At the Intersection #6: August Podcast Break, Constipated Writing, Pastor Shortages, Olympic Drag Queens and More

So, you're going to vote for an unfit candidate?

Hello everyone!

As summer slowly melts away into fall, here is another At The Intersection where I share links of interest to you and your kin.

You’ve probably noticed fewer podcast episodes this month. That’s because I’m trying to take August off from posting new episodes. There will be new shows coming in September, so for the three people who follow the podcast, new content will be coming down the pike in a few weeks.

If you haven’t had a chance to listen to the most recent podcasts, take a moment to listen to the following episodes: Mark Tooley on Christian Nationalism vs. Christian Conservatism; two episodes with Jack Haberer on Political Polarization and Pluralism within denominations: Geoff Mitchell on Prayer and Evangelism; Ted Smith on the end of the Big Tent denomination and the voluntary congregation; Drew McIntyre on Methodism after the Schism and more.

One of the things I’ve been struggling with is my writing and lack thereof. In this election year, there are a ton of things I would like to write about, but I find it hard to put those thoughts into words. I’ve been wondering why this is a problem. I think the sources are legion: it has been six months since my mother died so I think grief plays a role here. Then there is the way the current media tracks how many people read your blog or listen to your podcast and thinking this reflects on how good a writer you are.

If you have some time, say a prayer for me to get my writing groove back. Writing has always been how I can express myself and feeling “stopped up” like this is rather annoying.

Solidarity or Never: I’ve been thinking a lot about the state of our nation (spoiler alert: it’s not good), especially after the election. I wrote a short essay on what pastors will be preaching on November 10 (five days after the election). The question I have for people after the election is will our leaders and our nation work to heal our nation’s wounds or will they work to make sure their side gets all the goodies? Christianity Today editor Russell Moore had sociologist James Davison Hunter on his podcast to talk about the lack of social solidarity in America and the implications it could have for our future. I wasn’t allowed to embed the video, but you can watch it by going to this link. You can also watch the video below about how culture wars have engulfed culture. (Hunter coined the term “culture wars.”)

Who Stole the Election? You did!: I used to listen to the show This American Life religiously back in the day. I haven’t done so in recent years, but there is a new podcast up that in some ways lives up to the spirit of This American Life. Reflector does these 45-minute to hour stories on everything. They recently did a great series on “election denial” or contested presidential elections. If you think that the rancor from from close elections for president only took place in 2020, host Andy Mills and Washington Post columnist Megan McArdle go through the history of close elections starting with the 1960 general election matchup between Vice President Richard Nixon and Senator John Kennedy, through the 2000 election with then-Governor George W. Bush of Texas and Vice President Al Gore. What you learn is how politicians and partisans handled election outcomes, some with honor and some…with something far less than honor. You can hear the series: Part One, Part Two, and Part Three. Check out episode one on YouTube:

Enter Strongman: If you go back to 2015-16, Christian conservatives were down in the dumps. The Obergefell decision that made same-sex marriage the law of the land had passed and conservative Christians thought they had lost the culture war. Writer Rod Dreher wrote a book called The Benedict Option calling for Christians to tend to creating thriving Christian communities. But then things changed. Dreher and others started to look towards postliberalism and in some cases Christian Nationalism. Jake Meador of the Mere Christianity website tracks that journey in a recent article in The Dispatch. Meador writes on how people like Dreher and Patrick Deneen are moving towards a politics that looks for a strongman to ensure their values are not simply preserved but enforced.

Where Are All the Pastors? Rob Myallis, an ELCA Lutheran pastor who runs the who runs the Lectionary Greek blog, wrote a post explaining how hard it is for congregations to find their next pastor. He starts out:

Beloved Pastor X retires.  Pastor X did her best to ensure a good foundation in her last years.  When she walked out the door after her last Sunday, the church's finances and building were in good shape.  No debt!!  Admittedly, attendance was down compared to pre-COVID, but it was starting to come back.  There seemed a good nucleus of young families and there was a hope that with the new developments on the edge of town, growth could occur.  Pastor X had given the denominational representative a year's notice and the leadership in the church a full four months to prepare.

Yet, the congregation is now on their third (part-time!) interim.  The one pastoral candidate whose name they were given clearly wasn't a good fit...

Myallis notes there are more congregations looking for pastors then there are pastors. Why? There are lots of reasons, but one of them is politics:

Denominations are often theologically mixed. The allegiance to historical confessions has waned over time. This means that congregations cannot be confident that a given pastor will hold the same views on the sacraments, liturgy, the particular traditions, etc., as they do or the last pastor held. This has always been somewhat the case. People were able to exist within in big "tent" denominations; typically left of center clergy successfully ministered to typically right of center congregations. The liturgies, social ministries and pastoral care kept people united.

What changed? First, the denominational leadership within mainline churches has increasingly become aligned along a progressive social orientation. Furthermore, congregations and clergy are less likely to "restrain" their political beliefs. This means that while most congregations remain a political mixture of folks, clergy - especially new clergy - are often (stridently) progressive in an environment in which moral pressure is exerted on people to imbue their theology with politics. This increases conflicts and burnout. It also reduces the number of potential matches for clergy and congregations.

As they say, read the whole thing. I’ve followed Myallis off and on for years and he usually just sticks to explaining the Revised Common Lectionary text. So to talk about this, means it is an important issue to him and to the church. My friend Allen Harris, the Regional Minister of the Christian Church in Ohio, writes about this same issue from his standpoint.

Dionysus’ Last Supper: The recently concluded Paris Olympic Games has been considered a success, especially after the 2020 (21) Tokyo Games which were postponed a year due to COVID, with no spectators allowed and the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing were also subject to COVID lockdowns. It’s long enough in the past that people might have forgotten the scene during the Opening Ceremonies with drag queens emulating either the Last Supper or a feast of the Greek God Dionysus (my namesake). There was a lot of back and forth with some calling this offensive and others telling those offended to get over themselves. There were two essays that I think were less focused on what might have been offensive and look at it from other perspectives. Covenant pastor Cheryl Lynn Cain approached the event from the meaning behind Davinci’s Last Supper painting, media bubbles and the immediacy of the event. Adventist theologian Myles Werntz talks about how what might seem to be offensive is also saying something positive about that very first communion.

Finally, I was a guest on my friend Andrew Donaldson’s podcast Heard Tell where we talked about the recent political landscape. You can watch the episode below here:

That’s all for now. Check out recent episodes of the podcast by going to churchandmain.org.

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