Fuck it, Zordon Mamdani

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...

‘Covid ‘only’ kills the sick the old and the vulnerable’ presented as a net positive is not restricted to RFK jr. And I’m sure I will be unpopular for pointing that out.

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...

I recently interviewed Kieffer over this book.

Great interview! I think that the conversation around building trust between public health professionals and anti-vaxxers is really important. Vaccine hesitancy is also a really big public health issue facing religious homeschooling communities.

🧵

Thanks, @religionmag.bsky.social, for publishing my interview with religious studies scholar Kira Kieffer over her new book _Unvaccinated Under God: Religion and Vaccine Hesitancy in Modern America_.

@mollymkruse.bsky.social, it’s that thing we talked about.

Lots of wild stuff here, but the one that blew my mind is how much ministries like World Vision pay a band for each person who signs up as a sponsor at one of the concerts.

Check out this research brief that I wrote!

In totally unsurprising news, Richard Dawkins is developing AI psychosis. Paywall bypass: archive.is/6RdK9

Thank you, Donald Trump!!! What would we ever do without your stable genius?

Mr. Small, Dark, and Handsome

Gender-affirming AI

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...

"A shocking percentage of the AI industry is just people who decided they didn't want to work with Sam Altman and who now have their own companies." - @caseynewton.bsky.social

Without any prompting at all, that Will.I.Am song from Madagascar played in my head

"Technology is not a third space." - @karaswisher.bsky.social

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.

Funny how that works. 🤔🫤🤨🙂‍↔️

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...

"No one loves RFK more than measles." - @profgalloway.com

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...

Omg Kenneth I just saw this (see how long it took me to log back in to Bluesky...) Thank you!!

Sounds like a good platform

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.

This is why I won’t use AI for emotional support . . .

I just watched the first episode of @karaswisher.bsky.social Wants to Live Forever. It was both informative and well done!

I love that LIVE LAUGH LOVE is coming out with the same publisher as JESUS AND JOHN WAYNE. A complementary pair. 😏

“…The German community…had nothing to do except not to interfere. Absolutely nothing was expected of them except to go on as they had, paying their taxes, reading their local paper, & listening to the radio.” Reading German history in 2026 America hits different. open.substack.com/pub/kristind...

Researchers at Stanford University modeled how many people could die or be disabled in 25 years if vaccines for polio, measles, rubella or diphtheria were no longer available. We decided to illustrate it.

Last night, I made banana nut breakfast bars. Thanks, @nytimes.com, for the recipe!

You probably think he’s just a pretty-boy Fox News host promoted far beyond his skills and experience. But I’m here to tell you that Pete Hegseth is a man of great courage. And nope, not April Fools. open.substack.com/pub/kristind...

I went to Hobby Lobby with mother yesterday and saw this picture. Does it look AI-generated to you?

@karaswisher.bsky.social had this great conversation with Tristan Harris about the potential harms AI could bring to humanity (namely in labor and politics) and how to mitigate them. Harris also discusses how the incentives and ideas driving the major players in the AI space are "anti-human."

Last day for Barnes & Noble members to get 25% off preorders of my book (among others) with the code PREORDER25! www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-edge-o...

Some enterprising grad student looking for a thesis or dissertation idea could use these data for all kinds of analyses about the connection between religious radio stations in a given area and [crime, health outcomes, voting behavior, etc]. www.pewresearch.org/data-labs/20...

The age distance between me and my students used to mean they wouldn’t get my older movie references. Now it means they won’t get ANY movie reference because they don’t watch movies. Just scrolling TikTok reels.

the human body was not designed to know what the worst person in the world is doing every fifteen minutes

If you look closely, you’ll find a preorder link up for my next book, LIVE LAUGH LOVE. We’ll have a cover posted soon…

Yesterday Elon Musk retweeted "white solidarity is the only way to survive". In our numb overwhelmed media environment it barely made headlines that the world's richest man endorsed blood-curdling white nationalism. My brief writeup for @religiondispatches.org religiondispatches.org/elon-musk-ju...

I saw Hail Mary on IMAX and it was amazing!

My book is available for pre-order. Use coupon code E26CRLLO to save 30% when you order from @dukepress.bsky.social dukeupress.edu/the-business...

at least ghosts won't harvest my data for the surveillance state 🤷🏾‍♂️

its all so odd--its like a ransom video

Hadn’t posted on this yet but I’m thrilled to spend the 2026-2027 academic year at the @russellsagefdn.bsky.social in NYC. I’ll be working on a new book explaining how culture-warring Christianity promotes economic inequality. You can read a little about it here: www.russellsage.org/fellows/samu...

"America’s slide into authoritarianism is reversible. But no one has ever defeated autocracy from the sidelines." —Steven Levitsky, Lucan Way, and Daniel Ziblatt.

I wonder what Neuhaus would think. 🤔

Robert O. Paxton foretelling what American-style fascism would look like.