Several Trump evangelicals have sent me this video this week. So let me respond to Charlie Kirk and megachurch pastor Jack Hibbs. First, watch the video: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCWHDInjze8&w=560&h=315] Some thoughts: At the 0:18 mark, Kirk says that United States presidency...
civil society
David Blight: An “educated and civil society” is “open to each other’s stories” and “open to the essential pluralism of the human drama”
Yale historian David Blight talks about the differences between history and the past on the “Live the Best Version of You” podcast. It is a nice introduction to how historians work and how the work historians do must contribute to...
Teaching Robert Putnam’s “Bowling Alone”
Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam published his article “Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital” in 1995. (His book titled Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community appeared in 2000). Last Friday, we read and discussed Putnam’s seminal article in...
Georgetown Day School Covers Student Visit to Messiah College
I covered this event here. Now it is Georgetown Day School’s turn. Here is a taste of “Civil Dialogue,” Daniel Stock’s piece at the GDS website: Over the course of the minimester, Sue, Lisa, Michael, and special guests explored the...
This Week’s “Anxious Bench” Post at Patheos: “American History and the American Church: A Proposal”
I spent the weekend in the beautiful beach town of Ocean City, NJ where I was the guest of St. Peter’s United Methodist Church. I spoke in all three Sunday morning services (including an 8am communion service on the boardwalk!)...
Himmelfarb on the Civil Society
Gertrude Himmelfarb (echoing Charles Murray’s conclusion in Coming Apart) believes that we need a revival of civil society in America. Such a new “civic Great Awakening” (Murray’s phrase), she argues, must draw upon the views of older defenders of civil...
Douthat on the Role of Government
New York Times columnist Ross Douthat makes sense here. A taste: …In this (liberal) worldview, the government is just the natural expression of our national community, and the place where we all join hands to pursue the common good. Or...
A Proposal: American History for a Civil Society
I was recently browsing the web and came across the Agora Institute for Civic Virtue & the Common Good. From what I can tell, it seems to be a well-funded center devoted to the promotion of a “good society,” a...