Welcome to Sunday Curiosities, the series where I bring you the strange and fascinating tidbits I’ve collected over the week.
This week, we explore climate change apocalypse, the nuances of humor within oppression, and losing faith.
Content warning: this post contains some upsetting material, including discussions of extreme climate change and transphobia.
Continue reading “Losing Faith, the Darkness, and the Uninhabitable Earth”
In this episode of Sacred Tension, I talk to poet and activist J Mase III about white supremacy, black trans experience, and much more.
Continue reading “Black, Trans, Queer”
When I was deep in the Evangelical fold, doubt was sometimes discussed as a temporary and seasonal necessity. Doubt was talked about as a period of testing, in which we just had to lean in to prayer and trust, even in the face of an insurmountable void of evidence. Inevitably, they said, this season would come to an end, the winter would turn to spring, and you would know without a doubt that God is real. In other words, doubt was understood as a sort of spiritual flu — a seasonal disruption that builds our immune systems.
Continue reading “When Doubt is Terminal”
In this episode of Sacred Tension I talk to Robyn Henderson-Espinoza, PhD about the process of dismantling toxic power within our culture. We talk about my gradual journey of understanding what, exactly, racism and sexism are, and the process of overcoming them. Robyn ultimately advocates for radical courage and imagination, and I found this conversation deeply moving.
Continue reading “Dismantling Supremacy Culture”
I always assumed that atheists were assholes. Whenever Dawkins, Harris, or Hitchens would show up on my computer screen, I would internally snarl at them: so angry, I thought. So prone to bitterness and self-righteousness.
Now that I’ve undergone my own deconstruction of faith I have to say that, while not excusing their more egregious behavior, I get why atheists can be assholes. It can feel like the whole world is against you, putting words in your mouth, or making assumptions about your character. Ever since coming out as a nontheist, I’ve gotten a steady torrent of unpleasantness from theists. I’ve gotten unsolicited challenges to debate, condescending private messages, and annoying assumptions about my personal integrity hurled at me.
Continue reading “Terrible Things Christians Say When You Stop Believing in God”
The history of the United States is dotted by moral panics: delusional mass hysterias over complete fictions like the Illuminati, 9/11 trutherism, Stranger Danger, and pedophilic satanists. Now, in a climate in which the fertile jungle of the internet seems to produce new conspiracy theories by the day, we need to understand the importance of moral panics: how they warp minds and destroy lives.
Continue reading “Sacred Tension: FrazzleDrip, Satanists, and Other Moral Panics”
Welcome to Sunday Curiosities: the blog series where I bring you the bizarre and fascinating tidbits that I’ve uncovered through the week.
Continue reading “Goblins in Appalachia, Woke Brands, and Hail Satan”
Stephen Bradford Long 