News with Nuance: Sept. 27, 2024
Your Friday dose of News with Nuance: the week's biggest stories, unpacked + more ..
Hi Readers,
(And a special welcome to LOTS of new subscribers, especially those of you joining from the Southeast Iowa Synod of the ELCA, and from my two-week series at Diamond Lake Lutheran Church in Minneapolis. I’m so glad you’re here! This is a twice-monthly segment that focuses on the top news stories of the day, fleshing them out with nuance and context. We also include a lengthy session on recent happenings in Christian Nationalism, and a new section on places where people are pushing back against white Christian Nationalism, and rebuilding trust with one another. I hope you enjoy it! This is typically an offering especially for paid subscribers, but I often make it available to free subscribers too, as in this case, in times of especially critical news stories - and when we have lots of new readers who might want to check it out. A huge thank-you to all of you who support the work (and many late nights) that go into writing this newsletter!)
It has been a whirlwind of a month around here. And - I’m guessing it has in your lives as well. Between the flurry of back-to-school (and back-to-fall activities in the church), election season, and also dealing with the ups and downs of family life, with aging parents, illness, and the ever-present: bills, bills, bills!
I’ve been immensely blessed in the past couple of weeks to be sharing and speaking to so many groups throughout America and the Midwest on the threat of Christian Nationalism, and how we can rebuild trust in our communities and care for one another. As I write this, I’m about to make another cup of throat coat tea (IYKYK) … and even though my throat is sore, my heart is full. I’m so encouraged.
Yes, the headlines are overwhelming. Those who are creating conspiracy theories to breed fear and racism and violence have found ways to light those stories on fire, sending them in viral streaks across the World Wide Web and too many TV screens, and they have found too that being a conspiracy theorist is a lucrative path to power and wealth in America today. But we know better. The Truth will never let us down. It just takes some time, it takes sitting together (virtually or in-person) and taking turns speaking and listening to one another, sifting through the noise, asking God for the gift of discernment, and finding our way through to hope (which we so often find when we take time to really listen to and look at one another).
I’ve got my Throat Coat tea and my laptop perched on my pajama-clad legs. Let’s get to the news … with nuance …
Illustration by Sarah Porter for the 19th, source images courtesy of Yu Gu/A Woman’s Work
The Headline: NFL cheerleaders have been fighting for better pay for 10 years. They’re still being sidelined.
I can hear some of you thinking … of all the big news stories that have been circulating our globe for the past two weeks: why is Angela choosing to highlight a story focusing on NFL cheerleaders? Isn’t that a little trivial?
Let me explain. (And no, by the way, I don’t think cheerleading is inherently trivial. It’s a taxing, difficult sport that also has a lot to say about American gender norms and the ways we both sexualize, center, and sideline women).
The former sportswriter in me also loves this story, because it takes a piece of sports that we too often take for granted, dismissing as window dressing, and breaks it down systemically: showing both the importance of cheerleaders and also how they, like many athletes too in the world of big-time sports, are being taken advantage of by the business executives and powerful men who are making the real big bucks (without sacrificing their bodies).
I digress … I’ve been talking a lot lately when I share about Christian Nationalism about the role of gender in it all, especially the ways in which strict gender norms and policing of women’s dress are hallmarks of religious fundamentalism, trends that tie fundamentalist Christianity closer to its cousins in fundamentalist Islam or fundamentalist Hinduism or fundamentalism Judaism - than they tie it to the actual witness of Jesus, who famously condemned those who were planning to stone a woman for adultery (John 8).
In this story, we see so many threads come together, and we see what happens even to those women who somehow manage to weave through all the restrictions of fundamentalism/Christian Nationalist norms to try and fulfill gender stereotypes and manage difficult dress codes. (Specific dress codes? Strict gender roles? Read more in this story about how both are central to NFL cheerleading traditions) … And still, these very women - who many other women look at as somehow the paragon of feminine beauty and power, they are still disenfranchised by the system whose rules they’ve followed in so many ways.
Like the tradwife influencers or the stars of Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, NFL cheerleaders look like they’re living beautiful, glamorous, fun lives. The reality is much darker. This is a must-read piece.
The Quote:
A group of Buffalo Jills, the cheerleaders for the Buffalo Bills, filed suit against the team and the subcontractor that hired them, alleging that the team didn’t pay them for at least twice-weekly practices, cheering at games and the vast majority of the 20 to 35 community appearances they were required to make. Their few paid appearances earned them very little, and several were outright exploitative, including one where the women were required to wear bikinis at a golf tournament, get dunked in a water tank and then “auctioned off” to a winner who rode around with them in a golf cart for the rest of the day. Groping and inappropriate comments from the public were common, the suit alleged, and the Bills cheerleaders were subject to strict appearance requirements, including doing jumping jacks while staff scrutinized their bodies — a “jiggle test.”
One of the cheerleaders who filed, Maria Pinzone, earned just $105 by the end of the 2012-2013 season. She was also working as an accountant, and she knew right away that such a low rate was likely illegal.
Story by Chabeli Carrazana, the 19th
For a similar story on this topic, of another female-dominated profession that has been sexualized and is also severely underpaid, here’s a must-read story about homelessness among flight attendants.
The Headline: The Hardest Case for Mercy: Inside the effort to spare the Parkland school shooter
During a week in which Missouri (with the express approval of the U.S. Supreme Court) executed a man by capital punishment whose DNA was not on the murder weapon, and who prosecutors and the victim’s family alike did not want to be executed - I thought it was important to share this story about mercy, and about the difficult journey of those working to unwind the story of Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz.
As a parent, I cannot imagine the horror of having my children survive a school shooting, much less become victims of a deranged school shooter. I don’t know how I would feel in that situation, because I have never been in it: so I do not cast any judgment at all on victims’ families who desire the death penalty.
I will say, however, that one thing we see in this story is the ways in which the death penalty allows the rest of us: those outsiders in the story of a school shooting, to absolve ourselves of any communal responsibility, whether regarding access to guns, or the more difficultly layered questions of care for mothers living in poverty and suffering from drug addiction, or the lack of the system’s ability to provide accountability for abusive or neglectful parents who happen to be white and not living in poverty, as was the case with Cruz’s adoptive mother, it seems.
It’s much simpler and cleaner to have one clear perpetrator. But sin is much more systemic than it is individual. Capital punishment does not work to deter deranged and sick individuals, who tend to be the people (overwhelming men) who commit mass shootings.
And much more likely are stories like that of Marcellus Williams. A Black man who is later apparently exonerated by additional evidence. Whose conviction most likely relied upon racial bias in the courtroom and in the jury (a bias that is often unconscious).
The Quote:
“I haven’t met somebody that is just a murderer for the sake of being a murderer,” O’Shea said. “I don’t know that that person even exists.”
Story by Joe Sexton, The Marshall Project
A few more must-read stories from the past two weeks …
Threatened with jail over a scandal headlined by Brett Favre
The Olivia Nuzzi Scandal Is an Indictment on Journalism
Most Minnesota charter schools are failing to make good on their promises
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:
I wrote earlier about the gendered nature of this election, and how closely related Christian Nationalism is to religious fundamentalism, which has as one of its major tenets strict control and limits on women’s rights. National reproductive rights reporter Sofia Resnick has a look here at the first post-Roe election, and what has been happening for women in swing states where abortion rights have been circumscribed.
Christian Nationalism also relies on fear of the other, and as it leans closer to its center of violence, rage, and hatred - and as it gains more and more control of the Republican Party, we start to see unhinged, hateful, and racist comments coming even from national political figures and Congressmen, who increasingly are coming from backgrounds that include involvement with hate groups and white nationalist organizations.
Speaking of easily triggered men … I have been dealing with the fallout this week of a post I made on X in response to actor Kevin Sorbo’s claim that the city of Minneapolis (where I live) is “blaring” the Muslim call to prayer at all hours of the day, while limiting Christian right to expression. For the record, the city is not blaring anything, except sirens - or the gjallhorn at the Vikings game (Go Vikes!) - instead, recently mosques were officially allowed to broadcast the call to prayer at their usual five times, in the same way as churches are allowed to ring bells.
All those who are about practicing their faith freely and openly must equally defend and protection the separation of Church and State in this country!
Also, ironically, Kevin’s parents attended the church where I served as intern pastor in Las Vegas. They were lovely people. I don’t know what happened to make him so angry.
The result of this post has been an absolute onslaught of hate-filled comments from men (I’m hoping many are bots?) who invariably have white nationalist-themed or Christian nationalist-themed profile pictures, making sometimes obscene comments about me and my role as a Pastor. I learned long ago not to take their bait and give them a detailed exegetical explanations of their oft-cited verses from Paul about women being silent … and at the same time it’s kind of scary seeing how many times their violent and hateful posts are retweeted and shared.
(By the way, there’s a lot worse stuff than the screenshots I shared there, and it’s still coming. But I just couldn’t keep saving those images anymore).
Speaking of white supremacy creeping closer and closer to the out-loud central message of Christian Nationalism:
Protesters display banners with white supremacy messages from Interstate 694 bridge
Hugely important thread from fellow Broadleaf author Matthew D. Taylor, here:
Matthew’s new book, The Violent Take it by Force, is out Oct. 1.
In case you haven’t yet read
’s book, Disobedient Women (go get it now!) … you might have missed that the latest clergy sexual abuse crisis is no longer in the Catholic Church but instead roiling Evangelicalism.The Sexual Abuse Scandal That’s Engulfed the Evangelical Movement
And this, which lays the groundwork well as you prepare to read my new book, Disciples of White Jesus:
But don’t count out the Catholics and their embrace of dangerous gender absolutism:
To Understand JD Vance, You Need to Meet the “TheoBros”
Anthea Butler explains the Catholic version of Christian nationalism
Ben Marsh explains well why I feel such a particular calling to speak and work against Christian Nationalism as a Lutheran of German descent:
I talk often about how closely tied Christian Nationalism is to an embrace of authoritarianism (something we are certainly seeing in Trumpism and in the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election.
has the numbers to back up this idea:
New survey points to correlation between Christian nationalism and authoritarian views
Meanwhile, while parents are just trying to get their kids out the door to school on time without their faces covered in crumbs from breakfast … conspiracy theorists and Christian Nationalists are inciting bomb threats and causing school closures:
I wrote about this for the Minnesota Star Tribune:
And finally … right here in good ol Minnesota:
GOP candidate’s social media posts: climate denial, homophobia, and musings on ‘white pride’
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.
Lots more events coming up, including this Sunday morning at Nokomis Heights Lutheran in Minneapolis, and then at St. John’s Lutheran in Northfield next Thursday (10/3), as part of their series on Courageous Conversations. And I will be in Chicago, at Grace Lutheran in River Forest, on Oct. 6! View all upcoming events here.
I am also starting to book new events around Disciples of White Jesus in 2025 … don’t hesitate to reach out if you’re interested in talking about doing something together.
It’s not lost on me that many of the events I do are organized and attended by that all-too-under-covered-religious group in America today, non-Evangelical Christians, including white mainliners, who might just be the deciding voters in swing states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan (and heck, in the entire country). One of the best reporters on the mainline, American Baptist pastor and journalist
breaks this down below:While in Iowa last weekend, I also (finally!) got to meet fellow ELCA pastor and Iowa state senator Sarah Trone Garriot. She’s in the midst of a tough reelection fight in a red-leaning district - but she gives us a great example of what it means for Christians to serve in government not as Christian nationalists but instead as people of faith advocating for the best of what Jesus taught us: care for the sick, feed the poor, protect the freedom of religion …
And finally, in embattled Springfield, Ohio, faith leaders are stepping forward to stand up for Haitian immigrants, and worship together. That’s part of how you defeat a conspiracy theory!
Must-Reads on Substack
From
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From
, who I missed seeing in her Iowa town - but her words and her work were on my mind everywhere I went
From
That’s it for this week’s News with Nuance. See you in October!
Thanks for reading,
Angela
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I am disturbed to hear of the attacks you have received. Regrettably, it is not surprising. I am glad to see that you continue to speak in churches and other venues. That includes Lutheran churches in the upper Midwest. I am concerned that many parts of our church are trying to do the non-partisan balancing act including national leadership and here in Illinois. I trust that they are taking the situation seriously but I wonder if their priority is on "kindness" and the unity of the church. The need for the prophetic voice is acknowledged but I don't see or hear much of it in preaching even in some "liberal" churches- (in my own limited sampling). That even includes Trump's more outrageous and dangerous rhetoric at the GOP convention, the debate, and his rallies (e.g. re Springfield, OH!). Kindness and unity are legitimate concerns. But I am concerned that we are missing the (Bonhoeffer?) moment (again!) in the ELCA and maybe other parts of the Mainline. But as a retired pastor I still don't know what to say. Nothing has been said about the upcoming election throughout this past year at our various synod events. I thought about saying something but I didn't know what to say or how to say it or at what moment. Now we are running out of time. I do not know how ELCA (et al) churches in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and other key states are responding. But that interview with Lance Walnau and responses by the excellent Matthew Taylor is sobering. America First! Oh my. If 40 per cent or more ELCA members still support Trump, that is a tragic indictment. Have we learned from the Lutheran Church in Germany or not? And still I feel timid and complicit. Tomorrow we have our synod professional leaders' conference which will be the last if not the last synod (plus bishop) event remaining before 11/5. And I don't know what to do or say, if anything. Or what can be done practically. I am doing some things on the political side. But I feel like our church(es) is failing the moment, and so am I. I am hopeful politically, but that is sobered too by the realities of Trump and Trumpism getting worse and more desperate. Whatever way things go, there so many challenges ahead. It feels overwhelming. But I am trying to keep my eyes on the positives and the joy also taking place. Sorry for rambling and taking up your time. Many prayers for you and your family and for all the other courageous warriors and peacemakers, journalists and social scientists, pastors and theologians out there. Kyrie eleison.