their future direction. The first wave of modern ai systems, which emerged a decade ago, relied on carefully labelled training data. Once exposed to a sufficient number of labelled examples, they could learn to do things like recognise images or transcribe speech. Today’s systems do not require pre-labelling, and as a result can be trained using much larger data sets taken from online sources. llms can, in effect, be trained on the entire internet—which explains their capabilities, good and bad.

Those capabilities became apparent to a wider public when Chatgpt was released in November. A million people had used it within a week; 100m within two months. It was soon being used to generate school essays and wedding speeches. Chatgpt’s popularity, and Microsoft’s move to incorporate it into Bing, its search engine, prompted rival firms to release chatbots too.

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Rapid progress in AI is arousing fear as well as excitement. How worried should you be? https://t.co/YM85dCBxu3 pic.twitter.com/hWMRvB4C62

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) April 20, 2023

Turns out, it’s not that easy at all to create a bot that diagnoses disease with more nuance and compassion than a human doctor, and the consequences for some of us may be dire. You might reply that not all human doctors are nuanced and compassionate, but this is just my point. As long as AI is trained on human behavior, it will tend to replicate our worst flaws, only more efficiently. What happens when medical racism or sexism in the training data means that even our most sophisticated bots share human doctors’ tendency to misdiagnose women and people of color?

We are finding out. A 2019 study found that a clinical algorithm used in many hospitals required Black patients to be much sicker than White patients in order to be recommended for the same level of care, because it used data indicating that Black patients had less money to spend on care. Even when such problems are corrected and new guardrails are put in place, self-teaching AI seems to be able to find patterns in data that elude our own pattern-detecting capabilities. We don’t even realize they exist.

A 2022 study in the Lancet found that AI trained on huge data sets of medical imaging could determine a patient’s race with startling accuracy based on x-rays, ultrasounds, CT scans, MRIs, or mammograms, even when there was no accompanying patient information. The human researchers couldn’t figure out how the machines knew patient race even when programmed to ignore markers such as, for example, density in breast tissue among Black women. Attempts to apply strict filters and programming that controls for racism can also backfire by erasing diagnosis of minorities altogether.

“Our finding that AI can accurately predict self-reported race, even from corrupted, cropped, and noised medical images, often when clinical experts cannot, creates an enormous risk for all model deployments in medical imaging,” the authors of the Lancet study wrote. “Just as with human behavior, there’s not a simple solution to fixing bias in machine learning,” said the lead researcher, radiologist Judy W. Gichoya. As long as medical racism is in us, it will also be one of the ghosts in the machine. The self-improving algorithm will work as designed, if not necessarily as intended.

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ChatGPT appears to be smart enough to recognize that artificial intelligence poses a threat to workers' livelihoods. https://t.co/JESPQXE7Ew

— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 5, 2023