The Garden State Parkway intersects with NJ Highway 9 around Tom’s River New Jersey, roughly thirty miles South of Bruce Springsteen’s home town of Freehold. But the guy who was sprung from cages out on Highway 9 does not want […]
Way of Improvement
Evangelical roundup for July 29, 2021
What is going on Evangelicalland?: Are evangelicals anti-anti-racist? One evangelical doesn’t like David French writing about race. Here is what French wrote. Shane Claiborne wants to visit Greg Locke’s church: https://twitter.com/ShaneClaiborne/status/1420184808521670658 Christian Contemporary Music is more popular than country music…IN […]
Eric Metaxas: Don’t get vaccinated. Be a rebel.
I wrote a lot about Metaxas today in my piece at Current. I could have added this to the article. In addition to his radio program, Metaxas serves as a “fellow” at the Liberty University Standing for Freedom Center. Watch […]
If there is a spirit of anti-Christ in America right now, we saw it yesterday. But Kirk, Carlson, and Ingraham are free to channel that spirit because we are not a Christian nation.
Yesterday was a sad day for the United States. When I use the term “anti-Christ” in this post I am not invoking some kind of eschatological figure mentioned in the Book of Revelation, but a general spirit that runs counter […]
Episode 15: “Massachusetts Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage”
The Christian Right responds to the Goodridge v. Department of Health decision. Episode 15: “Massachusetts Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage” dropped last night. Subscribers to Current at the Longshore level and above receive this narrative history podcast. Here’s a teaser: Listen to Episodes 0, 1, […]
The future of American evangelicalism is Latino
Here is Meaghan Winter at The Atlantic; Latinos are leaving the Catholic Church and converting to evangelical Protestantism in increased numbers, and evangelical organizations are putting more energy and resources toward reaching potential Latino congregants. Latinos are the fastest-growing group of evangelicals in the […]
Heather Cox Richardson on rewriting history
Earlier this month I wrote a long post on complexity and revisionism in the doing of history. Over at Milwaukee Independent, historian Heather Cox Richardson discusses the importance of rewriting history. She writes in the context of a recent revisionist […]
Evangelical leader Tony Evans offers “Kingdom race theology” as an an alternative to “critical race theory”
Evans recently gave a two-part presentation on the subject at his Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas. Here is Part 1: Here is Part 2: A couple of quick thoughts: First, Evans clearly believes in systemic racism and the value […]
Conservative evangelical radio host Phil Valentine changes his tune on COVID-19 vaccination
We wrote about Valentine last week in a post on Eric Metaxas’s claim that “he can spread false information [about the COVID-19 vaccine] all day long.” The New York Times is now covering the story. Here is Hamilton Matthew Masters […]
Clearing-up some confusion about the Current podcasts
Current is the home of two podcasts. I host The Way of Improvement Leads Home Podcast. I have hosted it for for five years. It predates Current. This podcast is interview-driven. Our guests are historians. It is also FREE! You […]
Biden administration backs off the 1619 Project and other anti-racist literature and language in its new American history and Civics grant program
Back in April we wrote about the Department of Education “priorities” for its new American History and Civics grant program. The call for proposals expressed an interest in programs that stressed the “importance of including, in the teaching learning of […]
Sarah Huckabee Sanders’s pro-vaccination op-ed praises Trump and trashes the “because the science says so crowd”
The former former Trump press secretary and gubernatorial candidate is calling her fellow Arkansans to take the vaccine. Only 35.62% of the Arkansas’s population is vaccinated. Only Mississippi and Alabama have lower vaccination rates. As expected, Huckabee Sanders is incapable […]
Billy Graham’s grandson Jonathan Lotz is in critical condition due to COVID-19
Jonathan Lotz is the son of Anne Graham Lotz. Here is Julian Shen-Berro at the Charlotte Observer: Jonathan Lotz, the grandson of Rev. Billy Graham, is hospitalized and in critical condition due to COVID-19, according to social media posts by […]
Evangelical roundup for July 26, 2021
What is going on Evangelicalland?: If you can get behind the paywall, Beth Allison Barr and Kristin Kobes Du Mez were out on the town in Waco and The New Yorker covered it! Evangelicals making a difference: https://twitter.com/FindMyVaxLA_Bot/status/1412944931111460866 Critical race […]
Sunday night odds and ends
A few things online that caught my attention this week: Plumber Jones and Professor Cowen Black celebrity intellectuals A Netflix show on the university Emmett Till Agnes Howard reviews Philippa Koch, The Course of God’s Providence: Religion, Health, and the […]
“You should not have the right to spread disease and occupy a precious hospital bed”
We urgently need a vaccine passport in the United States. I agree with every word of Fareed Zakaria’s column this week. Here is a taste: Like the United States, France has had high levels of anti-vaccination sentiment. But political leadership […]
Snakes and late colonial America
My first or second year at Messiah College, the student history club produced t-shirts with Ben Franklin’s famous “Join or Die” snake image (see above) on the front. It was partly an attempt to raise the club’s membership. Messiah is […]
What are incoming first-year college students reading this summer?
As part of its first-year experience program, incoming first-year students at Messiah University are reading Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. They will not be alone. Here is Audrey Williams June and Jacquelyn Elias at The Chronicle of […]
Eric Metaxas on the COVID-19 vaccine: “I can spread false information all day long.” Tells listeners to “get a gun” to stop those gathering vaccination data
To be fair, Metaxas does not believe that anti-vaxxers like Tucker Carlson and others are spreading “false information.” Metaxas actually believes that the real science behind the vaccination is “nonsense” and “disinformation.” People are dying of COVID-19 in large numbers […]
Introducing the Cleveland Guardians
The Indians have changed their name. Here is Tom Hanks: Why Tom Hanks?