Over at Christianity Today, Ken Morefield writes about how to grieve in a social media world: As I advanced in years, my peers began catching up to me in terms of being initiated with grief, but my head start always seemed to give me an advantage at avoiding the really big mistakes we all make when others look to us for comfort. If I didn’t always know how to help, I had read Job enough times to know what gestures and... Read more
It’s definitely been difficult to watch what’s happening in Ferguson over the past few weeks, and if you’re like me, you don’t know what to do. At OnFaith, they’re writing about ways you can help the churches that are helping Ferguson. It’s worth a look. Read more
Over at Christ & Pop Culture, E. Stephen Burnett has some good reminders for Christians as we anticipate the release of Exodus: Gods and Kings: I can still recall when evangelicals feared that The Prince of Egypt would show the liberal mainline theologians’ perversion of the scene: a ragtag band of slaves slopping through a decidedly non-miraculously-parted “sea of reeds.” Now there is no chance of films forsaking the opportunity to show epic million-dollar-visual-effected miracles. For that I rejoice. Even in movies that change the story... Read more
Every week there’s a tragedy for someone, just as every week brings some joy, too. But the last few weeks have seemed especially difficult, with strife, chaos, and unspeakable horrors being visited on people all over the world. So this piece from Art House America is apt: For me, the news about Iraq is a particularly deep ache. Amidst the worldwide horrors that deserve to be grieved, this news hits me closer to home somehow. I am a priest. If... Read more
Over at my blog at Christianity Today, I published a guest post from my colleague Elissa Cooper, who is an assistant editor at CT. She saw an advance screening of The Giver and wrote about how the film’s story keeps giving, and the danger of not facing truth as children: Four and a half years ago, as an intern for CT, I visited a home that provided aftercare for trafficked teenage girls. Between interviews, I participated in their daily lives: We ate... Read more
Over at The Atlantic, Cody C. Delistrady is examining the connection between happiness and beauty: But what about beauty links it to happiness? In The Architecture of Happiness, Alain de Botton weighs the feeling of walking into an “ugly” McDonalds in the Westminster area of London compared to the feeling of entering the “beautiful” Westminster Cathedral across the street. He says that because of the harsh lighting, the plastic furniture, and the cacophonous color scheme (all those bright yellows and reds), one... Read more
You might have seen this famous photograph from 1964, by Gary Winogrand: In the New Yorker, Emma Allen talks to two of the ladies on that bench and hears their (fascinating) stories. Read it here. Read more
Last week, the lovely web magazine In Earnest published an essay of mine (accompanied by lovely watercolors!) that I originally wrote in graduate school, about a trip to Dublin and the interstitial spaces where salvation happens: A few summers ago, my husband Tom and I were in Dublin for a week, and one day, we took a tour bus to two ancient holy places—thin places, the Celts would have called them: spots where heaven and earth are very close to one... Read more
The film Calvary, which features Brendan Gleeson as a good priest staring down the end of a gun barrel, has been in theaters for a few weeks. The High Calling writes about the film and vocation: There is a cost to vocational calling, not just to the called, but also, and perhaps more so, to their loved ones. This applies to vocational callings to serve in the structure of the institutional church as Christians have traditionally understood the notion, but... Read more
In In Earnest, Denton Josey writes about how he learned to love adventure on a missions trip to Honduras, and how that’s shaped his life: My life has become a lot less predictable. I see that as a direct result of choosing to seek out adventure. Part of adventure is not knowing how things will turn out or even what all will happen; you have ideas of what you might risk or gain, but a lot of times you end up... Read more
Mark D. Roberts
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