Sharing what I'm about to start learning.
Wednesday, May 20, 2026
Monday, May 18, 2026
U.S. White Christian Nationalism at 'Rededicate 250'
"To be clear, the empirical definition of Christian nationalism is not “loving Jesus and being patriotic.”
CN is a desire to fuse a particular expression of Christianity with American civic life, with the gov’t at all levels preserving and enforcing that fusion."
Andrew Whitehead, author of American Idolatry, Bluesky
"On Sunday [May 17, 2026] the Trump administration will present its own vision of a Christian revival when it hosts a prayer gathering on the Mall in Washington. The event, billed as “Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving,” is being held to “prepare” America for its 250th anniversary in July.
* * *
Theologically conservative religious congregations located in Republican-majority areas experienced greater growth and vitality, according to the study. Researchers say the appeal of leaders such as President Donald Trump and the late conservative speaker Charlie Kirk – heroes to many White evangelicals – may have contributed to the growth in evangelical congregations.
* * *
The renewed vitality of the evangelical church can also be seen in Rededicate 250 on the National Mall on Sunday. The lineup of speakers includes White evangelical pastors such as the Rev. Franklin Graham and the Rev. Robert Jeffress, alongside such Republican figures as House Speaker Mike Johnson, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The gathering will feature live music, public prayer and scriptural readings and is framed by the ideology of White Christian nationalism, the false belief that America was founded as a Christian nation. Organizers say it will honor the Christian faith “that inspired America’s founders” and give thanks for “God’s presence in our national life throughout 250 years of American history.”
The event comes as the Trump administration is drawing fire for injecting its version of Christianity into American political life. The administration has been criticized for framing the Iran war as a Christian crusade. President Trump upset many Catholics with his recent feud with Pope Leo over foreign policy, and further inflamed some Christian supporters when he posted an AI-generated image of himself as a Christ-like figure healing a sick person. (The post was later deleted after Trump said he thought the image depicted him as a doctor.)"
"Religion is ‘back in fashion’ in America. Here’s why," John Blake, CNN, May 16, 2026
"The speaker list tells you exactly what this is: Franklin Graham, Robert Jeffress, Jonathan Falwell, Paula White, and more, standing alongside cabinet secretaries lending the full weight of the federal government to a Christian Nationalist rebranding of America.
It is a government-sponsored revival meeting dressed up as patriotism."
Fish Stark, American Humanist Association executive director, May 14, 2026
"The President just released his 'counterterrorism strategy' and named 'secular political groups' as one of their targets. He ended it by saying 'we will find you, and we will kill you.'
This conveniently comes right before this weekend’s 'Rededicate 250' event on the National Mall a government-sponsored day of prayer, paid for with your tax dollars."
Fish Stark, American Humanist Association executive director, May 15, 2026
"Event organizers with “Freedom 250,” a partisan public-private partnership created by Trump outside congressional oversight, are framing their spectacle as a supposed continuation of America’s Christian founding, pointing to a “day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer” declared by the Continental Congress on May 17, 1776."
Nick Fish, president of American Atheists, May 16, 2026 email
Read: ‘Jubilee of Christian Nationalism’: Trump Event Denounced as Attack on Church and State Separation: “If President Trump and his allies truly cared about America’s legacy of religious freedom, they would be celebrating church-state separation as the unique American invention that has allowed religious diversity to flourish.” Julia Conley, Common Dreams, May 15, 2026
"I spent half the day on Sunday down on the National Mall attending Rededicate250, an event sponsored by the White House as part of the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the nation (Shout out to my friend Dr. Steve Livingston, Professor of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University, who came with me and shared his own astute observations). Today, I’ve talked to both NPR and CNN about what I saw and what I think it means.
You can watch my interview on CNN Situation Room above or here at CNN. And you can listen to the interview on NPR’s “Morning Edition” below. And scroll down for a photojournalism-style account of my encounter with the bad faith on the National Mall."
Postcards from the Rededicate250 Christian Nationalist Event in DC
My take on CNN and NPR: Trump's vision for a white Christian America takes the stage in DC.
Robert P. Jones, May 18, 2026
Trump controls the GOP, and Christian nationalists control Trump The primary defeat of Sen. Bill Cassidy showed Trump controls the GOP. But the prayer rally in DC shows who is really driving the agenda. John Gallagher (He/Him), LGBTQ Nation, May 19, 2026
They're trying to turn our country into a White Christian ethno-state. Where if you are the "wrong" race or the "wrong" religion, you are a second class citizen. We won't let them.
— American Atheists (@atheists.org) May 19, 2026 at 1:30 PM
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VPOTUS JD Vance said onstage: "If we do not see that God loves us, we have little reason and little inspiration to love one another. This love, which forms our morality, is the foundation of a peaceful and healthful society."
On that point, please see my reflection on Kai Nielsen's well-known book Ethics Without God.
This 1-Minute Section Of Mike Johnson's Public Prayer Is Disturbing Experts Experts break down what concerns them the most about the House speaker's message to thousands of attendees at the "Rededicate 250" event. Kimberley Richards, HuffPost, May 19, 2026
Then you got people like Eric Metaxas at the Rededicate 250 event saying shit like: "Yes, it’s hard to believe that it would take two centuries for the Lord to raise up a great man to bring that ballroom finally to stand where it needs to stand." 🎥: @atrupar.com
— Nick (derogatory) ✨ (@slothropsmap.bsky.social) May 19, 2026 at 4:17 PM
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checking in for a brief moment on the Rededicate 250 blasphemy fest and yep, it's beyond parody
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) May 17, 2026 at 11:38 AM
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"Lawsuit aims to stop UFC fight at the White House" (CNN, June 7, 2026)
It's not great when genocide survivors are alarmed at the state of your country: The Curious Case of Rwanda, Part 2, Holly Berkley Fletcher, Jun 28, 2026
Ryan Mueller writes for Business Times (Christian Legal Movement Has ‘Gone Astray,’ Rutherford Institute Founder John Whitehead Warns as Trump Ties Deepen, Sept 15, 2026):
"John W. Whitehead, founder of The Rutherford Institute and an early architect of the modern Christian legal movement, says the cause he helped build has "gone astray," arguing that some religious-liberty organizations have become too closely intertwined with conservative politics and President Donald Trump's administration.
Whitehead, who founded the nonprofit civil-liberties group in 1982, told The Washington Post that the movement has increasingly treated religious freedom as a political project rather than a constitutional protection that should extend across faiths and ideologies. His criticism is especially notable because he once argued that the U.S. should be explicitly Christian before later distancing himself from that position.
* * *
The [Washington] Post reported that he once wrote a book advocating an explicitly Christian America and in the 1980s regarded expanding gay rights as a threat to Christians.
By the mid-1990s, however, Whitehead was criticizing Colorado's Amendment 2, which barred state and local governments from creating protections based on homosexual, lesbian or bisexual orientation, conduct, practices or relationships. The U.S. Supreme Court struck the measure down in Romer v. Evans in 1996, holding that it violated the Equal Protection Clause.
Whitehead has said that shift grew from reconsidering what Christianity required of believers and from a broader commitment to civil liberties. Rutherford subsequently expanded its involvement beyond traditional conservative religious causes, including cases concerning surveillance, immigration, free speech and government treatment of political protesters."
Tuesday, May 12, 2026
On the personal apocalypse
I wrote a memoir of personal apocalypse, Bad Fire. (See more on tuckerlieberman.com)
This passage from someone else's blog reminds me of the process and the message.
"Apocalyptic fiction, especially stories about personal apocalypses, can do so much to help trans people understand themselves and their place in the world. Once you realize that you have survived one, you can learn to be kinder to yourself. You woke up one day, and whether you expected it or not, your previous life was nothing but ruins. Nothing was usable. Maybe you tried to pretend that it was for awhile. Maybe even a few of your friends survived the cataclysm. Maybe you can rebuild together, side by side. Perhaps that hides that it was an apocalypse to you. Maybe you’re convinced you’re the last sane one, the last vestment of the old world, unaware of how the new one has changed you. Maybe you feel like Frankenstein’s monster: bright, smart, the mental embodiment of all that the previous civilization seemed to value, and yet the villagers chase you. 'The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born; now is the time of monsters.' Or maybe the freedom of that old world’s death is exhilarating to you. Maybe it suffocated you. Maybe this new freedom is what you always longed for. We can learn so much from surviving an apocalypse. Many of us survive several in our lives: transition, divorce, imprisonment, destitution."
Unstuck In Gender: The Experience of Trans Apocalypse: On experiencing transition as apocalypse, Auto_Anon, May 11, 2026
I cited the above passage in "I'm Trying to Grow!" on Medium.
Friday, May 8, 2026
Conversion therapy is still legal in Britain
Conversion therapy should be dead, but it isn't, and that's why I share this on Dead Men Blogging, from Abigail Thorn of Philosophy Tube.
ICYMI, March 20: "It's finally ready: the biggest episode of Philosophy Tube ever! The sequel to "I Emailed My Doctor 133 Times." This is my investigation into conversion therapy: where it came from, why it's still legal in Britain, and how it's being done right now on the NHS with the knowledge and assistance of certain members of the British government." Philosophy Tube on Patreon.
(2 hours 10 min)
Then, this. (1 hour 51 min)
Image: Bertel Thorvaldsen's sculpture of Christ. Copenhagen Cathedral. Image by Gunnar Bach Pedersen © public domain Wikimedia Commons.
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Thursday, May 7, 2026
A new collection of Sylvia Plath's poems
"A variorum, short for (editio) cum notis variorum, is a work that collates all known variants of a text. It is a work of textual criticism, whereby all variations and emendations are set side by side so that a reader can track how textual decisions have been made in the preparation of a text for publication." (Wikipedia)
"My guests on this week’s Book Club podcast are Amanda Golden and Karen V. Kukil, editors of the new The Poems of Sylvia Plath, a variorum collection of every poem Plath wrote. They tell me what light her juvenilia sheds on her later work, how art and music fed into her poetry, and how deep her poetic partnership with Ted Hughes ran."
— Sam Leith. Listen: "The Poems of Sylvia Plath," The Book Club podcast, The Spectator, 7 May 2026
Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) was an American poet.
There will be an event in Bath, hosted by the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institute, on the evening of Mon 29 June.
"Imagine being able to read the poems of Sylvia Plath without knowing how she died. It’s a near-impossible thought experiment, given how her name and image have been reduced to what her daughter, the poet Frieda Hughes, called the “Sylvia Suicide Doll”. ... Read the poems away from the letters, the journals and the blurbs, and the page clears to reveal jewel-like perception and virtuoso music."
— Jeremy Noel-Tod, Here, at last, is Sylvia Plath: A new collection of the poet’s work puts away the suicide doll and replaces it with wit, wordplay and truth. Prospect Magazine, May 6, 2026
Here's the cover reveal from last November.
Buy it from the publisher, Faber.
Friday, May 1, 2026
Llueve sobre Babel
Llueve sobre Babel is playing in theaters in Colombia! A Cali bar that's the inferno. As per Instagram: "Gala is building a queer magical realism cinematic universe. Two more films in development: Moonchild and Ascension. This is what Colombian cinema looks like when it stops asking for permission."
Thursday, January 29, 2026
Post-October 7 death toll in Gaza
Since October 7, 2023, Israel's military offensive has killed many Palestinian children:
Nearly 14,000 children killed in Gaza since war began, UNICEF says, Hande Atay Alam, CNN, April 18, 2024
Israeli attacks in Gaza have killed at least 33,970 Palestinians, health officials say, Ibrahim Dahman and Eyad Kourdi, CNN, April 18, 2024
The Palestinian death toll crossed 50,000 in March 2025.
"In leaked audio, the former head of Israeli military intelligence can be heard saying the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza are “necessary and required for future generations.”
“For everything that happened on October 7, for every one person on October 7, 50 Palestinians must die,” said Israel Defense Force’s (IDF) Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva in the recordings released by Israel’s Channel 12 news on Friday. “It doesn’t matter now if they are children.”
“The fact that there are already 50,000 dead in Gaza is necessary and required for future generations,” Haliva said in the recordings.
It’s unclear when he was speaking, but the number killed in Gaza surpassed 50,000 in March.
“There is no choice — every now and then, they need a Nakba in order to feel the price,” Haliva said. The Nakba, or “catastrophe” in Arabic, is a seminal event in Palestinian history when roughly 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes by armed Jewish groups in 1948 during the establishment of the State of Israel.
— Oren Liebermann and Abeer Salman, Leaked recording reveals ex-Israeli military intelligence chief calling 50,000 deaths in Gaza ‘necessary’, CNN, August 18, 2025
Update: Over 65,000 Palestinians Have Been Killed In Israel-Hamas War, Gaza Health Ministry Says: Israel’s offensive has destroyed vast areas of the Palestinian enclave, displaced around 90% of the population and caused a catastrophic humanitarian crisis. Julia Frankel and Samy Magdy, Associated Press, HuffPost, Sep 17, 2025
As of January 2026, Israel admits it has killed 71,000 Palestinians.
I cannot tell you how much doubt was consistently directed at the Gaza Health Ministry’s casualty numbers and how much pressure was put on news organizations to couch those numbers as unreliable. Biden himself said they were fabricated! www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes.bsky.social) January 29, 2026 at 10:29 AM
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That count may be low.
New Research Shows True Death Toll From Israeli Genocide in Gaza Could Be 126,000 or Even Higher “All those responsible for this mass slaughter must face accountability,” said one campaigner in response to the new figures, “starting with Netanyahu and other members of his openly racist, genocidal, and warmongering regime.” Brad Reed, Common Dreams, Nov 26, 2025
Advocates Demand Repeal of Israeli Death Penalty Law Explicitly Targeting Palestinians "There is nothing legal about an occupying power using the death penalty exclusively for the people it occupies," said one historian. By Julia Conley, Common Dreams, March 30, 2026
BREAKING: Israel's Knesset has passed a law to execute Palestinian detainees. Death by hanging. Mandatory sentencing. No pardon. 90 days to carry out. It applies through military courts with a 96% conviction rate. It does not apply to Israelis.
— Mondoweiss (@mondoweiss.net) March 30, 2026 at 12:38 PM
The bill was devised by Itamar Ben Gvir, who wore noose-shaped lapel pins in the run-up to the vote. Ben Gvir was convicted in 2007 of racist incitement against Arabs and support for the Kach group, a designated a terrorist organization by both Israel and the United States. He wrote the law.
— Mondoweiss (@mondoweiss.net) March 30, 2026 at 12:38 PM
More than 100 Palestinian detainees have already died in Israeli custody since October 2023. Dozens are still disappeared. Over 9,300 Palestinians sit in Israeli detention right now, including 350 children. Hundreds could face execution under this law.
— Mondoweiss (@mondoweiss.net) March 30, 2026 at 12:38 PM
Israeli Troops Kill 7-Month-Old Baby In West Bank, Palestinian Officials Say: Palestinian officials say Israeli troops have killed a 7-month-old Palestinian baby in the occupied West Bank as violence surges there. Mahmoud Illean, Samy Magdy and Sam Mednick, Associated Press, Jun 6, 2026
At UN Security Council, Officials Say Israeli Settler Violence Has Brought West Bank to ‘Breaking Point’ “Settler violence has reached unprecedented levels,” said a coordinator for the Middle East peace process. “Many incidents occurred in the presence of Israeli forces.” Julia Conley, Common Dreams, Aug 12, 2026
What American Doctors Saw in Gaza: A new documentary follows three physicians facing the odds: limited medical supplies, Israeli bombing, and upon returning home, media bias and indifference. The Intercept Briefing, August 21 2026
Thursday, January 8, 2026
The Monroe Doctrine
Basically, that Europe (or anyone) shouldn't mess with the Western hemisphere, and in return the US won't mess with European colonies.
"Under the Monroe Doctrine, established two centuries ago, the U.S. claimed a right to block foreign governments from influencing the leadership and policies throughout the Americas. The doctrine was established in the face of the the expanding independence of many countries in the the Western Hemisphere.
A century after the Monroe Doctrine was announced, Teddy Roosevelt expanded it, claiming via the Roosevelt Corollary that even beyond preventing European interference, the United States also had a responsibility to preserve order and protect life and property in the hemisphere.
In 1933, FDR shifted the century-old policy by emphasizing collaboration over military intervention, instituting his Good Neighbor Policy. But during the Cold War, the threat of global communism was seen as justifying the kind of interventions that had been widespread before. Across the twentieth century as a whole the U.S. interfered to install or directly support dozens of dictators in the Americas."
Heather Cox Richardson, December 5, 2025 says:
"President James Monroe outlined what became known as the Monroe Doctrine in three paragraphs in his annual message to Congress on December 2, 1823. The concept was an attempt for the new American nation to position itself in a changing world.
In the early nineteenth century, Spain’s empire in America was crumbling, and beginning in 1810, Latin American countries began to seize their independence. In just two years from 1821 to 1822, ten nations broke from the Spanish empire. Spain had restricted trade with its American colonies, and the U.S. wanted to trade with these new nations. But Monroe and his advisors worried that the new nations would fall prey to other European colonial powers, severing new trade ties with the U.S. and orienting the new nations back toward Europe.
So in his 1823 annual message, Monroe warned that “the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers.” American republics would not tolerate European monarchies and their system of colonization, he wrote. Americans would “consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety.” It is “the true policy of the United States to leave the [new Latin American republics] to themselves, in hope that other powers will pursue the same course,” Monroe wrote."
Wikipedia, accessed 7 Jan 2026, says:
"The Monroe Doctrine is a United States foreign policy position that opposes European colonialism in the Western Hemisphere which since WWII has been extended to oppose any foreign interference in the Western Hemisphere. It holds that any intervention in the political affairs of the Americas by foreign powers is a potentially hostile act against the United States. The doctrine was central to American grand strategy in the 20th century.
President James Monroe first articulated the doctrine on December 2, 1823, during his seventh annual State of the Union Address to Congress (though it was not named after him until 1850). At the time, nearly all Spanish colonies in the Americas had either achieved or were close to independence. Monroe asserted that the New World and the Old World were to remain distinctly separate spheres of influence, and thus further efforts by European powers to control or influence sovereign states in the region would be viewed as a threat to U.S. security. In turn, the United States would recognize and not interfere with existing European colonies nor meddle in the internal affairs of European countries."
Read also: Trump Strategy Document Revives The 19th Century Monroe Doctrine: The United States has sent more than 10,000 troops to the Caribbean, along with an aircraft carrier, warships and fighter jets. Idrees Ali, Matt Spetalnick and James Mackenzie, Reuters, on HuffPost, Dec 6, 2025
Read also: The U.S. Plan to Pillage Latin America is Becoming Clearer: Trump Administration officials have frequently invoked the Monroe Doctrine, explaining the aggression toward Latin America, Arturo Dominguez, Oct 20, 2025
Read also: The Old Order is Over, Nadin Brzezinski, Dec 6, 2025
"Observers referred to the document as National Security Council Report (NSC) 88 and noted that it could have been written in just 14 words. White supremacists use 88 to refer to Adolf Hitler and “fourteen words” to refer to a popular white supremacist slogan."
— Heather Cox Richardson, December 5, 2025
What is his takeaway from his war against Iran?
"Speaking with Axios’ Marc Caputo in an excerpt from the pre-taped interview, Trump was asked what he learned about the constraints of his power as a result of the war in Iran.
“There are no limits,” Trump said.
“No limits?” Caputo asked.
“No, none, I haven’t learned that lesson yet. I know there are, but you know. There are no limits. We defeated them, totally, militarily,” Trump said."
'There Are No Limits': Trump Makes Alarming Statement In First Interview Since Iran Deal: Trump attempted to put a positive spin on his recently signed deal with Iran despite pushback from hawkish Republican lawmakers. Anthony Orrico, HuffPost, Jun 19, 2026
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