Good morning friends. The news remains bad, the needs remain great, and we’re all just plumb tired. But Jesus is alive, and hope remains solid. Hold fast.

i see

OK, this is kind of amazing. And sad. The fact that partisan identity has such a sizable affect on male confidence in the efficacy of taking on an 80yo man is really something.

The leader referenced here, in one of the last paragraphs from my recent piece on the SBC, GOP and Paul Pressler, is actually William Wolfe.

Been doing some digging on cannabis usage for a thing, and found these charts interesting. From the GSS:

Before taking office, Trump pressured Republicans to kill a bipartisan immigration bill. Now, despite GOP majorities, no immigration legislation has been advanced. For the president and his supporters, immigration is not a challenge to compassionately resolve but an opportunity to cruelly exploit.

There are so many things wrong with the Christian nationalists. This is not remotely the worst thing. But it's pretty bad. 😅

I don’t disagree that there must be accountability. My *concern* is that I’m seeing increased calls for punitive measures on both wings. Punish crimes. Censure misconduct. Shame evil into oblivion. But wander into “destroy my enemies” territory, and we lose a core tenet of political liberalism.

If the depression-era generation was psychologically shaped by poverty, the Trump-era generation will be indelibly shaped by attention fatigue.

Sorry, I'm just a curmudgeonly geriatric millennial, but what even is a "content creator." It's like saying you're a word speaker. Or a dirty laundry producer. Or a food consumer.

Rise up, O judge of the earth; repay to the proud what they deserve! O LORD, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked exult? They pour out their arrogant words; all the evildoers boast. They crush your people, O LORD, and afflict your heritage. >

Really important work out by @robertdownen.bsky.social. Galling, gutting, necessary. www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...

Well, at least they’re being obvious about it I guess

Make beautiful things no machine can make. Make human things.

If while in power, your messaging remains primarily a persecution narrative, perhaps you’re just selling something.

Praise God for Sunday afternoon naps

Jesus is incredible. He gets invited over to the house of a religious leader, knowing full well what that meant, then when he gets criticized, just takes him out to the woodshed, in the guy’s own house. Whew.

incredible depth of discourse over at the bad place

spam texts are the worst yall.

Fascinating article. Can’t help thinking, however, about good old Nebuchadnezzar: “Is this not Babylon the Great that I have built to be a royal residence by my vast power and for my majestic glory?” Daniel‬ ‭4‬:‭30‬ ‭CSB‬‬ You know what happened next. www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

Good news everyone. We just got sub-one-thousand days until the next inauguration.

This is amazing. And terrifying. And what are we even doing here people. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Also this

Big time mixed feelings about this. Rolled out by one of the Christian nationalists I keep an eye on, it’s an AI-powered retrieval project of Protestant writing. He talks about translating from the Latin, etc., which is fascinating. However—it’s done using AI. > commonplace.study

I see

Friend, get off your phone and offline and go talk to a human being today.

We've moved past "facts don't care about your feelings" territory into "facts are whatevs I feel" territory. Facts should matter for these ostensible truth warriors. But they don't. Words to this crowd are little more than a tool of power intended to sway and bend adherents. And that's bad.

My descendants: “Grandpa, what was it like living through the teens and early 20’s?” Me:

So two things. 1) “King” is a popular way to describe a fellow chud in far right CN circles. 2) Trump really likes the idea of being an American emperor. This is a great example of stochastic poasting that conveys layers with plausible deniability.

What you cannot question is in fact your God

Please don’t

No

Yeah maybe the problem isn’t X or Bsky or whatever. Maybe it’s us.

Two things can be true at the same time! 1) Free speech means you can criticize any administration. 2) Assassination attempts are bad. Abandoning (1) because fear of (2) leads to silencing of critical discourse, which is bad for any democratic society.

Glad for the church this morning. Jesus is alive, so good, and his people are a gift.

Area man gets so close to seeing the light but still misses the obvious application by a mile

A steady diet of short-form content will have damaging long-term consequences.

why can't everyone just be chill

Speaking with some ministry partners overseas and reminded just how many normal people are suffering because of our nation's idiosyncratic warmongering choices.

I'm fairly convinced that, had the CN bros been alive 90 years ago in Nazi Germany, most of them would've turned their Jewish neighbors over to the Gestapo because "it's the law after all." And some would've done it because they just hate the Jews.

Sometimes I think about the hobby lobby kitsch aesthetic in the oval office and get a little sad

Live your life in such a way that the history books, if they remember you, will not forever know you as one who called what is evil, good. Rather as one who stood against evil, because it was evil. Then again, the history books may not remember you for that. But God will.

Isaiah's word of promise for the future: The fool will no more be called noble, nor the scoundrel said to be honorable. - Isa. 32:5 Lord, bring that day quickly.

The MAGA obsession with IQ, aside from being bizarre and self-defeating, is most indicative of its base (not based) juvenile and racist instincts.

I mean, she’s right. But not in the way she thinks she is.

i'm not the only one feeling like bsky got real janky today, right?

If we close our ears to God’s truth, we won't be able to hear the word of God’s help.

By this analogy, the good news of the gospel is the word of Trump and the power of his administration. This is not Christian nationalism, nor is it civil religion; it's outright paganism wherein Trump is the god-king and his war is a holy war.

Scenes from last night’s light show