My apologies for the visual. ICE agent exposes himself to the crowd and then gives them a finger.

My column today is about how spiritual language is used to bend reality in the #ChurchToo arena. But it's also relevant to understanding the reality-bending effect when spiritual language is used for political ends. Thx to @wademullen.bsky.social. christabrown.substack.com/p/how-realit...

"No application of armed violence can make the men with guns as heroic as the people who choose to stand in their path with empty hands in defense of their neighbors." - @adamserwer.bsky.social www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

"I am 5 years old. Let us go."

Acting ICE director Todd Lyons is ordered to appear IN PERSON & face contempt. "The Court acknowledges that ordering the head of a federal agency to personally appear is an extraordinary step, but the extent of ICE's violations of court orders is likewise extraordinary."

White evangelicals claim they're about sharing the love of Jesus, but many of us have seen up close what they really mean by that. And it dang sure ain't about "love." #ThisistheSBC and more.

Good NYT headline: "The Trump administration is lying to our faces." And this: They "are lying in defiance of obvious truths. They are lying in the manner of authoritarian regimes that require people to accept lies as a demonstration of power."

The Minnesota v. Noem hearing is beginning before Judge Katherine Menendez. Minnesota, Minneapolis, and St. Paul are seeking a TRO today to stop Operation Metro Surge.

"Elected Republicans could stop this tonight if they wanted to... Sixteen people could stop this." - @hcrichardson.bsky.social

“I don’t care how much they scream. I don’t care how much they cry... I don’t care... I want MY country back... whatever it takes." This is a leader within the Southern Baptist Convention. He's cheering on the violence. Never forget. They championed this. #ThisistheSBC

“Elected Republicans could stop this TONIGHT … if they wanted to. … Sixteen Republicans could vote to join Dems and put a stop to this right now.” - @hcrichardson.bsky.social baptistnews.com/article/kris...

"The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." (Video: @dropsitenews.com )

“I don’t care how much they scream. I don’t care how much they cry... I don’t care... I want MY country back... whatever it takes." This is a leader within the Southern Baptist Convention. He's cheering on the violence. Never forget. They championed this. #ThisistheSBC

Courts are working overtime to try to deal with the lawlessness of ICE & federal authorities. E.g. this case in which they detained a chronically ill 70-yr-old woman for months without sufficient medical care, and then admitted in court that they had no argument to even try to justify their actions.

Alex Pretti was an American hero. He saved lives. He protected people. He cared deeply about his community, unlike the murderous thugs who killed him. The very last thing he did was try to help a woman who had been pepper-sprayed and violently shoved to the ground by ICE. 1/

The very fact that this order was needed shows how lawless this regime is. I'm grateful to the attorneys who pursued and obtained this order at breakneck speed on the very day of the shooting. Well-done.

The ordinary citizens of Minnesota are American heroes.

Van Hollen: "They really think the American people are stupid. I mean, we can all see the video. We saw the video with Renee Good. We saw the video with Alex Pretti. The real domestic terrorists are in the White House right now."

Pam Bondi just sent a letter to Minnesota officials saying ICE will leave if the state turns over its voter database to Trump. Guess what? This has never been about safety or immigration. It’s a pretext for Trump to take over elections in swing states.

You have to read this. Firsthand affidavit from one of the women who was there and recording the video. She talks about how Alex Pretti was directing traffic when she arrived. She watched him be killed in front of her. She's afraid to go home, worried she'll be arrested.

I’m attaching photos of the affidavit from the woman who filmed and witnessed Nurse Pretti’s murder as it unfolded before her. Brave woman. #MNIceout #Minneapolis #Minnesota #ICEoutforgood #Pretti

"The US Department of Justice has slashed funding & training resources for law enforcement working on investigations & prosecutions of sex crimes against children." www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Observer was murdered by ICE this AM. The video is one of the worst things I’ve ever seen. God help the victim and all of us.

As Southern Baptist leaders defend the authority of ICE, it resurrects their predecessors "saying the same thing about the slave patrols that hunted down enslaved people who ran away from the legal institution of slavery." - @briankaylor.bsky.social #ThisistheSBC wordandway.org/2026/01/23/t...

“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children." - Nelson Mandela

I'm not one for false optimism. But what I witnessed today in Minneapolis was tremendous, both in scale and exuberance. It was a stunning answer to the federal assault on Minnesota, a show of solidarity that gives us something to hold on to during times that are unforgiving.

When empathy is sin, then "cruelty becomes a form of righteousness." #ThisistheSBC

Lawsuit says Southern Baptist leaders...should have known that youth minister posed "a grave & foreseeable danger” to kids, that they "created a culture" that enabled sexual abuse, and that the lack of safeguards constituted "willful & wanton" negligence. #ThisistheSBC julieroys.com/arkansas-law...

This just flat-out made me sit & weep. I'm so grateful for all these people - faith leaders & others - who showed up in sub-zero weather outside the Minneapolis airport to protest ICE. Love showed up and it sounded like "Down to the River."

Today’s front page of the Minnesota Star Tribune. 👀

"Do Justice. Love Kindness. Abolish ICE." The message of hundreds of faith leaders who are on the ground in MN. (Apparently missing from the group are any Southern Baptist faith leaders - no big surprise.) religionnews.com/2026/01/22/h...

Then they came for the children...

The 5-year-old arrested by ICE In Minnesota is detained at Dilley. We reported on conditions there in the below article. Parents said the food was contaminated with mold and worms & that children were so under so much stress that they were hitting their own faces & wetting themselves.

"This is the end of the world as we have known it for 80 years...There is no strategy behind this exercise in superpower suicide other than the president’s own narcissism, greed, & general frustration at never being respected by the elites..." - @vermontgmg.bsky.social www.wired.com/story/donald...

Tomorrow’s front page of the Minnesota Star Tribune: Jan. 23, 2026

Folks, this is what an authoritarian police state looks like.

"From Greenland to Minneapolis, it's all rooted in his predatory ways." - @amandamarcotte.bsky.social

Whatever is in the Epstein Files is so explosive that the leaders of the Department of Justice are openly breaking the law every day to keep us from seeing it. (Just a reminder amongst all the other stuff flying around.)

Detaining a 5 year old and using him as bait. Are we great now? www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

#Epstein #EpsteinFiles

Six federal prosecutors in Minnesota have resigned in protest of the Justice Department's decision to investigate Renee Good's widow. When SIX career attorneys quit, something is seriously amiss. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/13/u...

No one can be watching this Davos speech and reach any conclusion but that the President of the United States is mentally disturbed and that something is deeply wrong with him. This is both embarrassing and extremely dangerous.

"It is about an administration declaring — explicitly, at times — that the purpose of federal law enforcement isn’t to uphold the rule of law or promote public safety but to enforce the will of a single man."

$1.4 BILLION. Into his own pockets. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

White evangelicals acting like they suddenly care about traumatizing kids in their church buildings is pretty rich.

"The Southern Baptists!" ⬇️ #ThisistheSBC

"When I landed in Minneapolis...and saw the size, scope & lawlessness of the federal onslaught unfolding here, I understood that Good’s killing was emblematic of its true mission: to stage a spectacle of cruelty upon a city that stands in stark defiance against Trump’s dark vision of America."

"I present to you the Southern Baptists." ⬇️ #ThisistheSBC

Gallup reports a 17-point drop in the percentage of US adults who consider religion an important part of their daily lives — from 66% in 2015 to 49% today. This is among the largest drops in any country over any 10-year period since 2007. It's NOT a revival. www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston...