By Stan Friedman

CHICAGO, IL (June 13, 2014) — Many Covenanters routinely share links to social media articles and videos with one another that Covenant News Service believes may be of interest to others. Each Friday we post five of them. Following is a sample of those submissions—their inclusion does not represent an endorsement of any views expressed.

Colleges and Evangelicals Collide on Bias Policy

The article is interesting, but the comments are also worth reading. Most of those who post make good points—on both sides of the issue.

As for making points, caption writer Katherine Taylor’s is clear: “Around the country, a number of colleges and universities are asking all student groups to agree they won’t discriminate, on any basis, in the selection of their members or leaders. Evangelical groups are balking, saying they have to be able to demand Christian faith of their leaders” (italics mine).

Officials didn’t “ask.” Contrasting “ask” with “demand” pits the polite, reasonable school officials against the balking and demanding evangelicals.

Words matter.

Should Christians Support Reparations for African Americans?

A recent Five for Friday post linked to an article titled “The Case for Reparations” by Ta-Nehisi Coates that appeared in The Atlantic. Coates’s piece drew widespread praise and intense criticism. Writing for Christianity Today this week, Amy Julia Becker says she doesn’t have all the answers to the question, but she offers a thoughtful response. She also appropriately takes to task those who voiced opinions on Coates’s piece without actually reading it.

“Cosmos” and Christianity (or Any Religion for That Matter)

I didn’t see the series “Cosmos” but I hope to. Science leads me to wonder—and to stronger faith. Peter Enns makes some good observations, but he’s wrong when he writes that a commercial placed by the Freedom from Religion Foundation featuring Ron Reagan at the end of the series is proof that the producers had an underlying anti-religion bias. Advertisers pay for the ads and specify where they appear in the show. As one commenter noted, there was a commercial for the film “Noah” during the first episode.

What the commercial does prove, however, is that fundamentalist atheists can be every bit the fatuous, dogmatic jerks they accuse fundamentalist Christians of being.

4 Lies the Church Taught Me About S%x

The % sign isn’t in the real headline. I just didn’t want to include any words that might cause the anti-porn filter to block this article. I don’t know if this author’s experience is an extreme example, but I’m pretty sure it’s not too far off the mark at some level. I’ve heard all those lies told. The author of the article posted a follow-up entry on her blog: “The Morning After: Things You Learn When Half a Million People Read about Your Sex Life,” reflecting on the hundreds of comments the original article received.

Seek and Ye Shall Find a Hottie

We all know there are people in every church who either want to play matchmaker for the singles—“Have I got a man for you!”—or they’re judging and gossiping about the dating life of singles—“What does she see in him?” So why not just broadcast it on TV, where it’s more dignified? That way church members get to make matches and judge them at the same time. And because there are no steamy hot tub scenes, Christians can show the whole world we can be in it but not of it.