Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Jonathan Branch @jonathanbranch.bsky.social · 4h

George Floyd and Charlie Kirk shared the same birthday.

Floyd’s murder by police reminds me how much work remains in pursuit of “liberty and justice for all.”
Charlie’s life reminds me that so many stand in opposition to liberty and justice and baptize their opposition in religious language.

Jonathan Branch @jonathanbranch.bsky.social · 2d

bookshop.org/p/books/lost...

Lost, Hidden, Small: Finding the Way of Jesus Where We Never Think to Look

Finding the Way of Jesus Where We Never Think to Look

bookshop.org

Jonathan Branch @jonathanbranch.bsky.social · 2d

@broadleafbooks.bsky.social

1 1 1

Jonathan Branch @jonathanbranch.bsky.social · 5d

It will be interesting to see if he and his family make it out on Thursday.

Evangelicals voted for this.

1

Jonathan Branch @jonathanbranch.bsky.social · 5d

@broadleafbooks.bsky.social

bookshop.org/p/books/lost...

Lost, Hidden, Small: Finding the Way of Jesus Where We Never Think to Look

Finding the Way of Jesus Where We Never Think to Look

bookshop.org

Jonathan Branch @jonathanbranch.bsky.social · 5d

1

Jonathan Branch @jonathanbranch.bsky.social · 6d

Stoked about what, now?

Jonathan Branch @jonathanbranch.bsky.social · 10d

What is essential, though, is that each of us—including those of us who work for justice—admit our lostness and look to be found. This is a tough one for me.

Restoration > retribution

@broadleafbooks.bsky.social

bookshop.org/p/books/lost...

Lost, Hidden, Small: Finding the Way of Jesus Where We Never Think to Look

Finding the Way of Jesus Where We Never Think to Look

bookshop.org

Jonathan Branch @jonathanbranch.bsky.social · 10d

They were lost together in their pain, their pride, and their alienation of the “other.”

This doesn’t mean they were equally privileged or empowered. Accountability and repair requires something different of each of us.

1

Jonathan Branch @jonathanbranch.bsky.social · 10d

“When Jesus talked about the lost, he was talking to bitterly divided groups of people.”

Oppressors and oppressed—the people in the crowd were and had been both victims and offenders at various times. Each of them needed to recover wholeness, first within themselves, then among one another.

1

Jonathan Branch @jonathanbranch.bsky.social · 17d

bookshop.org/p/books/lost...

Lost, Hidden, Small: Finding the Way of Jesus Where We Never Think to Look

Finding the Way of Jesus Where We Never Think to Look

bookshop.org

Jonathan Branch @jonathanbranch.bsky.social · 17d

“A life of faith is a life of unlearning our certainty… Life with Jesus is learning to see as Jesus sees.
And here's the thing: On the Jesus Way, sight precedes salvation … And seeing, we enter into the kingdom, stunned to realize it is already in our midst.”
K H Murphy
@broadleafbooks.bsky.social

1 1 1

Jonathan Branch @jonathanbranch.bsky.social · 21d

To all the school students complaining “why do I have to learn this? I’m never gonna use it”

You might be president one day, and we’re gonna need you to know some stuff.

Jonathan Branch @jonathanbranch.bsky.social · Aug 1

www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2025/07...

FCC postpones its groundbreaking 2024 rules, allowing excessive phone and video rates to continue

Incarcerated people and their loved ones will continue to be exploited by sheriffs and telecom companies for two more years, while these same interests lobby ...

www.prisonpolicy.org

Jonathan Branch @jonathanbranch.bsky.social · Aug 1

@PayTelComm advertises itself as an ethical company that invests in “restorative initiatives,” but as soon as @FCC caved to the sheriffs and backed out of its 2024 ruling, PayTel doubled the cost of phone calls for incarcerated people.

Integrity has a price, I guess.

1

Jonathan Branch @jonathanbranch.bsky.social · Jan 30

I keep thinking about the sacred-secular split that “worldview” people make into a thing.
Not sure I can get those thoughts into a post though.

1

Jonathan Branch @jonathanbranch.bsky.social · Jan 30

I think for some it’s the idea that Jesus’s message is personal, not political—Jesus wants one person to care for another, but government is about swords and punishments. (I used to think that way too.)

1 1

Jonathan Branch @jonathanbranch.bsky.social · Jan 29

Imagine following the law for years only to be told in a moment that the “law” changed its mind and has decided to prosecute you as a “criminal” for following the law in the first place.
baptistnews.com/article/quak...

Quakers file suit to stop ICE raids at churches like what happened Sunday

One day after federal immigration agents arrested a man at a church in Georgia, a coalition of Quaker meetings filed suit in federal court to block the Department of Homeland Security raids at houses ...

baptistnews.com

1 3

Jonathan Branch @jonathanbranch.bsky.social · Jan 22

The criminal justice system in this country is already short of justice. Having a president who mocks the very notion of justice is incredibly shameful.

6

Jonathan Branch @jonathanbranch.bsky.social · Jan 22

He did not try to overthrow the government. Nor did he assault police officers. He made a bad choice related to drugs. Years of incarceration, loss of job, strain on wife and kids, still facing “collateral consequences” after “paying his debt to society.”

1 3

Jonathan Branch @jonathanbranch.bsky.social · Jan 22

One thing that bothers me about the pardons is that I work everyday with men incarcerated for far less. Last week, a man who completed our program was denied a job, not because he wasn’t qualified, because he has 6 mos of supervised release.

Jonathan Branch @jonathanbranch.bsky.social · Jan 22

“Shalom cannot coexist with violence masquerading as law, where people are crushed under the weight of injustice.
To imagine shalom is to dare to believe in a world built on justice and restoration.”

missouriindependent.com/2025/01/20/m...

Martin Luther King’s work is not done. It was a blueprint and a battle cry • Missouri Independent

Today is a day of reckoning. Today, resurgent white supremacy takes the oath of office on a day meant to commemorate a Black man who, 61 years before, stood at the other end of the National Mall and d...

missouriindependent.com

1 4

Jonathan Branch @jonathanbranch.bsky.social · Jan 22

“Shalom cannot coexist with violence masquerading as law, where people are crushed under the weight of injustice.
To imagine shalom is to dare to believe in a world built on justice and restoration.”

missouriindependent.com/2025/01/20/m...

Martin Luther King’s work is not done. It was a blueprint and a battle cry • Missouri Independent

Today is a day of reckoning. Today, resurgent white supremacy takes the oath of office on a day meant to commemorate a Black man who, 61 years before, stood at the other end of the National Mall and d...

missouriindependent.com

2

Jonathan Branch @jonathanbranch.bsky.social · Jan 13

If Jesus asked the marginalized to vouch for me, would they?

(A thought from Brandon McCoy’s sermon yesterday).

Jonathan Branch @jonathanbranch.bsky.social · Jan 12

Church denominations and statements of belief are helpful. They let you know who’s not welcome.

1

Reposted by Jonathan Branch

Sojourners @sojo.net · Jan 3

“I didn’t want to be a preacher or a priest, but once you find your voice, you become that no matter what.”

Meet the Street Artist Who Calls His Work Church

“I didn’t want to be a preacher or a priest, but once you find your voice, you become that no matter what.”

buff.ly

2 3