I’m no Ramaswamy fan, but he is one of the most interesting candidates in the GOP primary for presidency. I was talking about him to a reporter a few months ago and said that it would only be a matter […]
Way of Improvement
Finding common ground with book banners
There’s not much common ground to be had, but I appreciate writer Garret Keizer’s piece today at The New York Times. A taste: More than half a century has passed since I graduated from high school, an eon in digital […]
Episode 115: “Evangelicalism: Its Metaphors and Stories”
What is American evangelicalism? In her new book The Evangelical Imagination, Karen Swallow Prior, one of the most careful observers of, and participants in, evangelical life, analyzes the literature, art, and popular culture that has surrounded the movement and unpacks some of […]
Evangelical roundup for August 14, 2023
What is happening in Evangelical land? Some new research on evangelical women entering the workplace in the 1980s. Climate scientist Katherine Hayhoe on taking the Bible seriously. Bring back love. Why evangelicals still need Jonathan Edwards. The World Evangelical Alliance […]
Sunday night odds and ends
A few things online that caught my attention this week: The antiliberal revolution Providence, history, and the Bronze Age Pervert Are liberal values incompatible with capitalism? Anthony Arnett reviews Brad DeLong’s Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth […]
Former Trump NSA Michael Flynn to pastors: “Put the Bible aside and read the Constitution during some of your sermons”
The latest from the Michael Flynn: I cannot find the context for this talk. Perhaps someone can help me on that front and I will add it to the post. But this is Christian nationalism in its most extreme form. […]
“The notion of a unified Italian culture in America is something of a recent invention.”
Over at The Baffler, Michael Nicholas writes: “Today, as Italian Americans continue marrying non-Italians, and membership in ethnic/fraternal organizations has declined, social media often facilitates the performance of a shared identity.” He’s talking about stuff like this: Here is a […]
Pro-Trump heckler to Mike Pence in Iowa: “You are far from a Christian”
It is not going well for Mike Pence at the Iowa State Fair: During a Q&A session someone asked Pence, “My question is this. Why did you commit treason on Jan. 6.” Watch: Here is USA Today: Former Vice President Mike […]
Do we all need to grow up?
David Brooks thinks so, and he’s probably right. Here is a taste of his recent New York Times column: If I were asked to trace the decline of the American psyche, I suppose I would go to a set of […]
Federalist Society law professors make the case that Trump is ineligible to hold government office
On May 18, 2016, after Donald Trump had all but secured the GOP nomination for President of the United States, the candidate announced a list of 11 judges he would consider nominating to replace the deceased Antonin Scalia on the […]
What is popular this week at Current?
Here are the most popular features of the week at Current: Here are the most popular posts of the last week at The Way of Improvement Leads Home blog: Here are the most popular posts of the last week at The Arena blog:
For some at a 1933 civil rights conference, fighting racial oppression meant fighting class oppression
Over at Jacobin, historian Eben Miller tells the story of the 1933 Amenia conference. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) hosted the event in Amenia, New York. W.E.B. Du Bois was co-organizer. Some of the country’s […]
A socialist take on the Barbie movie
This week Current ran two great pieces on the Barbie movie. Check out Christina Bieber Lake’s “Barbie. . . and Ken” and Beatruce Scudeler’s “Material Girls.” Over at Current Affairs, Nathan Robinson interprets the movie through the lens of consumer […]
Evangelical roundup for August 10, 2023
What is happening in Evangelical land? Russell Moore talks to National Public Radio. He says that Jesus’s claims in the Sermon on the Mount are not “liberal talking points.” “Most conservative evangelicals gave up on the politics of character in […]
“A magazine about America in the form of a 19th-century newspaper”
I just learned about County Highway. It’s a “magazine about America in the form of a 19th century newspaper. According to the site’s website: County Highway is a 20-page broadsheet produced by actual human beings, containing the best new writing […]
Why Viktor Orbán may want to visit Bestsellers Bookshop in Budapest
A friend spotted Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump in Budapest. As many of you know, prime minister Viktor Orbán is trying to build a Christian nationalist state in Hungary modeled closely on a kind of Trumpian populism. […]
Has the GOP rejected Reaganomics?
Check out David Leonardt’s interesting piece at The New York Times: The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board has spent the last few months trying to boost Gov. Ron DeSantis’s presidential campaign. It has called his legislative record “as impressive as […]
Climate change as a culture war issue
Sadly, the debate over climate change has become just another issue in our ongoing culture wars. Meanwhile, the earth is getting hotter. Here is Paul Krugman at The New York Times: Understanding climate denial used to seem easy: It was […]
Mets announcer Gary Cohen slams Baltimore Orioles management for suspending announcer Kevin Brown
Orioles management suspended its play-by-play announcer, Kevin Brown, for this: Here is Mets announcer Gary Cohen: I agree with Cohen’s comment about the Orioles this year. On Saturday night I was at Camden Yards for the celebration of the Orioles […]
Progressives need to “work their hearts out” for Joe Biden in 2024
Here is Paul Waldman at The Washington Post: Ask a Democrat with a long memory what the numbers 97,488 and 537 represent, and their face will twist into a grimace. The first is the number of votes Ralph Nader received […]