Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Progressive Christian
Standing by the wall (by the wall)

Standing by the wall (by the wall)

Last updated on: March 9, 2026 at 7:00 am by Fred Clark

0 Comments

Standing by the wall (by the wall) 2026-03-08T19:43:39-04:00 Fred Clark

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

• From Asia London Palomba in the Smithsonian, “How a Sudden Winter Storm in 1617 Sparked the Deadliest Witchcraft Trials in Norwegian History.”

I almost missed this fascinating story in my feed because it was hidden amidst the flood of reporting from Minnesota. That context changed how I read this tale of a society gripped by lethal madness.

As we discussed here in January — “And we’ll go sweeping through the city” — I am convinced that the organic, neighborly response of tens of thousands of principled Minnesotans presents us with a model for how communities can and should resist tyranny, ethno-nationalist violence, and fascism. The way ordinary Twin Cities residents from all walks of life have rallied to protect and support their threatened and vulnerable neighbors is inspirational and instructional. We should be taking notes and studying what they’re doing so that it can be replicated, adopted, and adapted elsewhere.

I’m also starting to think this remarkable response can perhaps be a blueprint for resisting and combating the kind of mass hysteria of moral panics like the witch trials that swept through Finnmark, Norway, in the 17th century.

• Speaking of moral panics, I’m so old that I can remember when Shirley MacLaine was one of the Top 5 bogeymen for white evangelical Christians in America. Whole aisles of Christian bookstores in the ’90s were filled with jeremiads warning real, true Christians against the dangers of the “New Age Movement.” Demonic “New Agers” were the villains in Frank Peretti’s best-selling “spiritual warfare” novels. Before there was “woke,” there was woo — and anything with even a hint of “New Age” vibes was anathema for white evangelicals.

That’s no longer true. With anti-vaxxers running the show in the Republican Party, white evangelicals are all-in on MAHA and all of its “New Age” ingredients.

• And the shame was on the other side
Oh, we can beat them forever and ever
Then we can be heroes, just for one day

• If you’re a white former judge running for the state senate and someone posts an audio recording of you using the N-word and joking about shooting a Black man, then you can either: A) deny the recording is real and sue for defamation, or B) accuse the person who made the recording of stalking and illegal wiretapping. But logically you can’t argue both of those things at the same time.

Former North Carolina Superior Court Judge Jerry Tillett is doing both of those at the same time.

Update: Tillet won his primary.

• In other news from North Carolina state legislature primaries: “Cunningham Loses in State House Primary Focused on Immigration Policy.” Carla Cunningham was a Democratic legislator who cast votes in support of Republican efforts to cooperate with ICE and Republican anti-trans legislation. That prompted a primary challenge from “a biblical scholar who had never before run for office.”

The Rodney Sadler is also the Rev. Dr. Sadler — he’s a professor at Union Presbyterian Seminary (M.Div. from Howard, Ph.D. from Duke) and he’s an associate pastor at Mount Carmel Baptist Church in Charlotte. He’s worked with William Barber’s Moral Mondays and Poor People’s Campaigns. And he can puh-reach:

Sadler responded in his booming preacher’s voice. “My parents told me very clearly when I was a child: Love God, love your neighbor, and love the stranger,” he said. “We have come far too far as a country to start scapegoating some among us … I want to say this very clearly: If you don’t love everybody, then you shouldn’t represent anybody.”

• It’s been a long time since I wrote headlines for a living, but kudos to whoever at The 51st came up with this one: “After the massive sewage spill into the Potomac, a shitload of questions remain.”

• Paul Putz is at it again. Putz is a historian with a very particular niche — sports and religion. His next book, due out next year (probably, no pressure) is tentatively titled “Jesus and James Naismith: A History of Basketball and Christianity from Origins to the NBA.”

Naismith worked for the YMCA back when it was still very much the Young Men’s Christian Association and was a proponent of “muscular Christianity.” Putz has written a great deal explaining that strange, influential religious ideology, and I look forward to learning more from him about how it shaped both this game and American Christianity more generally.

But the main thing to remember about James Naismith is “by their fruits ye shall know them.” Whatever the merits and demerits of “Muscular Christianity,” the bottom line is that Naismith came up with a terrific game that has given the world countless hours of joy — of fun. His legacy is a net positive — a nothing-but-net-positive. And how many 19th-century missionaries can we say that about?

• I also appreciated Paul Putz’s reflections on “Jesse Jackson and the Christian Athlete Movement,” which leads him to think about why Black Christian athletes like Jackson (a college quarterback) and Jackie Robinson were not embraced by this [white] “Christian Athlete Movement”:

The differences extended beyond political affiliation, reaching into the heart of the narratives that white and Black Christians told about their place in American society. While the Christian Right framed the 1960s as an attack on America’s foundations, many Black Americans saw the decade as a time when freedom and righteousness advanced. While the Christian Right saw Ronald Reagan’s presidency as a blessing from God, an opportunity to recover America’s traditional values, for many Black communities the Reagan years brought little benefit, with Black poverty rates remaining over thirty percent, nearly three times higher than the rate among white Americans, and a white backlash against government support for the poor that trafficked in stereotypes depicting Black people as lazy and dependent.

The Tebow/Kaepernick dichotomy started long before either one of those Bible-quoting, playoff-winning, famous-for-kneeling quarterbacks was even born.

• I agree with Holly Berkley Fletcher about Kids These Days and their ginormous socks. (Insert Principal Skinner “Am I Out of Touch?” meme here.)

The thing about this for me is that I am now old enough to have lived through this cycle twice. I stopped wearing baseball-appropriate-but-shorts-inappropriate mid-calf socks with shorts because my Millennial daughters begged me not to embarrass them around their friends by doing so. I began wearing ankle socks with shorts as instructed to do by every young person I then knew. And now I’m too tired to keep up or to switch again to whatever it is the people who will outlive me are doing. “I grow old … I grow old … / I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.”

Actually, I’m so old now that I don’t fully agree with Holly about those kids socks. I am I-don’t-care-what-you-wear-or-what-you-think-about-what-I-wear years old. “I shall wear white flannel trousers and walk upon the beach …” Or not.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

March 8, 2026

Smart people saying smart things (3.08.26)

Next Post

March 10, 2026 Andy Ogles and the Flushing Remonstrance

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"I remember A: but not B:. It was just A: for floppies and C: for ..."

MG Remoaner

A Psalm for Election Day

""Why would God need a watch?""He doesn't, that's why we know a watchmaker made the ..."

damanoid

The possibility of possibility

"30 minutes just to get to the coffee/tea part."

P J Evans

The possibility of possibility

"Are they Juan Ortiz posters? (I have a book of Next Generation ones and the ..."

Scurra

The possibility of possibility

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category class warfare evangelicals Iraq Left Behind Mammon music Uncategorized

Select a Month November 2026 October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Where was Jesus' first miracle performed?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Cana Nazareth Capernaum Jerusalem