Coeur d’Alene, Commemorative Coins, Corrupt Incarceration
KTF Weekly Newsletter
Hey everyone,
Ever recorded three podcast episodes in two days? We did this week to get ahead for Sy’s upcoming parental leave. We do not recommend this as a scheduling plan, but we are very excited for you all to hear the great discussions and guests we have coming your way. And there’s a new episode dropping tomorrow. More on that below. But for now, let’s get into this week’s highlights.
Sy’s recommendations:
A couple pieces on the increasing radicalization of US law enforcement. First, there’s this column in the LA Times which starts by discussing a recent sheriff’s office memorandum on President Biden’s visit to LA distributed with “Go Brandon” written several times in it. The column goes on to discuss the sheriff’s own admission that the ranks of his office are filled with “right and far right” deputies whom he cannot control, and evidence backing up that assertion. Then, there is this galling bit of news from the Miami Herald: Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents are circulating commemorative coins that depict and celebrate the moment last year when CBP officers on horseback chased Haitian migrants in Texas, using their reins as whips. The coin reads “Reining it in since May 28, 1924,” the day the wildly racist 1924 Immigration Act took effect, barring most non-white immigrants and creating CBP.
Charlie Dates, the pastor of an historic Black church in Chicago, wrote an article recently about gun violence in his city. He called out the racism and hypocrisy of white Christians who use Chicago’s gun violence as a political dog whistle, but support policies which perpetuate that violence, all while claiming to be pro-life. He further addresses the talking points that gun restrictions do not work and that if they did, they would leave guns only in the hands of criminals. He challenges white pastors to join the work that so many Black pastors across the country are already doing to protect lives, instead of using those lives as political pawns.
Jonathan’s recommendations:
I recently shared this sermon at New Life Fellowship East (the sermon starts at about minute 37 in the video). The talk was an overview of session six of my Emotionally Healthy Activist Course, which calls for an examination of our motivations to seek or not to seek justice. The example I used to interrogate this question was the sexual assault scandal at Penn State University where head football coach Joe Paterno permitted another coach, Jerry Sandusky, to abuse many young men. The question of “Why didn’t Paterno do anything?” is familiar to us in the face of the abuse within the Southern Baptist Convention, the Boy Scouts of America, and Catholic dioceses the world over. It is important for us to answer a similar question: why don’t we do anything in the face of injustice and suffering? How can we shape ourselves into people who prioritize the marginalized and vulnerable over protecting our reputations and the appearance of our institutions? Doing this reflective work ensures that we keep our witness and integrity at the center.
Patriarchy, homophobia, transphobia, and the abuse perpetrated and perpetuated by the church are well-documented. And last weekend, authorities thwarted what could have been another tragedy in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho when they arrested 31 people planning to do violence against the LGBT+ people gathered there for a Pride Month celebration. Followers of Jesus seeking to disentangle our faith from violent, vehement disagreement and heretical justification for harm must condemn acts like these, confess the ways we have been complicit in them, and lament the pain and suffering of the LGBT+ community. Otherwise, our lack of resistance to the patterns of this world will compromise our witness to a Christ who renewed all things through His life, death, and resurrection.
Suzie’s recommendations:
Between the political turmoil that continues from the Trump era, the nation’s ongoing racial reckoning, and the fact that we’re still in a global pandemic, navigating the dynamics of church life has been complicated. Many pastors have burned out, and many lay Christians have stopped attending church altogether, some with the intention of returning one day, some without. Many find themselves in a liminal space caught between virtual and in-person participation, or between the churches they have left and the new church families they hope to one day find. In the midst of this morass, this recent episode of the Pass the Mic podcast offers so much wisdom and hope for the journey. Hosts Tyler Burns and Jemar Tisby offer practical advice on what to look for in a healthy church, drawing on their own experiences of struggle and breakthrough. What they present is a new spirit-filled vision for church in this challenging season.
In a previous newsletter, I shared an important piece by Ian Urbina exposing the hellish system of migrant prisons in Libya funded in large part by the EU. This week, I would like to highlight Foreign Policy’s review of a new book by veteran journalist Sally Hayden that expands on Urbina’s coverage of “the world’s deadliest migration route.” The article covers some of the horrific details revealed in Hayden’s investigative research — inhumane detention facilities practicing punitive measures comparable to those used at Guantánamo Bay, the sexual abuse and exploitation migrants endure from smugglers, and money funneled from the EU into the hands of brutal militias to stem the tide of Black migration. As followers of Christ, we must resist the temptation to look away from atrocities like these, and we must also find ways to expose and eradicate such evil architecture that seeks to steal, kill, and destroy our common humanity.
Shake the Dust preview
Tomorrow, we have returning guest Milly Silencio (formerly Milly Aquije) on the show to discuss the effect that acquiring privilege at different points in life has on us, our relationships, and our interactions with God. Milly goes into detail on the tension between being an undocumented activist who is now married and applying for a green card. Each of the hosts also discuss their own interactions with the notion of gaining new status, and the result is a fascinating and deeply personal conversation on multiple subjects like money, education, and “healing” disabilities that you won’t hear many other places. Enjoy!
Thanks for reading, and see you next week!
The KTF team