An evangelical pastor in Ligonier, Pennsylvania is still an undecided voter. He doesn’t read anything about national politics until one week before the election. According Olga Khazan at The Atlantic, this pastor is not alone. A taste: When Bryan Jarrell, […]
Way of Improvement
Bruce Springsteen or Ta-Nehisi Coates?
Dave Masciotra compares Bruce Springsteen’s liberalism with Ta-Nehisi Coates’s progressivism: By the turn of the century, the New Jersey native had already established himself as a rock and roll legend. But his artistic reaction to 9/11 enhanced his importance. Less […]
The Author’s Corner with Matthias André Voigt
Matthias André Voigt is Part-Time Lecturer in Modern American History at Free University Berlin. This interview is based on his new book, Reinventing the Warrior: Masculinity in the American Indian Movement, 1968-1973 (University Press of Kansas, 2024). JF: What led […]
Wisconsin bound!
This post is both a travel update and some personal and professional news. I will be in Wisconsin this week for a retreat with the staff and fellows of newly formed Lumen Center for the Study of Christianity and Culture. […]
Religion and the election in Pennsylvania
Ivey DeJesus of the Harrisburg Patriot-News and Peter Smith of the Associated Press are covering Christianity and the 2024 presidential election in Pennsylvania. I was happy to help them with their stories. Here is a taste of DeJesus’s piece, “Some […]
The Author’s Corner with David M. Emmons
David M. Emmons is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Montana. This interview is based on his new book, History’s Erratics: Irish Catholic Dissidents and the Transformation of American Capitalism, 1870-1930 (University of Illinois Press, 2024). JF: What […]
7 days until Election Day. What are evangelicals saying?
Yesterday Donald Trump spoke to the members of his National Faith Advisory Board’s National Faith Summit in Powder Springs, Georgia. Newsweek covers it here. Watch: At about the 29:55 mark, Paula White says “we believe that God has saved you […]
Daniel K. Williams on “The Politics of the Cross”
Daniel Hummel of The Lumen Center in Madison, Wisconsin interviews Current contributing Daniel K. Williams about his book The Politics of the Cross: A Christian Alternative to Partisanship. Watch:
Trump at Madison Square Garden: “A closing argument of grievances, misogyny, and racism”
It is very likely that more than seventy million Americans are going to vote for Donald Trump on November 5. Reporters from The New York Times chronicled what happened yesterday at Madison Square Garden First, there was this: A comic […]
No Josh Hawley, the United States was not “founded on revival”
I included this in today’s roundup, but I wanted to call attention to it again. Yesterday Missouri senator Josh Hawley spoke at MAGA worship leader Sean Feucht’s Washington D.C. rally. Here is part of what he said: It’s a privilege […]
8 days until Election Day. What are evangelicals saying?
David French has been a never-Trump from the beginning and he hasn’t wavered. Yesterday at The New York Times he offered four lessons he has learned during his nine years of never-Trumpism. They are: See how French unpacks these points […]
The Author’s Corner with Ian T. Iverson
Ian T. Iverson is Associate Editor of the John Dickinson Writings Project. This interview is based on his new book, Holding the Political Center in Illinois: Conservatism and Union on the Brink of the Civil War (Kent State University Press, […]
Sunday night odds and ends
A few things online that caught my attention this week: The new Chicago Manual of Style is here. A writing instructor on why students don’t read. Photos from the 1893 World’s Fair The story behind Maine’s 1840 abolition law. Is […]
9 days until Election Day. What are evangelicals saying?
Alex Morris of Rolling Stone, who writes regularly about the Christian Right, has a recent piece on evangelicals trying to convince their fellow believers to vote for Harris. It focuses on Evangelicals for Harris and Doug Pagitt’s Vote Common Good. […]
10 days until Election Day. What are evangelicals saying?
Kamala Harris is not winning over many evangelical voters with recent comments on abortion. Here are a couple of lines from a Fox News story: Pro-life groups are livid at Vice President Kamala Harris after she took an uncompromising position on abortion […]
The Author’s Corner with Mary Bridges
Mary Bridges is an Ernest May Fellow in History and Policy at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. This interview is based on her new book, Dollars and Dominion: US Bankers and the Making of a […]
Historians are “killing history”
Katherine Epstein teaches history at Rutgers University-Camden and she has some very good thoughts about her (and my) discipline. Here is a taste of her piece at Liberties, “Historians Killing History“: The indifference to scholarly standards should be evident to […]
“If Democrats are keen to defend democracy they would do well to stop talking about it”
Everyone is saying that the 2024 election is a referendum on the fate of American democracy. Some progressive Christians are currently traveling through swing states on a “Faith and Democracy” tour. Based on the scholarly interests of the academics involved […]
If Trump wins, it may be BECAUSE of his depravity
This week learned from The Atlantic and from The New York Times that Donald Trump is a big Adolph Hitler fan. Tom Nichols at The Atlantic writes: “Many Americans know exactly who Trump is, and they like it.” A taste: […]
James Carville “is certain” Harris will win
The 79-year-old political strategist who became a household name in the 1990s for his work on the Bill Clinton campaigns is making a prediction. In yesterday’s New York Times, James Carville offered three reasons why Kamala Harris will win the […]