“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.
I have a new format for “The Weekend Wanderer” beginning this week, reducing the photos and introducing a new header. Your feedback is always welcome. Thank you, as always, for reading!
“What to know about the death of Pope Francis” – Vanessa Gera and Nicole Winfield in AP News: “Pope Francis died on Easter Monday at the age of 88. Here are the key things to know about the death of the Argentine pontiff, the first from Latin America in history, who presided over the Catholic Church for more than 12 years. Francis died Monday morning at the Domus Santa Marta hotel where he lived at the Vatican. His death came almost a month after he returned there after being hospitalized for double pneumonia. The Vatican said Francis died after having a stroke.”
“Meet the ‘papabile’: The likely contenders to become the next pope” – Claire Giangravé in Religion News Service: “A diverse cast of cardinals gathering at the Vatican for Pope Francis’ funeral will soon turn to voting for his successor as head of the Catholic Church. Only a few are considered likely candidates for the papacy, or ‘papabile’ in Italian. Because of Francis’ elevation of prelates from the ‘peripheries,’ many of the electors will have met only this week, while those who work in the Curia, the Vatican’s bureaucracy, know each other and many others besides. The magazine Cardinalis and the website Cardinal Report offer insight into every member of the College of Cardinals and where they stand on certain issues, but being recognizable will be an advantage in this conclave of strangers. Some of the elements that cardinals look for in a pope never change: An impeccable background and strong leadership skills are a must, and candidates most likely have a mastery of languages and are well-traveled. But given their diverse backgrounds, not all cardinals’ priorities necessarily align with Western concerns.”
“Why Religion Went Obsolete: Not by Secularization Alone” – Christian Smith reflects on his new book in Church Life Journal: “The story of my recent book, Why Religion Went Obsolete: The Demise of Traditional Faith in America, presents an empirical challenge to traditional secularization theory, which holds that, as societies become more modern and developed, they will become more secular. While traditional religion has declined in the United States, it has not been replaced by sheer secularism. Religious obsolescence in the United States has not meant the disappearance of the sacred, spiritual, magical, enchanted, supernatural, occult, ecstatic, or divine. They remain alive and well.” Some reviews of Smith’s book can be found in The National Review, The Gospel Coalition, and Religion News Service.
“Is the Foreigner My Neighbor? A Christian Dialogue on Immigration” – James Orr and Joel Looper have an honest and helpful dialogue on immigration from a Christian perspective in First Things: “Dear James, My wife, an immigration attorney here in Texas, held a well-attended “know your rights” session for immigrants last night. But not a soul who was at risk of deportation came. Undocumented people here are terrified, and they have good reason to be. Vulnerable women, male breadwinners, and people facing destitution or death in their countries of origin are being deported on an hourly basis—not, as the Trump administration sometimes claims, just criminals….So, as you can imagine, I don’t find President Trump’s policies to be morally coherent or rational even from a purely self-interested perspective. But more importantly, I think they’re theologically unsupportable….
Dear Joel, Your wife’s experience indicates that the laws constituting America as a nation and Americans as a people are at last being enforced. That is a good thing. What is mystifying is that it should have taken political leaders so long to fulfill their duty to implement laws enacted by Congress at the behest of the people. As Aquinas reminds us, it is a basic precept of natural law that rulers are to uphold the positive laws that it grounds, especially those laws intended to protect citizens from physical injury and financial insecurity. Romans 13:1–7 instructs Christians to submit to governing authorities on the basis that they are instituted by God to maintain order and punish wrongdoing. Illegal migration by definition involves disregarding the legal authority of a nation….”
“Presbyterian Church (USA) fires missionaries, ends mission agency” – Greg Garrison in AL.com: “The Presbyterian Church (USA), a mainline Protestant denomination that has historically been one of the most influential Christian missionary-sending agencies, recently fired missionaries around the world and ended its foreign mission agency. The office of Presbyterian World Mission closed at the end of March after the Presbyterian Mission Agency merged with the Office of General Assembly into the Interim Unified Agency. These moves essentially ended a 200-year tradition of sending foreign missionaries, more recently called mission ‘co-workers,’ to spread the faith in other countries, according to denominational sources. The denomination has drastically cut its mission staff from about 60 missionaries, notifying 54 mission ‘co-workers’ on Feb. 4 they would be terminated. Some staff members, no more than 30, will be assigned as global ecumenical advisors, who will work with Presbyterian churches in other countries. Those advisors have not been publicly named, so it’s not clear if some will come from the fired missionaries. In 2010, the denomination supported about 200 missionaries worldwide.”
“How to Spend More Time in Nature” – Joshua Becker in Becoming Minimalist: “‘The best antidote to stress in your life is spending time outside.’ I was a few years out of college when I first received this advice from a mentor I’ve always admired. And I’ve never forgotten it. The funny thing is, it wasn’t something I only heard him say once. In fact, I heard him repeat the phrase over and over again to countless other individuals. Sometimes he would say it when barely prompted, but usually the phrase came up when another person was talking about the stress in their life, the busyness they were facing, or the difficult waters they were trying to navigate in business or family. My friend’s tone was never meant to overstate time outside as a cure-all for any and every trial we face in life. It was simply a statement of fact he had discovered to be true. Spending time outside helps relieve stress. Over the years, I’ve come to appreciate his advice—and also the frequency with which he repeated it. I believe, now that I’m in my fifties, that he repeated the advice so often because he knew this was something most of us need to be constantly reminded of.”
Music: Jon Guerra, “In the Beginning Was Love,” from Jesus
Discover more from Matthew Erickson
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Matthew Erickson 
I love your blog. I miss the pictures, especially of sacred art. Those pictures have informed me in ways that words can’t. I rarely listen to the music selections (mostly due to my laziness), but I have learned of works and artists that enrich my soul. Thank you for your faithdul, hard work on all of this.
Thank you so much! I’ll continue other posts with pictures, just streamlining “The Weekend Wanderer.”