Christiane Calixte, a junior at Berkeley Carroll School in Brooklyn, writes: “the retaliation against CRT shows that parents have no idea what students are learning — and that their protests are less about education and more about a projection of […]
Archives for January 2022
Why the ACLU supports the flying of a Christian flag in front of Boston’s City Hall
Here is David Cole of the American Civil Liberties Union: The ACLU has long fought to enforce the separation of church and state. We were the plaintiff in both Allegheny County v. ACLU and McCreary County v. ACLU, in which the Supreme Court held […]
Song of the day
Evangelical roundup for January 17, 2022
What is happening in Evangelical land? Eric Metaxas and Naomi Wolf talk about the “fear of COVID-19,” the “apartheid society” in New York City; how the “unnecessary” vaccine is attacking women’s reproductive health; and how the vaccine reflects a general […]
“The Preacher Must Be an Amos”
Christians who use Martin Luther King, Jr. to fight secularism may be the kind of Christian he preached against
Sunday night odds and ends
A few things online that caught my attention this week: Brian Rosenberg reviews Louis Menand’s review of Roosevelt Montas’s Rescuing Socrates: How the Great Books Changed My Life and Why They Matter for a New Generation. Thomas Chatterton Williams reviews […]
On C-SPAN’s “American History TV”
CSPAN recently filmed a lecture on the American Enlightenment in my colonial America course at Messiah University. Watch it here.
The latest Christian Right critique of the 1619 Project is full of problems. Let’s break it down.
Jerry Newcombe is a writer and local Florida radio host who comes out of the D. James Kennedy (Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church of Ft. Lauderdale) wing of conservative evangelicals. He is also the president of a Christian nationalist historical organization […]
“The greatest literary project in history”
Over at Book Riot, Clare Barnett tells the story of the Depression Era’s Federal Writers Project. Do we need another such project? Here is a taste of her piece: While the FWP was the work of thousands, some of its […]
She is a Philadelphia Eagles cheerleader and a Temple University Ph.D student in American history
Shelby Carr has an M.A. history (with specializations in public history and historic preservation) from the University of Colorado and is currently a first-year Ph.D student at Temple. She is also an Eagles cheerleader. She is featured in a recent […]
McCarthy: Trump said he admitted personally bearing some responsibility for the January 6 attack
In the days following the January 6, 2021 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol, House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy told a California radio station that Donald Trump said he was responsible for the attack. Here is what McCarthy told KERN radio […]
What is the story behind this home library?
Click here to learn more about this amazing space.
Will American democracy survive another Trump presidency?
Yale historian Timothy Snyder is not optimistic. Here is a taste of his interview with Charles Davis of Business Insider: Let’s revisit this scenario where Trump and the Republican Party have claimed victory and have had some legal cloaking of […]
Rep. Jamie Raskin of the Jan. 6 select committee calls Trump a “walking crime wave”
He also said that the upcoming hearings will “blow the roof off the House.” Here is David Knowles of Yahoo News: On a Thursday Zoom call with progressive activists, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said that the upcoming hearings by the Jan. […]
Big Ben’s Redemption
I grew up a Miami Dolphins fan. (How a kid raised in the New York metropolitan area became a Dolphins fan is a long story, but there are a lot of us out there.) I thus despised the Steelers. As […]
What is popular this week at Current?
Here are the most popular features of the week at Current: Andrew Gustafson, “Wide Awoke in Corporate America?“ John Haas, “Look Up–and Look Out!“ Frederic S. Durbin, “Jaws!“ Andrew Kauffman, “Educated by Love“ Jon Boyd, “BOOK MARKS: Minor Respects“ Here are […]
Fosdick’s “Shall the Fundamentalists Win?” turns 100
Current Contributing Editor Daniel K. Williams reflects on this classic 1922 sermon. Here is a taste of his post at The Anxious Bench: Now that we have reached the centennial anniversary of this sermon, perhaps it’s time to ask the […]
COVID-19 vaccines and and the history religious exemptions
Last November I joined Michelle Mello of Stanford University Law School in a conversation on religious exemptions and vaccines. The Council on Foreign Relations sponsored the event. You can watch it here:
James Oakes on what the 1619 Project gets wrong
City University of New York (CUNY) historian James Oakes was one of the early critics of the 1619 Project. He was part of the group of historians that agreed to an interview with historian Tom Mackaman at the World Socialist […]
Religious Freedom at Home—But Not Abroad
Those who call pandemic-driven church closings “persecution” don’t know the real thing