On Wendell Berry and Christian Nationalism

I’d like to talk about two subjects that don’t seem to have much to do with one another: Christian nationalism and Wendell Berry. I think many people were as alarmed and horrified as I was – as pretty much the entire country was, and the entire world, at least momentarily – about the insurrection on Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021. There were many things to be alarmed about in that moment, but maybe the thing that horrified me the most was seeing a sign that said “Jesus saves” in the same mob that had a noose for the vice president of the United States on a gallows made there. Many people have wondered, as they look at this and other expressions of religion used for cultural or political purposes and sometimes even violent purposes around the world: Where does this come from, and how do we answer it?

Read all of "Faith, Fiction, and Christian Nationalism" by Russell Moore at Plough.

A Ride with Wendell Berry

               Wendell pointed out his son’s farm as we passed and commented on the health of the cattle. We drove through Port Royal, the inspiration for Berry’s fictional town of Port William. Arriving at the next stop—a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm, I worked up the nerve to ask Wendell to sign the two books I had so optimistically brought along. He smiled and signed both with personal inscriptions. While he signed we discussed black walnuts, a recently discovered population of American chestnuts, and yes, I even found a way to work pecans into the conversation. Wendell perked up at the mention of pecans, and remembered fondly that his parents had a pecan tree in the yard when he was growing up.

Read all of "Riding with Wendell" by Lenny Wells at Thoughts from the Orchard.