David Treebeard

“How Many Fingers am I Holding Up?”

By Guest Post on April 11, 2023

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A Religious Ontology of AI

“After God, let us have our own conscience as our mentor and rule for all things, so that we may know which way the wind is blowing and set our sails accordingly.”
–St. John Climacus, Ladder of Divine Ascent, Chapter 26.6

All of my text messages were monosyllabic. Yes. No. K. Cool. Thanks. I had to look up or print out directions at the house before driving somewhere new. My music selection was limited to CDs. I had to go buy a camera.

With these inconveniences came a sweet type of freedom. I was more often alone with my thoughts. I was more often surprised by the world around me. I spent more time looking people in the eye. And I noticed, for the first time, how many people glued their faces to their phones, in all kinds of public places. When I used a smartphone myself, I hadn’t really ever noticed that – my own face, too, had been glued down.

Lessons from Livestock, Part Three

Lessons from Livestock, Part Three

By Guest Post on January 21, 2023

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When the Lion Lies Down with the Bug

by David Treebeard

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The other day I was hauling a couple of cows to the slaughterhouse when a new-model truck with blacked-out windows blazed past me on the left. Big block letters on the rear window read: “LIONS NOT SHEEP.”

It was a nice truck, and I’d guess that the driver was an impressive guy — strong bench press, profitable business, maybe no exogenous mRNA in his bloodstream — but I’m also sure this truck bro is actually a particular type of sheep. A sheep in lion’s clothing, if you will, and I know that precisely because he considered himself to be a lion.

Lessons from Livestock, Part Two

Lessons from Livestock, Part Two

By Guest Post on January 17, 2023

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To Be or not to Bug

by David Treebeard

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When animals become numbers, human numbers are not far behind. For the past several hundred years since the imaginations of Descartes and other enlighteners permeated our power structures, people have been treated as machines or numbers – abstract variables that can be subtly manipulated, to achieve certain goals. This is how the modern government exercises its power through an upside-down form of Christian “pastoral” leadership.

What if the way a culture treats livestock is an indication of how its political leaders will treat people?

Lessons from Livestock, Part One

Lessons from Livestock, Part One

By Guest Post on January 6, 2023

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The Living Scripture of Creation

by David Treebeard

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Nature is under God’s control, and all the parts of nature are part of His symbolic language. This means that all of creation offers spiritual lessons. To farm, log, or fish is to interact with an animated parable of Christ, spoken by wordless creatures. A Christian culture needs this natural engagement, because if nobody stoops down and gets their hands dirty in the earth, then nobody can build cathedrals and gather together to pray heavenward.

A Graze of Glory: Why Good Pasture Matters

A Graze of Glory: Why Good Pasture Matters

By Guest Post on August 5, 2022

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by David Treebeard

IF YOU’RE READING THIS, you’re probably an American that eats meat. If that’s the case, your meat is probably too simple. Or rather, the system that produced your meat is too simple. And this oversimplification causes serious problems for your health and our country’s soils.

Want to enjoy truly healthy meat? Embrace the simple complexity of pasture husbandry.

This may sound counterintuitive. Scripture tells us to live simply. The Righteous Job was a “simple” God-fearing, upright man, the type that the book of Proverbs exhorts us to be. So simplicity is good. Indeed, in all of Steadfast Provisions’ pemmican products, we aim for simplicity. Simple ingredients, processed in simple, traditional ways. But here’s the paradox: to live simply, we must embrace the complexity of God’s creation. Otherwise, things get very complicated, very fast.

One Food to Rule Them All

One Food to Rule Them All

By Guest Post on July 11, 2022

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by David Treebeard

There is a quiet storm wreaking havoc in the world of food and farming. Processing plants, warehouses, and refineries are burning down at suspicious rates. Two of the world’s largest producers of wheat (and fertilizer) are currently in a war with no end in sight. Countries like China are hoarding all the grain they can get, while western governments use environmental regulations to throttle farm production and raise prices.

At a time like this, we need prayerful repentance, first of all. Second, we need to cultivate our local networks of capable food producers. And third, we need to obtain truly mighty food. Food that’s ready for anything. This article is a quest to answer an ancient, but ever-relevant question:

What is the one food to rule them all?

Christ, “Climate Change,” and True Ecosophia

Christ, “Climate Change,” and True Ecosophia

By Guest Post on June 25, 2022

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by David Treebeard

As Christians, we know that “climate change” is obviously real. It’s so real that it can devastate entire nations in the span of a week. And the realest part of all is that climate change is anthropogenic: human-caused. But we also know that climate change has nothing to do with carbon dioxide.

In fact, climate change is not at all what the UN’s “Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change” says it is. It isn’t caused by overpopulation, it isn’t caused by a “Greenhouse Effect,” and it doesn’t threaten humanity with extinction. We can tell that the entire mainstream narrative of climate change is demonic, because of its purpose: it is designed to trigger anxiety and fear. This narrative is in direct opposition to the Lord’s command to “Let not your hearts be troubled nor fearful.” (John 14:27)