Benjamin Raber
@benjaminraber.bsky.social
120 followers 280 following 110 posts
Here to learn. Following Jesus. Advocate: Youth Justice Compassion Education Health Arts Design Liberation. People Music Photography + Travel make my heart come alive. 💡🏀🎹📚🌮✌🏼🚲🗺🎸📷 #reimagine ED: NETwork Ministries in PA
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Reposted by Benjamin Raber
My book American Idolatry uses data and history to tell Christians

1: the best way to love God is to love your neighbor and to define neighbor as broadly as possible

And

2: Christian nationalism keeps you from doing #1 b/c it demands you idolize power, fear, and violence
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We must always be aware that both secular and religious systems easily draw us in by the use of words and the glitter of power, calling us to serve the kingdom of man rather than the kingdom of God.
Solid, fascinating lineup right here.
The Myth of Good Christian Parenting is out TOMORROW!

And how is this real?? Seeing my book next to the work of two writers I admire is WILD and humbling.
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Du Bois basically did a version of this in his bibliography in Black Reconstruction
BIB L I OGRAPH Y 
STAN DARD - A N TI-NEGRO 
(These authors believe the Negro to be sub-human and congenitally un-
fitted for citizenship and the suffrage.) 
Burgess, John W., Reconstruction and the Constitution, 1 866-1 876. 
Coulter, E. Merton, Civil War and Reconstruction in Kentucky. 
Davis, William W ., The Civil War and Reconstruction in Florida. 
Dunning, William A., Reconstruction, Political and Economic . 
Eckenrode, F. Hamilton, Political History of Virginia During Reconstruc· 
tion. 
Fertig, James Walter, The Secession and Reconstruction of Tennessee. 
Ficklen, John R., History of Reconstruction in Louisiana. 
Fleming, Walter F., Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama. 
--, Documentary History of Reconstruction, 1 906, 1907. 
Hamilton, Joseph G. de R., Reconstruction in North Carolina. 
Hollis, John Porter, The Early Period of Reconstruction in South Carolina. 
Lonn, Ella, Reconstruction in Louisiana after 1 868 . 
Ramsdell, Charles W., Reconstruction in Texas . 
Rhodes, James F., History of United States from the Compromise of 1 850. 
Scott, Eben G., Reconstruction During the Civil War. 
Staples, Thomas S ., Reconstruction in Arkansas . 
Studies in Southern History and Politics . Inscribed to William Archibald 
Dunning. 
Carpet-Baggers in the United States Senate. By C. Mildred Thompson. 
The Literary Movement for Secession. By Ulrich B. Phillips. 
Negro Suffrage in the South. By W. Roy Smith. 
Some Phases of Educational History in the South Since 1 865. By Wil-
liam K. Boyd. 
Southern Legislation in Respect to Freedmen, 1 865- 1 866. By J. G. de 
Roulhac Hamilton. 
The Federal Enforcement Acts . By William Watson Davis. 
The New South, Economic and Social . By Holland Thompson. 
Grant's Southern Policy. By Edwin C. Woolley. 
Taylor, Richard, Destruction and Reconstruction. 
Thompson, Clara M., Reconstruction in Georgia, Economic, Social, Po-
litical, l 805-1 872. 
Wooley, Edwin C., The Reconstruction of Georgia.
07734, does he know about writing words upside down yet?
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Many of us grew up in the church being taught to root for Moses, Daniel, and John the Baptist in the Bible, only to grow up and have our churches question our faith for not cheering on the Pharaohs, Nebuchadnezzars, and Herods in our world today.
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For people of faith, please read this thread. 👇🏼

May God grant us ears to hear, and the courage to respond in ways that are bold and faithful to Jesus.
What is happening across the country with these ICE raids is neither "more strict" immigration policy nor "finally being serious about immigration" after the previous administration's purported lenience.

It's cruelty. It's inhumanity. It's demonic. It's evil. Plain and simple.
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He is being thrown to the ground, wrongfully detained, deported, and tortured. He is crying out for His mother and father who are being ripped from Him as He's being picked up from school. He is having slurs and derogatory jokes made about Him as He's rounded up with other Black and Brown people.
Excellent thread here, especially for parents or anyone who cares about youth development in these troubling times.
Doug Wilson's "reign of terror" (spank for every infraction with no warning) came to mind when I listened to
Pete Hegseth's speech last week.

Hegseth underscored violence, external compliance & "FAFO" energy as markers of strength & winning-ness. 🧵 Full post: open.substack.com/pub/mburtwri...
Reigns of Terror in the US Department of War
Christian parenting, politics, and the cultivation of cruelty
open.substack.com
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The fruit of this teaching is not peace-keeping or peace-making.

Forced obedience is a short-sighted enterprise that leaves families picking up the pieces long past the days when adults secure their own personal peace through “reigns of terror” over small children. 22/
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who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season."
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I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice;
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who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action";
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But his DMs
Why is the President of the United States trying to communicate with the Attorney General about government business via direct messages on the social media site he owns?

And is a direct message on a privately owned social media site kind of like a private email server?
WSJ is reporting that the Truth Social post where Trump told Pam Bondi to prosecute Comey *really was supposed to be a private message*

www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
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But just as quickly as they started, they stopped.Back to business as usual.

We talk a lot about corporations backtracking on their DEI commitments.

We should also talk about church leaders backsliding on racial justice.
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"Conservative" is not the word. It's "extremism"--and a host of other words.

But there is nothing conservative about what this regime is doing.

Their project is not conservative, it's regressive.

They don't want to conserve, they want to destroy.
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We do not deploy American forces against Americans in our own cities.

Our military is not trained for domestic law enforcement.

It’s illegal and un-American.
The rogue shenanigans ICE folks are doing right now are just pure evil.
This video of Chicagoans intervening to save a man from being abducted off the streets by ICE is making the rounds on Instagram.

Community action works.

Source: www.instagram.com/reel/DPZL2AL...
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All eyes on Broadview, Illinois tonight.

Broadview is a suburb about 12 miles west of Chicago.

Our friends are reporting on the scene ⬇️
Heard an officer say "let's do it" and then, in the dark, they tackle Rabbi Ben to the ground. He's being loaded into a CCSO wagon now. Broadview police also here screaming at people.
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Christian nationalism is never about the faithful practice of Christianity. Thanks to @andrew-whitehead.bsky.social and @profsamperry.bsky.social for the reminder.

ChristiansAgainstChristianNationalism.org/subscribe
So disturbing. Can't wait to hear what they think of gleaning laws and that caring for the sick is caring for Jesus.
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They're bulldozing through the Hatch Act. But they're doing that with a lot of laws. Because they know that no one will hold them accountable.
NEW—US Department of Education sent out standard Out of Office language to employees on Wednesday in light of shutdown. Later yesterday, workers tell me they found someone had updated their auto-responses without consent to a new one blaming Democrats.

Version of original on left, updated on right:
Thank you for your email. There is a temporary shutdown of the U.S. government due to a lapse in appropriations. I will respond to your message as soon as possible after the temporary shutdown ends. Please visit ED.gov for the latest information on the
Department's operational status.
Thank you. Thank you for contacting me. On September 19, 2025, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 5371, a clean continuing resolution. Unfortunately, Democrat Senators are blocking passage of H.R. 5371 in the Senate which has led to a lapse in appropriations. Due to the lapse in appropriations I am currently in furlough status. I will respond to emails once government functions resume.