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Nov 1, 2024 | 
scalawagmagazine.org | Emmy Brett
On February 6, 2024, for maybe the thousandth time in the decades-long existence of the Annunciation House, a volunteer opened the shelter's doors to a new arrival. But instead of welcoming a migrant guest, as volunteers of Annunciation House's shelters have done for over 40 years, this volunteer was met with a lawsuit.
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Apr 3, 2024 | 
christiancentury.org | Peter W. Marty |Timothy Adkins-Jones |Emmy Brett |Amy Frykholm
Welcome to In Search Of, a podcast where we go in search of voices and perspectives that inform and expand a life of faith. In this episode, Amy introduces us to St. Maria Skobtsova, who studied theology and practiced hospitality from St. Petersburg in 1917, to Paris in the 1930s, until her death in a Nazi concentration camp in the 1940s. Learn which aspects of her life make her a personal saint for Amy on the season finale of In Search Of. A transcript of this episode can be found here.
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Apr 2, 2024 | 
christiancentury.org | Peter W. Marty |Timothy Adkins-Jones |Emmy Brett |Julian DeShazier
I stopped using the lectionary for a while. Then I went back, and it saved my life. The plain reason I stopped using it was that I wanted to be original. I have nothing against the lectionary or the church seasons and colors, in fact I love them. I love how the lectionary helps place us in the context of an ongoing story and superimposes the cycle of life onto the calendar year. It puts us in the Bible and the Bible in us.
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Apr 2, 2024 | 
christiancentury.org | Peter W. Marty |Timothy Adkins-Jones |Emmy Brett
for Andrew MeadI am watching a moose ripple out of his antlers. I am watching Tollund Man, arm-in-arm with Judy Garland. I am trying to believeimplausible things: that we too will abdicate, spurn bone crowns, and turn tender; that we too—raised, wide-eyed—will skipalong gold roads. I am trying to trust that oldest rebuke, all things made new, beyond entropy. Above our urge to preserve. This poem appears in the April 2024 issue.
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Apr 2, 2024 | 
christiancentury.org | Peter W. Marty |Timothy Adkins-Jones |Emmy Brett |Shai Held
At its heart, Judaism is about love. If you find that claim surprising, you’re not alone. Many Christians and Jews—and, sadly, even some of my rabbinical students—view Christianity as a religion of love and grace while viewing Judaism as a religion merely of law and justice. We assume that Judaism values rituals and actions more than beliefs and emotions, and we’re taught that the God of the Hebrew Bible is angry and vindictive while the God of the New Testament is loving and forgiving.
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Apr 1, 2024 | 
christiancentury.org | Peter W. Marty |Timothy Adkins-Jones |Emmy Brett |Heidi Neumark
The recent election of Javier Milei as president of Argentina—with his telling slogan “Make Argentina Great Again!”—brought back memories of studying and living there. I was there during the Dirty War in the 1970s and early ’80s, which pitted a military dictatorship against the Argentinian people, leading to the kidnapping and death of some 30,000 people, many of whom were tortured before being dropped from planes into the ocean. Milei has his own version of events favorable to the dictatorship.
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Apr 1, 2024 | 
christiancentury.org | Peter W. Marty |Timothy Adkins-Jones |Emmy Brett |Josh Scott
In 1997 I went to new york city for the very first time. I had been enamored with the idea of the place for as long as I could recall, so getting the opportunity to go with some classmates from my high school was a dream come true. As you can imagine, we hit all the touristy hotspots—the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, Times Square. Each one felt surreal. My 16-year-old brain could hardly process it all. The memory that I think of most, however, is about something I didn’t see.
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Apr 1, 2024 | 
christiancentury.org | Tommie Shelby |Peter W. Marty |Emmy Brett |Timothy Adkins-Jones
In The Idea of Prison Abolition, Harvard philosopher Tommie Shelby asks whether incarceration can ever be just, either in an unjust world such as ours or in a fully just society. He shows his cards early, writing on page 4 that after using all the philosophical tools in his toolbox, he favors prison reform over abolition, believing that there is a way in which prisons can be just. I do not come to the same conclusion, even after reading Shelby’s book twice.
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Mar 29, 2024 | 
christiancentury.org | Holly Carey |Brian Bantum |Peter W. Marty |Emmy Brett
Whenever I set up a new TV, part of the process involves calibrating the screen’s brightness. If the screen is too dark, I’ll miss out on things that are visible but hard to see. Turning up the brightness brings clarity and depth to the picture, revealing things that might otherwise have escaped my notice. That is a lot like my experience reading Holly Carey’s new book.
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Mar 28, 2024 | 
christiancentury.org | Brian Bantum |Peter W. Marty |Emmy Brett |Timothy Adkins-Jones
(Illustration by Chantal Jahchan) I love church potlucks. There is grace in sitting down at a table with people known and unknown and making awkward, good-natured conversation, grace in the abundance of a single folding table that offers me lasagna, enchiladas, ham sliders, macaroni and cheese, fiesta chicken, pasta salad, black bean salad, couscous salad, fruit salad, eight kinds of bar cookies, apple pie, and a chocolate sheet cake. Who can resist trying a little bit of everything?
