Happy Monday. Welcome back to Jacob’s Letter, a free pop culture newsletter full of puns and badly-PhotoShopped dog photos. I won’t talk football this week because I respect myself too much.
“Lost” premiered on Sept. 22, 2004, an anniversary I was reminded of when I was writing a TV review for a new ripoff of that show. If your show makes me just want to re-watch something I already saw a decade and a half ago, you dun goofed.
A lot of people don’t know this, but Nova was the original Smoke Monster on “Lost.”
But that theme of lost also colors a lot of this week’s stories, from a shakeup at a prominent Christian magazine to my review of Netflix’s “The I-Land” to a trailer for a movie that’s literally about getting lost. Scroll on down and see what’s in store.
(I don’t have any Emmys analysis because I wrote this Sunday after work, but NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour has you covered there.)
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Sorry you feel bad
Monday night update: Cameron Strang posted an apology letter to RELEVANT’s website and will be stepping away from leadership roles at the magazine at this time.
This big story is incredibly niche, but speaks to a wider problem about racial sensitivity and toxic workplaces in the church.
Earlier this month, Andre Henry, a former staffer at the millennial Christian magazine RELEVANT, published a blog post about his experience as a black Christian on the editorial staff of that magazine under CEO and publisher Cameron Strang.
You can read it here, but the gist is: Black managing editor is hired to direct online content for the magazine, black editor decides to make a lot of posts in February about Black History Month and black Christians, white CEO shoots him down in a meeting, white CEO then publicly reprimands editor for trying to undermine his authority, black editor soon quits.
I’ve come to accept that many young-ish, white, evangelical leaders with large platforms — be they podcasts, megachurches, media organizations, conferences, or even social justice campaigns — are simply not committed to being antiracist, but only in appearing non-racist, and they’re using us as props for the show.
Henry tweeted later that Strang emailed an “apology” of sorts:
Here is a good spot to mention that RELEVANT has long taken a “we’re not a Christian band, we’re Christians IN a band” approach to its religious identity. “Covering faith, culture and intentional living, the stories we tell are at the intersection of where a Christ-centered life is really lived. Our magazine is not about ‘being relevant’ (whatever that means)—it’s that God is relevant to every aspect of our lives,” reads its mission statement. It also positions itself as being fairly “woke,” with article titles like “Justice, Worship and What God Really Wants,” “The Prosperity Gospel Creates Poor Christians” and “A Christian Case for Prison Abolition.”
I was a print subscriber for a long time, and appreciated the interviews the magazine did with so-called “worldly” Christians like Martin Scorsese, Gungor, Lecrae and Pete Holmes. (I unsubscribed a few years ago.)
But as was revealed this week by Henry and another former staffer, the magazine’s outward presentation masked a toxic work environment, one that had no room for vocal opinions of minorities and certainly no room for independence.
Soon after Henry’s blog post was published, Rebecca Flores, a former managing editor for RELEVANT, published a post detailing the same kind of toxic workplace, where it was heavily implied that Strang was a passive-aggressive despot who told you one thing one minute then contradicted himself the next. In one story Flores tells, Strang can’t comprehend why it would be a bad idea to put a black Christian rapper on the cover of a magazine in a noose:
It was in one of these terrible editorial meetings where the subject of a famous Christian Black rapper and how he had been criticized by white evangelical America for speaking out in support of the Black Lives Matter movement was brought up. In an effort to build framework around how to discuss the challenges this man was facing as a result of the backlash and abandonment, Cameron Strang suggested we feature him in the magazine with a noose around his neck as a “shocking image to symbolize his lynching by white evangelical America.”
“We can’t do that,” I said.
The rest of the editorial staff blinked and avoided eye contact with me. Cameron doubled down. “No, like imagine someone is reading the magazine,” he said as he picked up a previous month’s issue “and flipping through the pages and they see [redacted name] in a noose. It’s like, WHOA, what is this about.”
I paused before speaking and suddenly felt like I was in a trap I wouldn’t get out of safely. He wasn’t getting it and as the token person of color in the room, I had the singular responsibility of walking him back from this ledge.I took a breath in hopes to restrain my emotion from reaching my voice and continued as professionally as I could.
“Listen. I’m telling you, as a person of color, that if I were reading this magazine, whoa is not the reaction I would have. I would be deeply disturbed. And alienated. We do not need to publish an image of a Black man in a noose. This isn’t a good idea.”
After Flores’ post was published, several former staffers reached out to her on Twitter, confirming both hers and Henry’s stories about RELEVANT’s workplace issues and added some of their own, such as being told to create a fake pen name that sounded like a woman’s name or “something ethnic” for your byline when you wrote too much and they couldn’t pay you (something I was told to do at the Daily Caller when I wrote clickbait I was too ashamed to have my name on; I ended up just not using a byline at all for some pieces) and other instances of gaslighting and narcissistic behavior from Strang.
On Friday, RELEVANT issued a statement on its website called “RELEVANT’s Stand on Racial Justice.” That statement does not contain the word “sorry” once.
In the wake of all of this, Strang’s Twitter profile has been deleted and his Instagram profile has gone private. Multiple people have canceled their subscriptions to the magazine and RELEVANT-branded podcasts. The ending to the above statement says that “in the coming weeks, we will be working internally to continue our own learning so that RELEVANT can be a welcoming, inclusive and thriving environment for all employees across racial lines.” I sure hope so, for the sake of all who work there.
I have never worked for RELEVANT. I have, however, worked for a narcissist in an incredibly toxic environment, and that was by far one of the worst experiences of my life. I believe every one of these stories.
I also wholeheartedly believe that we get what we give in this world. Two stories about a toxic workplace might be a coincidence, but the number of people who have come forward with their stories from working at RELEVANT is not a coincidence. And that saddens me, but also reminds me that for as caring and justice-loving as we all say we are as Christians, we often miss the mark horribly. God knows I have.
But when you miss the mark, you shouldn’t obfuscate and deflect the blame off of you and back onto your accusers. You admit your wrongdoing and figure out how to do better going forward. So far, Strang hasn’t done that, and as a result, his company, and Christianity’s reputation for a certain group of believers, is suffering.
TV Review: Lost For Dummies
Have y’all heard about this new Netflix show “The I-Land”? It was trending online this week, but not because it was any good. I investigated and watched all seven episodes of the miniseries, which is about a group of people who wake up on a mysterious island to find out that not all is what it seems. (Sound familiar?)
I ended up reviewing it for Book & Film Globe. You can check it out here.
I wanna see your Peacock
I feel like I should just dedicate a section of this newsletter to streaming news every week with the way things are developing. On that front, a lot happened this week in regards to the world of cord-cutting.
More:'The Office' is leaving Netflix. Here's why you should just go buy the DVDs.
NBC revealed that its new streaming service will be called “Peacock,” after its logo. (I know, I know.) Once the ’Cock comes, it will feature a multitude of shows and films, including but not limited to (deep breath):
A “Battlestar Galactica” reboot as well as Syfy’s four-season run of the same
“Parks and Recreation”
“Frasier”
“Saved by the Bell”
“Punky Brewster”
Most movies from the NBC-owned Universal Pictures (i.e., the “Fast & Furious” and “Jurassic Park” franchises, among many others)
Films by DreamWorks Animation, Illumination, and Focus Features
“Brooklyn Nine-Nine”
“Cheers”
“Everybody Loves Raymond”
“Friday Night Lights”
“Downton Abbey”
More: Disney+ is coming for your nostalgia
Not to be outdone, this week Netflix announced that it bagged a deal for the streaming rights to “Seinfeld” starting in 2021 (what’s the DEAL with them not releasing how much money they paid for those rights?)
And HBO MAX just announced it would be the new home to all episodes of “The Big Bang Theory” upon launch in spring 2020. Bazinga, indeed.
Trailer Park
Want more trailer news for all the movies coming out this September and October? I have just the thing: Read my fall movie season preview here at jakeharrisblog.com.
“In the Tall Grass”
In the latest adaptation of a Stephen King property, a group of people get lost in some tall grass and then some sinister spooky stuff happens. As someone who has little sense of direction on a good day, this looks terrifying.
“Big Mouth Season 3”
The most profane, yet profound, animated show you’ll ever watch about puberty is back for a third season on Oct. 4. (Don’t watch this at work.)
“El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie”
Jesse Pinkman is back! This trailer hits all the familiar “Breaking Bad” marks: The faint guitar theme in the background, the recap of what happened the night Walter White got his comeuppance, the familiar lighting and vaguely AMC-ish branding logo. “El Camino” will detail what happened to Jesse in the days after the show’s finale. Watching this show with friends in college every week was a huge part of my junior and senior year, but I’ve never revisited it because of how anxious it made me feel (especially the final season). However, I’m excited to go back to ABQ for this film one more time on Oct. 11.
(Also I just realized all of these trailers are for Netflix properties. Welp.)
Letter of Recommendation
Music: Metal prog-rock trolls TOOL recently released “Fear Inoculum,” their first album in 13 years. High School Freshman Jake enjoyed their last album, “10,000 Days,” and I thought that I would have grown out of this music by now, but nope, the mathematical precision melodies and vague lyrics still do it for me. Here’s a 15-minute opus from the new album:
TV: Eight years after it first aired, I finally watched the first season of “American Horror Story,” the one with the haunted house starring Connie Britton, Dylan McDermott and Taissa Farmiga. It’s so very campy and so weird and so much fun. You can watch it (and seven other seasons of it) on Netflix.
Book: This is a two-part recommendation.
The first part: “Bojack Horseman” creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg recently released a collection of short stories called “Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory.” Much like “Bojack,” the stories contained within that book are full of silly and profound observations about human nature, with a little bit of magical realism thrown in. I read it in two sittings out on the front porch this week.
The second part: I read the book through Libby, a phone app powered by OneDrive that is used by library systems across the country to lets you check out e-books if a print version is not available. I’ve read a few books this way, and enjoy it a lot.
Friday News Dump
A list of online stuff I really liked this week:
Let’s not focus on Tennessee’s absolutely abysmal performance this season. Let’s instead focus on stories like this one, where a lifelong Vols fan made fun of the team in his obituary, and this one, where Israeli football teams are playing more football thanks to UT football jersey donations. (Both via David Ubben in The Athletic)
Reese Witherspoon is coming for the Oprah Book Club mantle (Via Constance Grady in Vox)
If you haven’t heard of Lauren Duca (or even if you have), then you must read this clinic in profile writing by Scaachi Koul. (Via Scaachi Koul in BuzzFeed)
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This newsletter is written by me and edited by my favorite person, Taylor Tompkins. Views expressed here are my own and don’t reflect the opinions of my employer, yadda yadda yadda.
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See you next week,
Jake