Getting shown up in the arena of elite impunity by *the British monarchy* is an incredible “America at 250!” achievement

It’s going to sound quaint, but the best way to resist an AI takeover of the humanities is to assign physical books, sit around, read them, and argue about ideas. Academic has become such a competitive arena, that we ourselves are trained to look for the winning angle, instead of the best education.

They raided the jailed children to steal their letters. The problem, in federal officials' minds, wasn't confining children in prison-camp conditions; it was that the children could tell the public about it.

One of the scariest, most brazenly authoritarian things MAGA has pursued yet, and that’s saying something.

I watched today's PRRI webinar on the latest Christian nationalism data. All in all, a very good update. But in the Q&A, there was a question about the scriptural arguments used by CN proponents, and I think the panelists really missed that one. prri.org/event/webina...

This has to be in the hall of fame of baby name misdemeanors.

The exchange in this thread is a reminder that my book continues to be relevant. www.cambridge.org/us/universit...

I. AM. SOMEBODY. ✊🏽 Rest in Power, Reverend Jesse Jackson. youtu.be/NTVwT3j_zqY?...

Full on North Korea-Iran-Russian style censorship right here in the US. This is the Trump admin saying ‘no Democrats on TV’ & the Ellison’s & Bari Weiss saying sounds good to us. Truly terrifying times. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/17/a...

This is so embarrassing. A conscientious decision to withdraw from something is absolutely not "failing to prepare," it's a choice to not participate, and anyone who can't tell the difference should not have a job in writing or editing. Such as being a newspaper editor.

Fascinating article.

New Substack article: My response to Una Caro, the Vatican's doctrinal note in praise of monogamy and against polyamory. I don't expect to convince many Catholics, but I do hope mainline Protestants seize the opportunity to rethink their sexual ethics. open.substack.com/pub/polytheo...

Wheaton College (IL) did a comprehensive review of its Community Covenant for the first time since 2003 (when I was a student) and they fully reaffirmed its myopic, heteronormative, mononormative position—which they wrongly call “historic, biblical ethics.” www.wheaton.edu/about-wheato...

I have the perfect book for people to read. kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700638574/

Transgender bathroom ban bills are now expanding to private businesses. First, Kansas bill creates bathroom bounty hunters that could target trans people in any business. Now, Idaho is hearing a bill today that lets you sue a private business if it lets trans people pee. Our latest story.

My new book was offically approved this past week for publication with Fordham University Press. The official title is now Poly Theology: In Praise of Unnatural Love. I'm launching a new free substack where I'll post about #polytheology and related topics. polytheology.substack.com/p/announcing...

So good

The Platonic form of reactionary centrism.

Glad this is getting covered, but also… Completely surreal to read the NYT report on this as recently disclosed info, and just an allegation. This happened to every observer I know! It happened to me twice! I have it on video both times! www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/u...

I can't believe what just happened. That was shocking from Malinin.

This is all true, but as someone who studies postliberal theology and its deleterious political consequences—Rod Dreher is extremely interesting.

rod dreher is not that interesting. he is a guy very clearly filled with self hatred tied to repressed feelings related to his gender and sexuality, and rather than deal with them, he blames “modernity” and “secularism” for why he’s unhappy. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

America literally starving kids in Africa to keep this man alive It's a trolley problem with psychopaths at the switch

Makes an editor’s heart swoon

this is comically evil. brazenly anti-social. just absolute black-pilled nihilism. we will not have a republic, we will not be free, until we regulate these companies to the point where — at a bare minimum — they're too afraid to put stuff like this down on paper. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/t...

I saw an early version of this and I’m excited to read the published book.

honestly tired of trying to convince people that trump's immigration policy is not really about violent undocumented immigrants or even just undocumented immigrants, but immigrants in general and even non-white people more broadly.

I love this piece by Michelle Zauner. I sometimes feel compelled to hide my love for DFW's writings, which have informed me as much as the writings of Rudolf Bultmann or Denise Levertov or R. S. Thomas, but I return to them time and again. www.theguardian.com/books/2026/f...

This is great work. A real service to the public.

I talk about NSPM 7 on day 1 of my class and try to go back to it as often as I can.

this is a level of complicity that had not occurred to me

We have drafts?? Oh we are so back.

That the illegal destruction of USAID will kill more than *20 million people* in the next five years, & has ALREADY KILLED 600,000 in just one year, is a world-historical crime that Americans aren't being told about in the terms & with the repetition necessary for them to believe it.

Kansas should be more honest and call this the Kansas Republicans Signaling to Trump That They’re Still Loyal Day. www.ksn.com/news/capitol...

Legal judo

As Sir Ian taught us, such mountainish inhumanity.

What a curling game! That was intense drama.

This is what we’re doing to people. We are the bad guys.

Ten years ago today, #SCOTUS issued five unsigned and unexplained 5-4 rulings granting emergency applications to block President Obama’s Clean Power Plan—a completely unprecedented move that helped to usher in the Court’s modern … (mis)adventures … with its shadow docket. Me in today’s “One First”:

The Yorgos Lanthimos-directed commercial transition right into the Minions teaser. Cinema!

The Testament of Ann Lee was so good—like it was lab-engineered for me personally. The soundtrack alone is incredible.

As an editor, reading this infuriates me.

Every young person sentence online reads like this to me now: "Bro entered low-stim flow state doing a 10 min grocery rotation and got mogged by a friendly neighborhood cat 💀 Is proximity-maxxing essentials while touch-grass-pilled more optimal than suburb-meta carbrained bulk errands?"

Or in my case, I adjunct because my main job doesn’t pay enough.

An excellent response to Reno’s FT article by @dwcongdon.com.

Over at my substack, I've written a long response to Rusty Reno's essay in FT about my recent Journal of Religion article. We agree on my claim that postliberal theology paved the way for today's postliberalism. But we disagree on everything else. open.substack.com/pub/dwcongdo...

NYT confirming MS NOW reporting: Prosecutors began investigating Renee Good's killing, then Washington told them to stop. Federal prosecutors had a warrant to collect evidence from Good's vehicle, but Trump leaders said to drop it. About a dozen prosecutors have since departed.

Trump’s administration is racially profiling people for the purposes of what it claims to be “immigration enforcement,” and federal agents have murdered people. They’re setting up camps. Like, yeah, the tweet was racist, but if that’s the line you draw—really? www.axios.com/2026/02/06/r...

1. In Washington yesterday, at the National Prayer Breakfast, the president actually took credit for the Bible being a bestseller. “In 2025, more copies of the Holy Bible were sold in the United States than at any time in the last 100 years,” Donald Trump said.