Amanda Held Opelt

"The Monkey Trial" 100 Years Later Reflections on My Own Evolving Faith

New post! I wrote a few more reflections on the 100 year anniversary of the Scopes Monkey Trial. This one is…personal. It was pretty tough to write. I love my hometown. I’m grateful for how I was raised. I’m learning to embrace the both/and.

open.substack.com/pub/amandahe...

100 years after Scopes trial, cultural discourse about 'Bible Belt' Christians still suffers (RNS) — Perhaps the trial’s most lasting legacy is the precedent it set for how we engage with our ideological enemies and the role the media play in that discourse.

This month marks 100 years since the Scopes Monkey Trial. I grew up in Dayton Tennessee, under the long shadow of that trial. In this Op Ed for @rns.org I share what it means to me now.

religionnews.com/2025/07/03/1...

My Word for the Year is "Calamity" The Problem of Pain and the Work of Theodicy

New post!

open.substack.com/pub/amandahe...

Tubes and Tariffs: Beloved river outfitter battles to stay afloat TODD — After weathering devastating floods, a beloved High Country outfitter faces a new and unexpected challenge: international tariffs.

A must read story on the impact tariffs are having one beloved Appalachian company trying to recover from Helene:

www.wataugademocrat.com/news/local/t...

Pretty great tho huh?

Ross Douthat on Trump, Mysticism and Psychedelics Podcast Episode · The Ezra Klein Show · 04/25/2025 · 1h 35m

Hearing @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social and Ross Douthat seriously discuss the existence of “the good people” is exactly the diversion I needed from the disaster that is the daily news. 🧚

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/r...

My top five favorite shows/miniseries from the last decade:

1. Station Eleven (I think about that show almost every day)
2. Severance
3. The Diplomat
4. Turn, Washington’s Spies
5. Chernobyl

(Honorable mention goes to Slow Horses and Poldark)

What about you?

It does indeed seem to have been a reckoning.

What Does the Lord Require of You? Shifting Vibes, the Great Return, and Why the Gospel is More than a Trend

Been getting a little preachy here lately. Would be interested in getting some feedback on this one. Are you seeing signs of a return to religion? Are you sensing a vibe shift like others? If you are a Christian, does this bring excitement or concern?

Cafeteria Church - Christianity Today Under the fluorescent lights, we come to commune, not to be entertained.

“We’ve heard the old adage that the church is more than the building. But sometimes the church must transcend our buildings, must resist the cues & connotations imposed upon us by the spaces in which we meet.” Thanks CT for publishing this!

www.christianitytoday.com/2025/04/my-c...

Love that!

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day to all who feel at home in these ancient mountains.

It’s true. The similarity is in the undulations of the hillsides, the lush greenery, the rocks that feel as old as time itself.

When Tim and I visited Ireland 7 years ago, he kept saying to me…”this looks just like home…except there’s an ocean. And more sheep. And less trees.”

Many of us here in Southern Appalachia believe this is why our Scottish, Welsh, and Irish ancestors settled here centuries ago…and never left, hemmed in by a landscape that their very bones recognized as home.

Now divided by an ocean, I still believe these mountains call to one another.

Geologists believe that before the continents split off, Appalachia, the mountains of Western Ireland & Wales, and the Scottish highlands were all part of a single mountain range.

Every year on St. Patrick’s Day, I like to play a little game called “Is it Ireland or Appalachia?”

Same at our park. I kept wanting to go up to all of them and whisper, “you know he’s actively trying to annex Canada right???”

Ash Wednesday Pride, Provisions, and the Belly of a Big Fish

New Post today! Ash Wednesday: Pride, Provision, and the Belly of a Big Fish

open.substack.com/pub/amandahe...

Diplomacy is not the art of the deal.

Allies are not just potential business partners.

War-zones aren’t real estate opportunities.

Holding the line on geopolitical tyranny matters more than acquiring rare earth minerals.

I think they are all at happy hour with the nuclear code guys.

Love that one!

Great!!!

Thanks! I’ve just started You’re Only Human

Excellent, thank you!