Stephon Rudd

I am a conservative. A Christian. Not the quiet kind that keeps it tucked away so nobody gets uncomfortable. The kind that believes what the Bible says, says what I believe, and does not spend a lot of time apologizing for the combination.

I write. Fiction and non-fiction. Under the name S. D. Rudd. I live in Kearneysville and I have been watching this country and this culture long enough to have opinions that are not going anywhere regardless of how unpopular they become.

My non-fiction is for believers who want to go further in with God than they have been. People who have sat in church for years and still carry a question they have never said out loud. People who are tired of performing and want to know what is actually true. For By Grace is that book — it is about the fear I carried for close to 40 years, and what finally took it off me. Still Man is written to the man who has been told his strength is dangerous and his faith is a relic, because I am that man and I got tired of waiting for someone else to say it plainly. Different readers, same purpose.

My fiction is built from the same conviction. I believe a good story carries real weight. I believe darkness and faith can occupy the same page. I believe a reader deserves a world that feels true even when it is invented. I am not writing sermons with character names on them — I am writing to hold your attention, and to leave something behind in your faith once the book is closed. That work is ongoing and I am just getting started with it.

Beyond the books I am a social and political commentator. I talk about what is happening to the family, to men, to this country, and to the church. I do not dress it up. I do not run it through a filter designed to protect the feelings of people who have already decided they disagree with me. I say what I see and I back it up with Scripture or with evidence or both.