iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

(Technically Aldrin also got special dispensation from the stated clerk of the denomination, but I digress)

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It indicates a notable dedication to a church, but *usually* doesn’t indicate a seminary degree and/or formal ordination as a what folks often identify as a pastor. E.g.,: Buzz Aldrin was also a Presbyterian elder, which is why he was able to give himself communion on the moon — but not a pastor.

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So, McBride is an ordained elder in the PC(USA). Elders (specifically, “ruling elders”) are in virtually every PC(USA) church, pulled from the congregation. Ruling elders (as opposed to pastors, also called “teaching elders”) *can* effectively serve as full-on pastors sometimes, but it’s rare.

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I mean, probably? But it’s always a crapshoot as to how political reporters cover religion.

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Barring an upset in IL-09, Republicans, by comparison, would have 1 active pastor (Mark Harris), 1 former pastor (Tim Walberg), 1 licensed for ministry (Lankford) and I believe one other member with an MDiv equivalent.

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In that scenario, Dems would have 4 active pastors in Congress — Warnock, Cleaver, Haynes and Hamilton — as well as one with an MTS seeking an additional MDiv in seminary (Talarico) and 2 others w/MTS degrees (Coons and Landsman). Haynes and Hamilton are *both* megapastors, and Warnock has a PhD.

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Also buried in here: Dems appear to be winning the character race across the board in this poll.

Asked whether the Texas U.S. Senate candidates have “good character,” 55% say Talarico, and 32% say Paxton.

Asked whether the Kansas U.S. Senate candidates have “good character,” 44% say Hamilton, and 42% say Paxton.

Asked whether the Ohio U.S. Senate candidates have “good character,” 49% say Brown, and 40% say Husted.

Asked whether the Alaska U.S. Senate candidates have “good character,” 48% say Peltola, and 32% say Sullivan.

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If you're wondering about the Kansas result, allow me to explain: The Democratic candidate is a Methodist megapastor who also appears to be well liked by his 20,000+ congregation — and many others in the state. I recently spoke to him and some of his congregants: religionnews.com/2026/09/23/h...

How megapastor Adam Hamilton could break the GOP's hold on Kansas

LEAWOOD, Kansas (RNS) — While Democrats have long been considered a longshot for statewide races in Kansas, the Rev. Adam Hamilton's candidacy has proven unexpectedly competitive.

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Note: The KS polling is a win for Dems no matter what, because (as AP reported yesterday) the GOP is being forced to burn money in a state that hasn't had a Dem senator in nearly a century. A Hamilton win remains unlikely, historically speaking, but: this is WILD. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/03/u...

Polling results from Senate races the latest NY Times/Siena poll. Dems trial by a point in Iowa, but lead in Texas, Alaska, and Ohio. And most striking of all: Dems are tied with the GOP in Kansas.

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Relatedly: if you’re refusing to use AI for religious reasons, I want to hear from you. There are multiple ways to reach me via the link in my bio, or you can hit me up on Signal: jackmjenkins.60

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Like, even if how the tech *expresses* itself changes, that won’t change moral/religious objections as to how much of it was *created.* Moreover, adding “also this could destroy all humans in 10 years” to the mix really kinda kicks the whole convo into a “okay then why make this?” moral debate.

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More to the point: some have considered AI morally objectionable essentially from its creation (I.e., when that info became widely known) — including religious people. Given the foundational nature of those concerns, it remains to be seen if AI companies even *can* change those minds.

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They often list multiple religious/moral/ethical objections, such as environmental concerns (air and water pollution, etc) and concerns about how models are created (some built on pirated books, such as Anthropic, which recently agreed to the largest IP settlement in history to thousands of authors)

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She won an exemption from using AI at her tech job. The Pope's remarks could fuel similar appeals.

Religion aside: There is a small (at least currently) subset of people who have sworn off AI use for religious reasons — and at least one has already gotten a work exemption from using it. www.businessinsider.com/worker-got-r...

businessinsider.com

Legal experts say employers must take AI-related religious objections seriously, as a 2023 ruling raised the bar for denying such accommodations.

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Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 02/10/2026

Rt. Rev. Ann Ritonia, who serves as the eighth bishop suffragan of Armed Forces and Federal Ministries of the Episcopal Church, told me she thinks at least some of Hegseth's efforts amount to a “push of fundamentalist Christianity into the military.”

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Reposted by Jack Jenkins

CNN @cnn.com · 02/10/2026

Former president Obama doesn’t think what he’s seen so far regarding AI policy is anywhere near enough — for addressing the scale of the issue, and for dealing with the politics.

cnn.it

Exclusive: Barack Obama’s hidden hand shaping Democrats’ AI debate | CNN Politics

The former president is pushing 2028 Democratic hopefuls to develop specific plans for how to tackle AI — but some of them are wary of antagonizing the industry.

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Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 01/10/2026

NEW: Bishop Mariann Budde, who gained fame for preaching a sermon challenging Trump, has announced her intention to resign as the Episcopal Bishop of Washington. But in an exclusive interview with @rns.org, Budde explained the process actually takes nearly 2 years. religionnews.com/2026/10/01/b...

Bishop Mariann Budde to resign, will remain in post during lengthy replacement process

WASHINGTON (RNS) — ‘I’m going to do all that I can to both lead well in this period and to ensure that there’s as much wind in the sails of the future leader and the diocese going forward as is humanl...

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Reposted by Jack Jenkins

Last year, a pastor saw masked immigration agents arresting someone at her church and filmed them. DHS denied they were there. A year later, DHS finally acknowledged the incident — days after WH border czar Tom Homan claimed "no one has been arrested at a church." religionnews.com/2026/09/30/t...

Do federal immigration agents make arrests at churches? Depends on what day you ask.

(RNS) — Over the past year, the Trump administration has issued contradictory and, at times, seemingly false statements about whether federal agents have conducted operations at churches.

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Reposted by Jack Jenkins

Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 01/10/2026

“It doesn’t surprise me at all that all this time later the department is choosing to correct the narrative in ways that favor them,” Pastor Lopez said in an email, adding, “they can’t gaslight victims, communities, and the American people into not believing what they are seeing and experiencing.”

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I should note: the debate over Trump's decision to end the "sensitive locations" policy is arguably one of the biggest religion stories of his 2nd term, involving dozens of faith orgs/denominations in 4 separate lawsuits. Over and over, it has directly pitted the admin against religious leaders.

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Reposted by Jack Jenkins

Adelle Banks @adellembanks.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Just 1% of current U.S. houses of worship were around in 1776. I visited several. Check out the 2nd of 2 @rns.org short videos: www.youtube.com/shorts/v_ScO...

youtube.com

These houses of worship are older than America. How they outlasted wars, schisms and lawsuits

YouTube video by RNS

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Reposted by Jack Jenkins

Ulaa Kuziez @ulaakuzi.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Another mosque sues after being denied permission to build, this time in NJ. In August, a mosque in OK also filed a federal discrimination case after being blocked. In both cases, anti-Muslim rhetoric dominated town discussions. religionnews.com/2026/09/29/n...

New Jersey Muslims sue township for mosque denial, alleging discrimination

(RNS) — The federal complaint alleges the zoning board bowed to anti-Muslim pressure and violated the Muslim Center’s constitutional rights.

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Reposted by Jack Jenkins

Brian Kaylor @briankaylor.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I liked the @jackjenkins.me line in piece about "a little-noticed document filed" last week. I guess it's "little-noticed" instead of "completely unnoticed" because I wrote about it. I'm the little bit of noticing :) publicwitness.wordandway.org/p/dhs-admits...

publicwitness.wordandway.org

DHS Admits It Doesn’t Know How Many Churches It Has Spied On

A federal judge recently ordered the U.S.

094

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Do federal immigration agents make arrests at churches? Depends on what day you ask.

(RNS) — Over the past year, the Trump administration has issued contradictory and, at times, seemingly false statements about whether federal agents have conducted operations at churches.

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Zack Whittaker @zackwhittaker.com · 30/09/2026

Very unclear what this is, because the U.S. military…already has a robust chaplaincy corps? This has been true literally since the U.S. military was created 251 years ago — technically, before the U.S. even declared independence?

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Reposted by Jack Jenkins

The Pentagon is notifying millions of current and former U.S. military servicemembers and staff that hackers stole their *unencrypted* personal information during a months-long data breach. The agency that had the breach also handles ID and login/credential access to U.S. military systems and bases.

techcrunch.com

Hackers stole millions of US military personnel records during months-long data breach | TechCrunch

The Department of Defense notified millions of current and former U.S. military personnel that their personal information had been stolen in a months-long breach.

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Reposted by Jack Jenkins

Bob Smietana @bmietana.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

In the US, evangelicals are both a voting bloc and a religious movement -- and the two aren't the same. That's caused a group of evangelical journalist to consider dropping the word evangelical from their name religionnews.com/2026/09/30/e...

Evangelical Press Association to vote on dropping the 'e-word'

(RNS) — The group of journalists wants to change its name to the Christian Communicators Network, saying the word 'evangelical' has too many political overtones and a bad public image.

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vinyl heads will likely challenge me on this (and they may be right), but tbh — outside of a live performance — I think we may've peaked in that era in terms of experiencing music *for what it actually is*

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Update to the update: for reasons passing understanding, this iPod — which initially couldn't hold a charge for more than a few minutes — is suddenly able to work just fine. I've listened to it all day, and y'all, it's weird: why is this a better way to experience music? I don't know! But it is!

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Like, I know he defaced his Harvard diploma. But it would be odd for him to have *zero* trust in civilian educators, since that's literally all had — higher-education wise — before he was literally put in charge of the entire military.

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A weird part about this: Hegseth is, of course, the Secretary of Defense. But, like *many* SecDefs before him, he is not a graduate of any of the military academies. His degree-earning experience with higher education was entirely at Princeton and Harvard — private, civilian, Ivy League schools.

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No credentials, no problem as TMZ DC shakes up Hill media bubble

Also worth remembering: Outlets often use this approach when they don't have credentials that allow them inside, where there's a bunch of professional norms, etc. That was the case for the bloggy sites, and, now, with TMZ: www.politico.com/news/2026/04...

politico.com

TMZ’s new, kind of troll-y Washington team says their dream stories could be what bills are passing to who’s clogging the toilets in Congress.

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…when these kinds of interviews with lawmakers were a common approach for bloggy news sites of the late aughts and 2010s. When those outlets died, this approach died with them, and became more the purview of activists. Folks have different views on this style, but TMZ is making an interesting case.

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Journalistic aside: The TMZ DC experiment continues, and tbh their surprise interviews of Republican and Democratic lawmakers — which the outlet traditionally utilized with celebrities — are quickly turning out to be journalistically valuable. It's interesting, because there was a time…

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Literally my first thought when I watched this exchange was “I mean someone is definitely gonna comb through the footage and find him at one of these games.” I figured it would take at least a day. It took mere hours.

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Honestly, Cavan, just take the shot here. I know, you probably didn’t have the angle. But you deserved the shot, man.

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