Joshuah Bearman: Testimonials

Nov 15, 2004

Testimonials

The right wins by stealing -- not elections, but ideas. Family, the flag, patriotism and God are all casualties of the right's assault on language and reason. Luckily, not all Christians are sold on the religious right's bill of goods. It will be a long road, but recapturing religion must be a priority for progressives. 1 in 5 evangalicals voted for Kerry, and here are some of their thoughts, via the Center for American Progress:

"From this point on I believe that progressives need to move forward by standing up to and against those fundamentalist Christians who have hijacked God. As an evangelical Christian whose life is affected deeply by my faith, I am appalled at the group of fundamentalist Christians who believe that they have a corner on the God market and that if Jesus Christ was voting then he would vote Republican. We must strive to move past the hot button issues that divide and talk about and work toward alleviating the real problems our country faces. Problems of joblessness, homelessness, poverty, lack of education, unequal rights, and other issues of justice. As progressive Christians we must be willing to be as passionate about these issues as others are about abortion and gay marriage. We must stand strong in our faith and allow our faith to guide us and our country into a better tomorrow."

-- Bland Campbell III

"I am a living 'non sequitur,' a theologically educated evangelical in Massachusetts, who is ashamed of how uncritical my fellow evangelical brothers and sisters have been in their thinking in this most critical election. They fell for the "single issue" bait and the manufactured image of someone who may actually be sincere in his faith, but horribly misguided in his theology. A living Christian faith demands rigorous examination of daily ethical issues in the context of Jesus' clear and straightforward teaching. 'Church,' 'faith,' 'morality,' 'truth' and other such deep words have been co-opted and corrupted by highly motivated – at the least – amoral, ruthless business interests, devoted to exactly the things Jesus preached against. To do such things 'in His Name,' is the vilest manifestation of evil, and duping believers (Matthew 24:23-25) is part of the equation. Thoughtful Evangelicals turn themselves inside out to reach out and do whatever is necessary to help anyone."

-- Rich Becker, Massachusetts

Nov 15, 2004 | Permalink

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Articles in Print

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Digital Trim
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Readings

Panda PowerPoint!
I guess I don't mind being "the entertainment" when it's at Mark Allen's second annual Holiday Fry-B-Que. Presented: preliminary findings from my ongoing research into the most charismatic megafauna of all: Giant Pandas.
McSweeny's Presents: The World, Explained | Dec 9, 2006
For those who missed it, there will be more. World, Explained is going strong! Money was raised, laughs were had, and for those paying attention, small amounts of useful information about things like the aurora borealis were transmitted. Plus: Michael Cera = lovably funny. And Nick Diamonds' renditions of Dumb Dog and Hanging Tough are still in my head. As is that horribly catchy Fresh Step jam.
Jest Fest at Skylight Books
Somehow I wound up hosting the 10th anniversary jubilee for Infinite Jest at Skylight Books. Because who doesn't love a jubilee, right? Despite being delirious with Hepatitis A (that's the mild, non-lethal kind; I'm not at risk for Hep B since I always go the needle share and choose clean-looking prostitutes), I managed to not mis-pronounce anyone's name and make an erudite joke and poke gentle fun at Michael Silverblatt.
McSweeny's Presents: The World, Explained | June 10, 2006
Number Three! Last one was sold out so we moved to a slightly larger theater. Andy Richter hosted, and his opening exegesis of CSI: Miami warmed the people up right. Evany Thomas presented her very scientific findings on the Secret Language of Sleep; Starlee Kine bared her neuroses to the world (or at least the 300 people in the audience); Josh Davis showed video of his 135-lb self sumo wrestling a 550-lb opera singer from San Bernardino; and Davy Rothbart closed it out with some Found Magazine magic. Grant Lee Phillips, Sam Shelton and Zooey Deschanel provided the music punctuation! I can still hear their rendition of We Are the Champions.
McSweeny's Presents: The World, Explained | Feb 11, 2006
The second in our series of precision comedy and fact-based entertainment extravaganzas benefiting 826LA. Patton Oswalt was kind enough to host, and Jon Brion joined in on the piano and guitar as thematic accompaniment. Presenters included: David Rees, Michael Colton, John Hodgman (along with his hirsuit troubadour, Jonathan Coulton), and me. Plus: a fashion show of exciting multi-user garmentry.
Little Gray Book Lecture at Galapagos
How to Observe President's Day. Jonathan Coulton's technical wizardry has made this entire show available online. The summary from PRX: Sarah Vowell, John Hodgman and Joshuah Bearman on Presidents' Day, along with a fifteen-piece marching band and a new song about all forty-three presidents. My contribution? Yes, from Yeti Researcher. Again. Actually that was the first one. So I have only five stories!
Little Gray Book Lecture 25 at Galapagos
The Animals: Are They Our Enemies? In the case of my presentation about the giant gerbils of Xinjiang, the answer is yes.
July 25: TJ to LA -- A Night McSweeney's Readings
I was honored to be part of a strange triptych along with Salvador Plascencia and Josh Kun. Sponsored, somehow, by La Ciudad magazine, we all packed into Beyond Baroque with no air conditions. 150 people showed at 7 o'clock on a Friday evening, which we took as a good sign of something. Sal held up and anxiously discussed drawings from his novel, Josh delivered an essay on the Dr. Moreau of Tijuana, and my shtick (again) was Pac Man and metaphysics, this time with fun slides.
October 8th: Skylight Books w/Stephen Elliott
Fun times were had by all. Someone in the audience actually mistook me for an expert on the psychology human character. We ate shrimp cocktail and drank cheap wine and laughed at Bush and celebrated the certainty of right besting wrong in American democracy. A lot of good that did.
October 9th: MoveOn Fundraiser in Los Angeles
See above.

My Cohort

The Rumpus.net
Stephen Elliott, web entrepeneur
Michael Scherer
Trail pal from way back
Ezra Klein
Youthful macher and wonk extraordinaire
The Squid Blog
All about squids!
Little Gray Books
Hodgman!
Mark Sundeen
A man of many mysteries
Adventurer's Club
Of Los Angeles. (Not the stuffy Explorer's Club in New York. No way.)
Stephen Eliott
Stephen Elliott, Author

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Joshuah Bearman

Nov 15, 2004

Testimonials

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