A few weeks before this news broke, I wrote a story, "Burning Churches" about an abandoned church. Then a national news story emerged involving an arrest at an abandoned church in Western, Nebraska. Why do abandoned churches occupy such a powerful place in the Midwestern imagination?

A sacred place is in ruin. 

People don't agree on what to do 

Some hope to restore it

There's no people with memory of attending. We assume it's the old or those who have moved away, or were too young to remember. Whoever took care of it probably perished. 

It symbolizes our past. It reminds us that nothing is forever. Spirituality is maybe broader than walls. Without people to host it, it's just a ghost. 

Gothic writers have used forgotten locations for hundreds of years. Castle of Otranto uses a cathedral that sank into the ground as a sanctuary for the peasant hero and the princess he rescues. To this day, these dilapidated buildings can be seen as a sort of sanctuary. 

In my horror story, I used the abandoned church to represent a communal fear that spreads over night. It's all pretend. 

Real world violence is an awful thing that is

 often hidden but in this case, was exposed. 

 People are already struggling. They have second and third jobs, some still can't afford food- mass violence won't help those struggling in this economy.  It only creates trauma and strife. It reopens wounds that were healing. It's like finding a mutilated animal carcass in a park.

 It's eerie when fiction resembles reality. For a moment it can feel as though the writer knew something hidden from everyone else. More often, the writer is simply paying attention to the same fears, symbols, and tensions that exist beneath the surface of everyday life. The abandoned church in "Burning Churches" was never inspired by the UFC White House plot. Yet both drew upon the same powerful image: a forgotten sacred place standing as a reminder of memory, loss, and the uncertainty of what comes next

https://castleswanson.blogspot.com/2026/06/the-burning.html?m=1

https://southeast.newschannelnebraska.com/story/306404644/village-of-western-nebraska-plays-central-role-in-federal-criminal-investigation?fbclid=IwY2xjawSgt3ZleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA80MDk5NjI2MjMwODU2MDkAAR4QuqmPjio-KTI4Hq5irXf6Jbr0NwU7R7c4Q6s_8rpUjoWqAW9wcjpGuCK0hA_aem_IhLogWfDUacsJ2KjbsosFg