Lily and Finlay are growing up, having fun leading each other side by side with this small rope we found on the beach!

I'll give you two two things the Christian Right has accomplished Ending federal SNAP benefits, ending USAID abroad, separating children at the border from their travelling guardian or parent, banning refugees from Muslim speaking countries, defunding the ACA subsidies. Ending Roe. Here's their +

The people of America are known globally as arrogant people, this arrogance comes from a history of success triaging a problem, mobilizing the resources to solve it, and "saving" the predicted doom which should have happened. It can do this over and over, but it's allowed to touch Race.

Palantir manifesto, Project 2025, MAGA, this vein of libertarianish individualism that places itself above laws that inhibits its movement while building something that locks in others goes way back in America. It's what made America what it is – great if you can ignore the trail of broken lives.

Religion reinforces what we already believe. Religion reinforces what we already believe. It's "goodness" depends on whether it changes us to be more humane than we otherwise would like to be. 170 versions of 'love your neighbor as yourself' exist; Man is checking himself; 'religion' lets you go.

Another of my 2016 thoughts was 'christianity' does not scale up well. The early Church was known for 'worshipping the one true God' in a polytheistic world *and* 'out of their poverty, caring for the needy, Roman as well.' But as it grew, it became more and more corrupted, self centered. +

One of my naive conclusions in 2016 was that 81% of white evangelicals voting for Trump would set the Church back: 'no one will ever trust us again, it's back to 1:1 evangelism, the corporate name is dirt. What I didn't realize at the time was how 'dirt' sells. The Church of Whiteness will grow.

From my reading, there have been milestones in civil rights and reactions The civil war ended explicit racism: being black=being inferior—the reaction built Separate but Equal The classic civil rights era ended SbE—the reaction was colorblindness Obama showed CB was soft—The reaction was Trump

Thank you for your courage to publicly address abusive language.

"Moses and Tubman’s dedication to freeing God’s people demonstrates that revival is best understood when justice and worship are combined." sojo.net/articles/opi...

www.project2025.observer/en Oh no, it is well on its way.

Early Morning - Alexandre Jacob (1876–1972) #realism #landscape

I recall telling myself in 2016, all this {family separations at the border, demonizing minorities, bans} would be worth it if during the course of their unrestrained racism, their racism would be laid open and could be treated by society. I didn't reckon on sympathy, denial, and shamelessness.

To give you an example of how conservative christians don't see themselve as they are: they will say they are single issue voters and Jesus never said a word about abortion. He had plenty to say about living as a christian but they don't follow any of that.

George Barna says 97% of conservative evangelicals voted for him in 2020. Exit polls in 2020 said 85% of all self-identifying evangelicals (conservtive & mainline) voted for him. What do they see in him?

Barack Obama and Zohran Mamdani sing ‘Wheels on the Bus’ to kids in NYC

I understand his point, but it misses the secular reality. Moses, the prophets, and Jesus clamped together into one commandment love for God and others. iow, idolatry was not being generous to the widow, orphan, foreigner, poor; generously caring is destroying idols and coming back to God.

@pauldjupe.bsky.social and I have found similar dynamics in our own survey data. The bump in young men's religiosity seems to be related to the embrace by young men of more conservative religious worldviews, not religion broadly speaking. For more, check out: religioninpublic.blog/2025/03/05/t...

Dorothea Lange, Girl with an umbrella, Louisiana, 1937 #WomensArt

Outstanding essay

Just this week the supreme Court sided with oil companies to pollute in Louisiana and mining companies to explore boundary water wilderness. I ask you, what kind of country do you want?? Are we gonna let the rich give us cheap chemically laden lives so they can buy the good stuff?

I listened to the first minute of this, it's not really my concern except in how it intersects with evangelicals bad theology. I stopped at "...entire systems that teach forgiveness over accountability." woah, bingo. Evangelicals have an extensive theology of forgiveness, but not sin/repentance.

Also, in particular, racists shouldn't be "welcomed and respected."

Medical students in Gaza restore one of the oldest libraries after it was bombed by the Israeli occupation.

"I try not to take any foolish chances, but there's just no way to play it completely safe and still do your job." Ernie Pyle

NEW: Porsha Ngumezi and Nevaeh Crain died during miscarriages in Texas after doctors delayed treatment. The state’s medical board has ruled that substandard care led to the deaths, but the doctors were given minimal punishment. By Kavitha Surana and Lizzie Presser

ZOHRAN: “TBH, I don’t think too much about how Republicans portray me. The power of an ideology is judged in the worth of its delivery— to be told a city-run grocery store is implausible but $500 MILLION/day to kill ppl in Iran & Lebanon is necessary speaks to a broken politics.”

I attend a small evangelical church in Connecticut, the pastor one Sunday asked if Jesus was more capitalist or socialist and the more mature christians said 'Capitalist' Taken aback, he asked 'why?' 'because taxes are stealing' Ownership of property, rights, these are hallowed in evangelicalism.

The religion of maga cannot abide decency. It must denigrate it as secular (profane). The president tells the Pope his theology is wrong and to mind his flock. The Church tells the likes of Moore and French they are apostates, RiNO. My college friends tell me to go back to my photography. #Shun

I for one will remember that people who say they share my beliefs did this affecting millions of lives. Stateside too, in terminating subsidies and benefits for women and children. I'm surrounded by Capitalists and white supremacists whose faith means to punish the widow, orphan, foreigner, poor.

I love on multiple levels that Trump called out the Pope's brother as 'a big maga guy, ...a great guy'

I just caught a snippet of our president saying 'he wants the pope to have an opinion but he doesn't have to agree with the pope.' Part two: he said 'the pope's brother is a great guy, a super maga guy, he's got maga all over the house ' Okay then.

In the Religion of Whiteness, biblical authenticity is irrelevant. Whiteness has its own sacred symbols and language which is America First. Don't look for consistency with the Bible cause it ain't there and you'll just be frustrated trying to understand how they make it fit.

You would think self professing "christian nationalists", people who want to institutionalize biblical values would understand that they themselves have religionized politics or politicized religion, actually both. But when your politics & religion are focused on Whiteness, standards don't apply.

Mark Noll in his book The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind writes that after the Civil War, because evangelicals adopted 'Common sense, Tradition, & political activism', where there had been a minister at the head of most major universities and board rooms there were none in one generation. +

Truly remarkable how many people have told the Pope, in some way or another, to "shut up and dribble." Or corrected him on the Bible, despite their thin education on theology. Or told him to stay out of US affairs, despite him being a US citizen. The hubris is amazing.

My theory is that Republican employ Gingrichian mad-libs in inverse proportion to the confidence they have in the popularity of their positions. Using three of more "contrasting words" consecutively is a rhetorical Hail Mary and suggests they know they are unpopular.

A person of influence who criticizes their morality must be smacked. #Must If they were operating from good faith they would ask themselves if maybe they could learn something from it. #NotInterestedInLearning

Wouldn't it be wonderful if society could agree on what is basic human decency. Sweep religious values off the table, and leave kindness. My idea and your idea of kindness may differ but can we agree separating families, sexual assault, killing people is wrong? 85% of evangelicals excuse it. Why?

The simplest definition of fascism is creating a moral basis that supersedes the common moral code of The Golden Rule. Nothing good comes from sidestepping 'treat your neighbor as you'd like to be treated.' Why would you build a moral justification to disobey that? To exploit others.

In SW Connecticut, the growth of forward facing cameras is proportional to the growth of intentional accidents and profitable automatic insurance payouts. Gives new meaning to defensive driving.

JD Vance tells the press, the Pope should be more careful talking about theology. We are all philosophers and theologians. Why do a gay couple wanting to get married need the approval of the Church in America? But the Church can actively hurt others and that has God's blessing?

Pope Francis got shellacked by MAGA for suggesting that christians don't build walls. "Listen Pope, don't you live in a walled city?" Point is, MAGA cannot abide criticism of it's virtues; the greater the influence of the critic, the greater the punch back *has* to be.

We can criticize their spiritual hypocrisy all day and MAGA will be focused on the pushing through each scandal. Or, we can accept that their faith is not christian, and thats why they willingly disagree with the Bible, why their apparent (visible) faith is inhumane. Don't feed them legitimacy.

Ask an evangelical if God is fair, implying if Life should be fair and impartial; and the reaction is somewhere between an uncomfortable no and a scoff.

It is only possible through intentional neglect that the best selling book of all time, which true believers claim is authoritative to understanding the meaning of life; from cover to cover describes acquisitiveness as evil, more than shunned, is however used by them to protect their money & power.

even tho i’m in the middle of a battle to get my own health insurance back this is sending me…. 🤣 i cannot stop lmaoooo

Capitalism places a monetary value on every aspect of life. We're reduced to the wage that never keeps up with the sum of payments to live. And it's "christians" who want to lower and raise the working age, poison us for profit and care for us for a price. signalohio.org/ohio-nursing...

It's actually pretty crazy how evangelicals prefer their Jesus supports Capitalism, so much so, that they'll sooner be silent supporters of racism than say Jesus was socialist. millions of people who say they own nothing that wasn't given them by God, and God commands them to share it, don't do it.

I don't think maga will abandon the Don unless they've got a sure thing in their pocket to replace him. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. iow, this too shall pass.