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Jonathan Poletti

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I’m Jonathan. I blog God.

·Pinned

Let’s re-read “God”

I grew up in church, then realized there was more to the story.

1 min read

Let’s re-read “God”
Let’s re-read “God”

1 min read


Published in

𝐐𝐮𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐨𝐫𝐲

·2 days ago

When Joni Mitchell was a Black man

A famous singer-songwriter thought of herself as Black and performed in blackface — I’ve been trying to understand this concept we call “identity” — as includes the idea of being the opposite sex, and also perhaps a different race. Consider Joni Mitchell, the legendary singer-songwriter. She seems white, a white female, but seems to have regarded herself as a Black man. A typical Joni Mitchell fan thinks of her as a white woman.

Music

6 min read

When Joni Mitchell was a Black man
When Joni Mitchell was a Black man
Music

6 min read


Published in

I’m Jonathan. I blog God.

·3 days ago

Messy sex at Yale University is turning into a civil rights epic

Let’s look at the rape trial of Saifullah Khan — As he’s big news in the legal world, I’m catching up on the life of Saifullah Khan. His family is from Afghanistan. In 1992 they were exiled amid a Taliban takeover. ‘Saif’, as he’s called (pronounced ‘syph’), was born in a refugee camp in Pakistan in 1993. He was seen to be very bright, and was sent to America. He got a full scholarship to Yale University.

Crime

9 min read

Messy sex at Yale University is turning into a civil rights epic
Messy sex at Yale University is turning into a civil rights epic
Crime

9 min read


Published in

𝐐𝐮𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐨𝐫𝐲

·6 days ago

Is Tom Cotton gay?

Let’s look at a right-wing whisper campaign — He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2012, and to the Senate in 2014. He’s a Republican star—and frequently insinuated to be gay. As talk flares up again about Tom Cotton’s sexuality, I’m taking a look at his life, and the long history of rumors about him, typically from his own political side. Thomas Bryant Cotton was born in 1977 in the tiny town of Dardanelle, Arkansas.

Politics

6 min read

Is Tom Cotton gay?
Is Tom Cotton gay?
Politics

6 min read


Published in

𝐐𝐮𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐨𝐫𝐲

·Sep 15

A sick and twisted history of the Cabbage Patch Kids

The 1980s-era toy story isn’t too “cute” — No one would’ve thought a girl born in 1950 in Mayfield, Kentucky would create a generation-defining toy. Martha Nelson didn’t even talk. She liked to make things, like dolls. They’d do the talking for her. She went off to attend the Louisville School of Art — “because she was always making things and there seemed nothing else to do,” as a 1974 newspaper profile put it.

History

12 min read

A sick and twisted history of the Cabbage Patch Kids
A sick and twisted history of the Cabbage Patch Kids
History

12 min read


Published in

I’m Jonathan. I blog God.

·Sep 14

A ‘new’ Bible fragment shocks the Christian story

The strange tale of ‘P.Oxy. 87.5575' — In 1896, two British archaeologists were digging in Oxyrhynchus, Egypt, and came upon garbage dumped from the 3rd through 7th centuries. It included biblical manuscripts that had been thrown out by some local Christians. Thousands of boxes of ancient trash were taken back to England, to be sorted out over the next centuries. This would become known as the ‘Oxyrhynchus Papyri’.

Religion

5 min read

A ‘new’ Bible fragment shocks the Christian story
A ‘new’ Bible fragment shocks the Christian story
Religion

5 min read


Published in

I’m Jonathan. I blog God.

·Sep 9

Has a new speech by the Bible’s ‘Eve’ been found?

A startling moment in Bible scholarship — In the late 1990s, a literature student was taking a graduate class in the Bible. Thinking about one of its most bizarre passages, he had an extraordinary idea. All the confusion over Romans 7:5–25, Austin Busch suspected, was because Christian readers had assumed the speaker was a man. The speaker, he thought, was a woman. Indeed, the references seemed clear. The speaker was Eve herself.

Bible

5 min read

Has a new speech by the Bible’s ‘Eve’ been found?
Has a new speech by the Bible’s ‘Eve’ been found?
Bible

5 min read


Published in

𝐐𝐮𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐨𝐫𝐲

·Sep 5

The sexuality of Franz Kafka

A new edition of his diaries brings up an old debate — If you read Franz Kafka’s diaries in the original 1948 edition, you’ll find the great writer, in 1912, at a nudist sanitorum looking at “two handsome Swedish boys with long legs.” In a new English translation of The Diaries of Franz Kafka, the scene reads a bit differently. Kafka adds that the mens’ legs are “so formed and taut that one could really only run one’s tongue along them.”

LGBTQ

6 min read

The sexuality of Franz Kafka
The sexuality of Franz Kafka
LGBTQ

6 min read


Published in

I’m Jonathan. I blog God.

·Sep 3

Sarah Young died and ‘Christianity Today’ uses my profile

Evangelicals don’t know much about their favorite writers. Even Sarah Young, author of the #1 all-time bestselling Christian book, was mostly a blank. Last year I wrote the first biographical profile of her, “The #1 Christian Writer is a Woman Never Seen Publicly.” It was a strange story of a Wellesley College philosophy major who became a reclusive right-wing Christian star by writing a devotional, Jesus Calling, in the voice of ‘Jesus’.

Books

2 min read

Sarah Young died and ‘Christianity Today’ uses my profile
Sarah Young died and ‘Christianity Today’ uses my profile
Books

2 min read


Published in

I’m Jonathan. I blog God.

·Sep 1

Shannon Harris says “goodbye” to the Evangelical purity culture

A new memoir is a backstage pass to a religious movement — In the 1990s, the Evangelical world made a big push to eliminate all premarital sex and dating. It was the era of the “Purity Culture.” That lasted two decades, as horror stories were reported—like about the movement’s leader. In 2018, Joshua Harris, author of the 1997 bestselling book I Kissed Dating Goodbye, got a divorce, then left Evangelicalism.

Books

6 min read

Shannon Harris says “goodbye” to the Evangelical purity culture
Shannon Harris says “goodbye” to the Evangelical purity culture
Books

6 min read

Jonathan Poletti

Jonathan Poletti

111K Followers

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