“.. for those of us who, in our younger years, revered America as a shining city upon a hill, .. this is quite a painful period. “..’America has lost its moral bearings; as a result, it has also lost its moral standing in the world.” @peter-wehner.bsky.social www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

"It’s not so much that we know every ethical line [Christopher] Foyle draws is the exact right one; it’s rather that we know he’s doing the best he can to pursue justice....Foyle’s moral compass can’t be demagnetized." www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

"any number of regimes, though they fall short of the German Reich, act in ways that are morally problematic or even wicked. Collaboration and capitulation—the selling of a soul—take many forms, including in America." www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Here's an example of disordered loves: When there are "large swaths of Christian fundamentalists and evangelicals, men and women who worship Jesus with their lips while giving priority to Trump and the MAGA movement in their heart." www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

The Virtue of Integrity. My latest in @theatlantic.com www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

A peacock showing off its art.

Full Moon captured from space NASA ✨️

"For Trump to get on the wrong side of a MAGA conspiracy is highly unusual, and it explains why, for the first time, his base is upset with him. Trump is on the wrong side of what is, for them, sacred." www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

"Trump has lit the flames of dozens of conspiracy theories during his time in politics...His transgressions, his lawlessness, even his cruelty were vivifying to his supporters. Having created that movement, Trump is discovering there’s no 'off' switch." www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Trump Discovers MAGA Has No ‘Off’ Switch www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

I was grateful to be part of this article and for the excellent work @peter-wehner.bsky.social did on it.

By @peter-wehner.bsky.social, an important article. I like to think that, if Americans knew about PEPFAR, they would support it, and even be proud of it. Not all of them, obviously -- but the great majority. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

An important, compelling, and ultimately damning piece by @peter-wehner.bsky.social. The views Wehner attributes to right-leaning evangelicals regrettably apply to many Catholics as well. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

I just read this article. Great work fr @peter-wehner.bsky.social.

Evangelicals in America "have mostly turned their eyes away from what is happening on the African continent" since Trump slashed PEPFAR, Peter Wehner writes. "They have other things to do. They have culture wars to fight":

In this sobering conversation, @peter-wehner.bsky.social —former Bush advisor and longtime conservative—explains how Trump’s executive orders have effectively dismantled PEPFAR, the lifesaving global AIDS relief program. 🎧 Watch now: youtu.be/Y_srO5k5-Yo

From a week and a half ago: “As of Monday, the model shows, about 96,000 adults and 200,000 children have died because of the administration’s cutbacks to funding for aid groups and support organizations. The overall death count grows by 103 people an hour.” www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

"I found recently in the work of a 17th-century Welsh Catholic writer Augustine Baker a wonderful image: the soul without God, the soul cut off from God, is like a whale stuck in a pond. It longs for the ocean, he said. It can’t be in the depths where it belongs." www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/o...

"But very often the God who’s being attacked and questioned by the Dawkinses and the Graylings and the Pullmans of this world is a God I don’t believe in, either." Rowan Williams in his @nytimes.com with me. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/o...

Rowan Williams is among the most important religious thinkers in the world. I spoke to him about his faith journey; why God allows innocents to suffer; the New Atheists & Dostoyevsky; what makes Jesus a compelling figure & what it means to pastor people through grief. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/o...

Jesus Has ‘More to Say Than Any Human Language Can Carry’: A Q&A With Rowan Williams www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/o...

"We must stand up against the bully in the Oval Office." By John Danforth, a Republican/former Senator who has maintained his principles and integrity. That makes him a rarity these days. www.kansascity.com/opinion/read...

They don’t know what they’re doing. The market-tanking tariffs, the oops-we-screwed-up cuts to nuclear security and infectious disease control, the whoops-did-we-give-the-editor-of-the-Atlantic-our-war-plans episode … and now this. They’re idiots. They don’t know what they’re doing.

This vibrant Hubble image of the globular cluster Terzan 12 shows how interstellar dust in the Milky Way scatters light, reddening the cluster's stars and highlighting the complex interplay between starlight, age, and cosmic dust Spectacular 💫😲💫💙💫✨💫 Credit: NASA, ESA, ESA/Hubble, Roger Cohen (RU)

I had a delightful, wide-ranging conversation with @monacharen.bsky.social on her superb podcast The Mona Charen Show. Among other things, we talked about the modern history of conservatism/the GOP and ways to understand evangelicalism and what's gone terribly wrong.

An exhausting list, but very useful for specifics about which to phone elected officials. @peter-wehner.bsky.social is very matter of fact. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

After the national-security breach on Signal, Trump’s administration “again wants you to believe that two and two make five,” writes Peter Wehner. “When there is no objective truth, when everyone gets to make up their own reality,” authoritarians thrive.

"As disinformation increases, and as more and more individuals and institutions go silent, it becomes ever more important for truth tellers to speak up, if only to assure those who don’t believe the propaganda that they’re not losing their mind." www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Today's Pod: Jeffrey Goldberg on the Houthi Small Group heard round the world. Then @peter-wehner.bsky.social on Trump's revenge tour, how American christians have turned to vice in service to Trump, PEPFAR, the White House's anti-immigrant snuff films & more. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/j...

This is the kind of competence and wisdom that embodies MAGA world; and especially Trump & Company. Only the best... www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

Just found out NIH has officially canceled our grant, a longitudinal study of Alzheimer's disease in Black Americans. I cannot even put into words how angry I am. The truth is they are canceling it because it has Black in the title. That's it, there is no other reason to do this.

"There is an important psychological component to all of this as well. Trump’s vindictiveness—relentless, crude, and capricious—has reshaped the emotional wiring of many otherwise good and decent people." www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

"Jonathan Rauch wrote to me that one thing that’s surprised him is, among Trump’s supporters, 'the sheer energy that’s generated by transgression. The joy of breaking stuff and hurting people. It’s a million-volt battery.'" www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

"There is only one thing I will not concede: that it might be meaningless to strive in a good cause." www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

"the great civic danger posed by Trump: the habits of his heart become the habits of our hearts; his code of conduct becomes ours. That we delight in mistreating others almost as much as he does. That vengeance becomes nearly as important to us as it is to him." www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Amy Grant signs a letter to Congress calling for the preservation of PEPFAR - "Twenty million souls for whom 'America' means generosity, compassion and life."

Worthwhile, detailed analysis. TLDR: 1, low-information, low-propensity voters trend strongly Trump/GOP, which is new; 2, Dems don't know how to reach them; 3, young men are a huge problem for Dems (but you knew that); 4, voters are pissed off at Elon, an opportunity. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/18/o...

The story so far:

Please note that rogue countries, like China, actively monitor and harass dissidents here. This is a trial balloon. If this is OK, there is nothing stopping the Trump admin from handing over “troublemakers” to countries who are “willing to make a deal”

"The roots didn’t go deep, the affections of the heart were not won over. Then the wind came and just blew a lot of it away." Writer @peter-wehner.bsky.social on a lack of "love of Jesus" that led many US Christians to make politics and Trump their religion faithangle.podbean.com/e/jon-rauch-...

I thought this piece was beautifully expressed both through your questions and Professor Wolterstorff’s responses.

A beautiful and hard found faith. Philosophy, death, grief, worldview... creation, resurrection. As good a public witness to actual, lived Christian experience as I've read anywhere.

Thanks @brianzahnd.bsky.social. I'm grateful, too, for your insights into faith and ministry of grace.

Thanks so much @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social. Nick Wolterstorff's life has embodied integrity, grace and a commitment to justice. And he's shown us how to redeem grief. It was said of Frederick Buechner that he was a good steward of his pain. The same is true of Nick.

"You said [your son] Eric’s death belongs 'within my story. I struggle indeed to go beyond merely owning my grief toward owning it redemptively.' What does it mean to own grief redemptively?" www.nytimes.com/2025/03/02/o...

"How important has philosophy been in your journey toward belief in God? Has your mastery of philosophy made your journey to the Christian faith easier or harder or both?" My @nytimes.com interview with the philosopher Nicholas Wolterstorff www.nytimes.com/2025/03/02/o...

"My problem was not with grief with a capital G. My problem was that Eric was dead." My interview with the estimable Christian philosopher Nicholas Wolterstorff www.nytimes.com/2025/03/02/o...

The Deputy Director of the FBI

Vance and Musk "are not just 'trolling the libs'; they are giving their public backing to a movement that represents the core convictions of MAGA world. They see in the AfD an undiluted version of MAGA." www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...