Category: Uncategorized

From The Author:

Join Red State Christians author Angela Denker on August 4th at Lake Superior Freethinkers meeting to discuss the growing popularity and influence of American white Christian Nationalism, and how to combat it in your community.

Denker, an ELCA Lutheran pastor and veteran journalist, has been researching white Christian Nationalism since 2018, and she also recently served three years as a rural parish pastor in Southwestern Minnesota, where a majority of her parishioners voted for Trump.

During this meeting, Denker will help us define Christian Nationalism in historical, sociological, and theological terms, help us understand its roots and how it’s being weaponized in American politics, as well as an introduction to the Lutheran Theology of the Cross as a tool of resistance against Christian Nationalism: a framework that’s helpful regardless of peoples’ personal faith background, beliefs, or lack thereof.

She will also talk with attendees about self-care in a time of Christian Nationalism, and how to engage in this work without becoming overcome by burnout or a sense of loneliness – as well as why religious and non-religious Americans alike need to work together across belief differences to fight against Christian Nationalism and for the separation of church and state. Make sure to bring your questions and examples from your context to share in Q&A and discussion time.

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Angela’s new book, Disciples of White Jesus: The Radicalization of American Boyhood, will be released on March 25, 2025.

We reached our goal!

Each year Lake Superior Freethinkers enjoys the opportunity to support a local community organization with any kind of need — an additional nudge, project, or simply ongoing support. For 2024 the LSF planning committee chose Life House, a Duluth organization that provides comprehensive supportive services to meet the needs of youth and young families ages 14 to 24 who are unstably housed and/or navigating various challenges in life.

Lake Superior Freethinkers set a goal to raise $1000 for Life House which will be generously matched with an additional $1000 community partner grant by Freedom From Religion Foundation of which LSF is a local chapter.

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From the author:

My work has enabled me to study reefs in Australia and California, to work with wildlife in Peru, India, and Thailand, and to consult with thought leaders throughout the world.

I have more than a decade of experience as a mental health practitioner, and more than a decade of experience in environmental education. I support people in learning about climate change, in processing climate change emotionally, and in developing strategies to respond to both in ways that feel empowering and attainable. I work with people of all ages, helping them communicate their fears, identify their strengths, and take action.

The secret to a healthy, happy life
is figuring out how to live well
in spite of and within
a heavy and uncertain world.

Seldom do you spot such diverse perspectives represented in a book. Shawna Weaver’s 2023 work, Climate Grief: From Coping to Resilience and Action, reflects the fact that Shawna has been around. A couple of chapters in I began to notice the almost circular scope of perspective on this topic of climate.

The journey is long; we change and grow in ways that are more like walking through a labyrinth than running down a straight road.

Weaver earned a PhD in Sustainability Education, runs marathons, enjoys a plant-based diet, is a musician in Duluth, MN, and teaches in environmental education. These are pieces of her life and experience that you feel support this book because she isn’t only talking about it, but lives and feels it.

I learned two new expressions straight away from Weaver’s research and practice. Ecopsychology is that field of study where Weaver draws from the intersection of how we relate to our environment and how our behavior toward our planet impacts human life experience. Ecotherapy is that unique brand of psychotherapy that she has developed in which her practice with clients occurs in natural settings and experiences. Ecotherapy faces the grief where the grief dwells.

Weaver doesn’t explain our climate grief experiences away. Those of us living in Northern Minnesota know that we don’t live in a climate refuge as many outsiders claim. It’s a delicate and unique place. We know it’s changing: the lake is warming, ticks have arrived where they never were before, and white-tailed deer abound.

It’s not the same.

The most inspiring change-makers among us are those who keep learning and changing as they learn. They refuse to preserve a problematic status quo.

Weaver takes us on a tour of natural and oh-so-common biases and binary thinking and how when favored they lock us into a vortex of personal and social self destruction. There are ways to break free when we can see ourselves as we really are.

Any conversation about grief would be lacking without investigation of the work of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross. The stages of grief are denial, anger, bargaining, sadness, and acceptance. And Weaver adds one, the work of David Kessler, a practical and natural stage of meaning-making.

The secret to a healthy, happy life is figuring out how to live well in spite of and within a heavy and uncertain world.

I began to notice while working through the chapters on grief stages that I wasn’t only examining my own experiences with grief about climate change, but many other areas of my life where I may have checked out of the grief process or perhaps never even noticed that I was grieving.

The book is practical. Anyone can find a strategy that will suit them right where they’re at. Shawna invites you to start where you are, care for yourself and become involved in some way that is natural to you. I felt hopeful even though the tempest is already upon us.

I felt sad many times reading Climate Grief. Surprisingly, it wasn’t a bad sadness. It’s a sweet sadness that allows me to care for myself, and in caring, I’m caring for my community and climate as well. We all benefit when we respect our grief.

Mission and Ethics in the Catholic Social Tradition:
Current Challenges in the Age of Trump

The paradox of Catholic Social Teaching and support for authoritarian, fascist leadership by certain members of the Catholic hierarchy and “faithful” is a scandalous feature of the 2024 elections. The discussion will examine some of the principles of Catholic Social Teaching that are in conflict with the ideas and practices of Trumpism. The role of some Catholic bishops and their enablers will be highlighted and critiqued.

Daniel Dwyer has worked in Catholic health care for over 40 years in local, regional, and system level leadership positions. He has served as a mission and ethics leader, educator in ethics and moral theology, medical social worker, and family therapist. 

As always, we’ll gather on the first Sunday of the month at the Central Hillside Community Center (12 East 4th Street, Duluth) to hear the presentation, a reflection from one of our members, a question and answer session, and a brunch afterwards. The side door opens at 9:30 and the event begins at 10:00 am, wrapping up by 11:30. Then we’re all invited to the meeting-after-the-meeting at Pizza Lucé.

PIZZA LUCÉ 11 SUPERIOR ST DULUTH MN  (218) 727-7400