What is happening in Evangelical land Do evangelicals need to get in touch with the ancient church? Carl Trueman thinks so. But wasn’t Thomas Oden making this argument more than 20 years ago? Evangelicals continue to tackle immigration reform. Michael […]
Iowa pastor prays at Trump rally and equates the “excitement” in the air to fullness of the Kingdom of God.
Pastor Patrick Wiedemeier of Anchor Point Baptist Church in Webster City, Iowa prayed at Saturday night’s Trump rally in Fort Dodge, Iowa. You can watch his prayer at the 1:40.51 mark of this YouTube video. Pastor Wiedemeier starts by reading […]
Sunday night odds and ends
A few things online that caught my attention this week: The wealthy no longer use their riches to support society. When hillbillies migrated to the cities and joined the white working class. What if the United States lost World War […]
Is going on X and chiding evangelicals for pursuing “respectability” a form of pursuing “respectability”?
Just thinking out loud, folks: Here is the entire tweet: Having just come from ETS, I’ve come to believe that winsomeness might not be quite at the center of the bullseye for what besets so much of evangelicalism. I do […]
An Australian theologian changes his mind about “woke”
Michael Bird is the Academic Dean of Ridley College in Melbourne. He is author or editor of over a dozen books. Recently, Bird wrote a piece at his Substack page titled “How I Changed My Mind on Woke.” I can’t […]
David French talks about his New York Times column on the moral collapse of Liberty University
French talks to Mark Oppenheimer at Inside Higher Ed about Liberty University. Listen: French says he is still getting emails from people saying that his New York Times column on Liberty University did not go far enough in exposing the […]
Nikki Haley’s 3-2-1 GOP primary strategy
Nikki Haley is surging in New Hampshire with a little more than two months to go before the January 23, 2024 primary. Can she win the GOP nomination? It’s a long shot. But according to journalist Ron Brownstein she has […]
Does activism lead to bad writing?
George Packer of The Atlantic thinks so. Here is a taste of his recent piece: It seems natural for creative people to speak out at a time of crisis. We look to them for words and images that provide clarity […]
If David Barton’s work has been widely discredited, why has he remained so popular and influential?
Journalist Jon Ward, the author of Testimony: Inside the Evangelical Movement That Failed a Generation, recently asked me the question in the title of this post as part of a story he is writing on David Barton for Yahoo News. […]
What is popular this week at Current?
Here are the most popular features of the week at Current: Here are the most popular posts of the last week at The Way of Improvement Leads Home blog: Here are the most popular posts of the last week at The Arena blog:
What has happened to the “Kennedy name” in American politics?
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is running as an independent candidate for President of the United States. One recent poll has him at 22% in a three-way race with Biden and Trump. His father, Robert F. Kennedy, was a United States […]
Some of the biggest congressional fights in U.S. history
Two fights almost broke-out this week on Capitol Hill. You can read all about them here. The most famous fight in congressional history happened in 1856 when Preston Brooks of South Carolina caned Charles Sumner of Massachusetts in the Senate […]
Stanley Fish, at 85, is teaching at New College-Florida
As best I can tell, the last time the name “Stanley Fish” appeared in the title of a post at this blog was August 2013. I did a post on Russell Jacoby’s New Republic piece, “Stanley Fish Turned Careerism into […]
Evangelical roundup for November 16, 2023
What is happening in Evangelical land? Evangelicals continue to drive support for Israel. French evangelicals march against antisemitism. Matthew Lee Anderson on Karen Swallow Prior’s “evangelical imagination.” The Mike Johnson porn-blocker app story won’t disappear. Walter Kim of the National […]
On George Scialabba’s new collection of essays
Followers of this blog know that I am a big fan of writer George Scialabba. (I have never met Scialabba, but I am guessing that he would be uncomfortable with the word “fan.”) If you are not reading Scialabba you […]
Are you listening to The Way of Improvement Leads Home Podcast?
We have had a jam-packed Summer-Fall 2023 season at the podcast that included: Theresa Runstedlter on the American Basketball Association and race. Daniel Hummel on dispensationalism Stephen Prothero on mid-20th-century religious publishing. Larry Eskridge on the Jesus People Rachel Swarns […]
Paging Joanne Freeman! Paging Joanne Freeman!
What happened in Congress today? Former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) apparently elbowed Tim Burchett (R-TN) in the hallway. Burchett called it a “clean shot to the kidneys.” Here is CNN: GOP Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee accused […]
Happy University Press Week!
I’ve published three books with university presses in my career and spent a lot of time at this blog promoting the work of American historians who publish with university presses. This is why I am happy to call your attention […]
The working class Christian faith of Shawn Fain in historical context
We have covered Fain’s Christian faith before at this blog. Check out our posts here and here. Today CNN is running a long-form piece by John Blake on the religious beliefs of the leader of the United Auto Workers. Here […]
“Wild animals that are believed to be harmful to crops, farm animals, or game, or that carry disease, e.g., rodents.”
ver·min /ˈvərmən/ noun wild animals that are believed to be harmful to crops, farm animals, or game, or that carry disease, e.g., rodents. Watch: What are people saying? Rep. Jamie Raskin: Joe Scarborough and Jon Meacham: Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich: […]