Happy New Year, everyone! 

We hope your first week of 2022 has been a good one. We have today’s unfortunate (to put it mildly) anniversary to cover from a couple angles, as well as lots of other interesting articles, a book, and a movie to share. So let’s get started with this week’s highlights to help us leave colonized faith for the kingdom of God. 

Jonathan’s recommendations: 

• Faithful Christians in America need to be expert apologists in word and deed against Christian nationalism. Slate’s What Next Daily News and Analysis podcast published two episodes this week on the events surrounding the insurrection on January 6, 2021. What this research and commentary makes disturbingly clear is that large swaths of the United States population believe former President Trump should still be in power, and political operatives are laying groundwork for an improved plan to overthrow the 2024 election. Moreover, what should trouble followers of Jesus is that many who tout the conspiracy theories place their faith and nationalism into an unholy union that is wholly incompatible with the Jesus of scripture.  Tuesday’s episode titled “The Coup Next Time” features an interview with political scientist Bart Gellman that reviews the reasons for his 2015 prediction of coming political turmoil, and why those reasons still indicate a likelihood of political violence in 2024.