Welcome to Growing Ideas at the Cottage. These mini “lectures” are informal ruminations on subjects that have caught my attention — and I can’t stop thinking about.

Today, I’m thinking about good news in religion and politics! Yes! There is good news. Quiet Christianity in America is waking up — and insisting that the Jesus of Christian nationalism isn’t Jesus at all. Join me as I reflect on candidates in Texas and Iowa, Lutherans in Minnesota, brave Methodists, and bishops talking about martyrdom! And I share new polls that suggest the frozen chosen — those in the mostly white, staid, mainline churches — are actually thawing out.

It’s a miracle!

Plus, there’s an impromptu Diana-sermon in the mix.

If you are sick of all the bad news, look a little further. Brave, good people are rising to the moment. Wake up! You can be part of a movement of and for love.

This is happening.

Get a conversation started. Share this post with friends. With your pastor. With someone who is worried about America.

The big asks of the New Testament are:

Love God with all your heart.

Love your neighbor as you do yourself.

Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and comfort the prisoner.

Whatever you do for the least among you, you do for God.

None of this is compatible with a political movement centered around a strongman who promises — literally — to persecute the vermin poisoning the blood of the nation.

— Jonathan V. Last, The Triad, a Bulwark newsletter

Christianity and nonviolence are synonyms, in my book. God takes human form and is beaten and tortured and murdered — and he doesn’t respond with violence. It was probably the most famous act of nonviolence in history.

— James Talarico

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