Our annual Thanksgiving tradition here at The Way of Improvement Leads Home.  I wrote this Inside Higher Ed piece on gratitude in November 2008. I have had to remind myself of this piece a lot in the last couple of years.–JF It was a typical […]
Archives for November 2021
Nick Saban rips on “self absorbed” Alabama fans
In case you haven’t seen this yet: Saban is probably right. But as far as “self-absorption” in college sports is concerned, I think there is enough to go around right now.
Evangelical roundup: Thanksgiving 2021 edition
What is happening in Evangelical land? Celebrating the wonders of creation on Thanksgiving. Apparently it is time to “thank the Pilgrims” for “defeating socialism.” How dare the Pilgrims provide for their neighbors! (After watching this anachronistic video, read Larry Glickman’s […]
Do you think America is divided today? Consider the first Thanksgiving
The first official Thanksgiving in the United States did not take place in 1621. (How could it? There was no United States in 1621). It happened in 1863 when Abraham Lincoln, on October 3, proclaimed that Thursday, November 26 would […]
Why do the Detroit Lions always play on Thanksgiving?
It’s a Thanksgiving tradition. This year the woeful Detroit Lions are looking for their first win of the season. Here is James Dator at SBNATION: When the Lions moved to Detroit in 1934, owner G.A. Richards was hellbent on starting […]
Turkeys are invading college campuses
Not a joke. Here is The New York Times: They are lounging next to bike racks and outside dorms. They are strutting across Harvard Yard. And, yes, they are occasionally fanning their feathers and charging at innocent students. Across the […]
Episode 28: “How Mel Gibson’s ‘ The Passion of the Christ’ Fueled the Culture Wars”
In 2004, George W. Bush adviser Karl Rove said he was going to turn the presidential election into one between those who went to see the movie and those that did not. Episode 28: “How Mel Gibson’s ‘The Passion of […]
The bones of Sullivan Ballou
If you have watched the Ken Burns documentary The Civil War you might remember Sullivan Ballou. The Union officer stole the show with the letter he wrote to his wife Sarah a week before he was killed at the First […]
Song of the day
I’ve always liked the Bangles cover of this Simon and Garfunkel classic:
Abigail, an enslaved woman owned by John Jay, died in Paris trying to win her freedom
Historian Martha Jones tells the story at The New York Times: Despite its many markers of memory there are some stories about the past that Paris does not tell. I am an African American historian who spends each summer in […]
The Wall Street Journal will run its traditional Thanksgiving editorials
Here is the Editorial Board of The Wall Street Journal: Since 1961 we’ve run a pair of editorials written by our former editor Vermont Royster. The first is a historical account about the Pilgrims in 1620 as related by William Bradford, a […]
Commonplace Book #200
The rhetoric of prophetic indictment is not “polite” or “civil.” In fact, it is frequently perceived by its audience as corrosive of communal bonds. Nonetheless, its presuppositions and purpose are not ultimately negative. Those who engage in prophetic discourse (or […]
Current welcomes Robert Erle Barham as Associate Editor!
Today we published Robert Erle Barham’s fifth piece at Current, “Memory Stones.” We also want to welcome Robert Erle to Current as an Associate Editor. Robert Erle is Associate Professor of English at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Georgia. He […]
Memory Stones
Treasure from the past surfacing in the present? That’s reason for thanksgiving
David Blight: “Trust the teachers!”
The Yale historian and Pulitzer Prize-winner spun his recent tweets into a piece at The Atlantic. Here is a taste: The curriculum, however, is another matter. Trained teachers, curriculum directors, and school principals are responsible for organizing the content and […]
Early episodes of A History of Evangelicals and Politics podcast are dropping on Apple Podcasts
Listen for free at Apple Podcasts. We are dropping one episode a week. Please subscribe, download, share, and review. Thanks! Episode 0 is now up. Patrons of Current at the Longshore level receive the new episodes. We will drop Episode […]
How Thanksgiving became a capitalist holiday
In Monday’s Evangelical Roundup (available twice a week to Current patrons at the Surface level), I included a piece by Wallbuilders president Tim Barton in which he claims that the seventeenth-century Pilgrims defeated socialism. Here is Barton: We often think […]
Did you pay more for your turkey this year? Don’t blame Biden
Blame corporate America. Here is Faiz Shakir at The New Republic: The prices of everyday goods are going up, and everyone from members of Congress to talking heads on cable news have their own diagnoses as to why it’s happening. […]
On French secularism
The French government wants a secular state. In other words, they want to keep religion out of public life. What does that mean and how is the French view of the separation of church and state different from the United […]
Commonplace Book #199
The jeremiad became a rhetorical vehicle to demand innovative social change rather than a call for the community to repent of well-worn and familiar sins. The tight connection between jeremiad and national covenant was loosened, but it was not entirely […]