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John Fea

John Fea is Executive Editor of CURRENT and the author of The Way of Improvement Leads Home blog.

Albert Mohler: “I don’t think we can run from someone calling us a Christian nationalist…God’s truth is to be translated into civic law”

John Fea   |  November 2, 2024

Watch: He seems to gladly embrace the label “Christian nationalist.” At the end he says to the man who asked the question: “I hope that makes sense.” Actually, it doesn’t make sense to me. Either the state privileges Christianity or […]

Were the Puritans “Christian nationalists”?

John Fea   |  November 2, 2024

I encourage you to read Bob Smietana’s piece at Religion News Service. It is titled, “We tried Christian nationalism in America. It went badly.” It’s a good piece of reporting on modern-day Christian nationalists like Charlie Kirk, Al Mohler, and […]

Support our work at CURRENT

John Fea   |  November 1, 2024

Current is a reader-supported journal of opinion and commentary providing daily reflections on contemporary ideas, culture, and politics. We offer critical and constructive insights on issues of national concern in a manner that strives to honor nuance, tolerate complexity, and […]

George W. Bush does not need to “get right with history” because history does not work that way

John Fea   |  November 1, 2024

Washington Post writer Matt Bai wants George W. Bush to “get right” with history by endorsing Kamala Harris. Here is a taste of his piece: I’d love to hear from George W. Bush before Election Day. Alone among the four […]

4 days until Election Day. What are evangelicals saying?

John Fea   |  November 1, 2024

Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA is using evangelical churches for GOP “get out the vote” rallies. MSNBC reports: Turning Point Action, founded by conservative provocateur Charlie Kirk, has held GOP vote-chasing events with at least 22 churches in six swing […]

Wehner: “The strongest case for voting for Harris doesn’t have nearly as much to do with her as it has to do with Trump”

John Fea   |  October 31, 2024

Over at The Atlantic, Peter Wehner worries about the future of conservativism if Trump wins: The strongest case for voting for Harris doesn’t have nearly as much to do with her as it has to do with her opponent. Trump remains […]

5 days until Election Day: What are evangelicals saying?

John Fea   |  October 31, 2024

Chad Harvey is a Trump-supporting Pentecostal pastor in North Carolina. Scott Detrow of National Public Radio recently interviewed him about his political convictions. Here is a small taste: Detrow: Let me just ask the direct question about this with Trump. […]

6 days until Election Day. What are evangelicals saying?

John Fea   |  October 30, 2024

An evangelical pastor in Ligonier, Pennsylvania is still an undecided voter. He doesn’t read anything about national politics until one week before the election. According Olga Khazan at The Atlantic, this pastor is not alone. A taste: When Bryan Jarrell, […]

Bruce Springsteen or Ta-Nehisi Coates?

John Fea   |  October 30, 2024

Dave Masciotra compares Bruce Springsteen’s liberalism with Ta-Nehisi Coates’s progressivism: By the turn of the century, the New Jersey native had already established himself as a rock and roll legend. But his artistic reaction to 9/11 enhanced his importance. Less […]

Wisconsin bound!

John Fea   |  October 29, 2024

This post is both a travel update and some personal and professional news. I will be in Wisconsin this week for a retreat with the staff and fellows of newly formed Lumen Center for the Study of Christianity and Culture. […]

Religion and the election in Pennsylvania

John Fea   |  October 29, 2024

Ivey DeJesus of the Harrisburg Patriot-News and Peter Smith of the Associated Press are covering Christianity and the 2024 presidential election in Pennsylvania. I was happy to help them with their stories. Here is a taste of DeJesus’s piece, “Some […]

7 days until Election Day. What are evangelicals saying?

John Fea   |  October 29, 2024

Yesterday Donald Trump spoke to the members of his National Faith Advisory Board’s National Faith Summit in Powder Springs, Georgia. Newsweek covers it here. Watch: At about the 29:55 mark, Paula White says “we believe that God has saved you […]

Daniel K. Williams on “The Politics of the Cross”

John Fea   |  October 29, 2024

Daniel Hummel of The Lumen Center in Madison, Wisconsin interviews Current contributing Daniel K. Williams about his book The Politics of the Cross: A Christian Alternative to Partisanship. Watch:

Trump at Madison Square Garden: “A closing argument of grievances, misogyny, and racism”

John Fea   |  October 28, 2024

It is very likely that more than seventy million Americans are going to vote for Donald Trump on November 5. Reporters from The New York Times chronicled what happened yesterday at Madison Square Garden First, there was this: A comic […]

No Josh Hawley, the United States was not “founded on revival”

John Fea   |  October 28, 2024

I included this in today’s roundup, but I wanted to call attention to it again. Yesterday Missouri senator Josh Hawley spoke at MAGA worship leader Sean Feucht’s Washington D.C. rally. Here is part of what he said: It’s a privilege […]

8 days until Election Day. What are evangelicals saying?

John Fea   |  October 28, 2024

David French has been a never-Trump from the beginning and he hasn’t wavered. Yesterday at The New York Times he offered four lessons he has learned during his nine years of never-Trumpism. They are: See how French unpacks these points […]

Sunday night odds and ends

John Fea   |  October 27, 2024

A few things online that caught my attention this week: The new Chicago Manual of Style is here. A writing instructor on why students don’t read. Photos from the 1893 World’s Fair The story behind Maine’s 1840 abolition law. Is […]

10 days until Election Day. What are evangelicals saying?

John Fea   |  October 25, 2024

Kamala Harris is not winning over many evangelical voters with recent comments on abortion. Here are a couple of lines from a Fox News story: Pro-life groups are livid at Vice President Kamala Harris after she took an uncompromising position on abortion […]

Historians are “killing history”

John Fea   |  October 25, 2024

Katherine Epstein teaches history at Rutgers University-Camden and she has some very good thoughts about her (and my) discipline. Here is a taste of her piece at Liberties, “Historians Killing History“: The indifference to scholarly standards should be evident to […]

“If Democrats are keen to defend democracy they would do well to stop talking about it”

John Fea   |  October 25, 2024

Everyone is saying that the 2024 election is a referendum on the fate of American democracy. Some progressive Christians are currently traveling through swing states on a “Faith and Democracy” tour. Based on the scholarly interests of the academics involved […]

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