Expressions of Faith

an outlet of encouragement, explanation, and exhortation

Category: Links (Page 1 of 2)

Resources for Studying Immigration

June 21, 2025 /

In a talk I recorded for Long Beach Friends Church on June 22, 2025, I mentioned that there were some really good resources to understand migration issues. This sort article is written to provide links to those resources. I used these resources in preparing that message.

For a long-term historical survey of migration contextualizing present-day migration, far and away the best research is included in a book by one of the world’s leading scholars of migration, Hein de Hass. It is entitled How Migration Really Works: The Facts About the Most Divisive Issue in Politics. I highly, highly recommend it. It is well-written and covers a great deal of ground. I found some of the things I believed about immigration were simply not true. This is not a partisan book. (I don’t get anything if you use that link above to purchase from Amazon. Purchase where you will.)

Evangelical Immigration Table is a Christian organization that connects followers of Jesus with the world of American immigration in a way that strives to honor Jesus’ teaching.

USAFacts is a non-partisan organization to present statistics about immigration in the United States. Steve Balmer seems to be the primary driver of this organization. They present the unspun statistics about immigration to the United States.

Pew Research has a short article on unauthorized immigrants living in the United States.

Featured image for this post is from Heitordp, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Kylie and me
Kylie and me

Ted Chiang says “ChatGPT Is a Blurry JPEG of the Web”

June 16, 2025 /

Ted Chiang wrote an article on large language models a couple of years ago that was published in the New Yorker. It is a really excellent conceptual introduction to what passes as “Artificial Intelligence” these days. He is an outstanding writer, whether it’s technical writing or his world-class short stories. This time, it’s technical. Chiang clearly presents several fundamental concepts clarifying large language models in about as straightforward and clear a manner as I have yet seen. I highly recommend it.

(Note that the article applies to all large language models, not just to ChatGPT)

I was Blessed by Joshua Luke Smith!

February 28, 2025 /

I don’t know Joshua Luke Smith. Never heard of him before today. I just read a brief article about him (he’s an MK). He’s a poet and rapper who works in prisons. That’s all I know except for the experience of hearing him read a couple of his poems.

What shoved me towards his work was Brian Bakke posting on social media a link to a recent reading of one of his poems which I think is entitled Sunflowers in Babylon. (Either that or Uncle Terry’s Legacy. I’m not sure.) Brian’s advice is serious business for me, so I decided to check it out. I’m not one who is much for poetry, but for eight minutes and twenty-eight seconds Joshua Luke Smith had my full, rapt attention. After he finished, I wanted to read the words of the poem and ponder a bit. I found a transcript here. Wow.

Then, I wanted to find out more about this guy. He’s got a website. The first video on the page “My Work” was a blessing. Would that I could bless like that! And he’s all over the common social media.

Then my granddaughter Malea arrived, walking to our house from her nearby elementary school. I told her I just saw a great video on YouTube. She wanted to see it. It held her attention for all eight minutes and twenty-eight seconds, too. She wanted to know why he wrote it. “Did he write that for a funeral?” I said perhaps it was inspired by his uncle’s passing, but that it was not performed for a funeral. She said she liked it a lot. Then her Dad picked her up to go home.

So this note is my recommendation to pursue some of his poetry for yourself. Planting a sunflower seed? It’s me, one who was deeply encouraged pointing to the source of the blessing. We need some blessing, some hope, some direction just now. The other events in the news out of DC today… Well, I’m not going to go there. Joshua Luke Smith. I’m going to recommend some time with his readings.

Five Quaker organizations sue to disallow ICE raids on houses of worship

February 5, 2025 /

In a very recent policy change, the new presidential administration withdrew guidance that said that ICE shouldn’t conduct an immigration raid during a church service except for when there is a public safety threat.

Note well… if a terrorist (or similar) were to run into a church there was already a way for ICE to have the authority to go into that church. What changed was the administration rescinded its limitations on immigration enforcement in “protected areas” like churches and hospitals and shelters.

We (generally speaking) all want law enforcement to protect public safety. However, churches that serve the immigrant community (like Long Beach Friends) don’t want ICE showing up and standing outside the church building on Sunday morning – or even worse, raiding the church! One of our services is in Spanish and we have many immigrant members from a diverse background. We know that people are afraid. We desire that our neighbors – all of them – should be able to attend worship services without fear.

In reaction, five Quaker organizations have sued to disallow ICE raids on houses of worship. I don’t know much directly about the suit, so please allow me to refer you to a Reuters news article about this lawsuit. My immediate reaction is: Good on these Quakers! I’m thankful for their actions.

For more informed discussion regarding this policy (not the lawsuit), you might want to listen to this podcast episode from the Holy Post starting at about one hour in as Skye Jethani interviews Matthew Soerens of World Relief.

“In God We Trust”

November 7, 2024 /

I’ve been thinking about this prophetic song and passionate rendition quite a lot lately. I deeply appreciate the Ethnos Project music. This particular song resonates with me here in 2024.

The video was recorded in 2021 in Los Angeles by the songwriters Michele Leong and Julia Carbajal with friends from the Ethnos Project Collective.

The lyrics and more details of the artists and recording are available in the description of the video on YouTube.

2024 Election Resources

November 3, 2024 /

Praying for the Election

24-7 Prayer USA has a very nice guide to praying for the election.

Understanding the Election Process

Protect Democracy is an organization whose purpose is to protect free and fair elections, defend the rule of law, and safeguard the public square. They have a nice set of slides explaining how long it could take to project a winner of the election on November 5. Bottom line: the election is expected to be very close so don’t expect to know who won on the night of the election. Patience is going to be required.

Tracking the Election Results

Given the likelihood that tons of bad and misleading information that will flood social media, where can we get accurate updates and explanations of what is happening?

I want to recommend that we get the latest updates and explanations regarding the election from the National Task Force on Election Crises. This excellent non partisan resource will help us avoid the inaccurate information that will be flooding social media. The task force will maintain and update a toolkit with accurate information regarding what is happening with vote counting and other important election developments as the votes are counted and results become available.

The Big Picture

Remember, the kingdom of heaven does not depend on the election result. We know already: Jesus has been put in charge! We follow him.

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Matthew 28.18 [niv]

Regarding those CA Propositions

Who paid for what, and why?

Brian Zahnd’s Christian Voter Guide

October 22, 2024 /

Brian Zahnd wrote a “voter guide” for Christians some 12 years ago. (I’m writing in 2024 so that would be 2012.) It was a breath of fresh air – an encouragement to Jesus people! What he entitled BZ’s Ten Point Christian Voter Guide 12 years ago is quoted below.

1. The political process, while necessary, has little to do with how God is saving the world.

2. The fate of the kingdom of God does not depend upon political contests.

3. Don’t be naïve, political parties are more interested in Christian votes than they are in Christian values.

4. The bottom line for political parties is power. The bottom line for a Christian is love. And therein lies the rub.

5. While in pursuit of the Ring of Power, you are not permitted to abandon the Sermon on the Mount.

6. If your political passion makes it hard for you to love your neighbor as yourself, you need to turn it down a notch.

7. Your task is to bring the salt of Christian civility to an ugly and acrimonious political process.

8. To dismember the body of Christ over politics is a grievous sin.

9. Exercise your liberty to vote your conscience and conviction, while accepting that other Christians will do the same and vote differently than you.

10. It’s more important that your soul be filled with love than it is for your political team to win the game.

A few days ago in his online blog, BZ published his guide once more, and included some, shall we say, supporting texts. It’s quite a good meditation for us who say we intend to follow Jesus. It is called Election Season and Your Soul. I highly recommend it.

A Falcon 9 Launch!

June 24, 2024 /

This SpaceX Falcon 9 was launched at 8:48 PM on June 23, 2024, carrying 20 Starlink satellites.

There were clouds on the horizon as the rocket launched. The first portion of the video shows stage 1 streaking up through the clouds – focus was difficult. Then stage 1 stops firing, there is a pause, and stage 2 kicks in with the fan-tail plume. As the fairings that join the two stages and stage 1 itself drop back, there are two lights for the fairings and one for stage 1 behind the fairings in the exhaust plume.

About 48 seconds into the video and again at 56 seconds are what sound like sonic booms (amplified in my audio) – probably from stage 1 dropping back toward earth. I’ve not been able to hear these from Long Beach before!

After a break to walk around a tree (and bumping into my car since my eyes were looking skyward) there’s a bit more close-up video. A bit later, I took a still photo (over my neighbor’s house) of the stage 1 deceleration burn as it slowed preparing to land on a barge off-shore. Susie and I watched the SpaceX broadcast of the impressive landing.

Then I took another still photo of the exhaust plumes in the sky as they dispersed for some time after the launch. The plumes are brightly lit by the sun from below the horizon – pretty ideal circumstances for a good launch show! Notice the different color of the two plumes.

rocket launch exhaust plumes

I dreamed of seeing rocket launches as a boy watching Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo launches on TV! And now I’ve seen three in the past couple of weeks from my front garden. Wonders.

You can be informed of launches from Vandenberg by email. Subscribe to this newsletter; it is just the right information without baggage. The email alerting of a launch will have a link to SpaceX’s launch coverage at SpaceX.com or elsewhere for other launches, such as those from Firefly. The link in the newsletter mailing will be specific to the mission, and opens on live coverage most of the time.

The M.O. is to watch the launch coverage to see that the rocket actually launches, and then watch West Nortwest (from Long Beach) for the stage 1 burn to appear rising orange in the sky. (Well, orange for a Falcon 9….) It usually takes about a minute or a bit more for the rocket to rise high enough in the sky to be visible from Long Beach, CA where I live. The best time to watch is for launches just after sunset on a fairly clear night; they can be spectacular! Daylight launches are often invisible from Long Beach.

« Older posts

© 2025 Expressions of Faith

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑