Meanderings, 13 January 2024

When I teach intensives, as I did this week, besides the utter joy of teaching such wonderful people, getting my act together that week to get these Meanderings set up — let’s just say, it poses challenges to their accomplishment. But here they are. Call them “Intensive Week Meanderings.”

Photo by Dave Lowe on Unsplash

Get your free ticket to the Broken to Beloved Summit!

Have you experienced spiritual abuse or religious trauma? Maybe you’re not sure what to call it, but have felt hurt or harmed by the church or its leaders? Are you wondering what comes next, or how you find healing to move forward?

Let me tell you about the Broken to Beloved Summit! The goal for this summit is to help you move forward and find a path toward healing and wholeness.

For 4 days starting January 23, Broken to Beloved is bringing together sessions from 20+ authors, therapists, pastors, artists, and more who have found ways to name our experiences, process them in a safe and healthy environment, and provide practical tips and tools to move toward healing and wholeness.

You’ll hear sessions on Safely Telling Your Story, When Narcissism Comes to Church, Faith After Deconstruction, and more. (Laura and I are going to be talking all about Tov and Pivot!)

We’re featuring some amazing speakers, including:

• Chuck DeGroat

• Tiffany Bluhm

• David Hayward (aka NakedPastor)

• JS Park

and a whole lot more!

The best part? It’s totally free! You can check out all the details for yourself and get your free ticket here today!

You go, Roger!

A recent article in the New York Times suggested that “evangelical” is now a political identity more than a religious one. At least in America. And that is a major problem with the claim! Most evangelicals live outside the U.S. That fact seems to be overlooked by many pollsters, commentators, journalists, and scholars. What the article means, of course, is that IN AMERICA “evangelical” has become a political identity nearly identical with Trumpism or at least conservative politics.

The researchers the article is based on found that many, if not most, contemporary white American evangelicals are more concerned with politics than with spirituality. Many, if not most, do not even attend church! They pour most of their energy into politics, supporting right-wing causes and politicians. They may say they believe in Jesus and are “born again,” but, in fact, their “hearts” (seat of affections) really lie in converting America back into what they think was a Christian nation sometime in the past. And that by means of energetically campaigning for right-wing political candidates and especially Trump and those who support him.

The real “news” in this is the claim that many, if not most, of these “new evangelicals” do not attend church, at least not regularly. They are spiritually “fed” by right-wing commentators on the internet. Many of them join a church based mainly on the pastor’s and congregational leaders’ politics and, insofar as they attend church at all, they do so in order to enjoy “fellowship” with like-minded people, people who share their political ideology.

I hate to tell you “I told you so,” but I did say it here—that very many people join certain churches with politics on their minds. Very many people who call themselves “evangelical” in America (almost all of them white) MEAN that they are committed to MAGA politics. I noticed this several years ago and talked about it here, that the poll-takers at the voting polls do not ask enough questions to find out whether people calling themselves “evangelical” have any real idea what that means—historically, theologically, spiritually.

As a Christian theologian, and a life-long evangelical, I can say with certainty that anyone who blends MAGA, especially Trumpism, with Christianity and puts them on an equal plane in terms of commitment from the heart or even in the mind is not really Christian, let alone truly evangelical, at all.

Wonderful!

On the outskirts of Austin, what began as a fringe experiment has quickly become central to the city’s efforts to reduce homelessness. To Justin Tyler Jr., it is home.

Tyler, 41, lives in Community First! Village, which aims to be a model of permanent affordable housing for people who are chronically homeless. In the fall of 2022, he joined nearly 400 residents of the village, moving into one of its typical digs: a 200-square-foot, one-room tiny house furnished with a kitchenette, a bed and a recliner.

The village is a self-contained, 51-acre community in a sparsely populated area just outside Austin. Stepping onto its grounds feels like entering another realm. Eclectic tiny homes are clustered around shared outdoor kitchens, and neat rows of recreational vehicles and manufactured homes line looping cul-de-sacs. There are chicken coops, two vegetable gardens, a convenience store, art and jewelry studios, a medical clinic and a chapel. Roads run throughout, but residents mainly get around on foot or on an eight-passenger golf cart that makes regular stops around the property.

Tyler chose a home with a cobalt-blue door and a small patio in the oldest part of the village, where residents’ cactus and rock gardens created a “funky, hippie vibe” that appealed to him. He arrived in rough shape, struggling with alcoholism, his feet inflamed by gout, with severe back pain from nearly 10 years of sleeping in public parks, in vehicles and on street benches.

At first, he kept to himself. He locked his door and slept. He visited the clinic and started taking medication. After a month or so, he ventured out to meet his neighbors.

“For a while there, I just didn’t want to be seen and known,” he said. “Now I prefer it.”

Between communal meals and movie screenings, Tyler also works at the village, preparing homes for the dozen or more people who move there each month.

Christ’s College Cambridge news:

Medieval wall paintings hidden for almost 300 years have been uncovered by builders working in a roof space at a Cambridge University college.

The artworks were found during restoration work at Christ's College.

The paintings celebrated the royal patron of Christ's College during the early 16th Century.

Cambridge University art historian Dr Christina Faraday said: "This is a really exciting and unusual discovery."

The three crowned motifs, depicting a red Lancastrian rose, portcullis and a probable fleur-de-lis, were found in First Court, which dates back to the 15th Century.

The paintings are thought to be from the early 16th Century.

The college was first established as God's House in 1437 before moving to its present site in 1448. It was re-founded as Christ's College in 1505 by Henry VII's mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort.

The portcullis was the badge of the Beaufort family.

Farewell Sears! Sad, for sure. Our hometown had a Sears and our current village had a Sears near us…

Sears’ last-remaining store in the New York metro area is closing, bringing the number of Sears locations still in existence down to about a dozen.

A Facebook post for the Jersey City location, just across the river from Manhattan, recently announced a “store closing” sale, ending its nearly 40-year run as an anchor store for the Newport Centre Mall. An official closing date wasn’t revealed.

Sears used to have at least 11 stores in New Jersey, however they all have closed (or about to close) since the brand’s 2018 bankruptcy that resulted in hundreds of closures around the US.

Following the shuttering of the Jersey City location, the closest Sears for the New York metro area shoppers is 227 miles away in Braintree, Massachusetts.

Peeps, new flavors:

BETHLEHEM, Pa. (WHTM) — Pennsylvania-based company Just Born announced that a new lineup of PEEPS will be debuting for the easter season.

Four new flavors will be offered including

PEEPS Rice Krispies Treats Flavored Marshmellow Chicks,

PEEPS ICEE Blue Raspberry Flavored Marshmellow Chicks,

PEEPS Sour Strawberry Flavored Marshmellow Chicks,

and PEEPS Delights S’Mores Graham Cracker Flavored Marshmallow Chicks Dipped In Milk Chocolate.

The Rice Krispies Treats flavored PEEPS will only be available at Walmart in what Just Born says is an “iconic marshmallow flavor mashup everyone has been waiting for!”