From the pulpit to the picket line: For many miners, religion and labor rights have long been connected in coal country The retirement of United Mine Workers of America’s longtime president is a reminder that labor and religion have always been entangled in coal country.

Something I wrote on the occasion of the retirement of Cecil Roberts, president of the United Mine Workers of America for the past 30 years.

If you're using this article in any of your classes this term I'd be happy to Zoom into your class to discuss it.

Had a great time a couple of weeks ago with this amazing gang, plus Oren Lyons and Jake Edwards.

Utah Lawmakers Mandate a University Refocus Gen-Ed Courses on Civics and Viewpoint Diversity A new law directs Utah State to overhaul its curriculum to highlight the Western canon and civil discourse. It’s part of a pilot program legislators want to expand to more campuses.

Nothing says "viewpoint diversity" like (*checks notes*) restricting curricula to a mandated viewpoint.

Nearly 200 Missouri Faith Leaders Urge Lawmakers to Promote Religious Liberty, Not Ten Commandments As members of the Missouri Education Committee consider legislation that would mandate the posting of an edited version of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms, 193 clergy and other faith ...

166 faith leaders in Texas & 193 faith leaders in Missouri urge state lawmakers to oppose bills mandating posting of Ten Commandments in public schools (publicwitness.wordandway.org/p/nearly-200...). These hundreds of faith leaders prove such bills aren't about Christianity but #ChristianNationalism

Wobbly Religion: Tactical Formations of Religious Idioms and Space in the Industrial Capitalist City Abstract. This article presents an approach to studying religion, class, and labor that does not focus on workers’ religiosity or religious affiliation. Ra

Thought I'd throw this out there just because I was thinking about it again this morning.

Since Trump is busy unilaterally renaming bodies of water down south, thought we’d get started up in New England.

How’s this?

Pope rebukes Trump over migrant deportations and refutes VP Vance's theology In a strongly-worded letter to Catholic bishops in the United States, Pope Francis is taking to task the Trump Administration's stance on migrants, and that he's following what he calls a "major crisi...

Americans purport to take religion seriously, but so many Americans don't even know much about the religious traditions and institutions they identify with and claim as justification for their socio-political views.

Religion is complicated. Obviously. In the US over the past few decades the general public discourse seems to have reduced "religion" to "Christianity," and "Christianity" to a particular socio-political brand. But religion won't be so easily contained.

MAJOR BREAKING: Pope Francis has written a letter to US Bishops saying he’s following “major crisis” of “mass deportations;” takes on Vance saying “The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the “Good Samaritan”

Pope Francis’ letter to U.S. Bishops is incedibly powerful. This stands out to me especially. Every purported Christian faith leader who has endorsed or stood silent before Trump’s ugly immigration policies needs to be confronted with this statement.

www.vatican.va/content/fran...

This is ridiculous.

So when all was said and done, the only country that opened it's prisons and sent crazy murderous criminals to prey upon innocent American citizens, was us.

welcome back Don Quixote (1605)

I sometimes find myself reminded that there are many, many things going on every day that reveal that we live in multiple, different realities.

Travelling Wilburys - Tweeter And The Monkey Man YouTube video by Music is the best!

My first thought on seeing this, and I was confused! youtu.be/wcI1GKikLg4?...

Banning trans kids from sports solves *none* of the problems that Americans are facing.

Let’s be real: Trans kids aren't the reason we can't afford groceries. Trans kids aren't the reason young people are giving up on ever owning a home.

Corporate greed is.

Nobody wants a student essay as a product; we want students to learn to compose their thoughts in written form as a process. I mean, would you have a machine run your laps or play your scales for you? In which case we would not say you had run or played.

It’s funny that we are all acknowledging that private health care is an absolute bureaucratic nightmare designed to limit treatment at the expense of patients’ lives and lots of people still believe that trans kids are just walking into medical facilities and getting treatment without question.

Between Whale Teeth and the Moral Uses of the Sea: Considering Religion in the US Whaling Industry’s Extractive Zone This article argues that the nineteenth century US whaling industry provides an oceanic perspective on extractive zones that illuminates their multi-sited, multiscalar nature where the local and globa...

I'll introduce what I've been working on lately with this link to my most recent publication, a short piece on thinking religion through the planetary connections of the 19th century whaling industry: www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/15...

The whole special issue on religion in extractive zones is great.

amazing that packer wrote this about an election result in which no one got above 50% of the vote.

the thing you have to understand about the commentary class is that many of them are embarrassed elites who are overly credulous toward right-wing populist claims for reasons of self-loathing

Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum response in a letter to Donald Trump's tariffs threat against Mexico for immigrants crossing into the United States.

We all know how much Trump fears and hates powerful women.

👇👇👇👇👇👇👇

If your government has $10 billion to invest in new nuclear power - the earliest that nuclear power will be available will be in 2034.

That $10 billion can build more than 10x the amount of solar + wind + batteries in under 12 months.

Opportunity Cost Lesson 101.

“Don’t feed the trolls” also extends to bad opinion pieces in papers of record.

They run them bc people react to them the most.

If we stop linking to bad columns and instead post thinkers we find valuable (& generate convo around it), incentives change.

It’s not easy and takes constant practice!

Wrote this up more fully, same bottom line on Washington: there is no carve out for slavery. "Slavery was not an incidental factor in his life. It was part of all that he did and accomplished. His world was made by, and bound by, the centrality of slavery." 1/ time.com/7173647/geor...

Greetings all!!! Ian from Fire Draw Near here. Glad not to be in the other place any longer!!! campsite.bio/firedrawnear