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Adam Russell Taylor Here’s my confession this Advent season: I’m addicted to watching men’s World Cup soccer. Ever since the world’s largest sporting event began last week, my days have started at the painfully early hour of 5 a.m. to catch the first games taking place in Qatar. Watching the games with my two sons, who both play soccer and are now old enough to appreciate the beauty of the sport, only adds to my addiction. Sadly, this year’s FIFA tournament — the first to be hosted in the Middle East — has been overshadowed by controversies: The migrant workers who built the stadiums and other infrastructure for the tournament did so under frequently dangerous and exploitative labor conditions; one investigation estimated that more than 6,500 migrant workers have died in Qatar since 2010, when the country won its bid to host this year’s World Cup. Then there’s the abysmal human rights record of a nation where homosexuality is an imprisonable crime and women are subject to discriminatory laws. Captains of several European teams announced plans to wear armbands promoting LGBTQ rights, in protest of Qatar’s laws, but the captains abandoned their plans when FIFA threatened them with in-game penalties. On top of all that, there are multiple investigations into whether FIFA officials accepted bribes to vote for Qatar’s selection as the 2022 host. [...] Yet I can’t deny the unbridled excitement that this global phenomenon unleashes every four years. And since this year’s tournament is taking place in November (to avoid Qatar’s crushing summer heat), the international fervor coincides with the start of Advent. Somehow, it all feels fitting: Much like how the 2022 men’s World Cup inspires elation despite the many issues surrounding the tournament, Advent is a season of profound expectation and hope that stubbornly shows up amid very real brokenness. Here are three ways that watching the men’s World Cup is strengthening my own faith journey this Advent season:
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Our Latest Delores S. Williams, Groundbreaking Womanist Theologian, Dies (by Mitchell Atencio) Williams, author of Sisters in the Wilderness was celebrated for her theology, which saw Black women’s experiences as a primary source for “God-talk.” ‘Unruly Saint’ Explores What Dorothy Day’s Biographers Overlook (by Cassidy Klein) “There are many excellent biographies of Dorothy Day already written,” D.L. Mayfield writes. “This book does not claim to be one of them.” The narrowly tailored bill, which would require the federal government to recognize a marriage if it was legal in the state in which it was performed, is meant to be a backstop if the Supreme Court acted against same-sex marriage. ‘TÁR’: If an Artist Moves Mountains, But Does Not Love, She Is Nothing (by Joe George) In TÁR Cate Blanchett stars as a brilliant but maniacal orchestra conductor. |
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From the Magazine Reclaiming Advent as the Season of the Midwife (by Sarah James) As we anticipate the birth of Jesus Christ, we must remember that God appeared in these tender places — in human flesh, in the womb of a refugee, at the site of vulnerability and oppression. |
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Online Book Launch Honoring Dr. Catherine Meeks, December 8 at 6:30pm ET Join Dr. Catherine Meeks, Executive Director of the Absalom Jones Center for Racial Healing, along with friends and leaders from around the Episcopal Church as we celebrate her new book, The Night is Long but Light Comes in the Morning: Meditations for Racial Healing (Church Publishing, 2022). Tracking the Tyrant Muse: Poems against Hate As a virus spread through the world, the virus Hate has infected humans for ages. Anderson tracks the tyrant muse from a Nicaraguan prison through Ukraine to Bosnian soccer fields, beyond the apartheid wall at Bethlehem to the Holocaust ground of concentration camps as poems seek the Light of justice. Upcoming Zoom Programs with Rev. John Dear and the Beatitudes Center The Beatitudes Center hosts regular Zoom sessions on Jesus, the Gospels, peacemaking and nonviolence, hosted by Fr. John Dear. Upcoming speakers include Dr. Cornel West, Rev. Ron Rolheiser, Dr. Maria Stephan, Frida Berrigan, Bishop John Stowe, Marisa Guerin and others. Do you hunger for a deeper spiritual experience? The Academy is one of the most highly regarded programs of its kind, providing a balanced approach to spiritual formation that fosters rhythms of study and prayer, silence and liturgy, solitude and relationship, rest and exercise, contemplation and action. The next Two-Year Academy begins in January 2023. |
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