News with Nuance: Feb. 9, 2024

Your Friday dose of News with Nuance: the week's biggest stories, unpacked + more ..

Hi Readers (and a special welcome to new subscribers, especially all of those joining from my forum on Christian Nationalism last Sunday morning in Minneapolis),

Welcome to the first edition of News with Nuance after my big decision to un-subscribe from the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times, which previously made up a lot of the content I shared here, as both newspapers have (or had) some of the strongest global and political reporting teams. You can read more about that (really difficult) decision here:

So in the wake of all the layoffs and increasing homogenization of American media, I’ve been a little apprehensive about this first week of News with Nuance. Would I still have the right stories to share with you all as I’ve moved into following more independent media outlets and sources, especially from here on Substack and from the States Newsroom network?

I want you all to know that I will likely continue to share pieces occasionally from major national outlets, as they still employ many top-notch journalists and drive a lot of story trends in America. I am continuing to read some of these sources, just not at the level I was before, and I’m choosing to use my financial support toward media outlets that aren’t actively laying off journalists and supporting hedge fund and/or billionaire ownership.

The good news is: in these past couple of weeks, I’ve had no shortage of high-quality writing and journalism to read. I’m excited to continue this News with Nuance journey with you all. And if this is your first time here, here’s a link to the first-ever News with Nuance post, which explains a bit more about what we’re up to here:

Now let’s get to the news … with nuance …

A school bus drops off a young passenger in Silver Spring, Md. Many states, including Maryland, allow automated camera systems to catch drivers illegally passing stopped school buses and endangering children, but there are still legal kinks to be worked out.

Photo by Tim Henderson, Stateline

The Headline: Drivers keep passing stopped school buses, despite use of cameras to catch them

I picked this story because it’s so seemingly small and local and commonplace, even minor. And at the same time this story really emphasized to me, on a granular level, the problems facing American culture today and our callous insensitivity toward one another and toward life itself.

I remember driving down the main road in my hometown one afternoon shortly after I’d gotten my driver’s license. I was speeding, as usual for that age, always rushing to one extracurricular activity or job after another, going as fast as I possibly could and never considering that I would get caught.

A school bus was stopped with its arm out, and I remember unthinkingly driving around it, focused on my final destination. The bus driver laid on his horn, and all of a sudden I realized what I had just done. My face burned crimson in shame and embarrassment. I’ve never made that mistake again.

I’m probably more sensitive to this phenomenon right now because I have young kids, one of whom rides a school bus every single day. Their lives are just so fragile and precious, vulnerable to a speeding hunk of metal barreling towards them with abandon.

Still, given my past experience, I guess I have some empathy too for the individuals who unthinkingly blow past the school bus’ outstretched stop sign. We all, especially post-COVID, have this sense that we’re always behind, always running late, never keeping up. Maybe it’s the bills piling up or the deadlines that ping our inboxes at 11:30 p.m. Maybe it’s our collective sense of powerlessness in the face of war in Israel and Gaza and Ukraine, and the ongoing dysfunction of American government. Maybe it’s our cultural inability to acknowledge grief and despair and need.

And so we end up with this story, of adults in machines flinging themselves toward vulnerable children, while overworked and underpaid bus drivers valiantly blow their horn and thrust out their stop signs. School patrols with their protective flags have long since ceased to exist, due to staffing problems. Everybody averts their eyes.

The Quote: Recent deaths during school bus stops include those of a parent and student in separate Texas crashes last year and of a high school student in Pennsylvania in 2022. They highlight continued careless driving around school buses despite flashing stop signs and obvious camera lenses. The recklessness may be part of a pattern of more aggressive driving noted by authorities that has caused more traffic deaths despite fewer miles driven overall since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Story by Tim Henderson, Stateline

For more stories on our collective disregard for one another’s humanity, and why it matters, read on …

The Headline: Remote Warfare and Expendable People: Forever War Means Never Having to Say You’re Sorry

This article was a tough read. It lays bare a lot of sins I’d rather not consider my own complicity in, and it lifts up so many stories that would make us more comfortable if they remained untold.

Still, and I have been told this by military members and veterans as well, the stories told here are heartbreakingly true. The toll of remote killing lies heavy not only in remote countries, to people who in many cases don’t have access to tell their stories to a larger world, but this killing also affects those who are asked to be a part of the killing, whether by funding it or producing munitions or by learning to fly drones.

And I say all of this with the grave understanding that perhaps sometimes war must be just, and that there are times we are called to fight and resist. I don’t think I’m an ultimate pacifist. But it seems clear our ability to kill, and the technology of the weapons we’ve made to kill, has far outpaced our moral ability to cope with such anonymous and indiscriminate death.

The Quote: On April 1, 2018, Luul Dahir Mohamed, a 22-year-old woman, and her 4-year-old daughter Mariam Shilow Muse were added to that civilian death toll when they were killed in a U.S. drone strike in El Buur, Somalia.

Luul and Mariam were civilians. They died due to a whirlwind of misfortune — a confluence of bad luck and bad policies, none of it their fault, all of it beyond their control. They died, in part, because the United States is fighting the Somali terror group al-Shabaab even though Congress has never declared such a war and the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force on which the justification for the conflict rests predates the group’s existence. They died because Somalia has limited options when it comes to rural public transport and they caught a ride with the wrong people. They died because the United States claims that its brand of drone warfare is predicated on precision strikes with little collateral damage despite independent evidence clearly demonstrating otherwise.

Story by Nick Turse, Tom Dispatch

More stories on the spread of hatred and/or indifference to our shared humanity, and the complicated paths back toward shared care and community:

When in Doubt, Strip Search and Restrain the Unwell

Ripples of hate: A chance encounter at N.Y. playground leaves a father asking, ‘What is justice now?’

More on the threatened landscape of American media and what’s happening to those who tell the stories:

How a new media outlet founded with deep pockets folded in less than a year after paying out big salaries to its CEO and editor-in-chief, leaving all its reporters jobless and without clips

Statistics on recent media layoffs

The rarely intersecting lines of creating meaningful art and going viral on social media

That last one reiterates how grateful I am for each of you and for this Substack community at

I'm Listening

, which has enabled me to focus on writing and reporting, and not on pitching non-responsive, under-staffed outlets, or posting endlessly to a social media vortex that privileges extremists

And finally, a neat story on the Black Voyageurs of the Northwoods, whose stories went untold in Minnesota schools for too long. How important are stories like these that reshape our understanding of one another

This Week in Christian Nationalism and Religious Extremism

While this newsletter won’t focus overall on Christian Nationalism, each Friday I will include a brief update from that week, as it’s both a continuing focus of my work and also, I think, a critical threat to both American democracy and the faithful witness of Jesus’ Gospel, which exists independently of the United States!

In one sentence: Christian Nationalism is a version of the idolatrous Theology of Glory, which replaces the genuine worship of God with worship of a particular vision of America, often rooted in a revisionist history of white people in the 1950s, before the Civil Rights movement or the women’s movement. Christian Nationalism supports a violent takeover of government and the imposition of fundamentalist Christian beliefs on all people. Christian nationalism relies on a theological argument that equates American military sacrifice with Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross. It suggests that Christians are entitled to wealth and power, in contrast to Jesus’ theology of the cross, which reminds Christians that they too have to carry their cross, just as our crucified savior did.

This week: Thanks again to the good people of Nokomis Heights Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, who invited me back last week for a follow-up talk on Christian Nationalism, with a special focus on the role it’s playing in the recent rhetoric about a “border crisis” and demonization of immigrants and migrants. Nokomis Heights has a mission to work with recent migrants from Spanish-speaking countries, and so they conduct much of their worship service in English and Spanish. Such a great experience to be with you.

I’m finding that as the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election draws nearer, I’m getting more and more inquiries from groups, media outlets, churches, and schools about coming in to help them understand the role of Christian Nationalism in American politics and what people can do to break the power of this movement in their communities. More to come soon on upcoming events in Houston and North Carolina, as well as other places closer to home. If you’d like to ask about a potential forum at your church or school or organization, just hit REPLY to this email. This work is so critical, and I know we all always feel encouraged when we remember that we’re not alone in working against the power of Christian Nationalism.

I’m also nearing completion on my NEXT BOOK manuscript (it’s set to publish in Spring 2025) and I have some really exciting news about that book that I will be sharing first here on Substack very soon. As a reminder, my research is focusing on young, white Christian boys and men - and the radicalization of American boyhood, while giving parents and caregivers hope to break down the power of that radicalization.

The season of Lent begins next Wednesday, 2/14, which means that Ash Wednesday and Valentine’s Day fall on the same day. I have a video for you on Wednesday that focuses on the coexistence of love and truth, and I’m preparing videos for each of the following Wednesdays of Lent. I find that this season is a great time to reorient around the theology of the cross, and reject the theology of glory so prized by Christian Nationalists and Prosperity Gospel preachers.

For now - I’ll wrap up this edition of News with Nuance with several recent stories regarding how Christian Nationalism is manifesting itself in the headlines, followed by a new section of Substack recommendations and a couple of articles especially for the writers among us. Here we go …

Thanks to

Jeff Sharlet

for making me aware of this piece lamenting the lack of fiction stories and art critiquing the current movement toward authoritarianism and right-wing White Christian Nationalism. It’s tempting me to write a novel, to be honest, though I have my own suspicions about why we have so many novels set in Brooklyn or the Upper East Side and so few in Oklahoma.

Speaking of the national media tendency to platform conservative apologists but deny space to art warning of the rising tide of authoritarianism in mid-America, I was so frustrated that the Atlantic gave space to what seemed like personal grievance in a piece that brushed right over the rampant abuse brought on by right-wing Christian parenting influencers like James Dobson.

And while mainstream media outlets are purging rank and file reporters left and right, conservative media outlets are flush with cash from donors and somehow not beholden to the sanctified pursuit of profit

Some Minnesota corporations quietly resume donations to election disputers

To be honest, this apologetic may have been the initial posture behind Red State Christians, but to my credit that was SEVEN years ago. The New York Times should change its method. Why not articles urging conservatives to understand Biden’s appeal? I think some of it has to do with the conceit and navel-gazing posture of many in media leadership roles.

As a Somali-American immigrant and a Muslim who wears a headscarf, my congressional representative, Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), is often the target of misinformation. But it was really doubly disappointing to see her fellow MN reps targeting her for what ended up being a deliberate (and bizarre?) mistranslation of her words. Thanks to local MN outlets for setting the record straight with independent translators.

In case all the above didn’t make it clear - Americans are desperate for pastoral and spiritual care. We’re longing to be heard and understood, not pandered to or pumped up with hateful rhetoric. Enter Elmo.

Perhaps nowhere is our loss of regard for life more apparent than on death row

Speaking of faux “pro-life” legislation … Missouri wants to make sure women who’ve had abortions can’t access Medicaid. Remember that the medical term “abortion” is often also applied to miscarriages.

Think a “Christian nation” would mean adherence to Jesus’ teachings? Not so in Malawi, where a Christian President has meant danger for refugees …

In case you start thinking that warnings about Christian Nationalism are overblown and just a way to criticize Republicans … remember that this isn’t about partisanship but instead about a long history of denying rights and freedoms and life. Including a current movement among Christian Nationalists in America to end women’s suffrage.

The angry and hate-filled rhetoric of Christian extremists has even led to the firebombing of an Ohio church

Pastors are being found guilty of crimes due to their roles in the attempted insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021

Some lawmakers are finding out that it’s too late to undo the damage done by Christian Nationalist legislation

And sadly, this week the mother of a school shooter was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter. I think that was necessary, unfortunately. But when do we hold the gun-worshiping politicians accountable?

Here are some of the best articles I read this week on Substack, all of them with a connection to Christian Nationalism:

From

Jared Yates Sexton

:

Everything We Were Taught About Politics is Wrong

The Disconnect: Sleepwalking Into The Abyss

From

Word&Way

:

Protecting Marriage Between One Adult & One Child

Prayer Partners

From

Jo Piazza

:

Am I Being Banned? (why booksellers won’t sell a book that mentions abortion)

And this ridiculous story about Jo’s near-appearance on Dr. Phil, which was all-too-familiar to me: A Weird Thing Happened With Dr. Phil

From

Beth Allison Barr

:

"Until He Comes": Paige Patterson's valediction in historical context (with addendum)

From

Radley Balko

: (another journalist I used to read in WaPo who has moved to Substack)

The retconning of George Floyd

From

Joyce Vance

:

Texas Ignores the Constitution and the Rule of Law

From

Kristin Du Mez

:

Remembering Letha Dawson Scanzoni

From

Jared Stacy

:

Swift, Psy-Ops, and Demons

From

The Big Picture

:

The Limits of Trump's Brand of Rage

And a few of my favorite Substack writers, with some pieces that exemplify the beauty of the written word and get at the craft of writing …

From

Katherine May

:

A clean slate, with your own face on: talking to my son about Sylvia Plath

From

Writerland

:

Chapter 136: What Does Success Look Like?

From

Kaya Oakes

:

Disclosure, or, you don’t owe anyone your trauma

This was a special FREE edition of News with Nuance. Typically this newsletter is available twice a month only to paid subscribers, with a free preview and occasional free editions like this one. Thanks for reading!

Angela

A Few Notes:

First, a huge THANK YOU to all subscribers. I get a little email notification every time someone signs up, and every time I get one, I feel joyful and honored that you want to spend part of your day with this community. I mean it when I say: “I’m listening,” to you as well, and please don’t hesitate to share with me your thoughts + ideas for what you’d like to read in this space.

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On free vs. paid-subscriber posts only: My plan right now is that the Friday + Sunday posts, focusing on news + spirituality, in that order, are available for subscribers only (I am going to continue sharing a sample, with a line where the paywall cuts off for our paid subscriber community). My plan is that the Tuesday blog-style posts will always be free, to enable as much access as possible, while creating a smaller and more intimate experience for paid subscribers, who are also able to comment and share in community in fuller ways.

Free Trial: Substack always offers a free week-long trial subscription to this newsletter, so you can get a taste of the Friday + Sunday posts and see if you’d like to subscribe!

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