Welcome to The Square Inch, a Friday newsletter on Christianity, culture, and all of the many-varied “square inches” of God’s domain. Although today’s is free, this is normally a paid subscription feature with a preview before the paywall, so please consider subscribing to enjoy this weekly missive along with a frequent Pipe & Dram feature of little monologues/conversations in my study, and Wednesday’s “The Quarter Inch,” a quick(er) commentary on current events.
Dear Friends,
Two-hundred sixty is the number marking this edition. That means it is the five-year anniversary of The Square Inch Newsletter (I have never been particularly good at math, but I am pretty sure 260 ÷ 52=5). For five straight years I have managed to deliver a piece of writing to your inbox every single Friday, with just four exceptions over that time (So on the calendar it has actually been five years, four weeks since I began). I could let myself off the hook by considering that most people get more than four weeks of vacation over a five-year period, but I do not let myself off so easy. Those missing weeks were unplanned misses, when my own planning and preparation fell by the wayside and the pressures of ordinary life overwhelmed me. I will do better; not by never missing a week, but by making sure that such absences are planned beforehand and intentional.
Five years is a good time to reflect and take stock of what, exactly, I am doing here. But before I get into giving myself a report card, I need to tell you just how grateful I am for you, dear friends. I have managed to gather together a modest little flock of people willing to read what I write, many of you even contribute money to our maintenance and upkeep to read what I write, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. It is not enough to “make a living,” but it is hardly insignificant in defraying some important expenses. We are really grateful for you.
The Square Inch has published far more than 260 pieces of writing, of course, if we include The Quarter Inch and Off The Shelf issues—and what has essentially become its successor, Pipe & Dram. There is no easy way for me to determine, but I estimate that the output is somewhere between 800,000 to 1 million words over those five years. Since, as I’ve often reminded, this venture began as an attempt to overcome a crippling bout of writer’s block, I would have to grade it as an A+ effort on that metric.
In my inaugural manifesto (which remains as the “About” page on this website), I aimed at a few things. To avoid getting mired in the various “outrages of the day,” and I wanted to do more culture than partisan politics. I would grade that as a B-minus. The Trump “era” makes avoiding the outrages of the day difficult, and I think I could have done better at picking my battles. I think I did a fair job at trying to keep that stuff relegated to The Quarter Inch, but there were certainly times when it bled into the flagship Friday newsletter. When inspiration doesn’t strike as often as you’d like or when you really need it, it’s “easy” to just write about whatever is outraging people on a given day (this is one reason it is unlikely you will ever see me fire up a podcast—that is all those guys do and I’d be a lot more insufferable than I already am). That said, when I look at, say, The Magnificent Pig: And Other Letters to My Friends, I see a lot of really quality essays, such that no one can really accuse me of being a one-trick pony or falling into lazy tropes and hobby horses. Even then, the perhaps-too-often forays into politics ended up producing some gems.
Some outrages needed addressing, on the other hand, and the two-plus years I spent critiquing and exposing the terrible theology, almost psychotic sociology, and ugly racism at the heart of Right-Wing “Christian” Nationalism was time well-spent. My review of Stephen Wolfe’s book was essentially the first to sound the alarm, and here we are today, with Wolfe openly unwilling to take a side in a debate between James White and apostate (and open white supremacist) Corey Mahler on social media. Given his absurd disingenuousness regarding his friend and podcast co-host, Thomas Achord—whom he has rehabilitated and rejoined, by the way—this is hardly surprising. Along with my many essays on the dangers of the “NETTR” principle, I think the grade is a solid A.
We have had a great deal of fun in my study, from my vantage point. From reading the Apostolic Fathers (e.g., here and here,) to gently pushing back on Peter Leithart, to exploring the 19th century Encyclopædia Brittanica and what it says about “Base Ball,” to music appreciation (e.g., here and here), that has been a blessed respite from writing about whatever it is Democrats and Republicans are up to. I’d have to give an “A” for the variety. We have definitely covered a lot of square inches.
All told, I am really … content with what I have created here. I plan to do it until the day I leave this world. I do not have a massive readership, in the relative grand scheme of things. But when I consider that if I were, say, a pastor, and that number of subscribers represented a real-world congregation, I’d find myself a pastor of what would probably qualify as a megachurch. And, yes, like most pastors I lament that only a fraction of those people “tithe” (ahem, pay for a subscription), but I am not entitled to anything. I’m amazed at and grateful for the number of you who do proverbially “buy me a coffee or two” every month.
More personally, over the last five years we’ve found a new stable church home; seen a daughter graduated and married off and another graduated this month; a silver wedding anniversary; and band form out of thin air and record and release an album. Time moves slow and and also really, really fast.
I do not know what the next five years will bring. I am toying with the idea of actually scheduling a break this summer, and I’ll be sure to let you know. A recharge of the batteries and the imagination might do me a great deal of good. That, and I have some major household projects that need attention!
Thank you again for subscribing to and reading The Square Inch Newsletter. To celebrate this five-year anniversary, I am offering 20% off an annual subscription for the next two weeks (offer ends June 14th). Please consider upgrading to a paid subscription and share with all of your friends!
Your writings have been a breath of fresh air since I have found them, and your cultural and political critiques helpfully cut through the myopic "left vs. right" divide that tends to overcome the thinking of many people.
Keep up the great work, Brian!
Thanks! Good that you all are in a good local church again!
It seems many Christians, esp. pundits, are spiritually "catting around"
and not committed to and serving in a local church...;)
Not good in a marriage, physical or spiritual.