Six New Things – Week of 10.27.25

Disinformation, duplicity, and lies create distrust, confusion, and harms that can be generational and global. Counter scapegoating, fear-mongering, and other &$!#% with real history, wisdom, and truth-telling.

ONE

In her October 25, 2025 Letters from an American post, Heather Cox Richardson, wrote,

‘Yesterday the Trump administration said it would not use any of the approximately $6 billion the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) holds in reserve to fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)…

…this position contradicts the shutdown plan the USDA released in late September. Then, it said: “Congressional intent is evident that SNAP’s operations should continue since the program has been provided with multi-year contingency funds that can be used for State Administrative Expenses to ensure that the State can also continue operations during a Federal Government shutdown. These multi-year contingency funds are also available to fund participant benefits in the event that a lapse occurs in the middle of the fiscal year.”

Yesterday’s USDA memo also says that any states that tap their own resources to provide food benefits will not be reimbursed.

Today, in yet another violation of the Hatch Act that prohibits the use of government resources for partisan ends, the USDA Food and Nutrition Service website reads: “Senate Democrats have now voted 12 times to not fund the food stamp program, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Bottom line, the well has run dry. At this time, there will be no benefits issued November 01. We are approaching an inflection point for Senate Democrats. They can continue to hold out for healthcare for illegal aliens and gender mutilation procedures or reopen the government so mothers, babies, and the most vulnerable among us can receive critical nutrition assistance.”’

—

In this one post, the current administration has: violated the law by using a government website for ‘partisan ends’; lied about Democrat votes and motivations; scapegoated immigrant and queer peoples; subtly blamed impoverished people for ‘running the well dry’; and co-opted/appropriated the nomenclature, ‘the most vulnerable among us’ – a group of people for whom this government has historically and continuously shown no concern; and in so doing, attempted to sow further division between the presumably white ‘mothers, babies, and most vulnerable among us’ and anyone deemed unworthy of the ‘critical nutrition assistance’ they are unlawfully withholding.

For more context on the government shutdown and motivations behind it, please see Heather Cox Richardson’s October 24, 2025 Letters from an American.

TWO

For some real history behind how we got here:

• Joyce Vance’s first book, Giving Up Is Unforgivable: A Manual for Keeping a Democracy (Dutton), issues ‘equal parts civics class, history lesson, and call to save the Republic’ reminding us, ‘We’re in this together.’ Invite conversation by wearing justice on your lapel: this book has its own button.
• Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It (MCD), while explicitly about the internet and online platforms, its analysis applies to the economy and political arenas, as it, ‘moves… beyond the overwhelming sense of our inevitably enshittified fate’, by showing us, ‘the specific decisions that led us here, who made them, and…how they can be undone.’

Find more in our Social Justice Engagement: Politics & Social Structure and Technology & AI lib guides.

THREE

For some truth-telling and reality-checking:

• In Fight Oligarchy (Crown), Bernie Sanders, ‘observes how a corrupt campaign finance system allows billionaires in both parties to increasingly control our political system’  – AND – ‘reminds [us] that true power rests with the people—and …presents a path forward to a reinvigorated democracy’.
• The Soulwork of Justice: Four Movements for Contemplative Action (Orbis), offers support for justice workers, ‘culled from the wisdom of decades of leadership… in global ecumenical initiatives, religious organizations, and social justice movements’.

Find more in our Social Justice Engagement: Reimagined Democracy & Moral Economy and Spiritual Practices: Contemplative Activism lib guides.

FOUR

Spiritual practices fuel curiosity and steep us in Divine Presence – wisdom, truth, and ‘what’s really real’:

• Give Me a Word: The Promise of an Ancient Practice to Guide Your Year (Broadleaf), reminds us, ‘Your word is waiting… All you need is the quiet courage to listen and receive it.’
• While We Wait (Henry Holt & Co), is ‘filled with the highs and lows of a long day out’ and ‘gently reminds us of the joy in simple moments spent together’.

Find more in our Spiritual Practices: Personal Practice and Cultivating Gratitude & Joy lib guides.

FIVE

Curiosity is how we grow in wisdom:

• Wisdom Takes Work: Learn. Apply. Repeat. (Portfolio) asserts that, ‘an absence of curiosity and prudence is a catastrophe for all of us’.
• Souvenirs of the Holy: Encountering God Through Everyday Objects (Broadleaf), wonders ‘How might the sacred astonish us by showing up in everyday items?’
• Discovering Your Internal Universe: The Unexpected Good News About Anxiety, Panic, and Fear (Eerdmans), ‘is an invitation to listen to the gentle truth behind anxiety: it is good to be human and it is good to be you’.
• Philip Pullman has finally concluded his second ‘Lyra’ Trilogy, with The Book of Dust: The Rose Field (Knopf Books for Young Readers), in which he uses ‘the language of fantasy to illuminate our world and to explore the deepest questions of what it means to be alive and awake to all the splendors and horrors around us’.

Spiritual Practices: Intentionality – Meaning & True Self; Pastoral Care: Mental Health; Tweens Teens: Fiction lib guides.

SIX

Wisdom guides us away from the overwhelm of perfectionism and the fear of failure:

• Embracing the Old Witch in the Woods: Liberating Feminine Wisdom from Christian Patriarchy (Broadleaf), is ‘a road map… to challenge limiting beliefs, confront systemic injustices, and reclaim… inherent worth and wisdom’ so we can, ‘liberate ourselves, our communities, and our souls, gaining strength and resilience through our connection to ourselves and to each other’.
• Lost, Hidden, Small: Finding the Way of Jesus Where We Never Think to Look (Broadleaf), ‘excavates the wisdom of Jesus’s parables’ and brokenness within and around us, then introduces ‘practices like shalom, kinship, surrender, failure, and humility’, where ‘we find our lost selves in Christ, seek a God who hides, and see the glory of infinitesimal things’.
• The Bakery Dragon and the Fairy Cake (Knopf Books for Young Readers) is not only about ‘how to bake a cake [and] make new friends’, but how to ‘learn from [our] mistakes’.

Find more in our Social Justice: Confronting Misogyny/Toxic Masculinity; Reimagining Church: Reclaiming Small/Rural; and Faith Formation: Antibullying & Friendship lib guides.