iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Adam Baker @breathinghope.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

"All we have left is imagination, and ours is stronger than theirs." - Walter Breuggemann

Adam Baker @breathinghope.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

" ... vanquished peoples are not really subjects of the empire until their imagination has been taken captive... until that imagination is broken, domesticated, and reshaped in the image of the empire, the people are still free."‬ - Brian Walsh & Sylvia Keesmaat

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Adam Baker @breathinghope.bsky.social · 19/04/2025

Listening to Zao’s The Funeral of God in the wake of our solemn Good Friday service.

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Adam Baker @breathinghope.bsky.social · 30/03/2025

Imagination is a monarchy; they cannot rule where they cannot decree. Just think of Solzhenitsyn underground, his manuscripts in danger, not his mind. Trust not in princes is for poets too; to order what’s within is up to you. They’ll never rule where they cannot decree - imagination is a monarchy.

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Adam Baker @breathinghope.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

I’m teaching about praying with the Desert Fathers & Mothers tonight, and spending time with these old friends reminds me of how much I miss them when I’m away for so long, and just how good it is for my soul to sit with their Sayings and searching.

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Adam Baker @breathinghope.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

A friend just said that our civil liberties might be the only thing more fragile than the ego of a white man, and looking around, he’s not wrong.

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Erin Reed @erininthemorning.com · 07/03/2025

1. Today, powerful speeches from trans representatives in Montana SJ Howell and Zooey Zephyr flipped 29 Republicans, killing anti-trans bills. While some Dems like Newsom abandon trans people, these reps show the power of representation. Watch their speech. Subscribe to support our journalism.

erininthemorning.com

Powerful Speeches From Trans Dems Flip 29 Republicans, Anti-Trans Bills Die In Montana

Transgender Reps Zooey Zephyr and SJ Howell delivered powerful speeches on the Montana House floor on Thursday. Republicans defected en masse to join them in voting against anti-trans bills.

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Adam Baker @breathinghope.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

The State of the Union had me wishing that our elected officials had the willpower to protest boldly against lies and corruption, even if doing so might cost them, and in a unified, undeniable way. Honestly, it made me longingly remember this, and wish it was us. #haka m.youtube.com/watch?v=25AU...

m.youtube.com

Lawmakers use haka to protest in New Zealand's parliament

YouTube video by Associated Press

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Adam Baker @breathinghope.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

In dark times, I celebrate the gift of so many 90’s emo & indie rock bands I’ve loved (forever) playing in one place. I NEVER thought I’d see Texas is the Reason. This is amazing, #bestfriendsforever.

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Meghan | The Pursuing Life @meghankgentry.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

“We’ve lost consensual reality, and I don’t know how we get that back.”

A page from the book “The Age of Magical Overthinking,” with a paragraph highlighted describing Emily St. John Mandel discussing a scene from her pandemic novel “Station Eleven,” and including the quote mentioned with the picture.

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Adam Baker @breathinghope.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

Just another day of me acknowledging that neither End Hits and The Argument are ever quite able to win the battle of ‘what Fugazi record do I want to shout along to again today?’ Give me some locals who want to start a band with me fueled by this energy.

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Br. Dr. Ken Homan, SJ @kenhomansj.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

In 1947 Cardinal Ritter racially integrated all of the Catholic schools in the STL archdiocese. White parents formed a group & asked the Vatican to intervene. The Vatican refused. Ritter told oppositional Catholics that they would be excommunicated. Food for thought given our present situation.

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Jenna DeWitt (she/her) @jennadewitt.bsky.social · 15/02/2025

We already know what happens without accommodations. We already know what happens without gender-affirming care. We already know what happens without HIV prevention, testing, and treatment. And so do they.

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Jenna DeWitt (she/her) @jennadewitt.bsky.social · 15/02/2025

We already know what happens without vaccines. We already know what happens without SSRIs. We already know what happens without stimulants. We already know what happens without OSHA. We already know what happens without health insurance.

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Erin Reed @erininthemorning.com · 13/02/2025

Incredible news! The Trump administration's under 19 trans care ban has been BLOCKED in federal court via a bench temporary restraining order. The administration CANNOT withhold funds from hospitals providing trans youth care. ACLU statement here:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 13, 2025

CONTACT

Gillian Branstetter, gbranstetter@aclu.org

Tom Warnke, twarnke@lambdalegal.org

BALTIMORE – In a victory for transgender youth, their families, and their medical providers, a federal district court today issued a temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of a Trump administration executive order attempting to shut down access nationwide to gender-affirming medical care for transgender people under 19. The decision by Judge Brendan Hurson was issued from the bench with a written order to come soon.

The nationwide restraining order prohibits federal agencies from conditioning or withholding federal funding based on the fact that a healthcare entity or health professional provides gender-affirming medical care to a patient under nineteen.

“Good and decent parents of transgender kids should never be in the frightening position of having their child’s prescribed, medically necessary care canceled at the whim and threat of a politician. But that’s exactly what President Trump’s executive order did to PFLAG families with trans youth and young adults nationwide,” said Brian K. Bond (he/him), Chief Executive Officer of PFLAG National. “Today’s decision rights a grievous wrong to our nation's families and children, and PFLAG families will be vigilant to ensure our transgender loved ones receive the healthcare they need—as this legal ruling demands.”

“Forcing providers to withhold medically-necessary, evidence-based care not only threatens patient health and well-being, but also undermines the integrity of our healthcare system in its entirety,” said Alex Sheldon (they/them), GLMA executive director. “Today's intervention by the court underscores the cruelty and recklessness that is embedded in this order and affirms our commitment to resist the administration’s extremist agenda that targets trans and non-binary young people and privileges political ideology over medical expertise. We are hopeful that…

In the first week after the order was signed, some hospitals across the country — in Massachusetts, Maryland, Washington, Colorado, and Virginia at least — abruptly halted medical care for transgender people under age 19, canceling appointments and turning away patients, including some who had been receiving this care for most of their life. This prompted protests of support for transgender youth and in opposition to the order nationwide.

On Feb. 4, a lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal, the ACLU of Maryland, and law firms Jenner & Block and Hogan Lovells on behalf of transgender young adults and adolescents and their families whose health care has been disrupted by President Trump’s order. Also joining the case as plaintiffs are PFLAG National, the nation’s largest organization supporting LGBTQ+ people and their families, with over 550,000 members and supporters and nearly 350 chapters across the country; and GLMA, the country’s largest organization of LGBTQ and allied health professionals.

"Across the country, this unlawful order from the president has sown fear among transgender youth and confusion among their providers,” said Joshua Block, senior staff attorney for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project. “But today’s decision should restore both their access to healthcare and protections under the Constitution. Providers who’ve suspended healthcare for their transgender patients should be left with no doubt that they can lift those suspensions and continue to provide healthcare and act in their best medical judgment without risking their funding or worse.

“The president’s orders sought to take away from transgender young people the very care that they, their families, and their medical providers all agree is best for them – medical care that is evidence-based and well-established. But these decisions are for patients, their families, and their doctors to make, not for politicians or Washington bureaucrats,” said Omar Gonzale…

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Adam Baker @breathinghope.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

15 years since #ceremony dropped #RohnertPark, which is wild. Still, its seething songs, acknowledging the often desiccated heart of American suburbia, hit differently here and now. It feels larger scale, re: national mythos. bridge9.bandcamp.com/album/rohner... #coresky #hardcore #hardcorepunk

bridge9.bandcamp.com

Rohnert Park, by Ceremony

13 track album

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Adam Baker @breathinghope.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

Just me on my 47th play through of the new Iron Lung song. It’s only 37 seconds long. Some days just call for bands who play powerviolence.

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Adam Baker @breathinghope.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

I have zero doubt that there’s a ton of folks who look like me up in arms about that Halftime Show.

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Bonhoeffer's Child @bonhoefferchild.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

Reminder: The cost of discipleship and American Exceptionalism are never compatible. You cannot serve the spirit of Empire at the same time you carry the Cross. Those who carry the Cross, like along the Via Dolorosa, are always under the lash of Empire.

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Adam Baker @breathinghope.bsky.social · 08/02/2025

I’ve not lived there since the 80’s, but I’m well aware that the idea of white Afrikaners being offer refugee or asylum status by 47 is ridiculous - and rooted in the flagrant racial preferentialism that this administration isn’t even bothering to hide. www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...

reuters.com

Trump signs executive order aimed at South Africa, White House official says

U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at South Africa, a White House official said on Friday, saying the order will address human rights issues in the African nation.

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Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

If mass action happens, it will likely be unions and worker collectives spurring it on. Talk with your coworkers and get on the same page. Be ready to join them in opposition and be ready for the discomfort collective action necessarily creates. Go. Protest. Be seen and be heard.

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Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

This is a frightening moment with unbelievable consequences. If we lose the fight early there’s no telling where this will go. But the vast majority of people know this is wrong and the vast majority know oligarchs like Musk are dangerous and this unequal system disgusting.

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Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

We have reasons to fear political action. State violence. Economic punishments and consequences. It takes courage to make a stand against authoritarianism. But, and I cannot stress this enough, the consequences of inaction at this point are so immense that we must overcome that fear.

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Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

Collective action puts pressure on the situation and requires responses from the participants, including the authoritarians and what passes as opposition. A strike creates a countervailing crisis to answer the one being carried out in darkness and with impunity.

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Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

Collective action and general strikes don’t just materialize spontaneously. They require work and organizing and a populace that prepares to meet the moment. I’m urging people to start communicating with coworkers and neighbors about a need for collective action and setting red likes for resistance

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Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

We are made to feel like power is so far beyond us that it is untouchable and immovable. It leaves us immobilized and waiting for saviors. But we’re going to have to fight the fight and history is very clear that popular movements and collective action can change dynamics and press the issue.

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Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

I want to start by saying we cannot afford to just sit back and hope the institutions or politicians will somehow save us. They have shown an inability and unwillingness to do so. And, by the same token, we cannot continue drowning in this idea that we cannot affect change.

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Adam Baker @breathinghope.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

“The bread in your hoard belongs to the hungry; the cloak in your wardrobe belongs to the naked…” With the way many react to St. Basil the Great & other Church fathers regarding property, I anticipate an important, telling response to this book, likely serving as an indictment & encouragement.

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Adam Baker @breathinghope.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

This morning, my friend with cancer said “I know you’re going through it right now, but you’re not alone”. Then, I saw my 10 year old son walking to school as I was listening to ‘Welcome to the Black Parade,’ and bawled. Now I’m listening to Canadian post-metal, thinking anti-tyrannical thoughts.

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Matt Boswell @mattboswellpnw.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

“I admit my share of guilt for having participated in the institutions and ways of life which helped bring fascism and war. Nonetheless…I now see…that it is never too late to refuse longer to remain in a non-creative situation. It is always timely and virtuous to change…” (Bayard Rustin, 1943)

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Trey Ferguson @pastortrey05.com · 04/02/2025

Jesus did not die instead of his followers. Jesus died ahead of his followers. The word was not “take your cross and give it to me.” The word was “deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me.” Those who follow that word will, like Jesus, be counted among the rebels.

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Jared Stacy @jaredstacy.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world. Karl Barth

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Bonhoeffer's Child @bonhoefferchild.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

When America insists it is a Christian country at the same time it pulls all global aid and publicly demonizes two denominations with a long history of charity/aid ... it is an admission that the version of Christianity it claims is only for self, and contrary to Christ, who gave Himself for all.

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Erin Jean Warde @erinjeanwarde.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

Sharing this from Rt. Rev. Jonathan H. Folts, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of South Dakota. “One of our own priests was targeted at his home—so let no one say, ‘it can’t happen here.’ It can. It has. It is. And rest assured, we will not remain silent or passive in responding.” My heart aches.

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Adam Baker @breathinghope.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

Just me today realizing that I still only use SoundCloud to listen to Wugazi’s 13 Chambers.

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Adam Baker @breathinghope.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

Yes, the world is on fire, but today I’ve continued introducing our 10-year-old to the Fugazi discography and tomorrow I preach about heeding the voice of God in the current cacophony of other voices demanding our embrace and attention.

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Carlos A. Rodríguez @carloshappynpo.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

Jesus never called his followers to defend Christianity, a “Christian nation,” or even their Christian churches. Jesus called them to defend the poor, the oppressed, and the hurting. Stop manipulating Jesus for the benefit of a few. Get to feeding, healing, and peacemaking.

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Adam Baker @breathinghope.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

Driving with my 10-year-old, and he asks to hear my ‘favorite song’. New Order’s ‘Regret’ is instantly locked in, and we’re discussing how post-punk & The Verve’s Bittersweet Symphony make us feel. Singing along as morning’s bright rays spill through windows. Despite darkness, the sun still rises.

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the Mountain Goats @themountaingoats.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

Because the Lord is not interested in, has never been interested in, was born, died, and was crucified without any interest in "basic common sense." "Basic common sense" is our fetish, not His. He came to heal the sick and wake up the dead.

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Adam Baker @breathinghope.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

I’m not doomscrolling, I’m not doomscrolling, but dang it, any of these moments MIGHT be the moment when #FurnaceFest drops its 2025 lineup & tickets, and Lord knows I’m needing that fierce promise of friends, heart-fuel, and freaking heavy music right now.

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Trey Ferguson @pastortrey05.com · 29/01/2025

Do not let anyone rob you of all hope. Hope is a powerful fuel. Without it, we are doomed.

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Fr. Joash P. Thomas @joashpthomas.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

I can’t remember a time when we’ve seen marginalized communities being oppressed this much in the first 100 days of a US Presidency. Now is the time for the Church to actively stand with our neighbours on the margins by resisting the oppressive ways of the American Empire.

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Adam Baker @breathinghope.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

Let me say this clearly: this is fear-mongering, suicide-encouraging bullshit dredged from the pits of hell, a desiccated tomb painted white & called ‘patriotic’ & ‘parent-empowering’ & ‘child-protecting’. Signed, a pastor & parent who loves LGBTQ+ kids. www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

whitehouse.gov

Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling – The White House

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1. Purpose and

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Adam Baker @breathinghope.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

Floodlight’s “The Light Won’t Shine Forever” is becoming one of my necessary anthems during what feels like the bleak beginning of a dark year. Despite any suggested evidence to the contrary, beauty and compassion still aim to change the world. “The light won’t shine forever - but it is now.”

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Adam Baker @breathinghope.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

Be aware: a narcissist will seek power/prestige because they believe that they are superior to others. They require others' admiration & will do/say almost anything to obtain it. Because of a fragility of ego, they can't abide criticism and will tear down any who offer it. 1/4

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Adam Baker @breathinghope.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

“When we love, it makes us wild, dangerous inside, a threat to those in power whose strength is found in dividing lines. Be afraid of ‘safety’ built on the bones of others. If it’s not for all, then it’s all lies.” - Bares His Teeth, ‘Bright Wings’

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Adam Baker @breathinghope.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

“By divine assignment, I am my brother’s keeper. Vulnerable people who are not my family are my neighbors, and the gifts I’ve received from God are to be expended on behalf of those in need. (1/2)

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Adam Baker @breathinghope.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

On this Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I’m remembering 1963’s March on Washington, recognizing that its core tenets remain vitally true today.

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Adam Baker @breathinghope.bsky.social · 03/01/2025

Amazing. Let’s make it happen!

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Tim Amor @timamor.bsky.social · 03/01/2025

May we love like Jesus.

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