Weekly wrap
1. How a Grassroots Activist Became Seattle’s Most Talked About Mayoral Candidate
She’s a teacher, does pro bono legal work, is involved in a program that offers an arts alternative to incarceration, is active in Black Lives Matter — and, if elected, would be Seattle’s first black woman to hold the office of mayor.
1. The Theology of Suspicion: What ‘Get Out’ Can Teach White Christians
To tell the story of black photographer Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) and his white girlfriend Rose (Allison Williams) on a visit to her family’s suburban home, Get Out director Jordan Peele doesn’t need to venture into the supernatural to dredge up terror: America’s history offers more than enough material
2. The 1.6 Billion Dollar Hoax
An elaborate hoax based on forged documents escalates the phenomenon of “fake news” and reveals an audience on the left that seems willing to believe virtually any claim that could damage Trump.
In the fast-growing cowboy church movement, the trappings of traditional worship are eschewed to entice people through the door, dung-covered boots and all.
1. The Dark Psychology of Dehumanization, Explained
“‘Dehumanization doesn’t only occur in wartime,’ says Nick Haslam, a psychologist and the world’s current leading expert on the topic. ‘It’s happening right here, right now. And every day, good people who don’t see themselves as being prejudiced bigots are nevertheless falling prey to it.’”
“When you die, the question is not ‘Did you follow the government?’ and then you’re allowed into heaven,” [one pastor] said. “It’s ‘Did you care for your neighbor?’”
2. The Unintended Consequences of a Spiritual Discipline
“This year, Ash Wednesday falls during National Eating Disorder Awareness Week. ...In the face of a world that already pressures many into self-denial, self-deprivation, and self-harm, the strength of the spiritual discipline of fasting cracks.”
4. Longing for Resettlement: The Psychological Impact of Banning Refugees
“In Dadaab refugee camp, the largest in the world, a researcher recorded a Somali term for that feeling: buufis, which was described in the book City of Thorns as the ‘longing for resettlement,’ or ‘a kind of depression rooted in an inextinguishable hope for a life elsewhere that simultaneously casts the present into shadow.’”
5. On the Milo Bus with the Lost Boys of the America’s New Right
“ This was never, in fact, about free speech at all. It was about making it OK to say racist, sexist, transphobic, and xenophobic things, about tolerating the public expression of those views right up to the point where it becomes financially unwise to do so. Those suddenly dropping Yiannopoulos are making a business decision, not a moral one — and yes, even in Donald Trump’s America, there’s still a difference.”
“At some point, inevitably, Christians will have to choose between Jesus and their preferred political party and ideology.”
4. ‘Nevertheless, She Persisted’ and the Age of the Weaponized Meme
“‘Nevertheless, she persisted’ has, on the one hand, the impish irony of a powerful person’s words being used against him. It has, on the other, words that are elegant in their brevity, making them especially fit for tweets and slogans and mugs. And it has, too, words that are particularly poetic, rendered in near-iambic pentameter, with the key verb of their accusation — ‘persisted’ — neatly rhyming with that other key verb: ‘resisted.’ The whole thing was, for Warren, a perfect storm. It was, for McConnell, a decidedly imperfect one.”
1. The Myth of the Muslim Country
“Many liberals also speak of Islam and Muslim political actors as if they were singular agentive forces that can be analyzed, quantified, engaged, celebrated, condemned, or divided between good and bad. Yet there is no such thing as Muslim or Christian political behavior. To claim otherwise is to align oneself with Senator Ted Cruz’s preposterous assertion, made during the presidential campaign, that ‘there is no meaningful risk of Christians committing acts of terror.’”
2. Inside the ‘War Room’ at DFW Where More Than 100 Lawyers Volunteered to Help Detainees
A look behind the scenes at just one of the U.S. international airports that was thrown into chaos as travelers were detained — at DFW an 11-month-old U.S. citizen baby.
7. How Has the ACA Affected Your Life? Tell Us Your Story.
We may feature on Sojourners’ online publication.
8. WATCH: Trailer for ‘I Am Not Your Negro’ Brings James Baldwin’s Words to Life
“I Am Not Your Negro uses Baldwin's unfinished manuscript for Remember This House as the basis for exploring the history of Black racial justice movements from the Civil Rights Movement to the present.”
9. Cher Will Produce, Star in Movie About the Flint Water Crisis
“Cher will play the key role of a Flint resident whose family is seriously impacted by the water crisis.” Flint, Mich., is a predominantly black city.
1. David Fahrenthold Tells the Behind-the-Scenes Story of His Year Covering Trump
The winner of the Post’s first Ben Bradlee Prize for his coverage of the 2016 election pens an essay on his experience covering Trump. “I thought I’d be through with the story in a day or two. I was wrong. I didn’t understand—and I don’t think Trump understood, either—where that one check, and that one question, would lead.”
2. 2016: The Best Year for Black Musicians Since ‘Purple Rain’
If you noticed that a staggering amount of the music you loved from the past 12 months was made by black artists, there's data to back that up.
3. The Internet Law That Explains Why 2016 Was So Terrible
Spend most of 2016 feeling crazy? That’s thanks to Poe’s law, which “stipulates that online, sincere expressions of extremism are often indistinguishable from satirical expressions of extremism.”
1. Shirtless Trump Saves Drowning Kitten
Facebook’s Fake-News Problem and the Rise of the Postmodern Right
"I have my own issues with the New York Times, but when your all-powerful social network accidentally replaces newspapers with a cartel of Macedonian teens generating fake pro-Trump stories for money, then friend, you have made a mistake. It is time to consider pivoting toward a new vertical in the contrition space."
2. Research Says There Are Ways to Reduce Racial Bias. Calling People Racist Isn’t One of Them.
So, research shows that having actual human conversations changes minds. Imagine that.
3. Grand Narrative Won’t Save Us This Time
It never really has.
8. LifeWay Stops Selling Jen Hatmaker Books Over LGBT Beliefs
Evangelical Christian author and HGTV star Jen Hatmaker on Tuesday said LGBT relationships can be “holy” in an interview with Jonathan Merritt. The statements prompted far-right blogger Matt Walsh to write a fairly incoherent hit piece against Hatmaker in The Blaze. And yesterday, LifeWay decided to pull her books from the shelves because her statements “contradict LifeWay’s doctrinal guidelines.”
9. In Pop Culture, There Are No Bad Police Shootings
“Hollywood has promoted the very myths that result in our being shocked when we see an officer shoot a fleeing person or fire into a parked car, as well as an inflated narrative of valor that generates a near-automatic presumption of the guilt of those killed by police.”
10. The Yale Record Does Not Endorse Hillary Clinton
As a 501(c)3 organization, there are some rules against political endorsements. Here’s how the Record handled things.
Need a laugh after all this election rhetoric? A comedy club in Miami made excellent fun of both candidates and encouraged voting along the way.
9. How Christian Entertainment Is Upending Stereotypes About Muslims
Comedy is a great way to learn about other cultures. Election or not, here’s one way to battle stereotypes while having a great time.
10. 25 Halloween Costumes That Won’t Lead You to Damnation
And finally … did we all forget it’s October?
1. How Are You Celebrating Oilfield Prayer Day?
Yes, it’s a thing.
“Increasingly, we’re filling our heads with soundbites, the mental equivalent of junk. Over a day or even a week, the changes, like those to our belly, are barely noticeable. However, if we extend the timeline to months and years, we face a worrying reality and may find ourselves looking down at the pot-belly of ignorance.”
3. The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Child-Care Problem
“In 33 states and Washington, D.C., it costs more to put an infant in day care than it does to pay in-state college tuition and fees at a four-year public school.” This, and other depressing stats in this great examination of the state of childcare.
1. InterVarsity to Dismiss Employees Who Support Gay Marriage
The college ministry has more than 1,000 chapters on 667 campuses nationwide. More than 41,000 students and faculty were actively involved in the organization in the last school year.
2. Reopening the Wounds of War in Afghanistan
“Exhibits are rarely apolitical, and for those carrying private loss with them, there’s an emotional danger in public memorials — when past conflict and tragedy has contemporary resonance in public affairs, monuments can become spectacles.”
3. Group Questions Donald Trump’s Lock on Evangelical Voters
All the polls pointing to the evangelical vote are missing an important piece.
1. Using Sound to Explore One of Syria’s Most Notorious Prisons
“The user is immersed in both an auditory and visual experience narrated by the detainees. As you explore the different locations you can hear water dripping through the pipes, the faint sound of birds or the footsteps of approaching guards.”
2. Social Media Got You Down? Be More Like Beyonce.
I mean … isn’t that always the answer to the question? But really, a very important read for the swipe generation.
3. Hip Hop and Liberation of Women in Kabul
How some women are defying deprecated Taliban mores and making their voices heard.
1. WATCH: 6-Year-Old Boy Asks Obama to Bring Syrian Boy to Live With Him
You need this today.
2. The Price of Mass Deportation
The U.S. could lose $4.7 trillion if every undocumented worker were deported.
3. Michelle Alexander Leaving Law to Teach at Union Theological Seminary
The New Jim Crow author says, of her decision, “This is not simply a legal problem, or a political problem, or a policy problem. At its core, America’s journey from slavery to Jim Crow to mass incarceration raises profound moral and spiritual questions about who we are, individually and collectively, who we aim to become, and what we are willing to do now.”
5. Dear Mark Zuckerberg: I Will Not Comply With Your Requirement to Remove This Image
“The media have a responsibility to consider publication in every single case. This may be a heavy responsibility. Each editor must weigh the pros and cons. This right and duty, which all editors in the world have, should not be undermined by algorithms encoded in your office in California.”
6. We All Should Be Watching ‘Atlanta’
Donald Glover said he created his new FX series in part because he “wanted to show white people, you don’t know everything about black culture.”
7. How an End-Times Cult That Believes Cats Are Divine Beings Ended Up in Nashville
Apocalypse meow—
3. The Mysterious Private Police Force That’s Killing People In The Nation’s Capital
“Special police officers like the two that killed Alonzo are not quite full police officers, but they’re more than security guards. They are a private police force, empowered to make arrests and carry guns. But because they work for private contractors and not public agencies, their actions are often shrouded in mystery.” (Bonus wrap! Watch: How can we trust that black lives matter to police?)
4. Weiner Didn’t ‘Humiliate’ Huma. He Humiliated Himself.
“Humiliated” has long been used to describe Abedin. But why do we assume her dignity and self-respect have suffered in her husband’s embarrassment?
5. Muslims Can Wear Headscarves for Alabama IDs. A Christian Woman Sues So She Can, Too
A Christian woman who adheres to the New Testament directive for women to cover their hair was told only Muslim women have the right to do so in ID photos. She is suing, and the religious liberty conversation is adding another dimension.
3. Standing Rock Sioux Bring Pipeline Protest to D.C.
WATCH: Images from the protest and interview with speaker Mark Charles.
4. The Stanford Rape Case Judge Steps Aside
The California judge who sentenced Brock Turner to only six months after a three-count sexual assault conviction has voluntarily stepped aside and is transferring to the civil division.
5. Priests vs. Drug Lords in Argentina
“It’s part of a bigger problem,” Padre Isasmendi says. “It’s part of marginalization.”
1. Powerful Photos of Pope Francis’ Visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau
Pope Francis left a simple note in the guest book: “Lord, have mercy on your people! Lord, forgiveness for so much cruelty!”
2. Lawsuit Forces Texas to Make It Easier for Immigrants to Get Birth Certificates for Children
“The bottom line is, there was a category of people who were being locked out of obtaining a birth certificate to which they are entitled constitutionally as citizens born in the United States just because of the immigration status of the parents.”