This Week on The SubStack

Trans Fears, Crime Fears, and Culture War Fears

On Monday, I’ll be writing the piece I put off last week in light of the Taylor University news. I plan to reflect on interactions I’ve had with trans folks, the deliberate lack of understanding about their issues on the parts of critics, and why this is a topic feeding culture warring. I’m starting Monday’s piece by acknowledging that I had no idea who Dylan Mulvaney is:

On Wednesday, I want to look at how our exaggerated fear of crime is feeding all kinds of aberrant behaviors from the recent shootings of people knocking on the wrong door or pulling into the wrong driveway to the choking of the man on the New York subway this week. Often these fears are stoked in deliberate ways, such as this meme shared by the Twitter owner this week:

On Friday, I’ll return to my book project. I’ll be workshopping ideas about culture wars and how we might rethink them. Christian Universities are something of a Rosetta Stone for interpreting evangelical culture wars. So I’m digging into books about culture creation (as opposed to seven mountains culture dominance) to see what alternatives exist to defuse the culture war bombs that plague us.

Last week I submitted the book proposal to a publisher. I don’t yet know where the line is between “they’re looking at it” and “I’ve been ghosted”. Still, I had a conversation with another acquisitions editor that might be promising in case the first one doesn’t bite.

And thanks to the subscriber who, completely unprompted, pledged money in support of this effort!