After living through the Dan Feller-SHEAR controversy and the James Sweet-AHA affair, the latter of which had a lot to do with my resignation as president of the Conference on Faith and History, I hope the illiberal fever that spread […]
cancel culture
What is going on at Dickinson College?
Michael Smerconish, a political independent who promotes civility and democratic discourse on his Sirius XM radio show and CNN television program, will no longer deliver the 2024 commencement address at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Here is Penn Live: Dickinson […]
Why James Cone didn’t “cancel” himself
David Fitch, the B.R. Linder Chair of Evangelical Theology at North Park University, reflects on Black liberation theologian James Cone’s decision not to “cancel” himself. Here is Fitch’s opening: In his 1989 preface to theĀ 2ndĀ edition ofĀ Black Theology and Black Power, […]
Conor Friedersdorf: “Students for Pogroms in Israel”
If you haven’t seen it yet, The Atlantic writer Conor Firedersdorf has written a critique of student activists who are “excusing murder and kidnapping” in Israel. Here is a taste of “Students for Pogroms in Israel“: Across America, millions of […]
It Twitter goes away, “how will people find quick justice?”
Here is a taste of Atlantic writer Kaitlyn Tiffany’s piece, “Twitter Was the Ultimate Cancellation Machine.” Whatever else it is, Twitter is a place where the average person can subject others to their displeasure. They have been mistreated by Southwest […]
Is the real threat to free expression cancel culture or the fear of cancel culture?
Eve Fairbanks, the author of The Inheritors: An Intimate Portrait of South Africa’s Racial Reckoning, is a Virginia-born author who currently lives in Johannesburg, South Africa. She writes as a white woman who published a book about race. Here is […]
The Christopher Hitchens revival
I didn’t know such a Hitchens revival was happening until I read philosopher Andy Lamey‘s piece at Toronto Star. Lamey asks, “Is his brand of contrarian progressivism a welcome alternative to a Twitter-fixated, deplatforming Left?” Such a revival makes perfect […]
As promised, Jon Meacham will lecture at Samford University
Back in November, I wrote a piece at Current titled “Canceling Jon Meacham.” Here is a taste of that piece: …I thought about Meachamās visit to Messiah, a Christian university with strong ties to American evangelicalism, when I learned that […]
Pope Francis says “cancel culture” is a form of “one-track thinking”
On Monday, the Pope had some interesting things to say about cancel culture and tried to offer a lesson in historical thinking. Here is the relevant part of his address to the Vatican’s Diplomatic Corps: The diminished effectiveness of many […]
Words with no meaning
“Cancel culture.” “Wokness.” “Critical Race Theory.” “Socialism.” We are debating these issues and we have no idea what they mean. Here is a taste of Hamilton Nolan at In These Times: To attempt to have any kind of good faith […]
Did Benjamin Franklin successfully thwart cancel culture?
Here is “presidential historian” Jane Hampton Cook yesterday on Fox News: Cook’s appearance follows this article at Fox News. What qualifies one as a “presidential historian?” Unfortunately, Cook doesn’t really know what she is talking about here. Cook comes from […]
Michelle Cottle offers a “dictionary for these polarized times”
The premise of Cottle’s piece at The New York Times is that Democrats and Republicans no longer speak the same language. Take, for example, the phrase “fake news”: Pre-Trump, most folks thought of fake news as media sources that trafficked […]