Blogaround

1. This video from Andy Stanley:

“A gay person who still wants to attend church after the way they’ve been treated… I’m telling you, they have more faith than I do.” —Andy Stanley

I’m not endorsing Andy or his church, but it seems like he’s headed in the right direction.pic.twitter.com/x6A2c5Iht5

— Derek Myers (he/him) (@derektheheretic) January 24, 2023

Preach! This is so real! 

Huge disclaimer, I don't know anything about Andy Stanley except that he is a famous pastor. Don't take this as evidence that he is LGBTQ-affirming. Lots of Christians say nice things about LGBTQ people, and at the same time hold very bigoted views and want to deny LGBTQ people their rights. But, at least, I am happy to see Stanley has observed how courageous gay Christians are. This is very true.

Also, here's another important perspective- this Twitter thread from Kevin Garcia, who is very unimpressed.

2. Digging Into the Shang Dynasty’s Empire of Bones (January 23) [content note: human sacrifice, photos of ancient skeletons] 

3. The Poor Can’t Afford Not to Wear Nice Clothes (2019) "How do you put a price on the double take of a clerk at the welfare office who decides you might not be like those other trifling women in the waiting room and provides an extra bit of information about completing a form that you would not have known to ask about? What is the retail value of a school principal who defers a bit more to you because your mother’s presentation of self signals that she might unleash the bureaucratic savvy of middle-class parents to advocate for her child? I didn’t know the price of these critical engagements with organizations and gatekeepers relative to our poverty when I was growing up, but I am living proof of its investment yield."

4. Jinger Duggar Vuolo on Growing Up Under 'Cult-Like' Religious Beliefs: 'I Was Terrified of the Outside World' (January 18) "Even when her family went to play a sport called broomball, Vuolo says she felt 'terrified' she might be defying God's will. 'I thought I could be killed in a car accident on the way, because I didn't know if God wanted me to stay home and read my Bible instead.'" This is SO REAL. The idea that we should be suspicious of anything we desire or anything fun, because it might be a sin to pursue those things instead of doing something more "spiritual." The idea that there may be some little thing that God wants you to do, and God is totally in the right to kill you if you don't do it, and really it's your own fault because on some level you "know" that's what God really wanted you to do. And the incredible amount of anxiety that inevitably comes when you take these beliefs seriously and try to live that way.

I'm really glad to see that Jinger got away from her family's cult.

5. When will their churches condemn the Christian nationalism of MAGA politicians? (August 19) "In my context, both of my United States Senators (Marsha Blackburn of Christ Presbyterian Church and Bill Hagerty of St. George’s Episcopal) have used their government Twitter accounts to suggest that Attorney General Merrick Garland and our FBI are corrupt. When efforts to reach them and ask them to delete, retract and apologize for these incitements to violence fail, is it appropriate to request that their churches offer a public statement condemning, or at least distancing themselves from, these abusive behaviors? I think so."

6. Journal Club: The Labour of Love (January 25) This is really interesting because it's about a 2007 paper which talks about the "work" that women with sexual problems in hetero relationships do to figure out how to have sex/ how to deal with their male partner's sexual expectations. I don't think I've ever heard anyone describe this as "work" before, besides me. But yeah it is work. It really annoys me how everyone talks about sex like it's something "natural."

7. I Found The Worst Christian Show (2021) "But at the same time, I had to appreciate this episode if only for its novelty. In a crowded room of pro-life people saying abortion is murder, 'Dream Motel' bravely goes against the grain and says, wait, maybe you shouldn't get an abortion because you might be dead in 10 years. And I think that's beautiful in its own way."