Non-theist Christian and elder in Community of Christ. I have Mormon roots and aspirations to do better with justice and peacemaking—especially in the digital sphere but also in Lexington, Kentucky, the U.S., and the world more broadly.
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🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'State Education Department Seeks Bids for 55,000 Classroom Bibles - Oklahoma Watch'
This makes a bad story even worse. What a joke. link to “State Education Department Seeks Bids for 55,000 Classroom Bibles - Oklahoma Watch”
the incarnation and a relatable Jesus
Several years ago, while I was sharing a Bible story with my daughter, she interjected with an urgent thought: “I hope that Jesus knows that I have a pig.” As I wrote in my journal at that time: She’s been big on showing people her stuffed piggy recently: the movers, the plumber, anyone we’re Facetiming with, it doesn’t matter. So, it makes sense that if she got the chance to see Jesus, she’d want to show Him her pig, too.
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. LeGuin
This book was repeatedly mentioned in Scott Branson’s Practical Anarchism, so I’ve wanted to read it for a while. It took me three tries, but I finally followed through and just finished the audiobook. It is a fascinating book for the way that it dares to imagine a way that society might be different than what we know now. Wikipedia says that the original subtitle was “An Ambiguous Utopia,” and that tracks with what I read, in that the book isn’t blindly naïve about the anarchist society that it lifts up.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Big Tech’s Promise Never To Block Access To Politically Embarrassing Content Apparently Only Applies To Democrats'
Worth reading (and bookmarking). I’ve been hesitant to make the “no, actually, Big Tech is biased against liberals” argument, but this seems a compelling datum for that conclusion… link to “Big Tech’s Promise Never To Block Access To Politically Embarrassing Content Apparently Only Applies To Democrats”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Trump condemned for suggesting ‘one really violent day’ to combat crime'
How is this guy a legitimate candidate? link to “Trump condemned for suggesting ‘one really violent day’ to combat crime”
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ for Dark Wire: The Incredible True Story of the Biggest Sting Operation Ever, by Joseph Cox
This is the story of when the FBI ran an encrypted phone company marketed to criminals. Working with Australian Federal Police and European partners, they had a glimpse into gangsters’ and drug dealers’ conversations for years before they wrapped it up with a series of worldwide arrests. It’s a wild story that sounds like fiction but happens to be true. In fact, that’s Cory Doctorow’s blurb on the back—his recommendation on his blog is what got me to check this out.
Nephi's violence and Book of Mormon intertextuality
A number of years ago, I read this blog post, which linked to this podcast episode about intertextuality between the New Testament and the Book of Mormon. The post and episode both focus on the work of Nick Frederick, a BYU professor who argues that: If we’re comfortable saying that the New Testament is an antecedent text for the Book of Mormon, for the King James English 19th century Book of Mormon, then that opens up some wonderful avenues of inquiry.
Nephi's violence as 'commandment anxiety'
I have recently been (slowly) getting back into my exploration of what a modernized Book of Mormon might look like, which has meant spending some time in the opening chapter of the Book of Mormon and some commentaries on that chapter. One of the most interesting things about I Nephi 1 (by the original and Community of Christ chapter breaks—LDS editions split this into 1 Nephi 1-5) is that the reader is almost immediately forced to deal with a tension between our protagonist and narrator Nephi’s insistence that he is a good guy of whom God approves and Nephi’s willingness to murder a passed-out drunk to steal his clothes and con his way into taking control of some of his property.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Rep. Clay Higgins Posts, Then Deletes, Racist Comments About Haitians'
Posting this as a bookmark. It’s mindboggling how overtly racist this is—and how much work the GOP will do to dismiss it as nothing. I want to be able to return back to this in the weeks and months to come, to remind myself and others just how bad things are. gift link link to “Rep. Clay Higgins Posts, Then Deletes, Racist Comments About Haitians”
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ for Glass Houses, by Madeline Ashby
I put this book on hold at the library after Cory Doctorow recommended it on his blog. It became available at the same time as two other Doctorow-recommended books that I’m now trying to rush through before other holds take them away from me. This is a book about the great excesses of tech bros and the many tiny excesses of the people using their tech in slightly off ways. It’s about misogyny, both subtle and severe, and (in the background) how scary climate change, American politics, and the Internet of Things are.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Cards Against Humanity is suing SpaceX for trespassing on its ‘pristine’ property'
What a wild story. link to “Cards Against Humanity is suing SpaceX for trespassing on its ‘pristine’ property”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Pluralistic: Thinking the unthinkable (19 Sep 2024) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow'
Compelling metaphor. link to “Pluralistic: Thinking the unthinkable (19 Sep 2024) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow”
the foundational experience of losing temples
It’s now been over six months since the transfer of the Kirtland Temple from Community of Christ to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and there’s still a lot to process for folks on the Community of Christ side of things. I remain committed to what I first said after hearing the news: that I have no interest in telling people how to feel about things, and that even if I did, I wouldn’t be on solid ground doing so.
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for We Should Improve Society Somewhat, by Matt Bors
Bors has some great political cartoons in this collection, but I also don’t like political cartoons in large doses, even if that doesn’t necessarily reflect on him!
James vs. the Trump-Vance ticket: An orphaned, remixed sermon
After being ordained earlier this summer, I was added to my home congregation’s preaching rotation. Today was supposed to be the day that I gave my first sermon there, but once I started to make plans to attend a family funeral, I reached out to ask if someone could sub for me. Before getting the bad news, though, I’d already written most of the sermon, and so I figured I should post the text here so that I get some use out of it.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Haitian immigrants helped revive a struggling Ohio town. Then neo-Nazis turned up'
Taking cues from neo-Nazis is a great look for the GOP ticket. link to “Haitian immigrants helped revive a struggling Ohio town. Then neo-Nazis turned up”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'A day in Elon Musk’s mind: 145 tweets with election conspiracies and emojis'
24 hours on Elon’s Twitter feed is a great idea for a story, and I’m glad someone did it! link to “A day in Elon Musk’s mind: 145 tweets with election conspiracies and emojis”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'How Memphis became a battleground over Elon Musk’s xAI supercomputer'
Who benefits from AI? Who doesn’t? link to “How Memphis became a battleground over Elon Musk’s xAI supercomputer”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Big publishers think libraries are the enemy'
A good take by Molly White. I remember when I stopped thinking about ebooks in terms of screens (as opposed to paper) and started thinking about them in terms of DRM (as opposed to free use). DRM helps the already powerful at the expense of everything else, and I want to do more to push back against it. link to “Big publishers think libraries are the enemy”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'What Musk's Twitter takeover could tell us about a possible government appointment'
I’m currently reading Extremely Hardcore and can’t wait to read Character Limit. The Twitter purchase alone ought to dismiss any serious ideas that Musk could do this kind of work. link to “What Musk’s Twitter takeover could tell us about a possible government appointment”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Father of Ohio boy, 11, tells Trump and Vance to stop using son’s death for ‘political gain’'
Good for the dad, and shame on the politicians being this terrible. link to “Father of Ohio boy, 11, tells Trump and Vance to stop using son’s death for ‘political gain’”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk Threatens to Impregnate Taylor Swift'
Can something be shocking but not surprising? I’ve been thinking about this all day and still can’t believe it’s real. link to “Elon Musk Threatens to Impregnate Taylor Swift”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Fayette County schools leaving X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter'
Wish it were for more principled reasons, but I’ll take it. link to “Fayette County schools leaving X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'What If Trump Wins?'
It is wild—and worrying—just how close this race is. link to “What If Trump Wins?”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on '750 | What’s Brewing | Wasatch Front | Part II'
I’m bookmarking this episode for later because it does a better job than I’ve ever heard of talking about how messy and complex and difficult it can be to have Mormon roots in Community of Christ—and it doesn’t even get into some of the “outside Utah” vs. “in Utah” dynamics that I personally think get overlooked. link to “750 | What’s Brewing | Wasatch Front | Part II”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'People are paying 'Strava mules' to do their runs for them, but why?
This is a take on digital labor and datafication that I can honestly say I never expected. link to “People are paying “Strava mules” to do their runs for them, but why?”
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for Pirate Enlightenment, or the Real Libertalia, by David Graeber
It’s really hard to know how to rate this book! It is meandering to the point of tangential—Graeber confesses that it evolved out of an essay that didn’t stop growing, and I wonder if it would have been better if forced to be more concise. It also has some of the same issues that I saw in The Dawn of Everything (indeed, this could have been a section of that book), in that it’s working with data and history that are impossible to nail down for sure.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Second Circuit Says Libraries Disincentivize Authors To Write Books By Lending Them For Free'
Deeply appreciate Masnick’s writeup. I don’t know the ins and outs of the law, and that’s given me some pause in being upset about the ruling. To see a lawyer find fault with so much gives me greater confidence in my own frustration. The most dangerous part, though, doesn’t require a law degree to understand. The logic of the findings poses a threat to all libraries, not just this one.
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ for Attack Surface, by Cory Doctorow
This is hands-down the best book in the Little Brother series and may even be my favorite Doctorow book? It’s hard to beat Walkaway, but this book is so perfectly written for our time (and such a perfect self-critique of earlier books in the series) that I’m not sure I’ll ever get tired of it.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk Deletes Nazi Apologist Tweet After Near-Universal Backlash'
What a disaster. link to “Elon Musk Deletes Nazi Apologist Tweet After Near-Universal Backlash”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'The Internet Archive just lost its appeal over ebook lending'
In a weird kind of Streisand effect, I’ve only started using the Internet Archive library since this lawsuit began and it’s a fantastic service. I won’t pretend to know the ins and outs of copyright law, but this sucks. link to “The Internet Archive just lost its appeal over ebook lending”
a memory of Book of Mormon Christology
This isn’t a particularly deep post. There’s not a thesis to it, I’m not critiquing what I’m describing, and I don’t know that there’s anything to really take away from it. I just had a memory come to mind last night related to Book of Mormon Christology that I wanted to hold onto by sharing. When I was a Latter-day Saint missionary, the Preach My Gospel missionary manual that we used had a suggested activity encouraging missionaries to read through the Book of Mormon and record “each reference to Jesus Christ (any of His names or pronouns related to Him).
generative AI and the Honorable Harvest
I come from settler colonial stock and, more specifically, from a religious tradition that was (and still is!) pretty keen on imposing a particular identity on Indigenous peoples. I am the kind of person who really ought to be reading more Indigenous perspectives, but I’m also cautious about promoting those perspectives in my writing, lest I rely on a superficial, misguided understanding and then pat myself on the back for the great job I’m doing.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Zuckerberg’s Spineless Surrender: Rehashing Old News To Enable False GOP Narratives'
This is one of these stories where I’ve been waiting to get Masnick’s take on it, and he does not disappoint. link to “Zuckerberg’s Spineless Surrender: Rehashing Old News To Enable False GOP Narratives”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'How Telegram's Founder Pavel Durov Became a Culture War Martyr'
I’ve been trying to think through Durov’s arrest since I first heard about it—there are a lot of complex things going on here. I think this captures nicely my thoughts and taught me a few things, too. Telegram is a sketchy platform (technically even more than in terms of content), but that doesn’t mean arresting the founder is warranted. Yet, that doesn’t mean that outcry on the right is in good faith, either.