Weekly Outlook - AI as an instrument of abolition

Dear Outlook readers,  I've been feeling very tender lately. I try to follow the news but frequently find myself overwhelmed and overstimulated. Then, I carry guilt for not, at the very least, bearing witness to the mistreatment of fellow humans.  I don't think I'm alone in these feelings. A couple of weeks ago, Sesame Street's Elmo tweeted out an innocuous check-in question. The result? Thousands of responses trauma-dumping on this children's television character. Elmo even did a follow-up tweet with mental health resources. Don't get me wrong — many of the responses were intentionally funny. But I think this cultural moment also points to our collective grief, guilt and pain. I wonder if it also reveals our need to connect with our neighbors, even those who think differently than we do. Teri McDowell Ott and Nanette Sawyer talk about just that in their article about the "Deep listening dinners at Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago."  What would it look like if focused on the people we encounter every day and listened to them deeply?  In Christ, Rose Schrott Taylor Outlook digital content editor

Teaching AI about ethics and the Gospel by Jacob Alan Cook AI as an instrument of abolition by Chris Burton How did Christian atonement theory get so pagan? by David B. Gowler PC(USA) discourages certain gatherings in Texas by Adrian White In case you missed it... As Israel-Hamas War rages on, students in Ohio revived a kosher-halal co-op In January, a group of Oberlin College students and alumni decided to bring Jewish and Muslim students together for breakfast, lunch and dinner through a kosher-halal co-op. — Debrah Miszak Wounded Pastors: Navigating Burnout, Finding Healing, and Discerning the Future of Your Ministry "The authors ... beautifully model opening their lives to what God’s Spirit might be doing next, reminding us that God is never finished with us, with the church, nor with this yearning creation."  — Patti Snyder Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) delegation to Palestine and Israel A group of more than 30 people, mostly Presbyterians, is currently in Israel/Palestine. The trip, sponsored by the Israel/Palestine Mission Network, seeks to show solidarity with the suffering through their physical presence. — IPMN   Deep listening dinners at Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago Fourth Presbyterian Church’s “Deep Listening Dinners” focus on strengthening relationships, developing conversational skills and practicing handling differences in a respectful manner. — Teri McDowell Ott and Nanette Sawyer Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution (Bohannon’s) strength is also in the sheer compilation of the useful and the puzzling drawn from paleontology, medicine, evolutionary biology, history and anthropology. — Rebecca Davis A Jane Austen Lent: Archdeacon explores the novelist’s spiritual lessons Rachel Mann’s latest book, A Truth Universally Acknowledged: 40 Days With Jane Austen, pairs excerpts from Austen’s novels with reflections on virtues and vices. — Kathryn Post