Metta World Peace Wrote a Children's Book and the Best Things You'll Read All Week

Not a joke.

by Ben Howard

Reads of the Week

1) I Am Sorry by Alan Chambers
"Please know that I am deeply sorry. I am sorry for the pain and hurt many of you have experienced. I am sorry that some of you spent years working through the shame and guilt you felt when your attractions didn’t change. I am sorry we promoted sexual orientation change efforts and reparative theories about sexual orientation that stigmatized parents."

2) 'Let's Do Something Different': The End of the World's Leading 'Ex-Gay' Ministry by Jeff Chu
"A few hours later, on the first night of the organization's 38th annual conference, Chambers announced that Exodus would do just that: shut down and start something new. Shortly after he left the stage, he called me and we talked for 45 minutes about his journey to this place, making amends, and where he goes from here."

3) Why Justice Needs Reconciliation by Christena Cleveland
"A world in which justice fails to lead to reconciliation is a world in which the cross never led to the resurrection. Those who believe that Jesus’ resurrection inaugurated a new reality in which God is making all things new must prophetically embody that hope by reaching for reconciliation in their justice work."

4) How to Weather June by Emily Maynard
"My hands press into the towel and it leaves a little collection of indentations in my palms. I notice them as I reach my arms up to the sky and then hold them together in front of me, balancing on one leg. The weight of our pain marks us, but we are not overcome. I stand in tree pose and focus on the rocks. I breathe in through my nose and out through my mouth, and I pray for peace."

5) On the Theo-Political Vision of Macklemore; Or, Why Proximity & Intimacy ≠ Solidarity by Amaryah Armstrong
"What I will primarily argue here is that gay civil rights arguments that utilize the analogizing of sexuality with blackness and gay marriage arguments that use the analogy with interracial marriage, end up reifying the condition of blackness as constructed by white supremacy."

Honorable Mention
Death to Orthodoxy by Charity Erickson

Why I Can't Say Love the Sinner/Hate the Sin Anymore by Micah Murray

Overcoming the Sexualization of Our Children by Jason Morehead

Line of the Week

"Pat Riley should take off his shirt and read Shakespeare." - Metta World Peace (@MettaWorldPeace)

On Pop Theology Week in Review

A Place in Sedona by JaneAnn Kenney
"This is not a useful place - not good for farming, not convenient for industry - and yet it feels purposeful. This place is meant to recall God's majesty."

Kentucky Football and God by Jonathan Harrison
"Logically speaking, God can't be partial to one sports team over another. Unless it's the Green Bay Packers, but I digress."

The First Time I Was Right and It Didn't Matter by Ben Howard
"My memories are far more deferential and eloquent than real life."

Solstice by Lyndsey Graves
"Today is the solstice, and I am feeling rather pagan."

Song of the Week

"Winter Is For Kierkegaard" by Tyler Lyle

Peace,
Ben 

You can follow On Pop Theology on Twitter @OnPopTheology or like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/OnPopTheology. 

Contact us at onpoptheology [at] gmail.com. 

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by Ben Howard

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 

You can follow On Pop Theology on Twitter @OnPopTheology or like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/OnPopTheology. 

Contact us at onpoptheology [at] gmail.com. 

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by Ben Howard

Reads of the Week

1) Damsel, Arise: A Westboro Scion Leaves Her Church by Jeff Chu
"To some, this story might seem simple—even overly so. But we all have moments of epiphany, when things that are plate-glass clear to others but opaque to us suddenly become apparent. This was, for Megan, one of those moments, and this window led to another and another and another."

2) Beyonce and the Bigger Question by Bo Sanders
"Now you can see why I am not interested in talking about whether Beyoncé should have had more clothes on, should have gyrated less or is a model for taking back one’s physicality in the face of generations of oppression and marginalization."

3) N*ggas at the Grammys (Kanye and Jay-Z) by Paul Scott
"So while some will be proud of the fact that 24 years later, Hip hop can proudly boast that it has produced the first N*gga song that could possibly win a Grammy, other Black folks, like myself, look upon the possibility with utter disgust."

4) End Homophobia in Professional Sports by Brendon Ayanbadejo
"At its best, sports do not discriminate. If you are young or old, tall or short, male or female, gay or straight, all that really matters is how well you play and contribute to your team."

5) A Defiant Dance of Power, Not Sex: Beyonce, the Super Bowl and Durga by David R. Henson
"Because Beyoncé’s performance Sunday night in New Orleans wasn’t about sex. It was about power, and Beyoncé had it in spades. In fact, her show was one of the most compelling, embodied and prophetic statements of female power I have seen on mainstream television."

Honorable Mention

White Evangelical Gatekeeping: A Particularly Ugly Example in Real Time by Fred Clark

The Beautiful by Richard Beck

Lessons from the Seder: The Belief of Memory in the Communion Story by Krista Dalton

Line of the Week

"Drakes new song 'Started From the Bottom' is the best song out about getting your start on a wildly successful Canadian show for tweens." via @johnthorntonjr on Twitter.

On Pop Theology Week in Review

Review: PregMANcy by Christian Piatt
Don't have kids and don't know if I want kids, but I loved this book about being a dad.

Beyonce Is Who We Thought She Was
If you feel like you've heard this conversation before, you have.

Mothers, Don't Let Your Sons Grow Up To Be In A Tarantino Movies
Why do the characters in Reservoir Dogs do bad things? Maybe because their mothers didn't love them. Or maybe not.

The Naked and The Nude: The Super Bowl, Beyonce and Power
A thoughtful exploration of the power dynamics involved in America's favorite corporate event.

An Open Letter and An Invitation
Remember that time I got all earnest and gave everyone a group hug? 'Cause it's happening right now.

Song of the Week

"State Run Radio" by Lupe Fiasco feat. Matt Mahaffey

Peace,
Ben

You can follow On Pop Theology on Twitter @OnPopTheology or like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/OnPopTheology. 

Contact us at onpoptheology [at] gmail.com.