Meanderings, 29 July 2023

What a heat wave we are having! The heat index as I write this is 100 degrees, and the temperature is “but” 90 — that’s what Chicago’s humidity can do to the temperature. Yikes. Arizona is off the charts this year, and Texas too. Probably all of us are experiencing this heat. Two of our (four) monarch caterpillars look just like this one.

Photo by Lasclay on Unsplash

We were mesmerized by Oppenheimer. Did you see the movie? We didn’t see this blooper:

Christopher Nolan’s latest film, “Oppenheimer,” has become one half of the box office and pop culture phenomenon “Barbenheimer,” sweeping up glowing reviews along the way.

But eagle-eyed fans have spotted a mistake in a scene set in 1945, as Cillian Murphy’s J. Robert Oppenheimer stands among a crowd waving American flags – bearing the wrong number of stars.

“It was good and all, but I’ll be that guy and complain they used 50-star flags in a scene set in 1945,” Twitter user Andy Craig wrote on Friday.

In 1945, the American flag featured 48 stars, as Alaska and Hawaii hadn’t yet become US states.

It wasn’t until July 4, 1960 that a 50-star flag was first flown in the US.

But in another scene set in the same year, the correct American flag flies behind Oppenheimer.

One Twitter user had a theory: “I can argue that this is done intentionally as the colored scenes were from Oppenheimer’s perspective, while the black and white scenes were from another. This would be a memory of Oppenheimer from his present day memory which does have 50 states on the flag.”

And speaking of movies, Kris and her sister Pat went to Barbie. Here is the monologue:

It is literally impossible to be a woman. You are so beautiful, and so smart, and it kills me that you don’t think you’re good enough. Like, we have to always be extraordinary, but somehow we’re always doing it wrong.

You have to be thin, but not too thin. And you can never say you want to be thin. You have to say you want to be healthy, but also you have to be thin. You have to have money, but you can’t ask for money because that’s crass. You have to be a boss, but you can’t be mean. You have to lead, but you can’t squash other people’s ideas. You’re supposed to love being a mother, but don’t talk about your kids all the damn time. You have to be a career woman, but also always be looking out for other people. You have to answer for men’s bad behavior, which is insane, but if you point that out, you’re accused of complaining. You’re supposed to stay pretty for men, but not so pretty that you tempt them too much or that you threaten other women because you’re supposed to be a part of the sisterhood. But always stand out and always be grateful. But never forget that the system is rigged. So find a way to acknowledge that but also always be grateful. You have to never get old, never be rude, never show off, never be selfish, never fall down, never fail, never show fear, never get out of line. It’s too hard! It’s too contradictory and nobody gives you a medal or says thank you! And it turns out in fact that not only are you doing everything wrong, but also everything is your fault.

I’m just so tired of watching myself and every single other woman tie herself into knots so that people will like us. And if all of that is also true for a doll just representing women, then I don’t even know.

Ten reasons against NDAs.

I enjoyed this piece by John Hawthorne about non-denominationalism:

On Monday, religion data guru Ryan Burge’s SubStack was titled “The Future of American Christianity in Non-Denominational.” He argues that the rise of non-denominationalism is the second largest story in contemporary religion (the Nones are the largest story). One of the graphs he shares contrasts the percentage of individuals who identify as nondenominational with those claiming identification with two of the larger Protestant denominations: Southern Baptists and United Methodists.

While I agree with Ryan regarding the larger sociological trends leading to declining trust in institutions of all forms, I found myself thinking of some shifts within the religious world in general and evangelicalism in particular that contributed to these changes. Specifically, I’m thinking about the dominance of Christian Radio, the rise in evangelical publishing, and our focus on celebrity pastors….

I’ve long argued that one of the contributing factors to the move to non-denominationalism that Ryan Burge describes was a kind of theological homogenization that occurred in the late 20th and early 21st Century. Ryan opens his piece with a stab at the one-word church names that don’t identify religious family in any way. But the geographic and church mobility of recent years had brought together people from a variety of theological traditions (and no tradition at all).

The politics of testosterone:

Francis Suarez is bragging about placing sixth in an Independence Day 5K in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Vivek Ramaswamy, a former nationally ranked junior tennis player, is flexing his weekly pickup victories over former collegiate athletes at a Life Time Fitness outside Des Moines. And Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the muscle-bound, 69-year-old longshot Democratic presidential hopeful, went viral for doing pull-ups shirtless at a Gold’s Gym.

Even Asa Hutchinson, the 72-year-old former Arkansas governor, is boasting about still playing full-court basketball.

More than a month before the election cycle’s first debates, the 2024 presidential contest has careened into a kind of testosterone primary, a frenetic fit boy summer sidequest in which candidates are drawing fewer contrasts on policy and proving more keen on comparing feats of strength.

Brawn and bravado are in demand, particularly among a GOP base conditioned by a steady dose of both in the Trump era. Thirst traps are a new wedge issue.

“Republican candidates are now needing to play to a base that has really been defined by the Trump presidency and just the Trump persona,” said historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez, who has traced the ideological and theological roots of masculinity in conservative and evangelical political circles in her book, “Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation.” “Now, to win as a Republican, you need to play that game. This kind of masculinity — physical fitness — goes hand in hand with masculine toughness.”

Back slang is fun.

Wowzers!

A small Church of the Brethren liberal arts college in Kansas now has a $1.5 billion endowment

McPherson College in McPherson, Kansas: has 811 undegraduate students. The $1 billion came from an anonymous donor. The Wikipedia page lists billionaire Harry Stine as an alumnus. Could there be another “anonymous” donor with these kind of resources and a connection to McPherson?

McPherson now has a larger endowment than the following schools: Lafayette, Mount Holyoke, Denison, Bucknell, Carleton, Villanova, Colby, Clarement McKenna, Bryn Mawr, Vassar, Colgate, Oberlin, Brandies, Pepperdine, Loma Linda, Berry, RIT, Tulsa, Hamilton, Davidson, Northeastern, Saint Louis, Miami (FL), Berea, Princeton Theological Seminary, Middlebury, Santa Clara, Wesleyan, and Baylor College of Medicine.

Here is the press release from

McPherson College in Kansas announced today that it has met the match on its historic $500 million endowment double match challenge. Additionally, the anonymous donor surprised the college community by committing an additional $500 million estate gift for a total commitment of $1 billion. The McPherson College Board of Trustees also voted unanimously to name the McPherson College endowment after two late alumni and professors at McPherson College, Drs. John Ward and John Burkholder. McPherson College President Michael Schneider announced the milestone at an on-campus event this morning attended by over 200 faculty, staff, trustees, students, and friends of the college.

The total funding of $1,592,000,000 will result in the largest endowment of any small liberal arts college in the United States.…

The donor agreement provides the flexibility for the anonymous donor to pay out over time or it is all paid in full upon the donor’s death, which is the latest time at which McPherson College would have access to the anonymous donor’s $1 billion. Most other gifts to meet the challenge will come over time as part of estate commitments.