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** Have the fundamentalists won?
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In the past when I have invited your responses to questions about history, many of you have pointed me to Harry Emerson Fosdick’s 1922 sermon, “Shall the Fundamentalists Win?” That so many of you cite this as an influential teaching in your own journey points to how significant a role it played in US Protestantism’s liberal-fundamentalist schism. Just three years after Fosdick’s salvo (which sparked an investigation and ultimately his resignation), another pivotal event occurred in this contentious history: the so-called Scopes Monkey Trial.

Here at the centennial of that trial, we have an insightful analysis from Michael A. Smith that covers not only the trial’s unusual nature ([link removed]) but also its legacy in American religious, educational, and political life. To be sure, fundamentalism’s legacy is not just the stuff of sociological reflection. It has concrete effects in real people’s lives, as McKenzie Watson-Fore discusses in her essay on the theological harms of evangelical youth groups ([link removed]) and church camps.

There’s even more great content below. Our video of the week features Mordechai Beck, a journalist on the ground in Jerusalem who discusses Benjamin Netanyahu’s warmongering ways ([link removed]) . Plus scroll down for our first-ever online publication of our magazine’s Letters & Comments section ([link removed]) , a column about manna and mutual care ([link removed]) , and more.

Jon Mathieu
Email me (mailto:[email protected]?subject=My%20experience%20with%20youth%20ministry&body=Jon%2C%20) : What has your experience with youth ministry been like, whether as a participant or minister?
Click to schedule ([link removed]) a Friday lunch chat with Jon (it’s okay to book again if you’ve done it before!)
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** The Scopes Monkey Trial and the evolution of fundamentalism ([link removed])
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“The trial is often remembered as a straightforward confrontation between science and religion. In fact it was a complex intersection of theological disputes, cultural anxieties, media transformation, and economic opportunism.”

by Michael A. Smith
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** Dear Jesus, Am I broken enough yet? ([link removed])
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“Life became a sin scavenger hunt. At the end of every day, I curled up with my journal in my blue-and-green loft bed for a moral inventory. ‘How have I been disappointing you lately, God?’ I wrote.”

by McKenzie Watson-Fore
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** VIDEO: The Bible and Netanyahu’s warmongering ([link removed])
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Mordechai Beck chats with Jon about Bible characters and the situation in his home city of Jerusalem.
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** In the Lectionary for July 20 (Ordinary 16C) ([link removed])
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God’s rage will not be held at bay.
by Cathy H. George

Ordinary 16C 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]) .


** Open hearts, Augustine’s antisemitism, and more reader feedback ([link removed])
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We are excited to share with you, for the first time ever online, the insightful letters we received from readers that were published in our Letters & Comments section. Here is the collection from our July issue.


** Becoming manna ([link removed])
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“To talk about care is to get specific about the nature of God’s love.”

by Isaac S. Villegas
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