David Simmons
@frdavid.org
Episcopal Priest, Presbyterian Pastor, Ecumenist, LGBTQIA+ Ally, Oblate of the Order of Julian of Norwich, Chief Election Inspector, Tolkien Nut, Percussionist and Gaming Dork. http://www.frdavid.org
JD Vance said last week that he hoped his wife Usha, who was raised Hindu, would be “somehow moved by church.” This has brought controversy pertaining to the history of how people “Become Christian,” which can span from personal discovery to forced conversion. ⚓️
November 4, 2025 at 11:10 PM
JD Vance said last week that he hoped his wife Usha, who was raised Hindu, would be “somehow moved by church.” This has brought controversy pertaining to the history of how people “Become Christian,” which can span from personal discovery to forced conversion. ⚓️
Folks, there are enlisted members of our military who are dependent on SNAP for their families. The myth of the "Lazy Poor" is persistent, but false.
October 27, 2025 at 9:05 PM
Folks, there are enlisted members of our military who are dependent on SNAP for their families. The myth of the "Lazy Poor" is persistent, but false.
"Dr. Barth, when was the exact moment when you were saved?"
Karl Barth responded, "I was saved at 3 o'clock on a Friday afternoon, on a hill outside the city of Jerusalem, in the year 33 A.D."
Karl Barth
1886-1968 Swiss Theologian ⚓️
Karl Barth responded, "I was saved at 3 o'clock on a Friday afternoon, on a hill outside the city of Jerusalem, in the year 33 A.D."
Karl Barth
1886-1968 Swiss Theologian ⚓️
October 8, 2025 at 3:44 PM
"Dr. Barth, when was the exact moment when you were saved?"
Karl Barth responded, "I was saved at 3 o'clock on a Friday afternoon, on a hill outside the city of Jerusalem, in the year 33 A.D."
Karl Barth
1886-1968 Swiss Theologian ⚓️
Karl Barth responded, "I was saved at 3 o'clock on a Friday afternoon, on a hill outside the city of Jerusalem, in the year 33 A.D."
Karl Barth
1886-1968 Swiss Theologian ⚓️
The Rev. David Black, pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Chicago, being pepper sprayed in the face at a peaceful protest. ⚓️
October 7, 2025 at 5:36 PM
The Rev. David Black, pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Chicago, being pepper sprayed in the face at a peaceful protest. ⚓️
The traditional Christian Just War principles of “Discrimination” and “Proportionality” are what our Secretary of Defense rejected today. There is nothing Christ-like about this at all. If you’d like to know more about Just War theory, I did four one-minute videos on it, linked in the comments. ⚓️
October 1, 2025 at 2:57 AM
The traditional Christian Just War principles of “Discrimination” and “Proportionality” are what our Secretary of Defense rejected today. There is nothing Christ-like about this at all. If you’d like to know more about Just War theory, I did four one-minute videos on it, linked in the comments. ⚓️
Risking Godwin's law, This echoes Nazi Christian theology and is very dangerous. For the past decade or so, I've spent a lot of time studying the "German Christian" (Deutsche Christen) movement in Germany in the 1930s, which was the part of the protestant church that overtly supported the Nazis.. ⚓
September 22, 2025 at 9:46 PM
Risking Godwin's law, This echoes Nazi Christian theology and is very dangerous. For the past decade or so, I've spent a lot of time studying the "German Christian" (Deutsche Christen) movement in Germany in the 1930s, which was the part of the protestant church that overtly supported the Nazis.. ⚓
"If American #democracy fails, the ultimate cause will not be a foreign invasion .. It will happen because we—you and I—became so fearful of each other, of our differences and of the future, that we unraveled the civic community on which democracy depends.." - Parker Palmer ⚓ #America
September 13, 2025 at 11:20 PM
"If American #democracy fails, the ultimate cause will not be a foreign invasion .. It will happen because we—you and I—became so fearful of each other, of our differences and of the future, that we unraveled the civic community on which democracy depends.." - Parker Palmer ⚓ #America
Stopped by the Bahá’í House of Worship on the way home from the National Workshop on Christian Unity. It’s the only Bahá’í temple on the North American continent. A beautiful and quiet place - a good place to pray for peace in our nation and world this morning. ⚓️
September 11, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Stopped by the Bahá’í House of Worship on the way home from the National Workshop on Christian Unity. It’s the only Bahá’í temple on the North American continent. A beautiful and quiet place - a good place to pray for peace in our nation and world this morning. ⚓️
Folks, THIS is why revisionist “Lost Cause” history is harmful. An illustration from an actual Virginia textbook in the 1950s purporting to show how slaves were routinely freed, given resources, and sent to Liberia. ⚓️
August 22, 2025 at 3:22 AM
Folks, THIS is why revisionist “Lost Cause” history is harmful. An illustration from an actual Virginia textbook in the 1950s purporting to show how slaves were routinely freed, given resources, and sent to Liberia. ⚓️
“By the reading of Scripture I am so renewed that all nature seems renewed round me and with me. … the hills and whole world are charged with the glory of God, and I feel fire and music in the earth under my feet.” Thomas #Merton #Christianity ⚓️
August 19, 2025 at 6:09 AM
“By the reading of Scripture I am so renewed that all nature seems renewed round me and with me. … the hills and whole world are charged with the glory of God, and I feel fire and music in the earth under my feet.” Thomas #Merton #Christianity ⚓️
No God but God. Even if we don’t worship a pantheon of gods, we can still effectively worship false gods by prioritizing things like security or wealth over God’s priorities of justice, care for foreigners, minorities, and the poor. #religion #christianity #episcopalchurch ⚓️
August 18, 2025 at 9:40 PM
No God but God. Even if we don’t worship a pantheon of gods, we can still effectively worship false gods by prioritizing things like security or wealth over God’s priorities of justice, care for foreigners, minorities, and the poor. #religion #christianity #episcopalchurch ⚓️
“ #Christianity should make us “more visibly human”—passionately concerned with all the good, that is, that wants to grow in the world and that cannot grow without our concern.” - Thomas #Merton ⚓️
August 14, 2025 at 5:12 AM
“ #Christianity should make us “more visibly human”—passionately concerned with all the good, that is, that wants to grow in the world and that cannot grow without our concern.” - Thomas #Merton ⚓️
"Your 'yes' to God requires your 'no' to all injustice, to all evil, to all lies, to all oppression and violation of the weak and poor..."
Deitrich Bonhoeffer
German pastor, theologian, author and anti-Nazi dissident
(1906 - 1945) ⚓️
Deitrich Bonhoeffer
German pastor, theologian, author and anti-Nazi dissident
(1906 - 1945) ⚓️
August 3, 2025 at 3:17 AM
"Your 'yes' to God requires your 'no' to all injustice, to all evil, to all lies, to all oppression and violation of the weak and poor..."
Deitrich Bonhoeffer
German pastor, theologian, author and anti-Nazi dissident
(1906 - 1945) ⚓️
Deitrich Bonhoeffer
German pastor, theologian, author and anti-Nazi dissident
(1906 - 1945) ⚓️
“The terrible thing is that our society, which pretends to be Christian, is in fact rejecting the word of God, enabled to do so by the all-pervading, suffocating noise of its own propaganda, able to make itself believe whatever it wants.”
— A Year with Thomas #Merton:
⚓️
a.co/df3xBQB
— A Year with Thomas #Merton:
⚓️
a.co/df3xBQB
July 30, 2025 at 5:28 AM
“The terrible thing is that our society, which pretends to be Christian, is in fact rejecting the word of God, enabled to do so by the all-pervading, suffocating noise of its own propaganda, able to make itself believe whatever it wants.”
— A Year with Thomas #Merton:
⚓️
a.co/df3xBQB
— A Year with Thomas #Merton:
⚓️
a.co/df3xBQB
I was a Game Master years before I was a Christian. The stories of Jesus, such as the Good Samaritan and the prodigal son, can inspire us with the power of God’s love and give us the strength to resist actions that violate human rights. #Tolkien #DungeonsAndDragons #Jesus #Resistance #episcopal ⚓️
July 28, 2025 at 11:26 PM
I was a Game Master years before I was a Christian. The stories of Jesus, such as the Good Samaritan and the prodigal son, can inspire us with the power of God’s love and give us the strength to resist actions that violate human rights. #Tolkien #DungeonsAndDragons #Jesus #Resistance #episcopal ⚓️
“The great obligation of the Christian is to prove himself a disciple of Christ by hating no one, condemning no one, rejecting no one..” - Thomas Merton ⚓️ #jesus #merton #christianity
July 26, 2025 at 5:24 AM
“The great obligation of the Christian is to prove himself a disciple of Christ by hating no one, condemning no one, rejecting no one..” - Thomas Merton ⚓️ #jesus #merton #christianity
July 9, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Criteria for a Just Aftermath: The Jus post Bellum Principles. The fourth video on Western Christian Just War Theory. #episcopalchurch #jesus #war #ethics ⚓️
July 8, 2025 at 5:59 PM
Criteria for a Just Aftermath: The Jus post Bellum Principles. The fourth video on Western Christian Just War Theory. #episcopalchurch #jesus #war #ethics ⚓️
Criteria for waging war justly: The Jus in Bello Principles. The third video on Western Christian Just War Theory. #episcopalchurch #jesus #war #ethics ⚓️
July 7, 2025 at 10:54 PM
Criteria for waging war justly: The Jus in Bello Principles. The third video on Western Christian Just War Theory. #episcopalchurch #jesus #war #ethics ⚓️
“Your broad republican domain is hunting ground for men. Not for thieves and robbers, enemies of society, merely, but for men guilty of no crime. Your law-makers have commanded all good citizens to engage in this hellish sport… ⚓️ #FrederickDouglass #4thOfJuly
July 4, 2025 at 5:09 AM
“Your broad republican domain is hunting ground for men. Not for thieves and robbers, enemies of society, merely, but for men guilty of no crime. Your law-makers have commanded all good citizens to engage in this hellish sport… ⚓️ #FrederickDouglass #4thOfJuly
This is exactly the playbook used in 30s Germany. By putting Jews first in ghettos and then in camps, they claimed they were encouraging the other Jews to "Self-deport." ⚓ #immigration #ice #alligatoralcatraz
July 2, 2025 at 4:35 PM
This is exactly the playbook used in 30s Germany. By putting Jews first in ghettos and then in camps, they claimed they were encouraging the other Jews to "Self-deport." ⚓ #immigration #ice #alligatoralcatraz