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If love conflicts with our politics, let’s change our politics
Hi friends, I don’t often seek out Christianity Today articles, but sometimes people bring them to my attention. And sometimes I have some feelings and thoughts about them that feel worth sharing. For instance: this recent piece about a West Texas pastor who shelters migrants, despite holding generally Republican stances on immigration. It’s so complicated.…
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Individualism twists our understanding of injustice
Hi friends, Ally Henny was an (online) classmate of mine in seminary, and I’ve appreciated her voice on social media ever since. But I hadn’t really read much of her (non-social-media) writing until now. I just read her recently released book, I Won’t Shut Up: Finding Your Voice When the World Tries to Silence You.…
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Super chill book review part 1: Rest Is Resistance by Tricia Hersey
Hi friends, My general goal is to post here weekly-ish, so I kind of wanted to get a “super chill book review” of Tricia Hersey’s Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto (Little, Brown Spark 2022) out last Friday. But then I was tired. There’s been a lot going on. And I thought, if I’ve learned anything…
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Race-based affirmative action: what’s in it for white folks?
Hi friends, I want to say a little more about affirmative action. I feel like this is one of those things that, for some of us—that is, for those of us who don’t feel like we’re directly impacted—that is, for those of us who are white (and/or perhaps Asian American?)—it might be easy to move…
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Shiny and Happy
Hi friends, I’ve been continuing to watch all the recent evangelicalism exposé documentaries. It’s a lot. I’m talking The Secrets of Hillsong (some reflections here and here). I’m talking God Forbid (on the Falwells, yikes). And I’m talking Shiny Happy People (on the Duggars, Gothard, and IBLP). This week, I wanted to share a few…
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Super chill book review: Atlas of the Heart (Brene Brown)
Given how long it took to get a copy—that is, one of 114 copies—of Brené Brown’s Atlas of the Heart (Random House 2021) from the local library system, I’m going to venture a guess that rather a lot of people are reading it or have read it recently. (Also, it’s a TV series? I haven’t…
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Gutsy faithfulness in a world where money fails (reflections on Luke 16:1-13)
I’ve got another church eblast reflection for you all – unabridged (read: slightly longer) version! This one’s on Luke 16:1-13: 16:1 Then Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. 16:2 So he summoned him and…
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Super chill book review: Sand Talk (Tyson Yunkaporta)
I read Tyson Yunkaporta’s Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World (HarperOne, 2020) a couple months ago in the midst of a several-days-long cat crisis. (Kitty is doing well now, thank you). So I may have been a bit distracted. So maybe take everything I say with an extra large grain of salt.…
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Super chill book review part 2: Jesus and John Wayne (Kristin Kobes Du Mez)
Back with part 2 of a super chill book review for Kristin Kobes Du Mez’s Jesus and John Wayne. (Part 1 is chillin over here.) A few more thoughts and quotes: 5. I appreciated Du Mez’s reflections on the blurring between the evangelical mainstream and (extra-conservative extra-patriarchal) margins. This quote made sense to me, and…
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Super chill book review part 1: Jesus and John Wayne (Kristin Kobes Du Mez)
Well, this is looking to be another two-part super chill book review… (Some might ask, does it still count as “super chill” once it gets to be this long? To which I would say, the chill factor isn’t about length so much as style—these aren’t really book reviews so much as just collections of quotes…