1. Rachael Denhollander’s interview with Christianity Today about her courtroom appearance in front of Larry Nassar, and why she lost her church by standing up for sexual abuse victims.
If you haven’t watched the impact statement she gave in court last week, I’d start there. This interview highlights that the Gospel is not merely about forgiveness, and when we only focus on forgiveness we miss out on God’s justice. While what Rachael has to say is sobering as a pastor (“It is with deep regret that I say the church is one of the worst places to go for help”), I truly believe she has the kind of perspective on sexual assault that we must listen to.
For more background on all this, you can also check out Rachael’s editorial piece in The New York Times.
2. The increasing amount of people who struggle with anxiety has been a topic of interest for me for quite some time. You can listen to my podcast episode on the subject here. One of aspect of it that deserves consideration is what parts of modern life lead us toward anxiety, instead of away from it. Brett McCracken shares that Netflix, and its rampant use among younger audiences (including myself) pushes toward anxiety in many ways.
“When everything is at our disposal, on our timeline, and to our liking, we’ll naturally experience stress under the weight of consumerist freedom and FOMO. Will we make the wrong choice?”
3. Ministering to Millennials in a Secular Age by Derek Rishmawy. This is an excerpt from a larger book featuring different authors writing individual chapters titled Our Secular Age, released by The Gospel Coalition.
My favorite aspect of the article is how Derek pushes the reader away from a “the sky is falling” mentality toward tools for engagement: “We need to refuse the temptation to despair, or to engage in a morose, crippling nostalgia for some mythical, lost Golden Age of Faith.”
