Once a month, I note here that my Fall 2026 Religion and Politics class will be rocking if we get to the Fall 2026 semester. I should add that I’ll also be teaching American Catholicism…

In my intro courses, I have an assignment that requires them to come to my office hours & talk to me about anything (& I mean anything) for 5 minutes. When completed, they get 100% (weighted 5% of course grade). It amazes & saddens me that usually a handful don’t complete the assignment.

Is this going to happen every Sunday now? Posturing and threats?

Excellent!

We need @artbutmakeitsports.bsky.social to get on this one!

Congratulations to the UMW men’s basketball team!

Spoke with President Trump. He told me the conflict should be over in days, not weeks but if no deal is made he’s blowing up the whole country with “very little” off the table. "If happens, it happens. And if it doesn't, we're blowing up the whole country,” he said. I asked if there’s anything off limits. “Very little,” he said.

Again, I don’t see how you can read this as anything other than Trump trying to normalize the idea of using nuclear weapons

Florida bans sociology from core curriculum at state universities For years, Republican lawmakers and education leaders have argued that sociology — especially high-enrollment introductory courses — has been overtaken by progressive ideology

The greatest evidence for the value of a broad humanistic education is just how many people feel threatened by it. miamiherald.com/news/politic...

It isn’t. The pope must speak ex cathedra (from the chair of St Peter), in concert with the magisterium, on matters of faith and morals for it to be infallible. Popes have only done it twice: the Immaculate Conception of Mary and the Bodily Assumption of Mary into Heaven.

Orange cat with an empty wine bottle

Not my cat but Fritz, despite appearances, does not have a drinking problem

Bernard Lafayette Jr., 85, Dies; Civil Rights Leader Helped Plan Selma March

Dr. Bernard Lafayette was a civil rights leader, alumnus of American Baptist Theological Seminary, and past ABTS president as well.

Rest in power

Homeland Security @DHSgov Democrats must end this DHS shutdown NOW.

it is not normal for official government social media channels to behave like arms of the Republican Party

My Fall 2026 Religion and Politics in the US class is going to be rocking, provided we can make it to the Fall 2026 semester.

Likely not. Snake handling churches tend to be small, independent congregations in Appalachia

Religion note: According to Pew (see next post) and other sources, Mullin is a Pentecostal Christian.

Historian of evangelism and fundamentalism here: she’s absolutely right.

Good thing some US colleges are closing their Religious Studies departments—definitively not “useful” at all or an area of expertise that might be relevant for understanding our present…

War is peace

Bench Presses, Pull Ups … Kid Rock? The White House Had a Very Manly Week.

As universities are scrapping gender studies departments and courses, the “boys” in the Trump administration see their main job as engaging in performative masculinity and in naturalizing a particular form of what it means to be a man.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/20/u...

It was the only thing that came to mind.

Jesse Jackson, Civil Rights Leader Who Sought the Presidency, Dies at 84

RIP

Jesse Jackson, Civil Rights Leader Who Sought the Presidency, Dies at 84 www.nytimes.com/2026/02/17/u...

More bad news, as universities gut successful programs

Devastated to learn that Univ of Texas at Austin is closing the American Studies dept. The years I spent there earning my PhD were formative, making me the teacher, thinker, and writer I am today. I've passed on what I learned at UT to thousands of students over the past 20 years. Just awful.

Yesterday morning kids were sent running from their bus stop in panic because ICE showed up. This guy at today’s ICE Out of Lindenwold protest is a must watch 😭. @maddow.bsky.social

If this doesn’t keep you awake at night, nothing will.

I can't think of an attorney general ever showing this much open contempt for Congress before.

Not only would most of them think this kind of conduct was beneath them, they'd have known that the Judiciary Committee chair, whatever the party, would never stand for clownish antics like this.

A black cat asleep on its back with its two front legs extended

Yes, she’s still alive
#caturday

A very small Jesus figurine, dwarfed by an apple

Much more styling than my mini-Jesus!

I still don't understand why we're reporting these stories assuming those claiming to be ICE agents actually are.