William Jennings Bryan was the first American presidential candidate to turn political campaigning into an art form. Economist Johannes Buggle explains at the Broadstreet blog. Here’s a taste of his post, “Do Local Campaign Visits By a Populist Politician Matter […]
Way of Improvement
The “American Studier” tackles the history of investigative journalism
I am a regular reader of Ben Railton‘s blog “American Studier.” Last week he took-up the history of investigative journalism with pieces on Ida B. Wells, A.C. Thompson, David Halberstam, Ida Tarbell, Nellie Bly,and Fanny Fern. It’s a great little […]
Current contributing editor Adam Jortner wins book award
Congrats, Adam! Read his Current pieces here. Here is the Auburn University press release: The Mormon History Association, or MHA, honored Goodwin-Philpott Professor of Religion Adam Jortner in the Department of History with its annual Best Book Award for his […]
Evangelical roundup for July 18, 2022
What is happening in Evangelical land? Will evangelicals separate from John MacArthur? Justin Giboney quotes Megan McCardle on the Hawley-Bridges exchange: Concordance-ism Why Paul Weyrich is key to our understanding of abortion’s role in the culture wars. Robert Jeffress is […]
Sunday night odds and ends
A few things online that caught my attention this week: Why do conservatives hate theory? The ultimate NFL insider The persistence of Russian nationalism Tali Farhadian Weinstein reviews John Wood Sweet’s The Sewing Girl’s Tale: A Story of Crime and […]
The 7 Mountain Dominionists converge on Duluth, Georgia
Watch: Read more here. The above video is from July 1, 2022. It takes place in a Duluth, Georgia arena. The event is sponsored by Gene Bailey’s Flashpoint Church television show. One of the men on the stage is Lance […]
Doug Mastriano finds a place to show his campaign movie
After two sites in Lancaster County refused to premiere Pennsylvania GOP gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano’s movie “The Return of the American Patriot: The Rise of Pennsylvania,” a church in Lower Allen Township (Cumberland County), Christ Community Church, agreed to air […]
Eric Metaxas keeps pushing the Big Lie
Some of the most distinguished conservative federal court justices of the past three decades just put out a 72-page report decimating claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election. We wrote about that report yesterday. Meanwhile, most of the court […]
What is popular this week at Current?
Here are the most popular features of the week at Current: John Fea, “Trump Is Going Down and He Is Taking Evangelicals with Him“ Vincent Bacote, “Wide Awoke at Wheaton“ Adam Jortner, “Nostalgia, Wokeness, and Fraggle Rock“ John Fea, “An Open […]
Why I almost came to see Josh Hawley as a sympathetic figure
Notice the word “almost” in the title. As most readers of this blog know, I am not a Josh Hawley fan. In fact, the guy usually makes my skin crawl. But the other day I actually found myself, at least […]
The Author’s Corner with Brad R. Clampitt
Brad R. Clampitt is Professor of History at East Central University. This interview is based on his new book, Lost Causes: Confederate Demobilization and the Making of Veteran Identity (LSU Press, 2022). JF: What led you to write Lost Causes? […]
Prominent conservatives: There was no election fraud in 2020
A group of conservatives just released a 72-page report, based on a close reading of all the pertinent court cases, proving that there was no fraud in the 2020 election. The report is titled, “Lost, Not Stolen: The Conservative Case […]
Journalists and “bothsidesism”
Should journalists give equal time to every side of a particular political or social issue? According to the Pew Research Center, “a little more than half of the journalists surveyed (55%) say that every side does not always deserve equal coverage in […]
Are the political parties realigning?
Yes. Here is Josh Kraushaar at Axios: Shifts in the demographics of the two parties’ supporters — taking place before our eyes — are arguably the biggest political story of our time. The big picture: Republicans are becoming more working class […]
Evangelical roundup for July 13, 2022
What is happening in Evangelical land? Some Southern Baptists don’t believe sexual abuse is a problem. Evangelical giving The chair of the board of the National Association of Evangelicals preaches to global Baptists about racial justice. Kaitlin Schiess on women […]
George Will rips millennials
Is he right? Here is a taste of Will’s scathing column: Hence the youthful millions who are sour, humorless and disappointed — with America, and everything else less perfect than they. They are fluent in the thin-gruel cant (diversity, inclusion, […]
The mob at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th was following Trump’s orders
For those of you who are not paying attention to the historic January 6th hearings, here is what happened yesterday in the words of Amanda Carpenter, writer for the conservative-leaning The Bulwark: Donald Trump’s defenders can finally drop the idea […]
A Southern Baptist seminary will require a course on sexual abuse prevention and response
As many of you know, the Southern Baptist Convention has a sexual abuse problem. Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina is addressing it. Here is the press release: To ensure that students are equipped to prevent and […]
I’m not going to pay for that guy’s kid to be educated
What is the common good? Should a person or couple with no children have to pay taxes to support public education? It seems to have to come this. Here is Michael Tomasky, editor of The New Republic: The Times’ Dan Barry reported on […]
On the Christian Right, some things never change
I am not ready yet to talk about my next book project, but I will share two things that struck me today as I was conducting research. The first story comes from December 2004. In the weeks following George W. […]