Having trouble celebrating July 4? Maybe something here will help. Dear Mr. Whitman... open.substack.com/pub/dianabut...

Good news from @prri.org "nearly six in ten (59 percent) Americans, including 65 percent of independents, now agree that “President Trump is a dangerous dictator whose power should be limited before he destroys American democracy.”

Thank God.

@steverattner.bsky.social: "Trump’s net worth has nearly tripled in his second term, reaching $6.5 billion. His administration is the most brazenly self-enriching in American history."

Prayer is not sending in an order and expecting it to be fulfilled. Prayer is attuning yourself to the life of the world, to love, the force that moves the sun and the moon and the stars. - Br. David Steindl-Rast

I don't think Jesus would find this week's SCOTUS rulings in any way acceptable. My first clue? Jesus said, “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me." Sunday Musings open.substack.com/pub/dianabut...

Just 10 people have already poured $617 MILLION into this year’s midterm elections. In the entire 2008 presidential cycle, the last election before Citizens United, total billionaire spending was $16 million. This is not sustainable. We need to get Big Money out of our democracy.

“You can touch the holy when you reach out to others — the poor, the rejected, immigrants and strangers, the unwanted, the fearful. If you want to know God, give a cup of water to a child. Or to an asylum seeker.” @dianabutlerbass.bsky.social #TheOther open.substack.com/pub/dianabut...

Just finished watching HBO's "The Welcome Table." A breathtaking, heartbreaking, challenging film about immigration and climate change that creates a vision of genuine love and the possibility of a better world. Highly recommended. Especially good for congregations. www.thewelcometablefilm.com

The latest from The Convocation Unscripted just dropped. Plus a 25% discount on Kristin’s LIVE LAUGH LOVE and Robby’s BACKSLIDE. Video and details in post. convocation.substack.com/p/scotus-dec... @dianabutlerbass.bsky.social @kkdumez.bsky.social @jemartisby.bsky.social

The strongest poison ever known Came from Caesar’s laurel crown, Nought can deform the human race Like to the armour’s iron brace. When gold and gems adorn the plow To peaceful arts shall Envy bow. — William Blake, from “Auguries of Innocence”

So says one of the most corrupt VPs in history as he serves the most corrupt president in American history

We caused the problems: then we sat and watched as they grew into crises. ― Octavia E. Butler

good to see this. Musk is clearly getting visibly angry at the rising awareness of how many hundreds of thousands of people his DOGE wilding spree has already killed, millions more if this stays in place into the future. Everyone can participate in spreading the word about all the blood on his hands

Can't wait to see what sort of fence they put around their 250 foot tall arch....

Receipts on the lives lost due to Musk, Rubio and this whole brutal, heedless crew.

In the last ten years, the UK has had 7 prime ministers. Ten years ago, the UK voted for Brexit. Quite the coincidence, don't you think?

Sometimes, when you are struggling to grow as a writer, when you've blurbed a thousand books on the same subject over decades, a poet invites you to endorse her book. And then you know how much you've changed. How your grasp of beauty and craft have deepened. You've been transformed by words.

Elon Musk murdered these people. And laughed about it.

The quarrels of popes and kings, with wars and pestilences in every page; the men all so good for nothing and hardly any women at all - it is very tiresome. - Jane Austen

I do not have to be convinced that this guy at our bird buddy descended from a dinosaur.

We the people will always be arriving a ceremony of thunder waking up the earth opening our eyes to human monuments & it’ll get better it’ll get better if we the people work, organize, resist, come together for peace, racial, social & sexual justice it’ll get better it’ll get better -Sonia Sanchez

Certainty obstructs wonder. - Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

Whenever SCOTUS rulings are announced, I think back to all those people who said that there was no real difference between voting for Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

A livable planet or shitty pictures, what a tough choice.

I suspect Mary Magdalene would have a thing or two to say about this.

FACT CHECK: TRUE

"Revolution" by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer.

It really is fucking wild that Trump is having people arrested for putting a finger in a pool when he pardoned the people who full out trashed the US Capitol

Say what you will ain’t nobody giving Trump a baby to hold.

For Juneteenth: Make America safe for Democracy, Safe for black as well as other men; Hear us Father, We beg thee — Amen. — A prayer from poet Carrie Law Morgan Figgs, "Nuggets of Gold" (1921)

I'm really beginning to believe we're living inside of some weird simulation.

For Juneteenth: Make America safe for Democracy, Safe for black as well as other men; Hear us Father, We beg thee — Amen. — A prayer from poet Carrie Law Morgan Figgs, "Nuggets of Gold" (1921)

While some Christians--like the SBC--diminish women, world-class biblical scholars are moving in the opposite direction & exploring ancient texts that lift women, restoring them to their rightful place in church. Mary Magdalene news w/Elizabeth Schrader-Polczer open.substack.com/pub/dianabut...

Hide your ketchup bottles

If you watch the Obama Library, the World Cup, and the Knicks parade this afternoon -- and nothing else -- you can actually see the America we're supposed to be at age 250

Michelle Obama’s speech today was amazing, full of measured praise for Barack but peppered with a lot of sass and subtle (or not subtle for some of us) digs at this current administration. Take the time.

"Normally one would have to pay a lot of money to a discreet professional to be humiliated this badly....." www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

"I feel like I've been to the best church on Planet Earth" -- how Tom Hanks described the Obama event today. Excellent.

I miss hope and optimism. So good to remember today. These things are still with us. They still renew our souls. They are still the best America.

I'm loving Chicago right now.

While some Christians--like the SBC--diminish women, world-class biblical scholars are moving in the opposite direction & exploring ancient texts that lift women, restoring them to their rightful place in church. Mary Magdalene news w/Elizabeth Schrader-Polczer open.substack.com/pub/dianabut...

He signed an unconditional surrender at Versailles? Come the fuck on.

It was only a matter of time before evangelicals gave us a De-Suffrage Movement. "I Would Give Up My Right To Vote" open.substack.com/pub/joycevan...

We don’t often cover sports at the Cottage. But this week, it can’t be avoided. What with gladiators and victors hurling insults, an old rivalry in Christian history made the headlines: Rome versus Christianity. I’m sorry to report but the Jesus team lost. Again. open.substack.com/pub/dianabut...

Dear God, Just a little faster, please. 🙏🏻 (Also, I don’t do weather prayers but have decided to make today an exception)

Today I revisit an old story w/new urgency: There’s one way for us to flourish. Hospitality turns enemies into friends. That’s the thing that the new Caesars don’t want. That frightens them. A hospitable neighborhood genuinely threaten the Elon Musks of the world. open.substack.com/pub/dianabut...

It’s fascism. But days like this make me wonder a bit if fascism was just a cover for a heist, if Trumpism will end with everything enshittified, Trump blabbering to a nurse & his fail sons massively richer in a crappier world. Better that they’d just mugged us in ‘16: give us 50 bil & we’re gone.

Today I revisit an old story w/new urgency: There’s one way for us to flourish. Hospitality turns enemies into friends. That’s the thing that the new Caesars don’t want. That frightens them. A hospitable neighborhood genuinely threaten the Elon Musks of the world. open.substack.com/pub/dianabut...