He thinks it’s possible. This is from a South Carolina campaign stop: The historical analogy is a huge stretch, but I’m guessing Christie is the only GOP candidate who knows anything about our 20th president.
Way of Improvement
The Author’s Corner with Mark Erlich
Mark Erlich is the Wertheim Fellow at The Center for Labor and a Just Economy at Harvard Law School and the retired Executive Secretary Treasurer of the New England Regional Council of Carpenters. This interview is based on his new […]
Evangelical roundup for July 24, 2023
What is happening in Evangelical land? Trump screens Sound of Freedom at his New Jersey golf club. Texas Baptists affirm women in ministerial roles Donald Trump: Evangelical hero Russell Moore on renewal and evangelicals: The next big religious liberty case? […]
A small Church of the Brethren liberal arts college in Kansas now has a $1.5 billion endowment
McPherson College in McPherson, Kansas: has 811 undegraduate students. The $1 billion came from an anonymous donor. The Wikipedia page lists billionaire Harry Stine as an alumnus. Could there be another “anonymous” donor with these kind of resources and a […]
Sunday night odds and ends
A few things online that caught my attention this week: The end of neoliberalism? Francis Fukuyama on “The Fourth Turning” The difficult task of separating early Christianity from pagan rituals and beliefs. Does Joe Biden have a Cornel West problem? […]
Did the enslaved “benefit” from slavery?
Here is CBS News: Florida’s 2023 Social Studies curriculum will include lessons on how “slaves developed skills” that could be used for “personal benefit,” according to a copy of the state’s academic standards reviewed by CBS News. The lessons in question fall […]
How has Donald Trump’s Christian faith grown since he decided to run for president?
It’s been nearly eight years since James Dobson announced that Donald Trump was a “baby Christian.” One might think that by this point Trump could at least understand this question, even if he is still incapable of answering it. Watch:
Jack Hibbs is still talking about American history. And it’s getting worse.
Last week I called your attention to megachurch pastor Jack Hibbs’s atrocious handling of the history of the Continental Army at Valley Forge. Now he is back with more. Watch: OK, let’s break it down: 1:10ff: Hibbs says, with no […]
Liberty University: New president, same old stuff
On July 1, 2023 Dondi E. Costin took the helm of Liberty University. We will see if he brings any changes to Liberty’s culture war stance, but if this Steve Bannon-Dave Brat conversation is any indication I am not optimistic […]
Some historical context on the Jason Aldean controversy
Here is historian Nicole Hemmer at CNN: It was mid-November 1927 when, at a Tennessee courthouse wrapped in patriotic decor to celebrate Armistice Day, a White mob seized a Black teenager named Henry Choate and hanged him from the building’s balcony. The […]
“Offensive” professors
Last academic year a student told me that they were offended by an image I showed in a Reconstruction Era lecture. I had another student complain because I said that systemic racism was built into colonial Virginia society after 1680 […]
Song of the Day
RIP
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:
Trump prophet reads a fake Jefferson quote and then says “take that and choke”
Hank Kunneman is a New Apostolic Reformation preacher and Seven Mountain Dominionist. He is part of the Dutch Sheets and Lance Wallnau crowd of “prophets” that we covered here. In this video Kunneman expounds on the history of church and […]
Michael Tomasky on the “quixotic” and “corrosive” Cornel West and RFK Jr. campaigns for president
The editor of The New Republic thinks Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Cornel West, and No Labels “are effectively surrogates for Donald Trump’s 2024 bid.” Here is a taste of his piece: You might think, in a two-party democracy where the […]
Yesterday’s Quinnipiac poll
The GOP primary race: Of course national polls in a GOP primary are not as important as polls in individual states (see below), but they are still interesting. Some are saying that DeSantis is running to the right of Trump […]
Evangelical roundup for July 20, 2023
What is happening in Evangelical land? Evangelicals and the “church of Tucker Carlson.” Churchless evangelicals Evangelicals come to the aid of fire victims on the Spanish island of La Palma. Evangelical Christianity is on fire in Brazil. Happy to help […]
Have you seen Joe Biden’s brilliant Marjorie Taylor Greene campaign ad?
Here was Georgia congressperson Marjorie Taylor Greene at Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA conference last weekend: The Biden campaign responded with this: Brilliant!
Before the “nones” there were the “nothingarians”
Here is Thomas Kidd at The Panorama: One of the most common news topics on American religion in recent years has been the rise of the “nones,” or the religiously unaffiliated. News stories from the Pew Research Center and similar outlets constantly […]
Wesleyan University ends legacy admissions
Good for Wesleyan. I guess Lin-Manuel Miranda‘s kids will not get a special advantage at the Connecticut liberal arts college. (But something tells me that they will probably won’t need such an advantage!). Here is Vimal Patel at The New […]