Ted Olsen
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tedolsen.bsky.social
Ted Olsen
@tedolsen.bsky.social
1.1K followers 670 following 330 posts
Associate Publisher and Editorial Director for Media and Trade Books, InterVarsity Press. Formerly Executive Editor (etc) at Christianity Today.
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tedolsen.bsky.social
To clarify: No new "free speech zones" are opening. Broadview is closing the one on 25th Street, immediately off of I-290, where many of the protests have been. 1/
October 13, 2025 at 6:49 PM
tedolsen.bsky.social
Scenes from today's (Saturday's) Eucharistic procession to the Broadview ICE facility (different from yesterday's Communion service outside the facility!) 🧵 1/
October 11, 2025 at 6:06 PM
tedolsen.bsky.social
Instagram post from yesterday by David Black, the Presbyterian Church (USA) minister who went viral for being repeatedly targeted by ICE with chemical munitions. www.instagram.com/p/DPnOQIODFP4/
Tomorrow morning, Christian clergy will be holding a communion service in front of the ICE Detention center in Broadview, IL. In our liturgies, we say that “they will come from north and south, east and west to sit together at the table in the Kingdom of God.” The communion table is a welcome table. All are invited. A nation which prohibits the movement of the peoples to gather at that table is by definition obstructing our religious practice and infringing on our right to practice our Christian faith freely. All are invited to join in this ancient ritual, which acknowledges the violence which an empire visited upon our Lord Jesus Christ. Yet his death and resurrection inaugurated the world we yearn for. The truth is that the Beloved Community is here—I see it gathering outside Broadview week after week to demand and exhort the release of our captive neighbors and their restoration to our communities, so that the Welcome Table of this Eucharist might be made whole. I hope you will join us. Tomorrow morning, Christian clergy will be holding a communion service in front of the ICE Detention center in Broadview, IL. In our liturgies, we say that “they will come from north and south, east and west to sit together at the table in the Kingdom of God.” The communion table is a welcome table. All are invited. A nation which prohibits the movement of the peoples to gather at that table is by definition obstructing our religious practice and infringing on our right to practice our Christian faith freely. All are invited to join in this ancient ritual, which acknowledges the violence which an empire visited upon our Lord Jesus Christ. Yet his death and resurrection inaugurated the world we yearn for. The truth is that the Beloved Community is here—I see it gathering outside Broadview week after week to demand and exhort the release of our captive neighbors and their restoration to our communities, so that the Welcome Table of this Eucharist might be made whole. I hope you will join us.
October 10, 2025 at 10:42 PM
tedolsen.bsky.social
Scenes from today's Communion service outside the Broadview ICE facility. 🧵
October 10, 2025 at 10:20 PM
tedolsen.bsky.social
Je suis 2018 Hawaii
October 10, 2025 at 8:34 PM
tedolsen.bsky.social
‘Grandma, my skin’s burning.’
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/03/i...
“My grandbabies, they said, ‘Grandma, my skin’s burning,’” the woman recalled. The woman said she turned off the air conditioning to try to keep the chemicals from coming through the vents. Days later, she could not describe the smell of the gas. Just that “it burns” and that it made her chest hurt. She couldn’t be sure, though, whether the pain was from the chemicals or the fear.
October 4, 2025 at 5:44 PM
tedolsen.bsky.social
Can you describe the cover?
Here are a few I've been eyeing:
September 25, 2025 at 2:35 PM
tedolsen.bsky.social
Always grateful for Jay Kim’s wisdom
www.wsj.com/tech/peter-t...
Jay Kim, the lead pastor at WestGate Church in the Bay Area, who has had a front-row seat to the new attention to Christianity emerging in Silicon Valley, said Thiel’s focus on the Antichrist is misplaced. “My best understanding is that the New Testament writers focus very little, if at all, on pointing followers of Jesus towards spending their energy on accurately identifying the Antichrist,” he said. “To give all your energy into thinking about all that, to me, feels like a pretty futile endeavor.”
September 24, 2025 at 3:21 PM
tedolsen.bsky.social
Grateful for the interview! Did the photo that went viral get too expensive to use?
September 22, 2025 at 4:29 PM
tedolsen.bsky.social
Syncretism is always pretty popular.
2 Kings 17:32-33, 41: They worshiped the Lord, but they also appointed all sorts of their own people to officiate for them as priests in the shrines at the high places. They worshiped the Lord, but they also served their own gods in accordance with the customs of the nations from which they had been brought. … Even while these people were worshiping the Lord, they were serving their idols. To this day their children and grandchildren continue to do as their ancestors did.
September 21, 2025 at 7:07 PM
tedolsen.bsky.social
www.nytimes.com/live/2025/09...
NYT: "at the [VIP area of the] memorial service for Charlie Kirk … Kyle Rittenhouse, who was embraced by the right after fatally shooting two people during protests in Wisconsin in 2020, posed for photos."
September 21, 2025 at 6:52 PM
tedolsen.bsky.social
September 21, 2025 at 4:36 PM
tedolsen.bsky.social
David Black, pastor of First Presbyterian Church, is sprayed directly in the face with tear gas at the ICE processing facility in Broadview. Photo by Ashlee Rezin of the Chicago Sun-Times.
September 21, 2025 at 4:25 PM
tedolsen.bsky.social
David Black, pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, is sprayed directly in the face by a masked ICE agent during protests outside the ICE processing facility in Broadview, Illinois. Photo by Ashlee Rezin of the Chicago Sun-Times.
September 21, 2025 at 4:23 PM
tedolsen.bsky.social
The Atlantic's @kokogiak.bsky.social is brilliant in how he connects each photo in "Photos of the Week" to its neighbors. (Even better than NYT's Connections game!) Amused by this clever juxtaposition in last week's: children in danger → RFK Jr vaccines testimony → More children in danger
September 19, 2025 at 6:53 PM
tedolsen.bsky.social
If you see this, quote the energy you bring to Bluesky
September 16, 2025 at 5:11 PM
tedolsen.bsky.social
I appreciate and am reminded of @danielsilliman.bsky.social’s recent newsletter on obituary writing. Worth subscribing to.
sillimandaniel.substack.com/p/what-are-o...
I am not trying to honor people when I write their obituaries. That’s a common misconception I hear from both readers who love what I do and those who are offended and feel betrayed. The job of an obit, as I understand it, is different from a tribute, reminiscence, or eulogy. An obit tries to explain the significance of the recently deceased and the role that person played in shaping the world we live in.
September 11, 2025 at 12:01 AM
tedolsen.bsky.social
First post I saw convinces me it’s a legit list
September 8, 2025 at 12:44 AM
tedolsen.bsky.social
buncha dang kids on a segway tour on the mall
August 12, 2025 at 1:19 PM
tedolsen.bsky.social
Those fickle Chicago summers, when it’s warm and then suddenly drops to 0° Kelvin for a few minutes
July 4, 2025 at 1:07 AM
tedolsen.bsky.social
“Privileged classes do not give up their privileges voluntarily.”
From Jonathan Eig's "King: A Life": On February 10, on national television, he declared the arrival of a new American Negro, “a person with a new sense of dignity and destiny with a new self-respect.” The new American Negro possessed courage, he said. The new American Negro refused to pay lip service to the white man. The new American Negro “says in no uncertain terms that he doesn’t like the way he’s being treated” and intends to do something about it. King’s calm tone and conservative attire may have disguised the boldness of his words: “I think it’s better to be aggressive at this point,” he said. “It seems to me that it is both historically and sociologically true that privileged classes do not give up their privileges voluntarily. And they do not give them up without strong resistance.” The interviewer asked if strong resistance would generate more white retaliation. “Well,” King said, “I think that is a necessary phase of the transition.”
July 1, 2025 at 12:44 PM
tedolsen.bsky.social
No Kings Naperville Illinois
June 14, 2025 at 4:00 PM
tedolsen.bsky.social
Mood
Photo: LA Times
June 8, 2025 at 12:17 PM
tedolsen.bsky.social
I appreciate the NYT's related article collections:
a screencap of New York Times articles tagged "Runaway Zebreas"
June 7, 2025 at 2:51 PM
tedolsen.bsky.social
And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed;
for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.
Woe to you who add house to house
and join field to field
till no space is left
and you live alone in the land. …
Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil
The destruction of Rafah NYT photos of Rafah over time
May 18, 2025 at 12:47 AM