Friday's News & Ideas - 8/20/2021

Was Afghanistan worthwhile or wasted? Christians lament, pray, and learn as Taliban retakes control
Christianty Today: As the world debates the U.S. withdrawal, 15 leaders reflect on how they are applying their faith to understand how to best advocate for justice in the aftermath.
Washington Post: The Taliban says it will rule under sharia law. What does that mean?*

Remembering ‘Prof’ Andrew Walls, founder of the study of World Christianity
Christianity Today: Scholars praise the Scottish historian of missions, who died Aug. 12 at 93, for his groundbreaking research re-centering Christianity from West to South and for his personal support.

Solidarity demands respect for Haiti’s complex past
U.S. Catholic: Is this Caribbean nation just terribly unlucky? Is it cursed by God? Or is it simply the victim of a series of unfortunate coincidences? I believe the answer to all three questions is no, writes the Rev. Patrick Saint-Jean. Haiti’s long history of crises has masked the true state of affairs.

This former pastor is changing evangelicals’ minds on COVID vaccines
Mother Jones: Curtis Chang’s YouTube video series, called “Christians and the Vaccine,” tackles some Christians’ concerns that the shots go against their faith.

‘You can’t think yourself out of racism’: Black religion scholars call for conversion
Religion News Service: Black religion scholars say their work is routinely undervalued and their advancement blocked by a bias that sees the study of Black religious experience as secondary to white theology.
Sojourners: There’s no such thing as colorblind Christianity

Behind closed doors: Documenting the lives of the elders in a time of plague
In part seven of Literary Hub’s series The Longest Year: 2020+, a writer and photographer reflect on and document the precarious lives of their elders, in both the deep recesses of memory and behind the closed doors of Brighton Beach.

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