“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.
“Live Not by Lies Even When You’re Winning: A call to be obscurely good” – Jessica Hooten Wilson in Comment: “In 2020 Rod Dreher published Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents, in which he commends those saints and martyrs who refused to fall in line with the Soviet totalitarian regime. His title comes from Alexandr Solzhenitsyn’s famous tract of the same name, which the Russian novelist published after his 1974 exile from Russia. Drawing lessons from those who experienced oppression under Soviet rule, Dreher argues that Americans are under an analogous threat of ‘soft totalitarianism’ predicated by the Left. Christians and social conservatives need to be on guard against ideologies hostile to their faith purveyed not so much through government coercion as through the ‘soft’ forms of cultural power and influence. Merely going with the flow will no longer suffice. Those who don’t actively resist this soft totalitarianism may ‘think they follow Jesus, but in fact, they merely admire him,’ Dreher writes. ‘Each of us thinks we wouldn’t be like that. But if we have accepted the lie of our therapeutic culture, which tells us that personal happiness is the greatest good of all, then we will surrender at the first sign of trouble.’ Encouraged by this framing, the majority of Dreher’s readers have seen themselves as insurgents against the influential elite. But things have changed….Dreher himself is not unaware of these questions. Looking back at his book, he observes that while ‘Live Not by Lies helped people make sense of what they were experiencing’ in the years leading up to 2020, he was shocked in 2025, when on tour for the documentary inspired by his book, to witness parallel forms of totalitarian thinking among his right-wing friends. ‘I don’t want to live in a right-wing totalitarian world any more than I want to live in a left-wing one,’ Dreher writes.”
“Lessons for a Pilgrim’s Journey” – Christopher Hall at Renovaré: “John Chrysostom would be quick to admit that our present situation in the world must be interpreted in light of God’s ultimate goal for the historical process. The present must be viewed through the prism of the end, and premature opinions as to the goodness of providence must be delayed until history itself reaches the conclusion God has set for it. Because only the end of history will finally clarify God’s actions in history, our present interpretive stance must be one of patience and humility. At present, we know only a little. Paul himself, Chrysostom reminds his reader, warned that ‘if anyone thinks he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know’ (1 Cor. 8:2). ‘He goes on to demonstrate,’ Chrysostom comments, ‘that our present knowledge is reserved for the age to come. Only a very small amount has been given to us at the present time.'”
“Praying the imprecatory psalms with Bonhoeffer” – Jeff Jay in The Christian Century: “In may 1940, the Nazis invaded Western Europe. Their totalitarian drive to hegemony pounded its fist all the way to the Atlantic. They exerted dominance over Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and France. In the same month, the SS created a work and extermination camp near the little German-occupied Polish town Oświęcem—in German, Auschwitz. Adorned in Nazi red, how did evil’s dark triumph feel in 1940? Dizzying events had plunged the world into war, for the second time in 25 years. What did citizens of the conquered nations experience? What was it like at that point for Jewish residents and members of other groups the Nazis targeted? How did the Germans who were opposed to the Nazis feel? After returning to Germany in 1939 from the United States, having rejected pleas to remain there, this is where Dietrich Bonhoeffer found himself. In 1940 he published the little book Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible. The book takes only a morning or afternoon to read. It is quiet, simple, and refreshing.”
“When Autism Comes to Church: Practical Advice for Parents & Pastors” – Michael and Naomi Bird at Logos: “Our son M was formally diagnosed in 2015 with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and sensory processing disorder (SPD). We already had two daughters and noticed that our bouncing baby boy was very different from his siblings. We initially put this down to boys being boyish. But then we began to notice certain things. Sometimes M struggled to match his energy for the task he was doing, whether at home, church, or kindergarten. At the same time, M also had the ability to engage in laser-like focus on some thing or topic that was well beyond his age. He had a peculiar mix of unruly raucousness and hypnotic concentration that was hard to explain.”
“How Social Media Creates Flabby Young Brains”– Allysia Finley in The Wall Street Journal: “Bored at a dinner party or work meeting but don’t want to come off as rude by pulling out your phone to scroll? Mark Zuckerberg has a gadget for you. The Meta CEO last week unveiled Ray-Ban ‘smart glasses’ with a built-in display that wearers can use to watch videos, scroll Instagram, respond to texts and more—all controlled by a wristband that translates discreet hand gestures. Just what society needs: a device to tune people out without their knowing. As if social media hasn’t done enough to degrade behavior and fuel cultural dysfunction. Charlie Kirk’s assassination, allegedly by a 22-year-old videogame and social-media junkie, and the unhinged responses on social media laid bare the corrosive effects. Such effects are most conspicuous in digital natives—those who grew up with smartphones and social media. The meme ‘Gen Z Stare’ went viral on TikTok this summer, a reference to young people who seem to struggle to connect with older co-workers and customers.”
“Fear and Hope for Christians Amid Nepal’s Gen Z Protests” – Surinder Kaur in Christianity Today: “On September 7, the eve of Nepal’s historic Gen Z protest, Nepali Christian scholar Karuna Sharma was waiting to catch a flight from the capital of Kathmandu to Dubai when she ran into a former politician. Their conversation turned to the next morning’s planned demonstration against government corruption, and the politician confidently dismissed its potential impact. ‘There would be 1,000-2,000 youth, and then it would die down,’ she remembered him predicting. Instead, protest quickly escalated into the most violent political upheaval in Nepal’s recent history, leaving 74 people dead. Flames engulfed the parliament building. Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli resigned. The president swore in former Chief Justice Sushila Karki as Nepal’s interim prime minister, a favorite among protest leaders.”
Music: Paul Zach, Jessica Fox, Taylor Leonhardt, “Every Grain Of Sand”
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Matthew Erickson 