This was an active month on the podcast and blog, and I got some extremely thoughtful responses. The following are just a fraction of the comments and emails I received. Even if I’m not able to feature every single excellent comment I receive I so appreciate them, and please keep them coming.
Continue reading “God, Ineffability, and Satanic Ritual: Best Comments of July 2020”
In this episode of Sacred Tension I’m joined once again by my favorite Evangelical John Morehead to discuss the psychology of evangelicals and why they do what they do. John details his research into the emotions that drive toxic evangelical behavior.
Continue reading “Sacred Tension: What’s Going On With Evangelicals? Feat. John Morehead”
Like everyone else during this plague, I’ve been struggling to find ways to survive and stay sane. I’m an essential worker, and life has been somewhat fraught with existential dread. Some days, I feel good – balanced, mostly happy, and relatively centered. Other days, the existential despair crushes me. I don’t know how we will get out of this, how we will create a better world, how we will survive intact.
Many of the previous avenues of leisure are closed to me, now. Podcasts are often too stressful. Youtube is too stressful. Social media is too stressful. I’m already maxed out trying to stay safe and responsible at the front lines of the food industry. My brain just doesn’t have as much capacity as it used to.
The only place I can go, then, are books, primarily sci-fi and fantasy. I’ve devoured a huge number of books since the beginning of the pandemic, as books feel like the only safe place I have left.
Continue reading “How Reading Sci-fi and Fantasy Gives Me Hope”
In this episode of Sacred Tension Ally Henny joins us to give an intro on how to be good allies to the black community. She defines basic terms and gives white people some hard, probing questions. If you are new to conversations about race, this episode is for you.
Continue reading “Sacred Tension: What Took You So Long? Feat. Ally Henny”
In this episode of Sacred Tension I’m joined by religious studies professor Megan Goodwin to discuss abuse within religious communities, Satanic Panic, New Religious Movements, QAnon, her new book Abusing Religion, and more. Find Professor Goodwin here.
Continue reading “Sacred Tension: QAnon, Satanic Panic, and New Religious Movements with Prof. Megan Goodwin”
This week in curiosities: Vaush on how deplatforming works, Cal Newport on “intellectual groupieism”, and TST TV’s amazing show Unraveling
Continue reading “Sunday Curiosities: Deplatforming Works, Intellectual Groupieism, and Unraveling”
I live in a strange, interstitial space between atheism and theism. While I no longer consider myself a Christian, I refuse to cut ties with the Christian world and my progressive Christian community. At the same time, I feel a great deal of kinship with the pagan and witchcraft communities, as well as the atheist and skeptical communities. My own religious home is The Satanic Temple, and I consider myself a practicing Satanist. I call myself a nontheist and reject unverified claims of the supernatural.
To many people, the question of God’s existence is simple: either there is a magical sky daddy or there isn’t. For me, however, this question is getting increasingly complicated. God is about more than just existence or nonexistence: it is also about definitions, worldview, and culture.
Continue reading “Breaking Down God”
In this episode of Sacred Tension I’m joined by actor, quaker, and LGBTQ/climate activist Peterson Toscano to discuss his show Bubble&Squeak. We talk about formative queer experiences, the importance of storytelling, our awkward gay sex experiences, and more. Listen to Bubble&Squeak here.
Continue reading “Sacred Tension: Bubble and Squeak, feat. Peterson Toscano”This week in Curiosities: The darker impulses of the Dirt-bag Left, Sarah Z on the infiltration of Doomer ideology into leftist and activist spaces, and Ezra Klein interviews Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows.
Continue reading “Sunday Curiosities: Red Scare, OK Doomer, and The Shallows”
I’ve had the pleasure of appearing on the Satanic Temple TV a couple of times over the past few weeks to talk about protest, leftism, and my recent article Why I Haven’t Left the Satanic Temple. My first appearance was on The Devil’s Dispatch with Stu DeHaan, and my second appearance was on An Ongoing And Necessary Pursuit with Jack Matirko.
Continue reading “Talking Leftism, Protest, and Activism on The Satanic Temple TV”
Stephen Bradford Long 