The Church FAQ
163 comments
·March 14, 2025acyou
anyfoo
He's not only still around, he still writes awesome books.
But yeah, I too was reading without noticing, until I came to the sentence "None of the Scalzis are particularly religious", and thought "wait, Scalzi like John Scalzi? It's not... It is?!"
colechristensen
Another old man’s war series book is going to be released this year
fishywang
He is also one of the authors that (almost) all his eBooks sold on Google Play are without DRM.
notatoad
>take your brain out trashy sci fi, and I mean that in the most positive way possible
that's the guy. he's got a new book coming out this month, and is a fun follow on social media too (now on bluesky). i feel like he would be flattered by your description.
Thoreandan
Seconded - https://bsky.app/profile/scalzi.com is one of the more interesting feeds on the site.
dmd
> When I was a kid [...] Old Man's War
Well, THAT just made me feel like an old man.
heliostatic
Same -- I still think of Scalzi as a new(ish) SF writer since he started publishing after I was an adult SF reader. Woof, time marches on!
snibsnib
Oh wow, i never would have made the connection. 'Lock In' was one of my favorite books growing up.
jwr
Yes, that's the guy and he has written a lot of good sci-fi since then. He's pretty active on Mastodon too.
thenewwazoo
Yep, MetaFilter’s own jscalzi
ubermonkey
You're in for a treat if you haven't read him since OMW. He's one of the more prolific "popular SF" writers around, has won a ton of awards, and usually has a book out about every year or so.
widforss
They use the sign outside for the most hilarious messages. On Google Maps you can see two versions, "IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR A SIGN HERE IT IS", and "SORRY KIDS SCHOOL TIME AGAIN".
akie
In case you're wondering, here it is: https://maps.app.goo.gl/nbWXb78AHC5oUjTw6
hn_throwaway_99
It's really a beautiful building, so glad they kept the stained glass. Great that they were able to repurpose this and didn't tear it down!
tomcam
If you’re lucky enough to do something like this I can’t recommend it enough. I bought a second house in my neighborhood instead of renting an office and it made work a hell of a lot more fun. Felt healthier too, because I could open windows or take walks.
hermitcrab
$75k. Wow. You'd be lucky to buy a 1 bedroom crack den on the worst estate in the UK for that.
Given the Methodist's reputation for being dour, I'm surprised how nice it looks inside.
panzagl
In the US, Methodist is a relatively middle-of-the-road denomination, not nearly as dreary as I've seen UK Methodists described.
dnemmers
From the extensive renovations listed, I’m guessing you can add another $200k onto that price point.
schoen
> Not “Church of the Scalzi,” which is actually the name of a church in Venice, Italy.
Oh right, "scalzi" means 'barefoot' (mpl) in Italian!
magicmicah85
I thought I wanted a house with land, woods, garden with bunch of carrots and little sweet peas, but now I want a church to maintain.
lookdangerous
Hmm, a six-necked guitar called the Beast on the Altar. That's a little on the nose.
throwawayk7h
Now, where's the sympathy for the effective altruists who bought a castle for the same financial reasons? They were widely mocked for their apparent exuberance.
krapp
Effective altruism is a cult and it deserves to be mocked.
f_allwein
Related: beautiful reuse of a former church in Copenhagen. They host events during the day and communal dinners at night. https://absaloncph.dk/en/
berikv
Please don’t terrify your contractors. They fix your place, and you want them on your side doing a good job.
EvanAnderson
I take "terrify" to mean "they know they will be supervised and their wkrk checked".
lbotos
I've "terrified" contractors when I've called them on their BS. I once had a contractor tell me it was okay to notch 50% into a load bearing floor joist. I quickly pulled up the building code and his face went pale...
rsynnott
> and despite the actions of certain science fiction authors in the past offering precedent, I have no desire to start a cult
> I want to recondition the old pastor’s study, get the organ functional again, and we want to make the sanctuary level more easily accessible via ramps and such
I mean, he _claims_ not to want to start a cult, but I feel like, if starting a cult, these are exactly the sort of facilities one would be recommissioning. Especially the organ.
Granted, for a moment I thought this was Charles Stross (the other Very Online sci-fi author), which would be _far_ more worrying, considering.
c0brac0bra
I think the frequency of organ-centered cults is lower than you might imagine.
biomcgary
In the end, I suspect most cults want all your organs.
hermitcrab
Or to do something to you with their organs...
rsynnott
Is this an organ music joke?
(Most cults probably don't have pipe organs, but I feel like it is unquestionably a _plus_ for your cult if you happen to have access to one.)
wnoise
He also created the Githzerai/Githyanki, so other ways of creating cults seem easier.
beAbU
He also mentioned using the basement for "gatherings" and that immediately set off my cult-alarm bells!
Pretty jealous to be honest, the building itself looks beautiful.
Wait, don't I recognize that name? Wait a second... This is THE John Scalzi? When I was a kid I pulled a paperback off of my dad's bookshelf, Old Man's War. Great, take your brain out trashy sci fi, and I mean that in the most positive way possible, it left a big impression on me. Incredible writer, cool that he is still around and has a blog.