The tributes are pouring in. RIP. Kareem: On John Wooden: ESPN radio host Chris Carlin: Rick Carlisle: Taking his Celtics teammates to a Grateful Dead show: Activist: Wooden: Nancy Pelosi: On Liberty University: More Wooden: On grizzly bears: Roxy Bernstein: […]
Archives for May 2024
Donald Trump wishes us all a happy Memorial Day
Bill Walton: RIP
This is such sad news. As a young basketball player I tried to model my game after two players: Bill Walton and Kevin McHale. When I was younger I used to stay up late to watch PAC-10 games just to […]
K-12 history teachers: Stop asking your students if slavery was bad
OK, I am sure the title of this post is going to raise some eyebrows. But I recently came across a 2023 piece on “inquiry-based learning” from three researchers–Whitney Barringer, Lauren Brand, and Nicholas Krycza– at the American Historical Association. […]
Farmer’s Wife Magazine on Memorial Day
In 1921 the editors of The Farmer’s Wife Magazine meditated on the evolution of Decoration Day from solely focused on remembering the sacrifices of Union soldiers in the Civil War, to encompassing those of the South, and then by the […]
Sunday night odds and ends
A few things online that caught my attention this week: Prophecy and the death of Anne Boleyn Pennsylvania and potato chips Elizabeth Clare Prophet was a prophet What do editors do? Misappropriating “puritan” Chris Klimek reviews Steven Hyden’s There Was […]
Bono for mayor of Dublin?
Over at Zocalo Public Square, Joe Mathews tries to convince Bono to run for local office. Here is a taste: Dear Bono, Now that U2’s residency at the Sphere in Vegas has successfully concluded, it’s time for you to get […]
“At the end of the day, who we are is who we were”
Here is a short snippet of historian Allen Guelzo’s interview with Jonah Goldberg on The Remnant Podcast: Watch the entire interview here.
What is going on at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello?
In January, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Annette Gordon-Reed resigned from the board of Monticello, the historic home of Thomas Jefferson. Here is a taste of Jason Armesto’s January 2, 2024 piece at The Daily Progress: It is not clear why Gordon-Reed, […]
Fuller Seminary wants to be more LGBTQ-friendly
Here is Deepa Bharath at the Associated Press: Fuller Theological Seminary, an evangelical school in Pasadena, California, is deliberating whether to become more open to LGBTQ+ students who previously faced possible expulsion if found to be in a same-sex union. […]
Trump speaks to libertarians. It does not go well
Here is Reuters: Presidential candidate Donald Trump was booed and heckled by many in a raucous audience at the Libertarian National Convention on Saturday night, a marked change from the adulation he receives at rallies from his fervently loyal supporters. Libertarians, who […]
Birmingham-Southern College’s baseball team will outlast Birmingham-Southern College
On May 31, 2024 the Birmingham-Southern College baseball team is playing in the NCAA Division III College World Series. May 31, 2024 is also the day that Birmingham-Southern College will close. Here is NBC News: The Birmingham-Southern College Panthers advanced […]
“Yes, our evangelical friends tend to have a short attention span, little historical perspective, and a penchant for quick fixes”
As I have already discussed here at Current, I’ve spent much of the year in archives. I recently came across a 2004 exchange of e-mails between two Catholic intellectuals. They were written after they spent a weekend with a group […]
You can despise Trump, but you don’t need to send him vials of blood
Here is the Associated Press: The Republican National Committee’s Washington headquarters was briefly evacuated on Wednesday as police investigated two vials of blood that had been addressed to former President Donald Trump following the presumptive presidential nominee’s takeover of the national party apparatus. […]
Republicans love the 1950s
When Donald Trump says we need to ‘make America great again,” most Republicans think about the 1950s. According to Andrew Van Dam at The Washington Post, Republicans believe that the 1950s was the happiest, safest, most communitarian, and moral society […]
The “Appeal to Heaven” flag was a revolutionary-era symbol. The “Appeal to Heaven” flag is a Christian Nationalist symbol
Not familiar with the Samuel Alito “Appeal to Heaven” flag controversy? Get up to speed here. I am seeing a lot of tweets like this: What Reed and Pence fail to recognize is that symbols like the Pine Tree Flag […]
Does this look like 25K to you?
Here is some context for this aerial photo of Trump’s rally in the Bronx this week. The linked piece suggests that we shouldn’t assume everyone in this picture is a Trump supporter. Here is Trump court journalist David Brody on […]
What Pat Robertson and Ralph Reed said about presidential character in 1998
I ran across this Associated Press article about a Christian Coalition event in 1998. I was struck by a few lines: Reed continues to support Trump. So much for “character” and “moral leadership.”
Lindsay Chervinsky named Executive Director of the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon
I knew her before she was famous! We overlapped briefly as fellows at the George Washington Presidential Library. Congrats, Lindsay! Well-deserved. Here is the press release from Mount Vernon: MOUNT VERNON, Va., May 22, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — The Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association is proud […]
Court evangelicals, Christian America, and exposing some really bad views on the founding: A conversation with Josh Crain of Verve City Church
Last week I chatted with Josh Crain, pastor of Verve City Church in Chino, California. We covered a lot of ground. As election season approaches, Josh is trying to get his congregation to think more deeply about politics through a […]