Here is Will Weissert at the Associated Press: Donald Trump took office eight years ago, pledging to “drain the swamp” and end the domination of Washington influence peddlers. Now, he’s opening his second term by rolling back prohibitions on executive branch employees accepting […]
Way of Improvement
Commonplace Book #319
Within symbolic capitalist circles, the term [“Latinx”] is increasingly regarded as the correct way to refer to people of Hispanic or Latino origin. Its use has grown increasingly pronounce in outputs by nonprofits, think tanks and advocacy groups, academics, journalist, […]
“Evangelicals believe…”
I am teaching my history course on the “Age of Hamilton” this semester. In between the first and second class periods I asked the students to watch Lin Manuel Miranda’s Broadway musical Hamilton. On the second day of class we […]
When a member of the clergy calls for mercy for undocumented immigrants it is “radical ideology.” When Trump pardons violent criminals who beat police officers it is “redemption.”
Mike Johnson believes in “redemption.” Here is how he responded to Trump’s pardons and commutations of January 6th insurrectionists: Here’s the money quote: “It’s kind of my ethos, my world view, we believe in redemption, we believe in second chances….” […]
He carried a big wooden cross around the world and was influential in George W. Bush’s conversion. Arthur Blessitt has died.
Here is a taste of Daniel Silliman’s obituary at Christianity Today: People had a lot of questions when they saw a hippie minister with slightly shaggy hair hauling a 12-foot cross with a wheel across North America, South America, Europe, […]
Trump’s immigration policy has a long history
Here is historian Ana Raquel Minian at The New York Times: Donald Trump has long explicitly challenged a foundational myth of American identity: the idea of the United States as a nation of immigrants that welcomes the world’s “huddled masses […]
Commonplace Book #318
Symbolic capitalist and affiliated institutions ritualistically describe themselves as racist, sexist, and so on in a paradoxical bid to demonstrate their virtue. However, to have others brand one as a bigot, and to be treated as a bigot, is a […]
How dare this demonic “priestess” speak truth to Trump! (And other things evangelicals are saying in the wake of the inauguration).
Today at the Service of Prayer for the Nation at the Washington Cathedral, the Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, confronted Donald Trump about immigrants. Watch: By the way: This is what speaking truth […]
A historic Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod college basketball tournament is coming to an end
Here is Tom Raabe’s piece on the end of the Concordia Invitational Tournament: “Keep C.I.T.! Keep C.I.T.!” That was the chant that rose from the packed gym on the campus of Concordia University Wisconsin last year about this time. The final game […]
CURRENT’s 2024 Best American Essay nominations
Please join us in congratulating our nominees for this year’s Best American Essays collection. These are: Colleen Vasconcellos, “Funeral Food.” April 22, 2024. Amanda McCrina, “The Unmysterious Russian Soul.” May 28, 2024. Jim Wildeman, “Messiah.” July 22, 2024. M. Elizabeth […]
The culture wars (or lack thereof) at Gettysburg
Great long-form reporting here from Virginia Heffernan at Politico. Sometimes historical reenacting offers an escape. Here is just a small taste of her piece, “How Gettysburg Became a Refuge for Conservatives Battered by Trump-Era Strife“: The Gettysburg reenactment certainly shimmers […]
George Will: “Donald Trump’s second inaugural speech will be remembered as worse than 59 others, including his first.”
I wrote about Trump’s inauguration address here. But I am no George Will. Here is the conservative commentator on Trump’s second inaugural address: Although few presidential inaugural addresses are remembered, six etched in the nation’s memory felicitous phrases, perfect for […]
Commonplace Book #317
…studies have found that educating people about “white privilege” does very little to change anyone’s attitudes or behaviors toward African Americans or other minorities. Instead, the training primarily leads white elites to hold poorer whites in even lower esteem–it convinces […]
As Inauguration Day winds down, what are evangelicals saying?
Evangelicals helped put him in office. Let’s see how what some of them have to say today. (We did a similar post yesterday.) Shane Claiborne quotes MLK on MLK Day: Albert Mohler chooses to write about Biden’s “mental abilities”: And […]
American Carnage 2.0
The new president did not use the phrase “American carnage” today like he did in his 2016 inaugural address, but it sounded like the same speech. The central theme was that America sucks, but Trump will restore a “golden age.” […]
What Franklin Graham could have learned from Abraham Lincoln today
During the first Trump term, Franklin Graham was one of the many “court evangelicals,” the phrase I coined to describe the evangelical Protestants who frequented the White House—Trump’s “court”—to flatter him, get photo-ops with him, and influence him on public […]
Title of the day: “Michelle Doesn’t Want to Go to Barack’s Work Thing”
Here is Caitlin Flanagan at The Atlantic: No constitutional scholar or judge has ever questioned the American right to skip a spouse’s annoying work thing. Has anyone ever had a good time at one of these horrible events? You’re clutching […]
Raise the American flag today. I think Jimmy Carter would agree.
On December 29, the day former president Jimmy Carter died, sitting president Joe Biden ordered all U.S. states to lower their flags to half-staff for thirty days in accordance with the country’s flag code. Here is USA Today: On Inauguration Day […]
“Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead” –MLK
Here is Martin Luther King Jr. on April 3, 1968 in Memphis: Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. […]
