In case you missed it, Chuck Schumer recently spoke–on Easter Sunday–at A.R. Bernard’s Christian Cultural Center, a megachurch in Brooklyn. Some of you may remember A.R. Bernard. He was one of the original Trump court evangelicals, but quickly left the […]
Archives for April 2022
Why the McCarthy anti-Trump audio won’t hurt him politically
In case you missed it, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said some negative things about his supreme commander, Donald Trump, in the immediate wake of the January 6, 2022 insurrection. To quote the New Republic e-mail blast I received yesterday, […]
Does the GOP still believe in free markets?
Apparently not in Florida. Here is writer Robert Schlesinger at The New Republic: “The market is rational and government is dumb,” Dick Armey, one of the leaders of the 1994 Republican Revolution, liked to say. That used to be a cornerstone […]
Eric Metaxas is hawking a diabetes cure on Telegram
Eric “Socrates in the City” Metaxas is a radio host, author, Trump court evangelical, and Fellow at Liberty University’s Standing for Freedom Center. He is also on a social media site call Telegram. You can check out his account here. […]
Did the Pilgrims bring dueling to America?
The Pilgrims who landed in Plymouth in 1620 wanted to create a Calvinist society. But according to historian Joseph Farrell, they apparently could not control the practice of dueling. Here is Farrell’s piece at Humanities: No new intellectual or moral […]
Are humanities scholars engaged in too much activism?
Today I recorded Episode 100 of The Way of Improvement Leads Home Podcast. It will drop on Sunday with the title “Christian Historians as Activists?” I have no guest for this episode. Instead, I use the episode to redeliver my […]
Facing Fears
Need to overcome some fear? Brain science and a sweet reward may just do the trick.
A “sensibility,” an “intellectual tradition,” and a “common set of prejudices.” Thanks for supporting Current
In a piece on the tenth anniversary (1976) of Salmagundi, cultural critic Christopher Lasch (whose daughter Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn is a Current contributing editor) wrote: The so-called little magazine, which addresses neither the mass market nor an audience of academic specialists, occupies […]
What is popular this week at Current?
Here are the most popular features of the week at Current: Agnes Howard, “How Much Cake?“ John Fea, “If the KKK opposes gay marriage, I would ride with them” John Fea, “Man Cannot Spend All His Time in Taverns“ Mark Schwehn, […]
CNN pulls the plug on CNN Plus
Well, that didn’t last long. Here is Jeremy Barr and Paul Farhi at The Washington Post: CNN’s new parent company abruptly pulled the plug on the network’s $100 million venture into online streaming — a spectacular reversal that stunned employees […]
An anti-woke victory at Grove City College
Get up to speed here. The “special committee” of the Grove City Board of Trustees” has issued its report on “wokeness.” Read the entire report here. Some highlights: The report affirms Grove City College’s identity as Christian college that “pursues […]
Evangelical roundup for April 21, 2022
What is happening in Evangelical land? Hungarian evangelicals love Vicktor Orban. Kristin Kobes Du Mez and NAE president Walter Kim talk about masculinity and evangelicalism with religion writers: Indian evangelicals arrested during Easter services. Evangelicals love private jets: Do evangelicals […]
The Author’s Corner with Peter Boag
Peter Boag is Professor and Columbia Chair in the History of the American West at Washington State University. This interview is based on his new book, Pioneering Death: The Violence of Boyhood in Turn-of-the-Century Oregon (University of Washington Press, 2022). […]
Man Cannot Spend All His Time in Taverns
The first in a series of meditations on Ignazio Silone’s Bread and Wine
Commonplace Book #213
But we shall never have peace so long as we believe that fascism is an aberration only, or the organization of power only–made by the tyrants and controverted by the Red Army only–we shall never have peace until we see […]
The Better Angels of Our Democracy
Putin has opened a window for restoring American politics
A belated RIP to Jon (John) Daker
John Daker passed away in February 2022. Here is Jonathan Aigner at Patheos: Jon Graham Daker, son, brother, faithful Christian, and accidental internet star, reportedly passed away yesterday, February 20, 2022, in Peoria, Illinois. Born in 1939, he was 82 […]
The Midwest’s utopian communes
Writer Evan Malmgren offers a nice introduction to America’s utopian communities: Inland America is pocked with the unmarked graves of communitarian utopias—primitive socialist and communist experiments—that tried to rebuild the world on what was assumed to be virgin soil. Ephrata, […]
Commonplace Book #212
Often I ask myself, as if I were directing the question to another person, how do you attempt to reconcile your belief in the sacral with even your rudimentary socialism? But I see no need to apologize for believing, with […]
The Big Lie and tribalism
Over at The Atlantic, Sarah Longwell writes: “For many of Trump’s voters, the belief that the election was stolen is not a fully formed thought. It’s more of an attitude, or a tribal pose.” Here is a taste of her […]