My first poem in seven years.

We tend to conflate personal holiness with constant effort. And while personal holiness does indeed require actions and not just words, I think our conflation of personal holiness with nonstop effort still—in a way—gives us a distorted view of G-d and our relationship to Him. We begin to think of G-d as a father whose love is conditional upon our meeting certain expectations, and if we fail to meet those expectations, then He’ll no longer love us.

To be a “postliberal” conservative is to be someone who seeks to rediscover and excavate a conservatism that emerges from a deeper strata of Western civilization—pre-Enlightenment—and draws legitimacy from a more ancient and teleological epistemology beyond and apart from the classical liberal framework that gave birth to the fake conservatism you and I have been exposed to for practically our whole lives.

In striking Iran, against all external pressures not to, President Trump has—in his second term—become the most courageous president of my lifetime and probably the most courageous president since Teddy Roosevelt. 

L.S. Goozdich is the author of the novels Gunlaw: Bloodlands, Frozen Wrath, Vipers & Red Rocks, and Fire In The Tall Grass. When he’s not writing, he runs the YouTube channel L.S. Author, works as a licensed mental health counselor, and enjoys life with his wife and children.

The problem with celebrities isn’t that they use their wealth to enjoy lives of comfort and safety. It’s that they enjoy lives of comfort and safety while going out of their way to advocate for a world that’s radically unsafe for us and our children.