Chaplain John
@chaplainjohn.medsky.social
Grateful for community, especially after so much plague! Palliative Care Chaplain focusing on caring and listening. He/him.
Lover of music, movies, MCU, Zelda, and all things silly.
Lover of music, movies, MCU, Zelda, and all things silly.
Pinned
Chaplain John
@chaplainjohn.medsky.social
· May 31
Hi, I’m a historian. My greatest hits include “Yes, people lived to 70+ in pre-modern ages; ‘average’ life span of 40 just accounts for all the kids dead before 5 with no #vaccines,” “Yes, birth control was around before Ancient Egyptians,” and “Yes, ffs, #transgender /LGBTQIA have ALWAYS been” 🗃️🧪🩺🏳️⚧️
Hi, I'm a social media Trust & Safety and policy expert. My greatest hits include "No, anonymity is not the problem", "that law is also unconstitutional", "that's not what that clause in that ToS means", "multiply your estimate of spam volume by, like, 10000x", and "people in groups are depressing".
Hi, I'm a chaplain. My greatest hits include: "That sucks," "Fuck cancer AND covid," "Actually, a lot of people in the Bible were angry at God," and "no one knows what they're doing, everybody needs to be weak sometimes."
Plus, don't miss my classic: "What if you still have a future?" ⚓️🛟🩺🧪
Plus, don't miss my classic: "What if you still have a future?" ⚓️🛟🩺🧪
Reposted by Chaplain John
I would argue that the case for dismantling ICE has, at this point, virtually nothing to do with larger questions of immigration enforcement and reform, it's just clearly incompatible with a free and democratic society to maintain a secret police force with sweeping and arbitrary authority.
Senator Gallego weighs in as well. Note that at the start of 2025 he was considered a *moderate* on immigration and co-sponsored the Laken Riley Act. Him and many other Dems have been increasingly horrified at what ICE is doing and shifted away from a "more enforcement" focus.
January 21, 2026 at 11:09 PM
I would argue that the case for dismantling ICE has, at this point, virtually nothing to do with larger questions of immigration enforcement and reform, it's just clearly incompatible with a free and democratic society to maintain a secret police force with sweeping and arbitrary authority.
The Last Jedi is amazing, and we need to stop being afraid to say it.
It was not "divisive" it is a masterpiece that many hateful people despised. Art is supposed to be challenging.
If you don't like it, cool. We can disagree. Changes nothing about the film.
www.instagram.com/reel/DTlpSy_...
It was not "divisive" it is a masterpiece that many hateful people despised. Art is supposed to be challenging.
If you don't like it, cool. We can disagree. Changes nothing about the film.
www.instagram.com/reel/DTlpSy_...
Juju Green on Instagram: "Last Jedi was actually a bop! #strawhatgoofy #movies"
5,437 likes, 361 comments - straw_hat_goofy on January 16, 2026: "Last Jedi was actually a bop! #strawhatgoofy #movies".
www.instagram.com
January 21, 2026 at 9:26 PM
The Last Jedi is amazing, and we need to stop being afraid to say it.
It was not "divisive" it is a masterpiece that many hateful people despised. Art is supposed to be challenging.
If you don't like it, cool. We can disagree. Changes nothing about the film.
www.instagram.com/reel/DTlpSy_...
It was not "divisive" it is a masterpiece that many hateful people despised. Art is supposed to be challenging.
If you don't like it, cool. We can disagree. Changes nothing about the film.
www.instagram.com/reel/DTlpSy_...
Reposted by Chaplain John
Remember what I said about how when Trump falters, the media inserts a fake, imaginary version of Trump into the news instead?
Right on cue, here are the push alerts from the 3 major newspapers lmao
January 21, 2026 at 4:46 PM
Remember what I said about how when Trump falters, the media inserts a fake, imaginary version of Trump into the news instead?
So here's a fun theological question! ⚓️
What property: i.e. from movies, video games, television shows, books are similar to religious or spiritual ideas? Like with The Matrix and Samsara? 📕
Mine is, I love Zelda, and the Triforce:
Creator - Power
Jesus - Courage
Spirit - Wisdom
What's yours??? 🧠
What property: i.e. from movies, video games, television shows, books are similar to religious or spiritual ideas? Like with The Matrix and Samsara? 📕
Mine is, I love Zelda, and the Triforce:
Creator - Power
Jesus - Courage
Spirit - Wisdom
What's yours??? 🧠
I mean, it is now a part of the common vernacular, so why not?
I will be so grateful once the Zelda movie comes out, so I can start using some of my favorite terms from there too.
(FTR, Wisdom, Courage, and Power is also vaguely trinitarian)
I will be so grateful once the Zelda movie comes out, so I can start using some of my favorite terms from there too.
(FTR, Wisdom, Courage, and Power is also vaguely trinitarian)
January 21, 2026 at 4:21 PM
So here's a fun theological question! ⚓️
What property: i.e. from movies, video games, television shows, books are similar to religious or spiritual ideas? Like with The Matrix and Samsara? 📕
Mine is, I love Zelda, and the Triforce:
Creator - Power
Jesus - Courage
Spirit - Wisdom
What's yours??? 🧠
What property: i.e. from movies, video games, television shows, books are similar to religious or spiritual ideas? Like with The Matrix and Samsara? 📕
Mine is, I love Zelda, and the Triforce:
Creator - Power
Jesus - Courage
Spirit - Wisdom
What's yours??? 🧠
Reposted by Chaplain John
The fact that *both* of the churches that have made news in Minneapolis for pro-ICE links/positions have ties to the Doug Wilson-verse (which, for those keeping track, is who oversees the church Sec. Pete Hegseth now attends) feels like evidence that the universe's writers are just getting lazy.
Via @bmietana.bsky.social: Cities Church in Minnesota is considering legal options after anti-ICE protest.
A surprising detail in here: Joe Rigney, author of the book "Sin of Empathy," is calling himself a founding pastor of this church. religionnews.com/2026/01/20/c...
A surprising detail in here: Joe Rigney, author of the book "Sin of Empathy," is calling himself a founding pastor of this church. religionnews.com/2026/01/20/c...
Cities Church in Minnesota is considering legal options after anti-ICE protest
(RNS) — Southern Baptist leaders say the protest was a violation of religious freedom and called on federal officials to protect churches.
religionnews.com
January 21, 2026 at 2:37 AM
The fact that *both* of the churches that have made news in Minneapolis for pro-ICE links/positions have ties to the Doug Wilson-verse (which, for those keeping track, is who oversees the church Sec. Pete Hegseth now attends) feels like evidence that the universe's writers are just getting lazy.
Reposted by Chaplain John
'Why aren't they in the streets' is answered almost every day in my small town by people in the streets! Rather than asking 'why aren't they in the streets' it's worth asking 'why isn't your media showing them in the streets' and 'who is served by downplaying resistane in its myriad forms.'
The idea that there are no protests in the US and no one is standing up to Trump is proving incredibly hard to kill over here in Germany. It’s become dogma, utterly detached from empirical reality.
I wonder if the people who keep talking like that understand they’re perpetuating regime propaganda.
I wonder if the people who keep talking like that understand they’re perpetuating regime propaganda.
January 21, 2026 at 3:48 PM
'Why aren't they in the streets' is answered almost every day in my small town by people in the streets! Rather than asking 'why aren't they in the streets' it's worth asking 'why isn't your media showing them in the streets' and 'who is served by downplaying resistane in its myriad forms.'
Reposted by Chaplain John
Hey southerners, put a bunch of containers of kitty litter in your car right now. Put it under your front wheels if you get stuck and it will often give you enough traction to get out.
January 21, 2026 at 1:06 PM
Hey southerners, put a bunch of containers of kitty litter in your car right now. Put it under your front wheels if you get stuck and it will often give you enough traction to get out.
Reposted by Chaplain John
When the government demands that an institution provides a list of all the Jewish employees, the outcome is never a good one
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/20/u...
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/20/u...
Penn Calls Government’s Demand for Lists of Jewish Staff ‘Disconcerting’
www.nytimes.com
January 20, 2026 at 11:32 PM
When the government demands that an institution provides a list of all the Jewish employees, the outcome is never a good one
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/20/u...
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/20/u...
Reposted by Chaplain John
Pastors working for ICE
Sex workers running mutual aid for immigrants
Which one looks more like Jesus???
Sex workers running mutual aid for immigrants
Which one looks more like Jesus???
January 21, 2026 at 1:50 PM
Pastors working for ICE
Sex workers running mutual aid for immigrants
Which one looks more like Jesus???
Sex workers running mutual aid for immigrants
Which one looks more like Jesus???
Reposted by Chaplain John
there’s also an intersection between the effort by US international law scholars to eliminate citizenship in the late-nineteenth century and white supremacy that Ilan ignores. These scholars hated the common law because they wanted blood-based citizenship. They lost in Wong Kim Ark.
I’ve criticized Ilan for not doing source criticism. Now, he’s endorsing the Trump Administration’s bad historical methods. Not only are they just throwing random people’s opinions at the wall— long after the ratification of the 14th Amendment— but they’re citing white supremicist segregationists!
January 21, 2026 at 2:07 PM
there’s also an intersection between the effort by US international law scholars to eliminate citizenship in the late-nineteenth century and white supremacy that Ilan ignores. These scholars hated the common law because they wanted blood-based citizenship. They lost in Wong Kim Ark.
Reposted by Chaplain John
And— literally, no shit, not a joke— *Everybody Clapped*.
On THE VIEW.
One of the normiest, most Pulse Of The Nation daytime TV shows there is.
Holy shit.
On THE VIEW.
One of the normiest, most Pulse Of The Nation daytime TV shows there is.
Holy shit.
You cannot overstate how startling it is to see a politician just say the thing with clarity and poise. No fearful hemming. No overwrought qualifying down til it’s meaningless. No lingering sense that there is a loyalty to a donor class or an ideology of stasis that they’d never admit to.
Mamdani: "I am in support of abolishing ICE. What we see is an entity that has no interest in fulfilling its stated reason to exist. We're seeing a government agency that is supposed to be enforcing some kind of immigration law, but instead what it's doing is terrorizing people."
January 21, 2026 at 6:17 AM
And— literally, no shit, not a joke— *Everybody Clapped*.
On THE VIEW.
One of the normiest, most Pulse Of The Nation daytime TV shows there is.
Holy shit.
On THE VIEW.
One of the normiest, most Pulse Of The Nation daytime TV shows there is.
Holy shit.
Reposted by Chaplain John
He goes on to describe one of his officers being stopped when she was off-duty solely because she's non-white, harassed by ICE goons who slapped her phone out of her hand as she tried to record, only to be let go when she finally revealed she was a cop.
Brooklyn Park police chief Mark Bruley: "We're hearing people being stopped with no cause & being demanded to show paperwork to determine if they're here legally. We started hearing from our police officers the same complaints. Every one of these individuals is a person of color... it has to stop"
January 20, 2026 at 5:53 PM
He goes on to describe one of his officers being stopped when she was off-duty solely because she's non-white, harassed by ICE goons who slapped her phone out of her hand as she tried to record, only to be let go when she finally revealed she was a cop.
Reposted by Chaplain John
Shingles vaccine may slow biological aging in older adults
www.cidrap.umn.edu
January 21, 2026 at 1:29 AM
Reposted by Chaplain John
I remain a big fan of the Democrats finally countering the dog playing basketball by bringing out a slam dunking labrador instead of complaining to the refs again
BREAKING: Maryland advances a redistricting plan that could wipe out the GOP’s last U.S. House seat in the state — as Democrats move to counter Republican gerrymanders nationwide.
Maryland moves forward with redistricting plan that would eliminate state’s last GOP seat
Read more here.
www.democracydocket.com
January 21, 2026 at 3:21 AM
I remain a big fan of the Democrats finally countering the dog playing basketball by bringing out a slam dunking labrador instead of complaining to the refs again
Reposted by Chaplain John
Minneapolis residents have joined a church-run effort to donate groceries to immigrant families who fear being caught in public by federal agents. What started with a couple of hundred deliveries a week has quickly swelled into a vast operation involving thousands of volunteers. trib.al/1qT1xMw
January 20, 2026 at 5:09 PM
Minneapolis residents have joined a church-run effort to donate groceries to immigrant families who fear being caught in public by federal agents. What started with a couple of hundred deliveries a week has quickly swelled into a vast operation involving thousands of volunteers. trib.al/1qT1xMw
Reposted by Chaplain John
The one and only time NATO has invoked Article 5 and waged collective defense was when they came to *our* aid after 9/11.
That's a fact, no matter how dumb our current president is. Just saying.
That's a fact, no matter how dumb our current president is. Just saying.
Trump: "The big fear I have with NATO is we spend tremendous amounts of money with NATO and I know we'll come to their rescue, but I just really do question whether or not they'll come to ours. Just saying."
January 20, 2026 at 8:09 PM
The one and only time NATO has invoked Article 5 and waged collective defense was when they came to *our* aid after 9/11.
That's a fact, no matter how dumb our current president is. Just saying.
That's a fact, no matter how dumb our current president is. Just saying.
Yes. More of this.
Mamdani: "I am in support of abolishing ICE. What we see is an entity that has no interest in fulfilling its stated reason to exist. We're seeing a government agency that is supposed to be enforcing some kind of immigration law, but instead what it's doing is terrorizing people."
January 20, 2026 at 8:10 PM
Yes. More of this.
Reposted by Chaplain John
DHHS here in NC has started a measles tracker. We have 8 cases here so far from people who traveled to Spartanburg.
They are updating at noon today. So have it bookmarked.
www.dph.ncdhhs.gov/programs/epi...
They are updating at noon today. So have it bookmarked.
www.dph.ncdhhs.gov/programs/epi...
Measles Cases and Outbreaks in North Carolina | Division of Public Health
www.dph.ncdhhs.gov
January 20, 2026 at 11:40 AM
DHHS here in NC has started a measles tracker. We have 8 cases here so far from people who traveled to Spartanburg.
They are updating at noon today. So have it bookmarked.
www.dph.ncdhhs.gov/programs/epi...
They are updating at noon today. So have it bookmarked.
www.dph.ncdhhs.gov/programs/epi...
Reposted by Chaplain John
this is it. this is the way forward.
January 20, 2026 at 7:37 AM
this is it. this is the way forward.
Reposted by Chaplain John
My wife is a pediatric dentist, and ICE has been raiding businesses near her clinic.
Everyday patients are canceling appointments because the parents are afraid to come near the office.
Children's teeth are rotting because of this madness.
Everyday patients are canceling appointments because the parents are afraid to come near the office.
Children's teeth are rotting because of this madness.
🚨"I'm a nurse...my brown patients are choosing to stop chemo because they do not want to be abducted." -ICE protester tells JT Cestkowski about sick Minnesotans foregoing cancer treatment because of ICE terror. LIVE NOW ⬇️
January 20, 2026 at 2:03 AM
My wife is a pediatric dentist, and ICE has been raiding businesses near her clinic.
Everyday patients are canceling appointments because the parents are afraid to come near the office.
Children's teeth are rotting because of this madness.
Everyday patients are canceling appointments because the parents are afraid to come near the office.
Children's teeth are rotting because of this madness.
Reposted by Chaplain John
Archbishop Broglio is, to put it extremely mildly, not generally viewed as one of the more liberal of the American bishops.
It’s come to this: “Catholic members of the US armed forces could in good conscience consider disobeying orders to attack Greenland if such orders were issued, according to Archbishop Timothy Broglio, the bishop responsible for the pastoral care of US military personnel.”
Military archbishop: Troops could refuse orders on Greenland
Speaking to Britain's Sunday program on BBC, Archbishop Timothy Broglio reiterated that conscience could permit refusal of an unjust military order.
aleteia.org
January 20, 2026 at 1:32 AM
Archbishop Broglio is, to put it extremely mildly, not generally viewed as one of the more liberal of the American bishops.
Reposted by Chaplain John
At about the 35-second mark the officer says "IF YOU FUCKING MOVE I'LL FUCKING TASE YOU," followed immediately by "GET OUT OF THE FUCKING CAR RIGHT NOW."
Which contradictory order are you supposed to follow, knowing that either could get you tased? Or worse?
bsky.app/profile/petr...
Which contradictory order are you supposed to follow, knowing that either could get you tased? Or worse?
bsky.app/profile/petr...
'"YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK"', has a WHOLE new meaning under #Trumpism. 🗽
January 19, 2026 at 9:08 PM
At about the 35-second mark the officer says "IF YOU FUCKING MOVE I'LL FUCKING TASE YOU," followed immediately by "GET OUT OF THE FUCKING CAR RIGHT NOW."
Which contradictory order are you supposed to follow, knowing that either could get you tased? Or worse?
bsky.app/profile/petr...
Which contradictory order are you supposed to follow, knowing that either could get you tased? Or worse?
bsky.app/profile/petr...
Reposted by Chaplain John
No idea what “sustainable” means in this context, but using a woman’s horrific state-sanctioned murder to test your social-media clout leads me to think you should just post better and be less ghoulish
A tale of three apps. Identical post sent at the same time:
Twitter: 136,000 likes, 20,000 shares
Threads: 46,000 likes, 4,000 ahares
Bluesky: 149 likes, 45 shares
To be clear, I have 60k followers on Twitter, 15k on Bluesky, but only 7k on Threads.
I love Bluesky, but this isn't sustainable.
Twitter: 136,000 likes, 20,000 shares
Threads: 46,000 likes, 4,000 ahares
Bluesky: 149 likes, 45 shares
To be clear, I have 60k followers on Twitter, 15k on Bluesky, but only 7k on Threads.
I love Bluesky, but this isn't sustainable.
January 19, 2026 at 10:27 PM
No idea what “sustainable” means in this context, but using a woman’s horrific state-sanctioned murder to test your social-media clout leads me to think you should just post better and be less ghoulish
Reposted by Chaplain John
My debit card was declined at a dunkin and I had no money. The guy gave me my whole order and told me to pay him back when I could. Again: at a *dunkin donuts*
TIMELINE CLEANSE
When's a time that a stranger helped you in an unexpected, maybe even small way?
When's a time that a stranger helped you in an unexpected, maybe even small way?
January 19, 2026 at 2:25 PM
My debit card was declined at a dunkin and I had no money. The guy gave me my whole order and told me to pay him back when I could. Again: at a *dunkin donuts*
Reposted by Chaplain John
This CBS/YouGov question on Trump lowering prices even broke through the magical 30% of people who approve of Trump without thinking.
The people are forcing Democrats to make this the centerpiece of messaging. I don't know any way around it.
The people are forcing Democrats to make this the centerpiece of messaging. I don't know any way around it.
January 19, 2026 at 5:25 AM
This CBS/YouGov question on Trump lowering prices even broke through the magical 30% of people who approve of Trump without thinking.
The people are forcing Democrats to make this the centerpiece of messaging. I don't know any way around it.
The people are forcing Democrats to make this the centerpiece of messaging. I don't know any way around it.