Over at NBC News, Claretta Bellamy tells the story of Kenneth Johnston. Here is a taste: Kenneth Johnston of West Philadelphia always had a deep appreciation for Harriet Tubman and her work of freeing enslaved Black people. But instead of […]
Way of Improvement
The FBI on the trail of Aretha Franklin
Nina Corcoran and Jazz Monroe explain at Pitchfork: The FBI has declassified its file on the late Aretha Franklin. The document, which spans 270 pages and includes reports from more than a dozen states, shows that the FBI extensively tracked Franklin’s civil […]
How Lindsey Graham’s abortion bill is sure to backfire on the GOP
Wait, I thought conservatives wanted the people in the states to decide abortion law. Eugene Daniels and Ryan Lizza of Politico explain: After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, most Republicans stuck to a simple message: The decision merely […]
“A love of reading.” Now there’s a college general education outcome we can all get behind.
Here is community college dean Matt Reed at Insider Higher Education: Love of reading isn’t all puppies and unicorns, of course. We have a frightening number of books in the house, both on display and in boxes in the basement. […]
Removing the last vestiges of the Confederacy from the U.S. military will come with a price tag of $62 million
Will that also include removing Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate and former army colonel Doug Mastriano’s Confederate uniform? 🙂 Here is Alex Horton at The Washington Post; Removing the last vestiges of Confederate history from the U.S. military, including renaming nine Army posts, […]
Should we start preparing for a Ukrainian victory?
While we were all watching coverage of Queen Elizabeth II’s death, the Ukrainian army was taking back towns occupied by Russian troops. Here is a taste of Anne Applebaum’s recent piece at The Atlantic: But even though the fighting may […]
Florida governor Ron DeSantis at Hillsdale College: “Put on the full armor of God. Stand firm against the left’s schemes”
It used to be just evangelical ministers and preachers who invoked spiritual warfare against “the Left.” Now politicians do it as well. Here is the Miami Herald ‘s Ana Ceballos on DeSantis’s recent visit to Hillsdale College, a liberal arts […]
David Emmanuel Goatley is the new president of Fuller Theological Seminary
Here is the press release: David Emmanuel Goatley was named the sixth president of Fuller Seminary in 2022. Prior to his appointment, he served as the associate dean for academic and vocational formation, Ruth W. and A. Morris Williams Jr. […]
Song of the day
February 26, 1932–September 12, 2003 RIP
Trump after his 2020 election loss: “I’m just not going to leave”
The quote comes from New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman’s forthcoming book, Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America. Here is CNN: Former President Donald Trump repeatedly told aides in the days following his 2020 election […]
Who were Charles I and Charles II?
And why did the British monarch decide to call himself Charles III? Here is historian Emilie Brinkman at The Washington Post; The death of Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s longest ruling monarch, has heralded the ascension of a new British monarch […]
The Author’s Corner with Jeffers Lennox
Jeffers Lennox is Associate Professor of History at Wesleyan University. This interview is based on his new book, North of America: Loyalists, Indigenous Nations, and the Borders of the Long American Revolution (Yale University Press, 2022). JF: What led you […]
Episode 101: Exhibiting Evangelicalism
Have you visited the Museum of the Bible in Washington D.C.? How about the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, North Carolina? In this episode, historian Devin Manzullo-Thomas, author of Exhibiting Evangelicalism: Commemoration and Religion’s Presence of the Past, helps us make sense […]
Evangelical roundup for September 12, 2022
What is happening in Evangelical land? Daniel Williams on why progressive Christians should join the pro-life cause. Is evangelical male-female friendship possible? Jim Wallis defends Biden’s Philadelphia speech. Lisa Sharon Harper on the death of Queen Elizabeth: It looks like […]
Song of the day
Sunday night odds and ends
A few things online that caught my attention this week: Adam Smith reconsidered Seventeenth-century Dutch Calvinist missionaries in Southeast Asia Icebreakers on the first day of class Who is Jay Caspian Kang? Comparing the opposition to slavery and the opposition […]
Remembering September 11, 2001
Joe Biden gave a great speech today. Watch:
Metaxas: “God has called me to fight to the death for what is true and right”
Back in April 2021, I wrote a piece at Current titled, “The Education of an Evangelical Insurrectionist.” It told the story of Tyler Ethridge, a graduate of Charis Bible College who entered the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021 […]
In December 2020, Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano prayed that God would help him and other election deniers “seize power”
Here is Mastriano on December 30, 2020: Watch: Some comments: This is what we mean by “Christian nationalism.” Providential history is one of the defining marks of Christian nationalism. Notice how Mastriano prays as if he understands God’s purposes in […]
Billy Graham to Richard Nixon: Satan was working through the Jews, but Hitler handled it all wrong
The Graham-Nixon conversations were much worse than we originally thought. In late July 2018, the full conversation of a 1972 Billy Graham-Richard Nixon conversation was, according to researcher Mike Hertenstein, “quietly posted on the Nixon Library website.” It was labeled […]