Please read Phil Christman’s book
Plus: briefly reviewing the Cataclysmic Rapture of Friendshipness tour
You can order Why Christians Should be Leftists and find out more about it here.
Hi all - Phil Christman is a brilliant essayist who writes The Tourist here on Substack, he teaches writing at the University of Michigan, he is one of only two people in history who correctly identified where my Substack avi is from without looking it up, and he is the author of several books including the new Why Christians Should be Leftists, out next week. His publisher sent me a review copy several months ago, possibly due to a clerical error, and I can tell you that it’s a good book, a very moving and challenging read.
Why Christians Should be Leftists starts with Christman’s background growing up in a conservative Protestant tradition, and how the Sermon on the Mount, spoken by a God who “comes to a brutally hierarchical world and says that the people at the bottom of that hierarchy - the poor in spirit, the meek, the persecuted, the losers and the suckers - are, somehow, the inheritors of the kingdom of heaven” casts a harsh light on the barbarism of our political and economic systems. From there, he digs into what political engagement can look like when you recognize the failures of those systems, take the Sermon on the Mount seriously, and conduct yourself with Christian joy and humility as you work with others to build something better. There's a long excerpt of the book up at Commonweal right now and it's quite excellent. Phil's latest Substack piece on “some ways churches should be” is also great.
You probably already read Phil’s stuff but if you don’t, you should. I thought about interviewing him but ultimately found that too intimidating as he sometimes writes very intelligent stuff about books I’ve never heard of and I’ve been bringing a real “guy who gets depressed and re-watches Enter the Dragon” vibe to my recent interactions with other people. Look, just read his book.
I am old and do not go to punk shows anymore because I can no longer handle a regular schedule of “jumping and yelling and being awake past 9:30” but I did go to the Salt Shed on Friday to see Jeff Rosenstock co-headline with PUP, in front of a crowd of a couple thousand Chicagoans; both artists seemed genuinely surprised that this many people had even heard of their music, let alone would come out to mosh to them. I have written about Rosenstock at length before, he remains one of my all-time favorite artists, his show was outstanding as you’d expect. I had been a casual fan of PUP, but their live show was electric and they have bumped me up from “casual” to “rabid” fan.
At the top of Jeff’s set, on the night before the National Guard was expected to begin their occupation of Chicago, he yelled out “IT'S FUCKED UP THAT THE MILITARY IS BEING DEPLOYED TO YOUR CITY TOMORROW. THEY DID IT TO MY CITY [Los Angeles], THEY'RE DOING IT TO DC, IT'S FASCISM, IT'S FUCKED UP, HERE'S A BUNCH OF SONGS ABOUT KEEPING LOVE IN YOUR HEART WHEN YOU LIVE IN A CAPITALIST POLICE STATE,” and then launched into side B of WORRY.
At the top of PUP’s set, Stefan Babcock yelled out to the crowd “I THINK THE VIBES ARE GOOD HERE ALREADY, BUT I SAY THIS AT EVERY SHOW: THIS WORLD IS FUCKED. IT’S SO FUCKED OUT THERE. AND THE REASON WE DO THIS IS SO THE WORLD CAN BE GOOD RIGHT HERE, WITH THESE PEOPLE.” Thousands of people, young and old, disabled and able-bodied, queer and straight, high and sober, living comfortably and precariously, cheered at this, because it felt like it might actually be true.
So today, pray that we can keep love in our hearts in this fucked world, and that we can show that love to the people around us. Pray that whatever work we do - playing punk music, treating sick people, teaching students, raising your family, delivering groceries, opening your home, accompanying a family to the courthouse, protesting injustice - we do it with humility and joy and gratitude, so that no matter how fucked the world is, the world can at least be good right here with these people.
Read Phil’s book. And if you’re reading this as you're just waking up, wake up to this shit: