September 2020 In Review

SEPTEMBER 2020  |  IN REVIEW
READ  |  WRITE  |  DISCUSS  |  PRAY  |  SERVE  |  REFLECT

Even in Cambridge

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Read

The Lemon Tree

This is one to pick up if you missed it the first time around.  Tolan’s pain-stakingly detailed history embedded in a personal Israeli-Palestinian struggle will pull at your heart-strings and make you wish for one more person to do the next right thing.  For someone like me who has trouble with dates and circumstances, Tolan breathed life and relevance into a conflict that for too many years felt intractable, and over there.

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Write

(Not) Back to School: Advice from the Panel

Earlier this month I sat in on a virtual panel discussion hosted by Newton Covenant Church attempting to address the broad concerns of parents approaching a new, unusual and ever-shifting school year.  Incredibly, experts in child psychology and education offered useful tidbits of advice that I was able to use to construct a new mindset and step more peacefully into day one.

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Discuss

The Giver of Stars

This page-turner about packhorse librarians in Kentucky in the 1930s will shock you with its relevance.  As entertained as we were (some likened the ease of the storytelling to that of a beach read), we were subdued and discontented by hard societal issues that remind us how far we have come...and how much we remain stuck in the same battles.  We enjoyed the happy ending but wished that our society could reap such similar rewards.

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Pray

Cross Vision: How the Crucifixion of Jesus Makes Sense of Old Testament Violence

How do we reconcile the violence of the God of the Old Testament with Jesus’s message to love your enemy?  Before we lose any more believers due to unsatisfactory explanations, I urge you to consider Boyd’s hopeful interpretation, one that challenges us to view troubling events through the eyes of the cross, and one that reassures us that God is the same yesterday, today and forever.

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Serve

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America

This was a difficult book to read, both because of its content and its structure.  Chronicling the origins and intersections of segregationist, assimilationist and anti-racist ideas, Kendi debunks myths that have become embedded in American culture: that hate and ignorance led to racism and discrimination, that racism is in the past, and that anti-racism is intuitive and easy.  On these points, Kendi says we have got it all wrong.

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Reflect

Reflect

Check out the reflect button on the homepage where you can view this and all monthly newsletters.

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VISIT THE SITE

Looking forward to reading & discussing with you!

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