It’s gay pride parade time again, so this is a good time to read Christopher Yuan’s Holy Sexuality and the Gospel (Multnomah, 2018). When I interviewed him five years ago (“From gay to joyous,” Feb. 8, 2014), he had recently put into perspective his years of homosexuality, illicit drug use, drug dealing, and coming to Christ in prison. His new book poses good questions about gays and identity: “How did ‘This is how I am’ become ‘This is who I am’?”

I tend to walk on beaches rather than sit on them, but my suggested formula for those who read as the tide rolls in is E=FB², with E standing for entertainment (which is sometimes educational), F for fiction, and B for Bible and baseball.

China last year was home to 440 million pigs, 57 percent of the world’s porcine total. As African swine fever—fatal for pigs, not transferable to humans—spread in early June, millions died. Farmers slaughtered millions more, hoping for sales before the highly contagious disease hit. Some say half of all pigs will die, and that’s particularly bad news in China, where more than half of all meat consumed is pork. The government even maintains a strategic pork reserve.  

This summer brings important 400th anniversaries. On July 30, 1619, the Virginia General Assembly, the first representative governing body in British America, met in a Jamestown church. Late in August a ship brought against their will 20 or so Africans, the first of their race in British America. The lack of a precise date or number suggests that already these captives were not being treated as individual human beings made in God’s image.

Twenty years ago Rosaria Butterfield professed faith in Christ. Subsequently, she married Kent Butterfield, a pastor, and moved to Durham, N.C. She told her story of God’s grace in The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert and in WORLD issues dated March 23, 2013, and Aug. 6, 2016. Her new book, The Gospel Comes With a House Key, describes why and how to be hospitable in our neighborhoods.

James Watt died 200 years ago this summer, but his face now graces the Bank of England’s 50-pound bills, each worth about $56. A sentence below his picture explains why Watt had a Eureka! moment on the Glasgow Green that led to his invention of steam engine improvements that revolutionized commerce: “I can think of nothing else but this machine.”

Christian historian Herbert Schlossberg, who chronicled the relationship between Western history and religion, died Friday of pancreatic cancer. He was 84.

“Herb lived a long and very satisfied life,” his wife, Terry, wrote from Virginia. “He accomplished what he set out to do, and more.”