‘There Must Be Something Beautiful’
Let's Emphasize the Good Despite the Troubles, Helped By My Most Recent Podcast
You’ve written the book that I’ve been wanting to read for years, since I restarted my comprehension of what Christianity is.
With those kind words, William From England introduced me and my book, Good Neighbor, Bad Citizen, to his audience.
He and his co-host, Scott Lizard Abrams, interviewed me for the Sunday, March 17, episode of their “History Homos” podcast (available at Spotify, Rokfin, Odysee, and Bitchute). Don't let the podcast name dissuade you! It references the genus Homo, to which Homo Sapiens belongs!
Scott and William treated me like we were all old friends. I knew right away that I’d enjoy writing about it a few days later (here it is!).
Reaching out with openness and curiosity
As William’s introduction of my book hints at, much of our conversation revolved around how my book invites curious, open-minded people into an exploration of Christianity unlike what they’ve previously encountered.
It deeply embraces the human condition, a point Scott and William noted is explicitly made in perhaps my favorite passage from the book (and my favorite image quote to share!):
For God to create the human condition and then take human form and submit to the limits of human life, there must be something beautiful and worthy about being human.
On the way to that distillation, our conversation touched on several themes that are vital to both Christianity and anarchism/voluntarism:
The importance of positive human interactions and avoiding social toxicity
Rational and intelligent processes for human understanding
Dealing nonviolently with those who are different, and even with those who want to impose upon you (like governments!)
Gratefulness
Course correction when mistakes happen (a.k.a. “repentance” in Christian parlance)
Richard Dawkins coining the term “meme” to describe cultural replicators
Glimpse of transcendence whether you’re theist, agnostic, or atheist
This last bullet point in the conversation was the beginning of my longest near-monologue of the podcast (which I apologize for; I’m an overtalker, heh):
It’s a glimpse of transcendence, I think, that gets us out of strictly material biology. And I think atheists go through that, as well.
…
Dawkins admitting that there are cultural replicators that can work against what would be perceived to be strict, biological replicators — the fact that he would even go there and ask that question and explore it — I think is a wonderful thing.
…
God, to me, is the Holy Transcendent. But it’s not idea. It is person, because I do think that the aspects of the transcendent that we can get a glimpse of are those characteristics that we understand as personhood: intentionality, will, love, seeking the good of the other for the other’s sake.
…
[On the audience for my book including non-Christians] Somewhere, they are finding a book about the transcendent and about neighborliness that’s rooted in the real-life events of a real-life person, Jesus of Nazareth, who I believe is the second person of the Trinity, who I believe is God. But even if you don’t [believe], there may be something there for you to grasp a little bit and to understand and to maybe spur you forward. And I love when that’s able to happen for people.
Of course, I highly recommend listening to the entire podcast. I can’t do the conversation justice in this short article; we talked about much more, including several passages from the book. It was fun and stimulating for me, and I hope you find it enjoyable, too!
Housekeeping and Comment-seeking
Next week is Passion Week or Holy Week for many Christians. Thursday through Sunday (March 28-31 this year) are especially celebrated because the traditional liturgies examine Jesus’ persecution, death, and resurrection in greater detail than do typical daily and weekly liturgies.
If you’d like to read Good Neighbor, Bad Citizen — the book — in time for March 28, the ebook is available immediately, and Amazon can on-demand print and deliver a paperback in about a week to most parts of the U.S. and plenty of other countries, too.
Check the predicted delivery dates for your favorite platform: Amazon … B&N … Lulu.
And while you’re here on Substack … this podcast opportunity showed up at the perfect time for me. My recent weekly posts have been about rather sobering topics. While I try to be constructive and look for solutions and encourage people with my writing, it can still feel like a downer to cover the persecution of Julian Assange, the tragedy of subsidized migration, the anniversary of the #COVIDHoax lockdowns.
It’s good to write an entire post about good.
What are your thoughts, on the bullet points or anything else from this article?
Anything else from the podcast you’d like me to address (maybe in a future Substack article)?
Tell me in the Comments …
Thank you for your kind words Domenic, we look forward to welcoming you back in future.