The Pope and King Charles praying together as the Anglicans split and American Catholics panic over kindness to immigrants. Welcome to The Fourth Reformation. More about that at @bloomsburyacad.bsky.social hopefully soon-ish (as these things go!)

My talk on Anglican-Orthodox Ecumenical dialogue in the context of culture wars last week at IOCS, The Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies - Cambridge--with the added bonus the Zoom only recorded the PowerPoint so you don't have to look at me! www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QIc...

A book review par moi @publicseminar.bsky.social of an important novel by Sergey Khazov-Cassia, now available in English: publicseminar.org/2025/10/the-...

Tomorrow I’ll be talking about Anglican and Orthodox relations and how the culture wars are reshaping ecumenical dialogue. It’s a wild and revealing moment for both the Orthodox Church and the Anglican Communion. Come join the conversation. It's online. Join us! tinyurl.com/yc7td93w

Me @newrepublic.com on Pope Leo, Liberation Theology, and the future of American Catholicism: newrepublic.com/article/2016...

Watch Erik Bruhn here. Something we don’t talk about nearly enough is how ballet, then in the midst of a profound creative renaissance in the mid-20th century, was utterly devastated by HIV/AIDS. www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kRq...

Τον αγαπώ. Και ό,τι λάθος κι αν έχει κάνει, ελπίζω να γίνει Πρωθυπουργός μια μέρα. Τώρα κοροϊδέψτε με όσο θέλετε. www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYb0... #ΕλληνικήΠολιτική

This news via @religionnews.com.web.brid.gy is very troubling to me. A thread: religionnews.com/2025/09/25/n...

At @theunpopulist.net, @jonrauch.bsky.social's superb review of Bill Galston's new "masterpiece" insists that the fault, Dear Brutus, is not in liberalism if the American experiment is in trouble, it's in us that we are such underlings. You'll want to read it. www.theunpopulist.net/p/why-is-the...

Me @vox.com on why the making of matrys matters: www.vox.com/politics/462... #CharlieKirk

When the history books are written, Trump’s disgraceful speech at the UN General Assembly today will stand as a turning point in the fall of the American empire. It should be a warning to Americans across the political spectrum: the age of U.S. dominance is over and very possibly U.S. democracy.

Poland, Estonia, Moldova (not a NATO member, but a "partner for peace"): Make no mistake, Russia is testing the tolerance and resolve of NATO and of Europe. And as a rule, you do not give authoritarians an inch. Not one.

Me @foreignpolicy.com foreignpolicy.com/2025/09/19/r.... #Russia

Not really an overstatement to say that the test of a free society is whether or not comedians can make fun of the country's leader on TV without repurcussions.

Me @salon.com on the Debate Me Bros and public discourse. #Debate www.salon.com/2025/09/17/h...

Trey Reed did not bruise his own body and break his own legs. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Web0...

Everything else aside, Farage is just statistically wrong here. Gay male couples have the lowest divorce rates. Those are just the facts. www.cbs.nl/en-gb/news/2...

Young men are being radicalized, and the whole "Debate Me Bro" culture is a major gateway to that. Much worse, the grown ups are confusing these "debates" with civil discourse. And that's a problem. Debate Me Bro culture is to civil discourse what porn is to sex.

I think one of the ways the 20th century broke our brains is by making us think that everyone is in possession of a coherent ideology and that ideology governs and explains their private and public behavior perfectly. That’s just not true.

It's ONLINE so everyone can come here me talk about the history of Anglican-Orthodox relations and how we can save one of Christianity's oldest ecumenical relationships from the grim of the Culture Wars! You know you want to! Here's the Zoom link: us02web.zoom.us/j/84484872981 #EcumenicalDialogue

Apropos of nothing: Mormon history is American history. You can't understand America if you don't understand Mormonism.

Insomnia thoughts: Isn’t it strange and telling of how race shapes our thinking that Willa Cather is hailed for writing “America’s greatest Catholic novels” even though she wasn’t Catholic, while we rarely talk about Toni Morrison’s novels as Catholic even though she was? #Books

Charlie Kirk’s oldest child just turned 3. I don’t want to live in the world he envisions, but I also don’t want to live in a world where people gloat over a father of two toddlers being in mortal peril.

Russia is attacking Poland. Israel is attacking Doha. This is possible only because the United States has grown weak and has, in effect, “switched sides”—no longer defending a liberal, rules-based world order. The question every American must now face is simple: which side are you on?

At what point do we start asking if it is safe—or ethical—to host international academic conferences in the U.S.?

It's impossible to talk about the events in Burkina Faso w/out Russian neocolonialism in Africa. The fact that this is being completely overlooked is concerning. What is happening there, particularly gender and sexual minorities, it’s not evidence of decolonization, but of a recolonization.

If your reading list is made up entirely (or almost entirely) of white authors, Anglophone authors,, straight authors , or (goodness gracious) American authors, please spare us. Even (or perhaps especially) if the majority of those writers on your list are women. #Books

You should be following the International Association of Byzantine Studies, BlueSky account at @aieb-byzantium.bsky.social #Medievalist

This is your reminder that the Episcopal Church, the Quakers, and the Jesuits all have robust and healthy school systems in the United States. Schools like these will be getting my end-of-year donations and I encourage you to invest in them too. 🧵

Ποιοι είναι οι αγαπημένοι σας συγγραφείς με προσφυγικό ή μεταναστευτικό υπόβαθρο που γράφουν στην Ελλάδα σήμερα; Και ποιοι queer συγγραφείς ξεχωρίζουν; Θέλω να αναδείξω φωνές από το περιθώριο και να τις μοιραστώ με την ελληνική διασπορά και τον κόσμο #Βιβλια

Me in @theguardian.com about why the liberal arts can save the Republic www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... #Smithsonian

Elizabeth Gilbert's chief cultural contribution has been popularizing a version of womanhood that is shallow, needy, and selfish, cloaking itself in the guise of “spiritually evolving.”

I taught a class on King Otto tonight, and it drove home something I keep coming back to: a postcolonial framework is the only one that makes Greek history make sense. We avoid it for many reasons, but it’s the framework that works.

We did not put John Bolton’s name in the headline for a reason. It’s not about him, per se; it’s about the numerous people who Trump wants the government to destroy because they hurt Trump’s feelings www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

I grew up in Colorado in the 1990s, during the era of Amendment 2, when Focus on the Familycontrolled the state’s political & cultural life. James Dobson was one of the villains of my childhood. I don’t know if I have anything to say right now that would be appropriate for a Christian and a lady™.

Me at @pbsnews.org about religion in Ukraine: www.youtube.com/watch?v=A95E...

One of the worst things Calvinism & Evangelicalism did was erase Mary, the Holy Mother, from Christian devotion. Luther and Cranmer never did that. This harsh, misogynistic & cruel form of Christianity dominates the US today & its influence is all over America’s current cultural and political chaos.

I’m not a theologian, but if I were my entire project at this point would be to problematize monogamous heterosexual marriage in the Christian context. Because honestly, that seems like the least Christian domestic arrangement possible.

Anti-clericalism (which is common in the U.S.) baffles me. Some of the coolest people I know are priests. It feels like 1 more thing Evangelicalism ruined in America The megachurch pastor is probably a creep 99% of the time, but have you ever played D&D with a Jesuit? Because that shit is FUN!

Her mother is an Episcopal priest in an immigrant focused ministry, the Episcopal Church has been outspoke in criticism of the Trump administration which wants to silence dissent from religious communities, we should seriously consider she was targated for those reasons. tinyurl.com/4e6954ta

I’m not usually one of those “God laid it on my heart” people, but something’s been weighing on me, and I need to say it. This admin has done a lot to enrage me. But the treatment of immigrants has made me physically sick. 🧵

Andy Hernandez was raped in Trump’s El Salvadoran concentration camp. If you care about the prevention and prosecution of sexual violence and aren’t just using it as a political too, you should get very loud about this.

This is a highly condensed, popular-audience version of my argument that the clergy sex abuse moral panic persists largely because it offers nice, progressive people a socially acceptable way to be homophobic and anti-religion at the same time: religionnews.com/2025/07/24/a...

Just a reminder for American parents: The Episcopal Church and the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) have long offered strong, values-based education options across the U.S. In some areas, ELCA (progressive Lutherans) schools are also a great choice. 🧵

A lot of people are asking why women are leaving the Church, why men want a more “masculine” Christianity, and whether there’s room for queer people at all. Here’s a historical hot take I’ve been working on that might reframe all of that. 🧵

This. Not only odd and completely out of line, but borderline terrifying. I forget that there are plenty of people rejoicing in the US's descent into authoritarianism.

I have some thoughts about MAGA and #FamilyValues @thenewrepublic.bsky.social newrepublic.com/article/1970...

Purchased

Me @vox.com on the MAGA Fertility Cult: www.vox.com/politics/416...

Watching fellow straight white ladies get riled up over Pride Month always leaves me with the same sick, "Oh, sweetie… he doesn’t just hate them. He hates you too" feeling.