A few things online that caught my attention this week: Daniel K. Finn reviews Benjamin M. Friedman’s Religion and the Rise of Capitalism A conservative Washington Post columnist calls Kevin McCarthy a demagogue Hanging out with The Eagles on the […]
Archives for September 2021
Episode 90: The Gospel According to Charles Lindbergh
Charles Lindbergh was a celebrated aviator, the father of the baby abducted in the “crime of the century,” a Nazi sympathizer, and a believer in eugenics. He also carried a small New Testament with him as he entered the South […]
The Mar-a-Lago evangelicals are back with something called the “National Faith Advisory Board.” Let’s break it down!
The American people removed the king and his evangelical court from the throne last November, but some of the pro-Trump evangelical courtiers are not going down without a fight. Here is Forward magazine: Former Trump evangelicals are launching a new […]
Tweet of the day
From a Seminole County, Florida school board meeting: Based on what he says here, Michael Beck should be pro-choice on abortion, but something tells me he is not. Here is his entire speech. It picks up at the 1:48:10 mark:
Conference on Faith and History postpones biennial conference
From CFH president Beth Allison Barr: Dear CFH community, We have not released registration for the Baylor conference because circumstances changed this week. Although Baylor University is doing well in regards to keeping COVID numbers lower, Central Texas is not. In […]
What happens when an Illinois middle-school history teacher wears a pro-vaccine mask to a “meet and greet” with parents?
I have been working with and training K-12 teachers for nearly two decades and Matt Lakemacher is one of the best middle school history teachers I know. His passion for the study of the past is contagious and his creativity […]
In my adult life I have never met so many people “doing research.” Here is one example of where such “research” is leading people.
I tweeted about “research” last night: I am talking to more and more people who will not take the COVID-19 vaccine, but have no problem taking the horse-deworming drug Ivermectin. They are “doing their research” despite the fact that the […]
Image of the day
COVID-19 continues to sweep through the Liberty University campus
488 cases and over 1000 students in quarantine. Get up to speed here and here. Here is the local ABC affiliate: Even though Liberty University implemented a temporary campus-wide quarantine on Monday, the total number of active coronavirus cases and […]
Trump is endorsing people
The former president’s endorsement of Herschel Walker in the Georgia Senate race is getting the most attention, but I am more interested in his endorsement of Joe Kent in the race for the House seat from Washington state’s 3rd congressional […]
InterVarsity director at Harvard explains why he voted for the atheist president of the university’s chaplains
Get up to speed here. Pete Williamson is the team leader for InterVarsity’s Graduate and Faculty Ministries at Harvard and a Harvard Chaplain. Here is a taste of his recent piece at Christianity Today: For seven years, I have worked […]
What is popular this week at Current?
Here are the most popular Current features of the last week: Elissa Yukiko Weichbrodt, From Whore to Helpmate John Fea, Jesus is My Vaccine Daniel Cole, Donald Trump Is Not John Wayne Paul David, The End of the Two-Party System John […]
Evangelical roundup: Texas Heartbeat Act edition
What are evangelical Christians saying about the Texas Heartbeat Act? Here’s a bonus addition of the roundup. And it’s not behind the Current paywall! 🙂 James Dobson on Facebook: Just before midnight last night, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a […]
The Shock of Three Dimensions
How easily we forget the strangeness of the body
Making sense of the Texas Heartbeat Act
Read Texas Senate Bill 8 here. Some highlights: The bill says that Texas “never repealed, either expressly or by implication, the state statues enacted before the ruling in Rove v. Wade…that prohibit and criminalize abortion unless the mother’s life is […]
The Author’s Corner with Christopher Grasso
Christopher Grasso is Professor of History at the College of William & Mary. This interview is based on his new book, Teacher, Preacher, Soldier, Spy: The Civil Wars of John R. Kelso (Oxford University Press, 2021). JF: What led you […]
Evangelical roundup for September 2, 2021
What is going on in Evangelical land? Will evangelicals who tell the truth continue to lose their jobs? The VP of the National Association of Evangelicals on Afghanistan: The evangelical governor of Mississippi says that “when you believe in eternal […]
Jesus Is My Vaccine
Recently someone close to me, a devout evangelical Christian, texted to explain why he was not getting the COVID-19 vaccine. “Jesus went around healing lepers and touched them without fear of getting leprosy,” he said. And if this reference to […]
Are COVID masks and vaccination mandates a form of Christian persecution?
Short answer: No. Yesterday Pennsylvania governor Tom Wolf issued a mask requirement for schools. I spent my evening talking/e-mailing with three different evangelical Christian friends who were upset about this. Two of the three people I communicated with were also […]
Does the United States need to re-examine the value of military dominance?
University of Texas historian Jeremi Suri takes a historical approach to this question. Here is a taste of his piece at The New York Times; History is clear: We would be better off with more modest, restrained military and strategic […]