@mjcressler
✍🏼 rogue scholar & writer, currently at work on Catholics & the Making of MAGA (HarperCollins, 2027): https://matthewjcressler.com/ 💥 comix creator: https://badcatholics-comics.org/ 🤖 chief of staff for CPIT: https://www.cpitpbc.com/
The academic and publishing landscapes have changed a lot since we started this magazine. We've stuck to the same principles we started with:
History is for everyone.
Every way of doing history is worthwhile.
Historians should be paid for their work.
Here's a mini-thread on how Reign of Error episodes can help you understand how different parts of the MAGA Christian nationalist base are driving and understanding Trump's war in Iran: 🧵
Look, you guys, you don't have to praise Tucker Carlson for criticizing Christian Zionism *while being an antisemite.*
I've been criticizing Christian Zionism for 20 years, and I've never needed white nationalists to help me do it.
JD Vance personally invited Pope Leo to the U.S. 250th celebration on the 4th of July. Today the Vatican announced Leo will be spending the day with migrants instead.
🙏🏼 Yeah. Book is definitely gonna be, at least in part, one of those “I read this so you didn’t have to” kinda exercises. (In the meantime, prayers greatly appreciated!)
I should add, it would be funnier if it wasn’t so sad and enraging.
Lol at the Catholic version of “I did my own research” 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
In this case, anti-Semitism has a long (LONG!) Catholic history. So I wanted to note that MAGA Catholics are pulling on a particular strand of within the tradition. They may be rejecting official Church teaching in doing so, but this is something lots of Catholics do (left, right, and center). 5/5
even though they have been properly "schooled" or, in some cases, are the ones doing the schooling. So I definitely do NOT want to suggest that this is the kind of Catholic OCIA produces. But I do think it's important to note that the call is coming from inside the house, so to speak. 4/
radicalizing digital spaces and bespoke places where the Vances, Owens, Bollers of the world become Catholic are clearly sidestepping 60 years of post-Vatican II teachings. That said, plenty of cradle Catholics (and prelates!) have found themselves attracted to this kind of Catholicism 3/
...in there as a shorthand way of saying that one doesn't become Catholic in isolation from community and tradition. I mainly wanted to point out that they're getting their theology / politics at least in part from people within the tradition, broadly conceived. It's important to note how the 2/
This is a great convo! Thanks for listening, @mollieoreilly.bsky.social. (I'm an admirer!) I think the distinction you're making is an important one, between folks entering the Church through the proper channels versus private, bespoke (and sometimes explicitly heterodox) paths. I dropped "RCIA" 1/
The Ash Wednesday procession through the Chicago suburb of Melrose Park from Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church - honoring immigrants, immigration detainees and those killed by ICE & Border Patrol - has begun.
Chicago Archbishop and Cardinal Blase Cupich is near the head of the march.
You may have missed the entire Religious Liberty Commission fracas. But it was huge, huge news on the right, and will continue to roil Trump's evangelical-Catholic coalition. This episode has fascinating historical context and insights from @mjcressler.bsky.social.
redcircle.com/shows/fbed71...
So happy I could join @sarahposner.bsky.social this week in the good work she’s doing over at Reign of Error. Talked (MAGA) Catholic antisemitism. Come for the hot takes, stay for the history.
Joined @sarahposner.bsky.social this week on Reign of Error to talk about Carrie Prejean Boller and give some long historical background to the MAGA Catholic antisemitic turn. (Or is it origin story?) Putting all this knowledge to work for good, I hope.
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/r...
Applications are now open for the 2026-2028 Young Scholars in American Religion cohort.
Applications are due April 1, 2026.
Learn more about YSAR and apply to be apart of the next cohort: raac.indianapolis.iu.edu/young-schola...
🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Matthew, dressed in a black tie, white shirt, and black cardigan, preaches from a pulpit between two candles at Cannon Chapel at Emory University.
Grateful for the opportunity to preach and teach this past week. I was the Aquinas Day speaker at @candlertheology.bsky.social and it was such a gift. Check out my sermon, "Sowing Seeds in Troubling Times," and my lecture on "Bad Catholics, Good Trouble" here: aquinas.emory.edu/aquinas-day.....
Woohoo! Comic syllabus for my superhero class is live and students were geeked! It was a mammoth effort to make it but so worth it to be able to give to them! Pleased & excited for the term! And you can have your own too - all on my site for printing, sharing! 1/?
spinweaveandcut.com/superhero-sy...
Cardinal Tobin: Pray, mourn and say 'no' to ICE funding www.ncronline.org/news/cardina...
Oh wow: Major U.S. Cardinal (Tobin of Newark) is calling for Catholics to urge lawmakers to vote against ICE funding. Via @ncronline.bsky.social
A sincere OMG: I'm long on the rightwing beat, and @sarahposner.bsky.social and @antheabutler.bsky.social are THE two people to whom you need to listen if you want to understand what's really happening and why. Thrilled Sarah has a new podcast, and there couldn't be a better first guest.
The first episode of Reign of Error is here! Trump Year One: The War on Civil Rights, with @antheabutler.bsky.social. Give it a listen and spread the word!
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/0...
Brooklyn Park police chief Mark Bruley: "We're hearing people being stopped with no cause & being demanded to show paperwork to determine if they're here legally. We started hearing from our police officers the same complaints. Every one of these individuals is a person of color... it has to stop"
Today on @straightwhitejc.bsky.social a teaser episode of our new series Reign of Error. Created and hosted by @sarahposner.bsky.social.
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...
Listen if you want to hear how Kristi Noem claims to be carrying out a "Christian" agenda.
