Happy First Friday in ’25,
God’s mercies are new every morning.
The Prophet Jeremiah
Lamentations 3:23
The beginning of a new week, a new month, and a new year reminds us how much we need fresh starts. How kind of God to renew His mercies every morning!
RIP 2024: Biden’s withdrawal. Dawkins’s embrace of “cultural Christianity.” Two assassination attempts. Drones over N.J. A spike in antisemitism. Pager explosions. Luigi-mania. Breakdancing in the Olympics. What a year. What will 2025 bring?
RIP Jimmy Carter: Say what you might about his presidency, but Citizen Carter got a lot of things right. The world would be a better place if everyone lived modestly, cared for the poor, and volunteered during the last fifty years of their life.
Speaking Of: The ruckus caused by Carter’s ‘76 Playboy interview is an illuminating reference point for our culture’s “progression.” Carter scandalized many by confessing to “lust in his heart.” Today, lust openly drives significant parts of our economy.
Overheard: 1) In ‘24, marketers wanted to get on Joe Rogan. In ‘25, marketers will launch their own podcast and try to be Joe Rogan; 2) Having dismissed truth, today’s collegians dismiss much classical apologetics. What gets their attention is the idea that someone (Jesus) knows them fully and loves them unconditionally; and 3) Just as today’s marijuana is more toxic than 1980s weed, today’s porn is more unrealistic, violent, and damaging than yesterday’s Playboy.
Yes! A friend fighting a terminal illness ended his Christmas letter noting he “was not suffering from anything that a good general resurrection cannot fix.” In order to live well and faithfully, we must shine our headlights beyond the grave. Eternity changes everything.
Without Comment: 1) There are now 7K tigers in private US facilities—i.e., 2K more than live in the wild; 2) After declining due to Covid and Deaths of Despair, life expectancy in the US is ticking up again; 3) Fueled by AI, cyber fraud attempts jumped 9X this holiday; 4) Per the Hong Kong Political Prisoners Database there are more political prisoners in Hong Kong than Russia and Iran combined; 5) Whole Foods is predicting that sourdough, hydration drinks, sea moss, and all things compostable will be ‘25’s food trends; 6) US abortions have increased since Roe fell; 7) The median age in Japan is 49. In Niger, it’s 15; 8) The most popular boys’ name in England in ‘23 was Mohammad; 9) Per this chart, Amazon will soon deliver more packages in the US than the USPS.
LBRIA: I can’t stop thinking about this overview of culture by substacker Ted Gioia. His thesis—well captured in these two diagrams (here and here)—is not a happy one. It does, however, make me excited about the digital fast Christ Church will undertake this Lent.
WOTW: Honorable mention goes to yule-tide hole (the last notch on your belt, which is often needed in December), the Kessler Syndrome (the nightmare scenario in which the number of satellites is so high that collisions occur, each one generating more and more space debris, which quickly shuts down 21st-century life), autochthonous (something that emerges out of nothing, like an idea that just pops into your head), MAHA Moms (a Make America Healthy Again collection of moms somewhat linked with RFK Jr.), and lapsed atheist (the way Sir Niall Ferguson—the Harvard, Oxford, Stanford academic—describes himself after his embrace of Christ). Full honors go to post-entertainment culture, which I first saw in the LBRIA piece I cited earlier. BTW, you can click here for an X thread describing Ferguson’s conversion. And here to read NYT columnist David Brooks’s most explicit discussion of his spiritual journey.
Sabbatical: As some of you know, yesterday, I started a three-month sabbatical at Christ Church. FWIW, I intend to keep The Friday Update going through January and February, suspend it during March, and then relaunch it—with some updates—in April. Closing Prayer: May the Lord Jesus place his hands on our eyes that we may begin to catch sight of the things that are not seen more than the things that are seen. May he open our eyes that they will alight on the things to come more than on the things of this age. May he unveil the vision of our heart that it may contemplate God in spirit. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ to whom belong glory and power forever. Amen (Origen, 185 – 254)