“The Weekend Wanderer” is a weekly curated selection of news, stories, resources, and media on the intersection of faith and culture for you to explore through your weekend. Wander through these links however you like and in any order you like. Disclaimer: I do not necessarily agree with all the views expressed within these articles but have found them thought-provoking.
“Above Reproach? Fewer Americans See Pastors as Ethical” – Kate Shellnut in Christianity Today: “Americans are having a harder time trusting anyone these days—including pastors. The country’s perception of clergy hit a new low in recent Gallup polling, with fewer than a third of Americans rating clergy as highly honest and ethical. People are more likely to believe in the moral standards held by nurses, police officers, and chiropractors than their religious leaders. Clergy are still more trusted than politicians, lawyers, and journalists. The continued drop in pastors’ reputation—down from 40 percent to 32 percent over the past four years—corresponds with more skepticism toward professions (and institutions) across the board. Americans are also less likely than ever to know a pastor, with fewer than half belonging to a church and a growing cohort who don’t identify with a faith at all.
“Lone Baptist church in Gaza hard hit in war, future uncertain” – Diane Chandler in Baptist Press: “Gaza Baptist Church, established by Southern Baptists in 1954 and the lone Baptist church in Gaza, has been heavily damaged in the Israel-Hamas War, former pastor Hanna Massad told Baptist Press. ‘There’s lots of damage in the church. God willing, we will wait until the war is over and then … repair the damage,’ Massad said, but it is uncertain how many of the church’s 60 members will remain in Gaza. ‘There are many Christian families in the Christian community in Gaza who already have visas to travel abroad. But I’m sure … still some Christian people (will) stay in Gaza.’ No one is believed to have been inside the church when the damage occurred. About 70 people tried sheltering at the church – perhaps during the Israeli ceasefire in November 2023 – but evacuated when war again intensified in the area. The exact date of the damage is uncertain, but it likely occurred before Christmas, Massad said. As frequently as the war allows, Massad continues to minister to Baptists and other Christians sheltered at St. Porphyrios Greek Orthodox Church and the Holy Family Roman Catholic Church, delivering hot meals, clothing, groceries and direct financial assistance to families through the U.S.-based Christian Mission to Gaza he founded.”
“Recovering Democratic Politics” – Luke Bretherton at Breaking Ground, a project of Comment: “How shall we live together? Alongside, What is going on? and, What is to be done? this is one of the most basic questions of moral philosophy. The real answer is always the same. We must do politics. Politics? Surely not. But underneath the polarization, dyspeptic rallies, back-room deals, and rage tweets is the reality that politics is the description of something good, and the stark alternative to three other options that are decidedly less so. When I meet someone with whom I disagree, whom I dislike, or whom I find threatening, I can do one of four things. I can kill them, I can create a structure of coercion so I can control them, or I can make life so difficult that they run away. Or I can do politics. That is to say, I can form, norm, and sustain some kind of common life amid asymmetries of power, competing visions of the good, and my own feelings of aversion or fear without killing, coercing, or causing them to flee. Today in America, across the political spectrum, it seems many are on the verge of giving up on politics as the answer to the problem of how to live together and are intent on pursuing one of the other options. This lack of faith in politics is particularly acute in the churches. A recent report by Lifeways Research notes that 49 percent of Protestant pastors report having to address conspiratorial beliefs in their congregations—conspiracies that foster exclusionary nationalism, an authoritarian politics, and violent responses to societal problems. These are conspiracies that demonize and vilify those with whom their subscribers disagree, those whom they dislike.”
“The Spiritual Formation Movement: What’s Next?” – Steve Porter in Conversatio: “From 1997 to 2003, I was a Ph.D. student in philosophy at the University of Southern California under Dallas Willard’s gracious and grace-filled supervision. Whenever I went to Dallas’s office with a philosophical question, I also made a point to ask him a question about the spiritual life. One time I told Dallas about my practice of asking both types of questions and he said, ‘Now, Steve, you don’t need to do that.’ Ah, but I did. On one occasion I was eager to tell Dallas of a book I had picked up in a used bookstore written in 1904 by J. R. Illingworth titled Christian Character: Being Some Lectures on the Elements of Christian Ethics. Many of Illingworth’s central points bore a close resemblance to some of the main themes in Dallas’s writings on Christian spiritual formation. This led me to wonder whether Illingworth was one of Dallas’s influences. Although Dallas was intrigued by my description of the book, he had never heard of the author. He then asked me to repeat the publication date. ‘1904,’ I said. He smiled, nodded, and said something to the effect of, ‘Things of this sort were much more commonly understood and discussed around that time.’ I did not know as well then Dallas’s view that moral and spiritual knowledge disappeared as a publicly available resource in the Western, English-speaking world in the early decades of the 20th century.”
“Figural Graffiti“ – Joseph Mangina in The Living Church: “Everything within creation
Speaks of Jesus’ Incarnation.
Likewise too, his saving Passion
Is shown forth in all that’s fashioned.
The Word God spoke before all ages
Can be traced in Scripture’s pages.
The Bible tells one vast narration
from Genesis to Revelation.”
“Artificial intelligence needs theology: What exactly is an ‘evil robot’? Who gets to define it?” – The Editors in The Christian Century: “‘OpenAI Releases Plan to Prevent a Robot Apocalypse’ read the headline of a December 19 Daily Beast article. The plan is to create a ‘preparedness team’ to supplement the artificial intelligence company’s current safety efforts, which include mitigating the technology’s adoption of human biases such as racism and preventing machine goals from overriding human goals. The new team, led by MIT researcher Aleksander Madry, will monitor for potential catastrophic events involving AI, such as creating and deploying biological weapons, sabotaging an economic sector, or hacking into military systems to start a nuclear war. The primary work of the preparedness team, Madry told the Washington Post, will be to prevent exploitation of the technology by people who approach it asking, ‘How can I mess with this set of rules? How can I be most ingenious in my evilness?’ In this issue of The Christian Century, theologian Katherine Schmidt writes about the role of the humanities in a world where AI is becoming increasingly powerful, generative, and autonomous. As corporations and policymakers grapple with the blurring lines between human agency and computer-generated agency, Schmidt argues that “ethical theory and ethics education” are vital. Further, she points out that theologians and philosophers are ‘uniquely qualified’ to weigh in on the conversation, since they are skilled at addressing basic questions about truth, meaning, and agency.”
Music: Jonathan McReynolds, “God is Good” (Live)
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Matthew Erickson 