Grateful for my friend Zach and the deep work he has put into thinking about virtue and men. I eagerly look forward to learning from him and thinking through this book with my son.

Doing your own work is hard work. I’m glad Katelyn sits on the frontline to defend and advocate for those who are doing creative and original work. Her article is an important reflection and conversation starter. open.substack.com/pub/katelynb...

Valparaiso friends. Kendall and I are spending the weekend in the Valpo area in celebration of our 21st anniversary. Any recommendations of things to do and places to eat in the area?

The Men Who Want Women to Be Quiet www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

Grateful to be on team Brightspace.

The first Star Wars movie I saw in the movie theater was Return of the Jedi. Your Turn. #Maythe4thBewithYou

It’s the Friday after the last day of class just before finals week. Grading Inbox: Zero! I’m sure it’ll fill back up over the weekend.

Just finished listening to this fascinating conversation on the history of evangelicals, which discusses their origins and their theological and cultural identity. americanevangelicalsahistorypodcast.buzzsprout.com/2610661/epis...

Congratulations, @karenswallowprior.bsky.social, on winning the Christian Book Award in the Christian Living category for You Have a Calling: Finding Your Vocation in the True, Good, and Beautiful. We are honored to publish award-winning books like this!

The Pentagon May Not Be Telling Trump the Full Picture About the War www.theatlantic.com/national-sec...

“Evangelical origin stories have been inspired by key figures who felt called to disrupt and challenge the establishment or status quo.” www.patheos.com/blogs/anxiou...

“I provided a series of origin stories that demonstrated the function of the liminal second world wartime era in the making of the evangelical brand.” www.patheos.com/blogs/anxiou...

My column at the Anxious Bench today is a draft of what I would say if I added an epilogue to Our God Is an Awesome Brand. www.patheos.com/blogs/anxiou...

It’s 2026 and the answer to a mass shooting is we should hold a ball.

That feeling when your publisher gives you such good cover art options, and you are conflicted about which one you should choose.

I’ve been really enjoying this book. William and I talk about similar things but focus on different places. It’s been enlightening learning from him.

This bodes well for global liberal democracy. It appears the wave of national-populism may be subsiding. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/12/w...

Wow! I’m so glad it happens to be TACO TUESDAY in light of this threatening post and the NYT announcement of a 2-week cease fire! What a relief! It’s better for global civilization that no one is annihilating ethnic and racial civilizations. www.nytimes.com/live/2026/04...

At twilight of Eastertide, April 5, 2026, the first complete manuscript draft of Our God Is an Awesome Brand: How Evangelical Built America’s Most Powerful Religious Movement was sent off to my very patient and kind editor, Robert Hosack at @brazospress. Time to celebrate with family! 🎉

💥Cover Reveal!💥 How (Not) to Be a Tyrant: Ten Lessons on Life and Leadership from the Bible's Worst Rulers by Joshua W. Jipp In a culture that rewards charisma over character, how can Christians resist the temptation to lead in harmful ways? 👑 Learn more here: bakerbookhouse.com/products/978...

A fun and brief article on actively preserving the past. www.patheos.com/blogs/anxiou...

Fascinating piece by my Anxious Bench colleague, Wyatt Reynolds.

I just returned home from the Center for Pastor Theologians inaugural gathering of its Senior Fellows.

The irony of Trump calling upon Iranian protesters and critics of the Iranian government to take up arms against their leaders. www.nytimes.com/live/2026/02...

Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? - Psalm 2:1

Besides Shrinking being the best TV ever, Jimmy and Brian singing “Confrontation” from Les Mis is the best TV scene ever. youtu.be/5h1yCLMe2nI?...

“One thing I have learned about my evangelical world is that we have sacred cows you do not touch. Because of this, when I received the recommended title for Our God Is an Awesome Brand from the publisher, I wholly anticipated the lightning rod potential of the title.”

For the early reader: Our God Is an Awesome Brand www.patheos.com/blogs/anxiou...

Big News! We have a title! Our God Is An Awesome Brand How Evangelicals Built America’s Most Powerful Religious Movement Expect a release in 2027 from @brazospress!

Wheaton Mourns Institutional Servant Daniel Treier thewheatonrecord.com/2026/02/02/w...

The TPUSA show had 5% of viewers as the Bad Bunny one. Maybe the CN movement is weaker than thought? The Bad Bunny show was a beautiful display of Americans coming together to celebrate what it means to be American across our hemisphere. Love is stronger. We are better together.

This book has been an interesting companion for considering how the evangelical brand and its sense of self has evolved during the last quarter century since this publication.

Lessons in leadership and respectability:

Evangelicals be like: The ethic of a statecraft leader doesn’t matter as long as he gets the job done. Trump testing their toleration threshold over the last week: HOLD MY BEER! • pages of appearances in Epstein files • mocks prayer breakfast • posts racist video of Obamas

Federal officers manage to arrest former CNN reporter Don Lemon for documenting a protest in a church, but they can’t manage to arrest one of their own for *checks notes* shooting a citizen in the back 7+ times.

“We must listen to the silence of evangelical leaders and interpret it as their tacit approval of the American horror story.” www.patheos.com/blogs/anxiou...

“You don’t have to cross the Atlantic and tap into the history of Nazi Germany to describe our American horror story. There is a genetic connection between ICE/CBP with our own history of white supremacy.” www.patheos.com/blogs/anxiou...

My latest at the Anxious Bench takes lessons from Ida B. Wells’s book Southern Horrors to help us think about our own American horror story that is unfolding today. www.patheos.com/blogs/anxiou...

Gun Activists Bridle at Suggestion That Pistol Justified Killing www.nytimes.com/2026/01/24/u...

It’s time that the free press starts reporting events with greater precision. The wording should be: “Paramilitary force publicly lynches another citizen.”

This conversation between Walter Kim and Mark Noll is worth your time. www.nae.org/mark-noll-ch...

Enjoy a sneak peak of my ASCH paper for this Sunday, which I’ve been working on for the better part of this week. I am looking forward to seeing many old friends and make some new friends at this week’s historiapalooza in Chicago.

Trump’s Risky War in Venezuela www.theatlantic.com/internationa...

Dear Algorithm Send me ads that shame me about my body… said no one ever. Yet, here we are.

My favorite part of people signaling their rigorous work ethic, by working hard on Friday, January 2 after the New Year, is that it applies to the phishing and other email scammers. Already received three fraudulent emails today. Cyber scammers have hustle!

Happy New Year! May this coming year bring to you abundant joy, laughter, and happiness! Wishing you peace and good fortune in the coming year!

On the last day of 2025, I am trying to lean in on a cherished rhythm of my life: reading. I am starting this new edition of a classic from David Dark, Everyday Apocalypse: Art, Empire, and the End of the World.

Does anyone have helpful suggestions for gaining control over the social algorithm in 2026? My Instagram and Facebook feed feel increasingly like what I imagine TikTok to be: lots of diet crazes, random slapstick videos, and bizarre conspiracy theories.

I recently was a guest on the Prove Text podcast with Michael Halcomb, and I talked about Jonathan Edwards and his interpretation of Scripture. I encourage you to check this conversation out. youtu.be/FaozJG4ajDw?...

From Jack’s War on Xmas “Jack’s scroogery and grinchiness found its way into numerous Xmas season correspondence, and it was the seasonal uptick of correspondence that fed his curmudgeonliness.” www.patheos.com/blogs/anxiou...