Breakpoint Eerdmans' PRIDE month books, Climate Change and Having Children, and Aging as a Disease? - Breakpoint This Week
John and Maria discuss the way some Christians are handling PRIDE month. Notably, Maria asks John to explain the background of a known publisher of Christian-based books, Eerdmans, and a list of books they've published to "help" Christians think about PRIDE month. Maria then asks John to comment on a recent article by journalist and commentator Ezra Klein who discussed how climate change is impacting the decisions of some adults on whether to have kids. Maria offers some helpful thoughts for us on how we got to this place and why Klein's thinking and reporting isn't shedding light on the whole story.
To close, Maria wants John to explain a new report from Harvard that purports scientists have reversed the aging in mice. An article on the report says that aging is a disease, and John critiques that phrasing and offers some ways the Christian perspective is wholly different, especially as it looks to redeem and restore life in a fallen world.
-- Recommendations --
-- In Show References --
Segment 1:
Eerdmans Publishers Promote "Books for PRIDE Month"
"We find ourselves at a time again where we should be willing to listen and seek to understand those in the LGBTQ+ community who are simply fighting to be seen and heard, cared for and loved."
https://eerdword.com/pride-month-books/
Eerdman's defending itself after posting on Twitter, removing it, and re-posting it: https://twitter.com/eerdmansbooks/status/1534269600736563200
State Farm drops its partnership with "GenderCool" program to distribute LGBT books to kids in publis schools after uproar
"The mission of GenderCool, founded in 2018 in Chicago, is to "replace misinformed opinions with positive experiences meeting transgender and non-binary youth who are thriving," according to its website. The organization, which describes itself as "an inspiring disrupter," has partnered with some of the biggest companies in the world, including Bank of America, Dell, General Mills, NBCUniversal and Nike."
{Pizza Hut features "Drag Kids" book for kids as young as kindergarteners}
"Pizza Hut is featuring a book about "drag kids" as one of the books promoted by its "Book It!" reading incentive program aimed at children in pre-kindergarten through 6th grade."
Segment 2:
Ezra Klein says "Your Kids Are Not Doomed"
"Over the past few years, I've been asked one question more than any other. It comes up at speeches, at dinners, in conversation. It's the most popular query when I open my podcast to suggestions, time and again. It comes in two forms. The first: Should I have kids, given the climate crisis they will face? The second: Should I have kids, knowing they will contribute to the climate crisis the world faces?"
"We will have caused incalculable damage to ecosystems. We will have worsened droughts, floods, famines, heat waves. We will have bleached coral reefs, acidified the ocean, driven countless animal species to extinction. Millions, maybe tens of millions, of people will die from increased heat, and more will be killed by the indirect consequences of climate change. Far more yet will be forced to flee their homes or live lives of deep poverty or suffering. We will have stolen the full possibility of their flourishing from them."
Segment 3:
Scientists Can Reverse Aging in Mice. The goal is to do the same for humans.
" "It's a permanent reset, as far as we can tell, and we think it may be a universal process that could be applied across the body to reset our age," said Sinclair, who has spent the last 20 years studying ways to reverse the ravages of time."
"His research shows you can change aging to make lives younger for longer. Now he wants to change the world and make aging a disease," said Whitney Casey, an investor who is partnering with Sinclair to create a do-it-yourself biological age test."