I’m not sure I did the #Christmas Ai challenge correct….

“The Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee unequivocally condemns the deadly attack against Jewish worshippers celebrating Chanukah that occurred yesterday on Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia. …” ⚓️ www.interfaithconference.org/icgm-condemn...

As a person who works in interfaith relations, the truth is that there is much more that unites us than divides us. While nearly all religions have holy war somewhere in their history, there are also large swaths of tolerance, empathy, and cooperation that most people don’t pay attention to. ⚓️

#WHAMMAGEDDON MOST FOUL AT THE ALTAR. ⚓️

Challenging the President’s derogatory comments about people from Somalia with Bishop Matt Gunter’s powerful response, emphasizing human dignity, Christian values, and the importance of respecting all people regardless of origin or background. ⚓ #christianity #episcopal #jesus #POTUS #somali

Haunted by History, Japanese Americans Fight Trump’s Immigration Crackdown (Gift Article) www.nytimes.com/2025/11/30/u...

“The Christian faith enables, or should enable, a man to stand back from society and its institutions and realize that they all stand under the inscrutable judgment of God..” Thomas Merton ⚓️

Celtic Nations Pipes and Drums drum section at the Whitefish Bay Holiday Stroll in the proper spirit.

Anika Nilles will be the drummer for Rush on their upcoming tour. No one can replace Neil Peart, but I can’t help think she is going to do a fantastic job. youtube.com/watch?v=QpTg...

A sermon in response to multiple stories of local immigrants being detained while attending their court appointments and the statement of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. open.substack.com/pub/frdavido... ⚓

PSA: If you claim to be a "practicing Catholic" and you believe this, you really are not listening to the Gospel reading on Sunday mornings. Matthew 10:34-37, Matthew 12:46-50, Mark 3:31-35, Luke 8:19-21, Luke 14:26, Luke 9:59-62 ⚓️

An in-depth look at this “gotcha” moment for churches on TikTok. (Gift article link)Had this person contacted me, I would have first sent them to the Food Pantry, because they stock formula and we contribute to them every week. But I would have bought formula if needed. ⚓️. wapo.st/4oJywOk

I’ve got a fever. ⚓️

Trump isn't a king but he does seem to have lost the favor of the clerics.

So how well did JD Vance do with his answer to a question about his wife’s potential religious conversion? I examine his statements on free will and religious freedom. #episcopalchurch #christianity #interfaith #jdvance ⚓

"A Choice of Surrender or Suicide" - My review of "A House of Dynamite," a remarkable and disturbing thriller. ⚓ www.roodscreen.org/p/a-choice-o...

JD Vance said last week that he hoped his wife Usha, who was raised Hindu, would be “somehow moved by church.” This has brought controversy pertaining to the history of how people “Become Christian,” which can span from personal discovery to forced conversion. ⚓️

What struck me the most tonight in the production of “it’s a wonderful life - a live radio play” by the Milwaukee Rep was the two visions of capitalism offered by Bailey and Potter. ⚓️

Halloween 2025

#SNAP was funded with emergency funds during a #shutdown during the first Trump Term. They were allocated by congress for this very situation. The suffering of children and the working poor (including many of our enlisted military) is a choice the administration is making intentionally. ⚓️

REV. BLACK (who was shot in the head with a pepper ball): “If this is what they’re doing to pastors, journalists, teachers, mothers, and the elderly gathered to sing and pray outside ICE facilities… what might they be doing to our neighbors who are behind those walls?”

According to the USDA’s “Lapse of Funding Plan” from September 30,2025, the USDA and OMB stated that contingency funds are able to be used to fund SNAP benefits in the event of a government shutdown. The Administrstration is lying when it says it cant do anything. ⚓️ oag.ca.gov/system/files...

The hunger crisis that will explode when #SNAP runs out in a couple of days does not need to happen. ⚓️

If the president wants to keep a lid on Reagan’s views on tariffs, just wait till he gets a load of Reagan’s views on immigration….

Folks, there are enlisted members of our military who are dependent on SNAP for their families. The myth of the "Lazy Poor" is persistent, but false.

Before the ACA, my wife could not get ANY private insurance offered to her at any rate, not because of any conditions she had, but because of statistics.

Possibly #Sabaton 's geekiest video yet - youtu.be/FhitH0BnDX4?...

"AI" is an entire FIELD of computer science and there are specific *highly developed and Human monitored* tools for sorting huge amounts of data and things, that can be extremely useful to scientists. Generative slop and "I'm going to have it think for me" hallucinated trash are poisoning the term.

From Edinburgh to Rio through #Milwaukee! #Bagpipes and #Samba Drumming together at last! youtu.be/oAkDTJ6dnLM

"Dr. Barth, when was the exact moment when you were saved?" Karl Barth responded, "I was saved at 3 o'clock on a Friday afternoon, on a hill outside the city of Jerusalem, in the year 33 A.D." Karl Barth 1886-1968 Swiss Theologian ⚓️

The Rev. David Black, pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Chicago, being pepper sprayed in the face at a peaceful protest. ⚓️

The traditional Christian Just War principles of “Discrimination” and “Proportionality” are what our Secretary of Defense rejected today. There is nothing Christ-like about this at all. If you’d like to know more about Just War theory, I did four one-minute videos on it, linked in the comments. ⚓️

“A magnificent line from Karl #Barth: ‘Everyone who has to contend with unbelief should be advised that he ought not to take his own unbelief too seriously. Only faith is to be taken seriously, and if we have faith as a grain of mustard seed, that suffices for the devil to have lost his game’” ⚓️

Superman (2025) is great. But why does the movie industry insist that all people who live outside of cities have southern accents, like his adopted parents in KANSAS? As a native Kansan, raised in Kentucky, THEY ARE NOT THE SAME.

The story and practice of our faith tell us that we are one community and that God loved us so much that God sent God’s only beloved Son to reconcile us. Considering this mighty work of God that unifies us, our human-created differences are petty. ⚓ medium.com/@frsimmons/j...

the rapture isn’t happening tomorrow but we can still have a little fun and pretend our christian coworkers don’t exist

Risking Godwin's law, This echoes Nazi Christian theology and is very dangerous. For the past decade or so, I've spent a lot of time studying the "German Christian" (Deutsche Christen) movement in Germany in the 1930s, which was the part of the protestant church that overtly supported the Nazis.. ⚓

Charlie Kirk, Jimmy Kimmel and the Future of Free Speech in America (Gift Article) www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/o...

Are fandoms religions? It depends on whether you take an essentialist or functionalist view of religion. It is hard to deny that fandoms and religions carry out many of the same functions. ⚓️ youtu.be/eU8w4KxoyRk?...

🕯️

Looked at my data collections for state-backed activity. If the report were a picture:

What do the cyrptic messages left by Charlie Kirk's killer actually mean, and can we really know? www.vanityfair.com/news/story/c...

"If American #democracy fails, the ultimate cause will not be a foreign invasion .. It will happen because we—you and I—became so fearful of each other, of our differences and of the future, that we unraveled the civic community on which democracy depends.." - Parker Palmer ⚓ #America

Stopped by the Bahá’í House of Worship on the way home from the National Workshop on Christian Unity. It’s the only Bahá’í temple on the North American continent. A beautiful and quiet place - a good place to pray for peace in our nation and world this morning. ⚓️

When the news came through that Charlie Kirk had died yesterday, I was in a session about the threat of Christian Nationalism at the National Workshop on Christian Unity. Our immediate response was to stop and pray for his family, and for an end to political violence. ⚓️

If you’re rage posting about Mr. Kirk, but weren’t about Mn Rep Melissa Hortman and her husband, please think seriouly about that. Also vice versa. The point is, speech is protected, and no one should die because they hold particular views, no matter how abhorrent we might find them. ⚓️

Charlie Kirk called me a ‘lunatic’ and a ‘prostitute’ and demanded I be deported. Nothing, *nothing*, justifies killing him, or robbing his kids of their dad. We don’t know the identity or motive of the shooter but murder can *never* be the response to political disagreements.

I am saddened by the death of Charlie Kirk, because it is yet another example of the rise of political violence in our country. This is unfortunately who we are, but it is not who we should aspire to be. ⚓️

If you get a chance to see #Hamilton on the big screen - do it! The way you’re able to see the actors perform their craft up close makes for a completely different experience than small screen. Even people who have been to stage productions would find new insights made possible by the camerawork.

Certain right-wing influencers are insisting that Hitler was the victim… www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...