Sweet Jesus this dude was a predator. Once again the devastating human consequences for Christian ministries ignoring warnings from others and disregarding leaders' personal histories like "a 2012 sex abuse conviction in Alaska." www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

Nearly two decades of MAGA in and still most pundits still don’t understand that the MAGA definition of “Christian” is incredibly narrow.

New interview with religion scholar Kira Ganga Kieffer about her new book Unvaccinated Under God: Religion and Vaccine Hesitancy in Modern America (Princeton Press). Also HT to @kennethefrantz.bsky.social for the great interview. religionunplugged.com/news/how-rel...

Cool bro.

Whenever you're lacking confidence as a book writer, just stroll around a large book store or library and think thoughts like "Gosh, folks have written sooo many worthless ass books. How hard could it be?" and "No way I'm the dumbest person to attempt to write a book. If all these folks did it..."

Buttiigieg: "Look, when you are this deep into your second year, if your reflex is to still be trying to blame the previous administration, it really shows that you are out of ideas, out of solutions, and unwilling to take ownership of your own choices."

Great thread on a recent data visualization and how the underlying data can be sliced and diced to tell whatever story the researchers want. Coming from this institute and past issues w/ transparency…yikes. @philipncohen.com @profsamperry.bsky.social

earlier today I saw a friend on facebook repost this graph from Institute for Family Studies, coauthored by Brad Wilcox. immediately it felt fishy to me not only because of the source but because something just smelled off about the graph. what would be the mechanism for that kind of plunge?

Grateful to pick up a little hardware at an awards ceremony this evening.

Happening this week. Academic talks are fun, but some of my favorite speaking opportunities are with faith communities. Don’t ignore these folks, scholars. So many are interested in understanding what’s going on & what they can do. Sharing work with them sharpens your communication & helps us all.

If you’ve never actually read Pastor Doug Wilson’s co-authored book on on why Southern Slavery wasn’t so bad I’d recommend it if only to get a sense of the kind of man he is. It’s short, but still hard to stomach. Breathtaking dishonesty (also much plagiarism). vialogue.wordpress.com/wp-content/u...

Important observation by Jack on how "anti-Christian bias" report relies on conservative ESV Bible. I recently unpacked (with @profsamperry.bsky.social) problems with ESV since it's also translation Hegseth prefers (well, along with Revised Tarantino Version): dogma.wordandway.org/pete-hegseth...

Facts.

How some people can sleep amazes me. I’d have to hospitalized when I woke up.

Looking back on my seminary days, I marvel at the mismatch between what most seminary courses train pastors to do (exegete texts, read theology) and what most pastors end up doing in their day-to-day (counseling, admin, organizing). Maybe that's the case for all professional degrees, but if so, wow.

Thrilled to be speaking at Amherst College tomorrow. Grateful to @elprofebarba.bsky.social and the Department of Religion for the invite!

As much as I like Robert, I think this statement underestimates how many Americans are cool with ideas like White supremacy and poor people suffering.

Headlines saying this Supreme Court decision "curtails the use of race" in voting are going to make me have a stroke. It empowers white supremacy. It does not curtail the use of race.

Now is a great time to order my book! 40% off! dukeupress.edu/the-business...

Very interesting study on class consciousness and religion by @profsamperry.bsky.social & @andrew-whitehead.bsky.social "...Christian nationalism...approval of economic inequality among those who benefit from it..higher-income Americans."

New study @sfjournal.bsky.social: Initial work on my theory of "rulling class religion," which I'll developfurther at @russellsagefdn.bsky.social next year. Using 3 data sets, we link Christian nationalism with endorsing economic inequality BUT only among higher earners. 1/3 doi.org/10.1093/sf/s...

Another study for the ”religion is never just religion“ pile. Experiments show that religious markers reduce a person’s perceived trustworthiness even among religious evaluators. Why? Cuz religious markers don‘t just signal religiosity, but also politics, attractivenes, etc. doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

New study @sfjournal.bsky.social: Initial work on my theory of "rulling class religion," which I'll developfurther at @russellsagefdn.bsky.social next year. Using 3 data sets, we link Christian nationalism with endorsing economic inequality BUT only among higher earners. 1/3 doi.org/10.1093/sf/s...

Yet again I remind everyone (as Elizabeth does in her very next tweet) that "foreigners are corrupting our pure blood with weakness & disease" is Fascism 101. Not some variant, not some metaphorically similar thing, not some echo -- the thing itself.

Visiting a retirement community in St. Paul, MN and this is on the front door as you walk in. No idea if ICE actually has to respect this, but I love the sentiment. Some badass senior citizens here.

Re-reading this classic. Not just a window into Oklahoma politics (which it absolutely is), but this book helps us understand the phenomenon of working class Americans pledging undying allegiance to a party that screws them over for corporate interests at every turn.

Yesterday, I successfully defended my dissertation “Every Knee Shall Bend: Leadership and Christian Nationalist Framing in Give Him 15.” Thank you to everyone who attended and supported me throughout this journey.

Congrats to @wthrockmorton.bsky.social on the release of his new book, "The Christian Past that Wasn't: Debunking the Christian Nationalist Myths that Hijack History." I blurbed this book b/c I believe in the work. He dismantles 7 key myths. Check it out! www.broadleafbooks.com/store/produc...

The Introduction of my book is currently free to read. assets-us-01.kc-usercontent.com/f7ca9afb-82c...

Christian nationalist pastor Joel Webbon called for harsh punishment of BLM protesters while defending January 6th rioters as "Patriots." Is this inconsistency? Or does it reveal something deeper about how Christian nationalism shapes views on crime and punishment? 🧵 #polisci #religionandpolitics

How interesting that 'the pope' of American apocalyptic white Christian nationalism never goes to church on Sunday morning but instead picks that time to tweet out genocidal threats to kill millions of people

OOP New York Times got receipts on John Roberts being like, 'I know this isn't how anything works, but a Democratic president is about to implement a policy!!' www.nytimes.com/2026/04/18/u...

I will never not watch Shawshank Redemption when it is on TV.

Notice how the Protestant Bible-only crowd suddenly become huge fans of the Catholic "just war" tradition when they can't cite Jesus or Paul in justifying killing national enemies. Theological disputes are rider-talk in the service of elephants. IOW, it's deployed to justify in-group commitments.

Oh sorry, so religion and politics should be separate? Is that what you're saying? bsky.app/profile/atru...

Thing is, Christians don't get their theology from Popes or even Bibles. They get theology from communities. This includes evangelicals who claim to get everything from reading the Bible. So when the Pope or the Bible tells us something our community disagrees with, too bad for the Pope or Bible.

Mel Gibson pictured with his doctor in 2004

Confession: I used to want to publish a book with Crossway. All the big time Reformed preachers and writers did. I believed it would be a sign I had “made it.” I’ve been doing some writing and taking a painful look at my past in white evangelical Reformed circles. I’ve come a mighty long way!

Sure Crossway. The President who has been supported by >80% of evangelicals for 10 years is posting pics of himself as Jesus, but you should spam email Christians to warn them about “critical theory.“ Cuz that’s the issue in American Christianity.

Every time I read Pat Buchanan I feel like my soul needs a bath.

I don't give a damn if every conservative Christian on twitter calls Trump's post blasphemy and demands he repent. Y'all still chose him over every other GOP candidate in 2016 and 2024 and voted for him three times. Your criticisms are worthless.

Cardinal Cupich: "We're dehumanizing the victims of war by turning the suffering of people & killing of children & our own soldiers into entertainment. To splice together movie cuts w/ actual bombings & targeting of people for purposes of entertainment is sickening. This is not who we are."

You cannot tackle "Christian identity politics" without explicitly recognizing that 1) it's inextricable from white supremacy & 2) it's founded on a lie: that (White) Christians are somehow minoritized in the US. American Christianity is NOT race neutral, especially when it comes to politics.

Literally the first comment. Also, the fact that authoritarians *can* lose elections in some systems does not mean democracy is unaffected. Would Cowen prefer to live in an illiberal democracy or competitive authoritarian state? Are they really the same as, say, Canada?

Don't think I've ever heard an American Christian leader publicly work through the theological implications of America's racist history. Cuz it really does devastate arguments that more Christianity = better nation. Gotta grapple with that w/out just saying "Well, slavers weren't really Christians."

Hungary for the win.

Keeping Hungary in my thoughts today. Hoping for a resounding bellwether referendum on authoritarian populism.

I think HGTV will be showing on all the TVs in hell.

Hot take: Any syllabus on American conservatism or the American right today without some Pat Buchanan has a truck-sized gap. Not because of him personally so much as the clearly articulated ideas that once seemed fringe & doomed but eventually swallowed the whole GOP and then our country.

Listening to Christian pronatalists you'd think before the 1960s US women had always averaged 5-7 kids. "Then birth control and abortion happened and we stopped having babies!" They've never seen a chart showing how US fertility had been steadily falling *since 1800* until that weird post-WWII bump.