by Ben Howard Reads of the Week 1)Sinners in the Hands by Sonia Smith "Three days later they returned. As they drove through town, they came across four teenagers in a pickup truck. Andy started to ask them where to find the church, but before he could finish his sentence, one of them cut him off. 'You’re looking for the cult,' he said." 2) Don't Put Down the Camera by Carol Howard Merritt "But I have to admit, my long defense also comes with a pang of guilt and another revelation of my ever-present insecurities. I’ve never started some amazing non-profit (something I thought I was called to before I began at Western Presbyterian). I often hear my activist friends saying, 'Shut up and do something.' And I always feel like I’m not doing enough. I’m not going deep enough. I’m not… enough." 3) Privilege and the Pill by Rachel Held Evans "As we discuss contraception, Christians especially must be committed to telling the truth and getting our facts straight, or else we risk losing credibility in the conversation and leading the faithful astray." 4) More Than A Feeling: The Cup That Faith and Marriage Share by Shannan Martin "Worship, like love, is a certain steadiness. It's staying consistent and present when the days are too long and the nights are lonely. It's all the little things, the small obediences and unacknowledged tasks. Worship is the salt-tracks of grief and quiet reflection. Love is toes touching under the covers when words have been scare or raw." 5) When Having an Opinion is a Weary Endeavor by Nate Pyle "Writing becomes exhausting when you are constantly expending emotional and mental energy to disregard personal attacks. And that’s what they are, personal attacks. The blogosphere – and society in general – has become a place where the exchange of ideas has been replaced by the attacking the holder of ideas. Ideas are not put under scrutiny, the person is." Honorable Mention Justice Broken: How A Poor Theology Of The Cross Created America's Broken Justice System by Benjamin Corey Boycotting for Sport: Why The Olympics Must Go On by Matthew Towles Here's to the Children by Micah Murray Tweets of the Week "Weird. I wrote 'croissant' but it autocorrected to 'the terror of human life is that we are stalked by Death which may strike at any time.'" - @tejucole "What if Daft Punk was actually Scott Stapp and Chad Kroeger?" - @ethanluck "yeah lorde is younger than me and has two grammys but I'm sitting on the floor eating pizza rolls so who is the real winner here" - @aguywithnolife On Pop Theology Week in Review Take Your Son, Your Only Son: The Binding of Isaac and the Unbinding of God "God said to Abraham, 'If you will, take your son.' And Abraham answered, 'I have two sons.'" Les Revenants and the Christian Imagination "The French show Les Revenants (translated as “The Returned”) appeared on the Sundance Channel at the end of 2013 to much acclaim." On Pop Theology Podcast: Episode 48 - On Being Muslim in America w/ Amir Arain "This week Ben talked to Dr. Amir Arain, the President of the Islamic Center of Nashville, about his Muslim faith, and in particular the experience of Muslims in the American South." A Series of Outright Lies About the Eucharist "So with the fundamental ethos of the internet in mind, we bring you A Series of Outright Lies About the Eucharist." Song of the Week "Ghost" by Chelsea Lankes
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by Ben Howard Reads of the Week 1) I Was An NFL Player Until I Was Fired By Two Cowards and a Bigot by Chris Kluwe "Hello. My name is Chris Kluwe, and for eight years I was the punter for the Minnesota Vikings. In May 2013, the Vikings released me from the team. At the time, quite a few people asked me if I thought it was because of my recent activism for same-sex marriage rights, and I was very careful in how I answered the question. My answer, verbatim, was always, 'I honestly don't know, because I'm not in those meetings with the coaches and administrative people.'" 2) Power of Naming by Carol Howard Merritt "I am not depression. I am not foremost a depressed person. But I can feel my body responding with certain lethargy in particular situations. It’s as if the air has gotten thicker and I retreat within myself. When things become particularly difficult, I imagine myself a victim in my own life’s drama. Yet, when I focus on the “situational” rather than the “depression,” I know that it’s a season that will pass. There are many aspects to who I am, not just depression." 3) Missionary Kids, Downward Mobility, and My Friend Sarah by Briana Meade "This is everything that getting to know someone who is different than you should be. It is the initial terrifying jump into the unknown of possibly offending someone. It is the unwieldy silences between difficult vocabulary words in other languages. It is the complexity of relationship when individualism and village mentalities clash and bang. When the noise that goes up shatters into the loud dissonance of the family-frameworks and culture we have come from." 4) Prophetic Criticism by Kelley Nikondeha "I want my criticism to move us toward freedom. I want my criticism to build His Kingdom of justice. Then my critique will be in the prophetic tradition, engaged in shaping an alternative community rooted in the God who is free, who delivers us from oppression and is at work doing new things in the world." 5) Time For the 'Let the Churches Handle It' Crowd to Fish or Get Off the Pot: 1.3 Million Unemployed Lose Their Lifeline by Fred Clark "This is a catastrophe. It’s a catastrophe for those 1.3 million people and their families, who will now be unable to pay for food and shelter. It’s a catastrophe for every American business, because they just lost 1.3 million potential customers. And it’s a catastrophe for society as a whole, because here are more than a million people who could be doing stuff and making stuff, but we’re leaving all of that stuff undone and unmade because we couldn’t manage to figure out how to pay them to do it." Honorable Mention What Does Hope Look Like? by Bethany Olsen In 2014, I Resolve to Fail More by Elizabeth Esther Alternatives to Becoming an Armadillo by Carol Howard Merritt Tweets of the Week
"New Year’s Eve is like being in line for a wooden rollercoaster ride.
You wait forever for the fun part but only end up with a headache." - @emilyvolman "'College Football' was a better name than 'Under-compensated teenagers
giving each other brain damage for people's entertainment' - @johnthorntonjr "I found a brick in the woods. I do not know how it got there, and I do not know what to do with it. I am a bear." - @A_single_bear On Pop Theology Week in Review Fly From Heaven (If He's All You Say) by Sebastian Faust "The song "Fly From Heaven" from Toad the Wet Sprocket’s album Dulcinea is 20 years old now, which means, here at On Pop Theology, it’s just about ripe for us to discuss it as though it’s a contemporary piece, trending even now through the charts." Christian Celebrity and the Already, But Not Yet by Ben Howard "A few weeks ago I wrote a post entitled 'Christianity Needs Celebrities.' The central thesis was that cultural change is mediated through celebrity personas. Moreover, the structure and history of Christianity is celebrity-based and, as a result, Christianity not only needs celebrities, but needs to work to foster better celebrity representations." Song of the Week "Heavy Metal Drummer" by Wilco
Peace, Ben You can follow On Pop Theology on Twitter @OnPopTheology or like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/OnPopTheology. If you'd like to help us pay the bills, you can donate via the button on the right of the screen. Contact us at onpoptheology [at] gmail.com. You might also like:
