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Kentucky

1 in 3 “evangelical” or “born again” Christians supported a right to abortion in Ohio; pro-choice governor wins in red Kentucky

John Fea   |  November 7, 2023

An NBC news exit poll shows that 32% of white “evangelical” or “born again” Christians voted to enshrine the right to an abortion in the Ohio constitution. As expected, 68% of white evangelicals opposed the measure, but I was surprised...

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Keep an eye on Kentucky tonight

John Fea   |  November 7, 2023

I’ll have my eye on several elections and referenda tonight. I am interested to see what happens with abortion in Ohio and I will be voting in the Pennsylvania state Supreme Court race. But I am most intrigued by the...

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Rick Warren on the SBC’s Executive Committee & Albert Mohler’s seminary: “They have no intention of helping victims of the sexual abuse they covered up.”

John Fea   |  October 29, 2023

Here is Jeremy Gray at Alabama.Com: The Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the Kentucky State Supreme Court arguing an expanded child abuse law should not allow claims to be brought against “non-perpetrators” such as religious organizations, the Louisville...

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Revival comes, again, to Asbury University

John Fea   |  February 11, 2023

Something is happening at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky and it has some striking similarities to 1970: Here is Alexandra Presta at The Asbury Collegian: I have been in Hughes Auditorium for almost twelve hours now without an intent to...

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Some quick thoughts on abortion and Christian nationalism in the 2022 midterm elections

John Fea   |  November 13, 2022

I talked to the Associated Press this week. A taste: KENTUCKY, USA — In the midterm elections, evangelical Christians across the nation reconfirmed their allegiance to conservative candidates and causes, while Catholic voters once again showed how closely divided they are...

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Kentucky expands access to voting

John Fea   |  April 8, 2021

While Georgia and other states are restricting the right to vote, Kentucky is expanding it. Here is Tim Elfrink at The Washington Post: As Republicans in more than 40 states have pushed bills to restrict voting after former president Donald Trump’s November...

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Today on the campaign sign front

John Fea   |  October 22, 2020

A reader sends this along. I think it sums up the troubling moral contradiction at the heart of American politics today. I also recommend Lisa and David Swartz’s political sign photo essay from Wilmore, Kentucky.

VOX Profiles Wendell Berry

John Fea   |  February 19, 2020

Hope Reese has written a nice introduction to Wendell Berry and his place-centered, agrarian ideas.  Here is a taste: Bill McKibben’s environmental activism was spurred after his wife gave him a copy of Berry’s 1979 essay collection Home Economics, which offered...

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Kentucky’s Christian Right Governor Matt Bevin is Out

John Fea   |  November 5, 2019

Apparently last night’s visit by Donald Trump, Rand Paul, and Mitch McConnell did not help Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin.  As David Axelrod just said on CNN, Trump would not have gone to Kentucky is he did think Bevin was going...

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Satanic Exorcism or Church Picnic?

John Fea   |  September 2, 2019

This image has been making the rounds on social media: Actually, this image has probably been photo-shopped.  Here is the original: Read more about this image at the Library of Congress....

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When a School Shooting Shifted the National Debate on Guns

John Fea   |  March 28, 2018

Saul Cornell, the best historian on guns and the Second Amendment working today, tells us about an 1853 school shooting in Louisville, Kentucky.  Here is a taste of his piece at Politico: Though little remembered now, the first high-profile school shooting...

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Wendell Berry Defends the University Press of Kentucky

John Fea   |  March 10, 2018

Kentucky governor Matt Bevin wants to close the University Press of Kentucky.  Agrarian writer and novelist Wendell Berry, who lives on a farm in Henry County, thinks Bevin’s budget proposal is “petty and barbaric.”  Writing in the Louisville Courier-Journal, Berry defends...

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Wendell Berry’s California Sojourn

John Fea   |  September 18, 2017

Matthew Stewart is a Ph.D candidate in American history at Syracuse Univesity.  In his recent piece at “Boom California,” he explores the agrarian writer Wendell Berry‘s decision to leave his home state of Kentucky for the creative writing program at...

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Today’s Religion News Service Commentary: “Kentucky’s shrewd move to promote a Christian nationalist agenda”

John Fea   |  July 7, 2017

Regular readers of The Way of Improvement Leads Home will be familiar with a longer version of this piece. Here is a taste of a shorter version syndicated today through Religion News Service: (RNS) Matt Bevin, the governor of Kentucky, recently...

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Note to the Students: Profs Work Late During Final Exam Week

John Fea   |  May 5, 2017

Some students will do just about anything to get an “A” on a final exam. The Lexington Herald Leader is reporting that a University of Kentucky student climbed through ceiling ducts to a professor’s office to steal a statistics exam. ...

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A Baptist Pastor and Church History Professor in Kentucky Defends the NEH

John Fea   |  March 30, 2017

John Inscore Essick is a co-pastor at Port Royal Baptist Church in Henry County, Kentucky and teaches Christian History at the Baptist Seminary of Kentucky.  But more importantly, he is a regular reader of The Way of Improvement Leads Home!...

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The Author's Corner with Craig Thompson Friend

  |  March 6, 2017

Craig Thompson Friend is CHASS Distinguished Graduate Professor of History and Director of Public History at NC State University. This interview is based on his new book, Along the Maysville Road: The Early American Republic in the Trans-Appalachian West (University...

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Image of the Day

John Fea   |  October 13, 2015

Creekside Baptism–Primitive Baptist Church of Morehard, KY–August1940.  Source...

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Some Quick Thoughts on the Kim Davis Case

John Fea   |  September 3, 2015

In case you haven’t heard, Rowan County Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis refuses to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples because it violates her Christian beliefs.I appreciate Davis’s religious-inspired convictions about marriage.  As long as religious liberty is part of the...

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The Author’s Corner With Richard Traylor

John Fea   |  July 9, 2015

Richard C. Traylor is Professor of History at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas.  This interview is based on his new book Born of Water and Spirit: The Baptist Impulse in Kentucky, 1776-1860 (University of Tennessee, 2015). ​JF: What led you to...

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