June is strawberries. Blueberries are July. In August the raspberries ripen.Â
Archives for July 2023
What are you reading?
Summer is the season for reading, whether re-reading old favorites or finding new ones—on your porch, in a cabin in the woods (bears optional), or at the playground or the beach. Because there have been so many wonderful essays on […]
A small Church of the Brethren liberal arts college in Kansas now has a $1.5 billion endowment
McPherson College in McPherson, Kansas: has 811 undegraduate students. The $1 billion came from an anonymous donor. The Wikipedia page lists billionaire Harry Stine as an alumnus. Could there be another “anonymous” donor with these kind of resources and a […]
Sunday night odds and ends
A few things online that caught my attention this week: The end of neoliberalism? Francis Fukuyama on “The Fourth Turning” The difficult task of separating early Christianity from pagan rituals and beliefs. Does Joe Biden have a Cornel West problem? […]
Did the enslaved “benefit” from slavery?
Here is CBS News: Florida’s 2023 Social Studies curriculum will include lessons on how “slaves developed skills” that could be used for “personal benefit,” according to a copy of the state’s academic standards reviewed by CBS News. The lessons in question fall […]
How has Donald Trump’s Christian faith grown since he decided to run for president?
It’s been nearly eight years since James Dobson announced that Donald Trump was a “baby Christian.” One might think that by this point Trump could at least understand this question, even if he is still incapable of answering it. Watch:
Jack Hibbs is still talking about American history. And it’s getting worse.
Last week I called your attention to megachurch pastor Jack Hibbs’s atrocious handling of the history of the Continental Army at Valley Forge. Now he is back with more. Watch: OK, let’s break it down: 1:10ff: Hibbs says, with no […]
Summer reading week at the Arena, 07/24-07/28
Earlier this month, the Williams family moved from Carrollton, Georgia, our home for thirteen years (for me) and eighteen years (for Dan), to Ashland, Ohio. Our earthly possessions will rejoin us in the coming week (hooray for books and furniture!). […]
The Blessed One
Remembering Tony Bennett and the final studio album he released—at 95
Liberty University: New president, same old stuff
On July 1, 2023 Dondi E. Costin took the helm of Liberty University. We will see if he brings any changes to Liberty’s culture war stance, but if this Steve Bannon-Dave Brat conversation is any indication I am not optimistic […]
Some historical context on the Jason Aldean controversy
Here is historian Nicole Hemmer at CNN: It was mid-November 1927 when, at a Tennessee courthouse wrapped in patriotic decor to celebrate Armistice Day, a White mob seized a Black teenager named Henry Choate and hanged him from the building’s balcony. The […]
“Offensive” professors
Last academic year a student told me that they were offended by an image I showed in a Reconstruction Era lecture. I had another student complain because I said that systemic racism was built into colonial Virginia society after 1680 […]
Song of the Day
RIP
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:
When Conspiracy Theories Hit Home
The danger of silence in the face of false witness
The best road trip novel you’ve never read (probably)
A young man, bored with his life and searching for excitement, takes a road trip. He gets much more excitement, however, than he had bargained for, when his new girlfriend accidentally turns him into a donkey by smearing the wrong […]
Trump prophet reads a fake Jefferson quote and then says “take that and choke”
Hank Kunneman is a New Apostolic Reformation preacher and Seven Mountain Dominionist. He is part of the Dutch Sheets and Lance Wallnau crowd of “prophets” that we covered here. In this video Kunneman expounds on the history of church and […]
Michael Tomasky on the “quixotic” and “corrosive” Cornel West and RFK Jr. campaigns for president
The editor of The New Republic thinks Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Cornel West, and No Labels “are effectively surrogates for Donald Trump’s 2024 bid.” Here is a taste of his piece: You might think, in a two-party democracy where the […]
Yesterday’s Quinnipiac poll
The GOP primary race: Of course national polls in a GOP primary are not as important as polls in individual states (see below), but they are still interesting. Some are saying that DeSantis is running to the right of Trump […]
Evangelical roundup for July 20, 2023
What is happening in Evangelical land? Evangelicals and the “church of Tucker Carlson.” Churchless evangelicals Evangelicals come to the aid of fire victims on the Spanish island of La Palma. Evangelical Christianity is on fire in Brazil. Happy to help […]