Author and illustrator
Benjamin Morse grew up in Connecticut and Virginia. The son of a Hebrew Bible scholar, he studied religion and art history at Vassar College.
He later completed a master’s in biblical interpretation at Oxford University, a master’s in modern art at the Courtauld Institute in London, and a PhD in theology at Glasgow University. His academic work has been published in multiple collections and journals.
He lives in Scotland.
Other writing
929.org.il
929.org.il
Benjamin's contributions to the Israeli Torah forum (in English) include pieces on Georges Orwell and Floyd, the prophet Elisha's bad hair day, and Ezekiel 1 read by Jessica Rabbit.
They are short, two-minute reads--highly educational and always entertaining.
Memoir
929.org.il
Benjamin has completed a domestic memoir about his late family and the people who inhabited his childhood home in the early 20th Century.
Inspired by his hometown's greatest legacy, it is called I'm Not Eugene O'Neill.
To be revised when the time is right.
Novel
Nonfiction
Quarantining in 2020 and 2021 allowed Benjamin to turn some research he began in the Brooklyn Historical Society into a work of historical fiction. It is about gay love, fierce women, and the value of intellectual freedom.
His first major foray into addressing the dark side of identity politics is currently being considered for publication.
Nonfiction
LGB Christians
Nonfiction
I'm Uncomfortable: Belief Beyond the Athleisure Class is the result of the crisis of conscience Benjamin experienced over Black Lives Matter. Sixty marches and rallies showed him how much resentment and illiberalism fuel activism today.
He began engaging with a wider range of political and philosophical thinkers and found his way back to a more grounded center. I'm Uncomfortable is currently being considered for publication.
Substack
LGB Christians
LGB Christians
Benjamin began uploading to Substack in January 2023. MISERERE MEI/THEM covers the contentious topics of race, gender, and political idolatry.
The newsletter continues a theme laid out in I'm Uncomfortable: that academia's unquestioning embrace of critical theory has resulted in a form of pseudo-religious orthodoxy. In 2024 it took a satirical turn inspired by the prophets. Consider that a trigger warning.
LGB Christians
LGB Christians
LGB Christians
Contributions cover Benjamin's struggle with his church for distributing "queer liberation" badges to children--and with whether it is loving to tell them they were born in the wrong body. In his interview with historian Diarmaid MacCulloch, he compares activist crusaders to fiery fundamentalists.
And in "You better preach!" he recounts an unexpected conversation on a flight out of Miami that confirms his refusal to enslave his soul to politics.
Activism
Project Lulutho
Benjamin spent 2010 establishing a rural upliftment and soil regeneration project in South Africa's Eastern Cape.
Following the completion of the project's first phase, the site began hosting people leaving substance treatment facilities and teaching them how to grow their own gardens.
The 2020 documentary Kiss the Ground shows how the principles Lulutho followed can save our topsoil and reduce emissions by grassroots means rather than by positive-sounding policies that are ultimately unsustainable. You can find it on Netflix or organize viewings via its website.