joelrsimpson.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

Yesterday, I was arrested in the Capitol building while praying about the budget with other faith leaders This budget kills the poor by cutting essential resources all while giving tax breaks to the rich and increasing the military budget This is moral issue religionnews.com/2025/05/05/s...

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

FYI. Jesus quotes Leviticus 19:18 when he says “love your neighbor as yourself.” That includes immigrants. But just to be clear, a few verses later Leviticus 19:34 says this: “Any immigrant who lives with you must be treated as if they were one of your citizens. You must love them as yourself."

submitted 41 days ago • 0 comments

“The hardest part isn’t envisioning the end but living in the sluggish in between.” ~ Charles Marsh.

submitted 44 days ago • 0 comments

A prayer for when you feel lost and uncertain, which might be a lot these days My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going I do not see the road ahead of me I cannot know for certain where it will end nor do I really know myself

submitted 56 days ago • 1 comment

St. Patrick’s Day is rooted in the life of a real person, St. Patrick - whose story might just baffle your mind and challenge you to rethink everything about your life and relationships, especially in a time like ours

submitted 59 days ago • 0 comments

St. Patrick’s Day is rooted in the life of a real person, St. Patrick - whose story might just baffle your mind and challenge you to rethink everything about your life and relationships, especially in a time like ours. joelsimpson.substack.com/p/st-patrick...

submitted 59 days ago • 0 comments

Love is not some feeling. Love always shows up in material and physical ways. Don’t get lost in what people are saying. Look at what they’re doing. That’s the proof of love.

submitted 62 days ago • 0 comments

I am regularly reminded that those who have experienced so much suffering and pain have pursued justice with determination and a refusal to be silent, but they have done this out of a spirit of love rather than hate…because love is the only way.

submitted 63 days ago • 0 comments

Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love. ~ Martin Luther King Jr.

submitted 66 days ago • 0 comments

Father Thomas Keating said, “Welcoming Prayer is the practice that actively lets go of thoughts and feelings that support the false-self system. It embraces painful emotions experienced in the body rather than avoiding them or trying to suppress them. It does not embrace the suffering...

submitted 70 days ago • 1 comment

Ash Wednesday is a reminder that “From dust you came, to dust you shall return” Life is temporary, fragile, and short Which makes special and sacred. And because of that, we want to live in intentional ways Ways that add to life for ourselves and others...

submitted 71 days ago • 1 comment

"We are called to love everyone, without exception; at the same time, loving an oppressor does not mean allowing him to keep oppressing us, or letting him think that what he does is acceptable. On the contrary, true love for an oppressor means seeking ways to make him cease his oppression; it means

submitted 72 days ago • 1 comment

"Let no man pull you so low as to make you hate him.” ~Booker T. Washington

submitted 73 days ago • 0 comments

With all the chaos, fear, and disorder happening - I’ve found 2 things helpful. 1) making sure I am doing things to stay grounded and compassionate. 2) spending more time listening and learning from people in our community who have been ignored, excluded, and stripped of power long before now.

submitted 75 days ago • 0 comments

What’s the difference between naming the harm and injustice by speaking out and just being a nuisance that creates deeper animosity and division within your own family and community?

submitted 75 days ago • 1 comment

If the Prophets in the Bible haven’t made sense in the past, read them again Doom to those who pronounce wicked decrees and keep writing harmful laws to deprive the needy of their rights and to rob the poor among my people of justice to make widows their loot to steal from orphans! -Isaiah 10

submitted 77 days ago • 2 comments

Manifest Destiny came out of Christianity. That’s something they don’t teach in school or church. But it’s something people are strangely familiar with. During his Inaugural address, President Trump spoke about “Manifest Destiny.”

submitted 78 days ago • 0 comments

On this day in 1965, Malcom X was assassinated. But he’s still right.

submitted 83 days ago • 0 comments

The Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church (where I am a pastor) has joined a lawsuit along with 27 other religious groups against the Trump administration for violating religious freedom rights, including the right to minister to those in need and the freedom to worship.

submitted 92 days ago • 0 comments

“Whether this is the first day of the Apocalypse or the first day of the Golden Age, the work remains the same… to love each other and ease as much suffering as possible.” — Ram Dass

submitted 101 days ago • 0 comments

submitted 107 days ago • 0 comments

I’m not sure if this is a punishment or a mantra of resistance in the world of cruelty and chaos. #banksey

submitted 112 days ago • 0 comments

Of course Bishop Budde said show mercy. That’s what Christians are supposed to do.

submitted 113 days ago • 0 comments

If you’re angry with a Christian Bishop for asking a president to have mercy on vulnerable people – you misunderstand Christianity. Bishop Budde did exactly what Christians are called to do - care about people who are vulnerable and struggling. This isn’t woke agenda. This is Jesus agenda

submitted 113 days ago • 1 comment

A recreation of a piece of banksey artwork.

submitted 114 days ago • 0 comments

Anxious? Why yes

submitted 114 days ago • 0 comments

Is the cliche “you can’t have your cake and eat it too” true?

submitted 115 days ago • 0 comments

As people continue doomsday talk in various forms with the transition of U.S. presidents, I thought it might be worth revisiting a post I made several years ago about the end of the world and the lie of the rapture. (link to full article in the comments)

submitted 118 days ago • 1 comment

Pope unveils nativity scene with baby Jesus wrapped in keffiyeh www.newarab.com/news/pope-un...

submitted 156 days ago • 0 comments

I’d like to wish everyone out there a happy international ninja day 🥷

submitted 161 days ago • 0 comments