“In these early days of Trump’s second term, one recognizes the catastrophic consequences of unpunished lawlessness.”
Archives for February 2025
Eric Metaxas rewrites the history of January 6
There are a lot of American evangelicals who get their American history from Eric Metaxas. In a recent segment of his radio show, Metaxas said that there were no violent protesters at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Watch: […]
National parks face cuts under Trump regime
As historian Kevin Levin writes: Spring will be here before you know it and Americans will once again hit this nationās roads to visit and enjoy many of the natural and historic resources overseen by the National Park Service. But […]
Super Bowl LIX Was an Unpredictably Boring Game
Hereās why thatās a good thing
Sunday night odds and ends
A few things online that caught my attention this week: Do beavers have souls? Christians against empathy Christianity Today has not received USAID funds The moon Let students finish the book The world the MAGA agenda wants to create Steven […]
Alan Jacobs on that First Things piece on Wheaton College
A disgruntled 2014 Wheaton College graduate named Daniel Davis took a shot at his alma mater last week in the pages of First Things. You can read it here. I don’t want to give too much attention to what I […]
“Fear’s a powerful thing. It can turn your heart black, you can trust. It’ll take your God-filled soul and fill it with devils and dust”
Commonplace Book #339
From the mouths of those who attack religion we hear again and again that it is the worst of all evils that burden mankind. This is what the freethinkers, the social democrats, say, and this is what many democrats who […]
Song of the day
Trump: “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.” What are evangelicals saying?
According to The New York Times, this quote has been attributed to Napoleon, but its origins are unclear. Trump must have been dissatisfied with the amount of news coverage he was getting today. I can’t tell if Trump is serious […]
Glorious ruins: on fragility of magazines and other institutions
If little magazines are a public good, how do we ensure their continued existence?
Commonplace Book #338
A powerful religious apparatus compensates for a lack of justice and love. One can oppress the stranger, the widow, and the orphan and yet find edification in one’s beautiful religion. “Here is the Lord’s temple, here is the Lord’s temple!” […]
Our labor was not in vain
I’ve been a bit overwhelmed by the responses to the closing of Current. I am gratified that so many people are going to miss our little magazine. One of our writers passed along this encouraging song to some of our […]
This is what authoritarian regimes do
In case you haven’t heard, the Trump White House has removed a searchable database of January 6, 2021 cases from the Department of Justice website. Here is Alec MacGillis at Pro Publica: TheĀ removal of the databaseĀ happened…quietly, but it is worthy […]
What happened to the Kennedys?
Yesterday Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was sworn in as the Health and Human Services secretary. Over at Politico, Peter S. Canellos wonders what his uncle Teddy might think. Here is a taste: When the late Sen. Ted Kennedy hired a […]
David Brooks: “Trump really seems not to give a crap about the working class”
Here is The New York Times columnist: Over the past 20 years or so many of us social observer types have been writing about the horrific chasms separating the educated class (people with college degrees) from the working class (people […]
Blessing of Unicorns: Looking back, part I
Looking back with gratitude
When it comes to religious history and public theology, J.D. Vance is “in over his head.”
Michael Sean Winters of the National Catholic Reporter gives the Vice President of the United States a history lesson and a lesson in historical thinking. Vice President JD Vance spoke at theĀ International Religious Freedom SummitĀ last week. There was much in […]
Commonplace Book #337
I think you can get to a point where nihilism, if that’s the right word, is overwhelming, and the basic laws that society has set up–either religious or social laws–become meaningless. Things just get really dark. You lose those constraints, […]
A Symposium on Love
Loveās complexities endureāand love does, too