Over at Politico, Zack Stanton asks George Will if “conservatism” means anything anymore. Here is a taste of his interview with the conservative columnist: In your book, you write that “America’s most dispiriting intellectual phenomenon is the degradation of higher […]
Archives for September 2021
Trigger warnings in the college classroom don’t work
Here is Amma Khalid (Carleton College historian) and Jeffrey Aaron Snyder (Carleton College education professor) at The Chronicle Review: The origins of trigger warnings date to the 1970s, when post-traumatic stress disorder was codified as a psychiatric condition, the symptoms […]
Joe Manchin’s massive ego
Here is Will Bunch’s piece at The Philadelphia Inquirer on the West Virginia Senator who, along with Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema, is standing in the way of Joe Biden’s $3.5 trillion “social infrastructure” bill. As the summer of 2021 comes to […]
What is popular this week at CURRENT?
Here are the most popular Current features of the last week: Fidel A. Arencillo Jr., Under the Spell of Stupidity Adam Jortner, You Can’t Make Me Wear Pants, Either John Fea, Wearing the Cross of Their Calling Robert Earle Barham, Waking […]
What is going on in the Central York (Pa) School District?
Watch: The list of materials include: A pro-“Black lives matter” blog post from a New Testament professor at Biola University’s Talbot School of Theology. Biola is a conservative evangelical school in Los Angeles. An anti-racism article at the website of […]
Is Springsteen hitting the road in 2022?
The rumors are circulating. Here is Pete Chianca at Blogness on the Edge of Town: Well, Springsteen on Broadway has ended (again) and the world is timidly opening back up (at least in parts of the world that have managed […]
On Constitution Day, Let’s Remember the Losers
Winners write history. But what if we occasionally used Constitution Day to think about what might have been? What if we told the story of the 1780s from the perspective of the losers?
The “ultimate American Bible”
Some of you recall Jay Green’s Current piece “Lee Greenwood Christianity.” Read it here. Over at Slate, Molly Olmstead reports on the Greenwood-inspired God Bless the USA Bible. Here is a taste: In May, controversy over “the ultimate American Bible” briefly […]
Episode 20: “The Federal Marriage Amendment”
The Christian Right tries to amend the United States Constitution to solidify its belief that “marriage” is between one man and one woman. Episode 20: “The Federal Marriage Amendment” dropped last night. Subscribers to Current at the Longshore level and above receive this […]
The Author’s Corner with Benjamin Wetzel
Benjamin Wetzel is Assistant Professor of History at Taylor University. This interview is based on his new book, Theodore Roosevelt: Preaching from the Bully Pulpit (Oxford University Press, 2021). JF: What led you to write Theodore Roosevelt? BW: In the fall […]
Evangelical roundup for September 16, 2021
What is happening in Evangelical land? Trump supporters were more likely than Trump skeptics to begin identifying as evangelicals by 2020. Yup: Owen Strachan loves John MacArthur: Owen’s theology of COVID is apparently filtered through college football crowds: A group […]
You Can’t Make Me Wear Pants, Either
If personal responsibility is so great, why isn’t it working?Â
Tweet of the Day
From Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson:
What happens when an entire political party “takes leave of reality”
I’ll just let Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank explain. Here is a taste of his piece, “This is how a Republican lie is born“: This is what happens when an entire political party takes leave of reality. On Tuesday morning, […]
Nataliya Braginsky is the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History National History Teacher of the Year!
Here is the press release: The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is delighted to announce that Nataliya Braginsky, a social studies teacher at Metropolitan Business Academy in New Haven, Connecticut, has been named the 2021 National History Teacher of the Year. Braginsky […]
COVID-19 at Christian Colleges–Update for September 15, 2021
Here are some of the latest numbers. Compare with our August 31 and our September 8 updates. Messiah University (as of September 14): 17 active cases. 72.1% vaccination rate. Cases are up slightly from last week. Liberty University (as of September 8): 463 […]
How to Sing
In his music, Gregory Porter shows how far gratitude and respect can take us
Josh Hawley, the most ambitious man in the Senate, pulls another political stunt
Josh Hawley, the evangelical Christian Senator from Missouri, has really made a name for himself in 2021. In January, he fed the conspiracy theories about the illegitimacy of the 2020 presidential election by refusing to vote to certify the results. […]
Norm McDonald, RIP
I loved Norm McDonald‘s Bob Dole impersonation: He also did a great David Letterman: RIP
Waking Up
If infirmity shadows us, other kinds of presence do, too