And God Said: Let there be Evolution! was written during Steve Henn’s sometimes relieved, sometimes reluctant, and ultimately aborted return to the Catholic church. The poems express faith, doubt, the conflict between dogmatism and reason, and a disdain for orthodoxy that Henn picked up while teaching 1984 over and over to public school students. Some of the poems, though, are about a bad beard trim at Great Clips, or a bunch of made-up reasons why California doctors grant medical marijuana licenses. You never can tell what Henn will think of next, but then again neither can he. And God Said: Let there be Evolution! is heretical yet nevertheless spiritual, profound yet profane, looking toward salvation even as Henn questions the virtue of religious and spiritual certainty. Henn is hoping the sins of this authorship are ultimately venial from the perspective of Whoever’s In Charge, and not mortal. |
