As some of you know, Current houses two podcasts. Yesterday we dropped Episode 10 of “A History of Evangelicals and Politics.” This podcast is available to patrons at the Longshore tier and above. You can listen to the first three […]
Archives for June 2021
Juneteenth: What Lies Beneath?
This holiday requires a new twist: hard questions about our past
Springsteen and The Killers collaborate
Here is “Dustland”:
Chris Coons defends Congress’s bipartisan infrastructure bill
Here is a taste of the Delaware senator’s op-ed at The Washington Post: The group led by Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio) has produced a package with $579 billion in new spending anchored by a down payment […]
Help! I can’t find the book I need in my home library
It’s around here somewhere. Or wait, maybe it’s at the office. Do I drive to campus or just see if I can find the excerpt I need online? Yes, I know there are cataloging programs for this, but I just […]
The story behind Jemar Tisby’s The Color of Compromise
Christianity Today is running a fascinating piece by Dan Hummel on the history of Jemar Tisby‘s breakout best-seller The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism. Here is a taste: Then Tisby began to shop […]
Donald Trump and Bill O’Reilly will travel to Texas and Florida as part of a “history tour”
It looks like Bill O’Reilly will be one of the guardians of Donald Trump’s legacy. In December, Trump and O’Reilly will be at the BB&T Sunrise Center in Sunrise, Florida; the Amway Center in Orlando; the Toyota Center in Houston, […]
Conservative columnist on systemic racism: “I didn’t create these systems. But I wish I had realized earlier that these systems had created me”
Here is Wheaton College graduate and former George W. Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson: Systems had been carefully created to ensure I went to an all-White church, in an all-White neighborhood, while attending an all-White Christian school and shopping in all-White […]
How do Christian nationalists deal with the Establishment Clause?
Recently, a scholar in another discipline asked me how Christian nationalists who study the American past “ignore, navigate around, or distort the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.” I address this in Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?: A […]
Episode 10: “Karl Rove’s Christian Right”
What did George W. Bush’s evangelical base look like in 2004? Episode 10: “Karl Rove’s Christian Right” dropped last night. Subscribers to Current at the Longshore level and above receive this narrative history podcast. Here is a teaser: Listen to Episodes 0, 1, […]
Reading about Nazis at Night
Comfort comes from unexpected places
Some January 6 insurrectionists are finally getting around to studying American history
Defense attorney H. Heather Shaner is giving books and movies on the Holocaust, lynching, slavery, and the Tulsa Race Massacre to defendants arrested in connection with the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Here is Ryan J. Rielly […]
Souderton, Pennsylvania debates “critical race theory”
A recent school district meeting on critical race theory in Souderton, Pennsylvania reveals just how crazy this entire debate has become. Based on Kenny Cooper’s reporting of the event at the website of WHYY (Philadelphia’s public broadcasting television and radio […]
Evangelical roundup for June 21, 2021
What is going on in Evangelicalland? Some pics from last week’s SBC meeting in Nashville. Jack Graham is glad to be a Southern Baptist: Christianity Today reporter Kate Shellnut on what she saw at the SBC Annual Meeting. Last weekend’s […]
Southern Baptists: On the Brink of Reform?
The moment seems promising. The movement is in trouble.
Sunday night odds and ends
A few things online that caught my attention this week: Procrastination Thomas Frank reviews Jon Meacham’s The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels What happened to English Departments? “The extent of the former president’s corruption may be […]
The great revival is coming and it will make America Christian again
Greg Laurie says it is coming and it will restore America to its Christian roots. Ted Cruz says it is coming and it will propel evangelicals into cultural prominence. Eric Metaxas and Greg Locke also say it is on its […]
Springsteen update
According to Pete Chianca at Blogness on the Edge of Town: “Springsteen on Broadway:” will be back on Broadway soon and it looks like it will be the same as the 2018-2019 version. Springsteen will release some music from the […]
Faith and Freedom Coalition conference continues. Eric Metaxas says that members of the GOP who have not defended the Jan. 6 insurrectionists are “dead” to him.
Yesterday we kept you up to speed on the 2021 Road to Majority conference sponsored by Ralph Reed’s Faith and Freedom Coalition. If you want to get a feel for how Trump’s evangelical supporters are handling his loss and the […]
The descendants of enslaved persons at James Madison’s Montpelier will now share in the governance of the site
This is unprecedented. Here is a taste of the Montpelier’s press release: In a first-ever milestone for museums and historic sites that are former places of enslavement, The Montpelier Foundation (TMF) board of directors voted Wednesday, based on a proposal […]