“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.
“Meet the Iranian Christians Crafting an Evangelical Alliance“ – Jayson Casper in Christianity Today: “Last week in Tehran, thousands rallied to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the Islamic revolution that established Iran’s modern theocracy. Last October in London, 130 Iranian Christians gathered to worship and pray, and celebrated a quiet decision to establish an evangelical alliance. Time will tell which gathering was more consequential. In 1979, one month after the fall of the shah, 98 percent of Iranian citizens voted to approve a constitution installing an Islamic government. Four decades of religious authoritarianism later, an online poll indicated that only 16 percent of the population would vote for it again. An earlier survey, furthermore, found that only one-third of Iran’s population call themselves Shiite Muslims. More than half identified as either atheist, agnostic, no religion, vaguely spiritual, or Iran’s ancient Zoroastrian faith. Those responding ‘Christian’ totaled almost a million.”
“Calling All Preachers: The pulpit needs a revival of the prophetic and the poetic in this prose-flattened world” – Walter Brueggemann in Comment: “The preacher in US culture deals with a claim that is commonly accepted as the truth by the listeners. That is, we preach mostly to believers. There is a casual, indifferent readiness, even in our increasingly secularized society, to grant the main claims of the gospel—not to grant them importance, but to accept them as premises of religious life. In fact it is precisely the problem for the proclamation of the gospel that the great claims of the gospel do not seem to be problematic or in question. The gospel is too readily heard and taken for granted, as though it contained no unsettling news and no unwelcome threat. What began as news in the gospel is easily assumed, slotted, and conveniently dismissed. We depart having heard, but without noticing the urge to transformation that is not readily compatible with our comfortable believing that asks little and receives less. The gospel is thus a truth widely held, but a truth greatly reduced. It is a truth that has been flattened, trivialized, and rendered inane. Partly, the gospel is simply an old habit among us, neither valued nor questioned. But more than that, our technical way of thinking reduces mystery to problem, transforms assurance into certitude, revises quality into quantity, and so takes the categories of biblical faith and represents them in manageable shapes.”
“How the church can serve society by changing the way it handles property” – Duke’s Faith & Leadership interviews Mark Elsdon, the editor of the new book, Gone for Good?: “It’s not easy to be optimistic about the church these days. But Mark Elsdon is working on it. In his book We Aren’t Broke: Uncovering Hidden Resources for Mission and Ministry, he argued that, well, the church isn’t broke. In his new book, Gone for Good? Negotiating the Coming Wave of Church Property Transition, he makes the case that this moment poses a unique opportunity for the church to make a difference. As congregations disperse the enormous real estate holdings of the church, Elsdon sees a chance for renewal. If congregations think of their buildings and land as assets they are stewarding rather than possessions they own, that mindset can help them transform church spaces for the community’s well-being, he said. Gone for Good? is a collection of 16 essays by practitioners in many fields that addresses the question of what happens to church property when a church closes. At its core is the argument that property should be viewed as neither an albatross nor a cash cow but rather an asset that should be thoughtfully handled and used for good.”
“A Boy and a Comet: Viewing Halley’s Comet as a young child kindled in me a quiet reassurance that has never deserted me” – Howard Thurman in Plough: “It has always seemed curious to me that man should investigate the external world, recognize its order, and make certain generalizations about its behavior which he calls laws; that he should study his own organism and discover there a kind of orderliness of inner behavior, which he seeks to correct when it acts out of character by a wide variety of ministrations, from drugs and surgery to hypnosis and faith – and yet that he should be inclined, at the same time, to regard himself as an entity apart from all the rest of creation, including his body. Man is body, but more than body; mind, but more than mind; feelings, but more than feelings. Man is total; moreover, he is spirit. Therefore it is not surprising that in man’s spirit should be found the crucial nexus that connects him with the Creator of Life, the Spirit of the living God. The apostle is utterly realistic when he says that in Him we live and move and have our being. The most natural thing in the world for man, then, would be to keep open the lines of communication between him and the Source of his life, out of which he comes and into which (it is my faith) he goes.”
“Campus religious groups report greater interest from students trying to find meaning in ‘crumbling’ culture” – Kendall Tietz at Fox News: “Religious sentiment among Gen Z Americans and college students has captured the nation and the media over the past few years and experts believe the trend is indicative of the younger generation’s desire for meaning in a culture that hasn’t prioritized religion. Christian campus groups at universities across the U.S. have seen a growing interest from college students in recent years as Gen Z faces unique challenges like the COIVD-19 pandemic, the rise of social media and the political polarization of society. Author and religious commentator Billy Hallowell told Fox News Digital that Hollywood, the media and universities typically all come from the same, secular perspective, which has permeated society and given America’s younger generation, Gen Z and Millennials, in particular, the false understanding that everything is about ‘you.’ He described this as the ‘”my truth, your truth” generation’ which tells America’s youth that they can ‘decide what you think is right and wrong.'”
“For Black ‘nones’ who leave religion, what’s next?” – Kathryn Post in Religion News Service: “When Black Americans leave religion, it’s rarely a clean break. Take Rogiérs Fibby, a self-described agnostic, atheist and secular humanist who grew up in the Moravian Church. The head of the Washington, D.C., chapter of the Black Secular Collective, Fibby also considers himself ‘culturally Christian.’ ‘I know all the lingo, the theologies of different denominations, the theological distinctions, how to move in those different spaces theologically and interpersonally,’ he told Religion News Service. Or take Felicia Murrell, who served in church leadership across a range of denominations for over two decades. Today she thinks of herself as ‘interspiritual,’ but she also told RNS, ‘Christianity is my mother tongue.’ Then there’s William Matthews, longtime Bethel Music recording artist who left the church for about six years, starting in 2016. Today he’s the music director at New Abbey, a progressive, LGBTQ-affirming church in Los Angeles where exvangelicals and religious ‘nones’ regularly attend.”
Music: Poor Bishop Hooper, “Psalm 1,” from Every Psalm Project
Renovate 