This short piece was presented on November 21, 2022 at a session of the Metacriticism of Biblical Scholarship program unit of the Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting in Denver, CO. …

At the interchange of a small town in Southwestern Virginia, a man who goes by the name “Whitey” runs a business specializing in pro-Trump propaganda. Whitey’s “Trump Store” sits in the shell of a former church, surrounded by Trump signs and flags. …

In what would seem to be a growing trend on Twitter, students are posting screenshots of syllabi, e-mails from professors, and feedback on assignments. In many of these screenshots, professors appear unkind, unreasonable, and not even the slightest bit aware of the circumstances in which we find ourselves currently. …

Like many, I have vivid memories of 9/11. I was a junior in college, and I had a statistics test that I wasn’t nuts about taking. But, the president of our college insisted that life should go on as normal (a profoundly “Texas” attitude). I recall sitting down to take…