Over the last few months, I have had to war with difference voices around me and my tendency to accept what people say at face value in good faith. This has come to something of a head as I have discovered podcasts. These are my thoughts on filtering the voices you listen to, including those from within.
The first podcast I have every really listened to extensively is Live Free put out by Lakepointe Church in Texas, USA. When I started looking for social media places where I could follow either the church or the lead pastor, Josh Howerton, I was confronted with a fair amount of criticism of the man. The criticism of Howerton was not limited to left dominated platforms like Bluesky, but also some on the cesspit X and even Facebook had a few negative things to say about the guy. In my own mind, these voices were louder than those people who actually like Howerton and what he has to say. It was this incident that brought me finally to the place where I stopped listening to people who appear to be mindless trolls.
On the Live Free podcast, I have yet to hear anything major with which I disagree. Howerton and his partners on the podcast present well-supported points, even if they take a good long time to get around to the topic of the podcast itself. Howerton might use some harsh phraseology, but that is something of a positive for me. I don’t think Gen X get too ruffled about a few hard words. The point is, Howerton’s theology and ethics, so far, have matched my own fairly broadly, and I see nothing in the Bible, again so far, that has contradicted the podcast.
This same issue was brought up to me previously when I mentioned I had the book Systematic Theology by theologian Wayne Grudem. I am not a reformed Christian by any stretch, but I do find Grudem’s presentation on things theological fairly solid. A brother in Christ told me Grudem was a pretty crappy theologian, and that was a comment I took on board, as I trusted the one who had made it. That same brother in Christ also recommended as irrefutable David Bentley-Hart’s book, That All Shall Be Saved. I did read Hart’s book and found it far from irrefutable. In fact, it highlighted a vast gulf between myself and so-called progressive Christians who water down the Bible to suit their social agendas. Of course, a universalist would argue that Grudem is a crappy theologian because Grudem upholds the inerrancy of the Bible.
If the Bible has errors, its god is not God.
I have come to the point where if something does not align with clear Biblical teaching, such as “Hell is temporary,” it is not acceptable.
More broadly speaking, and this is where I myself am still evolving, when it comes to your writing, be very careful whose voices you listen to. I have found some to be excellent fonts of deep wisdom about the craft of wordsmithing, but others have been somewhat lacking. Choose those you trust carefully, as many have agendas which remain invisible and hidden from you. For clarity, I am not here referring to the clear scammers who pop up in our messages every now and then about Nigerian women’s cyberpunk book clubs.
Another voice to beware of is your own. I really love Ray Bradbury’s dictum.
Don’t think.
I am the quintessential dreamer and wastrel, so Bradbury’s advice really lands home. However, I think he is actually correct. Creativity should be a flowing stream without thought beyond what you want to put out there. The refinement can come later. The main point of creativity is to create. I hate to be so obvious, but I think it needs saying. Creating does not get helped by second guessing, or wondering what people will think. Creativity is its own reason.
Related to the problem of thinking too much is that of choosing what you want to write. I am not yet a globally famous author, but I have some thoughts on this. Write what you want to write. If it is something you have an itch for, scratch the itch. Let no one’s dismissal put you off. One of reasons I have muliple sections on my Substack is I feel restricted when I limit myself to just fiction; more so when that limit is to just one or two genres. I am sure others feel the same. I like to write a lot of different things and I just go with the urge. I wonder if others limit themselves with questions about who will read it or even like it. This takes us back to Bradbury - don’t think.
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