“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 the articles linked from this page, but I have read them myself in order to help me think more deeply.

“Giving Greater Honor to the “Minority” in Your Midst” – Here is Raymond Chang in excerpt from Ministers of Reconciliation: Preaching on Race and the Gospel: “As a second-generation Korean American, I straddle the line between the East and the West. In my upbringing, I was told to be “American” (a euphemism for white) in public and “Korean” at home and at our first-generation Korean church. I hold within me the values of Western individualism and Eastern collectivism. Within me resides both the American spirit of independence and the Korean spirit of filial piety. For better or worse, these forces shape how I live in this world God created. Our understanding of honor is heavily influenced by our culture. As a Korean American, I view honor through both a Western and an Eastern lens. My Western sensibilities tell me that honor primarily goes to the one who earns it. It is given to the ones who deserve it through their merits. My Eastern sensibilities, however, tell me that honor primarily goes to those who came before me, regardless of their merits. This is because relationships weigh more than achievement (though achievement brings honor to the relationship). In my opinion, there is gold and dross in both of these views. It is appropriate to give honor to those who have achieved and accomplished much—especially if it came at a great sacrifice and led to much fruitfulness.”

“The Fading of Forgiveness” – Tim Keller in Comment: “After the 2014 deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in New York City, a new movement for racial justice emerged, especially embodied by a new loose network called Black Lives Matter. ‘This ain’t your grandfather’s civil rights movement,’ said rapper Tef Poe. This one, he said, would be much angrier. At an October protest in Ferguson, street activists heckled and turned their backs on the president of the NAACP. Unlike the older civil rights protesters, journalists on the ground in Ferguson reported that the activists were ‘hurling insults and curses’ at police. After relatives of the nine African Americans killed in Charleston, South Carolina, publicly said to the shooter, Dylann Roof, ‘I forgive you,’ a Washington Post opinion piece by Stacey Patton responded with the headline ‘Black America Should Stop Forgiving White Racists.’…Barbara Reynolds, a septuagenarian who had marched in the civil rights protests of the 1960s, wrote a counterpoint essay in the same newspaper. She said that the original movements led by Martin Luther King Jr and Nelson Mandela were marked by ‘the ethics of love, forgiveness and reconciliation,’ and they triumphed because of ‘the power of the spiritual approach.'”

“As the world reopens post-pandemic, how will we find our way in it?” – Stephanie Paulsell in The Christian Century: “This is a small trepidation in the scheme of things. There’s so much to look forward to in a post-pandemic world: hugs, unmasked faces, gathering in churches and classrooms again. But our worries about how to reenter the world of classrooms and offices are reminders that the post-pandemic world also looms up as a challenge. As the world reopens, how will we find our way in it? We have an opportunity to do more than go back to the way things were—a chance, even a responsibility, to do better. How can we rise to it? As I was thinking about what my own pathways back into the world might be, I picked up The Interior Castle, Teresa of Ávila’s exploration of the pathways of the human journey toward God. It might seem counterintuitive to read an account of an inward journey to think about a journey back out into the world, but Teresa seems always to be looking in both directions at once. The whole point of the journey inward, she writes, is to make ourselves fit for service to our neighbor; the whole point is to love more.”

“I Got Ordained So I Can Talk About Jesus. Not the Female Pastor Debate.” – Tish Harrison Warren in Christianity Today: “Rick Warren’s Saddleback church recently made headlines by ordaining three female leaders. I was grateful to see these women recognized and lent both the public authority and institutional accountability that comes from ordination. But when I read the news, I also thought with a heavy sigh, “Oh, here we go again.” I knew the debate about women’s roles in the church would dominate conversation all week, and I could already predict the rutted arguments I’d hear recited over and over. Here’s an open secret: You know who hates talking about women’s ordination? Female pastors. Not all of us, of course. Some women have a special unction to debate this topic, and honestly, more power to them. But the reality is that few of us become pastors in order to talk about women’s ordination. We get ordained because the gospel has captured our imaginations. We get ordained to witness to the beauty and truth of Jesus. We get ordained to serve the church in the ministry of Word and sacrament.”

“What We’ve Lost in Rejecting the Sabbath” – Sohrab Ahmari in The Wall Street Journal: “In 2019, North Dakota lawmakers abolished their state’s Sunday-trading ban. Going back to the 19th century, business owners had faced jail time and a fine for keeping their doors open Sunday mornings. It was America’s last statewide blue law, and it went the way of the rotary telephone and the airplane smoking section. The bill’s main GOP sponsor in the state legislature claimed that a majority ‘wants to make decisions for themselves.’ Ending the ban, officials argued, would boost shopping and, with it, revenues. Who but a few scolds could complain? The share of Americans who don’t identify with any religion continues to grow, and even many believers reject the concept of the Sabbath as a divinely ordained day of rest. Instead, we are encouraged to pursue lives of constant action and purpose, and we do.”

“Christian Book Award Winners 2021” – The Evangelical Christian Publishers Association announced the 2021 Christian Book Award winners by categories, including audio books, Bibles, Bible reference works, Bible study, biography & memoir, children, christian living, devotion & gift, faith & culture, ministry resources, and more. LaTasha Morrison’s Be The Bridge: Pursuing God’s Heart for Racial Reconciliation was named the book of the year, as well as winning top marks in the “Faith & Culture” topic area.

Music: Asgeir, “Living Water,” from Bury the Moon