KtBlog
Bent Too Far: A Missionary, A Bookstore, A Change of Heart
In my last life, back in the late 1990s when I was a fundamentalist missionary in Papua New Guinea, I came upon the online magazine Killing the Buddha. Although I was quite aware that my life as a fundamentalist was nearly over, I did not know that I had about four years before any ontological…
Art in Dark Times: A (Made-Up) Solstice Ritual
Around this time of year, I often find myself telling people about the mixture of holidays I grew up celebrating as a child. My back-to-the-land hippie parents, one Jewish, one not, both fairly atheist, kept what they liked from their respective family traditions, and added some new ones of their own. My brother, sister, and…
An Open Letter to The Antioch Review
Dear Antioch Review, In your May 5th statement regarding the essay, “The Sacred Androgen: The Transgender Debate” by Daniel Harris, you celebrate an admittedly “deeply offensive” essay for “stirring debate.” In doing so, you note that a “key Antiochian value” is to offer a forum for free expression, to encourage critical thought and dialogue. I…
On Black Anti-Semitism
From the new memoir Letter To Jimmy (Soft Skull Press), translated from the French by Sara Meli Ansari.
Thank You, Zadie Smith
Beginning this summer and escalating through the winter, as I spend more of my waking hours reading, writing, and talking with people about the climate crisis, I have become insatiably hungry for fiction. The goal is to get dragged by skillful plotting so far into another world that an open door will always be waiting…
Richard Dawkins Loves the Bible
Richard Dawkins, the supposedly angry New Atheist constantly accused of knowing nothing about the religion he rails against, couldn’t even wait until January 1st to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible—”warts and all.” He riffs, in the New Statesman: The King James Bible occupies nearly 42 pages of the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations,…
Gods Must Die to Live
I’ve been meaning to share this for a while; it’s an arresting passage from C. S. Lewis that came to me on a page sent to my by a friend, a Trappist monk, on the subject I’ve been touching on from time to time here (and here), truth and mythology: The gods—and, of course, I…
O Felix Culpa!
Here’s a fun read for troubled times, fellow People of God (and everyone else)! Dame Muriel Spark’s 1974 novel, The Abbess of Crewe, is a tart tale of a Catholic abbey in England where traditional ways are adhered to in the face of recent conciliar reforms (observing the offices and Matins and Lauds at midnight…
James Agee to Toast Scott Korb’s New Book
Friday, March 19th, 2010, 7-9 pm KGB Bar 85 East 4th Street, New York, NY What do first-century Palestinians have in common with Depression-era tenant farmers? Find out on March 19th at KGB Bar in New York City, as the writer James Agee (1909-1955) is expected to return from the dead to celebrate the release…
Sentimental Repression
It has been a welcome relief from the busy romantic adventures of a single fellow in his mid-twenties in New York City, with my cellular phone by happenstance out of commission, to indulge in a reverie of reflection. Its occasion—in addition to the missing phone—was the discovery of Mark Greif’s challenging new essay at n+1…
