Been working on this story for a while - it's about pastors who support ICE and immigration enforcement. religionnews.com/2026/06/05/m...

The Yankees kept this from the old Stadium. It’s in the press box. Imagine some of the names on here over the years.

The day I heard a fellow in an O’Hare terminal explaining to his (I presumed) wife via cellphone that he was enjoying his time in Manhattan was the day I realized fiction had changed forever.

A popular worship song keeps showing up at political rallies. I wanted to know why. Here's what I found www.npr.org/2026/05/27/n...

And like, a page-turner when I already know there are six (?) more books to come!

I wrote about Dungeon Crawler Carl for @theflytrapmedia.com today, but I didn't get into one of the things I find most surprising about how much I like the books so far: there is nothing more boring than watching people play a video/tabletop game you're not involved in, and yet i am fully engaged

This week, @npr.org will air a series called "Church and States" - about religion and politics--that's a collaboration with @rns.org Here is a preview: www.npr.org/2026/05/25/n...

I have that big damn book contract specifically because my publisher knows they can rely on me to turn in a pretty good book once a year and not be a pain in their ass while I do it.

I mean here's the whole wall, there's eight guitar-like instruments in the photo, and another three in the room you're not seeing. More in the actual music room, and then a bunch at the church including The Beast. I trust that's sufficient.

On Baseball: It's time to admit the truth about the Red Sox. They should be sellers, not buyers, given their weak lineup: www.bostonglobe.com/2026/05/23/s...

A church program was supposed to help members get diabetes drugs. Instead, the drugs were allegedly resold -- with pastors and their allies pocketing millions, according to a new lawsuit religionnews.com/2026/05/22/c...

Oh no! We have this in the Parish Office and there's going to be fallout.

James Robison was an architect of the Religious Right and a longtime televangelist. Might also have been the first person to high-five a pope. (Robison died yesterday at 82) religionnews.com/2026/05/18/j...

A lot of people are are, uh, leaving now.

Note: The pastor who runs services attended by Pete Hegseth, who spoke (via video) at this event, self-identifies as a Christian nationalist. So, too, did former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Of course @sethcotlar.bsky.social beat me to this *and* did it better:

The influence of Gerald LK Smith's Christian Nationalism in the Ozarks swept into Arkansas as well as Missouri

Here's Gerald L.K. Smith, a far-right religious nationalist whose magazine was subtly called The Cross and The Flag.

Defense Sec Hegseth speaking via video at this event, closing his remarks w/a story about George Washington praying at Valley Forge. Note: Washington was a person of faith, but historians have long dismissed the story of him praying at Valley Forge as a fabrication. religionnews.com/2025/09/29/c...

What a crazy save for Chapman.

Article for the upcoming PGH Book Fest describes me as "one of science fiction’s most beloved voices." BELOVED, Y'ALL Whoops, excuse me, this is Pittsburgh, allow me to amend: BELOVED, YINZ www.pittsburghmagazine.com/know-it-all-...

A huge congratulations is in order for @marthawells.com on hitting the @nytimes.com, @usatoday.com, AND Indie bestseller lists with #PlatformDecay !🎉 Congrats, Martha, for this well-deserved recognition! And a big thank you to the readers who made this possible!✨

I don't think we need to worry much about Stephen King's place in history, not only for his own work, but for the fact he's been so widely adapted in film/TV, and that at least three of those 60+ adaptations (The Shining, Stand By Me, Shawshank Redemption) are widely acknowledged all-time classics.

It's been under option for 18 years straight (by various people) and the problem has always been "getting the script right," and every new pass of the script takes 4-6 months, so option times run out faster than you think. But those options paid for Athena's college education and maybe a church, so

Social media is, no joke, how I met so many writers who are now friends, and lots of friends who later became writers, and then also just people who continue to be just people but who are cool and who I would be and am happy to call friends.

Here's what the Google "AI" Overview has to say about my smoking status. Not a word of my "smoking history" here is true, incidentally.

religionnews.com/2026/05/11/s... @bmietana.bsky.social

Eating pickled green beans and watching YouTube, a thrilling Clergy Friday Night.

The cover to the Polish-language version of "When the Moon Hits Your Eye," which comes out, I think, in June.

(RNS) — Lamb and her first husband, Marcus, founded Daystar in the 1990s and grew it into one of the largest Christian networks in the country. The ministry experienced a series of controversies after Marcus Lamb’s death from COVID-19.

LOOK WHO'S FANCY (complimentary)

This is a terrific way to think about this. Southern Baptists used to stand at the forefront of fighting for the separation of church and state and always portrayed Catholicism as the greatest menace to freedom in America, and then they just became what they feared.

So I learned today that the @nytimes ran an AP story about the death of my grandfather, Stanislaw Smietana --right below JRR Tolkien's obit (both on page 18 on September 9, 1973. timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine...

For more on the speech Hegseth gave to the NRB that Reed is referencing above, see @bmietana.bsky.social here: religionnews.com/2026/02/20/c...

For the unaware, Trump made $1.3 million in royalties for endorsing the God Bless the USA Bible, per @bmietana.bsky.social. religionnews.com/2025/06/24/p...

So apparently a private equity firm has bought up the "public platforms" of Christian bands--in order to get the $$ they receive for promoting charities. And now there's a lawsuit involving a sex scandal and journalism religionnews.com/2026/04/29/n...

The average church in the US just got a bit bigger religionnews.com/2026/04/24/w...

There's a reason Trump is reading a particular Bible verse today religionnews.com/2026/04/21/t...

Don Schlitz - who churned out hit after hit -- The Gambler, Forever and Ever Amen, When You Say Nothing at All -- as songwriter, often collaborating with others-- (He co-wrote some of Mary Chapin Carpenter's hits) has died - Mercy -- that man could write a song apnews.com/article/don-...

There’s been a rise of Christian pastors & leaders, known as 'Theobros,' who are vocal online & promote very traditional gender roles... It’s unlikely to draw many people to church. 'As a growth strategy...it seems to be a little dicey,' said Deckman." religionnews.com/2026/04/15/s...

There's a big debate over whether young men are flocking to church - but the big news is that young women are leading religionnews.com/2026/04/15/s...

Note: these pastors oversee the service Hegseth attends. “Under their model, voting rights would belong to the head of each household — not to individuals. Women in households led by a husband would not (vote) … women who are widowed, divorced or otherwise head of their own households would vote.”

Had a visit with Beth Moore — about her journey after leaving the SBC and why she still loves teaching the Bible religionnews.com/2026/04/10/b...

It was a hell of a Holy Week for the president religionnews.com/2026/04/06/d...

The IRS plans to work on new guidance for religious groups on how the Johnson Amendment applies, after a judge rejected a settlement that would have ended a ban on pulpit endorsements. religionnews.com/2026/03/31/b...

Not a good week for the Red Sox

Low-key big news via @bmietana.bsky.social: Judge rejects Johnson Amendment settlement, keeping ban on pastors endorsing candidates —> religionnews.com/2026/03/31/b...

The IRS wanted to let churches endorse candidates A federal judge said no religionnews.com/2026/03/31/b...

I'm just imagining the aspiring writing watching TOS of Star Trek and thinking, wow, this is too complex, too subtle, needs to be dumber.

Just saw a clip of a pastor talking about the dispute over "In Christ Alone" back in 2013-- was such an interesting story to look into back in the day religionnews.com/2013/08/06/p...