A tale of two road trips

Travel—or sadly, in my case, non-travel—is on my mind this week as my wife visits her mother in Florida and then heads to Maine next week. I have stockaded our house with food, books, and video games for my stint as a lone wolf, or lone hibernating bear. (Lest you worry I’m becoming a recluse, I will mention that I’ve had plans outside my house the last four days!)

It can be so profound to see new places for those who have the privilege to travel, vacation, pilgrimage, or sojourn. We have two new essays about very different road trips. CC senior editor Elizabeth Palmer went to George Floyd Square in Minneapolis to bear witness to the people and activity there five years after the infamous murder. Liz Charlotte Grant traveled, perhaps against her better judgment, with her in-laws and children to Kentucky for Ken Ham’s Ark Encounter, an ode to Young Earth Creationism.

Plus scroll down for even more great content. Our video of the week, featuring Yolanda Pierce, considers the way Black Church functions as a language. Plus a book review about rethinking John Calvin’s theology, a poem about engaging with a chipmunk, and more.

Jon Mathieu
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Still seeking justice for George Floyd

“George Floyd is a symbol, an icon, a movement, a mirror that shows us our failures. His name represents all of the unnamed victims of police brutality. His story stands in for a larger story about the values this country is built on. But he was also a person—he was Perry.”

by Elizabeth Palmer

A road trip to Noah’s Ark

“How do these Young Earth theologians refute the hard evidence—literally, the bones of creatures who lived and died millions of years before humanity existed on our planet? The entire Ark Encounter museum is an attempt at answering this single question.”

by Liz Charlotte Grant

VIDEO: Black Church is a language

Yolanda Pierce chats with Jon about the theological language of Black Church, its insistence on God’s justice, and its interaction with the Spirit.

In the Lectionary for June 1 (Easter 7C)

The question of unity always raises another question: On whose terms?

Pulling Calvin out of predestination’s shadow

“Rubén Rosario Rodríguez takes Calvin in his context as a migrant, a refugee, a lawyer, and a political operator, mining his writing for potentially surprising relevance to pressing contemporary issues of justice and advocacy.”

Bailey Pickens reviews Calvin for the World

A call to solidarity at Duke

“Librarians, researchers, and key administrators at schools across the university are grieving. Those who have not yet been pruned are experiencing survivor’s guilt.”

by Amy Laura Hall

Under Their Own Trees

Spring to summer involves
the ceremony of chipmunks,
putting seeds and nuts
at the corner of the porch …

poem by Bonnie Thurston