Six New Things – Week of February 10, 2025

The world is erupting. Where to find healing? Black history – and global history – provide wisdom and perspective.

ONE

Black History Month could not be more crucially timed: there is so much we need to learn and understand from the history of Black-bodied people in this country.

The Women Who Caught the Babies: A Story of African American Midwives (Alazar) is a poetic memoir written with the brevity of a children’s book and the depth of an epic. The illustrations are extraordinary. Simply looking at this book is moving. Reading it is convicting and hopeful, comforting and inspiring.

Find more in our Anti-Racism: Children & Families – History of Race in America lib guide.

TWO

World history has some things to teach, too.

Rev. Dr. Michael Piazza urges us to avoid Compliance & Complicity, writing, ‘I keep hearing people say it will swing back in two years. My fear is our nation will be so mortally wounded after two months of this, recovery may be impossible. We will be those who history will record in the same light as Germans who silently watched as the Nazis came to power. Their compliance and complicity are what led to a war in which 50-85 MILLION people died.’

This is why Hope in a Jar (Penguin) is so important! This follow-up to In a Jar and Out of a Jar – journeys with, ‘a little bunny and his friends [who] collect their hope and dreams for the future in jars’.

Interested in Becoming Midwives of Hope for the Healing of Creation? Join others committed to bringing to birth God’s desired future for our planet. Learn more and register here.

THREE

Historical perspective can keep us from both apathy and overwhelm.

Diana Butler Bass insisted Southern Lights share her talk, How Did We Get Here? The Bigger Picture: Three RUPTURES – Not ‘Disruptions’ – Have Led Us to Now, hoping ‘it will help’. At 40 minutes it may feel long, but it will definitely inspire engagement in a small group or adult ed discussion.

The Wounds Are the Witness: Black Faith Weaving Memory into Justice and Healing (Broadleaf), addresses individual and community rupture with the promise that, ‘Healing takes time… [E]ven the wounds of the risen Christ did not immediately close; when the wounds become the witness, we find a faith reimagined and a hope transfigured.’

Let your teen gatherings become spaces for healing with Building an Inclusive Youth Group (JUSTmove), a course which ‘provides tools and practices for your youth group to help them model Christ’s welcome and inclusion for ALL people’. The first 30 participants receive $50 off the regular $250 fee.

Find more in our Anti-Racism: Spirituality, Identity, & Healing and Speakers, Webinars, & Trainings lib guides.

FOUR

The world is rupturing around us daily.

For congregations stuck in avoidance mode, Diana Butler Bass writes, ‘I wish I had a nickel for every time a mainline church leader said to me, ‘We can’t do that.’ Or, ‘politics doesn’t belong in the church’. In ‘Facing What We’ve Avoided: Religion and Politics Come to Church – and Can’t Be Ignored Any Longer‘ (The Cottage), Bass responds, ‘Dearest friends, guess what? YOU HAVE BEEN POLITICIZED.’

This assertion was underscored (by history), just four days later when Bass shared, ‘Good News: Faith Pushback: A New Legal Filing You Need to Know about‘, writing, ‘Today is a big day for Christians and Jews who aren’t along for the Christian nationalist agenda. Push back has begun in an important way.’ Mennonites, AME, UCC, Disciples of Christ, Church of the Brethren, Episcopalians, PCUSA, and Jewish siblings – you’re all involved. THANK YOU!!

FIVE

Admittedly, it is immensely difficult to know what to focus on.

That’s by design.

The Sirens’ Call: How Attention Became the World’s Most Endangered Resource (Penguin) acknowledges that we live, ‘in a habitat designed to prey upon, to cultivate, distort, or destroy that which most fundamentally makes us human’, then, ‘snaps everything into a single holistic framework so that we can wrest back control of our lives, our politics, and our future’.

Green Blades Preaching Roundtable reflections for this Sunday ‘bring clarity through a pattern of Definitely This; Definitely Not That‘.

Inspire kids in discerning what’s important to them with Anjali Can!, the third in the Anjali Series, which encourages young ones to live into their True Selves (Always Anjali), develop and share their gifts (Bravo, Anjali!), and take action on what’s important in their lives. (All Penguin Random House)

Find more on developing clarity in our Mindfulness and on developing Young Leaders in our lib guides.

SIX

To enable discernment…

…on how to move concern and conversation into engagement, I highly recommend Who Do We Choose to Be in the Age of Collapse? (Convergence), a framework for taking critical steps in ‘action that makes a difference’. Find an apt introduction to it in The Power of the Small and Steady (Piloting Faith).

You’ll then be ready for The Ministry Lab’s latest project, The Web. No congregation can do everything and none of us will be as effective working alone. The Web is a list of vetted organizations and individuals already doing the good and essential work of our time. Use the Who Do We Choose to Be? framework to hone your focus, then visit The Web to find essential partners.

The Web is also inspired by Building a Moral Economy (Fortress). Learn about our book discussion here.

The Web is a work in progress: all feedback is gratefully received.