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Last week, I was lying silently on my mat at the end of yoga class when a B-2 bomber suddenly blasted overhead, en route downtown for one of President Trump’s “Freedom 250” celebrations. I wasn’t thrilled: A plane that can drop 60,000 pounds of nuclear weapons on our enemies celebrates a very particular kind of “freedom.” As a D.C. resident, it’s been extra-hard to ignore what Adam Russell Taylor calls the “hyper-partisan and nationalistic nature” in many of the planned celebrations for the U.S. sesquicentennial. And given that, I’ve felt a not-very-Christ-like twinge of satisfaction watching the never-ending algae saga in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool or reports of low crowds at the president’s “Great American State Fair.” But our calling as Christians isn’t to smirk as Trump’s July 4 celebrations flounder, Adam reminds us. Instead, Adam points to the work of the biblical prophets, which never ended with merely condemning evil. “If Trump’s hubris is all we see as we observe this national milestone, we’re missing the bigger story,” he writes. Elsewhere this week: While navigating severe blackouts, several Cuban Christians used their limited electricity to talk with my colleague Ethan Meyers about the crisis their country is facing—one that deserves more attention. We’re thinking about the uncertain future of a faith-supported reparations project and the next stage of solidarity with migrants now that the Supreme Court has ended Temporary Protected Status for Syrians and Haitians. And if you’re looking to escape the heat this weekend, you may want to sit in the dark and watch a show that simultaneously evokes Stephen King and the late theologian Walter Wink.
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