Here are a handful of articles from the last week that I thought were really worth reading.

Top 5 Abused Bible Verses: Pastor Timothy Hammons on 5 of the Bible verses that are often misused, overused, or taken out of context. For example:

Matthew 7:1 “Judge not, that you be not judged.” This passage is abused among the haters of Christianity. It’s not used to teach us to guard against being hypocritical, as Jesus intended it to be used, but used to silence anyone who would espouse any godly standard above that of being a dog. Jesus isn’t giving a blanket statement for not judging, but given a lesson on how to judge rightly.

Pastor Hammons ends by asking what verse you’d add to the list. My addition would be Jeremiah 29:7:

But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

What verse would you add?

What Your Biology Teacher Didn’t Tell You About Charles Darwin: An excellent article on the link between Darwin, evolution, racism, and genocide:

Today, most British people are, thankfully, pretty embarrassed by the racist rhetoric which undergirded the late-Victorian British Empire. What is astonishing is how little they understand that Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution provided the doctrine behind its white supremacism. Whereas the British Empire of the early nineteenth century had been dominated by Christian reformers such as William Wilberforce who sold badges of black slaves which proclaimed, “Am I not a man and a brother?”, Charles Darwin’s writings converted an empire with a conscience into an empire with a scientific philosophy instead. Four years after Darwin published his Origin of Species, James Hunt turned it into a justification for slavery. He argued in his paper ‘On the Negro’s Place in Nature’, published in 1863, that “Our Bristol and Liverpool merchants, perhaps, helped to benefit the race when they transported some of them to America.” Christian reformers had spent decades in the first half of the nineteenth century teaching Britain to view non-European races as their equals before God. In a matter of years, Darwin not only swept God off the table but also swept the value of people of every race in God’s eyes off the table with him.

I’m sure that this one will get some people’s shorts in a knot, but sometimes it’s important to consider the consequences.

We Know They are Killing Children – All of Us Know: Perhaps the best article I read this week on the Roe v. Wade anniversary, by John Piper:

One biblical principle of justice is that the more knowledge we have that our action is wrong, the more guilty we are, and the more deserving of punishment (Luke 12:47–48). The point of this blog post is that we know what we are doing — all America knows. We are killing children. Pro-choice and Pro-life people both know this.

May God have mercy on us all.

Anything but “grey”: This article from World Magazine discusses the bestselling trilogy, 50 Shades of Grey:

Fifty Shades of Grey is rife with incredibly potent, eroticized lies about sex and human nature, Clements said. The novels tell women that love is most exciting when it is dangerous or taboo, that relationships are most compelling when they’re about wielding power rather than exercising sacrificial love, and that “being used is a way of being treasured.”

I recommend you read the article and avoid the books.

Any other great articles you’ve read this week?