“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.
“Where Did Evangelicals Go Wrong?” – Peter Wehner in The Atlantic: “America is a riven society. Political divisions have been on the rise for years. The gap between the Republican and Democratic Parties has grown in Congress, and the share of Americans who interact with people from the opposing party has plummeted. Studies tell us, ‘Democrats and Republicans both say that the other party’s members are hypocritical, selfish, and closed-minded, and they are unwilling to socialize across party lines.’ Many Americans read news or get information only from sources that align with their political beliefs, which exacerbates fundamental disagreements not just about policies but about basic facts. So-called affective polarization—in which citizens are more motivated by who they oppose than who they support—has increased more dramatically in America than in any other democracy. ‘Hatred—specifically, hatred of the other party—increasingly defines our politics,’ Geoffrey Skelley and Holly Fuong have written at FiveThirtyEight. My colleague Ron Brownstein has argued that the nation is ‘confronting the greatest strain to its fundamental cohesion since the Civil War.’ One might reasonably expect that Christians, including white evangelicals, would be a unifying, healing force in American society.”
“Art of Lent: Finding our words with images” – Mandy Smith at Preaching Today: “Before we know one word, we know the world through instincts and emotions, memories and urges. We wince at sour, we giggle in the bath. Our first language is human experience. As preachers, we always begin with the Word of Scripture. Thankfully it’s been translated into our spoken languages. But before it was Hebrew, Greek, or Contemporary English, it was the Word, a Word who knows how to exist before and beyond language, who is the first and last letter of the alphabet and everything beyond it. This Word became flesh, a Word beyond words. A Word who lived in our first language of human experience. So how do we, as preachers with our limited medium of spoken words, communicate to beings whose experience is beyond words?”
“Many Christian voters in US see immigration as a crisis: How to address it is where they differ” – Giovanna Dell’Orto at The Associated Press: “Christian voters and faith leaders have long been in the frontlines of providing assistance to migrants — but when it comes to support for immigration policies, from border security to legalization options for migrants already in the U.S., priorities diverge broadly. Both President Joe Biden and GOP challenger Donald Trump traveled to the border in Texas last Thursday to present their vision of how to fix what most agree is a broken system — immigration has risen to a top concern for Americans in this presidential election year. At the border with Mexico in El Paso, Texas, Catholic Bishop Mark Seitz believes that a nation has the right to a secure and orderly border, and to vet those who want to cross it, but he emphasizes the Church’s social teaching of caring for the poorest and most vulnerable. ‘Here in El Paso … we don’t say, “Show me your papers.” As Christians we say, “How can I help you in your suffering?”‘ Seitz said, who leads the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ migration committee. ‘This is not a political issue in the first instance, it’s about putting into practice what Jesus Christ taught through the Church.'”
“‘How Great Thou Art’ gets new ending on 75th anniversary of famed English translation” – Adelle M. Banks at Religion News Service: “The well-known and beloved-by-many words of ‘How Great Thou Art’ have had a long and varied trajectory from Swedish poem to German hymn to a tradition at Billy Graham crusades. In celebration of the 75th anniversary of the hymn’s popular English translation, Grammy-winning Christian singer-songwriter Matt Redman has teamed up with 15 other artists and released a new version, continuing the hymn’s transatlantic trek that has led it to be featured in countless hymnals and recorded on hundreds of albums. ‘Someone wrote something out of the depths of their heart toward God and then it got wings,’ Redman said in a late February interview. ‘It’s just phenomenal to think — isn’t it? — that Elvis recorded this and he gave it some extra wings. And then Carrie Underwood’s version is another version a lot of people talk about.’ Redman first sang and played the hymn as a teenage guitar player in an Anglican church in the English village of Chorleywood because, he said, its chord structure was easier to manage than other hymns. Now, he has added to the complex history of the hymn after being approached by the British charity that owns the copyright for it, the Stuart Hine Trust.”
“De-commodifying time: Jenny Odell argues that we need to get back in touch with our preindustrial sense of time” – Jeannine Marie Pitas in The Christian Century: “After the world changed in March 2020, many of us became acutely aware of the varied ways that we experience time. Extreme social distancing made time contract and expand at once, with hours crawling by while weeks flew—or perhaps the reverse. During that early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, artist and writer Jenny Odell began to feel acutely what farmers throughout history have always known: not all minutes, hours, or days are equal in length. Though we follow a 24-hour clock, time as we experience it takes many forms. Touching on topics as wide-ranging as the search for hope amid climate change, the experiences of people with disabilities trying to live by standardized schedules, the realities of people experiencing mass incarceration, and the perspectives of people whose sense of collective history has been forever altered by colonialism, Odell’s Saving Time argues that part of the answer to our biggest problems may entail getting back in touch with our preindustrial sense of time, seeing it less as commodity and more as the ‘stretchy quality of waiting and desire, the way the present may suddenly feel marbled with childhood memory, the slow but sure procession of a pregnancy, or the time it takes to heal from injuries, physical or emotional.’ What makes this book powerful is Odell’s refusal to succumb to determinism. Instead, she asserts that we can choose how we organize time.”
“Big changes at Trinity International University, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and the Evangelical Free Church” – John Fea at Current: “If I am reading the situation correctly:
- Nichols Perrin has resigned as president of Trinity International University.
- Trinity International University is closing its online undergraduate program. This means that TIU will no longer offer undergraduate education of any type. It closed its residential college last year.
- Trinity Graduate School and Trinity’s Florida campus will close.
- Kevin Kompelien has resigned as president of the Evangelical Free Church of America.
- Kevin Kompelien will assume the presidency of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.
It is all explained in this press release…”
Music: Matt Redman, Chris Tomlin, Hillary Scott, TAYA & Friends – “How Great Thou Art (Until That Day)”
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Matthew Erickson 