Byron Borger of Hearts & Minds says, ‘There’s power in telling these stories!’

An enthusiastic new review of Jeffrey Munroe’s ‘Telling Stories in the Dark’

Click on the cover to visit the book’s Amazon page.

THIS WEEK, we’re bringing you a video book review of Jeffrey Munroe’s new Telling Stories in the Darka review in a video podcast with Hearts & Minds bookseller Byron Borger.

You can learn more about Byron’s bookstore at his website, HeartsAndMindsBooks.com

Recently, Byron appeared on this podcast, hosted by CCO campus ministry network, offering reviews of a number of books that Byron is currently recommending.

Byron starts his list with an enthusiastic review of Jeff’s new book, so we have “set” the YouTube video below to begin with that review. (If you care to see the entire video, which includes about 2 minutes of introductory material, simply reset the video “slider” to the beginning.)

About Jeff’s book, Byron says in part: “There’s power in telling these stories—and I’m not kidding you! This book is moving!

“And, here’s what’s interesting: Jeffrey Munroe not only tells and narrates each story, which itself would be worth reading. But then, in the second part of every chapter, he brings another person into the conversation: a therapist, a pastor, a clinician, a theologian.

“He brings somebody in and he says, ‘As I’ve told this person’s story, what do you see happening here?’ And then that other person who he’s interviewing … helps evaluate what was going on in that story of trauma. So you’re getting not only a moving story of somebody who went through hard times and coped with it—but then you’re getting an expert … who then evaluates the story and brings some insight. …

“So, it’s not ony the story that’s told but it’s also the evaluation that Jeff does when he engages these experts … And he has lots of good people in here! … And that’s what makes this book shine compared with other books of this kind.”

See Byron’s review of Jeffrey Munroe’s new book

Here’s the YouTube video:

Laura Elizabeth welcomes hundreds of readers into an immersive dinner theater based on her cozy mystery

“Welcome to Mongin Island” The dinner theater was held beneath a huge white tent at the Kaya Vineyard and Winery—giving guests a sense of stepping into the mysterious world woven by novelist and now playwright Laura Elizabeth. (More photos below—so, please, continue reading.)

Beloved Cozy Mystery Characters Spring to Life—with an Author-Curated Soundtrack, as well


EDITOR’s NOTE: In our 14-year history as publishers, we have never had an author turn a book’s “story” into dinner theater. So, we hope readers will understand how thrilled we are to see cozy-mystery author Laura Elizabeth stage a triumphant theatrical run in partnership with Kaya Vineyard and Winery in Georgia. We invited Laura to send us a column about this special experience.


By LAURA ELIZABETH
Author of The Island Mysteries, No. 1: All Is Now Lost

Click on this photo of Laura Elizabeth holding her cozy mystery to jump to the book’s Amazon page and order your own copy in hardcover, paperback or Kindle.

We’re celebrating our three sold-out performances under the tent at Kaya Vineyard in Dahlonega, Georgia! Over 350 people joined us for these performances.

The All Is Now Lost dinner theater followed a script that I wrote, based on my book and I had the good fortune of greeting the crowd each evening to thank them for supporting this work, my book and Kaya.

The audience took a fun-filled journey to Mongin island where they experienced landmarks in the novel including: Books & Brew, which is Carr’s bookstore, and Governor’s Point.

Blue Ridge Community Theater took that script and added some improv—bringing out the personalities of Carr, Barb, Tripp, Coastal Carl, Missy, Theresa and Deputy Julie.

In between scenes, the tent was filled with the tunes from my Spotify playlist, which set the mood for this island mystery. (You can enjoy that playlist right now by visiting this page in my website.)

At intermission, the audience was asked to guess who they thought was our criminal. Correct guesses were entered into a raffle for a gorgeous gift basket.

As I moved through the crowd, I heard many alternate theories to solving the crime. It was definitely a fun, interactive, show that built community—just like what my characters experience on their beloved Mongin Island. Of course, some people had already read the book, but that didn’t stop the crowd from guessing!

Each night, I met so many readers and fans of this book—with some people traveling from Georgia, North Carolina, Alabama, and South Carolina to see this show and to meet me. It was an experience filled with Island Magic!

To see my characters brought to life and to hear the words I wrote was an absolutely incredible experience. We are already working out the details for four shows next year based on the next installment of The Island Mysteries.

Don’t miss a moment!

Visit my The Island Mysteries website and sign up for my free monthly newsletters.

Before showtime, author Laura Elizabeth visits with a central character from her popular cozy mystery known as Barb.

In the midst of the drama, the main character Carr (center) considers looming twists in the unfolding plot with Theresa (right) and Deputy Julie.

FICTION—Laura Elizabeth’s novel is set partly in a bookstore called Books & Brew on Mongin Island, a fictional version of the real-life, historic Daufuskie Island. FACT—In real life, Laura’s novel is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Walmart and other book retailers.

PBS network’s wonderful ‘Gospel’ series is a ‘multimedia experience with wall-to-wall music’

Click on this poster for the PBS series to visit the extensive website PBS has set up with supplemental materials.

By JOE GRIMM
Director of MSU’s Bias Busters

Hop aboard the PBS network’s four-part Gospel docuseries that sweeps through the origins, expansion and future of gospel music. (Click here to visit the extensive PBS website related to this series.)

Host Henry Louis Gates Jr., drives this expedition from The South through the Great Migration to Chicago, then to Detroit and eventually everywhere. Gospel music evolved and picked up steam as it grew out of safe hush harbors to small Black churches to “race music” to choirs, radio, recording contracts, television, mega churches, clubs and white and international audiences.

This project is a layered multimedia experience with wall-to-wall music. It is rare to find moments where there is not both narration or interviews and music. Video and photography as well as crawling lyrics illustrate the story and music. It commands attention.

Gates and a choir of sources—some of whom sing—tell how spirituals, blues and jazz became gospel music and how the art forms continued to change and meld. The project details the ongoing struggle between spiritual and secular performance and settings for gospel music. The dynamic tension between whether to praise or be paid, whether to play the churches or the juke joints, accelerated some careers and stalled others.

With rich archival footage and contemporary interviews, the series goes beyond the headliners—so many stars are featured—to show how the writers, ministers of music, producers, entrepreneurs and business people made gospel grow from churches to communities to the country to the anthem track for the Civil Rights movement. The series drives vertically through time and horizontally through what has become a global audience.

In framing the history, Gates says, “The Black Church has been the home of creative expression and experimentation for more than 300 years. From the beginning, this creativity was driven by the one instrument that Black people could count on when nothing else was available: The human voice.”

Gates is a professor and the director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. He has authored dozens of books and films.

Gates is always on a roll, and that is true today. His newest book, The Black Box: Writing the Race comes out March 19. His PBS Finding Your Roots show is in its 10th season. A profile in the current February-March AARP magazine says, “Some public intellectuals win their place in society through fierce debate, showing off the sharpness of their minds during verbal attacks. But Henry Louis Gates Jr. took a slightly different path. He did it by being charming.”

That charm—Gates’ knowledge and laughter—make the Gospel docuseries engaging.

Click on the cover to visit the book’s Amazon page.

When my Michigan State journalism class was working on our book, 100 Questions and Answers About the Black Church: The Social and Spiritual Movement of a People, we provided the students copies of  Gates’ The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song (2021) for them. His influence, of course, means that the MSU guide spends some time with gospel music.

How I wish this PBS series had been available to the student authors then! They would have loved this.

Even so, their guide can supplement PBS’ Gospel. The guide focuses on the Black Church more broadly, of course. Among the 100 questions we answer:

Why were Black Churches created?

What characterizes a Black church service?

How did the Black migration to the North affect the church?

How are Black Churches sanctuaries?

What is the minister of music’s role?

What is the Black social gospel?

What role did the Black Church have in the Civil Rights movement?
Why are movement, energy and emotion important to praise?

What is modern gospel?

How do sacred and secular music interact?

Our modest guide includes the briefest but diverse list of gospel artists, a timeline and video in which the Rev. Robert Jones demonstrates how the sacred “I Shall Overcame” became the Civil Rights anthem, “We Shall Overcome.”

The PBS series began streaming for free in February and that free version ends March 11 and 12. The DVD of the docuseries will ship from Amazon on March 19. It has lots of goodies including a Gospel Live! concert companion, trailers, behind-the scenes photos and a Spotify playlist of 162 songs.

 

 

Leanne Friesen’s ‘Grieving Room’ helps us chart the long journey of grief in the hope—of making room for hope itself

Leanne Friesen and her book. (Photo courtesy of Leanne.)

After a traumatic death, you can help by ‘making room’

By DAVID CRUMM
Editor of ReadTheSpirit magazine

Click this cover to visit the book’s Amazon page.

Halfway through Leanne Friesen’s new book, Grieving Room, my reaction was: This is both a daring and a rare book.

By that I mean: It’s a startlingly honest letter sent out into the world, especially pitched for readers in their 20s, 30s and 40s who need particular kinds of help with the long and twisting journey of grief.

Why is age an issue? Looking over the hundreds of books on the lingering effects of loss—grief can seem downright geriatric. When he published A Grief Observed, arguably the world’s most famous grief memoir, C.S. Lewis was 63. Only two years later, he followed his wife in death.

But, the truth is: Every year, long-term grief strikes millions of younger men and women—including Leanne Friesen in her 30s. At that too-young age, Leanne experienced the death of her too-young sister Roxanne. When Roxanne died of melanoma, Leanne already was an experienced pastor and thought she should be an expert in grief, which she wasn’t—yet. Eventually, in her 40s, and after living with her grief over losing Roxanne for a number of years, Leanne wrote this book to share their story with the rest of us.

And that’s the greatest value of this eloquent book: Leanne still is a relatively young pastor writing about grief among relatively young adults. At that age, our responses and relationships after a loved one’s untimely death unfold in different patterns, at a different pace and with different pressures than friends in their 60s, 70s or older experience after a death.

When I first read Leanne’s book, I was so moved by her insights that I posted an early review in Goodreads, explaining that her book was a solace for me as I continue to feel the loss of my own brother, many years ago, when he was only 39. Even though I’m now in my 60s, I could feel the authenticity of Leanne’s story of struggling to reclaim hope in her own life again after such an early loss. And, as I live with my own grief for my brother and others I’ve lost—part of my vocation is to publish columns like this one about the need to help each other with these journeys. Just last month, our magazine published a column by Jeffrey Munroe, author of Telling Stories in the Dark, about a man in his 90s who surprised Jeff by telling him about his heartfelt grief over the death of a brother many, many decades earlier. As I read Jeff’s column, I could feel that old man’s heartache. I can say quite honestly that I will be thinking of my own brother even into my 90s, should I live so long.

And that’s the most compelling reason to read Leanne’s book, I think. If you are grieving, this book assures us that this is a part of life we simply must accept and make room to explore.

The ‘bedeviling problem of age’ and untimely death

So, this potentially bedeviling problem of age was the first thing Leanne and I talked about in our interview about her book. The question that so many of us have wrestled with for years is: Does grief haunt us forever or are there ways to turn our paths, as we carry these memories, toward the hope of finding hope someday. Her book argues that there can be such a transformation—and I agree.

I said to Leanne: “One reason I want to recommend your book is your age, your sister’s age when she died, and what I think is this book’s value for millions of younger adults who are on this incredibly difficult journey—at what feels like an untimely age. Do you think I’m right in saying that?”

“I agree,” Leanne said. “I do think what you’re saying lines up with all the younger people who have connected with me online through my website and my Instagram page.” (That Instagram page, @grieving.room, has 34,000 followers!)

“When I lost my sister Roxanne, I was 35, and I couldn’t think of anyone I knew who had lost a sibling at my age,” Leanne said. “Often, the first loss in a person’s family is a much older relative like a grandparent—and those can be very shocking losses for people, of course—but that’s a different grieving experience than losing a sibling at such a young age.

“When you hit grief prematurely, you do feel profoundly alone—so I appreciate your saying that this book addresses that for readers. If my story can help other younger adults, then I am honored to be part of that. That’s why I continue to post to the Instagram @grieving.room—I can see from the responses that I get online that we do need to help each other make room.”

Why is this book ‘daring’?

I describe this book as “daring,” because it’s rare to read such an honest memoir by a pastor still in active ministry—especially when Leanne warns us about all the dumb stuff some acquaintances tend to say and do after a death in the family. She describes this honestly so that we, in our own grieving processes, will know we’re not alone in feeling hurt or bewildered by such responses—and to warn us away from repeating such things to folks we love when they are grieving.

Finding what we think are “wise words” after a death is an almost universal temptation. Especially after a traumatic death in one’s family, we receive a waterfall of well-meaning wishes from folks reassuring us that we can “cope,” “survive” and “get over it.” Such wishes—often accompanied by biblical-sounding adages—can have the opposite effect. If you have grieved, you probably recall all the unhelpful lines you heard—if not, read Leanne’s book to discover them.

At times in this memoir, Leanne admits to boiling with rage at thoughtless comments. She uses the word “anger” 34 times and “angry” 47 times—then “rage” or “raging” pop up 29 times, not to mention a fair number of times Leanne admits to having been “mad” or wanting to “scream.”

But, please, don’t get me wrong! This is a truly loving book. Leanne’s Instagram @grieving.room and her personal presence in our hour-long Zoom interview made it clear to me that she’s an exceptionally loving and generous person.

“I’m impressed that you write so honestly,” I told Leanne. “How did you summon the courage?”

“I decided to write honestly about these things because so many people misunderstand grief. Myths about death and grief are so common,” Leanne said in response. “I can tell you that, when someone walks up to me to talk at a funeral home, I’m mentally rolling the dice on what I’m about to hear them say. Sometimes people know what to say, but—all too often, what comes out is something that isn’t helpful—and may even be hurtful.

“That was one of my hopes in writing this book: I want people to know they don’t have an obligation to go ‘say something helpful’ to a grieving person,” Leanne said. “People who are grieving at a funeral don’t need friends to come up and theologize to them. They’re in the midst of grief. You don’t have to try to teach them something. There are so many other ways you can be helpful to them—ways that I write about in the book. I tried to make this book as helpful as possible.”

For example, she said, “I want people to to realize how long grief lasts—for years, just like we’ve been saying in this interview. Anyone who wants to be supportive to a griever should assume that anyone who has lost someone in the last year or two is still thinking about that—most likely every day. They’re likely still walking around in a bubble of grief. That’s certainly the way I was walking around for a very long time after Roxanne’s death. But people forget that, after a loss, especially a too-young loss or a traumatic loss, your life doesn’t go back to how it was before that loss.”

So, what can we do?
Start by ‘making room’

If you read Leanne’s book, you will discover that this is one of the most important “take aways” from Leanne’s book: We should help each other to make space in our lives for all the changes and challenges that come in the years after a loss.

In fact, Leanne is so intentional and practical about providing assistance that she closes her book with a 40-page section called “Reflections, Practices, and Prayers.” It’s a step-by-step series of suggestions for either individual practice or for group discussion and action.

And all of this rests on the central metaphor of “room”—the space grieving people need for a very long time after a traumatic death to adjust to the new world they are experiencing. “Room” is such a powerful metaphor that Leanne’s Instagram “room” is drawing new followers every day. When we met for this Zoom interview a few weeks ago, she was talking about the 31,000 people who had connected with her in that Instagram room—and this week, the total is already 34,000.

So, what is this “room” everyone’s buzzing about?

Well, that’s why you should order a copy of Leanne’s book in which all 20 chapter titles start with the word “room.” Between these covers, you’ll find a book-length amount of ideas to consider. But here’s just one example:

She makes a point in her book of recommending A Hole in the World, a recently published reflection on grief by Amanda Held Opelt, the sister of best-selling author Rachel Held Evans, who died at age 37. Leanne appreciates the way that book emphasizes the need to help younger people who are grieving “to make room for the rituals of death” in the midst of their own busy lives with the pressures of daily work and perhaps caring for children.

Then, in our interview, Leanne touched on one of her own favorite examples of “making room”: “I will never forget the two friends who understood what I was going through and made room for me in a practical way when Roxanne died. They had lost their father when they were in their 20s,” Leanne said. “They understood grief at an early age.”

In the book, she writes that these two friends responded to Leanne’s loss by volunteering to provide childcare to allow Leanne the uninterrupted “room we needed to remember Roxanne.” Leanne writes:

My children at the time were just 2 and 5 years old. … We didn’t have access to babysitters we knew who wouldn’t also need to attend the service, so I had wondered what we would do A few days before, I got a call from my friends, Jan and Jill, twins I had known since I was born. They explained to me that they had each taken the day off work so they could babysit my children during the funeral. I will never, ever forget this kindness. They were making room for our rituals, and in so doing, they made room for my grief. I felt swallowed up in compassion. I felt the blessing as we mourned.

‘Making room for hope’

After her years of navigating grief, Leanne has a great instinct for how she can now bless others by making room for them. She is a pastor, a scholar and now serves as a regional leader in her Canadian denomination. She also has become a popular retreat speaker and guest on many podcasts and online platforms. She earned her MDiv from McMaster University, plus a post-graduate certificate in death and bereavement from Wilfred Laurier University.

Her writing bears the marks of a thoughtful, natural storyteller who chooses each word for a precise effect. On the final page of her last chapter, Leanne writes that she hopes her readers will, someday, be able to make “room for the hope that you will not just get through your grief but that there can be ways that you will become a version of yourself that you will be glad to be.”

I love that phrasing because I so clearly recognize a fellow passenger through grief in that wording. Did you catch her nuance? She’s not promising readers that they will, indeed, “get through” their grief. She’s hoping that they will someday make room for hope. That sentence alone proves the illustrates of the wisdom of this book.

Care to learn more?

Want to connect with Leanne? Visit her at her website, LeanneFriesen.com, and visit her ever-growing Instagram community of friends @grieving.room

If you care to read a kindred book about rediscovering resilience after grief and other traumas, get a copy of Jeffrey Munroe’s new Telling Stories in the Dark. Both Leanne’s and Jeff’s books feel contemporary, honest and forward looking. These wise authors—both well acquainted with grief—are simply sitting down with us and sharing their hard-earned wisdom. They’re telling their stories, which millions of us need to hear—because they also are our own.

I closed my Goodreads review of Leanne’s book this way:

My hope is that many readers will find hope between these covers. And may Leanne Friesen continue writing for many decades until her life is so bursting with wonderment that we get the sequel to this wise and welcoming volume. And, God willing, may I be around to write another 5-star review.

During Lent 2024, these Texas Christians commit to being “cross yielding rather than cross wielding”

Central window in the sanctuary of Holy Comforter Episcopal Church in Spring, Texas. (Photos of the church provided by Ann Worley.)

Hearing George A. Mason’s call for a different way of seeing our world

By ANN BELL WORLEY
Contributing Columnist

I was surprised last week as I showed up to lead a new series of discussions in my congregation, Holy Comforter Episcopal Church in Spring, Texas. We already had set up chairs—but so many people arrived that volunteers had to fetch more seating!

Such enthusiasm was an inspiring sign for all of us as we started Lent, the annual season of reflection before Christians reach Easter each year. I thought this series of Sunday-morning discussions might be a challenge, because the series’ focus is the work and wisdom of a famous Baptist preacher, George A. Mason, the author of the new book, The Word Made Fresh

I wondered: Would Episcopalians coming for worship spend even more time on a Sunday morning considering what a Baptist has to say about our world?

As it turns out, indeed, they would!

After a “tour” of the book, I posed a question. “We can all think of examples of people being ‘cross wielding,’ beating others over the head with their beliefs. What would it mean for us to be cross-yielding instead?”

Click the cover to visit the book’s Amazon page.

In 2001, George introduced that turn of phrase in a 50th-anniversary sermon for the church where he served as senior pastor for many years: Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas. He declared, “Jesus says if we are to be his followers, we must take up our cross, not as a weapon of war but as a promise of peace.”

We must be “cross-yielding” rather than “cross-wielding,” he concluded.

Earlier in my career, I served on George’s Wilshire staff. In recent years, I helped some of George’s friends at Wilshire pull together this particular collection of his sermons into The Word Made Fresh as a special gift for George for his decades of service. As we collectively edited this volume, we agreed that this particular sermon should be the first one readers would see.

What are we as Christians “yielding” in this world? It’s a question millions are asking in 2024.

Some “give up” in Lent; we are “adding to” our theology of welcome

During Lent each year, millions of Christians “give up” something they typically enjoy, or conversely, devote extra time to spiritual practices as a way of identifying more closely with Jesus.

With all of the division and polarization that dominates our news cycles, The Word Made Fresh is a timely read, offering a theology of welcome and inclusion that can reinvigorate our faith and provide a clear path forward. Reading and reflecting on this book of sermons—either on one’s own or with a group like we are reading the book—can be a spiritual affirmation of hope and a commitment to making our world a better place.

Through all the years he served Wilshire, George kept challenging Christians to look carefully at what our faith is yielding each day, each week and each year.

After introducing this idea in the first sermon in this book, George returns to the question of our “yield” much later in his book in a sermon titled, “Cross-Eyed.” It’s one of the most powerful sermons in this entire collection.

He preached this particular Sunday message during another especially troubled Lent—in the year 2019 after a white-supremacist who claimed to be defending Christian civilization had shot up two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. The terrorist killed 51 people, wounded another 40, and was heading toward a third mosque, when police stopped him. Although that tragedy unfolded half a world away, George was thinking about his traumatized Muslim friends and neighbors in Dallas, who were reeling from the news.

George was angered by the killer’s twisted idea that Christianity called for such violence. As George preached that morning, he also condemned other similar hate crimes. That sermon still stands as a powerful condemnation of any form of religiously inspired violence—and an affirmation of what the cross of Christ should yield.

Just a few excerpts of what George said that morning:

“Our theme this Lent is the grace of seeing. Paul wants us to see the cross in such a way that we live through it. … Paul wants us to see the world through the corrective lenses of the cross. … The cross symbolizes the love of God. Period. It forever stands as a powerful warning against using the name of God to do violence. … Every and any use of the cross as an excuse to oppress, suppress, or repress any human being is a disgrace to our religion. … This is what it means to view the world cross-eyed: Our witness to the way of Christ is powerful when the grace of seeing through the eyes of the cross yields tears of love in solidarity with those for whom Christ died, whatever their religion, wherever they come from, however they look.”

You can read the entire sermon in this new book—and you can even see the 2019 video of George preaching that sermon (via a link provided in the book). That sermon is a good example of the dozens that are so memorable today that they’re worth the price of a copy of George’s book.

“George Mason is an ecumenical thinker,” I told my Episcopal friends at Holy Comforter. “His later sermons in particular speak to social justice, equity, and interfaith relations, all driven by the gospel.”

I encouraged people not to miss a single page, even though this is a big book, “because George leaves little nuggets of gold everywhere.”

.

Care to learn more?

Ann Bell Worley is a Houston-based writer and editor with a background in theological education and ministry. She is the author of two children’s books with additional publications in religion and parenting and a broad range of editing credits. Much of her recent writing focuses on the challenges of raising a medically complex child. You can find more of Ann’s work and her family’s story on her website: www.graycoloredglasses.com.

Ann tells us this week: “I set out at the beginning of the year to tell our story in chronological order, starting with The Very Beginning and followed that with “Not Knowing” and “Still Not Knowing.” Soon, I’m planning to post the next installment.”

Michigan State University Journalism School’s Bias Busters Explain One of America’s Largest ‘Religious’ Groups

The ‘Religiously Unaffiliated’ are far more diverse than the label ‘None’ suggests

Click the cover to visit the book’s Amazon page. Copies will arrive shortly after the March 5 publication date.

MARCH 2024 UPDATE: This new Bias Busters book now is shipping from Amazon!

By JOE GRIMM
Director of MSU Journalism’s Bias Busters project

So-called religious “nones” are clearly more than nothing.

The number of people in the United States who do not publicly identify with an organized religion is driving headlines again. Researchers and journalists sometimes reduce them to the one-word label “nones”—referring to their choice of the “none of the above” option in surveys about religious affiliation. But the truth is: The unaffiliated are a vast and diverse group.

First, the sheer size of this group of people who prefer not to label their spiritual-religious lives in traditional ways is fascinating to researchers, authors, journalists—and, of course, community and religious leaders nationwide.

We keep asking: Who are all these people?!

We wonder: How do these people see the deeper or more transcendent aspects of their lives, their communities and the cosmos without adopting our long-standing labels for religious membership?

And, what exactly do they believe?

One major milestone in American life that is easy to miss in many of the press reports about the unaffiliated is this: Rather than a shrinking of America’s religious diversity, this huge group of people who reject our most common religious labels seems to represent an expansion of America’s spiritual diversity.

In fact, we are realizing that those traditional survey check-lists of “religious affiliation” don’t tell us much about the religious-spiritual lives of a huge portion of our population. The old way of gathering and reporting this data doesn’t seem to be working very well.

That’s why our Michigan State University School of Journalism team of award-winning student journalists—who we call the Bias Busters—decided to step in and report on information that seems to be missing from the many headlines about “nones” in 2024. Especially if you are an educator, community leader, health-care provider, policy maker, media professional—or anyone else who needs to understand the makeup of our communities—you should pre-order a copy of Michigan State University’s latest Bias Busters book today.

What Do We Mean About Adding to America’s Religious Diversity?

The landmark January 2024 Pew Research report raises more questions than it answers about the hard-to-define spiritual-religious nature of these Americans.

Just a few excerpts from Pew’s report:

  • Most “nones” believe in God or another higher power.
  • But very few go to religious services regularly.
  • They are not uniformly anti-religious. … Most say religion causes a variety of problems in society—like intolerance or superstition. But many “nones” also say that religion helps give people meaning and purpose, and that it can encourage people to treat each other well.
  • They are far less likely than religiously affiliated Americans to say they believe in God “as described in the Bible,” but most do believe in God or some other higher power. Just 29% reject the notion that there is any higher power or spiritual force in the universe.
  • About half say spirituality is very important in their lives or say they think of themselves as spiritual.

And here’s one more fact to puzzle over: We know that many regular readers of our ReadTheSpirit online magazine are religiously unaffiliated—because we have heard from so many of you via emails, calls, zooms and in-person conversations over the past 17 years. In fact, we know that our publishing house serves people from at least a dozen traditional religious groups—from Christians, Jews and Muslims to Buddhists and Native Americans—but we also count “nones” among the major supporters of our publishing projects.

That’s true of the team behind ReadTheSpirit—and that’s true of the diverse student body behind our MSU Bias Busters project over the past decade. Some students proudly describe their religious affiliations; some students are—unaffiliated.

And, here’s why that’s so important: Over many years, we have figured out ways to work together for the common good.

Now, do you have more questions about how this undefined “group” plays a role in our incredibly diverse religious-spiritual landscape?

Well, just to make it easy: Here’s that link again to the new book’s Amazon page. Pre-order your copy today and it will arrive just after March 5.

This Isn’t the First Time the Unaffiliated Have Made Headlines

Today, we are experiencing an echo of earlier nationwide interest in this group. You can follow the waves by looking at the trend line in estimates of the group’s size.

In January, James Emery White explained, “When I wrote The Rise of the Nones: Understanding and Reaching the Religiously Unaffiliated in 2014, it was in many ways a warning of a coming cultural tsunami. I was having to make the case that there actually was a rise in this particular religious demographic—and that it was going to matter.”

White added: “Ten years later, the wave of the nones has clearly crashed upon our spiritual shores.”

White, a prolific author who has described himself as a sometimes none, is a former professor of theology and the founding and senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.

He wrote that book 10 years ago after Pew’s researchers noted an especially steep upward curve in the share of people who said they were religiously unaffiliated. A Pew team wrote in 2012, “In the last five years alone, the unaffiliated have increased from just over 15% to just under 20% of all U.S. adults.”

This set off a cottage industry of writing, posting and publishing about the phenomenon.

The number continued rising. This make-shift “group” identified by pollsters hit 30%, eclipsing “evangelical Christians” and “Catholics”. People speculated answers and tracked down motives. Other research indicated that maybe the rising number just meant people were coming out of the closet about their non-affiliation.

A Diverse Group That’s Challenging to Chart

After a while, public discussion of this group quieted and, in recent years, many scholars who study religion at universities and research centers nationwide have focused more on the rising tide of politically conservative Christians, the rise of the so-called “Christian Nationalists.” ReadTheSpirit reported on that trend in October.

Then, Pew gathered new data on the unaffiliated—and one particular finding suddenly leapt into the national conversation in early 2024: Perhaps the total number of religiously unaffiliated folks is stabilizing—or even shrinking.

In January 2024, Pew reported, “28% of U.S. adults are religiously unaffiliated … That’s marginally lower than our surveys indicated in 2022 and 2021, and identical to what we found in 2020 and 2019 …”

Pew concluded that sentence by saying this “raises a question: After decades of sharp growth, has the rise of these religious ‘nones’ ended?”

Pew’s answer? “At the risk of sounding wishy-washy, we think it’s too early to tell.”

“Too early to tell” does not deter people from writing, speaking, preaching and strategizing about this enormous group of Americans once again. On The Late Show one evening, Stephen Colbert cracked a few jokes about how difficult it is to identify this group.

Even James Emery White isn’t quite sure what to make of this new data. This is how he concluded his January post about the nones: “They are not rising … they have risen.”

The Fact Is: Nones Are All Around Us

In fact, you may be a “none” yourself—although, one thing we have learned about these Americans is that the vast majority don’t like to be called “nones.” So, excuse us in occasionally dropping that word into this week’s ReadTheSpirit cover story, simply as a matter of clarity.

And, the fact is: It doesn’t really matter whether the trend line is going north or south. Whether 28% of the nation is religiously unaffiliated or the proportion is 30%—it is always a good time for people to understand each other better.

That is what this newest MSU Bias Busters guide is all about. In researching this guide, our students fanned out to ask unaffiliated people what they wish others knew about them. Some were deeply unhappy about being called “nones.” That label implies they are nothing, empty, zeroes. Many are deeply spiritual and moral. Many say they have a relationship with God—their problem is with churches or clerics.

Some believe in God. Some, included in this same group, say they do not believe in God at all. Some aren’t sure. Some are open to the idea but want proof.

And, missing from a lot of the reporting on this huge group is the fact that millions of these folks have found new labels they prefer, instead of the list survey researchers give them. What are some of those labels? The subtitle on this guide is “Nones, Agnostics, Atheists, Humanists, Freethinkers, Secularists and Skeptics.”

The 100 questions cover the wide range of Americans who wind up in the “unaffiliated” group. The answers might surprise you.

We already have listed some of the findings above. But here are a few more that are likely to surprise readers:

• Most nonreligious people believe in heaven.
• Unaffiliated people score higher on religious knowledge tests than most others.
• They have a strong belief in religious freedom because they want the right to be free from religion.
• Many pray and enjoy other spiritual practices.
• Pew reports that 87% of the religiously unaffiliated celebrate Christmas.

So, help us contribute to healthy communities

That’s our goal. “Good media builds healthy community” is the motto of the publishing house behind ReadTheSpirit and behind the entire Bias Busters series of books.

We can share that motto because it represents the best principles in American journalism.

The students who have contributed to the Bias Busters project know they are helping real people—family, friends and coworkers—to be more clearly understood in our diverse communities. And, with this particular minority group, we recognized that we’ve all got work to do. We found that religiously unaffiliated people report they are frequently judged, put down or misled by even well-intentioned people who want to save them. Sometimes the slights are accidental; sometimes not.

This new guide—like all of the guides we have published to date—shows how to engage with people in a respectful, mutually beneficial way to encourage healthy community life.

Just think about that for a moment: Healthy community.

Pew didn’t ask about that particular group—but I’ll bet nearly 100 percent of us would like to affiliate with that.

So, one last time: Preorder your own copy of this unique and timely new book right now.

Rusty Rosman invites us to shape our own legacies through ‘Two Envelopes’

Rusty Rosman, author of Two Envelopes.

Rusty Rosman, author of Two Envelopes, welcomes invitations to speak with discussion groups and classes either in person or via Zoom. Click on this photo of Rusty to visit her main author page online, where you can learn much more about her upcoming book—and how to connect directly with Rusty. (Photo by Rodney Curtis.)


‘What You Want Your Loved Ones to Know When You Die’

By DAVID CRUMM
Editor of ReadTheSpirit magazine

Click the cover to visit the book’s Amazon page.

In 17 years as the Editor in Chief of our publishing house, we’ve published lots of books with helpful resources for individuals and families—knowing that these books are keys to resilience, hope and peace in our world. Every day, our publishing house team-members are guided by our founding mission: “Good media builds healthy communities.”

That goal certainly is met by Rusty Rosman’s unique new book, Two Envelopeswhich is launching across Amazon and other bookstores around the world on February 20.

The book’s subtitle is What You Want Your Loved Ones to Know When You Die.

If that subtitle sounds grim—just consider for a moment what Rusty tells readers on her first page: “It’s not always easy to think about dying—but each of us will, ready or not.”

In short, we all need this book.

How does this book build “resilience and hope”? By explaining a step-by-step process through which each of us—whatever our age might be right now—can clearly express what we hope our legacy will be in the world. We follow Rusty’s wise guidance as we read through the pages of this book, then we prepare our materials as she suggests, and finally we store them for the future in—yes, Two Envelopes.

Does this book really contribute to “peace in our world”? Certainly! If you have not already experience this yourself, then—as a lifelong journalist—I can tell you that millions of families have experienced deep hurt from arguments over “who does what” and “who gets what” as part of Mom’s or Dad’s legacy. One reason Two Envelopes is such a valuable guidebook is that those stumbling blocks can be removed as we outline our own expectations for our families—then save that record of our hopes for the future.

And, yes, that’s truly can be a powerful, loving act of family peacemaking.

Who should buy this book?

Everyone.

As Rusty puts it so clearly—death will come for all of us. Every one of us hopes that our legacy will be positive and loving. We don’t want to leave confusion or, worse yet, a family feud in our wake. Rusty’s book leads readers through that whole process of thinking about the future—and then laying out what we hope will happen after we’ve left this place.

Early readers who have gone through her book describe it as a self-revealing and wonderfully reassuring process of reflecting on the meaning and the ultimate impact of our lives.

Early reviewers say Rusty’s book “gives us peace of mind,” “a sense of control over how things will be handled in my family,” “compassion” and that the book even provides a much-appreciated dose of “love” to our families and friends.

“This book is an incredible gift to/for your family,” wrote Ida Goutman, an expert in counseling individuals and families.

“I truly believe that everyone could benefit from following the guide that she has provided,” wrote Joshua Tobias, one of Michigan’s leading funeral directors.

Get the book and connect with Rusty now

You can pre-order your copy right now in hardcover, paperback or Kindle from Amazon.

Or, if you prefer, you can order hardcover, paperback or eBook from Barnes & Noble.

Even the giant retailer Walmart has decided to carry this book among its online offerings.

In fact, you can buy this book from bookstores nationwide. If you have a favorite neighborhood bookstore, stop in now and ask at the counter to pre-order a copy of Two Envelopes. Rusty’s book is distributed worldwide by the wholesale giant Ingram, which serves nearly every bookstore in North America.

And Consider Connecting with Rusty

In 2024, Rusty Rosman will be crisscrossing the U.S. both in person and virtually. She’s a delightful speaker and workshop leader who you can invite to appear easily via Zoom if you would like her to talk with your small group or class.

How do you reach Rusty? Simply visit this Front Edge Publishing author page, scroll down a bit and you will find all of Rusty’s contact information.