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** A complicated holiday
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July 4 has always been a bit strange for me. I don’t love cookouts or fireworks, and I’m not one for patriotism. I’m finding that as this year’s holiday approaches, the strangeness has taken on new layers. To reflect on the USA is to reflect on its role in the world. Its action or inaction, its words or silence, in Gaza and Ukraine (and Sudan and Myanmar and many more). Its bombs in Iran.
I am grateful for a brand new piece from Stanley Haurwas and Andy Doyle. They reflect on the church’s identity and responsibilities ([link removed]) in a time of war. Their essay is largely a response to the conflict with Iran, while Mordechai Beck offers a reflection on Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Ahab-and-Jezebel scheme ([link removed]) to conquer his enemies. These two pieces feel like they are just in time this week to help me process my nation’s relationship to peace and justice abroad.
Our video of the week is also a balm for me. I talked to Lauren Cibene about how she is deconstructing her politics ([link removed]) much like she did her former evangelical faith. Plus more great content below, like Melissa Florer-Bixler’s embarrassing lessons as a student pastor ([link removed]) and Sam Wells’s appearance in a man’s near-death experience ([link removed]) .
Jon Mathieu
Email me (mailto:
[email protected]?subject=My%20patriotism%20or%20lack%20thereof&body=Jon%2C%20) : Do you consider yourself patriotic? Why or why not?
Click to schedule ([link removed]) a Friday lunch chat with Jon
Click to find Jon ([link removed]) on (X/Twitter alternative) Bluesky
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** The church cannot bless war ([link removed])
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“Christianity demands more than private values or partisan identity. It requires a public witness. And in a time of war, that witness includes a refusal to allow the state to define righteousness on its terms.”
by C. Andrew Doyle and Stanley Hauerwas
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** Bibi’s endless war ([link removed])
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“In Netanyahu’s rhetoric, Bibi is the savior, the one who fulfills the messianic strain of complete victory over the dark forces of evil. In this view, the enemy is not Hamas but rather the Palestinians themselves, from whose guts Hamas is spawned.”
by Mordechai Beck
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** VIDEO: Deconstructing both faith and politics ([link removed])
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Lauren Cibene chats with Jon about her experience as an ex-vangelical and a deconstructing American.
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** In the Lectionary for July 6 (Ordinary 14C) ([link removed])
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God’s saving work is never too big for ordinary moments or casual conversations.
by Gina Burkhart
Ordinary 14C archives ([link removed])
Get even more lectionary resources with Sunday’s Coming Premium, an email newsletter from the editors of the Christian Century. Learn more ([link removed]) .
** Learning humility as a student pastor ([link removed])
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“My image of the pastor—comforting a distraught mother, stepping outside herself as a pillar of strength—disappeared.”
by Melissa Florer-Bixler
** A man I know had a near-death experience ([link removed])
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“He said that he’d been dead, that wherever he’d gone to wasn’t a reconstruction of unresolved memories and unfulfilled desires. It was whatever lies beyond us, or at least beyond him. … But what was I doing there?”
by Samuel Wells
** The kingdom of God is like this ([link removed])
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“Thomas Long has written a voluminous, sweeping, occasionally even thrilling book that will empower preachers to preach on and with the parables of Jesus.”
review by Will Willimon
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