John Murdock

John Murdock
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http://johnmurdock.org
John Murdock is an attorney and globetrotting localist who worked for over a decade in Washington, D.C.; left the Capital Beltway to write from a family farmhouse deep in the heart of the Lone Star state; taught law in South Korea; and then rode the housing waves of Boise. In 2023, John left the crisp dry air of Idaho and returned to the stifling humidity of his native east Texas. His writing is catalogued at johnmurdock.org.

Recent Essays

The Cardinal and the Capitalist

A cleric with the ear of Pope Francis recently sent Catholic defenders of free markets into a tizzy. At a press conference, Cardinal Oscar...

Remembering a Good Oak

Trees cannot talk, but they do speak. With our eyes focused on franticly flickering screens, perhaps our ears have grown dull to their still...

The Academy Awards as a Religious Experience

The stylish crowd that walked the red carpet to the Oscars likely had not donned their Sunday best earlier in the day for a...

Huckabee’s Shifting Shades of Green

As he began making the early “exploratory” rounds, a smiling Mike Huckabee recently reminded Martha Raddatz on ABC’s political Sunday show This Week that...

Orwell and Huxley, Together Again: ‘The Interview’ and our Culture of Distraction

By now you’ve already forgotten last month’s most important celebrity cause, namely the embodiment of freedom of expression known as The Interview. Hollywood has...

Phenomenal Ben Carson and the Consequential Richard Weaver

“Ben Carson: Political Phenomenon.”  That gushing headline, at CNN.com of all virtual places, was followed by a puff piece of epic proportions.  Of course,...

Opening Night, Way off Broadway: Greater Tuna in Shiner, Texas

In this edition of Tales from the Kolache Belt, we celebrate community theatre. Not many rural towns of just over 2,000 souls can boast...

Life in the Kolache Belt: Reflections from the Intersection of Food, Faith, Farming, and Fracking

In some ways, the little farming community of Hallettsville where I have spent a writing sabbatical still resides in a simpler time. Czechs and...

Happy St. Isidore’s Day

In “The Gift of Good Land,” Wendell Berry notes, with a tinge of regret, the largely heroic nature of the stories recorded in the...