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Stephen L. Young

@slyprofessor.bsky.social

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Stephen L. Young @slyprofessor.bsky.social · Nov 1

My new Open Access article! For some reason it felt relevant to discuss the Bible and the LONG history of leaders telling stories about how things used to be great before moral, ethnic, urban, gender, and family corruption bigly happened. #EduSky #Election #Bible journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

“Make Rome Great Again” Preceded “Make America Great Again”: The Ancient Romo-Nationalism of Biblical Writers - Stephen L. Young, 2024

The ideas about religious, sexual, gender, ethnic, urban, moral, and family decay that underlie “Make America Great Again’s” message have notable antecedents in...

journals.sagepub.com

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Stephen L. Young @slyprofessor.bsky.social · 6d

BigTech pouring money into every register of propaganda they can think of to make AI seem completely pervasive and normed in society.

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Stephen L. Young @slyprofessor.bsky.social · 6d

First, it’s illegal for the Trump admin to “cut” agencies that exist by Congressional law. Not that SCOTUS cares about things like law anymore.

Second, these agencies are literally run by Trump appointees now. How the fuck are they “Democrat Agencies”?

Stephen L. Young @slyprofessor.bsky.social · 6d

“…built a buzzworthy site with a contrarian bent” is a helluva translation for “Backed by billionaire donors, she ran a glorified substack that said stuff rich conservatives like to hear.”

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Stephen L. Young @slyprofessor.bsky.social · 8d

As a resident of Western North Carolina, from where Cawthorn first held a US House seat, I don't wish him on anymore.

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Stephen L. Young @slyprofessor.bsky.social · 8d

Unless they all resign.

Stephen L. Young @slyprofessor.bsky.social · 10d

But what if the Republicans and white evangelicals just insist on putting flags at half mast for a guy who openly proclaimed Great Replacement ‘theory’ while saying the Civil Rights Act was a mistake…?

Stephen L. Young @slyprofessor.bsky.social · 11d

Many thanks. Shoot me an email and I can send you a PDF of the publication version.

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Stephen L. Young @slyprofessor.bsky.social · 12d

Not a runner, but am a cyclist who lives in the mountains where it gets cold and icy! On winter days when roads are rideable, layering our kit gear keeps body heat in. If it can work at 18-40mph on a bicycle, it can work for running at slower speeds! Keeping feet from freezing is harder though…

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Stephen L. Young @slyprofessor.bsky.social · 12d

They’d lose patience long before starting the forms to have their travel itinerary approved.

Stephen L. Young @slyprofessor.bsky.social · 13d

The Administration wouldn’t even have to put together a promo spot for awarding William Calley a medal and building him a statue … since Billy Graham already wrote it for them. www.nytimes.com/1971/04/09/a...

Billy Graham: On Calley (Published 1971)

www.nytimes.com

Stephen L. Young @slyprofessor.bsky.social · 13d

Next he can award medals to the soldiers involved in the “battle of” My Lai during the Vietnam War.

Stephen L. Young @slyprofessor.bsky.social · 15d

A classic Rabbinic saying is that right belief follows right action. There’s a reason that open racism became less acceptable after Congress passed the Civil Rights Act and Fed gov ceased contracting with segregationist businesses. Some white people were forced to stop being racist, which is good.

Stephen L. Young @slyprofessor.bsky.social · 15d

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Stephen L. Young @slyprofessor.bsky.social · 17d

For years now I’ve responded to the ‘no true Scotsman’ dismissal of Christian harm by saying something like, “Doesn’t your religion teach you to take responsibility for your people and repent by cleaning up your messes … instead of making excuses?” Sometimes it gets folks to pause and reflect.

Stephen L. Young @slyprofessor.bsky.social · 19d

Major congrats, and I can't wait to dig in and be enriched by it for my own writing. Well done!

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Stephen L. Young @slyprofessor.bsky.social · 19d

Clearly we are seeing some "authentic" and "grass roots" unfiltered feelings of first-semester college students who want to fire profs.** ✅

**To be clear, we are absolutely not seeing moral-panic feelings that are curated and incited by coordinated influencer campaigns in Conservative media.

Stephen L. Young @slyprofessor.bsky.social · 19d

If you're interested, I published an article in 2015 that argues evangelical scholars and leaders set up an entire shadow realm of 'scholarship' for themselves that's supposed to look like it has academic validity even though only pro-inerrancy approaches are allowed www.academia.edu/10039504/_Pr...

"Protective Strategies and the Prestige of the 'Academic': A Religious Studies and Practice Theory Redescription of Evangelical Inerrantist Scholarship

This article examines how Evangelical Christian inerrantist scholars theorize their biblical scholarship and its relation to the broader academy, highlighting (1) their self-representation as true aca...

www.academia.edu

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Stephen L. Young @slyprofessor.bsky.social · 19d

Ok, this made me feel really old for some reason. Something about remembering when Champ was drafted and also seeing Kirby now and not thinking “Well that looks like a Safety!” Anyway, both of them could probably still break a puny cyclist like me in half…

Reposted by Stephen L. Young

Stephen L. Young @slyprofessor.bsky.social · 20d

It is a completely open 'secret' (b/c media don't discuss it) that Evangelical orgs openly fire professors, ministers, and staff who even think-aloud in a way that differs from leadership and donors. They make no apologies and demand they be given this exemption to cultivate their insular spaces.

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Stephen L. Young @slyprofessor.bsky.social · 20d

“Local TV stations” = What Sinclair and other major corps that purchased “local” TV stations decide to air.

Stephen L. Young @slyprofessor.bsky.social · 20d

On a smaller level, last year I emailed the head of a campus ministry whose students had chalked antisemitic stuff on campus while chalking Bible verses. I offered to come speak with them since my guess is they didn't realize what they'd done and would want to do better. Dude never even replied.

Stephen L. Young @slyprofessor.bsky.social · 20d

My colleagues & I have joked for years about FIRE's special exemption for Christian colleges. Apparently if you're just open about being an authoritarian, misogynist, and/or homophobic fiefdom, you get a pass? It's almost like the conservative panic over free speech was about only them having power?

Stephen L. Young @slyprofessor.bsky.social · 20d

My ThM advisor was forced out of the evangelical seminary I attended for publishing a book that (Checks Notes) explicitly argued for an evangelical approach to the Bible ... it just wasn't Evangelical-enough in the right ways for leadership and donors and other profs who wanted to start a fight.

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Stephen L. Young @slyprofessor.bsky.social · 20d

And as women & minority scholars who study Evangelicalism have explained, the idea that just anyone could go have good-faith & safe critical discussions in conservative churches requires erasing the long histories of incredible violence, misogyny, and threats such folks have faced from evangelicals.

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Stephen L. Young @slyprofessor.bsky.social · 20d

Conservative evangelical leaders only tend to allow opposing views into their insular fiefdoms in carefully curated events that let them frame the issues and functionally have the last word. The idea they'd allow someone to unleash a fire-hose of critiques and make gotcha dunk-on videos is laughable

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