# Wired Word — Couple Climbs Empire State Building (Week of July 12, 2026) **Summary.** *The Wired Word* is a weekly current-events Bible study for mainline adult small groups. This issue uses a July 1, 2026 stunt — Russian "rooftopper" couple Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus illegally scaling the Empire State Building's needle (~1,450 ft), staging an engagement, and unfurling a banner reading "When the power of love beats the love of power the world knows peace" before their arrest — as the hook for a study on **boldness, risk, and message-bearing**: what will Christians risk to bear a clear witness? (Source: [[3. Resources/Readwise/Articles/The Wired Word for 07122026|The Wired Word for 07122026]]) ## The lesson - **Core thesis.** Christians may have "become too timid… even as we avoid dangerous or illegal activities." The study admires boldness while explicitly declining to endorse the illegal or dangerous act, and raises the harder question of when, if ever, civil disobedience is legitimate. (Source: [[3. Resources/Readwise/Articles/The Wired Word for 07122026|The Wired Word for 07122026]]) - **Four-passage spine.** Habakkuk 2:1–4 ("write the vision; make it plain"; "the righteous live by their faithfulness," tied to Romans 1:17); Matthew 14:22–33 (Peter walks on water — faithful risk keeps us from sinking, not failure); Matthew 25:14–30 (the talents — the servant who risks is commended; a "talent" is a monetary unit worth 15+ years of a laborer's wages, not a modern skill); Acts 16:16–24 (Paul and Silas disrupt Philippi at the cost of arrest — faithful witness can be costly and confrontational). (Source: [[3. Resources/Readwise/Articles/The Wired Word for 07122026|The Wired Word for 07122026]]) - **Framing care.** "Righteous" is defined as being in right relationship with God and neighbor, not self-righteous. A Stanley Hauerwas line frames discipleship as "an adventure… in a world that is literally dying of boredom" rather than a pursuit of safety. (Source: [[3. Resources/Readwise/Articles/The Wired Word for 07122026|The Wired Word for 07122026]]) ## Connections to Existing Wiki - **The Wired Word thread ([[2026-07-02-wired-word-250th-civil-religion|The Wired Word — United States Turns 250 and Half of Churches Celebrate]] / [[2026-06-21-wired-word-men-losing-friends|Wired Word 06/21/2026 — Research Reveals That Men Are Losing Friends]]).** Continues the recurring Wired Word current-events-study thread already tracked in the wiki; the civil-disobedience question links to the civil-religion material in the July 5 250th issue (a "civil religion" concept page remains a tracked candidate). - **Discipleship / witness.** A constructive counter-specimen to timid, risk-averse faith — the boldness-as-faithfulness reading of Peter and the talents is usable for a future discipleship or witness concept node. ## Source Caution A small-group curriculum, not a reporting source — its framing selects passages to fit the boldness theme. Two factual notes it flags itself: the banner slogan is "famously misattributed to Jimi Hendrix" and the lesson's alternative attribution to William Gladstone is itself historically shaky; and the father, Dmitry Nikolau, told ABC News the couple were already married and the engagement was a "performance," which the lesson leaves unresolved. The security narrative (broken lock, overnight stay, mesh-gate entry) comes from the DA's complaint and press reports still under investigation. No theological red flags — mainline, ecumenically framed, careful to disclaim the illegal stunt.