Hi all,
We have been recording interviews for season 4 of Shake the Dust the past couple weeks, and we are so excited to tell you more about what’s coming, so stay tuned! And please consider supporting us as we continue to produce media that helps us walk away from the idols of America to seek Jesus and confront injustice.
Our highlights this week include:
- Israel’s AI-powered bombing campaign
- A helpful deep dive into gaslighting
- The unjust execution of Brian Dorsey
- A book recommendation: Liturgy of the Ordinary
- And Sy keeps us grounded with some very thoughtful kindness from Toni Morrison
Sy’s Recommendations
Israel’s AI Genocide
(Content warning for discussion of genocidal violence) A shocking report came out last week regarding Israel’s use of AI in its bombardment of Palestine. Six former IDF soldiers went on record describing an AI system that identifies targets as Hamas militants, links those targets to their residences, and then tells the IDF when the target has arrived at their house. The soldiers then said the IDF effectively treats this as a kill order and bombs the home, killing the militant and often their entire family. This was an especially prevalent practice at the beginning of the war, accounting for the high number of civilians and child casualties. The sources also say the IDF has expanded who it is targeting to low-ranking Hamas foot soldiers, and it will often authorize 15 or 20 civilian casualties per target. That number can increase to 100 if the target is high-ranking. This is not only a violation of international law, but a stunning disregard for human life. Maybe the most upsetting detail from the article is that one of the programs they use to track when Hamas militants are home with their families to be bombed is called “Where’s Daddy.” And I’m not even close to giving you all the horrifying details the reporters uncovered. All this to say I am convicted to redouble my prayers and attempts at advocacy. But I’m also going to need to spend some real time lamenting the depths of evil to which so many in Israel have sunk because of racism, dehumanization, and the desire for revenge for the October 7 attack.
A Helpful Deep Dive on Gaslighting
Gaslighting is one of those psychological terms, like narcissism or psychopathy, that have a precise meaning in science, but which we use very differently in popular speech. A New Yorker article helpfully gives us a brief history of the term gaslighting, and examines it from several different angles (content warning for discussions of abusive relationships). Some key insights: we think of romantic relationships as the place where gaslighting happens, but it is extremely common in other situations as well, especially parenting, that can be just as damaging. The most helpful way to address how you have been gaslit in a therapeutic setting is often to ask why you were drawn to a gaslighting relationship, but this can be difficult to accomplish without victim blaming. And, much like Dr. Maxine Davis’ said about intimate partner violence on Shake the Dust, gaslighting is far more common than we believe, often involving the same person in a relationship being both victim and perpetrator. This is a really helpful piece for understanding a complex relational phenomenon without reductive, black-and-white thinking, that can help us to seek shalom for ourselves and others in a more informed way.
Jonathan’s Recommendations
The Unjust Execution of Brian Dorsey
Neither the Supreme Court of the United States nor the Governor of Missouri stepped in to stop the execution of Brian Dorsey. Missouri officials killed The deeply remorseful 52-year-old by lethal injection on Tuesday evening. Seventy-two corrections officers joined his petition to the governor for clemency, citing his perfect disciplinary record in prison over the last 18 years. His clemency petition also noted that his trial lawyers received a flat fee for the case that would have amounted to just a few dollars per hour of work if they had gone to trial. Instead, they convinced Dorsey to plead guilty with no guarantees from the prosecutor after doing minimal investigation. Missouri’s governor denied the petition, saying that killing Dorsey would bring “justice” and “closure” in the case. I believe it is important for followers of Jesus to resist the normalization of violence, revenge, and death. It is impossible to love your neighbor and advocate for their execution. and leaving colonized faith must include the abolition of the death penalty.
Liturgy of the Ordinary is an Extraordinary Book
Anglican priest Tish Harrison Warren wrote Liturgy of the Ordinary, a book that is essential to ground us in a world full of war, violence, and layered tensions. The book is a practical guide to seeking, seeing, and experiencing the presence of God in our everyday lives with many clear examples and instructions. My favorite sections name and engage with the privileged existences of those of us who enjoy economic stability and the absence of war. Harrison Warren helps us avoid getting caught up in the pursuit and protection of our own comfort and ease. At the end of the book, I had a heightened awareness of how crucial it is to rely on God daily and to pray for my neighbors nearby and worldwide.
Staying Grounded with Sy
I often find it discouraging that our society in so many ways leaves people feeling like they must do the minimum for others in order to leave room to ensure their own survival and flourishing. It is the opposite of the way of Jesus, which shows us that radical generosity and self-sacrifice is the road to personal and communal flourishing. I therefore found some encouragement this week in an unexpected place: an article about the archive of rejection letters Toni Morrison sent in her 16 years as an editor at Random House. She did the complete opposite of the bare minimum for those whose writings she could not publish. She gave them detailed and specific feedback on their work, offered to connect them with other publishers or agents, gave them a look inside the publishing industry so they could better position themselves as writers, and much more. And she did this for everyone—writers who are now famous and writers who never got published anywhere, regardless of where in the country or the world they lived. I find it heartening when people put this much truly unnecessary effort into building up and encouraging others. The fact that Morrison spent her time doing this is maybe unsurprising if you know anything about her remarkable life, but it made me smile all the same.
Thanks for reading, and see you next week!
Jonathan and Sy