“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.
“5 Less-Known Christian Leaders That Shaped Black History” – At Relevant: “Black history is full of names everyone recognizes—Martin Luther King Jr., Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass. But behind every movement, every cultural shift, there are the ones history doesn’t elevate to household name status. And, as it turns out, many of them were shaped by their faith. Christianity has always played a complex role in Black history, both as a tool of oppression and a force of liberation. But for many Black leaders, faith wasn’t just a backdrop—it was the fire that fueled their fight for justice, creativity and change. Here are five Christian leaders who made an undeniable impact, even if history hasn’t given them their due.”
“From his hospital bed, Pope Francis stays in touch with Catholic parishioners in Gaza” – Ruth Sherlock at NPR: “Pope Francis remains in the hospital this week, with a respiratory tract infection that doctors are describing as a ‘complex clinical situation.’ Despite this, the pontiff has kept in touch from his hospital bed with a parish in the Gaza Strip. Sometimes he reaches them by video call, according to the Vatican, and sometimes by text message. In an interview with Vatican News, the Rev. Gabriel Romanelli, the parish priest of the Church of the Holy Family, the only Roman Catholic church in Gaza, says Pope Francis has called from the hospital at 8 p.m. Gaza time every night. The pope has maintained near-daily contact with this church throughout the war between Israel and Hamas, which began in October 2023. Romanelli says that in these calls, Pope Francis asks how he and his Palestinian parishioners are and sends them his blessing.”
“Dostoevsky’s Credo” – Gary Saul Morson in First Things: “What does it mean to believe something? Is it possible for a person to profess an idea sincerely, yet discover that he never really believed it? If a man’s actions contradict his beliefs, is he necessarily a hypocrite, or might both the actions and the beliefs be sincere? Which, in that case, does he really believe? How does self-deception work? If a man understands an idea to be false, how can he arrange to believe it? Can he will himself to believe what he doubts? These and many questions haunt the Russian tradition. Explored by the great thinkers and novelists, they have led to insights about the human condition that are one of Russian literature’s great gifts to the world. These questions occur to the fictional characters of Dostoevsky. But he posed them in his own agonized quest for faith as well. His faith was precisely that: a quest for faith, a process. In what sense?”
“Healing Christian Desire for Supremacy: Jesus is the undoing of ambition for the powers of this world” – Kenneth Tanner at his Substack, The Human God: “No Christ follower of the first couple of centuries thought the kingdom they sought was of this world. No one fought (figuratively or otherwise) for participation in the state or the cult of the empire. The healing of Christian ambition for the powers of this fallen order of things, for the ‘ring of power,’ if Tolkien serves, comes by revelation that Jesus Christ is humble and lowly of heart: the infant in the feed box, the criminal on the tree; to worship this God is to be in union with divine and human poverty. This God joins us in the poverty of the grave, and only from that solidarity (with everyone), in the stone-like stillness of actual death, can we truly know anyone well or live well or die well. From the beginning, the cross is what holds all things in motion and life, and from the grave come all resurrections. Trust in this story of Jesus is the undoing of the lust for any sort of supremacy. To be baptized is to die to all worldly gain.”
“AI and All Its Splendors” – Jeffrey Bilbro in Christianity Today: “Every few weeks, it seems, another AI achievement sets the world abuzz. It speaks! It paints! It digests a whole book and spits out a 10-
minute podcast! This is generative AI, the large computing models that dazzle and worry us with their humanlike output. We’ve become accustomed to hearing about AI, but have we considered what it really offers us? Most simply: a promise of ease and justice. With the proper application of AI, its enthusiasts tell us, we won’t have to work so hard. Our economy will be more equitable, our laws and their enforcement closer to impartial, the slow and faulty human element bypassed altogether. We will achieve a painless and mechanistic fairness. Here, rather than dwell on any individual technological feat, I want to examine those two tempting offers. Long before generative AI became a reality, these temptations were offered elsewhere: by science fiction villains and by the Devil when he came to Jesus in the wilderness. That fiction can be an illuminating warning, and Jesus’ response to temptation—and the manner of his ministry—can help us respond to AI in ways befitting our vocation as creatures made in the image of God.”
“Wheaton College clash over Russell Vought escalates, exposing evangelical fault lines” – Kathryn Post at Religion News Service: “Despite Wheaton College’s attempts to quiet a backlash from alumni over its pro forma congratulatory message recognizing alumnus and newly confirmed White House official Russell Vought, the actions of the ‘deliberately non-partisan’ evangelical Christian school have only brought more controversy. After Wheaton posted its Feb. 7 statement asking for prayers for Vought, alumni and others answered on social media, objecting to Vought’s work as an architect of Project 2025, the proposed agenda for a second Trump administration, and as a past and current White House director of the Office of Management and Budget. Wheaton soon withdrew its statement, saying the flap had rendered its congratulations more political than it intended. On Feb. 10, an open letter signed by hundreds of alumni appeared, calling Vought’s positions ‘antithetical to Christian charity.’ The signers, including alumni who are on the faculty at New York University and Baylor University, agreed to ‘publicly distance’ themselves from Vought’s work and ‘reaffirm our commitment to the Gospel’s radical call to justice, mercy, and humility.’ On Monday (Feb. 17), a second alumni letter appeared, accusing the college of stifling conservative viewpoints, capitulating to ‘the spirit of our age’ and upholding a ‘DEI regime.’ It concludes with a list of demands, including that the college audit ‘every single faculty and staff member’s commitment to the Statement of Faith and Community Covenant.’ While the clash of alumni can’t be tidily summarized as a division between progressives and conservatives — plenty of conservative Christians oppose recent actions by the Trump administration — the dueling Wheaton letters mirror a larger clash between the Christian values invoked by President Donald Trump’s Cabinet members and those of religious groups at odds with the administration’s humanitarian aid freeze, halting of the U.S. refugee program and decision to permit law enforcement officials to raid houses of worship in search of migrants. The competing letters also expose the larger fault lines in evangelical Christianity.”
Music: Marian Anderson, “He’s Got the Whole World In His Hands“
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Matthew Erickson 