Our president has his head in the sand. Yesterday’s ABC News interview with George Stephanopolous was painful to watch. Instead of taking the opportunity to admit that the American evacuation of Afghanistan was an utter disaster, Biden gave the impression […]
Archives for August 2021
Chris Rufo of the Manhattan Institute and Ralph Richard Banks of Stanford debate critical race theory
Some of you may remember Chris Rufo as the guy who triggered Donald Trump’s opposition to critical race theory. Ralph Richard Banks is a Stanford University law professor. Joan Coaston, the host ofThe New York Times‘s podcast “The Argument,” moderated […]
The last milkmen of New Jersey
My grandfather (pictured above) was a New Jersey milkman. So needless to say, Emily Belz’s piece at World magazine caught my eye. Here is a taste: ON A RECENT SUMMER NIGHTÂ in Hawthorne, a New Jersey town not far from New […]
Evangelical roundup for August 19, 2021
What is going on in Evangelical land? Many evangelical pastors are not encouraging their flocks to get vaccinated. “Conservative evangelicals must always believe they are facing persecution like the first century Christians faced.” Tim Tebow gets cut. Not all evangelicals […]
“Thoughts and Prayers”
Who needs them? Both progressives and conservatives, it turns out.
“To charge President Biden with ‘losing’ Afghanistan makes no more sense than tagging President Gerald Ford with ‘losing’ Vietnam”
Historian Andrew Bacevich, in an op-ed at the New York Daily News, writes, “The war in Vietnam was effectively lost well before Ford even took office. The same judgment applies to Biden and Afghanistan.” Here is a more extended taste […]
NEH Announces August 2021 grant winners
Read the entire list here. Here are a few that funded projects that caught my eye: Auburn University Outright: $189,837[Landmarks of American History]Project Director: Elijah Gaddis; Keith Hebert (co-project director)Project Title: Bloody Sunday, Selma, and the Long Civil Rights MovementProject […]
Slavery at Boston’s Old North Church
Here is Artemis Moshtaghian at CNN: On Tuesday, the National Endowment for the Humanities announced that the Old North Church Foundation was awarded a $75,000 grant. Stewart says the foundation plans on creating a program that reinterprets the church and its congregation’s […]
A Christopher Columbus statue will remain in South Philly
A Common Pleas court judge overturned the City of Philadelphia’s decision to remove the statue last year during the racial unrest following the death of George Floyd. Here is The Philadelphia Inquirer: A Philadelphia judge on Tuesday ruled that the […]
Barbara Lee: The only member of Congress who voted against the war in Afghanistan
On September 14, 2001, both houses of Congress authorized the use of the United States Armed Forces against those who “planned, authorized, committed or aided” the September 11th terrorist attacks. The Senate vote was 98-0. The House of Representatives voted […]
Megachurches with celebrity pastors like John MacArthur led the way in the evangelical resistance to COVID-19 mandates
We’ve written a lot on this subject. See, for example: “What is going on with John MacArthur and Romans 13?“ “Evangelical pastor John MacArthur suggests churches that remain closed during COVID-19 are not ‘true’ churches“ “The Falkirk Center on the […]
“A History of Evangelical and Politics” podcast is on break this week
No episode this week. Feel free to use the break to get caught-up on previous episodes. Those who do not subscribe to the podcast can listen to listen to Episodes 0, 1, and 2Â here. If you like what you hear, […]
Terumi Echols will lead InterVarsity Press (IVP)
Here is the press release: InterVarsity/USA has named Terumi Echols as president and publisher of InterVarsity Press (IVP). Echols succeeds Jeff Crosby who recently became president and chief executive officer of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA), the trade association […]
To Cancel or Not to Cancel
Something is always at stake
Trump on Afghanistan: Then and now
Here is former president Trump on April 18, 2021: I wish Joe Biden wouldn’t use September 11th as the date to withdraw our troops from Afghanistan, for two reasons. First, we can and should get out earlier. Nineteen years is […]
Biden botches the withdrawal from Afghanistan. The Christian Right pounces.
The Christian Right response to the Afghanistan situation should remind us that it is primarily a political movement. Charlie Kirk, the founder of Liberty University’s Standing for Freedom Center, knows what is really going on here. It’s all about Biden […]
George W. Bush and Laura Bush on Afghanistan
Here is a statement from the President of the United States who launched the war in Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001 attacks: Laura and I have been watching the tragic events unfolding in Afghanistan with deep sadness. Our hearts […]
Biden speaks to the nation on Afghanistan
I appreciate Biden’s defense of the withdrawal last night. This is a very presidential speech. The buck stops with Biden and he comes across as a leader of conviction. As Current writer and historian John Haas wrote yesterday on my […]
Alone in the U.S.A.
In the midst of our loneliness, deep is calling to deep
“Processing ten years of denial in ten hours is rough”
I am still processing everything that happened in Afghanistan over the course of the last several days. At the moment, I am asking the same question everyone else is asking: Why didn’t Biden do a better job evacuating Americans and […]