Reads of the Week
1) Upward Mobility by D.L. Mayfield
"When you want to tell the whole story of your life, you find few takers. We want either communists or patriots, sell-outs or self-righteous. We are seeking either blessing or lament, despair or hope, faith or faithlessness. But I have always had everything, everything in spades. Hope and doubt and fear and faith. I accept good gifts from God and I feel angry that others don’t get the same."
2) The Origins of "Privilege" by Joshua Rothman
"But what I believe is that everybody has a combination of unearned advantage and unearned disadvantage in life. Whiteness is just one of the many variables that one can look at, starting with, for example, one’s place in the birth order, or your body type, or your athletic abilities, or your relationship to written and spoken words, or your parents’ places of origin, or your parents’ relationship to education and to English, or what is projected onto your religious or ethnic background. We’re all put ahead and behind by the circumstances of our birth. We all have a combination of both. And it changes minute by minute, depending on where we are, who we’re seeing, or what we’re required to do."
3) Don't Let Jesus Trump the Bible by Nate Pyle
"Everyone picks and chooses which parts of the Bible they listen to and which parts they ignore. Everyone gives some attributes of God’s character more weight than other parts of his character. We naturally develop a Christianity that challenges us in the places we are comfortable being challenged in while dismissing, sometimes self-consciously, the words of God that challenge us in the areas we should be challenged in."
4) Finding God in Exodus International by Ben Moberg
"In the aftermath of the Exodus shut down, I wrote: 'I am dragging my feet toward forgiveness,' and as time has gone on, I have covered so much ground. In the freedom of Christ, I have learned grace, I have learned that I am enough, and part of this walk means making peace with those who implied I never was. And in my process, I made a radical decision. I decided to open my eyes and look for grace. And to my surprise, in the darkness, I found the face of God. This is the truth I am unearthing about him: He is always on the job. Even in the darkness."
5) Before You Get Off This Bathroom Floor by Osheta Moore
"Before you get off this bathroom floor, I want to send you out with one more piece of advice. You are braver than you know, yes. You are selflessly stunning, yes it’s true. You will get through this—of that I’m sure. But one more thing you need to know: even though you don’t have a husband and even though your parents may disown you, you are not alone. When you step out into the world with your round belly and ring-less left hand, remember this: there is a God who sees us and deeply, deeply loves us."
Honorable Mention
In Which I Am Learning to Obey the Sadness by Sarah Bessey
It's Not About Conforming to the World by Rachel Held Evans
Not All Pastor's Kids Are Christian. Sorry. by Jamie Wright
This Is the Sunday School Pagaent I'd Love to See: Psalm 82 by Fred Clark
Tweets of the Week
"And when you gaze long into a selfie the selfie also gazes into you." - @JohnLuce
" I'm Johnny Knoxville and this is Jackass *proceeds to live a sincere and selfless life*" - @mattytalks
" I agree, it's hard to explain Michael Sam's situation to a child. The nuances of ideal defensive roles and speed/size makeup are complex." - @harrypav
On Pop Theology Week in Review
Eight Shades of Crayola by Rebekah Mays
"As a child, I used to spend hours coloring paper doilies. I’d click my Lion King cassette into the tape player and line my markers up, single-file."
Tech Is Not Your Enemy by Christopher Hutton
"My phone and I have a symbiotic relationship. It feeds me information, and in return, I keep its batteries charged."
An Apology for the Post-Egyptian Ownership of Domesticated Felines by JaneAnn Kenney
"The subject of domesticated felines (for the purposes of this essay, hereafter called 'cats' with wavering regularity) is suspiciously lacking in the Jewish and Christian canons."
On TV Shows and Process by Ben Howard
"I know I’ve been good at hiding it, but I must confess that I’ve been in mourning this week. I lost something that was very close to me, something that brought me joy and laughter, something that I regarded it as a friend for the last five years."
On Abominations by Sebastian Faust
"In my last podcast interview with Professor Baruch Levine on the text of Leviticus, I lamented that the prohibition on homosexuality is perhaps the text’s best-known passage within popular Christianity."
Song of the Week
"The Truth is a Cave" by The Oh Hello's
Peace,
Ben
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