Meanderings, 3 June 2023

Good morning, friends!

Photo by Hanny Naibaho on Unsplash

What do you think of Katelyn’s proposal?

There are now three documentary exposes about Hillsong, plus hundreds of news headlines, podcasts, and social media accounts detailing its collapse. What was hidden for so long is now being revealed. The cat’s out of the bag. That’s a good thing.

But now, the Hillsong name is so sullied by scandal in the public square that we should assume that our neighbors have heard something about it, and have a generally negative impression of it, even if they don’t have all the facts or haven’t followed the story closely.

Why would churches associate with the Hillsong name — if only in a song credit at the end of a Powerpoint — if their unchurched neighbors could get the wrong impression? Why risk unnecessary scandal when there are so many other worthy songs to choose from?

Corporate worship is a set-apart time. When we sing praise together, we are participating in a hallowed activity. It’s not just about how we feel when we sing particular songs, although our emotions are usually engaged when we worship. Music is powerful, and as such ought to be handled in church with care and reverence.

The Hillsong name — if not all the people who have ever been a part of it — is clearly damaged, and I believe irreparably so. Let’s use our worship time together to communicate in word and deed to others that the church is a place that loves truth, that protects vulnerable people, that uses resources rightly, and that seeks integrity in its leaders. It seems to me that dropping the Hillsong connection would be a place to start. —KB

SMcK: Please don’t ask me about this as I don’t know Hillsong music from anyone else’s. Maybe we should go back to “Pass It On.”

There’s lots of chat about the Duggars, but read Kristin’s Substack about what it’s like to be involved in interviews.

I’ve honestly lost track of the number of documentaries I’ve given interviews for this past year. Six maybe? Seven? Eight? It feels like at least a dozen.

As you may have seen, two of the biggest released this week. Amazon’s Shiny Happy People premiered last night, and it’s already getting a huge amount of attention:

In addition to these two, I’ve given interviews for documentary projects on Christian nationalism and contemporary politics and on evangelical celebrities and sex abuse. These should be releasing over the next few months.

A few days back, I was talking to a colleague who was excited to watch the Duggar documentary. Somehow it came out that they assumed I got paid for these appearances. I laughed. I don’t actually get paid for any of this. Quite the opposite.

Each filming involves a significant commitment on my part, usually involving at least three days (two for travel to fly out to location and back, and one day for filming), in addition to the prep calls over Zoom, making travel arrangments, and any additional research needed on my part to make sure that everything I say is accurate.

SMcK: a big thank you to Kristin!

Saddleback’s about to take some heat and Beth Barr has some good observations:

I do not have insider information about Saddleback. What I do have is evidence from the SBC archives (where I currently am working) that show how deeply rooted sexism seems to be in SBC leadership structures. What I do have is evidence of recent SBC pastors who have created hostile environments for women (including alleged abuse and assault). What I do have is the testimony of a fired husband/wife pastoral team who were asked to sign NDAs (y’all, that is just never a good sign). What I do have is Andy Wood and Echo Church featuring Mark Driscoll in a leadership conference. What I do have is the wise counsel of Scot McKnight and Laura Barringer in A Church Called Tov about “power through fear cultures” that predominate in too many of our churches.

What I do have is enough questions to make me cautious.

I am thankful for kind words from Rick Warren to me as well as the support he is currently showing for women in ministry. But the reality is that fighting for female ordination will do little good unless we fight just as hard to uproot toxic church cultures that privilege the male perspective, center authoritarian structures, and silence the voices of women.

I think folk fighting for SBC women to be able to be pastors should fight just as hard to make sure that SBC women are able to flourish as pastors.

SMcK: Where was Rick when it mattered?

They gradu-tated!

RICH TOWNSHIP, Ill. — Parents and students of a south suburban high school are upset after the school distributed more than 600 graduation stoles to seniors with the word ‘graduate’ misspelled on them.

What makes matters worse is that the mistake wasn’t noticed until after some students walked went through with their graduation ceremonies.

Yasir Bilal, a newly graduated student from Rich Township High School (RTHS), described the moment when his family noticed the gaffe as he walked across the stage, pointing out that the word ‘graduate’ was spelled ‘gradutate.’

“They could have checked before [the ceremony], because they made 600-plus,” Bilal said. “And all of them were spelled wrong.”

Average wedding cost is whaaaaaaa?!

New YorkCNN — 

Weddings are back, in full force. That’s the good news. But engaged couples will pay a tad more to get hitched in 2023.

The average cost of a wedding, nationally, this year is $29,000, up $1,000 from 2022, according to online wedding planning site Zola. And in some big US cities, the cost is $35,000 and above.

The price tag for a happily-ever-after day is higher year-over-year for two reasons, said Zola - inflation and demand exceeding supply of wedding related goods and services. “Wedding industry vendors have had to raise their rates because they’re also paying more for goods and services like food, flowers and labor,” Emily Forrest, Zola’s director of communications, told CNN.

Weddings started roaring back from a pandemic-triggered halt to all kinds of celebrations in 2022, and, ever since, the industry has seen a surge in demands for venues, photographers, wedding planners, florists and wedding cakes. Add to that a Gen-Z era desire for very customized weddings (hint: don your scuba suit), and prices are rising.

The Zola report was based on a survey of 4,000 engaged couples getting married in 2023.

The report ranked New York City at the top of the list among the most expensive cities in the US to have a wedding this year. A wedding in the Big Apple is expected to cost about $43,536, followed by San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose ($37,284), Boston ($35,902), Philadelphia ($34,111), Miami-Ft. Lauderdale ($33,622), Washington, DC ($33,199), Chicago ($32,281) and Los Angeles ($30,712).

The average guest list, according to the report, is expected to include between 130 to 150 invitees.

We close off today’s selections with the Kudzu Apocalypse in the Midwest:

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — One of the country’s most notorious invasive plants is expected to become a major pest throughout the Midwest.

A study published earlier this year by researchers at Purdue University-Fort Wayne identified the Great Lakes as the next frontier for kudzu.

Kudzu is a hearty vine that was first brought to the United States from Asia as an ornamental plant and was eventually used for erosion control. In addition to its meaty vines, kudzu produces large, fragrant purple flowers and brown, hairy seed pods. It quickly grew out of control and was removed from the list of acceptable species in the Agricultural Conservation Program. By 1998, Congress listed it as a “noxious weed” and it is now commonly known as “the vine that ate the South.”

Jordan Marshall, a professor of plant biology at Purdue University-Fort Wayne and lead researcher on the kudzu study, said speed is the plant’s primary weapon.

“It grows very, very fast and it is able to overtop other plants. Essentially, when it grows over the other plants, it shades them out. And that’s where we start to see losses of trees, ground cover, things that are supposed to be there,” Marshall said.

The Nature Conservancy said kudzu vines can grow up to a foot per day and mature vines can reach upwards of 100 feet. Kudzu also spreads quickly because of the unique way it develops root systems. Unlike other plants that rely on wind or animals to spread seeds, kudzu grows on its own.

“They grow and reproduce mostly vegetatively, from the roots and then the vines growing and rerooting,” Marshall said.

SMcK: My father, bless his heart, once observed, when living near Atlanta where Kudzu grew faster than red clay, that if the local radio stations told everyone that Kudzu, when picked and dried could make a person high … he thought it might disappear overnight. Don’t try that, gotta say that.

Have the greatest weekend of your life!