“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.

“Eugene Peterson Has Completed His Long Obedience” – Beloved pastor, author, and professor Eugene Peterson passed away on Monday, just shortly after his family announced he had entered hospice care. Peterson is probably best-known for his work on the paraphrase of the Bible, The Message. However, most pastors appreciate him for his astute writings on pastoral ministry. You can read reflections on his life by a number of pastors in Christianity Today‘s article “Ministry Lessons from the Life of Eugene Peterson,” as well as my own reflections on his impact on my ministry over at Preaching Today: “Remembering Eugene Peterson.”  Three outstanding further reads on Peterson are:

• Rodney Clapp’s 1987 article, “Eugene Peterson: A Monk Out of Habit,” which is a gem of an interview from roughly thirty years ago.
• David Taylor’s blog post about his relationship with Peterson as a student at Regent College and beyond: “In Memory of Eugene Peterson (1932-2018).”
• Philip Yancey’s personal reflections: “Farewell, Eugene.“

You might also enjoy hearing Mel Lawrenz’s two-part interview with Peterson about his memoir, The Pastor, or Fuller Seminary’s video project involving both Eugene Peterson and Bono of U2 interacting around the power of the biblical psalms.

 

Back and Forth on the 81% – Since the 2016 election, debate has flared over the fact that 81% of white evangelicals voted for Donald Trump. Some see this is a deep rift and compromise, while others see it as a sign of solidarity. Christianity Today  recently published a study debunking the monolithic nature of that fact: “Why Evangelicals Voted Trump: Debunking the 81%.” One of the key reminders of the study is: “The 81 percent fails to differentiate the motivations behind voting.” Of course, no study can fully narrate motivations, so this is a good reminder, but does not tell us much. One of the major conclusions of the study is this: “Many Evangelicals voted for Trump, reluctantly, because of economics and health care more than abortion and social issues.” Others have reacted to the conclusions of this study, leveling the critique that even the approach to the study shows the residual racism within white evangelicalism (see: “A New Study on Evangelical Voters Ignores Racism“). As I have said before, for multi-ethnic churches this is one of the greatest challenges to unity that we have experienced. For all of evangelicalism, it is a wake-up call to assess our kingdom allegiance.

 

Speaking of the 81%, I encountered two recent articles on evangelicals asking hard questions about the current political climate. The first focuses on four white evangelical women who are questioning evangelical alliances with Trump in “The evangelical women who reject Trump.” The second article focuses on Minneapolis pastor Doug Pagitt, who is raising questions about losing our moral authority as evangelicals in “Finding ‘Common Good’ Among Evangelicals In The Political Season.” Regardless of where you land politically, all who self-identify as evangelical must grapple with these realities.

 

“When Christian practice (de)forms us” – James K. A. Smith offers a thoughtful review of Lauren F. Winner’s latest book, The Dangers of Christian Practice. “When Protestant theologians write about Christian practices, ‘they are almost always extolling the practices.’ The question that never seems to get asked is: ‘Why carry on with habits or practices, given the likelihood of their (and our) going wrong?’ What good did this renewal of practices do for Catholic children in Pittsburgh or women at Willow Creek Church?…Winner’s point is more trenchant: some deformation is uniquely generated by the Christian practices themselves. Some of the damage perpetuated by Christian practices is almost inherent, uniquely emerging from the sacred logic of those practices. In other words, when Christian practices become twisted and do harm, the contortion often reflects the kingdom curvature of the practices. Such characteristic damage reflects something about the very nature of the thing.”

 

“China’s hidden camps: What’s happened to the vanished Uighurs of Xinjiang?” – You will need to take some time for this deep exploration of what is happening to the Uighur minority group in China. Repression of minority groups in general, and the Uighurs specifically, has been a hideous aspect of China’s governance. However, with the increasing powers of President Xi Jinping, this repression has reached new levels of human rights abuses. Thanks to BBC for great journalistic efforts on this pressing issue. [Thanks to Kelly Erickson for sharing this article with me.]

 

“Infographic: The Story of Redemption” – As part of the ESV Story of Redemption Bible, Crossway Publishers has put together a wonderful infographic-style journey through the story of Scripture. I’m not much for specialty Bibles, in fact I find most of them detestable, but I enjoyed the way Crossway put this together as an accessible resource online, regardless of the Bible itself. I hope you both enjoy and are informed by this visual story-telling of the Scripture.

 

“Dawn of Dianetics: L. Ron Hubbard, John W. Campbell, and the Origins of Scientology” – While riding in the car with a couple of coworkers, our conversation took a strange turn into talking about scientology. It was just a few days later that I encountered a link leading me to read an excerpt adapted from Alec Nevala-Lee’s book, Astounding, a well-researched exploration of the history and ideology behind scientology. It’s not my normal read, but you might just find that this long-read article lives up to the title of the book.

 

[I do not necessarily agree with all the views expressed within the articles linked from this page, but I have read them myself in order to make me think more deeply.]