“An entire mythology is stored within our language.” - Wittgenstein, Remarks on Frazer’s 'Golden Bough'

“@drrachelwagner.bsky.social names two foundational influences behind this cowboy messiah ideology: Christian apocalypticism and American frontier mythology.” – @amarpeterman.bsky.social reviews Cowboy Apocalypse www.christiancentury.org/books/self-a... @nyupress.bsky.social

Today is a great day to unlearn the kind of Christian "love" that only serves to justify hatred, exclusion, and othering.

I can't excerpt this entire article so I am imploring you to read it. @amarpeterman.bsky.social takes a complicated Q of how those on the left should respond to Trump's flip-flop on Epstein Files and flips it into a careful, thoughtful, analysis and explanation. I am floored by Amar's work.

It was a joy to talk with Karen Swallow Prior about her latest book "You Have a Calling." Whether you're discerning your own vocation or wrestling with the pressures of productivity, Karen offers a rich, unhurried reflection on what it means to be called. amardpeterman.substack.com/p/you-have-a...

Pre-orders for my first book, "Becoming Neighbors: The Common Good Made Local," are now available! At the heart of this book is a simple but critical question: How will we live? I believe the answer for Christians is clear: We live as neighbors. www.eerdmans.com/978080288412...

"May we learn that living things do not live just for us, that they live for themselves and for you, and that they love the sweetness of life as much as we do, and serve you, in their place, better than we do in ours." - Walter Rauschenbusch, _Prayers of the Social Awakening_

"If our most powerful elites are now essentially beyond the reach of accountability, as they increasingly seem to be, then why suppose that our polity qualifies as a democratic republic at all? It appears to function, rather, as a plutocracy." - Jeff Stout, _Blessed are the Organized_, xv.

I’ve had enough of “Christians” who claim to follow the teachings of Jesus…but would fail to recognize Jesus if he stood at the southern border, at the grocery store with an EBT card, or in the hospital waiting room without health insurance. amardpeterman.substack.com/p/how-to-cel...

No matter what you believe politically or theologically about the LGBTQ+ community, the elimination of this lifeline should infuriate all of us. It is discrimination. It is fearmongering. It is homophobia. It is hate. It is polarized partisanship. It is death-dealing action.

It's official! "For Such a Time as This: An Emergency Devotional" is coming out late summer with @eerdmansbooks.bsky.social #EmergencyDevotional www.eerdmans.com/978080288592...

In response to the deeply disordered quest for control, Christian leaders must...choose the path of neighbor-love. This doesn’t mean that we abandon our society’s common life. Rather, we must reimagine what this common life might look like. -- My latest in @sojo.net: sojo.net/magazine/jun...

“When faith fades, the gun steps in.” Rachel Wagner _ Cowboy Apocalypse: Religion and the Myth of the Vigilante Messiah_

To live in constant prayer, to lead a contemplative life, is nothing else than to live in the actual presence of God. … To exist at all, to be a human being, to be this particular human being, is only possible because of this Presence. - Abhishiktananda, _Prayer_.

I would say, for the moment, that community, at least community larger than the immediate family, consists very largely of imaginative love for people we do not know or whom we know very slightly. - Marilynne Robinson

Truly such an incredible two days back in Green Bay — first, to meet @andyhermannfl.bsky.social and hear him talk football for 2 hours, and second, to see this city come alive in mid April for this once-in-a-lifetime event. #GoPackGo

What do we have that we have not received? All we have is given to us by God. Our breath, our bodies, our souls, our thoughts. All of reality—all we experience—teaches us our utter dependence on the Lord Jesus, not our autonomy from him. This dependence is not a curse.

Holy Saturday:

For the one who exploits, profits dishonestly, manipulates, fosters division, and prioritizes themselves over the whole, the cross reminds us that there is judgment. — sojo.net/articles/goo....

Holy Week: A tenuous, tenacious discipline of memory and hope. To follow Christ’s command—“Do this in remembrance of me”—is to take up this discipline in thought, word, and deed.

Incredibly honored and excited to share that I’ll be heading to the University of Chicago this Fall to begin my PhD at the Divinity School! I’m thankful for the many folks who’ve supported me over the past decade of learning and who made this opportunity possible.

brb going to go drown in @boniverwi.bsky.social's SABLE, fABLE all weekend. see you monday.

Not even half way through the first episode of the new #blackmirror season and everything hurts.

The practice of Lenten fasting stands in radical contrast to synthetic faith. Like the compost pile, fasting produces a living spiritual nourishment that is grown in the depths of our souls. amardpeterman.substack.com/p/fasting-an...

God does not brush by the ordinary aspects of our life. God treats the ordinary—the bread and wine, the birds and the lilies, the mustard seed and river water—as sacred. Link in thread.

I've long been looking forward to this read: Munther Isaac _Christ in the Rubble: Faith, the Bible, and the Genocide in Gaza_

In an us-versus-them culture, it is easy to picture ourselves on the right side of history. By simply not siding with “them,” we’ve done our duty as good citizens and neighbors. But democracy—and, dare I say, faith—call us to do so much more than this. amardpeterman.substack.com/p/good-trouble

Scenes from the 329 Hiawatha 🚅

Jesus is able to remain grounded in chaotic moments when no one else can because he possesses a moral imagination that can perceive the bigger picture. amardpeterman.substack.com/p/moral-imag...

Preaching for the first time in several years this evening. If you’re a praying kind of person, please pray for me, saints. 🙏🏾

Incredible to see this one in print! It was an honor to contribute this essay to a book about one of my favorite TV shows. Thanks to Daniel Cameron for the opportunity to write!

The invitation is not to focus on our inadequacies but on God's gift of grace and love which transforms our hearts and minds. That gift is given to us again, here and now. Be encouraged. Amen. - Ann Siddall, in Lent to Easter liturgies: Year C

I got two more questions Can I use your ashtray? How then shall we function Any given Wednesday? You could paint with charcoal Every Tuesday's fatter If you ain't got love though Does it even matter? - "Mattering Ram," Penny and Sparrow open.spotify.com/playlist/7a1...

The revolution that Kendrick televised is one of liberation and love told and celebrated through art. In both poetry and performance, K-Dot tells the story of a nation built and united by the struggle for freedom and invites us to sing and dance along. amardpeterman.substack.com/p/kendrick-t...

“These days I am impatient with poetry that is not steeped in, marred and transfigured by, the world.“

Loved writing this one a few years ago:

Amidst death and destruction, genocide and imperial expansion, deportation and the utter rejection of compassion, oligarchy and tyranny, Sieg Heil and the stench of death and dying, blow after blow; I ask: Where is God? amardpeterman.substack.com/p/where-is-g...

“What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?” “The one who treated him kindly,” the religion scholar responded. Jesus said, “Go and do the same.” — Luke 10:36-37 (The Message)

Why are Christians on my timeline more eager to cite lines of the Constitution that justify deporting undocumented immigrants than Bible verses instructing us to love and serve them?

This is why the language we use matters. When we dehumanize undocumented immigrants by reducing them to their legal status, it isn’t a far stretch to pass legislation that makes them criminals. The consequences are devastating. www.axios.com/2025/01/28/t...

What changed my mind about the Black Lives Matter movement was a personal reckoning with my own ethnicity and experience of racism in the United States. My 2022 piece in @sojo.net: sojo.net/articles/how...

“Slowly, we learn to accept that we don't need to dominate and displace others to feel safe. Nonviolence is our planetary future.” - Andrew DeCort, “Blessed Are the Others”

Refering to human beings as “illegals” is inherently and horrifically dehumanizing.

Love thy neighbor, saints.

It is only Friday...but it feels as though an eternity has passed since Monday afternoon.

Maybe it was always about power and control. Maybe it was never about Jesus or following in his kenotic, humble example of sacrifice and service. And at the same time… amardpeterman.substack.com/p/let-me-mak...

When did a pastor calling for those in power to be merciful and compassionate to the powerless become “progressive?” When did calls to mercy and love become “liberal?” When did loving our neighbor and carrying one another’s burdens become partisan?

Maybe the wolf in sheep's clothing was never the drag queen or queer pastor but the Christian who claims to follow Christ but rejects his teachings as "liberal talking points." [Photo from an NPR interview with Russell Moore)

Episcopal Bishop of Washington Mariann Budde is openly criticizing Trump's policies in her inaugural prayer service sermon right now. Says: “There are gay, lesbian and transgender children …who fear for their lives" and “Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger.”

What do we do when the reality of death feels so near? We plant dates. amardpeterman.substack.com/p/so-let-us-...