More than three years ago, Eric Miller, Jay Green, and I talked about starting a journal of opinion and commentary. We imagined publishing a daily essay and transferring my nearly fifteen-year-old blog, The Way of Improvement Leads Home, to the site. We managed to scrape-up enough money between the three of us to buy a URL and hire a web designer. On April 5. 2021, we launched Current with essays by Miller, Agnes Howard, Tony Norman, Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn, Katherine Lucky, and Susan McWilliams Barndt.
Since then, we have assembled a very impressive list of contributing editors, hired a business manager, brought on Robert Erle Barham as Deputy Editor, and welcomed Nadya Williams as Book Review Editor. Eventually Nadya created a second blog at the site, The Arena. Her work at Current is indispensable.
We launched Current because many of us were concerned that American democratic life was moving through a period of great stress and testing. All of us realized that we could no longer take for granted many of the basic assumptions of our democracy, including a shared core of American values. We were exhausted by the cultural warfare that dominates–and continues to dominate–our civic life, threatening to undermine bonds of family, friendship, and neighborhood. We were demoralized–and are still demoralized–by the quasi-religious authoritarianism we see growing on both the right and the left. Check out Eric Miller April 5, 2021 essay: “In the Arena: It’s Time to Play” or read our full mission statement.
I am often asked if Current is a “Christian” journal. We do not think of Current as a Christian site, but our commitment to American pluralism means that we take religion very seriously. Many of our writers and editors are interested in the state of American evangelicalism, but we also publish features, blog posts, and book reviews that have little or nothing to do with Christianity. As we say in our mission statement: “While we, the editors, are Christians, we are dedicated to engaging a diverse audience and to publishing diverse voices that share a vibrant commitment to free and open inquiry.”Â
We have managed to keep this project afloat through your generous support. As we celebrate our third birthday, I hope you might consider or reconsider your financial support of our work. Throughout American history, little magazines like Current have been essential to the cultivation of a more democratic society. It is also true that such little magazines have always struggled financially. As a result, many of them have not lasted very long.
We want Current to be around for the long haul. Please consider clicking the red MEMBERSHIP button in the top right-hand corner of the screen and consider a subscription.
And for those of you who have faithfully supported us through these three years, I know I speak for our staff in extending our deepest gratitude for your commitment to what we are trying to do at Current.