We saw several shooting stars tonight. 💫 This made me very happy.
Karen Swallow Prior
@karenswallowprior.bsky.social
Reader, writer, dog lover, Ph.D. Most recent book: You Have a Calling: Finding Your Vocation in the True, Good, and Beautiful. Find me on Substack at The Priory.
The judge unsealed one piece of evidence in the case. That is a transcript of a text message between Hunt and his publicist planning how his restoration to ministry would be announced, including a statement from Hunt that said, “I’m willing to pay!” baptistnews.com/article/judg...
Judge tosses Johnny Hunt’s case against SBC – Baptist News Global
Johnny Hunt’s defamation case against the Southern Baptist Convention and its Executive Committee has been thrown out of court.
baptistnews.com
What did Virginia Woolf think about Moll Flanders? The last entry in our series: open.substack.com/pub/karenswa...
Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe: Wrap-up
What the critics have had to say over the years
open.substack.com
One emphasis I did not have on my CN bingo card was their emergent obsession with AI. They're turning into quite the AI boosters.
The Christian Nationalism Archive@cnarchive.bsky.social · 3d ago@jchasedavis remarked: "If you’re trying to get better as a preacher, you can feed AI manuscripts of preachers you aspire to be like and then give it your manuscript and ask for feedback." (source)
Went to parent-teacher night at my kid's middle school this evening and got told that the district is now moving away from technology in the classroom and going back to pen and paper. I love that this excellent news of rebellion came on the same day as Zuckerberg's AI supremacist screed.
Mark Zuckerberg Posts Deranged 6,500-Word Essay About Giving Everyone AI Superintelligence
"The future is for everyone," Zuckerberg says, describing future that is primarily good for Meta.
404media.co
We’re less than a month away from the release of our book with @brazospress.bsky.social, "To Set the World Aflame," and we’re deeply grateful to @karenswallowprior.bsky.social for her generous endorsement of the book. 🙏❤️
We are made to tell our stories to one another. In the modern age, we forge our identities by telling stories that show who we are, first to ourselves, then to others. Even though Moll Flanders is fiction, it is a fiction that is based on this truth. open.substack.com/pub/karenswa...
Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe: Week 7
And my new column at The Dispatch!
open.substack.com
1/"When I was young, I expected people to give me more than they could—continuous friendship, permanent emotion.
Really excellent piece from @karenswallowprior.bsky.social on the trolling, poasting culture dominating so much of the online (and offline) world.
Karen Swallow Prior@karenswallowprior.bsky.social · 2w agoI'm at @thedispatchmedia.bsky.social today talking about the role of absurdism in internet (and government) trolling: thedispatch.com/newsletter/d...
I'm at @thedispatchmedia.bsky.social today talking about the role of absurdism in internet (and government) trolling: thedispatch.com/newsletter/d...
You Can’t Brainrot Your Way to Hope
Absurdism is no answer to a search for meaning.
thedispatch.com
I have long aged out of that category of up-and-coming that the powers-that-be keep their eyes on and seek to absorb. That is freeing. I am non-absorbent. open.substack.com/pub/karenswa...
It's the Third Anniversary of The Priory!
New year, new headshots, new book!
open.substack.com
Urgent! Sending out an emergency Hazelgram!
It is natural law that undergirds the story’s emphasis on the role poverty has in Moll’s life: it is natural to want to survive, and for the most part, at least at the beginning, that is what Moll is striving to do. open.substack.com/pub/karenswa...
Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe: Week 6
The Devil laid the snare.
open.substack.com
So, what I’m hearing you guys say is that I should reread Tennyson’s “Ulysses” again, and possibly do a dramatic reading of it?
The Venn diagram of right wing mansosphere chuds who think Nolan’s Odyssey is the most historically inaccurate movie ever made but think Braveheart and The Patriot are peak historical cinema is a circle.
Baldwin used the topic of “masculinity” in his conversations with the boy to introduce the photos of his “manhood,” according to the affidavit. 🚩🚩🚩 roysreport.com/virginia-pas...
Virginia pastor charged for sending explicit images to teen | The Roys Report
A Virginia Baptist pastor and conference speaker faces 13 charges in Pennsylvania for sending explicit images of himself to a teenage boy.
roysreport.com
religionnews.com/2026/07/21/s...
SBC leaders called an abuse crisis a hoax. Abuse survivors want an apology.
(RNS) — In an open letter, a group of survivors and advocates say that comments by SBC President Willy Rice and Texas pastor Jack Graham make it harder to address the issue of abuse in churches.
religionnews.com
An open letter regarding the politicization and minimization of clergy sexual abuse within the SBC To: Reverend William E. Rice, President of the Southern Baptist Convention Reverend Jack Graham, Senior Pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
An open letter regarding the politicization and minimization of clergy sexual abuse within the SBC
To: Reverend William E. Rice, President of the Southern Baptist Convention Reverend Jack Graham, Senior Pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church We, the undersigned, who represent clergy sexual a...
docs.google.com
What has Charles Taylor to do with Moll Flanders? A lot, actually! open.substack.com/pub/karenswa...
Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe: Week 5
What Charles Taylor Reveals about Moll Flanders--and a book GIVEAWAY!
open.substack.com
Someday true justice will come. In the meantime, I hope it cost him a lot. www.star-telegram.com/news/local/f...
Longstanding lawsuit against Fort Worth seminary settled days before trial
The lawsuit alleged the seminary and its president defamed a former student who reported multiple sexual assaults.
star-telegram.com
What would otherwise have been a grueling day of travel (flight delays, sitting on runways, etc.) literally flew by because I spent it reading this forthcoming book by @kkdumez.bsky.social!
When reading works from so long ago, we encounter lots of things that are assumed to be normal and common in that time that aren’t in ours. Thus, it’s helpful to read with an eye for unexamined assumptions—those of the earlier times and those of our own. open.substack.com/pub/karenswa...
Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe: Week 4
And another book giveaway!
open.substack.com
Thrilled that this new book from @routledgebooks is in the world—and grateful to have a contribution.
Unfortunately, a stunned Paris is how they all got into this whole mess to begin with
Pop Crave@popcrave.com · last mo.‘The Odyssey’ women Zendaya, Anne Hathaway, Lupita Nyong'o, and Charlize Theron stun in Paris.
In writing this story, Defoe is dancing that delicate balance between individual responsibility and social justice. Next installment on Moll Flanders: open.substack.com/pub/karenswa...
Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe: Week 3
And a book giveaway!
open.substack.com