Hi everyone, 

There’s a new Shake the Dust coming out tomorrow — more on that below. But let’s jump right into it — here are this week’s highlights. 

Jonathan’s recommendations: 

• Do we need to tear down all of the monuments to white supremacists, slave owners and other controversial historical figures in America’s past? The answer is yes. But the reasons are deeper and more substantive than I thought. The episode “The Rise and Fall of America’s Monuments” from Vox Conversations features a candid discussion with host Jamil Smith and a professor who studies art crime, Erin Thompson. They dive deep into Thompson’s book about why smashing the statues remains a controversial issue and discuss the significance, impact, and intentions of these structures. For followers of Jesus interested in seeing His Kingdom come, we must understand and embrace that our kingdoms must fall. This is especially true when those kingdoms endorsed corporate injustices like chattel slavery and genocide. Because these injustices have no part in heaven, we must interrogate the role that memorials play in commemorating those in power, and this podcast does just that.