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Let me start with a brief story about a nearly lost man and the simple thing that saved him. Three years ago I was on the road for work, and I was picked up at the airport by a young guy who looked like a vet. We had a ninety-minute trip to the speaking venue, and so we struck up a conversation. I asked him if he served. He said yes. I asked him if he deployed. He said yes, to Afghanistan. I asked how he was fitting in after he came back home.

He got quiet for a moment. He said, Have you heard of Jordan Peterson? I said yes, absolutely. In fact, Id just reviewed his book for National Review. Well, Jordan Peterson saved my life.

How? The story begins the way a lot of veterans stories begin. After he came back from war, he felt lost. He had no purpose. In a flash hed gone from an existence where every day mattered and every day had a mission to a world that seemed empty and aimless by comparison. To put it in the words of a cavalry officer I served with in Iraq, I wonder if Ive done the most significant thing Ill ever do by the time Im 25 years old.

The young man I was talking to had no mission. He also had no mentor. He picked up the bottle so much that he couldnt put it down. Eventually he had suicidal thoughts. How did Jordan Peterson bring him back? He told him to clean up his room. Yep, clean up his room. He told him to get organized. He told him to stop saying things that arent true.

It all sounds so simple, so basic. Dont we need transcendent truths to turn our lives around? Well, yes. But sometimes the process starts with direction and with discipline. Especially for young men. The small disciplines led to larger disciplines. Small purpose led to bigger purpose. And there was my new friendworking hard, in a relationship, and saving for a down payment on a house.

No wonder he was choked up with gratitude.

Why bring up that story? Because of one of the most remarkable podcasts Ive ever heard. Its by Mike Cosper at Christianity Today, and it chronicles the rise and fall of Mars Hill church in Seattle and the corresponding rise and fall of its celebrity pastor, Mark Driscoll. The thing thats remarkable about the podcast is that it spends as much time describing what worked about Mars Hillwhy Driscoll and his church became a sensationas it does describing why it failed.

And we cant start talking about either what worked or what failed without talking about young men like the driver in the story above. Driscoll, you see, was a Jordan Peterson figure before Jordan Peterson. He was a Christian celebrity pastor who understood that many millions of young men were lost. He aimed his ministry straight at them, provided them with a unique version of a boot camp Christian experience (hed sometimes browbeat the men in his congregation for hours at a time), but then ultimately burned up his credibility in the bonfire of his own arrogance.

Driscoll resigned from Mars Hill in 2014, under fire for his harsh, domineering leadership and almost a year after Driscoll apologized for mistakes following plagiarism allegations. Mars Hill Church dissolved shortly thereafter.

Its a story worth remembering, because young men are still struggling with modern masculinity, the church is still struggling to reach them, and Driscolls story is one part guide and one part cautionary tale.

I use the word guide advisedly, with full knowledge of Driscolls deep flaws. But he did see something. He did understand that young men were flailing. Theyre still flailing. Heres how I phrased their predicament in my review of Petersons book:

Theyre deeply suspicious of organized religion, yet they cant escape the nagging need for transcendence in their lives. They want answers to great questions, but theyre suspicious of authority. They want purpose, but they dont know what purpose means apart from careerism. Oh, and all but the most politically correct are keenly aware that mankind is fallen, that men and women are different, and that, while the post-Christian West has allegedly killed God, it cant seem to replace him with anything better.

This is the landscape of spiraling rates of anxiety and depression, of extended adolescence, and of a generation of young men whove been told that masculinity is toxic but not taught how to live in a way that recognizes or even cares to comprehend their true nature.

Driscoll stepped into this void with key insightsthat men need male mentors (thats one of the reasons why boys often respond worse than girls to absent fathers), that men often react quite well to direct and confrontational challenges to their manhood, and that men shouldnt be ashamed that they are strong and often full of competitive fire.

So when Driscoll walked into Seattle life and directly challenged men to get a job, to stop watching porn, to stop sleeping around, and to start supporting a family, It worked for much the same reason the Peterson message resonated a decade later. He gave men a sense of virtuous masculine purpose. Shape up. Protect and provide.

In fact, I joined legions of other Christians in appreciating Driscolls message to men. I excused and rationalized some of his excesses, believing he was doing good work challenging men to lead better, more responsible lives.

(I fully recognize, by the way, men are not all the same. They dont all respond to the same kinds of appeals. The Driscoll blunt approach can repel as well as attract. But it attracted hundreds, then thousands, then tens of thousands, then hundreds of thousands of young Christian men as Driscolls star kept rising.)

But Driscoll ultimately failed. My appreciation was ultimately mistaken, and Ive tried to learn from my own failure of judgment. Even worse, Driscoll didnt just fail as an individual, the way so many celebrity pastors fail; his philosophy and approach failed the men and the women in his church. It caused great harm. And its worth exploring briefly whybecause the why also applies to multiple modern Christian efforts to reach young men.

One of the core reasons for the Driscoll failure (and for other failures before or since) is that he met a cultural overreaction with an overreaction all his own. He opposed a specific secular extremism with a Christian extremism that ultimately proved his critics correct.

Ive written a considerable amount about the secular war against so-called toxic masculinity, and while I recognize that toxic masculinity does exist, its definition often sweeps way too broadly. As I wrote in one of my first Sunday French Press essays, the American Psychological Associations 2019 declaration that traditional masculinitymarked by stoicism, competitiveness, dominance, and aggressionis, on the whole, harmful represented a formal manifestation of a misguided cultural trend.

Look at the list of characteristics above. Aside from dominance, the characteristics above can be vices or virtues depending on the context. Stoicism can be harmful, yes, but (as Ive argued before) it can be indispensable to helping a man navigate the storms of life with a calm, steady hand.

Aggression seems like a vice, right up until the moment when you need a good man to stop an evil man in his tracks. A competitive spirit can be harmful, but it can also build companies, institutions, and even nations. It can inspire extraordinary innovation.

No, you dont want to jam any person into the masculine stereotype and demand that they exhibit the characteristics above, but when those characteristics are presentand they are in many, many menthe challenge is to channel them into virtue, temper them away from excess, and ultimately subordinate them to the way of the cross.

So whats the Driscoll sin? Whats the common mistake of so many efforts to celebrate Christian masculinity? Its to functionally take the exact opposite approach of the APAinstead of treating these characteristics as inherent vices, the Driscolls of the world turn them into inherent virtues. They glory in aggression, competitiveness, and achievement.

The end result was a theology that conformed Christianity to traditional masculinity rather than conformed masculinity to Christianity. A theology and community that focused on sex differences created a world in which masculinity and male power was central to the identity of the church and the movement.

The most heartbreaking of the podcasts so far was Episode Five, entitled The Things We Do to Women. It discusses how the churchs extreme focus on empowering men and fostering a biblical masculinity resulted in a culture that subordinated women to such a degree that wives were often treated as playthings for their husbandsencouraged to strip for them and perform sex acts that they found deeply uncomfortable and degrading.

But the smoking hot wife was the reward for the godly man, and satisfaction of his insatiable sex drive was his entitlement.

And thus you see the depravity of a thinly Christianized version of true toxic masculinity. What was first a church that challenged men to restrain their vices (Stop sleeping around! Stop watching porn!) ending up indulging men in modified versions of those same vices (You can still have all the sex you want! Your wife is your porn!) At the end of the day, the Driscoll example for young men was dangeroushe sent a message that with daring and discipline, you could become not just a responsible man, but a dominant man.

Thus, perversely enough, Driscoll sanctified a secular version of masculine toughness and virility. The (sometimes necessary) act of grabbing men by their metaphorical lapels and shaking them out of their stupor ultimately pointed them away from the cross and towards the same will to power that has bedeviled mankind since the Fall.

Lets return to the young vet at the start of the essay. Like Driscoll did to young men a decade before, Peterson woke him up. He gave him a sense of immediate purpose. He spoke to a man in the way that so many men understanddirectly, challenging them to do better, to be better. These kinds of direct challenges, whether they come from dads, pastors, authors, coaches, or drill sergeants, can be immensely valuable. Sometimes theyre the only thing that can reach a mans heart.

When you can understand this reality, you can start to see Driscolls appeal. His ministry did change lives. Others like himbefore and sincehave changed lives. And when you change a mans life, you can inspire fierce devotion.

But pastors and leaders must handle that devotion with great care. When countering a culture that often attacks traditional masculine inclinations as inherent vice, the answer isnt to indulge traditional masculine inclinations as inherent virtue.

In fact, in our efforts to define what it means to be a Christian man, we shouldnt center our efforts on masculinity at all, but rather on understanding a persona person who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Driscoll, in all his toughness and swagger, tried to make men out of Christians. The church, however, should make Christians out of men.

One last thing

The Mars Hill podcast also reminded me of this marvelous song by Sandra McCracken. We had the pleasure of hosting her in our home a few years ago, in a setting very much like this. Sandra is talented and a thoughtful, delightful person as well. I hope you enjoy this song as much as we did:

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Why a Masculine Ministry Rose and Fell - by The Dispatch Staff - The French Press - The Dispatch

: Pope Francis Apostolic Trip to Iraq / Wikimedia Commons

Pope Francis has been warning Catholics (and all Christians) against the dangers of ideologies, how they precondition us to think in patterns which run contrary to the teaching and praxis of the Gospel. Ideologies are rigid. They try to condition everything to closed systems which have no room for grace, no room for mercy, no room for freedom, and no room for love. They might speak of grace, mercy, freedom and love, but they do so to limit them, and so, when embraced, ideologies corrupt and defile the church. When they become powerful, when they influence too many within the church, especially those in positions of leadership, we need them to be dismantled so that Christians can once again be led by the Spirit to follow the Gospel in its fullest. This, then, is what Pope Francis wished for in his prayer intentions for August: Let us begin reforming the Church with a reform of ourselves, without prefabricated ideas, without ideological prejudices, without rigidity, but rather by moving forward based on spiritual experience an experience of prayer, an experience of charity, an experience of service.[1] It is also what he preached about at Pentecost; ideologies limit us and keep us away from the whole of the Gospel; following them prevents the church from being holistic and embracing the whole of its mission, a mission which no one systematic presentation of thought, no ideology, can in and of itself present:

Today, if we listen to the Spirit, we will not be concerned with conservatives and progressives, traditionalists and innovators, right and left. When those become our criteria, then the Church has forgotten the Spirit. The Paraclete impels us to unity, to concord, to the harmony of diversity. He makes us see ourselves as parts of the same body, brothers and sisters of one another. Let us look to the whole! The enemy wants diversity to become opposition and so he makes them become ideologies. Say no to ideologies, yes to the whole.[2]

Sadly, in the United States, it is clear that a wealthy ideological base is trying to transform the Christian faith so that the faith will be in its own image instead of following the fullness of the Gospel and all its teachings. This ideology ignores the basic praxis of the church, the social doctrine of the church and its preferential option for the poor and vulnerable, as the ideology promotes the wealthy and their own interests over and above the poor and needy. It is using its wealth to transform Catholic educational institutions so that they will teach according to its guidelines, according to its limited and distorted vision of the faith. By doing so, by making itself so central to what is being discussed in the United States, this ideology is causing great pain and sorrows to countless Catholics as their needs, both spiritual and physical, are not being met because they are not considered important. This is exactly what we see happening with the Napa Institute, its allies, and their influence over all kinds of Catholic dioceses and educational institutions. The University of Notre Dame, once considered one of the greatest Catholic educational institutions, is now being taken under their grip, as they are now using Notre Dame to influence the next generation of seminarians, as John Gehring writes in the National Catholic Reporter:

The Napa Institute, a conservative Catholic organization known for its annual high-end conference featuring wine tastings and cigars, announced plans to expand its work to include programs on priestly formation and a lecture series at the University of Notre Dame, with the latters first scheduled speaker to be U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.[3]

Timothy Busch, one of the co-founders of the Napa Institute, fights hard against Catholic social teaching, which can be seen in the way he suggests Catholicism stands against labor unions:

As Timothy Busch sees it, Catholicism takes a dim view of labor unions and raising the minimum wage, is in favor of right to work laws, and absolutely rejects political leaders who fail to be strictly anti-abortion. Capitalism and Catholicism, he has said, can work hand in hand. In 2017, he greeted the inauguration of President Trump by declaring that a time of light was now at hand, which he contrasted with a time of darkness, by which he apparently meant the Obama presidency.[4]

Labor unions, far from being viewed with suspicion, are promoted by Catholic teaching:

All these rights, together with the need for the workers themselves to secure them, give rise to yet another right: the right of association, that is to form associations for the purpose of defending the vital interests of those employed in the various professions. These associations are called labour or trade unions. The vital interests of the workers are to a certain extent common for all of them; at the same time however each type of work, each profession, has its own specific character which should find a particular reflection in these organizations. [5]

Pope Benedict XVI warned of the way labor unions were being hindered by governments, which of course, comes from the influence of the rich and powerful and the ideologies they use to control and manipulate governments:

Through the combination of social and economic change, trade union organizations experience greater difficulty in carrying out their task of representing the interests of workers, partly because Governments, for reasons of economic utility, often limit the freedom or the negotiating capacity of labour unions. Hence traditional networks of solidarity have more and more obstacles to overcome. The repeated calls issued within the Churchs social doctrine, beginning with Rerum Novarum, for the promotion of workers associations that can defend their rights must therefore be honoured today even more than in the past, as a prompt and far-sighted response to the urgent need for new forms of cooperation at the international level, as well as the local level.[6]

Pope St. John Paul II pointed out that trade unions, and their work to help the people in them, are the modern day successors of medieval trade guilds, which demonstrate the necessary role they play in society:

In a sense, unions go back to the mediaeval guilds of artisans, insofar as those organizations brought together people belonging to the same craft and thus on the basis of their work. However, unions differ from the guilds on this essential point: the modern unions grew up from the struggle of the workers-workers in general but especially the industrial workers-to protect their just rights vis-a-vis the entrepreneurs and the owners of the means of production. Their task is to defend the existential interests of workers in all sectors in which their rights are concerned. The experience of history teaches that organizations of this type are an indispensable element of social life, especially in modern industrialized societies. Obviously, this does not mean that only industrial workers can set up associations of this type. Representatives of every profession can use them to ensure their own rights. Thus there are unions of agricultural workers and of white-collar workers; there are also employers associations. All, as has been said above, are further divided into groups or subgroups according to particular professional specializations. [7]

The preferential option for the poor, and the need for the poor to work together to fight against the powers which would strip them of their integral value, is under attack by Busch and the Napa Institute. They are for the wealthy. Their programs are for those who are rich. The poor are left behind. This is not the only dangerous aspect of the Napa Institute and its ideological foundations, but it shows how it and its leaders misrepresent Catholic teaching for the promotion of a dangerous and false ideology. This is also why they should not be given the power to train future generations of priests, for they are training seminarians to stand against Catholic teachings.

It is no surprise that those associated with the Napa Institute are promoting other right-wing agenda and ideologues, such as the way Bishop Barron argues in favor of the teachings of Jordan Peterson. How can anyone claim Jordan Peterson is The person most responsible for reintroducing God and the Bible into mainstream secular culture today? Jordan Peterson, an atheist, a staunch opponent of Catholic social teaching who has told Catholics to go on strike from mass, is not the person most responsible for spreading the Gospel, but rather, limiting it and turning many people away from it (either through a corrupted version of it which they take on, or having people believe him and so have nothing to do with the faith).

Pope Francis understands the church is in crisis. He understands the influence of various ideological entities around the world and how they are harming the faithful. It is easy to see this happening in the United States. The Napa Institute represents one such important example of this problem; it is taking over the Christian narrative in the United States. The crisis is real. But this also means the church is also living. The struggle against ideologies and the dangers they present shows the Spirit is working, and the church will not stay down. Let us remember that the Church always has difficulties, always is in crisis, because shes alive. Living things go through crises. Only the dead dont have crises. [8] We must not let the Napa Institute, and its ideological allies striking against the teachings of the church (and Pope Francis himself) win. We must resist. We must make it clear that its conferences are not acceptable, that our future priests should not be influenced by its poison.

[1] Pope Francis, Video of the Holy Father with the Prayer Intention for the Month of August, Disseminated via the Popes Worldwide Prayer Network (8-3-2021).

[2] Pope Francis, Homily for Pentecost. Vatican translation (5-23-2021).

[3] John Gehring, Napa Institute Expands to Fight the Culture War, in National Catholic Reporter (8-4-2021).

[4] Katherine Stewart, How Big Money Is Dividing American Catholicism, in New Republic (3-9-2021).

[5] Pope St. John Paul II, Laborem Exercens. Vatican translation. 20.

[6] Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in veritate. Vatican translation. 25

[7] Pope St. John Paul II, Laborem Exercens, 20.

[8] Pope Francis, Video of the Holy Father with the Prayer Intention for the Month of August, Disseminated via the Popes Worldwide Prayer Network (8-3-2021).

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Ideologies And The Faith | Henry Karlson - Patheos

Greg Jordan's first season at Liberty County was a far cry from his previous 14 seasons on the sidelines of Blountstown and then Port St. Joe when he won just over 70 percent of his games.

The Bulldogs struggled to a 2-6 record, not a particularly surprising mark given the recent struggles of the program, which went just 7-32 over the four seasons previous to Jordan taking over.

Liberty County does return its leading rusher and top tackler from a season ago, and Jordan hopes that, along with an extra year of strength and conditioning, will lead to a second-year leap and more wins this season.

Here's a look at what the Bulldogs are working with in 2021:

Key Departures:

QB Austin Waller, LB/FB Joeseph Finuff, WB/DB Cole Parker, LB John O'Neal.

Waller departs after leading the Bulldogs in total offense last season. He'll be replaced by sophomore Rylan Roddenberry.

Key Returners:

RB/LB Kole Ellis (jr.), DL/OL Adam Layne, FB/DL (sr.), FB/DLJosh Peterson (sr.), QB Rylan Roddenberry (so.) WR/DB Arron O'Kelley (sr.).

Ellis is back after leading the team in rushing with over 500 yards in 2020, while Layne compiled nearly 100 tackles to lead the defense. Layne is also one of three returning starters on the offensive line. Roddenberry sat behind Waller as a freshman but it will be his show in 2021.

Jordan on Roddenberry: "He'll be a 10th grader so he'll go thorugh some 10th grade growing pains. Being the starting quarterback on the varsity as a 10th grader is not an easy task, but he's a cognitive kid. He's pretty smart and understands what we're doing. We just need him to play to his strengths and away from his weaknesses. Hopefully he'll have a good year."

Impact Newcomers:

RB/DB Nate Carpenter (so.),ATH TyTy Braggs (sr.), WR/DB Tryston Lopez (sr.)

Jordan: "Nate Carpenter is a small kid, but he's got a lot of heart and he's got some wheels. He can run a little bit. Tryston Lopez is a kid who has played centerfield on the baseball team here and is a really fast kid who can help us skill-wise for sure. TyTy is basically a first-year varsity guy since he hurt his labrum and had a torn ACL since getting to varsity, but he's an athletic kid who can play multiple positions for us."

Team Strength:

Offensive line.

The Bulldogs return both of their starting offensive tackles in Riley Grim and Blake Sanders, along with Layne, who started at center last season but moves to guard this year. Sophomore Scott Harr steps into the role as starting center.

Jordan: "The offensive line has got a year under their belts. Other than our center all of our returning guys have experience with what we're doing offensively. We're going to need to maintain possession of theball and be physical with good offensive line play and play good defense. That's always been the formula that I've used."

Areas for Improvement:

Defense.

Liberty County surrendered 32 points per game in 2020, including 40.3 per game in their losses. The Bulldogs will need to sharply cut into that number if they're going to turn things around in 2021.

Jordan: "It's just making plays in space and getting off the field on third downs. It's something we struggled with last year. We also need to get more turnovers. Last year we scored points in some games and just gave up more than what we hoped to give up and it cost us some games. We just need better tackling and better overall defensive play."

Team Outlook:

It has been six years since Liberty County last posted a winning season and doing so this year will be a challenge. Getting back above .500, however, is certainly the goal, at least in the near term.

Jordan: "I hate to put a number on wins and losses and that part of it, but having a winning season would be big. We want to win as many games as we can win and be competitive and relevant again. That's what we're trying to get these guys back to, competing the whole time and get the program back to being relevant when it comes to playoff time in November.

"These kids don't know what it's like to practice during Thanksgiving and get out and get to play in the third round. That's a lofty goal for this group, but that's where we're trying to steer these guys to, but it's based on talent andhow hard they're willing to work andbe committed. It's got to matter to them. I think the young kids have that desire, so hopefully we'll be better."

2021 schedule

8/20 Blountstown, Vernon (Kickoff classic) 7:30 p.m.

8/27 Wewahitchka 7:30 p.m.

9/3 at Bozeman 7 p.m.

9/10 at Cottondale 7 p.m.

9/17 at Franklin County 7:30 p.m.

9/24 Graceville 7:30 p.m.

10/15 North Bay Haven 7:30 p.m.

10/22 Holmes County 7:30 p.m.

10/29 SSAC TBA

11/5 SSAC TBA

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PREP FOOTBALL PREVIEW: Liberty County looks to improve in Year 2 under Greg Jordan - The News Herald

Theres a disconcerting silence outside Jeanette Wintersons London pied-a-terre. Its the morning after the night before, when she travelled across London after dinner with her publisher to scenes of football fans setting the city alight with their cup final fervour. It was uproar, she says, We saw cars on fire. Her flat is in the East End district of Spitalfields in a Georgian house, which she bought 25 years ago, complete with a little shop that she ran for years as an organic grocer and tea room until the rates got too high, and she let it out to an upmarket chocolatier.

Its as if a scene from Dickenss The Old Curiosity Shop has been dropped into a satire about prosperity Britain: the quaint old shopfront is still intact, while outside it a lifesize sculpture of a rowing boat full of people sits surreally in the middle of the street, and a little further along, a herd of large bronze elephants frolics. These public artworks only arrived a few weeks ago, Winterson explains, as part of a grand plan to pedestrianise the area, and make it more buzzy, just at the moment that the sort of well-heeled office workers who bought upmarket chocolates are abandoning it owing to the Covid pandemic.

Were at a transitional moment in so many ways, she says a perfect moment to launch a book that reassesses the past while staring the future in the face. 12 Bytes is sub-titled: How We Got Here. Where We Might Go Next. Its a series of essays that places women at the centre of the tumultuous 200-year history that stretches back to a wet summer in Italy, when a teenage Mary Shelley conjured the myth of Frankenstein from the embryonic science of electricity. Briskly and breezily, it joins the dots in a neglected narrative of female scientists, visionaries and code-breakers who gave us modernity and could, she insists, deliver a viable future to us if only wed get better at listening to them.

The book is the result of a pandemic hunkered down alone at her main home in the Cotswolds, reading dispatches from the frontiers of science and economics online and in every publication she could lay her hands on. Her author picture shows her with a robotic eyeplate. Two of the more startling provocations of 12 Bytes are that transhumanism [a hybrid of human and machine] will be the new mixed-race and that, when this future arrives, in questions of them and us, Homo sapiens will be the them. But all is not lost, she writes. Our encounter with AI our self-created nemesis and, I suspect, our last chance may ensure that human exceptionalism will give way to humility.

Look, you know me, Im an optimist, she says, when I ask her to unpack these assertions. So on the one hand, I think this could forcibly shatter so many preconceptions, which have worryingly surged at the moment, like nationalism, faith wars, and conflict over skin colour and gender binaries. All of these things have become raw and hot, so we have to look at them, and I dont think it need go badly. Because if we do start recognising that we can create, and there are other life forms, that really is going to force us to accept that, as Homo sapiens, we need to band together, because whats coming is likely to be more powerful, more intelligent, more capable than we are. I see it as a revaluation, and that does make me optimistic. But if we get it wrong if we stay in our silly old mindset then its likely that the dystopias that we fear will come to pass.

At 61, Winterson is, as ever, a disarming mix of warm homeliness, dizzying flights of intellectual fancy and simmering belligerence. The homeliness is to the forefront today: we drink Yorkshire tea from a china pot on a table lovingly crafted from a sycamore tree felled in her Cotswolds wood; within seconds of a locksmith arriving to fix the door downstairs, shes on first name terms with him. Yet a few weeks earlier she caused a social media storm by burning reissues of her own novels on a bonfire because she took exception to their cover blurbs, for turning them into wimmins fiction of the worst kind. She is quite aware of the dangerous symbolism of book-burning, pointing out that her adoptive mother burned her debut novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, in which she outed herself as gay. I wouldnt even burn a book by Jordan Peterson, though I think the man is repellent, because I respect books, whatever is in them. But if its your own, you know, you own them.

The blurbs were the work of the same publisher that is now working hard to promote her new book. I did feel embarrassed about ruining their Sunday, she says. But theres a part of me still that can put something up on Twitter and think nothing big will happen. Its like when I shot and skinned that rabbit. Shes referring to a previous hullabaloo after she posted pictures of herself preparing a rabbit for the pot beneath the caption Rabbit ate my parsley. I am eating the rabbit. Why does she keep on hurling herself into such very public frays? Because Im an analogue human, she replies. Afterwards, my godchildren said: What is the matter with you? Why didnt you ring us before you did that?

The new book is dedicated to her three godchildren, with whom she remains so close that, two days earlier, she was able to call on one of them to flat-sit at a few hours notice after discovering that the lock had been compromised, while she was stuck in the country. The trio are her family now. For more than a decade she was in a relationship with the therapist Susie Orbach, whom she married in 2015, but it ended two years ago, unbeknownst to the wider world.

I was saying to [my publisher] last night that we have to manage this. Were very pleased because weve kept it quiet. But if we hadnt parted two years ago, we would have parted during lockdown, which has been interesting to both of us. We looked at each other and said Wed never have got through this, because Susie is a New York Jew who belongs in the city and I need to be in the country. I need those long spaces, I need the quiet. I need to look out of the window and actually see a tree. We tried so hard to somehow find a way that it would work. And in the end, we were just spending less and less time together.

In the context of her 2011 memoir, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?, their break-up seems particularly poignant. The memoir tracked Wintersons life from a miserable childhood with the rigid Mrs Winterson in the Lancashire town of Accrington, through the liberation of Oxford University and early literary success in London, to the breakdown that brought her to the point of making peace with her own history, as a child who was given up for adoption at just six weeks old by her 17-year-old birth mother. It was Orbach who helped her to track down her mother, who wrestled with the bureaucracy of the adoption register, who suggested to her that, though she knew how to love, she didnt know how to be loved, and who reassured her that if we have to part, you will know you were in a good relationship.

The memoir ended with a cliffhanger: would she or would she not become part of the family into which she was born? Happy endings are only a pause, she wrote. There are three kinds of big endings: revenge, tragedy, forgiveness. Revenge and tragedy often happen together. Forgiveness redeems the past, forgiveness unblocks the future. So did she or didnt she? Love doesnt just happen and I think the family was very cross, because I just couldnt pretend that it had, she says now.

I think a lot of adopted children feel that they have the moment and it doesnt work. And you have to accept it and say: Im glad I went on with this story. Im glad I found you. I hope youre glad you found me because, hey, Im all right. But whatever were doing now isnt love. It might be recognition, it might be resolution. It might be all sorts of bits of the story that we needed. And I believe I did need it. But no, it wasnt love.

It is our failure to face up to the realities of love that have led us to the parlous state in which we now find ourselves, she suggests in 12 Bytes, and which prevent us from becoming our best selves. Its easy to do sex, but its not easy to do love in whatever form, she says. And if you cant love, you cant live, no matter how smart you are: things end up being jangly, hollow, and ultimately worthless. The idea that you just go through life, leaving behind wives and mistresses and abandoned children, and doing great art for me, that cant be a way to live. Social responsibility starts with the people who are around you, and you cant endlessly be discarding things. At the moment, shes particularly exercised about the Musks and Bransons of this world. The male push is to actually just discard the planet: all the boys are going off into space. But you know, love is also about cleaning up your mess, staying where you are, working through the issues; its not simply romantic love at all.

Her interest in the potential of a world without the binaries, in a space opened out by new technology, is not new. Her 2000 novel, The Powerbook, posited the romantic and imaginative freedoms of cyberspace against the limitations of meatspace; 2007s The Stone Gods suggested that robot lovers might be part of a future accommodation with a post-apocalyptic world, while 2019s Frankissstein tells the story of transgender doctor Ry Shelley and Victor Stein, a professor specialising in accelerated evolution, who believes that Shelleys hybridity has unlocked the future. You aligned your physical reality with your mental impression of yourself, he says. Wouldnt it be a good thing if we could all do that?

But there is a dark side to all this. In Frankissstein, Stein teams up with a sexbot entrepreneur, who hawks lifelike girls with vibrating vaginas, top-grade silicone nipples and an extra-wide splayed leg position. 12 Bytes also includes a chapter on the sexbot problem, which touches on one of the books most insistent, and nerdiest, themes: that a benign Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) will not come to pass until we have divested the patriarchy of its control over the datasets on which all artificial intelligence is based. This means writing women back into history as active contributors to the modern world, capable of imagining the future, breaking codes and solving the knottiest scientific problems.

Its disappointing. Its so crude, and its the place where the investment is going, says Winterson of the global sexbot industry. On the one hand, I talk about why an AI companion is a lovely idea, whether its a robo pet or just a voice that talks to you. Thats the positive side. But its always the same with humans, isnt it? Then, we have sexbots, which are based on 1950 stereotypes about how a woman should behave: acquiescent, willing, always ready and patient in the home. How can that combo of 50s behaviour and porn-star looks be good for us as Homo sapiens?

Winterson has her own AI companion a Peloton exercise bike that accompanied her through the weeks locked down with her dog and two cats in her country cottage. That was what made me start thinking about 2D relationships. I will never personally know any of those people who I feel I know really well through my Peloton screen every day. I have my favourite trainer, depending on my mood, and I know its a relationship even though it isnt. Its not even that weve been conned or fooled, because you are having a relationship. So yes. Im deeply there with my Peloton family, as they call it.

There has always been a proselytising zeal to Wintersons enthusiasms. Aged 19 she voted for Margaret Thatcher because she made sense to me. I believe I thought no, you just get out, get educated, and you dont look back. My dad was part of that war generation who did go cycling around for work, you couldnt defeat them, they would aways put food on the table somehow. Today she says, she is more socialist and much more compassionate than I was as a young person, because not everybody should be self-employed. Not everybody should have to hustle every day. But she remains a believer in capitalism, because of its Darwinian flexibility. If you impose too much on people, they get restive and angry, she says. I dont think people want to be passive within a system. But the window has got narrower, and we will have to change that.

Might this we extend to one day venturing into politics herself? Id love to you know, Im a gospel tent girl. The big tent is my home. Im happy to get up there and take the questions and the flak, as I have for most of my life, she says, but shes at a loss for a party she could believe in. I just dont know where to do it, unless it involved some sort of coalition. The whole of the binary system them/us, head/heart, black/white, male/female its not helping any more. Ive talked to some of my friends who are all political. And the despair I feel is, how can I mediate? How can I change things? At the moment, she concludes, all I can think of doing is what Ive always done, which is writing my books, at least to start conversations. But would I like to go into politics? Yes, if there was a politics for me.

12 Bytes by Jeanette Winterson is published by Jonathan Cape on 29 July (16.99). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply

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Jeanette Winterson: The male push is to discard the planet: all the boys are going off into space - The Guardian

Continuing to broaden its scope, Science ATL has added youth and school programs.

One such program is Georgia Chief Science Officers for elected middle and high schoolers across the state.

We help them to develop skills in leadership, project management and communication so they can be empowered to create community action plans or projects to enhance awareness of STEM careers for their peers or bring new resources and learning opportunities for their community, Rose said.

Last year the STEM Professional School Partnership program (K-12) with 32 partnerships was started. A year-long initiative that pairs up schools with businesses and professionals in the STEM industry.

Together they do some needs assessment, set some goals for their partnership and through monthly student engagement or other kinds of engagement at the school, the STEM professionals kind of leverage their networks to help address those goals that they bring on with the school, the co-founder said.

Mid-August a science self-care event for adults will be held hosting psychologists, neuroscientists and other professionals covering topics that impact the brain and stress levels.

The future of Science ATL is about community engagement, so we welcome feedback and ideas about how to do that throughout the year, Rose said.

For upcoming events, involvement or more information, visit @science_ATL or https://scienceatl.org/

New to Atlanta or simply have a question about this place we call home? Email your request to atlactualfact@gmail.com

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Science ATL wants to connect and inspire - Atlanta Journal Constitution