News with Nuance: Oct. 11, 2024

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

Hi Readers,

And a special welcome to new subscribers joining for their first News with Nuance since events at Nokomis Heights Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, St. John’s Lutheran Church in Northfield, Minn., Grace Lutheran Church in River Forest, Ill., and some of you from the forum at the congregation where I serve as Pastor of Visitation and Public Theology, Lake Nokomis Lutheran Church. Glad you’re here!

We are officially less than one month out from the U.S. Presidential Election, and even though I’ve been running myself ragged trying to share as much as I can about the growth of Christian Nationalism, and how to rebuild trust and work together to combat it, while writing columns, and appearing on podcasts - and then also trying desperately to stay on top of the ever-raging news cycle in the face of additional climate disasters and health anxieties … I admit to still feeling this nagging sense of anxiety and unease, a sense that I’m willing to bet many of you are sharing with me.

There’s an adage among writers (and journalists) that the only way to ease that unrest inside is to do the work. Of course in these days ahead, doing the work looks a little different for each one of us. I know many of you are faith leaders, and teachers, and educators, and healers, and medical workers - some are lawyers and factory workers and farmers and retirees and caregivers and drivers - and students and politicians, and so many other categories I’m leaving out. What I want to say, I guess, is that whatever doing the work looks like for you (maybe it’s having a conversation with your friend or neighbor or family member - maybe it looks like setting tough boundaries or making phone calls or writing something or preaching something or saying a prayer) - my hope is that reading this newsletter ultimately leaves you feeling empowered and informed to go back out into the world with a sense of clarity about the task ahead. I know for me personally, when I take the time to sift through these headlines and reflect on the past few weeks - I always end up feeling a renewed sense of purpose for the time ahead.

Here’s hoping. Let’s get to the news … with nuance …

Geyenna Buffington. Photo by Zaydee Sanchez for KQED.

The Headline: ‘I would have been a great mom’: California finally pays reparations to woman it sterilized

Our first story this week recounts the tragic miscarriage of justice in the life of Geyenna Buffington, who was among tens of thousands of Californians, many of them poor women of color with disabilities, who were involuntarily sterilized in state-run homes, hospitals, and prisons in the state since the early 1900s. While California repealed laws allowing these sterilizations in hospitals and state-run homes in 1979, sterilization practices continued.

As the article states: “A 2014 state audit found that at least 794 people in state prisons underwent various medical procedures that “could have resulted in sterilization” between 2005 and 2013.”

As I read this story about Geyenna, who tried for more than a year to have a baby after being released from prison at age 40, I was reminded of some of the ways I used to think about pregnancy and childbirth, many of them filled with prejudice and lack of understanding. Before I became a mother, I used to harbor really stupid thoughts about motherhood. I thought you “shouldn’t have kids you couldn’t afford.” And I wondered why poor women in difficult circumstances would want to bring a child into that situation. Or why some people living in poverty had a lot of kids.

I’m hopeful that having kids myself has increased my understanding and empathy. Of course, kids are expensive and it’s important to consider the cost of kids. Part of the reason we have 2 and not 3 is because adding a third child is a huge additional expense that many families, including ours, can’t really handle. But that’s also about luxury and choice: it’s about autonomy, access to birth control, an equitable marriage that’s not abusive, my own right to make choices about my own body, and the choice to prioritize where we live, or taking vacations, or paying for college, rather than choosing to have another child.

I also have heard many more stories about peoples’ journeys to motherhood. I’ve come to understand in a more profound way the huge inequities of life that we are each born into. Should the right to bear children be limited to those who are born into wealth, especially as our social safety net becomes even more frayed, and child care costs become more and more exorbitant, in a world where housing and food costs depend on two parent working households?

You can see the easy ways people make leaps from judgments about parents living in poverty or difficult circumstances to excusing and allowing the kind of bodily assault and loss of human freedoms that occurred in the case of Geyenna and so many others. In a time when one party’s presidential ticket is attempting to cover its restrictive and confining policy choices toward mothers and families with some kind of misguided appeal to “tradition” and “family values,” I think it’s critical to really see Geyenna in this story, and to wonder what kind of a society we live in where she and so many others endured not only the slings and arrows of poverty, injustice, racism, hatred, incarceration - but also were subject to involuntary sterilization and loss of the chance to bear children.

The Quote:

Geynna Buffington knew she had little time to become pregnant once she was released from prison at age 40. For over a year, she tried to have a baby. She didn’t know pregnancy would be unlikely because of a procedure she had nearly a decade earlier. 

In 1998, while Buffington was incarcerated at Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla, she underwent an “endometrial ablation” in order to treat what a prison doctor had told her was an abnormal pap smear. The procedure destroys the uterine lining and should not be done for people who have any desire for future childbearing, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

But Buffington was not told how the procedure would affect her fertility. 

“That is so humanly low for someone to make the decision that I don’t deserve to have children because I’m incarcerated,” said Buffington, 58. “I would have been a great mom.”

Story by Cayla Mihalovich, Cal Matters, with support from the Fund for Investigative Journalism

The Headline: Inside the bro-ification of Mark Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg and I are one year apart in age. The Facebook (as it used to be called) started at Harvard during the same period while I was in undergrad at Mizzou. When it started, we all used to have our college in parentheses behind our names, and there was this weird thing with “poking.” Oh, simpler times …

My husband, Ben, once or twice years ago got told by strangers that he looked a lot like Mark Zuckerberg. He’s an engineer with red hair, and I used to take it as a compliment.

But like all things as they age (except wine and cheese and Pamela Anderson?) Mark Zuckerberg has started to sour. I have never been as embarrassed to be a millennial as I was reading this article about the “bro-ification” of Zuckerberg. And I’m not quite sure how to parse out what has happened. Some of it is the putrid rot of extreme wealth, that in many (not all) cases causes people to lose total touch with reality and become self-centered and … odd. It’s this move you end up seeing a lot of really, really wealthy people make - where maybe they start out with big dreams of philanthropy and ways to use their money to make the world a better place, and then they end up ensconced in some crazy bunker, trying desperately to appear cooler and younger, spouting off weird theories about super-aging and supplements, wearing clear-rimmed glasses.

We hate to see it. And because we live in late-stage capitalist America, where the man with the most toys wins, these men in mid-life crisis, low-tax LaLaLand have an inordinate influence on American politics and politicians. It’s no surprise that as Zuckerberg has become more isolated due to his wealth, and more desperate to reclaim some lost sense of youth or coolness, he has drifted from the hopeful progressivism of his Obama years, and in an election where democracy itself is at risk, Zuckerberg is instead calling Trump a “badass” and “remaining neutral.”

The Quote:

Meta’s founder has swapped tense encounters with mainstream media in favor of friendly chats with popular podcast hosts, sitting for three interviews with computer scientist Lex Fridman, one with anti-woke Joe Rogan and one with pop scientist Andrew Huberman since 2022.

A onetime proponent of liberal causes, whose philanthropic LLC gave millions to local governments to help run the 2020 election during the pandemic, Zuckerberg has since backed away from donations that could appear partisan. Still, he called Donald Trump a “bada--” for his response to an assassination attempt in July. “My goal is to be neutral and not play a role one way or another,” he wrote in an August letter to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).

And he has abandoned his closet full of gray hoodies and fitted crewnecks for a style upgrade, showcasing gold chains, unruly curls, and “loud luxury” wedding fits by Alexander McQueen. Zuckerberg acquired a sizable high-end watch collection seemingly overnight and a UFC featherweight physique carved from mixed martial arts matches, reflecting a more conventional masculinity ascendant in the tech world.

Story by Naomi Nix, Washington Post

Would be remiss not to cite

Jared Yates Sexton

here:

A few more must-read stories from the past two weeks …

A proposal to include home care as a part of Medicare, a huge benefit to all of us who love and care for elderly people who’d like to age at home

Crime is down, FBI says, but politicians still choose statistics to fit their narratives

Is there any place better and more proudly American than the public library?

Education: Where do Harris and Trump stand? (Democracy depends on an educated populace)

And please know I continue to send prayers, love, and support to all of those in the aftermath of destruction wrought by Hurricanes Helene and Milton. In the midst of disinformation and conspiracy theories threatening relief efforts in Appalachia, I wanted to share this thread from Matt Metcalf (click the image to read the whole thing, it’s worth it)

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:

Man, does Eric Killelea of the Houston Chronicle have a tough and maybe thankless job right now, charting the transgressions and path of destruction wrought by the Texas megachurch pastors who are dead-set on driving the Church as far away as possible from the inclusive, loving, forgiving, truth-telling Gospel of Jesus as possible.

Just this week, Killelea suffered through multiple heretical sermons and diatribes from pastors with a past of (at best) looking the other way on sexism, abuse of women, and abuse of power.

Here’s Killelea’s piece on Josh Howerton’s (of Lakewood Church in Dallas) recent sermon called “How would Jesus vote?” Yes folks, he went there - and in case you were wondering, Howerton is not supporting the Baptist-Lutheran ticket.

ICYMI, I wrote previously on this Substack about Howerton here, here, here, and here.

Also this week, Killelea had this piece about Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-Texas), father, who called Texas pastors “a bunch of wimps” for “not engaging in politics.” Hm, do we think there’s an insecurity problem among conservative male pastors? And how is their rhetoric about “manhood” affecting young white men and boys? Well, I have just the book for you.

By the way, Howerton got a standing ovation for that “vote like Jesus” sermon. Just like youth pastor and sexual abuser Andy Savage, who despite leaving one congregation after his abuse of a youth group member was exposed, not only got a standing ovation - but also has gone on to today serve as senior pastor of a brand-new Evangelical church. But don’t worry, Savage came to this new position (with his wife, naturally) after going through a “dark valley.” He won’t bother apologizing or taking any accountability for his abuse of one of his youth group members, though.

I’ve been fortunate to be sharing about Christian Nationalism and how to combat it at a lot of events recently, and one point I keep making over and over is that those who are fomenting Christian Nationalist ideology and theology are using language in slippery ways, to evade the truth. In true Orwellian fashion, they often use terms that mean the exact opposite of what they intend. And still - who really thought we’d still be debating the merits of American slavery and its Christian permission structure in the year of our Lord 2024 (and even as I write that I know, truly, it’s actually not that surprising, as white supremacy remains a massive force in American culture and politics)

Fellow Substacker and theologian

Jared Stacy

wrote this about the right-wing war on children’s TV show Bluey:

Because many attempts to construct a “creation order” under the premises of a natural theology end up having to impose its own hermeneutic horizon on Genesis and the Scripture writ-large. Invariably, this horizon forces an evacuation of the Christian Scripture’s witness to Jesus as the criterion and orienting object of Christian confession. 

We do not confess creation order, but Jesus Christ. 

The Bandit article laments a “lack of a symbolic depiction of fatherhood” in Western culture (another backstop for natural theology, by the way) which “has untethered the concept of fatherhood and masculinity from anything objective and leaves us vulnerable to following the ever-changing depictions of fatherhood and masculinity invented by modern cultural sensibili.”

I do not think it is a faithful reading of Genesis to identify Adam, Abram, Jacob, Isaac, or any other Biblical character, as a paragon of fatherhood and masculinity. That’s just not an agenda the text takes up in its recounting of Israel’s adventurous encounters and journeying with the God Who Saves.

The quest for something “objective” to serve as the backstop for a “biblical” masculinity ends up being paradoxically more conceptual and abstract in the hands of natural theology. It calls us to principles and arbitrary concepts that promise certainty but destroy the singularity of God’s revelation, the revelation given a witness by the community of Israel of the God who enters history, who acts, who suffers alongside and is faithful to his people.

The whole thing is an absolute must-read, especially to understand the tightening connection between Christian Nationalism, “biblical masculinity” and “natural theology.”

Meanwhile, alleged human trafficker and rapist Andrew Tate is lining up behind “Christian masculinity” with such paragons of such virtue as Donald Trump and Elon Musk:

But Mark Driscoll (who definitely plays a key role in Disciples of White Jesus) claims it’s actually Lutherans and Black Baptists who are really anti-Christ:

Lest you were convinced for a moment by Republican VP nominee JD Vance’s performance of cooperative, bipartisan, compassionate conservative politician at last week’s VP Debate, here’s an important piece from

Brian Kaylor

on the inherent Christian Nationalism of Vance’s public policy background:

When Christian Nationalism Becomes Public Policy

And here’s another example of the doublespeak so prevalent in Christian Nationalist (and authoritarian) circles. Earlier we read about the support for eugenics and forcible sterilization of mostly poor women of color in California. But the Christian Nationalists also want you to believe they’re “pro-family.” What they really are, like the Nazis and today in Orban’s Hungary, are “pro-natalists” for the “right” kind of babies. Religion sociologist and expert on Christian Nationalism Prof. Sam Perry explains it all here:

Make America Mate Again

But to really cut down Christian Nationalism at its root, we can’t get lost in the spectacle … we have to follow the money:

A Pair of Billionaire Preachers Built the Most Powerful Political Machine in Texas. That’s Just the Start.

One of my favorite columnists, Anita Chabria over at the L.A. Times, held Vance to account with his own words in contrast to his muddy policy positions at the debate, especially around reproductive health care and abortion:

Column: JD Vance won the VP debate with lies. Here’s the truth, in his own words

And here was my take on the debate, along with a few of my fellow Star Tribune community columnists:

Vice presidential debate: an impressive performance, a questionable reality and a tiger bite at the end

Speaking of “questionable reality” in case you caught the Star Tribune piece on local MN megachurch (who tried to say they weren’t a megachurch) Eagle Brook in this past Sunday’s paper - I’m working on a response that holds the church to account for its actual theology and exclusionary positions. More to come soon, but in case you’re reading this and you have personal experience with Eagle Brook - go ahead and hit reply if you’d like to share.

More from the VP debate and its internal war on Truth (a central part of Christian Nationalist theology, remember John 18:38):

Speaking of lying, the below piece is an absolute earth-shaker when it comes to breaking down the false origin and victimization stories of supposed “cancel culture” in academic settings from prominent conservatives, in this case Project 2025 architect and Heritage Foundation leader Kevin Roberts. The truth is that, unfortunately, mainstream academic settings propped these guys up. And then they left for conservative media and movements when it became more popular to scorn those that gave them their chance to shine.

The Inconvenient Scholarship of Kevin Roberts (written, by the way, by dogged journalist, Columbia professor, and former NYT religion columnist Samuel G. Freedman, who I had the blessing of meeting in person this week in my Minneapolis neighborhood!)

Remember: at root, it’s all a grift …

Former Southern Baptist Convention President Johnny Hunt is suing the denomination he used to lead:

But really, the problem is “Marxism” and “Socialism”

North Carolina Baptist association sends out letter calling Democrats Marxists

You can’t think clearly about any of it, though, if you’re always afraid:

In today’s political rhetoric, apocalypse always looms

And lest we think that Christian Nationalism is just an American, partisan, political issue, here’s what happens to those who try and stand against Christian Nationalism in Orban’s Hungary:

The most dangerous preacher in Hungary

But there is hope:

A New Section here at News with Nuance: Rebuilding Trust

(For a while here, I was calling this section The Resistance, as in resistance to Christian Nationalism. But I think that term was a little bit too loaded with partisanship. So instead, I’m calling this section: Rebuilding Trust. In this section, you’ll read stories where ordinary people are pushing back against the onslaught of Christian Nationalism in America, to reclaim a narrative of hope, consideration, love, and truth)

As I mentioned above, I’ve been busy speaking to groups at churches, universities, and even hotel ballrooms in Iowa. I’m so blessed by your energy, attention, and courage in confronting Christian Nationalism. You give me strength.

Some of the most encouraging work I’ve engaged in fighting Christian Nationalism has been partnering with and learning from non-Christians, like Rabbi

Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg

(who no longer writes on Substack but at https://www.lifeisasacredtext.com.

Here’s what Rabbi Ruttenberg had to say on the tragic anniversary of Oct. 7 in Israel, as the war in Gaza continues to rage, and suffering seems unremitting …

Also some of my most important work is reminding people that anti-Christian Nationalism is BIBLE-BASED work, even as its disciples attempt to twist Jesus’ words:

So the last will be first, and the first will be last:

Custodian barred from worship in segregated Fort Worth church gets place of honor

Granddaughter welcomed as guest minister 100 years later

I wrote for the Star Tribune about the bitter fruit of unresolved anger and grief, and how to rebuild bonds across rural, urban, and suburban communities

Give me the male politician self-assured enough to call himself a “knucklehead”

Happens to be the same Minnesota DFLer who quoted Matthew 25:40 in the VP debate:

“And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’

I got the chance to share about VP nominee Tim Walz’s and my shared Lutheran faith in a pre-debate Zoom call with other faith leaders:

Thanks

Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons

for capturing this video!

I shared on this past Sunday Stretch how I came to the decision to participate (rare for me) in a Zoom call that was explicitly partisan.

Also last Sunday, I got to preach in the hallowed and rich historical pulpit of Grace Lutheran Church in River Forest, Ill., before leading a very well-attended forum on Christian Nationalism and rebuilding trust. Thanks for having me, Chicago!

And thanks again, too, to my home congregation, Lake Nokomis, to St. John’s in Northfield, and to Nokomis Heights in Minneapolis, for hosting such great and Spirit-filled events.

Must-Reads on Substack

From

Ryan Burge

How 40 Protestant Denominations Voted in the Last Four Presidential Elections

From

Jemar Tisby, PhD

Multiracial But Not Multicultural

From

Heather Cox Richardson

October 9, 2024

October 6, 2024

October 4, 2024

From

lyz

Why is JD Vance obsessed with your uterus?

No power

From

Ruth Whippman

Catching up

From

Jared Yates Sexton

ECOFASCISM IS HERE

What Are We Doing Here?: Reactions From the VP Debate

From

Word&Way

Stopping the ‘Jezebel Spirit’

From

Timothy Snyder

A fair fight in Georgia (updated)

Autocracy and Poverty

From

Kaya Oakes

Stating the obvious

From

Sarah Stankorb

Bible Classes for Public School Kids

From

Kristin Du Mez

A different way to be Christian

From

Caleb E. Campbell

From warrior to missionary

From

Chrissy Stroop

The Remarkable Religious Disaffiliation of Young American Women and What it Means for the Future

Thanks for reading. Keep the faith and do the work (whatever the means for you!)

Angela

This was a special FREE edition of News with Nuance with the upcoming election and all of our new subscribers. Typically this newsletter is only available in full to paid subscribers. Thank you for supporting the labor that goes into this newsletter!

A Few Notes:

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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.

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