“Earnestly desire spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophecy.
The one who prophecies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation.” 1 Corinthians 14:1 and 14:3
Around six months ago, I began this Substack as a way to explore ideas around fashion, aesthetics, and sexuality in a way that was free from the censoriousness, chilling of speech, and adherence to ideology we see today in many publications. I had intended to pursue fashion journalism but came to the conclusion that there was no place for me within it if I was to have any integrity or ability to speak about beauty in my own way.
As I began to write, I noticed that another realm was opening itself. There was another world that in some way I wanted to write about— another emerging focus. I can only describe it now as issues of God and Country. Although I have spent my life voting blue, working in liberal communities, and would describe myself as a libertarian in regard to sexual expression, I lived in a rural, conservative area until I was six years old, with family members who were Charismatic Christians. The isolation and hardships of the past few years have allowed me to realize that those values are still deep within me, and have saved me in many situations.
A few years before he died, my grandfather told me that “the most important thing in life is to have a relationship with God.” This is the grandfather I have spoken of in other posts, who had a rifle hanging above his kitchen table and would never place another book on top of the Bible. I am now living in upstate New York again, in an area that is as red as the raspberries that grew in my great-grandmother’s yard, and something here is calling to me. It might be the Holy Spirit.
I am interested in developing a podcast that focuses on faith. It will be called Prophecy, and it will cover experiences of God— the kind of direct, personal experience that is often classified as mysticism. “Mysticism” as we hear it spoken of often carries woo-woo connotations of New Age philosophy, but this is not how I will approach it. It is time we look at these experiences in a way that is intellectually serious, if it wants to be, and unsentimental, if it needs to be. The idea of God in this context can be quite wide in its definition. I am interested in speaking with Christians— Evangelicals, Baptists, and Catholics alike— but also with people of other faiths or spiritual systems, whether they be nature-worshipping witches, Orthodox Jews, Buddhists, or atheists who wish to speak of the unconscious and of dream interpretation.
I am tired of the spiritual element of life being dismissed and denigrated in the mainstream press. Most Americans are spiritual beings. While defending the absolute right of non-theists to live free of religious dogma, I share with editor Emily Jashinsky the conviction that secularization is behind many of society’s current problems (listen to this brilliant conversation with author Batya Ungar-Sargon starting at minute 30).
What might you be looking for in a podcast that explores faith? What is missing? Have you taken this political quiz? Developed by the Pew Research Center, it describes nine distinct groups. When I took it, I was sure I would get either “Faith and Flag Conservative” or “Outsider Left,” but instead got “Ambivalent Right”— the same as Ross Douthat and Rod Dreher, two religious writers I admire. Even a year ago I would have been bewildered at this outcome. But if defending— and believing with all my heart and soul— in some essential vision of American freedom changes my affiliation, at least I am in good company.
Please reach out to me with your thoughts. If you have suggestions for guests, I would love to hear those too. For now the idea is only beginning, but I do think it is time for deeper talks about how we can reconcile our own interior religious experience with the demands of contemporaneity. And perhaps not only with its demands— but with a genuine desire to move forward, rather than reanimate the past.
The country needs it.