brian bantum
@brianbantum.bsky.social
Joyful cyclist. Professor of theology and writer trying to make sense of identity, race, and creating spaces where we can all be whole.
God forbid we accept lower standards or take in a wide range of criteria for acceptance? 🤢 www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcn...
Some new ICE recruits have shown up to training without full vetting
The recruits have had criminal backgrounds or failed drug tests or were unable to meet physical or academic standards, raising concerns about the agency’s rush to hire immigration officers, sources to...
www.nbcnews.com
October 23, 2025 at 4:53 PM
God forbid we accept lower standards or take in a wide range of criteria for acceptance? 🤢 www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcn...
Reposted by brian bantum
“It had been so long since I’d made something that I had begun to forget: Every quick-build shelf or prepackaged meal or AI response bears the hidden cost of what I didn’t get to learn.”
– @brianbantum.bsky.social
www.christiancentury.org/voices/why-m...
– @brianbantum.bsky.social
www.christiancentury.org/voices/why-m...
Why make things?
I couldn’t afford a nice bookshelf, and I couldn’t bring myself to buy a cheap one. So I headed to the hardware...
www.christiancentury.org
July 29, 2025 at 2:23 PM
“It had been so long since I’d made something that I had begun to forget: Every quick-build shelf or prepackaged meal or AI response bears the hidden cost of what I didn’t get to learn.”
– @brianbantum.bsky.social
www.christiancentury.org/voices/why-m...
– @brianbantum.bsky.social
www.christiancentury.org/voices/why-m...
Reposted by brian bantum
Reposted by brian bantum
I don’t think anyone is prepared for what they just did w/ ICE.
This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined.
It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.
This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined.
It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.
July 3, 2025 at 6:58 PM
I don’t think anyone is prepared for what they just did w/ ICE.
This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined.
It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.
This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined.
It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.
Reposted by brian bantum
he's right and he's right to say it
June 25, 2025 at 1:14 PM
he's right and he's right to say it
Reposted by brian bantum
“I wonder if the evils of our world—whether they be individual acts toward one another or the more insidious social structures that we grow within and nurture—tend to be grounded in the insecurities we refuse to acknowledge.”
– @brianbantum.bsky.social
www.christiancentury.org/voices/insec...
– @brianbantum.bsky.social
www.christiancentury.org/voices/insec...
Insecurity and the problem of evil
One of my more shameful memories comes from my time coaching youth soccer as a...
www.christiancentury.org
June 13, 2025 at 2:37 PM
“I wonder if the evils of our world—whether they be individual acts toward one another or the more insidious social structures that we grow within and nurture—tend to be grounded in the insecurities we refuse to acknowledge.”
– @brianbantum.bsky.social
www.christiancentury.org/voices/insec...
– @brianbantum.bsky.social
www.christiancentury.org/voices/insec...
it’s a strange thing to feel the wind on your face and the sun on your back, to even say you feel like you’ve found a little pocket of joy, and know the world is what it is.
June 2, 2025 at 8:08 PM
it’s a strange thing to feel the wind on your face and the sun on your back, to even say you feel like you’ve found a little pocket of joy, and know the world is what it is.
Reposted by brian bantum
“Looking back on those early years of pessimism, I realize the choice I had was not a matter of belief or disbelief in what could change. I realize I was making a constant decision to discount the witness of those who had changed.”
– @brianbantum.bsky.social
– @brianbantum.bsky.social
The substance of small things I’ve seen
Hope and change mean something different to me now than they did in...
www.christiancentury.org
March 11, 2025 at 3:52 PM
“Looking back on those early years of pessimism, I realize the choice I had was not a matter of belief or disbelief in what could change. I realize I was making a constant decision to discount the witness of those who had changed.”
– @brianbantum.bsky.social
– @brianbantum.bsky.social
A friendly reminder to breathe today… www.christiancentury.org/voices/god-b...
God of breath and gravity
“Who is God?” Today, God is the rising and falling of my...
www.christiancentury.org
January 31, 2025 at 3:02 PM
A friendly reminder to breathe today… www.christiancentury.org/voices/god-b...
in the midst of our own packing we’ve been helping our kids move and get settled into their own lives. The last one drove off with the last truck load of things tonight and the house is so, so quiet. It’s all the things.
January 26, 2025 at 3:19 AM
in the midst of our own packing we’ve been helping our kids move and get settled into their own lives. The last one drove off with the last truck load of things tonight and the house is so, so quiet. It’s all the things.
Reposted by brian bantum
This entire project is *very expliclty* about fully purging black people and women from huge swaths of public life, employment and education.
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
Far-right pundit rails against women in law enforcement: ‘It’s an absurdity!’
‘If we’re being honest, female cops are absurd. It’s an absurdity. I’m sorry. It’s just ridiculous. It’s cartoonish,’ Matt Walsh ranted on his podcast this week
www.independent.co.uk
January 24, 2025 at 6:27 PM
This entire project is *very expliclty* about fully purging black people and women from huge swaths of public life, employment and education.
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
Reposted by brian bantum
one reason democrats should cut the “we just want to work together” shit is that you lose the opportunity to do things like, for instance, hold a loud press conference on the fact that trumps ICE thugs arrested a veteran www.newarknj.gov/news/mayor-r...
News: MAYOR RAS J. BARAKA’S STATEMENT ON ICE RAID ON NEWARK BUSINESS ESTABLISHMENT
Official Page of Newark, NJ News: MAYOR RAS J. BARAKA’S STATEMENT ON ICE RAID ON NEWARK BUSINESS ESTABLISHMENT
www.newarknj.gov
January 23, 2025 at 11:42 PM
one reason democrats should cut the “we just want to work together” shit is that you lose the opportunity to do things like, for instance, hold a loud press conference on the fact that trumps ICE thugs arrested a veteran www.newarknj.gov/news/mayor-r...
These anti-dei initiatives (and the whistleblower hotlines) feel like they are really intended to cast doubt and suspicion on the legitimacy of any non-white presence in government and corporate life. Chilling.
January 24, 2025 at 12:30 AM
These anti-dei initiatives (and the whistleblower hotlines) feel like they are really intended to cast doubt and suspicion on the legitimacy of any non-white presence in government and corporate life. Chilling.
Slowly saying goodbye to the PNW…
December 24, 2024 at 4:39 PM
Slowly saying goodbye to the PNW…
2:45pm and already feeling dark. At least the pnw is being pretty about it.
December 6, 2024 at 11:16 PM
2:45pm and already feeling dark. At least the pnw is being pretty about it.
Been trying to just make stuff, try new things, make some marks.
December 1, 2024 at 4:03 AM
Been trying to just make stuff, try new things, make some marks.
Some thoughts on the between times we are living in. www.christiancentury.org/voices/stret...
The current of time
This is what is scary about any future: we simply don’t know, and it flies toward us anyway.
www.christiancentury.org
November 27, 2024 at 11:07 PM
Some thoughts on the between times we are living in. www.christiancentury.org/voices/stret...
Hope folks are finding ways to find a little peace today.
November 21, 2024 at 11:26 PM
Hope folks are finding ways to find a little peace today.
Sad to miss folks at AAR/SBL this year (especially in San Diego). I'm taking advantage of my sabbatical this Fall to not be on a plane and let myself write and rest a bit. See y'all next year!
November 18, 2024 at 6:17 PM
Sad to miss folks at AAR/SBL this year (especially in San Diego). I'm taking advantage of my sabbatical this Fall to not be on a plane and let myself write and rest a bit. See y'all next year!
Reposted by brian bantum
This is why I said we needed to hold off on the day-after hot takes about What The Election Means.
We still don’t have all the numbers but it’s clear any talk of a “mandate” was wildly overblown.
He won, yes. But only narrowly.
We still don’t have all the numbers but it’s clear any talk of a “mandate” was wildly overblown.
He won, yes. But only narrowly.
Donald Trump is now (1) below 50% popular vote and (2) has a margin of popular vote victory roughly HALF of Hillary's victory in 2016. They believe the left has to lay down and shut up because of this "landslide" victory.
November 16, 2024 at 4:01 PM
This is why I said we needed to hold off on the day-after hot takes about What The Election Means.
We still don’t have all the numbers but it’s clear any talk of a “mandate” was wildly overblown.
He won, yes. But only narrowly.
We still don’t have all the numbers but it’s clear any talk of a “mandate” was wildly overblown.
He won, yes. But only narrowly.
So it seems like we introduce ourselves? I’m a professor of theology and I teach and write about race, identity and Christian life. I’m a so-so artist and an above average cyclist, a pastor’s spouse, have 3 adult children, and a dog dad. Mostly I just want people to be able to live free.
November 12, 2024 at 3:43 PM
So it seems like we introduce ourselves? I’m a professor of theology and I teach and write about race, identity and Christian life. I’m a so-so artist and an above average cyclist, a pastor’s spouse, have 3 adult children, and a dog dad. Mostly I just want people to be able to live free.
Just checking out the scene here. Left the other place a while ago, but still looking for a place to connect and listen to what folks are talking about and seeing in their corners of the world.
November 10, 2024 at 2:56 AM
Just checking out the scene here. Left the other place a while ago, but still looking for a place to connect and listen to what folks are talking about and seeing in their corners of the world.