A friend and colleague likes to say that the classroom is the last refuge of the bad comedian. Students, in general, don’t like learning. Learning is pain. Anything that goes on in the classroom that falls under the category of […]
Archives for May 2023
Capitalist waste
Here is The George Washington University historian Trevor Jackson at The Baffler: EVERYONE RECALLS THE SHORTAGESÂ of toilet paper and pasta, but the early period of the pandemic was also a time of gluts. With restaurants and school cafeterias shuttered, farmers […]
“The kind of education God’s people need today is too important to be left to academics and other non-ecclesial thinkers”
Over at The Gospel Coalition, Doug Sweeney, the Dean of Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Alabama, let’s it rip: Our churches need pastors who will lead theologically. “For though by this time [our laypeople] ought to be teachers, [they] need […]
Michael Flynn’s anti-vaxxer dating site
Former Trump National Security Director Michael Flynn is one of the stars of the Christian nationalist “ReAwaken America” tour. He is also the a “founding member” and president of the advisory board for “4thPURE” a dating and community site for […]
Evangelical roundup for May 15, 2023
What is happening in Evangelical land? What is happening in evangelical higher education? On the decline of Southern Baptist church membership. The latest on The Kings College. Russell Moore on evangelical congregations and Trump. Michael Wear liked it: Great line: […]
The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling
This podcast is family drama
The Americans: so funny
Who are the Americans? There are many serious ways to approach answering this question. But approaching it less seriously may also show us something. Americans are funny people, and not just metaphorically. They value humor and they almost all consider […]
Sunday night odds and ends
A few things online that caught my attention this week: Fareed Zakaria: “There’s no mystery about why the U.S. has so many gun deaths.” Families and the monitoring of screen time. How to find the best image for your project. […]
Erika Bachiochi on the need for caregiver benefits, especially for mothers
With Mother’s Day approaching (this Sunday), Erika Bachiochi has a powerful essay in Plough today, arguing for better government support for caregivers, especially mothers, drawing on the analogy to veterans’ benefits. You want to go read her piece in its […]
Did Martin Luther King Jr. really criticize Malcolm X?
Here is Gillian Brockell at The Washington Post: Jonathan Eig was deep in the Duke University archives researching his new biography of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. when he made an alarming discovery: King’s harshest and most famous criticism of Malcolm X, in which […]
What is popular this week at Current?
Here are the most popular features of the week at Current: Here are the most popular posts of the last week at The Way of Improvement Leads Home blog: Here are the most popular posts of the last week at The Arena blog:
Sex and womanhood: a person-first approach
A year or two ago a conservative college student, Katie, received her acceptance notice from a prestigious law school. While out celebrating, she was pulled aside by a disgruntled male classmate who been rejected by the same school. “You shouldn’t […]
The court evangelicals are getting the old band back together
Readers of this blog know what a court evangelical is. But for the uninitiated, I encourage you to read this piece or this book. After last night’s CNN town hall, it appears that Donald Trump just might be the GOP […]
Zenger House announces its 2023 prize winners.
Zenger House is: a Christian foundation that exists to help journalistic start-ups and honor writers who do street-level reporting and write excellent stories that show biblical truth, even if that’s not a writer’s goal. The foundation awards annual prizes to encourage outstanding writers […]
Franklin Graham on the verdict in the Trump sexual assault case
I suffered through most of last night’s CNN New Hampshire townhall meeting with Donald Trump. Here is what we “learned”: You can learn more here. During the interview Collins, who often fact-checked Trump in real time, asked the former president […]
The Author’s Corner with Adrian Chastain Weimer
Adrian Chastain Weimer is Professor of History at Providence College. This interview is based on her new book, A Constitutional Culture: New England and the Struggle Against Arbitrary Rule in the Restoration Empire (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2023). JF: What […]
Evangelical roundup for May 11, 2023
What is happening in Evangelical land? In case you haven’t heard, a prominent historian and scholar of American evangelicalism converted to Christianity last year through the ministry of J.D. Greaar, the pastor of a large Southern Baptist Church in North […]
Are local family ties worth the sacrifice of a career dream? Maybe so.
One of the students in my US history survey class this semester began his final family history essay by describing how close he feels to his extended family – and how close his relatives feel to him and to each […]
REVIEW: Still More Reasons to Be Grateful for Immigrants
Parents who come from someplace else have a lot to teach everyone else
Is Colonial Williamsburg going “woke”?
Some on the right believe that Colonial Williamsburg’s commitment to telling the full story of the 18th-century city means that the world’s largest living history museum is going “woke.” I would argue that Colonial Williamsburg is trying to tell a […]