It has been a disturbing week in Virginia government. Once again, we are struggling with how we address questions of race and racism. This time Virginia Governor Ralph Northam and Attorney General Mark Herring are both confronted with incidents from their past involving appearances in blackface, a remnant of minstrel shows where the entertainment came […]
It’s happened again. Writers in The New York Times are once again wondering aloud if country people shouldn’t just give up and move to the city to deal with problems of economic insecurity. Which means, it’s time for another episode of “Why Don’t Country People Just Get Out?” In an article titled “The Hard Truth […]
Originally posted on Tell it Slant:
photo by Steve Halama on Unsplash The essay from my FaithLink for Dec. 23rd–“Christmas Music and the Incarnation”—has been posted on the Ministry Matters website: https://www.ministrymatters.com/all/entry/9420/christmas-music-and-the-incarnation Here are links to the songs mentioned in the essay: John McCutcheon’s “Christmas in the Trenches”: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox?projector=1 Noel Paul Stookey’s “Christmas Dinner” with…
A few months back I had the privilege of interviewing Chuck Reece, one of the masterminds behind the great Bitter Southerner site. Now Chuck is hosting a new podcast which you can subscribe to at your favorite podcast watering hole. It’s all the things you’d expect from such a thing: wry, rye, and an ongoing celebration of […]
Heartlands got a make-over today. Come check out the site and review our Top 10 Best Reads of 2018!
What happens to the coal patch when the coal industry leaves? https://www.ministrymatters.com/all/entry/9358/the-decline-of-coal
Appetite for Destruction – Fixing Roofs in Waverly https://streetlightmag.com/2018/11/11/appetite-for-destruction-fixing-roofs-in-waverly-by-alex-joyner/
In the first part of my interview with Princeton’s Robert Wuthnow, one of America’s premier sociologists, we talked about the current face of the Heartland. Wuthnow’s book, The Left Behind: Decline and Rage in Rural America, talks about the changing dynamics of many rural institutions, including churches. I enlisted him to help me think about churches […]
I don’t use Heartlands to rant much, right? O yeah, there was that time. But, listen, there’s a new rhetorical bugaboo I need to brood about. I’m deeply concerned about ‘deeply.’ It’s not so much the adverb’s connection to words like ‘grateful’ and phrases like ‘I love you.’ It’s particularly problematic when it worms its […]
Flagpole in Sebastia Sebastia On the highest point in Sebastia, where a Roman Temple, the Northern Kingdom’s palace, and innumerable pagan holy sites once stood, there is a ramshackle wooden flagpole sporting a small Palestinian flag. Or at least there was last week when I visited. Locals report that the flagpole is the frequent target […]
