I keep coming back to this after having done research on really big evangelical churches—I think the best way to describe one of the *most common* approaches to biblical interpretation among evangelicals is allegory. The Bible is a collection of stories you allegorize to one’s personal narrative

@dawsonvosburg.bsky.social it's happening again

occasionally I forgot that they hired Jeanine Pirro as a US attorney. I think this means we should expect and demand the next dem administration hire Devin Legal Eagle and Peter Law Boy

even this many years in, even with a decade of naked deceitfulness and obvious lies, it is still just so shocking to hear people with this much power say things that are 180 degrees backwards and that they absolutely know are the precise opposite of reality

One thing I am sincerely, extremely grateful for as a Bluesky user is that I have not seen the video just “come across my feed.” I’ve heard so many Twitter users that it was unavoidable there, and that was my past experience with videos of horrific national-news violence.

Eternal God, in your realm no sword is drawn but the sword of righteousness, & there's no strength but the strength of love. So mightily spread abroad your Spirit, that all peoples may be gathered to the banner of the Prince of Peace, as your children; to you be dominion & glory, now & forever. Amen

I just want to reiterate that we weren't doing "whataboutism" when we said it was the right and not the left endangering free speech on campus. There was zero misconduct here. A professor *and her dean* fired for 1A-protected speech a student said went against "the president's laws."

Religious non-profits need to sue - this is a requirement to discriminate in the provision of aid. And if they cannot stop this policy, they should forego government grant money rather than agree to turn away people in need because the government disfavors them

JAMES 5 MENTIONED! (I just can never not post this given an opportunity)

I am very excited to see everyone posting about Tailor Swift. I too am into Well-Tailored safety net policies Swiftly implemented due to enhanced state capacity.

really looking for more of a mammon vibe

When institutions depend on wealthy people for status and resources, they have an incentive to let those wealthy people get away with breaking the rules. I've seen this in my research on schooling, and I'm grateful for @dawsonvosburg.bsky.social's work showing similar patterns in churches.

"rich shaming"

The real crisis in reading is not "tiktoks are more entertaining than books" it's "inconvenient texts are read to mean their opposite" (see also the US constitution)

New from me in @jssreligion.bsky.social: Evangelicals justify economic inequality more than the overall population. So what are preachers saying about Bible passages that might cut against inequality? They just insist those passages don't really say inequality is bad. doi.org/10.1111/jssr...

what’s so galling is that *this* is their venerated savior, *this* is who they’re building a cult of personality around, *this* is who we’re sacrificing everything for

Everyone is focusing on the diction when to me, the significant thing is that Lincoln is correctly noting the American people did a wrong and needed to atone, something which is simply not allowed in today’s political/media environment.

there is no totem pole, no hierarchy, no presidents, or kings in God's kingdom. there is only the endless ocean of God's grace by which all things are possible and through which earthly powers will be overthrown for a new world where the last shall be first and the meek shall inherit the earth.

For most of the last decade, our media and political class has panicked over the idea that progressives were intruding on free speech rights by loudly criticizing people with unpopular views. Anyway, here's far-right federal paramilitaries advertising that they'll rip down pro-immigrant messages.

“I asked ChatGPT” is my least favorite sentence starter of the millennium and it’s not even close.

in my experience the genuine use cases for these sort of models is removing tedium from procedures within existing workflows or as an accessibility tool. quality transcription is amazing in my line of work and I really like to listen to academic articles that will never have a human audio recording

it’s pretty puzzling how common the belief “well we’re not the owners of our stuff, everything belongs to God and we are merely it’s caretakers” is among American Christians. it seems like this should lead to profoundly egalitarian and flexible conclusions about property but it largely does not

two factors that greatly improve the experience of any soda beverage to me are drinking from an aluminum can and a temperature about one degree above ice flake formation

imo if you have a john brown profile picture and username you shouldn’t complain about how religion is bad for progressive politics

I don’t know how to explain to people that if somebody is earnestly working towards ends you think are good for reasons you think are stupid, that person is your ally

*man standing up at town meeting* I like to look at big solar farms actually. They make me happy when I see them

Zohran Mamdani’s Senior Portraits Revealed

there really is a reason they call it “reddit atheism”

yeah I love to increase SHAREholder value: “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they SHARED everything they had.” (Acts 4:32, NIV)

What's a book, or series of books, you loved as a kid that almost nobody seems to read or remember these days?

A liberal should be someone who does the right thing because it is right and stands up to bullies and abusers. The type of liberalism that America has suffered with for decades now has been a craven exercise in soulless hedging and cowardice

I’m kind of surprised this hasn’t been mentioned but that’s literally how Christians came to be called Christians, it was a term of derision that meant “little Christ!” Ultimately tangential but it’s funny that this literally did happen

A lot of liberal intellectuals seem convinced that you can have the social structures of organized religion without any of the infrastructure of belief, and it always strikes me as wildly condescending.

wow if only anyone had thought to write down what Jesus thought about the treatment of foreigners or prisoners. ah well, I guess we'll never know.

(He will swallow up death in victory)

he has a point about having way more experience, very few dems as senior with regard to graft and malpractice as Cuomo

one big reason beltway journalists shouldn’t buy white house spin about los angeles is that the actual public opinion info we have doesn’t suggest the president has a winning hand here

the “sin of empathy” is actually true but we don’t care too much about people who are suffering, we’re too empathetic toward holding unhinged beliefs with disastrous political consequences

i think it is bad that high level public officials do not respect the offices they hold or the public they are supposed to serve

Where are the urbanists who talk about baby changing table infrastructure? Because I have thoughts.

I don't think killing two Israeli embassy staffers helps to free Palestine, no. Thanks for a great question

No Tax on Tips is a very strange policy in that it wildly distorts the labor market in ways that don't make sense. Servers and bartenders should absolutely get paid more, obviously, but why are they preferred over janitors, dishwashers, retail workers, ect?

“you should have a choice” means “we get to choose for you”

*me during the obama era* is there really a hell? well you could call me a hopeful universalist, *me during the trump ii era* look some people are actively choosing eternal fire

I’m in the uniquely american situation where I desperately want a non-car-dependent society and I also love costco

from what I can tell I don’t find anything objectionable policy wise in the abundance stuff, I just feel really troubled by the “stop trying to do distributive equality” frame they’re trying to stuff it in. no, we really should do distributive equality!