Have you noticed how the language of spiritual and emotional health has been co-opted. Might it be more helpful and substantial for us to talk less about health and more about the slow work of character change?

Check out my latest Substack and offer thoughts. open.substack.com/pub/sitwithc...

come for the extended intro where i call jd vance a loser, stay for my analysis connecting vance's argument to the most reactionary antebellum views of citizenship

Jesus healed the sick, welcomed the foreigner, and lifted up the outcast.MAGA Jesus builds walls, cages children, and cheers for war.We grieve how far some have strayed from the real Jesus.

#caturday

Last week, @rhodesben.bsky.social and I did a Munk Debates against Kevin Roberts and Kellyanne Conway on whether Trump is leading America into a new golden age.

We won. This is from my closing statement.

There’s nothing golden about a movement that bathes in gratuitous cruelty.

The story of Ruth is driven by God’s care for vulnerable people.

What if God’s people decided to drive Ruth back to her own land?

What if Boaz was insensitive to the plight of sojourners & vulnerable women in his field?

What if the town withheld care for the poor, the sojourner, and the elderly?

A lament: The willful rejection of conscience. Highlighting opponents’ hypocrisy while rationalizing our own contradictions. Abandoning civic courage for power. Feeding them red meat rather than speaking responsibly. Sacrificing the future on the altar of now. Defiling national legacy. Tragic.

“The kind of biblical worldview Jesus wants you to have is inseparable from the kind of heart Jesus wants you to have.”
—Michael Wear, The Spirit of Our Politics

“In America the law is king. For as in absolute governments the king is law, so in free countries the law ought to be king; and there ought to be no other.” – Thomas Paine

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/23/o...

Historian here:

“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”

― Theodore Roosevelt

Dear Ben - please don’t make me wait long for season 3. Please!🙏🏽 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽

@benstiller.redhour.com

#severance

Russia kidnaps Ukrainian children and gives them to Russians to erase their heritage and demoralize Ukraine. Over 20,000 so far. And the US just stopped helping track these kids and likely deleted the database of all the research. Pure evil, right maga?

We cannot make the world Christian through un-Christlike means and methods.

It's still early, of course, but I do wonder if one consequence of Trump 2.0 will be to cure Europe's recent flirtation with the far-right. They're seeing what the new right looks like in power, and it's very ugly and incompetent.

THE MINUTE YOU HURL AN INSULT (you're an idiot), flash an adjective (this is ridiculous!!), refuse to engage and reflect (ignore the question and go on a rant), it is hard to take you and your thoughts seriously. (Don't rush to show me previous posts. This post is for me 1st, then everybody else).

If you're into the way of Jesus, and if you're interested in the way it intersects with politics, read this article I wrote for @christianitytoday.com

www.christianitytoday.com/2025/03/anti...

Blessed are the peacemakers… even in politics.

Jesus didn’t give us the Beatitudes as suggestions—He gave them as a way of life. Mercy over malice. Truth over tribalism. Peacemaking over point-scoring. But let’s be real… how often does our political culture make excuses for ignoring them?

“Pro-life”