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Jack Jenkins
@jackjenkins.me
25K followers 730 following 5.9K posts
National Reporter for Religion News Service. "Workaday writer." — The New Yorker. Author of "American Prophets," a book on the religious left. Tips? Try me on Signal: jackmjenkins.60 Website: jackjenkins.me
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jackjenkins.me
Upshots:

1. Talarico ties his campaign to faith, so this is a thing if he’s hoping to win over some conservative TX Christians

2. The campaign also uses this account and appears to follow folks w/big followings, which changes the story a lot

3. Fascinating theological reply from the campaign here
Talarico's spokesperson JT Ennis said in a statement that "the social media team - including James — follows back and engages with supporters who have large followings and does not investigate their backgrounds." The Instagram accounts Talarico follows typically have at least 50,000 followers. • Talarico and his campaign team both use his account. He has more than 1.7 million followers but follows only about 3,700 people. • The campaign did not make Talarico available to comment. "James has never subscribed to Only Fans or an escort service," Ennis said. • "While James was unaware of how these women make money," Ennis said, "he does not judge them for it and will not play into an effort to smear them for clickbait articles. That's exactly what his Christian faith calls him to do." • The campaign said Talarico has messaged with only one of the accounts and shared a screenshot of the exchange, which was a simple "thank you" for an Instagram story appearing to promote his campaign.
November 9, 2025 at 1:44 AM
jackjenkins.me
Hardly unusual at this point, but National Guard are still walking around DC.

What exactly are they doing other than, like, walking around?

Unclear!
Four members of the national guard walking down a pathway in DC.
November 8, 2025 at 7:50 PM
jackjenkins.me
ANOTHER UPDATE: Photo sent to me from a faith leader on the ground outside the Broadview ICE detention center this morning shows several buses now parked outside the facility.

This, the leader says, is an unusual occurrence.

Also: a magistrate is set to visit the facility next week.
Image of buses outside a building, photo taken through a fence.
November 8, 2025 at 5:33 PM
jackjenkins.me
Seen in DC: As you enter the Washington Spirit game today, there are opportunities to donate to food banks.
Posters soliciting food bank donations.
November 8, 2025 at 4:40 PM
jackjenkins.me
UPDATE: Reached out to the Rev. Hannah Kardon, a United Methodist minister who was there that day and has been active in religious demonstrations at Broadview.

“They are making it clear that they are scared of prayer … it speaks the truth that what they are doing in that building is evil.”
They are making it clear that they are scared of prayer and all the diverse faith witness that has been at Broadview because it is powerful - it speaks the truth that what they are doing in that building is evil. But we will not stop until the evil stops. They have stolen our neighbors, they cannot steal our love and prayers for their return.
November 8, 2025 at 2:08 PM
jackjenkins.me
Religion note: The first plaintiff in this case pushing the Trump admin to fully fund SNAP benefits is the Rhode Island State Council of Churches.

By my count, that makes 62 religious organizations (including denominations!) that have been part of lawsuits against the Trump admin this year.
Plaintiff Rhode Island State Council of Churches (RISCC) is a nonprofit membership organization of churches, located in Providence, Rhode Island, and serves as an advocate for those who have no voice and resource for individuals, congregations, denominations, and civil organizations, operating as a coalition of individuals and faith communities. RISCC brings this case on behalf of its members. Food assistance is a critical component of services provided by RISCC member churches, as many member churches operate food pantries that provide produce, meat, dairy and non-perishables to individuals and families in Rhode Island.
November 8, 2025 at 3:05 AM
jackjenkins.me
Fact check: Bishop Barron "brought forth concerns" to the administration regarding the access of detainees to sacraments.

The context: DHS has publicly rebuffed faith leaders who offered communion to ICE detainees — *including a Catholic bishop* — and Pope Leo has spoken out on this since.

So…?
Bishop Robert Barron @BishopBarron Over the past several weeks Fr. Alexei Woltornist and I have been in touch with senior officials in both the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security and have brought forward the concerns of the Church regarding detainees' access to Sacraments. They have assured me that these matters are under careful review. I feel that maintaining open lines of communication and engaging in dialogue with the Administration constitute the most constructive way forward.
November 6, 2025 at 7:37 PM
jackjenkins.me
1. So, Andrew Torba, head of the website Gab, has been a self-described Christian nationalist for years, and even co-wrote a book about it.

He's also a big AI booster.

Which I guess is how one ends up insisting that Christian…

:: zooms in on book ::

…"nationalsiam" is ascendant?
An article titled "Christian natioanlists are ascendant" underneath an apparently AI-generated image that features a book labeled "Nationalsiam" — i.e., with nationalism is misspelled.
November 6, 2025 at 4:44 PM
jackjenkins.me
Dadgum — expectations were obviously for a Mamdani victory, but he full-on ran away with it.
November 5, 2025 at 12:05 PM
jackjenkins.me
Note: This is not the exact quote — which is weird, since it's on video and the pope said it in English.

But the exact quote conveys roughly the same meaning, and goes arguably even harder by making an apparent reference to the detention of migrants with no criminal record.

Rush transcript here:
"Let me say that I think, in the first place, the role of the church is to preach the gospel. And just a couple of days ago, we heard Matthew's Gospel chapter 25, which says Jesus says very clearly, at the end of the world, we're going to be asked, you know, 'how did you receive the foreigner? Did you receive Him and welcome him or not?' And I think that there's a deep reflection that needs to be made in terms of what's happening. Many people who have lived for years and years and years never causing problems have been deeply affected by what's going on right now. The spiritual rights of people who have been detained should also be considered, and I would certainly invite the authorities to allow pastoral workers to attend to the needs of those people. Many times, have been separated from their families for good amount of time. No one knows what's happening. But their own spiritual needs should be attended to."
November 4, 2025 at 9:36 PM
jackjenkins.me
The president this morning:
Any Jewish person that votes for Zohran Mamdani, a proven and self professed JEW HATER, is a stupid person!!!
November 4, 2025 at 2:51 PM
jackjenkins.me
Oh: Reached out to Bishop Robert Barron (among others), who sits on Trump's religious liberty commission, earlier today about Broadview, and it looks like he's "brought forward … concerns" on *one* part of the religious freedom issue (i.e., communion access, not ICE shooting clergy w/pepper balls).
Bishop Robert Barron @BishopBarron Over the past several weeks Fr. Alexei Woltornist and I have been in touch with senior officials in both the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security and have brought forward the concerns of the Church regarding detainees' access to Sacraments. They have assured me that these matters are under careful review. I feel that maintaining open lines of communication and engaging in dialogue with the Administration constitute the most constructive way forward.
November 4, 2025 at 2:46 AM
jackjenkins.me
Huh.

*Real* curious what's in the redacted section of this filing by plaintiffs in the journalist, activist, and clergy-led lawsuit against DHS' treatment of all three groups at the Broadview, Illinois ICE facility. (Plaintiffs have asked it to be un-redacted.) www.courtlistener.com/docket/71559...
A series of black bars indicating a redacted section of text, followed by this text: "However, video evidence shows that federal officers on the rooftop fired pepper balls directly at Reverend David Black after he held up in arms in prayer toward them. Dkt. 22-1 15 (link to video). Either the use of force reports are false, reports ordered to be produced have not been, or Defendants are deliberately omitting unlawful uses of force from their reports."
November 3, 2025 at 9:23 PM
jackjenkins.me
Faith leaders — as well as faith-based food banks — have long argued they absolutely cannot independently handle the raw number of people currently served by government food assistance programs.

They argued it again last week in Congress, calling the idea a "lie". religionnews.com/2025/10/30/f...
Barber also railed against the idea that food banks and churches could step in to fill the gap left if SNAP benefits expire, saying it’s a “lie” perpetrated by devotees of “extremism, religious nationalism and MAGA.” Impoverished Americans are being hit with a growing list of problems created by lawmakers, he said. “One minute you can’t eat. The next minute you can’t get your medicine. One minute you’re scared to go to the hospital. The next minute, you’ve got to pay higher prices, then somebody dies — because food and health and health care are all connected,” Barber, who himself suffers from a chronic illness, said in an interview. “You’re creating anxiety, you’re creating burdens.” In a separate interview with Religion News Service, Stoess said a series of GOP-led policy decisions are having a compounding effect on impoverished people in his community. In addition to hosting traditional worship services, his Church of the Promise has long offered a pay-what-you-can restaurant, a nonprofit construction group to help build housing, an outreach effort to unhoused people, an addiction recovery program and early childhood development programming, he said. Stoess said members of his staff broke down in tears this week as they began reckoning with the reality that SNAP benefits will likely expire for many they serve. Meanwhile, food banks across the country, many of which are faith-based, are bracing for a massive increase in people seeking food if SNAP benefits expire. Stoess joined others in warning that outfits like his likely will not be able to handle the influx of people seeking services, should the benefits expire. He said that while many people pay for food at his church’s restaurant by offering to clean dishes, the number offering to do so has risen throughout the year — and likely will increase even more if SNAP benefits dry up.
November 3, 2025 at 5:13 PM
jackjenkins.me
Being a religion-and-politics reporter means that one of these is your Wednesday, and the other is your Thursday.
A photo of Speaker Mike Johnson under the headline "Speaker Johnson says clergy protesting deportations have no right to 'get in the face' of DHS agents" A photo of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and the Rev. William Barber II under the headline "Faith leaders join Democrats to decry health care cuts, expiring SNAP benefits"
October 30, 2025 at 10:59 PM
jackjenkins.me
NEW: Democratic leaders huddled with faith leaders on Capitol Hill today, with clergy decrying the potential halting of SNAP benefits during the shutdown and warning about the human cost of allowing healthcare subsidies to expire.

A pastor offered this prayer: religionnews.com/2025/10/30/f...
The Rev. Ryan Stoess, a United Methodist Church pastor from Louisville, Kentucky, was asked to pray for the group over the lawsuit. “God, we lift up the court hearing that is happening … at a time when we are holding food over the heads of poor people so that we can take away their health care,” Stoess said. “God help us.” He added, “When the cruelty is the point, when the cruelty is in our face, God give us your mercy.”
October 30, 2025 at 10:41 PM
jackjenkins.me
Happening now: Hakeem Jeffries holds a press conference with Rev. William Barber and others, decrying cuts to healthcare and voicing concerns about expiring SNAP benefits.

Jeffries calls healthcare cuts “policy violence.”

Barber says they asked Johnson for a meeting, but he was “too busy”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries stands in front of clergy at a press conference. The Rev. William Barber stands in front of clergy and lawmakers at a press conference
October 30, 2025 at 4:19 PM
jackjenkins.me
FYI: it’s, uh, *not nothing* that the head of an entire Christian denomination — here Rev. Karen Georgia A. Thompson of the United Church of Christ — issued a statement decrying DHS agents for shooting one of her pastors in the face with a pepper round, adding, “No one is safe from tyranny."
"Peaceful protest is guaranteed under the first amendment. The escalation of aggression against peaceful protestors is a sign of the times, another reflection of the cruelty directed at people, and lack of regard this current administration has for the constitution and the law. No peaceful protestor should be afraid of exercising their rights, in fact no person should be afraid to exercise the freedoms guaranteed. This is the third identified clergy to experience pepper spray in the face. No one is safe from tyranny." Rev. Dr. Karen Georgia A. Thompson - United Church of Christ
October 26, 2025 at 4:40 PM
jackjenkins.me
Per @chicagotribune.com, the pajama-pants-guy is a former county prosecutor.

And he had some things to say. www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/25/c...
A different video captured after agents unleashed tear gas showed plumes of smoke billowing down the street as the crowd's piercing shouts and whistles reached a fever pitch. Onlookers scurried to the sidewalk to get away from the chemicals, with one neighbor, Brian Kolp, seen walking away barefoot and in Chicago Blackhawks pajamas. Kolp, 41, said he was drinking coffee on his couch and watching the news as he always does on Saturday morning when he saw what's become an all-too-familiar scene unfold outside his window. Two U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents were tackling a man to the ground on his front yard. Meanwhile, Kolp's TV continued to blare a news segment discussing the ongoing temporary restraining order restricting federal immigration agents' use of tear gas. Kolp, a former prosecutor with the Cook County State's Attorney's office, sprang into action as he sometimes wondered he would have to do throughout the Trump administration's "Operation Midway Blitz" these last two months. He didn't even have time to put on his shoes or change out of his pajamas, he said, drawing jeers from one of the agents as he screamed "Nazis!" and "Gestapo!" at the agents. "Quite honestly, when all this started happening, I thought to myself that if the opportunity ever came my way to have to get involved in one of these situations, I was certainly going to do what I could to make sure that they weren't openly and flagrantly violating the law or the Constitution," Kolp said. "And yet, they just went ahead and did it anyway."
October 25, 2025 at 10:59 PM
jackjenkins.me
ALSO: A statement from the Rev. Karen Georgia A. Thompson, General Minister of the United Church of Christ, Rev. Bautista’s denomination.

Calls it “another reflection of the cruelty directed at people and lack of regard this current administration has for the Constitution and the law.”
"The escalation of aggression against peaceful protesters is a sign of the times, another reflection of the cruelty directed at people and lack of regard this current administration has for the Constitution and the law," Thompson said. "This is the third identified clergy to experience pepper spray in the face. No one is safe from tyranny."
October 24, 2025 at 10:09 PM
jackjenkins.me
Via @berkeleyside.org: Another view of the officer firing a likely "pepper-spray round" directly into the Rev. Jorge Bautista in the face.

Their full story here: www.berkeleyside.org/2025/10/23/l...
A pastor stands in the road, his head engulfed in yellow smoke fired by a DHS officer who stands just a few feet away.
October 24, 2025 at 2:38 PM
jackjenkins.me
Big year for photos of clergy enduring pain while protesting ICE.

· Rev. David Black, Chicago Sun-Times: chicago.suntimes.com/news/2025/10...

· Rev. Jorge Bautista, SF Chron: www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/arti...

· Rev. Hannah Kardon, Chicago Protest Photography: www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1...
Rev. David Black being pepper sprayed by ICE/DHS agents. Rev. Jorge Bautista squints in pain after being shot with apparent pepper balls by ICE/DHS agents. Rev. Hannah Kardon is arrested by three Illinois State Police outside the Broadview, Illinois ICE facility.
October 23, 2025 at 6:52 PM
jackjenkins.me
Oh wow:

"During the fracas, a federal agent fired a pepper round that struck a (UCC) clergyman, Jorge Bautista, near the chin. The impact caked his face and clothing in orange powder. Bautista said the agent shot him in the face from about 5 feet away."

"'I’m in a lot of pain,'" Bautista texted…"
A man, identified as a UCC minister, squints in pain with his face caked in orange from apparent pepper balls allegedly shot by ICE/DHS agents.
October 23, 2025 at 5:34 PM
jackjenkins.me
NEW: 200+ Chicago-area clergy — Protestants, Catholics, and evangelicals — have signed a letter decrying ICE's efforts and voicing a willingness to put their "bodies on the line" for migrants.

"What Kristi Noem and her ICE agents are doing is immoral," they write. religionnews.com/2025/10/21/a...
(RNS) - Last Friday (Oct. 17), the Rev. Hannah Kardon, a United Methodist minister in the Chicago area, stood alongside other protesters demonstrating outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Broadview, Illinois. As a line of Illinois State Police began marching toward her and other demonstrators, gripping wooden batons, footage shows the pastor with her hands raised in prayer. Officers then pushed into the protesters, forcing them back. One officer shifted his stance, reared back and began shoving his baton like a battering ram - jamming it repeatedly, Kardon says, into her leg. A few seconds later, the pastor was pulled from the crowd and thrown to the ground. All the while, Kardon says, she never stopped praying. When officers began to arrest her, they tied her arms behind her back and placed her along the curb. "I said, 'God, please help these people to know that what they're doing is wrong, and help them to turn around," Kardon, who leads United Church of Rogers Park in Chicago, said in an interview. Her leg, she said, has developed visible bruises.
October 21, 2025 at 7:43 PM
jackjenkins.me
NEW: Cardinal Blase Cupich, the Archbishop of Chicago, has issued a new statement declaring that Chicago "communities are shaken by immigration raids and detentions. These actions wound the soul of our city. Let me be clear. The Church stands with migrants."
Statement of Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, on Standing with Immigrants Oct. 21, 2025 My dear brothers and sisters, today I speak to you as your shepherd, but also as a fellow pilgrim who shares the pain of many of our immigrant communities. Families are being torn apart. Children are left in fear, and communities are shaken by immigration raids and detentions. These actions wound the soul of our city. Let me be clear. The Church stands with migrants. We stand with a mother who crosses borders to feed her children. We stand with the father who labors in silence to build a better future. We stand with the young person who dreams of safety and a better future. Our parishes and schools will not turn away those who seek comfort, and we will not be silent when dignity is denied in the enforcement of the law, it is essential that we respect the dignity of every human being. Now I want to say something directly to those immigrants without documents. Most of you have been here for years. You have worked hard. You have raised families. You have contributed to this nation. You have earned our respect. As the Archbishop of Chicago, I will insist that you be treated with dignity. Americans should not forget that we all come from immigrant families. You are our brothers and sisters. We stand with you. God bless you all.
October 21, 2025 at 6:05 PM