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…
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Bitter is Better: The New Bitter Southerner Podcast
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 […]
Check out Heartlands’ New Look
Heartlands got a make-over today. Come check out the site and review our Top 10 Best Reads of 2018!
Old King Coal – on Ministry Matters
What happens to the coal patch when the coal industry leaves? https://www.ministrymatters.com/all/entry/9358/the-decline-of-coal
Alex’s New Essay on Streetlight
Appetite for Destruction – Fixing Roofs in Waverly https://streetlightmag.com/2018/11/11/appetite-for-destruction-fixing-roofs-in-waverly-by-alex-joyner/
What About the Methodists?: Robert Wuthnow talks churches, 2 of 3
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 Truly, Madly, Deeply Hate ‘Deeply’
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 […]
What You Can Learn from 3 Hilltops: West Bank Edition
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 […]
Come Write at The Porches with Alex
There’s still time to sign up for this great weekend workshop…
The Longoria’s BBQ: The Long-Awaited Heartlands Review
I was just getting ready to test out the brisket sausage when David Longoria sat down across the table from me as if we had known each other forever. It was a slow Saturday in Everman on the southern fringes of Fort Worth. The temperature hovered around 100 outside. Inside the small restaurant with the […]
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