“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.
“On the Imitation of Christ” – by Richard J. Foster at Renovaré: “‘My little children…I am…in the pain of childbirth until Christ is formed in you’ (Galatians 4:19). These words are the centerpiece for Christian spiritual formation. They are words of effort and pain and travail. But they also speak of hope and promise and new life. To experience the reality of Christ being formed in us does indeed take something like the travail of childbirth. But in the end it brings with it the joy of a life penetrated through by love, the faith that can see everything in the light of God’s overriding governance for good, and the hope to carry us through the most difficult of circumstances. This brings me to the theme for this article, the great tradition of De Imitatione Christi, the imitation of Christ. “
“At prayer vigils for Charlie Kirk, supporters are called to political and spiritual fight” – Jack Jenkins at Religion News Service: “As he sat behind a microphone for nearly two hours in the White House complex on Monday (Sept. 15), Vice President JD Vance’s face hung with visible emotion. As the guest host of Charlie Kirk’s podcast, he talked with a series of White House officials as they told stories about Kirk, the right-wing activist who was killed by an assassin’s bullet last week while speaking at a college in Utah. But as the vice president began to draw the episode to a close, the tone shifted from mournful reflection to righteous indignation. Vance recited a version of the Apostle’s Creed, saying it was the ‘most important truth’ Kirk uttered during his career. Vance then spent several minutes railing against the ‘far left,’ suggesting it was a source of political violence, even as the motive for Kirk’s shooting remains unknown. The vice president encouraged listeners, who numbered at least in the hundreds of thousands over the course of the broadcast, to complain to the employers of anyone they saw ‘celebrating Charlie’s murder.’ As he concluded, Vance turned to a passage from Scripture about spiritual warfare. ‘St. Paul tells us in the Book of Ephesians to put on the full armor of God,’ said Vance, a Catholic who credited Kirk during the podcast with cementing his status as President Donald Trump’s running mate in the 2024 presidential campaign. ‘Let all of us put on that armor and commit ourselves to that cause for which Charlie gave his life: to rebuild a United States of America, and to do it by telling the truth.'”
“We are remembering two different Charlie Kirks” – Jaclyn Reiswig at Wilderness Dispatch: “The way we see Charlie Kirk, his life and death, and indeed, nearly everything, is determined less by the facts than by our personal paradigms. Less by the truth than by our algorithms. This past week showed me how the media environments we’ve built for ourselves shape our realities. It’s no wonder we’ve become so polarized: we live in different worlds.”
“Consolidation of Myth” – Alan Jacobs at The Homebound Symphony: “What people do in response to violence is consolidate the myths they live by. This focuses emotion and fosters solidarity, but it also renders people susceptible to control by non-human forces, submission to which, in times of crisis, looks like virtue. I’ve written a lot about all this.”
“Jesus Uses Money to Diagnose Our Spiritual Bankruptcy” – Michael J. Rhodes in Christianity Today: “When students in my Old Testament courses contrast the allegedly messy world of the first testament with the allegedly simple, straightforward teachings of Jesus, I know for sure they haven’t read the New Testament lately. When we read the Gospels, not least Jesus’ parables, we discover him saying all sorts of bizarre, borderline offensive things. Keith Bodner is here to help relieve our confusion. His new book, Exploring the Financial Parables of Jesus: The Economy of Grace and the Generosity of God, gives a tour of God’s ‘economy of grace’ by focusing on ‘parables with a financial edge.’ Indeed, Bodner suggests these parables provide ‘an excellent point of entry into the larger biblical story.’ Along the way, as Bodner invites us to learn from the parables, he also offers guidance on immersing ourselves in them as readers. The book thus inspires readers to engage a genre of biblical literature Bodner playfully dubs the ‘TikTok of the New Testament,’ while equipping them with tools to engage it well.”
“Pope Leo XIV signals potential shift on China, talks Trump and Gaza” – Courtney Mares at Catholic News Agency: “Pope Leo XIV, in his first interview since his election, signaled he may be open to future changes to the Vatican’s controversial deal with China, saying that he is in dialogue with persecuted Chinese Catholics as he weighs the future of Vatican policy toward Beijing. The interview, conducted in English in July and published Thursday in a new Spanish-language biography, provides the clearest view yet of the 70-year-old American pope’s priorities in global politics and Vatican diplomacy, including how he sees the Church engaging with the Trump administration, the war in Gaza, and the defense of human dignity.”
Music: Rich Mullins, “Here in America,” from A Liturgy, A Legacy, and a Ragamuffin Band
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Matthew Erickson 