Here is Max Greenwood at The Hill: Former Rep. Lou Barletta (R-Pa.), who challenged Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) for his seat in 2018, is running for Pennsylvania governor. Barletta becomes the most prominent Republican yet to jump into the race to succeed Gov. Tom Wolf, […]
Archives for May 2021
Supreme Court will take-up Mississippi abortion case
We will keep an eye on this. Here is CNN: The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to take up a key abortion case next term concerning a controversial Mississippi law that banned most abortions after 15 weeks, rekindling a potentially major challenge to […]
Four Trump impeachment trial witnesses talk about American democracy and public service
The Partnership for Public Service recently hosted a conversation with Marie Yovanovitch, Fiona Hill, William Taylor Jr., and Alexander Vindman. All four of them testified during the first Trump impeachment hearings in the House of Representatives. All of them were […]
Where are today’s intellectuals?
Nick Burns asks this question at The New Statesman. Here is a taste of his piece: Moments of great upheaval throughout history often produce small groups of insolent, insurgent intellectuals. These groups, often on the fringes of cultural life, mount […]
Washington Post on the NRA’s “long-overdue reckoning”:
Here is editorial board of The Washington Post: AFTER IT was slapped with a lawsuit brought by the New York attorney general alleging fraud and abuse, the National Rifle Association filed for bankruptcy in federal court in Dallas in a […]
No, the guy on “Jeopardy!” was not giving a white supremacist hand gesture
Have you been following this story? Apparently left-wing social media blew-up when it appeared “Jeopardy!” champion Kelly Donohue raised three fingers on his right hand. Watch: Here is Ben Smith at The New York Times on how the members of […]
Evangelical roundup for May 17, 2021
What is going on in Evangelicalland? I’ve noticed the same thing: Interesting idea: How did Biden do with evangelicals: Some might say that evangelicalism had an “epistemic collapse” well before Trump. Diana Butler wants to find the “real evangelicalism.” I would […]
NPR Insults the Prophet Muhammad?
National Public Radio has decided to go all-in on blasphemy.
Sunday night odds and ends
A few things online that caught my attention this week: Brooke Allen reviews Helen Pluckrose & James Lindsay, Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity–and Why This Harms Everybody. Evangelicals call their fellow evangelicals to […]
Reading Annie Dillard’s The Writing Life in a pandemic
This is wonderful reflection on the writing by Alejandra Olivia. A taste: She writes of the writing life as monastic and hard and isolated; I was hoping for love and connection and some ease, after finally having escaped from the […]
Are you looking for an evangelical congregation not divided by race, Trump, or COVID-19? Good luck
Many evangelical Christians believe that racism is a problem in the church, Trump was bad for the church, and COVID-19 revealed selfishness in the church. Some are deciding to stay in their divided congregations and work toward reconciliation. Others are […]
Remember your death
Over at The New York Times, Ruth Graham has a fascinating piece on Sister Theresa Aletheia Noble of the Daughters of St. Paul convent in Boston. Here is a taste: These days, Sister Aletheia has no shortage of skulls. People […]
Pope Francis reaches out to Italian Pentecostalism
As someone shaped by Roman Catholicism, evangelicalism, (though not Pentecostalism), and Italian-American culture (which I realize is quite different from Italian culture), I was pleased to see this. Here is Vatican News: Pope Francis has expressed his closeness to the […]
The First Great Awakening and a New England cold spell
Two years before Jonathan Edwards preached “Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God” he suffered through what historian Philip Jenkins calls a “horrific period of extreme weather and glacial cold.” Here is Jenkins at History News Network: Scholars of […]
Bruce Springsteen awarded Woodie Guthrie Prize
From the Woody Guthrie Center website: The Woody Guthrie Prize is given annually to an artist who best exemplifies Woody Guthrie’s spirit and work by speaking for the less fortunate through music, film, literature, dance, or other art forms and […]
Trump’s “National Garden of American Heroes” will not happen
Remember Donald Trump’s “National Garden of American Heroes?” Joe Biden just canceled it. Here is Zeke Miller at the Associated Press: President Joe Biden on Friday put the kibosh on his predecessor’s planned “National Garden of American Heroes” and revoked […]
Next week at Current
We hope you are enjoying Current. Thanks, as always, for all of the encouraging feedback! If you like what you read, or enjoy what you hear at our podcasts, please consider supporting our work at Patreon. Your support will help us cover start-up costs, […]
Party Like It’s 1789
It’s easy these days to be an ex-Republican. The party’s magnificent failure offers an exit strategy that requires neither apology nor explanation. The burden of explanation is on any who stay. I was a young Republican. I do not remember […]
Bruce Springsteen on 1960s girl groups
In this conversation with Lauren Onkey and Nona Hendryx, Springsteen talks about the influence of African-American girl groups on his music. He references Patty LaBelle & The Bluebelles, The Chantelles, The Shirelles, The Crystals, and The Ronettes. Springsteen says that […]
What about proof of vaccination?
Here is Dr. Leana Wen at The Washington Post: For months, I have been criticizing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for being too cautious with its guidance for what fully vaccinated people can do. I saw little incentive […]