Welcome to Our Weekly Newsletter!
Hi everyone!
Welcome to the first edition of our weekly newsletter consisting of media worthy of your time and attention as we seek to leave colonized faith for the Kingdom of God. We’re bringing you a weekly roundup of articles, books, documentaries, podcast episodes, and more that will teach us about our faith and the world around us so that we can better live as witnesses who seek to understand and love God and our neighbors. This is one of the occasional editions we will release for free. If you haven’t already, please subscribe below to get access to the newsletter each week and the rest of our blog!
We’ll start with Suzie’s recommendations:
As prominent evangelical leaders like Beth Moore question the centrality of the theology of complementarianism, historian Beth Allison Barr offers a personal and scholarly account of her own journey on the subject of male headship in this powerful excerpt from her recently released book, The Making of Biblical Womanhood.
This brief interview with Canadian author and activist Harsha Walia questions the dominant narrative of the so-called “border crisis” in the US and interrogates preconceived notions on migration and so much more. The church needs to provide a prophetic voice to speak to these issues, and this piece is paradigm-shifting in a way that the people of God should hope to emulate to stand in solidarity with the poor and the oppressed. (Sy would like to sneak in here and add that Jack Herrera at Politico also did a good job of questioning the border crisis narrative by asking the migrants themselves what exactly the Biden administration is getting wrong at the border).
Jonathan’s recommendations:
The shooting rampage in Atlanta last month that left 8 people dead, four from Korea and at least two others from Asian countries, brought violence against Asian Americans to the forefront of the country’s consciousness. In The Atlantic, worship leader and writer Angie Hong captures the dangerous intersections of evangelical purity culture, misogyny, and the fetishization of Asian women that produces violence that the dominant culture rarely stops to examine.
Streaming on HBO Max, Q: Into the Storm chronicles the search for “Q”, the person or people behind the conspiracy theory that coursed from obscure message boards on the internet into the mainstream media and then the halls of DC power. Beginning in the Philippines and ending with the Capitol insurrection, this limited series is essential knowledge for understanding how and why people were radicalized, organized, and mobilized by an internet conspiracy theory. (Content warning: graphic language, video clips, and images).
Sy’s recommendation (he only gets one because he invaded Suzie’s space):
Last week’s episode of the podcast Jemele Hill is Unbothered featured Hill’s interview with her friend and Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza. This is a great opportunity for Christians to break the habit of listening to other Christians talk about BLM and to exercise the love of neighbor that it takes to hear people on their own terms. Besides, the conversation is fascinating. Garza talks about why the Black civil rights movement shifted out of the Black church, and some of the effects of that move. She also shares wise words on the particulars of grassroots movement leadership, including how she sets her legislative agenda on the actual stated priorities of Black people, not the “chattering class” of political commentators, how she handles a wide range of disagreements among people within the movement, and why she left BLM. Notes: The first six minutes or so are a bittersweet tribute to the late DMX which is definitely also worth a listen.
Bonus:
Jonathan and Sy recently wrote articles for Red Letter Christians because, well, we hadn’t launched our blog yet. So consider this a preview of some of the type of writing you will get from us. Discussing Pat Robertson’s recent criticism of the police officer who killed Daunte Wright in Minnesota, Jonathan explains why we shouldn’t confuse someone’s brief moments of sympathy for Black victims of police violence with a biblical understanding of justice or a newfound dedication to change the status quo. Sy writes about the idolatry behind many Christians’ inability to mourn the police killing of Ma’Khia Bryant, and draws on his experience defending families involved in the foster care system to give some more context to her life.
Shake the Dust preview:
If you haven’t gotten to listen to the trailer for our new podcast yet, give it a listen. The first episode drops tomorrow, when you will hear the three co-hosts (and authors of this newsletter) introduce ourselves, preview some of the subjects we will discuss on the show, explain what we mean when we say we are leaving colonized faith for the Kingdom of God, and why we seek to center and elevate marginalized voices within the Church (tip: listen all the way to the end. Trust us). Make sure to subscribe to the show since we have some great guests coming up, like Rich Villodas, Sandra Maria Van Opstal, and Dr. Lamar Hardwick. Also, please rate and review the show wherever you listen to podcasts. That really helps other people discover the show.
Thanks for reading, and if you haven’t already, we hope you subscribe to read next week!
The KTF team – Suzie, Jonathan, and Sy