Pub Theology 5/19/26 -- A season of renewal
With mid-May upon us, and summer on the doorstep, we are well and truly into spring, typically seen as a season of renewal. A couple of things have brought this to my mind this week. And not just the flowers growing up and around and through the old animal skulls that we artistically left in the chaos garden behind the house when we moved in two springs ago. For context, these used to hang on the wall in the garage at our old house.
First, in typical New York Times fashion, their podcast The Daily last week ran a piece on what was claimed to be Americans' "revisiting of religion," and "putting secularism on hold." I listened to the thing, and what it seems to be based on is anecdotal evidence drawn from conversations that the writer of their Belongings newsletter has had with friends, acquaintances, and her family members over the last year or two of her writing the newsletter. Classic New York Times! But still something to contemplate, especially her argument that this turn back to religion is being driven by people's desire for community, connection, and meaning in their lives.
Second, and in an echo of our topic of discussion last week, The Washington Post last week ran a piece by a religion professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington proposing that the government's release of new previously classified material on UFOs was offering support and recognition of a new religion, belief in UFOs. The author writes: "UFO belief is not a religion in the traditional sense. There are no centralized leaders: no popes, no universally recognized doctrines, no sacred text and no institution capable of enforcing orthodoxy. Yet it increasingly performs many of the functions historically attributed to religion. It organizes communities of belief, creates narratives of revelation, offers cosmological meaning and establishes interpretive frameworks through which people understand mysterious experiences and humanity’s place in the universe." A key idea here is that UFO religion is profoundly anti-institutional, built on a foundation of distrust of government, mainstream media, academia, and organized religion. But again, driven by people seeking community, connection, and meaning.
Finally, over the weekend there was a White House-sponsored all-day prayer event on the National Mall in Washington D.C. aimed at "rededicating" America as "One Nation under God." Of course it was a decidedly Christian and evangelical version of God that was the focus. Still, thousands showed up and participated. More people looking for and apparently finding some kind of connection, community, and meaning. And a form of renewal at least in the eyes of the organizers and participants in the event.
We're going to talk about the idea of renewal in our conversation this week. Are we in a time of spiritual or religious renewal in this country, as the above examples suggest? What would such a thing look like? Would we know it if we saw it? And is it renewal at all, or something different?
Join us for the discussion starting at 7pm Tuesday, May 19 at Irish Tavern in downtown Lake Orion.
