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November 4, 2020

Volume 137, Issue #23

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Features

First Person

A liberal daughter discusses White privilege with her conservative dad

What would happen if we listened to each other in love?

by Teri McDowell Ott

Critical Essay

Why do Christians protest?

The biblical foundation for a holy practice

by Benjamin D. Wayman

Critical Essay

It’s 1933, and Franklin Graham is German theologian Paul Althaus

A limited but troubling historical analogy

by Björn Krondorfer

First Person

My brother is an essential worker at a grocery store

I wish we actually valued his dangerous work.

by Tony Coleman

The Asian American Christian Collaborative’s efforts to confront anti-Asian racism in the church

The pandemic has made an existing problem worse.

by Caitlin Yoshiko Kandil

First Person

I was afraid to protest in Kenosha, but my parishioner needed me

The city felt like it had been sucker punched.

by Matt Fitzgerald

Books

Christians have struggled to understand Judaism on its own terms

John Phelan’s book helps us unlearn what we thought we knew.

by David Heim

The woman who haunts the book of Job

In Diane Glancy’s poetry and prose, the cries of Native Americans echo the laments of Job’s wife.

by Jeffrey Johnson

Ivan the gorilla’s smart-mouthed sidekick gets his own sequel

Katherine Applegate’s books for children are just as engaging for grown-ups.

by Grant Wacker

Departments

From the Editors

The COVID-19 pandemic shows that Trump simply isn’t governing

And it isn’t partisan to say that a president who can’t or won’t do his job should be replaced by one who can and will.

Faith Matters

Our masks have unmasked us

There is a parable here of half-hidden faces, wounds, and a lack of love.

by Debra Dean Murphy

Screen Time

Ramy Youssef is young, Muslim, and American

The comedian’s Hulu show has a rare trait: it takes religion seriously.

by Kathryn Reklis

On Art

Mosaic for Central Reform Congregation, St. Louis, Missouri, by Siona Benjamin

Siona Benjamin’s images shimmer with jewel-toned depictions of goddesses, angels, historical figures, and anonymous immigrants....

art selection and comment by Aaron Rosen

First Words

My daughter’s wedding vows made me think about what it means to receive

Taking is possessing. Receiving is a gift.

by Peter W. Marty

News

HBCU presidents encourage Black people to participate in COVID-19 vaccine trial

On a recent Sunday, photos of two Black men graced the sanctuary of First Grace United Methodist Church in New Orleans as Shawn Moses Anglim spoke during “a little children’s moment.”...

by Jim Patterson

People

Activist nun Ardeth Platte dies at 84

Ardeth Platte, a Dominican sister who fought for nuclear disarmament, died in her sleep at the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker House in Washington, DC, on September 30....

by Patrick O’Neill

People

Darrell Goodwin to be first director of new United Church of Christ conference

Darrell Goodwin, a United Church of Christ pastor, was elected as the first executive minister of the denomination’s new Southern New England Conference by an overwhelming margin on September 26....

by Dawn Araujo-Hawkins