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About David Zahl

David Zahl is the director of Mockingbird Ministries and editor-in-chief of the Mockingbird blog. Born in New York City and brought up elsewhere, David graduated from Georgetown University in 2001 (B.A. History and German), and then served for five years as an itinerant youth minister with FOCUS (Fellowship Of Christians in Universities and Schools), restarting their New England Boarding Schools region. He left in 2007 to found Mockingbird in New York City. David and his wife Cate currently reside in Charlottesville, VA, with their son Charlie, where David also serves on the staff of Christ Episcopal Church.

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Author Archive

Comics / Humor

A Quick Dinosaur Comics

by David Zahl on Feb 21, 2012 • No Comments

ht JD

Targeted Shopping Habits and Preemptive Diaper Ads

by David Zahl on Feb 21, 2012 • 1 Comment

Yikes! The NY Times ran a lengthy piece by Charles Duhigg this past weekend about absurdly precise, borderline Big Brother market research techniques that companies like Target (pun sort of intended…sigh) are pioneering to capture our dollars. The article doubles as an overview of recent breakthroughs in the study of habit formation, and it’s disconcerting on a number of levels.

For our purposes, the main ‘takeaway’ isn’t exactly news: we are all creatures of enormous habit, much of which is unconscious, and regardless of how autonomously we like to think of ourselves, it is our painful predictability that unites us –…

Books / Forgiveness / Law / Literature

W.H. Auden on Accidental Love and the Difference Between Pardon and Forgiveness

by David Zahl on Feb 20, 2012 • 3 Comments

From the great poet’s essay “The Prince’s Dog,” which can be found his invaluable collection, The Dyer’s Hand. Wystan is reflecting on Shakespeare’s “Measure for Measure,” specifically in reference to Angelo (who is forgiven by Isabella but pardoned by the Duke). Of course, the insights transcend their context:

The one who forgives must be in a position to do something for the other which, if he were not forgiving, he would not do. This means that my enemy must be at my mercy; but, to the spirit of charity, it is irrelevant whether I am at my enemy’s mercy or he…

Celebrity / Death

Tyler Perry on the Grace that Carried Whitney Houston Home

by David Zahl on Feb 20, 2012 • 7 Comments

What beautiful, beautiful 4 minutes. Can I get a Hallelujer?

Film / Grace in Practice / Humor / Literature / Music / Religion / Sports / Technology / Theology / TV / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: More Linsanity, IMonk Grace, TechnoSabbaths, Defending Nic Cage, DFW on Corrosive Illusions, Cougarton Abbey and GNR Rumors

by David Zahl on Feb 17, 2012 • No Comments

1. Just in case you haven’t overdosed on Linsanity yet, David Brooks offers a sympathetic big-picture perspective in his column in The NY Times, highlighting how the culture of achievement and glory in professional sports conflicts with ethical framework espoused by most of the major religious traditions. Some will certainly say that Brooks going overboard, but I’m not so sure. Of course, there are plenty of valid, non-religious ways to rationalize competition, but attempts to do so on the basis of Christianity have always struck this blogger as particularly unconvincing, ht TB:

The moral ethos of sport is in tension with…

Identity / Law / Social Science / Technology

Why Am I So Obsessed With That Person From Sixth Grade? Cyberstalking and the Permanent Reunion

by David Zahl on Feb 15, 2012 • 3 Comments

The rejection we feel when we find out that someone has de-friended us on Facebook or stopped following us on Twitter must be the definition of a ‘modern problem.’ We usually discover these things by accident, which probably accounts for why they sneak through our defenses so easily. Just the other day, for example, I noticed that someone had un-followed me on Twitter, and almost immediately, I found myself drawn into a web of self-recrimination. It was particularly silly since I was about to stop following them. And I knew my reasons had very little to do with my esteem…

Film / Humor

Damsels in Distress Trailer!!!

by David Zahl on Feb 14, 2012 • 1 Comment

“We’re also trying to make a difference in people’s lives. And one way to do that is to stop them from killing themselves.”

Homina homina homina… To read our interview with writer-director Whit Stillman, go here. Or to figure out why we’re so excited about this film, dig into some of these posts. And don’t forget, yours truly will be leading a first-ever Mbird group outing to see the film in NYC on April 18th, the night before the Spring Conference. Once we get closer to the event, we’ll be taking names.

Addiction / Identity / Law / Psychology / Social Science

Hope for Perfectionist Workaholic Control Freaks: Vulnerability and the Birthplace of Love

by David Zahl on Feb 14, 2012 • No Comments

We’ve made no secret of our love for author/researcher/social worker Brene Brown. The Washington Post published a wonderful Valentine’s Day piece of hers, “A Love Note to a Workaholic,” which represents a fresh take on her familiar theme of vulnerability and its counter-intuitive power. Although she may make a distinction between vulnerability and weakness, I’m not so sure she isn’t describing the horizontal (and universal!) meat on the vertical bones of 2 Cor 12:9 (“strength made perfect in weakness”). When she speaks of perfectionism or workaholism, for example, she is talking about two of the more insidious modern iterations of…

Music

Needing Is One Thing (And Getting’s Another)

by David Zahl on Feb 14, 2012 • 4 Comments

Addiction / America / Art / Bible / Books / Education / Film / Humor / Music / Psychology / Religion / TV / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Joseph Mills, Commitment Devices, Anxiety Rights, Bible Rescue, Imposter Syndrome, Hitch on Chesterton, Elmer Bernstein and Liz Lemon

by David Zahl on Feb 10, 2012 • 6 Comments

1. One of the many things to adore about David Foster Wallace’s A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again is the cover (of the US edition). The collage manages to capture the torrential intellect at the heart of that wonderful collection without losing the humor. But it wasn’t until this past week that I knew anything about its designer, photographer/artist/pumpkin farmer Joseph Mills. The Washington City Paper did a feature on him back in 2003 in conjunction with an exhibit at the Corcoran, and Joseph’s words–and personal history with psychosis and depression–pack quite a punch, ht SJ:

When asked about…

Comics / Humor / Relationships