Neil J. Young Profile Banner
Neil J. Young Profile
Neil J. Young

@NeilJYoung17

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Author: COMING OUT REPUBLICAN: A HISTORY OF THE GAY RIGHT. Podcast: @pastpresentpod Words: @cnn , @nytimes , @atlantic , @latimes etc.

Los Angeles, CA
Joined May 2011
Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
1 year
I’m *thrilled* to share we have a cover for COMING OUT REPUBLICAN: A HISTORY OF THE GAY RIGHT. Out in April 2024 from @UChicagoPress You can pre-order here:
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
5 years
Wait until she reads Exodus.
@TomiLahren
Tomi Lahren
5 years
If you traipse your kid 2,000 miles in dangerous conditions you're not only a criminal, you're a shitty parent.
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
3 years
It’s honestly been just a great week.
@Amy_Siskind
Amy Siskind 🏳️‍🌈
3 years
Neil Young is a hero. That’s all. That’s the tweet. 🇺🇸👏
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
5 years
Shhh...no one tell her about the Pilgrims.
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
2 years
I did a text search of “abortion” in my book on the history of the religious right, We Gather Together. I used the word 705 times. But this might be the passage I’d point journalists to right now: “in 1973, most religious conservatives did not oppose abortion.”
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
2 years
George Santos has inverted the long history of gay Congresspersons, especially Republicans, by being honest about his sexuality while telling lies about pretty much everything else in his biography.
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
2 years
Just got a Mac after a lifetime of using a PC and am having a complete emotional breakdown. Please pray for me and also let me know that #itgetsbetter .
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
3 years
Holding a handwritten letter by Harvey Milk and never ever will I get over the absolute magic of getting to be in the archives and do this work.
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
1 year
PAGE PROOFS! So excited for this huge milestone. Pub date is April 2024 @UChicagoPress
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
2 years
There’s a lot of talk about what yesterday’s SBC bombshell report tells us about the current panic over “grooming.” I want us to remember that it was a Southern Baptist woman, Anita Bryant, who helped put these ideas in motion. /🧵
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
6 years
I’ve been thinking about this a lot since the rise of Trump, but I think now after what we see happening at the border it is clear that the days of so-called #FamilyValues conservatism are over. /1
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
6 years
First and last name, actually. And yes.
@JasonKirk_fyi
Jason Kirk (read my novel)
6 years
Do you think you could defeat in physical combat the most famous person who shares your first name, and who is that person
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
4 years
THRILLED to share some big news. I’ve signed a contract with @UChicagoPress for my next book, “Coming Out Republican: How LGBTQ Conservatives Paved the Way for the Modern GOP.” Set to publish in early 2023. There’s a fascinating history of gay Republicans, & I’m eager to tell it.
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
4 years
No mention of loving others, though
@ChristnNitemare
Christian Nightmares
4 years
Here’s Kirk Cameron announcing his Christmas caroling gathering in protest of California’s stay-at-home orders: “If you love God, if you love Christmas, and you love liberty, you’re not going to want to miss this.”
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
3 years
@jbouie @rmc031 My biggest confusion of freshman year was everyone on my hall continually talking about “the city.” Which city??
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
4 years
There was a time when winning candidates thanked their supporters and promised to work on behalf of their constituents. That time no longer exists for Republicans.
@CawthornforNC
Madison Cawthorn
4 years
Cry more, lib.
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
2 years
BOOK MANUSCRIPT SUBMITTED.
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
6 months
Today is the official publication day for COMING OUT REPUBLICAN: A HISTORY OF THE GAY RIGHT. I’m so excited it is now out in the world, and I wanted to share some of the things it covers in a 🧵 @UChicagoPress @garamondagency
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
6 years
Given Sunday's tragic events at the #SouthernBorder where the US govt fired tear gas at parents & their CHILDREN seeking asylum & the gross indifference to this by "conservatives," I thought I'd share again my thoughts on the end of #FamilyValues conservatism under Trump.
@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
6 years
I’ve been thinking about this a lot since the rise of Trump, but I think now after what we see happening at the border it is clear that the days of so-called #FamilyValues conservatism are over. /1
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
4 years
Incredible reporting from ⁦⁦ @kathrynajoyce ⁩ on how QAnon and Trumpism Have Infected the Catholic Church
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
6 years
It’s critics are calling Gillette’s commercial “radical” and an attack on masculinity, but the ad’s depiction of manhood is deeply traditional, even conservative. I wrote about it in my column for @HuffPost this week.
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
3 years
In preparation for my first flight in a year, my phone is autocorrecting O’Hare to “I hate” which feels right. #natureishealing
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
2 years
Religious opposition was not a given nor inherent. It was historically produced, and it varied greatly across religious groups, even conservative ones. An evangelical consensus opposing abortion, for example, took at least a decade to build.
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
3 years
Having spent recent weeks at the Reagan Library reading through White House files about the HIV/AIDS crisis of the 1980s, this is EXACTLY the thinking that drove a large parting of Reagan administration planning and policy.
@JasonSCampbell
Jason S. Campbell
3 years
Dennis Prager: "During the AIDS crisis, can you imagine if gay men and intravenous drug users...had they been pariahs the way the non-vaccinated are? But it would've been inconceivable"
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
3 years
“For all that Ryan did to challenge harmful and overly simplistic conceptions of AIDS, his story…also reinforced existing notions of ‘guilt’ and ‘innocence.’” Terrific piece from ⁦ @pmrenfro ⁩ on what would have been Ryan White’s 50th birthday.
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
3 years
“Conservative media outlets aren't focused on the actual athletic results but rather on how they can use the Olympics to stir up their audience's outrages and grievances” - my latest for @TheWeek
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
5 years
Every word of this piece from ⁦ @espiers ⁩ is brilliant - and urgent
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
6 years
But nothing gives us a more definitive answer that #FamilyValues are over than watching Republicans shrug their shoulders and turn their backs on the families being ripped apart by the very federal government they long said would do the same to their own families. /Fin
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
2 years
Developing a theological opposition took time since, as the evangelical publication Christianity Today noted, “the Bible does not comment directly on abortion.”
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
6 years
However, it’s worth noting that the very awful thing being done at the border – children being taken from their parents by a barbaric state – is the very doomsday fantasy Religious Right folks long imagined would happen /4
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
5 years
I think one thing that hasn't been said enough about the CT piece is how it will serve as a source of encouragement and support - and even defense - for the small but significant #NeverTrump evangelicals who are out there.
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
4 years
@KevinMKruse @nandomar74 A very relevant page from my book:
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
2 years
My little guy is SEVENTEEN today! Happy birthday, Buddy.
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
6 years
Key difference, though, is that they fantasized it would be done against THEM – against conservative, religious families with “traditional” arrangements of gender and sexuality /5
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
2 years
SBC and other conservative religious groups present the danger to the families (and the nation) as external and secular. Over and over again, it is clear that some of the greatest dangers are often internal and use religion as a cover for their worst actions. /FIN
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
2 years
This is all just the tip of the iceberg of a long & complicated history. But it’s vitally important to resist easy, pat generalizations, to recognize the range of historical actors at work here - & especially to appreciate that none of it was inevitable, but always contingent.
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
4 years
No, he’s not.
@politico
POLITICO
4 years
President Trump finds himself torn between his longtime promotion of law enforcement and his desire to win over black voters
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
6 years
it’s time to retire for good any sense that the GOP still cares about #FamilyValues . /3
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
4 years
SAME.
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
7 months
It’s here! Always amazing to have a book you’ve long worked finally in your hands. Apparently it is now shipping to buyers, so if you’ve ordered one it should be on its way. And if you haven’t, what are you waiting for? 🤣 @UChicagoPress @garamondagency
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
2 years
More passages here from leading evangelical publications around the time commenting on the “paucity of biblical references” on the topic.
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
6 years
As Trump’s #ZeroTolerance border policy has separated 2,000 children (and counting) from their families & as the GOP does nothing about it & as the party’s white evangelical base remains indifferent – or even supportive – of children being taken from their parents… /2
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
2 years
Journalists/media folks: This would be an especially good time to reach out to historians of American religion and politics.
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
6 years
So, yes, the rise of Trump – the philandering, lying, profane, racist casino magnate who won 81% of white evangelical support – seems like the right time to ask if #FamilyValues conservatism is dead. /22
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
2 years
Check out the results of a 1970 poll of Southern Baptist pastors. 70 percent abortion in cases of health of woman or rape/incest.
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
2 years
First, as background, the report details how SBC leaders kept a secret list of more than 700 abusive pastors to protect the SBC rather than protect Baptists from future abuse. /2
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
2 years
In the homestretch of finishing my book with my trusty research assistant.
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
2 years
@SethCotlar This is so interesting because some of the gay Republicans who began to break with the GOP in the 1980s and 90s spoke in this exact language.
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
6 years
@KevinMKruse Also, I would add that much of Southern Baptist indifference to abortion was shaped by the fact that Catholics dominated the early pro-life movement. Anti-Catholicism was a more powerful driver of Southern Baptist ideas than pro-life theology for a moment.
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
3 years
A personal update!
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
2 years
A lot of Southern Baptist hesitancy on opposing abortion was straight up anti-Catholicism, still a powerful aspect of SB culture in 1970s. Here’s what WA Criswell, the pastor of First Baptist Dallas, said about abortion and Catholics:
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
6 years
The nightmare scenario they imagined was an overbearing state coming between children and parents, mostly through the public education system, to usurp parental authority and set the child against the parents and their values. /7
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
6 years
And they used that nightmare fantasy to fuel a whole set of reactionary politics through the 1970s, 80s, and 90s that targeted the Equal Rights Amendment, the public school system, gay rights, etc. /8
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
9 months
Absolutely THRILLED to receive these amazing blurbs for COMING OUT REPUBLICAN: A HISTORY OF THE GAY RIGHT from @annehelen @KevinMKruse @RuleandRuin @lillianfaderman @rickperlstein @sissenberg Pub date April 8. Pre-order now at link in bio! @uchicagopress @garamondagency 🌈🐘🇺🇸
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
4 years
Putting aside how bad this Bret Stephens column is - that's a given - this idea that it is harder to come out as Republican than as gay has been a common trope of #LGBTQ Republicans since the 1970s.
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
6 years
BUT an even more important difference is that they imagined this separation of children from parents as being mostly of an ideological, cultural, and spiritual nature – only a few extremists imagined it would result in actual *physical* separation of children from parents /6
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
4 years
@danielsilliman That is some wild stuff.
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
6 years
The totalitarian state that separates children from parents has come to be – yet the very ones who for some 40 years ranted the federal government was seeking to “destroy the family” sit silently as it literally rips families apart at the border /20
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
2 years
@publicroad The Kardashianization of pastor aesthetics.
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
2 years
Most of this abuse concerned SBC pastors victimizing Southern Baptist women, but the cases also involve children. As report says, “many of the survivors we spoke with were sexually abused as children, both boys and girls, who were of varying ages at the time of their abuse.” /3
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
2 years
I should note, I’m not only a historian of the SBC. I also grew up Southern Baptist. I have also written a lot about the SBC’s role in the politics of sexuality and gender. /7
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
4 years
@KevinMKruse This is the page with some of the best quotations including the wildest one from W.A. Criswell, pastor of FBC Dallas, the most important church in the SBC that is now led by total Trumper Robert Jeffress.
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
2 years
The report only covers 2000-present, but it is clear this is a snapshot of a much larger crisis within the SBC that has gone on for decades. The same decades the SBC was a leading voice theologically and politically against homosexuality. /6
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
6 years
Robert Jeffress closes his prayer at the new #JerusalemEmbassy , "In the name and the spirit of the Prince of Peace, Jesus our Lord."
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
4 years
Trump world has used “humor” to mainstream and normalize its egregious anti-democratic and illiberal aims, a tactic taken straight from the alt-right.
@Mr_Berman
Matt Berman
4 years
Basically: Pompeo was probably joking, but that is still extremely stupid and hypocritical coming from State of all places.
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
6 years
@arrpeebee @KevinMKruse I have. Randy was a member of my dissertation committee. I think this is a big part of the story, but I guess my disagreement would be that I don't think there's a single origin moment for a huge political movement like the Religious Right as much as there were multiple factors.
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
3 years
Universalizing Christmas is actually to secularize it - the very thing Fox News and ilk usually love to rant about this time of year - because to say Christmas is abt everything means it is abt nothing. Not that I expect them to be consistent or logical but c’mon - pick a lane!
@revrrlewis
Bobby Lewis
3 years
Ainsley Earhardt on the Fox Christmas tree: "It's a tree that unites us. It brings us together. It's about the Christmas spirit. It is about the holiday season. It's about Jesus. It's about Hanukkah. It is about everything that we stand for as a country."
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
3 years
@Kristen_Arnett Mine once found a French fry in the backseat of our car and spent the next ten years looking for more every time she got in the car.
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
9 months
My book on the history of Log Cabin Republicans is really messing with the Amazon algorithm. 🤣
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
2 years
But I think it is worth remembering this important early moment of the SBC’s connection to the discourse of grooming and what it means in light of these horrific revelations and how SBC leaders ignored the regular and ongoing abuse of children in their churches. /20
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
4 years
Is this one going in the video they play in all the mega churches the Sunday before the election?
@atrupar
Aaron Rupar
4 years
“If you fuck around with us, if you do something bad to us, we are gonna do things to you that have never been done before.” — the President of the United States
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
6 years
The school’s address is literally Dixie Highway.
@Enquirer
Enquirer
6 years
Covington Mayor Joe Meyer: March confrontation doesn’t represent city’s values
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
7 years
I wrote about the history of saying “Merry Christmas” and its origins for the @latimes
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
6 years
Public schools have been a key battleground where this fear played out, as @nataliapetrzela has expertly shown in her book, Classroom Wars /9
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
4 years
Kinda weird seeing so many people surprised Eric Metaxas used profanity when for the last four years he has so thoroughly endorsed the profane.
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
2 years
But Bryant’s brilliance was to change the debate from whether a minority group should have political equality to the question of whether parents had the right to protect their children from homosexuality. /13
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
6 months
NOW 👏🏻 IN 👏🏻 BOOKSTORES 👏🏻 So excited to see COMING OUT REPUBLICAN at my local bookstore just a few blocks from my house! Thanks to @booksoup for stocking it! I left a little treat in their copies for future buyers. 🖊️ 📚 @UChicagoPress @garamondagency
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
2 years
As in so many other institutions, SBC churches were places where child predators – in this case pastors and other religious leaders – carried out their assault on innocent children. /5
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
6 years
And now that paranoid fantasy has become a REAL nightmare as parents are being stripped of their children at the border – not an ideological or religious separation of children from their parents, but a PHYSICAL removal made by force /19
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
5 years
@CurtisM40613460 @KatelynBeaty Age to age, she’s still the same.
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
6 years
And Seth Dowland’s Family Values is required reading on this topic. /10
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Neil J. Young
7 months
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
4 years
You’re welcome!
@guardian
The Guardian
4 years
Neil Young sues Donald Trump campaign for using his music
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
5 years
It’s amazing how much of the defense of Trump is that he’s not smart enough to pull off the crimes he’s accused of.
@JasonSCampbell
Jason S. Campbell
5 years
Ben Shapiro argues Trump couldn't have committed a crime because "this is not a dude with a plan"
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
6 years
been a conspiratorial fantasy of the Right, promoted in grassroots newsletters, conservative religious publications, right wing talk radio, and GOP campaigns. /18
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
6 years
The 1974 textbook battle in Kanawha County, WV erupted when parents and activists there claimed the government was using a new language arts curriculum to brainwash children against their parents’ traditional values and abandon Christianity for secular humanism /12
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
4 years
History making.
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
4 years
If it’s in @PublishersLunch , it must be official! Thrilled to announce that my next book, COMING OUT REPUBLICAN: HOW #LGBTQ CONSERVATIVES PAVED THE WAY FOR THE MODERN GOP, will be published by @UChicagoPress . And thanks to my incredible agent Lisa Adams @garamondagency
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
4 years
@HawleyMO @simonschuster That’s the free market not the First Amendment, bro.
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
2 years
Celebrating SIXTEEN years (and three days) today! Here’s to a million more. ❤️
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
3 years
At the age of about 23, I answered my work phone to a screaming Jean-Claude Van Damme who was yelling that he was going to sue the magazine I worked for over a piece we ran on him. He referred to himself in the third person the entire time.
@Hipstercrite
Lauren Modery
3 years
Tell me the strangest interaction you've had with a celebrity.
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
2 years
What’s making history for me tonight. @nataliapetrzela @pastpresentpod
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
1 month
Well, it’s finally happened. A very fancy restaurant in los Angeles called me yesterday to confirm my dinner reservation. I had never made a reservation. Turns out it was for the *other* Neil Young.
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
5 years
Very happy to share that as of this week I will be a contributing writer at @TheWeek where I'll be writing a bi-weekly column on politics, culture, religion, and...well, whatever Trump's latest assault on American democracy is. First piece out later this week!
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
4 years
A 15% drop for white evangelical support of Trump in just two months feels monumental. Even if it doesn't drop further, if it stays near 60% it could be devastating for Trump in November.
@robertpjones
Robert P. Jones - Hidden Roots of White Supremacy
4 years
@PRRIpoll BREAKING: Meanwhile, Trump favorability among white evangelical Protestants remains steady in new @PRRIpoll : May: 62% Apr: 66% Mar: 77% 2019 (avg): 64% Throughout Trump’s presidency, wh evangelical support has been reliably between 60%-80%.
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@NeilJYoung17
Neil J. Young
6 years
We could go on and on, but the point is that the idea of an overbearing state actively working to insert itself into the “traditional,” heterosexual family and separate children ideologically and socially from their parents’ religious and cultural values has long… /17
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