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Amanda Held Opelt

@amandaheldopelt.bsky.social
1.7K followers 156 following 124 posts

Songwriter, author of A Hole in the World & Holy Unhappiness. Writes &speaks about faith, the creative life, grief, & ritual. 📍Rooted in Southern Appalachia.

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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
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...
open.substack.com
"The Monkey Trial" 100 Years Later
Reflections on My Own Evolving Faith
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 03/07/2025
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...
religionnews.com
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.
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
New post! open.substack.com/pub/amandahe...
open.substack.com
My Word for the Year is "Calamity"
The Problem of Pain and the Work of Theodicy
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
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...
wataugademocrat.com
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.
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
Pretty great tho huh?
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
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...
podcasts.apple.com
Ross Douthat on Trump, Mysticism and Psychedelics
Podcast Episode · The Ezra Klein Show · 04/25/2025 · 1h 35m
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
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?
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
It does indeed seem to have been a reckoning.
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
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?
open.substack.com
What Does the Lord Require of You?
Shifting Vibes, the Great Return, and Why the Gospel is More than a Trend
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
“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...
christianitytoday.com
Cafeteria Church - Christianity Today
Under the fluorescent lights, we come to commune, not to be entertained.
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
Love that!
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day to all who feel at home in these ancient mountains.
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
It’s true. The similarity is in the undulations of the hillsides, the lush greenery, the rocks that feel as old as time itself.
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
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.”
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
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.
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
Now divided by an ocean, I still believe these mountains call to one another.
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
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.
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
Every year on St. Patrick’s Day, I like to play a little game called “Is it Ireland or Appalachia?”
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
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???”
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
New Post today! Ash Wednesday: Pride, Provision, and the Belly of a Big Fish open.substack.com/pub/amandahe...
open.substack.com
Ash Wednesday
Pride, Provisions, and the Belly of a Big Fish
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
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.
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
I think they are all at happy hour with the nuclear code guys.
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
Love that one!
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
Great!!!
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
Thanks! I’ve just started You’re Only Human
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 17/02/2025
Excellent, thank you!
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 17/02/2025
Ah yes!!! I have!!
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 17/02/2025
Crowdsourcing! Looking for the best book you’ve read on the theology of health and healing. I’ve read Amy Kenny’s My Body is Not a Prayer Request. What else should I read?
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
Are we at Threat Level Midnight yet??? 🤔🤔🤔
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
🙌🏼
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
As long as we are changing maps, renaming bodies of water and landmasses, I’ll remind everyone that Edgar Allen Poe originally wanted to name our country Appalachia. Executive order anyone?? 😊
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
Normalize changing your mind on political matters. It’s ok to think one way, get more information, then start thinking another way. American freedom means our loyalty lies only with the good of the country, not a politician…not to our previous opinions.
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 09/02/2025
I’m lovin’ all this “triumph of the human spirit” pre-game content.
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
New post! open.substack.com/pub/amandahe...
open.substack.com
Say What You See
The radical act of paying attention and bearing witness.
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
Church, I think it’s more important than ever that we strive to be the faithful remnant. At the same time, you must guard against the assumption that YOU ARE the faithful remnant. The moment you think you’ve arrived, you are back at the beginning.
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
It’s true. It’s like people treat Appalachians like they single handedly ushered in the era of Trump.
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 28/01/2025
It’s all fun and games to be anti-establishment until you realize the establishment is paying for your kid’s lunch.
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 28/01/2025
Hi 👋🏼 Thanks for sharing!
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 25/01/2025
Sure does!!
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Reposted by Amanda Held Opelt
Karen Swallow Prior @karenswallowprior.bsky.social · 24/01/2025
The real “culture war” isn’t “out there.” It’s “in here.” And as long as they keep us thinking it’s “out there,” the more we lose “in here.”
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
You know I think I’d heard that!
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
New post! Fire and Flood: “Whatsboutisms,” Blame, and Disaster Rage
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 22/01/2025
I’m so happy for him!!
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 22/01/2025
This is wild!
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 22/01/2025
😂
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Amanda Held Opelt @amandaheldopelt.bsky.social · 22/01/2025
I’ll take those too!! Wow!
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