Great to hear. I think we're a "great rethink" moment within the field and I expect this to be an important piece in that.

Tonight! I'll be talking about Catholics in government.

We're on Zoom....details below if you'd like to join.

I'll get there sometime, I promise!

Research + teaching + student = great partnership. Also why I love my job @pennstateuniv.bsky.social

Keep an eye on @ienesatac.bsky.social!

It was a fun weekend at @sssreligion.bsky.social

A Religious Rebellion Against Mass Deportation American Christians are showing increasing discomfort with Trump’s signature policy.

Bishop Alberto Rojas of San Bernardino took the extraordinary step of formally excusing parishioners in his diocese from the obligation of attending mass weekly - because of the possibility immigration officers would seize people coming to or from church.

This makes sense given the demographic and political differences in Catholic pews. But it's a pragmatic reversal from the "fortnight for freedom" stuff. In the 1980s, the Church encouraged a "both sides doctrine" for candidate visits.

My thoughts on this topic...

bsky.app/profile/gary...

8.) Random thoughts #2

-cities are experimenting with ways for religious non-profits to contribute to public budgets. Like parcel fees or use fees. Maybe more of this to come if religious orgs are seen as partisan and partial?

7.) Random thoughts #1

-the IRS "began" non-enforcement of the Johnson Amendment decades ago...enabling the 1980s rise of wealthy preachers and partisan mobilization. An example of how the "free market of religion" produces bad religion? social conflict?

6.) What shenanigans to come?

-SC jurists will find a way to justify this as "treat religion like everyone else"....while also allowing religious orgs to avoid taxes, not follow employment law, etc.

-big religious organizations will become a hole for dark money political contributions.

5.) A few more (worrisome) reasons why this WILL change a lot:
-partisanship reduces trust in organized religion as a social good. Rough seas ahead.
-undergirds the implicit idea of non-profit organizations as benefitting the public, writ large. The downfall of non-profits ahead?

4.) A few reasons why this WILL change a lot:
-gives a minority of congregations--which are the anchor of Christian Nationalism--license for more partisanship.
-gives a minority of liberal congregations a legal way to defend their partisanship.

3.) A few more (problematic) reasons this will NOT change much:
-partisan politics were already translated into "moral issues" in religious orgs
-partisan religious congregations were already doing political speech...just not overtly from the pulpit. Side conversations. Not mention candidates. Etc.

2.) A few reasons for why this IRS rule will NOT change much:
-most clergy and most Americans don't want partisan speech from religious organizations.
-the IRS wasn't enforced the rules anyhow, so no "handcuffs are off" effect coming

1.) IRS now creates a distinction between "internal" and "external" speech in religious orgs. This is nonsensical. The Tocqueville school sees the social power of religious orgs based in the internal becoming external. Only sectarian orgs separate the two. There are few of them.

I.R.S. Says Churches Can Endorse Candidates From the Pulpit

Big news on the "Johnson Amendment" (!, ?)

A collapse of the wall between church and state? A new plank in the floor of religious liberty?

Observations from a sociologist of religion....

I.R.S. Says Churches Can Endorse Candidates From the Pulpit www.nytimes.com/2025/07/07/u...

In the early days of examining superintendent opinions on religion in schools, a perpetual headline grabber. Check it out....

Big support for studying religion and supporting student religious practice.

Big skepticism of teacher-led religious activity

First paper from our American Local Leaders Survey, a representative survey of county, municipal, and school district officials done with @mayrl.bsky.social @jonathancoley.bsky.social rebecca sager and eric plutzer.

Confidence in elections among U.S. local officials: Effects of social trust, partisanship and political ambition The U.S. public’s confidence in elections is intensively studied in the last decade but little is known about election confidence among locally elected officials, whose roles and community status may ...

One cool trick to increasing trust in elections and government: make everyone a public official.

Okay, maybe not, but still our new paper shows that local officials trust elections more. Why? Partly because they have a lot of social trust.

dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...

Read the piece to learn about how:

· USCCB fracturing over advocacy is a big deal, signaling just how much Trump/GOP's policies have pushed bishops

· It's a slow-burn result of Francis-aligned clerics finding a voice outside the USCCB

· It all adds to widespread religious opposition to Trump

Pope Leo XIV’s link to Haiti is part of a broader American story of race, citizenship and migration Repelled by American racism, thousands of free people of color bounced between New Orleans and Haiti in the 19th century.

Deep dive into Pope Leo's immigrant roots and racial identity. The type of story that is being purposefully erased in the US today.

Pope Leo XIV’s link to Haiti is part of a broader American story of race, citizenship and migration theconversation.com/pope-leo-xiv...

Yes, definitely. It's an early attempt at a purported "third way" for Catholicism. But, pedagogically at least, students were surprised at the rhetoric.

First encyclical to (begrudgingly) deal with all things modern. Labor unions, fair wages, social welfare, etc.

I used to clip quotes from this and ask students who wrote it. Most guessed Karl Marx.

Want to know why being the name Leo 14 is such a big deal?

Look was Leo 13 was up to....

www.vatican.va/content/leo-...

I'm neither Bishop nor Cardinal but, in case anyone was wondering, I also disapproved.

ICE agents are lawless, sociopathic shitbirds. Treat every one you encounter accordingly.

Really angered to hear this. I'm waiting to hear too....

Assuming there is a religion angle here, too. See Jack Jeckins' piece about her past leading Catholic Charities.

As this goes through court, will her religious liberty claim be made....and hear?

What to know about Hannah Dugan, the Milwaukee judge at center of ICE arrest investigation Dugan spent a large swath of her career working for the poor, first with legal aid organizations and then as executive director of Catholic Charities.

Dugan, the judge recently arrested by the FBI on allegations of helping an undocumented immigrant avoid ICE arrest, is also a former executive director of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. www.jsonline.com/story/news/c...

Strong Polanyi "double movement" energy brewing. Don't have the exact text in front of me, but Polanyi's inclusion of normal people organizing always struck me as right.

Rest in peace, Pope Francis, master of symbolism...

-First "Francis" pope: rebuilder of the Church

-First words as Pope: "I am a sinner..."

-Eschewed papal apartment for Vatican's "guest house"

-Favorite metaphor: The church as field hospital