Sharyn McCrumb Presents Malice Domestic 7

Getting back to Jane Austen mysteries, there's a series of mystery anthologies called Malice Domestic and the seventh volume contains "Jane and the Spoils of Stoneleigh" by Stephanie Barron. It's the reason I bought the anthology and will probably be the only story in it that I read. 

The short story format makes this a different sort of mystery for Jane. There doesn't appear to be a murder at first, but a treasure hunt around a mansion as Jane and her companions follow clues planted by the recently deceased owner of the estate. As they investigate though, they begin to realize that a murder did indeed take place many years ago. And uncovering the "treasure" will also lead to revelations about the old case. 

It's a fun story made even better by the clues being references to Ann Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho, which I've read. It's not necessary to have read Udolpho to follow "Stoneleigh," but it was a treat to remember the scenes that Jane and the others discuss. It's also a treat seeing Jane's mother (another Radcliffe fan) participate in the investigation rather than rolling her eyes at Jane's interest in it, which is what she usually does in these mysteries.

Christianity, Not Christian Nationalism

A friend forwarded me this post by theologian Jim Wallis in which he writes about the growing number of Democratic leaders who are willing to publicly talk about their Christian faith. He articulates something that's very important to me:

"Part of the reason why Democrats don’t talk much about faith is that they struggle to know how to express it without sounding like they are proselytizing or imposing their religion upon a pluralistic society [...] They have concerns around expressing their own faith alongside their strong commitment to the separation of church and state. And while all of that is all understandable, the reluctance to speak about faith has ceded religion to the Republicans."

While I lean toward the left in my values, I don't pledge allegiance to either party, so my focus isn't exactly the same as Wallis's. But he makes a vital point about the importance of providing a visible alternative to Christian Nationalism. 

I'm so tired of the primary Christian message these days being the push to bundle Christianity and America into a single package that everyone has to accept or reject together. I don't need to explain why that's a terrible, hurtful, dangerous movement.

What I do need to do is provide another option to that message: a vision of Christianity that emphasizes love the way that Jesus did. That's something I've been thinking a lot about lately and I'm eager to figure out how to do that better. I'm mostly over my shyness in talking about God, but I wouldn't call myself brave yet. I want to be that.

(In searching for an image to use for this post, I discovered the logo above and the organization it represents. I want to learn more about these folks and the resources they offer.)

What I've Been Thinking About

Most people reading this will know that we do a bimonthly feature on After Lunch called the After Dinner Lounge in which my friends and I share what we've been up to lately in a few different categories. One of which is What We've Been Thinking About. Sometimes it's serious; sometimes it's silly. 

As I continue trying to figure out what to do with this blog (and hating that it's sitting here idle), I keep coming back to the idea that what blogging is best at is to share what I've been thinking about. Particularly thoughts that don't fit in a social media post. Maybe they don't fit because they're too long. Maybe they don't fit because I want to refer to them later instead of letting them get lost in the endless scroll of my Bluesky feed. Maybe they don't fit just because they're random. 

Whether it shows or not, I do curate what I share on social media, so I like the idea of having this be a place where I can dump thoughts without worrying about how they fit together. I know myself well enough to predict that I'll probably still try to make things connect and build a story, but I also want the freedom to not do that if I don't want to. My hope is that this will be playground without a lot of rules. 

Some of these thoughts may show up on After Lunch, but mostly not, I bet. Like with the After Lunch topics though, sometimes these posts will be serious and sometimes they'll be silly. I just want them to always be thoughtful.