Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Phil Christman

@philipchristman.bsky.social

3.6K followers 1.1K following 3.6K posts

pretty good writer. philipchristman.substack.com. https://bookshop.org/p/books/why-christians-should-be-leftists-phil-christman/22293923?ean=9780802884053&next=t; https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/collections/vendors?q=Phil%20Christman&contributorID=22914

bookshop.org

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Phil Christman @philipchristman.bsky.social · Jul 9

if you preorder now and send me a jpg of the receipt + your email address (dm is fine), you will get:
--a short piece of writing every Friday for the next month or so
--an invite to a everybody-vs.-Phil-at-Book-Trivial-Pursuit event on Friday, Aug 1 from 7-8:30 (yes this is real)

James Ernest @jdernest.bsky.social · May 31

Preorder now: www.eerdmans.com/978080288405....

Why Christians Should Be Leftists
by Phil Christman
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company
229 Pages, 5.00 x 8.00 in
HARDCOVER
9780802884053
Publication Date: September 16, 2025

Trump proclaimed, and still proclaims, nearly every time he opens his mouth, through all manner of self-contradiction, a fundamental worldview premised on the idea that misfortune is personally discrediting, ugly, embarrassing, and rightly to be shunned. . . . He will contradict himself on every other point, but he never wavers from that one. This worldview is, of course, a direct contradiction of everything Christ taught by word, and even more by deed. Trump hates losers. In the incarnation, God broke metaphysics in order to become one.
—Phil Christman, Why Christians Should Be Leftists

12 12 47

Reposted by Phil Christman

Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social · 6h

I hereby coin a Perlstein's law: when a movement flushes out a critical mass of never-before activists-- like the Christian Right and BLM both did--serious possibilities for change open up.

We shall overcome.

4 19 230

Reposted by Phil Christman

Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 13h

"a test"? you mean...a violation?

AP: Israel plans to halve aid into Gaza over slow return of dead hostages, a test for the Gaza ceasefire

140 1.6K 6.2K

Reposted by Phil Christman

Annie Abrams @annieabrams.bsky.social · 8h

grim

3 4 14

Reposted by Phil Christman

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 11h

you have to hunt a bit for the results (though delivered through a nice infographic) so a partial list of the brands that tested low: Optimum Nutrition (whey, not the mass gainer) Owyn, Transparent Labs

paris martineau @paris.nyc · 13h

my latest investigation for @consumerreports.org is based on months of reporting and 60+ lab tests of leading protein supplements

we found that most protein powders and shakes have more lead in one serving than our experts say is safe to have in a day (🧵)

www.consumerreports.org/lead/protein...

Protein Powders and Shakes Contain High Levels of Lead - Consumer Reports

CR tests of 23 popular protein powders and shakes found that most contain high levels of lead.

www.consumerreports.org

16 37 130

Reposted by Phil Christman

ryan cooper @ryanlcooper.com · 12h

every young Republican staffer is a Nazi, it's that simple www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

‘I love Hitler’: Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat

Thousands of private messages reveal young GOP leaders joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape.

www.politico.com

120 1.1K 3.6K

Phil Christman @philipchristman.bsky.social · 15h

The barbell movements are so good for fighting clumsiness. I’ll never be particularly graceful, but between lifting and making myself jump rope as a warm-up, I’m tripping and falling less when I go running

Phil Christman @philipchristman.bsky.social · 15h

everybody meet my friend Charles Brooks. I love this guy www.youtube.com/watch?v=T97A...

20 Years in Prison to Published Poet: A Conversation with Charles Brooks Sr. | 105.1 The Bounce

YouTube video by 105.1 the Bounce Detroit

www.youtube.com

1 5

Phil Christman @philipchristman.bsky.social · 17h

really fun to have @lytagold.bsky.social, whose “Dangerous Fictions” you should buy (it’s in paperback today), in my newsletter today, talking about her ten favorite fantasy novels open.substack.com/pub/philipch...

Special Guest Post: Lyta Gold's Ten Favorite Fantasy Novels

About a year ago, for a local bookstore, I interviewed my friend Lyta about her excellent critical book Dangerous Fictions: The Fear of Fantasy and the Invention of Reality. Regarding that book—which ...

open.substack.com

2 10

Reposted by Phil Christman

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 1d

The entire incident is infuriating and terrifying. She’s a Latina woman who was working a service job. On her way home late at night, with her headphones in, she was detained for an hour by masked federal agents who wouldn’t give her their names.

Maria Greeley, 44, had just finished working a double shift at the Beach Bar on Ohio Street
earlier this month when she said she was surrounded by three federal agents who grabbed her, forced her hands behind her back and zip tied her.
Headphones in, Greeley had been focused on getting home to her two dogs for a walk.
Instead, she said she was detained by masked agents who did not answer when she asked for names. They questioned her for an hour, she said.

200 2.4K 6.1K

Reposted by Phil Christman

Lyta 🐅 Dangerous Fictions is OUT 🐅 Gold @lytagold.bsky.social · 18h

here have ten of ‘em open.substack.com/pub/philipch...

Rachel Feder @rachelfeder.bsky.social · 1d

Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat

2 12

Reposted by Phil Christman

Shannon Starks @shianomom.bsky.social · 18h

Please show up on October 18.

Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 18h

If Republicans are going to label you a terrorist for peacefully protesting Trump's failing presidency, abuses of power, and treatment of blue America as an enemy nation, let's turn out in even bigger numbers.

On the pod, @jilldlawrence.bsky.social and me on this:
newrepublic.com/article/2016...

MAGA Rage at “No Kings” Boils Over—and It Quickly Backfires on Trump

As Trump allies smear the coming protests, a good writer on MAGA skewers the absurdity of these attacks on large swaths of Americans—and explains why our best recourse will be to turn out in force.

newrepublic.com

4 46 160

Reposted by Phil Christman

Jeff Tischauser @jtischauser.bsky.social · 2d

This is my family’s cemetery. Generations of us are here. DHS thugs attacked the workers who laid my father to rest and tend to his gravesite. i dont know whether to cry or yell. I hope these DHS thugs find no peace in this life and the next.

Clara Jeffery @clarajeffery.bsky.social · 2d

ICE attacks cemetery workers trying to help a man in the Des Plaines river www.tiktok.com/t/ZTMUmUjPs/

Caught on camera… ICE agents clash with suburban cemetery workers trying to help man in Des Plaines River… #wgn9 #ice #operationmidwayblitz #immigration

TikTok video by WGN9Chicago

www.tiktok.com

23 460 1.4K

Phil Christman @philipchristman.bsky.social · 1d

david lynch meets art clokey. love it

Reposted by Phil Christman

David Sirota @davidsirota.com · 1d

This is some of the best political news I've seen in a very long time.

There's a clear a way to end the Citizens United precedent by changing state incorporation laws - and now luminaries in both parties are forcing a vote on it in the 2026 election.

54 1K 2.8K

Phil Christman @philipchristman.bsky.social · 1d

this is so deeply true. I have been reading a trilogy of 300-400 pp novels and it's like someone is stabbing me to death with spoons

1 2

Reposted by Phil Christman

Garth Marenghi's Catbus @hayao.lol · 1d

democrats pretend winning elections is this Herculean task when all they have to do is follow the blueprint of the guy who won so hard they changed the rule to "you can only be president for 8 years"

logo, acting spoopy @logophobe.bsky.social · 2d

Step 1: disband ICE
Step 2: give ICE's entire bloated budget to the IRS
Step 3: record white collar crime task force kicking in penthouse doors and macing unresisting billionaires
Step 4: one hundred years of Dem reign

3 180 690

Phil Christman @philipchristman.bsky.social · 1d

Imagine if chefs sat around worrying about whether their next meal should be “organic“ or “eaten with a fork”

Phil Christman @philipchristman.bsky.social · 1d

RETVRN

1 3

Phil Christman @philipchristman.bsky.social · 1d

Sure! It’s just that the terms that I was referring to in my first post (“literary”; “prestige”) don’t do that. They‘re marketing terms that pretend to do that, thus causing confusion. When readers adopt them— as in “literary versus genre“ arguments—it gets in the way of developing those rubrics

1 2

Phil Christman @philipchristman.bsky.social · 1d

People use “prestige“ language or the term “literary fiction“ to market novels, not to describe them. The novels being marketed this way at your local Barnes & Noble or in the new issue of Poets and Writers may not be as good as some of Lee Child’s best work, yet no one calls him ”literary”

Phil Christman @philipchristman.bsky.social · 1d

Well, one, no, there is no *single* rubric for assessing excellence in books because books are excellent in a dazzling array of ways, as are buildings or flowers; but two, people don’t really use these terms to talk about quality.

2 2

Phil Christman @philipchristman.bsky.social · 1d

As is the conflation of “genres” (texts linked before-the-fact by influence or after-the-fact by resemblance) with the bookstore categories, which place “Dhalgren” and “Gravity’s Rainbow” on different shelves from each other, but adjacent to (in one case) bad SF or (in the other) bad “litfic”

Mithos @mithos343.bsky.social · 1d

I genuinely think the concept of "literary or genre" is bad for fiction as a whole. As an art form.

1 14

Reposted by Phil Christman

Mithos @mithos343.bsky.social · 1d

I genuinely think the concept of "literary or genre" is bad for fiction as a whole. As an art form.

1 9

Phil Christman @philipchristman.bsky.social · 1d

It’s so true, it’s like how people will perceive a subtitled popcorn movie as artsy or niche

Sam Sacks @ssacks.bsky.social · 1d

This seems hinged to me. My addendum would be that the categorization of ‘translated literature’ is disastrous for those books.

1 4

Reposted by Phil Christman

Sam Sacks @ssacks.bsky.social · 1d

This seems hinged to me. My addendum would be that the categorization of ‘translated literature’ is disastrous for those books.

1 1 4