KTF Weekly Newsletter: When the World Watched Your Worst Day, The Woman at the Well, Why We Want Wealth
Hi everybody,
The three of us recorded our Shake the Dust bonus episode for March a couple days ago. It’s all about the conflict in Ukraine, and we’re looking forward to sharing it with you next Friday. But more on that next week. Let’s get into this week’s highlights.
Sy’s recommendations:
As a former history major, I would say I get a lot more excited about reading primary source historical documents than the average person (if the average person has any excitement about this at all). But I think all of you will see the value in reading these particular documents. On Sunday, the Washington Post published a series of letters written by Black people in the US to white men and women who previously enslaved them. The letters are powerful, deeply sad, full of conviction, and sometimes quite funny. One is from Frederick Douglass. They remind us of the complexity, beauty, and brilliance of their authors’ lives, so often omitted from highly politicized historical narratives. Because so many enslaved people lived and died in captivity, and because their owners kept them from learning to read or write, the historical record of their lives is not usually from a first person perspective. So letters like these really are a gift.
We at KTF Press talk a lot about the ways that high-level theological and political conversations tend to lose track of the humanity of the people whose lives are the subject of discussion. Yesterday, Time published a story about a man whose image briefly became fuel for a raging international policy debate last year. He is Mirard Joseph, the Haitian immigrant who you’ve likely seen chased by a horse-mounted US border patrol agent armed with a whip. Though the media moved on from that incident, the photographer who took the picture did not. He attempted to find Joseph for days in the migrant encampment in Del Rio, Texas, eventually flying to Port-au-Prince after learning the US had deported Joseph. From there, the story tells of a very shy man mustering everything he has to assert his dignity after much of the world saw him precisely at his most humiliating moment. Fair warning: I choked up on the last paragraph.
Suzie’s recommendations:
In her recent book, The Samaritan Woman’s Story: Reconsidering John 4 after #ChurchToo, New Testament scholar Caryn Reeder makes a strong historical and exegetical case for a radical reinterpretation of the familiar passage about the Woman at the Well. Reeder argues that the Samaritan woman was not, as we often hear, a sexual “deviant” and social outcast. Rather, church fathers, reformers, and preachers up to the present day make her out to be so, following the dominant trend of sexualizing women in the Bible. Reeder observes that the text implies that the woman was respected by her community given their immediate acceptance of her testimony. Reeder also points out that Jesus never declares either forgiveness or judgment over her alleged sins, and that the text highlights the woman’s role as a messenger of the Gospel. Additionally, Reeder asserts that interpretations like hers are not new, but male church leaders often cast them aside resulting in their marginalization within Christian tradition. For a summary of the book, you can access a concise review here, or listen to Reeder’s podcast interview with fellow New Testament scholar Lynn Cohick on The Alabaster Jar.
Foreign policy advisor Fiona Hill first garnered public attention for courageously speaking truth to power during the 2019 impeachment hearings regarding Trump’s infamous call to Volodymyr Zelensky. As a historian of Eurasia, she is also an incisive, clear-headed political analyst. This recent interview between her and Ezra Klein provides some of the best listening out there on the rapidly unfolding conflict in Ukraine. One of her notable insights is that while talk of regime change in Russia may grow in popularity in the United States, such an approach would likely contribute to further atrocities and loss of human life. Hill astutely suggests that because Putin already identifies as beleaguered and embattled by the West, he will only intensify his crusade the more existential it feels. Followers of Christ ought to be particularly wary of violent and colonialist tactics like assassination and the toppling of foreign governments. While historically, such interventions have been the bread and butter of the US intelligence community, such half-baked solutions rarely if ever lead to the shalom that we should seek.
Jonathan’s recommendations:
Inventing Anna, Shonda Rhimes’ latest Netflix production, is a limited series exposé not only of a young woman’s desire to be seen, heard, and significant at all costs; but also of our culture’s endorsement of and fascination with the attainment of fame, money, success, status, and power. The show has heavy doses of narcissism, manipulation, and self-deception. When watching something like this, followers of Jesus should interrogate our own definitions and motives of success. Moreover, it is worth reflecting on how we view and function in our relationships along with our idolatry of being relevant, productive, and sovereign. We can also enjoy trying to figure out where Anna’s accent is from, exactly why folks are drawn into her orbit, and count every time we catch ourselves judging someone for something we know we do too.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine I, like so many other people, have been trying to form some cohesive narrative as to why exactly Putin started this war. The number of essays, podcasts, and media trying to answer that question is staggering. But one that rose to the top for me is “Ukraine’s Dangerous Independence” from Throughline. It’s a deep dive into some of the geographical, sociological, and ethnographic historical analysis of Ukrainian and Russian identity. The podcast also provides a bit of grounding in the rapidly shifting sands of geopolitics. There are many ways for us to support those in need through giving, prayer, intercession and volunteering. But one additional way to affirm the dignity of others is to learn their history and context so that our partnership and prayer are more aligned and effective.
Thanks for reading, and see you next week!
The KTF team