Sunday coffee: Why I’m writing more about faith

Putting all of me into this newsletter

You may have noticed an increase in emails related to faith over the last month or so. You’re not wrong; I have been doing it more than usual lately. There are two reasons for that. 

The first is that I needed a short break and didn’t want to leave you without content. I love writing about movies, but around mid-August, I get worn out. Blockbuster season will do that, and I find it’s sometimes helpful to slow things down as we head into those last weeks so I can get a refresh and our family can prepare for the return to school and our routines. Rather than leave this newsletter neglected after a really good July, I thought it might be fun to republish some old pieces I’d written for some faith-based blogs and websites. 

It was also a test. To be honest, I was a bit afraid that readers here for my thoughts on movies would get tired of the spiritual talk, or that people drawn in for my thoughts on faith would be blindsided when the next few emails were about horror movies and pop culture nerdery. I wanted to see if my audience would be affected at all by including other content. The opposite happened; I’ve actually seen more engagement, and people seem okay with the mixture of faith and film writing. 

That’s encouraging. Faith has been a part of my writing identity since I first started a blog in 2004, and I was writing (very loudly and frequently) throughout my Cage Stage Calvinist days. I’ve written some pieces on film for faith-related publications, and for a few years my primary site for writing about film and culture was at Patheos, which hosts hundreds of blogs centered on faith. I even co-hosted a podcast about Christian music and culture for several years with a friend who was in a Christian ska band. 

I don’t want to pretend like my faith was something I hid on this site. I’ve always been very upfront about my Christian beliefs, and I’ve occasionally written pieces about my spiritual journey. It’s not hidden. I just decided when I started this newsletter that movies would be my primary focus. 

A big part of that was that my spiritual journey was in a bit of a rough space for a few years. I went through a period of deconstruction, prompted first by realizing that some of the approaches I’d taken to Christianity and the teaching I grew up with had made me the exact opposite type of person a follower of Christ should be. I was snarky, angry, unloving and unkind in a lot of how I lived out my faith, not displaying the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, etc. that we’re told Christians should be filled with. The rise of MAGA and Christian Nationalism further muddied things, prompting me to wonder how much I really wanted to associate with anything that reeked of American evangelicalism. 

I went through a lot of soul-searching and praying. We found a new church community that I deeply love. I’m in a much healthier place in regard to faith than I was several years ago, and I feel that fires that had been nearly snuffed out are starting to spark up again. I have things to say. And, as a writer, I naturally want to write about it.

My initial thought was to start a second newsletter. I’ve even reserved a URL for it on Substack. But that just seemed way too daunting. This publication is in a really good space; the last few months have seen new momentum and really strong engagement. But it took four years to get there. Starting a new newsletter and building a new audience just seemed a bit too much work, especially because I don’t want to harm this newsletter and the good things happening in this space. Plus, while I’ve got a lot to say about faith now, I don’t know that there’s always going to be that rush of ideas. Writing about movies, there’s always a new release, something to write about. Is that going to be the case in a faith-related newsletter down the road? 

Besides, I think my faith background has always been part of what gives my writing about film its personality. Not every review I write has an overt mention of spirituality in it, but some pieces do. And while I’m far from the first person to combine writing about faith and film – there are at least a dozen people I can readily point you to who are better at it than I am – I’m the only one with my experience. Roger Ebert was fond of quoting Robert Warshow’s saying: “A man goes to the movies. The critic must be honest enough to admit that he is that man.” 

My perspective on film, culture and life is shaped by my faith background. Specifically, it’s shaped by being a person who grew up in fundamentalist culture, pushed away from legalism and found a faith that was more generous, joyful and life-giving than what he’d grown up with. I love the background I have as a Baptist Boy/youth group nerd and my vast love of CCM and Christian culture. It set a foundation I still live on, even if it’s shifted a bit. I also understand where it was limiting and potentially harmful, and I’m concerned about the way Christianity has become entwined with power, but also how the cultural conversation is at risk of tossing out all the good the Church is doing in our critiques of where it’s failed. I want to be a part of both having a prophetic voice in calling the church to account for its mistakes while also celebrating its core beliefs of grace, redemption, mercy and love. 

So, I’m going to keep writing about faith a bit more regularly. What does that mean? 

First off, it’s not going to be at the expense of movie writing. Not because movies are more important than my faith but because this is the little cultural area where I have some insight, passion and a (very small) smidge of expertise. If you like my writing about film, you’re still going to get it. My guess is the ratio will be about one piece of writing about faith each week, with 2-3 pieces about film still hitting regularly (probably more as we head into the fall and award season). Of course, sometimes writing about films allows me to plug in my faith perspective, and sometimes my thoughts about faith are best illustrated by what I see in films. But that’s kind of the point, isn’t it? The bottom line is: Don’t worry about the things that drew you to this newsletter going away. I’ll still have new release reviews. I’m still continuing my look back at films of 1999. We’re Watching Here will still post monthly(ish). 

What will the writing about faith look like? I’m not 100% sure. I have a few older pieces I still want to repurpose in the coming weeks. I think I’m going to label all my faith writing pieces The Jesus Junkyard in a nod to an old blog and podcast. Sometimes, the writing might be political (but dear lord, I hope that’s minimal). Sometimes, I’ll have something humorous. Sometimes I’ll muse on a deep thought. Other times, I’ll put my expertise of Christian music to use. We’ll see what strikes me. I don’t intend on preaching or giving you a Bible study or devotional; that’s not what this newsletter is for, and my hunch is that most of this writing will stick to examining culture through the lens of faith.

I feel like this will make the newsletter a bit more well rounded and allow all of me to be represented here. Some of you found this site because of my writing about film and faith elsewhere, and I hope that you’ll find this equally engaging. And, if you’re not a person of faith and want nothing to do with religion, feel free to just wait for a movie review to come out. Likewise, if you only want to read my writing about faith but could care less about movies, feel free to skip the reviews. 

It’s been an exciting year with this platform, and it’s given me some renewed excitement for my writing for the first time in ages. I’m going to write more about the state of this newsletter in a few weeks, closer to the anniversary of its fourth launch. There are some fun things I have in store and some experimentation I’m hoping to play with in the coming months. But I wanted to address this shift in case it struck some as a turn from what they subscribed for. 

Whatever brought you here, whether it was the writing about faith or the film reviews, welcome. I appreciate your time and engagement! It makes all of this worthwhile.