Weekly wrap
1. Let’s Let Thurgood Marshall Explain What’s Wrong with Brett Kavanaugh’s Originalism
From Marshall: “I do not believe that the meaning of the Constitution was forever ‘fixed’ at the Philadelphia Convention. Nor do I find the wisdom, foresight, and sense of justice exhibited by the Framers particularly profound.”
2. The Very American Activism of Colin Kaepernick
The history of usage of Kaepernick’s phrase, “dying in vain.”
“It seems a new video emerges every week in the burgeoning genre of white people siccing police on nonwhite people for taking part in everyday activities … Now, some of the small but growing numbers of people featured in those videos are using the attention to run for office, become activists, form nonprofits or otherwise enter the fray of race, politics and social change.”
4. Is Neuroscience Getting Closer to Explaining Evil Behavior?
Why some people choose to do evil remains a puzzle, but are we starting to understand how this behavior is triggered?
5. Loneliness Is the Common Ground of Terrorism and Extremism
“What is the right way to deal with these lonely extremists? If Arendt is right, then the structural causes of loneliness run deep – often, far too deep for a few personal connections to make a difference.”
6. Inside the Cross-Country Journey to Reunite an Undocumented Mother with Her Three Children
The TIME documentary follows Yeni González, as grassroots activists banned together to get her out of detention in Eloy, Ariz., to her kids in New York City.
1. When a DNA Test Shatters Your Identity
The generation whose 50-year-old secrets are now being unearthed could not have imagined a world of $99 mail-in DNA kits. But times are changing, and the culture with it.
2. Shadow Politics: Meet the Digital Sleuth Exposing Fake News
Buried in media scholar Jonathan Albright's research was proof of a massive political misinformation campaign. Now he's taking on the the world's biggest platforms before it's too late.
1. How We Treat Immigrants Is How We Treat God
“There may be political, economic, and personal reasons for an unwillingness to love immigrants, but according to Jesus, there are no spiritual ones."
2. Hey, White People: Pixar’s Dumpling Short ‘Bao’ Isn’t About You
A uniquely Chinese immigrant story has left white, Western moviegoers baffled.
Brain imaging is illuminating the neural patterns behind pain’s infinite variety
1. AUDIO: Good News or Bad News? The Meaning of ‘Evangelical’ in Today’s America
Jim Wallis recorded this episode of his podcast Soul of the Nation live from The Summit, Sojourners’ annual gathering of leaders and change makers. Here, he talks with some of those leaders to discuss what the word “evangelical” means in our present context.
It takes physically showing up.
4. The Forgotten Psychological Wounds of the Stress of Migration
“Focus of resettlement of Syrian refugees has been on immediate minimum housing and financial and physical health care needs. Mental health, which requires greater language and cultural familiarity, has typically not been a priority before and after arrival in the U.S.”
5. My Life-Changing Switch to Only TV Shows That Feature Real Black Lives
“These women are not loudmouth, promiscuous, or asexual stereotypes. These are shows in which I am affirmed, in which Black women, Black people—Blackness—are affirmed.”
1. Fresh Off Royal Sermon, Bishop Warns ‘Somebody Woke Up Jim Crow’
CNN covers last night’s Reclaiming Jesus Service and Vigil to the White House that drew more than 2,000 people to hear Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, Rev. Jim Wallis, Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann, Rev. Dr. Sharon Watkins, and other church elders.
And if you missed it …
2. You Can Watch the Full Video of the Reclaiming Jesus Service Here
1. Black Activist Jailed for His Facebook Posts Speaks Out About FBI Surveillance
Rakem Balogun is believed to be the first person targeted and prosecuted under a secretive U.S. surveillance effort to track so-called “black identity extremists.”
2. You’re Not That Special, and Other Lessons from Kate Bowler
“It makes sense that Kate Bowler, whose career began with a motorcycle-driving pastor of a Mennonite megachurch, would also be the person you’d want to hear from about life with incurable Stage 4 cancer. When life hands you the incomprehensible, sometimes all you can do is pay attention.”
9. These UNESCO-Protected Mansions in Istanbul Were Rotting Away. Then Syrians Refugees Moved In.
“Few of the residents in the area know that the wooden houses they live in are of immense historical importance. They are some of the last surviving Ottoman-era mansions in Istanbul, where vast construction projects and a relentless drive for modernization have transformed the city’s landscape in the last century.”
10. 10 Pieces You Need to Read About Sexual Assault and the Church
Our prayer is this: May our reading and writing lead to preaching and legislating, may our preaching and legislating heal trauma and end sexual violence. Amen.
4. Weeping Responsibly: 3 Ways White Women Can Learn to Grieve, Heal, and Stand Without Harm
Much has been said over the past couple of weeks about the impact of white women’s tears. Here, the author unpacks that and offers ways to stand strong in a misogynistic culture without harming others.
1. The Rules of the Asian Body in America
“The story of the Asian body in America is a story about rules, money, race, and imperialism.”
2. One Year Later, Fewer Deportations in Cities That Adopted 'Welcoming' Policies
When local governments collaborate with ICE, deportations increase—in some places, more than 75 percent. But New Mexico shows a different way.
1. Reigniting King’s Forgotten Campaign
Fifty years later, a new moral movement picks up where Martin Luther King Jr.'s final campaign left off. But will it succeed?
A feat of elegant design wowed elite architects and promised to bring education to poor children in Nigeria. Then it collapsed.
10. Martin Luther King Jr. Mourns Trayvon Martin
I dreamed you whole
and growing into your own
manhood, writing its definitions
with your daily being.
I dreamed you alive, living.
Comedian and social commentator Michael Ian Black writes for the New York Times about the lack of conversations and cultural movement behind defining healthy masculinity for boys.
8. Religion Writing in the Time of Trump
“The question hinges on how these stories are written and what purpose they serve. When religion writers don’t get this right, they run the risk of reversing the empathy that white people of faith might feel for persons and communities of color. By allowing white Catholic Trump-supporting interviewees to be the sole and explicit recipients of the reader’s empathy, these writers fail to create room for those who suffer as a result of the interviewees' views or actions.”
3. Bresha Meadows, Teen Imprisoned for Shooting Abusive Father, Returns Home
Her case garnered national headlines, provoking questions about the criminal justice system and the criminalization of black women and girls.
4. How ‘The Good Place’ Gets People Thinking About God
Two seasons in, The Good Place offers plenty of conversation prompts about the afterlife.
8. What Amazon Does to Poor Cities
Is any new job a good job? As cities scramble to lure Amazon’s HQ2, a look at what the massive influx of warehouse jobs has changed cities.
9. Nearly 9,000 DACA Teachers Face an Uncertain Future
“Maria Rocha, a teacher in San Antonio, Texas, says it's gut wrenching, but she's trying not to show it in front of her third-graders. … It's even harder, she says, because some of her students are also at risk of being deported.”
10. Groundhog Sees Jungian Shadow, Predicts Everlasting Winter of the Soul
“We aren’t sure what was different this year, usually he either calls for six more weeks of winter or an early spring, not unending self-inflicted spiritual torment.” #2018
2. Aid Workers Arrested by Border Patrol for Helping Migrants Cross Border
The charges come in the wake of a report by No More Deaths and La Coalición de Derechos Humanos that indicated at least 3,586 gallon jugs of water — left to aid migrants — were destroyed in the desert region near Arivaca, Ariz., by U.S. Border Patrol agents between 2012-2015.
3. Why It’s Time for Visual Journalism to Include a Solutions Focus
“One significant benefit is the portrayal of people and communities as active agents rather than passive victims. While access to resources matters greatly for what groups can achieve, a solutions perspective investigates how individuals respond to problems “as positive agents of change.”
A new interactive investigation from Al Jazeera uncovers a dirty money trail in Ukraine.
5. Your City Has a Gender, and It’s Male
Why city designers are increasingly thinking about the female perspective.
2. From Evangelicals to Witches: How Religion Shaped 2017
Vox highlights four major religious trends, shifts, and changes in 2017, and ends with a little dose of optimism for 2018.
3. Real Gratitude Shouldn’t Be Easy: On ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’
“At our frequent worst, gratitude isn’t something we feel so much as calculate, tallying our advantages to weigh against the miseries of others. In the privacy of our own minds, our gratitude can bear a family resemblance to schadenfreude—a secret reassurance that others will always have it worse.”