March Reads week two-ish

Martyn Wendell Jones leads off this week's reads with his magisterial profile of the Bakker family and the surrounding culture of religious enthusiasm in The Weekly Standard: Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker: A Scandal of the Self

Some articles on modern political problems. Cedric Johnson's essay fits with the second piece due to its discussion of modern policing, and with the third due to its discussion of pre-political identity, but honestly I mostly grouped these together because I thought it was funny to match a journal produced by Jacobin with two conservative magazines:
Cedric Johnson, Catalyst Journal, The Panthers Can't Save Us Now
Adam Rubenstein, The Weekly Standard, Radley Balko: 'The Biggest Problem in Our System is Bad Incentives'

Michael Brendan Dougherty, National Review, Confiscating the Nation

The tech section. AJ's essay, of course, is everything I've ever wanted; everything else is mostly, as usual, terrible. 

Alan Jacobs, Hedgehog Review, Tending the Digital Commons: A Small Ethics toward the Future
Anastasia Basil, Medium, Porn Is Not the Worst Thing on Musical.ly
Joseph Bottum, Washington Free Beacon, At the Algorithm's Mercy

Robinson Meyer, The Atlantic, The Grim Conclusions of the Largest-Ever Study of Fake News
Farhad Manjoo, NYT, For Two Months I Got My News From Print Newspapers. Here's What I Learned.

Speaking of the Internet, it's generally a good reminder to reexamine our levels of charity to others when thinking about it:

Katherine Mangu-Ward, NYT, When Smug Liberals Met Conservative Trolls

Jake Meador, Mere O, The Grace of Good Questions

These articles on the changing makeup of the Church are crucial. There have been numerous examinations of craven white evangelicals' capitulation during the 2016 election, and the resultant brutality inflicted on the souls of minority Christians; these are not the full extent of the analysis needed of this moment in history, but they certainly help. Jesus, come quickly, or send us some non-Western missionaries enflamed with the Spirit. 
Campbell Robertson, NYT, A Quiet Exodus: Why Black Worshippers Are Leaving White Evangelical Churches
Deborah Jian Lee, Religion Dispatches, Betrayed at the Polls, Evangelicals of Color at a Crossroads
Michael Gerson, The Atlantic, The Last Temptation
Emma Green, The Atlantic, How Trump is Remaking Evangelicalism
Jake Meador, Mere O, The Evangelical Center After Billy Graham
Saba Imtiaz, The Atlantic, A New Generation Redefines What It Means to Be a Missionary

At least there are Christians reporting on science for Christianity Today, even if the profile of Christian conservationists staring down mass extinction is really depressing in its own way:

Cara Daneel, CT, Creation Groans, but God Hears: Many Species Face "Thinning of Life"
Stephanie Zhang, CT, Behaving Like Children or Chimps?

Some theology and philosophy. 
Fleming Rutledge, Generous Orthodoxy: Ruminations, The concept of sacrifice: The latest thing on the hit list?

John Woodbridge, CT, Why Christian Theology Needs (Former) Atheists
Gilbert Meilander, First Things, Virtuous Evildoers

Brian Wright, Desiring God, Read the Bible with Someone Else

On #MeToo and how not to let ourselves off the hook for our own sins; how Christians must speak up, but with humility; on raising boys in a culture of toxic masculinity (the first two-thirds would be a good first quarter of a better essay, which would not include the final third at all).

Ethan McCarthy, Christ & Pop Culture, Louis's Sins and Mine

Phil Mobley, By Faith, Christianity and Complicity
Michael Kimmel, The Cut, Raise Your Son to Be a Good Man, Not a 'Real' Man

Also somewhat #MeToo-related, a brief look at Rachael Denhollander's shot across the bow of SGM:
Ruth Graham, Slate, Larry Nassar’s First Accuser Is Taking On Another Big Target—This Time, Within Her Own Evangelical Community

Reviews: more Lady Bird, an interview with the founder of The Toast, and a look at Christian Wiman's new collection of poems on Joy. 

Clare Coffey, National Catholic Reporter, 'Lady Bird' inspires memories of Catholic high school and the sisters
Constance Grady, Vox, Mallory Ortberg talks The Toast, The Merry Spinster, and the joys of peanut butter
James Matthew Wilson, Law & Liberty, Joy's Mysteries

Two last reviews on Black Panther:

Adam Serwer, The Atlantic, The Tragedy of Erik Killmonger
Kathryn Freeman, Christ & Pop Culture, The Role of Black Women in the Church: A Wakandan View of Flourishing