“I hope we name anti-corruption laws after Clarence Thomas. I hope in the future we’re teaching our kids why the supreme court, this idea of unaccountable judicial authority over millions of others, is inherently antidemocratic and ripe for abuse under capitalism.”
“Most people use social media primarily to create identities for themselves rather than expose their authentic selves. We craft an online persona defining how we want to be known by others. We accentuate the good, and we hide the blemishes. We even straight up invent narratives. We put the best version of ourselves out there and conveniently leave out the ugly and messy bits.”
“I’ve been asking myself to what degree evangelicals might be more Zionist than U.S.-centric and nationalist. But perhaps it is best to consider that Christian Nationalism, as we have come to understand it, may be inseparable and continually reinforced by Zionism.”
“The reason Trump has a large base of loyal supporters, many of whom continue to believe the 2020 election was stolen, isn’t that the mainstream media failed to adequately condemn him. They did condemn him. But, maybe more important, their condemnation never mattered to that base.”
“Lots of kids aren’t even showing up to school. When they do, it’s gotten harder to earn their attention because there is more competition for it. Phones are just one element—one that schools may control through a ban. But school-sponsored technology in the classroom is whopper of a challenge, too. Conservatively, 80 to 90 percent of schools have 1:1 computing. Tablets and Chromebooks can do many of the same things as smartphones—and kids have full access to them throughout the day. Unable to text one another because their phones are stored away, students open shared Google docs and send messages to one another that way. Easy. They rush through activities to play games.”
“Francis has not spoken ex cathedra here — this is not like, for instance, Munificentissimus Deus. But it’s a big thing, and if the incoherence is rectified by further acceptance of same-sex unions, then some really fancy theological dancing will have to be performed to avoid having to admit that the historic dogma on sex and marriage was simply wrong. And if a future Pope walks this back, then a similarly complicated dance will have to be done to reconcile the repudiation of Francis’s teaching with the dogma that the Pope is guided and directed by the Holy Spirit even when making ordinary — not ex cathedra — arguments and policies. It’s hard to see how historic Catholic teaching on marriage and historic Catholic teaching on papal authority can emerge unscathed from this.”
“What does it mean to bless a couple without blessing that couple’s relationship? Millions of words will be expended in the coming months to try to explain this, but I can guarantee that none of them will make sense. The Pope has put his church in a completely untenable, incoherent, radically unstable position. From here it will have to go back to the traditional teaching or ahead to something wholly unprecedented. And I can’t imagine a retreat, not by this Pope.”
