
Each Saturday for several years, Religion News Service sends me the top pictures of the week in the wide world of religion and faith. To see all from the last week, click the image.
Caption: An Indian boy scavenges for reusable items amid idols of Hindu goddess Dashama lying in the river Sabarmati after the end of Dashama festival in Ahmadabad, India, on Aug. 11, 2019. The ten-day festival celebrated in the Shravan month of the Hindu calendar culminates with the immersion of the idols of the deity who is worshipped for good health and prosperity in this western state of Gujarat. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)
We’re back. You’re back. Let’s begin…………………………………………………………………………………………………………(random bunch of dots to mess with the Twitter preview.)
■ Houston, we have a problem: Too many people are interpreting stories posted on the Christian satire site, The Babylon Bee as being real news.
■ British children are going hungry during the summer holidays. Churches are stepping in. “This year, more than any before has seen a growing recognition that the school holidays present significant challenges for low income families reliant on free school meals. In addition, tax changes and welfare cuts made over the past decade have compounded the situation – often hitting those who are most vulnerable, the hardest.”
■ …Meanwhile in the UK, the iconic — first broadcast in 1961 — weekly BBC television show Songs of Praise, which normally features…wait for it…songs of praise instead presented a same-sex wedding.
■ This story adds to my hypothesis that the reason many people who left the ministry under less than desirable conditions return to preaching is because they really can’t do anything else. “As he gets ready for the fall launch of his unaffiliated The Sanctuary church in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, Billy Graham’s grandson, Tullian Tchividjian, who was stripped of his preaching credentials in 2015 due to extramarital relationships with former congregants, says they were all ‘consensual’ and not an abuse of power.”
■ Peter Enns is sorry to disappoint you, but America is not in the Bible. (Or maybe he’s not so sorry.)
■ It’s fiction, but not Christian fiction; at least not overtly since it’s published by Simon and Schuster, not Zondervan or Bethany House. A mainline Protestant church is the subject of a new book, The Dearly Beloved. “First-time novelist Cara Wall tells the story of two ministers and their wives, who are called to a large Presbyterian church in New York City in the early 1960s and spend their lives ministering there. Each individual in the foursome gets equal treatment—their stories, their inner lives, their histories, and their perceptions of each other are handled like a cube that is slowly turned over in the reader’s hands. They become increasingly interconnected…” (Review may contain spoilers.)
■ Recent stories of de-conversion: Scot McKnight weighs in, “…a person apostasizes or leaves the faith to find independence. This autonomy can be intellectual, psychological, or moral (or behavioral) or more than one or all of them. My study leads me to believe we should be looking through the statements of someone like Marty Sampson to what he wants to do, how he wants to behave, to whom he wants to answer. He’s looking for independence for something.”
■ 10 Questions to find out if you’re prepared for marriage. Just maybe not the 10 questions you were expecting.
■ Steve Carter on last month’s statement from the elders at his former church, Willow Creek. “…Regardless of intention, the elders chose to step over and sidestep the women who had already been so victimized by the leadership of Willow. The truth wasn’t named, but reconciliation was advised again and again. Reconciliation is a beautiful word and so close to the heart of God, but scholars will tell you reconciliation isn’t possible if the truth is not named…”
■ Parenting Place: From the wider internet, this article on ten things you need to establish as a new school year begins.
■ This October InterVarsity Press (IVP) is re-issuing, in its Signature Collection series, two classic books: How to Give Away Your Faith by Paul Little and Basic Christianity by John Stott. See all the new IVP releases at this link. (Announcer: A long time ago, in a world before subtitles…)
■ For Pastors: 5 Things I learned as a pastor’s kid.
■ One-minute video message: Who wrote the book of Jonah?
■ Dating Dilemma: Don’t go to church looking for a mate, at least not according to a new study by Lyman Stone: “Just 12% of prime-age unmarried men both believe basic Christian teachings and are meaningfully practicing Christian piety. The figure is about 18% for women. This means that for both men and women, majorities are not in any meaningful sense practicing or believing Christianity.” An article about the study notes, “That means that if you are a devout Christian looking to marry another devout Christian, the number of potential spouses is tiny. Stone believes this explains why today only four percent of Americans meet their significant other at church – whereas it was still 12 percent in 1940.” The author writes, “Finding a good spouse requires a considerable volume of options…”
■ Essay of the Week: We don’t usually get political, but for the sheer poetry of this article it’s worth the read, regardless of your stand: If Migrants Were Handguns…
■ …which brings us to… Who is behind the National Prayer Breakfast? A new Netflix documentary examines ‘The Family’ in a 5-part series. John Fea at The Washington Post” Many viewers will inevitably equate the Family with American evangelicalism. And who would blame them if they did? Some of the Family’s most troublesome practices reflect an approach to religion and politics that led 80 percent of American evangelicals to vote for Trump in 2016. Many of the politicians who gravitate toward the Family have run campaigns designed to convince evangelicals that gays, Muslims, Barack Obama and immigrants are eroding white Christian America.”
■ As a follow-up to the article we posted here yesterday, Sarah Bolme at Christian Book Marketing asks, How Many Christian Bookstores Remain? …
■ …Steve Laube also weighed in on the same subject, pointing to a new website that helps U.S. consumers locate existing stores…
■ …which you can find here.
■ Veggie Tales is back! “The iconic Christian children’s program, which has attracted millions of fans with its mix of Bible lessons, trademark silly songs and, yes, Monty Python-esque humor, is undergoing its latest revival this fall on the Trinity Broadcasting Network. The Christian broadcaster will air 18 new episodes of VeggieTales, beginning with a Christmas special that will debut in late fall.” TBN applied to “license the show from NBCUniversal, which now owns VeggieTales.”
■ …Buried in the above story, Veggie Tales co-creator Mike Nawrocki “started his own creative company — one of his projects is a new series of kids books called “The Dead Sea Squirrels”…
■ New Music: Jason Gray – I’m Gonna Let it Go
■ New Music : Hollyn – I Think We Should Break Up (this one’s different, that’s for sure.)
■ The movie Overcomer opens this weekend. If you missed the trailer, here it is…
■ …and we can now reveal that six months ago, the Kendrick Brothers talked to The Wally Show. (But you can’t really call this an interview.)
■ Scandalous! You’ve heard of the Preachers ‘N Sneakers account on Instagram which reveals how much megachurch pastors paid for their shoes? Wait ’til you see what Andy Stanley paid for his.
■ Finally — and remember not everything on “Finally” is true — Donald Trump tells Jesus to “Go back to Galilee.” ““Why is so much glory given to Jesus when Galilee is the worst run, most infested rathole in Israel? It’s a backwater. A complete and total catastrophe. And this guy tells the people of the United States how to live?”
And now…Bible Illustrated presents, “When Christians Write Fiction”