Jesus, Pokemon and Ethiopianism

At Chicago’s Harold Washington Library we waded into a steamy sea of book fans side-stroking their way toward venues of favored authors. The American Writer’s Museum had given us a full free day of writers, a literal, literary event. 

Jen Hatmaker, podcaster and author of fourteen books, slipped a throw-away into her talk about leaving her church because of patriarchy and racism. My companion and I gave each other the curious huh? look. The uninteresting story of her divorce that followed soaked up the rest of the hour. We wanted more scuttlebutt about her leaving the church, but no time to meet her — our next talk had already begun.

Navigating our way onto an elevator to the third floor for “Faith, Connection and Social Change in Black Chicago” we sat in curious anticipation. Reginald Blount, director of the Center for the Church and the Black Experience at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, interviewed Kai Parker, Assistant Professor of African American Religious History at the University of Virginia and author of City of Black Souls. These two heaved weighty thoughts onto a head-shaking well-informed audience.

Professor Parker anchored his talk to the late 19th and mid-20th century African American Protestants in Chicago. He said Ida B. Wells and others gleaned ideas from ethiopianism. She wrote that the movement for Black freedom was not just a struggle against Jim Crow, but a wider, global liberation movement against Western imperialism and racial hierarchy. Having never heard of ethiopianism, we huh?ed each other again. Parker’s words floated way above my uninformed curiosity. But no time for questions. We had thirty minutes to chase down a sandwich before the next talk. 

We broke out of the building onto four-lane Ida B.Wells Drive. All corners teemed with Pokemon people (were they at all curious about the street name?). Some wore foam hats of the Pokemon mascot, Pikachu. But the dead giveaway was the huddled groups walking while diving into their phones. Another huh? moment and no time to stop and ask for a Pokemon explanation. 

Rushing back to the monstrous Harold Washington Library, we found each other in the auditorium’s front row looking up at fast-talking six-foot-tall John Fugelsang. A stand-up comic, his book, Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person’s Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists, and Flock-Fleecing Frauds, established his bible bona fides through stories about his mother, a Catholic nun, and father, a Franciscan priest. 

Fugelsang entertained us with how to talk to MAGA Christians about religion and politics.

“People get God and religion confused,” he said. “I think God is a bit too hip to join any of his unauthorized fan clubs.”

We were not confused. He was hilarious. No time to ask, “were your parents married?” and other naturally nosy huhs? about his upbringing. The next talk with Reza Azlan required settled attention.

Remember the book, Zealot? When Reza Azlan hoisted his blockbuster on us in 2013, religion teachers and leaders throughout the land were rending their garments answering boatloads of questions about a new idea of Jesus, the politically conscious revolutionary. 

Reza packed thousands of entertaining facts into the allotted time. He went overboard answering questions about how the historical Jesus has seeped into the collective psyche, evidenced by many who offhandedly say, “Jesus was political.”

Library staff herded us out of the closing HWL onto the sidewalk to — guess what? Pokemon. The Pokemon Go! Fest drew 40,000 people a day to the city. 

Exhausted, more mentally than physically, we went our separate ways home without a wrap-up coffee shop chat and chuckle on ethiopianism, Jesus and Pokemon. On the standing room only bus, chill revelers from a free day at Millennium Park’s Blues Fest were asking the bus driver how to get home.

You really gotta love Chicago.