Stylized red-orange illustration of a worshipping figure with raised arms beneath the burning Twin Towers, framed like an apocalyptic album-cover poster with smoke, fire, and radiant light beams.

MICHAEL W. SMITH KNEW

On September 11, 2001, Michael W. Smith released an album called Worship. Reunion Records. It went double platinum. I’m not asking you to believe anything. I’m asking you to look at the file....

September 9, 2026

BY Stuart Delony

Addressing the Recent Heretic Happy Hour Podcast Episode

Today, September 8, Pastor Evan McClanahan joined the Heretic Happy Hour—a podcast I’ve been co-hosting for nine years now—to offer a Christian defense of Donald Trump. Yes, that Donald Trump. The civil...

September 8, 2026

BY Matthew Distefano

Wide editorial image of a church interior under renovation, with a modern evangelical worship stage on the left and a traditional Catholic/Orthodox-style altar on the right. Scaffolding divides the two spaces beneath the headline, “The Christian Right Is Changing Religions.”

The Christian Right Is Changing Religions

Most of you are not going to read the whole thing. I don’t blame you. The New York Times recently published Elisabeth Zerofsky’s sprawling piece, “What the Crackup of the Heritage Foundation...

August 31, 2026

BY Stuart Delony

Rose-tinted glasses resting on a desk covered in black-and-white press photos. Seen through the lenses, a sequined glove and a MAGA hat glow warm and flattering. Outside the lenses, both look cold and worn.

We Knew

The Michael Jackson biopic opened in April, cleared a billion dollars worldwide by July, and became the highest-grossing biopic ever made. It beat Bohemian Rhapsody. It beat Oppenheimer. Lionsgate...

August 11, 2026

BY Stuart Delony

Yes, Max Miller, She Would Have Made You Empanadas

Ohio GOP Representative Max Miller is an alleged abuser of women and girls. His ex-wife, Emily Moreno, has, in my opinion, credibly accused the Republican lawmaker of spraying her with hot water, holdin...

August 10, 2026

BY Matthew Distefano

Is It the Drums or Is It the Holy Spirit?

The founder of the New Evangelicals, Tim Whitaker, once described that he had the same feeling when playing drums for a secular band as he did when he was at church, playing in a worship band. So, he as...

August 4, 2026

BY Karen Tibbals

The Anthony Bourdain Approach

For the past week, I have been in Maui with my wife and daughter. It’s been, in a word, incredible. But more than just a relaxing vacation with my two favorite people in the world, a trip to a place lik...

July 24, 2026

BY Matthew Distefano

What If the Story of TransFemale Athletes is Not What You’ve Been Told?

There is a story Americans have been told about transgender women in sports. It goes something like this: A mediocre male athlete decides he cannot succeed against men. So he declares himself a woman...

July 19, 2026

BY Paul Swearengin

America at 250? Time for Therapy to Face Our History, Rather than Whitewash It

They say “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Yet, one must admit there are photographs that record history. And those that change it. There may be some worth a thousand words, but th...

July 5, 2026

BY Paul Swearengin

I Debated Andrew Wilson, Here’s What I Learned

This past Monday, I had the unpleasure of “debating” one of the worst internet personalities on the planet: Mr. Andrew Wilson himself. The guy who asks, “what’s wrong with a 40-something year-old man da...

July 2, 2026

BY Matthew Distefano

The American Gospel of Never Enough

Elon Musk is the world’s first trillionaire. A trillion dollars. Can you imagine that? That number is so large that it barely means anything anymore. I mean, let’s imagine some other val...

June 28, 2026

BY Paul Swearengin

Jesus Enters Public Domain As Copyright Expires

New York – June, 2026 After nearly 2,000 years, the Christian Church’s copyright on Jesus has expired. Sources reveal that exclusive rights to the likeness and quotations of the Christ lapsed due to ...

June 16, 2026

BY Keith Giles

When in Doubt, Blame Obama

My family and I (along with a friend of our daughter’s) are on a family vacation. Our first stop? The Ariana Grande concert. I didn’t attend. It was meant to be a girls thing, so I was total...

June 11, 2026

BY Matthew Distefano

A crumbling stone wall labeled "Church" on the left and "State" on the right has been breached at the center. Through the gap, a golden calf wearing a red tie stands on a pedestal before the U.S. Capitol building under a stormy sky. A serpent coils through the rubble at the base of the broken wall.

And It Came to Pass — A Genesis of Christian Nationalism

In the beginning, there was a wall. And the wall separated the church from the state, and the Founders looked upon it and said it was good. But the serpent was subtle. And Billy Sunday begat t...

June 1, 2026

BY Stuart Delony

America Worships Violence

America was born through violence. Tea thrown into a harbor. Open fire when you see the “whites of their eyes.” The Confederacy fighting to leave the Union. The Union fighting to force them ...

June 2, 2026

BY Paul Swearengin

Overhead view of a person sitting in a church pew with an open Bible on their lap while looking at a smartphone displaying social media, symbolizing distracted attention during worship.

Is the Bible the Inerrant WORD of God?

Modern Biblical scholars have many reasons that cast doubt on the idea that the Bible is the inerrant word of God. They have identified issues with translations, multiple authorship, interpolations, con...

May 25, 2026

BY Karen Tibbals

A muscular shirtless man sits in a church pew with his hands tightly interlocked in prayer, subtly flexing with a faint, self-satisfied expression, highlighting the performative overlap between religious authority and manosphere masculinity.

Alpha Males and Biblical Headship Are the Same Grift

I was watching Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere when a strange feeling crept in.At first it played like a documentary about a culture I had never belonged to. Men sitting behind microphones talking ...

May 4, 2026

BY Stuart Delony

An Evangelical Case for Trump as the Antichrist

I spent roughly 25 years in evangelicalism. I remember the prophecy charts, the altar calls after yet another hellish sermon, the constant hum of “end times” anxiety just beneath the surface...

May 3, 2026

BY Matthew Distefano

America Didn’t Choose a Free Press, It Chose the Unchecked Free Market

Let’s take an honest look at ourselves for just a minute. Let’s drop the platitude of “America, Land of the Free!” Let’s just truly “keep it real” for this mome...

May 1, 2026

BY Paul Swearengin

A vintage-style circular flowchart titled "Rooted and Built Up: The Discipleship Process" showing six steps of biblical community growth, beginning with "You have a question" and cycling through guidance, scripture, alignment, and surrender, with a loop arrow labeled "Repeat until questions no longer arise.

How Spiritual Formation Works

It doesn’t usually feel like control. It feels like guidance. Like clarity. Like growth. Like finally having someone in your corner who gets it.But if every question leads to the same resolution, ...

April 29, 2026

BY Stuart Delony

The Strange Line MAGA Christianity Just Decided to Draw

We’ve all seen the picture of Trump depicting himself as Jesus Christ. And after everything, apparently now it’s blasphemy. I genuinely don’t understand why this is the line. Because if youR...

April 15, 2026

BY Matthew Distefano

A vintage board game viewed at an angle shows a winding path with two pawns—one taking a shortcut toward a “Victory” space while another follows the longer route—symbolizing oversimplified thinking and bypassed complexity.

When Theology Becomes Foreign Policy

For a lot of Christians, Israel has become a kind of shortcut. Say the right thing about it, and you’re in. Question it, even slightly, and something must be off with your faith. It’s treate...

April 6, 2026

BY Stuart Delony

Easter for Sale: When the Church Chooses Caesar

In ancient Hebrew scripture, there’s a moment when the prophetic tone shifts. There are no more gentle invitations nor soothing poetic metaphors. Just a voice that cuts straight through the noise: “...

April 4, 2026

BY Paul Swearengin

10 Things The Last of Us Teaches Us About Our World

Note: Spoilers for The Last of Us (Part I and II) ahead. I didn’t write a book about The Last of Us because I was trying to be clever. Rather, I wrote it because I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Be...

April 2, 2026

BY Matthew Distefano

Satirical illustration of Jesus watching Iran war coverage on TV with an end-times prophecy chart and an “Armageddon” remote on the table.

It’s Not Prophecy If You Start the War

Every time conflict erupts in the Middle East, a particular corner of American Christianity starts acting like sports fans watching the fourth quarter of a game they’ve been predicting for decades. Iran ...

March 23, 2026

BY Stuart Delony

Why Nuremberg Shows People Don’t Have to be Stupid to Fall for Fascism – Just Vulnerable

Out of curiosity, I went back and again watched the movie Judgment at Nuremberg. Doing so, I was struck by something that should disturb all of us: The men at the center of Nazi power were largely n...

April 2, 2026

BY Paul Swearengin

A Second Coming That Undoes the First

There is a version of Christianity that has grasped power in America that should trouble anyone who takes Jesus seriously. It shows up in the rhetoric of people like Pete Hegseth and Mike Huckabee, and ...

March 22, 2026

BY Matthew Distefano

Wrapped in Prayer and Patriotism: The Old Script MAGA Thinks Is New

The current nationalist movement in America likes to imagine itself revolutionary. It is not. The script is familiar. Step one: Convince the majority that equality is oppression. Step two: Wra...

March 15, 2026

BY Paul Swearengin

Close-up of a green beer in a bar with blurred people celebrating in the background

Happy St. Paddy’s Day, You Pagans

Every year, it shows up the same way. Green everywhere. Beer dyed to match. People wearing symbols they don’t understand, celebrating a story they’ve never questioned. Churches post cheerful graphics...

March 17, 2026

BY Stuart Delony

My Universalism Demands Hell

Universalism has a reputation problem. For a lot of Christians, the word sounds like moral surrender. Everyone gets saved, no matter what they’ve done. No consequences and certainly no justice. Ju...

March 16, 2026

BY Matthew Distefano

The American “Manly” Male Social Contract Has Always Been a Lie

“My life finally makes sense.” That statement was my first thought after hearing I was carrying an emotional system with Dissociative Identity Disorder. I began to meet parts of me that w...

March 15, 2026

BY Paul Swearengin

Bomb dropping with "democracy written on it

The Dangerous Fantasy That Bombs Can Bring Democracy

For more than two decades, American foreign policy has been guided by a persistent belief: that military intervention can remove tyranny and open the door to democracy. Even for me, this is a morally ap...

March 8, 2026

BY Paul Swearengin

Petty Schisms for a Petty God

Protestantism loves to tell itself a heroic origin story. The brave reformers stood up to corruption, reclaimed scripture, and restored faith to the people. And sure—there’s truth in that. But what came ...

March 5, 2026

BY Stuart Delony

When Leaders Lie, Innocent People Die. You Good With That?

So, here we are again, at war in the Middle East. Despite blistering critiques of other presidents, claiming they would bomb Iran in order to try and win elections, it’s Donald Trump – the m...

March 2, 2026

BY Paul Swearengin

Street preacher shouting with a bullhorn and holding up a Bible, his chest cut open and hollow, revealing the city skyline through the empty space—symbolizing the emptiness of a hollow gospel.

Hollow Gospel, Hollow Followers

In conservative Christianity, there’s a magic phrase that excuses almost anything: “at least he preached the gospel.” It’s the theological duct tape slapped over abuse, corruption, or just plain cruelty...

February 26, 2026

BY Stuart Delony

Conservative Christianity and Trading Curiosity for Certainty

It was cool, breezy, and perfectly ordinary at last week’s farmer’s market. Then I noticed the shirt. “I don’t debate. I tell you what is right.” The guy wearing it was a white...

February 23, 2026

BY Matthew Distefano

A silhouetted figure gazes upward at a swirling white spiral set against a star-filled blue background. Stylized stars and dots float around the spiral, evoking a sense of wonder, mystery, and cosmic connection.

Cosmic Winks and Quantum Whispers

Ever had a moment that made no sense and yet felt important? A brief event that didn’t fit your plans but stayed with you. Maybe you ignored it. Maybe you followed it. Think of this article as another c...

February 18, 2026

BY Stuart Delony

Bad Bunny and Kid Rock: A Lesson in Authenticity

Last night we were treated to two halftime shows. One pulsed with culture and confidence. The other felt like a grievance rally set to a backing track. A Stage Big Enough for All of Us Bad Bunn...

February 9, 2026

BY Matthew Distefano

Church Scandals Prove Christianity is Incapable of Making Anything “Great Again”

We keep treating church scandals and political corruption as a separate category. They are not. They’re branches from the same tree with the same rotten roots. The Problem is not “ba...

February 6, 2026

BY Paul Swearengin

A vintage CRT television glowing in a dark living room, its screen split between static and a partially obscured movie scene, with the words “Edited for Television” displayed across the screen.

We Never Saw the Whole Movie (and That Was the Point)

I grew up watching movies the way Gen X watched everything: in pieces. On TBS. Edited for television. Interrupted by commercials. Out of order. You didn’t sit down and consume a movie—you assembled it o...

January 21, 2026

BY Stuart Delony

Governor Newsome: If Not Now, When?

The following is a letter I have sent to Governor Gavin Newsome, the governor of my state of California. Governor Newsom, In 2025, you publicly floated the idea of withholding federal tax revenu...

January 25, 2026

BY Matthew Distefano

A grotesque close-up illustration of Donald Trump depicted as a late-stage Elvis impersonator, wearing a jeweled white jumpsuit, sweating heavily under stage lights, symbolizing political spectacle replacing leadership.

Late-Stage Elvis Was Sad. Late-Stage Trump Is Dangerous

Late-stage Elvis Presley was sad.Late-stage Donald Trump is dangerous. That’s the whole argument. Everything else is just people trying not to look at it too closely. Elvis at the end was bloated, loopin...

January 21, 2026

BY Stuart Delony

Why Protesting ICE Is Not Necessarily a Violation of 18 U.S.C. § 111

There’s a familiar tactic that shows up whenever power feels threatened: take a law meant to address real violence and stretch it until it becomes a cudgel against dissent. Lately, ICE has been in...

January 15, 2026

BY Matthew Distefano

All Animals Are Equal (Until Further Notice): ANIMAL FARM and the Failing American Experiment

George Orwell’s Animal Farm is one of those classic books Americans tend to remember just enough to misremember. We recall the pigs, the slogans, and the the slow creep from liberation to tyranny....

January 4, 2026

BY Matthew Distefano

Trans Kids Should NOT be Culture War Collateral Damage

“There should be no such thing as a ‘trans kid,’ said the commenter, “A minor cannot consent to drastic bodily changes.” That claim borrows the language of protection and ethics. It...

December 21, 2025

BY Paul Swearengin

Megyn Kelly’s Gospel of Cruelty

Megyn Kelly has had quite a few weeks. First, she dove headlong into the defense of pedophilia by suggesting that the 15-year-old girls Epstein trafficked weren’t really children-children, because...

December 12, 2025

BY Matthew Distefano

It’s Not Persecution, It’s Just a Bad Paper: On the Christian Persecution Complex

Every time a Christian student earns a failing grade on an assignment involving gender or psychology, a familiar chorus begins: accusations of bias, claims of religious persecution, and the terribly lou...

December 5, 2025

BY Matthew Distefano

A polished wooden closet door slightly open with rainbow light spilling through, symbolizing hidden truth and repressed identity.

The Closet Logic of Conservative “Choice”

Are you in need of a fun Thanksgiving mind game to plan on those conservative relatives? Just ask them when they chose to be straight. Pass the gravy and watch the logic implode. After all, conservatives...

November 3, 2025

BY Stuart Delony

A Case for (Cautiously) Listening to MTG

There are people so deep in the fever dream, so committed to the performance, that any break in character sends a quake through the whole ecosystem. Marjorie Taylor Greene is one of them. And let’...

November 26, 2025

BY Paul Swearengin

How to Have a Peaceful Thanksgiving

Holidays (and especially Thanksgiving) represent a special opportunity/challenge if you have family members who disagree. Our relationships have been torn apart by the political and cultural divide t...

November 19, 2025

BY Karen Tibbals

A stark interrogation room lit by a single overhead lamp. A plain milk carton sits centered on a metal table, illuminated like a suspect under questioning. In the corner, a closed evidence folder rests near the edge of the table. The concrete block walls and empty metal chair create a bleak, procedural atmosphere.

Silent But Violent: The Lactose Problem

America loves to pretend it doesn’t have a lactose problem. Ask around. Most will tell you they tolerate dairy just fine—no issues, no discomfort, completely normal digestion—while simultaneously reactin...

November 17, 2025

BY Stuart Delony

America’s Mental-Health Crisis — Is a Dunning–Kruger Crisis

How Confidently Ignorant Right-Wing “Experts” Gaslight a Nation and Target Queer Lives There’s a story I return to often — almost biblical in its irony, even though it actually happened in 1995.A man...

November 18, 2025

BY Paul Swearengin

“The Dog That Hasn’t Barked”: An Honest Response to “Apolitical” Christians

There’s a peculiar kind of Christian in America today. It is one who doesn’t wear the MAGA hat, doesn’t cheer at the rallies, and doesn’t buy into every 4Chan conspiracy meme. Hell, th...

November 17, 2025

BY Matthew Distefano

👉 The Hardening of Hearts: America’s Rightwing Cruelty Crisis and the Call to Repentance

Something is dying in America, and it isn’t our democracy alone.It’s our collective capacity for empathy. We are witnessing the hardening of hearts of a people group in real time.And if history ̵...

November 12, 2025

BY Paul Swearengin

Stats Don’t Lie: We’re Burning Christianity Down from the Inside

The Real War on Christianity Is Coming from Inside the Church Every few months, a politician or pastor warns us that Christianity is under attack. They say secular culture is erasing faith, that pray...

November 10, 2025

BY Jeremy Steele

The Absurdity of a Trillion Dollars

Within the next decade, we’ll likely see something truly grotesque: humanity’s first trillionaire. And sure, the word “trillion” gets tossed around in budget talks and national debt de...

November 7, 2025

BY Matthew Distefano

The Legacy of Dick Cheney and the Danger of Christian Nationalism

A story of faux-Christianity and a Christian Nationalist resistance to guilt, empathy and the ways of Christ “We will be greeted as liberators.” — Dick Cheney, 2003 Few American leaders have lef...

November 4, 2025

BY Paul Swearengin

Overhead angled view of VHS tapes stacked into the word “TRUTH,” lit by the cool blue glow of a static-filled TV. A fallen tape lies in front, and haze drifts across a cracked concrete floor, giving the scene a gritty but more visible look.

Marion Stokes and the Memory Wars

A Woman, Her Tapes, and an Obsession Marion Stokes was the kind of person who would have been dismissed as eccentric—until history caught up to her. A former TV producer and librarian, she spent 35 years...

October 21, 2025

BY Stuart Delony

The Party Tree and the White House Magnolias

When Tolkien wrote of the Party Tree’s felling in The Return of the King, he gave us one of the most quietly devastating moments in all of literature. Sam Gamgee returns home after a long and brutal jou...

October 26, 2025

BY Matthew Distefano

Pensive female shown large in the picture with two men behind her with signs declaring abortion to be "murder."

How Weaponized Abortion Groomed Christians for Empire and Cruelty

It All Began with a Big Lie ❌ “Nations that allow abortion are cursed.” This lie—pounded into the heads of Christians for decades—taught that God cared more about embryos than about the poor, the...

October 23, 2025

BY Paul Swearengin

Unwilling Cucks: How America’s Police Are Getting Sidelined by the Military

It’s not often I feel even a shred of sympathy for America’s police. Sorry, but when you’ve built your reputation as an occupying force, on one armored vehicle and “I feared for ...

October 21, 2025

BY Matthew Distefano

A brown rat sits inside a metal wire cage wearing a bright red baseball cap, staring outward with an alert expression, symbolizing entrapment and complicity.

Still Just a Rat in a Cage: Why Rage Is Righteous Now

“Despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in a cage.” That line from the Smashing Pumpkins’ Bullet with Butterfly Wings hit like a punch in the gut back in the ’90s—but it...

September 3, 2025

BY Stuart Delony

Strange Fruit Still Hangs: How Hayley Williams Turns Art into Resistance

Art is rarely neutral. And it shouldn’t be. Not in a time such as this. And that’s why what Hayley Williams did on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon—playing “True Believer” ...

October 13, 2025

BY Matthew Distefano

A Baroque-style oil painting of a wicker basket filled with rotting fruit, including moldy apples, bruised grapes, a blackened banana, and decaying citrus. The scene is rendered in warm, dramatic lighting against a dark background, evoking a sense of moral and physical decay.

The Anti-Fruits of the Spirit

When did the fruits of the Spirit become optional? Or worse—when did Christians start actively rejecting them? Because let’s be honest: if modern American Christianity had a spiritual produce section, e...

September 25, 2025

BY Stuart Delony

God, We Need to Talk: It’s Not Me, It’s You

“Godlessness” is NOT the problem. We actually have too much God in America Every time there’s a new crisis in America, someone inevitably says: “We need God back in this country.” ...

October 7, 2025

BY Paul Swearengin

A close-up, point-of-view shot of two hands holding an IKEA-style instruction sheet titled “ASSEMBLY GUIDE: ORDER.” The black-and-white diagrams show four panels: a protest sign, a handshake with a snake, a figure being overtaken, and a castle with a flag. In the blurred background, a disassembled American flag lies in pieces on a wooden floor, evoking the image of a nation being assembled like a kit.

Fascism Doesn’t Need to Storm the Castle

Fascism never storms the castle—it’s carried in on the shoulders of conservatives who think they can tame it. They never do. They feed it, it eats them, and then they act shocked at the teeth marks. Tha...

October 21, 2025

BY Stuart Delony

Fascism: How Did We Get Here?

There’s one thing that all Americans, regardless of our political leanings or religious affiliation, can agree on: fascism is bad. Unfortunately, we seem to have very different ideas about what it...

September 30, 2025

BY Anna Clark Miller

A gritty, graphic novel–style diptych of Jesus. On the left, he solemnly turns his bruised cheek with a crowd watching behind him. On the right, he’s mid-swing in a furious temple cleansing, flipping a table as coins fly. The image is split diagonally, contrasting restraint and righteous anger in stark, earthy tones.

When to Turn the Other Cheek—and When to Swing Back

The church loves to peddle “turn the other cheek” like it’s a universal cure for conflict. Got an abusive spouse? Turn the other cheek. Racism in the pews? Turn the other cheek. Pastor stealing from the...

August 25, 2025

BY Stuart Delony

Listening was the Key to Ending the Troubles in Ireland.

Two years ago, George Mitchell, former Senate majority leader and special envoy to Northern Ireland, visited Ireland to celebrate the 25th anniversary of what came to be known as the Good Friday agreeme...

September 27, 2025

BY Karen Tibbals

When Nonviolence Is Called Violence: On the Fallout After the Assassination of Charlie Kirk

The news broke like a thunderclap: Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, assassinated. The reaction was swift and predictable. Before any facts could settle, before motive or perpetrator could...

September 18, 2025

BY Matthew Distefano

Nope, Therapists Aren’t Alright

At a routine doctor’s appointment last week, the physician asked me what I do for a living. After telling him my profession as a therapist, there was a hint of accusation in his voice as he said, “...

September 16, 2025

BY Anna Clark Miller

Dealing with the DEI Backlash

With the current administration, there has been a severe backlash to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs. The White House has called them immoral, illegal, discriminatory, and wasteful. Gov...

September 24, 2025

BY Karen Tibbals

Free

Today I’m a little less free,yesterday also, tomorrow too,and each time I look in the mirror, less freethan before I wrote “less free,” my signatureless legible on petitions,the lines in my ...

September 10, 2025

BY Joy Ladin

Animatronic preacher in gray suit with frozen smile and visible wiring at the neck, standing at a pulpit.

Ken Ham: The Creationist Who Never Existed?

For decades, Ken Ham has been the face of American creationism—an Australian émigré with a nasal accent, a permanent scowl, and an Ark big enough to make Six Flags look like a kiddie pool. His debates w...

September 3, 2025

BY Stuart Delony

Libertarians, What the Hell Happened?

When I was in my early twenties, I proudly registered with the Libertarian Party. The philosophy was simple, almost elegant: government should be small, restrained, and fundamentally protective of indiv...

September 3, 2025

BY Matthew Distefano

Back-to-School Wishes from the NRA

A Satire for Back-to-School Seasonby Paul Swearengin (and my spirit person Avery Rea – they/them) | Quollective Blog Every August, America prepares to sacrifice its children… oops, I ...

August 31, 2025

BY Paul Swearengin

Supporting the Police State Is Like Rooting for the Galactic Empire

There was a time—not long, long ago and in fact in this very galaxy—when we could all agree on something fundamental: America was not supposed to be a police state. Freedom, we said, was our highest val...

September 3, 2025

BY Matthew Distefano

Jezebel was a Bad Ass: That’s Why She Makes Rightwing Christians so Afraid

The name “Jezebel” has always been more than a story. It’s a weapon. For centuries it’s been the church’s favorite curse word for women who refuse to submit, for queer folks who disrupt the system, for ...

August 22, 2025

BY Paul Swearengin

The Poisonous Legacy of James Dobson

I woke up this morning to multiple texts from friends celebrating the death of an 89 year old man. Dr. James Dobson passed away last night, marking the end of a long career as a conservative Christian i...

August 21, 2025

BY Anna Clark Miller

Retro television screen showing a blurry figure at a podium with static distortion, overlaid with the text “Where Is Ted?” and captioned “Commencement ’99 · Live from Athens

Where Is Ted Turner?

I skipped my college graduation. No robe. No ceremony. No regrets. I finished my degree at the University of Georgia in the fall of 1998. When May rolled around, I had zero interest in driving bac...

August 25, 2025

BY Stuart Delony

Trump Sends National Guard To D.C. Four Years Too Late

BREAKING NEWS While President Donald Trump failed to send the National Guard to defend the Capitol during the January 6 riots in 2021, today he realized something that shocked even him.“I reall...

August 19, 2025

BY Keith Giles

Nazi Soldiers attack literature in a house.

That Could NEVER Happen Here…

“Oh, that could never happen here.”Friend… it’s already happening. The Myth of American Immunity One of America’s most dangerous illusions is the belief that we are somehow immune to the tid...

August 19, 2025

BY Paul Swearengin

When the National Guard Comes for Our Neighbors

Trump is mobilizing the National Guard in Washington DC and Federalizing the police force. It began before the press conference. I saw it firsthand. Last night, the streets of Washington, D.C., felt...

August 11, 2025

BY Jeremy Steele

A close-up of a man’s belly in a stretched dark T-shirt that reads “I Don’t Want No Commie Socialist Fascist Anarchist Woke Agenda!” with a ketchup stain below the slogan.

The Ultimate Woke Monster (Now With 300% More Marxism!)

You’ve probably heard of him. He’s ruining America. He’s crashing the markets. He’s taking your job, raising your taxes, indoctrinating your kids, cancelling your comedy, and eating all the meat alterna...

August 25, 2025

BY Stuart Delony

“Woke”: How White Folks Colonized a Compliment

Language, like land, is never safe from colonization. If there’s something white folks—especially white conservatives—can’t help but do, it’s take something that isn’t theirs, plant a flag in it, and re...

August 4, 2025

BY Matthew Distefano

When a Christian Elected official is Caught “Coveting Ass!”

Once upon a time in a red state… KID: Hey Dad, what’s adultery?DAD: Um… what? Adultery? Where’d you hear about that?KID: In my class, at school. And just like that, the moral panic machi...

August 3, 2025

BY Paul Swearengin

The Greater Good: A Justification of Abuse

The concept of pursuing a ‘greater good’ is a powerful tool for rallying people to a common cause and inspiring them to make sacrifices for a perceived collective benefit. Institutional harm...

August 1, 2025

BY Anna Clark Miller

Close-up overhead photo of a shell game setup on cardboard with three walnut shells and two small, bronzed hands positioned as if mid-move.

Trump’s Tariff Shell Game

Donald Trump loves to brag about cutting taxes. He says it so often it’s practically a reflex—like blaming Obama for anything. To hear him tell it, he gave America the “biggest, most beautiful tax cut” ...

August 25, 2025

BY Stuart Delony

It Always Starts With Erasure: History’s Teachings on Queer Demonization (& Queer Survival)

German Nazism didn’t begin with invading Poland, gun bans, or even Kristallnacht — the infamous “Night of Broken Glass,” when Jewish homes, synagogues, and businesses were attacked and burned. It starte...

July 27, 2025

BY Paul Swearengin

A dimly lit prison cell floor with a twisted orange fabric looped on the ground, casting shadows beneath a barred window and simple bench

The Shortest Distance Between a Truth and a Lie

For years, the Epstein scandal has been the conspiracy theorist’s holy grail—a grotesque mix of wealth, sex crimes, and elite connections that promised to expose the rot at the top. MAGA world clung to ...

August 25, 2025

BY Stuart Delony

What Kind of “Christian Nation” Are We?

Why I Didn’t Follow the Empire into the Red Hat Cult I grew up in a deeply conservative, white evangelical home. My family proudly wears the red hats. They’ve cut ties with me in part because I’ve ch...

July 20, 2025

BY Paul Swearengin

America: Love It or Leave It?

This past Wednesday, after the farmer’s market, I walked home with the one leftover loaf of apricot almond sourdough from Camina Bakery—easily the best bakery in Northern California (go ahead and put th...

August 19, 2025

BY Matthew Distefano

Troubled, muscular man with heart glowing and angry politician speaking in the back ground

Softness Is Power: Detoxing Masculinity; Detoxing Our Politics

It’s easy to think politics are about policies, parties, or who promises what. But in recent elections, voting has been much more about group identity and voting out of grievance. The perception that po...

July 18, 2025

BY Paul Swearengin

The Quollective Launches Exclusive New Subscription Tier for Billionaires Only

At The Quollective, we believe in accessibility, equity, and building a world rooted in justice. We also understand that some of our readers find themselves in… different financial circumstances. ...

July 18, 2025

BY Matthew Distefano

Trump’s Plan To Deport His Own Children and First Lady Fails

BREAKING NEWS: A Federal Court blocked President Trump’s order restricting birthright citizenship and certified a nationwide class, protecting the citizenship rights of all children born on U.S. s...

July 18, 2025

BY Keith Giles

The Ring Always Destroys Itself (But Frodo Still Had to Carry It)

There’s something remarkably subversive about Tolkien’s vision of evil. The central engine of domination in The Lord of the Rings—Sauron’s One Ring—isn’t vanquished in a climactic duel or by milit...

July 18, 2025

BY Matthew Distefano

A statue of the Roman Empire crumbling, standing in from of an American Flag

I’m Done Trying to Save the Empire

I’m done. I’m done trying to save the fruitless empire from being torn up by its roots and thrown into the fire. I’m done trying to convince MAGA to think. I’m done hoping for transformation from sys...

July 18, 2025

BY Paul Swearengin

Alligator Auschwitz and the American Descent: A Call to Conscience for White Evangelicals

Let me begin with a simple clarification, lest this entire article be discarded by those looking for an excuse to deflect: I am not saying that the United States has become Nazi Germany in 1944. What I ...

July 18, 2025

BY Matthew Distefano

Why the Second Coming of Jesus Is Happening Right Now

If you’ve ever sat through a youth group lock-in watching apocalyptic movies about the Antichrist, 100-pound hailstones, or beast armies crawling out of bottomless pits, then you probably know the fear ...

July 18, 2025

BY Keith Giles

A well-dressed man in a navy suit and red tie walks past an injured person receiving help on the side of the road. The man in the suit wears a look of disdain, symbolizing indifference from those in power toward suffering.

Empathy Isn’t Toxic, It’s Sacred

There’s a book making the rounds in evangelical circles right now warning against “toxic empathy.” Its central claim? That empathy leads people away from “truth,” makes one soft on sin, and ultimately o...

July 18, 2025

BY Paul Swearengin

When The Assassin Is A Christian Pastor

Waking up on Saturday morning to the news that two Minnesota lawmakers had been shot – and one killed – was shocking enough. But soon the realization came that the suspected assassin was an ...

July 18, 2025

BY Keith Giles

Your Rights, Your Power: A Simple Guide for Immigrant Communities

When I first explored the ACLU’s “Know Your Rights” guide, I was struck by how essential and straightforward it is. As a media outlet who believes in civic empowerment, we are sharing ...

July 18, 2025

BY Matthew Distefano

You Sold Your Soul to a Pedophile: On Trump, Epstein, and the Cult That Calls Itself Christian

There are moments in life when the curtain is finally yanked back, revealing the grotesque megachurch machinery behind all the fog machines and strobe lights. And if you didn’t already know who was pull...

July 18, 2025

BY Matthew Distefano

Relationship Strain and Setting “Healthy” Boundaries

In the midst of high social and political tensions, many of us are navigating complex dynamics in our personal relationships too. It’s hard to spend time with family or friends without controversi...

July 18, 2025

BY Anna Clark Miller

God and Guns at the Pentagon: A Prayer Service for the Prince of Peace and the Machinery of War

This week, something strange and surreal unfolded in the Pentagon auditorium—something that might have made Jesus flip tables if He were in the room. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth—yes, the same H...

July 18, 2025

BY Keith Giles

The One Ring resting on a stone atop a map of Mordor from The Lord of the Rings, illuminated by a fiery orange light.

The Ring of Power and the Gospel of Christ: A Word to MAGA Christians (and JD Vance)

J.R.R. Tolkien once said that The Lord of the Rings was fundamentally a “Catholic work,” and while he insisted his magnum opus was not allegory, the spiritual resonance of his epic is unmistak...

July 18, 2025

BY Matthew Distefano

BIPOC & Queer Owned Businesses

BIPOC Fashion Tags BoutiqueTags Boutique, run by Kandi Burruss of Real Housewives of Atlanta, sells the latest seasonal fashions for women. Mo’s BowsMemphis’ Mo’s Bows offers a range ...

July 18, 2025

BY Matthew Distefano

The Necessity of Supporting Black and Queer-Owned Businesses in 2025

America in 2025 is a battleground—not in the traditional, bombs-and-bullets sense, but in a war against equity, dignity, and progress. With the Trump administration rolling back Diversity, Equity, and I...

July 18, 2025

BY Matthew Distefano

Sam Cooke: The Soundtrack of a Revolution

Sam Cooke’s voice, soulful and smooth, is the kind that lingers in the air long after the record stops spinning. As one of the kings of soul, Cooke was more than a trailblazing artis...

July 18, 2025

BY Matthew Distefano