News with Nuance: June 13, 2025
Your Friday dose of News with Nuance: the week's biggest stories, unpacked + more ..
Hi Readers,
Happy … er … Friday the 13th? Maybe it makes sense that today is an inauspicious day (here’s an interesting link to read about the origins of Friday the 13th). But we can come up with plenty of our own reasons for why things might feel upside down today.
Here in Minnesota, the first week of summer vacation was filled with a mix of smoky skies, cool temperatures, and intermittent rain, seeming to pour down most powerfully just around the times when we had outdoor activities planned. But those are champagne problems compared to world and national news, with the National Guard and Marines being forced to descend upon Los Angeles - despite state and local officials insisting its unnecessary (more on that story below, including the preparatory work of the Trump Administration and its anti-immigration rhetoric to incite protests and the (mis)use of the military for personal presidential politics).
I saw images of a massive prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine, made up of only soldiers under 25 years old, and all I could think about is what it would feel like to be their mom (or dad, or brother, or sister, or significant other, or child) … On Thursday morning a plane crashed in India with 242 people on board; reportedly only one passenger survived. Later Thursday afternoon, the House voted to rescind more than a billion dollars in funding for public broadcasting: a move that shocks no one who has been paying attention to media trends, but one that also reaffirms the importance of independent journalists and media outlets, like Substack and States Newsroom.
Honestly, though, the bad humanitarian news coupled with the trends in national media around defunding, billionaire ownership, and cowardice also sometimes leave me feeling a little bereft: uncertain of the pathway forward. Is there still a market for the truth? I guess a better rejoinder is that the truth has never been market-based. In fact, many times, (analogous to the theology of the cross) the truth is diametrically opposed to the whims of the easily manipulated capitalist marketplace. And still, when all the artifice of life is stripped away (something we pastors encounter often in our work with dying parishioners and loved ones) - the truth is the most valuable thing of all.
So we press on. Thanks for reading and supporting this work. Let’s get to the news - with nuance …
But hey - if you have read Disciples of White Jesus, would you consider leaving a review on Amazon or Goodreads? You don’t have to have purchased on Amazon to review there, but I’d very much appreciate it! Thanks so much. I know a few of you have already left reviews, and please know I cherish them from the very bottom of my heart. Your words and thoughts and time mean the world!
BREAKING UPDATE: While I was writing this newsletter, the news story broke about ICE agents in Los Angeles forcibly pushing down and handcuffing California Sen. Alex Padilla (D), whose parents immigrated to the Los Angeles area from Mexico. Padilla was attending a press conference held by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, and he attempted to ask a question. The video footage shows him identifying himself by name and position. The footage is honestly hard to watch. I have attended many press conferences, and the idea that government agents could step in at any moment to push you down and handcuff you simply for your question is terrifying (as in, I can feel the terror in my body when I imagine it). As Sen. Padilla says, if a sitting U.S. Senator (from the nation’s most populous state) can be treated this way, imagine how poor farmworkers and migrants are being treated. Imagine how they’re treating elderly people, children, disabled people, pregnant women. These are scary times; times when it’s incumbent upon all of us to pay attention.
For more on this story, I recommend this excellent analysis from L.A. Times columnist Anita Chabria, one of the best in the business:
The Headline: American doctors look to relocate to Canada to avoid the Trump administration
Image by Oona Zenda, KFF Health News
I know that some people reading that headline might quickly think: well geez, doctors are rich and privileged, and now they’re just deciding to uproot and leave America to save themselves.
I want to encourage everyone to go beyond that quick reaction. Secondly, I know that many medical doctors - and nurses - and medical workers in general are a part of this Substack community. As I’ve been speaking and writing on Christian Nationalism for nearly a decade now, I’ve had many conversations with medical professionals about what - in their eyes - is ailing our country. And who better to diagnose the illness than the healers among us?
The idea that doctors and medical workers are among America’s wealthy elite is kind of a myth. Certainly many physicians make large salaries. But many of them carry heavy debt loads from years of medical school and low-paid residency work. They work long hours, putting strain on their spouses and families. They also increasingly face very real threats of physical harm while doing their jobs, in overcrowded emergency rooms for example. They are forced to spend more and more of their time on administration or paperwork to navigate an insurance-pay system that is grounded on profit for America’s business elite, and they frequently have to make choices that run against their best vision for medical care and health. They also face landmines around misinformation and conspiracy theories, especially about abortion and vaccines. Their expertise and education is no longer trusted, and many patients who are (rightfully) frustrated and scared in a medical system sees them as $$ signs, then take out their anxiety on the medical workers — who are also victims and pawns in the larger for-profit system.
Doctors and all medical workers see firsthand the effects of widespread poverty and addiction, and the trauma carried by many recent migrants. They see the consequences of long-neglected medical problems among people without access to care. This is not to excuse the role of medical professionals in recent crises like the opioid crisis - but it is to say that the vast majority of medical workers got into this profession because they wanted to help heal and care for people. They find themselves then lost in a maze of prior authorizations and preexisting conditions. Not to mention the trauma of practicing medicine in the midst of a global pandemic, and then being gaslit by politicians and patients alike about what really happened during the rise of COVID.
I write all of this context to set the stage for this article about physicians who are leaving the U.S. to practice medicine in Canada (despite the right-wing lies told about the state-run medical system there). It’s very scary to think that doctors no longer find the U.S. a safe country in which to practice medicine. This article and its repercussions have stayed with me long after reading it, which is why I wanted to share it here.
Also - if you are a medical worker reading this - please do comment or send me a note. What do you think? Does this article resonate with you? What else should we know? Thanks so much for being a part of this community.
The Quote:
Earlier this year, as President Donald Trump was beginning to reshape the American government, Michael, an emergency room doctor who was born, raised, and trained in the United States, packed up his family and left the country.
Michael now works in a small-town hospital in Canada. KFF Health News and NPR granted him anonymity because of fears he might face reprisal from the Trump administration if he returns to the U.S. He said he feels some guilt that he did not stay to resist the Trump agenda but is assured in his decision to leave. Too much of America has simply grown too comfortable with violence and cruelty, he said.
"Part of being a physician is being kind to people who are in their weakest place," Michael said. "And I feel like our country is devolving to really step on people who are weak and vulnerable."
Story by Brett Kelman, KFF Health News in partnership with NPR
Related story: Allina doctors unionized because the profit-centric, factory style of medicine must end
Related story: Unionized doctors picket outside Allina clinics in first for Minnesota
The Headline: White House officials wanted to put federal workers ‘in trauma.’ It’s working.
Content Warning: This article discusses suicide.
In our constantly churning news cycle (whose chaos is right out of the authoritarian playbook, leaving us exhausted and confused and too tired to focus on any one story), it’s often easy to forget about major past stories as we move on to the next crisis.
The stories about fired and threatened federal workers under the onslaught of Elon Musk’s DOGE might seem long in the past now, but this story is less than a month old. It tells the very real and tragic stories of the people behind the layoffs and “cost-cutting” among federal government employees. This is yet another story that haunted me for weeks after reading it. The journalist who wrote it, Hannah Natanson, is an excellent reporter and storyteller. I believe she used to be on the education beat, but as the Washington Post continues to shift and consolidate and cut costs (under the cowardly ownership and leadership of Jeff Bezos) so many reporters like Natanson have had to contend with constantly shifting beats, which means starting over with networks and sources. That in turn makes journalists’ work more difficult and causes less expertise for storytelling. Just an important side-note about the realities of our current media landscape, and what the conditions are like for journalists even in relatively privileged positions.
Back to this story in particular. It’s important to note how Natanson chose a very diverse and different group of workers to illustrate the impact of these cuts on all sorts of different people, while also shattering stereotypes about who federal workers are and why they entered into the jobs they do. For so many of them, they represent the best America has to offer: hard and dedicated workers. Their poor treatment and the loss of their vocations (which were deeply meaningful to them far beyond a paycheck) represents wide-ranging effects beyond individuals and their loved ones into communities and truly, our nation as a whole.
The Quote:
Before her husband found her on the fire escape that chilly morning, Caitlin, 55, had spent 12 years working for the federal government.
She studied creative writing in college and graduate school and took a job in 1994 teaching at Harvard-Westlake in Los Angeles — an elite private school attended by children of Hollywood executives. But the work felt like a betrayal of her values. Instead of fighting inequality, she told friends, she was perpetuating it.
So, at 35, Caitlin quit and moved with her husband and children to Baltimore to study sociology at Johns Hopkins University. She drove around with bags of new socks in her trunk for people on her commute who were homeless.
She was hired in 2012 by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation in Baltimore. Her job was wonky, even by government standards — testing tiny changes to Medicaid to yield better patient outcomes and save taxpayer money. But Caitlin told her friends that those tiny adjustments, especially in maternal health, could save lives.
Caitlin used data to show that birth centers could lower costs and yield higher birth weights and fewer ER visits for pregnant women on Medicaid, including minorities. She oversaw a government-funded program to help pregnant mothers addicted to opioids.
Within days of Trump’s second inauguration, the government was removing gender and minority health data from its websites. “All the progress she worked for, suddenly it felt like it was unraveling,” said one co-worker, who, like many federal employees in this article, spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid retribution.
…
Two weeks after her husband talked her off the fire escape, Caitlin checked into a mental health facility in Fairfax County, Virginia. She had no cellphone or laptop, and could talk to family only using the facility’s phone. In daily calls to her husband, she pressed for updates from her work, the latest layoffs and program cuts.
“I tried not to give her too much information that was upsetting,” Mike said.
Two weeks into her stay, on Feb. 27, the facility’s staff set up a computer for her. A nonprofit wanted to interview Caitlin for a job advocating for Medicaid — the program she had worked to improve for 12 years. That same week, House Republicans had voted for an $880 billion budget cut that would require severe reductions to Medicaid — a scenario Caitlin had long feared.
That night, on a call with her husband, Caitlin remained in good spirits. The job interview had gone well. She told Mike she loved him and missed him.
But when she called the next morning, Caitlin was inconsolable.
“I’m having a really bad day,” she told him.
Mike tried to reassure her, but Caitlin kept saying, “I’m not enough. I’m not good enough.”
Story by Hannah Natanson, Washington Post
A few more must-read stories since our last News with Nuance …
Their son joined ISIS. Then they learned he had kids in a Syrian detention camp
Resident’s plan to build backyard dwelling for homeless family prompts Blaine to rethink rules
El Paso Hasn’t Seen This Many Dust Storms Since the Dust Bowl
Disciples of White Jesus: Tracking down those who are weaponizing radicalization and a masculine identity that’s dangerous for men and boys
Every edition in this section of the newsletter, we’ll look at stories from around the U.S. and the world that lift up the ways in which this trend of hawking radicalization and violence to young white men and boys (often in the guise of Christianity and conservative politics - with dog whistles of white supremacy) is leading to anger, chaos, disenfranchisement, and fear for everyone. You’ll notice that many of the storylines and main characters here overlap with my previous research (and this newsletter’s previous focus) on Christian Nationalism. You’ll also read stories of the impacts of this kind of messaging on ordinary men and boys who can’t measure up to this fabricated ideal: especially financially, in a global economy that’s emphasizing massive inequality and greed.
But don’t worry - because after this section - we’ll focus on stories of hope, ways masculine identity for young men and boys is being found in compassion, care, diversity, and - when it comes to Christianity - a story closer to the gospel of Jesus himself, rooted in truth, kindness, justice, and love.
This Edition: Let me note that as I write this newsletter, news continues to come out from Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles that is deeply troubling and scary - and also fits the mold of this newly muscular, violent, intense form of governance, which draws much of its inspiration from a violent, radicalized and deeply gendered form of masculinity rooted in right-wing, fundamentalist Christianity (which has as its partner a cartoon-ized version of femininity, represented by Kristi Noem and others of her ilk, that attempts to use hyper-feminine imagery and physical features, often enhanced to outrageous levels by the assistance of surgery … to cover and paper over the extreme cruelty and hatred of this ruling party and presidential administration. So I’m attempting to cover it all here, but please note the above breaking news story involving the treatment of California Sen. Padilla also fits into this category.
Also let me note, for more on the ways that strict gender roles of fundamentalist Christianity are playing out among the women of MAGA in strange and scary ways, I’d recommend this podcast episode from
- and hey Jo, would love to discuss the religious/right-wing Christian roots of all of this with you someday!
Images above shared from
’s Substack on MAGA Face; highly recommend …Also highly recommend this Wall Street Journal piece on the background behind the immigration orders that ignited the protests in Los Angeles (protests are important and necessary - and also note that the Administration wants to hype up the supposed “violence” of the protests in order to excuse further militarization and suppression of the public)
More from L.A.
Dozens Arrested in Weekend L.A. Protests
Protests intensify in Los Angeles after Trump deploys hundreds of National Guard troops
I want to be really, really careful in how I share these stories and images. I think for many of us in Minneapolis, we’re having some flashbacks to 2020 and how national coverage distorted what was happening here after George Floyd’s murder. My family and I reside in the city of Minneapolis, just a few miles from where George Floyd was killed. On the nights of the most intense protests and some rioting, our family went for a neighborhood bike ride. For most of the city, things were calm. Images of urban “riots” are used by right-wing propaganda, even though the vast majority of protesters are nonviolent - and those who use protests as an excuse to loot are often outsiders, sometimes with an agenda of muddying the message.
Remember the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s wise words:
A riot is the language of the unheard.
I also want to mention that I’ve heard from a couple of trusted friends in Los Angeles this week. Both of them have said that the images and stories shared online about widespread violence are really misleading: it’s contained to a very, very small portion of a huge city in Los Angeles. They also said that they’re very worried that the law enforcement presence and military presence being sent in by Trump will not leave.
More stories this week (and more haunting images of the lasting effects of authoritarian violence, being hastened by hypermasculine gender ideals rooted in right-wing fundamentalist Christianity):
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to I'm Listening to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.