“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 Times the Church Advocated for Refugees and Immigrants in U.S. History” – From Christian Conscience: “Over the past year, the number of displaced people exceeded 122 million. That includes refugees, asylum seekers and millions of people displaced within their home country by conflict. It’s the highest number of displaced people ever recorded in history. And yet, amid this urgent global crisis, obstacles to caring for the displaced have arisen like never before. In the U.S., refugees and other immigrants are facing dire needs after the current administration recently suspended the refugee resettlement program. In light of this, World Relief has partnered with the church to call for action – urging the U.S. government to support refugees and immigrants through robust legal processes like the refugee resettlement program. Christian leaders are at the forefront of this advocacy, motivated by verses like Matthew 25:31-40. ‘I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me’ (Matthew 25:35).”
“A Surprising Route to the Best Life Possible” – David Brooks in The New York Times: “Haruki Murakami was a mediocre student. Like a lot of people who go on to high achievement later in life, the future novelist had trouble paying attention to what the teachers told him to pay attention to, and could only study what he was interested in. But he made it to college, and a few credits before graduating he opened a small jazz club in Tokyo. After a ton of hard work, he was able to pay the bills, hire a staff and keep the place open. In 1978, Murakami was at Meiji Jingu Stadium in Japan watching a baseball game and drinking a beer. The leadoff batter for his team, the Yakult Swallows, laced the ball down the left field line. As the batter pulled into second base, a thought crossed through Murakami’s head: ‘You know what? I could try writing a novel.’ He started writing after closing time at his jazz club and eventually sent a manuscript off to a literary magazine — so blasé about it that he didn’t even make a copy for himself in case the magazine lost what he had sent in. It won a prize and was published the next summer. He decided to sell the bar, which was his only reliable source of income, and pursue writing. ‘I’m the kind of person who has to totally commit to whatever I do,’ he wrote in his 2008 memoir. No longer doing the physically demanding work of running a bar, he started to put on weight. He decided to take up a sport, and running seemed like a good option: There was a track right by his house, running didn’t require fancy equipment and he could do it by himself. He wasn’t lying when he talked about his tendency toward total commitment. By the late 2000s, he was running six miles a day, six days a week every week of the year, and had run in 23 marathons, plus many other long-distance races, an ultramarathon and some triathlons.”
“Do Church Goers Want To Hear More Politics From the Pews?” – Ryan Burge at Graphs About Religion: “What exactly happens at a religious service? That’s a really interesting and pertinent question for the kind of work we do as social scientists who study religion. There are a few resources that dig into that question like the National Congregations Study, but it’s very rare to see a more mainstream longitudinal instrument like the General Social Survey ask people what actually happens when they go to church. It’s just too niche for a survey that is really focused on looking at broad trends in American society. Asking folks whether they sing while accompanied by a guitar or a pipe organ is interesting to sociologists of religion, but likely less intriguing to the average American. What’s also a bit of a black box is what kind of messages are actually being conveyed during Sunday worship. There have been some analyses of sermon texts that were posted on online repositories like Sermon Central. For instance Boussalis, Coan, and Holman analyzed 110,000 sermons to find that most pastors engage in political topics from the pulpit. Another bit of analysis by the same research team (plus Guhin) concluded that evangelical pastors rarely preached on topics like racial justice or poverty. And I would be remiss to not mention that myself and Miles Williams published a piece where we analyzed the preaching style of men and women using 900 sermons we acquired from an online database.”
“Palm Sunday: A Rookie Anglican Guide” – Jacob A. Davis and Peter Johnston at Anglican Compass: “Palm Sunday is a day of palm fronds, outdoor processions, and loud praises to Christ. With these practices, we mimic the crowds that went with Jesus on his way into Jerusalem. Like them, we celebrate Christ as the returning King, the son of David, and the long-awaited messiah. However, when we remember what Jesus went to Jerusalem to do, our celebration becomes more somber. He rode in on a donkey to show his humility, and in humility he soon would rise on a cross. Many parishes mark this movement with both a Liturgy of the Palms and a Liturgy of the Passion, remembering the humble king in his triumph and the humble king on the cross. We also realize, as we play the part of the Jerusalem crowd, just how horribly easy it is to shift from singing ‘Hosanna’ to shouting ‘Crucify!'”
“How Biblically Accurate Is ‘House of David’?” – Peter T. Chattaway in Christianity Today: “The first season of House of David has just concluded. Its eight episodes, streaming on Amazon Prime, covered only three chapters in the Bible: God’s rejection of King Saul in 1 Samuel 15, Samuel’s anointing of David in 1 Samuel 16, and David’s defeat of Goliath in 1 Samuel 17. To fill in the plot, flesh out characters, and give their story more biblical and historical context, the show’s writers invented subplots, many of which draw on other parts of the Bible as well as later Jewish traditions. Some viewers have wondered how much of this narrative is true to the Bible and how much is pure fiction—maybe even revision. Here’s a look at some of House of David’s central elements and how they match up (or don’t) with the biblical source material. (Spoilers ahead.)”
“Trinity Evangelical Divinity School will move to Canada in acquisition deal” – Bob Smietana at Religion News Service: “A prominent but troubled evangelical seminary has agreed to be acquired by a Canadian university and move to British Columbia, the school’s leaders announced Tuesday (April 8). The move comes after years of financial struggle and declining attendance at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School — known as TEDS — an Evangelical Free Church school whose alums have played an outsized role in shaping American evangelicalism. Trinity will continue to hold classes at its Bannockburn, Illinois, campus north of Chicago during the 2025-2026 academic year but will move to the campus of Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia, in 2026. Current faculty will get a contract for the coming year but it’s unclear how many will move to Canada in the future. The school said current students will be able to complete their program through in-person and online options. Students who are U.S. citizens will still be eligible for federal financial aid, though the school said details about scholarships for students have yet to be determined. Along with moving, TEDS will part ways with Trinity International University, its parent nonprofit, which will continue to run online classes and operate a law school in Santa Ana, California. Trinity International President Kevin Kompelien said that given the challenges in higher education, the divinity school needed to ally itself with a larger institution. ‘I believe a school like TEDS will thrive best and accomplish our mission most effectively as part of a larger theologically and missionally aligned evangelical Christian university,’ Kompelien said in a statement.”
Music: Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, “All Glory, Laud and Honor”
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Matthew Erickson 