The PURPOSE of WRESTLE
1) To create opportunities within the church to dialogue about social issues and to reason together about how God would have us respond and
2) To encourage mobilization of believers towards Christ-centered civic engagement.
Our NEXT Meeting
WRESTLE w/Christian Nationalism
Join us on Monday, 5/17 at 7PM (Zoom link: HERE) as we wrestle with Christian Nationalism. We will spend time with Dr. Samuel Perry (co-author of Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States) and Phil Vischer to get an understanding of the impact of Christian Nationalism and reflect on our own beliefs. As a basis for their book, they surveyed hundreds of individuals using a six statement survey. Prior to Wrestle, we’d like to get as many people as we can in our congregation to take this one-minute survey to help us reflect on where we are on this issue. Even if you can’t attend, we invite you to take this survey HERE.
Click HERE to RSVP and ask questions of the speakers in advance. Please feel free to invite your friends!
Our MOST RECENT Meeting
Previous Wrestle Sessions
WRESTLE w/2020 Election
Jan Tobey & Melissa Nachman from the League of Women Voters shared about Voting 101 (from colonial town halls, issues on the ballot, the “how-tos” of casting your vote), and Skye Jethani prepared us to wrestle with our decisions in the upcoming election.
Click HERE for the Slides from WRESTLE w/2020 Election
Wrestle w/Policing, Part 2
Session 2: Rev. Sam Atchison, author of The Church and Law Enforcement in Poor Black and White Communities
Wrestle w/Policing, Part 1
Session 1: Brian Stoffer (Chief of Public Safety – Moody Bible Institute) and Sgt. Jermaine Harris (Chicago Police – Austin)
COVID-19 SESSION RESOURCES
Session 1: Dr. Jay Liu & Skye Jethani
COVID-19 SESSION RESOURCES
Session 1: Dr. Noah Toly (Wheaton College)
OTHER RESOURCES
VIDEOS
Quick overview of climate change and the consequences from NASA—2 minute videos—learn the lingo!!
• Usual Suspects
• Earth has a Fever
• Sea Level Rise
• More “Earth Minute” videos put out by NASA
Lines of evidence video – how scientists have arrived at the state of knowledge about current climate change and its causes
Why climate change is important for us:
Here’s Why the Melting Arctic Should Matter to Us All | DAVOS 2020
Time-lapse disappearing sea ice (1984-2019)
“Arctic Report Card”– Watch this video (especially toward the end) to see the effects of climate change on indigenous people:
WEBSITES/READING
NASA – NASA’s website on climate is a treasure trove of information on climate change.
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Justice and Environment
“Coal Blooded: Putting Profits Before People”
This report, Coal Blooded: Putting Profits Before People, demonstrates both the urgency and
opportunity for community action with respect to coal fired power plants—an issue at the
intersection between climate justice and environmental justice.
Biblical Foundation: Loving the least of these
Read-Climate Change Skeptic View:
• Divided We Fall-Climate Change: Views from an Environmentalist and a Skeptic
• https://www.climatedepot.com/
Ideas for what to do:
Personal
• “101 Ways to Fight Climate Change”
• “Top 10 Things You Can Do about Climate Change”
Institutional:
• Faith in Place is the Illinois affiliate of Interfaith Power and Light
• https://www.faithinplace.org/news/they-paved-paradise-and-we-created-garden-lot
Systemic
• Project Drawdown: The World’s Leading Resource for Climate Solutions
Vote!
Session 1: Attorneys Kendra H.M. Scheuerlein and Kelli Fenne
Session 2: Durmomo Gary (World Relief) & Dr. Daniel Carroll (Wheaton College)
RESOURCES
Wrestle with Immigration Google Drive
PICTURES worth a thousand words
• Border Camps
READING RESOURCES
• Legal Immigration Explained in One Simple Chart – Reason.com
• Facts on Immigration: What you need to know in 2019
• Should the Government Allow Immigrants Who Are Here Illegally to Become US Citizens? Pros/Cons
• The Economic Effects of Granting Legal Status and Citizenship to Undocumented Immigrants
• Remain in Mexico Policy Review (Jan 2019) – American Immigration Lawyer Association review
• Profiting from Enforcement: The Role of Private Prisons in U.S. Immigration Detention
VIDEOS
• Immigration, World Poverty and Gumballs
AUDIO STORIES
• Where Have You Gone, Barbara Jordan? Our Nation Turns Its Lonely Eyes To You
Back in the 1990s, a bipartisan team led by the charismatic Barbara Jordan came up with a solution to the
immigration debate that would have fixed a lot the things we’re arguing about today.
• Our Town (Part 1) (Part 2)
We spent eight months and did over a hundred interviews to try to bypass the usual rhetoric and get to the
bottom of what really happened when undocumented workers showed up in one Alabama town.