(The Devil and Dr. Faustus meet. Via Welcome Collection) Hello friends— Sorry I’m a little late this week. It’s been an exhausting month in ways both physical and mental. It’s my first month doing a full publicity slate in quite a while, and honestly, it’s been
I'm 30 years older than you, so "The War" to me means, as a reflex, Vietnam. Then there's the next generation, for whom it means "Gulf War." And for your generation, "After 9/11." And yet for each one, this same argument endures. It's for oil and empire. No, it's our Christian duty. We have to kill those Commies/Muslims. Mao/Saddam is the Devil, the Antichrist. You say it very well -- America is a theocracy, and theocracy is a dream. Thank you for this essay.
"But I wasn’t changing. I mean, I was, but my movement wasn’t away from them. It was just closer to myself." One of the things I love about your essays are the intellectual analysis paired with short, sharp emotional insight. My "raised as a Christian" was way different from yours in many ways, but I recall sitting in church one Christmas and hearing: father, son, virgin, mother over and over and wondering, where as a sexually active woman without kids did I even fit, and that might've been the last straw for me.
I so appreciated all of this, Brandon. Moving here as a nearly-adult, it was a shock to learn that everything I was told about America having a separation of church and state was... well, a lie. I'm obviously coming from a very different place, a nation that fully admitted to its religious concerns, openly and purposefully, and so the lie of this country was doubly upsetting to me. Anyway, it's nice to know that I'm not crazy in witnessing how Christianity works in this country. Thank you for your beautiful writing, as always.
I love the way you talk about Christianity and religion. You tap into real power there: cruelty and love, miracle and loss. My Christian childhood was differently configured, without the apocalypticism you describe, but with that constant refrain of, you could be loved if you would just be different. And then one never can figure out how to be different.
I went and shared this with some friends, both raised religious but now nonbelievers, who I'd been discussing Lil Nas X with the other day. Fantastic stuff, a wonderful analysis and evocation of an America that's usually overlooked or parodied by the literary world.
Thank you for this. Big yes from an ex-evangelical who grew up in small-town South Carolina. Big yes from another who heard a lot about hell and walked the other way.
how, how are you this good at this? I'm so glad you are here. You are a gift.
I'm 30 years older than you, so "The War" to me means, as a reflex, Vietnam. Then there's the next generation, for whom it means "Gulf War." And for your generation, "After 9/11." And yet for each one, this same argument endures. It's for oil and empire. No, it's our Christian duty. We have to kill those Commies/Muslims. Mao/Saddam is the Devil, the Antichrist. You say it very well -- America is a theocracy, and theocracy is a dream. Thank you for this essay.
"But I wasn’t changing. I mean, I was, but my movement wasn’t away from them. It was just closer to myself." One of the things I love about your essays are the intellectual analysis paired with short, sharp emotional insight. My "raised as a Christian" was way different from yours in many ways, but I recall sitting in church one Christmas and hearing: father, son, virgin, mother over and over and wondering, where as a sexually active woman without kids did I even fit, and that might've been the last straw for me.
I so appreciated all of this, Brandon. Moving here as a nearly-adult, it was a shock to learn that everything I was told about America having a separation of church and state was... well, a lie. I'm obviously coming from a very different place, a nation that fully admitted to its religious concerns, openly and purposefully, and so the lie of this country was doubly upsetting to me. Anyway, it's nice to know that I'm not crazy in witnessing how Christianity works in this country. Thank you for your beautiful writing, as always.
I love the way you talk about Christianity and religion. You tap into real power there: cruelty and love, miracle and loss. My Christian childhood was differently configured, without the apocalypticism you describe, but with that constant refrain of, you could be loved if you would just be different. And then one never can figure out how to be different.
I went and shared this with some friends, both raised religious but now nonbelievers, who I'd been discussing Lil Nas X with the other day. Fantastic stuff, a wonderful analysis and evocation of an America that's usually overlooked or parodied by the literary world.
Thank you for this. Big yes from an ex-evangelical who grew up in small-town South Carolina. Big yes from another who heard a lot about hell and walked the other way.