Authenticity Works is the life work of Jack Pelham. It is currently being organized for a 2.0 version of his previous nonprofit educational effort that started in 2018 under the name, We, Montana! The nonprofit, in good standing, and since rebranded to Authenticity Works, is currently not in operation. This site, therefore, gives a simple of vision of what could be, which could include:
- various social media presences,
- book and video publications, and even
- a brick-and-mortar classroom/auditorium with robust livestreaming capabilities.
Authenticity Works is mostly all humanities based, and is particularly focused on “what kind of people we are”. Some of our key strategies or taglines are these:
- Sticking with what’s important
- Mastering the simple things
- Tenacious attunement to Reality/Truth
We are en educational organization, and neither religious or political — even though the subject matter we cover has great relevance to both religion and politics.
Our main subject matter in early phases will consist mostly of these:
- Attunology — The study of attuning ourselves appropriately with regard to the world in which we live, to the other beings in it, and to ourselves. NOTE: The theme of attunology pervades every other subject listed below.
See description here. - Reality-Based Thinking (“Listening to Reality”) — Jack’s carefully-groomed writings and courses on epistemic rationality (how we know what we know). Far from dry science/logic/math, this work focuses on honesty, rationality, and responsibility in human living. See description here.
- Introduction to the US Constitution (Listening to the Constitution) — A completely non-partisan course, based on the simple proposition that “A country that knows its constitution is better off than one that does not.” This course gives an historical overview of the creation of the US Constitution, and carefully reads through each line of it, with a view toward understanding what was the intent of it all. It does not argue current politics. Rather, it seeks to provide students with the facts upon which politics could be based.
See description here. - BibleWorks (Listening to the Bible and Listening to Jesus) — Remember, we’re not a “religious organization” or a “church”, but an educational organization with goals like: a) Sticking with what’s important, b) Mastering the simple things, and c) Tenacious attunement to Reality/Truth. Our Bible classes will likely never range into the “deep” things of scripture, because getting the “simple” things wrong is so utterly easy. So our Bible Works majors in the basics, which we think should never be ignored, however “deep” one wants to go into doctrines or church affairs. Some classes will be for a fee, but the envisioned weekly Bible study, “Listening to Jesus” will be a free, live-streamed online study for everyday people to have something authentic to chew on.
See description here. - SkitWorks — Our robust Skitworks program in the We, Montana! Great Room was very successful using (mostly) our own original scripts. As it turns our, these scripts are very exciting to certain mental health providers, who say they put the actors in very useful and therapeutic roles that “help people understand people”. The skits range from crazy-short to 10 minutes long, and from absurd humor to meaningful drama. They can be made available to local theater troupes and therapists all across the world for use in their own local programs.
See description here. - ChorusWorks — Jack is a degreed choral conductor by training, with extensive experience in composition and arranging. (He did much of that under the We, Montana! and Sing Montana! umbrellas, as well as in his many years of experience working in various music ministries.) While Authenticity Works has no plans to have a choral department, Jack does want to make all his arrangements free for downloading/printing here. This saves the hassle trying to get his works officiall published, and still leaves the door open for him to put out a new arrangement of composition “If he feels like it”.
See description here.