He claims that the event on his 500-acre farm is going to be the “real Liberty graduation.” Here is Emily McFarland Miller and Jack Jenkins at Religion News Service: Former Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr., who left the school […]
Archives for April 2021
The Education of an Evangelical Insurrectionist
“I’m probably going to lose my job as a pastor after this.” Tyler Ethridge was days away from starting a new job as a youth pastor at an evangelical church in Florida. But before the former Texas high school football […]
Franklin Graham opposes Biden’s infrastructure plan: “I wasn’t aware that America needed rebuilding.”
Here is Graham at his Facebook page: As President Biden was giving his speech last night, I couldn’t help but think that the swamp has won. When President Trump came into office, he said he was going to drain the […]
Mitch McConnell petitions Education Secretary to remove the 1619 Project from federal grant programs
The 1619 Project is in the news again. Here is Ryan Nobles at CNN: In a letter obtained by CNN, the Republican leader asks Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to abandon curriculum in American schools that McConnell argues tells a revisionist history of America’s […]
Biden’s spending packages appear to have public support
$1.9 trillion for coronavirus relief $2 trillion for infrastructure. $1.8 trillion for American families, including child care and pre-K education. According to Nathan Rakich’s piece today at Five Thirty-Eight, a significant majority of the American people are on board with […]
“84% of Republicans believe history should celebrate our nation’s past, while 70% of Democrats think history should question it”
Our culture war is rooted in competing perceptions of the American past. Here is Peter Burkholder of Fairleigh Dickinson University and Dana Schaffer of the American Historical Association at Time: Our recent national survey of people’s understandings and uses of […]
Most popular posts of the last week
Here are the most popular posts of the last week at The Way of Improvement Leads Home: What the heck is Rick Santorum talking about? Evangelical roundup for April 26, 2021 Jeremiah Wright Jr. on Ben Carson, circa 1990s No […]
The Post-Moderna Condition
The pandemic has left us in a new world—if we can find a way to build it
An alleged sex criminal and a QAnon supporter are going on the road together. They are both members of Congress
Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene are about to embark on an “America First Tour.” This should be fun. Here is Marc Caputo at Politico: Rocked by a steady stream of leaks about a federal investigation into alleged sex crimes, […]
Eric Metaxas responds to Joe Biden’s claim that the January 6 insurrection was the “worst attack on democracy since the Civil War”
Was Biden right? It’s hard to say. Historians will have different opinions about where the January 6, 2021 insurrection fits on the “attacks on democracy” scale. For example, one might find Jim Crow, Pearl Harbor, or September 11th somewhere on […]
Joe Biden’s Georgetown pastor: “The Eucharist is not to be used as a weapon”
The U.S. Conference on Catholic Bishops is divided over whether Joe Biden can uphold pro-choice policies on abortion and still partake of communion. Here is a taste of Michelle Boorstein’s piece at The Washington Post: The Rev. Kevin Gillespie, pastor […]
Christian nationalism lectures at Derry Presbyterian Church in Hershey
Learn more here. Also some interesting church history:
Evangelicals seem to be coming around on climate change
In 2007, Richard Cizik, then vice-president of the National Association of Evangelicals, came under attack from some prominent evangelicals for his opposition to global warming. Jerry Falwell Sr. described evangelicals concerned with climate change as “earthism worshippers.” James Dobson called […]
Politico: Biden’s speech was ideological without sounding ideological
Great analysis here by John Harris of Politico: Though Biden is rarely described as gifted orator, his speech was a remarkable performance in part because it didn’t soar and largely didn’t even try to. In plain-spoken language, he depicted a […]
The Author’s Corner with Elizabeth Kimball
Elizabeth Kimball is Assistant Professor of English at Drexel University. This interview is based on her new book, Translingual Inheritance: Language Diversity in Early National Philadelphia (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2021). JF: What led you to write Translingual Inheritance? EK: […]
Evangelical roundup for April 29, 2021
What is happening in Evangelicalland? Love your neighbor. Get vaccinated. You should know about John Stott. He would have been 100 this week. Beth Allison’s Barr’s The Making of Biblical Womanhood is blowing-up the evangelical internet: Not everyone is happy […]
Viewing Upstream
Streaming services have helped us through the pandemic. But when it comes to film, the way forward may be the way back.
Apparently I am not the only one who gets emotional about infrastructure
One of my favorite lectures in my U.S. history survey class is on early 19th-century infrastructure. I am fascinated by the way roads, bridges, canals, and railroads contributed to American nationalism. It looks like I am not alone. Here is […]
Chicago’s DuSable Museum is getting Kamala Harris and Barack Obama hate mail
Here is Patrick Elwood at WGN-TV: The president and CEO of the DuSable Museum of African American History went public Tuesday with news of a series of threatening letters that began after the Capitol insurrection and shortly before the Biden/Harris administration took […]
There she is, Miss America…digitized and online
Rowan University students are digitizing artifacts from the Miss America Organization in Atlantic City. What a cool public history project! Here is R. Kenneth Burns at WHYY: Students at Rowan University are going through a treasure chest of American history […]