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

Could headlines please not just take for granted that Trump “is doing” stuff he has no legal authority to do just because he said so? Because the implication to the reader is that he can in fact legitimately do these things.

submitted 6 days ago • 43 comments

“And there was one piece of information that allowed us to recognise what was happening at a crucial moment: a sign that death was close.” Great piece on the importance of death literacy here, chiming with what we found in @theosthinktank.bsky.social research on a lack of exposure to death/dying.

submitted 16 days ago • 1 comment

As ever, @hopenothate.org.uk do fantastic & important work

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

What does social prescribing actually look like? Catch Dr Marianne Rozario on BBC Radio 4 Sunday unpacking our latest research on social prescribing. 🎙️Tune in from 31:40 to hear more. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

And Quakers!

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

Love that we are spending all our time discussing Reform and ignoring the Lib Dems and then you see this…

submitted 21 days ago • 8 comments

Academics have always been complaining about admin duties eating into their teaching and research time

submitted 22 days ago • 7 comments

Job ad of the year just dropped: its only BLACK ROD housesofparliament.tal.net/vx/mobile-0/...

submitted 24 days ago • 17 comments

Terrible news. Tamam was involved in a Parents Circle - Family Forum peace project. It is a joint Israeli-Palestinian group of over 700 families, all of whom have lost an immediate family member to the ongoing conflict and want to find a route to sustainable peace.

submitted 25 days ago • 0 comments

Today’s collect, for St. Agatha, hit hard.

submitted 26 days ago • 6 comments

Brilliant as always from my colleague Paul Bickley, asking: “Should there be bishops in the House of Lords?” www.theosthinktank.co.uk/comment/2025...

submitted 26 days ago • 0 comments

For what it’s worth, when I spent years in Afghanistan and Iraq, the most powerful thing I ever saw was USAID digging wells & repairing schools. The most effective power we will ever have.

submitted 27 days ago • 73 comments

Our atomised society just isn’t designed for parenting - and it‘s often mothers who bear the consequences. Looking forward to exploring the challenges of Western motherhood (and what they can teach all of us) with @chinemcdonald.bsky.social in our upcoming Theos podcast, Motherhood vs the Machine.

submitted 27 days ago • 1 comment

I predict we are going to hear a lot more about Social Prescribing in coming years so this new report from @theosthinktank.bsky.social by my colleague Marianne Rozario on the topic is both timely and perceptive: www.theosthinktank.co.uk/research/202...

submitted 35 days ago • 0 comments

The world's richest man - perhaps the richest man who has ever lived - gloating about shutting down aid for the world's poorest people. All while posing as the champion of the common man. The great lie of populism in its most naked and morally putrid form.

submitted 28 days ago • 56 comments

hey quick question does Goliath win in that story

submitted 29 days ago • 1122 comments

If you wanted no leaks you should have gone into Settings -> Security -> Configure privacy & security -> Privacy options -> Other -> Configure -> Media interface and clicked “Disallow.” The Leak setting is on by default but we understand your privacy is important so we’ve made it easy to opt out

submitted 32 days ago • 875 comments

Worth listening in full. Two types of power are on show in this video, and I know which I find more compelling. 🔥

submitted 41 days ago • 0 comments

👏💯👏💯👏💯👏 I want to love the BBC, but the trend towards clickbait and human interest stories makes it increasingly inadequate to rely on for the actual news. And once you can’t rely on it for news… unherd.com/newsroom/bbc...

submitted 48 days ago • 0 comments

Only someone with no understanding of liberal history would treat fact-checking and free speech as a binary opposition. The whole point of free speech is that it gets us closer to the truth. Where free speech has no purchase in the truth, its purpose collapses.

submitted 52 days ago • 47 comments

The @bmj.com has posted a very important piece about our disconnect with dying, & how that is hurting rather than helping us, by @lucyselman.bsky.social This ⬇️ fantastic thread by @trishaelliott.bsky.social analyses the paper beautifully. Read. Contemplate. Talk to each other. TY Lucy & Trisha 🙏🏽

submitted 58 days ago • 1 comment

Beautiful piece here on Notre Dame, distraction, productivity, spirituality, and the call of church bells... “The sound of bells seemed to be a call to the city, and perhaps even the world at large, given all the political divisions, to refocus on spiritual and social renewal…”

submitted 79 days ago • 0 comments

The Humanities must firmly reject AI taking over our classrooms, our pedagogy. It’s the only way.

submitted 85 days ago • 32 comments

I’ll shortly be going on maternity leave and the wonderful Rob is steering the ship while I’m off. Give him a follow! 👏🥳

submitted 84 days ago • 0 comments

The share of Americans who expressed "hardly any" confidence in organized religion in 1972: 16%. The share of Americans who expressed "hardly any" confidence in organized religion in 2022: 34%.

submitted 87 days ago • 2 comments

There are still a few weeks left in the year (though December is generally a quiet month for book proposals), but it looks like I’m going to close out 2024 with around 80% of total book proposals coming from men, 18% from women, and 2% from persons whose gender was not apparent/obvious.

submitted 87 days ago • 25 comments

I wouldn't go quite as far as this piece - but here's a refreshing antidote to the common, lazy attribution of religion as The Problem. The bottom line: religious ideas are among humanity's most powerful forms of self and collective expression. No surprise they can be weaponised to ulterior ends.

submitted 87 days ago • 0 comments

I will never, ever get over this.

submitted 90 days ago • 1357 comments

Excellent report, covering lots of similar ground to @powertochange.bsky.social work on this issue. Churches are important social infrastructure. And @theosthinktank.bsky.social make the same core argument as us: communities policy must move from crisis response to a consistent strategy.

submitted 90 days ago • 0 comments

Listen back to me and Mark Mardell in a sparky conversation with @williamcrawley.bsky.social on BBC Radio 4 Sunday discussing the place for religion within public debate like assisted dying. We're on from around 34 minutes here: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

submitted 92 days ago • 2 comments

How can we recover from the riots? @hannahmerich.bsky.social introduces her new report exploring how local churches responded to the riots of summer 2024. Read it here 👇 www.theosthinktank.co.uk/comment/2024...

submitted 91 days ago • 1 comment

I spoke to local church leaders about their response to this summer's riots, and what policymakers can learn from that in strengthening communities & preventing future unrest - new report here: www.theosthinktank.co.uk/research/2024/12/02/disunited-kingdom-local-churches-and-the-riots-of-summer-2024

submitted 91 days ago • 1 comment

I'll post a 🧵 on the reaction from religious leaders and belief groups as it comes in to the vote in favour of assisted dying by MPs today:

submitted 94 days ago • 1 comment

I feel really, really sad about that result but it’s now on all those who voted yes in the hope/on the condition that the bill might be improved to take that seriously. We go again.

submitted 94 days ago • 1 comment

A piece that completely misunderstands the role of religion AND non-religion in decision-making. Faith isn’t an exotic factor on top of a neutral base. All of us draw on our metaphysical commitments when we make ethical decisions, consciously or not. Nobody stands nowhere.

submitted 94 days ago • 0 comments

Great report, & chimes with our own findings @theosthinktank.bsky.social on the role of local churches after the riots - launching next Monday. This recognition of trust/places to meet as the foundation of strong communities is a vital message (and sounds simple but so easily missed in practice):

submitted 96 days ago • 0 comments

Why are black people less likely to support #AssistedDying? @chinemcdonald.bsky.social explores assisted dying through the underrepresented and distinct perspective of black communities. bit.ly/3ZmwUjm

submitted 97 days ago • 0 comments

Excited that the Theos Annual Lecture is kicking off now - a panel discussion on the theme of “Does the Future Have a Church?” Going to be a fascinating discussion… #Theos2024

submitted 97 days ago • 1 comment

Brilliant piece on the assisted dying debate - especially the need for empathy/patience across both sides of the debate. I disagree with @iandunt.bsky.social on this issue, but it’s refreshing to see it recognised as a moment for genuine soul-searching, rather than another noisy scrap.

submitted 100 days ago • 0 comments

Reminded again of CS Lewis' Weight of Glory this morning, and especially this powerful challenge which brings me up short every time. How can we create a society that does justice to the "burden of our neighbour's glory"? I don't think we're doing very well.

submitted 101 days ago • 0 comments

Mark Bredin's review of my book on James Nayler, in Quaker Religious Thought, is now available online: “…the great contribution of this thesis is to encourage Quakers to turn to the radical teachings of James Nayler to challenge Quakers to embrace the radical Jesus of the New Testament.”

submitted 102 days ago • 3 comments

Mothers are working more than in the past - but are still most impacted by childcare requirements. On current progress, it would take until the 2220s to reach gender parity and close the gender parenting gap.

submitted 102 days ago • 0 comments

📢 Less than 1 week to go until our 2024 Annual Lecture! Don’t miss our panel discussion on the future of the church with Daisy Scalchi, Justin Brierley, Madeleine Davies, Bishop Mike Royal and Mary Harrington. Find out more and final few tickets below. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/theos-annu...

submitted 103 days ago • 0 comments