Meanderings 20 April 2024

The leaves on the trees are coming out from their earlier hiding, the crabapples are blossoming, the grasses are growing — and Spring has (as we say) sprung. Life, seemingly, abounds at this time of the year. And tulips!

Photo by Ioann-Mark Kuznietsov on Unspl

The Rapture as a dangerous idea — four problems, and this is Tommy’s second problem:

Escapism

Another troubling aspect of Rapture theology is how it cultivates escapism. Instead of engaging with the world and its suffering, this theology suggests that the righteous will be whisked away to safety and the unrighteous left to suffer, abandoned. Yet, the story of the New Testament is one of God moving toward and into the darkness, not away from it.

Jesus grappled with escapist theology in the garden of Gethsemane, he asked:

…he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

The New International Version (Mt 26:39). (2011). Zondervan.

What we believe about Jesus's story should equal what we believe about the church's role. It is perfectly normal, even Christlike, to want to escape the darkness or to fight against it (like Peter before Jesus stopped him). But His body must go to the cross, and the church along with it.

Rapture theology makes fools of the church's martyrs, who stood for light in times of great darkness and did not escape; rather, they testified to the cross by embodying it.

I am reminded of a conversation between a boy and his father in McCarthy’s The Road:

“You have to carry the fire."
I don't know how to."
Yes, you do."
Is the fire real? The fire?"
Yes it is."
Where is it? I don't know where it is."
Yes you do. It's inside you. It always was there. I can see it.
― Cormac McCarthy, The Road

The Church is the presence of God; we carry the fire into the darkness.

The early creed of the Church, the Apostles' Creed, affirms the church's role by stating that Jesus descended into hell. This concept, known as the Harrowing of Hell, emphasizes that God joins us in our suffering and works to bring healing and restoration. The work of being light in the darkness cannot be done by searching for a way to retreat into the light. We must carry it.

Check out Laura’s talk on YouTube.

(Mormon) Republicans for Biden:

GILBERT, Ariz. — It was Annie Lewis' idea to put a "Republicans for Biden" sign in the front yard in the lead-up to 2020. For her, it came down to civility. As a teacher for over a decade, the mother of six little ones, and a lifelong member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she felt then-President Trump did not show true leadership.

"I was embarrassed anytime a clip of Trump, at that time, was on and my children were in the room," Lewis said.

Lewis was not alone in her thinking. In 2020, GOP residents of Maricopa County in Arizona banded together to stand up against Trump. The signs were created by Dan Barker, a leader in the Maricopa County LDS community and former GOP-appointed judge, who wanted to find a way to support Biden without giving up his lifelong Republican identity.

His wife, Nan, was the one who pushed him to have a sign.

"She probably got there quicker than I did," said Barker, who in 2020 started the political action committee Arizona Republicans Who Believe in Treating Others with Respect. "I just wasn't quite comfortable identifying with the Democratic Party. And so for me, I said, hey, well, I'd rather do something like, 'Republicans for Biden.' " ….

"There are people all over Arizona that are otherwise Republican voters that don't know what to do because they cannot get over Donald Trump's jackassery," Barnes said. "They don't know how to bring themselves to vote for someone that they judge to be so flawed as a human being."

The Trump campaign and Arizona GOP did not respond to a request for comment on how they are courting LDS voters and responding to criticism.

But the sense that voters might be up for grabs is not lost on the other side. Jon Ryder, executive director of the Maricopa County Democrats, said he is looking forward to courting these questioning voters.

"We have the Democrats we want to turn out, we have the independents who we have to make sure are voting our way and turn out," Ryder said. "And then we have the persuasion universe of independents and Republicans, especially Republican women, who when they hear our message or when they hear the message from our candidates, are more likely to support our candidates than the other side. And so we do have a plan for that."

If you follow the little baseball story that more Tommy John surgeries are needed, you might want to read this.

Nothing like crushing a myth, but she does:

In response to rising measles cases this year, some are claiming that measles is actually good for children—that fighting off the infection will make them stronger. 

These rumors are catalyzed by the overall sentiment that children in our modern era are less healthy than they used to be. While there are some types of disease where this is true—metabolic syndrome is on the rise, for example—infectious disease is certainly not one of them.  

Infections are not good for children—they have historically been the top killer of children—and our modern age is an anomaly, in a good way, when it comes to the ultimate marker of childhood health: not dying. 

The mythical “good old days”—when children had flourishing immune systems from their natural lifestyles and didn’t need antibiotics or vaccines—simply did not exist. Back in those days, a lot of children died. 

We have forgotten how many children used to die before their fifth birthday.

Today, the death of a child is considered unusual and especially tragic. For nearly all of history, this wasn’t the case. Death of children was extremely common. Until about the 1800s, roughly half of children died before reaching puberty. …

Children today are undoubtedly healthier

Deaths from infectious diseases have plummeted with the discovery of bacteria and viruses, improved sanitation, pasteurization, the discovery of antibiotics, and the development of vaccines. Childhood mortality dropped astronomically, and life expectancy in grew by three decades in the twentieth century alone. The most dramatic increases are among children under 5 years old.

Kristin Kobes Du Mez on Dojo Mojo Casa Church and masculinity gospels, which aren’t really gospels at all:

As a Christian, I can’t help but feel the distance between the way of Christ as I understand it and this ego-driven masculine pissing match (excuse my language; I searched for a more respectable alternative but nothing seemed sufficient to describe this travesty).

I joked on Twitter/X that people have been asking for a Jesus and John Wayne documentary, but with the video from this event going viral, any J&JW documentary feels redundant.

I wasn’t joking when I said that the Kens in Kendom analogy feels exactly right, and that we may have a window here into what we can look forward to if Christian nationalist types hold political power. Grasping for power, playing to the crowds, shifting alliances, demonizing enemies. Unchecked “God-given” authority might sound like a great idea if you’re the only Ken in Kendom, but it only really works if you are the only Ken in Kendom.

A week before the Mojo Dojo Casa Church event, an article on another Christian men’s event was published in Men’s Health. I’d spoken with the author, Jason Rogers, a couple of times over the past several months, and it’s an unusually sensitive treatment of this macho-Christian-bonding experience.

Rogers approached the event not just as a skeptical journalist, but as a spiritual seeker. Listen to where he ends:

“I couldn’t think back on the rock concert and rah-rah faith I’d witnessed at Man Camp without feeling at least a little spiritually checked out. But perhaps this was the belief I could get behind—the kind steeped in a private stillness, far from the fervor of a crowd.”

In addition to all the obvious absurdities of an event like the Stronger Men’s Conference, for Christians, it’s worth not losing sight of what is lost when ministering to men is reduced to canned, ego-stroking performances of some imagined, power-hungry “masculinity.” The medium becomes the message, a message that many Christians would agree has nothing to do with the core teachings of the historic Christian faith.

And then out go skinny jeans!

When Moe Black was a teenager, you could wear only one style of pants.

"If you wore anything besides skinny jeans, you were, like, weird," said Black, now a 29-year-old fashion content creator. At the time, skinny jeans had fashion and pop culture in a stretch-denim chokehold.

Black recalled taking style cues from the stars she saw on MTV and VH1, telling NPR she looked to bands like Green Day.

"A lot of these bands were anti-government, anti-war," she said. "And I felt like the way that they dressed was such a symbol of what they believed."

Her uniform: dyed hair in a side part, oversize graphic tee, checkerboard Vans and jeans so tight they looked painted on. But as ubiquitous as they once were, skinny jeans are out. And looser, 1990s-inspired styles are in.

So, what happened?

It's not just pants that come and go. Everything from shoes to color palettes to entire aesthetics cycle in and out of style. And keeping up with it all can feel dizzying. But there is some logic to how it all works. …

According to Fashivly's Greer, skinny jeans hit peak popularity sometime in the 2010s, meaning the time was ripe for something new. And that's exactly what was happening on runways. Greer points to loosening silhouettes in collections from the likes of Marc Jacobs, Comme des Garçons and others around 2016.

Then, Chrisman-Campbell theorizes, as the reign of skinny jeans came to an end, pandemic lockdowns accelerated the spread of wide pants. People stuck at home opted for comfort.

Of course, this is a tidy story, and Chrisman-Campbell points out that making sense of trends isn't an exact science. But whether you're watching runway shows from your laptop or don't care about clothes much at all, it matters.

"Dress is a form of communication, and I think we neglect it at our peril because we are communicating to other people whether we mean to or not," said Chrisman-Campbell.

And understanding that communication is essential, said Wagstaff.

"Then we can give ourselves a little bit more peace, grace and just flexibility to present ourselves in a more authentic way," she said.

Jazz and church:

But while jazz challenges and prods us, it also takes us to church.… [Historian] Martin E. Marty [observed] that the key to understanding links between worship and jazz is subsumed in the word awe. This is an emotion that is accessible to everyone. He says that “jazz can erupt in joy.” Joy infused with the riffs of awe tends to be unspeakable.… 

Art also carves pathways toward our inner isles of spirituality. When we decide to live in our heads only, we become isolated from the God who is closer than our next breath. To subject everything to rational analysis reduces the awe to ashes. The restoration of wonder is the beginning of the inward journey toward a God who people of faith aver is always waiting in the seeker’s heart. For some, the call to worship comes as joy spurts from jazz riffs.

Jazz pianist and minister William Carter describes how jazz can help us pray:  

I have a high view of instrumental music as a potential spiritual gift for the listener and the musician alike.… A jazz quartet can utter things in the presence of God that mere words fail to say. A saxophone can lament on behalf of those who feel helpless. A piano may offer intercessions for those who are in need. A string bass can affirm the firm foundation of faith. Drums and cymbals may call pilgrims to break into joy.  

Poet Ron Seitz has spoken about how, as a young man, he befriended writer and theologian Thomas Merton…. Seitz tells of the night he went with Merton to a jazz club in Louisville. As the group began to play, Merton leaned over to whisper, “They’re going to start talking to each other now. Listen.” Then he moved closer to the bandstand to get a better look. Later, returning with his eyes wide, he said to Seitz, “Now that’s praying. That’s some kind of prayer! The new liturgy. Really, I’m not kidding.”