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** The need for human stories
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If you’ve been around the Century for a while, you probably know that several times per year we host an essay contest (with support from the Frederick Buechner Center). If you’re not familiar, now is a great time to jump in as we’ve just published one of my all-time favorite batches of winning essays ([link removed]) . Each contest is based on a one-word writing prompt, and this time the word was Gravity. If you’re a writer, you still have time to enter our next contest (Twilight, due Nov. 1) or the one after that (Fall, due Feb. 1). For information on how to participate, click here for instructions ([link removed]) .
We publish real, important stories outside of our essay contests too. Rachel Mann offers a moving essay about her life with Crohn’s disease—and with a God who has been silent recently ([link removed]) . In a new reflection on Pentecostalism and prayer, Colton Bernasol remembers his grandfather’s voice, through his mother’s memories: “Gracias a Dios.” ([link removed])
Scroll down for even more great content. Our video of the week is a follow-up to one of our most popular (and polarizing) articles of the year—Brandon Ambrosino’s confession that he doesn’t want Trump to go to heaven ([link removed]) . We also have for you an essay about Charlie Kirk’s place in a grim and complicated history of mission work ([link removed]) , a book review about the lif-saving work of Frances Perkins (FDR’s labor secretary ([link removed]) ), and more.
Jon Mathieu
Email me (mailto:
[email protected]?subject=A%20story%20that%20changed%20me&body=Jon%2C%20) : Whose story has made a big difference for you?
(Lunchtime chats temporarily disabled during travel season!)
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** Essays by readers: Gravity ([link removed])
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“The pull has come upon them. They have entered a new orbit. Will it outlast a galaxy or be over in the instant it takes for eyes to meet and unmeet?”
– Thomas Stubbs, one of the winners in our Readers Write contest
by CC readers
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** The silent, suffering God ([link removed])
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“Perhaps the sheer difficulty of silence indicates it is one of our deepest vocations. For it is not just stillness, nor is it the mere absence of sound. For me, it is simply being in the presence of God, stripped of illusion and distraction.”
by Rachel Mann
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** Pentecostalism for the people ([link removed])
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“At a recent action in front of the Philippine consulate calling for the release of a migrant, theologian Primo Racimo declared that raising one’s fists and stomping one’s feet is as much prayer as the prayer often hidden away from public places.”
by Colton Bernasol
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** In the Lectionary for October 12 (Ordinary 28C) ([link removed])
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Jeremiah isn’t panicking. He’s incandescent with holy resolve.
by MaryAnn McKibben Dana
Ordinary 28C 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]) .
** VIDEO: Are we supposed to want Trump to go to heaven when he dies? ([link removed])
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Brandon Ambrosino chats with Jon about Donald Trump and the difficulty of loving our “enemies.”
** Yes, Charlie Kirk was a missionary ([link removed])
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“Cardinal Dolan and President Trump are right about this. Kirk was indeed a missionary—and that’s precisely the problem.”
by David Congdon
** When Frances Perkins took on the bigots ([link removed])
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“Perkins was a champion for Jewish refugees fleeing Nazism in Europe in the late 1930s. She fought against restrictive immigration policies and practices promoted by many in Congress and the State Department.”
Charles Hoffacker reviews Rebecca Brenner Graham
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