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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

Another Week Ends: Celebrity Body Image, Depression Chemistry, the Burden of Secrecy, Fitz Allison, Ryan Gosling, Community, Game of Thrones, and Spiritualized

by David Zahl on Apr 27, 2012 • 5 Comments

1. On Slate, Emily Shire asks, “Should Celebrity Body ‘Struggles’ Make Us Feel Better About Ourselves?” and her insightful little response doubles as quite the treatise on the function of Standards (of beauty etc) and how attempts to allay judgment often backfire, i.e. that the notch on the scale isn’t the issue so much as the scale itself:

Allure’s feature is only one of the latest in a long line of magazine stories about female celebrities “bravely” grappling with their “physical imperfections.” A growing number of publications are trying to pass off barely-clad celebrities strutting their stuff as an inspiring act…

Comics / Humor

A Slightly Less Quick Calvin and Hobbes

by David Zahl on Apr 25, 2012 • No Comments

America / Music / Suffering

Catch a Cannonball (to Take Me on Down the Line): In Memory of Levon Helm

by David Zahl on Apr 24, 2012 • 11 Comments

The Mockingbird office in Charlottesville is decorated with a collection of proud mementos. An inspiration constellation, if you will. Most prominently, there’s the foldout from the ET: Picture Book record, which has Michael Jackson posing for what seems like a school photo with the ExtraTerrestrial himself. There’s the 7-inch Slash figurine, complete with adjoining Marshall stack. There’s the framed original poster for The Muppet Movie. There’s the bottom piece of Lucas Cranach’s Marienkirche altarpiece in Wittenberg, which depicts Martin Luther preaching the crucified God. There’s the six-panel insert to All Things Must Pass of George Harrison looking like the haggard…

Books / Church / Religion

Marilynne Robinson on Christmas, Easter and Religious Dread

by David Zahl on Apr 23, 2012 • 12 Comments

From Marilynne Robinson’s essay “Wondrous Love”, one of several collected in When I Was a Child I Read Books, here are the quotes I referenced at this past weekend’s conference:

I have a theory that the churches fill on Christmas and Easter because it is on these days that the two most startling moments in the Christian narrative can be heard again…

In other words, people come to church on major holidays not solely out of a sense of social and religious propriety, but because, at least subconsciously, those are the two days when we can be assured of hearing some…

Death / Poetry

Awakened – Czeslaw Milosz

by David Zahl on Apr 19, 2012 • 1 Comment

In advanced age, my health worsening, I woke up in the middle of the night, and experienced a feeling of happiness so intense and perfect that in all my life I had only felt its premonition. And there was no reason for it. It didn’t obliterate consciousness; the past which I carried was there, together with my grief. And it was suddenly included, was a necessary part of the whole. As if a voice were repeating: “You can stop worrying now; everything happened just as it had to. You did what was assigned to you, and you are not required anymore to think of what happened long ago.” The peace I felt was a dosing of accounts and was connected with the thought of death. The happiness on this side was like an announcement of the other side. I realized that this was an undeserved gift and I could not grasp by what grace it was bestowed on me.

Humor / Identity

From The Onion: Human Civilization Brings Out Worst in Area Man

by David Zahl on Apr 17, 2012 • No Comments

A new addition to the top tier of Onion brilliance, me thinks. You can read the full article here, ht JD:

“I’ve known Justin for years, and whenever he’s not engaged with modern society in any way, he’s actually pretty nice and laid-back,” said former roommate Michael Mariani, 32, who noted Krypel was typically agreeable when sitting by himself in a room doing nothing. ”However, as soon as he’s exposed to some aspect of the culture in which he lives, he can get pretty irritable and difficult to be around.”

“Some things just really seem to push his buttons, like work, having to deal…

America / Film / Grace in Practice / Humor / Identity / Law / Music / Science / Theology / TV / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Louis CK, Sam Spade, Prevailing Grace, Heavy Metal, Axl Rose, Viennese Creativity, Cabin in the Woods, and yes, more Damsels in Distress

by David Zahl on Apr 13, 2012 • 4 Comments

1. “The Filthy Moralist: How Louis C.K. Became America’s Unlikely Conscience” in The Atlantic is remarkable, especially in its conclusion. As always when it comes to Louis, there’s a high depravity quotient, so don’t say we didn’t warn you. But also as always when it comes to Louis, the darkness is not neutral or meaningless (or merely shocking). In fact, it might even be worth the discomfort in this case to get to the final couple of paragraphs, which truly capture what Louis is about, whether he wants to be or not. It strikes me as especially pertinent as we…

America / Identity / Religion / Social Science / Technology / Theology

If Only You Were Lonely: Social Media, Self-Forgetfulness and Yvette Vickers’ Computer

by David Zahl on Apr 13, 2012 • 7 Comments

Lord have mercy! The Atlantic just dropped the article of the year, at least as far as this website is concerned. Underneath the slightly been-there-done-that title of “Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?” lies an exploration of identity creation and loneliness and self-immolation that may even jerk a few tears of grief. Stephen Marche has crafted a tour-de-force, combing the research, polling the experts and injecting a fair amount of his own considerable insight to form a fairly significant statement about modern life (not to mention a timely endorsement of online communities needing flesh-and-blood get-togethers every once and a while…).

The basic…

Comics / Humor

A Quick Calvin and Hobbes

by David Zahl on Apr 12, 2012 • No Comments

Did someone say “Honesty, Humility and the Grace of God”?!

Church / Literature / Poetry / Relationships

Mary Karr on Tin Cups, Mirrors and Prayer’s Relief

by David Zahl on Apr 11, 2012 • No Comments

Two phenomenal quotations from the phenomenal Mary Karr. The first one comes from the unbelievably great essay “Facing Altars” which is included in her poetry collection, Sinners Welcome, ht PW:

People usually (always?) come to church as they do to prayer and poetry—through suffering and terror. Need and fear…

The faithless contenders for prayer’s relief who sometimes ask me for help praying (still a comic notion) often say it seems hypocritical to turn to God only now during whatever crisis is forcing them toward it – a kid with leukemia, say, husband lost in the World Trade Center. But no one I…

America / Children / Church / Film / Food / Music / Psychology / Relationships / Religion / Social Science / Technology / TV / Week In Review

Another (Holy) Week Ends: Unachievement, Damsels Reviews, Gastrodad Confessions, Youth Ministry, Music Snobs, Girls and Darth Vader

by David Zahl on Apr 9, 2012 • No Comments

1. At this point, you’ve likely seen Andrew Sullivan’s Newsweek cover story on the “Crisis in Christianity”. While there’s regrettably little talk of salvation – which I’m not sure is really within the purview of such a piece – and the reference to Jefferson is a bit dubious, the overall diagnosis strikes me as sound. Sullivan’s conclusion is particularly stirring:

The crisis of Christianity is perhaps best captured in the new meaning of the word “secular.” It once meant belief in separating the spheres of faith and politics; it now means, for many, simply atheism. The ability to be faithful in…

Music / Religion

He Gave Us Sweet Cherry Wine (So Very Fine)

by David Zahl on Apr 5, 2012 • 2 Comments

Not sure there’s a better Maundy Thursday jam out there than Tommy James and the Shondells’ “Sweet Cherry Wine”, their follow-up to “Crimson and Clover”. I’ll let the man speak for himself via this interview from Songfacts. (If you’ve never heard the story behind “Crystal Blue Persuasion”, it’s just as wild):

SF: Earlier you mentioned “Sweet Cherry Wine.” Is that a metaphor?

Tommy: Yes. It’s a metaphor for the blood of Jesus.

SF: I know you say you converted to Christianity. How did that transformation take place?

Tommy: Well, I don’t worship every Sunday; I worship every day. Every hour of every day. It’s…

America / Children / Gender / Identity / Law / Relationships

Are Stage Mothers the New Tax Collectors? Toddlers, Tiaras and Dieting 7-Year Olds

by David Zahl on Apr 4, 2012 • 3 Comments

A couple of notable new volleys in the parenting wars world. Doubtless by now you’ve heard about Dara-Lynn Weiss, the New York City mother who set off a firestorm by writing an article for Vogue detailing her, um, zealous efforts to curb her 7-year-old daughter’s eating habits. Apparently the poor girl in question was failing to “self-regulate” adequately at the preschool snack table. Weiss has been publicly reproached on every website imaginable (“I’m pretty sure Weiss just handed her daughter the road map to all her future eating disorders,” wrote one commenter on nymag.com), and it’s hard not to concur…

Comics / Humor