Charles Lindbergh was a celebrated aviator, the father of the baby abducted in the “crime of the century,” a Nazi sympathizer, and a believer in eugenics. He also carried a small New Testament with him as he entered the South...
After a busy first week of classes I am finally getting around to this story. In the past I have been very critical of politicians who use the Bible to advance political ends. In the last administration I was particularly...
Perhaps you have seen this phrase on a bumper sticker. I occasionally see it on cars in the parking lot at Messiah University. Most of them say “JESUS (or GOD) IS NOT A REPUBLICAN” and then in smaller letters, “or...
I am honored to have contributed to this amazing devotional. My Conference on Faith and History colleagues Chris Gehrz and Beth Allison Barr are the editors. Here is a description from Baylor University Press: Join over forty Christian historians as...
This morning Joe Biden became the president-elect. Tonight he celebrated. Kamala Harris spoke first and then introduced Biden. I live-tweeted: Harris began with John Lewis. Who is John Lewis? Get up to speed with these posts. Harris gave a shoutout...
Swedish church historian Joel Halldorf explains why white evangelicals in America lean right and white evangelicals in Sweden lean left. Here is a taste of his piece at the new website Breaking Ground: The struggle for democracy and economic solidarity...
Like Chris Gehrz, I am starting to stress about the Fall semester. I am teaching the U.S. Survey course to 180 students in a 790 seat recital hall. (We will have ten smaller weekly seminars in other socially distanced classrooms)....
Chris Gehrz‘s is known to many readers of this blog as the Pietist Schoolman. Read his Anxious Bench post, “It’s Not ‘Erasing History’ to Remove Confederate Memorials.” Here is a taste: Every pedestal emptied of someone who fought on...
Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota will cut thirty faculty positions this week. Today, at Messiah College, we learned about how the administration will cut seven million dollars from our budget over the course of the next five years. I...
Christian liberal arts colleges came under attack recently by a Southern Baptist theologian named Denny Burk. I was going to blog about his recent tweets, but I did not want to call attention to them. The tweets mischaracterize the work...
Last week we introduced readers to the Fairness for All Act. Over at The Anxious Bench blog, historian Chris Gehrz has published his interview with Shirley Hoogstra, president of the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU). The CCCU is...
When it comes to Christians supporting the Trump presidency, evangelicals get all the attention. But as Chris Gehrz notes in his recent Anxious Bench post, mainline Protestants are not immune to Trump love. I don’t know of any “court mainliners,”...
Many of you are familiar with “Christians Against Christian Nationalism.” I signed the statement and wrote about it here and here. Over at The Anxious Bench, Chris Gehrz calls our attention to a podcast in which some of the endorsers...
Chris Gehrz, who loyal readers of The Way of Improvement Leads Home know as “The Pietist Schoolman,” has inspired me to write a similar letter to my representative. Gehrz builds off of T.J. Stiles’s recent piece on budget cuts to the...
Minnesota state senator Mary Kiffmeyer (R-Big Lake) has proposed cutting $4 million (18%) from the budget of the Minnesota Historical Society because the society wants to integrate native American history at historic Fort Snelling. Here is a taste of a Pete...
Over at The Pietist Schoolman, Bethel University historian Chris Gehrz reflects on the relationship between preaching and classroom teaching. When I first read the title of Chris’s post I thought this was going to be a defense of lecturing, but...
The following exchange takes place between Jesus and the Pharisees in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 22: 16-22. Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words.16 And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we...
Here is a taste of historian John Turner‘s post at The Anxious Bench: To what extent should non-academics defer to academic historians on matters of history? John Fea faulted Merritt for being snarky and dismissive (“maybe you should think some...
Do you want to take a trip to Europe with historian Chris Gehrz, aka the Pietist Schoolman? Check out his new venture: “Pietist Schoolman Travel.” Here is a taste of Chris’s latest post describing the new venture: As announced here two weeks...
The 2018 Biennial Meeting of the Conference on Faith and History is over. As program chair, I spent most of the weekend pinch-hitting for folks who were unable to come and making sure our plenary speakers were comfortable. This is...
