News with Nuance: March 28, 2025
Your Friday dose of News with Nuance: the week's biggest stories, unpacked + more ..
Hi Readers,
I’m beginning this note to you from my hotel in New York City - awaiting tonight (Thursday’s) book event at Corner Bookstore with journalist and leading researcher on Christian Nationalism and the media, Anne Nelson. It’s all pretty surreal! I can’t wait to see how all of this goes and - the best part - meeting more people who are encouraged and inspired to join together and fight against this onslaught of anger, violence, hatred, and lies.
Even after working in this space for nearly a decade now, covering the rise of Christian Nationalism and Trumpism, I find myself still sometimes astounded by how insane this has all become. Our top two stories today deal with immigrant deportations and outright dehumanization of those seeking to come to America, as well as the ways that longtime government officials are simply goose-stepping into line, while others keep their heads down and put their hands over their ears, insisting that before long, everything will be back to normal …
I think we all have to agree that we’re past that point now. It’s clear that this current Administration is on a war path toward further intensification of concentration of wealth, and a return to an America with wealthy white men at the top of a hierarchical power structure, wrought by violence and propaganda.
There’s a lot of talk in media lately about why young men are going MAGA. First off, I think that’s a general oversimplification of what’s happening. I think there’s a significant proportion of young white men who voted for Trump not because they were indoctrinated into the MAGA, Christian Nationalist mindset - but instead because they were cynical, nihilistic, and basically felt a vote for Trump was a middle finger to the establishment.
That being said, Trump’s popularity has rarely been much above 1/3. His victories are run up in places, as my conversation partner tonight has documented in her work, where there are news deserts, facts are hard to find, and people are isolated and surrounded by firearms and grifty, abusive preachers (that last add-on is my own). And that minority group of ideologically motivated Republicans, willing to sign on to authoritarianism to assure their own access to power, or because of their own commitment to a Christian Nationalist worldview - have now asserted themselves of almost full power in American government, with an acquiescent Supreme Court alongside them.
So even though I don’t think most young white men are going “MAGA,” what I will say is that when we’re studying the rightward, traditionalist, even fundamentalist drift of young men in America - we have to understand the underpinning of fundamentalist theology. That’s not to say these young men are particularly religious. Instead, what I’m saying is that American Christianity - in its dominant cultural form - is shaped more right now by a commitment to fundamentalist gender roles, hierarchy, violence, and power - than it is shaped by anything Jesus had to say. (For more on this, check out my recent conversations here on Substack with
Video conversation with Beth Allison Barr
and with
Video conversation with Sarah Stankorb )
So yes - in the midst of my 40th birthday celebration, and the love and support of so many of you as I launch Disciples of White Jesus - I am also feeling the heaviness and weight of covering a topic that I believe has huge implications for all of our futures.
That’s why I’m still writing this in the midst of a book tour. The work matters. But that’s why we do it, right?
Thanks for making it possible for me to this work by your support and encouragement!
Let’s get to the news … with nuance …
The Headline: Trump deports hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members. Did he defy a court order?
Screenshot from video shared by Miami Herald from El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s X account, showing Venezuelan migrants arriving in El Salvador to be transported to prison
If you click on the article linked above, you might notice that it’s over a week old now - nearly ancient in today’s insane news cycle. So why am I sharing an old article with you today?
The truth is that there is an overwhelming amount of news stories each and every day documenting the new Administration’s horrific treatment of immigrants and migrants, some of whom are here legally as well as without documentation.
Every single day some new horror happens. But I think it’s important to remember how this first began, at least in Trump’s current term (remember he began with the Muslim ban back in 2017). As many of us said at the time, the so-called “gang members” were a test case. The Administration wanted to see how far we would allow them to dehumanize people, to start referring to immigrants as somehow other than ordinary human beings. So they start with alleged gang members, demonize them as the source of all sorts of American woes, like violence, homelessness, and drug trafficking. Too bad if these individuals were not at all complicit in any of these woes, or even a part of gangs? Or if they were actually here in America because they were under threat from those same gangs in Venezuela, a country that is so politically and economically messed up that at one time in recent years people were having to pay for groceries with shopping carts full of Venezuelan currency.
Venezuela has not always been an economically depressed country. When I was growing up, embarrassingly what I knew about Venezuela was that their pageant contestants often won Miss World. Venezuela is where it is today: ravaged by gangs, poverty, illness, disease, violence — because of a cadre of greedy politicians and powerful people, who took all the wealth out of the country for themselves. Their sin is not ideological. They are not communists in any real sense of the term. They are authoritarians. They rule by brute force, and they take any bounty for themselves.
I also share this article to remind us that local news matters. This article is from the Miami Herald, like many once-great newspapers it has been plundered by greedy capitalists and hedge funds and so-called innovators who thought they knew better than journalists how to report and share the news. The newsroom is a shell of its former greatness, but still the work goes on - even with fewer and fewer reporters, editors, production people to carry it out. This story doesn’t come from Miami. It was published by McClatchy’s shared D.C. Bureau. But at least people in Miami are still reading it in their local paper.
This reporting is critical especially in this story because Miami and its environs are home to the largest population of Venezuelans in America. It’s hard to read this story and especially to view this video. But we cannot look away.
The Quote:
The wartime legislation grants the president extraordinary powers to detain, deport, or remove non-citizens from countries deemed hostile to the U.S. during times of war or invasion, without going through the normal judicial processes. The law, known for its role in interning Japanese immigrants during World War II, has only been used three times, during times of war. It would allow Trump to arrest, relocate, or deport any men over 14 who are deemed to be from an enemy country. The United States considers Venezuela to be a foreign adversary. Anyone accused of being a member of the gang has no right to challenge the accusation, as the law grants the power to remove them without due process or the opportunity to contest the claim.
The deportation flights come as the Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to limit the authority of lower-court judges to issuing sweeping, nationwide injunctions and restraining orders blocking the president’s agenda, raising questions about the future of checks and balances — a fundamental tenet of American democracy. Rubio reposted a social media post from Bukele that said “Oopsie…Too late,” with a laughing emoji, citing a news article about the judge’s order blocking the deportations.
Civil rights organizations have raised alarms over inhumane conditions at CECOT, the largest mega prison in Latin America, calling them a blatant violation of human rights. Investigative journalists have uncovered evidence that among the tens of thousands arrested by El Salvador’s government in recent years, thousands of innocent people have been wrongfully imprisoned.
Lindsay Toczylowski, co-founder & president/CEO of Immigrant Defenders Law Center, condemned the deportation of one of the group’s clients to El Salvador without any due process or evidence linking him to the gang Tren de Aragua, and then he disappeared. “Our client fled Venezuela last year seeking asylum in the United States. He has a strong claim. He was detained at entry because ICE alleged his tattoos are gang related. They are absolutely not,” Toczylowski said through X.
She said he is an LGBTQ arts worker in Venezuela and that his tattoos are harmless and personal. “But ICE submitted photographs of his tattoos, presenting them as proof of his alleged involvement with Tren de Aragua.” Toczylowski said: “Our client came to the U.S. seeking protection, but has spent months in ICE prisons, been falsely accused of being a gang member and today, he has been forcibly transferred — we believe to El Salvador. We are horrified by what might happen to him next.”
Story by Syra Ortiz Blanes, Veronica Egui Brito, and David Catanese, McClatchy D.C. Bureau
The Headline: “The President Wanted It and I Did It”: Recording Reveals Head of Social Security’s Thoughts on DOGE and Trump
Like the top article, this specific piece is a couple of weeks old (ancient in this news cycle) but I chose it (well, partially because of that amazing headline) but also because it illuminates the start of a very disturbing effort to turn public distribution of wealth from the government, into private distribution of wealth from the government, on a very, very large scale.
It also, maybe even more importantly, illuminates the large role that governmental civil servants, bureaucrats, always play when a country begins to shift out of democracy and into authoritarian, fascist rule. In this case, we have sort of an innocuous-seeming commissioner of Social Security, Leland Dudek. It’s important to note as well that like so many civil servants playing big roles in Trump’s administration, Dudek is “acting” commissioner of social security. Essentially, this means he’s even more at Trump’s behest.
Now when you read this piece, it’s very clear that Dudek is not actively seeking to overthrow American government, or even to upend Social Security. He seems by nature cautious, methodical, attentive to detail. But he’s strangely complacent and easily coerced by Trump and his administration. Thereby the headline: “The President wanted it and I did it.”
“Just following orders.”
The Quote:
Throughout the meeting, Dudek made alarming statements about the perils facing the Social Security system, but he did so in an oddly informal, discursive manner. It left several participants baffled as to the ultimate fate of the nation’s largest and most popular social program, one that serves 73 million Americans. “Are we going to break something?” Dudek asked at one point, referring to what DOGE has been doing with Social Security data. “I don’t know.”
Story by Eli Hager, ProPublica
A few more must-read stories since our last News with Nuance …
How Many People Live Paycheck to Paycheck?
I’m the Canadian who was detained by Ice for two weeks. It felt like I had been kidnapped
Can the World’s Largest Ice Rink Survive a Warming Planet?
In Florida, State Rules Concentrate Toxic Smoke in Underserved Communities
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:
When following the “SignalGate” story about a core group of leading Trump officials (including VP Vance and Defense Secretary Hegseth) inadvertently including a journalist on their plans for missile attacks in Yemen, don’t miss the Christian Nationalism angle. They’re (again) attempt to sanctify their actions with praying hands emojis for missiles. The “holy war” ideal is at the very center of their actions.
(The irony, then, for the Trump administration to claim it can’t disclose details about its deportation flights for the sake of “national security,” that they apparently care so much about they’re making war plans on Signal?)
People are worried about making rent and the cost of eggs, but UT undergraduates are living in luxury dorms with pet spas? Christian Nationalism runs on concentration of wealth.
DOGE Raids Nonprofit Advocating for Peace, Religious Freedom
How Oklahoma’s superintendent set off a holy war in classrooms
(Also this on OK’s Superintendent, who seems more than a little unbalanced: Ryan Walters warns religious group that red states will turn against Trump, which serves as a warning for the Republicans who aren’t adequately falling in line)
And again, the ones who pay the price for the worship of guns are usually not the same people who benefit from posing with them: Youth gun deaths in the US have surged 50% since 2019
More (like above) from people with influence and power who are obeying in advance: Columbia Is Nearing Agreement to Give Trump What He Wants
Alas, the U looks to be capitulating, too: University of Minnesota’s Board of Regents approves controversial policy on faculty speech
Schools and education entities in general are a major battleground for the war on truth. This Minneapolis-area school district is leading the charge on book-banning (but others in the district are fighting back, with help from the ACLU)
Now midwives are being charged for providing healthcare to pregnant women in Texas
And this doesn’t surprise me, because this movement requires total commitment from its devotees: IKEA beds? Dressers? Inside the ‘exceedingly odd’ DOGE office setup. Details of the arrangements at GSA offer a window into the lifestyle of DOGE workers. (After all, homes and relationships outside work could cause workers to question their commitment to the cause of cruelty. And sleeping at home lessens productivity. Gotta wonder how much Adderall is factoring in to this equation).
Interesting how algorithms and tech are OK, but climate science is taboo. Isn’t math just math? Why are the numbers so “unreliable” when it comes to climate change? The Weird Evangelical Dance With Science
And finally … the Flatwater Free Press is following the money when it comes to their local MAGA-megachurch, and every media outlet should follow this model when it comes to covering Christian Nationalism and politics.
Hopeful stories of a more excellent way forward for boys, men, and all of us:
I’d be remiss if I didn’t start here by saying just how encouraged I’ve been by the reception of Disciples of White Jesus, both at in-person events and through your comments and shares online. I’m especially moved by how many young men themselves are wanting to get involved and begin to change the narrative around masculinity. This makes me feel much less overwhelmed by despair and worry.
Here are some photos and links to the first few days of the book release, from a packed book release/birthday party in Minneapolis just blocks from home, to an event on Madison Avenue in New York City!
I’ve continued to record several podcasts. Since our last News with Nuance, I’ve appeared on:
The Faith & Justice Book Group
Highest Power: Church & State from Baptist News Global
A Matter of Faith: Presby Podcast
More to come …
Disciples of White Jesus was reviewed here on Substack by:
Thank you so much, reviewers!
I also got to participate in a Q&A with NPR journalist and Exvangelicals bestselling author Sarah McCammon:
If you haven’t been able to make an event - I have many more scheduled, and am booking more all the time. Hope to meet more of you soon!
Sunday, March 30 - I’ll be preaching and sharing a brief between services Q&A at Edina Community Lutheran Church, services at 9 and 11 a.m.
Tuesday, April 1 - I’ll be presenting in Laguna Beach, Calif., at Neighborhood Congregational church, at 6:30 p.m. - in conversation with the Laguna Beach Democrats
April 5-7 - Washington, D.C. for Americans United Summit for Religious Freedom
April 9 - Chicago (Hyde Park) at Augustana Lutheran at 6:30 p.m.
See all upcoming events and options to schedule here
Finally - I got denied admission to Yale, but now their bookstore is featuring my book!
And - ICYMI, the Minnesota Star Tribune published a Minnesota-focused excerpt of my book on Launch Day
More excerpts and reviews are coming soon! If you’d like a review copy, reply to this message or send me a note.
Now more (non-book-focused) encouraging developments …
I turned 40 this week, so 40-year-old Lindsey Vonn is giving me major inspiration
As is this hopeful book (written by Prof. John Hawthorne, who reviewed DWJ above and has extensive experience in Christian higher-ed) about Christian universities, and the ways I have seen colleges I’ve presented at instituting some of these brave ideas (s/o to St. Olaf, Augsburg, Gustavus, Augustana, and more)
Hey, how about the mainline trying things and not just lamenting decline?
The hopeful part about this article is that Democratic politicians are finally starting to speak up on this topic? Maybe?
Sen. Bennet on Dem leaders: 'It's important for people to know when it's time to go'
Then there’s this from the literature I’ve been consuming lately:
And Minnesota AG Keith Ellison continues his tear of trying to hold the contemptible accountable: Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell trade accusations over investigation
A bold (and obvious) way to save Medicaid dollars, state by state
You didn’t think we’d have a whole newsletter without Tim Walz, did you? What gives me hope here is I feel like Candid Walz who is willing to say some hard truths, is finally back (we lost him a few weeks into the campaign)
Gov. Tim Walz says at Iowa town hall he is ‘soul-searching’ after 2024
Must-Reads on Substack
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Thanks for reading,
Angela
Wow, such a hectic schedule! Stay strong!