A United Church of Christ television ad celebrating inclusion draws heat from the Christian Right. Episode 49: “Church Bouncers’” dropped today. Subscribers to Current at the Longshore level and above have access to new episodes of this narrative history podcast. Here is a teaser: […]
Archives for September 2022
People bought A LOT of books from religion presses in 2021
Here is Publishers Weekly: According to final statistics from the Association of American Publishers, sales for the religion press category rose 21.9% last year, to $1.42 billion. The increase was the first for religion publishing and followed a 8% decline […]
In a sermon on “defending truth,” Tim Barton makes multiple false claims
The son of Wallbuilders founder David Barton recently gave a rambling “history” sermon at Christian Missions Church in Jacksboro, Texas. This is what can happen when the past is only useful as a form of activism. Here is Barton: Let’s […]
What is popular this week at Current?
Here are the most popular features of the week at Current: Marvin Olasky, “LONG FORM: A Wrinkle in Journalism History“ Christopher Shannon, “REVIEW: After Philosophy“ Paul Luikart, “Beach Body, Beat Body“ John Fea, “Seeing New Things, Asking New Questions“ John Fea, […]
Fear and Loathing at Independence Hall
Another angle on President Biden’s Philadelphia speech—word by word
Albert Mohler says he would vote for Kari Lake or Doug Mastriano and then tries to explain why he wouldn’t vote for a pro-life candidate who “could not uphold the Constitution.”
Yes, you read the headline correctly. Perhaps you are as confused as I am. Over at The New York Times, Astead Herndon, the son of a Christian pastor and the host of “The Run-Up” podcast, talks about evangelicals, Trumpism, and […]
Springsteen’s new album
It’s called “Only the Strong Survive.” Here is Rolling Stone: BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN IS releasing a collection of soul covers entitled Only The Strong Survive on November 11. Check out the video right here for “Do I Love You (Indeed I Do),” which was originally […]
The Author’s Corner with Lori J. Daggar
Lori J. Daggar is Associate Professor of History at Ursinus College. This interview is based on her new book, Cultivating Empire: Capitalism, Philanthropy, and the Negotiation of American Imperialism in Indian Country (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2022). JF: What led […]
Evangelical roundup for September 29, 2022
What is happening in Evangelical land? Evangelicals are learning to “welcome the stranger.” Bridging the gap between Christian liberal arts colleges and non-Christian liberal arts colleges. Jair Bolsonaro on the “soul” of Brazil. Calvin University’s January Series will feature Ken […]
How to Catch Trout
Water sings. You can, too!
More on the Reverse Freedom Rides and DeSantis’s Martha’s Vineyard stunt
We did a post on Reverse Freedom Rides after Florida governor Ron DeSantis sent several refugee families to Martha’s Vineyard as a political stunt. Read that post here. Rick Massimo of WTOP radio recently interviewed University of Sussex historian Clive […]
White supremacy in American history textbooks
Over at Esquire, Abigail Covington interviews Harvard historian Donald Yacovone on his recent book, Teaching White Supremacy: America’s Democratic Ordeal and the Forging of Our National Identity. Here is taste: ESQUIRE: You make it very clear from the start that […]
The Conference on Faith and History secondary school teaching initiative is hosting a virtual panel this week
The Conference on Faith and History is sponsoring a virtual panel on secondary school history teaching this Friday, September 30. If you teach history feel free to join the conversation. More info below. More info: Paul Thompson will be hosting […]
Misha Matsumoto Yee is the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History National History Teacher of the Year!
Congratulations! Here is the press release: NEW YORK, NY (September 27, 2022) –The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History announced today that Misha Matsumoto Yee, a history teacher at St. Andrew’s Schools in Honolulu, Hawaii, has been named the 2022 National History Teacher of […]
The Queen and Conservatism
God save the queen—and all the other institutions that need saving
Mastriano: Women who get abortions should be charged with murder
The Pennsylvania GOP gubernatorial candidate made the comment in 2019 on WITF’s “Smart Talk”: Listen. The “murder” argument picks-up around the twenty-four minute mark: Here is NBC News: State Sen. Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee for governor in Pennsylvania, said in 2019 […]
The difference between American evangelicals and Brazilian evangelicals
Evangelical Christianity is playing a significant role in Brazil’s upcoming presidential election. If you want to get up to speed on this story I recommend Christianity Today’s recent feature. Over at The Conversation, political scientist Amy Eric Smith distinguishes between […]
“Thomas H. Benton” lands on his feet
Between 1998 and 2014 literary scholar William Pannapacker wrote a regular The Chronicle of Higher Education. Most of these columns were written under the pen name Thomas H. Benton. Pannapacker wrote about the liberal arts and humanities, the digital humanities, […]
Placing an anti-Mormon chant in historical context
If you missed this story you can get up to speed by watching this video. Here is historian Matthew Bowman, the Howard H. Hunter Chair of Mormon Studies at Claremont Graduate University: How did we get to the point in which fans […]
Academic Holiness
The ideal of objectivity is too important to be left on the scrapheap of history