Recommended Reading, Listening and Watching (7-5-15 edition)

Each week (more or less) I send out an e-mail to my congregation with my thoughts including stuff I've read over the past week that I want to pass along.  I haven't put my lists up on the blog in a good while so here are some that go back a ways, but if you missed them, they are still worth reading, clicking on, listening to or watching.

Charleston Massacre and the Confederate Flag

• "In Taking Down the Confederate Flag, Why Bree Newsome's Biblical Quote Matters"
• "Why Racists Target Black Churches"
• "Charleston Families Hope Words Endure Past Shooting"
• "The Poet Laureate of Columbia, South Carolina Writes About the Charleston Massacre"
• "White Terrorism is as Old as America"
• "The Doors of the Church are Open"
• "Apologize for Slavery"
• "Not a Hate Crime; Terrorism and Assassination"
• Video: In Charleston, Good Triumphs Over Evil--this is the video I mentioned in my June 21 sermon--I wish I could have shown it to you in worship.

SCOTUS Ruling on Same Gender Marriage

• "What if Christians Reacted to Everything the Way they React to Gay Marriage?"
• "Response to 40 Questions for Christians Waving Rainbow Flags"--The lists of questions by Christians on both sides of same gender marriage circulating on Facebook are great examples of how both sides refuse to listen to one another and only wish to fire rhetorical salvos at one another. I've had the "40 Questions for Rainbow Flag Waving Christians" essay thrown at me from multiple evangelical FB friends who I feel sure don't really care to hear my answers to these questions. I guess they assume I've never considered these questions before and once I do I will immediately change my mind????. I'm growing too exhausted to try and respond to these 40 questions, but I am grateful to Dwight Welch pastor of UCC Norman, OK for taking the time to respond with his 40 answers. My own answers would be very close to the ones he gives.
•  "Church Installs the Perfect Rainbow Sign: God's Doors are Open to All"--how about something like this for our front lawn?
• "Don't Blame It on the Bible"--think the Bible is against gay marriage?  Not so fast.
• "Ministers and Marriage"--why the government can't force ministers to officiate same gender marriages and right-wing fearmongers are wrong
• "A Pastoral Word to My Conservative Friends About the SCOTUS Ruling on Gay Marriage"--something every conservative Christian should read but probably won't
• "What's the Biblical Definition of Marriage?"--Some good explanation here of the Bible's definitions (plural) of marriage. It fails to mention, however, how the definitions and understandings of marriage have changed throughout the centuries of western civilization, much less how definitions and understandings of marriage have changed since the founding of the US (e.g. slavery, marriage between people of different ethnicities, taxes, inheritance, gender roles, sexual autonomy, etc.). Whether as a religious or a civil institution, definitions of marriage have always been fluid.
• "How to Be a Christian Ally to LGBT People" 

 Other Stuff

• "How Long?"--great UCC daily devotional--are you subscribed to get these yet?
• "What Next for Idle Church Buildings?"--there's a whole lot of religious real estate about to be for sale by dying churches
• "A Trans Immigrant Interrupted Obama During a Pride Reception: Was She Justified?"--I read about this event and disapproved of what the activist did, but reading this essay changed my mind.
• "The Church is Not Dying.  It's Failing.  There's a Difference."
• "Guns in Your Face"--When a black teen has a toy gun, he's shot dead, but when a white man carries an assault rifle into an airport, a library or a restaurant he's exercising his constitutional rights?????
• "I Went to Church With Bruce Jenner.  Here's What Caitlyn Jenner Taught Me About Jesus"
• "An Antidote to the Antichrist"--another great UCC daily devotional--have you subscribed to get these yet?
• "Why Everything Doesn't Happen for a Reason"