Wow! This is a powerful and moving piece with multiple layers. Excellent work, Jonathan! Won’t see this attention to detail anywhere else. Funny how in America—a supposedly secular country—if you claim that you’re doing something for religious (i.e. “Christian) purposes you don’t get questioned.
This kind of careful, intelligent, in-depth journalism has become so rare, and that's such a sad thing. We expect so little of journalism these days, and usually get a series of factoids in a two-minute read that tries to pull people in with sensationalism. We quickly digest pieces that don't demand people think and reflect about the issues that gave rise to the story.
I really enjoyed this because it wasn't any of those things. You put a huge amount of effort into it; it clearly affected you emotionally and the ways it did come through in your writing, but you still leave room for the reader to reflect and come to their own conclusions. It was just really good writing, and if I was less critically poor, I'd be supporting your work financially because the writing damn well deserves it, and so do you.
Thank you very much for your excellent reporting, it’s appreciated. The literary quality of your reports on Vance Boelter is the strongest I’ve read so far on your Substacks. Just saying: consider writing an investigative nonfiction book about the Boelter case and the disturbing political violence and rhetoric we’ve been seeing from Christian nationalists in the U.S. You’d do a bang-up job, you’re already extremely knowledgeable about the rising tide of Christian Nationalism and its power-hungry, Congressional prayer-breakfasting zealotry, and I *really* want to read that book when you’re done writing it. So let us know when it comes out, ok?😂
I could be very wrong, but I’m wondering if Boelter began experiencing the onset of schizophrenic symptoms in his late-teens/early-20s, which is typically when patients start having them. I also wonder if he was suppressing emotions about David that he didn’t think he should be having; whether they ever met or not, he seems to have been fixated or obsessed with him, warping and embellishing on his concept of David and his death, over the years.
Wow! This is a powerful and moving piece with multiple layers. Excellent work, Jonathan! Won’t see this attention to detail anywhere else. Funny how in America—a supposedly secular country—if you claim that you’re doing something for religious (i.e. “Christian) purposes you don’t get questioned.
Thanks, Brian.
I'm adding the Emerson family to Boelter's body count. This story keeps getting worse.
This kind of careful, intelligent, in-depth journalism has become so rare, and that's such a sad thing. We expect so little of journalism these days, and usually get a series of factoids in a two-minute read that tries to pull people in with sensationalism. We quickly digest pieces that don't demand people think and reflect about the issues that gave rise to the story.
I really enjoyed this because it wasn't any of those things. You put a huge amount of effort into it; it clearly affected you emotionally and the ways it did come through in your writing, but you still leave room for the reader to reflect and come to their own conclusions. It was just really good writing, and if I was less critically poor, I'd be supporting your work financially because the writing damn well deserves it, and so do you.
The use of "disciple" as a verb is so multiply Freudian.
How so?
It strikes me as deeply creepy, and also to partake in fantasies of divine power and self-glorification.
Thank you very much for your excellent reporting, it’s appreciated. The literary quality of your reports on Vance Boelter is the strongest I’ve read so far on your Substacks. Just saying: consider writing an investigative nonfiction book about the Boelter case and the disturbing political violence and rhetoric we’ve been seeing from Christian nationalists in the U.S. You’d do a bang-up job, you’re already extremely knowledgeable about the rising tide of Christian Nationalism and its power-hungry, Congressional prayer-breakfasting zealotry, and I *really* want to read that book when you’re done writing it. So let us know when it comes out, ok?😂
I could be very wrong, but I’m wondering if Boelter began experiencing the onset of schizophrenic symptoms in his late-teens/early-20s, which is typically when patients start having them. I also wonder if he was suppressing emotions about David that he didn’t think he should be having; whether they ever met or not, he seems to have been fixated or obsessed with him, warping and embellishing on his concept of David and his death, over the years.
Thanks again, & shoutout to TFN, goddammit!