(i also changed the subdomain to “outofgomorrah”)
This article is going to be the intro for this Substack. Some of you might remember my older intro post “Inquiry into Irenaeus”. I got rid of that one because it was crap, and also it really doesn’t match the tone of what I want to do here. It was based on the original name of this page, “Irenaeus Inquiry”, which was originally named because I had just read “On The Apostolic Preaching” by St. Irenaeus of Lyons, and it was alliterative. I’ve since changed to have a name that matches the tone of what I wish to do here. I’ve archived the original article here for archival purposes, along with another (bad) early article: “Pork and Sauerkraut on New Year’s Day”
The reason why I thought a name change was fitting was because my page is not really going to be all that theological. I will certainly touch upon theology, but there will be a lot of politics talk, culture talk, and a bunch of other curiosities. A lot of why I started writing on here was just to get experience writing, and thus get experience thinking. This is why the quality of my writing might be a bit iffy at points.
The first article that I wrote here that I didn’t later remove is “Anti-Threnody”, which was a stream of consciousness rant that I wrote at like 11:00 PM one night. It is scatterbrained and fails on many parts, but it felt necessary, and was an improvement on past articles. There’s also “Doing”, which was a poem that I wrote for
that I decided to publish on here as well. Also includes my first voice-over, which I think was pretty good for a first time.Yesterday, I published the first installment in the “American Gallery” series, which is a showcase of different pieces of art that I find to be of cultural value to American Heritage, paired with some commentary (mostly to get writing experience). A lot of the pieces on this one are ones that I’ve used on my page, leading to it being a bit less “folksy” than future ones will be, and a lot of the writing is older and a bit weak. Also, like half the paintings are from one artist. Future installments will be better, but will come out essentially whenever I want to write about art
Coming up is a long article that will take a long time on one of my favorite bands, Magma (many other music articles to come), and a shorter, lighter article about family trees. I also have a goofy based-on-real-events-in-my-life story that I’m not sure if I want to post on this page.
The new name, “Out of Gomorrah” is primarily based on the Henry Ossawa Tanner painting that I’ve been using as an image for this page from the start, depicting Lot’s family fleeing Sodom and Gomorrah. It also has a movement to it, I don’t want to be staying in Gomorrah. I’m thinking that a good 50-60% of my articles will have a persuasive/learning element to them. The Magma article will be about how we can make right-wing art that is also inventive, and the family tree article will just be telling you it’s a good thing to know your family tree (but maybe don’t get TOO autistic/schizophrenic about it, I think Paul warned about that). There will be a good deal of introspection and rumination, and things will likely come in waves as I move back and forth between different interests. I’m the type of person who likes to figure out how their own mind works and how it doesn’t work, but this also flows into how I think about others and the world as a whole. I want things fixed, and I want it fixed now! I want to get a thing done, and I want it done now, right from thought to immediate realization! Why do I have to wait?! Why do I have to work and put in effort?!
I also have written and will write on
, a “conglomerate of the unwilling and unable”. Basically it’s where me, along with and , put the stuff we write for practice and other things that don’t fit with our primary stacks (it’s mostly Poetry). This started with a week-long challenge from to write 7 short poems, one for each day of the week. I have all seven of mine from the first week exclusively on (except for “Doing”, which is also on this page, but that’s a one-off thing) but I might do some other stuff on there.On my father’s side, my grandfather is Scots-Irish (and thus my last name is), grandmother is Pennsylvania Dutch (fancy dutch, probably). On my mother’s side, my grandfather is kind of a question mark (he left when my mom was three, my Mom’s adoptive father was Ukrainian), likely an Irish last name, but there’s a lot of English in that line, and my grandmother is Michigan immigrant Lutheran My father’s side has been in America for much much longer than my mother’s, generally.
I don’t know quite where I stand denominationally. I was raised in a low church and semi-Anabaptist context, but I feel unconvinced of many of the claims of that tradition, but I’m not yet courageous enough to make up my mind and upset my parents. I have an intuition but not a conviction based on scripture that predestination is true, but also I can’t get along with OSAS or Limited Atonement. I need to read more scripture before I make up my mind. So most of my theological posts will be mostly sharing what I’ve learned, and more practical/non-controversial things. But when I get a more solid footing on where I stand on the things that divide denominations, that might change. Politically, I wouldn’t put on a label on my positions, but I’m definitely interested in preserving the heritage of founding Americans, and things that flow from that. I guess you could say I believe in a vague American nationalism that has sympathies for dissident right ideas (I really like
/TheDistributist’s stuff, and I think the is a good idea).Previously I’ve been on Twitter, I’ve deleted my account now and plan to just stay off that site for the rest of time. I’m also not going to connect this page and my profile to my old twitter stuff, my OpSec on that site was very bad.
I don’t intend to paywall anything, but I might allow for a way to subscribe just to give me money for no specific reason. I dunno how all that works, we'll see.
And by the way, my profile name comes from a bad pun I had going, if “piping” is “blowing air” and “blowing air” is speaking and speaking is writing, then I’m a Neo (neo=new) Piper. My bio originally read “I’m new to blowing air”. I now think that’s cringe, so I removed that bio, but I’m not going to change my profile name. “Neo Piper” still sounds cool.
This article isn’t really stating anything new, it’s mainly just to serve as a replacement for the old one. There isn’t any thesis to it or point being made, just general information about what I’m trying to do here and who I am. A bunch of paragraph-islands that loosely connect to one another.
And that about does it. The next article’s working title is “Why You Should Know Your Ancestry”. I’m thinking it’ll be a 5-8 minute read.
I didn't realize it notifies people when I @ them in the article, so I guess I got Dave Greene to restack this lol