News with Nuance: June 30, 2023

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

Hi Readers - and Welcome New Subscribers! Thank you for supporting the work that goes into this newsletter.

I was honestly considering taking a break from News with Nuance this week — it has been a busy week of juggling kid care and meetings and preparation for guest preaching dates this summer — but then I looked back over the stories that struck me this week, and I wanted to make sure to share them with you.

As you may heard, we’ve been breathing smoke-filled air this week in Minnesota (I know it has been even worse in Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit - and surrounding areas). I’m so grateful to finally look out upon blue skies as I write to you today, but the smoke is sobering. As we go about our lives, it’s more and more clear that we can no longer deny the effects of climate change, which previously had been concentrated more often in areas of the world far from the U.S., particularly places that had done the least to contribute to climate change. I heard today someone say that our grandchildren (those of us with young kids at home now) might never see a blue summer sky in Minnesota. I refuse to believe it’s too late. But the clock is ticking … and I think maybe one of the biggest things we each can do is support and press elected officials on climate commitments and policies, as well as be attentive to our own personal climate footprints.

Speaking of this beautiful planet we all call home, you’ll be glad to read one of the featured stories below, which dispels the myth about Northwestern Minnesota - and will hopefully bring you some hope for our country.

Let’s get to the news … with nuance …

Click here to watch the full video

The Headline: I called this place ‘America’s worst place to live.’ Then I went there.

I don’t often share video links here at News with Nuance, but I had to make an exception for this delightful video from Minnesota’s PBS station. Hard to believe, but eight years ago now I read this story from then-Washington Post reporter Chris Ingraham. Initially, I’d read his first story - dubiously - about how a study had ranked a county in Northwestern Minnesota the most aesthetically undesirable place to live in America. Having lived in beautiful Southwest Florida, the breathtaking San Francisco Bay Area, as well as iconic Orange County, glitzy Las Vegas, and fast-paced Chicago - and yet still having moved back to Minnesota - I was doubtful that a place in my beloved state could have earned such a distinction.

Chris and his family are pretty amazing people - because after he wrote his story and received several (polite) entreaties from the people of Minnesota, they pulled up roots and actually moved to Northwestern Minnesota. The book that resulted can be found here.

And not only that - but Chris and his family stayed. They didn’t just move for the book, as many might have suspected. They’ve found community in rural Minnesota. Chris has even battled cancer here, with the support of his local community, and now he’s on staff at my favorite local news outlet, the Minnesota Reformer. (I highly recommend you subscribe here to the Daily Reformer; a great and brief read each day).

I think maybe what I love best about this story is it illustrates what happens when people suspend prior judgment - and just simply give one another a chance. We could all use a bit more of that in our lives, amiright?

The Quote:

I drove up to the Red Lake County, Minn., courthouse not knowing exactly what to expect. This was, after all, the seat of the county that I had just a few days ago proclaimed, in a story, the "absolute worst place to live in America." Residents had been outraged. A county commissioner told the state's largest newspaper I could kiss his butt. Would I be arrested? Beat? Flogged with a hotdish?

But what greeted me instead last week was pure spectacle. A drum line from nearby Lafayette High School performed a routine on the courthouse steps. Officials and county residents, beaming and full of civic pride, lined up to shake my hand and welcome me to their home. And a gaggle of local press was there, cameras rolling, to cover it all.

Story by Chris Ingraham, Washington Post

The Headline: I don’t know how to write about all that hasn’t happened since the fall of Roe

Feeling good after reading that last piece? This one will likely do the opposite, sorry.

I’m a big fan of Washington Post columnist Alexandra Petri, who is in my opinion the best satirical opinion writer working today. Her satire often makes me smile even while making salient and critical points in a way no other writer can. But in this piece, Petri’s typical wry and humorous wit sounds a little different. In this piece, as a woman of childbearing age and a new mom herself - Petri just sounds sad. I absolutely concur with her writing that it is almost impossible to put into words what has happened for pregnant people (and potentially pregnant people) in America since the fall of Roe v. Wade just over one year ago.

Petri chronicles so many heartbreaking cases - and also puts words to the feeling that so many of us have, that this decision has dehumanized us and made us feel powerless in a way we rarely have before. And this is coming from someone (me) who has previously had a lot of sympathy and understanding for the claims of the “Pro-Life” movement. No more, by the way (I have a new book chapter coming out soon that will detail more about my shift in opinion).

I hope - even if you’re not a person who could potentially become pregnant - and especially if you’re someone who cheered the fall of Roe - that you might read and thoughtfully consider Petri’s whole article. It’s really important, and hits upon one of the main themes of this very newsletter: that we must beat back against the dehumanization of people we don’t know, whoever they may be.

The Quote:

I am a parent, and I love being a parent, and I love my daughter with a fierceness that sometimes terrifies me, and, like with most things that are precious, the thought of forcing parenthood on someone who did not seek that preciousness feels unfathomably cruel. Cruel in large ways, taking your body and decades of your life and forcing them in another direction, and cruel in mundane ways, like robbing you of the ability to go for a walk by yourself.

It feels ghoulishly, cartoonishly wrong that you can simply decide half of people aren’t people. (They would not do this to us if they thought that we were people. Yet in this year since discovering I am something less than a person, I have felt the same as I ever did. I still see my reflection in shop windows. When I speak, I think I’m audible. I don’t know. I have been screaming.)

Column by Alexandra Petri, Washington Post

This Week in Christian Nationalism and Religious Extremism

Special Note: While we’re entering into the high point of summer here in the U.S., the upcoming Fourth of July holiday has of late also always been an important work weekend for me. It’s critical especially on the Fourth of July (and its surrounding Sundays) that Americans confront the spectre of Christian Nationalism and clearly denounce it - while distinguishing it from healthy patriotism and honoring of those who have served. Look for more content about Christian Nationalism and Independence Day coming next week, with Sunday’s special Sunday Stretch, and a video from me on the Fourth of July.

While this newsletter won’t focus overall on Christian Nationalism, each Friday I will