A few things online that caught my attention this week: Michael Kimmage reviews Louis Menand, The Free World: Art and Culture in the Cold War Vast early America A conservative proposal for education reform Ibram X. Kendi on the Ezra […]
Archives for July 2021
Episode 87: Religion and the American Revolution
In her new book Religion and the American Revolution: An Imperial History, historian Katherine Carte offers a major reassessment of the relationship between Christianity and the American Revolution. She argues that religion helped set the terms by which Anglo-Americans encountered the […]
President Joe Biden responds to the DACA decision
Yesterday a federal judge in Texas ruled that the Deferred Action for Child Arrivals program, or DACA, is illegal. DACA is Barack Obama’s 2012 program that protects the so-called “Dreamers,” undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as […]
Is evangelical Christianity a religious movement, or is it something else?
I first read historian Paul E. Johnson’s 1978 book A Shopkeeper’s Millennium: Society and Revivals in Rochester, New York, 1815-1837 in 1989 while I was studying church history at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Johnson argued that evangelical religion in Rochester, […]
The number of COVID-19 cases is rising, especially in communities with lots of evangelicals
Some disturbing news from Jack Jenkins at Religion News Service: As COVID-19 cases surge again, two things are true about many counties considered hot spots: Vaccination rates are low and white evangelical Protestant populations are high, according to a new […]
Meet me in the city!
Not really. Here’s Bruce:
What is popular this week at Current?
Here are the most popular Current features of the last week: Michael Kazin, “Evangelicals and Racism: Is There Hope?“ Adam Jortner, “Found Footage: January 6 and the Horror Movies that Made It“ John Haas, “Leaving Afghanistan“ Randall Balmer, “Who Killed Evangelicalism? Chris […]
How one small Eric Metaxas comment sums-up the current state of evangelical thinking
In yesterday’s Evangelical roundup I posted and commented on evangelical conspiracy theorist Eric Metaxas’s interview with fellow evangelical conspiracy theorist and Pennsylvania state senator Doug Mastriano. Here is the interview: At the 1:25 mark, Eric Metaxas says: There was just […]
Still Evangelical
Thirty-nine years ago this month my life changed as the result of a simple act that took place while seated at the kitchen table in the northern New Jersey house where I grew up. With all the faith I could […]
When you lose Dershowitz
This is from tonight’s Sean Hannity Show on Fox: Now watch the Trumpists turn on him on the former Harvard law professor:
Most Americans “do not learn piano from the age of five, do not attend private school” and “do not have SAT tutors”
According to Elizabeth Currid-Halkett, the members of the “aspirational class,” for all their tree-hugging and wokeness, have lost their way. Here is a taste of her piece at The Hedgehog Review: According to the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, cultural capital […]
The battle for the public library
It looks like some conservatives are running for local library boards so they can remove books on race and racism from the stacks. And conservatives complain about something called “cancel culture.” Wow. This is what fearful people do. Here is […]
Charlie Kirk has it all figured out
Or does he? Watch: A few comments: Kirk is right about rapes in New York City. In 1980, there were 5,405 rapes in the city. By 2013 that number had dropped to 2,797. By 2019, it reached an all-time high […]
“What do we call a man who turns on everything he once claimed to believe?”
J.D. Vance Here is Tom Nichols at The Atlantic: What do we call a man who turns on everything he once claimed to believe? For a practitioner of petty and self-serving duplicity, we use “sellout” or “backstabber.” (Sometimes we impugn […]
Evangelical roundup for July 15, 2021
What is going on in Evangelicalland? Want to learn more about Ocean Grove, New Jersey (see picture above)? I recommend Troy Messenger, Holy Leisure: Recreation and Religion in God’s Square Mile. Evangelical pastors push for Asian-Black solidarity Wise words from […]
Think the Filibuster Is Bad? It Could Be Worse
What kind of majority rule does democracy require?
Please consider supporting Current
Current is now well into its fourth month of publication. I hope you have found our daily features informative, educational, and entertaining. We are pleased with the kind of writers we are attracting to this little online magazine. While we are […]
How is The Atlantic weathering the post-Trump/post-COVID-19 reality?
During the Trump administration, The Way of Improvement Leads Home blog was getting about 10,000 readers a day. That number has declined since the 2020 presidential election. The blog lost some readers when it became part of Current, but the […]
The Democrats announce a $3.5 trillion “go-it-alone” infrastructure plan to supplement the bipartisan deal
While Joe Biden waits for his bipartisan infrastructure plan to get through Congress, Senate Democrats have announced another infrastructure plan that will provide funds for everything that did not make it into the bipartisan plan. This would include funding for […]
Leaving Afghanistan
The trail in and out seems all too familiar