What is happening in Evangelical land? There is a long history of white evangelicals taking shots at Martin Luther King Jr.’s “liberal theology.” Tim LaHaye did it in 1968 and on Monday Al Mohler did it, albeit in a softer...
Nudity in the Bible?
There were a lot of pictures of naked people in 19th-century Bibles. Here is historian Joseph Slaughter at The Panorama: Every now and then, work in the archives produces moments that jar us out of our misplaced assumptions. The biggest...
Will Christian colleges and universities survive?
There is A LOT to consider in Catholic moral philosopher Charles Camosy‘s recent piece at America. Here is a section that got my attention: As institutions’ connections to Christianity become frayed, other ideologies have gained ground. Too often, Christian values...
Why did the chicken cross the road? Historians respond.
University of Chicago historian Kathleen Belew is teaching her students how different kinds of historians might respond to this age old question: Here are some the answers she has received:...
Is professional wrestling fake?
Of course it is. But that doesn’t really help us understand its historic appeal. In a fascinating piece at the blog of the Journal of Intellectual History, historian Aaron D. Horton offers a brief history of this form of “entertainment.”...
How did the 2022 Winter Olympics end up in Beijing?
Those who listen to The Way of Improvement Leads Home Podcast know historian Bruce Berglund. He last appeared on the show in February 2021 to talk about his new book on global hockey. You can listen to that interview here....
Episode 31: “Where’s the Christian Right?”
The GOP prepares for its 2004 convention. Episode 31: “Where’s the Christian Right” dropped last night. Subscribers to Current at the Longshore level and above new episodes of this narrative history podcast. Here is a teaser: If you like what you hear, and want...
National Review turns on Fauci
The editors of one the leading (and still reasonably sane) conservative magazines in the country is calling for Joe Biden to relieve Dr. Anthony Fauci of his “duties at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, as chief medical adviser...
A database of the 1,715 members of Congress who owned slaves
The Washington Post has published a database of American enslavers. It includes some familiar names: Thomas Hart Benton, John C. Breckinridge, Preston Brooks, Aaron Burr, Pierce Butler, John C. Calhoun, Charles Carroll, Henry Clay, De Witt Clinton, Davy Crockett, Jefferson...
Trump-JFK Jr. in 2024!!
It’s a winning ticket! 🙂 Here is Meridith McGraw at Politico: Ray Kallatsa is a die-hard Trumper who “definitely” wants to see former President Donald Trump run for office again in 2024. So it was natural that he’d travel from...
Tim LaHaye had some choice words for Wheaton College when the evangelical school hosted a memorial service for Martin Luther King Jr.
On April 7, 1968, Wheaton College, an evangelical Christian school in Wheaton, Illiinois, hosted a “community-wide memorial service” for Martin Luther King Jr. in the wake of King’s assassination in Memphis on April 4, 1968. The final paragraph of this...
Is Biden’s presidency doomed? Some historical perspective.
Princeton’s Julian Zelizer offers some historical context at CNN: Those who are worried should find some solace in the fact that contemporary presidents have been able to come back from difficult moments like these. Challenging first terms don’t inevitably put...
David Blight on fighting the Trumpian Lost Cause
The Yale historian wants us to keep battling for democracy. Here is a taste of his piece at The Guardian: On 6 January 2021, an American mob, orchestrated by the most powerful man in the land, along with many congressional...
High school student: The retaliation against CRT is a projection of parents’ biases and fears
Christiane Calixte, a junior at Berkeley Carroll School in Brooklyn, writes: “the retaliation against CRT shows that parents have no idea what students are learning — and that their protests are less about education and more about a projection of...
Why the ACLU supports the flying of a Christian flag in front of Boston’s City Hall
Here is David Cole of the American Civil Liberties Union: The ACLU has long fought to enforce the separation of church and state. We were the plaintiff in both Allegheny County v. ACLU and McCreary County v. ACLU, in which the Supreme Court held...
Song of the day
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Evangelical roundup for January 17, 2022
What is happening in Evangelical land? Eric Metaxas and Naomi Wolf talk about the “fear of COVID-19,” the “apartheid society” in New York City; how the “unnecessary” vaccine is attacking women’s reproductive health; and how the vaccine reflects a general...
Sunday night odds and ends
A few things online that caught my attention this week: Brian Rosenberg reviews Louis Menand’s review of Roosevelt Montas’s Rescuing Socrates: How the Great Books Changed My Life and Why They Matter for a New Generation. Thomas Chatterton Williams reviews...
On C-SPAN’s “American History TV”
CSPAN recently filmed a lecture on the American Enlightenment in my colonial America course at Messiah University. Watch it here....
The latest Christian Right critique of the 1619 Project is full of problems. Let’s break it down.
Jerry Newcombe is a writer and local Florida radio host who comes out of the D. James Kennedy (Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church of Ft. Lauderdale) wing of conservative evangelicals. He is also the president of a Christian nationalist historical organization...