Why the Political Left Should Love America
Jerusalem Demsas and Martha Nussbaum both argue the left must reclaim love of country. On America's 250th birthday, why patriotism belongs to progressives too — and why ceding it is dangerous.
Articles for author: twhoshaw
June 27, 2026
Operation Reconquista and the Unconscious of Inclusion
Why are people leaving mainline churches? Operation Reconquista has an answer. So does Brandan Robertson. Both, I argue, hide the same thing: self-obsession.
June 5, 2026
Fidelity Racket; or, On Idolatry Month
Conservative governors have rebranded June as "Fidelity Month," a counter to Pride. But fidelity is just another name for idolatry — according to the Gospels. On Robert George, Lot's wife, Nicodemus, and the infidel queerness of Jesus.
June 3, 2026
Born in a Jar with One Eye
My mother used to say I was "born in a jar with one eye." This is the story of the boy in that jar — bullied, converted, ordained, undone and remade by Chicago's North Side — who finally learned that gayness was the best thing about him.
May 25, 2026
Ideal Glide Speed
A reflection on giving up flight training, the shock of midlife, and how to land when life gets big. The ideal glide speed is a life lesson.
Gay Desire: A Second Chance For Gay Theology
Tony Hoshaw is writing a book, in public, entitled Gay Desire: A Second Chance for Gay Theology. Building on David M. Halperin's book, How To Be Gay, Tony argues that the proper ground for gay theology is gay desire, not a theory of androgyny.
May 14, 2026
Change or Die. 2.2 of The N*ew* Thoughts Podcast
Three horror films. One question: What happens when the world hands you a choice—change or die? Dr. Hoshaw examines Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen, I Saw the TV Glow, and Slanted through the psychoanalytic lens of Adam Phillips's On Wanting to Change and R.D. Laing's The Divided Self. Along the way: a personal story about earning a pilot's license, Susan Stryker's landmark Frankenstein essay, and a sharp meditation on privilege, conversion, and the body's refusal to cooperate. *SPOILER WARNING:* This episode contains major spoilers for Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen, I Saw the TV Glow, and Slanted. Watch the films first, then come back.
May 9, 2026
Pinocchio Gets It Backward: The Messiah Is Always Alien
What if the danger isn't that AI becomes too alien, but that it becomes too human? A "theological" case for letting AI stay strange.
Democratic Playbook: Ken Martin, Gurl, You Can Go!
Ken Martin says he "just doesn't care." After his Pod Save America interview and the buried after-action report, neither do we. Gurl, you can go.
April 16, 2026
Stealing the Film: On Bud’s THREE DIFFERENT NAMES
A close reading of Bud the cat in Darren Aronofsky's Caught Stealing, through T.S. Eliot, Derrida, and the Jellicle Ball revival — on what it means to follow after an animal's (ineffable) name.