Thomas Post

 Joshua Singh

R. Eric Thomas’s essays in Here for It gives the reader insight into the intersectionality of his identity through a unique writing style and structure. One way he does this is express his personal views of Christianity and how he implements it in his life. In “Eggquity,” Thomas attempts the reconcile the Church’s claims of equality with its numerous unresolved disparities in which equality is not being practiced as it is preached. For example, he mentions his personal experience in church where he heard the pastor warn people of those who had AIDS or HIV, and people, Christians especially, became wary of having them in the church and celebrating with others. Christians who shared this view essentially supported ostracizing them, which stands contradictory to the Church’s teaching that all are equal and welcome in God’s eyes. 

Thomas’ acknowledgement of this disparity and questioning of how the Church can preach equality for all yet treat certain members of society in such a way is humorous because it pokes holes in the Church’s equal teachings, and I also relate to his questioning of the Church. In the beginning of the chapter, he recounts his repeated asking of his father questions about the Church. He keeps asking “why” even after his father answers him. It’s humorous because it’s relatable to someone like me who also wonders why the Church seems to have seemingly apparent contradictions, but it is also humorous because Thomas is so blunt about poking holes in the rationale of an institution as big as the Church and does so in a unique question-answer structure. 

The epilogue is also so unique and humorous in the way he presents a brutally honest version of himself to the reader. This chapter includes future versions of himself having a conversation with him, and each version wonders whether a future version of himself will in turn walk through the door and join the conversation. Thomas’s versions all make jokes with one another and indulge in the buffet that the original Thomas is in, but they are all part of the same conversation in trying to answer the questions that the original Thomas has. The main part that struck me through all the humorous puns and quips is how the eldest version tells him that he cannot look to the future as a kind of resolution. The eldest version tells him that there is no point in looking to “...what you’re headed for, what the world is headed for, is some sort of resolution” because everyone dies in the end (Thomas 255). He believes society’s futile attempts to make sense of the future and basically everything anyone does will be seen as “political,” and hints at the pointlessness of trying to resolve the future in their own way when everyone is headed to the same place (Thomas 238-239).

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