News with Nuance: July 7, 2023

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

Hi Readers,

A lot has happened since last week’s News with Nuance. The zealous conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court released a bevy of controversial decisions, courageously as ever, on the summer Friday before the Fourth of July holiday long weekend (yes, I worked Monday, July 3, and maybe you did, too - but nevertheless, this was a classic Friday news dump).

Unfortunately, the news of those decisions quickly moved to the bottom of the page as Fourth of July again proved a weekend full of gun violence and mass shootings in America, as well as further coverage of mistreatment of migrants and refugees - especially coupled with racism - around the world, and our rapidly intensifying global climate crisis, which led to July 3 and 4 subsequently being the hottest days ever recorded in history, despite it being winter in Antarctica.

We won’t be able to cover everything here - but I do want to spend a bit of time unpacking the consequences of the Supreme Court decisions, and share an article that offers a way to respond - as well as a closer look at the victims of that Fourth of July violence, so their lives too don’t get forgotten in our never-ending news cycle, and finally a longer section on what’s happening in Christian Nationalism this week: with some analysis of FX’s Hillsong documentary, a story of a Black church in Maryland who is rebuilding after vandalism, my newest podcast must-listen with a surprising CN angle, plus some inspiring articles from

Word&Way

. For more of a primer on Christian Nationalism and how to respond that you can share quickly with friends, here’s a short video I made for Fourth of July. A reminder that each Tuesday this month I’ll be sharing book excerpts that further unpack the manifestation of Christian Nationalism in America in the past four years.

Let’s get to the news - with nuance …

People pray during a church vigil for the victims of Monday’s mass shooting in Philadelphia

Photo by Matt Slocum, Associated Press

The Headline: Father of the bride, teen who tried to save his friend: Victims of Philadelphia shooting

It was sad - but not surprising - to read this article about how mass shootings have gone up drastically in number over the Fourth of July weekend in the years since 2019. While this year didn’t set a new record, numbers were in line with 2021. Experts blamed the heat, mass gatherings, and - of course - the ever-increasing availability of deadly weapons and automatic firearms in the U.S.

My family and I ventured out first to a parade on July 4 (it ended up on rain delay) and later to the local fireworks display. While I’ve always been someone who cringed a bit while “pledging allegiance” to a national flag - at the same time I’ve always tried to do some kind of civic community activity on the Fourth of July. I love sitting on a blanket and watching fireworks. We have so few free and open communal activities left in America. Sporting event tickets and concert tickets have become increasingly expensive and hard-to-get. COVID made many of us gun-shy about tightly enclosed indoor gatherings.

And so I don’t take it for granted that we got to park in a neighborhood, walk over to a city park, and watch fireworks with our neighbors in the grassy outfield of a baseball field. I don’t take it for granted that I saw people there from lots of different racial, ethnic, and class backgrounds. And I don’t take it for granted that the only booms we heard that night were from fireworks.

Many Americans weren’t so fortunate last weekend. And while I could have linked to this story about the statistics of the gun violence and mass shootings - I instead wanted to highlight the lives and stories that were killed in just one of those shootings last weekend: lives lost when a shooter discharged his gun seemingly at random, a shooter who likely would have been stopped by a “red flag” law. He also used an AR-15.

Instead, five people died. Four others were wounded, including - unspeakably - two 2-year-old boys.

I wanted to remind you - and myself - of the fullness of their lives, and the hole that was left when each person was killed. That loss isn’t limited to the headline or to the person who died. These losses reverberate, through communities and through our countries, only spawning more trauma, anger, grief, and ultimately - violence.

Today, though their names join a list far, far longer, we remember especially: Ralph Moralis, 59; Joseph Wamah Jr., 31; Dymir Stanton, 29; Lashyd Merritt, 21; and DaJuan Brown, 15.

The Quote: “He had the worst cooking. We still ate it because he just ... he tried. He couldn’t cook, but he could sketch his butt off,” Josephine Wamah said. “It was so detail-oriented and so passionate. It was so rooted and down to earth. It was just spiritual. You could feel this man’s emotions in every brushstroke.”

She said she planned to find all of her brother’s artwork to share his talent with the world. “I just don’t understand how someone could just do that to my brother. I really loved him,” she said.

Story by Claudia Lauer and Beatrice Dupuy, Associated Press

The Headline: A MOMENT OF CLARITY: THE SUPREME COURT AND WHAT WE DO NOW

I was trying to find a way to share with you analysis and nuance of the list of Supreme Court decisions revealed last week - and I have to say that this article from