God & Country here in West Michigan!
Also, J&JW in Sarasota next week, David Gushee here in GR, and more fun things
Exciting news, Michigan friends…
That documentary that’s been causing all that trouble before it even released, the one based on Katherine Stewart’s Power Worshippers and produced by Rob Reiner…is coming to Grand Rapids! This weekend! And I’ll be there!
God & Country will be showing this Saturday—opening weekend—at Celebration Cinema North. You can get tickets here for the 6:30 screening, where I’ll be on a panel after the film answering questions and telling more about the story behind the film, and also eating popcorn and drinking slushies. Come hang out—I think it will be a fun time and fun people, and also I think I’m going to need some friendly faces there. [**Update** This screening sold out almost immediately, I’m so sorry!]
If this weekend doesn’t work for you, I’ll also be at a screening in Holland at 3:45 on February 24, and I’ll be on a panel there, too! I will also be eating more popcorn. This event is hosted by Vote Common Good, and I’ll share those details here as soon as I have them.
[Update: Get tickets to the Holland 3:45 screening here, while they last!]
While I have my calendar in front of me, a heads-up that I’ll be in Florida next week! If you’re in the neighborhood, come to Sarasota’s Church of the Palms…Thursday, Feb 22, 6:30pm. Click here for more details.
And…next month I’ll be back in Grand Rapids, together with David Gushee at an event hosted by Eerdman’s and GVSU’s Kaufman Institute. We’ll have a conversation followed by a nice reception and book signing.
Free and open to the public. Register here.
Finally, it’s always a little wild to me when my Substack gets picked up by the national media because I think of it as just between friends, but I appreciated Sarah Jones’ coverage at New York Magazine of John Fea’s Atlantic article and my response. Had I known the post would be read by that many people I would have polished it up a bit, but I’m glad it resonated with so many readers and scholars.
In her essay, Jones recounts her own experience with Dobson’s teachings and challenges Fea’s assessment. She had this to say:
He acknowledges Dobson’s imperfection only in oblique terms, writing just that the broadcaster’s “emphasis on male authority in the home has come under significant criticism in recent years.” He did not follow Dobson’s teachings as he reared his own children, preferring “other Christian approaches” that were “perhaps, less harmful.”
Fea never explains what that harm might be. He instead takes aim at historians Kristin Kobes Du Mez and Beth Allison Barr, who are Christians themselves, and their recent books, which contain nuanced, if critical, portrayals of Dobson. They have produced “woefully flat” works of Evangelical history because they allegedly “do not explain historically the story of my father and, I imagine, millions of other men and women who learned from Dobson how to love their families as Jesus loves his church,” he writes. (Du Mez has responded to Fea on her Substack, writing that her book, Jesus and John Wayne, is not a history of Evangelicalism but of “white evangelical masculinity & militarism,” and argues persuasively that Fea has mischaracterized her work.) Fea’s overarching argument — that Evangelicalism, like Dobson, has been flattened by its critics — works by omission. Context weakens it. If we are to believe, as Fea writes, that American Evangelicalism hasn’t completely earned all its negative coverage, we have to ignore much of what Evangelicals say, and do.
It’s a sensitively written piece, and worth a read in full.
I think that’s all. I have a family birthday to celebrate tonight, a 5th grade basketball game to attend, and strawberries to cover in chocolate for Ash Wednesday, and/or Valentine’s Day.
I am in Oakland, CA for another week and a half. Is there any way to get it screened out here? Or, could it be brought to Holland, MI so I can see it there when I get back :)
Praying for a prophetic and powerful impact.
I'm so excited about this film release, Kristin. . I'll be in Washington DC with my pal Rob Schenck to see it with him and his wife, Cheryl this coming Friday evening. We go back many years and have Western NY connections. Rob's already told us that there will be some reporters hanging with us. Our little gathering will go to a local bar/grill to hang out after the showing and necessary reporter time, for our own little "after watch" party.