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Beginning in March of 2019, the writer developed a weekly blog entitled “Stumbling Over Stardust” that went to each subscriber at six o’clock every Sunday morning. Since the writer had served as a Presbyterian minister in the South for over fifty years, this created another way of preaching within a digital congregation. This also gave him the chance to be shorter [confined to 600 words or less] and to the point.
He worked hard to make sure the point was worth the read. Over those years, Dudley produced a variety of essays on religion, politics, spiritual issues and stories from his beloved homeland betraying how he was able to see beyond prejudices and provincialisms leading many of his hearers to wonder how he emerged from Mississippi with thoughts like that. The premise of the title is that all of us are the same creatures who live in a miraculous universe, and stardust [carbon] is the basic building block for this wonderful life. This premise also fits his background as an astronomer who became a theologian, with a tendency toward anthropology.
Set in the context of some turbulent times when Donald Trump was POTUS and Covid19 was the pandemic undermining our physical and mental health, these blogs helped the writer and readers get a grip on their lives beyond what was happening on the news media. Religion and church life were changing as a part of the unravelling of our national life which was becoming more fractured. The resurgence of racism and the rise of Christian nationalism was undermining so many of the moral and social gains that had been made for the past 50 years. All of these underlying issues created a space for a writer with a background in science and religion and the wit and wisdom of age to have his say in hopes of putting out the fires and reestablishing some framework for faith to guide us through such a time.