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  1. <?xml version="1.0"?><rss version="2.0"><channel><title>Christianity Today Magazine</title><link>http://ChristianityToday.com/</link><description>News and analysis from the world's leading Christian magazine.</description><language>en-us</language><pubDate>Tue, 07 May 2024 08:34:52 GMT</pubDate><lastBuildDate>Tue, 07 May 2024 08:34:52 GMT</lastBuildDate><copyright>Copyright 2024, Christianity Today</copyright><item><title><![CDATA[Let the Neurodivergent Children Come to Me]]></title><description>
  2. <![CDATA[<p class="deck">Gentle parenting is one tool to train up children who have disabilities with love and wisdom.</p>
  3. <img src="https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/140326.jpg?h=258&w=460" /><p class="text">As a toddler, my son would often lash out at other kids for no apparent reason, causing incidents at daycare, at home, and in the church nursery. At times, he would even hurt himself in his distress. After more than a year of trying to encourage the &ldquo;right&rdquo; behavior, I felt like this was more than age-appropriate tantrums.</p>
  4. <p class="text">We sought an evaluation, and our son received multiple diagnoses that confirmed he&rsquo;s neurodivergent, a term that commonly encompasses brain-based differences such as ADHD, autism, learning difficulties, and more.</p>
  5. <p class="text">One way to consider how my son experiences the world is to think of his brain like a highly sensitive smoke detector. A typical smoke detector on your kitchen ceiling will alert you to a potential emergency in the room. However, one that is highly sensitive might alert you to a neighbor smoking a cigarette as he walks by your window on his way to the store.</p>
  6. <p class="text">My son&rsquo;s nervous system makes him similarly sensitive. He&rsquo;s hyper-attuned to potential threats in the world around him, and sometimes the most typical everyday interactions can become extremely distressing for him, even resulting in acute anxiety attacks.</p>
  7. <p class="text">As first-time parents, we did our best to follow conventional advice about establishing routines and maintaining authority. We disciplined him with consequences, withheld privileges, and rewarded any display of self-control. Any physical discipline only succeeded in making us seem like a threat and triggering his fight-or-flight response.</p>
  8. <p class="text">Traditional forms of discipline were not working, and my husband and I knew we needed to change the way we parented. Yet I still wondered if this was compatible with my faith. I could not escape the maxim &ldquo;Spare the rod, spoil ...</p><p class="more"><a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2024/may-web-only/gentle-parenting-neurodivergent-child-church.html">Continue reading</a>...</p>
  9. ]]>
  10. </description><author>Sunita Theiss</author><link>https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2024/may-web-only/gentle-parenting-neurodivergent-child-church.html</link><pubDate>Mon, 6 May 2024 13:00:00 CST</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[If Panama Closes the Darién Gap, Would Evangelicals Care?]]></title><description>
  11. <![CDATA[<p class="deck">(UPDATED) Migrant rights have been off-radar for many Panamanian Christians. But as pressures increase, some are speaking out ahead of this weekend’s general elections.</p>
  12. <img src="https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/140309.jpg?h=258&w=460" /><p class="text">Update (May 6, 2024): Jos&eacute; Ra&uacute;l Mulino will be Panama&rsquo;s new president after the Realizando Metas (Realizing Goals) party candidate won <a href="https://resultados.te.gob.pa/resultados/100" target="_blank" class="">34.2 percent</a> of the vote.</p>
  13. <p class="text">Mulino began the campaign as the running mate of former president Ricardo Martinelli. (Martinelli previously served from 2009 to 2014.) When Martinelli was booted from the ticket after receiving a 10-year prison sentence for money laundering, Mulino assumed the top of the ticket. While other candidates fought to get him removed from the ballot for bypassing the party&rsquo;s selection process, the country&rsquo;s supreme court declared it legal two days prior to the election.</p>
  14. <p class="text">Last month, Mulino promised to close the Dari&eacute;n Gap, where tens of thousands of migrants have crossed from Colombia to Panama on their journey to the US border. On Monday, the president-elect reiterated his desire to do so, saying that he will work with the governments of Colombia and the United States to jointly create a long-term solution.</p>
  15. <p class="text">&ldquo;Currently we have technology to survey the border, and I hope to start a repatriation process as early as possible,&rdquo; he said in an <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/ma-anas-blu/presidente-electo-de-panam-anuncia-su-intenci-n-de?t=4m31s" target="_blank" class="">interview</a> Monday with Radio Blu.</p>
  16. <p class="text">Mulino is set to be inaugurated on July 1.</p>
  17. <p class="text">----</p>
  18. <p class="text">On May 5, Panamanians will vote for a new president. The outcome of this election may have consequences for far more than its 4.4 million residents; it could change the migration reality for the hundreds of thousands of people traveling from South America, Asia, and Africa who pass through the Central American country en route to the United States.</p>
  19. <p class="text">Leading in the polls is Jos&eacute; Ra&uacute;l Mulino, a candidate for Realizando Metas (Realizing Goals), a right-wing populist party founded by disgraced president Ricardo ...</p><p class="more"><a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2024/may/panama-elections-christians-darien-crisis.html">Continue reading</a>...</p>
  20. ]]>
  21. </description><author>Franco Iacomini</author><link>https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2024/may/panama-elections-christians-darien-crisis.html</link><pubDate>Mon, 6 May 2024 12:00:00 CST</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[Goodbye Postmodernism, Hello Metamodernism]]></title><description>
  22. <![CDATA[<p class="deck">Our apologetics must evolve to engage with the new cultural mood of the next generations.</p>
  23. <img src="https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/140318.jpg?h=258&w=460" /><p class="text">For years now, scholars have <a href="https://philosophynow.org/issues/58/The_Death_of_Postmodernism_And_Beyond" target="_blank" class="">announced</a> the death of postmodernism. After decades of dominance as a cultural mood, the famously cynical and relativistic intellectual stance is finally out. In its place, another ideological outlook is taking hold&mdash;as those of us who spend significant time with the next generations (Z and Alpha) may have noticed.</p>
  24. <p class="text">So, the question is this: What fresh dispositions of thought are taking hold&mdash;and how might Christians engage well with our evolving cultural frontier?</p>
  25. <p class="text">One term that scholars have used to identify the new cultural mood is <em>metamodernism</em>. First used in 1975 to <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/27553153" target="_blank" class="">describe</a> a literary shift, the concept became more prominent in the early 2000s thanks to the work of cultural analysts Timotheus Vermeulen and Robin van den Akker. In their 2010 article, &ldquo;<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3402/jac.v2i0.5677" target="_blank" class="">Notes on Metamodernism</a>,&rdquo; they made a convincing case for the new zeitgeist and provided a cultural analysis of its characteristics.</p>
  26. <p class="text">Metamodernism, according to Vermeulen and Van Den Akker, is a &ldquo;structure of feeling&rdquo; marked by &ldquo;(often guarded) hopefulness and (at times feigned) sincerity&rdquo;&mdash;deriving from a realization that &ldquo;history is moving rapidly beyond its much proclaimed end.&rdquo; While there are plenty of <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/M/bo90478773.html" target="_blank" class="">academic responses</a> to <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/theory-knowledge/202004/what-is-metamodernism" target="_blank" class="">their work</a>, the term has gained little traction in the public sphere.</p>
  27. <p class="text">As a high school teacher, youth pastor, and an older member of Gen Z myself, I&rsquo;ve not only grown up breathing the ideological air of metamodernism but have also seen what it looks like on the ground. It can manifest in a few tangible ways, including in what I call apocalyptic hope, inverted worldview-building, and highly narrated identities.</p>
  28. <p class="text">Apocalyptic hope (or what Vermeulen and Van Den ...</p><p class="more"><a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2024/april-web-only/what-is-metamodernism-postmodernism-dead-next-gen-z-alpha.html">Continue reading</a>...</p>
  29. ]]>
  30. </description><author>Benjamin Vincent</author><link>https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2024/april-web-only/what-is-metamodernism-postmodernism-dead-next-gen-z-alpha.html</link><pubDate>Mon, 6 May 2024 12:00:00 CST</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[Christian Radio Sues Over Disparity in Streaming Costs]]></title><description>
  31. <![CDATA[<p class="deck">Discrimination case claims that noncommercial religious broadcasters are paying far more than fellow stations to cover royalties for music played online.</p>
  32. <img src="https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/140370.jpg?h=258&w=460" /><p class="text">The website for 99.1 JOY FM in St. Louis features a scrolling playlist of its lineup of Christian pop music and a &ldquo;listen now&rdquo; button to tune in to the simulcast broadcast. But visitors may find that after a few hours of streaming artists like Lauren Daigle and Brandon Lake, the site may kick them off.</p>
  33. <p class="text">Because of higher royalty costs, many noncommercial religious broadcasters are choosing to either limit the number of online listeners they allow at a time or simply not promote their online platforms at all. A new lawsuit from some of these broadcasters, including many Christian stations, claims that their royalty rate, which exceeds what other stations pay, is effectively a form of religious discrimination.</p>
  34. <p class="text">&ldquo;The government is charging religious broadcasters a significantly higher rate,&rdquo; said Rory Gray, with the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). &ldquo;It suppresses religious speech in the public sphere.&rdquo;</p>
  35. <p class="text">Noncommercial radio stations&mdash;which rely on listener support and grant funding rather than ad sales&mdash;have traditionally been able to negotiate lower royalty rates for the music they play. But religious broadcasters, like JOY FM&rsquo;s owner, Gateway Creative Broadcasting, lost out on that deal during negotiations in 2016 with <a href="https://www.soundexchange.com/" target="_blank" class=""> SoundExchange</a>, the rights management company that distributes royalties to artists.</p>
  36. <p class="text">Then streaming costs for religious radio increased in 2021, following a ruling from the US Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), and Christian stations were subject to the standard rates. A suit filed in February against the board claims that due to the discrepancy in rates set by the CRB and privately negotiated rates, noncommercial religious broadcasters are forced to restrict their streams ...</p><p class="more"><a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2024/christian-radio-streaming-royalties-music-lawsuit-adf-crb.html">Continue reading</a>...</p>
  37. ]]>
  38. </description><author>Kelsey Kramer McGinnis</author><link>https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2024/christian-radio-streaming-royalties-music-lawsuit-adf-crb.html</link><pubDate>Mon, 6 May 2024 09:24:00 CST</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[Trash Problem Pushes Pastor to Action]]></title><description>
  39. <![CDATA[<p class="deck">A Honduran church leads the way in local garbage collection while praying for an international plastics treaty.</p>
  40. <img src="https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/140366.png?h=258&w=460" /><p class="text">A banner hangs outside the Church of God in the village of El Rinc&oacute;n, Honduras, that says, &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s be part of the solution, not the pollution.&rdquo;</p>
  41. <p class="text">It&rsquo;s a message pastor Wilfredo V&aacute;squez posted after witnessing the harmful effects of plastics in his community.</p>
  42. <p class="text">&ldquo;More and more, I understand that if we want to see changes in any area of society, we as children of God must take the initiative for those changes, because the church is the hope of the world,&rdquo; he told CT.</p>
  43. <p class="text">V&aacute;squez, who shepherds the Wesleyan-Arminian congregation in the Central American town of about 4,000 people, has started taking steps to help his community and hopes world leaders will do the same by establishing an international treaty on plastics.</p>
  44. <p class="text">From April 23 to 29, delegates from around the world met in Ottawa for the United Nations&rsquo; Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution (<a href="https://www.unep.org/inc-plastic-pollution/session-4" target="_blank" class="">INC-4</a>). It&rsquo;s the fourth stage in a five-stage process working toward an agreement that has the potential to change how plastic is handled globally.</p>
  45. <p class="text">If passed, experts believe it could have a similar impact on plastic usage as <a href="https://unclimatesummit.org/support-for-global-plastic-reduction-target-growing-ahead-of-inc4/" target="_blank" class="">the Montreal Protocol of 1987</a> had on chemicals such as freon.</p>
  46. <p class="text">While the final stage of the process isn&rsquo;t until November in South Korea, after the most recent round of discussions in Canada, delegates from more than 150 countries agreed to begin intercessional work. Right away, delegates will start meeting to develop ways to identify plastic products and chemicals of concern.</p>
  47. <p class="text">In El Rinc&oacute;n, 3,600 miles away from the latest round of discussions, V&aacute;squez is praying for the treaty&rsquo;s passage.</p>
  48. <p class="text">V&aacute;squez knows exactly what&rsquo;s at stake and what a difference even ...</p><p class="more"><a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2024/may/plastic-treaty-trash-pastor-garbage-problem.html">Continue reading</a>...</p>
  49. ]]>
  50. </description><author>Adam MacInnis</author><link>https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2024/may/plastic-treaty-trash-pastor-garbage-problem.html</link><pubDate>Mon, 6 May 2024 07:00:00 CST</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[Hillsong Abuse Settlement Rejected Over NDA]]></title><description>
  51. <![CDATA[<p class="deck">Victim says she wants accountability more than money.</p>
  52. <img src="https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/140352.png?h=258&w=460" /><p class="text">Hillsong Church Australia&rsquo;s legal settlement with a former student who was groped by a worship leader fell apart on Thursday when the survivor refused to sign a non-disclosure agreement.</p>
  53. <p class="text">&ldquo;I will not give up my voice,&rdquo; Anna Crenshaw, daughter of Pennsylvania megachurch pastor Ed Crenshaw, <a href="https://www.cairnspost.com.au/news/breaking-news/anna-crenshaw-vows-to-keep-her-voice-in-fight-against-hillsong/video/0d206911b6a4c0cfca68a6a226fa6758" target="_blank" class="">told</a> Australian reporters. &ldquo;This has never been about money for me but about justice and accountability.&rdquo;</p>
  54. <p class="text">According to lawyers, one condition of the agreement was a joint statement saying the church reported the assault immediately. Crenshaw claims Hillsong&mdash;embroiled at the time in a scandal over founder Brian Houston&rsquo;s <a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2022/december/hillsong-houston-trial-charges-coverup-evidence.html" target="_blank" class="">failure</a> to <a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2023/august/hillsong-brian-houston-not-guilty-abuse-coverup-court.html" target="_blank" class="">report</a> his father Frank&rsquo;s sexual abuse of a young boy&mdash;<a href="https://www.news.com.au/national/courts-law/11th-hour-twist-in-hillsong-sex-assault-lawsuit/news-story/c5ad7556e6c91e773a4b683f8f58fe6a" target="_blank" class="">actually</a> waited four or five months to contact police.</p>
  55. <p class="text">Crenshaw was studying at Hillsong College in 2016 when Jason Mays, an administrative staff member and volunteer worship leader, put his hand on her inner thigh. The young woman&mdash;18 at the time&mdash;got up to leave, but Mays, 24, grabbed her, wrapped his arms around her waist, and touched her legs, butt, and crotch, according to a <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2021/02/carl-lentz-and-the-trouble-at-hillsong?redirectURL=https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2021/02/carl-lentz-and-the-trouble-at-hillsong?utm_source=VANITYFAIR_REG_GATE&amp;utm_source=VANITYFAIR_REG_GATE" target="_blank" class="">statement</a> Crenshaw wrote several years later.</p>
  56. <p class="text">&ldquo;He lifted up my shirt and was kissing my stomach,&rdquo; Crenshaw, now 26, <a href="https://www.newsnationnow.com/prime/ex-hillsong-member-church-covered-up-my-assault/" target="_blank" class="">said</a> in a TV news interview. &ldquo;So I&rsquo;m just, like, stuck there with this guy groping me.&rdquo;</p>
  57. <p class="text">Crenshaw did not immediately report the incident because, she said, she was ashamed.</p>
  58. <p class="text">She also didn&rsquo;t believe she could report Mays to human resources, because the department was run by Mays&rsquo;s father. Two years later, a counselor pushed her to report to someone, and Crenshaw went to the head of pastoral care, who said, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure he&rsquo;s really sorry,&rdquo; according to ...</p><p class="more"><a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2024/may/hillsong-abuse-settlement-nda-lawsuit.html">Continue reading</a>...</p>
  59. ]]>
  60. </description><author>Daniel Silliman</author><link>https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2024/may/hillsong-abuse-settlement-nda-lawsuit.html</link><pubDate>Fri, 3 May 2024 10:40:00 CST</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[Conservative Methodists, Unite]]></title><description>
  61. <![CDATA[<p class="deck">After this week’s UMC votes on LGBTQ issues, African Methodists should join American conservatives in the new Global Methodist denomination.</p>
  62. <img src="https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/140344.jpg?h=258&w=460" /><p class="text">That was fast. In the first General Conference since the most conservative congregations disaffiliated, the United Methodist Church <a href="https://christianitytoday.com/news/2024/may/united-methodist-church-umc-general-conference-lgbtq-repeal.html" target="_blank" class="">liberalized its teachings</a> on marriage, sexuality, and the ordination of LGBTQ clergy.</p>
  63. <p class="text">In other mainline denominations, like the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Presbyterian Church (USA), the <a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2024/march/global-methodists-renewal-prayer-scripture-identity.html" target="_blank" class="">conservative exodus</a> has tended to come <em>after</em> the progressive victory. But in the UMC, the conservative American contingent <a href="https://christianitytoday.com/news/2023/december/united-methodist-church-split-total-umc-disaffiliation-lgbt.html" target="_blank" class="">is already gone</a>, so the vote wasn&rsquo;t close.</p>
  64. <p class="text">With that settled, the next and perhaps final battle between American Methodists who have been on opposite sides of theological and social issues for more than half a century <a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2023/december/united-methodist-church-split-total-umc-disaffiliation-lgbt.html" target="_blank" class="">will concern who can</a> win over the Africans, <a href="https://christianitytoday.com/news/2024/may/united-methodist-church-umc-general-conference-lgbtq-repeal.html" target="_blank" class="">who have been</a> the &ldquo;main group opposing the changes in policy&rdquo; on sexuality and are also the largest UMC contingent outside the United States. The <a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2024/april/are-global-methodists-evangelical.html" target="_blank" class="">breakaway conservative denomination</a> called itself the Global Methodist Church in no small part because members hoped to remain in fellowship with <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Global-Christianity-Religion-Afghanistan-Zimbabwe/dp/031011361X" target="_blank" class="">churches in the</a> Global South, where Methodism is more orthodox&mdash;and growing as Methodism in the US hasn&rsquo;t in years.</p>
  65. <p class="text">But the United Methodist Church has also set in motion <a href="https://christianitytoday.com/news/2024/april/united-methodist-general-conference-umc-restructure-lgbt.html" target="_blank" class="">a plan to allow regional autonomy</a> on the very issues that broke up the denomination domestically. This would permit African churches to remain traditional in how they define marriage and&mdash;so the pitch goes&mdash;otherwise insulate themselves from the Americans&rsquo; liberal course.</p>
  66. <div class="article-embed" articleid="203490"></div>
  67. <p class="text">African Methodists have previously rejected similar proposals, likely understanding how such rules would dilute African churches&rsquo; influence over the denomination and exempt leaders of the shrinking US church from accountability ...</p><p class="more"><a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2024/may-web-only/conservative-methodists-unite-umc-lgbtq-global-methodists.html">Continue reading</a>...</p>
  68. ]]>
  69. </description><author>W. James Antle III</author><link>https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2024/may-web-only/conservative-methodists-unite-umc-lgbtq-global-methodists.html</link><pubDate>Fri, 3 May 2024 09:00:00 CST</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[One of Oldest Books in Existence Will Be Sold, Worrying Scholars]]></title><description>
  70. <![CDATA[<p class="deck">An ancient codex, containing perhaps the earliest complete versions of Jonah and 1 Peter, goes up for auction in June. Will it disappear?</p>
  71. <img src="https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/140336.jpeg?h=258&w=460" /><p class="text">One of the oldest books in existence, which contains what is perhaps the oldest complete versions of Jonah and 1 Peter, is going up for auction in June. The sale of the Crosby-Sch&oslash;yen Codex has scholars excited to talk about its uniqueness&mdash;and nervous about whether it could go into private hands and disappear.</p>
  72. <p class="text">The Crosby-Sch&oslash;yen Codex is a primary example of the invention of books, which coincided with the spread of Christianity, said Eugenio Donadoni, a specialist in books and manuscripts at Christie&rsquo;s London, which is auctioning the codex. The growth of Christianity spurred the need to &ldquo;maximize the text you can write down and transmit &hellip; around the Mediterranean,&rdquo; Donadoni said.</p>
  73. <p class="text">Before codices appeared in roughly the third century, scrolls &ldquo;for several thousand years were the primary vehicle for transmitting literature,&rdquo; said Brent Nongbri, an expert in early Christian manuscripts and a professor at the Norwegian School of Theology.</p>
  74. <p class="text">Codices were a technological advancement that &ldquo;that wouldn&rsquo;t be surpassed until the discovery of the printing press,&rdquo; Donadoni added. Donadoni just finished touring the codex for potential buyers in New York and Paris before returning it to London, where it will be auctioned on June 11. About the codex he said, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never seen anything like this.&rdquo;</p>
  75. <p class="text">A single scribe wrote out the texts of the codex on papyrus leaves in Sahidic Coptic somewhere between A.D. 250 and 350, according to carbon dating of the codex <a href="/assets/22986.pdf" class="">conducted in 2020</a>. That means it&rsquo;s likely the text was written before the late-fourth-century councils, when the canon of Scripture began to be established.</p>
  76. <p class="text">&ldquo;This is being used at a time when ...</p><p class="more"><a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2024/may/crosby-schoyen-codex-bible-auction-early-church.html">Continue reading</a>...</p>
  77. ]]>
  78. </description><author>Emily Belz</author><link>https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2024/may/crosby-schoyen-codex-bible-auction-early-church.html</link><pubDate>Fri, 3 May 2024 08:00:00 CST</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[Why Almost Nobody Likes a Politician Shooting Her Dog]]></title><description>
  79. <![CDATA[<p class="deck">The widespread outrage over Kristi Noem’s book should awaken moral responsibility&mdash;not just toward pets but for one another.</p>
  80. <img src="https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/140343.jpg?h=258&w=460" /><p class="intro">This piece was adapted from Russell Moore&rsquo;s <a href="https://christianitytoday.activehosted.com/index.php?action=social&amp;chash=422f010441436ae9511d3e04a6d0d186.16534&amp;s=5605d0d2acb470b82790331867d1e911" target="_blank" class="intro">newsletter</a>. Subscribe <a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/newsletters/" target="_blank" class="intro">here</a>.</p>
  81. <p class="text"><span class="dropcap">D</span>ecades ago, before he was a nationally recognized face, Stephen Colbert featured a &ldquo;Better Know a District&rdquo; segment on his show <em>The Colbert Report</em> in which he would parody a far-right cable news host as he interviewed members of Congress, trying to get them in awkward situations for comedic effect.</p>
  82. <p class="text">In his interview with John Yarmuth, then a congressman from Louisville, Kentucky, Colbert referenced Yarmuth&rsquo;s past life as a debater on local television. He challenged Yarmuth to show his debating chops by instantly debating the opposite side of a question of Colbert&rsquo;s choosing. The stance Colbert chose to take was that throwing kittens into a wood chipper was a bad thing to do&mdash;and he then pointed to Yarmuth to argue the other side&mdash;that sometimes, throwing kittens in a wood chipper is the right thing to do.</p>
  83. <p class="text">The joke, of course, was that no decent human being, much less a politician seeking votes from a majority of the population, would ever want to be seen making the case for throwing kittens in a wood chipper. This past week, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem proved that, as much as the American public has shifted on all kinds of issues, there still isn&rsquo;t much of a constituency in this country for &ldquo;Throw Kittens in the Wood Chipper&rdquo;&mdash;or, more accurately in this case, &ldquo;Shoot Puppies in the Head.&rdquo;</p>
  84. <p class="text">In fact, many people have noted that this might be the most united that Americans of both parties and all tribes have been of late&mdash;all in expressing revulsion at Noem&rsquo;s self-disclosure in her memoir that she &ldquo;hated&rdquo; her 14-month-old dog Cricket. When Cricket wasn&rsquo;t ...</p><p class="more"><a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2024/may-web-only/kristi-noem-dog-shooting-russell-moore.html">Continue reading</a>...</p>
  85. ]]>
  86. </description><author>Russell Moore</author><link>https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2024/may-web-only/kristi-noem-dog-shooting-russell-moore.html</link><pubDate>Fri, 3 May 2024 07:00:00 CST</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[‘Wildcat’ Is as Unsettling as Flannery O’Connor Would Have Wanted]]></title><description>
  87. <![CDATA[<p class="deck">Ethan Hawke has made a movie as scandalous as one of the writer’s short stories.</p>
  88. <img src="https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/140188.jpg?h=258&w=460" /><p class="text">Why not write something that &ldquo;a lot, a <span class="citation">lot</span>, of people like?&rdquo; Regina O&rsquo;Connor asks her daughter, the writer Flannery O&rsquo;Connor, in the middle of the new biopic <span class="citation">Wildcat</span>. The same question might be put to the film itself. It&rsquo;s not a movie that a lot of people will like. But unlike the author&rsquo;s mother, I mean that as a high compliment. Director and screenwriter Ethan Hawke has made a film worthy of Flannery O&rsquo;Connor&rsquo;s genius.</p>
  89. <p class="text">An epigraph from O&rsquo;Connor&rsquo;s <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=FL8O0mTosVUC&amp;q=irritated+by+people+who+imply#v=snippet&amp;q=irritated%20by%20people%20who%20imply&amp;f=false" class="">essay</a> &ldquo;The Nature and Aim of Fiction&rdquo; sums up what <span class="citation">Wildcat</span> sets out to do: &ldquo;I&rsquo;m always irritated by people who imply writing fiction is an escape from reality. It is a plunge into reality.&rdquo; Fittingly, rather than depict the writer&rsquo;s life from birth to death, <span class="citation">Wildcat</span> uses her fiction to discover what&rsquo;s real, to <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/09/16/my-dear-god" class="">&ldquo;get down under things&rdquo;</a> to the problem of suffering, the limitations of human experience, the desire for goodness, the habits of evil, and, always present, the longing for God.</p>
  90. <p class="text">The result is a movie as scandalous as one of O&rsquo;Connor&rsquo;s short stories&mdash;&ldquo;shocking to the system,&rdquo; to borrow her words. Her devotees will applaud it; most of the audience will be left wondering what just clobbered them.</p>
  91. <p class="text">After that opening epigraph, Wildcat rolls a fake trailer for a 1950s-style horror flick inspired by O&rsquo;Connor&rsquo;s story &ldquo;The Comforts of Home.&rdquo; (A mother brings home a wayward, orphaned teen who tries to seduce her grown son. The son attempts to kill the teen, but shoots his own mother instead.) The trailer, starring Laura Linney and Maya Hawke&mdash;who also play the roles of Regina and Flannery&mdash; sets up expectations ...</p><p class="more"><a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2024/april-web-only/wildcat-unsettling-flannery-oconnor-movie-ethan-hawke.html">Continue reading</a>...</p>
  92. ]]>
  93. </description><author>Jessica Hooten Wilson </author><link>https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2024/april-web-only/wildcat-unsettling-flannery-oconnor-movie-ethan-hawke.html</link><pubDate>Thu, 2 May 2024 09:00:00 CST</pubDate></item></channel></rss>

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