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If Donald Trump is remembered for anything, it may be as a war president: His enemies so far have included migrants, trade, Venezuela, Iran, maybe Cuba—and now religion. His latest full-on assault was against Pope Leo XIV, whom he called “weak on crime” and a “very liberal person” who caters to “the radical left,” accusing the pontiff of wanting Iran to have a nuclear bomb. 

Trump’s verbal attack on the Holy See followed a series of posts that were equally offensive not just to Catholics, but to the full spectrum of Christians. Those posts included a profane Easter-morning missive about Iranian leadership; a day later, a threat to perpetrate genocide against the Iranian people; and, perhaps most offensive of all, an AI-generated image of himself as a Christ-like figure performing a miracle.

Added to this affront to Christians, as well as believers of other faiths, was Vice President JD Vance’s brazen attempt to justify Trump’s lambasting of the pope with a lecture on how the pontiff should speak about moral and spiritual issues. Vance delivered his remarks at an event by Turning Point USA, the highly politicized, quasi-religious, MAGA-friendly youth organization. To underscore the religious nature of the vice president and recent Catholic convert’s impertinence, the event was held in an evangelical megachurch.

This escalation in Trump’s conflict with religious constituencies comes as a slow but tectonic stress is occurring in his normally unified conservative Christian base. I’m a scholar of evangelical Christianity, so I’ll do my best to stay in my lane as I offer some analysis as to why I believe the MAGA religious base is deteriorating—possibly denying Trump, his cronies, and MAGA successors the extraordinary reliability of the right-wing religious vote they’ve enjoyed to date.  

  Evangelicals used to be united in supporting Trump. But now, they’re fighting over theology. And neither camp is happy with Trump’s irreverent behavior.

President Donald Trump holds a Bible outside St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington, DC, in June 2020.Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty

To understand how we got here, we first need to get into the theological weeds. For all the complexities of various denominations, American evangelicals can basically be divided into two groups: the Reformers—or Calvinists—and the Arminians. They’re named for two very important players in the 16th-century European Reformation. While we usually associate the Reformation with Martin Luther or even Henry VIII, there were figures who loomed just as large—and, at times, even larger than Luther. One of these figures was the Dutch theologian John Calvin, who taught that God preordains some people to go to heaven and others to hell and that no one can do anything about it. On the other hand, a rival of Calvin’s, James Arminius, taught that every human being has a path to salvation and can choose to embrace or reject it. 

Portraits of John Calvin (left) and James ArminiusUnknown artist/Wikimedia; David Bailly/Wikimedia

Until recently, Arminians dominated American evangelicalism. For at least 50 years, and arguably much longer, they’ve had the largest churches, maintained enormous ministries, and organized massive conferences, conventions, festivals, and other events—while wielding considerable political influence and prospering handsomely in the process. Think Billy Graham, Pat Robertson, and Jerry Falwell. It’s this wing of evangelicals that also controls most of the still very popular and highly effective old media platforms: radio and broadcast television, paper book publishing, and direct mail houses, many with millions of donors. 

But that generation is aging out, and the younger evangelicals coming up, particularly male multi-campus pastors, podcasters, and conference-circuit speakers, are becoming increasingly Reformed in their orientation, and they’re taking over the internet-based media. The most vocal sect of Reformers is the new Calvinists, sometimes referred to as TheoBros, many of whom follow Idaho-based pastor Doug Wilson, famous as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s spiritual mentor. Many of them promote strict interpretations of gender roles, rail against immigration, and champion Christian nationalism. 

One key point on which Reformers and Arminians disagree is the biblical importance of Israel and the Jewish people. Reformers espouse “fulfillment theology,” a Protestant tradition that began during the Reformation and holds that the Christian church fulfills God’s promises to Abraham. Some experts call this “replacement theology.” This crew sees Israel and the Jewish people as no longer occupying a central role in the divine plan; God has little to no interest in them because the church has replaced ancient Israel as the divine homeland, and Christians have replaced the Jews as God’s chosen people. 

Pastor Doug Wilson of Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho Geoff Crimmins/ZUMA

Arminians, on the other hand, see history as a series of divinely orchestrated and distinct eras, or “dispensations,” and in the current one, God means for the Jews to occupy the land deeded to Abraham’s progeny and to manage it until Christ’s second coming. While there are differences within this subset when it comes to how Jews can ultimately find salvation, the consensus is that they retain a special status as God’s chosen bloodline to bring the messiah to humanity and that Christians are obligated to bless and celebrate them—meaning, in practice, that most Arminians are Christian Zionists. (Their friendliness toward Jews can have a dark side, though. Many of them believe Jews will be given a last chance to accept Christ as their savior before facing perdition.) 

The Reformer-Arminian divide was on full display during an incident that occurred in February, when right-wing broadcaster Tucker Carlson sat down opposite US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee in Tel Aviv. Doctrinally, Huckabee, while a Baptist, hews to the Arminian tradition. Carlson was raised Episcopalian—a denominational product of the British side of Reformation history (think Henry VIII’s break with Rome)—which makes him a kissing cousin of the new Calvinistic Reformed folks. 

“It is unjust to attribute the violent actions of a few to entire communities based on nationality or ethnicity,” read a statement from a major evangelical group.

In a clip that went viral, Carlson pressed Huckabee to explain what exactly it means to be a “Christian Zionist,” a label that the former Arkansas governor uses to describe his own faith and position within evangelical Christianity. In response, Huckabee insisted that the Bible explicitly states that the Jewish people have a right to a homeland, and therefore, that belief should be a tenet of Christian faith. Among Christian Zionists, this worldview includes the hastening of the end times, in which Jews will return to Israel and embrace Jesus Christ as their savior—a subject that was not broached during the interview. What they did get into, however, was the geography. Carlson cited the Old Testament passage in which God promises Abraham that his descendants will possess land “from the Nile to the Euphrates.” Did Huckabee literally believe that Israel had a right to claim the entire Mideast? “It would be fine if they took it all,” Huckabee replied, before acknowledging that the question was hypothetical.

A preacher holds up his Bible at a pro-Trump “Stop the Steal” protest outside the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta in November 2020. Megan Varner/Getty

While the Reformed group mostly objects to Trump’s cozy relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Arminian Christian Zionists are unhappy with Trump’s boorish personal disposition and heartless policies toward immigrants. The Roys Report, a Christian investigative media outlet, noted that while most prominent evangelicals have remained silent or approving of Trump, some have recently publicly criticized him. They include stalwart Trump supporter Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council. When Trump launched that obscenity-laden screed on Easter Sunday, Perkins objected to the “decline in language and decorum” on X, noting it is “very troubling and should not be acceptable.” 

Earlier in the year, Pastor Erick Salgado of the Brooklyn-based Iglesia Jóvenes Cristianos and a prominent leader among Arminian-leaning Hispanic evangelicals, broke from his previous support for Trump after ICE detained one of his longtime congregational lay leaders. During a January news conference, he remarked: “It is not true that ICE is coming for people who have criminal records. They’re coming after everyone.” 

And even before the ICE surge wreaked havoc in Minneapolis, the National Association of Evangelicals, whose core constituency is largely Arminian, had already issued a call for an end to the inhumane treatment of immigrants. “Most immigrants in the United States are living peacefully and working productively in their communities,” the group’s statement said. “It is unjust to attribute the violent actions of a few to entire communities based on nationality or ethnicity. We believe refugees and immigrants deserve safety, dignity, and fair treatment.” After reports that ICE had detained Minnesota immigrant families that had legal status, Myal Greene, president and CEO of the National Association of Evangelicals-affiliated World Relief, released a stronger statement, saying: “This shameful and unpatriotic operation preys on our basest fears and manipulates the truth. Enough. ICE must be held accountable, and this operation must cease.” 

An engraving of John Wesley preaching in the City Chapel, 1822.T. Blood/Wikimedia

Again, it is Arminian doctrine and church polity that inform this reaction to Trump’s immigration policies and practices. These evangelicals emphasize God’s love, grace, and compassion. The teachings of John Wesley, the 18th-century Arminian founder of Methodism, regarded by many as the first modern evangelical religious movement and eventual denomination, are summarized in the adage, “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can.”  

Arminian sects have long maintained “mercy ministries” that provide food, clothing, and shelter to needy populations and have generously funded global medical and public health programs. The Salvation Army, with its residential addiction treatment programs and extensive emergency relief services, is the quintessence of Arminian polity.

Many of these hybrid human services–spiritual outreach entities have suffered under the Trump administration’s disastrous cuts to foreign aid and domestic social services. World Vision, a prominent international evangelical relief organization, lost more than $400 million in government grants after Elon Musk’s DOGE purge of foreign assistance in 2025, leading to some of the first public expressions of evangelical discontent with the Trump administration. The Reverend Eugene Cho, president and CEO of Bread for the World, denounced the cuts as a “policy failure,” and National Association of Evangelicals President Walter Kim warned they would be “damaging and wasteful.” On the other hand, there was little to no pushback on DOGE actions from the new Reformed evangelical groups. 

In contrast, Reformed evangelicals, much in the fire-and-brimstone tradition of Jonathan Edwards, tend to focus on God’s law. Consider them analogous to Supreme Court constitutional originalists, only with the Bible as their key document. A theological belief known as “theonomy” holds that biblical laws, specifically Old Testament judicial laws, remain binding on all modern nations and should form the basis for civil government. It’s a sort of “law-and-order” ethic, with a spiritual zing to it. 

Demonstrators interrupt proceedings with White House budget director Russell Vought (seated) during a House Budget Committee hearing in April.Andrew Harnik/Getty

Cutting foreign aid and domestic social programs is in keeping with the long-standing conservative argument that such government largesse is counterproductive, in that it creates dependency rather than independence. Government entitlements also violate biblical mandates regarding work and wealth creation, reflecting the so-called “Protestant work ethic.”

Playing to this same script has been Trump’s director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, a Reformed Baptist with deep ties to the New Calvinists. He is best known as a principal author of the Project 2025 master plan for neutralizing what right-wingers call “the deep state.” As ProPublica reported in a comprehensive profile piece, Vought “wanted spending on foreign aid to be as close to zero as possible.”

I began hearing from many on the Arminian side who expressed shock and horror at Trump’s unlawful cruelty. 

Reformed opposition to government foreign aid can be extreme. For example, in September, Christian Reconstructionist Radio posted an audio excerpt from the late new Reformed theologian R.J. Rushdoony’s volume, Threatened Freedom: A Christian View on the Menace of American Statism, in which he argues for an end to all American foreign aid because, according to him, among other atrocious things, it has funded rituals of human sacrifice. 

This division within Trump’s exclusively evangelical sector continues apace, separating congregations, clergy, and even family members from one another. What was once a near uniformity of opinion that the only candidates worthy of a Christian’s vote were MAGA Republicans utterly loyal to Trump has started showing signs of unraveling.  

  Among evangelicals, I felt very alone in my dissent. Then came Trump’s vilification of immigrants and the Iran war. I began hearing from Christians who expressed shock and horror. 

Trump is surrounded by clergy at a National Day of Prayer event in 2025.Joyce Boghosian/White House/Planet Pix/ZUMA

For all their profound theological disagreements, Reformers and Arminians seemed ready to bury the hatchet when it came to supporting Trump. When he emerged as a credible presidential prospect in 2015 and then the eventual Republican nominee in 2016, tens of millions of American Christians were ready to accept such a highly unlikely champion, even a morally suspect one, provided Trump offered what conservative religious voters wanted. 

For years, conservative Christians had heard their pastors, guest preachers, and innumerable television and radio personalities exhort them to pray that God would give them bold leaders who would bring an end to baby killing and stand unapologetically against gay rights, same-sex marriage, and transgender people. Multipage fundraising letters warned donors that Satan—embodied by Democrats—was determined to destroy their families, communities, and country if they didn’t vote for righteousness. My organization and numerous others sent out millions of letters and emails every year telling Christian Americans that what we needed was a strong leader who would appoint Supreme Court justices who would defend religious liberty, return prayer to public school classrooms, allow crosses and Ten Commandments monuments to stand in public spaces, and, most importantly, reverse Roe v. Wade. 

Virtually all evangelicals, and many Bible-literate Catholics, were familiar with the story of King David, who committed both adultery and murder but whom God forgave and came to be known as “a man after God’s own heart.” Those who grew up attending Sunday school likely had teachers who lionized figures like the Persian King Cyrus. Although he was a pagan, Cyrus ordered the badly war-damaged holy city of Jerusalem rebuilt and the sacred Temple sacrifices restored. As a way to assuage any discomfort their congregants may have felt or ease their own pesky consciences, self-proclaimed prophets and pastors across the country announced Trump was just like these biblical figures. He may be an imperfect vessel, but really, aren’t we all? Notwithstanding his past failings, they believed Trump would accomplish God’s work, most importantly bringing down Roe v. Wade and recriminalizing abortion. That was enough to convince an overwhelming majority of religious voters to cast their ballots for the unfaithful, thrice-married former playboy and financially and morally bankrupt casino magnate. Thus was born the meta-narrative of grand redemption, helping to make Trump an inspiring symbol of hope for moral transgressors.

“The Prophet Nathan rebukes King David”Eugène Siberdt/Wikimedia

After almost 40 years of conservative evangelical ministry, I broke with my religious tribe’s orthodoxy on abortion, same-sex marriage, and the Second Amendment in 2016. There were many reasons for my defection, but the final straw was the overwhelming support by conservative evangelicals for Trump. My refusal to jump on the MAGA bandwagon left me an exile in my own community. In my thinking, for me to support Trump as I had Ronald Reagan, the two Presidents Bush, and Mitt Romney would have meant abandoning the most important core beliefs taught and modeled by Jesus Christ—love of God and neighbor—which were most important to me. I wanted no part of Trump’s fake religion and contempt for humanity, and I publicly said so. Some of my constituents accused me of dissing God’s man of the hour, while others admitted they found Trump revolting but would support him because he could get things done for us. That year, Trump managed to convince the vast majority of American evangelicals that electing him would deliver the world they longed for. 

And then, in 2024, he did it again. During his bid for a second presidential term, Trump addressed the conservative National Religious Broadcasters convention in Nashville. In his hour-and-15-minute speech, sprinkled liberally with the word “hell” in a nontheological context, he assured his well-churched listeners: “I fought for Christians harder than any president has ever done before. You know that. You know that. And I will fight even harder for Christians with four more years in the White House.”

The author, Rob Schenck (second from left), with other reverends from the National Clergy Council, Kenneth Johnson (from left), Allen Church, and Patrick Mahoney, pray in front of the Supreme Court before the body of Justice Antonin Scalia arrived to lie in repose in February 2016.Tom Williams/CQ/NC/ZUMA

In yet another contradiction of the Christian ethic of humble service to others, Trump declared: “You have such power. But really, you weren’t allowed to use that power, and you’re now allowed to use it. I get in there, you’re going to be using that power at a level that you’ve never used it before. It’s going to bring back the churchgoer.” 

In his conclusion, and using a term dear to Bible-believing American Christians, Trump promised his reascendancy to power would be the start of a great “revival.” Just as many of the televangelists in the room conclude a broadcast with an appeal to their audiences for financial support, Trump ended his appearance with an appeal for their political support: “With your help and God’s grace, the great revival of America begins on November 5, 2024. It’s a great revival.”

Until Trump’s second term, I felt very alone in my dissent. Then came his dismantling of USAID, his vilification of Haitian and Somali immigrants, and ICE’s abductions and killing of US citizens. In what seemed to be a sudden shift, I began hearing from many on the Arminian side who expressed shock and horror at this unlawful cruelty. 

And it’s not just Arminians who are beginning to speak out against Trump. Over the past few weeks, I’ve seen many Reformers and Arminians agree on one thing, at least: that Trump’s behavior is beginning to look increasingly blasphemous. His Easter Sunday profanity-laced ultimatum directed at Iran regarding the Strait of Hormuz, in which Trump threatened to bomb civilian infrastructure and kill a 3,000-year-old civilization, was over the top for even the most enthusiastic Trump evangelicals.

In response, the Reverend Patrick J. Mahoney, a minister of the ultra-conservative Reformed Presbyterian Church and director of the Christian Defense Coalition, posted on Facebook, “In no way does this kind of language or spirit represent Christianity or the church and should be condemned by believers…it is very concerning to have our Commander in Chief making military decisions with this kind of attitude.” Bryan Kemper, longtime director of the anti-abortion youth movement Rock for Life, also posted on Facebook: “While I’m still happy that we have Trump over Harris I’m not going to put my head in the sand about this. This is unacceptable and makes me cringe. President Trump please stop this garbage and learn what Christianity actually is. This isn’t it.” 

The subsequent post by Trump threatening “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” amped up the religious criticism even more. To that, Russell Moore, the former Southern Baptist Church leader and editor-at-large of Christianity Today, responded on X: “Rhetoric calling for war crimes is a moral horror, under any circumstances. Using the Bible to try to justify targeting civilian populations makes it even worse. It comes from, and leads to, hell.”

Mourners gather at a cemetery to commemorate victims, most of them children, of a US-Israeli attack on a girls primary school in Minab, Iran, in March.Hassan Ghaedi/Anadolu/Getty

Following criticism from Pope Leo on the Iran bombing campaigns, Trump denounced the pontiff as “weak on crime” and “terrible for foreign policy.” He also claimed credit for the election of Leo XIV by the College of Cardinals. Seeming to troll the first American pope, Trump reposted the AI-generated image of himself dressed in a white robe with a red cape draped around his shoulders, leaning over to touch the forehead of an ill man. Most Christians recognize such raiment as belonging to Jesus. Trump’s sacrilege blew up my social media pages, with numerous conservative influencers and a broad spectrum of religious leaders decrying it, including Pete Hegseth’s Reformed spiritual mentor, Doug Wilson. He told the Washington Examiner that Trump’s image constituted “blasphemy.” David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network posted on X: “You’re not God. None of us are. This goes too far. It crosses the line.” Still, Trump’s most reliable Arminian clerics, like First Baptist Dallas pastor Robert Jeffress and his Pentecostal senior White House religious adviser, Paula White-Cain, remained silent as of this writing.

It remains to be seen whether Trump’s latest offenses to conservative Christian sensibilities (not to mention Catholic sentiments when it comes to respect for the Holy Father), together with the Arminian-Reformed internecine conflicts, will change right-wing religious voting habits. But the revulsion over Trump’s boorishness, the respective anger over Iran and immigration enforcement practices, the charges of blasphemy from several quarters, and the growing number of influential anti-Trump voices may be just enough to deny Trump’s political toadies and his eventual MAGA successor the same overwhelming level of evangelical support they’ve enjoyed to date. After all, the Jesus at the center of all versions of the Christian faith admonished that “every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand.” And that, we can take as gospel. 

Clergy members gather for a press conference at a memorial for Renée Good, who was shot and killed in a confrontation with an immigration agent, in January in Minneapolis.Stephen Maturen/Getty

We visited Scout AI's training ground where it's working on AI agents that give individual soldiers control of fleets of autonomous vehicles.

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Just a few months after California overhauled the way it teaches children to read, a new bill takes on math education — and may be just as controversial.

Senate Bill 1067 would require schools to screen all kindergartners, first- and second-graders for basic math skills, and give them extra help if they’re behind. The idea is to help those children catch up to their peers who might have had much more exposure to math before starting school.

“A student’s early math skills are the most powerful predictor of their later success in school,” said Amy Cooper, a senior advisor at EdVoice, an education nonprofit that’s cosponsoring the bill. “We’re not talking about tracking kids. There’s no labels. It’s just about getting support to students so that they can get up to grade level.” 

California students, in all grade levels, have long struggled in math. Last year, just 37% of students performed at grade level in math, with some groups of students faring far worse. Just 16% of Black 11th-graders, for example, met the state’s grade-level standard. Nationwide, California ranks 43rd in 4th grade math scores, behind Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and dozens of other states. 

One reason for the poor performance, experts say, is California’s uneven early education landscape. Until transitional kindergarten became available to all 4-year-olds last year, children showed up at kindergarten with a wide array of abilities and skills. Some had years of exposure to early math — either at preschool or at home — and could count, do basic arithmetic and even read a little. Others, especially low-income children, had no prior exposure to the ABCs and 123s, and lagged far behind. Even now, TK and kindergarten are optional, so some students start first grade with no previous math instruction at all.

‘Critical tipping point’

Some of those children catch up eventually, but many continue to fall further and further behind, research shows. And because math is sequential, catching up becomes harder over time, and the gap widens. Some researchers found that early math skills can even be a predictor of how well students do in high school and college.

It’s still too early to gauge the impact of transitional kindergarten on students’ long-term math performance, but so far there’s still a gap between children who’ve had exposure to math — either through preschool or at home — and those who haven’t. Low-income children are far less likely to get that early exposure, said Alice Klein, a developmental psychologist and research director at the education research firm WestEd.

“It is a critical tipping point,” Klein said. “Unless those students get intervention, the gap will widen. It’ll be harder for them to access higher-level math classes later on, and this will have implications for future job opportunities and the economic future of California. It’s a continual closing of opportunities.”

Transitional kindergarten teacher Rachelle Bacong leads students during a math lesson at Ira Harbison Elementary School in National City. Credit: Adriana Heldiz / CalMatters Transitional kindergarten teacher Rachelle Bacong leads students during a math lesson at Ira Harbison Elementary School in National City. Credit: Adriana Heldiz / CalMatters

Klein supports the math screening legislation because she said it’s an effective way to identify students who are struggling and provide them with support. At least 20 other states have math screenings and have seen positive results, she said.

“I’m so happy that California is considering passing this bill,” Klein said. “It’s a great start, and could be the next step” in improving math outcomes in California.

Numbers and objects

Districts would have their choice of several screening tests to choose from, each ranging from 10 to 20 minutes long and testing children’s knowledge of basic math concepts. For example, kindergartners might be asked to look at two groups of dots and decide which group has more. Or they’d be asked to identify certain numbers and show that they understand what the numbers mean — that “three” means three objects, for example. English learners would take the test in their native languages. 

The bill is authored by state Sen. Akilah Weber Pierson, a Democrat from San Diego, and last week passed unanimously in the Senate education committee. 

Its cosponsor, EdVoice, was behind the push for phonics-based literacy instruction in California public schools. That initiative passed, but only after a long fight with the California Teachers Association, the state’s largest teachers union, and English learner advocates, who argued that it didn’t give teachers enough flexibility and that it wouldn’t be effective for students whose first language isn’t English. The final version of the bill doesn’t require schools to take advantage of state-funded teacher training, but it does require them to use phonics-based classroom materials. 

Too many tests?

There might be a fight over the proposed math testing as well. The California Teachers Association opposes it, as well as California County Superintendents, the Association of California School Administrators and the California Mathematics Council. 

They argue that the screening is unnecessary because the state already has a comprehensive new math framework and has made other big investments in early math. It’ll take time for those investments to show results. Also, the math framework emphasizes critical thinking and real-world math problems, and the screening might be too narrow and not take into account young children’s developmental differences.

They also argue that the testing will be pointless unless the state funds tutoring to help those students who are identified as needing extra help.

Transitional kindergarten students arrange number blocks during class at Ira Harbison Elementary School in National City. Credit: Adriana Heldiz / CalMatters

Nick Johnson, an associate professor of teacher education at San Diego State University, questioned whether schools need yet another standardized test. The federal education policy No Child Left Behind, adopted in the early 2000s, focused heavily on testing, and led to few improvements, he said.

“Since No Child Left Behind testing, we’ve assumed that (standardized testing) will improve student learning,” Johnson said. “But the evidence shows that’s rarely true. Is public education in a better place now than it was 25 years ago?”

Magic of math

Rachelle Bacong has been teaching kindergarten and TK for 30 years in National City, near San Diego. She weaves math into every activity the children do. When she sets up an art project, she asks them how many chairs are at the table and how many scissors they’ll need. When she makes smoothies with them, she asks them how much juice or how many chunks of bananas they should add. When the children wash their hands, she asks them how long they spent at the sink.

They also spend a good portion of their day playing with blocks, tiles and tubes, experimenting with shapes and dimensions. Bacon’s goal is to make math fun and easy to grasp, no matter where the child is developmentally.

“Math crosses all cultures, abilities and backgrounds. It’s accessible to everyone. It’s my job to design the learning environment to make it accessible to everyone,” Bacong said. “That’s what’s so magical about it.”

Transitional kindergarten teacher Rachelle Bacong insider her classroom at Ira Harbison Elementary School in National City. Credit: Adriana Heldiz / CalMatters

She also spends time every day explicitly teaching them math, although in a way that’s blended with play. She’ll teach them songs about numbers, show them how shapes fit together, and gently guide them when a solution might not be clear. Math instruction needs to come from several angles, she said, because children’s cognitive skills develop at such different rates.

She welcomes extra help for children who need it, but she’s skeptical that a test will reflect how individual children process math concepts. She already knows how her students are faring, and she fears that screening results will be used to stigmatize children, teachers or schools. 

“My fear is that it’ll focus on a child’s deficits,” Bacong said. “Math needs to be joyful, fun and developmentally appropriate. We want to set students up for success, so they’ll be prepared for whatever they’re going to be designing or building in the future.”

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The Boys season five, episode five is a wild ride that takes us a little all over the place. We get a deeper look into the lives and minds of the Seven, like Firecracker and Black Noir, and even see the world through Terror the dog’s eyes. But, it is the last 20 minutes of The Boys episode five that turns into a blood-soaked fever dream with tons of celebrity cameos. 

Homelander and Soldier Boy managed to get a tidbit of information from Stan Edgar, whom they have in a prison cell. He tells them that there is someone who could know where Bombsight and V1 are located, so they end up in Hollywood. There, they arrive at the house of Mr. Marathon (played by Jared Padalecki), who was the Seven’s resident speedster until Homelander booted him for A-Train. Now, he’s a washed up actor but a very prolific drug dealer. Mr. Marathon has a few famous friends over, and we get some seriously fun celebrity cameos in The Boys. 

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His poker table includes Seth Rogen, Kumail Nanjiani, Will Forte, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse, who are both a little stunned yet delighted to see Homelander and Soldier Boy show up randomly. But, before then, they chat among themselves name drop a lot of celebrities who were taken to freedom camps, including Benedict Wong, Meryl Streep, and Macaulay Culkin. Seth tells Misha Collins’ character Malchemical (more on him in a second) to get his fellow supes in check, but he says he’s not with the Homelander program.

They all are against the fascism going on and say they will do a post together on IG to fight back against what’s going on. But Homelander’s arrival changes their tune because, well, they don’t wanna be killed. After sucking up to Homelander (which he hates) and a lot of fun banter, things end up escalating to a deadly level. 

Misha Collins Is Malchemical, A Supe With Gaseous Breath in The Boys 

This chaos is thanks to Mr. Marathon and Misha Collins’ character Malchemical, a supe who emits a green gas from his mouth. He apparently worked with Homelander on a project before, but Homelander doesn’t remember him. While Mr. Marathon claims that he will have Bombsight come over to meet them, he has an ulterior motive with Malchemical. Homelander is over waiting and all the foolishness of the actors, and starts to leave. However, Malchemical steps in front of Homelander and blows his gaseous breath in his face. It doesn’t kill him, of course, but it is enough to knock him out cold. 

Prime Video

The comedians are genuinely shocked, but Mr. Marathon explains to Soldier Boy that he wants Homelander to go away. Marathon and Malchemical bring up Homelander’s weird church and how it is getting all the cool people, like drug dealers and sex workers, arrested. They want Soldier Boy to blast Homelander and take away his powers, which actually isn’t a bad idea. Soldier Boy decides to not do this, saying that Homelander is his asexual weirdo, and promptly chokes Malchemical to death. Marathon tries to fight him, but he’s not a match for Soldier Boy. 

The Boys Brings Comedians for Cameos and Kills Them Off in Style 

Soldier Boy uses Will Forte and Craig Robinson, who comes out of the bathroom after eating one too many tacos, as human shields to block Marathon. Like A-Train did with Hughie’s girlfriend in the very first episode of The Boys, Marathon runs through them and turns them into piles of meat. The same happens to Kumail and Christopher.

And, when Soldier Boy catches Marathon, he breaks all of his legs to get Bombsight’s information out of him. Homelander awakens and arrives to stomp on Marathon’s head. The duo leave carnage all over the place and head off to the next part of their father-son trip. It was a ton of fun to see them all appear, even if it was short-lived. We can’t wait to see how Vought will spin this latest bloody adventure.

The post THE BOYS Episode 5 Brings Blood-Soaked Celebrity Cameos appeared first on Nerdist.

The Boys episode five is a pure delight for Supernatural fans. The Prime Video series started bringing together names from the long-running CW series a while ago with the arrival of Jeffrey Dean Morgan in season four. And, of course, Eric Kripke is the man behind both Supernatural and The Boys. Kripke sent Supernatural fans into many joyful spirals after announcing that Misha Collins and Jared Padalecki would both appear in The Boys season five. Collins played the angel Castiel in Supernatural while Padalecki was Sam Winchester. This finally happens in episode five of The Boys, which includes a scene with Jensen Ackles (aka Dean Winchester), Padalecki, and Collins having the wildest conversation ever and delivering a Supernatural moment. 

Prime Video

Ackles’ Soldier Boy and Homelander head to Hollywood after getting a tip from Stan Edgar. He sends them to see Padalecki’s Mr. Marathon, a speedster supe who was once in the Seven. Marathon is obviously salty after losing his place to a faster A-Train some years ago. They ask him where Bombsight is and he says he will have him come over. In the meantime, Marathon’s celebrity friends, including Seth Rogan, are at his house hanging out. One of his friends is Misha Collins’ Malchemical, who worked on a project with Homelander years ago. He’s a supe who emits gas out of his mouth, a power that grosses out Homelander, who doesn’t remember ever meeting him. 

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After sticking around for a while, Homelander gets impatient and decides to leave. But, on his way out, Malchemical steps in front of him (at the urging of Marathon) and breathes into his face. It doesn’t kill Homelander but it knocks him out cold. Then, we get a scene in The Boys that’s total fanservice (in the best way) for Supernatural lovers. Collins, Ackles, and Padalecki are all together to have one wild conversation. Soldier Boy is upset and wants to know what’s going on.

Prime Video

Marathon and Malchemical tell him that Homelander is ruining America with his weird religious stances and freedom camps that are taking all the cool people off the streets. They ask Soldier Boy to hit Homelander with a blast that will leave him powerless so things will no longer be a fascist nightmare. And, they say that Soldier Boy can be the leader of the Seven with Homelander out of the way. Honestly, those guys are making salient points, even though they both seem to be douchebags. Soldier Boy says the only person that will f**k Homelander over is him, and he grabs Malchemical by the neck, choking him. It is a shame to see Dean do that to Castiel, who truly loved him and brought him back from Hell. But, to be fair, Castiel did choke Dean before so it feels like revenge.

Bloody chaos ensues that ultimately ends with Soldier Boy beating Marathon to a pulp and breaking his legs to get information. Watching Sam and Dean go at it was quite thrilling and it all had the perfect tone of The Boys brand of chaos. Homelander wakes up from his slumber and stomps Marathon’s head in. That moment is the closing curtain on The Boys and this brilliant Supernatural reunion.

The post THE BOYS Delivers an Epic and Hilarious SUPERNATURAL Reunion appeared first on Nerdist.

The final season of The Boys was bound to come with some major deaths. We lost A-Train in season five’s very first episode, a move that shocked the fandom. We all assumed he would play a significant role in the impending final battle against Homelander. Since then, we’ve been holding our breaths and hoping that we don’t lose any of our Boys collective nor anyone who is on their side. In The Boys episode five, we do get a major character death but it is Firecracker, the conservative and America-loving supe from the Seven.

Prime Video

Firecracker has used her social platform and her show The Truth Bomb to spread the lies of Vought and Homelander for quite some time. Now she’s been spreading the word that Homelander is the Messiah, even though she truly does not believe that to be true. We’ve learned a lot about her over the years, from her early pageant days where Starlight ruined her chances at success to her hyper conservative beliefs. She’s certainly not a good person by any stretch of the imagination, and has a history of sexual abuse of a minor. 

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Firecracker has aided Homelander in covering up some nasty things and brainwashing a large portion of Americans to hate Starlight and her supporters. And now her nasty deeds have finally caught up with her in episode five. She’s in a meeting with the Seven, Ashley, and Oh-Father when she gets a phone call from an unknown number tied to the Daytona Beach, Florida area.

That’s her hometown and her face goes pale at the sight of it. She ends up meeting with the person behind that phone call, the reverend from her childhood church. He said that a supe came in and destroyed his church and Firecracker said he needs to align himself under Homelander’s reign. The pastor calls her by her name, Misty, and tells her that she doesn’t have to go along with this “Homelander is God” stuff because it is wrong. 

When asked to drag her church on television, she agrees to do it. She nearly changes her mind live, clearly feeling conflict, but goes along with it with a plastered smile. A tear rolls down her cheek as she sits with wide eyes. Later on, Firecracker is in bed with Soldier Boy, and wonders aloud if Homelander will give her former pastor a break.

Jasper Savage/Prime Video

It seems that Firecracker is trying to delay Homelander’s righteous plans, which Oh-Father catches onto after she claims there are publishing delays with the Homelander version of the Bible. He doesn’t mention this to Homelander but Soldier Boy does mention Firecracker’s “pillow talk” to spark doubt in Homelander’s mind. Until then, he seemed to trust her explicitly but things come to a head at the end of the episode. 

Homelander comes into her apartment and confronts her about sleeping with Soldier Boy, specifically talking about inner turmoil about Homelander and Jesus. He tells her to leave but she says she’s the only one who truly loves him for him. She says she loves him and tries to reassure him, but Homelander is too far gone.

He slams Firecracker’s temple into the wing of a statue and kills her before strolling out of the room. Seeing her body half-limp and half-hanging and her eyes shifting from side to side is chilling. But, it is what she deserves, although we do love Valorie Curry in this role. If heaven exists, we don’t think that Firecracker is going to make it there after her death in The Boys. 

The post This Major Death in THE BOYS Is Grim Yet Well-Deserved appeared first on Nerdist.

Jared Padalecki finally makes his arrival in The Boys season five, and it was as chaotically delightful as we’d imagine. Fans have been waiting to see him onscreen with Jensen Ackles to bring the Winchester brothers together again in a different universe. We’d gotten small tidbits about Mr. Marathon, the speedster character that Jared Padalecki plays in The Boys, but it wasn’t clear what his role would be. Could he help the Boys like our recently departed A-Train? Or would he be an antagonist on Homelander’s side? Who is Mr. Marathon in The Boys and how does Jared Padalecki’s character show up? It turns out he’s not on anyone’s side in particular. 

Prime Video

Soldier Boy and Homelander press Stan Edgar, who is locked up at Vought, for information. He genuinely doesn’t know where any V-One is or where Bombsight, who may have it, is at. But he says that there’s someone who could give them more answers. That person is Marathon, a former member of the Seven who lives in Hollywood. He lost his place in the collective when Homelander replaced him with a faster A-Train. It’s a pain point that he brings up when Soldier Boy and A-Train show up at his mansion but he agrees to have Bombsight come over. However, Marathon has an agenda of his own. 

He teams up with another supe, Malchemical (played by another Supernatural alum Misha Collins) to temporarily knock Homelander out. Malchemical uses his powers of gaseous breath to do so, which initially angers Soldier Boy. We see Sam and Dean, ummmm, we mean Soldier Boy and Marathon have a conversation along with Malchemical about why they did this.

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They are upset that Homelander’s freedom camps and weird religious stances are locking up all the cool people, like drug dealers and sex workers. Marathon and Malchemical want Soldier Boy to blast Homelander and take away his powers so he can no longer ruin America. Honestly, I dig the thought process.

However, Soldier Boy is not with it, and he quickly dispatches Malchemical. After a lot of bloody chaos involving Marathon accidentally running through a host of his comedian friends, Soldier Boy ends up beat him down to get information. Marathon dies when Homelander stomps his head in after waking up, ending all the fun like he always does. Well darn. Jared Padalecki’s time on The Boys as Marathon was more like a sprint, but we loved to see him all the same.

The post Who Is Jared Padalecki’s Mr. Marathon in THE BOYS? appeared first on Nerdist.

The Boys gave fans a big Supernatural reunion in its fifth and final season. Prior to episode five’s release, Eric Kripke teased a bit about who Jared Padalecki would play, saying that he’s a speedster supe who is also a jerk. But, outside of saying that he’s a “douchebag,” we really didn’t get much information on who Misha Collins would be in The Boys.

We figured he would do more than just show up as himself in a cameo, although that would have been funny. Imagine if Supernatural exists in this world and Dean Winchester looks an awful like Soldier Boy. Well, we finally found out the truth about Collins’ character in The Boys, and it all leads to one funny and chaotic scene. 

Prime Video

Homelander and Soldier Boy make their way to Hollywood to see Padalecki’s character Mr. Marathon. According to Stan Edgar, this guy knows something about V1 and the possible whereabouts of Bombsight, who apparently has some. Homelander is not at all thrilled about this considering Mr. Marathon used to be in the Seven until he replaced him with Homelander. At the Marathon mansion, we meet a few celebrity comedians, like Kumail Nanjiani and Seth Rogan, as well as Misha Collins’ character. 

We soon learn that Collins is playing a supe named Malchemical, who emits a pretty foul and potentially deadly gas from his mouth. He even quips to Homelander about being in a Gas-X commercial and asks Homelander if he remembers him, to which Homelander predictably says no. After some fooling around, drug snorting, and such, Homelander wants to leave but Malchemical and Mr. Marathon have other plans. 

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Malchemical uses his breath to knock Homelander out, and reveals that he and Mr. Marathon both want Homelander to be dead or at least powerless. They ask Soldier Boy to blast him in hopes that the world can go back to normal because, well, Homelander is locking up all the cool people and turning America into a fascist hell. Soldier Boy doesn’t do this and instead chokes Malchemical to death. Welp! 

Misha Collins may not have had a long time onscreen in The Boys, but he certainly made his time count as the supe Malchemical. Sadly he will never get to see America return back to debauchery and good vibes.

The post Misha Collins’ Character in THE BOYS Season 5 Is a Chaotic Delight appeared first on Nerdist.

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