He is 75-year-old Chicago congressman Bobby Rush and he wants to spend more time with his grandkids after serving fifteen terms in the House. Rush beat Obama in the 2000 Illinois 1st congressional district Democratic primary by about thirty percentage...
Chicago
What is going on at North Park University?
North Park is a Christian college in Chicago. Here is Colleen Flaherty at Inside Higher Ed: North Park University’s faculty voted no confidence in President Mary Surridge this week, 55 to 26. According to information from North Park’s Faculty Senate,...
Do Americans still believe in the common good?
It’s a fair question. Here is Kentucky-based writer Silas House at The Atlantic: Refusing to sacrifice for the common good is an American problem, not just a Kentucky one; opposition to masking and vaccination is happening in such disparate places...
Chicago’s DuSable Museum is getting Kamala Harris and Barack Obama hate mail
Here is Patrick Elwood at WGN-TV: The president and CEO of the DuSable Museum of African American History went public Tuesday with news of a series of threatening letters that began after the Capitol insurrection and shortly before the Biden/Harris administration took...
Episode 2 of “A History of Evangelicals and Politics” podcast is here!
Episode 2: “Obama Goes to Church” (our third episode) dropped last night. Subscribers to Current at the Longshore level and above receive this brand new narrative history podcast. In this episode I talk about Obama’s first encounter with Jeremiah Wright and what the...
What about Chicago’s monument to the Haymarket Riot?
Last week we published a post on Chicago’s decision to consider removing some of its monuments. A city-sponsored group known as The Chicago Monuments Project have identified 41 monuments for public discussion because of the following issues: Promoting narratives of...
A socialist defense of Abraham Lincoln monuments in Chicago
The city of Chicago recently launched a group called The Chicago Monuments Project. Here is the project’s mission statement: The Chicago Monuments Project intends to grapple with the often unacknowledged – or forgotten – history associated with the City’s various municipal...
Melvin Banks, RIP
Here is a taste of Daniel Silliman’s obituary of a major player in twentieth-century evangelicalism. I am guessing most white evangelicals have never heard of him: Melvin E. Banks, founder of the largest black Christian publishing house in the United...
The University of Chicago English department will only admit graduate students working “in and with Black Studies.”
If you are applying to graduate school in English and do not want to study anything other than Black Studies, you shouldn’t waste your time on an application to the University of Chicago. Here is an announcement on the department’s...
How the Chicago Archdiocese Dealt With the 1918 Influenza Pandemic
Here is an October 17, 1918 letter from E.F. Hoban, chancellor of the Archdiocese of Chicago (on behalf of Cardinal, Archbishop George William Mundelein), to the pastors of all the Catholic churches in the archdiocese. All evening services are suspended....
How Billy Sunday Handled the 1918 Influenza Epidemic
One of the first things I ever published was a journal article on evangelist Billy Sunday’s 1918 crusade in Chicago. The title played-off a line from a popular Frank Sinatra song about Chicago: “The Town That Billy Sunday Could Not...
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” And don’t forget to sue.
Last April, four Wheaton College students were distributing evangelistic literature in Chicago’s Millennium Park. They were doing so in an area of the park that does not allow “the making of speeches and passing out of written communications.” When a...
“Hamilton: The Exhibition” Comes to an End in Chicago
“Northerly Island, though, proved farther than the Hamilfans were willing to go.” I guess the popularity of Alexander Hamilton and the musical named after him only goes so far. Here is a taste of Chris Vire’s piece at Chicago Magazine: Jeffrey Seller,...
Correspondents Wanted: 2019 AHA Meeting in Chicago
Is anyone interested in a writing a post or two (or three or four or five…) from the Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association in Chicago from January 3-6, 2019? Once again The Way of Improvement Leads Home is...
Progressive Evangelicals Revive the 1973 Chicago Declaration of Evangelical Social Concern
In 1973, a group of evangelical leaders gathered at the YMCA on Wabash Avenue in Chicago to affirm the Christian call to racial justice, care for the poor, peace, and equality for women. The result of this meeting was The...
Eric Metaxas Was in Chicago Last Week. So was I.
Check out Emily McFarlan Miller’s Religion News Service piece on our recent visits to Chicago. Metaxas was at Judson University, a Christian college in Elgin. I was at the Seminary Co-Op Bookstore at the University of Chicago. Here is a...
The *Believe Me* Book Tour Meets “Things Not Seen” Radio at the University of Chicago
Last night the Believe Me book tour made a stop at the Seminary Co-op Bookstore on the campus of the University of Chicago. On most stops on the tour I give a 20-minute book talk followed by a Q&A session, but this...
In Chicagoland Tonight and Tomorrow
The Believe Me book tour rolls through Chicago and Valparaiso, Indiana this week. Tonight the tour visits the Seminary Co-Op bookstore on the campus of the University of Chicago. On Tuesday night we make a stop at Valparaiso University. Click here for...
Springsteen and the E Street Band in Chicago (September 1999)
Just released. Get it here. SET ONE 1.TAKE ‘EM AS THEY COME 05:18 2.THE TIES THAT BIND 03:52 3.THE PROMISED LAND 06:04 4.ADAM RAISED A CAIN 05:30 5.TWO HEARTS 03:44 6.ATLANTIC CITY 06:36 7.MANSION ON THE HILL 04:37 8.INDEPENDENCE DAY...
The *Believe Me* Book Tour is Coming to Chicago in September!
I am looking forward to doing a talk and signing at the University of Chicago’s Seminary Co-Op Bookstore. Click here for details....