Biweekly $7.95 August 15, 2018 Thinking Critically, Living Faithfully PUTTING DOWN ROOTS Small-town pastors who stay THE ANNUAL CHRISTIAN CENTURY LECTURE 7 p.m. | November 8 A THEOLOGY OF Reception to follow Arts Club of Chicago ACCOMPANIMENT $35.00 “I was a middle-aged lady, set in my ways, when I decided to be baptized. And when that water poured over my head, I realized the big problem with my new religion: God actually lives in other people. I couldn’t be a Christian by myself. I couldn’t choose who else was my brother or sister. “That’s a really different story from the one that’s sold to us every day, which insists each one of us is individually of Miles Sara courtesy Photo responsible for managing our own economic and political salvation.” SARA MILES Journalist and author Sara Miles served as director of ministry at St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco for ten years. She is an organizer for Faith in Action Bay Area, training congregations to accompany immigrants at risk of deporta- tion. Her books include Take This Bread, the story of her adult conversion to Christianity and her involvement in food min- istry at St. Gregory’s, and City of God: Faith in the Streets. To register, visit christiancentury.org/event From the publisher Peter W. Marty California law permits anyone to apply for a The wedding experience one-day permit to become a deputy commis- sioner of marriage. In states like Colorado and ear Pastor Marty: I have been asked by my Wisconsin, a couple can solemnize their own Dfriend to become ordained so I could marry wedding, which sounds plenty efficient. In her and her boyfriend. I am honored and delight- Maryland, any adult can sign a marriage license ed to do this. I was wondering, do you know how as long as the couple getting married agrees that I can become ordained? Thanks much, Trisha he or she is clergy. Sizing up someone for that role strikes me as funny, though I shouldn’t Hey Peter, I’m going to be the officiant for my laugh. My own parishioners may be making sister’s wedding in a couple of months. Do you assessments in their heads on a weekly basis as have a prayer or something I could use? I’d love it. to whether or not I qualify to be their pastor. Chris A sharp drop in church weddings corre- sponds, of course, to the growing absence of Ten years ago, email requests like these from formal religious practice. Part of me admires friends and parishioners didn’t exist. Last year I couples who don’t pretend to have spiritual received six of them, resembling the two samples interests on their wedding day and so don’t end above. My customary reply doesn’t take long to up treating church as an inconvenient stop on write: “Congratulations! I don’t have brilliant the way to a party. Another part of me laments suggestions to offer. You might try Google.” the implications of this shift. Pumping signifi- The percentage of weddings that take place in cant energy into a spectacular wedding event churches has plummeted in the last decade. Other only serves to draw attention away from the kinds of venues, such as barns, beaches, wineries, preparation for long-term marriage realities. parks, and hotel ballrooms, now host over 75 per- Liturgies of sacred meaning easily disappear cent of weddings in America. As weddings shift into highly sentimental experiences. away from ecclesiastical settings, the emphasis on I love being with couples who take God and providing the ultimate guest experience seems the craft of marriage seriously. I don’t like func- only to grow. Photo booths, wine tastings, selfie tioning as a prop in a mostly pagan show. The stations, sparklers, games, and magicians are now $72 billion wedding industry has little interest a regular part of many wedding ceremonies. in helping prepare people for marriage. There’s State laws vary widely as to who can perform no money in that. Besides, who would encour- a wedding. Increasingly, a friend or family mem- age a couple to sit through counseling sessions ber ends up doing the favor—an arrangement on family, forgiveness, anger, joy, and balance in that many couples find cheaper, easier, and life when there’s a beach wedding to plan? If more personal. A few clicks online are all it the chairs were to tilt awkwardly in the sand or takes to get ordained. Sites such as the Church sand flies were to swarm the moment, there’s of the Latter-Day Dude or the Universal Life no telling what might happen to that marriage. Church, which claims to have ordained more One can only hope Google would come than 20 million people, stand at the ready. through. 3 Christian Century August 15, 2018 August 15, 2018 Vol. 135, No. 17 Publisher Peter W. Marty Executive Editor David Heim Associate Editors Amy Frykholm Steve Thorngate News Editor Celeste Kennel-Shank 6 Letters Books Editor Elizabeth Palmer Desire and fulfillment Poetry Editor Jill Peláez Baumgaertner 7 America needs allies The Editors: Moral realism in an interdependent world Editorial Assistant Rachel Pyle 8 CenturyMarks Advertising Manager Political distractions, pastoral examples, etc. Heidi Baumgaertner Art Director Daniel Richardson 10 Moscow connection John P. Burgess: U.S. evangelicals’ strange alliance with Production Assistant Diane Mills Russian Orthodox Director of Finance Maureen C. Gavin 12 Church in a parking lot Hillary Frances: Pastor Mandy Sloan McDow Marketing Consultant Shanley & Associates 22 Pastors who stay Contributing Editors M. Craig Barnes Debra Bendis Brad Roth: Small-town churches and the ministry of abiding Walter Brueggemann John M. Buchanan Jason Byassee Martin B. Copenhaver Lillian Daniel Beverly R. Gaventa 26 Separated at the border Adam Hearlson Philip Jenkins Terra Brockman: One family’s chaotic road to reunification L. Gregory Jones Richard A. Kauffman Thomas G. Long Robin W. Lovin Thomas Lynch Bill McKibben 30 Imagining the biblical story Kathleen Norris Stephanie Paulsell Emily Zimbrick-Rogers: Opening scripture for children Dean Peerman Kathryn Reklis Barbara Brown Taylor Miroslav Volf Grant Wacker William H. Willimon Ralph C. Wood Carol Zaleski Cover photo © Ian McDonnell / Getty NEWS 14 Muslim candidates run in record numbers; Study links extremism to local expressions of anti-Muslim prejudice; 22 Luther Seminary will experiment with offering 24-month M.Div. program; Law declares Israel the “national home of the Jewish people” I N R E V I E W 36 Books Chad M. Bauman: Jesus in Asia, by R. S. Sugirtharajah Edward J. Blum: Anti-Blackness and Christian Ethics, edited by Vincent W. Lloyd and Andrew Prevot Timothy Brown: Sacred Signposts, by Benjamin J. Dueholm Christina Bieber Lake: All the Names They Used for God, by Anjali Sachdeva 44 Media Kathryn Reklis: Be like Elastigirl 47 Art Heidi J. Hornik and Mikeal C. Parsons: The Sacrifice at Lystra, by Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio) (1483–1520) 12 COLUMNS 3 From the publisher Peter W. Marty: The wedding experience 20, 21 Living by the Word LaDonna Sanders Nkosi 35 Faith Matters Samuel Wells: Untidy truth POETRY 26 13 James Crews: Fireflies 24 Sarah Rossiter: Palimpsest SUBSCRIPTIONS & CUSTOMER SERVICE: Tel.: 800-208-4097. Email: [email protected]. The CHRISTIAN CENTURY, P.O. Box 429, Congers, NY 10920-0429. Fax: 845-267-3478. Subscriptions $65 per year; $105 Canadian; $125 other foreign. Online-only subscriptions available at christiancentury.org: $2.95 for four weeks; $24.95 for six months; $39.95 for 12 months. EDITORIAL OFFICE: General queries to [email protected]; 312-263-7510. Letters to the editor: [email protected] or the CHRISTIAN CENTURY, Attn: Letters to the Editor, 104 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 1100, Chicago, IL 60603. For information on rights & permissions, submissions guidelines, advertising information, letters to the editor: christiancentury.org/contact. Established 1884. Renamed the CHRISTIAN CENTURY 1900. Copyright © 2018 by the CHRISTIAN CENTURY. All rights reserved under the International Copyright Union, Universal Copyright Convention, and Pan-American Copyright Convention. The CHRISTIAN CENTURY (ISSN 0009-5281) is published biweekly at 104 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 1100, Chicago IL 60603. Periodicals postage paid at Chicago, IL, and additional mailing offices. Canada Post Publications Mail Product (Canadian Distribution) Sales Agreement No. 1406523. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to CHRISTIAN CENTURY, P.O. Box 429, Congers, NY 10920-0429. On the CC website LETTERS Desire and fulfillment n “Sex and the single life” (July 18) faith, unless we consider love as a Kutter Callaway posits that we all defense. Come to think of it . Ihave a deep-seated drive for intima- Walter Everett cy which we obsessively and unsuccess- Lewisburg, Pa. fully attempt to fulfill, often with sex; that even the marriage relationship is “pro- foundly unfulfilling”; and that we will Arab neighbors . have to wait for the resurrection for the loving intimacy we were created to expe- egarding “Our cycle of denial: A rience. For now, every Christian relation- Rletter to my Palestinian neighbor” ship is an occasion for directing our (June 6), by Yossi Klein Halevi: I con- desires along the lines of self-giving love. tinue to be surprised when Israelis I question whether everyone pursues lament the fact that they are surround- A podcast intimacy as obsessively as Callaway de - ed by Arabs. Arabs were inhabiting the scribes. I am particularly concerned that area for centuries before Zionists first his emphasis on self-giving love may tried to encourage Eastern European about movies inappropriately mislead those with code- Jews to settle in Palestine/Israel rather pendent tendencies, as when he asserts than in some other location.