Weekly Wrap is a roundup of the week's best articles on faith, politics, and culture, put together by the editors of Sojourners. Sign up for Weekly Wrap here.
1. The Long Shadow of Racism—and Protest—in the Midwest
“People want to start this narrative when the first building burns,” said professor Ashley Howard, “[but] I think it’s more useful to begin it years before. In the case of Omaha, people had been agitating to end racial discrimination as early as the 1940s.” By Connor Goodwin, via sojo.net.
2. Kenosha Prayer Vigil at ELCA Church Calls for Confession, Lament and Justice for Jacob Blake
About 200 people — including the head of the largest Lutheran denomination in the United States — gathered Wednesday on the front lawn of Grace Lutheran Church to pray, confess and lament the police shooting of Jacob Blake. By Emily McFarlan Miller, via Religion News Service.
3. Finding Our Spiritual Vibranium
“When we broke the tragic news to our 7- and 9-year-old sons, who both idolize Black Panther, my older son Joshua responded, ‘I hate colon cancer.’” By Adam R. Taylor, via sojo.net.
“Students cried as Breanna Flowers, president of the university’s Black Student Council, described the frustrating battle leading up to the agreement. ‘I was like, I don’t understand why we’ve got to go through this,’ she said.” By Devi Shastri, via Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
5. Songs, Zoom, Beer: The Sisters of St. Joseph Grieve Covid Losses
“After a sister dies, the group holds prayer services on Zoom to share memories of her life. They also built a website feature that allows family, friends, students, and former co-workers to send messages from the outside.” By Meghan Gunn, via sojo.net.
6. Racists Politicized the US Postal System When They Burned Abolitionist Literature in 1835.
“2020 is not the first time racists have cast doubt on the federal postal system in an attempt to maintain power.” By Aaron Robertson, via Literary Hub.
“I could have written an A-plus seminary paper on race before I ever knew that Black people in Georgia feared my hometown.” By Lyndsey Medford, via sojo.net.
8. Bowties, Beards, and Boubous: Black Muslim Men’s Fashion in the United States
The story of Black Muslim men’s fashion reflects the various migration and immigration patterns and theological plurality that makes the American Muslim community one of the most diverse in the world.” By Kayla Renée Wheeler, via The Revealer.
9. ‘My Sixth Great-Grandfather Bought My Sixth Great-Grandmother’
“The story of Jacques and Thérèse illustrates how the two sides of the trauma coin live in a family. The predator ‘marries’ the prey amid larger economic forces (and their political and military enforcers) and they bear children.” By Rose Marie Berger, via Sojourners magazine.
“Bob Ross didn’t plan to end up in Muncie. Neither did I.” By Ashley Stimpson, via Belt Magazine.
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