I thought this might be a good time to offer an update on Canopy NWA and GSLC. Fair warning, it’s kind of long. But I’m in favor of transparency, and information, so here you go! One year ago February 2016, Canopy was mostly a glimmer in our imaginations. Donna Davis and I had a couple of conversations with Frank Head of Catholic Charities about refugee resettlement, and we’d hosted a couple of preliminary, high energy meetings about next steps. Then... Read more
During a crisis, by necessity, time is allocated differently. You stay home from work and care for your ailing parent. You stop writing the novel to muck out a flooded basement. You stay up all night putting out a house fire. There’s no doubt in my mind that we are living through a national crisis, created by a strange confluence of the rise of global nationalist populism, the celebrity of a narcissist, and a long-waged ideological class war waged by... Read more
I invite you to read two public statements on refugee resettlement published in the last couple of days by prominent faith leaders. The first is from Ronnie Floyd, pastor of Cross Church here in Northwest Arkansas. Floyd served a term as president of the Southern Baptist Convention in 2016. The second is from Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton, current bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Compare one paragraph from each: In this spirit, earlier last week I communicated with... Read more
Before his death, Luther famously scribbled a few notes. He wrote: Wir sein Pettler. Hoc est verum. (Translation: We are beggars. This is true.) Less well-know, but even more intriguing, is the sentence immediately preceding it. No one can think that they have tasted the Holy Scriptures thoroughly until they have ruled over the churches with the prophets for a hundred years. (Luther) We remember Luther for many reasons. He was a Reformer. A father. A publicist. A man of his time,... Read more
In 1983, the world observed the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s birth. I was 11. So frankly, although I know it was a big deal (I own a number of Luther biographies published that year), I don’t really remember it. Maybe there were red sprinkles at a church ice cream social? Now, it’s the 500th anniversary of Luther posting his 95 theses. I’m 44, mid-career, in public ministry as a pastor. So this anniversary resonates more. I don’t post... Read more
“I am a psychological and historical structure. Along with existence, I received a way of existing, or a style. All of my actions and thoughts are related to this structure, and even a philosophers thought is merely a way of making explicit their hold upon the world, which is all they are. And yet, I am free, not in spite of or beneath these motivations, but rather by their means. For that meaningful life, that particular signification of nature and... Read more
So many books, so little time, but these are the best I read in 2016. There were of course many great books published in 2016 I didn’t read. I welcome your recommendations as additions to this list. Poetry I always love Billy Collins. I read one of his poems, and I think, “How did he do that with words?” Eliot is a poetry lode-star for me, and this collection is the one. And of course Mary Oliver, although these are essays,... Read more
As we have launched Canopy NWA, many volunteers have asked for a refugee resettlement reading list. Quite a bit of contemporary fiction has been inspired by the migrant experience, so such a list could become quite long. If you’re looking for a few holiday reads that will deepen both your empathy for the refugee experience, and your understanding of it and how to advocate for and with refugees, I recommend: The Sympathizer, by Viet Thanh Nguyen, which begins at the... Read more
I think it is important to share with readers of this column that many, many of our brothers and sisters in minority communities are especially disappointed in white evangelicals this week. Some are scared. And it is our responsibility as Christians to put away false theologies like ethnically based nationalism, and instead to remain faithful to the liberating gospel of God’s breaking down the dividing walls between us. “Build the wall,” or “send those people home,” should never be the chant of... Read more
Clint Schnekloth
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