Du Mez CONNECTIONS

6 days ago | kristindumez.substack.com | Kristin Du Mez

June 23, 2020. I decided I had just enough time for a run, if I ran really fast. I laced up my shoes and headed out the door. As I ran my usual route, I picked up speed. I needed to get back before 8am. It was probably my fastest morning run before or since, and I got back just in time to hear Jesus and John Wayne debut on NPR’s Morning Edition. I’d recorded with Steve Inskeep the Friday before, and I had been terrified. When I listened to the 7-minute conversation, I loved it.

1 week ago | kristindumez.substack.com | Kristin Du Mez

I did it for love’s sake. Since hearing the news of the political assassination of Minnesota Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Horton, and the shootings of Minnesota Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, I’ve been horrified by a sense of the evil that seems to be overtaking us. We know that the perpetrator, Vance Boelter, was a devout Christian.

2 weeks ago | kristindumez.substack.com | Kristin Du Mez

Tomorrow, Trump will be holding a dictator-style military parade in the nation’s capital to celebrate his 79th birthday. Or rather, to celebrate the Army’s 250th anniversary. Frankly, it’s not entirely clear who or what is being celebrated. What is clear is that the event will cost tens of millions of dollars. Roads have been blocked off, and hundreds of tanks, military vehicles, and aircraft have been assembled. It’s a whole thing.

2 weeks ago | kristindumez.substack.com | Kristin Du Mez

It was a quick trip to Oxford and back, but while I’m over my jetlag (mostly), I find myself returning in my thoughts to my time there. First, the professional highlight: I had a fruitful time presenting research from my next book at Oxford University’s Rothermere American Institute and conversing with four fabulous scholars: Lisa McGirr (Harvard), Melinda Cooper (Australian National University), Noam Maggor (Queen Mary University, London), and Joel Suarez (Harvard).

3 weeks ago | kristindumez.substack.com | Kristin Du Mez

Jennifer Lyell died yesterday. Three years ago, she told me she didn’t think she would live. She had survived alleged sexual abuse at the hands of her seminary professor. For a time, she survived being viciously attacked, over and over again, by those who sought to make her out as the villain, the temptress, the whore. But she told me she didn’t think she could survive what was being done to her much longer. Yesterday, her body gave out. The stated cause was a series of massive strokes. She was 47.