I’ve been thinking about how practices of remembrance are so central to our faith, but how much of our lives (and often church life) fights against this. We think we need things like “a vision” a good future plan, ways to accomplish your dream, but God gives Passover (a remembrance that sustains through wilderness and beyond) and Communion (do this in remembrance…).
As I've been thinking a lot on this lately as well, thanks to your previous posts, I have written my own response to your question and how story has influenced me and my kids as we've been homeschooling the last two years. I just read the Narnia series aloud to them for the first time in my life, and it has had a profound affect on my middle age imagination and opened it in new ways. You can see it in my latest Substack post. Thanks again!
This is so good. I think one ingredient is that conspiracy theorists tend to have a very limp version of the Christian story (a story of "escape from the doomed world", ala D.L. Moody), and so Conspiracy Theories fill the story vacuum in their hearts. The "Christian" story, here, isnt' robust enough to counter what amounts to the rhetoric of poetry by QAnon folks.
"How Road A lead to Life A and Road B lead to Life B"
I am increasingly convinced that taking Road A doesn't necessarily lead to Life A. It's all so unpredictable. Path leads to path and so many of them are obscured by the underbrush in the distance. We do our best, but the outcome is hard to predict. But it does make for a good story, when we look back with a sigh. 💜
I’ve been thinking about how practices of remembrance are so central to our faith, but how much of our lives (and often church life) fights against this. We think we need things like “a vision” a good future plan, ways to accomplish your dream, but God gives Passover (a remembrance that sustains through wilderness and beyond) and Communion (do this in remembrance…).
So well-thought-out and well-written. Thank you, Ashley.
so good. you inspired me to pre-order the new editions of The Wilderking Trilogy coming out this summer!
As I've been thinking a lot on this lately as well, thanks to your previous posts, I have written my own response to your question and how story has influenced me and my kids as we've been homeschooling the last two years. I just read the Narnia series aloud to them for the first time in my life, and it has had a profound affect on my middle age imagination and opened it in new ways. You can see it in my latest Substack post. Thanks again!
This is so good. I think one ingredient is that conspiracy theorists tend to have a very limp version of the Christian story (a story of "escape from the doomed world", ala D.L. Moody), and so Conspiracy Theories fill the story vacuum in their hearts. The "Christian" story, here, isnt' robust enough to counter what amounts to the rhetoric of poetry by QAnon folks.
"How Road A lead to Life A and Road B lead to Life B"
I am increasingly convinced that taking Road A doesn't necessarily lead to Life A. It's all so unpredictable. Path leads to path and so many of them are obscured by the underbrush in the distance. We do our best, but the outcome is hard to predict. But it does make for a good story, when we look back with a sigh. 💜