Benjamin Stewart
@bstewdlh.bsky.social
ecology & ritual, science & religion, Duluth & Two Harbors, fat tires & fast bikes; liturgy professor @LSTC; Emory GDR PhD; ELCA pastor; north shore of Lake Superior
In lectures on natural burial, I often contrast the gritty reality of natural burial w/ what I describe as a curated "Martha Stewart approach"... but now that's apparently going to be a thing www.the-express.com/entertainmen...
Martha Stewart, 84, wants to be composted in 'clean linen sheet' like her horses
Martha Stewart wants to be composted after her death, following the same natural burial method she uses for her horses on her property.
www.the-express.com
December 5, 2025 at 9:23 PM
In lectures on natural burial, I often contrast the gritty reality of natural burial w/ what I describe as a curated "Martha Stewart approach"... but now that's apparently going to be a thing www.the-express.com/entertainmen...
Reposted by Benjamin Stewart
AI Is Not Inevitable
join AAUP for a conversation with educators, educator unions, and the Collaborative Research Center for Resilience
zoom.us/webinar/regi...
join AAUP for a conversation with educators, educator unions, and the Collaborative Research Center for Resilience
zoom.us/webinar/regi...
December 5, 2025 at 1:18 PM
AI Is Not Inevitable
join AAUP for a conversation with educators, educator unions, and the Collaborative Research Center for Resilience
zoom.us/webinar/regi...
join AAUP for a conversation with educators, educator unions, and the Collaborative Research Center for Resilience
zoom.us/webinar/regi...
Reposted by Benjamin Stewart
The question of whether one act of murder broke rules of war - when there is no war, when dozens of ppl have already been executed w/o trial, when there is attempt to overthrow a sovereign govt by force - is starting to feel less like an investigation than an act of imperial legitimation
December 4, 2025 at 11:29 PM
The question of whether one act of murder broke rules of war - when there is no war, when dozens of ppl have already been executed w/o trial, when there is attempt to overthrow a sovereign govt by force - is starting to feel less like an investigation than an act of imperial legitimation
Reposted by Benjamin Stewart
Things seem bleak, and that's been the way of things for a few years now. Which is exactly the feeling that led me to write this book - that now has its very own webpage where you can preorder it!
(guaranteed to help with feelings of impending doom)
press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
(guaranteed to help with feelings of impending doom)
press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
A Perturbed System
A moving study of how religion shapes Western climate discourse. Our ecological system is disturbed, and with it, every other system we’ve built to inhabit it. We do not face inevitable destruction,...
press.uchicago.edu
September 18, 2025 at 12:32 PM
Things seem bleak, and that's been the way of things for a few years now. Which is exactly the feeling that led me to write this book - that now has its very own webpage where you can preorder it!
(guaranteed to help with feelings of impending doom)
press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
(guaranteed to help with feelings of impending doom)
press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
Reposted by Benjamin Stewart
People having all sorts of weird folk beliefs with only loose ties to material reality that spread organically via social connections is, like, the normal state of being for humans.
December 1, 2025 at 5:41 PM
People having all sorts of weird folk beliefs with only loose ties to material reality that spread organically via social connections is, like, the normal state of being for humans.
Reposted by Benjamin Stewart
You ever just sit down and realize that the rise of 21st century fascism is capital's answer to climate change?
November 21, 2025 at 9:25 AM
You ever just sit down and realize that the rise of 21st century fascism is capital's answer to climate change?
Reposted by Benjamin Stewart
On this day in 1883: Standard Time is adopted across the United States, to simplify travel and communications, while keeping clocks within a half hour of solar time. #OTD
November 18, 2025 at 4:21 PM
On this day in 1883: Standard Time is adopted across the United States, to simplify travel and communications, while keeping clocks within a half hour of solar time. #OTD
Reposted by Benjamin Stewart
From this minister's op-ed: "People wanting to experience God are more likely to meet the Divine trying to shut down the Broadview, Illinois, ICE facility than we ever were in church...God does not live in our houses of worship, but...with those who are bearing the brunt of cruelty in this moment."
Oh wow @reuters.com got the photo here:
November 14, 2025 at 9:38 PM
From this minister's op-ed: "People wanting to experience God are more likely to meet the Divine trying to shut down the Broadview, Illinois, ICE facility than we ever were in church...God does not live in our houses of worship, but...with those who are bearing the brunt of cruelty in this moment."
Reposted by Benjamin Stewart
I’m out here at Broadview ICE detention center where a group of inter-faith leaders just got arrested trying to deliver pastoral care to those locked up inside. Peg Haar from Grace Lutheran Church in Evanston says both her son and her pastor were arrested just now.
November 14, 2025 at 4:57 PM
I’m out here at Broadview ICE detention center where a group of inter-faith leaders just got arrested trying to deliver pastoral care to those locked up inside. Peg Haar from Grace Lutheran Church in Evanston says both her son and her pastor were arrested just now.
Reposted by Benjamin Stewart
On principle I simply don’t endorse wishing violence on people, especially as a public joke. For a host of reasons including how wishing violence on people changes the *wisher*. On this point I think people should be careful for *spiritual* reasons, whether or not it’s simply expedient.
November 14, 2025 at 3:36 PM
On principle I simply don’t endorse wishing violence on people, especially as a public joke. For a host of reasons including how wishing violence on people changes the *wisher*. On this point I think people should be careful for *spiritual* reasons, whether or not it’s simply expedient.
Happy 3,177th anniversary of the first recorded workers’ strike ✊
November 14, 1152 BCE: the first recorded workers' strike occurred in ancient Egypt under Pharaoh Ramses III. Artisans and laborers working on the royal tombs at Deir el-Medina stopped working in protest of delayed and insufficient rations, a form of wages. collezioni.museoegizio.it/en-GB/materi...
November 14, 2025 at 12:56 PM
Happy 3,177th anniversary of the first recorded workers’ strike ✊
Reposted by Benjamin Stewart
Why clergy should risk assault to protest ICE religionnews.com/2025/11/13/w...
Why clergy should risk assault to protest ICE
(RNS) — For people wanting to experience God, we are more likely to meet the Divine trying to shut down the Broadview, Illinois, ICE facility than we ever were in church.
religionnews.com
November 13, 2025 at 4:53 PM
Why clergy should risk assault to protest ICE religionnews.com/2025/11/13/w...
Reposted by Benjamin Stewart
“Federal authorities told demonstrators Friday that there would be ‘no more prayer’ in front of or inside the Broadview ICE facility, in a move that mystified local leaders and raised legal questions.” blockclubchicago.org/2025/11/07/f...
Feds Tell Faith Leaders 'No More Prayer' Outside Broadview Facility
In a possible violation of the First Amendment, federal officials instructed demonstrators to stop holding religious gatherings outside the immigration processing facility in suburban Broadview after ...
blockclubchicago.org
November 8, 2025 at 12:04 PM
“Federal authorities told demonstrators Friday that there would be ‘no more prayer’ in front of or inside the Broadview ICE facility, in a move that mystified local leaders and raised legal questions.” blockclubchicago.org/2025/11/07/f...
Reposted by Benjamin Stewart
What advice would you give to younger people to help them prepare for getting older? Here’s what adults ages 65 and older had to say. 🧓🧵👇
Full analysis: www.pewresearch.org/...
Full analysis: www.pewresearch.org/...
November 7, 2025 at 5:35 PM
What advice would you give to younger people to help them prepare for getting older? Here’s what adults ages 65 and older had to say. 🧓🧵👇
Full analysis: www.pewresearch.org/...
Full analysis: www.pewresearch.org/...
Reposted by Benjamin Stewart
To put this in scale, Elon Musk's salary from Tesla alone could fund the SNAP program for the entire country into 2034.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk scored a resounding victory on Thursday as shareholders approved a pay package of as much as $878 billion over the next decade, endorsing his vision of morphing the EV maker into an AI and robotics juggernaut.
Tesla shareholders approve $878 billion pay plan for Elon Musk
Tesla CEO Elon Musk scored a resounding victory on Thursday as shareholders approved a pay package of as much as $878 billion over the next decade, endorsing his vision of morphing the EV maker into an AI and robotics juggernaut.
reut.rs
November 6, 2025 at 10:19 PM
To put this in scale, Elon Musk's salary from Tesla alone could fund the SNAP program for the entire country into 2034.
Reposted by Benjamin Stewart
Ellis rules that the Trump administration impermissibly prevented the free exercise of religion, in violation of the First Amendment.
Those engaged in prayer have been shot, without warning, with pepper balls and tear gas, Ellis says.
Those engaged in prayer have been shot, without warning, with pepper balls and tear gas, Ellis says.
November 6, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Ellis rules that the Trump administration impermissibly prevented the free exercise of religion, in violation of the First Amendment.
Those engaged in prayer have been shot, without warning, with pepper balls and tear gas, Ellis says.
Those engaged in prayer have been shot, without warning, with pepper balls and tear gas, Ellis says.
Reposted by Benjamin Stewart
This article has a stubborn individualist frame but the references to religious community seem relevant for faith-based community organizers. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/n...
A Little-Noted Element Propelled Mamdani’s Rise: Gen Z Loneliness
www.nytimes.com
November 5, 2025 at 2:17 PM
This article has a stubborn individualist frame but the references to religious community seem relevant for faith-based community organizers. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/n...
Reposted by Benjamin Stewart
“I’m not in any way an effective, good, or faithful Anglican.... But I’m interested in the idea that [my local church] provides something which, at least in contemporary capitalism, seems very hard to find elsewhere.” —Zadie Smith
The Solidarity of the Hopeful | Zadie Smith, Tash Aw, Juan Gabriel Vásquez
Living on the Spanish island of Mallorca in 1936, the French writer Georges Bernanos found himself engulfed by the civil war then raging across Spain. A
buff.ly
November 3, 2025 at 1:03 PM
“I’m not in any way an effective, good, or faithful Anglican.... But I’m interested in the idea that [my local church] provides something which, at least in contemporary capitalism, seems very hard to find elsewhere.” —Zadie Smith
Reposted by Benjamin Stewart
ICE detained a Virginia mom while she was driving her 16yo daughter to school bc she couldn’t recall her SS#.
“The agent got flustered and lunged at her,” said her daughter.
ICE arrested her even after she showed proof of legal status.
“I want this video out there because I want my mother home.”
“The agent got flustered and lunged at her,” said her daughter.
ICE arrested her even after she showed proof of legal status.
“I want this video out there because I want my mother home.”
November 1, 2025 at 11:43 PM
ICE detained a Virginia mom while she was driving her 16yo daughter to school bc she couldn’t recall her SS#.
“The agent got flustered and lunged at her,” said her daughter.
ICE arrested her even after she showed proof of legal status.
“I want this video out there because I want my mother home.”
“The agent got flustered and lunged at her,” said her daughter.
ICE arrested her even after she showed proof of legal status.
“I want this video out there because I want my mother home.”
Zohran Mamdani's first paying gig in politics was for an ELCA pastor? (swoon) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khader_...
Khader El-Yateem - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
November 2, 2025 at 1:28 AM
Zohran Mamdani's first paying gig in politics was for an ELCA pastor? (swoon) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khader_...
Great list for church book discussion. I’d add @angeladenker.bsky.social’s books, and the interfaith perspective of Valarie Kaur’s “See No Stranger” which we’re currently reading
Where can lefties improve?
I think knowledge about Christian nationalism is a big gap with progressives, lefties, socialists, etc. This is a problem because it means that people aren't always strategizing around the opposition we actually face.
Here are my recs for self-ed 🧵
I think knowledge about Christian nationalism is a big gap with progressives, lefties, socialists, etc. This is a problem because it means that people aren't always strategizing around the opposition we actually face.
Here are my recs for self-ed 🧵
The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism
Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism
bookshop.org
October 30, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Great list for church book discussion. I’d add @angeladenker.bsky.social’s books, and the interfaith perspective of Valarie Kaur’s “See No Stranger” which we’re currently reading
“Green burials have been around since the dawn of man. Putting a moratorium on green burials is like putting a moratorium on the wheel or stone tools,” said Connell.
www.northernnewsnow.com/2025/10/24/g...
www.northernnewsnow.com/2025/10/24/g...
Proposed Green burial cemetery in Carlton County in federal lawsuit
The controversial plot of land in Blackhoof Township was purchased in 2023 by Steelmantown Church, a New Jersey nonprofit that runs natural cemeteries in other parts of the country.
www.northernnewsnow.com
October 29, 2025 at 1:58 AM
“Green burials have been around since the dawn of man. Putting a moratorium on green burials is like putting a moratorium on the wheel or stone tools,” said Connell.
www.northernnewsnow.com/2025/10/24/g...
www.northernnewsnow.com/2025/10/24/g...
Reposted by Benjamin Stewart
Muslim British Journalist Sami Hamdi has been abducted by ICE. He was already in the U.S. legally on a visa, but was abducted while attempting to fly from San Francisco to Florida on a domestic flight. Laura Loomer is taking credit for getting him abducted due to his criticism of Israel and the US.
October 26, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Muslim British Journalist Sami Hamdi has been abducted by ICE. He was already in the U.S. legally on a visa, but was abducted while attempting to fly from San Francisco to Florida on a domestic flight. Laura Loomer is taking credit for getting him abducted due to his criticism of Israel and the US.