Notices by Jack Jenkins (jackmjenkins@mastodon.online)

NEW: Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton is releasing a video, saying the church remains “steadfast” in its work & accusing Musk/others of spreading “misinformation” and “casting baseless doubt” about “funding that supports Lutheran (orgs) across our country.”
https://mastodon.online/@jackmjenkins/113935625355738919

So, if you want to attend a worship service with President-elect Trump at his inauguration this year, you can.

But so far, there's only one option, and there's a catch: you'll need to either donate $100,000 or raise $200,000.

It's pay-to-pray. https://religionnews.com/2024/12/23/amid-uncertainty-around-religion-at-trumps-inauguration-reports-of-a-pay-to-pray/

If by “unpopular” you mean “accurate,” then sure.

(Obviously an endless list of caveats apply, it’s not universal, etc etc. But there’s at least a kernel of truth here.)
https://www.threads.net/@bilalqasimii/post/DCAUL8vzhVH

1. Okay, hear me out: given the rise of protocol-based, decentralized social media (Bluesky, Threads, Mastodon) where you can follow people on *other* platforms…

…what if journalists created their own little nonprofit platform that, in addition to features, essentially functioned as verification?

The idea would echo how news wire services were built a century and a half ago, where outlets agreed going in together on shared stuff was a good idea.

Wildest thing about this election so far is that despite all the tension around it, the weather in a lot of places is *amazing,* so it’s all very tranquil and pleasant out in polling locations.

As a religion and politics reporter, my professional opinion on betting markets for elections is that – I cannot stress this enough — I absolutely, positively could not care about them less.

My dispatch from today's JD Vance-Lance Wallnau event, where Vance floated a theological defense of Trump immigration policies, one speaker lead the crowd in praying for liberal family members, and others voiced support for forms of Christian nationalism. https://religionnews.com/2024/09/28/jd-vance-courage-tour/

Literally nothing surprising about the fact that Canada, coached by American Jesse Marsch, is currently beating #USMNT — or that Jacob Shaffelburg (who, as I have said many times, is wildly underrated) was the one to score the opening goal.

Not for nothing, but the best player for #USMNT this half so far is Patrick Schulte, who plays in MLS (Crew).

The goalscorer for Canada is Shaffelburg, who also plays in MLS (Nashville).

Maybe the guys who play in Europe just can't match that legendary MLS quality.

Wait, so…Bluesky began with a blogger's paper on protocol-based social media, which inspired Twitter's founder because he thought it would help him elide moderation, but Bluesky moderated anyway, so he bailed, and now the platform is growing because the guy who *bought* Twitter picked a fight with Brazil over…moderation?

What are you reading this weekend?

A thing about the DNC that kinda flew under the radar: a speech from activists pushing to eradicate lead pipes.

It highlighted the Biden admin’s action on that issue, but also, lead pipes are one of those *massive* civilizational issues that impacts millions but other folks all too often just kinda forget about.

I totally get that the existing symbols (e.g., the Pentagram) have a long history with this community and thus have very real cultural relevance here.

But if you wanna bring in folks past that original community (and maybe not all folks do!), reaching beyond with things like this — even if it’s not this exact symbol, etc. — may help.

Not that anyone here cares what I think about this stuff, but FWIW: As a relative newcomer to the Fediverse, this does strike me as a pretty cool and potentially useful symbol, if only because it’s easily replicated and minimalistic, and, thus, scales well (and as a giant nerd, I appreciate its relevance to astronomy).
https://typo.social/@FediverseSymbol/113005945049360750

Look I'll just put it out there: If you have a draft of JD Vance's unpublished book on Christianity ("A Relevant Faith: Searching for a Meaningful American Christianity") and want to leak it to me, my Signal is in my bio, DMs are open, and there are other ways to reach me on my website.

GOP VP candidate JD Vance spoke at the Faith & Freedom Coalition prayer breakfast this morning, saying he wants to "integrate" his faith into his "governing agenda."

NOTE: That's a little on the nose, as Vance is tied to Catholic integralism, a Christian nationalist-adjacent movement —> https://religionnews.com/2024/04/03/the-strange-world-of-catholic-christian-nationalism/

@ntnsndr @ethanz (and let me know what you find!)

@ntnsndr @ethanz I haven't investigated deep enough to know, so I defer to you there!

I’ve finally got OpenVibe working, which combines your Mastodon and Bluesky feeds (and soon, they say, Threads).

There are some clear bugs, but tbh, it hedges way closer to making these sites professionally *useful* as a single chronological feed.

"In America, the law is king." — Thomas Paine in Common Sense, the pamphlet that helped the American Revolution catch fire: