Hank Owings
@hankowings.bsky.social
PhD Candidate @ UPenn / Political Theory, Religion, Conservatism / First-gen from rural Ohio / Bahá’í
Currently finishing up (for fun):
October 13, 2025 at 1:38 PM
Currently finishing up (for fun):
Reposted by Hank Owings
No better diagnostic of the media environment right now that the non-story of a Trumper deciding to kill heretics & burn their church
Ngl I kinda thought a sectarian terror attack in the U.S. would get a little more news coverage
October 1, 2025 at 5:02 PM
No better diagnostic of the media environment right now that the non-story of a Trumper deciding to kill heretics & burn their church
Reposted by Hank Owings
Two Orthodox Christian women have created a new website about sexual misconduct and abuse in their denomination that not only names names, but offers victims help in coming to terms with their trauma.
religionnews.com/2025/09/25/n...
religionnews.com/2025/09/25/n...
New website alerts Orthodox Church to 'clergy sex abuse problem it must reckon with'
(RNS) — Prosopon Healing not only names names, but offers victims help in coming to terms with their trauma.
religionnews.com
September 29, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Two Orthodox Christian women have created a new website about sexual misconduct and abuse in their denomination that not only names names, but offers victims help in coming to terms with their trauma.
religionnews.com/2025/09/25/n...
religionnews.com/2025/09/25/n...
Hello all, I wrote something as a political theorist and as a Bahá’í about Kirk’s death. Hoping to get back into long-form, public-facing writing (as I used to do long before my PhD program).
The United States of Division; On Learning to Love Your Enemies
“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matt 5:43)
open.substack.com
September 22, 2025 at 9:47 PM
Hello all, I wrote something as a political theorist and as a Bahá’í about Kirk’s death. Hoping to get back into long-form, public-facing writing (as I used to do long before my PhD program).
Hey so with free speech front and center this week and last, I’d definitely recommend my own argument to frame it — and the many others I’ve built upon in my bibliography
Happy to share my first article with the world, a critique of the liberal notion of “free speech” — and why certain kinds of speech are less valued than others:
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Refusing to Listen: Receptive Audiences and the Political Authority of Speech in Hobbes, Locke, and Mill
Click on the article title to read more.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
September 17, 2025 at 11:54 PM
Hey so with free speech front and center this week and last, I’d definitely recommend my own argument to frame it — and the many others I’ve built upon in my bibliography
Guns | Bahá’í Quotes
bahaiquotes.com
September 10, 2025 at 11:44 PM
Reposted by Hank Owings
I tell my students that if people in power are that determined to get them to stop studying a subject, it's probably a good sign of why that subject is so important: www.chronicle.com/article/why-...
Why Religious Studies Is in Trouble
As colleges plan to make cuts, departments in this field are finding themselves on the chopping block.
www.chronicle.com
September 5, 2025 at 1:54 PM
I tell my students that if people in power are that determined to get them to stop studying a subject, it's probably a good sign of why that subject is so important: www.chronicle.com/article/why-...
I’m a Baha’i, and let me say this clearly: My religion is not your cudgel to use to slander a family taking a moral & just stance against genocide.
Moreover, the legal oppression of Baha’is in Qatar is not comparable to the apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and genocide of the Israeli government.
Moreover, the legal oppression of Baha’is in Qatar is not comparable to the apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and genocide of the Israeli government.
Zohran Mamdani's mom refuses to show her work in Haifa, Israel, at the multicultural city's annual film fest.
Yet she's all too happy to accept millions and headline film festivals in Qatar, a Muslim ethnostate that persecutes its Baha'i minority.
Make it make sense.
Yet she's all too happy to accept millions and headline film festivals in Qatar, a Muslim ethnostate that persecutes its Baha'i minority.
Make it make sense.
August 31, 2025 at 4:21 PM
I’m a Baha’i, and let me say this clearly: My religion is not your cudgel to use to slander a family taking a moral & just stance against genocide.
Moreover, the legal oppression of Baha’is in Qatar is not comparable to the apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and genocide of the Israeli government.
Moreover, the legal oppression of Baha’is in Qatar is not comparable to the apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and genocide of the Israeli government.
Happy to share my first article with the world, a critique of the liberal notion of “free speech” — and why certain kinds of speech are less valued than others:
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Refusing to Listen: Receptive Audiences and the Political Authority of Speech in Hobbes, Locke, and Mill
Click on the article title to read more.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
August 16, 2025 at 5:34 AM
Happy to share my first article with the world, a critique of the liberal notion of “free speech” — and why certain kinds of speech are less valued than others:
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Philadelphia in the summer
June 29, 2025 at 11:57 PM
Philadelphia in the summer
Can I just say I love what my students ended up submitting for their final projects in American Political Thought. I assigned an open-ended “creative audio-visual” project contextualizing one contemporary issue with course readings (1700-1930s texts/debates). They did not disappoint!
May 12, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Can I just say I love what my students ended up submitting for their final projects in American Political Thought. I assigned an open-ended “creative audio-visual” project contextualizing one contemporary issue with course readings (1700-1930s texts/debates). They did not disappoint!
Yesterday, members of the National Spiritual Assembly of the #Baha'is of the United States - our democratically elected national leadership - gave an hour-long talk about the present moment many of us confront as Americas.
April 27, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Yesterday, members of the National Spiritual Assembly of the #Baha'is of the United States - our democratically elected national leadership - gave an hour-long talk about the present moment many of us confront as Americas.
Also recommend; these are the kind of principles we should be advocating for on our campuses!
April 26, 2025 at 6:36 PM
Also recommend; these are the kind of principles we should be advocating for on our campuses!
Reading for a project I’m working on and the chapter on American fascism begins with the second KKK. I just taught Hiram Evans to undergraduates last week and was wondering why it’s not more common to identify fascism earlier than just before WWII!
April 26, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Reading for a project I’m working on and the chapter on American fascism begins with the second KKK. I just taught Hiram Evans to undergraduates last week and was wondering why it’s not more common to identify fascism earlier than just before WWII!
Happy Ridván, the holiest holiday period of the Bahá’í Faith, when Bahá’u’lláh declared himself a Manifestation of God in Baghdad.
Here’s some of the wisdom of our international leaders on economic and racial justice.
Here’s some of the wisdom of our international leaders on economic and racial justice.
April 19, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Happy Ridván, the holiest holiday period of the Bahá’í Faith, when Bahá’u’lláh declared himself a Manifestation of God in Baghdad.
Here’s some of the wisdom of our international leaders on economic and racial justice.
Here’s some of the wisdom of our international leaders on economic and racial justice.
Reposted by Hank Owings
My feelings about generative AI:
1) I'm highly skeptical it'll ever work
2) It's distracting from actual use cases for AI
3) We need a pause until it can be done without wrecking the environment or stealing IP
4) If it does have real potential then it shouldn't be controlled by ruthless people
1) I'm highly skeptical it'll ever work
2) It's distracting from actual use cases for AI
3) We need a pause until it can be done without wrecking the environment or stealing IP
4) If it does have real potential then it shouldn't be controlled by ruthless people
April 14, 2025 at 7:01 PM
My feelings about generative AI:
1) I'm highly skeptical it'll ever work
2) It's distracting from actual use cases for AI
3) We need a pause until it can be done without wrecking the environment or stealing IP
4) If it does have real potential then it shouldn't be controlled by ruthless people
1) I'm highly skeptical it'll ever work
2) It's distracting from actual use cases for AI
3) We need a pause until it can be done without wrecking the environment or stealing IP
4) If it does have real potential then it shouldn't be controlled by ruthless people
One thing I like about this recently translated passage by Bahá’u’lláh is that “tyranny” here implies an abuse of power men hold over women, “the handmaidens of God,” contrary to “equity” and “justice.” It anticipates the critique of “patriarchy” almost a century later.
April 1, 2025 at 7:44 PM
One thing I like about this recently translated passage by Bahá’u’lláh is that “tyranny” here implies an abuse of power men hold over women, “the handmaidens of God,” contrary to “equity” and “justice.” It anticipates the critique of “patriarchy” almost a century later.
waiting for the end of grading
March 30, 2025 at 5:20 AM
waiting for the end of grading
Important, but also:
The “persecution” complex is *constitutive* of Christian identity since the first century. To be a Christian is to necessarily believe in some degree of persecution.
Different flavors of Christianity channel that differently.
The “persecution” complex is *constitutive* of Christian identity since the first century. To be a Christian is to necessarily believe in some degree of persecution.
Different flavors of Christianity channel that differently.
No. Christians feel persecuted because there is a vast media apparatus telling them that they are persecuted. There is no evidence whatsoever of large-scale discrimination against Christians in this country.
Interesting story that gets to the heart of why many Christians feel persecuted in the U.S.: The secular elite find many of their views abhorrent and uncouth
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/06/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/06/u...
March 11, 2025 at 11:30 PM
Important, but also:
The “persecution” complex is *constitutive* of Christian identity since the first century. To be a Christian is to necessarily believe in some degree of persecution.
Different flavors of Christianity channel that differently.
The “persecution” complex is *constitutive* of Christian identity since the first century. To be a Christian is to necessarily believe in some degree of persecution.
Different flavors of Christianity channel that differently.
Reposted by Hank Owings
Newsletter: There is no AI Revolution. Consumer adoption of generative AI outside of ChatGPT is barely 100 million people, every single company in generative AI is deeply unprofitable, Microsoft is pulling capex, and OpenAI spent $9bn in 2024 to lose $5bn.
www.wheresyoured.at/wheres-the-m...
www.wheresyoured.at/wheres-the-m...
There Is No AI Revolution
Soundtrack: Mack Glocky - Chasing Cars
Last week, I spent a great deal of time and words framing the generative AI industry as a cynical con where OpenAI's Sam Altman and Anthropic's Dario Amodei hav...
www.wheresyoured.at
February 24, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Newsletter: There is no AI Revolution. Consumer adoption of generative AI outside of ChatGPT is barely 100 million people, every single company in generative AI is deeply unprofitable, Microsoft is pulling capex, and OpenAI spent $9bn in 2024 to lose $5bn.
www.wheresyoured.at/wheres-the-m...
www.wheresyoured.at/wheres-the-m...
Ordered and very excited! Copies of the old edition are very expensive and I’ve had to rely on library copies for far too long.
Great to see this back in the world!
Great to see this back in the world!
Finally back in print tomorrow! Order now to make a rape apologist cry: bookshop.org/p/books/righ...
February 24, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Ordered and very excited! Copies of the old edition are very expensive and I’ve had to rely on library copies for far too long.
Great to see this back in the world!
Great to see this back in the world!
I think Federalist #78, Marbury v Madison, and McCullough v Maryland would have something to say about this (hint: while the people are supreme, the elected bodies that represent that sovereignty are not)
Trump official announces that Trump has signed an executive order claiming that only the president can speak for “what the law is”
(This is not how the Constitution works)
(This is not how the Constitution works)
February 19, 2025 at 12:12 AM
I think Federalist #78, Marbury v Madison, and McCullough v Maryland would have something to say about this (hint: while the people are supreme, the elected bodies that represent that sovereignty are not)
Reposted by Hank Owings
Rogers Smith and I have thoughts.
60 years of progress in expanding rights is being rolled back by Trump − a pattern that’s all too familiar in US history
Donald Trump’s measures ending government diversity efforts are part of a much broader effort to reverse civil rights gains for all Americans. It’s not the first time such a backlash has happened.
theconversation.com
February 13, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Rogers Smith and I have thoughts.