Reads of the Week
Being Gay at Jerry Falwell's University by Brandon Ambrosino
"Many of us view the world as an ugly place with a few beautiful redeeming characteristics. Unfortunately, that's also how we view humans. But what I learned at Liberty was that this idea is the exact opposite of reality: The world and the people in it are really wonderful with just a smidge of ugliness about them."
My Year on Match.com by Anne Lamott
"I recoil even from the word “date,” let alone the concept of possibly beginning a romantic relationship. Those woods are so spooky. I have an almost perfect life, even though I’ve been single since my last long-term boyfriend and I broke up four years ago. I really do, insofar as that is possible in this vale of tears — a cherished family, a grandchild, church, career, sobriety, two dogs, daily hikes, naps, perfect friends. But sometimes I am lonely for a partner, a soul mate, a husband."
Rick Ross, Don Draper and the Fantasy World of Masculinity by Mychal Denzel Smith
"But there’s a reason it’s a fantasy: it can’t last. You can only participate in the illusion so long before it comes crumbling down all around you. For Don Draper, it means being an abusive, alcoholic adulterer with anxiety issues. For Rick Ross, it means writing lyrics that condone rape and in the process of “apologizing” revealing you’re a 37 year-old man who doesn’t know what rape is."
What I Learned Turning My Hate Mail Into Origami by Rachel Held Evans
"And in a sense, even the people who continue to hate me and call me names are a part of this beautiful process. Their words, carelessly spoken, spent the last 40 days in my home— getting creased and folded, worked over, brushed aside to make room for dinner, stepped on by a toddler, read by my sister, stained with coffee, shoved into a closet when guests arrive, blacked out, thrown away, turned into poems, and folded into sailboats and cranes and pigeons that now sit smiling at me from my office window. "
Are We There Yet? by Jeff Chu
"Then they became tears of grief. In some ways, I felt as if I were being excommunicated from my church—these messages all came from people who would place themselves in the evangelical part of the church that I grew up in. But in truth, they couldn’t kick me out. In soul and spirit, I’d already left those precincts of the church, and I was belatedly mourning that departure. I was also weeping for the loss of certainty—or at least the illusion of it that I once worked so hard to maintain."
Honorable Mention
Militant Humility by Zack Hunt
Where I Am These Days by Lyndsey Graves
America's Unforgivable Youth: What Lupe Fiasco Can Teach the Church by Kurt Willems
Line of the Week
"I read 'The Giving Tree' to my kids today. And then I lectured them about codependency issues. Because shit. That TREE. Needs help." - Elizabeth Esther (@elizabethesther)
On Pop Theology Week in Review
On Holy Accidents
Life is full of accidents. Some happy, some funny, and some holy.
Opening Day: The Spectacle of Sport as Religious Festival
Adam Metz on how sports have become the new religious festivals in the United States.
Rule Number 1: Your Faith Lies
On things that are true, the faith that deceives you, and Doctor Who.
Let the Games Begin: The Finale of the Denominational Dominion Tournament of Championships
What happens when the famous heads of Christian religion face off for a hard fought game of basketball?
Song of the Week
"Come Thou Fount" by Page CXVI
Peace, Ben
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